10.25.2006

Two gripes, plus a new read


Gripe 1) I hate Blogger. I had a really nice post and it crashed.

Gripe 2) My job sucks. The people I immediately work with are nice, which makes it bearable. For the most part, other people in the company used to be nice, but now that is changing. It's a finger-pointing fiesta lately.

Okay, let's get back to the positive-ness. Not to be confused with truthiness, which, along with plain old truth, seems to be in short supply everywhere these days.

I accompanied a friend to Stacey's, a cool independent bookseller in San Francisco. And I saw this book. The description reads:

A brilliant portrait of a young girl's coming of age, "The Lost Traveller" tells of Clara, the beloved daughter of a devoted though authoritarian father and an imperious mother. In this devout Catholic family, father and daughter conduct an intense relationship that seems at odds with their faith and with the need for Clara to become a woman. Set against the backdrop of the First World War, Clara experiences the vagaries of adolescence and, faced with the first tragedy of her adult life, she realizes that neither parents nor faith can protect her from change.

Turns out there's a series of three related to Clara! So, I snapped up a copy. Turns out The Lost Traveller is volume 2 of the series. So I ran back and promptly bought the first volume, which is Frost in May:

Nanda Gray, daughter of a Catholic convert, is nine when in 1908 she goes to the Convent of the Five Wounds. Quick–witted, resilient, and enthusiastic, she eagerly adapts to this cloistered world, learning rigid conformity and subjection to authority. Passionate friendships are the only deviation from her total obedience. Convent life — the smell of beeswax and incense, the petty cruelty of the nuns, the glamour and eccentricity of Nanda's friends — is perfectly captured by Antonia White.

Now, one thing you didn't know about me (playing on yesterday's snarky post) is that I attended Catholic school. Ah, you say, one more piece of the puzzle falls into place.

So, this novel series is like manna from heaven. In Catholic-speak. Perfect reading for commute time!

I have never heard of this author or this series...has anyone else?

4 comments:

Brandon said...

Can't say that I've ever heard of the book you're talking about, but I agree with you about Blogger. Luckily, none of my posts have crashed. I had problems posting in the afternoon, so now I write my posts the night before, then publish them in the morning, before everyone logs on and starts clogging the site. So far--knock on wood--I haven't had any problems by doing this.

Rebecca H. said...

No, I haven't heard of the author, and I hope you enjoy the book!

I hate blogger too. But I'm still not willing to pay for a blog that might function better.

Anonymous said...

No, I've never heard of it, but it sounds like a lot of fun. I didn't picture you a Catholic school kid. Hmmmmm.

LK said...

Brandon, thanks for the tip.

Dorothy, you're right: I am thankful for free blogging.

Bloglily, my mother would completely cry at that--12 years, plus a Jesuit college, and not a whiff of Christianity about me.