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What a week......

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.

Also plan to start Pastoral Song by James Rebanks, the secord book he has written about farming the fells in Cumbria.

Later today I hope to catch up on emails and do some visiting!

 Sharing with:

Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon

Vicki for Mailbox Monday

Joy for British Isles Friday

Testment of Youth by Vera Brittain#ClassicsClub #BriFri#NonfictionChallenge

 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." 

The misogynistic treatment of women was par for the times, something I think our current U.S. government would love to see return. Alas. It took courage to continue fighting for women's rights, to continue a university education and attempts at publishing her writing in that era.

Equal rights:

"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.

Also shared with  Shelleyrae at Book'd Out for the 2025 Nonfiction Reader Challenge.  Category: History

The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks

This memoir starts with the author's early life and his distain for the educational system. At age twelve the school sorts the children between the grammar or comprehensive groups, those moving into grammar deemed intelligent enough for higher education and eventually professional careers. Those in comprehensive are destined for labor jobs such as bricklayers, hairdressers, farmers.  The teacher tries to inspire the children to reach for more while the boys carry on and ignore her, dismiss her preaching because they are content to work on their family farm.  They fight and vandalize and never read. 

But James Rebanks is different and unwittingly educates himself by picking up books at home from his mother's library and then craving more.  Hemingway, Camus, Salinger and Orwell.  This he does not share with his friends.  

One day in a pub an old Korean war veteran sees Rebanks grab a book off the wall shelf and place it in his jacket.  He didn't want his friends to see but the veteran starts fussing about how he couldn't identify the plane on the book cover. The author does indeed identify it and good deal more, leaving the old man smiling and his friends gobsmacked. Eventually he ends up with an Oxford education in addition to invaluable educational experience he gains from years working with his grandfather and father.  

The focus of the book is mainly that of shepherding, raising the sheep and the workings of the farm in Cumbria.  The book appealed to be because I am the nerdy sort who likes reading about farm life and how they sustain a living with hard work and love of their environment. Also, the setting is Cumbria, an area I've done much research as my gg grandparents and their ancestors lived there until settling in the Philadelphia area.

I learned many things in this book such as much of the mountainous areas of the land in the Lake District were given to the National Trust by wealthy benefactors like Beatrix Potter.   Mrs. Beatrix (Potter) Heelis had a farm called Hill Top and made sure over 4,000 acres and fifteen farms were protected by bequeathing them in her will.  To read about the society click HERE.

This land was given to protect the landscape and its unique way of life, because it was deemed to be in the public interest.  I did not know that before I read this book. (Page 22)

It was interesting to me to read about Herdwick sheep. They're arguably the toughest mountain sheep in Britain, almost indestructible according to the author. Through the worst weather, be it snow, rain, hail or sleet they can live on less than any other sheep in these conditions. Scientific research show Herdwicks are genetically special. They have in them a primitive genome, possibly from Viking stock as their British sheep relatives are from Sweden, Finland and Iceland.

The fell farming way, grazing the sheep in the mountains during certain months, is an ancient way which has disappeared almost everywhere else. The sheep go there on common land with their neighbors stock and get sorted when they are brought down come winter.  Everyone works together.

I will be starting another book by this author titled Pastoral Song soon.

Families like ours roll on beside each other, through the ages. with bonds enduring.  Individuals live and die, but the farms, the flocks and the old families go on. P 65

#memoir #nonfiction #England

Reading, watching and library loot

This has been a good week for book and movie arrivals here.  

Currently Reading / Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain (buddy read with JoAnn)

Just finished The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks - review here  and plan to read Pastoral Song soon.  

Also in bookish updates, The Classics Club. announced their Spin so I made my list of 20 possibilities.  It's my first time participating and it was fun making my list. My Spin List is HERE and I see (as of Sunday) the book I'll be reading is Brideshead Revisted by Evelyn Waugh.

Book Accessories / When I am not reading on a Kindle I can read anywhere but physical books require sufficient light in the evenings.  Recently I broke out my pretty book light and it's helping me get more book time late.

The horizontal position of this light works better than an older one I had with a vertical drop.  It also provides more light across both page surfaces.

Watching

Part of my library loot this week was Force of Nature and Severance.  In the mailbox was Cosmos.  Force of Nature followed the Jane Harper book of the same name, the second one in the Aaron Falk series. Set in Australia and I am looking forward to the next one.

Severance was completely weird and in the beginning we almost stopped watching.  But wow, after about 15 minutes or so things start coming together and we were hooked.  Such cliff hangers. Looking forward to season 2 when the library can order it...I am probably looking at waiting a year so please, no spoilers!

Cosmos was an independent film made on a shoe string budget about amateur astronomers.  The newest member of a team makes a discovery using radio signals from an unexpected origin.  This is set in England.

Sharing with:

Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon

Vicki for Mailbox Monday

Joy for British Isles Friday

Classic Club Spin

Since joining the Classics Club I have managed to read two from my list, so that's going well.  Today I will be participating in my first Classic Club Spin.  You may read about that on their website HERE.

Here's my book list for the Classics Club spin 

1. A Room with a View by E.M. Forester
2. Agnes Grey by Ann Bronte
3. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
4. Bridehead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
5. Daisy Miller by Henry James
6. Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
7. Goodnight, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian
8. Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
9. It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
10. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
11. Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier
12. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
13. Tess of the D'urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
14. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
15. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
16. The Postman by David Brin
17. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
18. The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell
19. The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico
20. To Sir with Love by E.R. Braithwaite

When the spin number is announced on Sunday I will read that book before April 11, 2025.  It's my first time with this spin event so I'm excited!

Sharing with:

Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon

The Story of a Heart by Dr. Rachel Clarke

 Two families, one heart and the medical miracle that saved a child’s life

A girl from Devon and a boy from Cheshire became intertwined by the most tragic circumstances. In 2017 nine-year old Keira Ball was in a car accident which left her brain dead. For several months prior to that accident nine-year old Max Johnson's heart was slowly failing him.  He'd contracted a virus which weaked his heart causing acute cardiomyopothy.

This book is a page turner and takes you on the journey of Keira and Max's lives when they were both happy and healthy children. The experiences of both sets of parents, before the accident and afterwards, will leave you with such empathy for both familes. I did shed a tear or two while reading.

I found this a fascinating book, learned so much such as how ventilators were invented, the beginnings of the first I.C.U. and so much more.  It was explained in laymans terms so I was never lost, it was never a dry narrative.  The coordination between hospitals, doctors and those working with matching the urgent needs for organ donation  is amazing.  I never knew how very detailed this process was.

"Grief, as nurses know better than anyone, is the form love takes when someone dies.  Perhaps grief hurts as much as it ought to - as much and as fiercely as the person who has died was loved."

Here is part of the letter Max's family gave to the anonymous donor family:

"To the donor family, We are writing to you as you hold a very special place in our hearts.  Our son, Max, is 9 and he had a heart transplant.  He was very poorly and a heart transplant was his only chance of coming home and starting a new life.

We are so very sorry that you lost your loved one, but we would like to thank you for the incredibly kind, courageous decison that allowed organs to be donated. We do not know the circumstances, but we can only imagine what a dreadful, harrowing time you have been through and are doubtless still going through, with the loss.

Even in your grief, you have made a selfless decision to help others and we are indescribably  grateful to you....."

Dr. Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor and the author of many books. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and children.

This book are shared with:

Shelleyrae at Book'd Out for the 2025 Nonfiction Reader Challenge. Category: Health

Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday

I

I

Presently reading......

My tablet basically died. It was locking up, going to black screen and I couldn't turn it off.  As the tablet and blogging are my only interaction with book sites & friends, news, etc.....I had to get a new one.  It interfered with some posts I was hoping to get done but...now I am all set.

Very irritating to have to spend the money on it as I was digging in to No Buy 2025.  Here are a couple of articles about that Here and Here. 

In book news....

Just finished  The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough which was a buddy read with Deb at Readerbuzz.  It's always nice to read with someone :-)

Currently reading / Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain with JoAnn. Also started The Story of a Heart by Dr. Rachel Clarke, a page turner in nonfiction. Fascinating so far.

Sharing a couple of "new" books for Mailbox Monday (hosted by Vicki).  I have The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks from the library and  I purchased White Oleander by Janet Fitch for $2 from their sale shelves.  Not sure when I will get started on the Rebanks book as I am finishing up the nonfiction right now.

Other posts this week besides the Thorn Birds review was about Loki's birthday/ gotcha day

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

Vicki for Mailbox Monday

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough#ClassicsClub #BuddyRead

 The Thorn Birds was a buddy read with Deb at Readerbuzz.  This was an interesting journey through decades with the Cleary family and getting myself immersed in Australian outback conditions. 

Below is a general summary of the book but spoilers are in my Goodreads review HERE.   

This is a multi-generational saga spanning from 1915 to 1969.  The Cleary family, Paddy and Fiona, along with their seven children, are trying to make ends meet on a farm in New Zealand.  You will read about the hardships of the family and how they eventually move to Australia when Paddy's sister (Mary Carson) offers them a home on her vast property called Drogheda.

Paddy is Mary's only heir and he will eventually be assumed to inherit her estate. The sons flourish working on the sheep ranch and the women are sequestered at home doing the usual mundane work of cooking, laundry, childcare etc.  Yet another perk of being a female in that time period.

A central character to this story is Father Ralph de Bricassart, the Catholic priest who visits Mary Carson, hoping to advance his position with the church and relocate to Sydney or perhaps, one day...Rome. He becomes very involved with the Cleary family, much to Mary's dismay, but her vindictive nature will eventually turn the tables.

The descriptions of the birds, landscape and the flora are very richly described; such vivid colors and atmosphere.  The weather conditions are so well depicted you can feel it, easily imagining hot breezes, the sticky humidity and bitter cold in each season.

There is so much tragedy, sadness as well as love in this novel.  

This was a buddy read with Deb at Readerbuzz and also one of the books on my Classics Club list.  Publication date 1977.

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Happy Birthday, Loki - today is his Gotcha Day!

Loki's Gotcha Day!  Four years ago we adopted an underweight, flea ridden scrap of a dog they were calling Albert.

He had lived outside all his life and was just this side of feral.  The local Humane Society grabbed him up from a Bainbridge Georgia shelter because they were going to put him to sleep.  He was afraid of everything and everyone and did not attempt to engage anyone walking through the kennel trying to adopt.  

He was a challenge as he had to be housebroken, tried to bite us multiple times and had food insecurity so he'd knock over trashcans and make a huge mess. 

Fast forward and he is a relatively happy dog.  He has separation anxiety and takes Xanax when needed (such as any trip to the vet) but he is a very intelligent dog, loves us and enjoys a good life now.

Happy birthday, Loki! 

He got a new kitchen bed

He enjoyed an OraVet chew for dental health

He rolled around outside in the sun for bit. 

Happy birthday old man 🐾  Rescue dogs have brightened our lives.

Book travel to Australia, England and a nonfiction on deck #ClassicClub #Nonfiction #BuddyRead

1Here we are Friday already and my week has flown past.  Trying to stay informed  with world events while minimizing the articles about the mentally deficient criminal in chief.  So that means more reading and I can't complain about that :-)

Currently reading /  I am engrossed with two chunksters right now.  Both are on my Classic Club list as well as being buddy reads. Sweet.

Earlier in the month I started The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, with Deb at Readerbuzz. The publication year is 1977, 692 pages.  I'm around the 70% mark now. Such tragedy in this family saga.

Wednesday I started reading Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, an autobiographical historical account of Brittain's early life and encompassing the first world war.  Publication date of 1933, 688 pages.  I am buddy reading with JoAnn at Gulfside Musing. 

Upcoming / On deck after those two books is The Story of a Heart by Dr. Rachel Clarke. Just picked it up from the library.  It's about two families, two nine year old children and a transplant.  When Keira Ball is in a horrific car accident her body shut down, except her heart kept beating. Her parents allowed her to be an organ donor. 

Nine year old Max Johnson was fighting a virus causing his heart to fail.  When Max's family got the call they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family. He received Keira's heart.  I bet this book makes me cry.

📚 Also, if anyine is interested, Kate Quinn's book The Rose Code is on sale for Kindle for $1.99 today.  Not sure is that price is good outside the U.S. or if it's a today-only kind of deal but....if you like books about codebreakers during WW II this one is great. 📚

Sharing with:

Deb at Readerbuzz for Sunday Salon

Joy for British Isles Friday

Vicki for Mailbox Monday