Dairy Queen

So after I got back from my pancake breakfast I sat in the sun and finished this book. Which I loved! So much that I did all my gushing to the physics teacher, who could have cared less, but indulged me nonetheless because I can be difficult to stop once I get going, and if he listened I’d help with the yard work that he’d been slaving over while I indulged in sunshine and reading.

I love DJ. I haven’t enjoyed a female voice this much since Virginia in The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. She is charming and self deprecating, she is funny unintentionally in a way that is also poignant. I am guessing if I told you the plot – keeping a farm going, training a football player in secret, and falling for that football player you might roll your eyes like I did – but the book is so much more than its plot. But seriously how great are cows named after football players? Although getting rid of Joe Namath so early on was a little disappointing.

And as for DJ’s choices, and playing football, and not caring, well caring but not letting it stop her, that Brian was on the opposing team. Perfect, and true to her character.

And the pink foil cow on the inside cover – adorable, wish it was on the dust jacket.

Rant

I hate it when I am really into a book and I have t stop to do some mundane errand – like go to a pancake breakfast or fix dinner or some such thing like that.

Oh and my dog jumped on my laptop and now my O key is hardly working.  I hate that too!

Reading and Guilt

So I have been reading – really. And I feel guilty for not writing about what I’ve read. I find that if I don’t do it immediately I never do so I am going to give a quick overview of what I have read and what I thought and if you want me to expand leave a note in the comments and I tell you more in a later post.

So before I read the wrestling book, I read Just in Case which is Meg Rosoff’s newest. I love the way she puts words together. Describing the plot of both of her books doesn’t make we want to read the book but I just know I am going to love the language of the book. In this instance David (Justin Case) has a brush with Fate, that makes him decide fate is out to get him, so he tries to hide from fate by disguising himself. I know huh? And the thing is the main character is self absorbed in his quest to elude fate to the point of ridiculousness, and making the reader just want to slap him. But still there are moments of brilliance. I wish I had the book in front of me to point a few out but alas, I do not.

Another book I read was The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea. I have been waiting a year to read this book – seriously. Which may have been a little too long because I was slightly disappointed. I’m not sure what I expected, maybe more magical realism, more Tersita, less other characters. Speaking of language though, I learned a lot about how to cuss in Spanish. I did enjoy it, I’d recommend it, my dad read it and adored it, but it didn’t rock my world.

So while I was on vacation I had other literary fiction type reads with me, but you what, I needed beach reads so I kind of came to a screeching halt. I had one mind candy read with me and it made such an impression I don’t even remember what it was. How bad is that? I mean I enjoyed it at the time but it just did not stick. The point of this is that I came home in a bit of a reading slump. But then I read a blog entry about Travis McGee. I love Travis McGee books – I have read the series from beginning to end more than once. I have fantasies about taking a bath aboard the Busted Flush. And sometimes when you are in a reading slump you have to return to comfort food so I spent a weekend reading The Deep Blue Good-bye, Nightmare in Pink, and A Purple Place for Dying. I started The Quick Red Fox but I got distracted by 21 Proms and the 8 boxes of brand new books the library has received. (WOOHOO!!!!!)

This weekend I read The Rules of Survival – ummm – a little depressing. And the format – letter to his sister was jarring to me. I also read On the Head of a Pin – even MORE depressing. I really needed so happy happy joy joy after that. Which hello —sunny day on the beach, come home to a victory of Texas and a number one seed – Go Jayhawks!!!!. That is good happy happy joy joy, just don’t go out in the first round.

Hey also check out my LibraryThing catalog.  Mostly I am using it to keep track of what I want to read.