Words

I am so lucky to live in a country where words are freely printed.  This month I have read a lot of them, from a wide variety of different books, some I have loved, some I have been left wondering why I read to the end.  Do you do that too?  Somehow it feels wrong not to finish a book I have started which I am not hating but not really enjoying it either.  Perhaps it is just me........

I started the month with a self published book that was written about an area near to where I grew up.    A Handful of Straw by Mary Rensten centres around a small village in the early 1700s where an old woman is accused by other villagers of being a witch.  The accusations eventually lead to a trail.  It was a fascinating book, not just because of the familiarity, to me, of some of the places mentioned but because it was a window into a world of the past.  There were many wonderful details in the narrative which were glimpses into what life was like for some at this time.  The connections, thoughts, beliefs,  conditions were all mentioned in some detail.  The novel is based on a trial that did take place and many of the characters actually lived at that time they are joined in this novel by some that are fictional.

My random finding of books in the library occasionally turns up a real treasure, I picked up Secrets from Chuckling Goat by Shaun Nix Jones because I was intrigued by the title.  It was a fun, interesting and at times thought provoking read, an American city girl who finds true love, in her forties, with a Welsh farmer.  The book is written like a diary, and is based on the authors own diary although when you read it you wonder how she found the time to keep a diary on top of everything else she was doing.  There were many things in this book that struck a chord with me.  Her writing about how were are loosing touch with nature, how import it is to make the time to grow food and cook, bake and preserve it ourselves,  the importance of real food to nourish and to keep our health.  The cycles of nature, producing compost to nourish our soils, to growing our own food which we eat and produce compost.  There is also interesting discussions on milk, kefir and sourdough.  There are recipes and a happy ending after a nasty health scare.  A lovely read!

I have a few unread book on my shelves, one in particular that I am not sure how I came to acquire but it has been there for a few months waiting to be read.  Letters to the Midwife is a collection of letter and unpublished writing to by and from the author of the incredibly successful books that started with Call the Midwife, Jennifer Worth.  I have only read part of her first book, dipping in and out randomly reading chapters.  Its not that I don't like it or I find it an overwhelmingly difficult subject matter but that I have my own memories that make reading it hard.  The author Jennifer Worth was someone who was very influential in my life when I was growing up.  I visited her house every week in term time for years.  If you have read the blurb in the front of the books you will know that after leaving nursing she turned to music and became a music teacher.  She lived (until she died) five minutes from the house I grew up in, she taught my mother to play the piano my siblings and I would play elsewhere in her house during the lesson.  Later I had lessons too which only stopped when I left home at eighteen.  She introduced me to many composers and their music through my lessons and the concerts that she would take me and a small band of other pupils too on regular basis. I came across her first book when I was pregnant with my second child, my midwife was reading it, I couldn't quite believe it was the same person but the photos in the book confirmed it.  I thought about writing to her and am sorry now that I never did, but others did and this is a delightful book of correspondence.

I have never been one to read books that are labelled as bestsellers or have won awards, I have always been rather put off by the hype.  Nominated for an award (the Booker) for her first book Clare Morrall is not an author I have read before, but if you are nominated for an award then your books must be worth reading, wouldn't you think?  So I tried one of them, The Language of Others some of the writing in this book was good, but not good enough, for me, to outweigh the rather lame plot.  I found it rather dull, despite this I still read to the end.........

Reading a book that is not what you expected is rather a knock to one's confidence, it makes me wonder at my ability to choose books in the library, so I was naturally hesitant to start the other book I had chosen at the same time.   So when I started to read it and find that it is in written in dialect, Scottish dialect to be precise, I was lost for words.  The last book I read in dialect was Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, it took me forever to read it.  But I found myself loving the dialect (this is not book to read with constant interruptions) and once I had been reading it for a while, it was hard to put this down.  Gone are the Leaves by Anne Donavan is a coming of age story set largely in Scotland in a period unspecified but is probably medieval.  The main character has a wonderful way of looking at the world, at odds with the rest of society, she is unlearned (in the eyes of her contemporaries) but yet, to me, so wise.  The story moves to Europe with twists and turns that had me hooked.  It was well worth persevering with the dialect which was singing to me, in its beauty, by the end.

In some way I came full circle with the last book I read this month.  A novel set in the 1600s, a work of fiction based on historical fact.  I have been planning a topic for March based around the solar eclipse that will take place on the 20th of the month.  It will be no surprise to me if you didn't know there is going to be an eclipse.  The best place to view it, a full eclipse,  will be the Faroe Islands, further south it will be a partial eclipse, around 90% in the North of the UK and around 80% in the South.  As the UK media is south centric it has yet to be deemed newsworthy.  Excuse my wee rant but sometimes it feels like there is little of interest to the media north of Birmingham.  Now where was I?  Ah yes, a topic based round the solar eclipse.  As well as finding learning ideas for the children I thought it would be fun to learn too so I had a hunt in the library to find any books that were were based on the solar system and/or astronomy.  I ended up with a wonderful book, The Sky's Dark Labyrinth by Stuart Clark which is part of a trilogy starting in the 1600s with Kepler and Galileo, as well as being an interesting read about life at this time it was also a fascinating introduction to the history of astronomy.  Both of these scientists were making amazing discoveries but they were at odds with the times.  The Sun revolved around the Earth, as set down in the Bible and believing the opposite was a heresy punishable by being burned alive.  I am really looking forward to reading the next book about Sir Issac Newton and Sir Edmund Halley, I hope the library has a copy............

...if not then I am going to read something completely different which I have been meaning to read for a while Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.

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I was interested to note that many of the books that I read this month were from very small publishing houses.  Perhaps I should be making note of this when choosing books as they were ones that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Linking with Laura

Rambling...

I love to be outside, as regular readers here will know it is an integral part of out week, at least one if not two days outside all year round.  I am lucky to live in a country which has an abundance of public footpaths which make wandering and exploring, easy and accessible.  I often find myself on a path that has clearly been in use for a long, long time.  The track itself maybe a good few feet lower than the land either side, worn down by footfall and weather most probably.  The history in those paths is likely to be long and fascinating, who would have walked there, where were they going, why did the path take thought that it does?  I was hoping for some answers in a book I read this month but it didn't fit the bill.

I have been wanting to read The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane for a while now, it has been recommended to me by many bloggers.  I was given a copy for Christmas and was really looking forward to reading it.   It really disappointed me.  The cover of the book describes it as a journey on foot yet 60 pages are given over to sea journeys.  The journeys that were on foot were largely made on well known old routes that much is written about already, the few that were new to me were interesting but made up such a small part of the book that they were rather lost.  It is a beautifully written book and had I wanted to read a poetic, travel book about walking this would have been perfect but I expected something else from the words on the back........

I have read on blogs about people getting out of the reading habit and not being able to find a book to read.  After reading The Old Ways this happened to me.  I am sure it was because I was disappointed in it and didn't want to make another bad choice.  At the beginning of every month I take my children to our local independent bookshop to choose a book.  My eldest chose a wonderful book this month and when he had finished it suggested, with perfect timing, that I read it too.  I had just finished The Old Ways so I thought why not?  The Journey by Kathryn Lasky is a book written for children about Owls.  The author spent time researching these beautiful birds with a view to writing a non fiction book about them but she couldn't get the pictures she wanted to illustrate the book so she turned to fiction instead.  It is the classic story of good vs evil set in the world of Owls.  The imagery created by the prose is stunning, the description of Owl behaviour, I would hope, given the research of the author to be be correct is a good way to learn about Owls.  It is the first book of a series which seems to contain many books.  This book provided the basis of the film Legend of the Guardians which was released a few years ago.  Sadly for us this is the only book in the series, in print at the moment so we will have to wait and see if they reprint any of the others, we hope so!

So now I am in a bit of a rut.  I have been halfheartedly reading The Making of the British Landscape by Francis Pryor which is a meaty read.  I feel sure that I should put this down and read it when I am more focused as when I do read it I love it.  I picked up a book in the library this week which I think I will read next, A Handful of Straw by Mary Rensten is the story of the a famous witch trial of Jane Wenham at Hertford in 1712, not that famous as I hadn't heard of it have you?  I grew up in Hertfordshire where this book is set and it is a self published book both of which give it appeal to me, I hope it doesn't disappoint!

If none of these take your fancy then take a look at A Year in Books for some other ideas.....

Goldfinch

Depression is not something I have written about here before, sadly it is a subject that many shy away from in a manner reminiscent of our Victorian ancestors.  It is a major theme of a book I read this month, one that I would call a marmite book judging by the reviews I have read.  The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is a long book, too long for some but not for me.  I remember reading a précis of the plot not long after this book was first published and thinking that the book was not for me.  I found it on the shelves of our local library and started to read the first few pages and was pulled into the book and there I stayed, hooked, until the end.  My parents are both still alive, I cannot imagine how I will feel when they are no longer with us.  Theo Decker, the main character, is just thirteen when his mother dies.  She was the centre of his world.  At thirteen we are a minor in the eyes of the law, in need of looking after when the person who provides that dies and is not replaced it is little wonder to me that Theo reacts in the way he does, befriending another teenager in a similar situation and immersing himself in many murky worlds.  If you not able to make peace and come to terms with events in your past they will haunt you for the rest of your life as his mothers' death does for Theo.  The title of this book is taken from a painting which Theo acquires at the beginning of the story and keeps hold of despite knowing that it should be returned.  By keeping hold of it, it haunts him, its very presence serving as a replacement for that which he has lost further adding to his bewilderment as he struggles to come to terms with an adulthood riddled with his unmet childhood needs.  I absolutely loved this book as have the previous two novels by Donna Tartt.

Reading Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase by Louise Walters straight after reading the Goldfinch may, in hindsight, have not been the best choice.  I wanted something shorter and lighter, this book ticks both those boxes however the shorter length means that you don't get the in depth character analysis.  This book is set in the 1940s and the present day and examines the lives of two women connected by a letter and a suitcase, it is an examination of what it is to love and be loved by our mothers and then later in life by men.  I enjoyed this book despite it leaving me wanting more.

I managed to pick up a second book, without realising it at the time which is very similar to my last book.  The Lightkeeper's Wife by Karen Viggers is another book set in the modern day and the past.  It also centres on two characters this time a mother and son.  This mother is coming to the end of her life and desires to make peace with her last before she dies.  Her son meanwhile has been struggling to come to terms with an event in his past which has placed his life on hold ever since.  This book examines some relationships but there was one in particular which was not explained and I found this rather frustrating.

In a rare bizarre coincidence the last book I have read this month is also one which moves from the present to the past, however in The Last Boat Home by Dea Brøvig it is the main character's life we are examining in those two time periods. A debut novel for this author it is set in a small town in Norway in the 70s and the present day, it examines the harsh life and sacrifices the main character makes through the love for her mother and later in life her own daughter and grand daughter.  There was a point in this book that I nearly stopped reading as I had started to lose interest but something made me pick it up again and I am glad I read to the end.  I have read reviews that compare this book to Burial Rites by Hannah Kent a book I read my self not so long ago, I can see parallels between the two books although the subject of each is very different.

I am going to give fiction a wee break and read a book I was given for Christmas The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane, it is a walk of discovery thorough the old routes in the UK.  I am looking
forward to this book as I have been wanting to read this for a while now.

Linking up with A Year in Books

Light

It is dark till late in the morning these days.  We have taken to lighting candles for our breakfast table and leaving them burning until the light comes in.  It is one of the things I find difficult about this time of year but in less than a month the days will be increasing again, even if the weather takes  longer to brighten up the daylight is a blessing.

Light is one of the links between the two books I have read this month, I do love links and connections don't you?  A Sudden Light by Garth Stein is set in the North West of North America in the Seattle area.  Although the book is set in the 1990s as the narrator, a fourteen year old boy, moves with his father to his ancestral home, it moves from the present into the past as Trevor, our narrator, explores the house and his family's past.  The move is ostensibly for his father to begin a trial separation from his mother and so that the home can be sold to release much needed funds for his bankrupt father.  He finds a spirit in the house who does not want the house to be sold and the surrounding land to be developed.  This book explores many worlds, that of the timber barons of the nineteenth century, that of spiritualism and transcendentalism (which gives the book its title) and that of the environment and our relationship with it over time.  The extensive mention of trees gives me a link to my reading from last month.  I absolutely loved this book, I couldn't put it down.  I had never heard of the author, although I understand he has several other books,  I picked this book up in the library because it was on the new book stand which is near the children's section.  I have written before about how I select books from the library!

My second book is one that I did not think I would finish this month but I have, catching me on the hop again as I don't have another book lined up!  At 832 pages The Luminaries  is a meaty book.  A Luminary is a person having much intellectual, moral or spiritual influence or a natural light giving body esp. sun or moon (from Concise Oxford English Dictionary) this book weaves both into the narration which is complex and compelling.  Its complexity is aided by the speed which its woven into the text, for some this is too slow and they have given up on continuing, for me this is the books strength.  It gives you time to absorb the characters and the complexity of the plot, a mystery set in 1860s New Zealand at the time of the gold rush.  A wealthy man has disappeared without trace, a whore has tried to end her life and an enormous wealth has been discovered in the home of a dead man, twelve men gather together to discuss these mysteries.  Their meeting is held in secret at a local hotel into which stumbles a thirteenth man who has himself just arrived in the town and is drawn into their mystery.  It accounts for the first 360 pages of the book, each of the twelve characters is introduced with their part in the mystery.  This was another book I could not put down.  I read at night before going to sleep this was perhaps not the best choice of bedtime reading.  I read to help me get to sleep this book is a good one for keeping you awake as it gets the mind churning.....

So what next?  I will update when I have visited the library later today!  So I visited the library and came home with another very long book.........one that I perhaps won't finish this month.........we'll see.  I am tackling The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, another book with mixed reviews but I loved the first two novels that Donna Tartt wrote so I am hoping I will love this one too.

Linking up with A Year in Books

Trees

I read a book to my youngest recently, I forget the title, at the end of the story there was a series of questions you could ask based on the story.  One of them was who are your friends?  I was expecting her to reply with the name/s of some of the children she regularly plays with.  Her answer?  Trees!  Like me she has fallen under their spell.  As a teenager I had one poster on my bedroom wall not of any of the bands that I loved listening too at the time but a poster of trees.  I have often wondered what became of that poster I took it with me when I left home and it travelled around with moe on my many moves, nearly twenty in ten years.  I suspect it got left on a wall somewhere......

I love a walk in the woods, any woods will do at any time of year.  The colours, sounds and smells are unique to each wood, a walk in the woods is a guaranteed feast to the senses.  I have been feasting my senses from an armchair this month, well actually my bed as that is where I do most of my reading, with the wonderful book The Secret Life of Trees by Colin Tudge.

This is a book in three parts, the first deals with the definition of trees, classification, how they may have evolved and the wonder of wood, an amazing natural material.  The middle section details all the tree families and gives some examples of each, to go into detail on them all would make for a very big book indeed, and where they grow in the world.  This was fascinating as trees belong in so many, varied families many of which contain species that are not trees.  I was ready to move onto the final section when this one finished as my head was starting to spin with all the details.  The last section was, for me, the most interesting.  It details how trees live and survive, where they grow and possible explanations why,  their relationship with their local environment including fauna and lastly the future of trees with the warming of the atmosphere.  I have loved reading this book, it has been a fascinating insight into the science of trees.

I am undecided what to read next, some fiction A Sudden Light by Garth Stein or more non fiction about Trees, Tree Wisdom by Jacqueline Memory Paterson.  I hope I have the time to read both next month.

Linking with A Year in Books

Aftermath

There are some world events that are difficult for those who were not alive at the time to comprehend.  I wrote of this last month after reading Citadel by Kate Mosse a book set during WWII.  What anyone witnessed or lived through at that time I cannot begin to understand along with the continued effect in the years that followed.  I finished a book this month which tackles this subject.  It is the third book in a trilogy, a common theme amongst my reading of late.  The Summer Garden by Paullina Simons follows a young couple as they forge a new life in the US after the war.  The first two books in the trilogy, The Bronze Horseman and Tatiana and Alexander are set during the war and follow the couple during those years.  I have been amazed that some of the reviews I have read about this last book criticise it for 'spoiling' the relationship between the main characters.  How anyone could live through the events such as they have, and most likely millions of others despite this being a work of fiction, and not be effected by I am baffled by these comments.  This book takes this subject head on and deals with it very well and quite believably, it is an area that is not much written about as few wish to talk about it or discuss it, a fact which has most likely led to further problems in itself.

Hace you ever had that feeling, when someone has given you some bad news, that the carpet has been pulled right out from under you feet and you are watching the world carry on whilst you seems to have temporarily grounded.  This is the central premise of 70% Acrylic 30% Wool By Viola Da Grado a book which has nothing to do with knitting.  The central character, Camilla, learns at the start of the book that her father has died.  Her mother in her grief ceases to talk or care for herself so Camilla, who had just left for university returns to care for her.  They communicate with looks and body language.  Camillia slowly unravels (the only parallel with the title) she meets Wen with whom she falls in love, he teaches her Chinese but is unable to reciprocate.  The relationship unravels her further until in the end she has seemingly changed places with her mother, who has found a way to move on.  Despite its gloomy and slightly depressing nature I really enjoyed this book, it is not meant to be a work of joy.  It was marred by one, unexpected, reason.  This book is written in Italian and has been translated by an American Publisher.  The book is set in Leeds, a Northern English town.  The 'english' is American-English which I have nothing against but it jarred for me in a book set in England.

Another premise that I find it difficult to comprehend the effect of is to live in a country where what you read, write and watch is monitored and censored.  Twilight of the Eastern Gods by Ismail Kadare tackles this very subject.  Although a work of fiction it is based on the authors own experience as a student in Russia at the Gorky Institute of World Literature, I had heard of this institution before I read this book although I cannot for the life of me remember where I came across it.  Whilst he was a student there Boris Pasternak, a Russian citizen, is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel Doctor Zhivago.  It had not been published in Russia as it was deemed anti Soviet and a rejection of socialist realism.  I picked this book up in the Library as I thought it sounded interesting. Was it?  Honestly?  Not really, I found it rather disappointing.

The books I pick up to read in the library, where most of my reading material seems to come from these days, are usually chosen from those are closest to the children's section or the books near to where you return books where my library has a quick choice and a new section.  The last book I chose from the new section was one that I thought I would read this month but I had to return it before I had read much as it had been placed on request by someone else, how dare they!  A quick choice book turned out to be one that I had read about on other blogs recently.  Books are a very personal thing, don't you think?  Like the clothes we wear, the films we watch or choose not to, the places we call home, what one person likes will not be liked by another.  I love to read about what others are reading, it is often where I discover a favourite author has a new book out, but don't make a note of the titles, usually, as I prefer to choose books by picking them up and reading a bit first.  The final book I have read this month is Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.  I haven't read a book so fast in ages.   It is compelling, gripping and steeped in history.  I loved the insight into 19th century life in Iceland, harsh though it was.  I loved the fact that it is based on an actual event, though the narrative is mostly fictional.  It is both gentle and harsh at the same time.  Wonderful.

I read a lot this month which has surprised me.  Finding myself without a library book to read when finishing Burial Rites I searched my own shelves for something to read.  I have settled on a non fiction book which is likely to be all I read in October, it is a meaty book.  The Secret Life of Trees by Colin Tudge.  I hope to learn a lot.

Sharing with A Year in Books

Adversity

We are a pretty resilient species us humans, bouncing back whatever the situation thrown at us, I guess we wouldn't be the dominant species on the planet if that wasn't the case.  As the dominant species we seem to have decided that any resources are fair game and are ours for the taking, we are also heavily reliant on many of them including energy in the many forms it takes.  I cannot help feeling, as others have too, that one day the resources will be gone or severely depleted and needing to be rationed.  So what happens then?  Margaret Atwood in her MaddAddam trilogy gives her take on how our world might look in the build up and post an apocalypse of human creation.  In the society she writes about new species have been created both of animals and humans, spliced together from cells from different creatures.  The 'humans' or Crakers as Atwood names them are part human, part animal cells with the creator removing the parts in humans that he perceives are our weaknesses.  This month I read the final book MaddAddam, having read the first book about ten years ago and the second last month.  The world and most of its inhabitants has been destroyed by a disaster of epic proportions created by humans, those that are left have survived because of physical strength and brutality, because they are Crakers and immune to the effects or because they were far enough removed from the disaster at the time it hit.  In the aftermath all are attempting to continue to survive.  One group are particularly successful because they work together and because they are successful at foraging and know what plants can sustain life, can heal and renew.  They have, pre-apocalypse, been living and using these skills in tune with the world of nature and thus continue to survive.  I can't help feeling that at some point in the future, many centuries from now or possibly sooner, it will be the same.

It is also through nature, more specifically flowers, that the main character in The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh makes a connection to the world after a brutal life spent in the care system.  The novel starts with Victoria reaching her eighteenth birthday and having to leave the care system and make her own way in the world, by herself.  Through her love of flowers she finds a job in a florists shop and immerses herself in her work and flowers.  Interwoven into the story is the language of flowers, the history of Victorias first eighteen years of life and her meeting a man who falls in love with her.  It is a love story but one with an interesting twist, I could not put this book down.

When I was young no one ever talked about WWII.  It was not on the history curriculum at school.  It was too recent in the memory of the adults around me, most had lived through it, some had fought in it.  All my knowledge of this period I have gained for myself, slowly over time building a picture which shouts to me exactly why no one wanted to talk about it.  It is incomprehensible and impossible to understand how it was to live at that time.  Some of the literature based on this period is fictional but based on true events which Citadel by Kate Mosse is an example of, again the third book in a trilogy a bit of a pattern in my reading this month it would seem.  I read the first and second books a while ago now and could not remember much, if any, of the detail but it didn't seem to matter.  It is set in Carcasonne and the surrounding area during the last few years of the war, and follows the fortunes of a resistance cell or maquis.  The treachery is hard to stomach, even though it is fictional I have no doubt it is similar to what really happened at the time.  Neighbours watching neighbours.  I was reminded of the words to a beautiful song written by Tommy Sands and although this is about Northern Ireland it is true of any conflict

...But centuries of hatred

Have ears that do not hear

An eye for an eye

That was all that filled their minds

And another eye for another eye

Till everyone is blind...

...But I wonder just how many wars

Are fought between good friends...

The characters in this story are young, at the prime of their lives, their existence which is how they are living is difficult to comprehend.  It was a hard and tough.  Grinding.  As I was reading I couldn't help but be reminded that many in the world continue to live in a similar way.

I am now most of the way through Summer Garden by Paullina Simons, at over 700 pages this is a meaty book, I do seem to have read a lot this month!  When I have finished I have two books that I chose in the library to read, coincidentally both first novels for the authors.  After Me Comes the Flood by Sarah Perry and 70% Acrylic 30% Wool by Viola Di Grado just need to decide which one to read first..............

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The Peony can represent shame and to the Chinese is the King of the Flowers, the Orchid love and beauty and the Daisy innocence, loyal love and I'll never tell, although it depends whose language you are reading.

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Joining in with Laura over at Circle of Pine Trees for The Year in Books