Category Archives: On reading

Beginnings and Endings

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Today, January 27th, marks 17 years since I started this blog. In the last 16 months, since the death of my beloved husband, my life has changed, my reading has changed, and my commitment to my blog has changed.

Early in my grief journey, I couldn’t focus enough to read. Now my reading has become solace on a lonely afternoon, or a search for new understandings of the changes happening to me, or simply an activity that I now set aside for long periods of time while I garden, go for walks, or visit with friends. I have started many books that I simply cannot finish for a variety of reasons, and so I stick with gentle reads. My reading seems to mirror the ups and downs I face each day, and as you can see from my blog silence, it is difficult for me to write posts, or review books.

I am finding new interests and projects that require the time I used to devote solely to reading and blogging. I’ve been organizing old photos, writing stories and creating slideshows and videos for my family from those old and some new memories. I am honoring these new pursuits and new parts of myself with focus and attention, and wonder where they will lead me.

I have been struggling for months to decide what to do with my blog during this time. I take beginnings very seriously, and I have a really hard time with endings. There is so much I enjoy about blogging, but I’m uncomfortable with these long silences.

So for now, I think it is best to simply announce that I will not be actively blogging for the time being. I’ll give myself some time to decide whether this will be an extended break, or whether I will retire my blog.

I love the book blogging community and hold precious the friendships made through this sharing of our love of books and reading!  So I will say a gentle goodbye for now. I will still be visiting your blogs and will still be present on social media, so I don’t plan to disappear. Please know that your support for me and this blog over the years, has meant the world to me. For your friendship, love, and support, I thank you, dear readers, from the bottom of my heart.

With deep gratitude,
Robin

Preparing to Read Tom Lake

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So many of my friends and family have told me that I need to read Ann Patchett’s latest novel, Tom Lake. I agree! I’m so excited to start reading it, but I’m taking a little time to prepare for the experience. I already bought the book, and the audiobook version which is narrated by Meryl Streep, because I want to enjoy  both the written word and what I am certain will be a phenomenal audio experience. And since I heard that two stories are integral to Tom Lake, I bought a copy of Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, (since I couldn’t find my old high school copy of the play), and I downloaded a copy of The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekhov. I am reading those two classics first.

The anticipation is sweet! I am loving my pre-reading for this novel, and I can’t wait to start it. It is already turning out to be a great reading experience.

June Reflections, 2023

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July is here, and for me, summer officially starts with the 4th of July celebrations. That’s tomorrow already! So before I move on into more of my summer busy-ness, I want to take a moment and share my June with you.

I’m delighted to report that I read a number of books in June! Surprised myself, actually. “Grief brain” for me is a very real thing, and for months now my focus (especially on reading) has been scattered and my attention span minimal. So that’s why I was happily surprised when I looked at my Goodreads list of books read in June and realized I actually finished 5 books! Those quiet afternoons, after mornings filled with yard work, have been a productive and therapeutic reading time.

The five books I read in June were enjoyable and varied. Early in the month, I completed a book I’d been “reading slowly over time” (my new category for my Goodreads lists). It was a book about grief, a collection of poems and short essays written by a variety of people. The Language of Loss: Poetry and Prose for Grieving and Celebrating the Love of Your Life, edited by Barbara Abercrombie, was a lovely collection that I found very healing. It took a long time to read because I would only read one or two selections at a time, and that gave me time to really think about what was shared by other grievers.

from the publisher:

When Barbara Abercrombie’s husband died, she found the language of condolence, no matter how well intended, irritating. “My husband had not gone to a better place, as if he were on a holiday. He had not passed, like clouds overhead. He wasn’t my late husband, as if he’d missed a train. And I had not lost him, as if I’d been careless.” She yearned instead for words that acknowledged the reality of death, that spoke about the unfathomable sorrow and loneliness (and perhaps even guilt and anger), and that might even point the way toward hope and healing. She found those words in the writings gathered here. The prose and poetry in The Language of Loss follows an arc that mirrors the path of many mourners — from abject loss and feeling unmoored, to glimmers of promise and possibility, through to gratitude for the love they knew. C.S. Lewis wrote, “We read to know that we’re not alone.” These writings, which express what often feels ineffable, will accompany those who grieve, offering understanding and solace.

The other four books I read were so interesting and each deserves its own separate review. But for now, I will just say that each transported me to someplace else while giving me new insights into my own world right now here at home. That’s why I read …  and I’m so grateful to be able to spend my afternoons with good stories and wonderful talented storytellers.

My June reading:

I hope that you are all enjoying your summer reading!

Just Not Reading Much

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One Step at a Time…

Hello, my friends. I’m checking in with you this afternoon to let you know that I’m getting along okay. I’ve given myself some time away from both reading and writing about my reading, but I have tried to keep up with many of you on social media, which seems to fit my fractured focus better right now.

After a strong start to my reading year, I just found it too difficult to read in February and March. I’ve been listening to a lot of music (such a pleasure) and watching some new-to-me series on TV (always enjoyable). Just not reading much.

Now that April has arrived, I’m feeling less fractured. Getting outside for walks and to work in the garden a little bit, feels so good! It’s just what is needed despite how very wet it is here in the Pacific Northwest this year!

The cartoon at the top of this post really speaks to who I am and what I am doing these days. “Baby steps” is my motto. I’m slowly getting back to some things, and slowly climbing into new territory. I am also finding myself thinking about some of the stories I have been able to read or listen to recently, so perhaps there’s a blog post brewing.

My gratitude is huge for all the love and kindness that surrounds me during this time of bereavement, and I have realized how many people are suffering their own losses, and my heart goes out to each of them.

I hope that your Spring is full of really good books and stories, and that you all stay healthy and happy.

 

 

 

Birthday Blog

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…by Charles Schultz

It was a quiet January 27th morning in 2007 when I shyly started this blog. It began as another way to share books with my mother who lived 900 miles away. So much has changed in my life since 2007, but my blog has seen me through all those changes, and my love of reading and talking about books is even greater and more important to me now. And the friends I have made along the way, who share their own love of reading with me, have enriched my life exponentially.

So here’s to another year filled with books and kindred spirits! May we celebrate our love of reading and share many stories this year. 

A Chapter a Day

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Reading a chapter a day is an interesting experience. I usually don’t restrict my reading in any way. Most of the time, I just enjoy getting caught up in my book and keep on reading. This George Eliot Readalong this year is a different kind of challenge for me. I am, so far, only reading one chapter a day of our current book: Adam Bede. What I find so interesting is that I read the chapter first thing in the morning, and then I find myself thinking about it during different times of the day. I’m thinking about what happened in that chapter, about what the author wanted to do with it, about the characters introduced or some new action initiated. I ruminate a lot about one chapter. I like that!

Early December

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Interior with the Artist’s Daughter, by Vanessa Bell, 1935-36

Hello, dear friends,

We are well into the holiday season now. and I wanted to check in and wish you all a very happy season.  I hope you are well and enjoying life and family and good books. And as for the stresses and strains that also seem to be part of the holidays, I wish for you some quiet and some time to just enjoy the present moment.

I feel like I’ve been away forever, and I am hoping to get back to some consistent blogging again. I am getting back to my reading, choosing kind and gentle reads for now. Poetry is a balm for me. Books about grief (some of them), are helpful and appreciated. And when I found a book of poetry about grief that really spoke to my own experience, I was thrilled. Living Without the One You Cannot Live Without, by Natasha Josefowitz, sits beside me right now as my solace and one of my guides through this journey.

Recent fiction reads, such as Farewell to Fairacre, by Miss Read, and The Bookstore Sisters, a short story by Alice Hoffman, have been my bedtime reads. My non-fiction afternoon reading included Michelle Obama’s new book, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, which I felt was an enriching audiobook to listen to. She is, as always, full of wisdom and compassion, and hope. I really enjoyed it. I also read a library find: A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives, by Lisa Congdon. It was inspiring and I enjoyed each short biography of many different women who found their passions and careers later in life.

After two-and-a-half years of pandemic lockdown and the extra precautions we had to take due to my husband’s cancer, I am beginning to get back to some of my used-to-be normal activities. I have started going back to my exercise class at the gym, although I know that Covid is still here. But I need my exercise friends, the three-day-a-week routine, and the exercise! It’s so nice to be back. I’m also getting back to my morning walks, although the weather always seems to play havoc with that routine at this time of year. And I’m also getting back to my reading. It all feels so good!

 

July Thoughts

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Hello, friends. It’s past due time for an update on life and reading. Well, there’s been a lot of life going on, but not a lot of reading for me this month.

July has been an intense month for us filled with too many medical appointments. My focus, and the focus of our family, has ended up being entirely on my husband and his illness. The cancer journey truly is a roller coaster, and the last three weeks have been filled with gigantic ups and downs.

That said, we are still living each precious day to the fullest. Despite physical challenges, we still do as much as Byron’s limited energy allows. We share time with friends and family near and far (mostly on Zoom calls), and we laugh a lot, watch good shows on TV, try out new recipes or take-out food that might taste good to Byron’s chemo-damaged sense of taste, and we cherish our time with our daughter, son, and our precious grandboy.

Byron is reading more than I am right now, and what a potpourri of genres! His current read is The World as We Knew It: Dispatches from a Changing Climate, edited by Amy Brady and Tajja Isen. He recently finished the first volume of one of the graphic novels on my shelf called A Man and His Cat, by Umi Sakurai. Before that, he read The Cat Who Saved Books, by Sosuke Natsukawa. And before that, it was a book he liked so much he bought copies for our kids — Other Minds: The Octopus, The Sea, and The Deep Origins of Consciousness, by Peter Godfrey-Smith.

Early mornings finds me in the garden watering and weeding. I can’t keep up with either, it seems, but it’s nice to be out there. And I have also been working on my project of scanning old slides and photos from the last 53 years!

We are busy with life right now amid the ordered chaos of medical treatments and tests. And we are deeply grateful to our medical team, and to our extended family and friends team, and to our own little family unit team. All of whom bolster us up and help to give us the courage we need to face whatever life brings each day.

A Glimpse of our July in photos: (there are captions to the photos)

Our grandson mowing the lawns…
Phlox in the Butterfly Garden…
Summer 1969 with friends…
Porch cat…
We’re smiling, really!

May Check-in

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A hill nearby covered in Crimson Clover…

I will start with an apology for not checking in sooner and for leaving this blog sitting too quietly for the last while. It has been an up and down month, a very emotional month, since my last post. The update on my husband, Byron, is that he has continued with his chemotherapy treatments with infusions every three weeks, and we have played the waiting game now for 9 weeks to see if the chemo is actually working to [temporarily] halt the progression of his cancer.  We had to wait until a certain period of time had passed to repeat his CT scan. The scan was done last Saturday, and we finally received the results yesterday. At this point in time, it is working. *Big sigh of relief here!*

So he will continue with his three-week cycle of infusions, and our lives are adjusting accordingly. The infusions are on Mondays. That first week is a challenge for him, with deep fatigue and other struggles. The second week, he feels better but not great. And the third week, he is almost back to “normal,” feeling well enough to work on projects (although his stamina is low), and have family come to visit. Then, the cycle is repeated …until it no longer works, or the side effects become too much to offset the benefits.

With this major change to our daily/weekly routines, plus the anxiety about whether or not this treatment is working, I simply couldn’t focus enough to read a book, and writing a post seemed too difficult. But, I am very thankful that we have a lovely grief counselor who is helping us through this roller coaster time, and she recommended a book that she thought I would enjoy. I downloaded it onto my Kindle directly after my appointment and read it in just a couple of days.

 The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II, by Madeline Martin, brought me back to my reading.

Inspired by the true World War II history of the few bookshops to survive the Blitz, The Last Bookshop in London is a timeless story of wartime loss, love and the enduring power of literature.

“The Last Bookshop in London is an irresistible tale which showcases the transformative power of literacy, reminding us of the hope and sanctuary our neighborhood bookstores offer during the perilous trials of war and unrest.”
–Kim Michele Richardson, New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

My counselor was right! I enjoyed it very much, and all of a sudden, my world seemed to right itself again!  She added one other recommendation for me:  she suggested I get myself over to Powell’s Bookstore for an hour of wandering.  Do you see why I love this counselor?

Back to my apology for leaving you without an update on our situation for so many weeks… I will try to check in with you here, dear blogging friends, at least once a month as we continue on our current health journey. And thank you so much for your care and concern.

Byron heading into Kaiser for his CT scan…

 

15 Years Old

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Fifteen years ago on a quiet January morning, I started this blog. During those fifteen years, I’ve made many wonderful reading friends. I’ve been inspired by all of you, dear friends, as I’ve shared with you my own love of reading. The book blogging community is warm and supportive, and my life is greatly enriched by my interactions with all of you. So today I celebrate fifteen years full of great reading and great friends. Cheers!

My 2007 reading spot and my blogging spot in the background…