Of all the reading challenges, I have the most fun with What’s in a Name, hosted by The Worm Hole. I like browsing through my TBR stack to find titles that fit the challenge categories.
The challenge is simple – read one book that fits each of the five ‘categories’ – Continue reading
I’ve been a bit preoccupied with leaf dissections rather than reading at the moment. I’m fully immersed in the cellular structure of plants – the fine detail of rigid cell walls, bright green chloroplasts and the clever stomata. It’s fitting that the book that I have been dipping in and out of is also a work of fine detail – The Violet Hour by Katherine Hill. It’s about the dissection of a marriage.
The story begins with Cassandra and Abe and their daughter, Elizabeth, sailing on San Francisco Bay. Life’s good – Abe is a successful doctor, Cassandra a sculptor and Elizabeth is heading to Harvard. But then, out of nowhere, they plunge into a terrible fight. Cassandra has been unfaithful. In a fit of fury, Abe throws himself off the boat. Their marriage ends and from there, Hill ricochets backwards and forwards in time, revealing the expectations, realities and secrets in a marriage. Continue reading
1. Are you absolutely sick and tired of my show-off holiday posts yet? Sorry, there’s two more coming – one about shopping (I might have done a little bit of shopping on my last day in London) and the other about my favourite bits of London.
2. Even after my recent visit, when I think about London, the first thing that comes to mind is Buckingham Palace. Which then prompts this –
They’re changing guard at Buckingham Palace –
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
“A soldier’s life is terrible hard,”
Says Alice.
My dad recited that particular poem often when I was little. Read the rest of it here. Continue reading