Catch-up

Huge pang as I finished rereading Faithful Place (which I think is the most formally perfect of the four, though each has its own particular appeal) - no more Tana French books!  However fortunately I was able to plunge straight into Megan Abbott's superb Dare Me, which I loved, and it was a natural progression from that to a book I've been meaning to read for ages, Rebecca Godfrey's Under the Bridge.

Dental woes continue - the right lower jaw is still surprisingly painful, and I have another appointment on Wednesday - but physical therapy has worked wonders for my back, which is largely though not entirely better.  I'm only in New York through Sunday, then in Cayman for two weeks - will be working mostly on the style book, I think, though I'll take a few long novels to read with a view to contemplating ABCs of the novel....

Momentous

Seems like novel is really finally off my desk for a while!  Will come back at copy-edit and proof stages, no doubt further tinkering will be in order, but this is a huge relief.

Finished rereading In the Woods last night.  There are some tonal instabilities (plus implausibility of narrator being so literary in his tastes), but it really was an unbelievably good debut.  Next up: The Likeness.  I vaguely think I read this one first, the first time around (order is non-essential).  In the tradition of Brat Farrar and The Ivy Tree, but quite different in tone.  Much looking forward to it.  (And also to Megan Abbott's Dare Me, whose official release is tomorrow but which I am hoping will appear magically on my Kindle at midnight, as preordered ebooks are wont to do.)

Much to do in next week and a half.  Revisions on Austen essay, a book review for a new venue (I know I said I wasn't going to do any more reviewing, but I'm doing this one as a test to see if I enjoy it more when it's a nonfiction book during a non-teaching time of the year!), course books to order (delinquency - this should have been done already), some work to read for students and colleagues.  Most significant task is beginning to delve back into the style book and finding what library stuff I need, as I'll be in Cayman for a couple weeks in mid-August and need to bring whatever books I might want with me. 

Seem to be quite busy, too, with physical therapy for my back, the meditation class and ongoing triathlon training.  Summer is not infinite!  (Really this is a good thing.)

End-of-week update

Have still been editing frenetically all week, but have just sent what I hope is near-final (it would be rash to say final) novel version to my editor.  I wrote an ending that I am really happy with, it happened yesterday, it felt amazing! 

Up since 6:30 for marathon last editing session and have had very little sleep this week, but need to refocus now and write one other thing I promised to get out today.  Possible/probable good news related to style book, but it will be a couple months before I know anything for certain, so I will wait to give details at a later stage.  I have been working too hard...

Read a stunningly good book over last couple days, Tana French's Broken Harbor.  I think it's her best yet.  (Sorry to see I don't have the others on my Kindle, as I am now extremely keen to reread them all - will have to stop by the library...)  I am probably on the record elsewhere on the topic of how much I dislike Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves, but imagine all the genuinely chilling aspects of that haunted-house story (perhaps Kelly Link's amazing "Stone Animals" is a better comparison) in a realistically rendered psychological thriller about the fallout of the financial crisis in Ireland.  IT IS AMAZINGLY GOOD.