Books I am liking
There are a few things in my life that I am not liking at the moment, but I am too shy to talk about them. So instead, here is a couple of books that I am liking:
His Dark Materials - Folio Society Edition
It arrived just the other day. Three gorgeously bound volumes in one lovely boxed set. Heaven! I've started the Dagger, which I have never read before. It it beautiful.
And it was half price because I was (re)joining. If anyone wants to join, give me a yell - they have a 'recommend a friend' system going. It can be an expensive hobby, but I love the books that I have bought from them.
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This is a beautifully written book about a tragic, terrible war. It covers the 1960s, when Nigeria gained independence from Britain and then tore itself apart, creating and destroying Biafra in the process.
When I was growing up, the starving children in Biafra were the reason that I had to eat all my veges. Because they had nothing, I had to eat everything, or reasoning to that effect. Now I know what it was all about (only fifty years later).
The characters are wonderful, the writing is lyrical. It is a wonderful book.
Shattered Anzacs - Marina Larsson
Marina Larsson also writes beautifully, but what she writes about is much closer to home for me. 'Shattered Anzacs: Living with the scars of war' talks about all the people who came home wounded from World War I. Mostly, it talks about the effect that it had on their families - their wives, their parents and their kids.
I've just finished the chapter on Families and Mental Hospitals. My Dad came home shattered from World War II. He ended up an alcoholic and died in Lakeside asylum, Ballarat when I was a teenager. This helped me to understand a lot more about what was going on in my childhood. It doesn't make it any easier, but it does help me understand.
The next chapter is about Tuberculosis: The 'family disease'. Not an easy read. An amazingly good read, but not an easy read.
And for mousebane, who wanted to know what people use as bookmarks:
His Dark Materials - Folio Society Edition
It arrived just the other day. Three gorgeously bound volumes in one lovely boxed set. Heaven! I've started the Dagger, which I have never read before. It it beautiful.
And it was half price because I was (re)joining. If anyone wants to join, give me a yell - they have a 'recommend a friend' system going. It can be an expensive hobby, but I love the books that I have bought from them.
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This is a beautifully written book about a tragic, terrible war. It covers the 1960s, when Nigeria gained independence from Britain and then tore itself apart, creating and destroying Biafra in the process.
When I was growing up, the starving children in Biafra were the reason that I had to eat all my veges. Because they had nothing, I had to eat everything, or reasoning to that effect. Now I know what it was all about (only fifty years later).
The characters are wonderful, the writing is lyrical. It is a wonderful book.
Shattered Anzacs - Marina Larsson
Marina Larsson also writes beautifully, but what she writes about is much closer to home for me. 'Shattered Anzacs: Living with the scars of war' talks about all the people who came home wounded from World War I. Mostly, it talks about the effect that it had on their families - their wives, their parents and their kids.
I've just finished the chapter on Families and Mental Hospitals. My Dad came home shattered from World War II. He ended up an alcoholic and died in Lakeside asylum, Ballarat when I was a teenager. This helped me to understand a lot more about what was going on in my childhood. It doesn't make it any easier, but it does help me understand.
The next chapter is about Tuberculosis: The 'family disease'. Not an easy read. An amazingly good read, but not an easy read.
And for mousebane, who wanted to know what people use as bookmarks:
- Shattered Anzacs - A beautiful Dressed to Rule bookmark from the NGV.
- Half of a Yellow Sun - Bookmark removed, but probably a receipt or a travel card.
- The Subtle Knife - A little piece of cardboard that had a couple of earrings attached to it.