“I ate all my peas.” When my dear husband was a boy, his mother told his sister to clean her plate, to which he added, “I ate all my peas” It has become an in joke for us – a code to say “neener, neener, I’m being good”.

Our book club book this month is Brideshead Revisited and some of the women at our office meeting the other day (the book club is made up of mostly women from my office) were talking about what a difficult read it is, mostly centering around Waugh’s word choices. I had spent a good time reading it the previous night (at football practice, of course) and said, “It isn’t that difficult of a read”. In my head, I heard a refrain of “I ate all my peas….”

I am not the most amazing reader by any means, and sometimes I find books to be difficult going (the fabulous Screwtape Letters comes to mind), but for the most part, I do tend to read quickly. In addition, not only do I have a fair vocabulary (not that I’m good at using it in Scrabble or anything, as Molly who wipes the board with me every time can attest) but I am also coming off of reading Tess.

It’s a lovely book about interwar England, about gentrifying families, about how religion (specifically Catholicism) interacts with our life, and with our decisions. I have heard very good things about the PBS version, and am planning on looking it up. And, hopefully it will be a respectful Book Club discussion, even by those who aren’t religious, and maybe there will be peas.

(art credit)