Monday, January 27, 2014

COMMENTARY: "Live"



How easy it is to get wrapped up in life and forget to live.  We wake each day with a To-Do list charging its way into our still-foggy mind.  We shower, we dress, we eat, we gather what we need and head out into the world.  We forget to center ourselves. We forget to read. We forget to write. We forget to dream.  We check three items off the To-Do list, only to add five more. 
We sleep.  We wake.  We work.  We eat.  We drop our child off at school and pick her up.  We do paperwork.  We do homework.  We pay bills.  We file taxes.  We rotate the tires on the car.  We go to the doctor.  We go to the store.  We go go go. 
What happened to time?  I remember as a child feeling that time went by ever so slowly.  It seemed as if the weekend would never arrive.  And now, we merely blink and an entire year has passed…or perhaps three.  There is good here.  And there is bad. There are smiles and there is fun.  And there is stress and sadness and an emptiness that will always be.  And these things just swirl together in a cosmic race to get….somewhere. 
But every once in a while
We stop.
We breathe.
We look around and see the beauty of the world.  We enjoy something delicious.  Like a nap.  Or a memory.  Or a slice of pizza so good it makes us moan.  We soak in a hot tub. We laugh with Sheldon and Leonard.  We dance.  We drink wine.  We talk about things.  We do things.  We feel things. 
We live.



 

BOOK REVIEW: "The Measure of Katie Calloway"

The Measure of Katie Calloway
By Serena Miller
Copyright 2011
Revel; Baker Publishing Group
Adult Fiction
3 Bookmarks

I like Old West books.  Lots of different ones, actually.  Anything that brings me back to those days as a child when I read the Little House on the Prairie stories.  Maybe it's just the nostalgia.  Or maybe I lived in the Old West in a previous life. Who knows!  Regardless, every time I see a book cover of some prairie girl, I just want to pick up the book and give it a read. 

So that's what happened with The Measure of Katie Calloway, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a neat little story inside.  The main character is a young bride whose husband has just returned from the Civil War and has a brand new bloodthirsty personality.  Katie finds herself, and her little brother whom she is raising, in a very dangerous situation.  When the husband plots to kill Katie, she takes her brother, a horse and a little bit of money and skedaddles.

Katie finds herself in a small town in the West where she runs into a logging camp manager who offers her a cooking job.  She snatches up the job and heads out into the middle of nowhere to cook for a bunch of men.  Lots of fun adventures, a little romance, and a decent climax all made for an entertaining and quick read for the fan of historical fiction.