I received Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian, shown here with one of my spider plants and ferns. It's one of the titles on my classics list so I will get to that in the next few months for sure. Perhaps I'll watch the movie afterwards.
That's my week's Mailbox Monday. Hope you received some goodies this week.
Sharing with Vicki for Mailbox Monday
First off, my sympathies to Susan for the loss of your father. I am so sorry for your loss, you remain in my thoughts.
Here at home I have been inside a bit due to a 200 acre controlled burn which was choking. That meant reading and puzzling. No complaints there but not getting a proper walk in was disappointing. Prior to the fires we did manage a short trip to St Mark's Lighthouse with Loki. Photos later...
This week I finished two books.
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave
As advertised, it's a family drama in a Sonoma California setting featuring a family vineyard. I enjoyed this book very much. A close family with believeable disagreements and interactions. The reviews for this book are all over the place but I read it every chance I got. The workings of the vineyard, what it meant to the children growing up there and how they feel about it as adults when it looks like the father is about to give it all up.
There is also the drama of Georgia getting thrown for a loop when she sees her fiance walking down the street with his former girlfriend (a superstar actress) and a 5 year old little girl. Obviously there is an explanation. Some good quotes within and I liked this one:
"You really shouldn't live your life doing what you think you should do."
Perfect time for every family member to evaluate where they are with current life choices and make changes. 4.5 stars
Currently Reading
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
and Stanley Tucci's What I Ate in One Year.
Abandoned: The Postman by David Brin. It was on my classics list and it's also apocalyptic so I was going to add that to my Apocalyptic tab page above. 👆 I read up to the 29% point when an organized dog fighting scene was introduced. Possibly it's just the one scene but considering the descriptions of the people gathered and betting, considering the fall of society, I thought I'd just stop. I am a tender hearted person regarding animals, fiction or not, I don't want to read about abuse.
I'll need to replace that title on my Classics Club list.
That's it for me right now. I hope you had a good reading week.
Sharing with Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon.
Sunday already. This week has flown by for me. The temps have been up and down so one day we are sitting on the porch while Loki suns himself and the next I have the heater going and I'm inside working on a puzzle.
I have a new puzzle, courtesy of my son, so I started sorting the colors on Monday evening. It's the World of Jane Austen with a photo key on the back describing each character and which book they belong with. Very cool.
A fox visited us this week to eat the birdseed. Sometimes I think I am feeding everyone but birds here :-)
Books finished this week
The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico
The Book Club by Roisin Meaney
Currently reading / Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh and Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave.
Sharing with:
Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon
The Snow Goose is a short classic by Paul Gallico, published in January 1941. I sought this title out after reading Peter Heller's book The Orchard as his well educated main character and narrator was named Frith, one of the main characters in The Snow Goose.
Here is the plot of The Snow Goose - Philip Rhayader is a hunchback with dark hair and a beard, a hump, and a crooked hand resembling a claw. He had much love and empathy to give, but everyone was repelled by his appearance. He was was shunned by all in the town and so heartbroken and lonely, he retreated to an abandoned lighthouse on the salt marshes in Essex. His company was nature and the various wildlife which he captured in paintings.
Then a wild looking little girl called Frith came to his island. She was very brave. She carried an injured snow goose, not knowing what it was, wanting to save it. She had heard of Rhayader's ability to heal and shelter animals. While wary of this large man she had a good heart and wanted to save the bird.
Once the goose heals it flys north but returns every October to visit with Rhayader. Frith, while brave and headstrong, is also a very lonely girl. Her friendship with Rhayader is good for them both. She returns and visits over the years and he shares his knowledge of the marshes, birds and books. They enjoy talking over the seven winters they visit and the healed snow goose returns each year as well.
After a hearing of the battle at Dunkirk Rhayader realizes he can help using his little boat, possibly saving trapped soldiers. Frith begs him not to go as it would be dangerous with Germans still bombing the waters but he sees at last he can contribute and tells her to stay on the island, sailing away to help. The themes are compassion, acceptance, love and friendship.
Sharing with:
Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday
The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan is a stunning book. It’s not one you’d read through very quickly but one you would want to pick up over time. It’s filled with delightful stories about birds, nature and personal observations.
Naturally I needed to use my favorite bird mug for sipping while reading. (That mug made it through many years with me at work and brought me happiness in a Dilbert world)
I like the forward of the book written by David Sibley where he’s talking about early birding memories and starting a life list of birds he has seen.
When I was reading the forward I noticed she mentioned not driving and I wondered why. Turns out she has Lyme Disease and I read about that on her website HERE. It's a very interesting article.
In the back of the book, there is a selected reading list, sharing many authors and resources during the writing of this book.
If you have a bird lover in your family this would make a wonderful gift.
This book is shared with Shelleyrae at Book'd Out for the 2025 Nonfiction Reader Challenge. Category: Garden
This week I have gotten quite a bit of reading time in. We had storms for several days with unrelenting rain causing mini ponds to form in our field. I can hear the frogs in the evening now, enjoying themselves with so much standing water.
Besides more reading time, the rain kept me inside making hot lunches and cookies.
Here is a carmelized onion and chedder quiche loaded with chives from Mary McCartney's cookbook Food. Easy enough and fun to look through this cookbook.
In book news....
Currently reading / Backyard Bird Chronicles, Brideshead Revisited and The Snow Goose.
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico is an older book the library was taking out of circulation. I like old books, the feel of them and the bent pages where previous readers marked a passage. On the sale trolley for $1 so how could I resist, especially as it's on my Classics Club list.
Brideshead Revisited is also on my Classics Club list and happens to be the one picked by their game The Spin.
Armchair travel this week is California, Oxford and Essex England. That's about it. Not a crazy exciting week here but I am getting some good reading in. I hope your week is a good one.
Sharing with:
Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon
Joy for British Isles Friday.
It's Sunday and the rain has been coming down since last night. We have a mini pond out front where the water is collecting. I expect to see ducks before too long!
I am still adhering to the No Buy 2025 and making purchases only as needed. I don't buy books now either - I use the library and if they don't have my book/DVD, I utilize their inter library loan program to borrow a book from a participating source.
“When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One,” Trump said at a press conference in August 2024, targeting voters who have been dissatisfied with the price of goods.
How's that going? 👆
This week....
Watching / We are still enjoying MASH and are on to season two now.
Just in from the library is season three of London Kills. We had watched the first two seasons a few years ago and never got back to it. Will see if it still appeals.
Reading / I just finished James Rebanks second book Pastoral Song.
For Mailbox Monday the library came through for me with three books.
A nonfiction by Terry Gross titled All I Did Was Ask
Rosamunde Pilcher's Voices in Summer
Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisted
I'll most likely start Brideshead Revisited as it's the book selected for The Classics Spin.
Hope your week is going well and you have lots of good books and joy in your life.
Sharing with:
Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon
Pastoral Song is the second book I've read by James Rebanks and I enjoyed it.
What initally drew me to the author is his location in Cumbria as well as the stories about farming and family heritage. My GG grandparents lived in the same area but they were not farmers; they worked at the cotton mills. Many of the names he mentions such as Ullswater, Windermere, Solway Firth and others are familiar to me from my ancestors obits and writings so that was indeed an attraction for me to read about the land as he sees it.
Rebanks grew up learning from his grandfather about the ancient ways of farming, methods which worked then and had done for many generations. Then came the global revolution of a new way of farming using chemicals and "modern" ways of rotating field crops. His methods blend the two and this is what he talks about in this book. Well, anong other things and sharing personal anecdotes.
In his childhood he remembers a family friend called Anne telling his mother about how many grocery items she was able to purchase for less than it costs to grow them or purchase locally. The first large supermarket opened in Kendal and sold many items at low cost. She teased his mother about home baking as you could just buy a cake for less time and enegry spent. That's the way it is now with people wanting to support local businesses and do things for themselves but the tempting big stores make it so easy to buy for less. That said, she still had her vegetable garden, much to his father's irritation at digging it.
There are heartbreaking parts about animals killed by police snipers because of hoof and mouth disease. Some farmers felt they didn't exist because their identity and existence were tied to the daily work, markets and talking to other farmers about their livestock. They had no livestock to take care of and thus, no money coming in to support the farms.
Rebanks mentions a few classic farming books titled A.G. Street's Farmer's Glory and Henry Williamson's The Story of a Norfolk Farm. I may look for those at a later date but will be taking a "farming" break right now in my reading lineup.
Sharing with Joy for British Isles Friday.
I ended up behind this week in everything. Blogging, correspondence and the house is a tip.
Tuesday my husband had a dentist appointment and he was turned away because the blood pressure was something like 200/100 - stroke territory. He's on BP meds so next day we went to the primary care. New meds. There are other reasons for this but suffice it to say he ought to be back to "normal" much later in the year.
Thursday I had my annual opththalmologist appointment - cataract followup and pressure checks. Once I am dilated I am pretty much done for hours as to looking at a tablet or phone. Can't even read. Ugh. OK, old lady talk finished now. haha
Book chat
So....this week I finished Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain. My third book for the Classics Club - review HERE. It was a tough read for me and thankfully I had JoAnn laboring along with me to complete a buddy read.
I also finished The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks. Very much enjoyed hearing about fell farming life and reading Rebank's memoir.
Library acquisitions
The series Blue Lights, set in Belfast Ireland. It's been a while since we've watched a police drama and we are enjoying this one very much. It has six episodes per season. The tensions in northern Ireland are well represented.
Later today I hope to catch up on emails and do some visiting!
Sharing with:
Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon
This book was challenging for me and I could only read about 25 pages per day. I felt my educational level was lacking for that sort of reading/subject matter but it could also be the stilted language of the author. I admire how she stood up for her beliefs and all she attained. I was in awe of her perserverance in just about anything she set her mind to accomplish.
Here is a passage:
"There is still, I think, not enough recognition by teachers of the fact that the desire to think – which is fundamentally a moral problem - must be induced before the power is developed. Most people, whether men or women, wish above all else to be comfortable, and thought is pre-eminently uncomfortable process; it brings to the individual far more suffering than happiness in a semi-civilized world which still goes to war, Still encourages the production of unwanted children by exhausted, mothers, and still compels married partners who hate one another to live together in the name of morality."
"Thus, it was in St. Monica's garden, beside a little overgrown pool, where the plump goldfish slid idly in and out of the shadows, and the feathered grasses drooped their heavy heads to the water's edge, that I first visualized in rapt childish ecstasy a world in which women would no longer be the second-rate, unimportant creatures that they were now considered, but the equal and respected companions of men."
I'm not sure how to rate the book. For me it's a 3.5 for the material as well as my reading pleasure. I know there are rave reviews of this historical account but it was a labor to finish this book. Had it not been for JoAnn and our buddy read I may well have abandoned this very early on. Thank you, friend!
The time period is WW I and settings in England, Malta, Italy and France.
Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday. and The Classics Club.
I received Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian, shown here with one of my spider plants and ferns. It's one of the titles on my cl...
