Friday 9 January 2009

January walk and recent reading




My neighbour said oh you should have photographed the hoar frost on the trees down the road, but I was too busy rushing around this morning. Next time... I don't know why two of the photos are so black - possibly because I took them straight into the sun.
Reading -
During the Christmas period I read The Dive from Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer. It’s one of the books I’d set aside some years ago because the subject matter sounded too depressing.

Here’s a blurb: “Carrie Bell has lived in Wisconsin all her life. She's had the same best friend, the same good relationship with her mother, the same boyfriend, Mike, now her fiancĂ©, for as long as anyone can remember. It's with real surprise she finds that, at age twenty-three, her life has begun to feel suffocating. She longs for a change, an upheaval, for a chance to begin again.That chance is granted to her, terribly, when Mike is injured in an accident. Now Carrie has to question everything she thought she knew about herself and the meaning of home.”

I didn’t find Carrie a sympathetic character but, of course, one sympathises with her situation. She had been unsure about her engagement before Mike's accident and now wants to escape. This she does, and takes up with an unsuitable man in New York. It was all convincing and extremely well-written. Ann Packer is obviously talented. I must read her second book one day, though it, too, sounds depressing.

3 comments:

Ms Mac said...

Happy New Year, Susie!

That lamb is just too sweet. Bit early though, isn't he? ;-)

Nan said...

I like those 'black' pictures - they are very atmospheric, and would make good book covers! The sheep are precious. I love how lambs do that. Lucky you to see them so close up. The Packer book isn't for me. :<)

Susie Vereker said...

Thanks, Nan. Glad you like the pix. That's quite a compliment coming from a great photographer like you.

Ms Mac, as far as I remember there are lambs every January. They don't put them in the open fields just yet though. I was so amused by that one sitting on its mother's back. They're a big hit with visiting children, of course.