Card Carrier

I am a Greenville County Library System Card carrier. I got my library card two weeks ago and have already finished my second book. Boo-yah! I even liked both of them. Double-yah!

The first novel I just grabbed off the shelf. I totally judge books by their covers. What of it? Anywho, the cover looked kind of eerie in all of its deep greens and blacks and big, gnarly tree and lonely little boy. As soon as I cracked it open, I knew it was a good pick. I have good luck walking the stacks and borrowing the third book I glanced at.

The Stolen Child by Kieth Donahue is a rich and engaging read. I really can't remember a book like it that I have read. It tells the storiesof two Henrys (it made it even more fun to read a book whose main characters' name is the same as my baby's), one is a precocious little boy who ran away one day only to never see his family again and the other is the changeling who took his place, living the true Henry's life as the real Henry lives the life of a changeling. Both Henrys feel as if they are missing something -  their pasts and their true identities, and their respective journeys to make themselves whole and happy. Sounds weird, but it was very well written and realistic - two things that get my literary motor purring.

The next one picked up after reading a list of good mysteries from the past few years. The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard was a satisfying and quick read. I enjoyed reading the details of each character's life and the small town they live in. One night during a blizzard in 1987, a seventeen year old boy, his father, and his older brother discover the naked body of a beautiful woman in a pasture. The events that follow that night change the lives of those involved, and those believed to be involved. In 2004, a grown up Abby and Rex (the boy who discovered the body) find another body in a blizzard. The drive to solve the 1987 murder is reignited and the novel follows it to an eyebrow raising resolution.

I will review my third book soon, as I have three delightful and starving hours at the doctor's office for my Glucose Test today. Jealous?

Book Club Friday

My first Link Up! Hooray! Anyone who knows me knows my affection for reading. I could read all day long, taking short breaks for life's little essentials and then reading some more. I'll link up as fast as I can read the books (note to self... get library card for Greenville... books don't come cheap these days).

This week I'm sharing:

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

http://www.amazon.com/19th-Wife-Novel-David-Ebershoff/dp/1400063973

Back Cover Synopsis:It is 1875, and An Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast , Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of her family's polygamous history is revealed, including how both she and her mother became plural wives. Yet soon after Ann Eliza's story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds - a tale of murder involving a polygamous family in present day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father's death. And as Ann Eliza's narrative intertwines with that of Jordan's search, readers are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love, family, and faith.

My take: I bought this book while during a three hour layover on my way to Phoenix several weeks ago. I bought it solely because it was thick and on sale. I didn't dislike the book, but I didn't like it either. I really enjoyed the research that went into putting the novel together. I really appreciate the author's dedication to said research and I enjoyed his character Jordan, who could really be any torn and confused twenty-something with a past and a chip on his shoulder. What I didn't like was the painting of Brigham Young as a lascivious character. He had quite the talent for leadership and many, many good works to his credit. I felt the book downplayed his great qualities, but I realize that emphasizing what a truly respected and respectable person he was would not jive with the plot. I have to state that I disagree with polygamy, clearly, but it was a way to heaven for them at the time. Who wouldn't take the heavenly path? (This is a struggle that Ann Eliza's own mother endured.) All in all, I felt the book to be a little slow, but well written and thoughtfully researched, and I didn't find it all that engaging, but I may very well be on my own. Amazon's reviewers really seemed to like it.

Its still a happy new year

3 Days into Eleven...
1. Have not had a diet coke, or any soda for that matter. May have replaced one bubbly addiction for another more Crystal Light-y one. (must work on overall obsessive tendencies)
2. Have decided that cleaning up my potty language should be more of a priority (one should not have to apologize to one's self mid-swear tirade in crowded parking lot in car ... alone)
3. Ate a banana today so will be tall and skinny like said banana (so far just looking white and goofy - and kind of squishy actually) like banana. I find role models in interesting places, no?
4. When I thought I broke my foot (again) on NYE, I cursed that oh-Ten year. When I rolled my ankle this morning I said, "Thank goodness I didn't break my face." This is taking a positive stab and being more positive and less whiny. I'll take what little successes I can get in this road of personality change.
5.  Applauded my nearly halfway mark in the 500 page "Inside the Victorian Home," until I realized that reading how the mantra "cleanliness, is next to godliness" became so popular during that era while I sat next to a pile of laundry three feet high (yes, I, too wish I was kidding).
6. Brought "Ethnic Cuisine" into Sprouts Farmers Market, but did not buy any of the delicious and exotic ingredients (Happy Hubby said no to lemongrass and vermicelli rice noodles, but yes to sweet potato and bacon. He is most certainly a meat and potato man).

Have adapted a word-of-the-day game to play with Hubbs (though I think I am the only one playing). Today the word is "pandiculation" meaning: yawning and stretching. "{Coworker} must have had a rough night judging by all the pandiculation going on over there."  tee hee hee

Listening to: "You Have Me" by Gungor

***Really really loving this book, by the way. I am fascinated by how people lived before the invention of modern necessities like toothpaste and toilets.

Working in the Shadows

Read great book recommended on Citizen Reader's blog, Working in the Shadows: Doing the Jobs [most] Americans Won't Do by Gabriel Thompson in two days. I have to give my subsequent thumbs-up, too. It was published in 2010, after employer sanctions laws in AZ (my home state) but before the pinnacle of SB1070 controversy. Instead of focusing on being able to live on minimum wage or how disgusting it is work work in a slaughterhouse, Thompson strived to live and work as an immigrant. Succinct, to-the-point and brightly written, I can't say that it was necessarily an eye opening experience, rather it furthered my interest in the lives of the people that come to America in hope of a better life - the ones who work several jobs, getting paid sub-minimum wage to work mind-numbing back-breaking tasks (can you imagine dumping big tubs of chicken parts into a bigger tub of more chicken parts or picking lettuce in the sweltering fields in Yuma, AZ for your eight (or more) hour work day - how boring and straining).

Just today, parts of Senate Bill 1070 were put on hold, while the remainder may go into effect tonight at midnight. It is interesting times we live in. I enjoy learning from both sides of the [border] fence and am convinced if more people took an educating and open-minded approach, compromises can be made and agreements reached.

Peace and Love.

Listening to: "What Else is There" by Royksopp
Reading: "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot