Weddings 2

Two short (and equally shocking in their own way) stories about the before and after the wedding.

'The Wedding of Zeina' ( from the novel 'Aisha') by Ahdaf Soueif

Set in Egypt, Aisha's nurse Zeina, recounts how she was brutally 'tested' at the age of 15 before her wedding night by both male and female members of her family.

'Child's Play' by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Six weeks after her wedding,feeling that her marriage is already in trouble,18 year old Shirley returns home for a visit to her parents.Abandoned by her husband, indulged by her father and envied by her mother Shirley, young,spoilt,disillusioned;thinking that marriage would be 'candlelit dinners,friends dropping by,using all the presents,setting the table as perfectly as she did her face' is also brutally treated, in this case psychologically by family members.

Both stories from 'The Secret Self;Short Stories by Women selected by Hermione Lee,pub J.M.Dent & Sons 1985

Weddings

Two titles vying for my attention on the subject of weddings:

'Cassandra at the Wedding' by Dorothy Baker set in 1960s California and 'Cheerful Weather for the Wedding' by Julia Strachey set in 1930s England. About a third of the way through both but decide to concentrate on 'Cassandra' as it has to go back to my local library who rather wonderfully tracked it down.It's rather strange & slightly depressing but I am enjoying its strangeness.It has a fine recommendation from Carson McCullers,author of a favourite I read in my 20s ; 'The Member of the Wedding', so I'm hoping it

will be great!!!

Winter.......

Not actually about winter but I like the cover

designed by Margaret Wolpe in 1947

( Eighty Years of Book Cover Design by Faber & Faber

by Joseph Connelly)

And don't forget

Jill also by Philip Larkin.Read both in my early 20s and loved them!

True Deceiver by Tove Jansson

A Winter Book (short stories) by Tove Jansson

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

ilovethecover

I love this cover! It's very autumnal although we seem to have moved swiftly on to Winter now!

I bought it in the amazingly higgledy- piggledy 'The Fifteenth Century Book Shop' in Lewes at the end of October whilst waiting for the bus to Charleston, home of artist Vanessa Bell, having heard about it on Radio 4's 'Open Book'(24/10/10)

The community bus wound its way through the lovely golden Sussex countryside past pubs and pumpkins and posters for the famous Lewes firework display and procession.It was the last day of the season before the house closed down for the winter. I had a lovely day with my daughter and we can't wait for Spring to visit Monk's House country home of writer Virginia Woolf nearby.

Other reads inspired by weeds: Weeds by Richard Mabey, Day of the Triffids by John Wyndam, After London by Richard Jeffries,The Boats of Glen Carrig by William Hope Hodgson,

The Book of Dave by Will Self,The Weeds by Stephen King (short story)Midworld by Alan Dean Foster,A Hospital Odyssey by Gwyneth Lewis.

Oh and I also quite love this!

A perfect winter bookmark

My favourite bookmark-perfect for winter reading with just a hint of glitter.

From the end pages of 'Still Missing' by Beth Gutcheon (Persephone Books).

And the winner is.......

Thinking of my favourite book of the year even though the year is not yet over.

Strong contenders:

'Mariana' by Monica Dickens -read over the summer. Loved for its description of childhood holidays spent at a big, family country house, an unsuitable affair in Paris, opening a dress shop in London and her pursuit of love.

'Julie and Julia' by Julie Powell. Loved for its un-American, English like humour, swearing and drinking , a 'perfect' husband and her inspirational determination to change her life through 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' by Julia Childs.

Thinking of working my way through 'Knit, Edgings & Trims 150 stitches' edited by Kate Haxell to achieve a similar result.........????

Sadly neither the film nor the sequel 'Cleaving' were on a par.

But probably the likely winner will be 'They Were Sisters' by Dorothy Whipple- a traumatic story of three women and their relationships and a devastating reminder of the pain and damage inflicted on children by the behaviour of adults.

Persephone Books

I am obsessed with these beautiful books! Each book has a textile print on the end papers of a design from around the time the book was published.

So far I have read:

'Still Missing ' by Beth Gutcheon

'Marianna' by Monica Dickens

'They Were Sisters' by Dorothy Whipple