I spent most of January in Candelaria, ancestral family home, in northern Zambales in extreme rural Philippines. My favorite place to read is the verandah of one of the family houses. The air is lovely, there are huge mango trees, delicious food, and wonderful and kind people.
Yes, it really is this green
Candelaria Readings
1. The Lonely City Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Lang, 2016, a transcendently
brilliant work.
2. Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector, 1943, her first novel. Published at age 23, truly amazing
3. "THE ORMOLU CLOCK", by Muriel Spark, Sept. 17, 1965, in The New Yorker. Included in The Sixties, The Story of a Decade
5. Stranger in a Strange Land Searching for Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem GEORGE PROCHNIK. Fascinating
6. "A & P" by John Updike JULY 22, 1961, in The New Yorker, first work by Updike I have read since Rabbit Run was published
7. "Kabbalist" by I. L. Pertz, 1894, classic Yiddish short story on a small impoverished school in a small town
8. Watson's Apology by Beryl Bainbridge, 1985, shows her great range, among her best works
9. Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesin. A beautiful fable
10. THE SIX The Lives of the Mitford Sisters LAURA THOMPSON. Very comprehensive story of the Mitford Family. Only for Mitfordians.
11. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna Saint Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford, a beautiful biography, the ending will nearly break your heart. 2001
12. A Week End With Claude by Beryl Bainbridge, 1967, not among my favorite of her works
13. The Yid by Paul Goldberg, Russia 1953
14. The Dress Maker by Beryl Bainbridge
15. The Famished Road by Ben Orki, 1991 Booker Prize Winner, a powerful work of magic realism, set in Nigeria
Some of these works I will or have already posted on, some I will not.
it looks like paradise... hope there's no volcanoes around, though; provocative list that gets the salivary glands working... books/time...
ReplyDeleteWhat an idyllic setting! I am interested in reading several of the works you mention in this post.
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful! Hope you found your journey restorative. And what good reading you had for company.
ReplyDeleteMudpuddle. Thanks for your comments. Here from Wikipedia is account of volcano about 50 KM away
ReplyDeleteMount Pinatubo (Kapampangan: Bunduk a Pinatubu / Bunduk nang Apung Maliari; Tagalog: Bundok Pinatubo / Bulkang Pinatubo) is an active stratovolcano in the Cabusilan Mountains on the island of Luzon, near the tripoint of the Philippine provinces of Zambales, Tarlac and Pampanga.[3][4] Its eruptive history was unknown to most before the volcanic activities of 1991. Pinatubo was heavily eroded, inconspicuous, and obscured from view. It was covered with dense forest which supported a population of several thousand indigenous Aetas.
The volcano's Plinian / Ultra-Plinian eruption on June 15, 1991 produced the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century after the 1912 eruption of Novarupta in the Alaska Peninsula.[5] Complicating the eruption was the arrival of Typhoon Yunya (Diding), bringing a lethal mix of ash and rain to areas surrounding the volcano. Predictions at the onset of the climactic eruption led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the surrounding areas, saving many lives. Surrounding areas were severely damaged by pyroclastic flows, ash deposits, and, subsequently, by the lahars caused by rainwaters re-mobilizing earlier volcanic deposits. This caused extensive destruction to infrastructure and changed river systems for years after the eruption.[5][6]
The effects of the eruption were felt worldwide. It ejected roughly 10,000,000,000 tonnes (1.1×1010 short tons) or 10 km3 (2.4 cu mi) of magma, and 20,000,000 tonnes (22,000,000 short tons) SO
Buried in Print. It was spiritually restorative for me. Thanks for your thoughts as always
ReplyDeleteSuko. It is like a trip back in time. I can imagine it five hundred years ago
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely and inspirational place to read in. I hope you have time to look up and enjoymthemscenery between the pages.
ReplyDelete