January Recap 2023

I did not finish any books in January, but I AM reading some great books! In a few weeks I should finish Madame Bovary (a reread), and Marriage to a Difficult Man. 

Gustave Flaubert is splendid with his character formation in Madame Bovary, all of which are caricatures of human personalities and each strikingly imprudent and grandiose in his own way. Even though it is a reread, I am being exposed to parts of the story that I had forgotten or sections that I remembered differently. It is so good to reread a great story. 

Marriage to a Difficult Man is about the relationship of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards -- you know, the American revivalist preacher and theologian? Because I enjoy biographies, the people and this time period are very intriguing. It is more told from the POV of Sarah who had to endure much while (as was typical) her husband was always traveling or studying. In addition, Edwards was a "difficult man," but Sarah was, as eighteenth-century women had to be, resilient.

I do hope to finish Anna Karenina this month, also, but I am only half way through. I am rereading this for book club, and we meet to discuss at the end of February. Nonetheless, I know enough to discuss it, but I will still finish it because it is, I think, one of the most accomplished, absorbing, and satisfying classics you can experience. It is so excellent because Tolstoy is a first-rate author and writer (and my Garnett translation is readable). There are numerous plots and subplots simultaneously being woven, easily determined (you cannot get confused). When I first read this novel, I was confounded by the long Russian names and the shorter ones, but not this time. I remember everyone by his shorter name. 

I also started reading The Self-sufficient Backyard. I am mostly interested in the gardening sections, but I hope to get other ideas on how to be more efficient with our property. 

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I wish it did not take me so long to finish a book, but part of the problem is that I read multiple books concurrently. And technically I still care for three kids, one husband, a father who has Parkinson's, and a high-maintenance dog. Some weeks all I do is drive people back and forth to doctor's appointments, the dentist, the optometrist, the post office, the bank, the dance studio, the grocery store, and the vet. I Uber all day long! I still homeschool two high schoolers, do some laundry, clean up after people, and make a meal once a day. 

Every once in awhile I get to read outside in the sun while I wait for the kids to finish work that I need to check; but usually I try to read at the end of the night until my eyes start to close. Then I know I am done. Until tomorrow. 

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A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN

I just wanted to add that I was thinking about Virginia Woolf's essay "A Room of One's Own" while I was reading Married to a Difficult Man -- how Sarah, Jonathan Edward's wife, was left to hold down the home-front with numerous young children, even while he was home because he was always off studying and reading and writing and thinking. Woolf wrote about how important it is for a woman to have her own room where she can go off for hours or days at a time, without interruption, to think and do likewise. 

And it occurred to me that I finally have a Room of My Own! Now...it's a little closet space, but it has everything I need to think, study, read, write, and learn. It is connected to my bedroom and was intended to be a closet, but there is a second large closet, and my husband and I did not need two. So I snagged this one for my "office." Plus it has a window. It's perfect. 

SIDEBAR: At one time I wanted to go to Alaska and live in an igloo. 

I've since changed my mind. 

But I still like the poster.

After I donated all the books I imagined I would never read again, I managed to fit everything I have left on two bookcases. My husband wanted to buy me more book cases, but I said I would manage with these two. So far I have. 

The bookcase above is mainly books for school or other non-fiction books on parenting, education, and miscellaneous. The tall bookcase contains all of my novels, histories, biographies, poetry, plays, and the like. Last night I organized everything. Each shelf is double layered, so you cannot see the books behind the first row. 

The top shelf holds all of the biographies I have read; the next shelf is for histories and Christian non-fiction I have read. The next shelf down contains plays and poetry. Some I have read; most I have not. The shelf below that contains all the books I own and have not read. My TBR shelf. And the lowest shelf are already read classics, novels, and other fiction.  

I love my little space. But the problem remains. I cannot, like Jonathan Edwards, disappear all day to read, study, and write. So the issue really is not having a space or a room of one's own. The issue truly is, (finding): Time of One's Own. 

To be determined...