Giggle, Snicker, Snort…

Before I retired I found buckets of time for reading, one of my favorite pastimes. Since hanging up my scalers, there is insufficient time. For reading. And, I’m starved for it.

I have a hard time reading during the day. It’s a personality flaw (the only one, I’m sure). Days are supposed to be filled with cleaning the house, preparing meals, grocery shopping, laundry and so forth, right? (Giggle, snicker, snort.) Or, volunteering at the library, soup kitchen, or taking in every stray animal I find (we live in the country=dumping ground for pets=you do the math).

Then SHE showed up. Again. Inner Martha. She’s been hanging around since I retired and she pains me in my hind quarters. I feel her glare, the heavy dose of guilt when I think of reading. Dagnabbitz. Reading screams leisure time, even though I’VE EARNED IT. (The battle continues and it’s ugly. My right eye started twitching yesterday, bordered on a seizure, and I may have perspired, but I predict Karen will win).

Thinking creatively, I decided to make this a goal, to make time for reading. For my master’s I had to read, had to write, had to research. That was in addition to reading for pleasure, an escape from the pressure of academic success, doing well. My inner nerd was happy. Since retiring, other pressures have surfaced. Dagnabbitz.

So: I’ve created a new category, A BIT OF LIT, where I hope you will share with me some of your good reads. Here are a coupla my recent distractions.

---

I was drawn to this one having been to Brazil, twice. During his adventures blazing a trail across this enormous continent, through deserts and jungles, do you think he is bitten by a snake? Between the people he met, learning Portuguese, the “food,” the red tape of travel, and creatures he encountered, I could not put this one down.

I started reading author Joshilyn Jackson with her Back Seat Saints. I adored that one due to her writing style; she made me feel as though I’d jumped into an existing conversation. Love that. The story deals with domestic abuse, which I did not want to read, but, the ending was perfect (no spoiler here). I’ve just started this one (below), my third of her books. They’ve just taken down a tree in the yard, only to discover jaw bones. A baby’s jaw bone.

I found Walking the Amazon the same day I found this fabulous book about the bond between women and their grandmothers. Used bookstores at the beach are simply the best. This collection is filled with stories and poems about women and their grandmothers.

After I began blogging, an unexpected connection surfaced between my grandmother and me, even though she passed when I was 18; yet, I could not get enough of this book. Have you thought about the bond between you and your grandmother? What would you tell her if she were here today? Simply, this is rich. A gem.

I have never read Laura Moriarty, but my mother handed this to me last week, said she couldn’t put it down. It’s about mothers and daughters, relationships, what happens when tragedy strikes. It gives me a lot to think about. My mom is 87. I’ve been thinking about that, too. A lot. Any mother with a teenage daughter will relate to this story. Or, anyone who drives, or anyone who has parents.

You may remember that Ralph and I are tight.

“Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, then Beauty is its own excuse for being…”

Oh, my….can’t get enough of that. Here’s where you may have seen this before.

As a birthday gift this past week, my son and his wife gave me the following.

So. What the heck? Who says I have to read the whole time? Giggle, snicker, snort…

REQUEST: Please share with me some of your favorites, whether a current read or a past favorite. Shall we start a book club?