I've had the four-volume set of Ellis' "Home Life" essays on my keeper shelves for ages, and I think it's time they went traveling.

Ellis' columns cover ordinary daily events - and some not-so-ordinary ones, as she seems to be a magnet for unusual circumstances - and usually have a wry, humorous tone, though sometimes she waxes curmudgeonly. Among the essays in this collection is one called "Leafing through wet branches" that opens with the eye-catching statement "It is notoriously difficult to burn a book" and goes on to add "unless subjected to intense heat the outside chars while the closely compacted pages remain untouched. If you are not careful you can have the same trouble with flaky pastry." Before the book-lovers get too upset, the books in question were the victims of drowning - a burst pipe had soaked them such that "they are sagging and buckling and covered in white fur and I am inordinately upset". [She decides that she can't bear to pitch them after all, and lets them dry out. "They will never be their old selves on the shelves but most of them are still legible and therefore not ready for euthanasia." She talks about her love of books and points out that she would never weep because her computer got wet! [Some of us would cry over the computer too, but for different reasons {grin}.]

In another column she talks about trying to raise some abandoned pheasant eggs: "Then one of the chicks died. The daughter, whose compassion is balanced by pragmatism, suggested giving it to Cadders [the cat] since he obviously wanted one but I, who am totally unbalanced, forbade this."

And farther on:

The other day I was shown a word processor in operation. The eldest son put some words of mine on it and I was astonished to see how authoritative they looked on the little screen. He put it through some of its tricks and I almost immediately became rather fond of it. It was so eager and obedient. "Look," said the son, "I will tell it to find 'Mary'." He twiddled something while I gazed enthralled, and a little arrow whizzed around like a terrier after a rat until it found Mary, whereupon it stood pointing and quivering with what looked like delighted triumph at its ability to please its master. How unlike people, I thought. How unlike children. How unlike the cats, really, who live largely for themselves and are indifferent to the whereabouts of Mary.

While I enjoy Ellis' writing, I have to admit that once in a while it becomes clear that some of her beliefs are worlds away from mine; at one point she mentions having seen a book about a gay couple with a child, and wondering whether it's a joke. [She's a bit anti-women's-lib as well, though being pretty independent herself I'm not sure which bits of it she's opposed to. And she is staunchly (though sometimes snarkily) religious, so perhaps that has something to do with her problems with Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin. Or maybe she doesn't know that gay couples sometimes want children?] But, a few differences of opinion notwithstanding, I enjoy her writing.

[I also recommend Cat Among the Pigeons, a collection of her columns for a Catholic publication.]

See also:

Home Life One
Home Life Three
Home Life Four

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I noticed this new LFL listed on the LFL-site map and wanted to drop some BC books there. Turns out the moment I got there the heavens opened and I had to try and get the books inside during a torrential downpour! (Made the photo a bit fuzzy, too.) Anyway, hope someone enjoys the book!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

*** Released for the 2020 Allergic to A challenge. ***

[Edited 6/26/20: thanks for journaling my book! I got your PM from your new relleomylime account, but can't reply to it as it seems you haven't enabled PMs on your profile yet. I was tickled by your mention of having met Edward Gorey; I visited his house some years back, and was delighted to learn that there's a LFL nearby now. Hope you do manage to take the book there, but if you find some other way to pass it along that's fine too.]

Found this in the Wilmington LFL today! I'll be reading it over the weekend and dropping to another LFL down on the Cape :)