Sunday Salon...

Sunday Salon finds me winding down from a lovely day spent with family and friends.  We celebrated the baptism of our Grand Niece.  She was lovely, her siblings, were very lively today.  Delicious food, good company and lovely weather.  EXCEPT I forgot my camera. So no pics.  I finished reading The Welsh Girl.  

Summary

Set in the stunning landscape of North Wales just after D-Day, Peter Ho Davies's profoundly moving first novel traces the intersection of disparate lives in wartime. When a POW camp is established near her village, seventeen-year-old barmaid Esther Evans finds herself strangely drawn to the camp and its forlorn captives. She is exploring the camp boundary when the astonishing occurs: Karsten, a young German corporal, calls out to her from behind the fence. From that moment on, the two foster a secret relationship that will ultimately put them both at risk. Meanwhile, another foreigner, the German-Jewish interrogator Rotherham, travels to Wales to investigate Britain's most notorious Nazi prisoner, Rudolf Hess. In this richly drawn and thought-provoking work, all will come to question where they belong and where their loyalties lie.

While I find the summary of the book somewhat accurate, it does not mention the evacuees, or the family that surround Esther, or her trials.  I enjoyed this book, because you do know that there must be two sides to a story, well here Ho actually shows us more sides.  A good crossection of "views" of the war and the difficulties everyone must have felt. 

I can't remember who recommended this book, but thank you. 

Sunday Salon... Among Others

Well I finished Among Others, Jo Walton.  Well, I'm not sure what the criteria for a book award is but clearly I was not on the judging team.  I liked it, don't get me wrong, but award winning? not sure about that.  It could have been a bit more, heck a lot more.  I was expecting the end, but the middle seemed to be a list of books I have not read, I started to write them all down, gave up after eight.  Since I hadn't read any of the books being discussed I found it difficult to compare them, I loved that father and daughter had these discussions.  How special.  I would have like to know a little more of the background of the characters, was she a twin or not?  What was the car accident? I was half expecting Mor to be unstable and that we would discover she had an illusion of having a twin.  The witch mother thing wasn't developed enough either, and beyond that it was a teenage romance. 

In short Among Others (no idea where that title came from) is the story of a teenage girl who has come to live with her estranged father, after having had some kind of accident, which apparently killed her twin, and left her disabled.  Apparently she escaped her mother...? She remains in contact with her mothers family and maternal grandfather.  Magic is practiced here as is the strong discussion of Science Fiction books. Lists and lists of them.  She is enrolled in a private school where we see her develop some superficial relationships, and where she falls in love with a much older boy.  I found it somewhat disturbing that after only two weeks into the boy/girl relationship Mor was ready for a sexual relationship, she was planning contraception, but I'm thinking she's fifteen! I know, I know statistic show I'm naive.   Mor (the young teenage girl) has escaped from her witch mother... this is a cloud hanging over the story, that is never really made clear, to me at least.  I love the connection that grows with her dad and her dad's father, somewhat surprised at her relationship with her dads sisters, but... Did I like the book, sort of, but not as much as I would have thought.

What else did I do this week? The usual, laundry and cooking.  Almost no painting, very little furniture restoration, and I know I have fabric for my princess chair, but can't find it.   It's been a cold week, and I'm struggling to fight this cold thing off... Just resting and watching the Oscars tonight, as soon as I stop yelling at the T.V. for Downton Abbey ending, Can you believe it! What are they thinking. This isn't a soap opera.... What's up next?  The Bleak mid- Winter, Julia Spencer. I thought this was a suitable choice for this very snowy/cold winter week ahead.  What was that ground hog seeing?  Have a good week.