Bittersweet Reading

I've just finished listening to Maeve Binchy's A Week in Winter. I'm feeling sad, because Ms Binchy died last year, and there will be no new groups of people to get to know and love, no new wonderful places created by her fertile mind. At least I can go back and renew my acquaintance with her previous creations.

I very much enjoyed A Week in Winter, as I have every  one of Maeve Binchy's books. She weaves a tale of Stone House and the people connected to it into a beautiful, comforting blanket you can wrap around your shoulders while you sink into life in the west of Ireland. Sharing the lives of each of the characters, the situations and decisions that lead them to Stone House, helps me look at people with new eyes, and new appreciation.

Maeve Binchy will be sorely missed. I'm grateful she has left behind a legacy of tales.