For at least a day. Blogs and facebook take a lot of time, and that has not been at a premium lately. What a beautiful day today, but I was restless and crabby so I decided I needed a book. Do you ever feel that way, that you just need a book to take yourself out of this world and into another? Well I knew that was just what I needed to get both my brain and body to relax, so I went to the library and returned my overdue books, and went to my favorite place to look for books in the library - the advance reader area, and boy, did I hit the jackpot. Some are so new they don't even have info on the B/N website yet.
I didn't find just one book, but FIVE! Drawing in the Dust, The Horse Boy, the Lace Makers of Glenmara, Healing Waters, and a new one by Jane Kirkpatrick, A Flickering Light (yeah)! I was hard pressed to know which one to start with, but choose Drawing in the Dust - a novel by a woman rabbi about an archeologist who finds the bones of the prophet Jeremiah locked in an embrace with a woman named Anatiya. It is so good so far - kind of like People of the Book in that it has a lot of Jewish history along with it. I love being taken out of myself into another life (which probably means I should make mine more interesting)!
I recently finished The Heminges of Monticello which was good but disturbing. How can a man live and have children with a woman for 30 some years and not free her. I wish there were actual words she (or he) had written so we could get a glimpse into their feelings for each other. They began their relationship in Paris when she was only 17. It blows my mind that she could have gone to a court in Paris and have been made free, yet she choose to return with Jefferson. Granted, she bargained with him for the freedom of her children, but still, she could have been free. Instead she remained a slave mistress for all those years. She sure put a lot of trust in him. Is it love that is foolish, or did she feel that the known was better than the unknown? And then, having children, and knowing how my husband loves our children, to relegate them to living as slaves and not (to our knowledge) interact with them as he would with his white children. It boggles the mind.
Well, enough writing, time to get back to reading :-)
