How Did I End Up Here?

I am the type of reader who is compelled (driven) to finish one book before I pick up another.  I really am somewhat OCD.   It is just the way God made me.  With that said how is it I find myself reading three books and trying to knit a baby sweater at the present?

First the knitting doesn't bother me so much; I love to knit and watch football (have I mentioned I love football....love it!) or the latest recorded Masterpiece Theater.   I really am a little crazy with three books vying for my attention though.   Here is what happened.

Before school started back I downloaded The Sisters, Mary S. Lovell on my nifty Nook knowing I had my trip to Chicago in front of me.

The Sisters is the story of  the six Mitford sisters who each walk their own path.  One flirts with Hitler and one with communism.  One becomes a duchess and is reviled while another becomes a renown author.   You might think you are reading fiction as you are drawn into their eclectic lives.  I doesn't get any better than this.

I hadn't ventured more than a quarter of the way through it's  640 pages when visiting Left Bank Books, in Saint Louis, my son-in-law hands me  Bill Peschel's Writer's Gone Wild and tells me he thinks it is something I would enjoy.



I think my son-in-law has discovered I have a bit of a quirky side (I don't show it to many and not very often).  Anyway, I opened the book, read the the first sentence of the introduction and laughed out loud.  Oh yes, this book was going home with me.   Of course, I had to open it and start reading it once settled on the short flight back home.  This is a book filled with wonderful stories about some of our most prolific authors' sometimes bawdy escapades.  I have not found one boring moment between the covers.  Gratefully it is not a book you have to read at one sitting.  I find myself searching out some of my favorite writers and reading their mischievous tales.

My third book is my book group's September read, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer.  As soon as the last person left and dishes were washed and put away I downloaded this one and thought I would just check it out before going to bed.    I didn't want to put it down.



This is a story of a nine year old boy, Oskar, desperate to learn about his father sets out to find the lock matching a key he finds hidden in his father's closet.  His father, a jeweler, died September 11th in the World Trade Center.  Oskar's trek takes him through the boroughs of New York and into the lives of an eclectic group of people, all survivors in their own way.  He heals and is healed along the way.

While I found this book powerful, it is a little difficult to read.  It is not a book to put down mid chapter and later pick up where you left off.   There were a few chapters I wasn't sure who was speaking.

Extremely Loud... is more about a boy trying to come to grips with his own feeling of quilt than it is about 9/11.  It is a book that will have you laughing and crying at the same time.   I fell in love with Oskar;  his "heavy boots" broke my heart.

To be honest I will finish this book in a few minutes.
 I will be down to two.

I hope you are reading something good,
 and may your "boots always be light".

images: barnes and noble and pinterest