book report adventure

On Monday I had the day off but my sweetie didn't and my volunteer job needed extra help, so I had the good fortune to get to spend the morning with an amazing kid who had the day off, too. His mom works at the paper and once they settled in he was sent down to help us out with sales. After the initial vendor rush things slowed way down and he went to get the book he was working on. It blew me away to see this boy just sit down and start churning out text. He'd mentioned to me that he was working on a book about Boston mobsters in the 1950s and when he left for lunch he said I could look at what he'd been writing. Imagine my delight when I looked down to see this:


Now that's my kind of story!

Here are some other books that have been delighting me lately:

The Double Comfort Safari Club - I love listening to Lisette Lecat read Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books. Mma Precious Ramotswe is such good company. These gentle, funny books set in Botswana are a sure-fire way to shake me out of the blues and restore my faith in humanity. Thanks for turning me on to these fabulous audio books, Mom!

The Master and Margarita - I may not actually be smart enough for this book and it had the usual Russian novel challenge of a million names with variations and they all start sounding alike and I can't tell who is who:) However, I didn't let that stop me from thoroughly enjoying it! I wasn't too sure when I was about 1/3 of the way through it and I still hadn't run into the Master or Margarita, but I will say that it all comes together pretty perfectly. Thanks for the awesome birthday present, David!

It Chooses You - By some amazing twist of fate, I received the notice that this popular book by Miranda July was finally on the hold shelf for me at the library within days of receiving her film The Future from Netflix. These projects are very much related to each other and when I found the film brilliant but disturbing, I was really grateful to the book for helping humanize it for me. I highly recommend experiencing these two together. If I were to do it over, I'd read the book first and then watch the movie.

An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny - Right before dinner a few weeks ago I read a description of this book on Jesse Kornbluth's fabulous Head Butler blog and surprised my sweet husband by bursting into tears at the table. So you know I had to track down a copy. The print copies had a ton of holds at the library, but the audio book was available, so that's what I got. I'm thinking it may be less popular because of the voice of the woman who reads it (since that's been my challenge), but I'm not letting that slow me down. This book cracks my heart open in that way that I love, and who can resist this pair? Really.