The Simple Woman's Daybook -- July 6, 2011

Hosted by Peggy.

Outside my window... not such hot weather today -- I'm glad!

I am thinking... about what kind of new housing situation I will find.

I am thankful...for bathtubs and for rain and for the donuts my boss bought!

From the learning rooms... Settling into my new job - today was my fourth day, there's lots to learn and I'm enjoying it!

In the kitchen... making more crackers.

I am wearing... olive carpenter-ish capris and a brown polo -- still wearing what I wore to work.

I am creating... a flyer about what I'm looking for, both second job- and housing-wise.

I am going... to try to keep taking steps forward while staying peaceful and trusting.

I am wondering...when I will next see someone I knew pre-Denver.

I am reading... Wicked, for my book club -- I didn't love it the first time, we'll see what I think this time.

I am hoping... I win the Nook in the library's adult summer reading program.  :)

I am looking forward to... this is a hard one for me today.  Guess I need to plan something I can look forward to!  For now, I'll say . . . Gosh, I don't know.

I am hearing... Whispers Among the Stars by Aeoliah playing on my Pandora QuickMix

Around the house... still not sure how much unpacking I should do, since I'm not sure how soon I'll be moving. 

I am pondering... my need for a haircut.

One of my favorite things... when Fiona does something kind for me unasked -- she carried my backpack on the way to the bus the other day, because she knew I was sore.

A few plans for the rest of the week: hang with Kellan and Josie tomorrow while Jen has appointments, work on Friday, maybe see Angela and Isaac on Saturday morning, chill with Fio, Kel, and Josie on Sunday while Jen plays soccer.  (Fiona calls Kellan "Kel" and he calls her "Fion" -- how cute are they?)

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

My friend Tamie took this picture in Ireland recently.  I'd love to be there.

Teaser Tuesdays -- Faithful Place by Tana French

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading and asks you to :
1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3 . Share 2 "teaser" sentences also citing the title of the book and the author and in that way people can have great recommendations if they like the "teaser".
4. Please avoid spoilers!

Cover of Faithful Place: A Novel

The rose-colored glasses aren't your style, Frank.  You must have been really crazy about this one, were you? p. 94, Faithful Place by Tana French

I've read Tana French's other books (In the Woods & The Likeness) and liked them. Faithful Place goes even deeper into the sorrows of human relationships and the disappointments those relationships bring.  The story of Detective Frank Mackey's return to the neighborhood of his childhood had just enough echoes of my current situation (you know, minus the whole being set in Ireland and featuring two murders twenty-two years apart) to make a very bittersweet, evocative, and poignant read for me -- though not necessarily in a negative way.  (Run-on sentence much?)

While Faithful Place could certainly be considered to be in the thriller/mystery/page turner genre, French's character development and skill at setting the scene makes it so much more.  Frank's dread of getting pulled back into the downward spiral of his family and neighborhood of his youth is counter-balanced by his almost unacknowledged hope that maybe things could be different -- while almost certainly knowing that they won't be.  The idea of seemingly small and simple things that we do when we are young reverberating many years later certainly reverberated in my own mind -- as did the hopelessness of ever really making things right.  ". . . everything you believe is up for grabs, every ground rule can change on a moment's whim, and the dealer always, always wins." (247)

Frank's relationship with his ex-wife, Olivia, and his daughter, Holly, ring true.  "Her voice had softened.  In all the world, the last think I needed that night was Olivia being nice to me.  It rippled my bones like water, soothing and treacherous." (30-31)  Speaking of his daughter,

"She's completely surrounded, from every angle, by people telling her that reality is one hundred percent subjective:  if you really believe you're a star then you deserve a record contract whether or not you can sing for shit, and if you really believe in weapons of mass destruction then it doesn't actually matter whether they exist or not, and fame is the be-all and end-all because you don't exist unless enough people are paying attention to you.  I want my daughter to learn that not everything in this world is determined by how often she hears it or how much she wants it to be true or how many other people are looking." (153).

This is the second book I've read recently (see last week's teaser) where things go very wrong after a phone call is not returned.  Let me tell you, it makes me want to keep my phone by my side at all times and never, never ignore it!