One of the books I suggested for Vicki's plane trip was Rhys Bowen's The Victory Garden, which I had just finished reading in a surgery center waiting room while my husband was having his eye operated upon.* The Victory Garden is a stand-alone set in Britain during World War I and featuring a young woman who volunteers to become a “land girl”, one of the women who worked on the farms while the men were fighting. She ends up tending a traditional herb garden on a large Devonshire estate and nursing the local villagers through the influenza pandemic of 1918. One of my own novels, The Return of the Raven Mocker, set in rural Oklahoma during the pandemic, also dealt with traditional healing and the way women supported one another through tragedy. It was a lovely, uplifting tale to read, especially needed at the time.
I don't remember every book I've read to get me through waiting/recovery/long days and nights beside a hospital bed, but there are a few that stand out: Deborah Atkinson's Fire Prayer, her third Storm Kayama novel, set on the Hawaiian island of Moloka’i, got me through the first of Don's bowel resections in 2012. Vicki Delany's More Than Sorrow, a beautifully written tale about the wounds of war, past and present, got me through the second bowel resection in 2013.Long, involved historical series like Colleen McCullough’s five book series on the end of the Roman Republic, the first of which was The Grass Crown, and Laura Jo Rowland’s series set in 17th Century Japan (The Perfumed Sleeve is one of the titles), and her Samuri detective/chancellor/family man Ichiro Sano, have lightened my life during heart surgeries, kidney procedures, blood transfusions, wound infections, broken bones, and long periods of recovery.
One of my favorite discoveries happened during the worst of the health crises, back in 2009, when all this folderol started with a near-death and long long hospitalization. A friend of mine visited us in the hospital and brought me a honking fat book that she said she loved. I had never heard of it. It was a fantasy novel called A Song of Ice and Fire, better known as Game of Thrones, Book One. Not my usual kind of thing at all, but I took it and thanked her. After she left I started reading it in a rather desultory fashion, but I was hooked in about three pages and ended up reading the entire 800 page book in a matter of days. It just goes to show you that you should never limit yourself to any one genre or theme when it comes to reading, beause good story telling transcends all that jazz.
So tell me, Dear Reader. What books have saved your sanity and gotten you through hard times? Your suggestion may help someone through a crisis!
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*The eyeball stitches come out today (Thursday), thanks for asking.
Thanks Donis. I'm really touched that you remember More than Sorrow after all this time. I loved Debby Atkinson's series as well, and am sorry she's not writing them any more. I got lots of good recommendations for my trip, but I might just take the plunge and try Ice and Fire. As you say, never hurts to try something new.
ReplyDeleteAbout two years ago, when my then 94-year-old mother was undergoing double cataract surgery (not dangerous, but so stressful for someone with severe dementia) I had in my pocket a 1951 mystery, Strangle Hold, by Mary McMullan (recommended by Clothes in Books). It had just arrived in the mail, and provided a perfect escape route from the hospital waiting room to early 1950s Madison Avenue, all style and cigarettes and cocktails.
ReplyDeleteDonis, I am sorry your excellent post has been marred by spam (or, at the least, a tasteless commment). Perhaps it will be removed soon.
ReplyDeleteThe books you cite must be extraordinarily good and well-written to have sustained you through such stressful times. Thanks for mentioning them. I hope for good health for your husband.