Hi everyone. Remember me?!
Such a long blog hiatus I am having. Not intentional, I assure you. I write posts in my head quite frequently, usually while I’m driving or standing in my greenhouse potting up seedlings, far from a keyboard.
Life is super-extra-stupidly busy for me at present, mostly in a good way, though I am definitely missing having reading-writing time. Not to worry (she says optimistically) – things will eventually settle down.
I’m not reading at anything like my preferred rate at present, but a few books have been niggling away, demanding mention. Which is all they shall get here at present – a bare bones mention, so like-minded readers can perhaps do a bit of follow-up on their own.
At the Top of the Mule Track by Carola Matthews, 1971. In the late 1960s, British teacher and writer Carola Matthews was spending half her year in England with her parents, and half her year in Greece, mostly on a remote island. This book is not a travelogue (as I had assumed it to be when I picked it up a few weeks ago at a used book store in 100 Mile House, B.C.) but rather a personal memoir incorporating philosophy, societal observation and self examination in roughly equal proportions. I enjoyed it immensely. The author’s tone is frequently wry and mostly unemotional, but it works so well in her context, which is looking around at her Greek neighbours, and back on her own life-so-far and in particular at her struggles with completing her previous book, The Mad Pomegranate Tree (“An Image of Modern Greece”), published in 1968 to some acclaim.
Oops! Look at the time! I had hoped to include a few more titles, but that shall have to wait till later. I need to fly out the door shortly, so will leave it at just the one. For now.
Cheers! Hope you are all having a good spring wherever you are.
Leaves & Pages 