What I've been reading

 This is a short one to share some of my 2020 reads.  Hope you find some inspiration!

Favorite English language book:  The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles because of the main character's integrity and good values make her a real heroine to me.  I like historical fiction and this novel is based in New York, 1938.  It is a fantastic sociological portrait of the life of the priviledged and not-so-priviledged young people living 'the dream' in one of the world's most exciting cities. I loved A Gentleman in Moscow from the same author.  Amor Towles does not disappoint with a style of writing that captures the imagination and doesn't let it go...

Favorite French language book: La nuit de feu from Eric Emmanuel Schmitt - a true story about an awakening that happens on a cold and very dark desert night when the possibility of dying alone is very real for a young man..  The young man in questions later became a philosopher and writer.  Schmitt is one of France's most loved contemporary philosophers.

Close seconds: Clin d'oeil au temps qui passe by Antonine Maillet and Educated by Tara Westover. Clin d'oeil is well-written by one of French Canada's premier authors and intellectuals.  Maillet has led a very stimulating and admirable life which she recounts with the sagacity that only comes with age. 

Tara Westover's Educated is a biographical novel that takes place in a Mormon family whose father is bipolar. Westover's story is almost too incredible to believe and one can only admire her for breaking free from the chains of her family and religion.

Do not recommend: Le mur mitoyen and La route du Lilas and I must say I have forgotten what happens in The Turn of the Key.

Most of the books featured here are my two book clubs' selections.  While it is good to pick up a book you may not otherwise have read, some can be less pleasing.

Elinor Florence's two books: Wildwood and A Bird's Eye View are very very enjoyable reads. This author hails from Western Canada.  Wildwood is about a young American mother who is near penniless when she inherits a house in the Peace River area of Alberta and A Bird's Eye View is about a girl from the Canadian Prairies who enlists in WWII to become an aerial photographic interpreter and a hero.

A Mother's Heart

France 1999, T. and his little brother D. 

We decorated the tree today.  We are about 5 or 6 days ahead of schedule but this year, we have the time.

V. and I took our time, 1.5 hours to get the job done, probably because I sobbed for about 10 minutes.  Missing my boy in Florida more than I can say.  He's been gone 9 years this month...

Nine years ago my brave boy could not find himself here, at home.  He had to go.  He chose the road less travelled, he was only 22 years old. A foolish girl had told him he could never be what he wanted to be.  It both broke his heart and spurred him on.  So he left just after Christmas, laden with luggage, he flew first to New Jersey then to St. Martin then, he took a ferry to another island where he would study medicine for 16 months.

Only 22 years old, white as milk and a little green behind the ears, he landed on an island where he was known as 'white boy'.  You see T. can't tan, he only burns.

Fortunately, he ran into a man from Chicago and they quickly found a place to stay and moved in together.  Andre was older and wiser but he must have sensed that T. was an ok guy. At least that's what he told us months later when we were Skyping with T.: "Your son was a very good man and he is working very hard on this studies.

T. distinguished himself throughout his years and years of study on the island and later in Chicago and now, no doubt in Florida.  He had to leave the island after 16 months to pursue the practical part of his medical degree in Chicago.  Later, he would match at Mount Sinai in Chicago and graduate as an Internist.

Most people would have been happy to begin working and start chipping away at the mountain of debt but our brave boy wanted more.  That is why he is pursuing a fellowship in Florida, in the middle of the Covid pandemic.   His field: Pulmonology and Critical Care. His lovely wife told me yesterday that he is working 100+ hours/week...

So today, as I was hanging some of his ornaments on the tree, I cried for my boy, the 22-year-old who left home 9 years ago this month and for the 31-year-old working in Intensive Care with Covid patients.  

My boy is far away and he is in the middle of all that is most difficult about this pandemic.

Say a little prayer for him.