GOOD BOOK

I just finished reading such a great book. It's "Home Safe" by Elizabeth Berg. I have read another of her books..."The Year of Pleasures" which I also enjoyed. I like her style of writing. It flows easily and her thoughts are so similar to just what I was thinking. I like that. Sometimes I like to read books that jar my mindsets and make me think but for right now, this was perfect.
I must say...I love the cover. It's a bluejay sitting on a large egg. So simple and yet so perfect. The main character is a 59 year old woman with a daughter she is always trying to "mother" and the daughter doesn't like the mothering so much. I can relate to that. She is also a writer. She writes mainly fiction but I love that she makes up stories about the people she sees in her life; the old woman at the bus stop, the waiter, the cabbie.
I think that is what I loved most about my previous job. I got to write about people's lives as they were living them. Got to explore who they were and what made them tick. If you were lucky, the person you were interviewing actually let you see their insides. What made them tick. For lack of a better word...their soul. That was such a gift and a responsibility. You had to be careful to represent exactly what their essence was without reading your own likes and dislikes into it.

I miss writing. I thought maybe this blog would placate that need but it really doesn't. Unfortunately, I feel about this blog kind of like I feel about scrapbooking...if it's not perfect, I don't want to do it. I'm trying to get beyond worrying about it and just keeping it as a sort of journal but I always have the desire to clean it up. To delete things that I don't like and change things around. I need to commit to a set time to just write each day and let it be. I have so many ideas rattling around in my head...I'm just lazy about putting them on paper.

Good Book Alert!

This is one book by Sarah Mason. She is a British author of major Chick Lit which I usually hate (chick lit, not British) but I really love this author. The books are full of British humour and colloquialisms which make them utterly charming.
I found them at my local public library (where ALL GOOD BOOKS come from!!!) and I'm sure you can find them there too.

Books and all things lovely

Tia, my bestie, and I went and saw this yesterday. It is My Sister's Keeper based on the book by Jody Piccoult. I loved the book (maybe not the ending) and liked the movie. If you only see the movie...you will be doing yourself such a disservice! The book is SO MUCH BETTER. The layers are all there to uncover and dream about. The movie is very one dimensional in comparison. However, we did cry all the way through but more because of Tia's Mom's situation than actual sympathy for the characters. It was just too real life to what's going on in her life right now. We went to Northrock and saw it at 10:40 a.m.! Can you believe they show movies then? It's so early but because of that we were one of only 6 patrons in that particular theater! Awesome so we could talk and cry and be silly. Just like we besties love to be. I love that girl and I love that our relationship doesn't even need words.


This is the book I just finished. It was a great book. Really different and would make an absolutely AWESOME movie if they stayed true to the story. I love Judith Hendricks. She also wrote two of my other favorite books...one being...

After reading it I only wanted to make these....

always and forever. It just made me want to knead dough and have lots of starters and pans and flour laying around.

Isn't that what books are supposed to do? Inspire us to live and see things a little differently than we did when we opened the first page? I love it when I read something and my whole world opens up from the printed font on the page. Books..yum!

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

I was cleaning the bookshelves today and came across this book that I've had for some time. It's titled "Songs of a Housewife" and is the poetry of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Marjorie wrote "The Yearling" and "Cross Creek" along with many, many other books.
The poems are so sweet and well worth the read. Here's one:
Duty Books
I don't like books I "ought to read,"
Too dull and ponderous, stupid stuff
I give scant interest and scant heed -
Less weighty tomes have charm enough.

I do not care to read by rule,
To follow where the critics swarm.
I like, regardless of their "school"
The books that keep my spirit warm.

I like to browse in libraries,
And choose at random from a shelf;
To read and study as I please.
My duty is to suit myself.
MKR

Don't you just love that! I think you can still get the book on Amazon. Pick one up and enjoy!

The Tattered Cover

This bookstore, which is located in the LoDo area of Denver, is a gem! The prerequisites for most bookstores are as follows:
*at least two floors
*great seating
*areas laid out like a real store, not a book grocery store
*coffee/tea
*some sort of scrap paper for writing down ideas and free pens
*quiet
*good bathrooms
The Tattered Cover meets all the above criteria. It is located in a huge, old building downtown and although the parking is sketchy...it's worth the search. The sections (Architecture/Cooking/Fiction/Art,etc.) are clearly defined. Each section has seating that matches its theme. For example, the religious section has a church pew, the history section has old wing chairs, the travel section has an old fashioned buckboard from a wagon. It's just as charming as can be.

The coffee and tea is great and Sweet Baby M and the Big D really enjoyed the soup which was served in homemade pottery bowls and mugs. Very cute!

I could have CLEANED up on books but instead bought a few I didn't think I'd find at home and wrote down TONS of titles for the library.