A Couple Book Reviews and an Adieu

I have had things to say. I have had things to share. I even have a few scraps of paper left in the van from the holiday travels, with blog-headed jottings on them. When I gather the papers in, perhaps I will write about Orion rising over the West Virginian Mountains in the dead of night.

More recently, I have been reading. I am now in the middle of a quick, evangelical Christian, fiction, read--which is a genre I very, very, very rarely explore--but I seem to have misplaced it while the main protagonists are in the middle of a marriage crisis and the housewife is about to get romantically involved with the painter. So we will write about It Happens Every Spring when I happen to locate the book.

Since the loss, I read through Haven Kimmel's Iodine in two or three days. Mostly I read it that fast (and not due to an abundance of free time, let me assure you) because it was engaging, as Kimmel always is. I know that I have sung her praises on this blog before, but let me repeat that she should (and I would be surprised if she didn't) go down in the cannon of great American writers, as time proves her genius, which lies is her intelligence, her fluidity, her grasp of language, and in her sensitivity to her characters and ultimately to us all. This book was much darker than the Kimmel I have grown to love, but let me assure you that once you make it past the fear that it is yet another tome to the normalcy of incest, you will be rewarded. I did occasionally find Kimmel's coolness and academia a little distracting, but maybe this was because I kept wallowing in the truth: I could never write like this (not that smart, anyhow). As long as you don't mind the dark and the psychoanalytical, give it a read.

Am now reading Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? Also, not a usual read for me, but I was intrigued with the idea of shaving off the un-important in my life. (Uh-oh! There goes the blog!) It is way more a diet book than I anticipated, and is written so very poorly, but I am still considering taking the author up on his little "assignments." I would love to clean out my house and my life and find focus on the things that really matter right now. And don't ask me what that is. I have not yet done the exercise. But considering that I have accomplished absolutely none of my new year's resolutions from last year, I'm thinking that there is a disconnect between my dreams and desires and my doings.

That's all. I can't believe I could go forever without blue cheese or mushrooms. But I most definitely could. What makes those decisions in our lives, anyways? How complicated can we be? It turns out, very. People are way too complicated for me to wrap my mind around. Or, really, my mind is geared for something else, entirely, which is the way it often is with people like me. What kind of people am I? You decide. You're a mystery to me, anyhow.

Good night and good riddance.