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52 Weeks of Brotherhood, Week 10

Mar 122013

52 Weeks of Brotherhood

I used the camera this week. Bonus.

I needed to go to the library the other evening after dinner. Before I told the boys what I needed to do, I asked them what they wanted to do.

“Can we go to the library?”

“Yeah, I want to get some new books.”

Yes. Yes we can. And yes we did.

Despite the fact that I complain they’re growing too fast, one of the joys of having children who aren’t fully reliant on my every breath is that they don’t need me every second of every moment in every place. Yes, there’s some sadness to that as well, but let’s focus on the fact that, oh my goodness, I can walk the rows of the adult books without someone sighing or whining or saying, “Haven’t you found a book yet?” Instead, we hit the children’s department first. I help them pick books. They mostly know what they want, but I offer up suggestions as well. They usually get one book they pick out entirely on their own and one book I help locate. Last time, LittleBrother ended up with a book about tarantulas as I know he’s going through a big bug phase. He loved it.

After they pick their books, they sit down at the tables. Sometimes they read the books they have picked. Sometimes they read the magazines that sit next to the tables. LittleBrother has discovered the Scooby Doo comic books and regularly picks one up. I can sometimes hear him giggle while I’m off, touching the spines of books and reveling in the smell and space and time. Less so as I’ve reminded him to use his quiet voice in the library. This past time he remembered; I heard not a peep from him as I judged books by their covers, held them in my hands and put them back. He even whispered to the librarian when it was his turn to check out his books. I died of cute.

LittleBrother can read on his own now, but every now and then, he’ll ask his brother, “Will you read this to me?” BigBrother sat down this evening and read through the Elephant and Piggie book that LittleBrother brought home and has read to me no less than ten times. Then he ran to his room to find another of Mo Willems‘ series from his shelf to give to his brother as he recently did with the Fly Guy series books.

Bonding over books?

Oh, my heart!

Book Review: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

BlogHer Reviews, Reviews 2 Responses »

Mar 072013

Can I confess something?

I put off reading Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson until now for lots of reasons. Having been let down by blog-to-books in the past, I didn’t want to read it just in case. I mean, sure! She’s funny online! But would it translate to book? Could she possibly keep up the funny for 366 pages? Would I be horribly let down and thus fall out of something akin to blog-crush?

After buckling down and agreeing to read and review the book with the BlogHer Book Club, the answers to my questions are yes, yes, and no.

Though I’m kind of perplexed.

You see, quite frequently in the beginnings of the book, Jenny talks about this minority of people who don’t a) get their water from a well, or b) know how to gut a deer, or c) only have have one gas station in their towns. Well, you see, I grew up in a town with two gas stations… though one eventually closed. We didn’t even have a stop light until after I moved away. I KID YOU NOT. When I tell people that, they are horrified. I shrug. And yes, we grew up with a well, though we didn’t have a radon infested well. That I know of. And… that whole deer thing…

Well, my dad wasn’t a hunter. His friends would receive permission from both my parents and grandparents to hunt on the Back 40 — which anyone with a large amount of acreage knows isn’t necessarily 40 acres. I didn’t eat venison until I was in middle school and only because a good friend tricked me into it; yes, it tasted like beef but I was still so mad at her. I swore I would never marry a hunter.

I also swore I’d never live in Ohio.

Yet, here I sit. In Ohio. Married to a hunter. There are four deer heads in the family room in the basement. When my husband texts me photos of dead deer in the last week of November, it is a cause for cheering, not for vomiting, because it means we will have meat for dang near a year. I know how to cook it — to the point that you won’t know it’s venison. And yes, Jenny is right; deer blood has a smell. I can agree with that even never having worn a deer sweater.

I think Jenny was attempting to poke fun at small town life at the beginning there, but I kept cringing a bit, thinking, “Oh wait. That’s me. That’s us. Oh dear. Oh my. We’re the kind of people that people make fun of, aren’t we?” And then I laughed the deep laugh of someone who understands, who gets the joke more than the other people in the room.

Because if I’ve learned anything from being different over the years, being the kid of people that others like to make fun of is almost always a good thing. Almost always.

I enjoyed Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, but if you’re my mother-in-law, please don’t read it. There’s far too much cussing for you.

The BlogHer Book Club is reading and discussing the book right now. The first discussion asks what your favorite funny childhood memory is; I’m still thinking of my answer as there are too many to choose from!

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.