Jodi Picoult Delivers Again

I usually blog about books that I read or have listen to.  Recently I wrote about Jodi Picoult book The Plain Truth which I very much enjoyed. Since it was the 3rd or 4th book I’ve read by this author I decided she was a safe bet for a good read and downloaded another selection from her list of published books, this time it was The Pact.

The Pact is about a high school boy charged with the fatal shooting of his suicidal girlfriend. Picoult once again delivers.

The Great American Novel

Recently, my soul-sister Ms. Woo Woo posted a blog on the Great American Novel after she and I discussed what kind of American literature would fall into the category of the Great American Novel.  I struggled to articulate the types of novels that I’d lump into that category and then she asked me if I ever felt as though I was writing the Great American Novel and I said, yes.

My reply was based on the fact that the book I am writing has the right elements similar to that of the Grapes of Wrath, I hadn’t intended for that to be the case it just seems to be turning out that way. But I wasn’t indicating that I lump my work in with John Steinbeck, to my chagrin Ms. Woowoo blogged about our conversation the next day.

Today, I decided to link my blog to hers. My reason is that this will probably be the only time in my life that my work is lumped under the headline Great American Fiction, I thought I should bask at the rare opportunity:)

A Tribute – December 28, 1961 – February 18, 2007

It was a year ago today that I recieved a phone call saying my daughters father had died, he was 45.  Nothing in my life could have prepared me to break that news to our then 16 year old daughter.

My daughter wrote the following tribute which she read last year at his funeral:

 Dear Dad,

I can’t believe how hard it is to write this. I can’t think of anything right to say. If I let myself write without choosing my words carefully this letter would be an angry letter for leaving me here. Although I nod and agree with the people who tell me that you will always be with me I can’t help but feel selfish and want you here all the way.

I’m so very worried about going through life without you, you were my go-to man. If I ever felt bad or sad or had a problem I’d call you and within minutes you’d have my problem solved and you’d make me laugh again with your your cheesy jokes. Who will I go to now? No one will ever be as perfect as you were, and still are.

After I found out the news I was devastated, I thought oh, my god I have to call dad. As I made my way to the phone I realized that you were the one who was gone. I miss you so very much and I guess I took my days with you for granted. But I will never forget all those great memories we shared. Like the silly pirate game we would play on your water bed when I was Isabella’s age. We would pretend we were on the raging sea, I would jump to make the waves while you would pretend to raise the sails.Then there were the times when you and Jimmy both would take Matt, Kalli and I to Leaps and Bounds. You would chase us through the tunnels with us kids screaming bloody murder.

Every night I wasn’t with you I would call you just to say goodnight. We always ended the phone call the same way. We’d both count to three then hang up so no one was left on the phone by themselves. But almost every time between those three numbers we’d start up a whole new conversation. As I grew older I grew out of it. I never thought I would miss something so small so much, I will cherish those memories all of my life.

As my dear little sister, Isabella grows up I will tell her every little detail about you. I will tell her how much her daddy loved her and adored her, more than words could ever say. I’m so very lucky to have had all this time with you and yet so angry that I won’t have more. I worry about the big days ahead, like graduation which is so very close, then college, marriage and hopefully kids.  I know I have all these people who are here with me, like my uncle Jimmy who said he would fill in and though that means the world to me they will never be you. And while I am with those people I will be wishing every second of that day it was you with me.

I miss you daddy so very much. And I love you around this world and back again. So for old time sake lets finish this like we always did –  One, two, three –  Goodbye Dad, I love you.

Bad Blogging

If you read yesterdays post, forgive me. As I pushed myself to get a post out late last night, I flat out ran out of steam. I meant to save the blog I was working on to edit later and accidentally published it…errors and all. Opps.

Catching

I’ve been working to get caught up for some time, I titled this post Catching because I already know that catching up is out of the question so I’m settling for just Catching. I’ve continued to add chapters to my book I’m somewhere in the teens now as far as chapters go, so many at this point that I’m loosing track.

I spent a week wrestling the ending to one single chapter to the floor. It seemed each time I ended that particular chapter I’d come back and it felt all wrong. Revise, revise. Finally I decide to walk away, comeback to it fresh and just move on for now. Naturally, I didn’t follow through with that decision either and I did the rewrite anyway except this time I was completely satisfied with my work.  Sometimes it as if I’m circling an idea and it takes a little while to zero in on the target. Enough on that, The Eyes to See Grace is coming along better than I ever expected but it has been extremely time consuming.

Obviously, blogging and other activities have really suffered. That having been said, its not to say that I haven’t continued to cover books and reading material I just haven’t had a chance to blog about them. Since my last book blog here is the list of books I’ve read or listened to:

Twilight – Stephenie Meyer

New Moon – Stephenie Meyer

Eclipse – Stephenie Meyer

The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield

Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett

The Plain Truth – Jodi Picoult

I can easily say that the biggest surprise in fiction has been the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I downloaded the audiobook for my daughter.  Since it was conveniently on my audio library I put a copy on my MP3 and the rest is history. I loved it.

The fact that I enjoyed it so much has taken me a while to publicly admit because I feel sort of silly about it. It’s teen fiction, high school vampire romance… seriously. But I truly enjoyed the series and my daughter and I are waiting anxiously for book 4 Breaking Dawn scheduled for release in August and Twilight the movie scheduled to be released in Dec. 2006.

The Thirteenth Tale was masterfully written, an unusual tale that draws you in from the very beginning.

Pillars of Earth – I’ve never read Ken Follett and I know this book and the World Without End are both deviations from his standard genre…all I can say is; well done and keep it coming. It was an epic adventure and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire journey from start to finish.

As a side note, I spent a very long time deliberating on whether or not to select Follett’s books, it earned such amazing praise yet a story about the building of a cathedral sounded so stodgy and lack luster. I’m so very glad I that I reserved judgment because I loved it. World Without End will soon be on my reading list as well.

The Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult, was the third book I read this year that was written by this author. I started with My Sister’s Keeper which was briliant, went on to read Nineteen Minutes, also fantastic and most recently read The Plain Truth. Picoult never fudges on the research that goes into her stories and The Plain Truth was an interesting peek into the lives of an Amish family complete with their own dialect at times. Picoult has yet to disappoint me.

Links will be connected in a day or two.

39 and Holding

When I woke up this morning it was 39 degrees on the main floor of my house. Making coffee was a bit like winter camping and even though I warmed my office with a space heater the keyboard to the computer retained such a chill my fingers froze.

By 1 p.m. the furnace part arrived and we were back up and running. The heat ran for hours trying to get the temperature above frost bite and I aided the process by baking cookies, roasting pork and Au Gratin potatoes… then I threw together a pot of Turkey Dumpling soup.

Now I should clean the kitchen and walk on my treadmill :I