flies on the butter

yesterday, i made a little trek down to the library.

man, I forgot how much I love that place. :)

I picked up a fantastic book called Flies On The Butter by Denise Hildreth. The book chronicals the journey of Rose Fletcher from her adult home of Washington, D.C.(where she works as a lobbyist for education) to her childhood home of Mullins, S.C.. As Rose drives the dusty highway, she reflects on her youth, coming of age, and revelations on some of the not-so-wonderful choices she's made as an adult.

Rose is definitely a flawed young woman. Amidst a floundering marriage, she heads to a home she hasn't visited in 10 years...a family feud has caused Rose to have no desire to see her mother...and a mysterious emergency (that you don't find out until the last page of the book) has brought her back. A combination of family, friends, and random acts of kindness from complete strangers lead Rose to change her self, her life, and her faith.

over all, a very sweet book.

Number 4

in the last 24 hours I have read TWO books. I already posted about the first...which was LAME, now to the second. 

Lucky by Alice Sebold is one of the most mesmerizing book I've ever read. I have a 45 minute commute via mass transit every day. I read over HALF of this book on my way to work, and didn't even realize it. I pulled it out at lunch, and my bookmark was almost 3/4 of the way through. Awesome. I finished it on the way home.

I am predisposed to LOVE Alice Sebold, since her book The Lovely Bones  became my favorite book instantly upon reading it (seriously, it's tied with Faulkner's As I Lay Dying as #1 book in my library. I've read it probably 20 times). Lucky is Sebold's memoir of her college years, or, moreso the effects that being raped during her freshman year effected her, her family, and her peers. It's beautifully, honestly written. And that's what I've always loved about Alice Sebold.

The story is cyclical, passionate, and honest. I don't admit this often, but I had to deal with an unhealthy sexual relationship at the beginning of my romantic experiences (not rape, but it was everything but), and the way she puts those feelings of utter disgust into words made me feel as though finally someone can understand. finally. 

I spent last summer reading memoirs (not intentionally, it just happened) and I fell in love with them, and this memoir was just plain addictive. I'd recommend it to anyone.

not all parodies are funny

So, I am possibly the world's BIGGEST Twilight hater. I could literally rant for hours about how horrible the Twilight series is for young women, and how Edward Cullen is obsessive and creepy and is NOT a good boyfriend.

So, when I heard that The Harvard Lampoon wrote a Twilight parody called Nightlight, I had to have it. I read it in a few hours (at 154 pages, it wasn't that strenuous of a read)....and honestly, I was not impressed.

One of the biggest flaws in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight books is that they are horribly written, with some crappy character development. In Nightlight, Belle Goose (obviously Bella Swan) is a laughable character because it's all in her head. The vampirism, every single guy in school being madly in love with her....yeah, she's crazy. Which is funny. The problem is that the writing of Nightlight is actually WORSE than Twilight itself...which is almost unbelievable. It's just plain not funny. It's like they're trying so hard to be funny, that it's just stupid.

About half way into this book I looked over at my boyfriend and he said I looked like I was in physical pain. I am trying to read 100 books this year, so I didn't want to give up, and I didn't....

but if the circumstances were any different, I would have been so done with this book about 10 pages in.