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Book Review: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird was one of those rare books I managed to fall in love with despite my freshman English teacher (who was just certain our entire class was lying about not being bothered by Scout and Jem calling their father by his first name). I still own a copy and have re-read it a few times in the last 25 years. So when Go Set a Watchman came out, I knew I would read it. Go Set a Watchman is not so much a “coming of age” novel as it is a “becoming an adult” novel, because those really are two separate things. Scout has grown up. She…
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Doing What Works for Me
Back in my college days, I was really bad at keeping track of how much money I had left in my checking account. I would often assume that whatever the ATM said my account balance was, it was, even if I had written a check or two recently. It was not that I did not know how checks worked, it was just that I assumed everyone cashed them really promptly. Because I did not actually track how much money was in my account, I bounced a rent check or two. In fact, at one place, I had to start paying rent in cash because I bounced too many checks. And…
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Book Review: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
The real reason to read The Golem and the Jinni is for the writing, and by that I mean, for Helene Wecker’s use of language, and the way she combines ordinary words into something fantastical. I do not mean to take away from the story, which is good, or the characters, who are likable and (mostly) fully realized. But this is not a story which will blow your mind. These are not characters you will be aching for “more” about. What stands out in this book is the writing itself, and it is beautiful. The story is pretty basic. There is a Golem. She is brought to life on the…
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Book Review: YA Series – Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins and Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth
Sometimes I feel like I should write a separate review for each of these two series, but the truth is, I read them intertwined with one another, and my thoughts on each are deeply connected to my thoughts on the other. The other thing to mention, I think, is that in both cases, I saw the movie for the first book before I read any of the books. And to get it out of the way, I think The Hunger Games is the best book out of the six, but that overall, Divergent is the better series. In both cases we have a young woman as our protagonist. She is…
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Forty
Today I turn 40. I have truly reached middle aged. I no longer even qualify as thirty-something. Instead, I am the big 4-0. I do not mind. I have no problem with being the age I am. I love my life, and am very happy with where I am. At the same time, I honestly do not know how I got here. A lot of the time I feel like I should just be turning 30. And yet, I look back at the last 10 years, since I did turn 30, and am amazed at all the changes. I have some amazing friends who I did not even know back…
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Book Review: Mr. and Mrs. Disreali: A Strange Romance by Daisy Hay
It is the end of the year, and that means all sorts of “year’s best” lists are coming out. I like to troll the lists of books for any that seem interesting, that I may have missed. It was on one of those lists that I came across Mr. and Mrs. Disreali: A Strange Romance by Daisy Hay. This is a non-fiction book. It is kind of a biography, kind of not. I very much suspect that the majority of it was Hay’s dissertation, or something similar. This book traces the lives and relationship of Mr. and Mrs. Disreali. Do you know who they are? I did not, not before…
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Winter of Discontent
One of my rules is to never claim something has happened “for a reason”. As a foster parent, and as an adoptive parent, I cannot imagine anything so cruel as to tell the children in my care that there was a “reason” they had to go through what they have gone through. Sometimes people do bad or careless things. Sometimes the sickness wins. There does not have to be a reason. It just is. But what we can do is look for the good, or at least the hope, that can come out of these events. Because good things can come from bad. This last week, a man I knew…
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Should Everyone Carry a Gun?
A few years ago, I was visiting my 80+ year old grandfather when he decided one of the trees in his back yard needed to come down. For safety’s sake, he decided to cut off some of the larger branches before he actually cut the whole tree down. To do this, he used a pole-saw. What is a pole-saw you ask? It is a chainsaw on a stick. That’s right, a chainsaw on the end of a 6’ (or longer) stick. In no world is this a safe tool for an 80+ year old man to be using. But I knew it would be even less safe for me to…
