Revolutionary Road

My next book is Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. First published in 1961. Many of you have allready read it, or watched the movie (which I haven't, since I want to have read the book first...) I guess there still are people out there, like me, who haven't read this award-winning novel, and who would like to know about it.
I'll keep you posted.

The end was...

Well, I'll obviously not be telling you that. But, I finished Burning Bright, and I'm truly amazed by Tracy Chevalier's ability to create a theatrical experience. I can see everything, hear the characters talking with different accent, feel their emotions,smell the city, the countryside. You end up really caring for the characters, even those for whom you didn't think you would.

Circus, llamas and the rainforest

This weekend I went to a remote Bed & Breakfast out on a peninsula by the Pacific coast. It was on a ranch, 20 miles from the nearest town, and I woke up in the morning to the sounds of chicken and geese yapping about in the courtyard. A very, very muddy courtyard, by the way. Rubber boots became a must.
Hearthy contry breakfasts, cats and dogs everywhere, llamas to feed, pigs, cows and a newborn calf to admire, and a bull you'd better leave be... It wasn't exactly city life, and it was wonderful. I got to breathe, and to do some thinking.
I went for a walk in the rainforest, on the one day it didn't rain, and it was a magical experience, seeing the sun filtering through the moss clad crowns of enormous Sitka Spruce trees.
On my way back to the B&B, I was also treated to the view of four elk crossing the road. They stopped, stared at me, and just ducked their head and munched away on their green roadside lunch.
In the evening, after dinner, I also got to read. I've read a third of Burning Bright now.
I'm learning about circus life, early friendship and the discovery of books by children who hardly have had any schooling.
There is also the painful reading about dysfunctional families, and hurt souls...

Painting in my mind

OK,
I've started Burning Bright now, - for real this time! And, I get to know the people, and London, in 1792. There is the French Revolution happening, and even if our heroes don't know too much about it, they get to learn a little bit more now, through their artist neighbor, who wears the "red cap", the one used by the revolutionary on the other side of the Channel.
Tracy Chevalier really knows how to paint a picture with words! I can see the street, the garden where the kids are not allowed to play, and where there is no space for their mother to plant her vegetables...

This is bad...

Here I am, starting a brand new reading blog, and I don't have time to read. Or, maybe the problem is that I don't TAKE time to read. I don't know.
Anyway, I started the 4th chapter of Burning Bright yesterday, but I only got to read a few pages. I also read what was inside the book jacket, and learned that the novel really is about poet/painter William Blake, and how he is inspired by two children, one of them being part of the family who just moved to London from Dorchestershire.

I'm heading out to Barnes & Nobles today, to pick up Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates and People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. Yes, I know, I shouldn't be buying new books, when I'm not able to get going with the one I'm reading, but it's for a book club next month, and I really want to read them...

I'll let you know.

Burning Bright

I just started this book, written by Tracy Chevalier, an author I love. I've allready read Virgin Blue, The Lady and the Unicorn, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. I have not yet read Fallen Angels, that is, I tried to, but for some reason was not able to dive into the story. I will try again, that much is certain, but right now it's about Burning Bright.
We are in the late 1700s, in London, and we get to know this grief-stricken family who just moved to the city, to start a new life.
I started the book two nights ago, but yesterday I was unable to read, so I still have just read three chapters. We'll see how it goes tonight.