I have a weakness for timepieces - I treasure the two gold pocket watches that belonged to my grandfather and a smaller gold watch that belonged to my grandmother. My mother must have had ten or more wristwatches in her jewelry box when she died and I still have them although I don't think any of them still tick. I have a clock in every room of my house. When I visit a historic home I am always on the lookout for an antique mantel clock or grandfather's clock to admire.
So the debut collection of twelve short stories by Starr Wood, Once Upon a Timepiece, intrigued me. Each story finds the timepiece - "a 1946 Breitling Chronomat made from rose-colored gold" - in the possession of someone new. The reader is carried along as each month the watch passes from wrist to drawer and from pocket to pawnshop over the span of a year. The telling of how that person - each a stranger to the others - came to have the timepiece is what makes this book such fun to read.
"Well, I didn't see that coming!" is what I found myself thinking often in the reading of these stories. Each one has a twist at the end and it was amusing to see how Mr. Wood gets his main character - the timepiece - into the life of someone new.
Mr. Wood is a journalist and his prose is crisp and uncluttered. His characters are drawn with just enough telling details - the woman with the gorgeous red hair, the obsessively tidy accountant, the self-righteous newspaper editor - as to make them quite distinguishable from each other.
I am glad I was able to devote some 'time' in my reading schedule to these tales. There really is a 1946 Breitling Chronomat, a watch designed during World War II for aviators. Perhaps Mr. Wood's traveling timepiece looked something like the one below. If so, I would be happy to add it to my collection, but I certainly wouldn't like to let it go!
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Le frégate
Henri Matisse |
Oh, my. My computer and I were both blindsided by viruses at the same time. While my laptop languished for a week at the techie hospital, I languished on the chaise lounge.
The Polar Ice Caps that seem to be hovering over the region and the blowing snow didn't help my frame of mind. I did manage to push though and fulfill a couple of commitments but keeping up an entry a day on 'Belle, Book, and Candle' fell by the wayside.
I wish I could report that I read many books this past week, but sadly that has not been the case. I did finish Once Upon a Timepiece by Starr Wood which I really enjoyed and will write about another time.
I managed to read a chapter or two in The Bully Pulpit about Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Said chapters are quite long and so filled with information that after finishing one I feel as if I have read a book.
There were a couple of free mysteries on my Kindle which once begun were quickly abandoned as they didn't hold my interest. So, I returned to the tried and true detective adventures of Peter Diamond in Upon a Dark Night. Author Peter Lovesey never fails to sweep me away with his tales of Bath, England and the criminal goings-on there.
My laptop is back where it belongs...on my lap. I am slowly coming back to life myself and hope to get in the swing of things shortly. If you, dear reader, have left me a comment I plan on catching up with you over this weekend.
I recently added my email address to Belle, Book, and Candle and almost immediately received an inquiry about a new book published by Bo Tree Books. I normally don't read new fiction (unless there is a fairly bloodless murder or comic mayhem involved), but the idea behind Once Upon A Timepiece intrigued me.
I have a fascination with watches and clocks and even sundials. The thread that connects these twelve stories by Starr Wood has to do with a wristwatch and the different lives that this one timepiece touches.
While I do not want to get involved with receiving books for review, I responded that I would be happy to give Mr. Wood's book some time. It arrived in yesterday's post.
I like the premise of this book and the fact that the author is a British journalist who worked in London. He now lives in Singapore and this is his first book.
I look forward to reading Once Upon a Timepiece and will give a full report soon.
By the way, I looked up 'bo tree' and discovered that it is also known as the bodhi tree. It was under such a tree that the Buddah received enlightenment.
