Good books I’ve recently read:

The Absolutely True Diary of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

This book is so funny, so moving, so great. I am so glad it won the National Book Award. When I read good books like this, I try to send them on to my brother, in a listening format as he isn’t really the reading type of guy to sit down and read a book, but he has listened and loved Chris Crutcher and Will Hobbs. I knew he would love this. So I spent a lot of time trying to find a recording of this book. Not long enough as finally yesterday I got an email back from Mr. Alexie’s site, it is on Recorded Books.

http://www.recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?f...

But I wasn’t patient. I went and bought one of those MP3 recorders and am reading a chapter a day and then emailing it to my brother. Which is funny because I am like the worst out loud reader in the world. I stumbled so much over the word isoclines-- triangle that my brother wrote back my reading of that word was funnier than the chapter. He also emailed me how to say it--I+sauce+o+lease. Cool. Read this book you won’t be sorry!

Thinking Straight by Robin Reardon
You’ll have to wait a couple of months for this one. Robin asked me to read her book a head of time. It’s about this cool teen guy named Tailor who happens to know he is gay and he still believes in God and goes to church. But his parents send him to THINK STRAIGHT a residential program that gets the gayness out of you. Scary, freaky and as the pastor who also gave Robin a review said, “Thinking Straight needs to be read by every pastor, priest, and rabbi actively engaged in ministry today, as well as being required reading in every seminary in the country.”
The Reverend Reid D. Farrell
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church
http://www.robinreardon.com/

Romance Reader Pearl Abraham

I live in an area of Queen NY where there are a lot of Chassidic Jews. Growing up in a conservative Christian community, I knew almost nothing about these people who even in the summer the women dress in long sleeves, long skirts and never show their own hair in public and the men wear big black hats and big black suits. So a friend told me about this book. The coolest thing is that Pearl Abraham, the author, also grew up Chassidic and her main character like Kate the main character in my book Converting Kate is also forbidden to read books outside her religion, but sneaks and reads books anyway. I’m half done with this book and loving it.


My Cousin’s Emails

Okay that is not a title to a book, but seriously the good readings ARE my cousin’s emails. They are so funny. When I go to my in box on email if I have an email from him, I go straight to it and he ALWAYS makes me laugh. We used to see a lot of each other before we started kindergarten. When he came over to our house, my mom didn’t make him eat tomatoes, but she made us. Right from the start I should have known he was in a different league. After we started elementary school at different schools, I didn’t see him much. He lived on Snob Hill and I lived on We-Aren’t-Quite-on-Food-stamps Hill. We’d see each other at big family gatherings but we had a zillion cousins and we didn’t really hang out together. And then we went to the same Junior High, yes, we lived before Middle School. I was too shy to talk to him and I think he was too cool to talk to me. For example I’m not sure what he got for Christmas, but I got a curling iron one year and a transistor radio the next. I happen to know that he had an electric guitar and a ten speed bike and got to go skiing! We didn’t have any bikes until my aunt and uncle died in a car crash. And we were very sad, but then we got two old people three speed bikes and as a 12 year old I learned to ride in the hills of the Rocky Mountains on this bike with a big basket on it. Not cool. But still I learned to ride. And I did have a pair of Levi Straus. But I had to pay for them myself. And that meant babysitting these kids who made the Herdmans in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever look a tiny bit nice. These kids threw their goldfish bowl on the floor one week on purpose, and I had to clean up all the flopping fish (who died), the water and the broken glass. The worst part of babysitting them was when I said its time to get ready for bed. They disappeared. All seven of them. Into the mountains, the basement, the piles of dirty laundry heaped around the house. It took me hours to find them all and make them stay in bed. I hated to baby-sit for them, but my dad would NOT let me say no. He had lived through the depression (which as a 13 year old I didn’t really have much appreciation for) but I get it now, you don’t turn down the opportunity to earn honest money. And the worst part was they paid 25 cents an hour for seven kids, when the going rate for like four kids was fifty cents. But I did get my first hip item of clothing out of the deal, button up, straight leg, Levi jeans.

So anyway my cousin who I hadn’t seen since high school (my family moved to Arizona) and hadn’t spoken to since we were like barely out of diapers, found my website a couple of months ago and started emailing me. I live in New York City, he lives in Phoenix, Arizona, he still goes to church and knows I don’t and knows I even write again our church, but still he likes me and is happy for me. So seriously, in my opinion he is a saint. And best of all he writes very funny emails and maybe if I can get him ticked off enough about mentioning that he lived on snob hill and just might have been too cool to acknowledge me in junior high, he may just respond and we can include it in this blog!

And I did tick him off! Here’s his response:

Ok Cuz, just in case you thought I was going to let the Snob Hill, too cool thing just pass by without doing my best to protect my rep, you were mistaken. I think you have a sure future in politics with your smooth ability to put reality in a tupperware bowl and seal it tight.
As I seem to recall, there was the cute girl with long dark hair who would not even say hi to her geeky blond cuz if the saw each other in the hall at school. Now, I realize that you don't cast pearls before swine, and I was definitely on the swine side. If you only knew how maddening it was to go anywhere miss perfect would be. Ya, my parents constant drum beat...."Why can't you be more like the Weinheimer kids?". It was like having Marie Osmond as my cousin, beautiful, talented, and having the perfect life....that was Beckie. Me too cool to talk you??? Its called me doing everything possible to avoid having to be seen with you because I would naturally be compared to miss perfect.
Now that I'm an "adult" I can deal with miss perfect a little more rationally. She writes books, articles, does radio / tv shows, and blogs. Let's see, I drive across deserts hoping not to fall asleep. Humm, I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same. It's ok, I'm fair skinned and do well to stand in the shade of a beautiful tree.

See why I like reading his emails. He’s funny!

I honestly believe some of the best writers in our country may be spending their days fixing email for other people as a IT person, or driving across the desert. There are gems in emails. I’m telling you!