Book update

For fear of this becoming a book-based blog, a few updates:

• Just finished 'A Year in Provence', which I thoroughly enjoyed, and only about a quarter of a century after everyone else read it! (Thanks to it being one of the Times+ special offer books on the list of Sunday Times bestsellers over the years). Next time we visit the Cote d'Azur, maybe we should make some time to venture inland a little way.
• Exited to hear that there will be another new Bond book next year, and that this time it will be by Anthony Horowitz - more info in the Guardian article here. I enjoyed his efforts at bringing us a new Sherlock story, so fingers crossed for another good effort.
• Just started the new Ian McEwan (read Chesil Beach a couple of weeks ago) which I picked up from the library this week. A quote to share from one of the first few pages of the book. Talking about 'welfare' in the context of a judgement she is writing, the central character who is a judge in a family court, is referring to what makes for a good life: "Economic and moral freedom, virtue, compassion and altruism, satisfying work through engagement with demanding tasks, a flourishing network of personal relationships, earning the esteem of others, pursuing larger meanings to one's existence, and having at the centre of one's life one or a small number of significant relations defined above all by love." Isn't that just a fantastic summation of what it's all about. (Also reminds me of some of the themes in Tim Jackson's book which I found particularly interesting, and which I will eventually get around to writing about.)