Oh crikey, it's ben awhile since I've updated this. Well, here goes...
I finished Ithaka, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. There were a few things I didn't "get", which may be down to personal preference rather than a proper commentary of the style. For example, Penelope's dreams - I'm not a huge fan of dream sequences heavy in imagary and symbolism (ironically, I studied History of Art at uni...), so I found these a bit tedious. And as for Argos's dreams? What? Yeah, that must have missed my realm of comprehension. Other than that, I thought the characterisation was fantastic - and it was nice to read something on this subject matter from the POV of a "secondary" character. Every other Trojan war/Odysseus/Oddysey novel I've read has been from the POV of either Odysseus, Penelope, or of course Helen. It was refreshing to see something different.
I've also nearly finished "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" (Kate Atkinson), which I initially found a bit hard to get into (it skips between "present day" accounts from Ruby Lennox from the time of her conception, to "Appendices" which go into the backgroudn ogf her mother's childhood, her grandmother's, etc). I found the appendices a tad confusing, as I was forgetting the names of Nell's various brothers and sisters, trying to remember which ones were dead in present day and which were still alive...and associating these children with elderly Nell, for example, didn't sit quite right with me. However, once I got into it, about halfway through, I thought the book was brilliant. Kate Atkinson is quietly witty, and her Ruby Lennox (throughout the ages) is witty and clever, but not too clever.