Books, Spas and Automobiles

I have finished reading the books in Six Gothic Tales. They were Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, Mission to Malaspiga by Evelyn Anthony, Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt, The High Valley by Jessica North, Thunder Heights by Phyllis A. Whitney and Tregaron's Daughter by Madeleine Brent. They were all written by women and the chief character in each was a young woman who in one form or another manages to get herself tangled in a web of mystery and danger and they were all very enjoyable. I have also just finished reading Paths of Glory by Jeffrey Archer a tale about the attempts in 1922 and 1924 of George Mallory to conquer Mount Everest. We learn at the very beginning of the book that his body was found in 1999 about 600 feet from the summit and the question is whether he made it or not. This is a novel, but a compelling tale and you start to feel the agony of the climbers around 27,000 feet, 2,002 feet from the summit. This was another good book. Thank you, Christine, for recommending it. I have been doing all of this reading because I want to start on Under the Dome by Stephen King, which was a birthday gift from daughter Christine and family. There is not a word on the dust jacket of the book except the title, author and publisher, so what the heck is this story about? I guess I'm about to find out.

We were sitting in the spa the other evening and I was looking at the planes passing overhead. I wondered where all of the people were going to or coming from. Some planes were very far up and others were much closer to the ground. Not that close that I could see the pilot waving from the cockpit, but closer than the ones higher up. Anyway, pilots don't wave from the cockpits anymore, not like they did back in 1954. I thought that each passenger in each plane has a story, a family and a life, 99.9% of whom I will never encounter. I thought the same thing watching cars and trucks passing in front of our house earlier in the day. It reminds me of The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant in which civilization is described in terms of a river flowing past the banks. I never read that, but maybe I should. I have time now, when I'm not sitting in hot water looking up at airplanes.