Along with resting, walking, drawing and bridge building, I also did some reading over the past week.
I finished Margaret Atwood’s latest book of short stories, Old Babes In The Woods. That’s the one with the story of the snail that I quoted from when I got my rams horn snails. It also has a few stories about an older woman who is recently widowed. One called Wooden Box stuck with me because I feel like it captured what I imagine to be the imbalance of being left behind.
At the Inn I read Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux. It’s a mystery set in Louisiana with Glory Broussard, an older African American woman, solving the mystery of her friends death (and of who has been breaking into her house) Glory has so much personality and is such a complex character, the book was pure enjoyment in a great setting. I’m looking forward to the next one.
I put down (for now) So Late In The Day by Claire Keegan after the ending of the second of the three stories in the book left me disappointed. I’ve read a few of Keegan’s books and have found them tender even when they deal with difficult themes. I guess I came to have certain expectations from her stories. I’m sure I’ll pick it up again and read the last story, I just needed something different in-between.
Now I’m reading The Queen of Dirt Island By Donal Ryan. Each chapter is 2 pages long and tells a complete story that could stand on its own. But all together they tell the story of three women, a grandmother, mother and daughter living together in a small town in Ireland.
“Whatever about the future, she [Nana] said one day, worrying about the past is the hollowest of all things.”…”So we can forget changing the past and all we can do is look after our present moment, planting good seeds in it so that our next moments might be fruitful.” Nana from The Queen of Dirt Island
I just finished a book. I found really good, possibly you might too. Better living through birding, by Christian Cooper. I have looked at it at our Library’s new bookshelf, several times, finally checked it out, still delayed reading it until this week. But I was so glad I had, I found it very interesting. He has a new National Geographic birding show, I think called extreme birding. I watched the episode about his time in Puerto Rico.
Sounds interesting Melissa, I’ll look into it. 🙂