Book post

I'm having a little trouble getting my brain to settle down tonight. I'm not thinking anything deep, heavens no, nothing like that. Just lots of little tidbits - I feel like making something but I can't settle on a crafty pursuit; Girl has pictures at soccer tomorrow - don't forget the jersey and form; I need to get to the library; I went to read at baseball practice tonight but my Kindle's battery was low (I love my Kindle, but books don't have batteries) which reminds me, my favorite watch's battery died; the kind of stuff that makes your brain say, "blah, blah, blah."
So, books. I've mentioned before I'm in three separate book clubs. People always freak out when I mention that, "that's crazy, three book clubs? How do you find the time?" Dude, I'm always reading or talking. My two favorite things in the world to do. This way I get to talk books with three different groups of people, and read books I probably wouldn't pick up on my own. All three met within one week:
1. Classics book club: We have decided to allow the term "classics" to be a little subjective - the books is chosen by the next host, and they are allowed to choose books they always felt they should have read. This is a relatively new group; we're still making up the rules. Anyway, we meet every other month, giving ourselves a little extra time to finish. This past selection was "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert, the story of a dissatisfied housewife. Seriously, that was pretty much it. She was whiny and annoying, and while I realize women were not given many choices at the time, I wanted to slap her. Repeatedly.
2. Mom's Club book club: the book selection is completely the choice of the next month's host, although we try to only choose books for which the library has book kits. Our local library is awesome in that they will try to put together book kits if they have enough books, even if they don't currently have a kit for it. Anyway, this past selection was "Welcome to the World, Baby Girl" by Fannie Flagg, and it is probably one of my favorite book club reads so far. The story of a young woman trying to find fame while keeping her integrity, the peripheral characters are colorful and hilarious.
3. Happy Housewives Drinking Wine: so named because many of the participants don't necessarily read the books, but do enjoy the wine. Our most recent read was "The Bad Seed" by William March. Most people are familiar with the story - little girl has secret identity as psychotic murderer - but what I found fascinating was the author's obvious disdain, and possibly fear, of women. All of his female characters were very flawed, title character aside. He also very obviously read a lot of Freud - the whole story was exploring the concept of murder as an inherited trait. It was an interesting story, although Rhoda Penmark, the main character, was disturbingly close to my Girl's age. I'm keeping an eye out...
Since finishing these tomes, the most notable book I've read was "Tuesdays With Morrie" by Mitch Albom. Have I ever talked about Albom here? He is a sportswriter, a very well known sportswriter, actually. The kind of guy who spent a lot of time kissing up to spoiled rotten athletes for a living. In "Tuesdays With Morrie", Albom documents the time he spends with his old professor, Morrie Schwartz, who is dying a very long and painful death from ALS. He shares his insights on life, love, and death. I may have cried at the end, but as a whole, it was an inspirational story. Albom is still a sportswriter, but I like to think he has a lot more perspective since his time with Morrie. He also sort of looks like a hobbit, which amuses me to no end when I watch him on "The Sports Reporters" on ESPN on Sunday mornings.
So those are the more thoughtful books I've read over the past few weeks. If you're on GoodReads, friend me, and we'll share all things books. Have you read anything good lately?