Celia Hayes | April 29, 2009
“Sabine!” called Mama from the bottom of the garden where she was making soap on a mild spring day. Mama did not wish to bring the smell of wood-ash lye and tallow near to the house, or the heat of the fire that it bubbled over, “Will you bring me more wood now!?” “Yes, Mama,” [...]
Celia Hayes | April 29, 2009
Waiting for Spring – R.J. Keller
Tess Dyer not only waits for spring, she is waiting for much else, in this leisurely novel which explores various aspects of contemporary family and parenthood, love and community, and the impact on them of addictions (of various sorts) and self-destructive behavior. Tess’s mood is as bleak, her emotions as [...]
Celia Hayes | April 22, 2009
I succumbed to the blandishments of the overloaded bookshelves at Half-Price Books a couple of months ago, whilst getting a good price on some redundant DVDs. I just knew I shouldn’t have wandered into the section housing assortments of “Texiana” but I did and I was tempted. Since I can resist anything but temptation, [...]
Celia Hayes | December 7, 2008
It was Vati’s idea to have a splendid Christmas Eve and he broached it to his family in November. Christian Friedrich Steinmetz to everyone else but always Vati to his family; once the clockmaker of Ulm in Bavaria, Vati had come to Texas with the Verein nearly twenty years before with his sons and his [...]
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