Anca Preece - Pages & Paws

Today marks the birthday of a remarkable woman 🌿 Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was an English writer and philosopher, and an early advocate for women’s rights and education.

In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), she challenged the idea that women are naturally inferior, arguing instead that inequality comes from limited opportunity.

She was also the mother of Mary Shelley (1797–1851), author of Frankenstein - a powerful literary legacy in one family.

Her ideas still echo today, quietly shaping conversations about equality and opportunity.

Happy heavenly birthday, Mary Wollstonecraft. ✍️🙏

Happy Earth Day! 🌏 Let's celebrate through these five uplifting nature books!

🌍 Atmosphere of Hope by Tim Flannery: Climate truths meet practical solutions.
🌍 Dispatches from a Changing World by Elizabeth Kolbert: Pulitzer essays on nature's shifts.
🌍 The Magic and Mystery of Trees by Jen Green: Forests' secret networks revealed.
🌍 It's Not That Radical by Mikaela Loach: Empowering advocacy against greenwashing.
🌍 Hope Dies Last by Alan Weisman: Global stories of planetary resilience.

Perfect for everyone seeking paws-on inspiration. Which will you read first? 🐾📖

🌷📚 Books & Blooms: Tulips

While I was out photographing these tulips in my area yesterday 🌷 admiring the different varieties and vibrant colours, another lady was doing the same nearby. We got chatting for a little while - she said she was glad she wasn’t the only one stopping to take photos.

She paused for a moment just looking at them and said that especially if you draw or paint, it’s nice to have photos to look back at later. She added something I often think about myself - that they are here now, and then with a bit of wind or rain… they’re gone. There’s something about that impermanence that makes you notice them more.

Looking at them again afterwards made me see them a little differently, and I found myself thinking of a few books where tulips appear in different ways:

🌷 The Black Tulip — Alexandre Dumas
A story of ambition and rarity, where a single flower becomes something worth risking everything for.

🌷 Tulip Fever — Deborah Moggach
I’m currently listening to the audiobook 🎧 set during Dutch tulip mania, where love, art, and speculation all get tangled up together.

🌷 Tulip Summer — Penny Dolan
A quieter historical story set among tulip fields and changing lives.

🌷 Tulipomania — Mike Dash
The true story of the 17th-century tulip craze, when bulbs briefly became more valuable than houses.

🌷 The Golden Tulip — Rosalind Laker
A historical romance shaped by trade, travel, and shifting fortunes.

There’s definitely something about tulips that keeps showing up in stories - sometimes as beauty, sometimes as risk, sometimes as a reminder that even the most delicate things can carry whole histories with them.

Have you read any of these? Or is there one you’d pick up? Always open to recommendations too. 🌷

🌷✨ Spring feels like reading between the lines of all of them.

📸 My tulip photos from yesterday are included below.

🌸📚 Books in Bloom 📚🌸

Cherry blossom season always feels a little bit magical… soft, fleeting, and perfect for getting lost in a good book 🌸

So I’ve gathered a few blossom-inspired reads - stories of change, hope, and new beginnings:

🌸 Cherry Blossom Dreams - bright, hopeful, and full of feeling
🌸 Peach Blossom Spring - gentle, sweeping, and beautifully told
🌸 The Cherry Orchard - a timeless classic of change and seasons
🌸 The Enchanted April - an escape into sunshine, gardens, and renewal
🌸 The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop - books, blossom, and a little magic 🐾
🌸 At the Foot of the Cherry Tree Lane - cosy, uplifting, and full of charm

And I couldn’t resist stepping under the blossoms myself yesterday... April is such a wonderful month of the year! 🌸🌸

💬 If you could take any of these books to read beneath a cherry tree, which would you choose?

🇷🇴 Hristos a înviat tuturor celor care sărbătoresc astăzi! 🌸✨
Sărbătorile Pascale îmi amintesc de primul volum al romanului În căutarea timpului pierdut, în care Proust descrie Paștele de la Combray - biserica scăldată într-o lumină aproape mistică, liniștea slujbei, parfumul liliacului și al păducelului care învăluie totul într-o emoție blândă.
Paștele ne amintește să privim în noi înșine și să ne bucurăm de tot ce renaște: credința, speranța și bucuria tăcută a amintirilor. 💜
Vă doresc un Paște fericit și luminos!

🇬🇧 Happy Easter to all who celebrate today! 🌿✨
Today I’m reminded of one of my favourite novels, Proust’s In Search of Lost Time - a slow, reflective book that feels especially fitting for this season of renewal. I love revisiting those passages where he returns to Combray at Easter: the church of Saint-Hilaire bathed in an almost mystical light, the calm of the mass, the lilacs and hawthorns blooming as if touched by grace.
Easter is a time to look within and to rejoice in what blooms anew: faith, hope, and the quiet joy of remembrance. 💜

Am scris un blog nou, las link-ul in primul comentariu.

❤️🎄🐈🐈‍⬛

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Lectura de weekend: primul roman din saga Insula Cameliilor de Tabea Bach, o poveste despre dragoste, curaj și încredere.

My weekend reading: the first novel in The Camellia Island saga by Tabea Bach, a story about love, courage and trust.

Editura RAO

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