Equally lovely & meaningful the second time around.
💛🧡💙
Equally lovely & meaningful the second time around.
💛🧡💙
Recommending this for IRL bookclub - we‘ll see if it gets picked. Highly recommend for Littens! If you are looking for a contemplative seasonal (end of summer) read, this is beautiful.
Thank you to @vivastory for recommending this book to me months ago. It was a perfect book for me to read while i was severely anxious about my sons recovery from surgery (there were post surgical complications some 2 weeks after surgery - on the mend again now!). This novella about a young returned soldier restoring a church mural in a small village tells of his own restoration through art, nature & human connection. Just a quiet joy of a book.
I toiled a bit through this one but it was worth it. Set in 1920, in the North of England, a soldier who survived WW1 restores a medieval painting. During his time in the country he finds people who help him start his journey of healing from the horrors of war. There was something so comforting about this story. It won the Booker in 1980. #UK
Our young man back from the war and now to spend a month in the country. The wholesomeness of the countryside, of the food , the people, the horses, the summer in his memory. The work of art he is restoring. The tenderness of the writing , this story will haunt me. There is so much here but I find myself not wanting to over think it or pull it apart. I want to feel it gently , to mind it.
Thanks @Caroline2 , to think this book has been 👇
My #ReadingStats for January include 10 completed books and good progress on my long reads. My favorite turned out to be my first read of the year, the tagged A Year in the Country.
#MonthlyStats #BookSpinBingo
Lovely, atmospheric, and deceptively simplistic, this is a beautiful story about restoration. My 2nd of @Liz_M 's recommendations for #NewYearWhoDis is another gem. @monalyisha
This is my first read of 2022, and I enjoyed it more than expected. It‘s a quiet and reflective story of a signalman returned from WWI to a rural English village, which was a perfectly described setting. He has been hired to uncover a medieval painting in the local church. As he works, he gets to know the local people, comes to his own conclusions about the original artist, and finds at least some relief from the trauma of the war.
I enjoyed this one - it was gentle and warm and thoughtful; it reminded me of my Grandpa & my degree🌻
And that's another book read for the #WinterGames2021! #TeamGameSleighers
I haven't done much by way of the #WinterGames2021 this week; I've just been focussing on getting through and to this weekend tbh haha
I'm now back home with my parents for Christmas and am feeling happier & festive😍🌲
I watched Love Hard on Netflix earlier & it was so good; would recommend! I'm going to finish A Month In The Country tonight too and start Eight White Nights ❄
2689 points for #Week2! #WinterGames2021 #TeamGameSleighers @StayCurious
I've been so grateful for the WG this week; even when I have been too anxious to read, I've enjoyed looking through all the posts!
I still managed to get a fair bit of reading done too! I finished Let It Snow & Glass Town, & am about halfway through A Month In The Country😍
I watched the #TeamMovie & found lots of words for the #WGWordSearch & the #Week2Game too🙌
Sweet, poetic novella about a post-war vet who spends a summer in a rural English village restoring a recently-discovered medieval mural. The reading experience felt like a lazy summer day, flecked with humor.
A really delicate and considered novel about Tom Birkin, returned from the horrors of the front, as he simultaneously restores an unusual medieval fresco in a rural English church and his own fragile psyche. It reminded me of Steinbeck in style but with more humour. Beautiful. 7/10
This lovely book arrived yesterday evening.. I had to wait till the morning light to take a picture ... please who sent this to me ? ❤️
#NYRBBookClub A Month in the Country Discussion
Question 6/6:
What are the similarities of the original painter and Birkin? How are they connected to each other?
#NYRBBookClub A Month in the Country Discussion
Question 5/6:
A transformation of the main character takes place over the span of the novel. What was Tom Birkin like when he arrived in Oxgodby? How does he change and what causes these changes?
#NYRBBookClub A Month in the Country Discussion
Question 4/6:
Carr titles the novel, A Month in the Country. What is the importance of the country in the story? Why do you think Carr sets the story where he does?
#NYRBBookClub A Month in the Country Discussion
Question 3/6:
Many critics have described A Month in the Country as a quiet novel. What do you think of when you hear that term? Is it accurate for Carr's book?
#NYRBBookClub A Month in the Country Discussion
Question 2/6:
Class is briefly explored when Birkin accompanies the Ellerbecks & Mr. Dowthwaite to shop for a new pipe-organ. Should Carr have explored class more?
#NYRBBookClub A Month in the Country Discussion
Question 1/6:
Do you think that Carr was effective at comparing & contrasting the religious hell depicted on the wall painting & the hell that Birkin endured in WWI?
For our #NYRBBookClub this month we read the tagged book. The edition I read was not a NYRB edition, but was from a British publisher. It was illustrated with lovely pen and ink drawings like the above, which enhanced my reading, I think. This depicts the wagon ride to the church picnic.
#nyrbbookclub
Carr created a world that I truly enjoyed being inside. An old church in the English countryside with a medieval painting being restored? It was like an incredible vacation. I savored the descriptions and the characters were so richly developed that they seemed like friends. But my sense of curiosity began fading after Birkin's routine was established. I wanted more mystery or ambiguity, but I don't think it was that kind of book.
I read the majority of this Saturday night and what a lovely way to spend it. Summer in a little Yorkshire village back in 1920, unveiling a wall painting, talks with a fellow war veteran, the happiness that can follow great sadness and the passing of time that brings it. It says a lot about art and healing in an understated, compelling way. #nyrbbookclub ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This small gem of a novel is filled with beauty and profundity. I'm not sure how J.L. Carr conveyed so much about the restorative powers of art, love, contentment, and community with an economy of language. There isn't a wasted sentence, much less a wasted word. Underlying the novel's gentle charm is the bittersweet acknowledgement that nothing ever lasts: "We can ask and ask but we can't have again what once seemed ours for ever". #nyrbbookclub
#nyrbbookclub was a great reason revisit this one, which I first read a few years ago. It's so lovely and transporting.
🌟The Flatshare and We Keep the Dead Close
🌟 The tagged book
🌟 Tie: The Thursday Murder Club and We Run the Tides
#WeekendReads
@rachelsbrittain
This book is an absolutely delightful way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
#NYRBBookClub
Wow, loved this #NYRBbookclub pick.Tom Birkin comes to Yorkshire, a veteran of the Great War, he is in Oxgodby to uncover & restore a work of art.The question quietly answered is if restoring a painting just might restore his soul.Beautiful passages abound in this short novel as he swaps war stories with fellow vet Moon , interacts with villagers, & finds beauty in the simplicity of the day to day .
"We can ask and ask but we can't have again what once seemed ours forever...They've gone and you can only wait for the pain to pass."
A lovely, gentle read about a veteran who spends a summer restoring a mural in a quiet English village. I liked it very much.
We loved it! So much depth, beauty, and humanity in this slim volume.
@catebutler @vivastory #nyrbbookclub
Oh this book! 😭 One that requires some underlining of passages and a moment at the end to really soak it in. Poignant ✨
#nyrbbookclub
Phew! 😅 I feel like the author read my mind. There's only so much stone description I can handle. 😆
#nyrbbookclub @vivastory @catebutler
What a lovely read this was! Funny and warm, with a twinge of sadness here and there. It was nice to spend some time in summer during this weather. ❄️ Looking forward to discussing this one! #nyrbbookclub
“Aren‘t you supposed to be great supporters of nose-to-the grindstone? Yet here you are, in a public place, recommending malingering.”
😂 Loving this book so far!
A fantastic book to read in the depths of winter. They say this is a story of lost love. For me, it was a story of awakening to life again after serious trauma, of the smell of the flowers, of the heat of the August sun, of dew on the grass, the mystery of art, the rhythms of the summer season experienced while living in the country, of a lost opportunity. A quick and lovely read that pulled me out of my snowbound world. #NYRBbookclub
Need to start this one for the #NYRBbookclub
So glad my library does curbside pickup! I love this publishing program but I can‘t buy them all.
“Well, we all see things with different eyes, and it gets you nowhere hoping that even one in a thousand will see things your way.”
What a wonderful read this is turning out to be, for some reason it‘s bringing out a lot of nostalgia in me, and I guess that‘s what great literature does, it touches upon certain feelings that are common to all. Many thanks to @vivastory for bringing this book into my awareness :)
#NYRBbookclub
#NYRBBookclub
Thank you all for a great kick-off of our second season. You smart people add so many new ways to look at the The True Deceiver and I loved our discussion as much as the book. Thanks for having me as your co-host Scott!
Our February choice I read in 2012. I don‘t remember much about it, but apparently it was a 4-star read for me! It might be time for a reread! Thanks all!
At only 85 pages long, I've found an even shorter book on my TBR... I've been promised that this book is absolutely lovely so I'm happy to boost it up for the 2021 challenge.
#popsugarreadingchallenge
#bookreport & #weeklyforecast
Not much time for reading this week, but LOVED both I finished, and am loving my In progress #ARC.
- The #NYRB tagged book was sad and hopeful and beautifully written, and The Secret Garden audio was delightful!
-The Orchard is shaping up to have a ‘Jewish Secret History‘ vibe as reported.
- Eileen was a gift from lovely @Cathythoughts and is my #bookspin and Harpy is next to be released from my NetGalley queue.
1. No different from previous years. I don‘t have children and I stopped handing out candy a few years ago. 🎃
2. I‘m grateful for my sister. She‘s the best! ❤️
Thanks for the tag @Klou ! 😀
#ThoughtfulThursday