Books on my Nightstand November 2023

Books on my Nightstand November 2023. November 1, 2023.

Today I am huddled over my desk like Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol trying to stay warm in my back porch office while the cold winds outside howl. A single candle burns on my desk pretending to warm me up as my portable heater has been loaned out. So, swathed in a thick bathrobe I plunk away on the keyboard. To be sure, poor Bob Cratchit had it worse than me with Scrooge for a boss as well as no heat. And speaking of warmth, my book choices for this month are ones that cultivate warmth in spirit with their gentle pastoral village spirit and sense of community. Good choices for a month when we turn our focus to gratitude and thanks for all we have and celebrating with those we hold close.

Books on my Nightstand November 2023

The first book is Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. You can read it for free here. Gaskell writes a number of wonderful novels both happy and sad. Her novel, Cranford, is a delightful snapshot of life in a village that happens to be mostly women, some upper class, some not, and some have come down in status. With all its ups and downs the community of women hold together through it all. This doesn’t read exactly like a novel with a central plot and climax; rather it is a compilation of the small doings of the villagers and various episodes in their lives. More than anything Cranford is a book of friendship between women through thick and thin as the following quote shows:

Miss Matty and Miss Pole had been visitors on this occasion for many years, and now they gallantly determined to nail their colours to the mast, and to go through Darkness Lane rather than fail in loyalty to their friend.

Crandford by Elizabether Gaskell

I had first read the book after watching the delightful series and have an affection for this novel of Gaskell’s. It is uniquely different from her other works and an absolute pleasure to read.

The second book on my list, Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy, is another gentle pastoral novel. You can read for free here. Thomas Hardy wrote Far from Madding Crowd which you may be more familiar with. This novel, however, is one of his most popular ones. And like Cranford, focuses on a community but in a more humorous way. The story revolves around a group of musicians and a village romance where a young woman finds herself engaged to two of the musicians at the same time and how she disentangles herself from her “mistake”.

Happy reading

and

Have a beautiful day!