“… the next thing to be done was unquestionably to walk directly down to the sea.”

– Jane Austen’s Persuasion (1818), Volume 1, Chapter 11

I’m rereading Persuasion and I thought I’d share a few photos I took when I walked down to the sea the other day. This is not Lyme Regis (obviously), but Herring Cove Provincial Park, in Nova Scotia.

I’ve missed taking pictures and writing for this blog. At the moment, I don’t have any plans to host big celebrations like the blog series I hosted last year in honour of the 200th anniversary of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, but it’s nice to be back.

What are you all reading these days? I’m always looking for new recommendations, even though I always have a long list of books I want to read. After Persuasion, I’m planning to start Amy Jones’s new novel, Every Little Piece of Me. My friend Naomi wrote about the novel on her blog last week: “I loved this book,” she says. “With humour and insight, Amy Jones goes deeper and darker with Every Little Piece of Me, exploring the dark side of media and social media, women’s issues, loss and grief, and the power of human connection.”

I like that the novel opens with a family on the verge of moving from New York to Nova Scotia to open a bed and breakfast. Here’s the response of one of the daughters to the announcement about the move:

“Dad. Papa. We know where Nova Scotia is.” She did, vaguely, insofar as she knew that it wasn’t New York, or L.A., or even New Hampshire—was it actually, possibly, could it be, in Canada?

Other recent additions to my list include Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan (which my friend Marianne just started reading), and The Ghost Road, by Charis Cotter (recommended by my daughter). Further suggestions welcome!