Library reading group

 

I haven't been to a Library Reading Group before and a bit unsure of what to expect.  But I have been enjoying The Black Dress by Deborah Moggach and am looking forward to discussing it.

I saw the flyer when borrowing a couple of books from my local library and since this was a title which suggested content that I wouldn't normally go for I thought I would give it a try.

Expand my literary horizons.

There's a reading group meeting each month and I figure it's both a stimulus and discipline for staying on track with reading goals.

I'm also told there'll be a cuppa and biscuits to relax participants into the discussion.

Read more:

Here's a link to more information on The Black Dress.

A bookmarked book

 

Judged a book by its bookmark!

I had ordered this very large book on the visual strength of its giveaway bookmark, a stack of which were on the counter at my favourite bookstore.

I picked the book up today and now cannot wait to get into it.  It is three books in one I'm told and "big as it is you'll not want it to end".

Here goes then... To Paradise.

More:

Check out this link for more details about the book.

Stirrings of spring

 

A time for every purpose...

Some current readings, suggesting stirrings of spring?

Mudlarking

Title: Mudlarking

Lost and Found on the River Thames

Author: Lara Maiklem

Publisher: Bloomsbury. 2019

ISBN: 976-1-4088-8921-3

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and feel that I have learnt so much from it about the Thames and its impact on history down the centuries. I particularly liked the writing style. Each chapter, focussing on a location along the river's course, begins with a literary extract describing those who make their living on and from the Thames. The author provides historical details in a very accessible way, supplementing them with her own deductions, hypotheses and intuitions; along the way she shares with us some of her personal biography connecting that to the places she visits. She had a particular connection with her precious Greenwich where she had lived for 13 years.  She also introduces us to some of her mudlark friends who come across as a friendly supportive group of like-minded individuals.

I started reading the hardback edition and when I spotted that it was also available in audio format I didn't think twice before downloading the spoken version which I was able to play while travelling.  That too was a treat. It was beautifully read by the author.  BBC Radio 4 had also broadcast it in its series "Book of the Week" albeit in an abridged form.

I was sorry that the book has come to an end but it's one that just as a true mudlark returns to their favourite spots along the river that I will certainly read again.  Walking beside a river will never be the same again; this book has awakened my inner mudlark and I'm ready to get busy exploring.

4*

Farewell Joan Didion

 

The writer and social commentator, Joan Didion has left us for good on 23 December 2021. It is perhaps fitting that not long before Christmas she goes Slouching Towards Bethlehem, the title of her first work of non-fiction.

The Year of Magical Thinking is an astonishing work - remarkable insights into bereavement.

December Stories by Ian Sansom

I have thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories for December by Ian Sansom. My intention was to read just one story a day for the month; to get me in the mood for Christmas. The stories however are so captivating that I found myself reading on and so finished them after about a week.

They instil a mix of emotions: sympathy, humour, sadness and vulnerability. Despite the quick read some of these vignettes have found their sticking place and the simple everyday situations he writes about resonate with personal memories of feelings, thoughts and actions. So although ostensibly these accounts relate to the end of year festive season they also speak to the human situation and the business of getting on with life. They therefore would be immensely readable in other months of the year.

I have to mention one story in particular, Down By The River for 23 December.  It's one of the longer pieces in the volume and oddly when I started reading it I had recently just watched two films: It's A Wonderful Life  (1946) and The Bishop's Wife (1947) both of which feature angels interacting with troubled humans. In Down By The River, we meet a brilliantly constructed pot-bellied foul-mouthed angel, so unlike the models depicted in the films. I enjoyed that story very much.

Anyway to cut a short story even shorter, the book is finished but there remains the possibility of a re-read of the first volume in similar vein - December Stories 1.

Do yourself a favour and get either, better still both, of these books, then return to them annually in December or any other time of year.

More

December Stories 2 by Ian Sansom

Published by No Alibis Press

November 2021

ISBN. 978-1-838108-13-7

The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir

The Inseparables: The newly discovered novel 

Simone de Beauvoir - Author

Translated by Lauren Elkin

Introduction by Deborah Levy  

Afterword by Sylvie le Bon de Beauvoir  

Publisher Random House UK,Vintage  

Publication 2 September 2021  

ISBN: 978-1784877002 

“ They called us the inseparables” 

Lasting friendships that were formed in early childhood are a fascination for me.  What is it that brings individuals together, keeps them together and makes them inseparable? And for me, as an avid Francophile, add to that the “mystery” of why a novel by French writer Simone de Beauvoir should come to light years after the celebrated author’s death then I’m hooked. 

Format 

I had joined the member community at NetGalley, requested and was sent a pre-publication copy of The Inseparables. Long time aware of, but new to reading de Beauvoir, I was grateful for the introduction by Deborah Levy who rightly pointed out that her foreword contained spoilers. I decided to stay with that however as it helped provide context and has prompted me to read some of de Beauvoir’s other works. Then on to the novel itself, translated from the French by Lauren Elkin, only confirming the intention to read more. The text was accompanied by helpful footnotes explaining this or that term or historical background.  And what about that mystery? The afterword, written by Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, explains how the work was found among de Beauvoir’s papers and came to publication. The afterword includes photographs of the people aliased in the book and some facsimiles of the original handwritten draft.  

So in this small volume we get the story, the literary legacy and social context of the work. That impressed me and I liked it very much. 

Plot 

The book recounts the story of two young women, Sylvie and Andrée, who meet in primary school at a very young age. We learn from the opening dedication For Zaza that the story was inspired by the relationship between the young Simone in whose name Sylvie speaks and Elisabeth ‘Zaza’ Lacoin represented by Andrée.  The two become friends and rail against the prevailing orthodoxies of the time; they discuss God, religion, philosophy and then ultimately face a final reckoning. 

Language 

I was captivated by the language in the book. Yes there were all those discussions but they were essential to a sense of movement in the text; a dramatic tension drawing us to an anticipated but nonetheless abrupt conclusion that still leaves a sense of inseparability. 

Looking back over the text, there are several places where I have highlighted phrases and sections that stopped me short and made me think. I love it when a book does that. For example in describing one of the adults, Sylvie/Simone writes “His silky hair and Christian virtue feminised him and lowered him in my estimation.” That from a central figure in Feminism? And from the socially engaged woman describing their respective freedoms, Sylvie writes that she ‘had often envied Andrée her independence, but suddenly she seemed much less free than I was’.  A sense of foreboding comes in a section where there is a description of a sculpted wooden clock, ‘which held...all the darkness of time’. Foreboding reprised when ‘Andrée placed the violin in its little coffin’ after practising her music during which,’she seemed to be listening prayerfully to the voice of the instrument on her shoulder’.  There are many such examples, skilfully inserted throughout the text.  

 

One for the shelves? 

Definitely! I am delighted to have read the ebook sent by the publisher through NetGalley but this a novel I would also like to have on my bookshelves so I have ordered a physical copy and will certainly reread.  

 

Rating 

4*