My life is speeding by faster than a drag racing redneck. Once again I find myself in the weekend, a particularly relaxing weekend at home, and look with alarm at the past blur of a week. I am thinking with discomfort about how quickly I am approaching my next birthday. Is life really going to go this fast from now on?
The next 5 weekends in a row we’ll be out of town. A sister’s college graduation, a camping trip, a trip to visit friends at the beach, a wedding, another wedding/camping trip combined (some friends are getting married at a dairy farm, and then having a camping trip hoedown type reception. I am looking forward to wearing a bandana and Chacos to a wedding, and possibly petting a cow during the ceremony.) Then a welcome weekend at home, and then we head to Denver for a week. That’s two weekends away from home, and the next weekend is away, too, at a friend’s house for a monumental blowout party. July 21st it all slows down for us, though heaven knows how long those glittering final free weekends of July will stay free. I love it. I love this life!
I figured out how to put the neat pictures of the books on my list, and then discovered that this forced me to link to the Amazon dot com order page. Nope. Not interested in shilling for Amazon, useful as the site is. I took them down and put in my own links. Sniff. Anyway, I’m hoping the next blog will be a review of Oracle Night. Then I’ll try the Categories thing, so anyone who is interested can click on the Book Reviews category and get them all in one fell swoop. This is my solution – definitely don’t need to start another blog, for heavens sake. Anyway, I’m guessing that no one will be interested, until I become the next Michiko Kakutani, at which point hordes of people will crowd the site and bring the MSN server down. Which reminds me – if you love books (Amanda! I know you do!), you should read The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. The world of this novel and the sequels is a world in which great books and great writers are treated like celebrities. There are riots over booksales, stampedes at the sight of famous writers. A whole division of the government exists to police the literary world, because books and ideas are worth a great deal of money. It’s a fun jaunt. And the heroine’s name is Thursday Next. How inventive is that? I’d love a world where Jasper Fforde or Cormac McCarthy or Jodi Picoult** were the people who captured the imaginations of the people and the media, instead of the ubiquitous mindless Barbie dolls that currently do – Paris or Nicole Richie or Anna Nicole.
My husband and cat are having a smackdown in the bedroom. Off to real life. Ciao.
**whom I’ve never read but will, Amanda, based on your recommendation! where should I start?
Sorry I am only just reading this now. I had, let\’s say, an interesting weekend and Monday. You must start with The Pact, move quickly to Keeping Faith, and then read My Sister\’s Keeper. The Pact is the first book of hers that I read and have been hooked since. It is about a teenage suicide pact gone wrong. It is a page turner and an easy read. Keeping Faith is about a little girl who is "speaking to God" and develops stigmata. The world goes nuts over it and the end is a big question. My Sister\’s Keeper is the one that made me a Jodi P. reader for life. It is beautifully written and, well, I cried reading just about every page. They are all beautiful. I can\’t wait to hear what you think!
Thanks for your suggestion! I will go this weekend and get it. I love discovering new authors and deconstructing books with fellow readers!
Amanda 🙂