Category: Fiction

My reading has slowed a bit during the last couple of weeks. World events are very distracting at the moment. However our book group is talking about This is Happiness by Niall Williams the first week of April and I have begun it. The writing is lovely. I was going to highlight various quotes to share at the meeting that I love but found I was making pencilled marks on every page so have given it up.

I have put the Togo book, The Village of Waiting by George Packer up just for a week or so. It was my random pick for the Armchair Traveller reference book.. I am enjoying the book quite a bit but it is long. I will continue but will be slow to report on it.

My Womankind magazine arrived and I am enjoying it. It comes out bi-monthly and has the most beautiful photographs and articles.

I have also been working on learning more Photoshop and Lightroom editing techniques via instructors on You Tube. My good photographer friend in Sydney and I chat all the time about photography. There is so much flooding and non stop torrents of rain there now I have to keep an eye on her. All up the east coast of Sydney the flooding has been dire. 13 People have died last count and it is hard seeing their homes and lives washed away. Then there is continued Covid and the horrible stuff going on in Ukraine. When does it end? I try to stay away from the news but it is really in our faces much of the time.

I am continuing to “play” with IOUMA Art postcards.. I received a couple of lovely cards yesterday, one from Postcrossings that came from the Czech Republic and an Art card from Texas . Really lovely to get real mail from random people that is gorgeous and interesting.

I also bought a new book that is gorgeous. Alison, in Cape Town posted information about it on her blog, The Booksmith. (here). It is beautiful in cover and words. Described as “See the British year afresh and experience a new way of connecting with nature- through the prism of Japan’s seventy-two ancient microseasons. The book covers the year in sections of 2 to 5 days and focuses on what is happening in the natural world during those days”. A beautiful short reminder of what is beautiful in our world each morning. It is definitely a book that ‘sparks joy’.

I realise it is more important than ever during these times to spend time being creative (even when you think you’re not good at it), reading books and magazines you love, moving your body even when you don’t feel like it and don’t binge on a lot of junk food as much as you might want. Turn the news off from time to time too.

I have also pulled a couple of photos from the archives that I took on trips in the last five years. I will share two of them from Sri Lanka that I took and posted up on the World Wildlife Photography fb page this week. It is a site that shares wonderful photographs of wildlife/birds, from around the world in their natural settings.

I look forward what anyone who might come across this post is doing to manage their life and mental health at the moment. Please feel free to share.

It’s catch up time again so I’ll get right into it. I just finished a wonderful book by 2021 Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah. The title is After Lives, published by Bloomsbury 2020 in the UK and my copy in 2021.

The blurb on the back reads:

While he was still a little boy Ilyas was stolen from his parents by the German colonial troops. After years away, he returns to his village to find his parents gone, and his sister, Afiya given away.

Another young man returns to the town he once lived in. Hamza was not stolen for the war, but fled into it to escape a life of bondage. In the war he has grown up at the righthand of an officer whose protection has marked him for life. With nothing but the clothes on his back, he seeks only work and security- and the love of the beautiful Afiya.

As fate knots these young people together, as they live and work and fall in love, the shadow of a new war on another continent lengthens and darkens, ready to snatch them up and carry them away.

Located in East Africa in the first half of the 20th century it is a wonderful tale of the interlinked relationship between a few characters that goes from the war with the Germans against the British, right to the end of their lives.

I loved this book and as it went on I could not put it down. It is one of those books where you read the first half and don’t ask questions. It will all become clear once the war is over about half way through (if that.) I will never forget these characters and I cared about them deeply. I also learned quite a bit about the post colonial conflicts of Eastern Africa around Tanzania.

I read this book as part of the Fullers book group I’m in and I look forward to our discussion during the first week of March.

My car book is something completely different. I am listening to 78 year old New York dancer Twyla Tharp read her book Keep It Moving. As I try to exercise with longer walks and two weight sessions at the gym each week I find her a role model I can respect. Everyday she gets up first thing and heads to her studio and dances. It is a pledge she made and as she states not a goal. Goals can be ticked off when finished and then you’re done. Her pledge is an activity she does as part of her entire life and she never waivers from it. I am enjoying her discussion about the benefits, especially of older people ensuring they move regularly and how to put it into your life and not just for a new year’s resolution. She applies her teachings to many creative pursuits and I find her a very inspiring and interesting woman.

My other project (if one wants to name it that) is to get cracking with the TBR books on the shelves. A couple of weeks ago I went through every book I own and made a whole new Library Thing catalog. As I went through each book, one by one, I tossed those read, those found in op shops that sounded a good idea at the time and old gifts I’ll never gravitate to. I filled three large shopping bags and off they went. I whittled down the books listed on Library Thing significantly and now it is completely up to date.

Today, once finished with After Lives, I randomly selected three books (using randomiser app) from Library thing. I have decided I will randomly choose three and from that I will choose the one that appeals to me at the time. If a book of short stories comes up I will read at least three of the stories before I put it back on the shelf. I don’t enjoy reading a complete book of short stories unless they are interlinked. I think three will have me remembering them more.

The three books picked are: Worst Journeys: The Picador Book of Travel. It represents a selection of shorter experiences of things that went wrong while travellin to some well known authors. It happens to everyone who travels a lot sooner or later. It has happened to us. Like the time we were in South America, arrived for our connected flight and they had no record of a ticket because the travel agent changed hands during the booking of the trip and screwed up to be succinct. We had to get another ticket that involved finding a cash machine and being escorted with a guard from the airport. Why not use a credit card, you ask? We had it eaten in Bolivia and it was only through the kindness of our hotel manager in La Paz we could travel ahead to Peru and Mr Penguin’s very good use of Spanish that helped a lot.

Or when my father died and I decided to fly to Michigan from Hobart for his military funeral I did not want to miss. He was a large part of my life. Qantas flights were twice cancelled. I couldn’t get a flight to Michigan from Los Angeles. I had a complete meltdown in the airport after travelling for a very long time and a kindly staff member organised me to get to Chicago and then leave Chicago to Lansing, Michigan. I had my sister pick me up at the airport. After almost three days with no sleep, I slid into the funeral service 45 minutes before it started. I know I will enjoy this book.

The second and third book chosen is a small book, part of a Penguin boxed set. Boxed sets that have sat on the shelves for a long time looking very pretty but unread. Now all of those individual books from the Penguin 70s and Great Ideas boxed sets plus a few others are individually catalogued. So I will probably read both of the books chosen. The English Journeys set has me about to read Voices of Akenfield by Ronald Blythe. I haven’t got a clue what it will be about but that will be fun.

The second one is part of the Penguins Pocket Penguins (70s collection I think) called Dressmaker Child by William Trevor. As someone who absolutely loves watching the Great British Sewing Bee this has major appeal. I grew up attached to my grandmother’s side while she sewed dozens of clothes for my sister and I, my Barbie doll who has a complete wardrobe including lined woolen suits and a satin dress with a fur collar around the cape. She also sewed dance costume for my cousin who was an exotic dancer and all of her costumes had sequins hand sewn through out.

That sums up the past couple of weeks of books. I could add I started the audio of Trent Dalton’s Love Stories but it was a bit too saccharine for me. I loved the concept that he sat in the city centre of Brisbane, Qld and asked people to tell him a love story. It was very random. I enjoyed a few of the stories butter awhile it became a bit too much. I know a lot of people will love them but they didn’t excite me either way. Maybe when Covid is over I will be more receptive to really sweet tales. To be fair, not all of them had happy endings and that didn’t appeal either. 😍😍😍 I am not a saccharine person nor was I raised to think the world was brilliant all of the time. So I moved on.

While taking a good walk last week I went through South Hobart to see the new artwork on the side of a popular cafe. The Hobart rivulet goes from the mountain into the city and it passes through South Hobart. There is a platypus who lives in the rivulet and people post about it and keep an eye on it and any friend or family that appears. A local artist has painted a wonderful mural of him and I finally got to see it.

I also received a lovely card from Holland from a IOUMA member. (International Union of Mail Artists. I made a few collaged postcards. I am by no means an artist but I enjoy cutting up papers and calendars and old magazines and organising them on small postcards. There are some wonderful sticker books out there too for all those bullet journalers and I decorate envelopes too. Very relaxing.

I’ve reached the time now when I should stop chatting to you all and make a move out of this seat. As usual, I hope you are all well and doing something you enjoy and also moving those bodies. Old age is so much easier when your body knows how to move.

Time gets away from me but you’ve heard that one before. I have been reading and listening to books so I’ll catch you up on that.

As I said before, I finished These Precious Days by Ann Patchett so won’t talk about it again.

I am almost finished with the book by Helen Garner, How To End A Story. I enjoyed her second diary more than this one but she does lead a very interesting life. I see her 80th birthday is approaching in November this year. Everyone is getting older.

The highlight of this month was my reading of Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty, a Texas author who sadly died a year or so ago. I have always heard excellent things about this book but have put it off as it is more than 800 pages long, the paper in the pages is thin and the font is very small. Once I got into this book (it didn’t take long) I forgot all about the font being small. I also have new reading glasses and for the first time I can see quite clearly. I have inherited my grandmother and father’s eyes, so this is wonderful. So I jumped in and took off on a horse from Texas to Montana as part of a very large cattle drive. This book won McMurtry the 1985 Pulitzer Prize. I think the last western book I read was The Sister’s Brothers by Patrick DeWitt which I did not care for at all a few years ago. Then I read Shane by Jack Schaefer probably in the early 1970s or even the late 1960s. That book, I believe is in the 1001 Books You Must Read.….and I really enjoyed it.

Good Reads describes it as:

A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize— winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America.

Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember.

I enjoyed this book so much. It had many twists and turns, births and deaths, blizzards, snake attacks, Indians that were wonderful and one who was incredibly evil. When you read this book, you will feel as though dust is settling on your face and you will become saddle sore. It is an epic of the last wild days of the American west and I loved it. It was wonderful to read a book where the author wasn’t afraid to kill off characters to surprise the reader, to set up weather events you could taste and feel. The twists in the plot are throughout the book. I read it one day from about 11 am in the morning 2:30 the following morning. You don’t even have to enjoy westerns to enjoy this book. The first 5 ***** read I’ve had in awhile. I will remember the characters for as long as I live.

I finished the Audible Book, Cuba: Beyond the Beach (Stories of Life in Havana) for my Lonely Planet, Armchair travel book. This was a car book. It is written by Karen Dubinsky. She isn’t actually Cuban but has spent a great deal of time there every year. The reason I chose this book is because I will not buy books for this challenge. I use either the library or Scribd which I joined recently. She is a professor at Queen’s University in Canada and teaches in the department of Global Development Studies and History. What she doesn’t know about Cuba isn’t worth knowing. Politics, history, life style, economy, music, art, sport. The book is quite dry to read but I achieved my aim by finishing it and I achieved the goal I wanted to achieve. Learning something about Cuba. Now I can randomly choose the next country.

Our book group read and discussed the Labyring by Amanda Lohrey. Actually everyone loved it too much. There was no fun polarity of issues to discuss as one member pointed out. We also ended up talking about the labyrinths to be found in Tasmania and a couple of us went out and visited them after reading the book and shared photos of them. It was a fun event.

The book for March is Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah’s, Afterlives. Here is the Good Reads description for those of you who might not be familiar with it. Should be an interesting read but much different from the Labyrinth.

While he was still a little boy, Ilyas was stolen from his parents by the German colonial troops. After years away, fighting in a war against his own people, he returns to his village to find his parents gone, and his sister Afiya given away.

Another young man returns at the same time. Hamza was not stolen for the war, but sold into it; he has grown up at the right hand of an officer whose protection has marked him life. With nothing but the clothes on his back, he seeks only work and security – and the love of the beautiful Afiya.

As fate knots these young people together, as they live and work and fall in love, the shadow of a new war on another continent lengthens and darkens, ready to snatch them up and carry them away…

That sums up the reading part. I haven’t done a lot of photography lately. Though I have been working on a challenge for our club in the Open category. I really like street photography and urban photography. Much of Tasmania photography is a glut of trees and moss. It is beautiful, but I need something different.

Back in 2007 I was visiting my brother and mother in Tennessee. We went to a small town market. It was quite a warm day as we walked around this place. I saw this man and couldn’t help photographing him. It was an old point and shoot camera so it is not as clear as my fancier camera but the picture tells the story so I don’t believe it needs to technically perfect, though I doubt my photo club will agree. Anyway, I think with street photography, it is the story the counts so I’m submitting it anyway. It’s not like I lose a kidney if it fails to place. Here it is:

I doubt very much that this man reads my blog, or anyone from Tennessee actually so I feel safe posting it here. Tennessee is currently banning books through legislation about the Holocaust. I’ll say no more.

I have also joined the International Union of Mail Artists (IOUMA). It is site of many people around the world who share post card art with each other. You send it and you receive it. I’ve been feeling a bit unsettled after living with Covid and other things so long and my doctor wants me to do things to relax more and get away from things that I don’t enjoy. So I’ve dropped one group and picked this up. Along with the activities of Fullers and also deciding to do my own thing with the photo club. There is one member that just harps and harps at me about my photos. So I am now a non responder and will do as I well please. So there!!

Here are a couple of cards I received and sent.

I have one more photo to share and one more piece of bookish news from Tasmania. ABC Broadcasting put up a photo of the southern aurora we had the other night. I don’t go out alone to dark spots to take photos but there are enough others who do.

The piece of news is to share with you a new group that is being started at Fullers Book shop before too long. Here is the clip from their newsletter. “

“Calling all millennials (and the millenial-ish): we’re starting a new reading group, with a focus on contemporary themes and issues, with a special focus on books by LGBTQI+ authors and authors of colour. This should start in the next few months — see below to register your interest.“

Such a wonderful idea.

Well I guess I’ve carried on enough. Tassie may be small but there is a lot going on down here.

It will be the start of another week soon. I’m hoping to see the Agatha Christie film, Death On The Nile, staring 10 November at our State Cinema. Another book related activity. Stay well everyone. The penguin has been safe.