The past 10 days- Part 1

Staying calm…

I’m sitting here with a cup of black tea with a single swipe of sugar in it. Just relaxing a bit with Les Préludes by Franz Liszt playing. I pulled out the book of 1001 Books of Classical Music you should listen to before you die. There are 949 pages in this book so no shortage of wondering what to listen to. I used a random generator and it sent me to page 344. There was a Bartok and a Liszt so I chose the Liszt first. I will do the Bartok though as I like a lot of his music.

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Grizzy’s Christmas photo.

It has been a stressful week as we had one of our cats, Grizzy, in the vet hospital all week.  He is ten years old now and has always been over weight. It is hard to get him to move. He is such a lazy boy. He is like a walrus. He lies around watching the activity of the household but doesn’t get involved in much. He started weeing a lot and drinking big amounts of water. He has also lost weight. I know you have figured it out.

After a week of tests he is now diagnosed as diabetic. There is a new medication in Australia that is given orally. No daily needles. However we had to find out if he could tolerate it. If not it will be one or two injections per day. The good news is he is okay with it so far but is under a very watchful eye of my good friend and veterinarian. The bad news is we need to test his wee every morning and he has to have his medication every day at the same time. As we have three cats, he can’t share a litter box either so at 10 pm he goes to bed in a separate room with his own litter. I found it a bit stressful but now having completed day one, I am finding it isn’t that difficult. We’ll see how he goes. (Thank goodness he has pet insurance.)

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I love this cover.

Now onto some books. I have opened four books lately. The first one I really enjoyed was The Evenings by Gerard Reve. Amazon describes it as:

Edgy, mesmerising, darkly ironical: this one-of-a kind novel tells the story of ten evenings in the life of Frits van Egters – a disllusioned young man, walking the streets of post-war Amsterdam. The young protagonist’s aimlessness and ennui belie the extraordinary wit and beauty of this powerful piece of outsider fiction, which has been voted one of the greatest novels of all time by Dutch readers.

It was published in 1947. Translated by Sam Garrett.

I loved this book. Fritz hangs out with a couple of his friends and the conversations he has with them and those also of his parents are very funny. Though this is not a whimsical book by any means. The conversations are full of black humour and also are often quite crude. There were many times I laughed out loud. There is not a lot of action either. Time is spent going to the movies and in conversation. I could read it again as I’m sure I missed a bit of it. If I were to rate this book I’d give it five stars but I don’t rate books. Lol. I would love to know how the rest of his life turned out.

This is a big YES..

Next-

Another book I got half way through was: Floating Home:  Lessons from a life less ordinary byAdam Lind

It is the story of a man who decides to live on a canal boat in the UK. I wanted to hear stories about life on a river boat. However he went so far into himself, naval gazing about feelings and emotions I just turned the whole thing off after I got about half way through. I kept thinking it would pick up but it didn’t. I can’t recommend this to anyone unless you want to know about the author and how he feels about everything. 

This is a NO

Next-

The next book I am reading on my Kindle Scribe and taking lots of notes is for our February Fullers Book group meeting. The book is Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner. This book was short listed for the Booker Prize.

Described as: 

Sadie Smith – a 34-year-old American undercover agent of ruthless tactics and bold opinions – is sent by her mysterious but powerful employers to a remote corner of France.

Her mission: to infiltrate a commune of radical activists influenced by the beliefs of an enigmatic elder, Bruno Lacombe. But just as she is certain she’s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Sadie becomes caught in the crossfire between the past and the future…

This book is starting out to be quite interesting and I am highlighting quite a few passages. It should be an interesting book group discussion.

I can’t say yet.

And finally another light hearted book I’m listening to is one by David Sedaris I am listening to. It is called The Best of Me released in 2020. A collection of anecdotes both recorded live and not by him. The voices he does when talking about his family are extremely funny.

Some of the stories I’ve heard before in his other books but he just makes me laugh out loud and I have needed that this week.

I must warn you though there is a great deal of foul language. Definitely for the over 16 people. 

This is a MAYBE. If crude doesn’t bother you then go ahead, otherwise keep riding your horse outta town.

Well I really must stop here as this has become quite long. I’ll do a part 2 soon as there was a lovely photography day this past week with a good friend and I’d like to share the wonderful photographs we got. Stay tuned, I’ll be back before too long.

Penguin wants to know: the name of the last book you touched.