What I have been reading March 2021

 

Only two books this month. I am back to working in the office and I don’t seem to have as much time to spend reading as I am up at 5.15am to get to work for 7.00am. That means I am going to bed earlier. When I was working at home, I could get up later and stay up later reading before I went to sleep.

Mrs Miniver

Shortly before the Second World War, a column by 'Mrs Miniver' appeared in
THE TIMES, the first of many recounting the everyday events of a middle-class Chelsea family: Mrs Miniver's thrill at the sight of October chrysanthemums; her sense of doom when the faithful but rackety car is replaced; the escapades of Vin, Toby and Judy, her unpredictable young children; visits to the Kent cottage and, as war becomes a reality, the strange experience of acquiring gas masks and the camaraderie of those unsettling early days.

Mrs Miniver enchanted the public with her sympathy and affectionate humour, capturing ordinary lives and values now darkened by war.  Source Amazon.co.uk

I decided to read this book after hearing it mentioned several times both in Alison May’s blog Brocantehome and in the comments left by her readers.

I have to say this has now become one of my favourite books. I loved everything about it. The way the author has described such simple things like fireworks strikes a chord and you can clearly visualize what is being written. Unlike a lot of books where I feel as though I am only skimming over the words, in this book I read and took in every word. Mrs Miniver also described her reactions and opinions to certain situations and I found that I felt that it described perfectly how I feel and think about similar things that are happening now. I ended up putting lots of page tags on different pages as I did not want to deface the book by highlighting things that really stood out for me.

 

Where the Crawdads Sing

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.

But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world–until the unthinkable happens.

This was the book club choice for the month. I thought the story started out well and I felt sorry for Kya being abandoned and left to fend for herself at such a young age, however as the story continued I felt that the way the character developed was unbelievable in what she accomplished considering her background.

Despite that I was enjoying the story up until the end of the court room drama. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but after that point I felt that the story was rushed to get an ending and some areas needed more explanation especially with regards to Kya’s character which came out at the end.

Unlike Mrs Miniver where I read every word there were areas in this book that I definitely skimmed over. If my copy of the story had been physical rather than digital then I would have put this on the pile to donate to the charity shop.