embracing chaos

After the orderly book reviews, today I am embracing chaos! This blog is for Diane, who has been cleaning instead of playing with her kids...I'm not immune to this so I am proposing that Diane and I embrace the chaos together, let go of control and enjoy the madness that families bring! My madness is combined with digging holes, mud and gardening....

We are hoping to plant four trees in our garden soon. It's been raining a lot over the last few weeks, so the soil conditions should be perfect, we have a day off today for the festival of Santa Faz so we are digging! I'm expecting that digging will involve two sweaty parents and two muddy children thrpwong rocks around the garden. Am looking forward to getting the trees in, but it's the hard work first, will update later on holes and trees and how it all looks. In the meantime, I have been dancing on the carpet to loud music with my children, in preparation for the chaos ahead...

This is what the garden looks like at the moment...

The yellow ball marks roughly where we are hoping to plant a lemon tree (roughly because my daughter kicked it a few moments before the photo was taken!)

In the foreground is a small bucket next to a very small, young olive. As the olive will take years to grow we are transplanting it to another part of the garden and replacing it with a larger lime tree. In the left of the picture, close to the wall there are the remnants of a small fire, that's where we're putting the almond tree.

The small palm in the foreground will also take years to grow, so we're putting the orange tree here and transplanting the palm to the top of the garden and surrounding it with succulents.....

Ok, need to go now as husband has commenced digging and I am blogging instead of helping...let the chaos begin.

Easter Reading

I originally started the blog with the intentions of reviewing lots of books. This seems to have fallen by the wayside recently but I have decided to address that today with a look at some of the books that I have enjoyed reading over the Easter holidays.

I had a lovely Kindle as a Christmas gift this year although strangely over Easter it has been a bit abandoned, mainly because the books I wanted to read were loaned to me, borrowed from the library or unavailable on Kindle yet, so I went for the traditional books, lovely! I do enjoy the Kindle reading experience, however, and will be returning to it once I decide what I’m going to download next! One of the lovely things about the Kindle is that you can download extracts from the books you are interested in, usually the first 20 or so pages, which you can read and then decide if you want to carry on. The disadvantage of this system for me is that:

·         I now have about 20 book samples downloaded and can’t decide what to read next

·         When I’m on a book search roll, I can, at the tap of the Kindle button, buy 10 or more books, easy and convenient, but not so great for the bank balance!

I also do love a good old paperback or hardback and some books just can’t be replicated adequately on Kindle. One such beloved book is The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris van Allsburg.

This is a wonderful, clever and beautiful book. I don’t think I can do it justice with words because it’s a book that has to be seen to be fully appreciated (hence the Kindle can never do it justice!)

So, other books I have enjoyed over Easter (in order of enjoyment!)include:

The summer without Men by Siri Hustvedt (5 stars)

The Star of Kazan by Eve Ibbotson (5 stars for a children’s book)

So Much for that by Lionel Shriver (4 stars)

When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman (4 stars)

 Grace Williams says it loud by Emma Henderson (4 stars)

If you would like to read more information about any of these books, they are reviewed below or you can find them via the Book Reviews link on the side bar.

So, having finished that little lot, I’m now deciding what to read next, here’s my pile to decide from, I’m almost finished with The Gift by Lewis Hyde, which is a nonfiction book that I’m finding slightly laborious although very interesting. I’ve started to read Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, which is again interesting, but I’m not sure I can entirely enjoy his prose style as I’m trying to relax before bed!

The Woman’s World book is conceptually fun and funny, being composed entirely from words cut out of women’s magazines, again, the concept is interesting but it hasn’t gripped me yet.

The bottom two books on the pile are a fantasy novel The Last Four things by Paul Hoffman. I quite enjoyed his first book The Left Hand of God, although it meshed and amalgamated a lot of fantasy elements rather disturbingly, I am happy to go back and see what he’s going to do with this next one and then Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, no idea what to expect from this one only that it was recommended as a favourite read by someone on The Guardian website and I thought I’d give it a go!

Finally, on top of the pile is the Kindle, with its many samples and an indecisive reader!

Right, signing off now and going to read, not sure what, but that’s the intention...any recommendations warmly welcomed, as you can probably tell, my tastes are pretty eclectic.

Emma Henderson’s Grace Williams says it loud

This is a disturbing and uncomfortable read and I think that Henderson meant it to be so. The discomfort and lack of love and affection we feel in the book reflects the life of the narrator, Grace Williams. The portrayal of institutionalised life is grim and gritty with only companionship, love and sex as small consolations for a life full of insults and hardships.

The visual aspect of the book are beautiful, with many evocative descriptions of the small treasures that Grace does manage to find in her life, from the smell of apples to the dodgem cars.

Many parts of the book are poetic, with a musical description of a cello being played and journeys that conjure the cigarette smoke imbued in them. Despite this, the discomfiting parts of the book are the major factor, with uncomfortable tongues, dribbling, bed wetting and teeth pulling all memorable aspects that some readers may find horrifying.

It’s not an enjoyable read because of this, but it is an effective and thought provoking read and Emma Henderson is another writer worth watching.

Sarah Winman’s When God was a Rabbit

I enjoyed this book although I did find the episodic narrative a bit disconcerting at times. The events cover many life events that will be familiar to anyone who grew up in the 80s and 90s and, therefore, lend a nostalgic feel to much of the novel. It struck me as being a book about loss and love, about family and friendship. The characters are interesting although some are more beautifully portrayed than others. I felt that the brother was an important character for the protagonist but I didn’t ever really know much about him, so that when he was lost in the book, I didn’t really care as much as I felt I should have.

The rabbit is interesting but a little incoherent, almost as if Winman hadn’t quite decided how much magic she wanted in the novel. I would recommend this book  and I will also look out for Winman’s next book as she has a wonderful writing style and although this book didn’t quite work in its entirety for me, I can see the parts as having great promise for her future writing.

Siri Hustvedt’s The Summer without Men

Loved this book, loved everything about it.

Hustvedt has created a little gem of a book that I am sure I will return to at some stage in the future to read again. As the title suggests it is a book mainly populated by women, with the protagonist living temporarily back in her hometown after her husband has requested a ‘marital break’. The prose is unflinching in its consideration of the heartbreak caused to a woman on the betrayal of her love and trust by her husband. However, as with all great love stories it builds a realistic portrayal of the woman’s own strengths as she copes with her loss and rises once again into her own skin, rebuilding her faith in herself and in the strengths of women around her. The honesty of the book is wonderful, with beautiful descriptions of the anger of age, the difficulties of married life and the insidious manipulation of teenage girls by teenage girls. It’s a celebration of womanhood in the best possible sense because it looks unflinchingly at our faults, our assets and our idiosyncrasies and leaves us smiling.

The book has several mentions of book clubs, which are well placed because the book would serve as a great catalyst for discussion in any book club. Read this book!

Eva Ibbotson’s The Star of Kazan

This is a rollicking good read for any teenage reader or any adults interested in teen fiction. Ibbotson is a wonderful story teller and I have enjoyed every one of her novels that I have read so far. She’s eclectic in her writing and this story is a great mystery, telling the tale of Annika, an orphan found abandoned and adopted by a pair of servants. The book details Annika’s adventures with her young friends and the multiple guardians that seem to adopt her as the novel progresses. Many adult readers will guess the twists in the tale long before Annika, but this is an exciting read nonetheless. Ibbotson’s strengths are in her beautifully evocative portrayals of characters and places, they really draw pictures to dwell in the reader’s imagination.

Lionel Shriver’s “So Much for That”

In this book Shriver examines the horrors of the American Health service, its myriad costs and corruptions. Anyone with a grudge to bear against the NHS should read this book as it will give you a new found appreciation of the tremendous benefits of the British system.

The characters are well drawn although I did get a bit angry with Shep for being such a softie for the majority of the book. His wife, Glynis, was a much tougher cookie although with her own failings too, but a well visualised character.

The character relationships were interesting and generally well portrayed. The presentation of cancer is unflinching and the reality of dealing with such a harrowing illness is dealt with honestly, with the friendships eventually tailing away leaving stalwart neighbours and help from the most unexpected quarters. Shep copes through it all.

This is a well paced novel with Shriver exploring the trials and tribulations of life with wit and a perceptive outlook.

Warning Plot Spoilers

I did find the whole ‘Happy ending’ of Shep finally fulfilling his dream a tad contrived and felt that this ending, although fitting with what we wanted for his lovely character, did not really lend itself to the condemnation of the American system that is such an important aspect of the book.