Lobster fishing season opens Tuesday!

Last week the boats in Toney River, Nova Scotia were lined up ready to take on their traps (seen piled on the wharf in the background).

The meme Snapshot Saturday is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.

The Saturday Snapshot meme is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.

I took this on Wednesday in beautiful Malagash Nova Scotia. The water of the Northumberland Strait (part of that same North Atlantic that sunk the Titanic) really was that blue.

Could you tell that it was was only 5C / 40F?

Warmer weather has finally come to Nova Scotia and, although it may not stay, I know it will soon be time to be getting out in the garden. With that in mind, I’ve been reading a lot of gardening-related “short stories”. Okay – they’re really essays, but I’m stretching this to give you some variety in Dead Book Darling’s Short Story Challenge.

Introducing the piece The $64 Tomato, The Gardener’s Bedside Reader says:
“Vegetables harvested from the garden have a freshness and fullness of flavor well above and beyond anything one can buy in a supermarket. But how does a homegrown tomato, for example, compare in price to one purchased at the local Piggly Wiggly? In this excerpt from the book The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden (…) William Alexander does the math, with surprising results.”

The results aren’t actually that surprising, given the title of both the essay and the book, but you get the picture. This was an entertaining excerpt of what promises to be an entertaining and down-to-“earth” book. (Sorry – the fresh air’s gone to my head.)

Kimbofo over at the great blog Reading Matters, runs a weekly series called Triple Choice Tuesdays, wherein she asks “some of (her) favourite bloggers, writers and readers to share the names of three books that mean a lot to them. The idea is that it might raise the profile of certain books and introduce you to new titles, new authors and new bloggers.”

I love this series and I’m honoured to be featured today on Kim’s blog. Go on over and have a look at my favourites.

What do you think of them? How would you have answered?

P.S. Today I’m using the ‘ou’ spellings I was taught in school as a ‘tip of the hat’ to Kim who is an ex-pat Australian living in London, UK. Enjoy – tomorrow I’ll get back to American spellings.

Subtitled Tuck into a slice of Andalucían Life, Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools is a personal memoir written by (former) UK resident Victoria Twead.

Tired of the dreary British climate as she and her husband Joe neared retirement, they decided to sell in Britain and move to sunny Spain. The book begins with (Victoria’s) discontent with England, the process of their decision to make the move, and their search for the ideal piece of Spanish real estate (“The House”). Finding a reliable real estate agent was aided greatly by their serendipitous meeting with another ex-pat who had lived in Spain for some time.

The Tweads found a run-down terrace house with rudimentary bathroom facilities and less-than-that kitchen amenities, in a small village tucked into the mountains. They set about making (extensive) renovations and moving their worldly possessions. They made friends with their neighbours and became acquainted with the villagers and village life, all the while receiving what seems a steady stream of visitors from England.

With a fresh perspective and laugh-out-loud humour, Victoria shares all of this with us. I tremendously enjoyed reading Chickens & Mules because

• Victoria’s voice is down-to-earth. She finds the humour in village life and is not afraid to laugh at herself too. There are also no judgements as to superiorities of one culture over another. I believe this is a key reason the Tweads were successful and happy in their move.

• It was well-written and edited. There are no bumpy repetitions, badly constructed sentences, or annoying typos.

• There are photos! On my Kindle, they are in black and white. On a Kindle Fire, Nook Color, iPad, or other reading device with color graphics, you’ll see them in their full glory. BUT. Only a few of the books on my Kindle have a desk-top component – I’m not familiar enough with the technology to know why or why not—and Chickens and Mules is one that does. THAT desk-top copy of the book has colour photos. The paperback version of the book also has b&w pictures, but you can also view them (and MANY others) in colour on Victoria’s website.

• Victoria includes three dozen yummy-sounding recipes for everything from Spanish Spinach to English Sticky Toffee pudding, with the emphasis on Mediterranean dishes.

I recommend Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools: Tuck into a slice of Andalucían Life to anyone who’s ever dreamed of moving someplace sunny (and who hasn’t it?!), anyone contemplating moving to another country and culture, and to arm-chair travellers, no matter how house-bound; in fact, to anyone who’d like to share a few laughs and a few dreams with a charming couple.

P.S. Victoria is kindly offering a free download of Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools to anyone who’d like to read it. You can get the coupon code and/or subscribe to a free Village Updates newsletter here.

P.P.S. After spending this time getting to know Victoria and Joe, and having viewed the photo of their renovated guestroom, I’d visit too!

For Canadian readers:
Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools: Tuck Into a Slice of Andaluc an Life

Kindle version:
Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools

The Secret River by Kate Grenville is the highly touted first book in the Thornhill trilogy which centres on the settlement of the colony of New South Wales in Australia. While I enjoyed this book and recommend it, it didn’t knock my socks off.

Perhaps that’s because I read the back story about Grenville’s research, in the non-fiction Searching for the Secret River, before I read the novel.

It was a quandary: I signed up for Amanda’s Truth in Fiction Reading Challenge which requires me to  read  book pairs that are comprised of one fiction book and one related non-fiction book. Whispering Gums suggested that I try these two books and I immediately reserved them at the library. Unusually, they arrived the same day, so I had to make a decision: which would I read first? The non-fiction was an inter-library loan with no renewal allowed & $1 fine for overdues, so it won the toss.

When Grenville first considered the idea of searching her family history, she thought she would write a non-fiction book about her ancestors. However, she found complications in this concept. As she says “When you were a white Australian, investigating your own family history could lead you into some murky territory.”

Grenville is referring here mainly to the treatment of the Aboriginal people – a tragedy repeated as well in North & South America as white Europeans moved to those places to live, displacing the native peoples who occupied the land before them.  Grenville determined that she “might not be able to enter the Darug consciousness, but (she) could make it clear that there was one.”

This approach to the story required that she be able to imagine her great-great-great-grandfather’s attitudes and reactions, of which there was little record. It became apparent to her that a piece of fiction would allow her greater scope in telling the story and taking into account the windows into the cultures of both sides that she hoped to deliver.

Before I started Searching for the Secret River, I was afraid that I might be bored with dry facts and history. Indeed, not. Grenville’s writing is simple and lovely to read, both in fiction and in non-fiction. I particularly enjoyed the genealogy aspect of her search as I also have, in the past, traced my family tree. Her descriptions of the thrill of standing on the very dock on which her ancestor worked, or in finding the court records which contained his “voice, speaking directly across nearly two centuries! The actual phrase he used!” brought back similar elations in my genealogical investigations.

Knowing the “facts” then, I began the fictional account, The Secret River.  The story is told from the point of view of William Thornhill, born into poverty, and an apprentice riverman in late 18th century London. Grenville tells us of the temptations of his work:
“He loved the docks for their excess. So many casks of brandy, sacks of coffee, boxes of tea, hogsheads of sugar, bales of hemp.
With such a quantity, how could a little be missed?”

Thus, Thornhill is drawn into thievery which leads to a sentence of death – or exile in Australia. He & his wife Sal and their young son make the long journey down under. Once there, they face the challenge of building a new life in a strange climate and unknown country, inhabited by mysterious black people whose culture is unlike anything they have experienced.

The author has done an excellent job of providing insight into the lifestyle of the aboriginal people and the culture clash that occurred between them and the new settlers. She also helped me to understand how the British culture that the Thornhills and their countrymen tried to establish permutated into a new set of values – one that by necessity took into account the very land which they tried to subdue.

But, having read the back story, I knew how the novel ended and that compromised the suspense that other readers might feel in the plot. Having said that, I still maintain that it was a very good reading experience.

If you haven’t read either of these books and both interest you, you’ll probably enjoy the fiction account more if you read it first. There’s always the possibility that you’ll then be bored by the build-up to its writing in Searching. But if you enjoy history, genealogy, or just observing the birth of a really good story, you’ll still want to read the non-fiction as well. Four stars to both.

The Secret River qualifies for the Truth in Fiction Reading Challenge, as well as for the What’s in a Name Reading Challenge, the Global Reading Challenge as my Australian entry, and the Australian Women Writers Reading Challenge.

Searching for the Secret River qualifies for the Non-Fiction Non-Memoir Challenge, the Seconds Reading Challenge, the I Want More Challenge, and the Dewey Decimal Reading Challenge.

For Canadian readers:
The Secret River
Searching For The Secret River

Since the old library in the village closed on March 17th, we have been without library services, eagerly anticipating the opening of our new branch. What better way to celebrate National Library Week (April 8 – 14th) than with its official opening on Wednesday?

I was blown away. From one cramped room with barely room to walk, we have a two story light & airy open space complete with kids area, teens area, a community activity room, a half-dozen big screen computers with Wi-Fi, washrooms, staff offices, and two beautiful reading areas. One of those is in the second floor loft and looks out over Tatamagouche Bay and the Northumberland Strait.

I know that ultimately taxpayers funded this project, but I’m ever so grateful to the powers-that-be who allocated monies to this project. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

How are you celebrating your community library?

Our late winter storm: I don’t think there’s quite the 15 cm (6 in) they forecast, but there’s sure the ice pellets mixed with it, as they warned.

The bright side is, it’s been too cold (expected of this season) for many buds to have appeared so nothing’s been ruined by last night’s weather activity.

Let me guess: warm & sunny where you are?

Some of you may remember my post last year about the building of the new library in Tatamagouche.

I thought I’d show you a little bit behind the scenes of moving a village library to its new premises.

That old branch closed for good on March 17th.

The new premises are now complete and the official grand opening is next Wednesday. (April 11th). I can hardly wait to see inside!

No moving vans or professional crews – or even U-Hauls for us.

These are all volunteers.

For more photos of the move, click here.

I wasn’t able to help, but I love that community volunteers made this possible. It’s part of what makes rural living so great.

What do you think of our moving methods?

According to Wikipedia, Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, fighter pilot and screenwriter. He is perhaps most popularly known today as the author of children’s stories such as James and the Giant Peach and Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.

He was a prolific short story writer, and his story The Landlady won the 1959 Edgar Award for Best Short (Mystery) Story. The Edgar is given by the Mystery Writers of America to honor excellence within the mystery-writing field. In 1980, the MWA sponsored an anthology of two dozen short stories that had won that coveted award between 1947 and 1978. My soft-cover copy of The Edgar Winners, edited by Bill Pronzini is literally falling to pieces from having been read so often over the years.

Just ten pages long , The Landlady is classic Dahl. Young Billy Weaver, newly-appointed apprentice salesman, is sent out from London to Bath on the “slow afternoon train”, and told to find his own lodgings. A Bed & Breakfast sign beckons to him from a brightly-lit window that Billy peeks into. He sees a brightly-colored parrot in a cage, a “pretty little dachshund (…) curled up asleep” in front of the fire burning in the hearth, and a room filled with pleasant furniture.

The landlady immediately answers the door, has Billy sign the guest register and offers him tea. All very cozy.

Of course, because it’s an Edgar winner and because it’s Dahl, you just know things aren’t quite what they appear. But despite the reader’s awareness of that (or perhaps because of it), Dahl manages to create suspense and a chill of horror from the moment Billy enters the house.

Breezy & cheery, dark & macabre. Masterfully suspenseful. Brilliant.

Have you read any of Roald Dahl’s short stories?

#2 for Dead Book Darling‘s Short Story Challenge

Y’all may have heard that C.B.’s TBR Double Dare is officially over as of April 1st. How’d I do?

As I’ve said recently, not as well as I’d hoped, even though I stuck to the rules. I did learn, though, what will make this more effective next year: a much smaller December 31st library holds list.

I also entered a number of other TBR challenges for this year. Here’s a quick update.

• I’ve successfully read two (of twelve) titles for RoofBeam Reader’s TBR Pile Challenge but have yet to post the reviews so they don’t qualify yet.

• I’ve counted six books for Evie’s TBR Challenge, but only three have been reviewed thus far.

• Bev helped me clarify what qualifies for the Mount TBR Challenge and I have six on that list, toward my goal of 50.

• And Bonnie’s Off-the-Shelf Challenge has easy-peasy rules, so I can count 13 titles completed there, out of 50.

The bottom line is: I’m off to a slow start on my reading and an even slower start on my reviews. I’m going to be drawing on my TBR pile for a while yet. Time for me to get cracking!

How are you doing?

I was busy this month with special volunteer work and so my reading list is relatively short. I did manage to read two full e-books on my Kindle, meaning I spent a little more time on the treadmill – and that’s a good thing!

How about you? Did you read anything exciting in March?

1. The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
NYC in 1941, when a ten-year-old girl could go out by herself for a special Saturday. How could I not be charmed? And I have been, ever since first reading this as a child. Five stars over & over & over again. 5 stars

2. Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

Winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, it has so many winning elements: jazz, Paris, WWII. Edugyan captures the voice of the American musician protagonist perfectly, but the plot could be a touch stronger. Four stars for the story and a half star for the FABULOUS cover (at least on the edition I read). I’m sure it’s the best I’ll see all year. 4½ stars

3. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
I wanted to LOVE this the way I love baseball. I did greatly enjoy it, being reminded with every word of John Irving. But at the end, I said “That’s it?!” 4 stars.

4. The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton
My first Chesterton, but not my last. I didn’t know Father Brown books were short story collections – or at least this one is. Naturally, some stories are better than others. I’m still undecided as to whether the stories are fairly clued. 4 stars overall.

5. The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller
The first of what is promised to be a series featuring former WWI officer Lawrence Bartram. Solid mystery, great period detail. 4 stars

6. The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe
First in the series introducing Hazel Micaleff, in charge of a provincial police detachment 3 hours north of Toronto. I had trouble putting this down. I’m rating this four stars which is high praise for me for a serial killer novel. 4 stars

7. White River Junctions by Dave Norman
White River Junction, Vermont was once a bustling community built around the railroad. With the decline of railroad transport, it’s met the modern fate of countless towns across North America. Dave Norman lovingly reconstructs the town in words, through the buildings, the people and the stories in White River Junction. 4 stars

8. Walden; Or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau
E.B. White says in a follow-up essay to this book that “To reject the book because of the immaturity of the author and the bugs in the logic is to throw away a bottle of good wine because it contains bits of cork.” I think there was some must in the bottom of the wine bottle too. I won’t throw it away, E.B., but I’m not rating it a five, either. 3½ stars

9. Broken Music: A Mystery by Marjorie Eccles
Definitely a WWI mystery, which is why I picked it up. But it’s also a romance and suffers from the untouched physical and mental health of the love interests, and a resulting happy ending. 3½ stars

10. A Small Furry Prayer: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life by Steven Kotler
The title wasn’t fooling. Kotler and his wife are deeply involved in dog rescue. I was prepared to hear about the difficulties of moving to the country & a new lifestyle, of the struggles of finding homes for the dogs, of dogs being sick and of dogs dying, but I wasn’t looking for metaphysical speculation and “deep ecology”. 3 stars

For my Canadian readers:
The Saturdays
Half-Blood Blues
The Art of Fielding
The Innocence of Father Brown
The Calling: A Hazel Micallef Mystery
White River Junctions
Walden; Or, Life in the Woods
Broken Music: A Mystery
A Small Furry Prayer

Kindle versions:
The Art of Fielding
Vanity Fair’s How a Book is Born: The Making of The Art of Fielding
The Innocence of Father Brown FREE
The Calling
White River Junctions
Walden ; or Life in the Woods – Enhanced .99 cents
Broken Music: A Mystery
A Small Furry Prayer