Two Very Different Books

The last two books I've read were both for book groups I'm part of.  Here at Vantage House the book for our March discussion is Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen.  The March selection for the WOW Book Club is Gateway to the Moon by Mary Morris.

Two very different books!

The first is set in present day New York City and revolves around the life of Nora, museum director, wife, mother, neighbor, runner, and dog walker.  They live on a deadend street in an old home and have a close relationship with their neighbors.  Though some neighbors are liked by Nora others are not.  Neighbor troubles bring to a head prejudices and income inequality and the fact that Nora and husband Charlie are no longer on the same trajectory in their relationship.

Quindlen's writing style does not tell a story straight from beginning to end so as the story progresses you are taken back in time, so to speak, to learn the backstories.  Once you get used to it, it makes for good reading.

Mary Morris is telling lots of stories in her novel set in New Mexico in the 1990s, and Spain and Mexico of the 15th and 16th centuries.   In present day there's primarily Miguel, age 15 who is enamored with the stars but in the earlier times there are a long list of characters forced to give up their Jewish heritage and religion by the Catholic Church.  And even once renouncing that are still brought to Inquisitions. It was a terrible time and I'm sure that Morris' research is accurate on what was done to them. 

At first you are bombarded with lots of characters and I found myself flipping back to the family trees to see who they were in the scheme of her story.  It was confusing and if I had read this book slowly it would have been doubly so for all the characters.  But overall it made for an interesting history lesson and uncovering of family traditions that date so far back that present day has lost touch with their origins.

From the Files - 1

This is an occasional posting to savor the moments from past travels.

Walking through the Cotswolds in 2014.

 Paying attention to the path markers, the map, the compass and the written directions was essential to finding our way.

The right of way paths took us past fancy homes.

Early morning starts before the fog had lifted.

We were never really alone!

Morning Walk

Though the temps were below 40º,  there was no wind and despite the clouds, no rain.  A good morning for a walk around Wilde Lake as seen here from our 11th floor apartment on an icy morning (not today).

On the dam were two birds with long legs.  From a distance I saw them tangle with each other and one chose to land away from the one there first.

I frequently see heron fly past our windows with their long legs trailing.

I was confuse.d at first whether these were great blues,  but after checking the bird books they were. One was in a crouch making it look more compact.

At the opposite end of the lake herons perch on little manmade islands.

There is a heron rookery in the other direction.  I'll have to visit that again this spring.

Snow Day!

A major winter storm is giving us lots of snow outside my window.  Despite pretreating the roads with salt the snow is piling up on the roads.

We got an announcement over the loudspeaker that dining services is running a buffet from 11 to 4:30, the Pub is closing at 11:00 and the Market Place at 2:00.  We will have our dinner early then at 4:00 today and have a very light lunch of a salad I purchased from the Market Place after exercising this morning.

Here's the stack of books I stockpiled yesterday from the library.  I'm taking a page from Sue at The Cottage at the End of the Lane who always shows us her stack of books she has checked out to read.

You'll see two more Charles Todd books -  I'm quite enamored with that mystery series.  The Anna Quindlen is for the book discussion here at Vantage House and the bottom book "Gateway to the Moon" is the March selection for my other book club.  I always like Anne Tyler but the other tow books I know nothing about.  The summaries sounded interesting.