Long Time! But First...

 Hi there. First off, I've got huge apologies to make. 

I haven't been able to write on here for a long time due to my health being awful. Since 2020, I started out being okay - with Covid making the world a really strange place to live, we all had to be a little kinder, a little more patient, a little more interactive in our own homes.

But then, in 2021, I got the vaccine and had an adverse reaction to it and my health declined from there. First my appendix came out - and I had a pile of books to read but that went by the weigh-side when I caught an infection with caused me to not want to do any reading and feel nothing but sick all the time. Then, my immune system crashed on me - no thanks to the gut infection I caught at the hospital.

So, I've been struggling with my immune system and trying to stay well. 

This year, I caught Covid - a flu - for the first time in my life I caught something I had no control over. And it wiped me out. After that I have been catching all kinds of weird things.

But I'm back into reading. 

I've been looking at my Stephen King collection and jumped in feet first with what I've missed out on. And the first book I read was an oldie but a goodie:

'Cycle of the Werewolf' by Stephen King

A brilliantly-written, early book by the King of Horror. Not a thick book - unlike his usual works - but I loved it. It's a quick read and went under a different title to begin with ('Silver Bullet') and I believe it was made into a film (I'm not sure) and there's great illustrations as well. I love it as a quick read and do recommend it as something for somebody who doesn't want to get bogged down into his bigger works.

'Duma Key' by Stephen King

As a newer work, I didn't know what to expect out of this one. But seeing I'm an artist, as well as a writing, I was completely under this books spell by the end of chapter one. It was about a man who was an amputee and had been through a huge physical and mental change in his life - as well as marital - and he was suggested to move himself to a different place complete and start his life over.

Boy! Did he ever do that! And this guy moved to Duma Key in Florida just to get a fresh start. So, he rented a house for a year and found that his prior love for art came in handy as well for the times he wanted that escape - but the house 'Big Pink' was doing some strange things to him at night and during storms. And he found his paintings were spell-binding in more ways than one. Some of them were filled with murder as well... 

'Joyland' By Stephen King

Nothing like a Summer job to earn some money, right? Well, yeah, kinda. But throw in a couple of carnies who have hidden pasts and a disabled kid and his Mum who doesn't trust anyone and a carnival which is on the verge of closing down, and one guy in who runs the Ferris Wheel who doesn't seem to take his gloves off no matter what the weather and you've got a young man who is about to crack a serial killer murder mystery wide open.

'Later' By Stephen King

This book was weird. There are stories on stories in it, written from the young kid's point of view and once you got through it, you wanted to read it again. Not only can the kid talk to dead people, but he can open portholes into other dimensions - which his mother seems to hate that he can do, and tries to discourage him from doing. But her best friend - who is also a cop (and not a good one either) wants him to push himself to do the best his can do with his new powers... why? Well, because she's greedy (like most Humans), but it ends ugly - as always - in a lot of ways.

'Fairy Tale' by Stephen King

In this great book, there's a teenaged boy, a single Dad, an old man, a viscous-looking dog named Radar, and a huge, old, crappy house with a hut in the backyard which leads to another world. The old man gets sick, and the teenaged boy helps him, the dog turns out to be nice, and the hut? Well, it's something you'll have to read, otherwise you won't believe me about it. There's love, hate, adventure, greed, and sadness. You'll hurt, and cry over this book. I loved it so much I gave my copy away to a friend's son for his 21st Birthday... and bought myself another copy, so he could enjoy it.

So, there are the books I've read this year so far. I'm currently reading 'Cell' by Stephen King and enjoying it. And it's as creepy as it can get with this book. I hope you enjoy reading books as much as I do.

Again I apologise for the long wait between posts. 

Happy Reading!

'Uncommon Type' by Tom Hanks

We all know some actors and singers dabble in the publishing arena just to say that they got themselves published and out onto the shelves of a bookstore at least once in their lives. Some make it big as they step from being in the limelight to being in the gently-glowing screen of their computers at home - which is less public and more introspective.

The fame which comes to a write is much different than the fame of being an actor or singer. Until you step from one to the other, you can't tell the difference... and until you've made a successful switch from one to the other, you won't know it either.

Tom Hanks has been a household name for over twenty years - and is one of my all-time favourite actors. From 'Big' to 'Sleepless In Seattle' to 'Forrest Gump', 'Castaway' and 'The Terminal' as well as 'Toy Story' (all of them), he has been a constant in my life as I grew up. I actually remember when I turned 18, one of my friends gave me the book 'Big' with Tom Hanks on the cover and I read that book; even though I'd seen the film already - and yet, I enjoyed the film better. 

However, when I watched a documentary about Tom Hanks and his amazing life - and his wonderful collection of typewriters - a few years ago, he mentioned he was working on writing a book. He didn't mention what his book was about, but he did say it was something he had always wanted to do in his life. The interviewer probed more, but Tom didn't let on anything more about his book - like any good writer, you keep all the goodies to yourself. 

Anyway, that was a few years go, and it was in March this year, that I found this wonderful book in QBD at Garden City for a good price. My Mum thought I was crazy to buy it as it was... but I knew it had been in the pipeline at some point, but didn't know when it was coming out.

And I'm here to tell you that the wait was well worth it! Tom can write a great story! He can jump genres too! I'm so happy to say that this book was well worth the wait from when he mentioned it during an interview a few years ago, until now (and let's face it, the best things are usually worth the wait, aren't they?). 
He can write some wonderful word pictures, scenes where you go back and re-read them and they are just as beautiful, delicious and sweet and fresh as the paper they're written on... and the photographs of typewriters! Oh, yes, he's combined two pleasures of his within his book:  his love of storytelling and his love of typewriters. 

This book,'Uncommon Type' is well worth the purchase as it's brilliantly written, proofread well and I totally enjoyed it! I do look forward to the next book he puts out - if he's working on another one that is. Until my next post, happy reading.

'A Hundred Small Lessons' by Ashley Hay

Elsie fell down. This sweet, lovely lady fell down and couldn't get back up, so spent a day or so on the floor of her living room watching the sun pass over the carpet; watching the colours of the day change and how the light changed throughout the house for a while - something she hadn't noticed before - until the police kicked down her door and the paramedics zoomed her off to hospital.

But she never came back home.

This was the sad part - and a sad reality for a lot of elderly people. They are taken to hospital; and from there, they are shuffled off to a home by their family; a family who think they're doing the right thing. 
While she's in the home, Elsie's two children, Don and Elaine empty out her house. Don is a sentimental man who often stops to peruse and remember the good times over photographs, wonder over others and packs things carefully. Elaine just goes through the place like a bull in a china shop and throws out things she doesn't think is important (whether it is or not doesn't interest her - just getting rid of the 'junk' is the main thing).

However, when Don takes the boxes of things to Elsie's new home, he discovers he's picked up the wrong one and finds that everything he's given her are things she hates. The blue mug that was on the counter near the sink was Elsie's favourite... and all the photos in the box in the ceiling (did he check there? No, he didn't) were the ones she loved the most. And why did he bring this vase? It's hideous. It was then, he realised he should have had her right there.

But the house has been sold to a lovely couple who are young: Lucy Kiss and her husband Ben, with their sweet little boy, Tom. While Ben is in his hometown of Brisbane, Lucy has found this humid city of large, purple-flowering trees is strange and unusual to her. She doesn't like it that it rains so much, she doesn't know her way around as much as she does in Sydney, and the old house they bought still has the old-fashioned fittings of the 1960's. 

Lucy is finding things from the life of Elsie, things she thinks the older woman would want back at some point; but she never gets around to contacting the previous owner. She starts drinking out the blue mug she found behind the front door (why was it there?). The photos in the ceiling were beautiful, but who were they of? And does she really like Brisbane really?


I've read Australian books before - even Brisbane-based books - and for a good part of the time, I've loved them. However, as the small chapters moved on, I found it harder and harder to read them. This is a very melancholy book to read - which isn't really my thing, but it's nice to get into one of them once in a while - but I found this book very depressing. It started off sounding lovely, sweet and pretty. It had all the right turns of phrase, and made me want to read more. Then, something in it change, and I found it was becoming harder and harder to read, and I simply lost interest in it. This is why this is an Unfinished Read. 

'84 Charing Cross Road' by Helene Hanff

Helene Hanff wrote a letter to, Marks & Co., a bookstore in London on Charing Cross Road in 1949 in the hopes to find a book she's been looking for; and in return received a wonderful copy of it in return. What she didn't realise was that this was the beginning of a wonderful, long-distance relationship with the people across the Atlantic Ocean. 

Over the next 20 years, Helene and Frank Doel write letters to each other about books, authors and they get to know each other through Christmas parcels and Easter goodies as well. Often, Helene is sending off money to keep her credit up to buy books of Frank at his lovely little bookstore at 84 Charing Cross Road, in the middle of London. And in turn, Frank and his wife are writing back (sometimes in separate letters) to Helene who is living in a tiny townhouse - the only luxurious items in it are the books she purchases from across the miles. 

For quite a few years, Helene promises to fly to London to visit their fare city; and Frank and his wife offer to put her up while she's there. A few times, Helene comes close to flying there, but unfortunately, she's had to dip into her 'London Funds' to pay for something which she can't do without in her life, and sadly, she has to start over again in saving for the UK. 
Then, one day in 1969, Helene receives the sad news of Frank's sudden passing. Even though she's been in hospital and her doctors have only let her home, she is determine to get herself onto a plane to see London, to meet Frank's family and to see the lovely store where all her wonderful volumes of books came from - even though it's now closed down. But does she make it there? Is she healthy enough to make the trip there and back? 

This is a true story about Helene Hanff's relationship with the owner of Marks & Co Bookstore in London. Ms. Hanff published the correspondence between her and Frank Doel - and some of the staff of the store - as memorial to Frank after he passed away. 

Helene Hanff passed away in De Witt Nursing Home in Manhattan aged 80 on 9th, April, 1997 - only days before her 81st birthday.  

'The Bee Loud Glade' by Steve Himmer

Meet Finch. He's a corporate drone who works on blogs about a product called 'Second Nature' - a type of plant life for customers where you don't have to care for them, water them or do anything to them, just have them as decoration; and yes, they're plastic. Pretty, but not much use. The customer can add flowers, wilting leaves and other such things to the plant as seasons change and enjoy the plants to the full extent without the mess of an actual house plant - but it will never die. Finch also manages a collection of blogs about other imaginary lives supporting Second Nature.

However, life isn't exactly right. He's in a small corner of the office where he's kept to himself and found that he'd been mostly ignored - or so he thinks. And it doesn't really come as a surprise to him when he's fired.

He goes home, and his world stops. He stops. He just lets everything go; and stops paying his bills, stops caring for himself and eventually gets himself evicted - but he doesn't do anything about himself until late one night, just before his internet is cut off, offering him the perfect job... and all he has to do is say 'yes' - and so he replies with that word, then goes to sleep.
The very next day, his life changes completely. A driver shows up at his door and he's driven away the city, away from the house an away from everything he's known for so long to a mansion on top of a mountain where he meets Mr. Crane, the man who owned the company he was fired from. This man wanted him for something very specific; and knew he'd be the right man for the job... oh, and could he start immediately? By the way, the pay is incredible! All Finch has to do is live in Mr. Crane's garden as a hermit for seven years. There are some conditions - of course - but they're not all that major. Does Finch take the job? 

This is a great book from a writer I hadn't heard of until I won it in a competition. But once I through the first few pages, I just couldn't put it down. This book is an amazing and thought-provoking walk through the garden of somebody's thought processes as they observe the world in a totally different way. Set in the present day, with technology all around, it's interesting to see how Finch reacts to going from having everything, then nothing. I don't think I'll let go of this book from my collections any time soon.