I’m turning to true comfort reads. Though I wish I had all my Mary Stewarts, I lost most of them long ago. I do have this one and This Rough Magic. I read all of her romantic suspense novels when I was a young teen; gobbled them up. They remain some of my favorite books with heroines who have a certain level of sophistication, witty repartee, great plots, exotic locales. So I pulled this one off the shelf last night and I’m going to read it today. Note the price: $1.25.
It’s still rather damp and we’re supposed to have showers off and on this morning and then that may be the end of rain for a while. All forecasts say ‘partly cloudy’ but I’m hoping some sunshine sneaks in there.
Gosh, there’s not much else to say. These days get rather monotonous, don’t they? We’re fine and we’re keeping ourselves occupied, but, since it looks like we’ll have at least another month of this, it can get overwhelming and oppressive.
Stay safe my friends.
Happy Tuesday.
We are so lucky that we love to read! I fill a lot of my at-home time with reading. Of course, I should be “spring cleaning” but I can’t get motivated for that for some reason. Being very lazy!! Maybe April will see me jump into cleaning action! Hmmmm… Thanks for posting, Claudia. Your blog and many of the other blogs are important parts of my social life now!
Thank you, Ellen! Take care.
I loved seeing the Mary Stewart book! My older sister belonged to a book club when I was a teenager, and all of her books came to our house in hard cover. I believe I grabbed them before my sister read them. Nice memory of a wonderful author.
And yes, it’s been raining and very foggy here for days. I would like to get out in the yard, but it is soooooo muddy. It will have to wait.
The sun just peeked through the clouds here. So welcome! Take care, Judy.
I’m telling myself the old AA slogan, one day at a time. Otherwise it’s just too overwhelming. I only hope that the voluntary isolation lasts long enough to keep us safe and that people find someway to be able to stay sheltered and fed. I adore Mary Stewart and I too collected her paperbacks for years. The one you have is one of my favorites as is Airs Above the Ground . She was a talented writer who basically wrote in the gothic/romantic tradition but added so much more, and I loved her anoraks and foreign countries. Thanks for reminding me. Yep, $1.25. As I recall I never paid more than $3.00 for a paperback and that included Dr. Zhivago. Thanks for staying in touch with us, even if there’s not much “news”. Daily life has become precious.
Anoraks, foreign countries, Range Rovers, so many wonderful things. Thanks so much, Nora. Stay safe.
glad you and don are doing okay.
we had a beautiful-but-rather-windy day yesterday … not a cloud in the sky. hope you get that weather soon … minus the wind … and can enjoy being outside for a while.
i have a dozen or so books from my childhood and am glad about that, too. they are touchstones to a very happy, very blessed and much simpler time in my life … much needed right now!
doing okay here, in part because i was able to see some members of my family yesterday from a distance. i was so happy to see their faces!!!! our six households are all stocked up and we’re doing things that bring enjoyment or distraction and watching out for each other. several can thankfully work from home; others are staying home because that’s what we all need to do and because their jobs were taken away by this awful virus. praying, praying … including for my oldest niece and her second baby (who’s due date is april 16).
hope you are all safe, well, stocked up.
kathy in iowa
kathy, I will keep your niece and her baby in thoughts and prayer. It is such a scary time. ♡
to chris k in wisconsin …
thank you so much!
yes, it is a very scary time … and very hard to not be able to see loved ones right now. i am sorry that you know from experience what that is like and hope you can hug your granddaughter soon.
hope you and your family are well.
here’s to better days ahead for everyone!
thanks again.
kathy in iowa
ps: currently there are 497 confirmed cases here and still no “shelter in place” order. ugh.
Yeah, what is up with your Gov??? It seems like we can’t get through this if we aren’t ALL doing the same thing!? Same with Mississippi & Florida. For your niece’s sake, let us hope wiser heads can prevail.
hej, chris k in wisconsin …
i don’t know!
our governor has been holding a daily press conference at which she answers a few questions. most of those questions are – every single day – about “shelter in place”, specifically why she’s not ordered such, what she’s waiting for. mostly her answers have been about “the data” and not reaching certain “metrics”.
she’s given a few reasons why she’s not given such an order. among them, she said closing “non-essential” businesses like restaurants, bars, bookstores, malls, etc. (which she ordered) has served the same purpose as a “shelter in place” order. and she repeatedly says she thinks iowans are “doing a great job of staying home” and (because this is a primarily agricultural state) “everyone else can’t stay home because their jobs are essential to the supply chain for food”. she talks a lot about “metrics” and “data”. has she not seen the “data” from nyc, italy, new orleans … ?!?
scary and maddening!
i pray for those wiser heads to prevail and for everyone having to make such big decisions, those on the front lines, for everyone. you are right … we all have to take precautions and make changes to protect each other and ourselves.
hope you are well, stocked up, having a nice night.
kathy in iowa
Glad you got to see some of your family, Kathy. That must have been comforting. Thinking of your niece and her baby! Take care.
to claudia…
thank you! she’s feeling well and is a strong, level-headed person … but it’s still hard to not see her or help in some way (beyond prayers). and i am very sad that it might be weeks before my brother can hold his newest grandson and that for the foreseeable future he will only get to see him via technology. i am thankful for technology, though … especially now.
and yes, it was very comforting to see members of my family! glad you can check in with your sister and little z by technology.
hope you and don are having a nice night, are well and stay that way.
thanks again very much!
kathy in iowa
You’re welcome, Kathy. Take care.
I’m hoping you will be able to hug your grand niece soon!! Hang in there…this isn’t easy by a long shot. Take care Kathy! ;)
to donnamae …
thank you so much.
i hope and pray we can all hug our loved ones soon.
hope you and your family are well and stay that way!
thanks again very much.
kathy in iowa
We are all well…so far! ;))
to donnamae …
praying you stay that way!
kathy in iowa
The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment were the first Arthurian legend books (besides Disney’s The Sword in the Stone) I read and they engendered a life-long interest in that topic!
Thanks for reminding us of Mary Stewart.
Love Mary Stewart! Thanks for reminding me!
You’re welcome. Take care!
You’re very welcome. Take care, Cara.
We’ve had beautiful weather the past couple of days. The sunshine makes everything seem a little better. I can’t concentrate right now, so I’ve been re-reading “fluff” books. My daughter is reading my childhood copy of Little Women. Powell’s Books in Oregon is still open for online orders. They had to close the store and fire employees, but hired back quite a number because the online department got so busy. We are going to put together a big family book order today. What do people do who aren’t readers?!
Fluff books are sometimes the best possible read. I read that about Powells yesterday – so glad! Take care, Linda.
I missed the film last summer (husband refused to go and I never got there myself) so my comfort read this week is “Little Women.” Beginning around 5th grade, it was one of the books that I used to read it every single summer until high school. Haven’t read it since and suddenly felt the need to read about a close family.
Spoke on the phone yesterday with our youngest. With these monotonous days (and unlike with my friends who are close to my age), after a few minutes I had absolutely no news to tell or nothing else really to talk about. He and his girlfriend are big gamers, about which I understand next to nothing, so neither did he really. All I really want to do is just hug my family and hold them close. Hopefully that’ll happen in the not-too-distant future.
Take care. K.
Never understood the gaming thing, but then again, I think it’s generational. I wish you could hug your boys, Kay. Take care!
I have one shelf in my library for Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt! My favorite was Victoria’s Mistress of Mellyn, only because the heroine/governess was named Martha. :-) I also find it too hard to concentrate on complicated fiction right now, so have returned to my comfort books – the Anne of Green Gables series, Gene Stratton Porter’s books (Girl of the Limberlost, Laddie, The Harvester), Little Women, and especially my dog-eared favorites I inherited from my mother’s libraries – the English racing murder mysteries of Dick Francis. I like slipping into his world, where integrity mattered and the heroes were stalwart and are always victorious! Stay safe, Claudia!
Oh, Martha,I loved Victoria Holt and Mistress of Mellyn! I haven’t thought of that book in years and years!! Now, when the libraries are open again, I have yet another book added to my list! I truly enjoy re-reading favorite books.
I LOVED Mistress of Mellyn. Read it several times, though I don’t have it on hand now. Do you sense I might start searching for all of these favorites so I can add them to my shelves? I have Girl of the Limberlost right here on my shelf. It may be time to reread that one, too. You know I never read a Dick Francis, but my old boss at Boston University raved about them. I’ll have to correct that. Take care of yourself, Martha!
Loved loved Victoria Holt-one of my first fiction authors…fell in love with those books…hooked me forever…
I loved Mary Stewart when I was a teen! Another favorite, The Moonspinners. Remember the movie with Hayley Mills?
Absolutely. I wanted to BE Hayley Mills. And I had a crush on Peter McEnery. Stay safe, Lynda!
oh, yes, to Martha – I too loved Gene Stratton-Porter. Did you read Freckles? I need to reread her books again. My brother recently told me he had just finished a re-read of them too. found this on Amazon about this author.
https://www.amazon.com/Gene-Stratton-Porter/e/B000AP9254
Gene Stratton-Porter (August 17, 1863 – December 6, 1924) was an American author, early naturalist, nature photographer, and one of the first women to form a movie studio and production company, Gene Stratton-Porter Productions, Inc. She wrote several best-selling novels and well-received columns in national magazines, such as McCall’s.
Claudia – we too have been quarantined, with respiratory illness so not going out to store or anywhere. Today I was feeling better, so decided to take my ‘lonely’ car out to deliver some items to some friends in need. Just after my grandson and I got to friend’s home & I got out of my car, I heard my doors lock – with my keys, purse, phone, and dog inside. 39 degrees outside & I had on a light jacket. My friend wasn’t home. Luckily my grandson had his cell phone, called my husband who came to the rescue. Had to go home & get my spare key. Dog was fine but we were worried, she is 12 years old. This was truly an adventure I did not wish to have. But it was different!!
One of my prized possessions is my copy of Girl of the Limberlost.
Goodness, all you wanted was to take a drive and help your friends and you ended up worrying about your dog. At least you had an adventure, Jan! Stay safe.
Don’t you just love pulling out an old novel and see the price! It’s time for comfort food and comfort books!
I do. I remember buying Scholastic books for 35 cents! Stay safe, Jeanie.
Loved Scholastic books…Sister of the Bride my favorite…
I couldn’t wait for them to arrive in our classroom.
Like many commenters here, I also can’t concentrate on new, unknown to me authors and titles, and have constructed a new TBR pile of old favorites. Probably because life in general is one gigantic unknown right now. And I also loved Mary Stewart as a teen! My daughter recently showed me some used paperbacks she had purchased “for the covers,” and there were two Mary Stewart titles! Just when I needed them.
Wonderful! I wish I had every one of them here. I loved Nine Coaches Waiting and The Ivy Tree and This Rough Magic the most.
Stay safe, Christy.
Not so easy in my neck of the woods. Husband is having a difficult day at work (home). Daughter struggling to cope with new orders from housemates – we tried to encourage her to move last year, but rent was so reasonable that she didn’t want to move. Now it’s becoming intolerable — how to move out in this current situation located just outside NYC. Incredibly CT still does not have a ‘Shelter In Place’ order. At least the peak is estimated to be mid-April, doesn’t mean the after-peak time is going to be super-easy. Wish I had a fairy wand today that actually worked! Pouf! Covid-19 all gone Pouf ! Pouf!!
Other than that I have gotten some wonderful offers from various performing arts sites to either watch their play performance or participate in zoom exercise or zoom seminars. Attended one yesterday with a producer – he was wonderfully encouraging to the young participants. He has a 30-day challenge to write a play/musical.
Stay safe, ALL. Bon courage.
Stay safe, Martha. I hope your daughter can resolve her situation – she doesn’t need that stress right now.
to martha (sf bay area) …
oof … sorry you have those additional things to deal with.
i will pray for you and your family.
take good care of yourself. be safe and well.
kathy in iowa
Thank you, Kathy – it helped I think. My roots are in Iowa. Best to you with your family’s challenges.
I am not familiar with Mary Stewart!! That seems odd to me. Maybe it is because I was reading Donna Parker books and re-reading Little Women about every 3 months. I swear I read it 60 times! I thought of Bobsey Twins books the other day, too. I still have quite a few library books in my pile. My concentration seems to be lacking. I can read for a couple of hours straight on some days, and on other days I read the same paragraph 3 or 4 times and then have to read it aloud to bump my comprehension. It is so strange! I keep muddling through though, because I can NOT go back to where I was several yrs ago when I couldn’t read for nearly 2 years. That was a horrible time for me.
Yes, the days all seem to blend into one, don’t they? It seems like the news gets worse instead of better every day. I think of all the people who have rent and other payments due over the next few days and won’t have the money to meet those bills. Please everyone, stay safe and stay home to help save everyone.
Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney were all writers of the gothic/mystery/romance genre and they were writing at the same time. I read them all! Yes, my concentration is all over the place right now, as well.
Stay safe, Chris.
Hang in there. We will look back on this and have some satisfaction that we were resilient and able to get through it…… I am revelling in the amount of time that I have to do as much craft as I can. If I tire of doing something then I can put it down and pick up something else. I made some lovely scarves yesterday for gifts as well as to sell. Also made some traveller’s shoe bags to sell. Just woke up and it is a miserable drizzling day when I had hoped to go for a long walk. Will just have to dress up for the weather. Haven’t got round to reading anything yet although there are plenty of books to read. I may try one of my Jeffery Archer stories which I love.
You sound happily busy, Robyn. Good! Take care.
What a lovely way to start my day – the cover of a Mary Stewart book. I have all the Mary Stewart books including her children’s books. Studio Ponoc (Japanese animation film studio) based a recent children’s movie (Mary and the witches flower) on Mary Stewart’s The Little Broomstick.
Another author of strong women characters undergoing difficulties and overcoming them is Madelaine Brent (a pseudonym for Peter O’Donnell). He wrote similar stories to Mary Stewart.
I am missing the public library through our sheltering at home. My husband has suggested I take this time to reacquaint myself with our collection of National Geographic magazines. I plan to start at the beginning and work my way through the years.
Thank you for the Mary Stewart cover.
You’re very welcome, Miche. I miss our library, too. Don tried to return a book there the other day and there was a sign saying, the book bin was full and to hang onto checked-out books. There would be no fines. Take care!
I looked up John Prine and really liked his music. I have lately been craving some Willie Nelson, but Prine makes a real nice breathe of fresh air. Thanks.
hej, jan … also claudia and all garden lovers …
have you heard willie and his two sons sing a sing called “turn off the news and build a garden”? you can hear it in a post of a week ago on “lukas nelson official” instagram account. hope you enjoy it!
be safe and well.
kathy in iowa
I’ll pass this along to Don, Kathy. Thank you!
You’re welcome. Take care!
One day is blending into another…we seem to be on repeat. Whether it’s cooking, cleaning, reading, walking, watching tv…there seems to be only so much I can do for a small length of time. I seem to have the attention span of a gnat. It took me an hour just to finish writing this comment!
One thing for sure…I am so glad you are blogging every day, not only because of the ‘count up’…but because it gives all of us a chance to check in with one another. I like that! Tape care! ;)
*take care! ;))
xo
My attention span is suffering, as well. Take care of yourself, Donna!
Enjoy your Mary Stewart book. Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney are favorites of mine. I read on a blog where a lot of people are returning to their childhood favorites like Anne of Green Gable. I walked about a block and a half today to the mailbox. I had some letters to mail. It felt good and invigorating. Stay well and sa7e.
Marilyn
It must have felt good to get outside, Marilyn. Take care!
We moved my 91 year old mother in with us a week ago. She lives at a senior retirement center but their biosecurity was practically non-existant. So, my days are pretty busy. We have stairs and she needs help going up and down. Not many projects happening around here, but it’s OK. She needs to be here. She is pretty engaged, though forgetful. I am concentrating on staying well for her. We’re in it a week, and doing pretty well. I enjoy reading your posts, even though you may think they are not exciting, and I love seeing photos of your home.
I’m glad you could take her in, Debby. Better to have her with you. Bless you for doing that.
Take care of yourself!
Re: Little Women. I have not seen the latest one, but I love, love, loved the 1994 (yikes!) production starring Winona Ryder with Susan Sarandon as Marmee, and Christian Bale as Laurie, and Claire Danes as Bet, Kirsten Dunst as Amy. OMG, it is really close to perfect. And the scenery…19th century Massachusetts and NYC!! I recommend it for time travel.
We all need a bit of time travel right now! Thank you, Leslie.