Daily Archives: February 17, 2018

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

Reading,

This was a bookgroup read and a book I’d read at least once before. I actually didn’t finish rereading it in time for book group, but my memory of it was sufficient enough to be able to discuss it the night of bookgroup at Sharon’s house.

As often happens when you reread a book in a different stage of your life, the book felt different to me. I focused on different things in the book than I did as a teenager and young adult — although I can’t put a finger on exactly what I focused on this time.

I’ve already mentioned about my obsession with finding out exactly where the book took place when I read it the first time. I’d been to the general area a few times to visit Jeremy, and wondered if I’d been in the town where James Herriot (pen name for James Wright) practiced. I even fantasized running into him on one of my Yorkshire visits.

I finally finished the book a few months after the bookgroup meeting dedicated to it. I liked it, but not as much as I did the first time ’round.

While I did end up buying this book, I bought it in 2017 and it was on sale for $3.99 for 4 of Herriot’s books on Kindle.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Reading, ,

I’d never heard of Susan Hill until Andrea, Clare’s boss, told me about Hill’s book Howard’s End is on the Landing ((which I am still reading)) when I told her I really should not buy any books from her wonderful bookshop and concentrate on the books I already owned. Of course I bought the book in her hand. How could I not?

I started reading Howards End is on the Landing right away and my first thought was, what an insufferable book snob (the author, not Andrea). I’d never read her work and here she is going on and on about fancy-pants books unlike the kind I like to read. It wasn’t until her chapter on ghost stories that I began to take more notice (although I did buy a book she mentioned in an earlier chapter) and when she mentioned that she’d written a ghost story I looked it up and realized I’d heard of it: The Woman in Black.

The book was available as an ebook at the library so I promptly downloaded it and hesitantly began reading it after reading some reviews stating it was the scariest book some reviewers had ever read.

It was pretty good — a well-written, gothic ghost story, not unlike The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (ohhhh! I see that’s being made into a movie!) which I adored. I didn’t find The Woman in Black very scary at all.

As soon as I finished the book I watched the movie starring Daniel Radcliffe. Very different from the book, completely different ending. I didn’t like the movie very much at all.

 

The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrick Backman

Reading,

I read this book in a few hours shortly after I discovered the “Libby” app on my phone. I downloaded this book to try the app out and ended up being entranced by it. I read A Man Called Ove, also by Backman a few years ago (and blogged about it), so I was familiar with the author.

But to be honest I barely remember what this book was about — so, as much as I enjoyed it at the time, it doesn’t have staying power for me.