Must not miss books

Seriously now, if you are wondering what to add to your TBR pile for 2011, read these two. They both have the ability to leave one aching with the beauty of the writing and a little breathless...

Books of the Year

I have read a surprising number of books this year - reading being the only quiet time in that moment when the head hits the pillow and the eyes shut. Here are some of the ones that lingered, making the thoughts turn and ponder before sleep took me.

COCO CHANEL by Justine Picardie - this biography was engrossing because of Picardie taking the subject and unpeeling like an onion all Chanels's fictions - painting Chanel as the ambiguous and tenacious individual she was in a tantalizing read.

THE GHOST WHO BELONGED TO ME by Richard Peck. Yes this is a YA title from the 1970's, filmed by the Disney corp and made into a film that has haunted me ever since I was a child. It tells the story of medium's child Blossom Culp and her neighbour and the mysterious death of Inez, a ghost. This is one of those great books that have the story appealing to both child and adult. I am sure a Blossom Culp television series wouldn't be amiss in this Twilight driven world.

PRODIGAL SUMMER by Barbara Kingsolver. This was loaned to me and it would have never been something I would have picked up by myself, as the blurb on the back reduces the story, when it is actually a sweeping meditation on nature, family and aging written in a style that is completely mesmeric and satisfying.

STAR OF THE SEA by Joseph O'Connor is the tale of the Irish Famine of 1847 and the immigrants who leave behind their homeland. It is a vast and sprawling work dealing with a topic that is not often portrayed in fiction. In between chapters facts and cartoons from the time are laid out and it is frightening. An ambitious work that doesn't always work, however what does is beautifully drawn and thought provoking.

THE QUICKENING MAZE by Adam Foulds tells the story of the mad poet John Clare. This is a book written by a poet, sentences are lean and capture images in perfect frames as we are drawn into all the lives that surround Clare, each conflicted with a madness of their own. It is dazzling how he can portray so much in such a slim book.

So, these are some of my books of the year. What are yours?

A Bride of Amazement

It is almost the end of the year, the summer making the footpaths steam and my hair frizz. The letterbox fills with Christmas book catalogues that are always wonderful to ogle and circle.

Writing time alas, has been squeezed as it were into a very small window in an otherwise busy week, so instead of wonderful strides of writing, I have achieved only little postcard sizes of my thoughts. I miss the daily ritual of coffee in one hand, pen poised in the other, a conduit to whatever thoughts were buzzing around my head. However, I also know that the Pixie will only be Pixie sized for a short time and I don't want to have the feeling of missing things. I want to be mindful. I want my time to count. I don't want to simply, as this eloquent and gorgeous poem paints, 'simply visit the world'.

So for now, writing postcards, being mindful and keeping my vow to be a 'bride of amazement'.

When Death Comes
by Mary Oliver


When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measles-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.