Words

Yesterday was a Saturday afternoon trip to the library, with the feeling of lots of time to browse and the feeling of lots of time to read as well, to read novels and thoughtful reflections on many topics. And I found myself in the fiction and literature section, so most of my haul comes from there.

But not Wartime farm. This was on the new books and other interesting stuff shelves just before fiction, and caught my eye. I don't think I watched the series it's based on, and maybe it never made it to NZ, but I like these sorts of historical reconstructions, and having read a bit in the last couple of years about life in Britain during WWII with rationing and what not, I'm curious. It does also have quite a few photos, so one of the most pictorial of what I got.

The other pictorial title, also not from fiction and literature, is Lost cat: A true story of love, desperation, and GPS technology. This came from the just returned shelf of the Animals section, and has lots of coloured drawings. From the blurb, I believe the authors attach a GPS unit to their pet cat and discover where s/he wanders. I'm sure I saw a Youtube video about this same idea.

Finally in fiction, I got out 3 novels: Mary Swann, by Carol Shields; The Winter Palace, by Eva Stachniak; and Needles and pearls, by Gil McNeil. Because we are going to Canada for a holiday in a few weeks, and I've just finished re-reading Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood, I was attracted to another Canadian author i.e. Carol Shields.

The Winter Palace is about Catherine the Great of Russia (warning - the link discusses salacious rumours surrounding C). I like historical novels, and novels about historical figures, so I'm hoping this will be a good one. And from checking the links, I see this author is Canadian as well - an emigrant not born, though that is the case with Carol Shields as well. Needles and pearls is definitely the most lightweight of the novels - it's in the knitting chick lit subgenre. This is book 2, and I've read 1 and 3. Interestingly in book 3, the heroine doesn't choose either of the 2 male main characters - not the glamourous photographer nor the dependable local who is nominally her boyfriend. So not completely predictable then.

The last book in my loan is In other worlds: SF and the human imagination, by Margaret Atwood. Alias Grace at work again here! I read a bit of scifi, enough to make that aspect interesting, but the author was the pull here.

I decided to start Mary Swann first, which is going well so far. I decided to start with this because it felt like a nice lead on from Alias Grace, but also (I admit it) that often I decide to start with the more literary works in case I don't get end up getting to them!