Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Pouring rain kept me indoors during the day. I had started a book the night before and had time to finish it before going out.
I was pleased to find books that are in my own library:
Also Borrowed Time by Paul Monette, A Wrinkle in Time, The Once and Future King, The Warmth of Other Suns, The Art of Eating, Harriet the Spy (which appears in the favourites of two of the contributors). I am pleased that, even though it was not her favourite, Piper Kerman of Orange is the New Black mentioned Harriet the Spy.
I have many Fay Weldon books on a shelf, so my favourite story was this one by Gina Barreca:
WOW!
I now have a big new list of books and authors to read. Some are the recommendations of the contributors and some are the books of the contributors themselves:
author Emma Straub
A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller*
The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
My Antonia by Willa Cather (two more examples, like Steinbeck, of me being late to the classics)
author Elizabeth McCracken
Underground by Hikara Murakami
The Diary of Alice James
Sharp Objects, Dark Places (by Gillian Flynn, one of the contributors)
Mr Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin*
Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer (one of my favourites and one of the contributors)*
And a blog to check out: Reader of Depressing Books
(*already ordered from the library. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is another life-changing book that is already in my pile of library books to read.)
………….So what is the book that changed your life? The one that first came to my mind is Small Changes by Marge Piercy, for reasons that are too personal to go into right here and now, other than that it enabled me to leave a lousy relationship with a young man. I have not read it since about 1975 when I was 20, and, since I own it, I might re-read it to see if I still like the writing. I know I like the message about feminism. My old copy is all marked up so it will be easy to relive which were my favourite passages.
I realized later that another book that changed my life over a decade later was The Year in Bloom by Ann Lovejoy, a collection of her newspaper columns about gardening. The columns inspired me to attend a lecture by her at Seattle Tilth in 1988 and that experience changed my life into being almost all about gardening.
In the late afternoon, we met Dave and Melissa for the Star Wars movie. Despite or because of being a huge fan of the original trilogy and of The Force Awakens, I had lost my eagerness for this installment after Carrie Fisher died. The film proved to be excellent even though I felt so sad to see her and to think of her being gone and to wonder what the next film’s storyline would have been had she still been with us.
Afterward, the four of us repaired to [the pickled fish] restaurant for pizzas….
I started another Black Cat Bookshop mystery and am hoping that tomorrow is a rainy day.
Meanwhile, in real time, Merry Christmas Eve! Christmas eve this year will also be my 25 year anniversary of moving to the Long Beach Peninsula.
Now I also have a list of books to read! Thanks!
And wow those brussels sprouts look good! (So does the margarita.)
And Merry Christmas, from my snow to your coastal waters!
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Let’s compare reading notes. Merry Christmas! Opening your gifts is my favourite part. Miss you!
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Merry Christmas Eve! And Happy Anniversary of Moving. I was an English major in college. I could never get through a single William Faulkner book, but I adored John Steinbeck. I’m glad you’ve been enjoying his books lately.
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Thanks for the warning about Faulkner. Have never tried to read him but might (might) give it a go. Merry Christmas Eve to you.
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Merry Christmas to you both.
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