The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico#ClassicsClub #BriFri

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.

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The Classics Club

Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday

J

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

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.

Besides the commentary about the birds and observations, she also sketches the birds and does the artwork.  This labor of love is a result of our author needing escape from the state of our country and racism she encountered.  What a lovely way to channel distress into something positive.

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

If it's raining I'll be in the kitchen with a book

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.

A rainy Sunday

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

Vicki for Mailbox Monday

Pastoral Song by James Rebanks

 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 need to add these to my sidebar

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