Felicia's Journey - William Trevor (1994) A title that was picked rather randomly off the TBR shelf, this was a great surprise read for me. William Trevor, described by Wiki as âÂÂone of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world,â is famous for his short stories, but his back list is HUGE and so there are loads of different books to choose from. HeâÂÂs won loads of prestigious literary prizes (including the Whitbread Prize and five nominations for the Booker Prize.) Irreverent sidenote: He sounds a bit like the Snoop Dogg/Lion of the Booker World.* So - to the plot of this fast-moving and short book: Felicia is an unmarried and naïve Irish girl who ends up getting pregnant by a visiting no-good lad from her village and who has moved away to England. In FeliciaâÂÂs impoverished family, there are few options for her to follow, so she leaves Ireland to go to the Midlands to chase down this boy who, she is certain, would like to know she is pregnant and would do the right thing. Her family is against this lad from the get-go as her father believes that the guy has run off to join the British Army, and as they are extremely wound up in Irish Independence activity and history, and so to them, this act means he has joined the enemy. Along with this is the fact that the family is Roman Catholic and his father works at a convent in the garden, so options for her pregnancy are not available either. Poor thing - itâÂÂs no win for her all around, it seems, and so she visits England for the first time - a foreign country for her as she has not traveled much before. Aside from the facts that Felicia has little money, no friends, no housing, and a fake address for this boy of hers, it doesnâÂÂt look very hopeful. Then she meets Mr. Hilditch (always used with that title) who is a quiet non-descript middle-aged catering manager for a local factory near where Felicia is staying. He presents himself as a kind and rescuing father figure for her, but in his thoughts, the reader can see that there is a history of something weird. He has âÂÂrescuedâ girls before, but what has come of them? And will he do the same with Felicia? This is a taut psychological novel about the hunter and the hunted: Mr. Hildich is the predator and naïve girls âÂÂwho wonâÂÂt be missedâ are the prey. At the same time as this is happening, you also follow FeliciaâÂÂs thoughts as she is scared and confused. She lives on the street for a few days, gets in with a rather strange religious group who can give her a place to sleep, and she keeps being circled by Mr. Hildich, as a shark does bleeding seals. You just know that something is going to happenâ¦. But what? The ending comes quite quickly and itâÂÂs not what I had thought it would do. (I love this unpredictability in a plot.) There are a few major twists and in the end, things are left hanging unsolved really....

Finished War and Peace. He does go on a bit about history and historians....tends to repeat himself. Nowadays, I think the book would have been severely edited. There is an abridged version being released in the UK (along with several other classics) in June. In general, I don't approve of this sort of thing. But, it has to be admitted, it would probably do no serious harm for most people to War and Peace to take the scissors to it...!! (Blasphemy, I know.) Now I need something a little lighter. So, being reminded of this book by another thread about a quote, I'm re-reading A History of the World in 10½ Chapters by Julian Barnes - one of my favourite books - particularly the first and last chapters.

Another Sort of Learning (James V. Schall) 1988 In this book with the unorthodox subtitle, "Selected Contrary Essays on the Completion of Our Knowing or How to Finally Acquire an Education While Still in College, or Anywhere Else: Containing Some Belated Advice about How to Employ Your Leisure Time When Ultimate Questions Remain Perplexing in Spite of Your Highest Earned Academic Degree, Together with Sundry Book Lists Nowhere Else in Captivity to Be Found", Father Schall has written a delightful collection of essays for people like me who made it all the way through college without managing to get a truly liberal education. The book talks about gathering books on diverse subjects for a personal library. There are essays on reading, education, teaching, philosophy, sports, politics, history, and prayer. After each essay there is a short list of the books such as, "SchallÂs Unlikely List of Books to Keep Sane By", "Books You Will Never Be Assigned", "Eight Collections of Essays and Letters Not To Be Missed", "Ten Books on Grace and Thought", and "Five Books Addressed to the Heart of Things". True bibliophiles will love the lists. Schall states in the book: "Education, philosophy, science, politics, history, revelation - these are the themes that I have considered here in various ways. I have often talked of Plato and Aristotle, of Augustine and Aquinas, of Chesterton, Pieper, and C.S. Lewis. I have done this to underscore their importance. And I have repeated favorite book titles worth emphasizing in different contexts. I wanted to suggest that anyone with some diligence and some good fortune can find his way to the highest things even if such higher level concerns are not formally or systematically treated in the schools, even if they are in fact denied there or by our own friends or culture. Indeed, I would suspect that there is a certain basic loneliness in our relationships to the highest things. I am not a skeptic here, but we should not expect too much from our formal educational institutions in this regard. "Throughout these pages, I have talked of 'another sort of learning.' I have talked about why we should read, what we should read, books we should keep. In a sense, we can tell a lot about anyone by looking at what books, if any, he reads, at what books are on his shelvesÂ."

A few people recommended The Whistling Season and I really liked it. One of my book clubs is doing it next month. Ded, my other book club read The Girl With the Louding Voice last month. I didn;t expect to like it so much but I did. I wasn't able to make the meeting. Today, just had book club for The Button Man and every one of 12 people there really liked it. Most gave it 5 stars, and the ones who didn't gave it 4. As I shared, it really resonated with me so I couldn't tell what others would think or how they would react but clearly it was a good read. I just finished Cider With Rosie and am glad I read it. At points it was a bit too long or wordy but it was so interesting. I had the kindle version (from the library) and it also had a good chunk ( not really sure how much maybe a chapter or three ) from his other work- As I Walked Out One Mid Summer Morning. I think I enjoyed that a lot more. (There was a lot more happening than the changing seasons etc). I am going to start The Sound of Gravel next as well as re-peruse The Whistling Season.