Reading: Century Trilogy

I am two thirds of the way through my third book of the year. Fall of Giants by Ken Follett is literally a heavy book coming in at over 1,000 pages. I could get a workout reading the hardback version.  Luckily, I am reading it on my beloved Kindle, so I am not exhausted from holding the darn thing.And when I fall asleep holding, I don't end up with a black eye!

I started reading it based on the recommendation by my best friend, husband and mother-in-law, three of the biggest readers I know. Varied in what they read, I felt that if all three liked it enough to recommend it, then I too would enjoy reading the series.

 

My husband was the clincher with his statement that it reminded him of Downton Abbey. I am a huge fan of Downton Abbey, being one of the few who did not cheat and find it online before it was premiered  in the USA two weeks ago.

 

Reading: An Inspired Walk

I am sure you all have either heard of, read or seen Wild *. This book seems to be everywhere and with the Reese Witherspoon movie out in theaters, I am sure millions of people will see Cheryl Strayed's story.  I love Reese, she is from my hometown and is my hair crush. However, I wanted to read the actual words written by the girl who walked the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) alone.

 

I am a fan of hiking. After a brief hiatus when the kids were whiny and made for a very painful  hike, I am back. Steve and I hiked a lot this fall and the girls were up for several long hikes as well. However, I am a ninny. I am afraid. Yes, I truly am afraid of hiking by myself. Mostly because I have read too many books about girls getting attacked.  The wild animals don't scare me. The wild people do.

Reading: Slacker or Realist?

Last year I tried a less lofty list of books I wanted to read. And guess what, I ended up with less books read. Ridiculous, really. I set my bar very realistically I thought and I ended up reading exactly three off that list. Even more ridiculous.

The List of Books, 2013 edition

Sarah's  Key
Bossy Pants
Wolf:  The Lives of Jack London
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Lolita
Let's Pretend This Never Happened
Team of Rivals
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
The Pillars of the Earth
The Silver Linings Playbook
Unbroken
One Thousand Gifts 

Dirt: What happened

As I start 2014 I am taking stock of a few things including my blog.

Blogging started as a way for me to keep track of my life and my life's goals. At the time, I was struggling to find my way. I did not realize it at the time, but I was lost. My kids were swiftly approaching that point where they really did not need me physically as much. I was looking for something fulfilling in my life and so, I started a blog.

My 40th birthday celebration and the reason I started this blog

Whatever: Give me a book shout out

I am in a book lull...

I have read a few fluff books lately and need a good one I can sink my teeth into.

Something high brow, maybe a classic.

This summer I read The Great Gatsby again. The fire was lit.

Now I need something else to follow the funny books I have been reading...my Tina Fey (Bossy Pants) and Mindy Kaling ( Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?). Both were really well written, funny, insightful books about and by..smart and very funny women.

Book People, send me some ideas.

Library of Congress

Gratituesday: Books

I read a lot, apparently.

Although not as much as I would like or even as much as I used to. I read at night, as part of my night time routine. You know, wash face, brush teeth, moisturize, set alarm clock, read. 

Lately, I have been reading magazines while I sit outside and eat my lunch as well.

I blame the computer for my lack of accomplishments. Worm holes are easy to fall down, reading blogs. But, books are my friends.

As a kid, I was an early and dedicated reader. I read all the time.Charlie Brown books, my Big Book of Fairy Tales, Beatrix Potter, The Bopsy Twins and of course, Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing were all early favorites. I read instead of interacting with my peers once I got to school, as I was VERY shy and changed schools a lot.

Via

Reading: A list!

Last year I made a list (shocker!) of all the books I wanted to read in 2012. 

As a refresher, here is it is...along with what I read.

The List of Books, 2012 edition

1. Unbroken
2. The Hours
3. All the Devils are Here
4. Boomerang
5. Sarah's Key
6. The Sound and the Fury
7. Ulysses
8. The Omnivore's Dilemma
9. Middlesex
10. Bossypants
11. The Grapes of Wrath
12. In Defense of Food
13. The Poisonwood Bible
14. The Paris Wife
15. The Pillars of the Earth
16. Kisses From Katie
17. What the Dog Saw
18. Wuthering Heights
19. Steve Jobs
20. Atlas Shrugged
21. True Prep
22. A Simple Path
23. In the Garden Of Beasts
24. The Complete Idiots Guide to Understanding Islam
25. Jane Eyre
26. Stern Men
27. Van Gogh: The Life
28. Wolf: The Lives of Jack London
29. Salvage the Bones
30. Delta Wedding

Cooking: Chili two in one

I just finished reading a book about an American who meets a Frenchman, moves to Paris to be with him, and ends up living there. The book details their adventures in buying an apartment and her efforts at embracing the cultural mindset of the French in work and everyday life. Oh, and there are recipes.If you are looking for an interesting, fluff book (non-fiction) I am happy to loan it/recommend it to you.  I dream of taking my family and going to live in a foreign country, so this fueled my desire to do so. AND it also brought to the forefront my Americanness. I am not ashamed to be an American, in fact, I am quite proud to be one. However, when I hear about 4,000 calorie meals and listen to my husband complain about our $1,400 a month insurance bill, I do sometimes wish I lived somewhere else, even for a short time. 

VIA

The main character in  Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard (Elizabeth) freely admits to being more comfortable in Victorian England than her native New York City, so when she moves to London to get her master's degree, she does not feel out of place. After meeting her future husband at a conference in Paris, and eventually moving to Paris, she still feels very much at home shopping daily at the local market and eating as the French do, long and late. However, when her very American mother visits, she is annoyed by her American ways of wanting to have leftovers and seconds.  Bounty and the celebration of it is indeed a very American thing. We are a nation built on hard work and determination. We are also very much of the mindset that we deserve the bounty that should come with hard work. 

I have become very conscientious in the last year of the amount of food my family wastes. As someone who really hates leftovers, I have slowly trained myself to eat more of them. (Luckily my husband loves them and falls on that grenade a fair amount). I have started trying to extend my cooking into two meals, for example, turning leftover pork ragu into pork soup with tomatoes and white beans.  I like to think my American love for something to be "two in one".

This week I created my own recipe for a two in one. 

My family love Mex, Tex-Mex, Cali-Mex, really any form of Mexican inspired food. As I mentioned, this week is a hectic week of swim meets (2), volley ball tryouts, talent show auditions, swimming/diving practices, homework and school. That is my kids alone. 

We get home at 6 pm and I like to have dinner on the table before 7 if possible. So, my friend Crock Pot was put to work this week. I read enough recipes to realize that the frozen chicken thighs could be put in the crockpot at 9 am and at 6 pm would be ready rock. 

Boom! My theory was proven right. I put 2  pounds of chicken thighs, a 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes, 1 package of  taco seasoning, and 1 table spoon dried onions in the crock pot, salted it and peppered it, closed the lid, turned her up to high and went and worked out.  I checked it a few times and made sure the chicken was thawing, but I could have left well enough alone.  I also made a batch of Dinner A Love Story's Mexican slaw.

Most of my cookbooks

At 5, I turned it to low and went and picked up the girls from school. When I got home, I sauteed some onions, mushrooms and bell peppers with a little cumin, garlic, salt and pepper for myself. While that was sauteing, I sliced and avocado, warmed up the shells and shredded about half the chicken.  Viola! Chicken tacos with slaw. 

We sat down by 6:30! Everyone loved it.  I was so thrilled with myself!

The girls ate more of the chicken out of the crockpot, but I still had about 5 thighs left and all the juice. I just shoved it in the fridge and called it a night, sharing my plan with my husband for the next night's dinner. ( I may have gloated a bit).

My collection of recipes that work

Steve questioned my plan, wondering if that was gonna be enough.  I assured him I was a master, but decided to stop after drop off the next morning and buy a pound of some sort of beef. 

I won't bore you with the blow by blow of  how the chili came about, just suffice it to say my family was almost giddy and my husband told me several times just how much he really, really  loves me.

I think I hit a carni home run.

Here is the recipe for the two in one. I upped the chicken to 2 1/2 pounds for my future reference as my kids eat like teenage boys. If you are not as inclined to eat what amounted to 9 large tacos,  feel free to just do the 2. Also, I originally was going to get beef stew meat, but the store was out. So fiddle as you like.

Tanya's Two Night Two in One Tex-Mex Coup D'etat 

or

Tanya's Taco/ Chili Two in One

(After making tacos using 2 1/2 lbs chicken thighs, one can diced tomatoes, taco seasoning, dried onions and salt/pepper, start the below recipe with remaining 1 lb chicken)

• 1 lb. Chicken thighs
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 sm. can tomato paste
• 1 onion diced
• 1 can pinto beans, drained
• 1 can black beans drained
• 1 tbl. diced onion
• 1 tbl. chili powder
• 1 tbl. cumin
• 1 tbl paprika
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 clove garlic, minced 

Fire up the leftover chicken in the crock pot on low. (It will look greasy. Ignore it.) In a skillet, brown beef  with a little salt and pepper. Drain and add to crock pot along with all ingredients EXCEPT beans.  Cook over low for 8ish hours. Add beans one  hour before serving. Serve with cheese, sour cream, left over slaw, etc. 

*If you will not be home for an hour, you could always add the beans in the beginning. I think they might be mushy, but maybe not.         

Gratituesday: The beginning is here

So...I started something, actually two things this year.

The first is my Power of a Positive Mom weekly Bible studies. They are on Monday and I started keeping a log of all the things I pray for, am struggling with, want to remember, etc. 

So far, two weeks down and it is amazing how on point they are with my life.

via

The other thing I started today. I decided that 2013 is a year of breaking old habits and starting new. So,  old habit #1 potty mouth is going out the door. New habit #1 is reading my Bible.  I decided to read the entire Bible  this year. I did it before in my teens and so, I thought it was high time to do it again. I am following this and today, read the first assignment.
 I have a Catholic study Bible which goes on to explain the verses and that is going to be very helpful, I think.

What I find to be amazing is that the Bible study this week is about gossiping and the reading in Ephesians mentions not using "coarse language". Yes, Lord, I am listening.

Nice

 

I think it is so overwhelming when you put something out there, even if you don't pray about it, that God knows and hears. I have found so many instances in my life when God answers my prayers or nudges me to let me know He is aware of what is going on with me.

As someone who is raising daughters, I feel it is extra important that they have an internal dialouge that is the voice or at least the words of God. So, as I read my Bible, I am noting verses that I want to post around our house, on their bathroom mirrors, etc. The memorizing of God's words and the teaching we follow as Christians is like taking your vitamins or working out. The act of it  creates reserves when you really need them.

I am not special at all by doing this. Millions over the millennium have done so as well.
My memory has gotten rusty over the years and the words don't come as easily as they once did. So, I am taking my vitamins, working my memory muscles and asking God to speak to me via my daily readings.

Gratitude and a hopefully open heart.

"Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."-Ephesians 4:32

Reading: What I am reading right now

I am reading a really funny book.

Funny to me because it is about a family with three grown daughters who are very opinionated.

Very familiar territory to me.

I have been reading it at night and it makes me laugh. My husband wakes up and looks like a deer in headlights and I feel a little guilty. But, I keep on reading and keep on laughing. As this is the first book I have read by this author, I can't wait to find her other books and read them.

 

The non fiction humor in it really cracks me up. 

Looking for something "real" and funny to read? Check out 

Why is My Mother Getting A Tattoo?: And Other Questions I Wish I Never Had to Ask  by Jancee Dunn. Hilarious. Especially if you remember the 1980's.

I am so glad MY daughter picked it up and handed it to me at the book store.Of course there was a very sarcastic look that went along with it.

Can't wait til I get my tattoo...

 

Reading: Heading for the high road ( a hypocrite's confession)

I know I am one of  more than a  handful of women that will NOT be reading 50 Shades Of Gray. 

I know this because I asked my facebook friends and most of the ones who replied said they were not reading it, some with a resounding NO!

I am not against this book, or any book for that matter. I read a few of the Cinderella series in the 90's when I was in my early twenties, and I am certain they are along the same lines. 

But the difference is this. I am a lot a little older, and I have two teen or almost teen daughters.

The perspective makes me realize that I am into heavier kinds of books.  Not that I don't love a cheesy "Chick lit" once every two or three books. I do. But I also want to use reading to make my mind a more fertile place. And, I am fighting the fight all parents face, which is how soon to let my daughters mature.  PG-13 is still up for discussion. And so, it is hard to make the argument that a movie about teenage "hooking up" is not suitable when I am reading a book about bondage and using sex as a weapon. Pure in heart and mind is how I am trying to raise them. It's a hard enough road without adding my own stumbling blocks.

So, I am not reading it. Plus, I think the fact that it is being referred to as a"grown up Twilight" is reason enough for me. I wanted to strangle Bella when I read those books to make sure they were okay for my daughter. But as it is everywhere and comments about it run rampant on Pinterest and Facebook, I am sure I will be having a discussion about it very soon.

Instead, I am continuing on with my list. 

Happy Friday. Hope you get to do whatever you want, especially if it is reading a book. 

In the words of Louisa May Alcott:
" She is too fond of reading and it has turned her brain."

                                                                                       Source: corbisimages.com via Ceri on Pinterest

The List of Books, 2012 edition

(edited)

1. Unbroken
2. The Hours
3. All the Devils are Here
4. Boomerang
5. Sarah's Key
6. The Sound and the Fury
7. Ulysses
8. The Omnivore's Dilemma
9. Middlesex
10. Bossypants
11. The Grapes of Wrath
12. In Defense of Food
13. The Poisonwood Bible
14. The Paris Wife
15. The Pillars of the Earth
16. Kisses From Katie
17. What the Dog Saw
18. Wuthering Heights
19. Steve Jobs
20. Atlas Shrugged
21. True Prep
22. A Simple Path
23. In the Garden Of Beasts
24. The Complete Idiots Guide to Understanding Islam
25. Jane Eyre
26. Stern Men
27. Van Gogh: The Life
28. Wolf: The Lives of Jack London
29. Salvage the Bones
30. Delta Wedding

Gratituesday: Lala liberry!

I have always love the library.

The over abundance of books. The sheer number of choices. 

The silence that signifies that reading is serious business.

Libraries are not so silent anymore. Ours actually smells like a mix of old books, new carpet and homeless men's body odor. There is actually a place to download books.

But, that is also what I love about libraries. They are alive, not just buildings of old relics, but truly alive and living places.

We have been meeting with my youngest's math tutor on Mondays this summer at one of the smaller branches of our local library. The building is an example of 1960's architecture at it's finest. It is round. Inside it is all wood and really is quite cozy. And loud. 

Really cool? Or really weird?

But like all of the branches of our library, it is well stock and manned by truly knowledgeable and really  nice librarians. There appear to be a lot of children's programs going on during the day, hence the noise. Lots of tutoring and reading going on as well. 

I have been checking books out weekly. So have my daughters. In the past two weeks alone, we have checked out 10 novels and one non-fiction (mine). All but one book has been read. Amazing. 

Now, I know e-books are the way of near future and books will be gone. 

But I don't want them to be. There is something about holding a book, smelling a book, feeling the paper and dogearing  your stopping point, that is all part of the experience of reading. I love that you can walk into a library and just walk along the stacks and find a book  you might have not been interested in and check it out and read it (or not). There is no commitment that money and the guilt of having paid twenty bucks for it might bring. I have read so many books this way. Books that changed me just a little and books that entertained me a lot.

I love libraries. I wish I could have been Carrie from Sex & The City and gotten married in the New York Library (I would have gone through with it). 

via

 

Instead, I take my children in the summer and we soak up the smells and the weirdos and the semi-silence. We check out loads of books and read most of them. We hope they last forever.

I am grateful for libraries and that the city that I live in values them as well.

Reading: The food of my soul

I have been on a reading tear the past week or so. 

I have read at least four books and am in the middle of two more as we speak.

Literally, it is the food of my soul. 

I read to entertain myself and to keep my mind sharp. But it is also a form of education and escapism.

If I am lucky, I escape and lose myself in my book. That used to drive my husband nuts. He now listens to books on mp3, so he is right there with me and I have to yell to get his attention.

My favorite book that I have read lately is Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. 

From the start, it griped me and did not let me go. 

What could have been a very depressing book about rural poverty, Hurricane Katrina, and loss of something loved, actually was very heartwarming.

Ironic, I know. 

Via

The main character is Esch, a teenage girl being raised by her alcoholic father along with three brothers in rural Louisiana. She looks for love in the usual stereotypical ways with boys that come to visit her brothers and of course, ends up pregnant. Her brothers deal with the crippling poverty they live in via various outlets. One is sports, another being the adored baby. The third brother raises a fighting pit bull, caring for her as if she were his beloved girl friend or mate. He breeds her and tries to raise her litter of puppies, with a wing and a prayer, literally. His ignorance and dedication at times almost kills her as he gives her horse medication to prevent parvo. 

The family is loyal and dedicated to each other in the way orphans often are, carrying each other through hardships, turning inward. Their father is oblivious to it all, due to his grief and subsequent alcoholism and often ignores what is plainly going on in front of his eyes.

The book's climax is the horrible force and great illluminator that was Katrina, bearing down on the family, forcing them to fight for their lives and bringing things to light that had been hidden. Just like the storm brought to America's attention the plight of the poor in Louisiana and elsewhere, Salvage the Bones brings to light the family's hidden secrets. Esch and her family are forced from their homes and she is forced, along with her father, to face the truth. They begin anew with the hope that he will wake up from his grief and she will finally find the love she has missed since her mother died.

Very well written and page turning to the end, this book grabbed me like few that I have read lately.

My soul was fed.

Reading: My brain needs it

I love to read a book, uninterpreted for hours.

As I am a mother of two very involved kids, married to a person who has adult ADD, and live in the real world, that rarely happens, unless I am on a plane. Then only if I am not traveling with my younger sister who apparently has not realized I am really and truly ignoring her.
Sometimes when I go on vacation, like I did last week, I get two hours in a stretch to lie in the sun and read. Or on someone's sofa.

However, I am not perpetually on vacation, so I read at night.
 I try to get into bed by 10 pm and read for an hour.
This does not always happen, as I get caught up in various tasks or Pinterest.

However, I do read EVERY SINGLE night before I go to sleep. I cannot fall asleep without reading.

My brain has been trained to read and wind down, and cannot do it on it's own.  If I am without a book, I have read catalogs in a pinch, just to go to sleep. Catalogs, my friends,are very boring, but they do the trick. I really doesn't matter when I am truly tired what I read. When I am not tired, I have a harder time without a good book. Reading calms me down and is apparently what watching television is to a lot of people. Almost a drug.

Source: insidetheloop.tumblr.com via Tanya on Pinterest

When my kids were toddlers, a fellow reader told me to keep a book in my car. That way, if my kids fell asleep on the way somewhere and were still asleep when I arrived, I could sit in my car and read while they napped. I did that for a few years, as naps were very important for my personal sanity. Reading felt like a treat then.

Now that I have older kids, I feel like all I do is run. Run to workout, run to work,  run to get groceries, take them to school, pick them up from school, to get shoes, clothes, the list goes on.
 My reading has taken a back seat.
And yet, I still read two books a week on average and I am content with that right now.

In my retirement, I will read. I will sit somewhere warm and sunny and read for hours. My husband will be annoyed and off lifting heavy objects. But reading will be the thing that keeps me young and mentally agile. My brain needs to read and I will continue to always need to do it.

Reading: I have been busy

I've been busy...

reading that is!
I am happy to report I have read two books on my list of 30. 

One I really loved...and one I did not.

The first was The Hours by Michael Cunningham. I really identified with one of the main characters in particular who realized that she was aging. Like, "What the hell?", realization. I, for one, found my first patch of gray hair this past fall and it hit me... I am aging. I am not 26 anymore. I am okay with that, but it was still a  very weird feeling. The character in the book has the same realization as she reflects her own twenties, and the love she has for a friend who is dying of AIDS. The  book actually focuses on three characters and their dealings with depression, aging and life, and has a very lovely turn at the end. Very well written, especially if you like Virginia Woolf, who is a character in the book.

The second book was by one of my favorite authors, Barbara Kingsolver. The Poisonwood Bible was all the rage a few years ago. I have been very hesitant to read it and I now know I should have stuck with my gut. I did not enjoy it one bit. Not sure why. Other than I found it to be a bit trite. I mean the story of a  heavy handed egotistical man being blind to the plight of his wife and family? A wife who blindly follows her husband because she has no other options? Children who are more observant than their parents? Nothing new. While I did enjoy the eldest daughter's internal dialog and the history of the Congo, I did not enjoy the book. Read The Bean Trees if you want to read a good book of hers.

I am reading The Omivore's Dilemma a little at a time. The subject, America's food supply, is a very dry one. However, as I am both fascinated and unnerved by how we get our food and what we eat. I see what many call a "potential for famine" in what we grow, as well as the cause for many of our national problems. The cost of growing, transporting and processing our food is beyond the seed and feed. We so much oil to produce our food that the military factors into the costs of our food. And, since we grow so much of one particular crop, should we have a blight or disease strike it, we could face a very serious problem. Very interesting, serious stuff.

More on that once I finish it...in July at the rate I am going. It's a lot to take in.

I am currently reading a book about food. When French Women Cook by Madeleine Kamman is truly a lovely memoir. As someone who spent loads of time with my grandmothers as a child, I love hearing or reading stories about women learning to cook from their's. My grandmothers varied in ability and desire to cook, so I got a wide variety. Madeleine's family all came from different regions of France, so she received lessons on many different styles of cooking. Quite a lovely read and a cookbook as a bonus.

I read when I eat lunch, when I wake up and don't have to be anywhere (usually Saturday mornings) and at night before I go to sleep. Reading books is like eating a meal for me, necessary and fulfilling.

My dream path to...anywhere!

Source: myidealhome.tumblr.com via Eden on Pinterest

Reading: The new year

Last year my reading was all over the page, so to speak. 

I read any book that I found interesting when I picked it up. Sort of a zen style of reading...whatever caught my eye or crossed my path, I read. Or I bogarted my best friend's book club reads. Vicariously being in a club is the way to go.

Source: swiss-miss.com via Anna on Pinterest

This year, I am going to read with more of a plan or purpose, I suppose.

I am compiling a list of 30 books I want to read. As that is roughly half of what I read this year, I figure it is a good number to start with. Last year, I threw it out on Facebook that I was looking for something to read. I got a lot of great suggestions and so I am starting with those. 

Also, there are some "classics" that I have not read or have not read with an "adult" mind. 

(Who am I kidding, I am no more an adult than I am a runway model.)

I have been thinking about this list for a month or so. I perused the Barnes and Noble yesterday. I hit the McKay's before I went to the beach and bought a few that I intended to save until the new year. I have put a few on hold at the library (my love/hate relationship with our library is ongoing, but I am going to give it another try.) Hopefully between my girlfriends, the library, the McKays, and the occasional purchase of a real, NEW book, I will read all the books I want to read. 

Do you have any titles that you intend to read in 2012? 

If so, please, please, please share them with me. As I fully intend to set my goal at 100 again, I will need more books to flesh out my reading list. Sister LOVES suggestions!

The List of Books, 2012 edition

1. Unbroken
2. The Hours
3. All the Devils are Here
4. Boomerang
5. Sarah's Key
6. The Sound and the Fury
7. Ulysses
8. The Omnivore's Dilemma
9. Middlesex
10. Bossypants
11. The Grapes of Wrath
12. In Defense of Food
13. The Poisonwood Bible
14. The Paris Wife
15. The Pillars of the Earth
16. Kisses From Katie
17. What the Dog Saw
18. Wuthering Heights
19. Steve Jobs
20. Atlas Shrugged
21. True Prep
22. A Simple Path
23. In the Garden Of Beasts
24. The Complete Idiots Guide to Understanding Islam
25. Jane Eyre
26. Stern Men
27. Van Gogh: The Life
28. Wolf: The Lives of Jack London
29. Salvage the Bones
30. Delta Wedding

Reading: food of my soul

I am reading a really good book. I read it every night when I go to bed until I cannot keep my eyes open any longer.

The book is The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. 

The story takes place in the later 30's through the late 40's in Mexico and the United States. 

The main character is a writer/cook who has mixed parentage, mother being Mexican and father, American. Both parents lead self absorbed lives, though in different ways. The mother, ties herself to rich oil barons and newspaper men, in an attempt to escape the excruiting monotony of being married to a man married to his government job. 

The main character lives most his life in Mexico, with a short stint in an east coast boarding school after his mother dies in a car accident when he is a boy. She was a huge figure in his life and her death caused a great sadness and personality change in him.

That part of the book is fairly good...but half way through it gets really good. 

Our man Shepherd goes to work in Mexico as a cook for Diego Rivera and Frida Khalo. Since he was a strange child moved from wealthy house to wealthy house, he hung out with the cooks, learning their skills. This serves him well, as he becomes first a plaster mixer, then the cook in not one but two households.

He develops a friendship with Frida and also Liev Trotsky whom is seeking asylum with the Rieveras, who were communist sympathizers. I won't ruin the story by telling what happens, but suffice it to say, the book offers a glimpse of pre and post WWII everyman, both in the Mexico but also in the United States . The main character is encouraged by Frida to become and artist with words and he does, when he is forced to leave Mexico after a very tragic event that changes his life in many ways.

Inevitably going onto fame with his books about Mexican history, which seem to be Kingsolver's forte. The political climate both before and after the war was so treacherous for so many people, we sometimes forget how "big brother" our country was, often catching innocents in it's net. 

As someone who loves art, especially Frida Khalo, I truly am enjoying this book. Too often we know the art, but not the artist, especially from someone else's perspective. The relationship between Shepherd and her is interesting, as two people who are not used to have real relationships, but struggle to have one. The political themes of the book are also very intriguing. Communism has long been portrayed as evil and democracy the converse good. But if you truly look at the two in practice, they are so similar it is hard to tell the difference. Thought provoking as always, Kingsolver has hit a home run with this book, at least in my view. I have about 14 pages left. The siren song of it and my warm bed are calling me...

PS. If you are interested in a great movie about Frida Khalo, watch Frida with Selma Hayek.

Lovely movie.