For Monday Musing over at The Purple Booker

 I’m currently reading a couple of books (okay, more than a couple!) – I finished reading ‘The Old Demon’ by Pearl S Buck as part of the short story reading challenge and am reading Jules Verne for another reading challenge. I am also starting ‘Hag-Seed’ by Margaret Atwood.
And a couple of other books on my list will be added on later this week as I also continue the UBC.

I read ‘The Good Earth’ by Pearl S Buck years ago (not sure if I was in middle school or high school by then) and it left an impression on me. I did not find anything else she had written in our little town at that time and now, finally, as part of this challenge, I picked up a book I had with me forever – ‘Great Short Stories of the World by Reader’s Digest Association‘ to read her short story ‘The Old Demon’.

This story is about Mrs.Wang, the matriarch of her family and of her village, and her love-hate relationship with ‘The Old Demon’, the notorious Yellow river. Mrs.Wang’s nature appeals to the reader – in this short story, lot of elements are combined surprisingly beautifully – fearful respect for nature, love of family, love of the homeland, love of humanity, and even a streak of humor shines through.  This story is another example of how powerful short stories are.

Below is my reading list for the Short Story Reading Challenge – Deal Me in 2017 – and for the first week (which was last week), random.org’s card shuffler dealt me with the 3 of Clubs. That was ‘The Old Demon’ by Pearl S Buck.  I will be monitoring my progress over here in google docs. I need to go hunt myself a vintage set of cards or even just a unique deck of cards (maybe make one myself) for use in later rounds – 51 more to go!