Sad News

One of my oldest friends came to visit me yesterday to tell me she has been diagnosed with bowel cancer. Sharon has stood by me through thick and thin over the years and always does kind little things to make me feel better. I hope I can find ways to support her as she begins this journey, she will not be well for a very long time.

Reading has been a bit hit and miss at present. On my VRS I am reading:
 

I keep going to sleep and have to rewind this book so I am a little confused about the plot. It seems to be about several Irish girls attending University and all the mischief they get up to.

On my kindle I am reading:


The Pilgrimage' recounts the spectacular trials of Paolo Coelho and his mysterious mentor, Petrus, as they journey across Spain in search of a miraculous sword.

I had always thought this was a non fiction book and was very surprised to find it is a novel. I am really enjoying its mysterious episodes and the way the pilgrim views his experiences.







I am not sure I could walk this route, I believe it is 500 miles and finding the trail is not always easy. It must become both a soul and spiritual journey which will change a person's life forever. 

Little else has risen to impact on me other than I can see that Chocolat is getting worse and seems to be sinking into both health issues and fear of leaving me. At her age it must be difficult to know she is struggling with her health issues, especially when I put her outside on the long days I spend out or at work.   

Summer Grass

I have done lots of reading this week due to so many poor programmes on TV. I am still trying to finish 'Smell of Summer Grass' by Adam Nicolson. I am finding the descriptions of his farm as nature impacts on him a little difficult and slow. I have read, or at least started to read 'The Sea Room' by Adam Nicolson but never got engaged with the book. Having just searched for it on my bookshelf I am uncertain as to where I have put it. Perhaps I will have another go. Just found it! I need to keep better track of where I put 'real' books. The print is now much too small so I will have to purchase it for my kindle.

I have put a stop on purchasing books but if I find a free one I think I will enjoy I still download it. I have also recently discovered that I can now delete books from my device but they remain in my kindle account. This feature is new as previously one had to delete the book from the Amazon account page and then go back and delete in kindle which meant they were gone forever. 

I need to get reading, and writing, especially the backlog of both books, magazines and cookbooks. I had hoped to take all of today off but have decided to go to the Lehar concert at the University so will take tomorrow afternoon off if at all possible. 

I bought this book free yesterday.
  

 Have you ever wondered what life is like on a modern day First Nations Indian Reserve? Inspired by an extraordinary, true story this book showcases life on a remote First Nations Reserve in Northern Canada. When Hillary is offered a teaching position on a remote, First Nation Reserve called Pleasant Valley, she is unprepared for the amazing adventures ahead. Teaching on the Reserve was only one aspect of the remarkable experience. Although she loved teaching many grade five students in a busy rotation schedule, some features of her new job were terrifying and did not bring out the best in people. Drawing upon her personal journal entries, Hillary recounts stressful situations caused by small aircraft not landing due to low ceiling heights, pilots announcing good news and bad news. Read from the comfort of your favorite chair, what it was like for her to discover an unannounced Native man in her living room feigning an eye injury so that he could use her bathroom and steal all her hairspray! "Teacher!" parachutes you onto a remote, First Nation Reserve that is more akin to a ghetto experience, complete with boil only water warnings, rather than the dream job hoped to obtain after graduating from Teacher’s College. (less)

I love books where caring and intelligent women change their whole lifestyle and are challenged by a situation which is different but makes them look inward at past and future decisions.

I am having a few issues with my computer and managed to hide all my icons. I think I need to leave well alone. I did find them but wish I could put up icons for word and today I lost the email icon.

Jay's citronella collar is working well and he only barks once or not at all. I forgot to put it on Friday afternoon and he did bark but not as badly as previously.

Spring is coming, today is a complete contrast to yesterday which was freezing, cold and damp. The sun is shining and a great day seems to be in the offing. I am going to a Lehar concert later, looks to be very enjoyable.

writing Critique

I recently sent a piece of writing I had done to someone to critique. I had never realised that I had included so many facts in one small short piece and should write on each subject separately. It has been a huge learning curve for me and I need to take her advice seriously.

I have ordered the online version of:


I hope to get some ideas of where I have gone wrong and suggestions to make my work publishable. I have also ordered the online version of:



Now I need to get busy reading them both in the evening and checking out their websites. each website seems to lead me to another one. I am also considering taking out another subscription to:


I hope I can now spend the coming spring and summer honing my writing skills and ensuring my memoir makes it on to the shelves.

I have ordered several new kindle books recently which I am very excited about reading.
One is:

 

Asserting that each life contains the makings of a memoir, Carol LaChapelle gives writers, journal writers, and family historians the tools to explore their memories and turn them into great stories. Condensing 20 years of teaching experience into 167 stimulating exercises, Carol helps readers access and describe the important people, places, and events in their lives. The contributions of real students who have been using these methods in Carol's workshops for years demonstrate just how productive these exercises can be. (less)



This is about life on a remote Alaskan Island, the type of book I have always enjoyed because I think we are all pioneers at heart. I am sure it will be a very interesting book to read.

I also have several as yet unpublished books on order from Amazon. These include:

It’s 1935. Rita Feuerstahl comes to the university in Krakow intent on enjoying her freedom. But life has other things in store—marriage, a love affair, a child, all in the shadows of the oncoming war. When the war arrives, Rita is armed with a secret so enormous that it could cost the Allies everything, even as it gives her the will to live. She must find a way both to keep her secret and to survive amid the chaos of Europe at war. Living by her wits among the Germans as their conquests turn to defeat, she seeks a way to prevent the inevitable doom of Nazism from making her one of its last victims. Can her passion and resolve outlast the most powerful evil that Europe has ever seen?

In an epic saga that spans from Paris in the ’30s and Spain’s Civil War to Moscow, Warsaw, and the heart of Nazi Germany, The Girl from Krakow follows one woman’s battle for survival as entire nations are torn apart, never to be the same.

I am really worried about my old guide dog Chocolat. Her bark has changed recently and I think she may have laryngeal paralysis. She developed nodules in her throat when 14 months old and now has all the symptoms of this disease. I understand little is done for it here in New Zealand so I guess a visit to the vet will have to be booked soon. 

 

Walking

I have started doing some very long walks with my guide dog Jay just on a lead. I use my white cane in unfamiliar places as we learn new routes and add shorter routes to longer ones to make it a great outing. I am not sure who is the fittest but I am sure it is doing us both good.

I have almost finished reading 'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath, I have found it rather interesting given the subject matter but I am sure a similar book written today would be more confronting.

Last night I finished reading 'French Illusions - from Tours to Paris'. I have thoroughly enjoyed both of Linda's books and found them wonderful page turners. I guess my old fashioned morals made it a little difficult for me to understand the bed hopping from one relationship to another, hash and pot smoking and constant struggle for money. I could not travel overseas without plenty of money in reserve to cover emergencies safely in the bank at home. All said these two books of Linda's are an entertaining read.

I am now reading:

The Smell of Summer Grass is based partly on the long out of print 'Perch Hill'. It is the story of the years spent in finding and building a personal Arcadia, sometimes a dream, sometimes a nightmare, by writer Adam Nicolson and his wife, cook and gardener, Sarah Raven.

Adam Nicolson was determined to leave metropolitan life but the rundown farm in the Sussex Weald was not quite what he bargained for. The scenery was breathtaking and the rural neighbours charming but the hard end of real farming life was another matter - mud, cold, planning regulations and unco-operative livestock.

But for the reader the whole enterprise is full of delight thanks to Adam Nicolson's writing: frank, witty and touching, it is a testament to the importance of holding on to your dreams and turning them into reality.

 

Today I purchased a subscription to Writers Digest which will be delivered directly to my kindle app. I had not realised I could buy subscriptions to magazines like this so am now searching for others which may interest me.

Myopic

This myopic bookworm has become even more myopic this year. I seem to be regularly upsizing the font sizes on my computer and most of the websites I visit or use. I have found that instead of trying to carry on with the smaller size due to awkwardness or similar I have to swallow my pride and just explain I cannot see things unless they are clear and larger.

I have almost finished reading 'My Life in Middlemarch' by Rebecca Mead. I cannot tell you much about it as I fell asleep listening every night, perhaps an indictment on the narrator but it does making getting to sleep easier. Much preferring Thomas Hardy to George Eliot I confess I have never read any of his books.

Last night I finished 'Leave Me Alone I'm Reading', another book I flicked through on my kindle as the further through I got the more I became bored with the book. I started reading:
 
Sara is one of my Facebook friends and I am looking forward to reading this book but needed something a little more serious as the evening wore on so chose:



Adventurous international teacher, Amy Bovaird, is diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a hereditary eye disease that will blind her. In spite of that, she manages to continue teaching overseas. Then her father’s final illness brings her back home for good. There, friends and acquaintances begin to notice that she doesn’t always recognize them and sometimes stumbles…as if drunk! Insensitive students ridicule her in the classroom. Unwilling to accept that she is truly losing her eyesight, Amy resists when the Bureau of Blindness schedules a mobility specialist to begin training her to use a white cane. How can she, an independent world traveler, use something that screams ‘I am a blind person’? Will her faith prove strong enough to allow her to move forward and accept herself as she is? 

This is a subject of great importance to me although I do not have Retinitis Pigmentosa. I only read the first few pages on my kindle but it looks to be an interesting book.

This morning I heard the author of this book interviewed on Rural Report on Radio New Zealand. I went straight to Amazon and purchased it but having just looked at it on Goodreads I am a little disappointed to find it is only 35 pages long and cost me $NZ11. I hope there is a mistake somewhere as this does not seem very fair.

 



This is my journey through grief and depression after losing our 17 year old daughter to suicide. I would like anyone else in the same position to know that you are not alone, that we all grieve differently and that it's okay to do things your way.

As I am in the process of trying to write a similar book I feel I need to see what others are writing about the loss of their children to suicide. This is a very difficult subject and there are few up-to-date books on the topic. Perhaps this will encourage me to increase the amount of writing I do each day. 

Raining Again

I should be on the bus going to another lunchtime concert at Waikato University. I will have to see if I can connect with it online as it is raining much too heavily to take big coats, a wet dog and coats and blankets for him. 

I have been reading quite a lot in the evening now, my days are very full and work and writing leave little time for the daytime pleasure of reading.
After finishing Susan Cutsforth's book about their latest visit to their home in France I started reading:

“It’s not that I don’t like people,” writes Maureen Corrigan in her introduction to Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading. “It’s just that there always comes a moment when I’m in the company of others—even my nearest and dearest—when I’d rather be reading a book.” In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life—from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan’s love for a good story shines. (less)

I am enjoying the book but do prefer it when she relates the books she is reading to her own life. I found the constant lists of books frustrating as many of them which looked interesting were not available for kindle. I think authors and English professors should check given this is the dominant way many of us read today.

I belong to a website which emanates out of Australia and is called 'Starts at 60'. Last week they advertised a book which interested me:

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It sounds just the book for me so hope to read it soon. I have also recently pre-ordered a book which arrived yesterday in my kindle:

 

Twenty-one people of different ages have one thing in common; they’re within six months of their deaths. They’ve endured the battle of the medical system as they sought cures for their illnesses, and are now settling in to die. Some reconcile, some don’t. Some are gracious, some not. As Nina Angela McKissock, a highly experienced hospice nurse, goes from home to home and within the residential hospice, she shares her journey of deep joy, humorous events, precious stories, and heartbreaking love.

Free of religiosity, dogma, or fear, From Sun to Sun brings readers into McKissock’s world—and imparts the profound lessons she learns as she guides her beloved patients on their final journey.

While this book is more serious than others I have read lately it looks very good and hopefully I can gain some insight from her thoughts.