Tag: love

Happy People Read and Drink Coffee

The title of the book is actually the name of a book café, run by the main character in this story, Diane. She comes from a wealthy Parisian family, who gave her the store to run. Diane is very happily married with a loving husband, and daughter Clara. In fact, life couldn’t be better for this French family. Felix is a family friend who helps Diane run the book café.

This idyllic life is soon shattered by an enormous tragedy. Diane has never had to manage, or overcome any hurdles, to achieve what she wanted. She is paralysed with fear and despair. In fact, she barely leaves her apartment for a year, visited only by Felix, who regales her with stories of his nightly escapades.

Grief manifests itself in many ways, but for most people, time lessens pain, and the mind prepares to take the next step. Diane’s next step leads her to Ireland, to a place she finds by sticking her finger blindly on a point on the map. She discovers that distance is no cure or aid to forgetting, and that nothing has changed apart from the scenery. She is renting a cottage by the sea, and next door lives a very grumpy man. He is surly and bad mannered and makes it plain he wants nothing to do with her. They fight often as they are neighbours and can’t help bumping into each other on the beach or at the pub. If Edward is rude, then she is equally arrogant and stubborn. Not the makings of a friendship you would think.

Gradually, Edward and Diane begin to form a relationship bred of recognition by both of them, that each is a much wounded person. However, this is not an easy romantic solution for either of them. There are lives to be lived and paths to be followed for each of these people to find happiness and contentment, running away won’t help and hiding from society is not a solution.

It is refreshing to read a book that has a romantic/tragic element, but is realistic in some of the ways people sort out their lives. To move forward and achieve is a measure of healing, but it comes with sadness and pain. Life will never be the same but there are times to enjoy, satisfaction to be gained, and pleasures to be had.

June 7, 2016
Between Shadow and Light

Fingers dance lightly across the keys. Emotion and mood slowly morph into being to commence a journey of healing and love, orchestrated by the pure voice of piano.

Each of the tracks has been created as a single, yet vital component of the healing process we all have to face and learn to accept, as a segment of our own personal journey.

Beautiful and evocative, the music can, as always, be enjoyed simply as delightful elegant piano, touching as you will allow, to be enjoyed at any time and in any place.

Having played this album several times over while undertaking the task of creating some specialist garments, the mood created is one of peace and tranquillity; there but not interfering with the thought process, touching the deeper chords of the psyche to bring with it a sense of quiet reflection and clearer thought patterns.

Perhaps not what was intended when the pieces were being composed, but such is the journey music will, and more often than not, can take you. Each person will find what it is that is required in each piece. Places unchartered, moods and feeling to be softened, hope to be offered and received, such is the true power of each composition.

Patton has, as many have, faced the daunting task of recovery from a serious arm injury which held the real possibility of ending his career at the piano. That he has felt the anxiety, hope, despair, the acceptance of challenge, renewed hope then recovery, comes through in the various tracks.

The range of music style encompasses the gentle, reflective new age, through to light classical with an often unexpected range of variations in style to be discovered and enjoyed.

Many of the pieces have been written in tribute to a person or situation that is or has faced suffering and healing; his parents, a friend’s dog called Riley, the long, heartbreaking goodbye associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

He has also recognised the place in all our lives when, in that space between the ‘shadow and the light’, that nocturnal time before the sun rises or sets on the day, is the time when we confront our angst, our sadness, our suffering and search for some healing and love to get us through the day ahead, or the night yet to come.

Beautiful in its thoughtful creation and structure this contemporary album of piano will appeal time and time again.

May 25, 2016
Mistletoe and Mr. Right

Sometimes it is a great relief to curl up with a light hearted romantic novel and just relax. In this book we are given not one, but two complete stories, each satisfying, and predictable, ensuring comfort. There is a good balance of humour, customs and information shared, as well as the workings of a rock group, behind the scenes.

Lyla PayneIn the first story, we have a girl, who is studying in college in America. She is rather an oddball as she doesn’t drink or smoke, and enjoys her planned and studious life. Planning ahead is what she does best, and when you hear her background story, it makes sense. She goes to an end of the year party, and suddenly, there he is; a gorgeous Irish man who is interested in her, and they begin dating.

Six weeks later, they have become quite serious, but Brennan is going home to Ireland for Christmas. Jessica decides to surprise him, and pop over on Christmas Eve. This is not the best thought out plan, and driving her rental car to an outlying farm during the freezing winter’s night proves tough. So tough in fact that she runs into the family nanny goat! Not a good way to introduce yourself to a startled family.

The story continues with enjoyable characters, and subtle humour. The family are concerned about why a girl wouldn’t drink. Unheard of at Christmas in Ireland! Gradually Jessica is brought to see, that even the most careful planning can sometimes go awry.

The next story has to do with Jessica’s roommate from college. She has been offered a position to work as a front person for a successful rock and roll band. The only trouble is that she was in love with the singer, spending the summer holidays together. He left her without a word, and she is still heart broken and sad. Christina has to maintain a formal polite working atmosphere to keep the job, which for her is a first step into the industry she loves. Other family issues pop up and Christina has to deal with meeting a new stepmother and two step sisters.

Both of these stories are gentle romantic reads, and one almost wishes for a snowy day to sit and enjoy the dilemmas and revelations that face the two girls.

March 22, 2016
How to be Single

Many little girls grow up with the modelling of a couple of adults in their own home. It is reasonable then to expect that, after having grown up, chosen a job, developed friendships and done a great amount of exploring and travelling, they look toward marriage and a family. But times have changed and, in New York and other parts of the world, there are not enough men to allow this to happen. The author decides to explore this idea, and does so in a humorous and authentic way.

Liz tells a story about Julie and four of her friends. As we become acquainted with the women, we realise that each of them is an individual who has particular issues. All of them wish to meet a man and settle down and prepare for motherhood. Julie works for a Publishing house as a publicist, and is the one the women look to for help.

Georgia is recently separated and has two young children. She is enraged that her husband has left them, and wants Julie to organise an evening for her to have a night on the town. Ruby suffers from depression, and volunteers at a dog shelter, where she makes sure the dogs being put down, get a last hug from her. Alice is a beautiful and intelligent woman who is a lawyer, and Serena joins a meditation centre.

All the women are seeking to come to terms with their singleness. The chapters are called Rules, and the first chapter is “RULE 1, Make sure you have friends.” The friends all go to some bars (with Georgia dancing on the bar waving her bra around), but in the end, it is the same as every other night out, when they come home together.

As their lives progress, and they each feel a degree of helplessness, Julie decides to do some research. She asks her boss if she can write a book about single women all around the world. When she is given permission, she travels around, meeting women and talking to them. It is fascinating, and believable information that she gathers.

The first women Julie speaks to are French. When she asks them what they do on a date, they reply “We don’t date.” They explain that they go out for drinks, but would NEVER call a man. Pride is taught to these women from an early age, and is taken for granted.

The Italian women interviewed slap a lot. They were quite shocked when they discovered that Julie had never slapped a man! It is in Rome that Julie meets a French man who has an “open marriage.” The only rule is, he and his wife may only be a way for two weeks, and then they must return home.

As Julie travels around the world, sometimes with her friends and sometimes alone, she discovers more customs and fascinating insights into the life of single women.

The humour and reality that the author brings to this book, will keep you reading and smiling. There is no manufactured ending to this work, but each of the characters moves forward, discovering the amazing importance of friendships, each becoming a little less precious about their own personal situation.

If the film is true to the book, it should be a cracker, and I can’t wait to see it.

February 28, 2016
Summer Skin

“It’s all girl meets boy, girl steals from boy, seduces boy, ties boy to a chair and burns boy’s stuff, just your typical love story”. Well I’m not sure that it is a typical love story, but rather a look at young people beginning a university life. They are more bemused by their freedom and power, and how to exert both.

We meet Jess as she is suffering from a nasty hangover, which seems to be how most of the characters live. At last year’s ball, one of the girls in her campus was lured into bed by a boy from an adjoining campus and he shared photos of the act with his mates. In order to get even, Jess needs to steal a rugby top from one of the boys to be used at the next ball, where the girls are plotting an equally demeaning ploy.

There is plenty of heart to heart discussions in the girl’s rooms and plenty of nightly drinking at the bar. I suppose lectures were attended and tutorials were presented, but this is certainly not the focus of the book. There is plenty of sexual titivation and many plans to “get even” but most of the discussion would be more suited to a Primary School bike shed.

Perhaps younger readers would be more suited to this style of story, but it presents characters with little depth of personality and reasoning powers. It is set in Brisbane which may be an attraction. The code of dress for the formal ball is diverting, with Jess wearing a corset, tutu, and Doc Martins. Apart from this there is little to smile about and hold the attention for the reader.

February 5, 2016
Night Owls

Beatrix is a budding artist who misses the train and has to take the ‘all-nighter’ known as the ‘owl bus’ home, finally accepting that as she was on a curfew and should not have been out, she was in trouble, no matter what the excuse! The fact that she was trying desperately to get into a museum-sponsored scholarship contest is not going to wash with her Mum!

She meets jack on board the ‘owl bus’, a hot boy about her age. Jack is interesting as he is dressed all in black, a bit like a burglar. As she talks with him she realises Jack comes across in her imagination as a ‘vegetarian Buddhist jewel thief’! Go figure!

He is nothing like she imagines him to be but an infamous graffiti artist, well known for his outrageous designs; single words done in gold lettering.

As the summer moves along, she and Jack meet occasionally but she finds the summer is not turning out as she wants it to. Her pathway into the scholarship she so desperately wants seems to be blocked. She needs to get an acceptance to the hospitals “Willed Body’ program so she can draw the anatomical components of the human body; in her mind it’s a bit like following in da Vinci’s footsteps as she is sure this is her pathway to success.

She talks with jack about the programme and the fact that it seems almost impossible to get accepted. Suddenly she get told that she has been accepted but is a little bit sceptical about this as she believes that he may have had something to do with this as it all seems a bit too co-incidental!

Beatrix and Jack begin to see a bit more of each other and it becomes clear to Beatrix anyway, that there is another side to Jack, another issue or maybe a secret, but what could that be.

Secrets hidden will surface but what effect will this have on the young couple and their families. What effect will this have on whether Beatrix manages to win the all-important scholarship?

Set in San Francisco this is a contemporary tale of young love and how it can surmount the odds to heal the pain and resolve issues of the past.

A great read for both teens and young adults.

January 19, 2016
Chance Developments

How many times in our lives have we come across a collection of old sepia toned photographs and wondered just who they were, what made up the days of their lives.

Who were these people captured in a moment of time to remain so for all eternity or at least the length of the life of the photograph.

When Alexander McCall Smith decided to take the process one step further, requesting friend and Editor Jamie Crawford, to find him a selection of black and white photographs he could use to weave around a selection of stories, the end result was a tender and delicate look at love in its many and various forms.

As the pages turn on five separate images, each of the stories reveals a life that was as intriguing as it is beguiling, all told in the gentle penmanship that is synonymous of McCall Smith.

Each of the stories has a different aspect to it, each one set in a differing part of the world, often with ties back to Scotland, with each of the stories as intriguing or perhaps more so than the true story behind the people shown in the images.

The first one, ‘Sister Flora’s First Day of Freedom’, is about the coming of age of Flora as she steps out of the life she thought she was destined to lead and discovers that she truly can make choices, fall in love and declare she is a Protestant instead of a Catholic, because that is how she feels.

‘Angels in Italy’, is based on three children, two girls, one leading a pony or small bred horse and a little boy on a trike, wearing a kilt. Tuscany is the setting sometime after the end of the War as the story is told to a young man undertaking research about a love that survived all the odds.

‘Dear Ventriloquist’ changes the pace with a lovely, quirky story about a young man who dared to be different and the pathway he took, via the Circus, to find a love that would last him all his days.

Three people and a car that has broken down, sets the stage in Ireland for a genteel love story that includes family values and virtues as well as a handful of tacks, in ‘A Woman with the Beautiful Car’.

The final story, ‘He Wanted To Believe in Tenderness’, is set in Australia before, during and after the Second World War, as David struggles to try to return to normal life after being a captive of the Japanese. He marries the love of his life Hannah, but life does not work out the way he expected it too and his love is put to the test again and again.

Each story is a delicate look at the power of love, friendship and the power of transformation it can create. Each one is beautifully told in true McCall Smith fashion.

January 11, 2016
Love x Style x Life

This is a book about STYLE; that illusive thing that we all strive to achieve and yet can be so fleeting or simply on the never, never going to get there plan. But with well-known fashionista and blogger Garance Dore letting out her secret to success, and yes, STYLE, we can all benefit from taking a good look at the simple things that do add up to that classy little thing called STYLE.

Born on Corsica and raised in a family that believed in hard work and making the most of opportunities, Garance grew up to be a child who sort of thought she knew her own mind. Always conscious of her mother’s sense of style, inherited from her mother, she realised that it simply did not matter how much or how little you spent on your clothing, it was how you wore the finished articles that made the difference.

A simple scarf, a remade dress or coat, a recycled bag, all used with care, can add that little bit of pizazz to an outfit.

In her bubbly, comfortable manner she offers her tips on life, living and dressing. You feel like you have just sat down with your best friend over a coffee somewhere in the world, to have a discussion about life, love and all the other bits and pieces that make enjoyable chatter.

As a successful woman, Dore talks about the pathway she has trodden to get to where she is today. As a Uni student she lost the road she was supposed to be traveling, going off in whatever direction was the fad at the time, in her twenties she though this, her thirties, that and dressed accordingly.

Now as a successful woman she reflects back over the past twenty years, offering her tips and wisdom learned the hard way. By trying and failing over and over again, but always being honest about where she was at and what made the difference, she is now an illustrator, photographer and writer on fashion and style.

She talks frankly and enjoyably about her life as a young student setting out on the pathways to adulthood, the breaks and opportunities she eventually learned to grab with both hands, the people she has met and who have offered advice and help along the way, and the love of her life, a man met at a fashion show, a name in his area of fashion photography.

Whatever you think about fashion, about style, about life, you will enjoy this very, very French, very entertaining and light-hearted look at what makes the world go round, particularly in relation to developing your own style and following your dream, picking yourself up and dusting off after each lesson learned wherever it may take you.

December 15, 2015