changing of the guard

Since I have a little downtime this morning I think it is time to update my sidebar and say goodbye to my friends of the last few months (gosh my turn around for books has slowed down SO much! I think you can safely blame THEM since keeping them alive takes most of my brain cells)

So, see you later “Tender Morsels.” This book had a huge impact on me, but I have to say I am not going to miss it. It was hard for me, but first I had to get over the fact that I found it in the TEEN section and if my teen was reading this I WOULD DIE, and I’m no prude, but it is way too much for young adult reading. In the end I have a love hate relationship with it, but I think I am better for having read it. Here is my favorite quote:

“Liga fed them, bathed them, clothed them, told them stories, sang them to sleep and learned their songs, kissed them and accepted their kisses, held them and was held by them and soothed by their hands touch. Sometimes she cried from it, and sometimes she thought she would die of it, of the luck and the joy of having been given these two wild animals to grow and to love, and to be grown by, and to be loved by.”

been given these two wild animals to grow, hmmm, probably obvious why I like that line.

a couple other goodies for me are

“We thought too much, we calculated too hard.I would rather have wandered among the trees, with their more meaningful conversation”

“Such a difference between that one’s peaceful, pearly slumber and this one’s red rage! She scooped up the child and kissed the hot face; the clenched closed eyes that still leaked tears; the tiny mouth with it’s leaf tongue, from which such noise emerged!”

Da describing when he met his newborn son “I remember how, exhausted and frightened, I marveled at the enormousness, and at the same time how it all spun in like the pattern on a snail-house or a seashell, all towards this little face, red, near-blind, and mystified, these two soft flowers of hands not knowing what to do with themselves, to crumple closed or spread wide and waver on their stalks.”

I loved “Redirecting Children’s Behavior”, such a sterile title for a book that is actually quite lively with a good heart that has helped me forgive myself as a parent and see my children in a totally bright and clear way. “Fool” doesn’t have anything PG enough for quoting here, but it was  naughty, naughty fun.

Now I am going to reread some parts of “Anna Karenina.” After talking about it with Erin the other day I wanted to visit one of my favorite tortured souls again. And I’ll be reading “The Book of Guys” by Garrison Keillor because I bought it for Jon but every time I pick it up it makes me laugh so now I want to read it end to end.

My research book (self help?! okay :) this time around will be “Driven to Distraction” (which i think everyone should pick up if you have or suspect you have ADD or know someone who does) what I have already read of this book is funny, compassionate and full of AHA! moments that are in turn also totally helpful and kind of inspiring.

And once again I am halfway through the Sookie Stackhouse books, but you’ll have to wait for the post on that because I am going to give it one all to itself! Suffice it to say these Vampire trash novels actually make me a better person. The way she describes folding her warm laundry in between her death defying shenanigans makes me want to do laundry! What book have you read that can do that?