The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Total Stars out of 5: 4
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a very surprising book. It may appear a little comical on the surface but we all agreed it was a very moving book.
At first the journey is meandering and the public getting involved and taking over Harold’s pilgrimage is really annoying, very realistic, but still annoying.
It is gripping emotionally and painful in places. Showing you how memories skew with time and you have to strip each layer away to get to the truth of what happened. Harold and his wife Maureen discovered that being separated from each other by distance reminded them how much they missed each other.
It is ultimately a journey of healing, for Harold, Maureen and lots of people that meet them along the way. The ending was exceptionally honest and satisfying.
Bream Village has sure been in the papers this week! 🙂
We were all abuzz waiting for the Duchess of Cornwall to arrive today to officially reopen the Children’s Library.
It was such an exciting day, especially for the children over the road at Bream Primary waving their flags and cheering.
Her Royal Highness met the member of the Lego Build Club and read them a story in our beautiful children’s library, she was so gracious and lovely, speaking to so many and meeting parents, volunteers and making us all feel rather special.
This month we had our delivery of new books as well as a huge beautiful pile of donated books. So this post is a mixture of both. We are a very happy library with these lovelies on display!
This book really split opinion amongst our members, some of us really enjoyed it, read it quickly and had much to say about it, others couldn’t get into it at all and found the characters difficult to relate to.
The Book of Human Skin is thoroughly well researched and well written, you get to read from each characters perspective and the streams of the story are flawlessly held together. We are introduced to Venice and Argentina, their individual beauty and histories, which are superb and accurate.
There are actual books of human skin that are collected by the main protagonist but it is the Nun all the way in Argentina that brings real life to the statement. She puts her skin through such tortures that it tells her history far better than a document could. She abuses herself fanatically in her quest to become a saint.
The doctor also adds depth and history to the story of skin as he is fascinated by skin diseases and the causes.
The main plot surrounds a murderous power hungry brother determined to protect his inheritance at any cost, including killing his own sibling, institutionalising another sibling, our heroine Marcella, manipulating everyone who crosses paths with him and generally spreading fear and evil wherever he goes. Despite the difficulties Marcella faces she is ultimately triumphant and has that fairy tale happy ending.
We did all agree on one point though, that the ending felt rushed. The happy ending being so quickly brought together didn’t follow well with the rest of the book, a tragic ending would have been more suitable.
The project commenced on the 30 March with everyone on deck to pack away the children’s books and move out all the furniture from the children’s library. This timeline of activities is based purely on my eyes and memory, a great deal was going on that I didn’t even see by our incredible and dedicated team of volunteers.
Timeline:
30 March [Friday]: Big move out of everything in children’s library.
After every last thing was removed.
31 March [Saturday] : Polyfilla over the cracks in the children’s library.
01 April [Sunday]: Sand the Polyfilla in preparation for painting.
2-3 April [Monday & Tuesday]: Painter did excellent job of the walls and ceiling.
5 April [Thursday]: Inspection by David Vaisey people.
6 April [Friday]: I noticed the carpet being shampooed by one of our volunteers.
9 April [Monday]: Decorators arrived late in the afternoon to begin installation of new furniture
10 April [Tuesday]: I went to sort out all our arts and craft supplies in readiness.
11 April [Wednesday]: Decorators completed furniture installation.
12 April [Thursday]: The big move back! Everyone there again to put the books back on the shelves and tidy up the adult library so we could open the next day.
One of youngest volunteers putting the younger junior fiction back on the shelves! 🙂
Volunteers were there until late that day making sure everything was perfect.
13 April [Friday]: Library reopens!
Our before and after pictures:
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A HUGE thank you to all our volunteers who made this happen, from calling up decorators, meeting with them, reviewing designs to moving furniture, removing shelving and carting it away, buying and fetching paint, vacuuming and dusting, this all came together because of our amazing team!
Total Stars out of 5: 3
