Barefoot Wanderings

Some Reading

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Last night I finished reading this book. It was such a beautifully written book, telling a very moving story. In a backdrop of ugliness and sorrow there is love, strength, hope and goodness. It shows that when there is nothing, how much there is to give. It is a story about the power of words, told with such beautiful words. Even though this book is 584 pages long I read it slowly, over time as I wanted to spend as much time within this story, with these characters, as I could. A book I would highly recommend.

In between reading this book and Brida there have been others, I seem to be on a bit of a reading frenzy!

Any book I finish I will always say is a good book because any that aren't I don't finish. Obviously some are better than others.

Addition by Toni Jordan is a wonderfully witty and well written book. There is one part in this book that seemed 'sluggish' but then I realised that it was just as the character was...amazing! I absolutely LOVED this book. It is a light and easy read but a book that has substance. Another I would highly recommend.

Breath is another fabulous story by Tim Winton. I found this a good story and easy to read. I really like the way he writes. His books are all different yet similar, I could understand someone either loving all his work or liking one and not another.

Tuvalu by Andrew O'Connor was an interesting read. I did enjoy reading this book but every time I think about it I want to add a 'but' at the end, my problem is is that I can't define what the but is. Perhaps it is just that I didn't connect with it like I have with other books.

The Pilgrimage and The Valkyries by Paulo Coelho - are nothing like The Alchemist but I did enjoy reading them. I know there are people who would like to debate as to whether or not the events actually took place or could in fact ever be real but I don't get caught up in that. I think they are great stories, and can fit into what ever you believe in as long as you remain open. I liked reading these one after the other.

And on the Seventh Day by Paulo Coelho contains By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, Veronika Decides to Die and The Devil and Miss Prim. Each story happens over one week, which is what the Author believes is all you need to change your life. I would have to say that The River Piedra.. has been my least favourite Coelho book but I did finish it! I did really enjoy the other two though.

Brida

by Paulo Coelho

I loved this book!
It was really easy to read, very flowing. It was another book I read in one afternoon and evening. That day was Sunday and my thoughts are still tumbling in my head.......to me that makes this a brilliant book.

This is a story about a young woman with the opening line..." 'I want to learn about magic' said the girl". The story has a Wicca, a Magus and talks about their Rituals. For some people I think that this would put them off reading this book, I remained open to this story and feel I was rewarded. To me it was deeper than that..... it was about spirituality, faith, the acceptance of things, the journey of ones life and making the most of the gift that has been given to us. Even people who don't believe in God, still have faith......

" 'I learned about the Dark Night', she said to the now silent forest. 'I learned that the search for God is a Dark Night, that Faith is a Dark Night. And that's hardly a surprise really, because for us each day is a dark night. None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, and yet we go forwards. Because we trust. Because we have faith.' "

I found so many things in this book interesting and great food for thought. It gave me a different side of the story to witches, their faith in God, references to the Virgin Mary and Jesus, the goodness, a reason why we look for our Soul Mate.

I will admit that I was hesitant to read another of Paulo Coelho's books after reading The Alchemist, how could anything else compare. After reading this book I can not wait to read more....hmmm where do I start!

The Arrival... and Hugo

Late last year I was in a book shop telling a friend about an AMAZING book: The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

It is a story told in pictures, no words. These drawings are magnificant works of art, and the story is moving. Each time I look at my copy I see something new. It is a visual delight!

Click Here for a link to his website. This will take you straight to this book for a sample of some of the pages. If you have time check out the rest of his amazing work.

Anyway, whilst I was telling my friend about this book, the bookstore owner helped locate a copy for her to look at...and then told me about another book I may be interested in.... like an illustrated story but so much more....

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brain Selznik.
Wow! When he handed me this book and I looked through it and I knew I had to give it a good home.

This book is over 500 pages with nearly 200 illustrations...BUT these illustrations, again sketches, are not there to accompany what the words have said, they actually form part of the story. So as you turn the page each picture helps the story to unfold. Another truely amazing visual delight!

It is a really easy, pleasant read, with a wonderful story. I actually read it in one sitting and then decide to read it to my children (4 and 6) as a bed time story for the week....they loved it!

Click here to go to a FAB website I have just discovered and am still exploring.

 

Some More Reading

The Secret Lives of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The past week I have been fighting off a cold and ended up spending most of this weekend in bed. At times curled up with this wonderful book. This has got to be the most beautiful and moving story I have read in a while. It made me laugh and it made me cry. It is a story of a young girls journey to find what is lost to her, in finding herself and a place where she belongs. It is set in South Carolina in a time of racial tension, and it also has references to Bees and Bee Keeping giving weight to what is happening in the story.

It is well written and easy to read. It is the type of book where I wanted to read on to find out more and at the same time wanting to take my time reading it because I did not want it to end too soon. I stopped myself reading to allow the story and the meaning to sink in and settle over me, and to give me time to think about what I had read.
Perhaps I was touched by this book more so because I was unwell, and though it contained themes and topics that were not of the happy variety, it was comforting, and full of strength, hope and love.

The most moving part is towards the end when the girl is told in a really beautiful way that what she is looking for is within herself, that the strength needed in life is within us.

A great read.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
A few weeks ago I read this book and I really enjoyed it. I found it a fitting end to the Harry Potter series. To me it seemed to go back to what the first few books were like, not so dark. It was a real easy read and it tied everything up without being 'sickly'. I still have a few questions but the most intriguing one to me is how did Neville get the sword?...perhaps I missed something?!

Overall I have enjoyed reading all the books in this series. I found 'The Goblet of Fire' the most difficult to get through. I would probably like to read them all again but I'm not sure if in reality I will as there are just so many great books out there. I certainly look forward to my children reading them and hope they get as much enjoyment out of them as I did. I believe there are great messages in these books about 'Good & Evil' but also about life.

Holiday Reading

Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda

When deciding what books to take away to read (as I have a pile) I read the first line or paragraph of a few but this was the one I kept going back to and then could not put down.

This book has been translated into English from French. There are a few instances when this is a little obvious but it does not detract from the book.
It is the story of how three quite different characters come together. It is easy to read and flows really well.
The author reveals glimpses, gives snatches of information that make you want to keep reading to find our more.

I liked the pace of the story but thought that it was wrapped up quickly and too nicely.

It was a really enjoyable light read.

Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

I had read a few recommendations for this books and so was leant this book by Megan to read.

I really loved from whose perspective this book was written from. I had never read a book written from the view of a dead person looking down on the happenings on earth before.

Whilst this book is about a young girl who is murdered, which it is not really about the murder but how it effects the family and those nearby, it is still quite a light and enjoyable read.

In most  books I read there is usually one (sometimes more) quite significant line/passage that really strikes me.  Both of these books had no such significant, stand out bit but were enjoyable to read.

The Friday Night Knitting Club

by Kate Jacobs.
I finished this book a few weeks ago and found it to be a light and entertaining read.
The tag line, 'It's fun to stitch and bitch', didn't really grab me and almost made me not want to read the book but after I finished the book I found it didn't relate to the story and was a little puzzled as to why it was there.
It' s about how a group of women, most of them strangers, who come together for knitting but end up helping each other out in life. There were a lot of issues that were brought up in this book (like relationships, being unfaithful, single parenting, finding yourself, and so many more) but none of them were really delved into in great detail.

The Red Thread

The other day I was early for an appointment and went into a book shop for a browse. I came across this great little book "The Red Thread - A LOVE STORY" Written by Leslie Walters and Designed by Paul Dashwood. It is a wonderful story told as a poem. It was really quick and easy to read, and very touching. The book is also a visual delight. The following is from the first couple of pages....

   "As single threads we join this world,
    As single threads we leave,
    In between we're stitched together
    By the lives that we each weave
    I found myself once woven,
    By a lost but loving heart,
    Into a bright red jacket
    Made of love once torn apart.
    But love's the strongest thread of all,
    It never really breaks,
    In parting it gets stronger,
    And greater love it makes.
    The story that I tell here
    (As you'll gather once you've read),
    Is that when we weave with love
    We need no other thread."

What attracted me to this book at first was the title. I had read a book quite a few years back titled "The Red Thread" by Nicholas Jose which I really enjoyed. It's a love story set in Shaghai. The character's lives mirror those in an old Chinese tale, Six Chapters of a Floating Life. In the book whenever the charcters read/refer to the tale the writing is in red - such a great novelty...I am a really visual person! I can't actually remember much detail about the book and so am very tempted to read it again.

Book Club

Mona Vale Beach, Sydney

I have sometimes wondered whether I should join a Book Club as I LOVE to talk about a book after I have finished reading it, but the feedback I have received from some that have gone does not encourage me to join one. So, for now, these posts will be my book club....

Last night I finished reading another great book (this one actually took me a week to read as life is getting hectic). My friend Megan & I have discovered that we currently have similar taste in the books we are reading. When she read my post Some Good Books she informed me that she was currently reading the Thirteenth Tale! Anyway, she leant me Salvation Creek: An Unexpected Life by Susan Duncan. This book was hard to put down, not becasue it was so gripping you just had to find out what was next. Reading it was more like you were in a conversation with the author, there on the deck, glass in hand, light and casual, listening, content to be apart of it and not wanting to go home. I did laugh, and I did blink away a bit of moisture from my eyes. There were a couple of things that really stayed with me.

1/ One of the characters is washing a lettuce and doing one leaf at a time quite tenderly. The character had learned "..that if you do a job, do it as though it is the most important job in the world....The satisfaction is immense. And there is no boredom because you are thinking about the task, and giving it your best." The other character asks "If you demean your work, you demean yourself?" and she responds "Like that. But broader."

2/ You know at the start that the main character (the author) looses her husband and brother within three days of each other, and that later she has her own battle for survival. Being faced with other people's death does not have the same impact as nearly having to face your own. Realising that we are not immortal. It has been one of those times that the same theme is presenting itself to me over again as there have been other things that I have been told or read recently that come back to this same theme. What I want to know is that without having to face death and battle for survival, how can I achieve living in each moment, not worrying about the future or past, to embrace the fact that life is a gift and that each day and each moment should be lived and not to worry. To breathe. To cherish what's important and make the most with what I've got. These are things I know but it is easy to let these thoughts slip as my life goes on........

Prior to the above book I read Conviction by Richard North Patterson. I enjoyed the read but realise that I am moving away from those types of storylines (crime/lawyers/politics). I have read all his other previous books, and what I really like about his books, is that the main character may feature in more than one book, or a minor character in one book becomes the main character in another. Weaving in and out, filling in more about the characters life or what happens after you finish a previous book! I have his latest book, Exile, beside my bed waiting to start but I'm not sure when I will as there are others I think I'll read first.

Heart

I have just read another book in one weekend, stealing a chance to read whenever I could, I simply could not put it down. So much for getting much Art done!! Anyway, the book was My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I can't remember the last time I read a book and had to grab some tissues, and a few times at that! It's a great read. There's one part where one of the characters is in a bar talking to the bartender about relationships. The bartender tells of a fantastic relationship he had and says it was 98% perfect but something was missing. He said if you compared it to a living entity, if the missing 2% was like a fingernail then that would be OK but when it's the heart, well that's different. How true is that, for all things though. For example, if we see great things we acknowledge that fact but when we see great things AND they touch our heart doesn't it make the experience even more amazing.

Some Good Books

But first....

Here is a card I made for my fathers' birthday last year. It's an altered photo of him with my two angels.
I love altering photos and was first introduced to this technique in a magazine article by Karen Michel. The magazine was Cloth Paper Scissors, either the first or second issue, and it's one of my favourite magazines.

Now, on to those great books....About a month before Christmas I read The Turning by Tim Winton. It's a collection of short stories that overlap each other. When I finished I was left wanting more, more about the characters and what happened next. How brilliant a writer is he. I then had to read another of his books and so I picked up Dirt Music. I simply could not put it down and read that in one weekend, which is no easy task with small children. It was a fabulous story all the way through. I was then lucky to get about half a dozen books for Christmas and as we were staying at my parents place for two weeks I was also given the time to read some of them. The first one I got to read was A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. My husband has cousins in England that quite a few years back (when Hornby had only two books published Fever Pitch and High Fidelity) said that it seemed as though Nick Hornby knew them and were writing about their lives, they were even living in the same suburb in London as him!! I certainly hope that the similarities have ended as this book is about a group of people that unintentionally meet at the top of a building, all with the intention of jumping. It does make an interesting read and whilst I didn't like it as much as About A Boy or How to Be Good I still thought it was fab. Next was The Riders by Tim Winton. The first part actually made me laugh out loud a few times, but I think knowing down-to-earth aussies and crazy Irish folks certainly helped. The second part of the story was quite different and at times I didn't want to read any more because of the anguish but I couldn't stop! In the end you're not given 'answers' to everything but to me that just made it seem so real, and another GREAT read. The last book I got to read was The Thirteenth Tale by Dianne Setterfield, again another book I couldn't put down and was snatching pages whenever I could. I just LOVED getting lost in all these stories and was grateful to be given the time to do it.