Tag: 2025 classics

Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust

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Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust (in search of lost time Volume 1)

French fiction

Original title – Du côté de chez Swann

Translation by C.K Scott Moncrieff and Terrance Kilmartin (revised by D .J Enright )

Source – Personal copy

I have joined in the read-along of the Proust that is going along this year. I have done well to get so far, I am not the most organised at readalong which is why I haven’t done one since my rarther Shambolic Don Quixote many years ago which was a bit of a shambles. I have taken a two-pronged act on this book. I have read the modern library book and then listened to the free edition on Audible. This is the third time I have read the book. I will discuss Proust more in the other books, and I have five other posts to cover the man himself. Of course, this book has the most famous moment on the book, the Madeline moment. Of course, their book is about some themes in 5the books such as class, love, memory, a world in change, and family, so many it is hard to convey.

As she was the only member of our family who could be described as a trifle “common,” she would always take care to remark to strangers, when Swann was mentioned, that he could easily, had he so wished, have lived in the Boulevard Haussmann or the Avenue de l’Opéra, and that he was the son of old M. Swann who must have left four or five million francs, but that it was a fad of his. A fad which, moreover, she thought was bound to amuse other people so much that in Paris, when M. Swann called on New Year’s Day bringing her a little packet of marrons glacés, she never failed, if there were strangers in the room, to say to him: “Well, M. Swann, and do you still live next door to the bonded warehouse, so as to be sure of not missing your train when you go to Lyons?” and she would peep out of the corner of her eye, over her glasses, at the other visitors.

Young Marcel remebers the Swann visiting his family

The book shows the young boy Marcel, and when he has the famous cake, he returns to his boyhood years and summers at Combray. The many summers spent there, and of course, this is where we get introduced to Swann, the leading figure late in the book. We see the house where he spent his summer, his Aunt, one of those figures who knows everything, all the gossip and the world around her, and her ever-faithful servant for me, these good characters in Downton Abbey. Parisian families in the country have excellent descriptions of parties and the class system. But who is Mrs Swann? As she never came, the path he used to walk had names. The book then focuses on Swann, a man who is in demand but falls for a woman called Odette. He meets a family he has a metal with and becomes obsessed with not just that but also who she is meeting and what his very gesture means towards Swann. Then, in the later part of the book, we return to our narrator and his love for Swann’s daughter and his hunt for the mysterious Mrs Swann ? is she who we think she is? Now, an older woman with grey hair just stops, but is this woman the same in the middle part of the book?

The reality that I had known no longer existed. It sufficed that Mme Swann did not appear, in the same attire and at the same moment, for the whole avenue to be altered. The places we have known do not belong only to the world of space on which we map them for our own convenience. They were only a thin slice, held between the contiguous impressions that composed our life at that time; the memory of a particular image is but regret for a particular moment; and houses, roads, avenues are as fugitive, alas, as the years.

The last lines of the book I loved

I’m teasing a bit there, and this is just a quick view of the book it is a book you sink into the world of parties, artists, money, love and class. Where falling for one woman can cost a man so much. But this is also an age where their world is changing, but they don’t know it is also a world where you listen to music, look at pictures, read, and talk about all this. For anyone under thirty-five, this world may seem more distant than it did to me. I know there is a book of paintings in the book, which I hope to get at some point, but here is a question is the book about the music in the book that gathers it together. As I mentioned,e I am not a huge classical fan. But if there was a playlist of the music mentioned in the book, that would be great. I love the main narrator, a sickly book that loves his mother. Proust paints himself as this sickly boy in Cambrey awaiting a mother kiss so well. You feel for him when he doesn’t get one. Swann is a fascinating figure who makes everyone he seems to come into contact with talk about him. She also has this obsession with Odette, how she may have spent time with other men, and how she may view him. I no move on to within a budding grove. What did you like about Swann’s way ?

The frolics of the Beasts by Yukio Mishima

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The Frolics of the Beasts by Yukio Mishima

Japanese fiction

Original title – Kemono no Tawamure

Translator Andrew Clare

Source – Personal copy

I’ve struggled with the books by Yukio Mishima over the time I have blogged. In that time I have read two books by him, the first is The Sailor Fell into the Sea, I really didn’t get on with the other, The Sound of the Waves I enjoyed slightly more, I have several books by him and could read another, but this is a shorter book by him, and also I do like the new penguin cover of the book it is pretty eye-catching. But I struggled with the structure of this book, which seemed very disjointed. I want to love it, and I like the cover of this book. But found it just a book I never felt fully connected to I see it was initially a part work when it came out I can see this as each chapter tens to be a little world in itself but also jumps from time to time. both of which in other books I have read I haven;t mind but just for me as a reader didn;t work in this book.

That summer’s day, which had begun with the assignation at the hospital – Yüko carrying her sky-blue parasol – and which had culminated in the incident at nine o’clock in the evening, took place some six months after Koji had first met Yüko. That is to say, it occurred after he had taken a shop delivery around to Ippei’s residence in Shibashirogane, where he first made her acquaintance.

The more frequent their meetings, the more Koji felt driven to despair, right from the start of the days they were scheduled to meet. It was as if a cold torrent was beginning to flow clamor-ously in his innermost heart, and he hated himself more than he had done on any other morning. The request for a date would always come from him, and he would importune her before approval was eventually obtained. Moreover, Yuko would take him along only on shopping excursions, trips out for lunch, or else to a dance if he was lucky, and then she would promptly leave whenever it suited her.

Yuko time with Koji

 

The book takes. Noh play as the books origin. The book follows a trio of characters Yauko a woman that has captured the heart of two men and this is ahwat the book rdeals with is the outfalling of this the two men Koji he had attacked Yuko older husband Ippei  and this lead to him going to prison, So when Koji goes to live with the couple after his release too me just didn’t make sense and how Ippei a violent man that mistreats his wife is as a character. I get the fact the characters in a way have to be this as part of the Noh tradition the extreme nature of the characters. But for me it is a book with lots of violence that jumps around a bit and I just wasn’t grabbed by this book at all

Yüko was wearing a Java calico blouse and yellow slacks and, because of the rocky mountain paths ahead, had on a pair of flat-heeled Moroccan leather walking shoes. Ippei was in a state of disarray. He was attired in a white open-collared shirt and knickerbockers, checkered socks and slip-ons and a large straw hat. At his side he carried a stout stick. Naturally Köji, who wore jeans and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, carried the camera and the basket containing their lunch boxes and tea flasks. At normal walking speed, it ought to have taken them about thirty minutes to the waterfall, but going at Ippei’s pace, Koji estimated it would take at least an hour. In the end, it took some two hours.

Some of the decriptions I d like but that was about it

 

I think it rare I really don’t get on with a book some of this may be my view of the writer himself he was a character that had a very colourful life but was also very right wing and a number of his views are very against my own personal ideas. He wrote on his admiration of Hitler so I do wonder how many of his other books I may be bothered to read. I feel I had to read him as given the current state of the world with Nationaalist politics and right wing values and views seemingly taking over the world. Makes me a Leftist with my views of how we should all help one another and try make our world a little better. I will always struggle like other writers Celine etc , I will try from time to time but II do wonder without some telling me what is so great about his toerh books this will be my last Mishima for a good while. Have you a writer you struggle with due to them as a person and there views in there life ?

The Doctor’s Wife by Sawe=ako Ariyoshi

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The Doctor’s Wife by Sawako Ariyoshi

Japanese Fiction

Original Title: *Hanaoka Seishū no tsuma*

Translators: Wakako Hirinaka and Ann Silver Kostant

Source: Personal copy

 

I move on to the first of two Japanese classics I have read for this year, January in Japan. The first book is based on the true story of a Japanese doctor who was among the pioneers in using anesthetics in 18th century Japan. Sawako Ariyoshi was highly regarded in her time as a writer, and it’s refreshing to read a book by a female author known for addressing social issues that many other writers have avoided.

 

This book offers insight into a complex triangle of relationships: husband to wife, mother to son, and mother to daughter-in-law. We see these dynamics unfold through the life of Rae, the daughter-in-law and wife at the centre of the story. The life of Rae she is the daughter-in-law and wife at the centre of this book. Her view of the Mother in Law who she idolized before she married her son.

Naomichi was saying: “I assure you, Western medicine will be coming to our country very soon. It was predicted by my teacher, Iwanaga Bangen, when I was his student in Osaka. I think he was right. Because I learned Western methods with him, I can talk with confidence about Japan’s medical future, as if I were taking its pulse. In Edo, Dr. Yamawaki Toyo initiated the idea of dissecting the bodies of dead prisoners; the present teacher, Sugita Genpaku, has been pursuing certain Dutch methods which depend on a complete examination of a person’s body before a diagnosis is pronounced; this is different from the Chinese approach which relies heavily on the pulse. Ah! The human body is a creative masterpiece. Just look at our fingertips. What a composition of delicate nerve tissue and fluids! …

His use of herbs is a mix of tradtion and want to use a western technique in a way

As I said, the story follows Kae growing up and how Otsugithe, mother of Seishu, is considered a rare beauty, one of the most beautiful women in the provinces. We see Kae admiring this Ambitious woman. So when her family is approached by Otsugi to let Kae marry her son Seishu, it seems perfect until she then sees the other side of her now mother-in-law, her overbearing nature. She shows how they both help Seishu as he starts to try different herbs, such as a herbal Anthisesis. Some of this is hard to read when he uses Animals. On the other hand, it is interesting to see how far back it was that it was starting to be used or tried as a way to perform simple operations. One Seishu is trying is surgery to remove breast cancer. The two women in his life seem struck being rivals and get jealous of one another when he pays attention to the other one. As we see the young Kae try and take over from her mother-in-law in her husband’s life. But both have given up a lot to be at Seishu’s side as he tries to make a breakthrough.

The normal routine resumed the day atter the wedding.

Okatsu and Koriku did the cooking and laundry under their mother’s supervision while the maid cleaned and cared for the younger children. Shimomura Ryoan performed various duties for the doctor since the women and children were not allowed to so much as touch the drawers containing medical supplies.

Little time, however, was required to prepare the simple meals and straighten up the small house, so that most of the daily tasks were quickly completed. Now, the Hanaokas kept some looms on the veranda and a spinning wheel in a nearby storage area.

When their chores were done, the older girls, skilled at weav-ing, went off and worked at the looms without a break until dinner. Their special weave used dyed threads that Kae surmised must have come from the Matsumotos.

The normal world for a female in these times caught some what here

This book had been on my shelves for too long. I loved the interplay between the three main characters as the two women struggle to find their place and meaning in a male world. Add to that the cutting-edge nature of Seishu research and trying to get a herbal anthesis. The Progress he find will bring to help women with Breast Cancer. But this is at the cost of Animals and, in the end, family members as he tries to make a breakthrough. The moral nature of what he has to do to discover how he can save lives using his discovery.  It also tackles the role of females in Japanese society at the time it is set. Through the two women’s eyes and how they are treated in a male world. Have you read this or any other book based on a partly true story? Or another book by this writer ?

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Nikolai Leskov

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Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Nikolai Leskov

Russian fiction

Original title – Ledi Makbet Mtsenskogo uyezda

Translator – Robert Chandler

Source – Personal copy

One of the aims of this year was to get more familiar with Russian Classics. I read War and Peace early on in the blog, and she and there have read a number of other books that have come from the likes of Pushkin Press when they have brought out a new collection of stories by a writer or a new Translation. However, this writer may not be as well-known as other writers on the same page. He was well-regarded among his fellow Russian writers but was never taken in the English-speaking world. This book is better known for being the basis of Shostakovich’s Opera, which is based around the book, and a few years ago, there was a film made of the novella as well. Leskov had a Harder upbringing than some of his fellow Russian writers. He worked as a clerk in the criminal court. He climbed and eventually was able to get a transfer to Kyiv. He ultimately went to work for a private company and got drawn into journalism and then to literary writing. He is known for his wordplay. There is an excellent LRB podcast about this book with Robert Chandler, the book’s translator.

Katerina Lvovna was not exactly a beauty, but there was something pleasing about her nevertheless. She was only in her twenty-fourth year; she was short but shapely, with a neck that could have been sculpted from marble; she had graceful shoulders and a firm bosom; her nose was straight and fine, her eyes black and lively, and she had a high white forehead and black, almost blue-black hair. Herself from Tuskar in the province of Kursk, she had been given in marriage to a local merchant by the name of Izmailov; she did not, however, love him or feel any attraction towards him – it was simply that he had asked for her hand and she, being poor, could not afford to be choosy. The Izmailov family was of no small importance in our town: they traded in white flour, rented a large mill in the district, and owned profitable orchards on the outskirts of town as well as a fine town house. In short, they were well-to-do. Moreover, they were not a large family: there was only the father-in-law, Boris Timofeyevich Izmailov, a man of nearly eighty who had long been a widower; Katerina Lvovna’s husband, Zinovy Borisovich, who was a little over fifty; and Katerina Lvovna herself. That was all. Although Katerina Lvovna and Zinovy Borisovich had been married for five years, they still had no children.

The children or lack of is mentioned by her father in Law

This book is one of those books that, when you finish it, you go through all that happened in so few Pages. The book follows Katerina Lvovna, a wife of a much older man. By marriage, he is away working after the book’s opening, and we see how her husband’s father, Boris, wants children. He tells her how Zinovy has already been through a wife and is pushing his young wife for a child. But when a dam breaks on one of his properties, Katerina is left home alone. She has the house to herself, and as she is alone, she eventually starts a relationship with the Steward who has Left Sergei. She flirts with him, But she is told he is a womaniser. But when she is caught with Sergei in the bed with him by her father-in-law Boris. This one event sets her on a path of killing people and a series of events that change the whole course of her life and her connection over the years that follow. Sergei it shows a one-sided affair with a man who is more interested in Women than romance. But the knock-on effect on the woman that loves him. A Lady Macbeth indeed.

‘I know very well, master, where I’ve just been, and I advise you, Boris Timofeyevich, to listen to me and mark my words: what’s done can’t be undone, and it’s best not to bring shame on one’s own house. What do you want of me? What satistaction do you require?”

‘I want, you viper, to give you five hundred strokes of the lash, said Boris Timofeyevich.

I’m the culprit, you’re the judge. Tell me where I’m to go – and do as you wish. Drink the blood from my veins.’ Boris Timofeyevich led Sergei down to his stone storeroom and lashed him with a whip until the strength gave out in his arm. Sergei didn’t even let out a groan, though he chewed through half of his shirtsleeve.

When they get caught by Boris

I haven’t seen the opera or film of this book. I will be watching the film at some point. I have found it online. The title shows how rare it is for a woman to kill like Lady Macbeth, and here we see Katerina do it. We see a woman driven by the desire for both desire and freedom. But then the unravelling after what happens when they are caught by Boris, both her decision to kill him and also the long-term relationship between Katerina and Sergei. It shows how females struggle to break free of marriage when trapped in one. How by her father in law she is viewed as a baby-making machine. Then there is her relationship with Sergei, a womaniser, but she never quite sees it. She is blind to him until the end of the book!! I would be interested to see if Robert Chandler has done any more books by him. I like the other translations he has read over the years. Have you read Leskov?

Strait is the Gate by Andre Gide

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Strait at the Gate by Andre Gide

French Fiction

Original title -La Porte Étroite

Translator Dorothy Bussy

Source – Personal Copy

I pondered where to start this year, and I looked. Among those writers, I have the most books from is Andre Gide, but it had been too long since I picked him up and read a book by him . Then I thought I hadn’t seen his books around as much as you would twenty years ago. He seemed the perfect first choice for this year of reading classics and modern classics.  Gide won the Nobel in 1947 and was a hugely influential writer. When he wrote openly gay, he challenged the religious view of the timehe was brought up in. a strict religious background and a lot of his writing is him kicking against this view this book is an example of that.

My whole life was decided by that moment: even to this day I cannot recall it without a pang of anguish. Doubtless I understood very imperfectly the cause of Alissa’s wretchedness, but I felt intensely that that wretchedness was far too strong for her little quivering soul, for her fragile body, shaken with sobs.

I remained standing beside her, while she remained on her knees. I could express nothing of the unfamiliar transport of my breast, but I pressed her head against my heart, and I pressed my lips to her forehead, while my whole soul came flooding through them. Drunken with love, with pity, with an indistinguishable mixture of enthusiasm, of self-sacrifice, of virtue, Iappealed to God with all my strength – I offered myself up to Him, unable to conceive that existence could have any other object than to shelter this child from fear, from evil, from life.

I knelt down at last, my whole being full of prayer. I gathered her to me; vaguely I heard her say:

“Jerome! They didn’t see you, did they? Oh! go away quickly. They mustn’t see you.’

Not long after he arricves this connection happens

What happens when cousins live under the same roof when they are just at that age when we notice the other sex? This is what happens in the book we see Aiissa and Jerome. When Jerome comes to live with Alissa and her family on the northern coast of France. These events mirrored some events in Gides’s life when he was this age and drawn to a family member. They are drawn to each other, but at the same time, Alissa’s mother is having an affair. Add to this, ALissa is being brought up in a strict religious education. It all becomes too much for other young girls, and she seeks to escape from human connection and the world through religion and turns towards being without love. The book follows the years after this and the fact that Alissa’s sister is actually in love with Jerome, but he never notices it until much later. She carries his torch for him. Life takes twists and turns, most told through letters and meetings over time.

Was I alone to feel the spur of emulation? I do not think that Alissa was touched by it, or that she did anything for my sake or for me, though all my efforts were only for her. Everything in her unaffected and artless soul was of the most natural beauty. Her virtue seemed like relaxation, so much there was in it of ease and grace. The gravity of her look was made charming by her childlike smile; I recall that gently and tenderly inquiring look, as she raised her eyes, and can understand how my uncle, in his distress, sought support and counsel and comfort from his elder daughter. In the summer that followed I often saw him talking to her. His grief had greatly aged him; he spoke little at meals, or sometimes displayed a kind of forced gaiety which was more painful than his silence.

He remained smoking in his study until the hour of the evening when Alissa would go to fetch him.

the aftermath of her mothers affair have a knock on effect

What I found odd about this when I read it was that it mirrored Evelyn Waugh’s religious guilt of unrequited love traits in his books. I also thought of those triangles of connections in Brideshead, with love drifting between family members over the years or unseen. I wonder if Waugh had read this book?  It captures those years when you can see a connection with distant family members or classmates just before you hit high school. Those first sowings of love can often run deep or, like here, cause a knock-on effect. He is showing the effect religion can have on people, the leprosy of it all. I can also see how Waugh and Gide are at different ends of the spectrum. Unrequited love and religion can give writers at opposite sides of the divide a lot to write about. I did look to see if they were connected and found Waugh hated Giude. Still, for me, the parallels within a family can be seen, especially the other sister’s love for Jerome echos the scenes in Brideshead where Charles and Julia are drawn close, but then the other sister turns to religion but also seems to have a flame for Charles. This shows how my mind can connect two books together in a way. What do you think? I think I will return to Gide and may have a call with Waugh before the year is out !!

weekend catch up

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I’m sat, and the first week of December has flown By, I visited my dad this time last week, and whilst helping with some garden waste disposal, I think I may have damaged my shoulder as later in the week it killed, we had a busy week both our cars were serviced, and Amanda had a minor repair on her car my old car which she then later drove to her family. I hence haven’t reviewed a book, and I sometimes [prefer these chatty posts for some reason, I ll be back to review a few books tomorrow. I did read a few books this week and watched a couple of interesting other bits. I am, of course, a huge Star Wars fan. Like most men my age, I was drawn in by the Empire strikes back when it came out. So I caught the first two episodes of another series from the Star Wars Universe. I started as a  sort of suburbian planet, and we follow two young friends who stumble on a starship and end up at a hang-out in the middle of nowhere for Pirates.`A sort of Goonies meets breakfast club in space. Then I also caught on Mubi Past Lives, which, when I saw the trailer last year, had caught my eye. A pair of teen sweethearts reunite after one had moved to America aged 12; she was a writer and had settled down, whilst her sweetheart in Korea had never entirely moved on from her it turns out as the spend a couple of days, it is like the opposite of the Before series of films in a way as they talk about there lives and the past and he imagines what if and what if they were destined to meet in every lifetime ?. I loved this. I wish I was better at keeping up my letterbox account, but this is one of my films of the year.

Today’s gem was this: I found a Harvil in the wild is always worth bagging. I also have ordered a few books for next year’s classic project. I picture them below, and some will hopefully make next year’s list of books read. I have chosen a mix of Nyrb and Oxford classics.

A few more to go into the mix for next years year long reading challenge. I have also altered the original idea and moved the year of books from 1939 to now. I’m reviewing books before my birth year, so anything from 1971 will count. I add this as I think this will give me a broader scope of books from my own TBR. But also gave me World War Two, modernist and early post-modernist works, and a whole scope of books. I think it may give me a better year for the classic Booker International Year, where I can make up for not doing the Booker International. I will make my own list of books for a year. I am still looking for a year. I will have it ready for the new year. Any old booker guys are welcome to join in on what, for me, is a fun idea like a lost booker, almost a list of books that may have been on a booker international list. as they all have come out the same year in their own language. I will, or hopefully, read and pick a winner with others. I’m hoping this grabs someone’s attention. Anyway, I’ll be back with a review tomorrow as we have put our decorations up. I intend this type of post to be a new weekly post, either Saturday or Sunday, a way of touching base with bits about books, films, TV and music. and a bit about life in general. This is a post I used to see a lot of years ago, and I loved it; I always better chat about book finds, bits of films and TV I have seen, and it also is something to help me look back. Apart from that, nothing much has happened, Oh, someone bumped my car whilst I was working one night in the High Peaks, so I had a bang to remove at some point, which was annoying. I love my car. It was my aunt, and it was more luxurious than I could have ever afforded in a vehicle. Oh well, I learned to move the car a foot closer. How has your week been?

 

That was the month November 2024

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  1. Hotel Cartagena by Simone Buchholz
  2. Brightly Shining by Igvild Rishøi
  3. Twenty two day or Half a lifetime by Franz Fühmann
  4. The ring is closed by Knut Hamsun
  5. The ways to Paradise by Peter Cornell
  6. The book against Death by Elias Canetti 
  7. The Seed by Tarjei Vesaas     
  8. the sea in the radio Jurgen Becker

I managed 8 books this month, I started at a hold-up and hostages at a hotel min Hamburg that had a connection to events in Latin America many years before. Then a tremendous heartwrenching piece of Christmas writing about a family struggling in Norway. Then an East German wandered Budapest as a way to the last forty years in Germany from Nazism to Communism and what effect it has had on his life whilst discovering Budapest. Then a man comes full circle, trying to not be his father but never escaping the small village he came from no matter how far away he went, the past and the present always connect. Then, two books, one a collection of pieces found after a Swedish academic died he had spent forty years in the library, and this is an espresso shot of his thoughts. Then Elias Canetti spent years trying to fight death, collecting thoughts on death from himself and other writers. Then, one of the best Norweigan writers, Tarjei Vesaas, in a less-known book about a man who kills a girl he is mentally unwell, but the island turns on him. Then we finished off with a piece of experience writing a bare-bones journal from a writer who sadly recently died and was a member of the Gruppe 47 post-war writers.

Book of the month

I LOVED THE FEEL MOPF THIS YOU CAN TEWLLIT HAD BEEN WRESTLED WOITH FOR YEARS I said it had been trimmed and trimmed to this was what a very clever man had left a collection that could easily set you forth on a lifetime of connecting the dots he wrote about even further.In your mind, it is a project that I think a few people may take, going down the rabbit hole, and that is this book of ideas.

Non-book events

We watched one great film, Blitz, by Steve McQueen, which had a young boy in the central role who played the main character. He had a real presence and the ability to speak volumes in silence. Then we watched a series from a few years ago, Cold Call, about a woman and man who tracked down the people who took the money she had just got from selling her house. It was on Channel Five a few years ago, but we missed it the first time around. Music wish, I think I had mentioned the new Cure album last time, which I did eventually get on vinyl, as well as these records this month.

First up is the latest from Father John Misty, a singer I have been into since he was in Fleet Foxes many years ago. He had an early album out as J Tilman and has gone by the name Father John Misty since then. This is good, I didn’t connect with his last album that had the 30s feel to it this went back to the style I used to from him. Then two from my local record shop where they sell two for 30 after a while i got the Bright eyes collection of early demlos I have most of Bright eyes and Conor Oberst who is the singer and band really. Then, Richard Dawson is from Newcastle and evokes the area and this reminds me of the years I spent in  Northumberland, with an epic forty-minute track from him. Then I was looking for something else entirely and saw these two on offer on the Mute website the last two albums from the reformed Crime and the  City solution. The reformed band well Simon Bonney and a new group of Musicians This band should have been as big as Nick Cave, really but they never quite matched them as they tried a similar path in Berlin in the early 80s and both Australian singers .

Next month

I think the two books I showed in yesterdays post will be reviewed and i have another two novellas. I am struggling with the blog , the fact that I feel it now is something to be proud of, and I feel that I move forward. I need a new challenge. I mentioned just reading classics next year, which may still be on the cards, but I feel I need a new challenge to wrestle. I have long talked of trying to work this all into some sort of guide to world lit where a theme could be shown to connect books about war, villages, coming of age, being parents, etc. This has been on the back burner for years as it is an interesting way of grappling people and giving them some exciting books from around the world. I had, for a while yesterday, made the blog private. My mind is always working around the blog, but my time to blog seems less, and so is my reading time. I need to spend less time daydreaming around the blog and just blog. One of the problems with being neuro v=diverse is a constant thinking around the reading and the blog. Yesterday I just was drained and annoyed as i hadn’t a book to review time of year etc. Oh well, that is enough of drifting in my mind. I need to get these new ideas and challenges off the ground and see where I end up. I can be very flighty, but for me, my neurodiversity makes me great at my day job as I am just the same when I working with someone I am always working and looking at their life as a whole and what we can do to help often disappoint we can’t do more as I want everyone to have the best support they can, i always did this when working with people and feel that is what I can pass on to people that love of connection and the difference you as a support worker can make both big and small to someone’s life.