A-Z Wednesday

Reading at the Beach is hosting A-Z Wednesday where bloggers take the time to highlight one book that starts with the letter of the day. This week is the letter F. Obviously I missed the week for E. Guess my alphabet is going to be a bit sketchy! This week I'm going to highlight a book that has had a bookmark sitting in it for months. It's just that it's a darn big book (and even bigger now that it took a dip in the lake during the ill-fated boat sinking episode) and too intimidating to pick up when I have so much else here begging to be read. But I'm hoping that mentioning it for all of you will help me to get back to it and make real progress on it, especially as I have been enjoying it.

The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye is described by Amazon thusly:

When The Far Pavilions was first published nineteen years ago, it moved the critic Edmund Fuller to write this: "Were Miss Kaye to produce no other book, The Far Pavilions might stand as a lasting accomplishment in a single work comparable to Margaret Mitchell's achievement in Gond With the Wind."

From its beginning in the foothills of the towering Himalayas, M.M. Kaye's masterwork is a vast, rich and vibrant tapestry of love and war that ranks with the greatest panoramic sagas of modern fiction.

The Far Pavilions is itself a Himalayan achievement, a book we hate to see come to an end. it is a passionate, triumphant story that excites us, fills us with joy, move us to tears, satisfies us deeply, and helps us remember just what it is we want most from a novel.

Not a terribly enticing description, is it? More a bunch of fluffy words that signify nothing. But if you love stories set in India, have any fascination with the British Raj, or like sweeping epics, this is the story for you. And since it fits all three things for me, there's no excuse for me picking other books up in lieu of it. Maybe one of you should read it too and goad me along to read with you!