HI THERE! I'M BRIANNE TURCZYNSKI, FREELANCE WRITER, HISTORICAL RESEARCHER, & PERPETUAL SEEKER OF THE HUMAN CONDITION. WELCOME TO MY SPACE WHERE I SHARE THE BOOKS I'M READING, MY SPIRITUAL FINDINGS, FLOWERS IN MY GARDEN, AND LOST STORIES. ALL ARE WELCOME HERE.
In this tenth episode, I introduce you to Vita Sackville-West, owner and creator of Sissinghurst Castle Gardens in Kent, England. She was my muse and the voice in my head for many years when I was doing a lot of gardening. I'm happy to tell you a little about her in this episode and share … Continue reading Finding Solace in the Garden with Vita Sackville-West
Currently reading! I searched for this book in every bookshop for years—it was probably the only book of Maugham’s I didn’t own. He is a favorite of mine. I eventually found it in @johnkingbooksdetroit , a surprising find since I had looked multiple times before this with no luck. King’s always has a good supply … Continue reading Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham
Can’t get enough Vita Sackville-West!!! This book goes month by month and talks about the flowers she didn’t mention in her first book, ‘In Your Garden’. Here she discusses what to grow from Spring-Fall, and how to prepare the garden in winter months. For a long time she was my muse and the voice in … Continue reading More for your Garden by Vita Sackville-West
Of Whales and Men by Dr. R. B. Robertson is a creative nonfiction piece written in the 1950s about the whaling industry and the "psychopaths" that work on the factory ship for 8 months out of the year--every year. Dr. Robertson dubbed all the whalers psychopaths because they chose a life away from civilization, to … Continue reading Of Whales and Men by R. B. Robertson
The sudden warm weather in Michigan has got me thinking of the garden. A couple years ago I wrote a garden blog every week dedicated to the garden writings of Vita Sackville-West. Some days I miss her writings, her wonderful way of describing “ordinary” flowers and plants like human beings. She knew them all so … Continue reading Sissinghurst by Vita Sackville-West and Sarah Raven
Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens is a collection of three children’s stories: A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, & The Cricket on the Hearth. According to May Lamberton Becker who wrote the introduction for this collection, “Night after night [Dickens] tramped the dark and silent streets of London, sometimes for as many as fifteen miles, while … Continue reading Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens
Trying to read The Ambassadors by Henry James on a full charter bus. I grabbed it because it was small enough to fit in my purse. However my decision to start a new book on a loud bus with children and parents talking all around me was probably mistake. How did I forget I need … Continue reading The Ambassadors by Henry James
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If any of you would like to read an interesting book (which I’m sure you do), please try Walter de la Mare’s Desert Islands. I have a rule to buy any work of Walter de la Mare’s that I don’t already have; I like him a lot. Desert Islands is sort of a collection … Continue reading Desert Islands by Walter de la Mare
⭐️⭐️⭐️ I love Walter de la Mare! Although I gave this a three, it is only because his other work is so fabulous that this one failed to thrill by comparison. Much of his work carries the theme of isolation. In The Return, although not his best work, the protagonist gets possessed by a dead … Continue reading The Return by Walter de la Mare
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Although written in 1915 this suspense novel by Joseph Conrad feels incredibly modern. I couldn’t believe the date myself as it seemed more like a mid-century novel. I liked it once it got rolling. Heyst is a loner who has spent much of his life living on an island, but when he rescues a … Continue reading Victory by Joseph Conrad
BRIANNE TURCZYNSKI 