The Next Thing on My List....

My visit to NJ to see my mom was wonderful.    I loved spending time with my mom, and  friends.    As much as I love living in FL, I do miss my mother and friends.   My mom  very generously surprised us by offering her car to T1.    He is deliriously happy and we are all very appreciative.    Driving her/his car home to FL was the sensible thing to do.   After all, I used to make that same drive at least once a year when we lived up there and I would come down here to visit my brother.   However, a cold (ironically enough, caught from T1 before I left), a lovely but unfamiliar car, and wretched weather, combined to make the drive long and difficult.    By the time I made it home (after two nights on the road), I was ill with exhaustion.    All I wanted to do was snuggle in bed with a good book to read between naps.


Wisely, I think, I used that time to read the October books for my two book groups.   For the 1st Monday group, I read "Shanghai Girls" by Lisa See.   Reading the back, I did not think I would like it but I did.   It is about two sisters who go from a priviledged Shanghai life to being little more than mail order brides in 40/50's era California.   It was pretty compelling reading.   In fact, the story caught me up so thoughly that I absolutely hated the ending.   I want more!








The 3rd Thursday group is reading "The Next Thing on My List" by Jill Smolinski.   This one I loved.   It is about a woman (June) who feels responsible for a young woman's death.   To make amends, she decides to finish the dead girls "Thing I want to do before I am 25 years old" list.   I know it sounds just too cute and predictable but I found it to be much less so than expected.    Not one thing that this woman does goes according to plan (I feeling I am all to familiar with).  She is forced to come out of her comfort zone to accomplish even the easy tasks (some are less easy than others).   I loved this book if for not other reason than it did not end the way I expected it to.   For me, this was a quick but satisfying read.

As it is October (Breast Cancer Awareness Month), I am knitting all pink, all the time.   More on that later.