Has it really been two months since my last book review post?  Doesn’t time fly when life is interrupted by Christmas and New Year and fiddling about with beads and hot summer days, days of gale force winds, days of rain and days filled with everything at once …….

The pile of books is growing ever taller – as it appears my reading time is not generously allocated at the moment!

Here is a lovely shot courtesy our Official Photographer – you can see there is no room for anything else on that bedside cabinet!

Many of these books were received as Christmas gifts from the lovely Eldest Daughter who providentially works for a world renown publishing house.  How lucky am I?

Some of the titles, the eagle eyed among you may notice, were books recommended by your good selves in the comments section of previous post of the same title.  These were searched out by the aforementioned ED on her many forays around Book Shops and judiciously added into my pile of Christmas Books.

We do not slack around here when it comes to reading!

If you follow the blog [and if not, why not?] of the superbly well written author Geoff Le Pard over at  TanGental, you might also notice two of his titles in the pile as well. ‘Dead Flies and Sherry Trifle’  and ‘My Father and Other Liars’. Geoff sent me these books to read and review.  I’ve just launched myself into the first so look for something in the next ‘Books’ post  ……….

But let’s stay on track – life is more than just creating light catchers and lying about in the sunshine or battling the gale force winds, or avoiding the icy rain storm [whichever event is occurring in any given hour] you know.  I am trying to introduce myself to a new ‘healthy habit’.  [Please, do stop cringing!]   Preparing for a good nights sleep by undertaking a leisurely evening ritual that includes showering, pj-ing, hot tea-ing and read-ing.  I’m even about to redecorate my tiny bedroom to make this final hour of the day totally and utterly enjoyable, but that’s another post!

Since the last post this is what I’ve read, or started to read or just dallied with

The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent; Translation by Ros Schwartz

It’s a smallish book, immensely readable and quite, quite fascinating.  The back cover bears the inscription ‘Love is a journey’.  The story is original and quirky and the characters are oddly original and quirky too.  It’s about how a man copes with a life that it is less than ideal and how his method of coping affects, and is affected by, what he reads, out loud, on the train every day.  I loved it!

When Mary Davidson, the eldest daughter of a whaling family in Eden, New South Wales, sets out to chronicle the particularly difficult season of 1908, the story she tells is poignant and hilarious, filled with drama and misadventure.

I’m dallying with Rush Oh! written by Australian author, Shirley Barrett.  Based on real events that took place in 1908 and told in the first person by the daughter of the whaler.  It is the story of a unique relationship between the whalers and a pod of Orcas – known simply as the Killer’s who steer the whales into the vicinity of the harpoons.  The story is wryly amusing, laden with the romantic notions and shyness of the young motherless heroine and her day to day life, responsibilities and day dreams.  One of the things that has caught my attention is the no-nonsense, non-sentimental, factual approach to the job of killing whales.  Set in a time when life was harsher and simpler, in this small community whaling is their life and livelihood, nothing is wasted, everything is worth something.  Reading, I am aware that I have given no thought to my modern bias of abhorring the killing of whales – the author is that good!

I was reading this book up until Christmas Day, then it was put aside because I had opened and could not put down this next one.

The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin

Noah is four and wants to go home.  The only trouble is, he’s already home.

Now, one of the really splendid things about having a daughter in the business is I sometimes receive copies of books prior to publication.  This one comes out in March and is a first novel and a superb read!  It deals with that tricky concept, reincarnation.  It deals with a mother’s love for her child through loss, through despair, through on-going behaviour that is so unusual that it sends her searching from specialist to specialist seeking an explanation.  It deals with concepts of reality and scientific mores.  It answers no questions, it raises many more.  It reads like a mystery story, a little bit of who-dunnit hidden in there, and the vagaries of getting to know, or missing out on understanding, the people in your life.

I really enjoyed this book, and had that slightly sad feeling as I arrived at the end and there was no more story.  Here is a new author who has made it to my ‘must read’ list.  I am already looking forward to her next book.

I’ve returned to ‘Rush Oh’ and am really enjoying it – but I also started ‘Dead Flies and Sherry Trifle’ and now I have a nightly conundrum of what to read………..

So, what have you been reading lately?  Do share – we need to keep those books piled up……

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!