Welcome to Litsy!

The mice did freak me out a bit…..otherwise, a quiet novel packing a punch about life.
Don‘t we all wish we could disengage sometimes. And that we knew how to handle grief and dying. And that we‘d always done the right thing at the right time.
But my bookmark is perfect ❤️

This is a book you could read seven times and get something new each time. A woman leaves her life behind to live a quiet life at a priory, although she herself doesn't share the nuns' religious beliefs. The beauty and solitude of her daily life are haunted by her past and her grief. The creeping, claustrophobic feelings presented by an infestation of mice on the property play with these themes and keep the reader as unsettled as the narrator.

"A heavy spring frost this morning. Crossing the grass I made a clean track of footprints, deep green on the white spread of the lawn. It returned me to my childhood, to the sense of secret authority, imprinting one's presence into a place with those clear, sharp prints. I exist. The private, pleasurable sound of the finest layer of ice breaking beneath the weight of each step."

I waited so long for this book from the library and it was definitely worth it. Such a beautiful book about coming to terms with loss and grief and finding some sort of peace. The sparse writing matched the feeling of the setting and the narrator‘s sense of having been stripped down to her core well. Our Kelpie mix like the one featured in the story pictured here.

It‘s amazing sometimes how a passage will suddenly hit so close to home. As I am coming up on the two year anniversary of finishing cancer treatment, this passage hit hard.

Beautiful narrative of grief and meditation and faith. How we live on this earth and spend our lives. Unsettling undercurrent which sits perfectly with the surface.

Gifts from the 📕 Swap gods on Wednesday night after Reading between the Wines Book Club at Modus Brewery. I‘d never been there before. My spicy margarita and tuna ceviche was yum and it was the perfect late summer evening for a stroll home before bed. Lily Brett has been a favourite of mine since I was in my 20s and I enjoy a good magazine and loose leaf tea on the train to work to make me happy during the working week. These are some of my favs.

This meditative book turned out to be the perfect fiction companion for the NF Raising Hare. Both are quiet and contemplative with a focus on life‘s true priorities and nature. I enjoyed this.

Enjoyed this one.

Always happy to find a green Virago at a book sale !