Before the War

We listened to this as we drove the roads around here. I really enjoyed the story and the authorial voice intervening from time to time, responding to her own creation. The death of Vivienne its concatenations spiraling through the characters lives.

 

Oliver Jeffers

I acquired this book and am enjoying it immensely. I like the glimpses into an artists meandering way.

The Fish Ladder

I've not long finished reading this book. I enjoyed it with its mosaic of life journey, story, sense of place, travel, myth, cancer and searching for her family of origin.

Just Finished

I've just finished reading this. It was powerful and engaging. Ron's life and the reasons behind his illustration of books is powerfully explicated in the writing. The thwarted lives of his parents are also poignantly evoked although their perseverance through the years generates its rewards. Ron's own understanding of his life feeds into his illustration. His marriage crashes into unhappiness despite the good things in his life.  He struggles to make meaning and contentment and by the end there is a wary sense that it will arrive. 

Just finished reading

I've just finished reading The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder. It was a book I've enjoyed enough to stop reading other books until I finished. Two lives are enmeshed through most of their lives from boyhood till the end and it is a rich experience to be involved in.

The Street Philosopher

I've just finished and enjoyed this book. A journey into the horrors of war in the Crimea including love, betrayal, incompetence and treachery with the resolution played out in post war Manchester.

Dr Who

I've read the Dr Who graphic novel, which takes me back to the indefinite past. I would have thought that I'd seen all of Dr Who episodes from this era, but I didn't recognise the stories. It was fun though. I am wearing a scarf, at the moment, that my sister wove in the era when Tom Baker was playing Dr Who, although his was knitted there is something about longish woollen scarves that links them together.

Ten Days in the Hills

I just finished this book and enjoyed it. It took a bit of time. It's based on The Decameron with a group of people in the hills above Hollywood post the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the Academy Awards. The house party goes on for ten days of living, eating, telling stories and sorting out relationships.