A Cozy Evening in a Warm Hotel Bed Near Boston

Whew! My brother and I did it. We're done. We cleared out the masses of stuff in Mom's apartment, and moved her into her much smaller, but very nice, large corner room, which she already likes very much. I had no idea she had as much stuff as she did. Huge surprise to both of us! David and I are both very tired and very thankful that we got through it without any incident between us.

At the end of the horrors of Day One, in the late afternoon in an exhausted, dust-covered state, I took a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card I'd been saving to the mega-store on the Natick-Framingham line on Route 9.

I'd noted in past visits that this store has an enormous literature selection. And I was deliriously happy to find the two Classics Club books I want to read before June: Jane Austen's Persuasion and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (50th Anniversary Edition) by John Le Carre. I'm very much looking forward, but before I read them, I will finish out the winter with the Dutch classic The Storm by Margriet de Moor. I have a recently published edition of the early 1950s novel from the library. I will be able to have enough time with it so I don't have to rush, and I can keep another book going alongside it. (L is for Lawless??? Oh no!)

But before I get to The Storm, I'm now halfway through Where My Heart Used to Beat by Sebastian Faulks. I'm deeply into the story but will refrain from commenting until I'm finished. I can say this: Faulks has matured a great deal as a writer since his early days. This is NOT in any way to denigrate his early works. They are, many of them, admirable. But this is different.

On a much lighter note, last evening I continued a book I've had in the bin for quite a while. When I'm too dim-witted to read anything else, I pull this one up on the Nook and continue reading. First, I must confess to always having had a crush on Cary Grant. I must admit this crush goes back to age 8. When it came to Cary, I was very precocious.

So if you want to know what it's like to have an affair with Cary Grant, you may enjoy skimming a very light memoir, Dear Cary by Dyan Cannon, his final wife. (At least I think she was!) They did divorce, and they did have a daughter together. Anyway, if you happen to fancy that a fling with Cary would have been your thing, don't miss it!