Book 35 for 2026: “Warlight”, Michael Ondaatje

August 31, 2026 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

Many will know this writer from his Booker Prize winning novel “The English Patient” and many have seen the movie even if they did not read the book.

“Warlight” takes place mostly just after WWII but is a totally different angle than any other WWII novel I have read. The scene is England, actually London and locales nearby. Two teenagers, a brother and sister, have their seemingly ordinary life totally upended when their parents announce they are leaving them with the man who lives in rooms at the top of their house. The two teens refer to this man as The Moth. The teens, Nathanial and Rachel, begin to think The Moth and his friends may be criminals given their strange goings and comings. They still go to school. Nathanial finds some jobs via The Moth and meets a girl at one of them. Her brother is in real estate. Nathanial and she hang out and have adventures in the empty for sale houses. The brother and sister do discover that their mother worked with The Moth during the war. Otherwise, they know little.

Eventually, their mother returns with no explaining about where she was or what she was doing. They never see their father again and have no clue what happened to him. Rachel is so angry about this that she has little to do with the mother and only sees Nathanial occasionally. Years later Nathaniel acquires a job where he is able to discover who his mother really is, what she had been doing for years, and what happened to her and others with whom she was close.

This novel reveals how little we sometimes know about others, the effects of their secrets, and how behavior good or bad leads to consequences often unexpected.

I’ve read several of the author’s novels and always find them complex and enlightening, sometimes revealing worlds about which I have little or no knowledge.

Delights–Three

February 25, 2026 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

There is nothing like meeting a goal while enjoying it to bring a sense of delight as well as accomplishment. I walk daily–today I arrived at day 707 without ever missing a day–looking at the flowers, visiting with all the other walkers. I live in a walking neighborhood with friendly walkers who at a minimum wave. Some stop to chat and some check on me if they have not seen me out walking in a while because of the different routes we take or different times we walk. One particular person who checks on me taught me how to make some of her native food–India. Another lady several blocks away prefers to walk with others, not alone, so if she sees me out, we join together in the company of her little dog, June, whom I have never seen actually walking. June rides in a baby carriage.

Now, as I write this, I’m enjoying another late afternoon of delight in my backyard. The hibiscus is full of ruby flowers. Freeway daisies, bright white and purple, pop up everywhere. Four different colors of bougainvillea sport their joy. One nasturtium–they are popping in places I never even planted–is sporting the same color of ruby as the hibiscus. The lemon tree is full of almost ripe lemons some of which I have promised to friends and neighbors. One woman cannot eat all these lemons. Meanwhile, I listen to different birds singing their varied songs and to the gurgle of the water fountain by the Nile Blue French doors and watch the hummingbird who is watching me.

I feel grateful to be surrounded in beauty and quiet joy.

Respect

June 6, 2017June 6, 2017 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

Because I teach high school, I am accustomed to teenagers, their loudness and capacity for rude behavior. Nevertheless, because I live in ranching country with fences and gates, most know you do not go through another person’s fence or leave gates open. The former is called trespassing. The latter can thoughtlessly let out livestock and maybe get them killed. If your neighbor’s dog keeps coming to your property and you call the sheriff’s office, they will simply tell you to shoot it.

Respect applies. If you do not want people running over your property, obviously do not trespass on another’s. Have respect for others as you would want them to respect you.

A big party full of teens started at my neighbor’s about five hours ago. I watched them throwing rocks, running hither and yon, like caged animals on the loose. A fence exists between my property and hers, a very obvious, country style fence with cedar and T-posts and five strands of wire. It is not invisible. I never installed no trespassing signs because they would face her property and in some places exist at the edge of her back yard. I would not be able to see them from my house or barn. After this evening, I will reconsider.

Luckily, I was out feeding horses, doing chores, when several of the teens apparently decided to crawl through the fence and walk toward my house. Because I was outside, I saw them and was able to tell them to get back across the fence. If I had not been home, would they have kept walking, what might they have done? Nothing, hopefully, but with 25 or perhaps more running around, who knows. I kept thinking surely these young people know better. Have they not been taught to respect others? Where were the adults? Did they even care?

This week I will go buy several no trespassing signs and install them at various places along the fence. I feel sad to think I find this necessary.