Tag: Books (page 2 of 2)

July 15, 2015 / 0 Comments

The Written Word Endures #1

I recently read a post on Cup of Jo, the focus of which was a discussion on the most beautiful sentence or paragraph that you’ve ever read. That drew my attention, as I’m often marking sections of a book I’m reading or making a mental note of page numbers, to be able to go back to a favourite sentence or paragraph and write it down.

I have the great fortune of getting to read a lot while I’m traveling around London and my choice of genres is always varying. I thought I would begin a new series on this blog as a journal of sorts to record lines and words and paragraphs that have stayed with me. I’m entitling it: The Written Word Endures, which is taken from a Neil Postman quote.

I went to the small restaurant run in conjunction. It was all plastic too — the table linen, the butter dish. The sugar and crackers were wrapped in cellophane, the jelly in a small plastic coffin sealed with cellophane. It was early evening and I was the only customer. Even the waitress wore a sponge-off apron. She wasn’t happy, but then she wasn’t unhappy. She wasn’t anything. But I don’t believe anyone is a nothing. There has to be something inside, if only to keep the skin from collapsing. This vacant eye, listless hand, this damask cheek dusted like a doughnut with plastic powder, had to have a memory or a dream.

-John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley

May 17, 2015 / 1 Comment

The Miniaturist

I finished reading The Miniaturist, Friday night on the train home. I’m still mulling it over and felt it might help to right my thoughts down…

The Art Historian in me loves that a web was spun around a real miniature house that lives in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It belonged to the story’s heroine, Petronella Oortman, who did indeed marry Johannes Brandt. From this one thread of reality the tale spins it’s own cloth.

There were sections of it, that were so richly written:

The Old Church, Amsterdam: Tuesday, 14th January 1687

The funeral is supposed to be a quiet affair, for the deceased had no friends. But words are water in Amsterdam, they flood your ears and set the rot, and the church’s east corner is crowded. She watches the scene unfold from the safety of the choir stall, as guildsmen and their wives approach the gaping grave like ants toward the honey. Soon, they are joined by VOC clerks and ship’s captains, regentesses, pastry-makers – and him, still wearing that broad-brimmed hat. She tries to pity him. Pity, unlike hate, can be boxed and put away.

The church’s painted roof – the one thing the reformers didn’t pull down – rises above them like the tipped-up hull of a magnificent ship. It is a mirror to the city’s soul; inked on its ancient beams, Christ in judgement holds his sword and lily, a golden cargo breaks the waves, the Virgin rests on a crescent moon. Flipping up the old misericord beside her, her fingers flutter on the proverb of exposed wood. It is a relief of a man shitting a bag of coins, a leer of pain chipped across his face. What’s changed? she thinks.

I can’t deny that I wasn’t drawn into this world. Each sentence was rich and linguistically opulent.

But, I wanted more. The story fell short and I was left feeling as though I had missed something!? Does anyone else feel that way? Everyone else I have spoken to, who has read it, seems to have loved it. Is this an Emperor’s new clothes situation?

When I was done, I thought about it, I re-read the first chapter, I re-read the last chapter. I pieced those together and realised who the deceased was and who the three other women in attendance were. Now, I’ll admit, I’m a happy ending kinda gal. But, I can deal with with an ending where I draw my own conclusions. But, with this, I felt I had no definite threads from which a conclusion could be inferred.

It was almost as if I was reading two different stories. Nella’s newly unfolding life in Amsterdam, as an 18 year old bride to Johannes Brandt and Nella’s mysterious and odd interactions with the Miniaturist. The two stories never seemed to collide.

”There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed . . .“, the book states. Yet, I feel all and nothing was revealed.

I find it difficult to write this – to clearly express my views because I am still a bit dumbfounded – a bit bewildered. I feel like the maid, grasping for clues that are hidden behind keyholes, shrouded by the mist that has risen off the river…

And there it is. I’ve written these words and am still no better off. If you have an answer; if you can shed light where there is darkness, please let me know.

August 23, 2013 / 0 Comments

South of Broad

I have spent the past two days doing a major cleaning overhaul in the cottage. I have gutted my closets and have bags of items to donate to the charity shop as well as a few pieces that are going to become cleaning rags. I have gone through the cabinet under the sink in the bathroom, you know which cabinet I’m talking about, the one that all bathroom things somehow get relegated too and they quietly build up into a dusty mess. I have also revamped the den, putting a few Fall things out, even though we are still in the hot throws of Summer and today I am going to change around the kitchen.

I don’ have a picture to share with you today, what I wanted to share with you was a book. I love reading! I need to read, it satisfies my soul. I have mentioned before that my Mom and I trade books. She gave me a Pat Conroy novel she had finished reading and I have had it sitting on my ever growing book pile since Easter. I dove into it in July and furiously read it on the plane ride home. It was immense. It was called South of Broad.

The book focuses on the life of Leo King and the friends he makes while a teenager in Charleston, South Carolina. The story grows and gives roots to these characters who stay a part of each other’s lives, even as they grow older. The description that Conroy gives of Charleston, left me breathless at times. I felt as if I too was riding my bike through the main character’s (Leo King) newspaper route. I know those roads like the back of my hand. Charleston has long been in my blood and for many years it was my home. I could close my eye and follow his route in my head, seeing the streets and homes I would pass.

As I read, I drank in his words like a cool mint julep flowing over my lips. The bite of bourbon, the sweetness of the sugar and the refreshing taste of the mint all mingling together on your tongue before you swallow. I savoured Conroy’s use of the English vernacular, I savoured his use of the Southern vernacular. He wrote about home between those pages, the smell of the tide coming in and the pluff mud as only a Charlestonian would know it. He wrote life between those pages.

His words as majestic as the full moon rising over the incoming tide in the Ashley River, as heavenly as sweet tea and hot buttered biscuits on your tongue. The taste of the dough and butter oozing over your palette as sacred a ritual as taking communion.

I felt as if I knew the friends between those pages, that I had somehow become part of their story, peering through their windows as I walked along the Battery. This book was a truly scrumptious read, from teenage life into adulthood, the friends we meet along the way who change us, as we change them, and a book about life and the paths we all take, whether the crossing of one’s path to another’s, betters it, destroys it, or enriches it.

“What’s important is that a story changes every time you say it out loud. When you put it on paper, it can never change. But the more times you tell it, the more changes will occur. A story is a living thing; it moves and shifts” – Pat Conroy, South of Broad

March 12, 2013 / 2 Comments

Our Weekend

Well, I was going to share my weekend with you yesterday, but after my day in the cupboard, I just couldn’t.

It was my date night this weekend and I took Mr. Michie to the movies! It was so much FUN! I can’t tell you the last time we went to a movie in the evening, we are usually afternoon movie goers.

We saw OZ. We both really enjoyed it, I thought they did a nice tie in of the elements, the costumes were beautiful and I only wish she was real because the little girl the “wizard” helps save in China Town, I could just take home with me, she was so cute!

We grabbed some breakfast before going grocery shopping on Saturday morning:

Then I spent the rest of Saturday preparing Sunday’s lunch. I made my Nana’s macaroni salad, my dad’s green bean salad and homemade yeast rolls.

On Sunday we baked a ham and I tried a new peach cobbler recipe. It was delicious! I made a few changes, by adding some cinnamon and a little bit if lemon zest to the peaches, like I would do if I was making a pie.

I have been reading a series of books at the moment that take place in the South (The Caster Chronicles) and after reading what Amma has been cooking, I was hankering after a little Southern Home-style dinner myself. There was even sweet tea to boot!

December 23, 2012 / 1 Comment

The Season of Hope

I received a gorgeous Christmas parcel in the post the other week from a very dear someone, a kindred spirit and yesterday morning, my first morning of Christmas freedom, I sat alone on the couch, a cup of coffee in one hand and this book in the other. The James Galway Christmas album playing and all my twinkle lights on, keeping me cozy as the rain splished splashed down outside:

I have given Susan Branch books to friends over the years, but have not had one myself, so this book in particular, it being her Christmas book, is very special to me.

I came across this quote and read it and read it again. For all that is happening in the world right now, I felt that it was befitting. We are in a Season of Hope and we must continue to walk in faith:

November 2, 2012 / 0 Comments

A Discovery of Witches

I just finished A Discovery of Witches, actually, I haven’t been able to put it down all week. As the story culminates with Halloween, it felt like a superbly timing read for this bewitching season.

The only mistake I have made is that I should have ordered the second book in the All Souls Trilogy last week, not last night as I am ready to dive into it right now, but, at the same time, I am still savoring the words that I have just read.

I was mesmerized from cover to cover. Deborah Harkness has written this so intrepidly well. I can see Oxford, I can smell the Bodleian, I don’t even have to close my eyes. I have had the great fortune through my Art Historical research to be able to be in great library collections and call books. The smell the pages hold, the feel of the cover as you nestle it into a cradle, the cool air that washes over you as you open it, if it has been called from the crypt. There is a magic to it all of its own.

I could place myself in Diana Bishop’s shoes and see what she saw. This is a magnificently written book, she didn’t miss a beat. I have a soft spot for manuscripts as Medieval Manuscripts were one of my chosen fields of study. I also love that this book is written around a manuscript that is indeed truly missing. This book is magic! If you haven’t read it, you need to, the world she creates is one to get lost within.

April 26, 2012 / 2 Comments

Our Weekend

We had a very busy two days this past weekend. We worked on redoing some of our flower pots in our little street garden. We lost our 4 year old rosemary in the last frost and so we replaced it with a brand new very happy looking little pot of rosemary that sits near our door. I love to run my hands through its delicate branches and smell the sweet smell of rosemary on my fingertips.

On Saturday we went out to run errands. I did a bit of shopping and picked up some things for school and home, while Mr. Michie went to the Library to work on a paper. I picked him up when I was done and the smell of the library just took me back.

This is a very beautiful library. It is fairly new, but they have paid attention to detail and used their spaces wisely. They have two gorgeously lit stained glass windows in the entrance way and display cabinets here and there with small exhibitions inside or pieces of local history and lore.

I have to say, I truly love libraries! What is it about a library? Card catalogues and the dewey decimal system and books bound in plastic wrappers that crinkle when you open their spines, the smell of age rippling out from the pages as you flip through, it all just makes me happy.

So, as Mr. Michie finished up, I stole his phone and did a little photographing of my own. I found a vintage wallpaper book and fell in love with the Kate Greenaway wallpaper page. I have an original piece of hers that Mr. Michie gave me as a Birthday present the year before we were married.

It hangs in our room and is one of the things that greets me “Hello!” in the morning. It is from an alphabet book of hers’, with a pink “J” edged in gold and a little girl who stands on the “J” and holds a windmill in her hand. It is beautiful and delicate and makes me very happy, every time I see it!

After he was packed up and ready to go, we gathered our things and headed to the movies for a date. He took me to see, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. It was delightful. A lovely way to spend a rainy afternoon, watching a sweet movie, eating popcorn and holding hands.

We grabbed some dinner after the movie and headed home and just as we were about to walk in the door, Mr. Michie spied this:

Our first olive! It might not look like much, but we have had that olive tree almost as long as we have been married and I am happy to see the fruits of our labors before us, it was a nice gift from Mother Nature on the eve of Earth Day.

November 4, 2011 / 0 Comments

The Outlander

It was night, and dogs came through the trees, unleashed and howling. They burst from the cover of the woods and their shadows swam across a moonlit field. For a moment, it was as if her scent had torn like a cobweb and blown on the wind, shreds of it here and there, useless. The dogs faltered and broke apart, yearning. Walking now, stiff-legged, they ploughed the grass with their heavy snouts.

…The girl stood in her ditch under a hard, small moon. Pale foam rose from where her shoes sank into mud. No more voices inside her head, no noise but these dogs. She saw her own course along the ground as a trail of bright light, now doused in the ditchwater. She clambered up the bank and onto a road, her stiff funeral skirt made of bedspread and curtain, her hair wild and falling in dark ropes about her face. The widow gathered up her shawl and fled witchlike down the empty road.

The Outlander, A Novel by Gil Adamson

My Mom, Nana, Aunts and I pass books around to each other, even though I live a million miles away. This was read by my Mom, my Nana and then one of my Aunts who put it in a lovely care package for me.

It has been on my reading pile for awhile, I went through other books first, but I read it over the Summer and I was hooked. It is a delicious book! The way in which the first page was written had me falling so deep dow the rabbit hole, I never wanted to put the book down.

(the above excerpt is copyrighted to Gil Adamson)

October 3, 2011 / 0 Comments

Coverspy

I found this website a little while ago. It is called Coverspy and is comprised by a “team of publishing nerds who hit the subways, streets, parks & bars to find out what New Yorkers are reading now.”

I loved it! Here are just a few sample picks:

Sunday October 2nd

Girl in Translation, Jean Kwok (F, 50s, gray hair in bun, leather jacket, grey sweatpants, F train)

Wednesday September 14th

Hell’s Angels, Hunter S. Thompson (F, 20s, long blond hair, oxford shoes, sitting outside a bike shop, Fort Greene)

Tuesday September 6th

Emma, Jane Austen (F, 30s, jeans, wire framed glasses, curly hair in ponytail, Tretorn rain boots, G train)

Thursday September 1st

The Alienist, Caleb Carr (F, 30s, peach shirt, black pants, brown purse, G train)

P.S. The last book I posted, The Alienist, is one of my all-time favorite books! If you have not read it, you need to run out and find a copy. Beg, borrow, or steal to get it, because it is an absolutely fascinating look into criminology and a thoroughly enjoyable read!