The Second Mrs Giaconda

Finished this last night as I'd left The Lions of Al-Rassam downstairs and was too tired to go get it. I really like E.L. Konigsburg a lot - A View from Saturday and The B'Nai Bagels being two of my favourites of the recent ones, but this one was very odd. It's a story about Salai, an apprentice of Leonardo Da Vinci's, and how he helped lead Da Vinci to paint the Mona Lisa. It's all quite plausible (da Vinci really did have an apprentice called Salai, and complained about him in his journal), gives a vivid if small picture of life in Renaissance Italy, and is quite moving at times. At other times it veers off into an almost text-book style, as if it were retelling historical record, which struck me as strange, given that it's all wildest speculation. I did enjoy it, but not as much as some of her others.

Having finished it, I got the energy to go downstairs and collect the Lions - for nice, soothing bed-time reading - not! I do like it as far as I am. My mother's fete is this Saturday, and I'll be helping for a bit (baking and bringing, and taking money for teas for an hour or so) and have great hopes of hitting the book stall early. But oh woe -disaster - big blood spot in my eye today! It's terrifying looking - the fete will probably be a disaster on this account - children screaming and running away, adults silently shuddering in horror and leaving. Yes, reading historical fiction gives me a great sense of perspective.