Busy with books!

My lack of posts make me look really lazy, but I'm really not:

Fiona McFarlane: The Night Guest had spectacular reviews but I didn't think it lived up to the hype. After rather a slow start it had some brilliant descriptions of the confusion and fears of a frail old lady, but the denouement was sadly predictable, but not entirely believable as the presumably intelligent sons also made no checks on the mysterious appearance of Frida.

Betty Smith: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, is the only successful novel by its American author. It’s over 600 pages with no adventure or real story, just the growing up of a variably poor second generation family. Brilliant characterisations and surprisingly un-dated in the anguishes of a normal family.

Gavin Frances: Empire Antarctica. I can never resist true travel stories, add the author being a doctor in a remote Antarctic base with the Rosey-connection and a very poetic style of writing and you have a guaranteed winner. Excellent, and evocative of a tempting place I’ll probably never see.

Rob Manning & William L Simon: Mars Rover Curiosity. A bit geeky, but an interesting account of the run up to Curiosity landing on Mars. I’d no idea there was so much in-fighting, penny-pinching and politics, I thought the science would be hard enough.

Sue Monk Kidd: The Secret Life of Bees is the tale of a white girl who escapes her father’s tyranny with her black servant/nanny by way of prison for involvement in race riots and hospital when Rosaleen is beaten up by the police. A small picture of a Black Madonna leads to some truth about Lily’s dead Mother. Heart-warming and beautifully written. Many lively characters.

S J Watson: Before I go to Sleep. I was surprised to find that SJ Watson is a man, a sensitive accout of a lady with amnesia waking each morning with no idea who she is, or the man in bed with her. All is not quite as it seems as the twisted plot unfurls.. The end leaves you wondering, but gripping until then.

Maurice Herzog: Annapurna is the classic tale of the successful 1951 French expedition to Annapurna, the first 8,000m peak to be climbed. Nepal was barely opened to foreigners, all needed special permission and the only way in was by rail to the India-Nepal border, a short stretch of road then walk with porters from there, including 10s of tons of luggage. The few miles of road in the Kathmandu Valley had a couple of dozen cars brought in the same way. Maps were primitive, old and inaccurate with huge valleys and mountains in the wrong place. No Google Earth! Considerable time was spent even finding the beast. Two of the party made it to the top, but at a terrible price, the loss of many digits, and barely got down  alive. The treatments for frostbite were interesting: beat the life back into limbs with rope whips, if that fails intra-arterial lignocaine or acetyl choline.
A good tale for anyone interested in Nepal, trekking, climbing or people. It suffered a little from too-literal translation from the French in a few places.

Malala Yousafzai: I am Malala, inspiring account of life in the beautiful Swat valley leading up to the Taliban rule, and after they were apparently ousted. Such normal girls in such a difficult situation. Ends after her near miraculous recovery and exile with her whole family to the UK.

Back again.

I grovel with apologies to all the people who looked for progress on New Year's Eve, I've been lazy. I didn't even have to do the Christmas lunch, Amy sorted that out, Duck with all trimmings. Laura took a day out from her MA to join us, hand-in day is this Monday so all wish her luck. R finished his OU degree, got a first of course, so we'll do lots of travelling before he starts on a Masters too. I'm the only one in the family with only one qualification.

57: Life in a Chateau

Anyone need a quiet weekend in the country? If there are about 30 of you, I'd recommend the Chateau de Halloy near Ciney in Belgium. Our walking club usually takes over a Youth Hostel for a weekend in December, but this was a giant step up. Watch out YHA, we'll never be quite happy there again!

BTs

A really Beautiful Thing happened yesterday: I volunteer with home-start and for various reasons have gone back to supporting the family I saw earlier this year. I went with Mum to collect the nearly-5-year-old from school, with great excitement she told her friends "That's Jane, she's my (too old for her or Mum's friend, wrong colour for Granny)... my.....my.. my Jane"  a totally unique category just for me.
Anyone with time to spare should look at Homestart, a brilliant, useful and rewarding charity.
The second B T is that R got distinction for his final OU module, so a First, not really a surprise.
Primroses and winter jasmine out at the same time.

56: Crawl, Trolls.

A few years ago I decided it was time to learn to do front crawl, in the days I learnt to swim, once you were competent at one stroke that was it. I started with breast-stroke & picked up back crawl, but never mastered front crawl. I used to go to Swimfit, where there was a coach willing to help & still struggled but something's clicked & I managed 10 lengths of crawl without a break, and not gasping for air at the end. But my breast-stroke's still faster!
When L&A were little, the railway-sleeper bridge over the ditch to the common was naturally the troll bridge, we often saw heard him but never got eaten. A new generation of little girls has found this too, they have to be very brave as it's the only way into the Gruffalo's wood.

Fungal Jungle

Just back from a brilliant weekend on Dartmoor, mostly clear and sunny after an inauspicious forecast. The wet weather had encouraged an impressive selection of fungi. My Great Nephew would have loved them!

Yet More Books!

These three were all book-club choices, and very good ones. Some confusion over the first meant we all had to read the whole trilogy thank goodness!

Barker:The Regeneration Trilogy ( Regeneration, The Eye In the Door and The Ghost Road) follows several characters including poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon through treatment for shell shock in Craiglockhart Hospital under the charismatic (real) Dr William Rivers with his controversial view that shell shock was an illness rather than lack on moral fibre. Several other stories intertwine. Read all three, they’re compelling.

Kathleen Kent: The Heretic’s Daughter (+The Traitor’s Wife) Excellent tale of a woman who was charged with being a witch in Salem, and her reasons for not defending herself. The hysteria and assumption of guilt are terrifying. The second book was the back-story of her husband and his place in Cromwell’s England. Many very well described characters and beautiful descriptions.

Markus Zusak  The Book Thief,  Nazism from the point of view of children, (as narrated by Death) one of whom develops a passion for books after picking up “The Gravedigger’s Manual” then being mortified at school for her inability to read. Her foster family shelter a Jew who further inspires her to read and write. Funny in parts, heartbreaking in others, beautifully written and an original slant on a well-known tale.