Where Rivers Change Directions

Author: Mark Spragg
Date Finished: 1/25/06

This book was on the table at the entryway of our library and since I said I'd give Spragg another chance, I picked it up. This is a collection of essays about Spragg's boyhood running a dude camp with his family near Cody, Wyoming. The essays begin when Spragg is about twelve and continue until he has grown, graduated from college and become an adult watching his mother die of emphysema.

The earliest essays are the most powerful; Spragg remembers and describes a beautiful and wild time and place. In many ways he is given more responsibility and respect than many men ever acquire; he and his brother lead guests on hunts without any additional supervision, responsible for the guests, the pack animals and all the equipment necessary to live in the mountains for a week. Yet, these pieces are filled with a sense of yearning for more. He senses his powerlessness as a child and longs to grow, to cease becoming a man and finally arrive at adulthood.

The essays at the end of the book convey a sense of disappointment with adulthood. Spragg's ideal of manhood described in the early essays is so powerful and larger than life, that it is almost inevitable that his reality will disappoint him. My impression of Spragg through these essays is that he lost his way for a while as a adult, unsure whether the boy that he was has a place in the world where he finds himself.

I often hate these kinds of essays and memoirs with their "if only we could go back to the good old days" longing. Perhaps I'm too pragmatic or even cold-hearted, but my first reaction is often to roll my eyes and mutter, "Oh, grow up," as I finish reading. This book was so beautiful that much of that reaction was tempered, but it is still there. Yes, being an adult involves replacing our childhood sense of anything is possible with a sense of everything is fleeting. But, we were put here to be beautiful, whether we are blossoming into full bloom or withering down to a faded seedhead. To long so palpably for the past is to deny the present. Read Spragg's essays for the beauty of the past he has captured, then go out and live in the present you have been granted.

The Grrl Genius Guide to Life

Author: Cathryn Michon
Date Finished: 1/22/06

It's embarassing to admit that all I've managed to read this year is a children's novel, a made-into-a-movie novella and this chick-lit (if you could call it lit, it's really more like chick-musings) book. And, I really don't have much to say about Grrl Genius except that it passed the time.

I have high hopes for next month though. For one thing, we won't be buying or selling a house, so I should be able to refocus all of my fretting and stewing time toward reading. Also, I'm going to the library today hoping to score a couple of novels from the Lit-Blog Co-op's winter nominee list.

An Unfinished Life

Author: Mark Spragg
Date Finished: 1/8/06

Insomnia struck and I woke up at 3:30 with little hope of sleeping again. I looked over my shelf of TBRs* and found this short novel my father-in-law had given me. So I made a cup of tea and curled up on the couch and visited rural Wyoming for a couple of hours.

This was a pretty good read. It was quick and satisfying and had a happy ending. Unfortunately, I was reading the version with the movie poster on the cover and the character of Mitch sounded an awful lot like Morgan Freeman in my head, making parts of the story a little annoying. The Robert Redford and JLo characters weren't as strongly present in my personal movie, but still intruded from time to time. Spragg wrote the screenplay for the movie, and the novel seems like he wrote it with a movie in mind. The scenes are easily visualized and the characters are made for a movie.

Overall, a fun read for a sleepless night. I would give Spragg another look.

*To Be Read

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Author: Barbara Robinson
Date Finished: 1/1/06

I don't think I've ever read this before, but I'm pretty sure I've seen the movie. This little story about the rough and tumble Herdman kids who take over the church Christmas pageant is short and sweet. Reading it as mother instead of as a child, I liked the idea of Mary as played by Imogene Herdman

sort of nervous and bewildered, but ready to clobber anyone who laid a hand on her baby.

I checked this out planning to read it to Rison before Christmas, but never got around to it. I will definitely put it on my list for next year.

What is this? Well, it's yet another blog about books. Wherein I will write about what I've read in the past week or day and my thoughts.

Why is this? Well, because I want to do two things. First, keep track of the books I read in 2006. A half-hearted attempt last year showed that I read about 35 books, but I know that it was more than that. This year, I'm going to shoot for 100. Second, sometimes I just need to think about something I've read a little more. I don't really want to join a book club because of time issues, but I'd like to process my opinions a little more before I reach for the next book.

So here it goes: Wherein, I tell whether I've read Anything Good lately?