Friday, June 24, 2011

dirty feet

I painted my toe nails. 

Now, I hate make-up.  Occasionally I will honor a situation by putting on mascara and a shiny lip gloss, but I hate doing things to me that take time away from other things - like books!  And eating... and sleeping... and squishing little and big children...

But I HAD to paint the toes.  We worked in the garden for a couple of hours this morning before it became unbearably hot.  As usual, I went barefoot.  No amount of scrubbing or soaking will wash away the evidence of agrarian womanhood, so I painted.  Now I look like a toe-nail painter.  I'm such a hussy!  :)

BOOKS I'VE READ:
1993-1994 BYU Speeches - various - uplifting speeches given at BYU on LDS themes
Lorna Doone - RD Blackmore - a recommendation and gift from tren (one of my "followers", haven't learned how to link yet!).  I enjoyed this classic novel.  It's long.  It's old.  It's Scottish.  So there is some mental effort to be exerted but, the story is just as thrilling as any classic should be.  John Ridd falls in love with the mysterious Lorna Doone, who lives with a clan of outlaws.  There is drama, love, and a dry patch in the middle when John Ridd goes to the city, but it still holds the reader.
The Zookeeper's Wife - Diane Ackerman - A fascinating nonfiction acount of a family during WWII in Poland that hide people from the Nazis in their zoo.  Zoos were privately owned at the time and the zookeepers lived on the premises with their families.  I read a lot of Holocaust/WWII accounts, and this one sticks out in my mind as a wonderful, well-written story.
America Eats! - Pat Willard - This is a history of food in America.  I believe it followed the food culturally and historically in its context.  It pieces together information gathered in the 1930s by the WPA during the Depression.  It was interesting enough to read, but I don't remember much of the content.
A Light in the Window - Georgene Pearson - A very easy to read account of schoolchildren and their busdriver during a 1931 blizzard.

I never used to read nonfiction.  I'm sure I was "above" that.  Now I am finding that I truly enjoy that medium as a break between the mental work of family and classics. 

What is your favorite type of nonfiction?  Do you ever read it?  Why or why not?

1 comment:

  1. Haha, I reserve mascara and lip gloss for special occasions, too! I have painted my toe nails a few times over the years, and in the days to follow, when I look down and see them, it catches me off guard.
    I don't generally read much non-fiction, but I have enjoyed some memoirs and biographies. There is also a book by Susan Campbell Bartoletti called Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow, which I thought was very good. I just discovered that she has also written a book about the Irish potato famine, so I'll have to read that, too.

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