Sunday Shout Out - March 10th

Wow, I can't even seem to get a weekly post done on time.  This one's been sitting half done for over two weeks.  I have been reading, but as I mentioned in January, I knew this was going to be a busy couple months.  I got the library's annual report done, I started on my taxes, I'm working diligently on compiling the high school class's memory book for the reunion in April, and I'm holding down the fort at the local library.

I'm also involved in a huge reading project that I can't say too much about yet, but it's consuming a lot of my reading and listening time.  In the meantime, here's some of what's been on my book menu lately:

Last week our book club met to discuss Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral, the story of a woman who plans her own funeral before she dies, makes all the arrangements and then has her ashes and instructions sent to her best friend who must then contact four other close friends to conduct Annie's traveling funeral.  I read this one several years ago, and found I had a different perspective the second time through.  Our book club discussed whether the reaction to the book is based on the age of the reader, or it just wasn't as deep as I initially thought it was.  It was chick-lit with a bitter-sweet message.  As I read of friends reminiscing about their experiences together, I was also reading through short bios my classmates have been sending for our memory book.  One of the questions we asked the members of our class was to tell us their fondest memories.  There were some eerily similar outlooks in those bios with the vignettes in Annie Freeman.  This is a book worth picking up if you come across it.  There are laugh out loud parts, and grab your kleenex moments.  But then, isn't that what life is all about?

I also spent some audio time listening to the next installment in William Kent Krueger's Cork O'connor Series: Boundary Waters. This is going to grow to be a series I'm not going to want to stop too soon. A bit too many twists and turns, but still good enough to keep me marching on with reading this series. It was difficult to follow in a couple places since I'm not a kayak/canoe/cabin in the woods/thousands of rivers and lakes person. The characters were well drawn, the plot was quite suspenseful. All in all worth the time. In fact, I just downloaded #3 Purgatory Ridge as my next swimming read.

For about a week, I wallowed in the glorious prose of Jumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize winning collection of short stories: Interpreter of Maladies. This is one of my favorite genres, and this book has been on MT TOOBIE way too long. There have been reviews galore written about it, so I won't waste your time with the details. Suffice it to say, they are exquisite short but well-developed character studies of Indian immigrants, or children of immigrants, living in America, struggling to reconcile the traditions of their culture with their desire to fit in and become American. A book that will remain in my permanent collection and be picked up for another look-see in the future. I've already added several others of Ms. Lahiri's works to my ever-growing pile of reading delights to look forward to.