I took a break from reading Nelson Mandela's "Long Walk to Freedom" which I'm reading for a bookclub. It's a long read...over 600 pages but quite fascinating.
These two books were reviewed together a while ago and I had them on hold and they came up. I'm surprised I'm reading so much non-fiction at the moment when I read almost none. Certainly will have to get Eleanor Wachtel's interviews in book form that she's produced. I did hear her once interviewing I forget who...possibly Margaret Drabble. She's certainly a wonderful interviewer and I always find what Carol Shields had to say whether in fiction or in conversation of interest.
It's was a rather interesting contrast to read again about the lives of women in a free society and their concerns after the wide sweeping political mainly male world of the freedom fighter in an oppressed society.
"Random Illuminations": Conversations with Carol Shields by Eleanor Wachtel
"The Staircase Letters": An Extraordinary Friendship at the End of Life
Arthur Motyer with Elma Gerwin and Carol Shields.
This made quite interesting reading. Arthur was Elma's prof at Bishop a long time ago and she asked him to join in a three way conversation with herself and Shields when both herself and Carol were dying of cancer.
