Helen Plus Three

My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises by Fredrik Backman My rating: 5 of 5 stars It is so seriously funny at times and it's all from the perspective of a very intelligent 7 year old who has grown up in the close company of her very busy, eccentric, courageous grandmother. Elsa translates everyone she knows to a character in the fairy tales of life ( a land to love, mourn, war etc) that her granny wove for her and solves her problems in the real world by those tales. Wikipedia is Elsa's gateway to understanding big words. There's something to be learnt about living life from a 7 year old and a grandmother. There's also some truths that hit close to home, about the conflicts of mothering and having a career and it's impact on one''s child. It's about relationships and wounded experiences and love that happens under one roof among different families, individuals all around Elsa, the kid. " She thought I was a.... a nagging busybody...

I just completed Jojo Moyes 'The Peacock Emporium" and there are many points in the story and thought lines that got me agreeing, There 's this one passage when Suzanne attempts to explain herself to Ale (about feeling cloistered in a small town) that gets me agreeing heartily. It's about being who one is, all the time, in different places - can we be constant, can we be who we are or want to be.? 'And , you see, because they know the  things that have happened to you - some of them, at least - it  means that people think they know you. They think they know who you are. There's no room for you to be someone else. Around here I'm the same person I was at twelve, thirteen, sixteen. Set in Aspic. That's who they have me down as. And the funny thing is, I know I'm someone else entirely."

Some books require time to read and just savour or reflect on the thoughts they provoke, whether it's the characters or the thoughts coming out of them. One of them is The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Jay Fowler. It's interesting but you need a little more concentration. Sylvia's daughter is just out of the hospital(no serious injury) and Sylvia tells herself that she is happy. But the next day reality sinks in with life's usual problems. That's exactly what happens, why is it harder to hold on longer to happy thoughts or resolutions than let the unhappy prevail .. " Already I have to remind myself to be happy. And you know , if it were the other way, if something had happened to Allegra, I wouldn't have to remind myself to be unhappy. I'd be unhappy the rest of my life. Why should unhappiness be so much more powerful than happiness? One difficult member spoils a whole group.... One disppointment ruins a whole day...... It takes weeks to ge...

Previously when the Sans bookshop was still around I could buy books and then sell them back at a fraction but at least they were not taking up space on my book shelf and piling. Now that Sans is gone, I buy a lot of new books, they are piling up and soon I'll have to decide what to keep (possibly keep) and not keep and donate to the Library (which is ok). But I love many of these books and I think I could read them again in the far future... but alas, will I have the space to keep that many. Recently I acquired more through gifts and then of course the Christmas sale came on and I bought MORE !! But they're really good books by Jojo Moyes and Helen Fielding and Sue Monk Kid (sigh). I'm not sure.... is reading a hobby ?.. feels more like a passion. I like the style this is written in, thoroughly enjoyed it start to finish..  I could feel her panic, the mad rush and the chaos in Bridget's life with the kids. I can identify with all that and that feeling o...

Another good book! Meg Wolitzer writes with great depth. I was nodding and agreeing with many instances of expression, these were moments I had gone through in my life growing up and thoughts even today. Really good piece of work, insightful. Very realistically describes thoughts, fears, doubts of individuals from teenage to senior life. One could probably identify with a character of the group who are all so diverse even though they met in the same place for a similar purpose. It boils down to two characters really seeing from within and without. I keep telling myself to mark those great lines, but I never remember to.. there were many but I located only one ...what holding a job demands of an individual... " a job outside the house that would require energy and focus and exactness and calm." A perfect description of what being at work or the office entails vs being at home.. and sometimes we are  just not all  that...

" I wanted to know what happened when two people felt it. (it being the hurt). Would  it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone's joy seemed to double it ?" A 14 year old's thoughts are not that far from any adult in the same emotional situation really. The idea of a 'wailing wall' is quite interesting. If it can help a person cope, why not. I'm thinking how I might adapt that for kids to cope with the stress of school demands ! Descriptions are so simple and direct it's easy to imagine the life of bees, their livelihood, the routines and the hum... " At thirty feet your skin will start to vibrate..... but your heart  will send you straight into the hum, where you will be swallowed by it...." 'I decided sometimes you just need to nurse something, that's all " - and that was how she succinctly described sentimental attachment. That certainly makes wonderful sense why we do it.. What I l...

As I got out of the train this morning, I was thinking what if it slipped out of my hand and fell through the gap. I'm reading a book, and well as much as the style of it is loose, the story is kind of depressing, yet funny in a dark sort of way !. Perhaps it is just not my cup of tea, not sure why I picked it. I started it about a week ago, and I usually don't take that long to finish a book. What am I reading, it's by Jess Walter - The Financial Lives of the Poets -.  It 's not really about poetry but about this guy who lost his job and then is loosing his self esteem ( along with everything else ... wife, self confidence... honesty..)  but thinks himself a poet of sorts. It's about reacting to crisis. It's amazing what can happen when you go out late to buy MILK. Anyway I am halfway through the book  (the Hero has not yet, is almost about to become a drug buyer to  'ínvest' and grow his money that is, before he loses his house),  and this mor...

Recently I completed reading the Memorykeeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards  It was sad and yet as I thought more about it, is also a happy story. For some reason I got hung up on the sad part, the parts about the loss and the guilt. On the other hand, the happy side which was the baby that lived in spite of nature's error, got less of my dwell time. Do we avoid looking at the imperfect and always look for what seems perfect or hope to be. Perhaps that was how the author slanted it. Decisions at one point in time affect the rest of life, Guilt is a horrible thing to hold on to especially for good souls. The father tried to find a solution(his peace) to his guilt through his new hobby of photography. Hate is another form that eats away at a person's soul. It starts like a tiny blot that spread and grew and grew and impacts the life of all within and around it. But love grows no matter what.. (it did for the nurse that saved an imperfect child).. that's probably th...

I finished reading Kate Morton's 'Secret Keeper' a while back and then I thought I should not have started reading it at the time I did. Certain types of writing require more restfulness than others to be able to enjoy all of the book. The story that unfolds is the type that one should read in the right frame of mind - when you are less harried by other pressing stuff of daily routines.  I find myself going over many parts of the book again at different times. The story was intriguing, so much so that I wanted to know how it ended instead of also enjoying( reflecting on)  the prose and the many sentiments of life as was depicted of the young and old. The story essentially spans almost 70 years from the war to recent 2011.  I wanted to share one of the parts that had me reflecting. A passage that gave me pause was about the sick, aging mother, and the daughter's(Laurel) thoughts about why her mother did not feel  surprise...."Her mother didn't ask why, an...