Readings

[digitS']

Since I killed @so lucky 's thread "America's Most Hated Woman" I thought I'd jinx my own thread by continuing on the same subject: what are you reading?

I did decide on the novel for me to read but I'm going thru it so quickly that I'll need to get busy growing stuff or get another novel or just go thru one of the 6 non-fictions sitting beside the Lazy-boy! Actually, one is a cookbook - which gives pumpkin pie spice recipes - not at all what I thought when I picked it up !

I came across something online that referred to the last novel I read, The Story of Beautiful Girl, but as a comment on a winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Well, if it wins a prize - maybe I should take a look at it! The title is "Good Kings, Bad Kings" and it's about institutionalized young people and some of the people who work with them. Maybe that's a good way to find books that you don't know much about - look for prize-winners.

Steve

 

[digitS']

Laura Ingalls Wilder is featured in

the Google doodle, today.

They even show you a little how they made the Laura and Mary dolls .

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Sometimes I just want something light and amusing. The 44 Scotland Street series is good for that. I love Alexander McCall Smiths droll humor and wry depiction of human foibles.
I just read Sunshine on Scotland Street, the 8th in the series.

I still have several books in my winter reading stash that I haven't pulled out. Most of them will have to wait until next winter I guess.
Several are garden related textbook types that I should just put on my resource shelf. But then I fear they would blend in and I wouldn't remember that I hadn't read them.

One I just finished was a Clematis book (thanks @Nyboy!) that prompted me to make a long list of must have clematis. It can now be safely stored on the shelves with the others.

 

[Smart Red]

What am I reading?

From the time I learned to read, I was going through a book a day at the least. The number of times Dad called for us to wake up just as I finished my book and another night of no sleep can't be counted. Every year I challenged my students to keep up with me only to have the end of the year come with me ahead of all the students combined in books read.

However, since the unexpected passing of my grandson at 2 years old back in 2001, I haven't been able to read. I just can't concentrate on the words for very long. I have absolutely no reason as to why this happened. It bothers me that I have several books around here that haven't been read so they can be returned.

Of course, I have read a few books since 2001, but they have been books that were put down and picked back up, perhaps days or weeks later.

My last full book -- taking a couple of weeks -- was "Gardening with Chickens".

 

[valley ranch]

Greetings Smart Red, Your grandson,sad "May his light be in your eyes."



Wifey read to us a each day ~ just now, having read The Hobbit, we have begun the Trilogy. I read them years ago, they seem new at this reading.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

I'm not necessarily a book person but did mange to finish "sowing seeds in the desert" by Masanobu Fukuoka in one day. I recommend it to open-minded readers; it's very philosophical and does challenge many of the ideas in place in our society (and perhaps taken for granted). The title doesn't really give you the best idea of what the book is about, it kind of rambles.

 

[so lucky]

I just finished "Children of Men" by PD James. Strange book for her. I didn't particularly like it, and am too dense to glean the less obvious meaning from it. I'm sure at the next book group meeting all will be revealed.

 

[Smart Red]

Just thought of this today when a lady beside me at the donut shop asked me if I was the happy person humming.

Since Connor passed, I've not been able to concentrate on reading, but that's the same time I started hearing the music in my head that I am always humming along to. The first time I met my grandson after his birth I sang a song to him. It became our favorite song and he quickly learned to sing one part with me every time.

I sometimes thought his mother must have hated me for singing to him. From that time on, the only way to keep him from screaming on a car ride was to sing. The singing always brought quiet, although he never fell asleep in the car as so many children will do.

The night he died we had been visiting and before I left I sang that song to him. The first and last music he was to hear. I wonder if it is his pleasure or his mother's curse that has me singing inside whether I want to or not?

 

[Nyboy]

That is so great Connor is always with you !! There is a specal bond between grandchild and grandparent.

 

[Smart Red]

You are so right! I once heard that strong bond was formed because we both had the same enemy -- the parents. Old folks planning their wills are more likely to want to leave their possessions to their grandchildren. Children know their parents are always wrong so they come to the grandparents for support. The parents are stuck in the middle -- caring for their children and caring for their parents -- often seemingly unappreciated by either.