Summer Reading

Last week I went camping for an entire week. This was the first time in over 10 years we’d been on a vacation that long. It was a week full of lounging on a raft on the river or a hammock by the fire. And what is a camping trip without a pile of books to plow through? I came equipped with a bag of books determined to get through as many as possible before the week was through.

The first book I jumped into was this months From Left to Write book club selection, The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver.

Now this post was supposed to be “inspired” by the book. And to be quite honest there was nothing I could relate to in a story about a woman on death row facing execution and her victim’s mother who is trying to save her. I’ve never killed anyone, been on death row, visited someone on death row or had a last meal. So I’ve been stuck trying to write something inspired by this book.

The World of Expats

I have to admit that I don’t know a whole lot of people who live abroad. Most friends I have who live in Europe are there because that’s where they’re from. I don’t know a lot of people who have just up and moved to another country. I don’t know a lot of Expats.

That right there is what makes reading such a wonderful thing. It’s one thing to read about things we love or relate to, but it’s in the books that give us a look into a life and world we know nothing about that forces our imaginations to work overtime.

That’s what kept going through my mind as I read Chris Pavone’s The Expats.

The Kids Are All Right

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I picked up this month’s book for the From Left to Write book club, The Kids are All Right. I got through it in one weekend, partly because it was such an easy read. Told from the viewpoint of four siblings they recount the difficult childhood they managed to survive after losing both parents one right after the other.

I can’t say that I can relate to losing my parents when I was a kid. Because I didn’t. I grew up with both parents in a pretty normal suburban upbringing. But surprisingly I did find some things in this book that I could relate to.

Friday Round-Up

We braved a heatwave this week with scorching three digit temps that kept us pretty much held up indoors, which is OK because it’s Banned Book Week, so we had some rebellious book reading to do anyway.

In between surviving the heat and reading banned books I did manage to get some other stuff done though… check it out.

Room

This months Left to Write book club book was Room by Emma Donaghue. It’s a haunting tale told from the point of view of a five year old boy who is raised by his mother in small room/shed cut off from the outside world because they’re being held captive.

This book was so sad and disturbing to me because though it’s technically fiction, for me all I could think about was Jaycee Dugard and watching the almost exact same thing unfold in this book as I watched unfold in reality on TV almost exactly one year ago only 30 minutes from where I sit writing this post as my children sleep safe and sound upstairs in their beds.

To All the Pets I’ve Loved Before

Blossom

I haven’t had a dog since I was in high school. Through out my childhood we had two dogs a black lab named Shadow and a white mut named Misty. Both were good and loving dogs.  Shadow moved on to a friend’s farm and Misty passed away when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school.

My mom did eventually get another dog but not until sometime after I graduated and not long before I moved out of the house.

Examining the Past

This month’s book selection for the From Left to Write book club was the stuff that never happened by Maddie Dawson. The premise is that are main character, Annabelle, must finally choose between the man she’s been married too for 26 years and the man that got away who’s she been carrying a torch for all along. I hate to spoil this book, but I will so tread cautiously and I will warn you before I do spoil the ending.

Though this book instantly had me thinking about the past, it actually got me thinking about it indirectly more than directly. You see my first paid writing gig was for a website called JamsBio. It was a website where people could write a memory associated with a song. You would choose a song and write a story about the memory associated with it.