Page-Turner

So, it's late July and I'm making my way through my summer reading. I just finished "The Dirty Life" a memoir by Kristin Kimball, about her dramatic transition from New York City writer to farmer. Kimball met and fell in love with a farming/man-of-the-land purist (and this is putting it lightly) and tells of their first year together tending to the land and planning their wedding. Not sure why I keep steering toward non-fiction like this (another recent read being "The Bucolic Plague" about two city boys attempting the same thing). Perhaps when I think life on a farm in the countryside sounds wonderful, I need to read memoirs like this to shake me back to reality. Anyhoo, it's a decent read if you're up for it.

I've now moved on to "The Secret History," by Donna Tartt. This book has quite a following and I'm just now discovering it. It was released in 1992, and given that I was a freshman in college, obviously I was focused on so many other things in life, namely, me, so the book wasn't on my radar.

I'd heard a lot about this book in recent months and last week read an interview with the author of "The Help," Kathryn Stockett, who mentioned how much she loved this book, and that the character of Bunny is her all-time favorite villain. So, after not being able to get it via Kindle (only an audio book version was available), I ventured to Barnes & Noble for a hardcopy. To say I'm entranced is an understatement. I look forward to every night when the kids have gone to bed and I can delve back into this book. (Although I've since learned that the audio version is narrated by Robert Sean Leonard from "Dead Poets Society" fame, which is spot-on for this novel. So, I'd be interested in hearing him narrate this story.)

That's what I'm reading right now. Have you read "The Secret History?" If so, what are your thoughts? What else are you reading these days?

Happy Monday, friends. Hope the week treats you well.
Images from Penguin Books and Alex Chilver Illustration