Seven books for September

 by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

 in Cape Town, South Africa

 

I enjoyed trawling my photo archives to find the right image to echo each book, but that curry for dinner was fresh and hot.

 

NoViolet BULAWAYO

We need new names

~

Growing up in Paradise, a shanty town in Zimbabwe. Then to live with her aunt in 'DestroyedMichygen' in America.

~

Because we were not in our own country, we could not use our own languages.

What we really wanted to say remained folded inside, trapped.

When we were alone we summoned the horses of our languages and mounted their backs and galloped past skyscrapers.

 

Skyscraper in London

 

St Katharine Dock

Cecilia AHERN

The marble collector

~

At the end of her father's life, she slowly discovers that he has a whole other life than the one she knew. A story of second chances.

~

[Like me - a laatlammetjie with 3 older sisters] Joe the baby, the one who came long after we lost Victoria, who looks at me, Angus, and Duncan like we're someone else's family, not his, never fully able to connect with us, as we'd all moved out of the house as he grew up.

~

When a member of the family leaves or dies, it changes the dynamics of the family. People move and shift, take up places they either wanted to have or are forced into roles they never wanted.

 

Glass art at the Owl House

 

Acrobat at the Owl House

S. K. TREMAYNE

The assistant

~

Gaslighting, one step into future tech. Homage to Sylvia Plath. In London.

~

Tabitha Ashbury already owns, Tabitha Ashbury will also inherit.

I'm not just Generation Rent, I am Generation Can't Afford to Rent Anywhere Without a Major Knife Crime Epidemic.

 

Gaslight burning at Denis Severs house in London

 

Gaslight at Denis Severs House

Julian BARNES

The only story

~

Most of us have only one story to tell. Only one finally worth telling. Told and retold.

~

Memory sorts and sifts according to the demands made on it by the rememberer. But I would guess memory prioritises whatever is most useful to help keep the bearer of those memories going. So there would be a self-interest in bringing happier memories to the surface first.

 

Holds upon Happiness, happy memories

 

Happy memories

Julie COHEN

Louis & Louise

~

A very different story for me. Town in Maine where the paper mill was.

~

A movement catches her eye and Lou stops. A little bit ahead of her, feet in the river, stands a heron. Slender and prehistoric, it sees her and freezes. For a long moment, neither move. The bird could be a stick or a shadow, but then it tilts its long beak and focuses its eye on the water instead of on Lou.

 

A wow moment in our garden when a heron visited Froggy Pond

 

A heron visiting

Tarquin HALL

The case of the missing servant

~

Vish Puri - private investigator in Delhi. Do you also seek out recipes for the food you read about? I have ... red kidney beans, enjoy curry. This evening we will try rajma, a much loved Punjabi dish to be eaten with rice.

 

Punjabi rajma - comfort food from your mama

Katarina BIVALD

The readers of Broken Wheel recommend

~

Set in Iowa, translated from Swedish. This one was a happy, feel good book to counteract a pile of psychological thrillers. A small town sparkling back to life, as Sara begins her second life. Woven thru the book are the letters Iowan Amy wrote to Swedish Sara. These characters and the books they read all live, against some rather wooden novels I won't list.

 

Field guides for our wildflowers

 

Gardening books well used

Little bit of rain has blown away and the sun is out. Spring!

 

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