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| The Latest Library Book |
Saturday was sunny with a high of 62F. But, I hadn't put the heater on at night, so, the house was a chilly 54F when I woke up! Needless to say, I put the heater on and kept it on at 65F all day!
I called my half-sister and chatted with her in the morning. Then, I did a load of laundry and went ahead and dried it in the dryer, rather than hanging it up to dry inside the house. It felt like a guilty luxury to use the dryer, especially with the heater on! But, I wanted to get it all done right away without having laundry hanging all day. Then, I put it all away, taking care to turn the hangers to the regular side as I returned the washed garments to the closet.
I finished reading the library book shown above, earlier in the week. It is a novel (fiction) about a man who kept all the things he found that other people had lost, dropped, discarded, misplaced. or left behind. Anthony Peardew was an author of short stories, who, having lost both his fiancée and a special medallion she had given him, began to collect and keep things he found, a button, a puzzle piece, a hair tie, and even a biscuit tin filled with what appeared to be the cremated remains of someone that had been left on a train seat, keeping meticulous notes about each object, describing the object, recording where it was found, and when. When he died, he left his house and his collection of lost objects to his assistant, Laura, with the request that she tried to find the former owners of the objects and returned the objects to them. The story then focuses on Laura and her attempts to find the owners of the lost objects. There is also, a secondary story woven in between, of Eunice, who also finds a shiny object in the street, on the day she went for a job interview and decides to keep it.
At first, I found the style of writing a bit confusing as there were stories within stories, especially when it came to the individual objects. I was also unfamiliar with some of the slang terms used by the British author and I had to look up what Estuary English was although I was able to gather that it was a form of pronunciation from the context.
However, I enjoyed the book and the stories told within it, and how various, seemingly disparate, threads came together at the end.
I spent a good portion of the afternoon reading another library book, "On Gold Mountain" by Lisa See, about the story of her family's experiences as Chinese Americans, starting with her great grandfather who, as an herbalist, came over from China to treat and tend to the Chinese who worked to build the Central Pacific Railroad.
Brunch was two slices of bread, toasted. Dinner was breaded frozen shrimp, fried, with homemade peach chutney as a dipping sauce. Yogurt with palm treacle and half a granola bar for dessert. I'll probably eat some fruit for a snack before I go to bed.
On Saturday, I was grateful for:
- A sunny day
- Working appliances, including the heater, washer, and dryer
- Library books
- Being able to read
- Phone calls and video chats with family, exchanging emails with friends
Saturday's joyful activity was reading.
Plans for tomorrow include reading, maybe another load of laundry, and watching a football game! LOL. The Green Bay Packers were my team (I had spent six years in Green Bay and that's where I learned about American football), but, they lost to the San Francisco 49ers. So, since I am now in California, I'll cheer for the team from California!
How was your Saturday? What are your plans for Sunday? Will you be watching the Superbowl?
I've been using my tumble dryer this winter more than I ever have done before, maybe because we are having so much rain. I don't like damp clothes cluttering the house and only put the few things that can't be tumbled onto the clothes airer. I've thought about buying a heated one but haven't done so yet.
ReplyDeleteYour book sounds interesting. I had to look up Estuary English myself and have never heard the expression, I'd call it a Cockney dialect and that's what Londoners speak.
Enjoy watching the Supebowl.
I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one using the dryer more, this winter, Eileen. The book was interesting; I enjoyed reading it. Thank you; there is a pre-game program on TV, right now, but, I'm not watching that. The game, itself, starts at 3:00 p.m., according to the TV program listing. :)
DeleteThanks for the book review. I am always interested in what other people are reading. I'm not sure how much of the game we'll be watching this evening, but my husband is smoking a pork shoulder and my sons are coming over to enjoy it with us.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome; another blogger posted about reading it and I thought I might enjoy it, too (and I did).
DeleteOh, enjoy your afternoon, spent in the company of your husband and sons, even if you don't watch much of the game! The smoked pork shoulder sounds delicious!
We enjoyed a quiet Saturday at home. I had phone calls with both daughters and one of my sisters, (the one who lives several blocks away). The sister I chatted with told me that her grocery delivery was missing 18 items this week, which was half their order. She said the store is often out of 1 or 2 products, but this was a record.
ReplyDeleteI took the dogs on a longer walk in the warm weather (almost 60 degrees). They’re turning 17 this month and one of them is struggling quite a bit. I frequently carry her on the stairs now. They are good companions and they get along with daughter’s cat who is still visiting, and even with her other cat who is young and rambunctious.
We will likely have the Super Bowl on just to enjoy some good football and entertainment. 🏈
Sounds like a lovely day, Taconix. Sounds like the grocery shortages are taking place from coast to coast! I hope the store shelves will be restocked, soon!
DeleteYour dogs sound sweet. I'm sure they enjoyed their walk.
Enjoy watching the game and the entertainment! :)
That sounds like a book I would enjoy. I will have to see if I can find it at the library here. I didn't know you lived in Green Bay! I have lived here since I married my hubby 40 + years ago. Our family has season tickets and our kids go to all the games. We were sad that we didn't make it to the Superbowl this year but we did good with our new young coach and a young team. We will be watching the game with my daughter and other family. xo Diana
ReplyDeleteYes, Diana; I went to the university there. That's where I met your friend Judy and her then-husband Paul and their baby daughter (when, she was a baby back then!) Have fun watching the game, this afternoon. :)
DeleteSo much heavy rain here overnight - we saw many flooded fields on our way to church this morning. Then we met up with the family for lunch at a nearby garden centre cafe, Your book of lost things sounds quite fascinating
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't continue to receive as much heavy rain and the floods don't spread! Sounds like you are having a lovely Sunday with church and then, lunch with family. I enjoyed reading the book. :)
DeleteI've heard of this, and just been online to read a few reviews. I think I might enjoy it. Perhaps I will get it out of the library rather than buying yet another book, though! I have three or four on the go at the moment and am not making much progress with any of them!
ReplyDeleteIn a way I am pleased that at least some of the British terminology was left intact. I saw an interview with one of Rachel Joyce's editors a while ago and there was a section about the decisions he had to make before publication to ensure that the text was OK for N American readers. It is an interesting point: quite a skill in finding the balance between being faithful to that author's work - i.e. their true voice - while aiming not to alienate a chunk of the potential readership. Sometimes it can be done sensitively, but not always.
One thing I wondered was how much effort goes into editing N American texts in the same way! As far as I can tell, most American books I read have been left pretty much as per the original - spellings, vocab, terminology... Maybe they just assume that the whole world understands thanks to, e.g., US films. As you found, I think much of the time most things can be understood, at least to the degree necessary, from context. As a lover of language, I like to read English from all over the world and if I am reading an Irish/Scottish/Australian/American author then their "flavour" is not only interesting but a delight to me. I don't want it edited out if the overall meaning is clear, or I can look the odd thing up. If it is too impenetrable I'd probably lose patience, but I'd still think the author has a right to express themselves as they wish for their target audience.
PS (because this comment isn't quite long enough!) The other day I was watching an American film set in Britain with US actors. A couple of very good accents, some distinctly dodgy ones (!) but what really made me laugh was that the script was absolutely packed with Americanisms so even the good accents were undermined because what they were saying sounded really strange being delivered in that way!
Ella
Oh, I am glad you added the post script, Ella, because I don't like too short comments! :D
DeleteI don't think they edited too much and left most of the swear words intact, which was amusing to me, because I think there's quite a difference between British swear words and American English swear words. By the way, I grew up hearing "bloody" used as an adjective by the English speakers in my family and you practically never hear that over here, unless they are describing someone who was wounded!
I think you might enjoy reading this book, but, yes, see if you can borrow it from the library. :)
We left England over 50 years ago and I don't remember Estuary English being around back then, but I did read about it much later. One thing I do love about England is the amazing variety of accents and dialects, and now with so many immigrants in recent years there must be even more!
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, we were given elocution lessons to help us with our pronunciation and learn to speak "proper English". There were some English words that were difficult to pronounce "properly" and one of the biggest put downs the primarily English speaking Burghers could give the "uppity" non-Burghers (Sinhalese, Tamils, etc.) was, "He/she can't even speak English properly".
DeleteI think that I've read that book and perhaps another one by the same author. I think I enjoyed it to!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that, Sharon. I checked the library and they have her other books, too; maybe I'll borrow them after I've finished reading the books I have checked out, already. :)
DeleteI know of that book and have heard it is good. I just finished a thriller called None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell. It was very good and I really enjoyed it even if it was pretty tense at times.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading something lighter now - a book by Joanna Trollope called Other People's Children. It was mentioned on another blog I read so I thought I'd try it. I am liking it a lot.
I'm sorry, Debra, I thought I had already replied to this comment! But, I think what happened was I looked up the second book you mentioned and got distracted! Glad you are liking the second book, too. :)
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