It's Monday! What are you Reading?

This is a weekly Meme run by Sheila @ One Persons Journey through a world of Books. Post about the books completed last week, the books you are currently reading, and the books you hope to finish this week.

Whenever I read and finish a book, I am tempted to do a Monday post about it :)

Last week, I read and reviewed ~~
The Clearing by Heather Davis

Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure by Allan Richard Shickman

This week I am reading apart from the "regular books" that I read (LOL!)

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie - I can say I am dragging myself through it!

Synopsis - 

A tall, yellow-haired young European traveller calling himself 'Mogor dell'Amore', the Mughal of Love, arrives at the court of the real Grand Mughal, the Emperor Akbar, with a tale to tell that begins to obsess the whole imperial capital. The stranger claims to be the child of a lost Mughal princess, the youngest sister of Akbar's grandfather Babar: Qara Koz, 'Lady Black Eyes', a great beauty believed to possess powers of enchantment and sorcery, who is taken captive first by an Uzbek warlord, then by the Shah of Persia, and finally becomes the lover of a certain Argalia, a Florentine soldier of fortune, commander of the armies of the Ottoman Sultan. When Argalia returns home with his Mughal mistress the city is mesmerized by her presence, and much trouble ensues."The Enchantress of Florence" is the story of a woman attempting to command her own destiny in a man's world. It brings together two cities that barely know each other - the hedonistic Mughal capital, in which the brilliant emperor wrestles daily with questions of belief, desire and the treachery of sons, and the equally sensual Florentine world of powerful courtesans, humanist philosophy and inhuman torture, where Argalia's boyhood friend "il Machia" - Niccolo' Machiavelli - is learning, the hard way, about the true brutality of power. These two worlds, so far apart, turn out to be uncannily alike, and the enchantments of women hold sway over them both. But is Mogor's story true? And if so, then what happened to the lost princess? And if he's a liar, must he die?

Captivity by Deborah Noyes - I have never read anything like this before. It demands a lot of my attention but it is in a way thrilling to read. This is an eBook, so I will take my own time to finish this... and I think this one has to be devoured slowly and I am in no mood to miss out on anything!

Synopsis -

This masterful historical novel by Deborah Noyes, the lauded author of Angel & Apostle, The Ghosts of Kerfol, and Encyclopedia of the End (starred PW) is two stories: The first centers upon the strange, true tale of the Fox Sisters, the enigmatic family of young women who, in upstate New York in 1848, proclaimed that they could converse with the dead. Doing so, they unwittingly (but artfully) gave birth to a religious movement that touched two continents: the American Spiritualists. Their followers included the famous and the rich, and their effect on American spirituality lasted a full generation. Still, there are echoes. The Fox Sisters is a story of ambition and playfulness, of illusion and fear, of indulgence, guilt and finally self-destruction. The second story in Captivity is about loss and grief. It is the evocative tale of the bright promise that the Fox Sisters offer up to the skeptical Clara Gill, a reclusive woman of a certain age who long ago isolated herself with her paintings, following the scandalous loss of her beautiful young lover in London. Lyrical and authentic and more than a bit shadowy Captivity is, finally, a tale about physical desire and the hope that even the thinnest faith can offer up to a darkening heart.

 Hannah's List by Debbie Macomber - I picked this one because I wanted a light, emotional and romantic read. Well I am only a few pages into it and I am in no position to rate it yet. But to me it felt something like PS. I Love You. But I think there is a difference here...I am sure. 

Synopsis - 

Make time for friends. Make time for Debbie Macomber. On the anniversary of his beloved wife's death, Dr. Michael Everett receives a letter Hannah had written him. In it she reminds him of her love and makes one final request. An impossible request: I want you to marry again. She tells him he shouldn't spend the years he has left grieving her. And to that end she's chosen three women she asks him to consider. First on Hannah's list is Winter Adams, a trained chef who owns a cafe on Seattle's Blossom Street. The second is Leanne Lancaster, Hannah's oncology nurse. Michael knows them both. But the third name is one he's not familiar with - Macy Roth. Each of these three women has her own heartache, her own private grief. During the months that follow, he spends time with Winter, Leanne and Macy, learning more about each of them...and about himself.

*~~~*

In other news, we had a cat-attack in our utility area!!! YES! We had fish for dinner yesterday and today morning I went in to out utility room, where we keep our waste-bin and found it to be toppled over, all the waste on the floor and all the fish bones missing. The detective agency comprising of hubby and me have investigated and are sure it is the doing of a notorious cat. Now we are actually trying to figure out which one it is. LOL! Our utility room is a open one, with a grill - so it is easy entry for cats and likes. Hubby reports that around 1 in the night yesterday, our faithful stray dogs had barked and tried to tell us about the attack... but hubby did not bother to check it up! 

We will let you know if we are able to NAB the culprit :) :) :)

So how is Monday for all of you guys?!

Have a great week ahead :)

"It isn't the big pleasures that count the most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones."— Jean Webster