Book Chatter

It’s been gorgeous this weekend. Basketball ended for The Boy and tennis ended for The Girl and believe it or not, it’s time to enroll them in summer camp programs. I have a love/hate relationship with this time of the year. I love that everything is beginning to bloom and the scent from all the blooming flowers warms my soul, but why is it that we need to plan so far in advance for things?

I hate having to think about summer right now. Hate. It. I also hate shelling out a bunch of cash for these programs when they are still a ways off. However, the kids don’t feel this way, of course. It gives them something to look forward to so I am trying to follow their lead, and think the same way. It’s a struggle, but I’m working on it.

As you can see above, The Girl has begun to read to the Otter Pup and the Otter Pup loves it. Apparently, no one ever did this for her before. They hunker down with a stack of books and really have fun with it.

Chloé is not the best picture taker. As soon as I get near her, she rolls over and becomes The Otter Pup but how can you not love that face? That pouty bottom lip? Too cute.

This weekend, I hit a wall with my reading. I finished The Little Stranger, which I loved but now I don’t seem to want to read anything else. I have all sorts of wonderful books to choose from. In fact, I just received a bunch this past week that I’m really excited about, but I feel a bit distracted and antsy.

The earthquake in Japan, and the coverage of the event has left me in a very strange mood. The footage is hard to ignore, yet it breaks my heart to watch it. Having experienced a large earthquake firsthand, I know exactly what those folks are feeling right now, but we didn’t have to deal with the aftermath of a tsunami, not to mention the threat of radiation poisoning. My thoughts are with those folks.

Today will be a subdued kind of day.

The Little Stranger
By Sarah Waters
Penguin Group
April 2009 (Hardback)
480pp

*No Spoilers*

The Short of It:

Delicious. I ate it up.

The Rest of It:

Dr. Faraday is called to care for a patient over at Hundreds Hall, an estate in various degrees of decay. Hundreds Hall used to be grand with its stunning rooms and its surrounding gardens, but the Ayres family has seen some rough times and is no longer able to keep it up. During his call to the house, Dr. Faraday is charmed by the beauty of the house and is also quite taken with its inhabitants, Mrs. Ayres, her daughter Caroline and her son Roderick. But there is something else there as well. A darkness, a presence…something evil within the house and Dr. Faraday has no idea what he has gotten himself into.

The house is a living, breathing entity. The dreariness, the dampness, the cold… I could smell the mustiness and hear the echo of footsteps in the hallway. It’s creepy and when things are implied, yet not fully explored, you wind up holding your breath, waiting for a resolution. I suppose The Little Stranger is a ghost story, but it could just as easily be a psychological thriller depending on how you look at it. It’s perfect in that it keeps you guessing and never gives you too much at any one time.

The characters are well-drawn and fully fleshed out and this can be said for some of the lesser characters as well. The story is told from Dr. Faraday’s point of view and there is a bit of foreshadowing which I found most enjoyable. There is one part of the storyline that I had a hard time wrapping my brain around though and it had to do with the relationship between Dr. Faraday and Caroline. I didn’t buy it. However, one could argue at that point that the characters were not themselves. Thinking that, is sort of how I got past it but the relationship disturbed me a bit and I’m not really sure why.

I’m pretty sure The Little Stranger will be on my list of faves for this year. Not so much because there was a lot of action (there wasn’t) or that I loved the characters (I didn’t) but because of how it made me feel while reading it. It was a treat, a real indulgence and I found myself dipping in and out of it as I’ve been known to do with a jar of Nutella.

I would like to discuss the ending with those who have read it, so if you’ve read it, comment below that you’ve read and I’ll take the conversation offline so we don’t list any spoilers in the replies.

Source: Borrowed from the library.

Chatting with friends about books and life…