Hitting the Books

I must admit to finding myself a trifle embarrassed the other night at Lorna's when everybody but me were able to discuss their current reads. In point of fact, I haven't been reading lately and haven't felt like it. Maybe it's the time of year, or maybe it's because my current three books (if I can still call them current after gathering much dust) haven't exactly gripped me.

They're all non-fiction, two about Christianity (the scriptures etc) and one about the Celts. I have read a number of religious books with interest, but the latest two simply haven't grabbed me. Consequently, I haven't been grabbing then either. And for the book about the Celts, there's much good information, but it's done by an academic and not a real writer in my opinion. Page after page reads like a list of names of either people or places or both to me, and there are so many that they all become one meaningless blur. Frankly, for one who simply desires some general knowledge, it's mind numbing stuff.

However, our dear Ginnie had recently recommended The Welsh Girl, and Cuppa found it at the library for me. (In our division of labour, she's evolved into the library finder outer). Due to my ennui, the novel sat here for a few weeks without tempting me, but after being embarrassed the other night, I decided to get on with it. For a brief while, I was put of because who really wants to read a World War II account? But only for a very brief while.

Really, the book just happens to be set in that time period in Wales and is really about character and growth and not about the war: not really although it gives reason to the plot. The guy, Karsten, is a German who is placed in a POW camp in Wales. The girl, Esther, is a sheep farmer's daughter and a barmaid at the local pub. I'll leave it there except to say that Rudolph Hess is in the book as well as his interogator, Rotheram, a German Jew.

It's not exactly a they all live happily ever after tome, but it does work out more or less satisfactorily in the end as they all get on with their lives with a new sense of self.