Abcde BLOG

My favorite book that I've read so far this year (not a re-read) has been The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald.

It is one of those quietly tragic novels, but lyric in feel and quality. Florence Green, widow, wants to set up a bookshop and a sort of circulating library in her small English village.  This brief novel follows her anticipation, joys, trials and tribulations while developing and running the shop.  It also shows us the politics of village life and the casual cruelty of even the most ordinary people.

I'm also super excited that Chronicle Books is re-issuing Bubbly on Your Budget by Marjorie Hillis.  I strongly suspect (from the quotation given) that this book was originally published as Orchids on Your Budget and it's been a favorite of mine since I stumbled on to Hillis in 2006.  It is uplifting without being saccharine or new-agey.  It takes a common sense approach to living on less and enjoying what you have.  I'm interested to see how much, if any, of the text is updated.