Catching Up

It's been a difficult month. My brother passed away at the end of March - an unsettling death after a challenging and complicated life - and though I've been reading, I haven't had the energy or the focus needed to write and post about the books. Having been through the loss of several family members you'd think I'd be used to the way the mind goes numb and leaves you trying to remember how to put one foot in front of the other, yet it still takes me by suprise.Time is suspended and everything seems to happen in slow motion. It's like wading through a substance thick and heavy, but invisible. Usually, when the arrangement-making and all the activity is finished and you're settling back into your regular daily life, time resumes its natural flow and you move on as best you can, but nothing seems normal yet. Moving on feels unnatural, unkind, and unfair, but today I'll make a small attempt at a start by writing at least a few words about each of the books I've read over the past few weeks...     

How to Read a Poem and Fall In Love with Poetry by Edward Hirsch

This wonderful book reminded me why I love poetry and introduced me to some poets with whose work I was unfamiliar. One of them is Wislawa Szymborska, a Polish poet whose plainspoken words pack an absolute punch to the gut every time I read them. I'm hoping to have a copy of her Map: Collected and Last Poems on my shelf soon. 

This book helped me learn to read more slowly and attentively to find deeper meaning in poetry and prose alike. It's a book that will stay on my desk and that I expect to return to often for reference and inspiration.  

The City Where We Once Lived by Eric Barnes

This was a re-read that I loved as much this time as I did the first time, which you can read about here. This story gets to me in a way that few do: the main character's awful, unrelenting pain, the slow climb from bleak despair to hopefullness for him and for the city, and the blessed thought that no matter how bad circumstances get, human beings can still be human and connect and care about, and for, one another. It remains one of my favourite novels. 

Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker

Another re-read, one I didn't enjoy as much the second time. I remembered it as having a lighter tone but on this reading found it to be quite serious, even dark at times, which can probably be put down to my own frame of mind at the time. Struggling with questions of life and death is apparently not the best condition under which to appreciate wry humour and irony. In less fraught circumstances I'd have received it differently, so I think it's best to stand by my original comments, found here.

Timeline by Michael Chrichton

A sci-fi book that takes you back to the 15th century and spends - for me - too much time there. A group of scientists and tech geniuses figure out a way to use quantum physics to travel to - not another time, but another dimension in which is it now another time. Splitting hairs, maybe, but I found the concept interesting. What I found a bit tedious was their all getting trapped in that other reality and taking a long time to get back. Their time there - then? - is filled with knights, sword fighting, and many frantic attempts to avoid being caught, all of which add up to a good Middle Ages adventure story for people who like those, but it isn't what I'm looking for in a sci-fi novel. Credit where credit is due, it gave me something to read that I didn't have to think too much about at a time when that was exactly what I needed. Michael Chrichton has done that for me a few times over the years with The Andromeda Strain, Sphere and Congo, so if you're looking for a page-turning escape from your own reality for awhile, this will probably do it.

Gentlmen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos 

I probably should have enjoyed this more than I did. It's meant to be comedic, but I was annoyed with the main character, Lorelei Lee, most of the time. She comes across as a bit of an airhead, but, she insists, a woman of morals, who is also a master manipulator. She charms men into giving her expensive clothes, jewels, trips, etc, and they let her manipulate them because she's a sexy blonde who looks good on their arms and strokes their vanity. Nothing is said about what they get from her in return for their extravagant gifts, but it seems the more obvious from not being stated outright. 

I finished the book unable to decide if she's really dumb, really smart, or some weird hybrid of both. In any case it seems to end happily enough for her, but this story of men and women using each other while pretending affection was more sad than funny to me. To be fair, this might not have been the best time to read it, but I liked it so little I can't imagine giving it another shot. 

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.