What I'm reading right now.

What's in your bag/on your bedside table?

Call me Susie Cucumber

Maybe because my garden is

growing at an alarming rate, and we can not consume the amount of produce we pick on a daily basis.

 Or preferably, because 

(found this gem in the local Antique store) 

I write letters.  REAL ones.

It's one of my favorite things.

I got mail (FAN mail!)

TWENTY-ONE pieces of mail, to be exact.

Wow!

Totally made my day.

Here's how it came to be:

A few weeks ago I was perusing the weekly newsletter that comes home from the Primary School. I noticed a paragraph about the upcoming Community Reading Day. I think this event must be on my top ten list of favorite things we do here. (maybe I need to expand my list to more than ten) Members of the community go to school, each assigned to read a book to one of the dozens of classrooms that participate;  employees from the police and fire departments, Senior Citizens, politicians, professionals, members of the military, mascots for sports teams etc. Each brings a book to the classrooms, visits with the students and then reads to them. With six kids who have participated in this tradition for many years, I have come to love finding out who the guest readers were, what their selections were, and listening to my children tell (with gusto!) about the visitors in their classrooms.  Having said that, when I noticed that the coordinator of the program was none other than my dear friend, I phoned her to offer my support.  We all know that any event run solely by volunteers involves many, many behind-the-scenes hours of communicating and coordinating. Mainly, I wanted her to know that if she had a reader fall-through or needed some help, I was ready to step in and offer assistance.

Well,... a few days before the big event, the phone rang.

It was Madame Director, asking if I meant what I said, when I offered to help?

"I'm as good as my word" I said.

Next thing I knew, I was being assigned a first grade classroom.  She gave me the book. I was elated. After years of recess duty, I know that making friends with first graders is like enlisting your own personal fan club.  I started thinking about my assignment, and then wondered what I might have to say to them since I'm not a public safety officer, a butcher or even a librarian. I AM a piano teacher, but talking about my little part-time job (which is really more of a hobby) seemed unsubstantial somehow. I knew I would mention it, but it wasn't feeling like quite enough. Mentally, I began to list the things I do, and the things that make me who I am. Then I formulated a plan.

We had a FANTASTIC morning!

I was escorted into the classroom by two enthusiastic first graders holding a "welcome Mrs.W" sign.  We chatted for a few minutes and I said "Would you like to know what I do?"

(First graders ALWAYS say "...YES!...")

I talked about being a piano teacher.

"Do any of YOU take piano lessons?" earned enthusiastic hand-waving by more than half the class.  Since I'm pretty sure there weren't more than a dozen young piano students out of the 21 present, it just cemented the delightful reality that first graders are blissfully eager to please.

We could have chatted endlessly about that one topic. Had I known, I might have had more confidence from the start. I grabbed their attention when I put my finger to my lips, glanced nervously to the corners of the room and secretively pulled out a shiny red bundle from my bag. I told them to look quickly, because I had to put it right away. I then told them that the special red roll was my secret CAPE. I told them it had something to do with my most favorite job of all.

"Are you a magician?"

"A super hero?"

I loved it.

They came up with great ideas.

I loved that super hero was closest of all.

I told them (in hushed tone)

"I'm a SUPER MOM."

They seemed stunned.

Immediately I began to enthusiastically gush my qualifications.

"Did you know I've had SIX first graders come through this very Primary School?  Six children.  First grade is mighty busy, isn't it?  You're learning to read, to write, to make friends, to have hobbies and extra curricular activities.  Can you imagine managing all of that SIX different times?  Even having ONE first grader pretty much qualifies you to be super. The hands started shooting up, and the kids couldn't wait to tell me about their families. Their brothers, sisters, cousins and expectant parents. Their pets. Their Pogo sticks.  All that made their families bustle with energy and delightful chaos.  We could have swapped stories ALL DAY. I love first grade.

I love being a super mom.

I could tell they got it.

Then I read a story about monsters under the bed.

 We loved it.

They clapped and I said good-bye.

Then the thank-you notes arrived.

I adore every one.

And now, (as they say) you know the REST of the story.

THE END.

Reading

Seeing my kids get lost in a good book is almost as good as getting lost in one myself.

The List.

My 2010 List
of 20 things. To accomplish in 2010.
(in no particular order)

1.  Clean out my closets.  Every single cluttery one.  And organize them.  ONE.AT.A.TIME.
2.  Say "I Love You" more, and mean it.
3. Read the Book of Mormon. Again. At least a chapter a day. So far, so good.
4.  Spend less money at the grocery store.
5.  Accomplish #4 by making only ONE trip to the store per week.  No unplanned trips.
6.  Accomplish #4 and 5 by planning a WEEKLY MENU and shopping list.
7.  Be aware of my expressions.  Laugh more.
8.  Breathe deeply.
9.  Visit one spot I've never been to before.
10. Take a hike with my family.
11. Read to Morning Boy everyday.
12. Send a hand-written note to someone at least once per week.
13. Participate in the Resolutionary Challenge.
14. Use my sewing machine to make something I really like.
15. Be a 100% visiting teacher.
16. Be a Relief Society President who delegates more.
17. Play games regularly.
18. Learn something NEW!
19. RELAX more. I carried my slippers around the house (barefoot!) at midnight on New Year's Eve. May sound funny, but I want to volunteer less and enjoy my family and relationships more. Help less? Chill more? anyway... be good to myself and those I care most about.  I resolve to do it.
20. Be prepared for an emergency.  I resolve to be ready.

Last year, I resolved to read at least one book per month, for ME.  Something I would enjoy.  And I did!  I loved all the reading I did, (somewhere between 25-30 books!) and have some really great new favorites to recommend.  This year, I will also do some recreational reading.  But.  I won't worry how much, and I won't worry about how little.  I'll just read when I want to, and enjoy it when I do. 
HOWEVER, I will admit that because I jumped into the reading thing with both feet, some of the other areas in my life suffered.  I'm okay with it, though.  This year I want to tip the scales a little bit, and strive to focus on a few more areas.  I'm purposely not using the word "balance," because I don't think I could realistically achieve a satisfactory balance with so many balls to toss around.

It's a new year!  I'm feeling resolutionary.

The Lacuna

It was a love-hate relationship at first.
I had a hard time warming up to the format of the book.  I started it on our 10 hour drive to Virginia for Thanksgiving, and I didn't bring a second choice, so I kept at it.

It didn't disappoint.
Set in Mexico and the U.S. in the 1930s, 40s and 50s I love the way it weaves in real people, real events and real places.  Symbolism, historical events, culture, food, foreign policy, the human element and the machine that is the United States Government as it has evolved over the past 80 years.
It's been a long time since I've read any Barbara Kingsolver.  The Bean Trees and The Poisonwood Bible were a couple of her books that I REALLY liked.  Now I'll add this to the Barbara Kingsolver power list.  FIVE stars.  I got lucky and scored a large-print edition when I requested it from the library.  Glasses were optional.

Matchless:

A Christmas Story

Yesterday I finished this very sweet little tale that builds around Hans Christian Andersen's classic Christmas tale of "The Little Match Girl."  It's a great read-aloud that was written for NPR's 2008 Christmas offerings.  Just published this fall--I'll bet your library has a copy.

A Thanksgiving Visitor

After being a Thanksgiving visitor, (which was a lovely experience--Thanksgiving in Thomas Jefferson's neck of the woods was great fun, and we participated in some great letterboxing expeditions) I wanted to tell you about reading this little gem.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I can finally say that I've read something by Truman Capote.  I'm looking forward to his Christmas memory, which I have ordered from the library.

By the way:

Thanks to randomDOTorg,

Cynthia is the winner of The Help!

I couldn't be more pleased.

Cynthia:  Help is on the way~

xo

Thankful for A good book to read. (and a give-away!)

I loved this book.  I loved making time to read it.

The Help is set in 1960s Mississippi.  Kathryn Stockett explores the relationships between white women and their black maids.  The character development is delightful.  I cringed, laughed and clenched my fists in anger as the plot unfolded.  I do enjoy a book that engages a broad range of emotions. 

I felt a loyalty to the main characters.

I loved it so much that I want you to read it. 

I am excited to share my copy of The Help with you.

 

By leaving a comment under this post, I will enter your name into a random drawing to be held on Wednesday, November 25th.  Make sure I have your email address, so that I can notify you and get the book delivered to your door.  In the meantime, if there's more than one person commenting here, you should get to your library and reserve a copy to read!  It really was good.  Five Stars.

Cutting for Stone

Enjoyed this book immensely. All 534 pages of it. It was definitely a commitment--a relaxing sort of commitment, like committing to a mini-series with a cozy fire and a bowl of popcorn. One of my favorite quotes in the book (and there were more than a few):
"Call me old-fashioned, but I've always believed that hard work pays off."
Thomas Stone is a surgeon working in an Ethiopian Mission Hospital. The story weaves through two generations and a likeable cast of characters who live and work there in times of peace and in times of civil unrest.
"Life: You live it forward but understand it backward."
This is a fitting quote that defines the plot of the story, as it unfolds.
I was fascinated by the medical aspect of this book. Borrowing from a book review by Mark Salzman, "This book has everything: nuns, conjoined twins, civil war and medicine. If Vikram Seth and Oliver Sacks were to collaborate on a four-hour episode of Grey's Anatomy set in Africa, they could only hope to come up with something this moving and entertaining."
I felt the author's love for his characters. Especially the ones we might find distasteful if we were to encounter them in our life's path. My take away:
"Make something beautiful of your life."
It was marvelous.

The Year the Swallows Came Early

by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

*

A great (quick read) debut novel that takes place during the year that Eleanor "Groovy" Robinson turns eleven. I love the very California-esque flavor of this book, and the discussion of the phenomenon that is the migration of the swallows of San Juan Capistrano. It's a story of forgiveness, redemption and learning to open your eyes, mind and heart to the stories of those around you. Maybe my favorite character is Groovy's mom, who, as a hairdresser, turns to deep conditioning treatments, color changes and her daily horoscope as a way to fix life's problems. She made me laugh. A great reminder that family is the center (or epicenter) of our lives, whether we like it or not, and that coming together is the balm that heals.

Random Thoughts on Monday

I was surprised to wake up at 4:12am and find that Dub had already left for work. When I turned on my computer, I was even more surprised to find an email from him in my inbox time-stamped 4:07am. That man gets up before my morning breath has time to stink.

I was happy to get up (at a more humane hour, although still before 5:30am) and send my children off to school today. I also got a very cheery phone call from a friend, who helped me whiz right through the breakfast clean-up and morning chores while we chatted away.

I followed the Fly Lady's first two tips, and shined my sink and got dressed to lace-up shoes, and my house is still not perfectly clean and shiny. There is definitely a flaw somewhere, and it can't be me.

After school I found out that cozy-ing up to a teen of the opposite sex on the basement couch during the weekend party just means "being a good host."

I also discovered, as my anonymous child said "Holy s***" to me in the kitchen after school, that he or she didn't think it was a swear. Even after I insisted that it was a swear, he or she told me it only meant "poop." I had to call for back-up from Dub, as apparently I was not a credible source for swear words.

I wore my dangling pewter cow earrings from the '80s, and nobody said anything. That could mean one of any number of things. Hmmm...

I made Tami's Southwest Rice and Bean Salad for dinner tonight, and again, nobody said anything. Double Hmmm... (for the record, I actually liked it, and found it a refreshing change to the rice and bean repertoire)

We played Hide-and-go-seek for Family Home Evening, and I just happened to be the last one found. I do love to win at that game. It's actually a talent I come by honestly. Some of my friends know about my mother's famous hiding spot during my childhood hide-and-go-seek days. I've even talked about it in Sacrament Meeting. Picture a 40-something housewife tucked on top of a refrigerator. Yup. I'm not giving my excellent spot away.

I read The Great, Great, Great Chicken War by David de la Garza to my little man at bedtime tonight. The title is so fun and the illustrations looked really cute, so of course we checked it out from our lovely library on our last visit. I honestly read it enthusiastically, but the farther I got into the book, I realized it really had no plot and was a let down for a four-year old. I don't like to point the thumb down at a children's picture book, but this one didn't do it for us.

I'm looking forward to some extreme sleep and dreaming about running. I'll burn 500 extra calories with zero effort and feel good about the cookies I'm going to have for breakfast tomorrow.

Happy Spent Monday!

Never mind.

I don't even remember where it was that I found a recommendation for this book. It intrigued me, so I requested it from the library. When it came in so quickly, I decided to bump it ahead of the other so-many-books-on-my-nightstand-that-they-look-like-a-replica-of-the-leaning-tower-of-piza. I was excited to get started. The little caption on the front of the book reads

"Astonishing, complex, beautifully written, and brilliant." A credit to Sara Guren, author of Water for Elephants

(which I also have not read). Here's the thing, though. I'm putting it down, and have decided not to finish it. I was intrigued by the

WISCONSIN. FALL. 1907.

setting.

I also loved the personal advertisement in the newspaper:

COUNTRY BUSINESSMAN SEEKS

RELIABLE WIFE.

COMPELLED BY PRACTICAL,

NOT ROMANTIC REASONS.

REPLY BY LETTER.

RALPH TRUITT, TRUITT WISCONSIN.

DISCREET.

But after reading almost half of the story, I have yet to find any content that is endearing or even pleasant to me. The deeper into the story I read, I felt like I was wading deeper into something dark and sinister; not at all what I expected. I can't recommend it. I actually agree with Sara Gruen for the most part. It is rather astonishing, but not in a good way. It's definitely complex [I found it a tad depressing] and the writing is beautiful; just that the content is not. As for the brilliant part? I guess I'll never know. But I WILL recommend a book that I enjoyed much more than this one: The Magic of Ordinary Days, by Ann Howard Creel. This is a far more satisfying tale of an arranged marriage. If you've read the other and have something good to say about it, do tell.

Read. Then talk.

When you don’t talk, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.

Over an extended breakfast this morning, I finished this book. I must tell you, I really liked it. It was written in the voice of a 16-year old Wisconsin farm girl. I spent a few of my formative years on a farm, and there was a lot in this book that I could relate to. There’s a lot of football in this story as well, and although I’ve never really been a football fan, she does such a good job of loving and breaking-down the sport, that it was hard not to feel like I was right there watching and cheering and thoroughly enjoying it. One of my favorite analogies was about apologizing. She describes it “like punching a bruise.” The other one has to do with being a cow. But you’ll need to read it to fully appreciate that one. At 10:30 last night, I flipped through the pages left in the book, and SO wanted to finish it, but my eyelids were not cooperating. By page 241 this morning, an unexpected rush of emotion overcame me as I was lifting the spoon of oatmeal to my mouth. It’s such a witty book, the lump in my throat surprised me. At page 272 I heard myself laughing, and looked up to realize the cat was licking my empty bowl. So I put it on the floor and found a peanut butter cookie to nibble on as I finished the book. Do find a copy if you have ever been a high school teenager. The take-away for me? It’s important to keep talking.

Books-of-the-week:

I found Blessings by Anna Quindlen on the library's 'used book sale' shelf sometime last Spring. It was tucked into my pile of things to read, so I grabbed it as I headed to Utah, in the event that I might have time to finish the following book:

which I did. This one came from my mother, who, bless her, had blacked out every swear word between the two covers. I laugh as I debate the effectiveness of this method; is it easier to glance over the blacked-out word, wondering what it might have been? Or to glance over the word in print, deciding not to dwell on the profanity used in context with the story? If you'd like to read this book and want to use the edited version, I have the book still in my possession.

NOW. For the review(s). Between Sisters was a sort of redemptive story of relationships; several relationships in the book intertwine and there's a nice come-around about how things work out in the end. It's set in Washington State, which is a big part of why I liked the book; Seattle and that coastal area in general has always intrigued me, although I have never been there. So I enjoyed the setting maybe even more than the plot and story line. It was general fluffy reading entertainment. The book moved right along without too much drag, but I don't know that I'll be putting this one at the top of my favorites for the year. For all of you out there with "To Read" lists longer than your forearm, you might want to pass over this one. Some of the torridly steamy love scenes were a little over the top for my taste, but maybe a good-and-descriptive make-out session is what you look for in a novel. If that's the case, pick this one.

Blessings was a surprise for me. I didn't have much in the way of expectation when I threw this in my bag, and it ended up holding my interest from Salt Lake to Minneapolis to Detroit and on to Manchester, NH. Needless to say, I spent hours and hours absorbed in the story, and it was enjoyably satisfying. I won't say too much about the characters in the story except that I became endeared to the character who was, by design, the antagonist, and the one I think I was supposed to feel bitter towards. Also, how could I not love the fact that the story begins with a newborn in a box being placed on someone's door step? Interesting development of the concept of family. I want to paste a copy of The Family: A Proclamation to the World into the front cover.

I already had it.

"the quality of mercy is not strained"--Shakespeare

Here is my book selection for this weekend/week/month... I'm not sure where I left off here, but I have still been trying to give myself the gift of reading. I've had an incredible time of late--uniquely full of stuff that most people would consider BAD: Lice, a sister struggling to recover from unwanted major surgery and a surprise diagnosis, sharing lice, my dad with yet another form of cancer, my brother with cellulitis, bells palsy, debilitating headaches and Lime disease, lice that won't vanish, and an uncle diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It has felt like walking into a cold, drippy rain shower that keeps taking a turn for the worse. I feel sad, angry and exhausted but strong. I want to help. I want to work through it all. I took the kids to the library last week and found myself drawn to the title of this book, and grabbed it at the last minute as I headed toward the circulation desk. I didn't even notice the tiny subtitle on the cover page; the book I checked out said "A Celebration" on the front, not "A Christmas Poem" as seen below. Either way, I felt connected to the premise that bad things happen. And bad things happen when we least expect them, throwing us a little off balance from time to time. And I wanted to read about Maya Angelou's interpretation of this amazing peace.

I know where to turn for peace. I feel centered by the peace I find in my knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe in Christ. I know that my amazing peace comes from knowing that Christ has already lived through the pain, sorrow and anguish that we may feel now, or have yet to feel in our lives. But it doesn't stop the emotion. And the amazing peace [and strength] that comes from knowing that Christ knows me personally does not stop the heartache and wanting to take away the pain that others are required to endure.I read this book as I was climbing into bed the other night. It only took about 10 minutes. The opening lines read like this:

Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Floodwaters await in our avenues.

Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and gray and threatening.

And then I started to weep. Thunder has rumbled my mountains. The eaves of my personal house are rattling so loudly at times that I can hardly hear myself think. The floodwaters that are my tears, I know are waiting in the avenues of my emotions. And man, does my village feel unprotected.

I know that I need to be able to experience the raw emotion of sadness, sorrow, anger, pain, fear and grief because it's right. And good. Hard things happen. I can't stop that. I know where to turn for peace, but when I look around me at the hard things everywhere, I want to give outlet to the vulnerable frailty that is part of my humanness. Reading this book did not provide any great enlightenment on where to find peace, rather it helped me to think about dwelling a bit longer in the hard place, instead of exusing it away to hurry and get to peace. It made me think about the process of reaching peace. And that it's a journey to get there. It needn't be rushed.

I just kept on turning the page...

I was really excited about reading this book. It is a collection of first period stories from girls and women of all ages, from all walks of life and from around the world. I love that it breaks the taboo of talking about menstruation (I always hated that word), and since I have three daughters, it has been a great conversation starter. Honestly, it started to get a little long after I was about half way through its pages, but I persevered, and can say that I truly enjoyed it.

Hoo-boy.

The days are slipping quickly off the July calendar. The long days are too short for me. Reading these three books in about three days time made short work of a tale long in character. I've loved Grandma Dowdel larger-than-life since the year 2001... I found the first two gems at the library, and gobbled them up. Then when I changed my name to Thelma and took a road trip with Louise to Tampa, we listened to these books on tape the whole way down and back. Funny! And touching. In A Long Way From Chicago, A Newbery Honor Book, Joey recounts his annual summer trips to small town Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their Grandmother. The second book, A Year Down Yonder, a Newbery Medal WINNER, takes place during the recession of 1937. Fifteen year old Mary Alice is sent to live witih her feisty grandmother and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman.

Thanks to THIS incredible book-loving blogger, I received the entire collection of Grandma Dowdel books (including the not-yet-released companion to the first two books) gratis! The third book, due out in September, is called A Season of Gifts. It was a gift. Louise: you can have it next.

Our excursion to Connecticut

To visit Uncle Pete
And Mr. Dub's grandparents

I read almost the entire "Long Way from Chicago" out loud, while we sat in Connecticut traffic and traveled for three hours...

We enjoyed seeing many people we haven't seen in years.

This is the church Mr. Dub attended as a child

...and now I feel bad for never reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

Looking ahead to October

I'm planning on making THIS movie a priority. Based on one of my all-time favorite childrens' books ever.