Beauvallet November 2017 Group Read Spoiler thread

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Teresa wrote: "Thanks Barb. I'll give it a go."

Or maybe a different GH would help. Beauvallet is different from her other books, so maybe it isn't right for you. :)

[Teresa]

It's not the book Carol. I just can't pick anything up. I stood in front of my bookshelves and my (huge) TBR pile and couldn't settle on anything. I'm having withdrawal symptoms!!!!!

[Critterbee❇]

Teresa wrote: "Thanks Barb. I'll give it a go."

Teresa, I would recommend reading something comfortable for 15 - 30 minutes or so right before you go to sleep at night. It does not seem like that long for reading, but I try to do at least that much and it helps me get to sleep, while fitting in definite reading time.

[Susan in NC]

Yes, hang in there, my dear! I feel your frustration and have been there - take care of yourself!

[Teresa]

Ye're all so good guys to try and keep me going. I don't honestly know what I'd do if I didn't have the gang on GR.

[Kim]

Teresa, when I am stressed, sometimes something completely different is required. I’ve used poetry, nonfiction—When Breath Becomes Air helped at one point, or a classic...just something with which you can spend time without any “should” associated with it. Your love of reading will always be there, it just needs some new batteries.

[Susan in NC]

Kim wrote: "Teresa, when I am stressed, sometimes something completely different is required. I’ve used poetry, nonfiction—When Breath Becomes Air helped at one point, or a classic...just something with which ..."

Kim, that’s beautifully put, thank you!

[Kim]

Thanks, Susan! We all have slumps

[Susan in NC]

Kim wrote: "Thanks, Susan! We all have slumps"

Yes, but that’s a great way to deal with it...I know, ever since I was a young reader, if I wasn’t in the middle of a good book or about to start one, things just felt out of whack...

[Hilary (A Wytch's Book Review)]

Would it be worth having an audio book in the background so that you are "reading" without actually reading?

[Nick]

Kim wrote: "Teresa, when I am stressed, sometimes something completely different is required.

Isn't that interesting, I'm completely the opposite. Stress drives me back to my old comfortable favourites and I find myself re-reading children's books or trashy fantasy.

Teresa wrote: " just can't pick anything up. I stood in front of my bookshelves and my (huge) TBR pile and couldn't settle on anything. I'm having withdrawal symptoms!!!!!"

Oh that sounds awful. I hate it when nothing in the TBR pile is appealing. I hope all the stress clears up soon!

[Teresa]

Thanks to you all for your kind comments and helpful suggestions. Yes I'm defo out of whack!!!

[Susan in NC]

Nick wrote: "Kim wrote: "Teresa, when I am stressed, sometimes something completely different is required.

Isn't that interesting, I'm completely the opposite. Stress drives me back to my old comfortable favou..."

Me, too!

[Susan in Perthshire]

Teresa wrote: "Guys I gave up. Not because of the book exactly, I will read it at some stage, but I'm finding it almost impossible to read anything at the moment. It's actually starting to bother me. I've never h..."

I sympathise totally. When it happened to me I found the only thing I could manage for a while were magazines and short stories; and even they were often a struggle. I am pleased to say that after a really stressed and worrying period in my life, things are slowly improving and I am managing to read again! So it does come back!

[Teresa]

Thanks Susan. I have been trying to catch up on some magazines I have but it's not a great success. I'm actually spending any free time here on GR at the moment. Hopefully something will jump off the shelf at me soon and I'll get back on track.

[Kim]

There have been few times I have not been able to read. When I attended Officer Candidate School, I had to read...engineering, celestial navigation, Navy discipline and law, leadership and management...but my days were so full and I was so exhausted, that “outside” reading was nearly nonexistent. I took Jack Finney’s Time After Time with me, as well as some other books, and it sat in my suitcase in storage for a while until Thanksgiving leave occurred and we got to get out civies for a trip to a classmate’s house in Andover, Massachusetts for the weekend. I took the book with me, and made a start, and read a page or 2 every night until I finished it over Christmas break. There was a lovely bookstore on Thames Street in Newport, RI, where my friend and I went and I think I got a Penguin mystery to read after I finished TAT. He and I both loved books, and sat over drinks on liberty talking about writing and reading. We went to Boston to Christmas shop and I got a wicker basket full of books for presents with a few for myself at the Coop at Harvard, a perfect day with hot chocolate and snow. I had another dry spell when I first had my accident as pain and pain killers made even reading a chore, Alexander McCall Smith’s take on Emma took me a long while, I kept falling asleep over it, but it was a refuge from all the waking stress and helped keep nightmares at bay. I finished it on night when my roommate at the trauma rehab center had seven people in and out of the room for three hours between 3 & 6 am, and went on to my first Liane Moriarty The Husband’s Secret. My husband would pop in and out during the day in between meetings, and at night we would sit reading our books, holding hands. It was the best part of my day.

Then there are the “acedia” phases of not being able to read, all that gives life meaning seems to be leeched from our lives, we have no energy or interest. Sometimes an old friend comfort book helps, sometimes it is too related to memories which are the source of the problem. Sometimes the only way is waiting it out, one step in front of another, waiting to get through. It is hard to not feel like reading when one is an avid, lifelong reader. But sometimes attention is required elsewhere. For anyone going through this, I know how it feels, but know, as my dad often said, “this, too, shall pass”.

[Sheila (in LA)]

Teresa wrote: "Thanks Susan. I have been trying to catch up on some magazines I have but it's not a great success. I'm actually spending any free time here on GR at the moment. Hopefully something will jump off t..."

Not to be a total downer or anything, but one of the things I associate with getting older is a change in how I read. I no longer devour books the way I used to in my younger days. That doesn't mean I don't occasionally find a book that completely absorbs me, but it's less frequent and in fact, a lot of newer fiction doesn't even appeal to me. I do have my old favorites, though, and I do turn to them when I hit a dry spell. It's the reason I've read so many Agatha Christies more than once, and The Hobbit about 8 times!

[Teresa]

Yes I'm definitely getting older and I've found this past year very hard. I don't work outside the home but I have a very busy day to day. I'm constantly driving as I have two still living at home (late 20's) who are in mature education and I'm driving them to and from two different colleges. I've also been a carer for the last six years or so for my daughter but that's eased somewhat. I've always kept going but the last six months I've just been so tired all the time. I'm truly hoping over the Christmas holidays I'll get back to normal.

[Sheila (in LA)]

Teresa wrote: "Yes I'm definitely getting older and I've found this past year very hard. I don't work outside the home but I have a very busy day to day. I'm constantly driving as I have two still living at home ..."

Reading your message made me think it's not the fact of getting older (necessarily), it's having less free space in our heads and more cares and even worries. I hope the holidays do bring you some relief (and not just more work)!

[Susan in NC]

Sheila wrote: "Teresa wrote: "Yes I'm definitely getting older and I've found this past year very hard. I don't work outside the home but I have a very busy day to day. I'm constantly driving as I have two still ..."

Yes, Sheila raises a very good point - you need to take care of yourself, sounds to me like you’re totally worn out! Reading is a pleasure and it will be again, don’t beat yourself up over it; as Kim so wisely said, “this too shall pass”. (I’ve said it before, Kim, you’ve got a book in you - you’ve lead quite a full life!)

[Teresa]

I usually have about ten for Christmas dinner Sheila and for a week of the holidays. This year for some reason it's just ourselves. My husband is really looking forward to it. Maybe it's a sign and I will have a rest. I like having people around and cooking for gangs but I have to admit I'm looking forward to a break from it all this year.
Thanks guys for all the support. Without my friends on GR I don't know what I'd do.

[Kim]

Take care of yourself, Teresa. I felt increasingly tired, turns out my arteries were blocked & it took a mild heart attack to get my attention. I just kept trying to do what I always did with less and less energy. Once I got the blockage cleared, I felt like a new person. My cardiologist said lack of energy is not how aging feels, it is usually a sign of something else. Having never experienced aging myself, who knew?

[Susan in NC]

Kim wrote: "Take care of yourself, Teresa. I felt increasingly tired, turns out my arteries were blocked & it took a mild heart attack to get my attention. I just kept trying to do what I always did with less ..."

So true! And being strong women, we just keep plugging along, “I’ll power through this” until we HAVE to slow down; all those years of bad balance, I just thought “getting older, part of menopause”, a brain tumor never occurred to me...

[Kim]

Also, if we do not care for ourselves and resupply our source of giving, we can actually run out. And if we do no take care of ourselves, we cannot be there for those we love. If I did not pay attention to my heart, I would not have been there when someone I loved started to become clean and sober, and another dearly loved person tried to commit suicide. And, boy howdy, did I need energy and patience then!! Just when I wanted to rest and recover. Life loves to throw things at us just when we are trying to pull away.

[Teresa]

I feel like a fraud now hearing you're stories. Have a few minor health issues so maybe it's that.

[Susan in NC]

Teresa wrote: "I feel like a fraud now hearing you're stories. Have a few minor health issues so maybe it's that."

No Teresa, everyone is on their own journey, it’s not a contest! You have so many depending on you, you need to take a break sometimes to regenerate your batteries.

[Kim]

I suspect you are not given to complaining, Teresa. As Susan says, it is not a competition. We just want to encourage and support you as best we can through cyberspace.

[Teresa]

You're thoughts and comments are very much appreciated! Believe me!!

[Jan]

Well, I'm too late and the party's pretty much over, but I saw Beauvallet at the library last week so I'd thought I'd give it a try. I remembered it was a rare Heyer I didn't enjoy as a teen. And yep, things haven't changed. Didn't like it at all this time either.

I didn't like the tone or the stylised language. I could see El Beauvallet in my head as a dashing, 'Errol Flynn' type character, but really, the writing style was just painful and I didn't persist. A couple of chapters, flipped through the rest. Just, no.

I will go back to my fav Regencies and Georgians instead. I'm ready to start (finally) the January read of Regency Buck :)

[Jackie]

I never got through the book this time which has frankly never happened before. And as I recall, I actually liked the last part much more than the part where they are on Beauvallet's ship. I see the Romance as not as interesting as the Swashbuckling, Death-Defying Action and the humor.
or, at least usually. this winter not so much.