Because Mike has been neck-deep in schoolwork lately, I’ve been trying to amuse myself in cost-effective ways. I’ve rediscovered something I used to love but abandoned lately: getting books out of the library.
When i was a kid I loved this more than anything. My parents would take us to the big downtown library in Saskatoon, where you could take out as many books as you wanted. They’d send us up to the kids floor and I’d start poking around in the young adult paperback section, where there were 10,000 copies of [i]Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret[/i] and [i]I Am the Cheese[/i]. I’d invariably come home with a stack of paperbacks by Norma Klein, Paul Danziger, Judy Blume, et al. I’d lie in the sun on the living room floor and read them cover to cover.
I don’t have time to do that so much anymore (and there’s no room on my living room floor to lie down right now), but right now I have this amazing stack of books on my bedside table. It’s like having a box of chocolates sitting beside my bed. I pick one up, take a bite, if it’s coffee or that gross nutty filling I put it back and move on.
Some recent goodies, sampled by me:
The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion. I am a huge Didion fan, and this is one of the most raw, heartbreaking books I’ve ever read. It’s about the first year after her husband’s sudden death, during which her daughter is in ICUs in New York and LA. Uplifting, I know. But a great book, and it offers up some amazing insight into what happens “when your life changes in an instant.”
Good Grief - Lolly Winston. Oo, a theme. Grief, how nice. Someone recommended this to me as a great example of good chick-lit, and they were right.
The Wonder Spot - Melissa Bank. I’m just digging into this. I loved The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing, so we’ll see if this lives up to her previous work. So far, so good.
No Plot, No Problem - Chris Baty. I’m getting ready for NaNoWriMo, the annual Month of Insanity.