It's my mom's birthday today! She'd get a kick out of it if my readers dropped her a line or sent her an e-card, so if you have a second and are so inclined, mail away! Happy Birthday Mom!

For a blog that's supposed to be mostly about books, it really isn't, huh?

The truth is: I have been reading Mansfield Park for weeks. I'm not sure what's taking so long. I'm enjoying it, albeit not as much as Emma or Sense and Sensibility. I like Fanny, I like Edmund, I like William, I like the various Crawford storylines. I'd like to smack Mrs. Norris really hard. It's a good book. And yet it is taking me weeks to read.

While I've been reading MP I've also read Straight Talking and Babyville by Jane Green (both in London, both picked up for 50p in a charity shop) - these were okay. Chick fic to the extreme. Good London reads as I recognized street names and such while I was reading.

Beyond that, it's been a bunch of Shaw plays and criticism for school. I'm not nuts about Shaw so far - the plays just aren't holding my interest all that much. Of course, we're still in the earlier ones - perhaps the later plays will be better. I do enjoy his scene and character descriptions very much. They're incredibly detailed - the most detailed I've ever read. How handy for a director, to know so well what the playwright intended from setting and personality.