Wednesday Book (4, or really 5)

Well, I didn't get anything written yesterday as I thought. The hours just roll on and then the day is over. (Wasn't that profound?) But yesterday was my birthday, and a lovely one it was. Lots of fun. The tradition at Holden is that you can have Happy Birthday sung to you in any manner you choose. I thought first of doing sheep - baa baa baa baa baa baa, baa baa baa baa baa baa, and so on - but then I thought, "Why not the whole barnyard?" It was hilarious!

The last Wednesday book I wrote was on October 14! I finally finished Cathedral of the Sea which was pretty good for one of those long, historical saga things. If you want to know more about 14th century Barcelona, you'll enjoy it.

The program in October here was on pilgrimage. One book we read in the community was The Ramsay Scallop by Frances Temple. It's another book in a historical setting, the turn of the 14th century in England, France, Spain. It's about two young people who are engaged, and don't like each other much. So their village priest sends them on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It's kind of a Canterbury Tales book as they pick up other pilgrims along the way, and a good coming-of-age tale. It's written for young adults, but is a good read for adults as well.

In the middle I read Olive Kitteridge, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Elizabeth Strout. I love her writing, and especially liked Abide with Me. But Olive Kitteridge is truly outstanding. I wrote in an email to Bev Christensen, I think, that reading this is like slowly sipping fabulous soup. Every sentence is to relished and enjoyed. Lynn Krog gave me this one from the Faith Women's Book Group, and she did it particularly because it's a novel built from a series of short stories, and she knows I dislike reading short stories! But this is different from the random story. It's beautifully connected throughout the book, and Olive grows on you throughout. It is one of the best books about hope I have read for a long time. Get this book and read it! And, thank you, Lynn!

I'm reading two books right now. One is Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker, another Women's Book Group gift, this one from Kristin Johnson. Kristin loves western writers, so I knew it would be good and recommended it for a Village book discussion even before I read it. (Olive Kitteridge will be coming up one week as well.) It's about a young woman in Montana in the early 1940's. I am enjoying the writing immensely, and others in the Village who are reading it are liking it a lot. I'm looking forward to the discussion on Friday. Thank you, Kristin!

My big treat is the third book in the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. It just came out in translation in England on October 1 - won't be here until the first of the year. But daughter-in-law Sarah Murdoch was in England in October and picked on up for me! Thank you, Sarah! It's even better (and, I'm sorry to say, longer) than the first two. This is a great series. If you haven't yet started with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, don't wait another day.

That's a good book update. Happy reading.