Happiness | 
pickThis book has been on my wishlist for so long! And thanks to #roll100 I finally got to read it ❤️
This is such a beautiful and touching story. It's about humanity, nature, life, connection and the love that is all around us. There were some hard to read scenes, but sadly that's how humans treat each other. How we treat nature, animals and the planet we live on...
But still, as long as there's love, there's also hope ❤️
@PuddleJumper
Another lucky roll with #roll100 because this book has been on my TBR list for the longest 😁 I've once started listening to the audio book, but it was so badly read, that I ditched it after a couple of minutes...
@PuddleJumper
One bingo, book spin and double spin completed. On to November.
“The trouble with happiness, thought Attila, was that, perhaps because infants seemed such happy creatures, people were led to believe that happiness came with a mother‘s milk, happiness was man‘s state of nature, of which all else was a warping. The search to return to that state became unending. But they were mistaken, for what they desired so badly wasn‘t happiness but a state of prelapsarian innocence, the thing that babies possessed.”
pickThis is such a sweet book and interesting how two people with such different lives and professions are joined together. It goes to show that we often make assumptions about others when we are in relationships and we need to realize that it's often not about us. There are time shifts, flash backs and even interconnected characters from different times & places. I so enjoyed the complex characters of Jean and Atilla. The ending is so satisfying too!
pickIt has taken me two months to finish this novel. I had trouble connecting with the characters in the first half. The structure of the the book alternating from present day to chapters about the past felt like it kept the characters at arms length. I found the last 100 pages gripping and flew through them. Certainly a slow character driven narrative with a beautiful ending. 3.5 🌟
pickEnjoyable novel about a man and woman who run into each on a bridge in London, one looking for his niece and great nephew and the other in pursuit of a fox. Their stories intermingle when they use the same network of people for their own purposes. This allows the reader to see a different side of London than one usually seen. Lovely book.
3.5 🌟
pickThis was very good. Although not without a bit of unsettling controversy. It was a nice respite from so much violence, unrest, and meanness in books today. Well written.
Smirk is ready to be read to. #catsofLitsy
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pickA quiet, contemplative novel. I love a novel that evokes a strong mood and this one certainly does. It‘s multi layered and I think it could have done without some of the past sections but the bits about PTSD and trauma were brilliant. A great read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Just starting this one having a coffee in Waterstones 💕
I just discovered this new word which I‘m going to remind my husband of constantly
UXORIOUS :: doting upon, foolishly fond of, or affectionately submissive toward one‘s wife
What a great word!
pickThere were parts of this book that I loved. Most of the flashback sections could have been edited out. However, this Author has something important to say about the connections we make with other people and with nature and our relationship to life and death and the inevitable hardships contained within both.
pickSo good and moving、 it will be on my best books read this year list. ‘Trauma = suffering = damage.‘ This he wrote in the middle of the paper and underneath: ‘Trauma = suffering ≠ damage.‘ And then: ‘Trauma = suffering = change. He sat back and reread the words. At the top of the paper he wrote: ‘HAPPINESS‘ and underlined it with two dark strokes, and underneath he wrote the words: ‘THE PARADOX‘.
I love to walk the city....so this article added a very thoughtful dimension to that....
https://lithub.com/whose-streets-a-conversation-about-walking/
Jean chose a roasted vegetable baguette and asked the waiter what it had in it.
“Courgette, aubergine, capsicum, and comes with a rocket garnish.”
“Zucchini, eggplant, bell pepper and arugula on the side,” supplied Attila.
pickA complex life-affirming story that stitches slender threads into a gorgeous tapestry: a 19th c wolf hunt; 21st c coyote & fox hunts; war in Bosnia & Sierra Leone; a wildlife biologist; a Ghanaian psychiatrist specializing in PTSD; plus many other characters come to England from elsewhere. Set in present-day London, looping backwards in time to America, Africa and Europe. My takeaway: trauma = suffering, but trauma doesn‘t necessarily = damage.
Attila leaned back in his chair. Neither man spoke until the Kenyan said: ‘You see how the people here do not look at us, they will not meet your eye.‘ He leaned forward and looked directly at Attila. ‘But it is not because we are black. No. It is because they are ashamed that now we have seen what they are.‘
(Internet photo)
When the structures of Waterloo Bridge began to fail, London City Council had it demolished and replaced with a new bridge built by a task force of 25,000 women who were paid less than their male counterparts and written out of the opening ceremony of 1945.
(Internet photo; Monet‘s painting of the bridge.)
“The wolfer drew up in front of the lighted farmhouse. He wrapped a wolf fur around his shoulders and placed a fur hat on his head, the kind of attention to detail that persuaded folks they were getting what they paid for.”
The opening pages of Happiness remind me of a picture book by William Gill. I will link to it in the comments.
This book I ordered just arrived and it smells like lavender. Like really strong lavender scent. 🤔
pickThis book was a pure joy to read. ‘Happiness‘ is a sprawling, humbling tale of people who find themselves in London over the same two week period, each of whom manages to heal the others in ways they may never know. These people form the best kind of community even though (or perhaps because) none of them are what remain voters might consider ‘Brits‘. They show resilience, fortitude, grace and, above all else, love towards their fellow creatures.
A society went numb ... as much as from being battered by fate as from never being touched. The untouched, who were raised under glass, who had never felt the rain or the wind, had never been caught in a storm, or run from the thunder and lightning, could not bear to be reminded of their own mortality.
pickAs profound a pair of books as one could ever hope to read. “Happiness” is fiction, and explores the idea of trauma becoming transformational. “The Body Keeps the Score” is Non-fiction, and explores ramifications and methods of healing.
pickI was on the fence about this book until the ending, but now I‘m leaning more towards a pick. This is a gentle, subtle story about human suffering and resilience. There are some beautiful passages, but I sometimes struggled to see how the parts of the story fit together. Overall, though, this is a moving story about the acceptance of impermanence and the resilience that leads us and the natural world to survive. 3.5⭐️ Available on Hoopla.
“The reckless open their arms and topple into love, as do dreamers, who fly in their dreams without fear or danger. Those who know that all love must end in loss do not fall but rather cross slowly from the not knowing into the knowing.”
This book has some beautiful passages, but I‘ve found it a bit slow going at times. Hoping to finish it today.
New ARC! Won my first Goodreads giveaway in almost 3 months (I used to win at least 1 a month but the changes have seriously affected them!) This is due out on April 5th. Added to the ever growing tbr...😬
