Book Club Book Review: Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums

Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums is a sad story about a sad little boy. That's my one-sentence summary. It had some really lovely moments retelling his love of language and how his mother taught him the importance of being who he truly is, but the book suffered, ironically enough, from poor editing. I don't mean the grammatical/syntactial kind, I mean the content kind of editing that would have culled down some of the chapters into smaller, tighter, better written and more readable segments.

Sessums grows up in Mississippi, the son of a coach and "could have been" professional athlete. His father dies when he is 7 and his mother when he is 8. Most of the book is spent detailing his relationships with both and how they did and did not affect his being gay. Later in life, Sessums' mentor, Frank Haines, is murdered. I have to admit that this is the section I skimmed through because I thought it was entirely too long and detailed.

Overall I give them book 3/5 stars. Recommended if you like to read memoirs (which I don't and could be part of my resistance here).

DONEDONEDONEDONEDONE!!!!!

I have been working diligently all week long. I finished up Chapter 3 of my dissertation yesterday and Chapter 1 today. In the three chapters that make up my dissertation proposal, I have written 86 pages. And I think they are all pretty good. I'm very proud of my work and hope that the next phase progresses as smoothly as possible.

Just so you know. I will review Chs. 1&3 on Monday and make sure I still think they are good (sometimes a couple of days give a whole new perspective on things) and then I will make what revisions I think are necessary and send them to my dissertation advisor.

She will have 2 weeks to review, we will meet and I will get her suggested revisions (so far that has been very simply stuff...hopefully it will continue to be so) and then once I make those revisions I will pass the proposal out to my committee members and schedule my proposal defense. I should have all of this done by the end of April.

In the meantime I have to keep myself busy with something, and I have no idea what that might be! ugh! :)

Steppin' Out Boogie by Eugenie Rocherolle

I love the walking bass in this one. It's fast and fun and I hope you dance like my page turner did (too bad it didn't show up in the video). Btw, I don't know why the video block is show up all black, but if you click play it will work. enjoy!

Week 4

Rough week this week. Stress combined with hormones and several weeks of an extremely low-fat diet resulted in some serious binges on both of our parts (plus we went out to eat 3 times which we never do any more). I gained 3 pounds, David 1.5. Ouch.

Book Review: Light on Snow by Anita Shreve

Light on Snow by Anita Shreve follows the lives of Nicky and her father, Rob, Dillon. Nicky's mother and baby sister were killed in a traumatic car accident just days before Christmas two years before the story begins. Rob is still in the woes of depression over the accident and Nicky is trying to navigate the complex world of moving on with her life and remembering and treasuring the past.

Then one day as they take their afternoon walk, Nicky and her father stumble upon an abandoned baby who they save. Their lives are thrown into further turmoil a few days later when the baby's mother shows up.

Light on Snow is a beautifully written novel about love and forgiveness and acceptance. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and hope you do too.

Highly recommended.

Dissertation Progress

I have actually completed chapter 2 of my dissertation. It's the literature review and was a monster undertaking. I have sent my draft to my advisor and will hope for a favorable review next week.

Oh, and I think I finally decided what to do with the quilt bee quilt--I've been fussing and fuming for long enough, don't ya think!?!

Book Review: Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks

Bread Alone is about a woman, Wynter, who is going through a divorce from her executive advertising husband. Their marriage started out as one of mutual support and understanding and turned into one where she was erased in his glamorous career. When he tells her that they need to separate for a time, she honestly believes that he is simply going through a difficult time and waits for him to make the decision to take her back, despite all evidence that he is having an affair with a co-worker. The journey that Wynter must go through to discover her true passion (baking bread) makes up the plot of the novel and allows the reader to discover her own self and passions through Wynter’s struggles.

I liked the book quite a bit. I thought it was very well written and presented the reader with an interesting take of the tolls of divorce and the processes that one must go through to redefine herself after essentially being erased in a marriage that is about supporting the husband. Only through discovering her art was Wynter able to have something for herself worth standing up for and avoid making a similar mistake with a different man.

Recommended for all readers.

WW Update, Week 3

I lost 2.5 pounds this week. David stayed even. That takes me to 8 pounds total and him at 7.5. yay us!!!

Brown and Blue Tencel and Rayon Scarf

Very silky to the touch, very pretty to the eyes. AND it will keep the wind off of your neck. This is a lovely scarf, one of my favorites. It's made with tencel (wood pulp fiber long touted as the poor man's silk because it has the luster and feel of silk at a much cheaper price) and blue variegated rayon. Fringe is twisted. The scarf measures 7x70. It sells for $50.

Just two short months ago...

...I put up pictures of our earliest snowfall ever. Here we are today.

Book Review: A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

I started reading this book over a month ago. I thought maybe I wasn't getting into it because I was instead getting into my new video game...which kept me from wanting to read for weeks. How unlike me. Seriously. I don't have issues turning off my video game at night, and while I was really enjoying this one, I don't think it's the reason that I was not getting back to A Gate at the Stairs every single night.

I was avoiding it.

I decided to wean myself off of my video game, convinced that I'd become addicted, so I was going to read it 5% at a time (it's on Kindle, so no pages and can't really see the chapter ends, the thing that most annoys me about it despite all its other wonderful conveniences). I persevered, kept at it, for two days. I'd finally made it to 20% (having been dogged the first night and read two 5% sections in one evening). However, last night, I said to David as we were sitting down to read..."If this book hasn't grabbed my be 25% I'm going to move on."

Guess what, I made it to 21%. I just couldn't read one more word of this spoiled little college student who thinks she's just so much smarter and better than her family go on and on about her passive experience of the morose condition of the world. I imagine that the book does get better but since I'm on Kindle I can't easily flip forward and find out...so guess what? I'm quitting. Besides, the writing is so overdone that it takes paragraphs to make one statement about the lack of snow or ability to go ice fishing at Christmas time. I kept thinking in my head, "bla, bla, bla, cold stinks anyway."

I started reading Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks last night. I'm not addicted to my video game, I was just in the malaise of reading a bad book and doing a very good job of avoiding it. I am really enjoying my new book and expect to have a review up in just a few days.

Week 2

I lost .5 pounds and David lost 2.5. Cumulative: Me: 5.5. him 7.

Down Home Boogie by Eugenie Rocherolle