comfortably hibernating

As the days began to get shorter and the weather colder I started to hoard books like a squirrel
preparing for winter. And, unlike last year, spending Thanksgiving in London this year was amazingly enabling. My mom and I spent easily an hour in a bookstore in Notting Hill (and went back another day to pick up another I was wishy-washying over). For those of you wondering, no, unfortunately it was not the same one from the movie and, no, Hugh Grant did not work there. Despite this unfortunate lack of celebrity, the bookstore was amazing. I was surrounded by all the English language novels I could desire... albeit for the cost and strain of lugging an entire library back to Germany.

While I picked up a ton of books (about which I will definitely have to come back to at later date), the one I was most eager to start was sent from America, via my mom's suitcase, from my dear friend Megan. Inside her lovely care package was a note claiming the attached was her favorite book and hoped I liked it. I knew I would love it - we're best friends for a reason.

Sitting in the airport flying from Heathrow to Dusseldorf I began Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. I finished it a few days later and longed for it to never end. The characters were so personal and developed - I felt like they were long lost friends or even parts of myself whose company I longed to sit with for hours. I laid on my couch in pjs, drank my tea and watched the sky darken without concern. Bri said he had never seen me more happy.

Although I do get down about dark weather and gloomy days, I find such solace in my nest of books and comfort in the laziness of winter expectation. I would not give up my winters if given the choice.
For those of you looking for a few good books: Megan recently sent me an excerpt from Small
Wonder, a book of short stories by Kingsolver that I very much enjoyed and look forward to reading in entirety soon. My Mother-in-law also swears by the beauty in Kingsolver's prose in several other books including The Poisonwood Bible and Animal Vegetable, Miracle:A year of Food Life.

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