Rhett Butler's People

I have only two requirements for the books I read in bed:
1) Nothing scary. Thanks to my overactive imagination, I have been prone to nightmares since I was a kid.  Reading anything spooky right before I fall asleep can be a trigger, so I try to avoid it.  I keep the creepy books for daytime.
2) It has to be something that I can read in small increments and still follow.  There are nights when I can get into bed and read for an hour, but most nights I am lucky to get more than a page in before nodding off.

On Saturday and Sunday mornings, though, I love nothing more than to read in bed for a while before I start my day.  This morning, I took a little extra time and finished Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig.  I've been reading this one for a while - an alternate take on the events of Gone With the Wind through the eyes of Rhett Butler and the people in his life: his sister Rosemary, Belle Watling, Belle's bastard son, and Scarlett herself, to name a few.

Gone With the Wind is an old favorite, so I was hesitant to read this one.  I worry when another author takes on a classic like this.  But I enjoyed Rhett Butler's People as it gave some insight into what was going on in Rhett's life while the action in Gone With the Wind is focused on Scarlett.  The familiarity of the story made this an easy read.  Revisiting the characters was like seeing old friends after a long absence. 

I will say, however, that it makes me want to re-read Gone With the Wind to compare the two stories.  And because Rhett is one of my favorite "bad boys" in literature.  I never could understand how Scarlett could fall for mild-mannered Ashley Wilkes over Rhett Butler. 


In other news...
The family is busy planning our Funny 4 Funds Comedy Night fundraiser for Team Lena's Smiling PHACE and Boston Children's Hospital on May 30 at the West Warwick Elks Club.  We have been gathering donations and table sponsors, and selling tickets in hopes of raising a good amount for the walk this June.  Boston Children's Hospital is near and dear to all of our hearts for the care they have given to my niece Lena.  Tickets are still available for $20.  Contact me for more information.

I have finished Heart Shaped Box, but will hold off on reviewing it until after book club meets in June. 

Nephew Ryan and I read the first chapter of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone on Friday and he is intrigued.  He said, "I think you're right, I think I am going to like this book."

The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion

It's been a busy few days, with not a lot of time for reading, but I did manage to sneak in some down time on Monday night and finished The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg.  I have been a fan of hers since Fried Green Tomatoes, and this book certainly didn't disappoint. 

Imagine finding out at the age of fifty-nine, that you were adopted as an infant.  And that you are actually 60.  Sarah Jane Poole, also known as Sookie, discovers that the reason she has never been able to live up to her mother's expectations of what a Daughter of the Confederacy should be is that she is not, in fact, her mother's daughter.  According to her birth certificate, her mother's name is Fritzi Jurdabalinski.

She begins to research her birth mother's family and learns that they are a Polish family from Wisconsin who ran a gas station.  The book jumps back and forth between Sookie's story in the present day, and the Jurdabralinski family's during World War I.  She learns that her mother and aunts were female pilots during the war and eventually seeks out her "real" family.

In an interesting twist, shortly after finishing the book, this story about World War II female pilots appeared in my Facebook feed: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/92-year-old-female-world-war-ii-pilot-flies-article-1.2220910.
Although this particular article is about an English woman pilot, it helped to put a face on Fritzi and her pilot friends.  It amazes me how often I read something in a book and suddenly find it popping up everywhere in my real life.

In other book news...
I gave myself a serious case of the shivers while trying to read Heart Shaped Box late at night while the husband was out playing hockey.  I had most of the lights off in the rest of the house, and only got three chapters in before I had to put it down. I was tempted to put it in the freezer.  However, a further attempt yesterday afternoon was much easier...I'm about halfway through now.  Seriously creepy, but I generally like that kind of thing, so I'm enjoying it.

Nephew Ryan and I have decided to abandon our journey through Narnia in favor of Harry Potter.  We're starting the first book on Friday.

After giving up on Heart Shaped Box the other night, I picked up The Apple Orchard by Susan Wiggs.  Another story about a woman discovering things she didn't know about her family...in this case a grandfather and half-sister she didn't know she had.  Stay tuned...

Third time's the charm...a reintroduction

I don't remember learning how to read. According to family legend, I read my first book around the age of three. It was Put Me In the Zoo. To prove that I hadn't just memorized the words, I was handed a copy of Go Ask Alice. To the astonishment of everyone present, I was able to read from the page in front of me. From that moment on, I have pretty much always had my nose in a book. I was the kid who had to be called multiple times for dinner because I was lost in another world. And I have burned dinner more than once for the same reason.

At any given time, I'm reading a minimum of four books. Right now, I am in the middle of the following books:

The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg. This is my main book, by my chair in the living room, and the book I grab when I need some down time.

In the bedroom, I am reading Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig. An interesting alternate version of Gone With the Wind. It fits the bill for reading in bed - no clowns, no vampires, no murderers, and definitely no Stephen King. In the daytime, I'll gladly read a book with any of the above. I adore Stephen King's novels. But I never, ever read them in bed.

On my Kindle, as soon as I remember to charge it, I am at the start of Dear Kate by Hannah Duggan. It was a freebie from Amazon, and I did not get too far in before the battery died.

For non-fiction, I'm reading T.J. English's Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. Interesting, but at 480 pages, I'm taking a while to get through it.

My book club is reading Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. Definitely not one to read before bed...he is Stephen King's son.

With my nephew, we are journeying through Narnia. Currently we are stalled in the fifth book - The Horse and His Boy - and I am afraid he is going to outgrow wanting to read with his auntie before we finish the series.

Books are what I know best. The goal I set for myself in January was to read two books a week for 2015. According to Goodreads, I'm nine books behind schedule. So, I've got a lot of reading to do...hopefully you will come along with me!

Allen Ginsberg's "Indian Journals"...part 1

Since I'm only halfway through the book...it looks like this one is going to be a two-week project. I initially read "Indian Journals" during a summer break from college, while floating in the pool. I was going through my "Beat" period, obsessively reading everything I could get my hands on by Kerouac, Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg and their compatriots. I was writing more then too, which is why I picked it up. I'm hoping to give myself a jump start to get writing again. The journals begin in November 1961 with Ginsberg's arrival in India. It's a mishmash of journal entries, dreams (some drug-induced, some not), and poems with a handful of pictures mixed in. Best line so far: "It isn't enough for yr heart to break because everbody's heart is broken now." More next week, after I've had a chance to finish the book...

"The Nimrod Flipout " by Etgar Keret

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories. I laughed my way through a lot of them and was touched by a few. "Fatso," the first story in the book, features a man in love with a beautiful woman who inexplicably turns into "a heavy, hairy man, with no neck, with a gold ring on his pinkie" every night. I was intrigued by "Dirt" which offers the following alternative: "So let's say I'm dead now, or I open a self-service laundromat." It goes on in this manner, offering two alternate fates...and leaves you wondering which one is true. My personal favorite was "Glittery Eyes" about a young girl who wants her eyes to be glittery. She gets the idea from a boy in her class who has glittery eyes. His explanation of why his eyes are glittery was heartbreaking. I wanted to give him a hug. Shrinking parents, lost dogs, twin brothers married to twin sisters...this book is full of crazy characters in wacky situations. His style reminded me of Douglas Adams and Tom Robbins, both of whom I'm a big fan. Next week...Allen Ginsberg's "Indian Journals" - a reread from college that I picked up at the library last week. I grabbed it in an attempt to reconnect with when I was at my most creative, writing-wise. Of course, I had a lot more free time on my hands then...but I'm trying to discipline myself to do more writing and less sitting in front of the television.

Bringing back the Book-a-Week blog

In the interest of getting my creative juices flowing again...and clearing out some of my to-read list I've decided to resurrect this old blog.

So, without further ado...this week I'm reading "The Nimrod Flip Out" by Etgar Keret. It is a collection of short stories, which is not usually my favorite genre, but I couldn't help myself when I saw the title. 

When I was reading Prince Caspian with my nieces and nephew, Ally kept insisting that Nikabrik the dwarf's name was Nimrod.  Add to that the image on the cover: a man in a pink bunny suit holding a gun, and I was sold. Starting it tonight while I'm at Ally's dance class.

Catching up again...two more books

I really do have good intentions of keeping this weekly...but life keeps getting in the way! So...here are two weeks worth of reviews:

A Version of the Truth by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack is about Cassie Shaw, who tells a big lie on her resume to get a job as an assistant in a psych department. It's an interesting story, although I have to admit I didn't love Cassie as a character. A good read in general, though.

Last week I read The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook. After Noreen discovers her so-called boyfriend tricked her into taking a company buyout, she finds herself unemployed with a lot of time on her hands. She takes up walking and quickly bonds with two of her neighbors to form the Wildwater Walking Club. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone!

Up next...A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White...