Autumn

Autumn

Reading

 The Help - Kathryn Stockett

Brilliant.

Finished 5 April 2012

 The Red Tent - Anita Diamant

This is an incredible read.  Besides all the cliches about the lot of women down through the ages it is just so compelling a read as to cause me to even take it into the bath - not the loo!!  Looking beyond the 'woman as chattel' historical premise this book just beautifully paints the sisterhood of womankind so well in all its nuances.  We can sometimes be our best supports and sometimes our most sinister enemies even in a man's world!

Finished 13 January 2012

 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (yes again!)

What can I say  - although in the middle of Daniel Deronda  (my enjoyment of which has been interrupted by Foxtel airing a mini series of it which I accidentally watched about 10 minutes of before I realised the there was no coincidence the characters bore the same names as those in the book I was reading....phew) I decided to take a break for the reasons cited in the parentheses preceding the words "I decided".  So..... in order to allow sufficient time for me to forget what I saw on the TV only a few days ago I switched to P&P.  

P&P is a staple. It fills in when I feel bloated by a particular genre or book.  It cleanses the palate like ice water swirled between courses.  After the 30th read it is easy, it is refreshing and revitalising.  So, don't judge me. We all have our foibles.


Finished December 18, 2011



 Daniel Deronda - George Eliot

Only just started it but already am loving the rich language and exposition.  We just don't write or talk like this any more.  Our vocabularies have shrunk to a couple of thousand words that lack the nuances available in the language.

Loved the mini-series and came back to finish the book.  Women!  We are so strong, so conniving, so naive, so evil, so nurturing, so greedy, so everything at once.  We are a mystery.  Takes a masterful writer to depict the complexity so well.

Finished 2 January 2011

 The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson by Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez
 
This was a great read. Another free ebook from Amazon.  It is a biography written by Nellie who was the sister of Mrs Stevenson.

In fact it was an amazing story to read.  Louis, as he was known to his family and friends, was a sickly man who met Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne after she left her husband who was unfaithful to her.  She took her 3 children and travelled to France for a rest.  There Louis and Fanny became friends and he ultimately followed her back to America where she divorced her husband.  Three and a half years after they met and after they had travelled a bit to warmer climates for Louise health, they were married in San Fransisco.


Their marriage consisted of constant travel in search of a climate that would alleviate Louis symptoms of the lung disease he suffered from.  Fanny was a remarkable woman and so I will not tell you the whole story because I think it is a story every woman today should read.

Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson is now one of my woman heroes and role models standing next to Mary Wollstonecraft.


If you have time, download and read it.  If you don't have a kindle it doesn't matter - you can download the Kindle app for your PC and then download the book.


It is a rivetting read and affirms that famous expression that I loosely paraphrase as 'behind every great man is a great woman holding him up'.

November 2011


Cybill Disobedience - by Cybill Shepherd with Aimee Lee Bell.

Finished this read in 2 days.  What I loved about this story the most was just how human and fallible she is and the number of mistakes she has made that I too have made in life.

She had 3 children from 2 pregnancies to 2 different fathers and to whom she was married believing it to be 'till death do us part'.  In this we are the same.

What impressed me the most and what I related to the most was her total commitment to those kids.  No matter what happens to our relationships mothers are always left to carry forward.

As I read her story I quite often felt like I was reading parts of my own life.  Only parts, I hasten to re-affirm.  I never had her beauty, or her escapades, but I certainly have worked hard, been misunderstood and raised kids through to marriage breakups.

I have a new found respect for Cybill Shepherd even though she has made mistakes she acknowledges.  I respect her FOR her mistakes and more so for her knowing she erred.

It was a good read - albeit too short in my opinion.

You can download this book for free from Amazon.com to your kindle or kindle app.  I have added Amazon's Kindle for PC app and can now read things on the laptop too.

November 2011

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