Ordinary Life

I recently picked up Elizabeth Smart's book at a local thrift store.  It terrified me. As in, check all the closets, lock all the doors, "What was that noise?!" terrified me.  It was not unlike watching a Criminal Minds episode... too late at night... and home all alone.  I finished the book shortly before bedtime and so, I slept with flashlight and pepper spray nearby and I  set up noise traps at RyeBird's windows. She usually eventually ends up in 'the big bed' with us, but for the 45 minutes where she actually slept in her own bed, it was extra peace of mind. I did not sleep in  MY own bed. I just lay there, hyper-vigilant.   ~*~  Sometimes, it is nice to pretend that the world isn't as sick and twisted as it really is, but stories like this deny that charade. The world is broken...very, very badly in some places.  The month prior to this, I had picked up Jaycee Duggard's story at a different thrift store. Also scary. So I am now convinced that...

MUSEUMS & WOMEN and Other Stories  by  JOHN UPDIKE I just love John Updike.  This collection held most of ' The Maples Stories ', one of my personal favorites. I had already read some of the other short stories in this collection. Other stories included were fun, new discoveries, like ' The Deacon '.  The copy I got from the library succeeded in scandalizing my children every time they spied the cover, so Bonus Points for Updike. (See?) Reading Updike on the beach,  Fourth of July.  THE AMATEUR MARRIAGE  by ANNE TYLER I just love Anne Tyler.  This was a re-read. I had read this story many years ago. In the spirit of full disclosure, I wasn't positive about that until I started to read. However... I just love Anne Tyler... so I kept reading...anyway,  a lot of 'old' books are becoming more and more like new books. Though, for me, the first thing I forget is not the author, rather the ending, still I have found forgetting happens... true...

BUTTER SAFE THAN SORRY by Tamar Myers This was my first time reading Tamar Myers. I loved the featured Amish and Mennonite characters, as well as Methodist, Baptists, good old fashioned pagans-(wait, is that redundit?) and nudist nuns to boot. Amish themes make me nostalgic for our time in Kentucky. I welcome writing that incites nostalgia. The story is full of word play, while the storyline itself is a little zany. This was the last title in a series of 18 and if I'm not mistaken, meant to be read in a particular order. Most of the characters were spoken of in familiar tones with little time spent re-introducing them. Many 'incidents' were referred to as if everyone had already heard the gossip (or read the previous books) I love interactive books, though I have yet to try the butter based recipes included between chapters. I am looking forward to trying at least a few of them and probably, every single one. Myers offers some other genres that I may check into. To me, the...

GOOD POEMS ~ various authors, arranged by Garrison Keillor Lots of good picks here (fitting title) but I had no doubt there would be. I had gotten ahold of Good Poems for Hard Times  first- a long while back. I hope to enjoy  Good Poems, American Places  in the near future. I copied so many of the poems into my quote journal that my hand began to ache. I eventually had to write the remaining titles of those I wished to keep so that I could look them up, print them out and just paste them in instead...too, too many. Someday, I will have all of these volumes on my shelf...somewhere. Currently, we move too much. Stacks and stacks of books are glorious, but heavy to move about the countryside, plus I hate what happens to books in storage.  Iscariot by Tosca Lee Lee's writing- and subject matter- reminds me of dark chocolate. And I love dark chocolate. I love when a book glimpses a familiar subject from an unfamiliar vantage. Iscariot was that kind of book. Painting a v...

I finished reading the following from our first Summer Reading book grab at the  local library:   Whale Season  ~ N.M. Kelby This was a fun, quirky Florida read. I had never read Kelby before. I imagine I will look up her other titles. Though this story is set at Christmas time, it feels like Summer. A lot like living here.  There was a moment in the story where the proprietor of a strip club realizes that the disdain she feels for the men that ' should be home with their families on Christmas Eve ' is misplaced... that these men are working on Christmas Eve for the sake of their families... regardless of the questionable nature of their chosen lunch spot.  Sometimes, I am like that... it takes me a long time to see what has been right in front of me all along... to see something familiar in a new, perhaps kinder perspective.  Or at least to choose to try to.  Elsewhere :A Memoir ~ Richard Russo This book explained a lot. It brought Russo into sharpe...