Posts Tagged ‘books’

Random Reads: Stormy Weather by Paulette Jiles

Friday, August 13th, 2010

I just finished reading Stormy Weather by Paulette Jiles, author of Enemy Women, a book I’ve also read and own.

Stormy Weather is set in the Great Depression. It’s a story centered around a young woman and her itinerant family. Her father works on oil pipelines and derricks scattered around Texas, drinking and gambling most of the money away while he’s at it. He dies and leaves his wife and three daughters with nothing but the hope of returning to the abandoned family farm. The long-abandoned farm requires hard work and commitment, and presents them with hardships of all kinds. The women struggle to reconcile their long-held dreams of the farm against the reality of life on a farm – especially one so run-down. Along the way the women learn to care for and take care of one another. They learn to do things they never would have dreamed they could do and in turn are able to move forward and have the life they dreamed of for so long.

A sub-plot of Stormy Weather is the story of Smoky Joe, a wild racehorse that was purchased by their gambling father. The horse is dangerous and moody….and fast. The horse is a wonderful metaphor of the main character herself. Both are a bit wild and determined, but eventually find some solidarity and purpose and are able to move forward: leaving their past behind and embracing what the future holds for them.

Stormy Weather

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Random Reads: Mr. Darcy’s Diary

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

Mr. Darcy’s Diary is the story of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett written from Mr. Darcy’s point of view. Although it’s written in a similar style as Pride and Prejudice, it’s different enough to distinguish itself as a totally different work. Mr. Darcy’s Diary is a great companion to P&P for readers who struggle with understanding Austen. The book gives good insight, not only into what Mr. Darcy was thinking, but as to the character of Elizabeth, Bingley, Caroline Bingley, Georgiana, Whickam, Mr. Bennett, and the rest of the cast as well. The book follows the events of Pride and Prejudice very well. The one drawback is that it didn’t read much like an actual diary which threw me off a bit. For instance, long conversations were recorded, word for word, which is pretty unlikely. While not a huge draw back, things like that keep the book from feeling as believable as it could otherwise.

The author, Amanda Grange, is known for her interpretations of classical novels and takes few liberties with the story. If you’ve watched and enjoyed the BBC version of P&P, or the recent movie with Kiera Knightly, you’ll enjoy this book as well. Unlike some writers, I think Ms. Grange does a wonderful job of giving us more insight to the original novel and characters without crossing the line into using the characters to carry on another story altogether. She gives us just a bit more character development and dialogue  to round the original story out, but doesn’t go so far as to make it into something else entirely. I couldn’t help but feel Ms. Austin would approve and look forward to reading more Amanda Grange novels in the future!

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Random Reads: Thrift Store Books

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

This is why I love the thrift store: $124 worth of books for $6. And they are all in very good condition! The downside, is that you never know what you are going to get. But if you want a specific book you could always check it out of the library for free! Personally, l LOVE the thrill of going not knowing what books I’ll end up bringing home. I’ve read some really great books that way. A few stinkers, too, but I’m able to find some kernel of truth in each book, so it’s no great loss.

I’m going to start doing short reviews of the books I’ve read recently. I’ve hesitated simply because they aren’t new books. Some of them have been out for ages. But the upside is that if you see something you think you’ll like you won’t have to sit on a waiting list at the library, right?

Mr. Darcy's Diary

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Bookshelves

Friday, May 28th, 2010

I may have an addiction. To High Gloss Black. Everything that falls into my hands ends up coated in High Gloss Black. I may need an intervention.

Here’s my latest and greatest project: Shelves. We have a partially finished basement. It was half of the basement so it was one loooong room. My husband put in a home theater a couple of years ago. That helped break up some of the space, but there was still a pretty long room down there. I’ve been wanting shelves along one wall in particular, but good shelves are expensive. I’m DONE with pressboard shelves. The shelves inevitably sag and nothing is sadder than that. I considered bribing my husband into making some, but that would have been a big project and still pretty pricey. So when I found these beauties on Craigslist, I knew they were THE SHELVES. Only $95 and they are made of real wood. No pressboard here, my friends!

And they were 8 feet long and over 4 feet high. No wimpy shelves for us. No sir!

Funkalicious Bookshelves

According to the seller, these shelves were custom made to hold an album collection. And no, not photo albums, MUSIC albums. So they are old. They are well made. They are funkalicious. I could hear disco music as soon as I touched them. Okay, not really. But you can see how that could happen.

Here’s the shelves after my trusty High Gloss Black Paint and I were through with them:

No More Funk

I still have the doors for the top. Ben thinks they look better without the doors. I thought they would have looked cool with a hip little stainless steel knobs I found at Home Depot. But they are off for now. Either way, I think they look vastly improved since when we purchased them!

Now I just need more books to fill them up…

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