March round-up

With the Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge not far ahead I have plenty to write about today. This post is in 3 sections: Blogging and The A to Z Challenge, reviews of The Lost Chapter, and of Wild Places.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge

Eagle-eyed readers of this blog will have noticed a new page has appeared for the A to Z Challenge 2023. So far there is a link to my theme reveal post, but new links should appear during April, with the page being complete with links to my whole challenge some time in May (after the A to Z reflections post).

This year I have attempted to do the challenge in a less time-consuming way. As a result there are lots of links, which I’d be very pleased if my readers were to right click on and look at other posts and particularly passages from the Bible.

My theme reveal post explains what I have been doing. (I started early in the year and my posts are more or less ready.)

I find the A to Z Challenge enjoyable to take part in and have found some very interesting blogs by other participants.

Because I have 26 posts on the days recommended for the challenge, a few extra posts may also appear on Sundays in April. I can promise at least one book review.

After a short spell of knitting rather than reading, I am enjoying reading again and have two books to tell you about in this post.

Book review: The Lost Chapter by Caroline Bishop

When I returned The Book of Longings to the library I found The Lost Chapter by Caroline Bishop in the fiction section. Her debut novel was The Other Daughter. I began reading The Lost Chapter almost immediately and finished it the next day. The tagline is It’s never too late to start writing a different story…

The story is about an unlikely friendship between a troubled 18-year-old, Alice, and an octogenarian artist, Florence. A book Florence is reading makes her face her past and leads to unexpected events. It was interesting to read this immediately after The Dangerous Dance of Emma JJ, which is intended for younger readers, but deals with some similar issues.

The Lost Chapter is available as a paperback, an ebook and an audiobook.

Book Review: Wild Places by Sarah Baxter illustrated by Amy Grimes

This beautiful Inspired Travellers Guide almost jumped into my hand from the New books display at the library the day I borrowed The Book of Longings and another book I am still reading. While I have no intention to visit any of the Wild Places apart from one not far from where I live, I enjoyed Sarah Baxter’s wonderful descriptions and the beautiful art. Her writing is concise, painting vivid pictures with details of wildlife, landscape, geology and human activity in each place. I could only read a couple of chapters at a time as they needed to be absorbed slowly. Amy Grimes’ illustrations are also spectacular.

One of the places featured is the Carmargue. It reminded me of a poem I had loved in my teens and not thought about for a long time. Horses on the Carmargue by Roy Campbell proved difficult to learn by heart, but is beautiful all the same. I found it in The Oxford Book of Animal Poems, which seems to be out of print now.

The Wild Places described are from almost all the continents and some islands. Many are difficult to visit. I enjoyed it as an armchair traveller!

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