Hello, August! I can’t believe that July has ended and you are here already! I’m not complaining though. It just means that fall and winter are one month closer and for that I’m excited! It is looking like you will provide us with a lot of hot weather. All. Month. Long. Thanks for that. I think you will make me love the idea of winter more and more each day.
The first thing I did in August was visit the Miracle Worker, AKA the chiropractor. It was a great start to the month! Now my wrists are adjusted and ready for lots and lots of typing. I’ll have to remember to visit him again soon. It was a rainy day so the dog and I were trapped inside until after work, when the sun started to peek out. I took her outside and she kept looking at the ball so I threw it for her and she ran and had a great time! I have never been able to throw a ball very far (jock is not a word that can be used to describe me!) but she seems to enjoy the catching the ball and the run anyway. After we were inside and she had a chance to relax after her run she came over to me to play tug-of-war. A tired pup she is after all that running! She has already settled in for bed!
I thought I’d start each week a post about what I’m reading. I always love to see what others are reading because it always gives me new ideas. So, as always, feel free to share what you’re reading in the comments or point me to your blog entries if you’ve talked about it!
What I’m Reading
I’m starting this week with books that we’re reading for book club, which will be meeting later this week. My book club doesn’t meet very often because the girl who started it lives in another state. Whenever she visits MN, we try to get everyone together if we can!
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. We were supposed to discuss this book in December but winter storms foiled our plans while she was here. I read this book already but I read it in little chunks with lots of time passing between so I’m hoping to read it one more time, not only for a refresher, but to read it all at once. I love travel memoirs, but I tend to read foreign travel memoirs. I have a strong, incurable case of wanderlust and dream about all the different countries I have yet to visit outside of the United States, as well as the countries that I have already traveled to and fallen in love with. But it’s nice to read about different places that I can travel to in my own country. There is a lot to see here!
What I love most about Bryson is how hilarious his writing is! He reminds me a lot of one of my favorite writers (also a travel memoirist) J. Maarten Troost. I highly recommend each one of these writers.
I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith. This is also a reread for me as I read it once for a class my first semester at the University of Minnesota. I actually wrote a paper about it and let me tell you, I had the hardest time writing that paper! It was so difficult for me that a bulk of the 10 page paper (and I think the page count was actually bigger than that) was written between the hours of 1am and 5am the day that it was due. I think I still have that paper on my computer, but you can bet that it will never see the light of day again!
That being said, this is a wonderful, beautiful book. As my friend Amber said, I wish I had read this book when I was in high school because I think I would have enjoyed it greatly at that time. I pulled this book out while I was at the chiropractor’s office and even though I’ve already met the narrator, I was refreshed by her voice. The book is filled with many memorable characters: the narrator Cassandra, who is working on her writing skills; her sister Rose, thinking of extra ways to make money for the family; her step-mother Topaz, a model; her father, James, a writer who can no longer write, just to name a few.
There is also a film adaptation of this novel starring Henry Cavill. And other people.
I will definitely report on book club after we meet! It will be this week but we’re still deciding on a date, time and location. We used to meet in Borders but their coffeeshop is already closed. I’m so sad to see Borders go out of business!
All book covers were taken from Barnes & Noble
