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It would be lovely to say I just woke up from a long nap  -- but harvest got in the way.  This year Murphy farmed with us with things going wrong, and sometimes twice!!!  It was a total relief to finally have all the machinery tucked away and by next spring it won’t matter at all, as it will be forgotten and we  will look forward to another farming season..

Between the farming adventures and other neat things, the book reading wasn’t done too often.  Any time I sat down to read, the eyes closed and a nap followed.  I am looking forward to more time and on a trip to town will stop and have my browse through Chapters.  That is the last place where you can stand in an aisle and smell the books.  There is something so comforting about the new book smell and I love to stand and just breathe it in.  However, I did find out it has to be done subtly as a few years ago I was standing in the middle of an aisle, eyes close and breathing in and enjoying the moment.  It caused total panic with the sales staff as they thought I was having a heart attack – so note to self, DON’T be obvious!

I just finished re reading A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.  It is a gentle book about Ove, who was looked at as a grumpy old man.  He was actually a creature of habit to the nth degree.  Even to his meals – sausage, potatoes and sauce were all he would eat and each day had a routine that never varied.  After his wife died and he was given early retirement, he was trying to find a way to finish himself off to join his beloved Sonja, but people kept interrupting his best laid plans.  As time marched on he was so busy showing a dummy how to fix a bike tire, scolding residents for not obeying the signs, teaching the young neighbor how to drive properly and being the general fix it guy that he talked to his late wife and told her he was just too busy to join her right away.  He had a cat that adopted him and became his shadow so he wasn’t lonely in the house any more.  His grumbling and grumping at those he helped is really funny and it gives one the insight to the fact that he is grumpy to hide his soft heart.  The library has this book and several more by the same author – so if you want a light, happy read, you would enjoy this.  I suspect that when you are reading it, it will remind you of someone in your family, or at least someone you know.  Thanks my special book reading younger friend for even mentioning how she enjoyed this author.

Thinking of being a creature of habit, it got me thinking – and omg – I am trying to break some of mine and live on the edge.  I realized that I put my left sock on FIRST every day, so have tried to be a rebel and put the right one first but it takes real thought to change.  Do you have habits too???

A new book out in early summer is The Southern Man by Greg Iles.  This is another in the Penn Cage series – Natchez Burning series was the start of the Penn Cage books   It is pretty wordy – about 950 pages. It takes place in current times and is about the racial unrest triggered by a police shooting at a rap festival.  A local hero, Bobby E Lee White, is rising in the 2024 presidential race running as a third party candidate.  The old-money backroom boys are working to dissolve the city of Bienville and get rid of the Mayor, council and police force as it is the one town where blacks hold high office.  The corruption runs rampant and the senseless murders to gain their goals is sickening.  Penn Cage and his daughter, Annie, are in the middle of this as they work to help those innocently caught up in this “war.”  Bobby White is not who he portrays himself to be in his run for the White House and he will stop at nothing to win.  It is a long book with a lot of characters – some you will cheer for and some you will hate – but it will keep you reading as it is an in depth description of the hatred, narrow mindedness and bigotry that Mississippi and other southern states deal with.|

Actually I have noticed how many of the well known authors are from the South and often write on this subject as they have knowledge of  much of it first hand.

The new Daniel Silva one, A Death in Cornwall, is another Gabriel Allon thriller.  It is a fast paced story focusing on money laundering .  Gabriel was an Israeli assassin for years and then head of “the Office” in Israel.  His previous books deal with situations all over the world where he works with a team of specialists in stings to solve the crimes.  He is supposedly retired and living and working in Venice as an art restorer, but he got involved with this murder because the lady was an art historian.  The murder took place  in Cornwall but much of “the action” is on the continent with a number of his previous partners involved.  By the way, the goat that guards the road to the Italian Don’s compound on an island off Italy still does not like Gabriel   and yet again mangled his rental vehicle.  No naps when this book was on the go as it keeps one involved from start to finish.  There are some really neat characters – from ministers in different governments to VERY specialized thieves.  When reading it, you KNOW it is fiction, but it is so well written, it could very well be happening right now.  I am just upset with Silva  in that he only writes one book a year as by late spring I am already looking forward to the release  of his newest book in July.

We received another nice donation – older books, - a number we did have – but some were wonderful replacements of books lost to the flood and others were books still popular by favorite authors.  The empty spaces are lessening all the time.  It is lovely that our special little place is thought of by people as far away as Calgary.

Now the daylight hours are lessening, there will be more hours for reading – find a book and travel to other places and meet new characters  thanks to so many wonderful  story tellers.

-TFN,

Beryl