Checking in

Hello Readers,

I changed a few settings on the comment sections - now hopefully everyone can access.  Try it and let me know by email if you are still having difficulties,

Happy reading,

Barb

Who can make my shoes?

Discussion of The Shoemaker’s Wife Volume 2

To begin I will tell you that I thought this book should have ended when Ciro and Enza re-found each other and got married.  The content of the book up to then  was powerful.  It was an ‘epical’ book after that and I am not particularly found of those.  What do you think?  Maria says she likes epics.  What do you think?  What is your favorite ‘epic’ book?  Is epic even the correct type of book I am referring to?

The mixing of fact and fiction got out of hand in my opinion and the story became unbelievable after Enza & Ciro’s marriage.  The use of the telephone frequently and easy travel seemed too easy and commonplace in the book and I am not so sure it was so easy in the early 1900’s.

Now, onto some additional comments about the content of the books events:

How do you feel about Ciro & Eduardo’s mother being in a convent within a ‘few kilometers’ of them for all those years?  My heart breaks for the mother’s choices and the sons living without a mothers love & touch.  While reading the circumstances I found in my memory this event.  I was in Girl Scouts (probably around 10) and our leader (my mother) arranged for orphan girls to come and stay with various scouts for a weekend.  One of the girls, Joy, was left in the orphanage with her sister with the mother promising to return.  The mother returned and took the younger sister but Joy was still abandoned.  Sometimes I think we just don’t know what it is like to be desperate.    This situation could be a weeks long discussion in my head!

Laura and Enza getting to work in the MET was just an awesome experience for any seamstress.  Can you imagine being face to face with the greatest opera singer, rock star or politician and helping to make them look great?  This could be an entire book in my eyes. 

Enza did not want to be: ‘destined to wear a small simple hat or the gold knot pin, the marker of a single woman, the spinster….’  I never knew there was an ‘outward’ sign of being single.  How far we have come!

Spoiler Alert!  Ciro was sad to be dying and not having the opportunity to grow old with his dear Enza but his sorrow was deepest for his son who would grow up without a father – just as he did.  Ciro had found guidance and care with many mature men over his lifetime and wanted to be that for his son.  Such a sad end!

This book carried so much wisdom in it and on the very last page of the book:  ‘Beware the things of this world that can mean everything or nothing’.  My comments after – REMEMBER THIS.

If you want to learn more about The Shoemaker’s Wife you can go to Adriana’s website:

http://www.adrianatrigiani.com/home/the-shoemakers-wife/

There is so much information about her and her books you may find interesting.  Don’t you just feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to read all you want to read?  I am always torn between reading and quilting with my free time and right now sewing is winning. 

It does seem that I highlighted was too much in the beginning of this book and left out big portions from the last half.  If you have stuff to share please do by comment or email that I will be happy to post in your name. 

Enjoy the remaining days of August and I’ll post again around Labor Day.

Happy Reading,

Barbara

Discussion of:  The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani

A thought for you to ponder while reading my blathering:  Is this really a discussion if you don’t take the time to say anything?

‘Besides, in the years to come, Ciro would remember only the facts, while Eduardo would paint them with a soft brush.  Neither would be true so what did it matter?’

This is a quotation from the very beginning of the book and is relevant to the entire tome and lifetime is clear.  Sometimes it really is how we view an event that affects of memory and living.

Iggy says: ‘Pretty on the outside but so complicated within.  Don’t marry a beautiful woman, Ciro.  It’s too much work.”  ‘Then Fall in love with a plain girl. Plain girls never turn bitter.  They appreciate their portion, no matter how meager.  A small pearl is enough.  They never long for the diamond.  Beautiful girls have high expectations.”  Then Iggy goes on to say women are like pot de crème and you eat and eat and eat until it makes you sick.  ‘Love and pot de crème – the same.”    And Ciro responds with wisdom beyond his years that ‘love is the only dream worth pursuing.’ 

‘A man who need a mirror is looking for something’ – Ciro commenting on Don Gregorio. 

  

Sister Teresa: ‘Some of us struggle with vows; for others, it’s easier.  Humans are capable of divine acts but sometimes they sin.’ ‘I have no sway over the priest.’  ‘You cannot go by the costume.’  

            Maybe Sister Teresa could have poisoned this priest?  I am so sorry to be suggesting murder – maybe just some torture for an infidel.  This exchange conjured up the horrible priest sex scandal in America and it is almost like people stand by and are confused by the outrage.  I do know that since the beginning of man there have been perverts and perversions but when they are hiding behind the ‘costume’ as Sr. Teresa says it makes me infuriated.

So then it makes me think: is this behavior worldwide and people look the other way but in America we ‘get our backs up’?   If this event hadn't happened what would have become of Ciro and Eduardo when they ‘came of age’ in the convent – what did their future hold?  Doesn’t this really come down to the proverb about good things vs. bad and making the most out of every situation?  BTW: I think that is one theme of this book.

Ciro, along with Iggy, Remo and a few others smoked cigarettes but not all the time.  They had one in the evening while relaxing under the trees.  Knowing how 'anti-smoking' this country has become I wonder if lung cancer would be as prevalent if people only smoked 1 a day?   I know, you are going to say that Ciro died from lung cancer but what if it was from working with leather and glues all this American life?  Or what if it was from living in a polluted city?  

Now lets think about how far the medical field has come.  Enza almost died on the trip to America because of seasickness.  Can you believe that!  As motion sick as I get, I never realized that people could actually die!  How sad that she could never 'go back' and see her native land and family.  I am so happy I live in the time when we can travel and visit people and lands around the world and experience such varieties of cultures, being ever so grateful for my ancestors who traveled across the water to settle in America, grateful in the knowledge that someone invented Dramamine!

I am going to post these preceding comments now and continue in a week.  In the meantime, think about how this story is told and how the credits are dedicated to Adriana Tigliani’s grandparents.  When I go back and read the comments I have made to write this blog so many of them seem to come out of the mouth of an older person – say a grandparent from the ‘old country’.  Ciro always seemed to have an 'older, wiser' man in his life that could lead him in the 'right' directions.   The sayings, insinuations, and situations seem to be from an ‘old world’ perspective.  What do you think?  Did you have anyone in your life who gave you the ‘old world’ view?

See you in about a week and in the meantime, happy reading.

Barbara

Hello dear readers,

My DH (dear husband) was curious how I was able to remember and recount passages from book to include in the review space.  So, in this space I will tell you how I have fell in love with reading on my IPad.  Yes, I too love the feel of a REAL book in my hands and the smell of the ink and smoothness of the cover.  The artistry of putting a book together to reach masses of people is overwhelming to someone like me who knows nothing about the printing industry.  I appreciate the artistry and creativity of it all.  Thank goodness for man's development of the printing press.

Think back to when you read your first ‘chapter book’.  Were you like me in being disappointed that there were just a few pictures?  Sometimes at the beginning of each chapter there were some pictures, but not many.  Then you learned to see what the author was describing by letting your imagination run into the book and picturing the words in your own mind's eye. So, you fell in love with reading all over again!

Weren’t you always taught to wash your hands before picking up a book to read, no eating while reading and horror of horrors – NEVER, NEVER, NEVER write in a book!  I got over the ‘writing in books’ when highlighting text books but generally tried to buy used books that were already highlighted.  While attending Bible studies I learned to write margin notes for things I wanted to remember (watching other people whose Bibles were a mess because they had written and taken notes of things they wanted to remember) but I have never written in a novel or other book read for enjoyment.  Writing my name on the inside flap of a book took me years to overcome the trauma!

Then, along comes the IPad,  fun for games but never for reading a book. Then the library takes 2 weeks to get a book I want, the book store is 45 minutes away or they get the book but the library is 2 miles away… you know the excuses.  So I purchase my first E-book.  While reading I discover quite by accident that if I touch the screen a highlight will appear sometimes turning the whole page pink or purple or blue. Quick – get that color off of there!  Then I leaned this would be useful and I could also write a note making that passage relevant to my thoughts at the time.  So, I go from a person who never went near a book with pen & ink to a blogger who writes all over the book she's reading just so I can make relevant comments that will somehow hold your interest.  

Surely this is a long explanation on how I come up with passages and questions on the books we are reading but if you are using an e-reader, you could also make bookmarks and comments that will bring each book into your book discussion.

Coming soon – the discussion of:  The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Have a wonderful day and happy reading.

Barbara