Saturday, December 19, 2009

Now I understand........

While I was in SD I read HALF BROKE HORSES by Jeannette Walls, the author of THE GLASS CASTLE. It is a good read and helps make some sense of the mother in GLASS CASTLE. HALF BROKE HORSES is the story of the grandmother, i.e., the mother of the mother, in THE GLASS CASTLE. If you've read CASTLE then I think you will particularly enjoy HALF BROKE, though it would be good on its own.
So many good books, so little time.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Back and gone again.

I've been absent the blog for a bit, what with caring for Joanne, and keeping up the care site www.caringbridge.org/visit/jnegstad

Tomorrow I leave for a week in SD and thus will be away from the computer for a week. However, I just read such a powerful book that I did not want to delay mentioning it. It is THE LATEHOMECOMER: A HMONG FAMILY MEMOIR by Kao Kalia Yang, Coffee House Press, Minneapolis.
While it tells the story of a particular Hmong family it is, in many ways, the story of all immigrants. The author attended Harding High School in St. Paul and in response to a teacher's question "Is the story of Romeo & Juliet a story of love or lust." She wrote "Love is the reason why my mother and father stick together in a hard life when they each might have an easier time apart; love is the reason why you choose a life with someone, and you don't tun back although your hear cries sometimes and your children see you cry and you wish out loud that things were easier. Love is getting up each day and fighting the same fight only to sleep that night in the same bed beside the same person because long ago, when you were younger and you did not see clearly, you had chosen them." p. 199
Buy it or borrow it and you'll be glad you read it!

Back and gone again.