I love to read (obviously) and the genres I read are wide and varied. However, lately I've been reading a lot of Young Adult books. More YA than I read when I fit into the category's age range. Part of it is because they're quick reads, you can jump in and out of them without a lot of catch-up, which is great with all of the distractions swirling around me right now. But, I thought of two other reasons why I'm really loving almost every single one of the YA books I've read lately.
1. They're fun. (for the most part) Much of the really popular YA books are set in alternate realities or in dystopian futures. Dystopian, of course, doesn't promise to be fun but the adventures that happen really are. I like the action, the drama, and the imagination involved.
2. They are digging into the teenage girl's mind and providing a counterbalance to the idea that a girl's worth is in her looks and her clothes and her popularity. The characters I'm reading about are flawed, strong, intelligent, awkward, and slowly developing their confidence. You can't help but like them, root for them, and want to be them. Of course, since it's YA (and honestly, in pretty much every genre) there's usually a love interest. But that swoony boy is flawed too. He's honest and true. He sees more and wants more than the popular chick with the perfect figure and shiny hair. Hmm, what a novel idea for teen boys and girls (and adults, when we come right down to it)
Reading these books is a blissful escape from the reality of cooking dinner and doing laundry, but it's also been a walk down memory lane of my own teenage inner angst and drama. And, looking forward, it's making me think about the conversations I want to continually have with my daughters about inner value, bravery, confidence, and kindness. Plus, I'll have a really great reading list for them (they're never going to get through it!)
Here are a few recommendations:
image via Goodreads
I was lucky enough to hear the author speak in person. She was delightful.
I hate cooking. Honestly, it is the bane of my existence that my children have to eat more than once a month. If I could justify the expense and the lack of nutritional value I would order takeout or pre-made meals from the grocery store all the time. But, as I am not rich, try to care about what I eat, and care even more about what my kids eat, I try to provide some type of meal each day. It's a struggle. If I also didn't get totally bored with food we'd just eat burritos every night. And we eat a lot of burritos. (I make my own beans, there's lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado... I've justified it.)
Anyway, I tried planning a week at a time but it was too easy to blow it off and eat popcorn when the re-fried beans ran out. A month at a time was okay but I DREADED the planning and would put it off until Steve was standing at the door with his keys in his hand waiting to go grocery shopping.
Then I found this pin on Pinterest (a sigh of adulation for Pinterest...). It was from this lady who plans a full year out. WHAT?? There's no way! But the more I thought about it the more sense it made for me. Get all of the horrible planning done at once and then, if I already had a plan in front of me, maybe I'd be able to stick to it and have dinner on the table more nights out of the week than not. I'm going for overall percentages here.
So, I printed out her templates (link at the bottom) and gave it a try. The first year I managed to plan October through April before I lost steam - summer is bad for cooking anyway, right? (justifying again!) It was SO helpful. I wasn't close to 100% but it was so much better. No more trying to come up with something last minute, I just pulled out the ingredients and made what the calendar told me to! (Having the menu planned ahead means I can then buy just what I need when I go grocery shopping which has reduced wasted food and also makes it easier to shop)
This week, I've managed to plan September through May (it was easier this time around because I had my old calendars to help. I spent about 1 1/2 hours. The first time I split it up over a few nights). We'll see if I get to the summer months, although with grilling I think those months are easier anyway.
One of the things I did last year was try to utilize my crockpot more and, when possible, I made a double recipe (or with soups you just get a lot with the normal recipe) and then froze 1/2 and planned that into the menu for later. This year I have one day in October already on the calendar where I plan on doing a bunch of freezer meals where I put all the ingredients together in gallon ziploc bags, throw them into the freezer, and then pull them out later as needed. (more links at the bottom)
There are a lot of really well thought out resources on the internet for this type of stuff so I'm not going to go into more detail - no need to reinvent the wheel. I will say that Pinterest is a wonderful source for recipes - both the regular variety and the freezer meal kind. (link below) On my food board you'll see that I've made notes on the ones that I've tried already...
LINKS! Meal Planning Binder - Yes, it really is a binder. She's way more scheduled than I am, taking into account their activity schedule and that type of thing. But it gives you something to start with, take what you want, and don't re-create the wheel... Mine is a simplified version, though I have found that her recommendation to have all of the recipes you're going to use printed and then filed behind that month's calendar is actually really helpful, both for ease of creating a shopping list and when making dinner. I've printed the computer/internet recipes, haven't converted my cookbook recipes (doubt I'll ever get that far!) Pinterest Food Board - start at my board and then just browse Pinterest (click the Pinterest logo at the top of the page), each pin will lead you down a rabbit trail of deliciousness... Freezer Cooking - (to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. There are a TON of resources)
I'll do a separate post to show you an actual month of meals that I've planned. It's not quite as impressive as it sounds but it does keep people fed and me sane, so that's good!
I feel like I need to sit down and read this book again before I can write anything coming close to doing justice to the story and the writing and the impact of this book.
Remember how when you read The Diary of Anne Frank it was haunting because, while the horror of the Nazi regime was right outside the door, you were also mesmerized by her LIFE in that little attic; the fears, the happiness, the teenagery love and hope for the future?
Well, take away the Nazis and put in cancer instead and you have the heartbreaking bittersweet hope despite the actual reality that twists up inside you and won't let you go.
So, I read a book yesterday.
Yep, that's right.
A Book.
In a day.
Actually, I started it at 5:45 when I put the girls in the bath (they had an extra long bath because I lost track of time...) and finished it at 10pm. I read while making dinner...Obviously I couldn't put it down!
This is the second in the series. Start with the first one. It's in the Young Adult section - I've been mining that section for gems lately and, let me tell you, there are a bunch! (more reviews later? Maybe...)
The short (short!) summary is that this is a dystopian United States where Love, yes, the emotion/action of love, has been declared a disease "deliria". A surgical procedure has been developed to eliminate that emotion with the idea that the elimination of this disease will solve all of the problems in human society. There is, of course, a resistance to this idea...
The only problem? I have to wait a year for the third one to come out! Boo! (this, at least, is a good problem to have!)
(I got the images off of Goodreads.com but the links are acting weird...so if you can't click directly you know where to go!)
I'm back! My brain decided that since Monday was an official holiday it was going to take an entire week off...I think it's switched itself back on now.
I've started reading consistently again. Yay!! That first baby year is really not conducive to reading much of anything, at least when there's another kid in the mix. Now, of course, I've got a huge backlog of books to get through and, as I've been choosing which one to start next (!), I've started thinking about what I really like reading (at least right now.)
I went back to some of the reviews I've posted (mostly on Goodreads.com. Do you know that website? It is one of my favorites!) and re-played various conversations I've had recently about books and a couple of words keep coming up.
Redemption and Grace.
I like books with happy endings, hopeful endings, endings that reassure me that people can and will be stronger, nicer, and more forgiving. Wrongs will be avenged and lives are in a better place when I turn that final page. It doesn't have to be wrapped up with a little bow every time, although sometimes that's nice. I just want to know that they're on their way to a better place, internally and externally.
No, it's not always real life, but that's not necessarily why I read. I've got plenty of real life all around me. I'll take some angst and I'll eat up conflict, war, and trauma if the payout in the end is worth it. I want to suffer so long as I can fly with ecstasy when wrongs are finally righted, futures open up wide, and love becomes true.
There are so many good books out there. So many books that are insightful, important, gripping and even life changing. I've reviewed a couple here and have so many others on my "favorites" list.
But, then there's another classification, the ones that just make me smile. They're whimsical, charming, enchanting, funny and poignant. They're the ones that I want to read over and over and make mental notes to share with friends and now with my daughters. They're the ones that come alive and set up shop in your brain and maybe your soul. I'm thinking Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Moon, Betsy and Tacy...and now, Flavia de Luce.
I just finished The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. I was in love by the second page. Seriously, how a seventy year old man can write a book about a precocious eleven year old girl solving a murder mystery while obsessing about chemistry and plotting revenge on her older sisters is beyond me. It was, in a word, delightful!
It was a fast and funny read - perfect for summer. Go out and get it - it'll definitely put the "sweet" into your summer!
I just finished another memoir about Zimbabwe. The 4th in a string of memoirs about life in Zimbabwe. Life as a white African child and then later as an adult as Zimbabwe spiraled down through civil war and into greed, corruption, violence and hopelessness.
Sounds like depressing reading, and in many ways it is. But the subject matter is compelling and, though I am not a white African and have only 4 years of African childhood experience, I feel that connection with it. I was only 10 when we arrived in Kenya and 14 when we left but my life there is still vivid and ALIVE in my mind.
I can still smell the smoke from the charcoal making fires in August. The sweet smell clogging my nostrils and clouding the sky. I remember the rush of driving on safari and coming up on just fed lions, preening in the pre-dawn light after a nighttime kill.
I can feel the fear as we hung out our upper story windows yelling "mwezi, mwezi! theif, theif!" while watching my Dad race back toward the house, robbers chasing after him when they realized that the security airhorn he held didn't work. As the door slammed and the yelling continued I was sure they were in the house and were beating him only to realize they'd just crawled back into the truck to get the spare tire out and leave.
I love Africa, hope for it, despair for it and just can't stay away; even if it's just by reading right now.
"I feel like weeping. Weeping at the way Africa does this to you. Just as you're about to dismiss it and walk away, it delivers something so unexpected, so tender. One minute you're scared shitless, the next you're choked with affection."
A quote from Peter Godwin, When A Crocodile Eats The Sun
I just finished reading "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. In short it was a fantastic book. Set Jackson, Mississippi during the Civil Rights movement it is the story of a young white woman that doesn't fit into the deep south she's returned to after college. She finds herself pursuing a career in writing rather than the large house, proper husband, children and social clubs that are the assumed and appropriate paths for her life.
In her attempt to find a career she ends up as the writer of a housekeeping advice column, something she knows nothing about and she's forced to go to a black maid for the answers. This unexpected back and forth between Skeeter and Aibileen starts to pull out stories about the relationships developed between the black maids and their white employers. The stories turn into a book and the book threatens to disrupt the lives of everyone, white and black, involved knowingly or unknowingly.
The story was so compelling because it was told from the point of view of Skeeter, 24 year old white female college grad, Aibileen, black maid, and Minny, black maid. Each has a unique perspective and experience in race relations, for lack of a better word, both positive and heartwarming and negative.
The confusion, the affection, the antipathy, the unresolved feelings of superiority and embarrassment over the lack of basic respect between these women is laced throughout the stories. What does it feel like to be black, working for a white family? What does it mean to feel affection for the one who cleans your house and yet have a sense of entitlement and superiority at the same time? How do you deal with potential consequences when some have the means of escape and others are stuck in the life they were born into?
I was ten when we moved to Africa. While living there we had a maid. The day after we moved in we had a number of women show up at our door looking for work. It is a strange position, with our US history of slavery and prejudice, to hire a black African maid. And, of course, Kenya has it's own history with being a British colony. But, it is also an accepted and expected way for the more wealthy to provide jobs and income to those that need it.
Our maid was Mary. She was kind and trustworthy and hard working. She cleaned the house, (I envy my mom for not having to clean the bathrooms!), did the laundry and I'm honestly not sure what else she may have done. I was mostly at school when she was working at the house. I simply took for granted the clean rooms and clean clothes. I suppose I did the same with my mom when we lived in the states but I was also aware that a maid was taking care of me. A black African maid.
Nairobi Skyline credit: kenya-advisor.com
Mary lived in the servants quarters that was included for the apartment complex we lived in. She had a little boy. During the first two years we lived there she had a little baby girl that she named after me. When we were back in the states we heard that she'd had another baby girl that she named after my sister. Two babies named after the two girls she cleaned up after.
I've wondered what Mary thought of us. What she thought of me. Was I kind and respectful? Was I appreciative? The history of slavery wasn't between us but the sensitivity on the subject was in my mind. Even though I had no personal history of dealing with the black American community, no first hand knowledge of the civil rights movement and no opportunity to have a relationship with a black American, I still carried the questions, the guilt, the remorse, the uncomfortableness that comes from questioning past actions.
Rift Valley
credit: kenya-advisor.com
It's a complicated world...for a 10 year old or a 35 year old...
