TBR

Winner of the Charles Taylor Prize (2004). Promised to fellow book crosser, jessiebud, after I finish I reading it.

http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/

I wanted to read this book, because like Isabel Huggan, I, too, have lived in many different countries, and have often pondered the question: where really is home? Is home where you're happiest? Is home where the family is? Or is it where the heart is? :)

Well, enough of the soul-searching and on with the review---much of "Belonging" is straight memoir (and somewhat travelogue). Huggan jokes about being a WTGW – a-whither-thou-goest-wife, living in France, the Philippines and Australia with her husband, an international aid worker. They finally choose to settle in the mountainous region of Southern France, into a house named Mas Blanc (named not for its colour but its first residents).

I enjoyed reading Huggan's impressions of the different places she lived in and I was quite fascinated by some of the people that she met: like Rachel in Nairobi, Antoine in the Phillipines, the Vietnamese girl that she met at Charles de Gaulle Airport; it amazes me how easily she makes friends and how easily she gets them to confide in her. I guess it's the interest she shows in people that make them respond the way they do.

All in all, a very pleasant read.

Like the author, and like Lotusflower, I, too, have lived in several countries (well, four, to be exact). The concept of this memoir is what appealed to me immediately, as the questions Lotusflower poses in her journal note are questions I have pondered more than once or twice, in my own journeys to find *home* and *belonging*....

I also heard an interview with the author on the radio not too long ago and have been eying this book for awhile. Thanks, Lotusflower, for the opportunity to read it. I look forward to this one!

It was fun meeting you today; I hope we have more time to sit and chat next time! :-)

I am shocked to see how much time has gone by since my last journal entry! How does that happen??! Sigh... As the books pile up, this one had disappeared from sight for awhile. I have since acquired another copy so I will finally set this one free, hopefully tomorrow, at a new OBCZ called Harbord House, on Harbord St. in Toronto. I am determined to read this book this year!! When I do, I will edit in my review. Sorry, Lotusflower, that I have been such a delinquent about it!

We had a meetup at Harbord House Pub last night. (OBCZ near University of Toronto) To meet k-i-s-m-i-t from Winnipeg, and that was really fun.
I read the first 4 pages, and found this a charming book. 'Look fwd to reading it.

...funny, I was going to take this to the Harbord House book swap/meetup today, but read the Journal Entries and I think I'll give this another try. It' s been on a shelf at my office for ages....time to dust it off.

Sigh....my Mount TBR is teetering over, so I am going to pass this book along at our next Toronto meetup. I must not feel guilty passing it along, before reading it, because I shouldn't have kept it for so long!

'Time to pass this book on! Going to Harbord House Pub for a meetup/book swap, where we will welcome Florida Bookcrosser Azuki!

This looks quite intriguing; thanks for bringing it along. I look forward to reading it.

I just realized that although I finished this book a few months ago I never got around to journalling it...sorry! I quite enjoyed this very pleasant and peaceful book; very nicely written and full of interesting and colourful characters and anecdotes. Thanks very much for sharing it. I had not read Isabel Huggan before but will look for her other books now; she has a very nice readable writing style.

On the bench near the water fountain.

Happy reading!