Last fall and winter I stopped reading. I just couldn't read an entire book. This coming from a life long reader was strange. When I was in junior high my folks would take my library card away when my grades were poor. And they were POOR. I have always preferred reading to homework, watching television, going out on the town or cleaning the house.
Hubby was worried about me and I would have been too but I didn't care. It was a case of "not caring about anything". I even had my doctor run a test for diabetes because not reading is a symptom of diabetes.
Turns out, I'm fine. Just didn't care.
Then I made an effort to love reading again. In between the busyness of life I have been reading. I'm finding myself wanting to go home to read. This is normal for me and it feels good. I read a lot in Hawaii. The beach and a good book are my two of my great loves.
So, what have I been reading... Honestly, some drivel, some short chick lit was needed to just be able to say I finished a book. But I am moving along towards something like War and Peace. Hah!
The Funeral Dress by Susan Gregg Gilmore is a good read. It's a story of poverty, a girl on her own and a small community that eventually steps up and helps. That last sentence is my summary. The next paragraph is the Good Reads summary.
Emmalee Bullard and her
new baby are on their own. Or so she thinks, until Leona Lane, the older
seamstress who sat by her side at the local shirt factory where both
women worked as collar makers, insists Emmalee come and live with her.
Just as Emmalee prepares to escape her hardscrabble life in Red Chert
holler, Leona dies tragically. Grief-stricken, Emmalee decides she’ll
make Leona’s burying dress, but there are plenty of people who don't
think the unmarried Emmalee should design a dress for a Christian woman -
or care for a child on her own. But with every stitch, Emmalee
struggles to do what is right for her daughter and to honor Leona the
best way she can, finding unlikely support among an indomitable group of
seamstresses and the town’s funeral director. In a moving tale
exploring Southern spirit and camaraderie among working women, a young
mother will compel a town to become a community.
The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger was my next read. A choice based on a review I'd read and the style of writing. There was no dialogue, paragraph or chapters, it was all legal documents, emails, letters, notes and such instead.
Good Reads provides the following summary: Twenty-nine-year-old
Sophie Diehl is happy toiling away as a criminal law associate at an old
line New England firm where she very much appreciates that most of her
clients are behind bars. Everyone at Traynor, Hand knows she abhors
face-to-face contact, but one weekend, with all the big partners away,
Sophie must handle the intake interview for the daughter of the firm’s
most important client. After eighteen years of marriage, Mayflower
descendant Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim has just been served divorce papers
in a humiliating scene at the popular local restaurant, Golightly’s. She
is locked and loaded to fight her eminent and ambitious husband, Dr.
Daniel Durkheim, Chief of the Department of Pediatric Oncology, for
custody of their ten-year-old daughter Jane—and she also burns to take
him down a peg. Sophie warns Mia that she’s never handled a divorce case
before, but Mia can’t be put off. As she so disarmingly puts it: It’s
her first divorce, too.
Debut novelist Susan Rieger doesn’t
leave a word out of place in this hilarious and expertly crafted debut
that shines with the power and pleasure of storytelling. Told through
personal correspondence, office memos, emails, articles, and legal
papers, this playful reinvention of the epistolary form races along with
humor and heartache, exploring the complicated family dynamic that
results when marriage fails. For Sophie, the whole affair sparks a hard
look at her own relationships—not only with her parents, but with
colleagues, friends, lovers, and most importantly, herself.
I have a few theories about divorce. Most divorces are because of one or more of the three A's. Addiction, adultery or abuse. Not everyone will agree with my theory but follow the bunny trail and that's what you'll usually find, A, A or A.
Parents that say, "my child is fine." during a divorce are lying to you and to themselves. The children are not fine. They may be better off without the abusive father or the addict mother but most have battle scars. It lasts into adulthood. Sophie is caught up in this divorce as an attorney but it takes her right back to her parent's divorce and it's affect on her life. And Jane, the little daughter is caught in the middle.
My theories were held up in the novel.
Again, this is my opinion. You are entitled to your opinion too. But it's my blog and I write what I want and I have no sponsors therefore I may write as I wish.
whew... That got heavy! Much like the book, which was 480 pages.
I loved reading all of the legalese and the paperwork, I really should have been an attorney. I took Business Law in college and enjoyed it but... that's another story for another time. I became a Science teacher instead.
The blog
Mabel's House written by Liz, is going through a recent divorce. Since we started our blogs about the same time I felt like I knew her. It turns out, not as well as I thought. And where is Mabel in all of this? Poor pup.
I have a few books on my night stand that I want to finish. But sometime this summer I'd like to read My Name is Resolute by Nancy E. Turner. It's a bit early in history for my usual taste in books but the summary has peaked my interest. I'm thinking in August when things slow down it'll be a good read on the patio.
