Winter in Thrush Green

 Winter in Thrush Green by Miss Read 

This second in the Thrush Green series - the first three will show the same cover because they are all in one volume - finds Dr. Lovell and  Ruth married and expecting their first child. Ben and Molly, also married now with a child, are traveling, running the fair since Mrs. Curdle, Ben's grandmother, passed away a year earlier.

The town is in a state of excitement waiting for the new owner of the house on the corner to move in, and is highly gratified to find it is to be single man, one who can look after himself and has a charming personality to go along with that rare and much-admired ability. He will be a new friend for the rector and the source of much friendly gossip for the townspeople. And he will stir up further excitement with his suggestion of a statue to celebrate the life of Nathaniel Patten, a celebrated missionary who was born in Thrush Green. 

The Church warden, Mr. Piggot, is as grumpy as ever, but perhaps will mellow a bit now with a little grandson in the picture, and with Nelly Tilling, an old school friend, taking a new interest in his well-being.  

Ella and Dimity, two old friends who have shared a home for many years, muddle along as usual. Dimity's developing friendship with the local rector leads Ella to realize that she hasn't appreciated nearly enough all that Dimity does for her and puts up with. She would miss her terribly were she to leave for a different life. 

The ordinary doings of daily life in the picturesque village of Thrush Green fill this second book as well as they did the first. Settling into any of Miss Read's books feels like going home; it's cozy and comfortable and truly pleasant reading. 

Born a Crime

 Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah was born in South Africa under apartheid when it was a criminal offense for blacks and whites to be together as couples. With a black mother and white father, Trevor's very existence was a crime, so his identity had to be hidden for the first few years of his life.

Too dark-skinned to be completely accepted by whites and too light-skinned for blacks, he didn't fit in anywhere when he was growing up. His parents lived necessarily separate lives, though Trevor was able to spend time with both for a while, until his father eventually left the country.

Patricia, Trevor's mother, was, is, an amazing - and not-a-little intimidating - woman. Strong-willed, independent, and fiercely committed to seeing her son rise above his circumstances, he credits her with making him who he is today. She's a fascinating character, about whom I'd love to read more. Please, Trevor, get your Mum to write a book about her own life. What a story it must be.

Born a Crime is a window into life in the waning days of apartheid and the turbulent first days of freedom, a time I knew almost nothing about. A good story-teller, Trevor kept me glued to the page even when I wanted to look away. The stories are sometimes hilarious, sometimes sad and frightening, but I came away admiring both Trevor and his mother for not only surviving, but thriving in often cruel circumstances. God bless you both!

The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar

 The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by Roald Dahl

A strange little story about a man who learned to see through things - blindfolds, closed eyelids, etc. He practiced for years the art of concentrating on a single object until eventually he could read a playing card laying face down on a table. At first it seemed an easy way to make money so he went to casinos, winning every game he played but carefully limiting himself at each location so as not to arouse suspicion.

He found the mere accumulation of wealth not very interesting when there was no challenge to it, so he looked for a purpose and found one in establishing and funding orphanages around the world. He hired a financial officer to take care of the money and handle the business end of things while he took to wearing various disguises so he could continue to gamble and win the funds needed to support the cause. This is how he lived the remainder of his life.

I listened to a very good audio version (2 hrs, 16 mins) narrated by Martin Jarvis. It’s odd - it is Roald Dahl - and kind of mesmerizing. Henry is…or at least, becomes…an appealing character, the plot is truly unique, and the story is well told. I’m about to watch the short film with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role and am curious to see how he interprets Henry.    

Quirky and satisfying; it made me smile.      

Wives And Daughters

 Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

When young Molly is invited to visit a neighbouring family for a few days, her father, Dr. Gibson, permits it, and so begins a relationship between the two families which will have consequences happy and sad for both.

Molly and her father are alone since her mother’s death and Molly grows attached to Mrs. Hamley. With the Hamley's sons away at school, they delight in the youthful energy Molly brings to their home again. 

When Mr. Hamley remarks to the doctor that Molly should have a mother to guide her as she grows to womanhood, he takes the advice seriously and begins looking around. The pickings are slim but he chooses a local widow, Mrs. Kirkpatrick, whom he believes will be a good mother to his daughter, and so, much to Molly's dismay, they are married. His choice turns out to be less than ideal but they all muddle along as best they can.

Clare Kirkpatrick brings with her to the marriage a daughter, the beautiful Cynthia, who doesn’t always make the wisest decisions but usually means well and becomes a much loved sister to Molly. When the Hamley boys, Osborne and Roger, come home from school, one is concealing from his father the fact that he has married a girl his family would never approve of and that they are expecting a child, and the other embarks on an ill-fated romance with one of the Gibson girls. The unexpected death of one of the young people affects both families deeply, but by the end of the book they all sort themselves out and Molly gets the happy ending the reader wants her to have.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and would have loved it for its language and narration even if it hadn’t had a good story. The audio version I listened to was nearly 27 hours long but was so beautifully read by Josephine Bailey that I wished there was more of it. I love the elegance of nineteenth century English in novels written before we started filling them with slang and swear words and such. It was a relief and a joy to sink into this one and hear it spoken with such grace. 

      

A Year of Living Prayerfully

 A Year of Living Prayerfully by Jared Brock

I honestly wasn't looking forward to reading this. My prayer life had been in a rut for some time and I figured it would be page after page of guilt, but no. It gave me a new perspective, a next step. I learned a great deal from it, and then, not wanting to forget the things he said that spoke so clearly to me, I read it again. Now I'm taking notes from all the parts I underlined. Half the book must be underlined by now and the next time I read it I'll probably underline the other half.

Jared Brock spent a year traveling the world and examining the prayer practices of various faiths. His goal was to learn what prayer meant to them and see how they communicated with God. As much as possible he wanted to experience prayer the way they did. He met with Hasidic Jews in New York, Quakers in Maryland, visited churches in Israel, stayed at a monastery in Greece and a Taizé community in France, and met the Pope at the Vatican. He offended North Korean authorities by not bowing to a picture of their leader, got caught in a hurricane at the end of the Camino de Compostela, visited a nudist church in Virginia, and asked the people at Westboro Baptist why they do the things they do. A roller-coaster of experiences.

His openness to new experiences and respect for people who believe differently than he does took him into situations and communities he might otherwise never have found and never benefitted from their teachings. The things he learned about silence and what it means to pray without words all came as a breath of fresh air to me. Here are some of his own thoughts and what he was taught by others that made, and continue to make, a difference for me:  

"God doesn't need our praise at all. We need it. We need the reminder."

"But prayer isn't a mind game; it's not a pseudo-scientific technique for achieving success in life. It's a deeply intimate form of communication with the Lover of our souls. Prayer isn't about self-improvement. We don't 'gain confidence'; we enter God's.....Prayer can get us through the fiery seasons of life, but it's not the prayer that gets us through - it's the God who's willing to carry us..."

"The third prayer practice is called examen,' he answered. 'You do it in the evenings, and it's a way of going back through your day and seeing where God was at work in your life. God is calling us all day, but we don't usually pick up. Examen is like checking voice mail."

"When I pray for salvation for people far from God, I imagine I'm bowing beside Jesus, and together we're presenting each precious name to the father."

"'I love God as much as the person I love the least.' This idea has really convicted me. I started holding my 'enemies' in the light, and now I love them."

"Fasting helps to express, to deepen, and to confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, to sacrifice ourselves, to attain what we seek for the Kingdom of God...Prayer is the reaching out after God and the unseen; fasting, the letting go of all that is seen and temporal."

A Year of Living Prayerfully is a lively story and an entertaining read, but more than that, it's a way of looking at prayer that has enriched my prayer life and deepened my relationship with God. 

Thank-you, Jared Brock. 

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

 The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

Life is quiet at a women's boarding house in New York until Grace moves into the tiny room at the top of the house. She brings light and life that seeps into the very bones of the house and changes all - or almost all - those living there. 

One by one she invites them to join her for supper in her room until they are all gathering regularly, cooking for each other, sharing their stories and forming bonds. It sounds cozy, but this is not that kind of book. They all have pasts and secrets that will come to light in surprising scenes of intimacy and violence. It gave me several "Well, I was not expecting that." moments. 

The book is structured so that each character gets a chapter to tell their own story, but the overall story continues to advance through each one, flowing beautifully without gaps or repetition. Great writing, and character building; they are all believable and uniquely interesting, if not always likeable. I wished some of their stories were longer so I could know what happens to them later. A separate book could be written about each one.

At the end of the chapters is a recipe for one of the dishes served at Grace's suppers, with a suggestion of whom to eat it with and what song to listen to as you do. I tried a few of the recipes - the fried bananas in rum are great - and looked up all the music. The songs are from the 40s and 50s, sung by Tony Bennet, Perry Como, Eddie Fisher, Rosemary Clooney, and other artists of the day. I recommend listening and reading at the same time because the music really sets the tone, and each song reflects a specific woman's situation in the book. If The Briar Club is ever made into a movie it's going to have a terrific soundtrack. 

 One more thing - the house itself narrates a short chapter here and there, which gives a different perspective on things. It's strange but it works. 

I like this house, and this story, and this writer. 

Seven Steeples

 Seven Steeples by Sarah Baume

A beautifully written story about...well, very little. Bell (Isabel) and Sigh (Simon) leave the city to live in a remote area of Ireland, cutting ties with family, friends and everything else connecting them to their old life. Their cottage looks out on a mountain they promise to climb, but time slips by and eight years pass before they finally get to it. 

In the meantime they go for walks with their dogs, taking note everyday of the changes in the natural world around them. They swim, go to town now and then for groceries, and occasionally tidy up the clutter resulting from their almost unbelievably laid-back lifestyle. They don't have jobs but live on welfare cheques, and as self-proclaimed misanthropes, they avoid human contact with anyone but each other. 

That's what there is of plot. As for character development, well...by the end of the book we know the dogs better than Bell and Sigh. There's something un-solid about them, like we're looking at faded pictures rather than real people. They seem indecisive and unconnected to reality as their home and surroundings fall into disrepair, and then ruin, around them. It's hard to relate to them, and we don't see any dialogue between the two so it's hard to see even how they relate to each other. The dogs, however, are disconcertingly real and described so thoroughly they are practically the main characters.  

But, the writing is lovely. Described elsewhere as a prose-poem, it does have the look and feel of poetry. End sentences of paragraphs leave words and phrases scattered about, giving individual words more impact and setting a mood - sometimes poignant, sometimes slightly sinister - that infuses the whole book 

As I came to the end, I thought it was quite brave to tell a story this way but that it only worked to a point. What it didn't do was tell much of a story, nothing very memorable anyway. We watch everything deteriorate around two people who could do something about it, but don't. I found it incredibly sad. 

Spoiler...

Then this happened: at the very end, from the top of the mountain they have finally climbed, they look back and see something so unexpected that you have to reconsider everything you've read up to now. You must decide for yourself what it means, but other reviews have suggested it might be a ghost story, or perhaps the two characters have merged into one. Since the latter is a lovely thought but impossible, I'm leaning toward the ghost theory. The more I think about it, the more that makes sense and the more I like a book that I didn't like much at all an hour ago. I think I have to read it again now from a whole new perspective. 

The Invisible Man

 The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

I'd never read H.G. Wells but had heard about the notorious radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, and seen movies made from that book and The Island of Dr. Moreau. I wanted to watch the Elizabeth Moss movie based on The Invisible Man but thought I should read the book first, only to find out the movie is only loosely based on the book and isn't the same story at all. 

The book being 128 years old I expect most people know how the story ends, but in case you don't, spoiler ahead...

A scientist, in an experiment gone horribly wrong, is shocked to find himself becoming invisible. But he soon realizes there are pros and cons to his condition - he can go anywhere unseen, but any clothes he wears are visible. And it's winter, so walking around naked can get uncomfortably chilly. Another unexpected hindrance to sneaking around is that any food he eats, or anything he picks up to carry, can be seen, revealing his location to anyone watching. Still, the pros outweigh the cons and he comes to like, and then need, the control invisibility gives him over others. Eventually his desire for power consumes him and leads to his demise.

I wasn't keen on the narration of the audio book I listened to. Edward James Beesley was very expressive, almost too much so, but then maybe it was suitable for the story and the time it was set in. I just like things a little more subtle; I might have liked it better had I read it. 

Thrush Green (#1)

 Thrush Green by Miss Read

I finished the Fairacre series last year and have just begun the Thrush Green books. I found this first one quite different than the other series in terms of sheer wordiness. In the first few chapters it seemed every blade of grass and every bird in the air were being described in minute detail. I began to fear I might not enjoy this series - unthinkable after the joys of Fairacre (and after I'd tracked down and bought every last book in the series) - but it soon improved. I do enjoy Miss Read's descriptions of nature but this seemed excessive in the beginning. I was happy to find the characters soon taking their places as the stars of the show and the setting settling into its secondary place.

It begins on May 1, Fair Day in Thrush Green, with little Paul recovering from an illness and worried the new young Doctor Lovell won't let him go to the fair. Paul's aunt Ruth, herself recovering from a broken engagement, is staying with him while his parents are away. 

Mrs. Curdle, who runs the fair with an iron fist and a kind heart, knows her health is failing and that she'll either have to find a business partner or shut it down entirely. She was hoping her grandson, Ben, would take over for her, but for the past year he's been moody and undependable and she's doesn't know if she can trust him anymore. 

Molly, who works at the local pub and lives with her truculent father, met and fell for Ben at last summer's fair but hasn't seen or heard from him since the fair moved on to other towns. She's excited to see him, but also resentful that he didn't stay in touch after expressing deep affection for her a year ago. She doesn't know how she'll react when she meets him again.

Then there's old Dr. Bailey and his wife, who both realize it's time for him to get help in his practice; two older ladies, Dimity and Ella, who share a house and look after each other, though Dimity seems to do the greater part; and Sam, Ben's cousin, who is finding it hard to support a wife and three children and so takes to pilfering fund's from Mrs. Curdles caravan.

It's the characters who make Miss Read's books so enjoyable. These are people you'd meet in any small town, folks generous and kind, grumpy and irritating. Familiar and comfortable. Nothing very dramatic happens plot-wise, but Miss Read weaves humour and truth and sometimes a little romance into the every day lives of these ordinary people and you end up loving them.  

The Fairacre series was wonderful and it looks like Thrush Green is going to be as well. Twelve more in the series but I'll pace myself, which is to say I'll hoard them to make them last.      

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

What I thought was a novel turned out to be a short story and only an hour long on audio. But I am glad it wasn't longer; the more I heard the more questions I had to which there were no answers.

Benjamin is born as an elderly man, fully grown, talking, and walking. I have many, many questions about how that birth and the nine months preceding it happened and what condition Benjamin's mother was in following that joyous event.

As Benjamin grows up his body gets younger. He becomes stronger and more capable, confusing everyone but having far less trouble than you'd expect in the circumstances. When he reaches old age he is physically a child, with the thoughts and behaviour of a child, and then a baby. At that point he seems to fade into non-existence. I haven't seen the movie but I might watch it just to see how they did that. In the book it's gently worded and peaceful but I can't quite visualize it.  

It's an odd story, but beautiful at the same time. It's imaginative and lets you look at life and aging in a way you probably never have. And the writing - I'd forgotten how much I love Fitzgerald's writing. I'd like to get into one of his novels soon.

The Personal Librarian

 The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

This is a fictional account of the remarkable true story of Bella da Costa Greene, who served as personal librarian to financier J. P. Morgan for many years and was instrumental in the creation of the Pierpont Morgan Library.

Bella rose to a position of prominence in society and among the elite of art dealers and collectors worldwide, all while having to hide her true identity. She was a black woman who in that day would not have held such a prestigious job or been admitted to those circles, but she, her mother, and siblings were all fair-skinned enough to pass as white, and so she was welcomed among them. 

Bella's father was a well-known, outspoken advocate for equal rights, but Bella's mother wanted her children to have the opportunities and acceptance denied her own people, and once she separated from her husband, she chose for them to live as a white family. Bella had a brilliant career, but had to be constantly on her guard in what she said and who she was seen with to avoid anyone finding out who she really was. 

I've been looking forward to reading about Bella and her career since I first heard of her several years ago but, sadly, this was not the book I expected it to be. The writing felt contrived and self-conscious, like it was trying too hard to be good. 

"Show, don't tell" was lacking here. Bella would tell us how she felt about something or someone, instead of letting us get close enough to her to see it in her behavior. I wanted to know her better as a human being, get into her head a bit, but she remained distant, just a character on a page, and not very likeable at that. She was a bit full of herself, referring often to how high she'd risen, her fame as librarian extraordinaire, her skill, her prowess, etc. It got tedious; it would have been much more effective to let the reader discern those things from the story instead.

It's clear that the author has done her research, but it was presented awkwardly. Rather than weave it into the story, it came in little info dumps like this one: 

"I explain to Mama that in the late 1400s, an English merchant and diplomat named William Caxton used a new printing technology invented by Johannes Gutenberg 20 years prior to make the first English language books. After all, I point out, Caxton not only made available a larger range of texts to English speakers, but unified the English language. His books are important for not only historic and literary significance, but also linguistic."  It sounds more like a page from a textbook than a talk with Mama.

Much of the dialogue felt stilted, said for effect but not adding to the story or allowing us to know the characters better. 

What I did like was learning about J.P. Morgan's incredible library and the art/manuscript collecting world, the auctions and wheeling and dealing that occurs behind the scenes. But most eye-opening for me was Bella's family life and what it was like for them having to hide who they were all those years. That's something I'd like to learn more about.   

Fascinating woman and situation, but I didn't like the writing. 

Seven Days of Us

 Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak

The Birch family - father, Andrew; mother, Emma; elder daughter, Olivia; younger daughter, Phoebe - gather for Christmas. Olivia, a doctor, has just returned from Africa where she was treating victims of a viral epidemic and is now required, along with anyone she stays with, to quarantine for seven days. Emma sees it as a wonderful opportunity for the family to spend some quality time together over the holidays, though no one else is quite so sure.

Phoebe, who can be a little self-centered, is pre-occupied with planning the perfect wedding to a man she's trying to believe she loves. Olivia, coming across as distant and critical after years of being away, is hiding the fact that she has put herself and her family at far more risk than she's admitting. Emma, trying desperately to be what everyone needs her to be, has devastating news she's keeping until after quarantine so it won't put a damper on what she hopes will be a happy time. And then there's Andrew, who has a whopper of a secret that is about to change everything.

From health problems to secret lovers to long lost family members, this book has everything...maybe a little more everything than is reasonably credible. Each character seemed just a bit too much, but my preference for subtlety is not everyone's and most reviews I've read were very positive. I enjoyed reading it, in fact was eager to see how it could all possibly be resolved. It does all resolve but it's not your typical everything-turns-out-great-for-everybody Christmas story. 

Entertaining, if slightly over the top.

December Reading Part - 2

 Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg

A book of essays on writing with a number of "Try this" exercises. The first half of the book had the most practical information for me and the exercises in that section were, and are, fun. I'll be working at them for a few weeks.   

The Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay

A few pages into this I didn't think I'd like it, but the author, who was a Doctor in England at the time, is such a compassionate human being, and so funny, it's hard not to like him and his writing. These are stories from his five years of working through the Christmas holidays, the interesting cases and crazy situations he found himself in. He worked mostly in genecology so the stories get...let's say colourful... but he has a heart for those truly suffering and that is beautiful to see. He's also an entertaining writer, good with unexpected metaphors and similes that made me laugh out loud. There is some vulgar language to get past, but if that's not a deal breaker for you - it almost was for me but his humour appealed to me and kept me reading - you'll probably enjoy this.

Old Tyme Christmas in New Brunswick by David Goss

I found this one at the library, but it wasn't quite what I expected. I was hoping for stories, instead it was largely photographs from nineteenth and early twentieth century Christmas celebrations, mostly in the Saint John area. The captions were interesting though.

Hat Girl by Wanda Campbell

A girl inherits a small home on an island in the Bay of Fundy, on the condition that she wear the previous owner's hats which will be delivered to her at the beginning of each month. Some of the hats are quite dramatic making her stand out in the crowd and earning her the name "Hat Girl". 

I liked this one particularly because it's set in my corner of the world so I recognized the island she lived on and lots of other place names. I love islands and stories set on them, and feel the same way about the sea as the girl in the book: "The sea gave you a sense of what eternity might look like, a thing that glistened with light and went on and on. The largeness of it seemed able to fill up the smallness in a person. Hemingway's old man said the sea is kind and very beautiful, but that she could also be cruel. I knew this blue sea in summer was only one side, but for now I was content with this gorgeous generosity." Those lines reached a place in me that longs for the sea and filled it up, for a while anyway.   

It's a charming story with an unusual premise, though I guess when you get right down to it you'd have to call it a romance. I have nothing against romance, as long as there's more to the story than that, and this one had enough in it to make it a pleasant escape.   

Zanna's Gift by Orson Scott Card

A brief audio book - 2 hours or so - about a little girl, Zanna, whose older brother, Ernie, is the only one in the family who can tell what her drawings are about. Everyone else sees only the simplistic scribbling of a four year old child. When Ernie dies suddenly the family tells Zanna he has gone far away, but Zanna creates another drawing for him anyway. Zanna later becomes a well-known artist, but it's that childhood picture that becomes a touchstone for the family through the years as Zanna grows up, gets married and has children and grandchildren of her own. A story of family ties and memories that is touching but not very Christmassy.

The Romance of a Christmas Card by Kate Douglas Wiggin 

A 1916 story about a Pastor's wife who creates and mails out her own Christmas cards, her efforts resulting in the homecoming of two young men and their reconciliation with their families. It's all a bit too perfect; still it's a nice, cozy, Christmas story for seasonal reading.

December Reading - Part 1

 The Christmas Clock by Kat Martin

A lovely holiday story about a little boy whose guardian, his grandmother, has Alzheimer's and must find someone else to care for him. The other characters are a married couple who have grown apart after decades of marriage, and another couple who dated and split up when they were very young and are just meeting again now. It's a Christmas story, so you can guess how it will all turn out and you'll be right. A light seasonal read, sweet, just not very memorable.

The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans

A hard-nosed business man reads his own obituary in the paper. His picture and information were mistakenly published when another man by the same name died. As startling as that was to see, what really got to him were the online comments in reaction to it. Most of them told of horrible things he'd done to people and how glad they were that he was dead. This brings about a change of heart and he sets out to right some of the wrongs he'd done, though he won't find it as easy as he might have hoped. This is my second time reading this one, with my original review here.

Christmas in Prose and Verse - Its Origin, Celebration and Significance ed. by Allison C. Putala

This is a compilation of old stories and poems by the likes of Ben Jonson, Charles Wesley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Hans Christian Anderson, Washington Irving, and many others. I've been reading bits of it each Christmas for years but this year wanted to start at the beginning and read through in case I'd missed anything. I read to page 442 of 758 and have bookmarked it so I can pick up next year where I left off. This is a treasure filled with beautifully written thoughts on the season. It's a true joy to read.