Recently Read

This is dark, gripping and chilling. When an elderly rich man is found dead in his apartment, nobody knew he had a tiger as a companion.
Regarded as a benevolent animal lover and benefactor by a wildlife charity he supported, a bitter old man to his children and a man with weird sexual proclivities to his ex-wife, who exactly was he?

Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus investigate, and in the midst of it all, their foster-son Gabe has to give evidence at a major trial as well as trying to carry on a clandestine love-affair...

Rachel Joyce's new novel, "Perfect", was very enjoyable, heart-breakingly sad and had me completely fooled by the ending.

Diana seems to have an idyllic life. A beautiful home, two lovely children, a loving husband who lavishes money on her, including an expensive car, and their son Byron goes to an exclusive school - but all is not well in their world, and when Byron is convinced that extra seconds have been added to time, he inadvertently precipitates a disaster which causes their lives to unravel completely....

This is a big book, possibly too long. I did enjoy it, but it might be better to "dip into" rather than attempt to read right through.

Recently Read

 This was a great easy read, outlining some of the memorable things which have happened to this GP during her professional career.

To define translation accurately is an incredibly difficult thing to do; it seems so easy yet it is not. This was a remarkable read about translation, translators, what they do and the perils and pitfalls of translating in all its hilarious and horrifyingly complex glory. A book to be read slowly and savoured.

Worth reading; I found the chapter on Death particularly interesting and the description of St Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai is wonderful.

I've always had a soft spot for Ray Mears and his survival programmes. My respect for this very private man has increased exponentially after reading this book. He is a thoughtful, intelligent man of integrity, honesty, decency and a deep desire to preserve the native knowledge and wisdom of the indigenous peoples he has worked with.  Fascinating from an anthropological view, I found it extremely good reading and  it has now got a permanent place on my bookshelves.

These are books two and three in a series by Cindy Woodsmall which  I started to read last year. The series outlines what happens when a young Amish woman falls in love with a neighbouring Mennonite man, but is then raped by a passing stranger and becomes pregnant. It seems that ho-one believes her, that she can trust virtually no-one and even her mentally troubled sister turns against her and spreads gossip. When her child is born prematurely and dies, our heroine leaves her home and runs away makes a new life in the Englisch world.....but will she ever go back to her home community? A truly enthralling series which captivated me.

The Broken Road is the long awaited final part of the trilogy detailing Patrick Leigh Fermor's journey across Europe as a young man. It does not have the immediacy and freshness of the first book and the fact that he is writing so very many years after his walk is very evident. The chapter about Mount Athos - which is mostly verbatim from his diaries - is by far the best part, but still a good book overall.

Reading Bingo Challenge : The Broken Road

No 1 completed is "The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates To Mount Athos" by Patrick Leigh Fermor. This is the anxiously awaited final part of his outstanding trilogy relating to his walk across Europe as a young man. For me, the most fascinating part was about Mount Athos, the people he met there and his reaction to the relics, icons and monastic atmosphere..... 

It falls in the category of  "A Book With A Blue Cover"  - well, it is mostly blue :-)

Recently Read....

I thought it was time to resurrect my "Recently Read" category; these are books which I have read for the sheer fun of it, not because I have asked for books to review over at The Garden Window.

Because of NaNo in November, I have not had chance to do a lot of recreational reading, but I did enjoy these:

Although I have not worked as a midwife for 16 years, I still love reading about it :-)

Our dear John lent me his wine-making reference book after I sampled a glass of his wonderfully lethal Rhubarb wine !

This was a lovely read about the city of St David's. It was also topical for my NaNo project.

This is an old but excellent guide to St David's, which I have had for a long time and it was second-hand even then.....

I have been making this wonderful book last for as long as I possibly could; I was very sad to get to the end of it. Mother Dolores Hart was an accomplished actress  and gained a certain degree of notoriety for giving Elvis his first on-screen kiss; she gave up her acting career to become a cloistered Benedictine nun and this remarkable book tells the story of her life, her acting career and her life in the convent.

 This was research for my NaNo and I loved every page. When I can afford it, I will be buying a copy for myself but as it is an academic special interest book, it is extremely expensive indeed.

A friend recommended this book and said it would give a great insight into the religious spirituality which pervaded Bavaria at the time when Pope Benedict was growing up. A thoroughly enjoyable book about the life and work of the Pope.

Recently Read

I've managed to find time for some reading purely for leisure :-)

This was a delight from beginning to end, outlining the amazing work done to preserve fragile mediaeval wall-paintings, remove them from the walls of St Teilo's Church and then the slow, painstaking process of dismantling this church stone by stone, relocating it to the National Museum of Wales at St Fagan's and then reconstructing the entire church as it was in pre-reformation times.

This link shows a brief video I took when visiting the beautifully restored church.