I am going to Mayne Island tomorrow. Lorenzo showed me how to remove a door from its hinge using a screwdriver and a hammer, so hopefully I'll be able to manage it. I have eight doors to paint and if I have time, I'll start ripping up the laminate flooring. My daughter made a sad face when I told her I was heading over there and now I feel guilty. She feels really out-numbered when I'm gone. 
In any case, I need to prepare for - get this - the kids' semester break. They just had Christmas vacation, and now they'll have a week off. And if that weren't enough, the following Monday is a pro-d day. So I'm going to enjoy a bit of solitude before all hell breaks loose.

Before I leave, I'd like to pass this along. I went over all the books I read in 2012 (I keep a list) and it was fairly lengthy. And the best book I read all year is "The Tortoise and the Hare" by Elizabeth Jenkins.

I found this book sitting on the shelf at the condo we rented in Puerto Vallarta. It knocked my socks off. Her writing is beautiful, evocative, and she creates subtle tension in her story that reminds me a bit of Jane Austin.

Anyway, this story takes place in England just after the second world war. A woman lives with her husband who is a lawyer, and their eleven year-old son. The protagonist is a very intelligent woman, but she isn't particularly ambitious. Her husband is an alpha-male type who treats his wife with thinly-veiled contempt; he is irritated by her. And her son is already adopting his father's attitude and begins to perceive his mother as being somewhat deficient. The wife begins to lose her confidence - she's always on edge, always lamenting the fact that she keeps annoying her husband, whom she loves very much. You begin to see how displaced she is in her own home and the reader perceives something sinister developing.

You see, the husband is falling in-love with the next-door neighbour. She's an aggressive woman who sees something she wants and is relentless; she makes herself continually available, offering to drive the husband to work, and even insinuates herself into the life of the little boy. As the reader, you see this unfolding and it's almost horrifying because the wife is such a gentle and trusting human being. It's an excellent story, deliciously English, and the writing is astonishingly good.

I have searched everywhere for books by Elizabeth Jenkins, and most are now out-of-print. I am currently reading one of her novels called "Brightness" and so far, it's excellent. I purchased it on-line from a second hand book seller in Boston - it cost me $42. and it's a mint condition hard cover. Worth every penny. I am determined to collect all of her novels, even if I have to have them shipped from across the globe.

I can't believe I never heard of this author - I feel like I've discovered my new favourite writer.
So, if you want to read something unusually good, I highly recommend this. Hands down, the best novel I read all year. 

"Perhaps the greatest reading pleasure has an element of self-annihilation. To be so engrossed that you barely know you exist."  (Ian McEwan)