The Magic of Ordinary Days

Loved this book! I saw the movie and while both were good there were differences. The book did have a lot more interesting details I couldn’t stop reading it.

From my blog review:During the Second World War, Livvy becomes pregnant by a soldier who seems to forget about her as he steals off to the front lines. Her minister father arranges for her to wed a shy farmer about an hour out of La Junta, Colorado. She can deliver the baby and be part of a respectable family.Livvy recognizes Ray immediately for the kind and gentle man he is. But, also for the limitations of his experience. He is a beet farmer and while he receives special treatment for his integral work (gasoline unlimited during fuel rations, unlimited sugar to sweeten the beets), his life has been a secluded and lonely one---made more so by the passing of his brother Daniel at Pearl Harbour.Ray is someone who will love completely anyone he has to love. This greatly put me in mind of that old John Knowles quote from A Separate Peace : "When you love something it has to love you back in whatever way it has to love." Livvy recognizes his peace and patience, yes, but she is still waiting for life around the corner.She tells us: I had never run in my life in order to meet men or find romance, although I wasn't immune to those things, either. I'd always dreamed that someday love would come into my life in some spectacular fashion. Probably it would happen in another country, on board a ship, most likely it would unfold during one of my future treks to uncover a secret history. One side of me knew that these were the dreams of an inexperienced girl, and yes, I was inexperienced in love; but it didn't bother me.Olivia's dream was to become an archaeologist and excavate the earth for the past. When her mother got sick and the marriage of her sisters dictated that she be the one to care for the ailing woman, Olivia saw her dreams shelved. Now they are interred in some hidden place as she is flung out into the middle of nowhere- Colorado, an hour from the nearest library, bound to a man she cannot hope to understand. All the while, she is aware of the life growing inside her and how the baby's presence will plot her securely to the land even more. In short, Livvy's life seems to be over.What Magic of Ordinary Days works well at is creating a pyramid of several interlocking events ---some historical---some fictional that tier upon one another in layers seemingly simplified by the narrative conjecture of a well-spun story. The interception of Ray's familial history and the arrowheads and artefacts Livvy unearths around the farm gently nudge this taut symbolism onward.Olivia is right to recognize that "just listening to the radio news is a study in history, Especially now" as the Second World War ravages around her. To bring the War more firmly to home soil, Creel presents us with two Japanese American women who work on Ray's farm: Lorelei and Rose. Their pride, their normalcy, their dedication to the land and to try and establish their right to live as Americans as they always have ( despite the immediate racism and prejudice incurred by Pearl Harbour) are a welcome way to bring the War Front to the idyllic farm life.There are several lovely nuances to the story that exhume history in ordinary ways much as the title bespeaks ----the enchantment and surprise one can find during the seemingly redundant circumstances that silently stilt our lives along.The most important aspect for me, was the burgeoning and well-trained love she began to experience for her husband. Can one teach love? Can one learn to love? Creel would have us believe that circumstance and time and the right re-jigging of our personal preferences to explore new horizons would prove so.In the past, Livvy explains, I would've listed things such as common interests, mutual attraction, worldliness and higher education. My freedom above all else. If I had found love, it would have had to be the kind that overwhelmed and overpowered all else.What she speaks above is direct to her personal experience for Ray loves her completely and it suffuses his every word and action since his arrival. At one point, as they start to explore physical intimacy, Livvy describes his touch over her curves as that lining the rim of a delicate china tea cup. He treats and explores her very much in the same way she delicately muses and delights over her priceless artefacts. Ray loves her because she is his. She came to him. He doesn't know how else to exist other than to immediately love his new wife and their new baby.Livvy quite realistically rails against this consuming love, especially as housed in the vessel of a shy and awkward farmer, but the more she studies Ray and the more she learns to accept that she deserves something so wholly consuming and pure, the more she can fall into his passion for her. It takes time, thoughI wanted to understand his love, to see it clearly before me, to put it into a form that I could roll around in my palm and examine like modelling clay. Or I wanted to write it with words of reason and illustrate it with romance. I wanted to study it as once I'd studied my books.Livvy's lesson in accepting the grace-that-bowls-her-over of Ray's love is the same lesson she learns in forgiving herself for the momentary lapse of judgment that led her to sleep with an officer on furlough.Yes, there is a trope--- a trope that sews everything from Sarah Plain and Tall to Love Comes Softly ---the story of the mail-order bride or the marriage of convenience. If you love these stories and if you want to read possibly the best and most thoughtful incarnation of a romance budding from circumstance and acceptance, then this is the book for you.

I saw from reading some reviews that many did not like the ending. I did. It is our history and you cannot sugar coat it. But you can learn from it. We no longer put people in internment camps because of their race. FDR did it because of fear and pressure. We continue to grow as a human race, and hopefully for the better. I can say that I did not know that we also kept Nazi prisoners on American soil, so that was new to know and now I wish to know more about how and why we did.This book has some great character studies and I just loved it. I could definitely relate to what life is like out in the country versus the city. The movie was so good that I just had to buy the book--glad I did!

At first glance THE MAGIC OF ORDINARY DAYS is a love story. Of the surface it relates the story of Livvy, who is pregnant and forced to marry a man that she does not know. The story focuses on the evolution of their relationship and the changes in Livvy's life. Her husband Ray, has the very appropriate last name of Singleton, because he is indeed a single, solitary man.But on a broader scale, there are a number of underlying themes that the reader should be aware of. The first is the responsibility that people must take for their own acts and how what seem to be casual decisions about relationships can alter a person's life.Issues of family relationships are also brought out in the book. Most people will identify in some way with the relationships between the siblings. Women will contemplate what they would have done had they been Livvy - pregnant and without a husband in the early 1940's - and how their own father would have reacted. The underlying issues of religion and a small community vs a large city are also present.Author Ann Howard Creel masterfully deals with a subject that is popular among historians and this is women on the home front during the time of war. She also deals with men, such as Ray who does not go to war but still deals with issues of guilt.Creel's handling of the issues of Japanese interment is excellent. It is a subject that many readers, espcially young readers will know little about. So her even handed descriptions are informative. In addition, most Americans have little knowledge of the German and Italian POW's that came to America.The Hallmark Hall of Fame did a wonderful job with this novel, following almost exactly as Creel wrote it, although the did not use the first person. However, their ending was probably more acceptable to a general audience. The Japanese women in the novel to not fare as well as they did on TV. The sad part is that Rose and Lorelie were victimized by being put in the camp and then made bad decisions, just like Livvy, based on their desire to be loved.Although this book is well suited for young readers, and could be a useful tool in an educational environment, it is also an excellent read for readers of any age. War has many ripple effects on the society and Creel deals with many of them. This book gives much to reflect on. I'm just glad that Hallmark brought it to light for millions of readers.