Three Bags Full (2005) by Leonie Swann #20BOS26

 

🐑 I have made the second mistake this year, reading wise. I have let myself be tempted by another hyped book which is soon to be a major movie with top actors, just like Remarkably Bright Creatures. And this story was also about, and told from the point of view of, a certain animal. While Remarkably is alternately told from the point of view of human characters and Marcellus the 'remarkably bright' octopus, Three Bags is told mainly from the POV of a flock of sheep's. Both creatures - octopus and sheep - are clever enough to have solved a mystery that the humans failed. However funny or cute the idea was - a flock of sheep turn detective - this story has layers of darkness, and lacks of clarity in the mystery solving. 🐑 The clever sheep belong to a shepherd called George Glenn, who lived in a cozy Irish village of Glennkill. He was a good shepherd - taking a good care and love every one of his sheep, often talks to them, and read stories at night. The books were mainly romances, but one day he read them a detective story, but stopped before finishing it. It was supposed that from these stories reading, and George's continual conversation with the sheep, that they observed much about humans (and detecting). One day, though, the sheep found that their shepherd is dead - pinned to the ground with a spade. The sheep knew that it was a murder, and, led by Miss Maple (the sheep version of Miss Marple?) - "the smartest sheep in Glennkill (and possibly the world)" - they investigate the murder. 🐑 As I mentioned before, the idea is cute and quite promising - how a flock of sheep investigate a murder? They stalk the humans, and listen to every conversation. The humans are none the wiser because, hey, who would imagine that the sheep understand what you said, and if they do, how would they "revealed" it? No, the humans mostly ignore their existence. But Miss Maple - being the smartest sheep in Glenkill; and possibly the world - keeps mulling over the "clues" in her head, until - bingo! she's got it! The revealing to the humans is going to be more difficult, but for this too, she had thought a smart solution. So, what's my problem?-you might wonder. First of all, I didn't know what's happening most of the time, since we only get snippets of truth alternately from sheep and humans. You can imagine that sheep cannot fully understand what humans are talking or doing, and we are only presented with mostly the sheep's perceptions. For instance, the sheep dug the earth and found hidden down there "the thing". It's clear that George had buried 'the thing', but what was it?? - I wanted to scream to my tablet everytime they mentioned "the thing" (I listened to the audiobook). And when much later, it was revealed to be plastic bags containing dry grass, and had caused one of the sheep (Mopple the Whale who's always hungry) fainted and slept for 24 hours, we can only vaguely suspected what the bags had contained. Is-it-what-I-think-it-is? kind of situation. And that changed my mind about George - he's not a lovely character I have thought before. 🐑 Then, 'the darkness' that overshadowed the whole story. You'd get the creepy feeling of a haunted and suicidal soul all through. What with the 'ghost' and death the sheep kept talking about, and a sheep called Zora who's obsessed with 'the abyss'. She loves to perch alone near the cliff in silent, and looks at the abyss for a long time. And I kept thinking, while reading, what this book is really about?! The twisted ending topped it all. This is not a murder mystery, and certainly not a cute "sheep detectives" you'll probably think; this is a bunch of crooked-mind people; and some really cute and smart sheep (Mopple the Whale and Miss Maple) plus some others with dark and suicidal thoughts. The 'actual' murder mystery, however, kept a mystery through the end. And one more thing before I ended this post, why did George promise the sheep a journey to Europe? Isn't Ireland a European country?? What was the point of this book, really? Rating: ⭐⭐1/2

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20 Books of Summer 2026 hosted by Annabel @ AnnaBookBel

Evening Class (1996) by Maeve Binchy

 

🛵 Reading Maeve Binchy's is always a blissful moment. Well, this is only my second read (the first one is Scarlet Feather - a lovely one), but I know I can always count on Maeve Binchy's whenever I need a soothing and delightful reading. This one is no exception. If book is food, this has been a scrumptious dessert. The good news is, Binchy's are always a long reading (usually more than 400 pages), and she's a prolific writer. Meaning that I can never run out of Maeve Binchy's whenever I need one.

🛵 Evening Class is about some dozen of Irish people, whose lives seemed to be on a dead end, and then found relieves after joining an evening class on Italian. Each chapter telling the story of one character after another, how he or she ended up joining the evening class. Interestingly, their lives are intertwined with one or some of the other characters. The story then reached a climax when all the class joined up on a dream trip to... of course... Italy. A good structure, in my opinion, so that even when there are (too) many characters involved, the story never feels disjointed. 🛵 It all begins with a Latin teacher in the Mountainview College called Aidan Dunne. What with a failing marriage - that made him stranger in his own house - and a dead-end career, his only indulgence is in everything Italian - a subject very dear to his heart. Luckily, the teacher who became the new principle (the position Aidan had been certain were to be his) fell in love with Aidan's daughter, and to help her father from humiliation, he offered Aidan chance to propose anything he felt worth for the college. Hence, the idea of an evening class, subjecting to Italian course. The teacher recruited was another 'lost' soul. Nora O'Donoghue - everybody calls her Signora - is a spinster. She's been living in Italy, following the love of her life - who ended up marrying another woman, following his family's choice. She lived alone near this man's home for years, until the man died, and she was asked to go away. 🛵 Bitter and penniless, but with a loving nature and love for Italy, Signora is the perfect teacher for the evening class. The students love her, with her childish eccentricity and mystery. She transforms the Italian course into a fun adventure, every Tuesday and Thursday evening. They don't just learn about language, but also the food, art, culture, etc. Signora's lifelong passion for Italy really made the class sparks with joy. The students - thirty of them - consist of people from various background. One of them had been involved with shady activities; another had been in a disastrous marriage; while the other had a shock of a huge scale. They have one thing in common though, a struggle and unhappiness in life. The evening class helps lightening up the burden, and little by little, it becomes their source of happiness. The evening class, in one way or another, had been catalyst for happier changes to all of them.
🛵 I loved everything about this book. The writing is obvious - Maeve Binchy was a marvelous writer who could always tell stories that pull us into it. Once you start a chapter, you wouldn't be able to put it down. The characters are mostly relatable, although there were too many of them that some of them weren't developed enough. But the star character here, which I only realized near the end, was Signora. And hers' happened to be my favorite storyline of all. I loved, too, the Italian side of the story. Their visit to Italy was the 'star of the show' for me; the vibes permeated the last part of the story. What a delicious, charming book, that I could enjoy to the last drop!
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Brooklyn (2009) by Colm Tóibín #ReadingIrelandMonth24

🔶️ Set in the 1950s of Ireland, the main character is Eilis Lacey, an intelligent young girl of 19, living with her mother and sister Rose. She's learning bookkeeping and wishes to work as bookkeeper, but no works available in their small town of Enniscorthy. Unlike her confident and independent sister Rose, Eilis is more obscure, passive, and obedient. She always do what others tell or expect her to do.

🔶️ Through Rose, a priest who's coming from New York City promised Eilis a job in a department store in Brooklyn. Obedient as always, out to Brooklyn she move, leaving her beloved home town. Not because she really wants it - in fact, she's a bit reluctant to leave - but more because Rose and her mother subtly push her out. Her mother likes Rose better, and is quite the selfish type of a parent.

🔶️ Thanks to Father Flood, Eilis is settled in a respectable boarding house and started her work nicely. She even takes a night classes in bookkeeping, planning to work as accountant later on. But she quickly feels uprooted, lonesome, and doesn't belong anywhere. So, when a young Italian plumber called Tony courts her, Eilis just naturally accepts him in her life. I doubted if she's really in love with him. Tony is head over heels fallen for her, but Eilis is just goes with the flow, so to speak.

🔶️ When she begins to feel happy with her new life, a surprising news came from Ireland, that forces her to come home. Tony persuades her to marry him in secret before leaving, as he knows her so well that her hometown might lure her to never come back to Brooklyn. Once again she complies with his suggestion. Tony wasn't wrong. Her mother once again steers her to marry a local beau, in order to make her settle in Ireland. Eilis never told her mother of her secret marriage, and she keeps procrastinating in making decision whether to stay on her own land, or to return to her husband. For an indecisive person like Eilis, it is rather amusing to see what the ending would be. But it's worth the waiting, as we got to enjoy Tóibín's beautiful writing - warm and engaging.

🔶️ I loved to read Eilis' loneliness and grieve; somehow I could relate with her loved one:

"...that was like how she felt when ... died and she watched them closing the coffin, the feeling that ... would never see the world again and she would never be able to talk to ..." or "...an actual pain that...was dead and there were things like this, ordinary things, that ...would never know, that would not matter to...now." - those are what I've been feeling since my father passed away eight months ago. I'm able to let him go; I believe my father "lives" in peace in heaven now, but I still can't move on from feeling a pang of not being able to talk to him or share anything anymore.

🔶️ Another thing that I could well relate with:
"...Was it difficult being an only child?"
"It matters more now, I think, when my parents are getting older and there's just me..." - How true it is! And so, you can imagine how this book got me to think and reflex a lot. Not only these relatable things, but also personalities of the characters and what induced them to act as they did. Eilis and her mother are interesting individuals; Eilis' habit of procrastinating reminded me much of Lily Bart from The House of Mirth. I'm also amused by Eilis' mother's attempt to keep Eilis at home with her. It seems selfish, but I could understand why. Sometimes you just can't help it.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read this book for:

Reading Ireland Month 2024

Hosted by: Cathy @ 746 Books

Scarlet Feather (2000) by Maeve Binchy #ReadingIrelandMonth24

💓Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather have two things in common: passion of cooking and dream of having their own catering business. They've known each other since culinary school, and been cultivating their dream ever since. This story is about the realization of that dream, their journey from nobody to be a respectable business entity. But not only that, this story is also about their individual struggles to maintain balance between career and personal lives, as well as the lives and struggles of people and families around them. In short, this is a story about friendship, family, love, and humanity.

💓 This is a book about people, rather than a plotted story. Reading it, you'll feel like you become a part of their circle for a certain period of time. It's like you are closely related to every one, moving around from one's house to another. You see, therefore, their ups and downs, and that you're rejoicing at their triumphs, heartbroken at their sorrows. As the title hinted, the main characters are Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather, the owners of Scarlet Feather - their catering business. But the story also revolves around three families: the Mitchells, the Scarlets, and the Feathers.

💓 Cathy, the daughter of a maid, has married into the wealthy Mitchells, in whose house Cathy's mother used to clean. We follow how the two families awkwardly get along with each other, while the Feathers are rather circling on the outer edge of the stage. Interestingly, there are two characters who bind the scattered characters together: Maud and Simon. They are ten years old cousins of Neil Mitchell, Cathy's husband; two broken-home children of an unstable couple.

💓 When Maud and Simon's parents aren't capable of looking after them, Cathy and Neil bring them to stay temporarily in Waterview, their house. Cathy often brings them to the premises - meaning Scarlet Feather's - and so Tom and the staffs become acquainted to them too. Then Cathy's parents agree to take the children at their house, and the rest is history. The children's wild temperament are tamed by Lizzie and Muttie. And along the process, they steal and touch many people's hearts. So much so, that people are, at different stage, concerned when they're missing, and equally rejoiced and relieved when they're safely found.

💓 In short, this is a heartwarming book that reminds me again, that hardworking and kindness are always worth in the end. Perhaps the reward isn't a life changing fortune, but a series of small contentment through our days which warm our heart always, and give us courage to keep doing it, and to convince us that life is, indeed, good after all. It impressed me much that Binchy could weave this seemingly everyday stories into a wholesome reading experience, that though it is 500 pages long, there isn't any passage that felt dull or unnecessary. I couldn't stop reading through the pages, yet I hoped it never come to an end. That is a sign of a brilliant book, is it not? I adored this book, and I think I will look forward to every #ReadingIrelandMonth from now on, just to be able to read another Binchy! Which one do you suggest I read next?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read this book for:

Reading Ireland Month 2024

hosted by: Cathy @ 746 Books

Dubliners by James Joyce

James Joyce is one of the authors I've been reluctant to read because I doubt I'd love them. So, before I plunge myself into a monumental read of Ulysses, I thought it better to sample the much lighter work of him: Dubliners.

Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories. The longest one is the last: The Dead, which is also the most beautifully written and I think, the best of all. I have always been insecured about writing thoughts on short stories collection - I tend to forget all the earlier stories, and so, often fail to find the real connection or the general idea. Maybe that's why short stories collection is never my favorite! But at least, I'm going to try with this one; and thanks to google, I've been able to find summary of all the stories to refresh my mind.

My method is finding the most striking themes of each story, and in the end producing some sort of clouds of ideas. These are what I had gathered from the fifteen stories:
- Death
- Religion (or Catholicism) and moral ambiguity
- Feeling of entrapped or trying to escape
- Loneliness
- Confused identity
- Unsatisfaction or envy
- Purposelessness
- Confused past and future

And so, from these themes, I think Dubliners is Joyce's media to capture the cultural changes of the Dubliners in the turn of 20th century - in particular for the youths. There are often these confusion of values, between their religious tradition and attraction of the modern capitalism; the typical problem of the turn of the century's generation, especially in Ireland, which was strong in their Catholicism. 

The stories also reflect the youths' longing to break the rigid tradition and old moral value. The college students' playing truant to seek adventure in "An Encounter" is one example. And then in "Eveline", the heroine is torn between running away with her lover or staying at home taking care of her demanding father. There is also in "A Little Cloud" this working class man who live modestly with his family, suddenly feeling revolted at his mediocrity existence. The most revolting one is "A Mother", where a mother defended her daughter who didn't get paid as promised in a show. While she is rightfully threatening the director, others (actors and management) condemned her. The more obvious example of the moral declining is in "Two Gallants", a story of two young men who lure maids to steal for them, money from their ladies. Although Dubliners was written before WWI, I sensed the same confusion and purposelessness in the Lost Generation - the lost of old values they have been brought up with, and the awkward effort to embrace the modernity.

Apart from the theme, Dubliners is also Joyce's way to express his affection of Dublin. I loved to read about the cultural interests within the stories. I learned, for example, about Barmbrack, Ireland's traditional cake, which closely resembles what we call in Indonesia: Ontbijtkoek, the Dutch spiced cake.

The goloshes is another thing that had interested me. I thought it means just boots, but apparently it functions as shoecover, protecting the shoes from mud or snow. It looks fashionable too!

Last but not least, I was amazed by Dublin's Pigeon House Fort, an Ireland national heritage I've found from "An Encounter". I'm grateful that the two boys have decided to take a one day vacation along the Canal Bridge and Wharf Road, then taking the ferryboat. It's a pity they didn't get to the Pigeon House - which fortunately, I have found this coverage of Pigeon House in YouTube:

All in all, this has not been a simple reading, there's death theme everywhere (which I didn't understand till now what it represents), and I didn't finish one story: "Ivy Day in the Committee Room", which I didn't understand at all. But on top of these difficulties, I have found a poignant beauty in the last story: "The Dead". So, I guess 3,5 / 5 is a fair rating, but maybe... no more Joyce for the time being!