I am tired today.  Lots of activities and little time to read...  unless you are at a free day at the pool with 136 lifeguards (not really 136! close though!) on duty b/c the whole town is there... then you can read - AND finish two books.  I finished Mary, Martha, and Me, and Running for Mortals.  I was impressed with myself.  And now I am in that dead zone between books.

I've been reading The Homemaker, but it is hitting a raw nerve.  It is so well-written, and the perceptions of man, woman, and child, so clearly displayed to us as readers, that it is hurting my feelings!  It is about the effects/affects of a controlling wife, mother, and homemaker.  She can do it all and does, but without the considerations of how her family is being beaten down with her fire.  I am an intense mother - I am a mother-bear and desire some life lessons to be learned at home, safely, rather than in the scary grown-up world they will soon enter.  I am not as passionate as this homemaker in taking care of the home, but my heart is breaking for her children.  I actually find myself doing a personal inventory to make sure I am not hurting my children in the process.

Books I've Read:
More With Less Cookbook - Doris Janzen Longacre - a no-frills cookbook that gets down to the business of making a dollar stretch.  I have a lovely cream of tomato soup recipe from it the kids request often.
Winter Wheat - Mildred Walker - This is a beautifully written story of a young woman growing up on a "wheat ranch" in this country in the middle of the twentieth century.  It is a poignant tale of how her entire life is effected by the price of winter wheat.  I have some more books by this author on my shelf and I look forward to reading them.
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - I think I first read this in high school and then I watched the Gregory Peck movie.  It is an important, well-written book, touching on the issues of race and humanity in this country.  Having said this, I never pick it up to read because I want to.  Maybe I should try that once and see if I feel differently about it.  It affects me and makes me angry and proud... maybe that's why it's not something I curl up with at night.
The Dollmaker - Hariette Arnow - This is one of my all-time favorites.  I fell in love with the main character and her struggles.  Gertie is a wife from the hills of Kentucky during WWII; her husband is moving the family to Detroit to chase the "good life" in the war plants.  She whittles - and that is what preserves her sanity in the difficulties of her new life.  I talked out loud to the characters, I cried with Gertie, I gossiped with her neighbors, I ached for her children, I wanted to tell her husband the things in her heart...  I felt a gamut of emotions and was glad to do it in this tale.
Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi - Another profound book.  A female professor in Iran teaches literature until the wars and government changes and restrictions prevent her from doing the job she loves.  Students approach her on the sly and a "book club" is born.  They read the classics and apply there themes to their own lives.  Jane Austen's works seen through Muslim women is amazing...