Busy week

While we in Barre felt pretty lucky that Irene didn't damage us much, many people around the state have not been as lucky. State employees in Waterbury are all being re-located to other places, and many towns south of us are just barely getting out of isolation. Roads are washed out, bridges are gone, many homes are filled with mud. My heart goes out to them all. This week we plan to go to a play at Lost Nation Theater since part of the admission cost will go to flood relief. There's also a "stuff a truck" event Saturday that I'll have to gather stuff for.

Up here on the hill, it was pretty much business as usual. I finished quilting the row by row quilt, but mostly I buried myself in several good books, all of them the latest in their respective series. First was The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, the 12th installment of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. This book was a little more philosophical than previous ones, but now that I've seen the TV series, I can really picture Botswana as Mma Ramotswe drives into the country on her latest case.

Thursday, I finished An Irish Country Courtship by Patrick Taylor. This series involves a doctor, his assistant doctor, and all the people in a Northern Irish village, Ballybucklebo, in the early 1960's. Dr. O'Reilly has never really gotten over the death of his wife at a very early age, but he begins courting a nurse he dated before he met his wife. Kitty is patient, but not that patient. Young Dr. Laverty's girlfriend ditches him, and he wonders if he should leave general practice in the village and specialize in obstetrics. The many odd characters in the village are fun to check in with also, just as those in Mitford are.

Today, I finished Debbie Macomber's newest in the Cedar Cove series, 1105 Yakima St. This was the lightest by far of the books I've read, bordering on soap-operaish, but it was nice to find out what has happened to the many characters in the series. 1225 Christmas Tree Lane, coming out next month, will be the last in the series and, while I know I'll read it, I do feel it has run its course.

This evening, I started Louise Penny's latest mystery, A Trick of Light, which I have been waiting several months for. I am going to try to read it slowly because her books are so good and another one won't be out for a year. The action takes place mostly in a small Quebec village just over the border from Vermont. Both French- and English-speaking characters blend into the stories which are quite puzzling and feature the very human Inspector Gamache. Christine saw Louise Penny at a bookstore in Maine this week and said she was just delightful. We hope she can come to speak in Barre sometime soon. I'll be putting together a raffle basket featuring her latest book which Christine had autographed. Guess it will have a Halloween/fall theme?