>>READING AND LOVING

If you are looking for a good read, this is it.

>>JUST FINISHED THIS BOOK

and absolutely LOVED it!!

Now I can't wait to see the movie!!  Hopefully it makes its way to Thermopolis soon...otherwise a road trip is in order.


Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book...

"I always thought insanity would be a dark, bitter feeling, but it is drenching and delicious if you really roll around in it."  -Skeeter

"All I'm saying is, kindness don't have no boundaries."  -Aibileen

"I always order the banned books from a black market dealer in California, figuring if the State of Mississippi banned them, they must be good."  -Skeeter

"No one tells us, girls who don't go on dates, that remembering can be almost as good as what actually happens."  -Skeeter

"The first time I was ever called ugly, I was thirteen. It was a rich friend of my brother Carlton's over to shoot guns in the field.
'Why you crying, girl?' Constantine asked me in the kitchen.
I told her what the boy had called me, tears streaming down my face.
'Well? Is you?'
I blinked, paused my crying. 'Is I what?'
'Now you look a here, Egenia'-because Constantine was the only one who'd occasionally follow Mama's rule. 'Ugly live up on the inside. Ugly be a hurtful, mean person. Is you one a them peoples?'
'I don't know. I don't think so,' I sobbed.
Constantine sat down next to me, at the kitchen table. I heard the cracking of her swollen joints. She pressed her thumb hard in the palm of my hand, something we both knew meant Listen. Listen to me.
'Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision.' Constantine was so close, I could see the blackness of her gums. 'You gone have to ask yourself, Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?'
She kept her thumb pressed hard in my hand. I nodded that I understood. I was just smart enough to realize she meant white people. And even though I still felt miserable, and knew that I was, most likely, ugly, it was the first time she ever talked to me like I was something besides my mother's white child. All my life I'd been told what to believe about politics, coloreds, being a girl. But with Constantine's thumb pressed in my hand, I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe."  -Skeeter

"I'm sorry, but were you dropped on your head as an infant?"  -Skeeter

"I give in and light another cigarette even though last night the surgeon general came on the television set and shook his finger at everybody, trying to convince us that smoking will kill us. But Mother once told me tongue kissing would turn me blind and I'm starting to think it's all just a big plot between the surgeon general and Mother to make sure no one ever has any fun."  -Skeeter

"...My sister Doreena who never lifted a royal finger growing up because she had the heart defect that we later found out was a fly on the X-ray machine. "   -Minnie

"Mother calls up the stairs to ask what in the world I'm typing up there all day and I holler down, 'Just typing up some notes from the Bible study. Just writing down all the things I love about Jesus."  -Skeeter

"Bosoms are for bedrooms and breastfeeding.  Not for occasions with dignity."  -Eleanor Causwell talking about Miss Celia.


Did you read The Help?  Did you love it?

>>EDWARD VS. HARRY

I have yet to cave in to the obsession and craze of the twilight books, nor do I plan on buckling anytime soon.

I do however, think the time has come to give in to Harry Potter. Let's see if all the fuss about this wizard, Harry and his hogwart friends is really all it's hyped up to be.

>>I DON'T NEED NO FANCY FOODS LIKE BEANS WITH KETCHEP

I finished Of Mice and Men last night. Sad, yes, but it was also very real for me.

George knew that if Curley and the rest of the guys found Lennie first, they would torture him and eventually kill him. George loved Lennie and cared about him. To prevent Lennie from suffering anymore than he had to, George killed him before the other guys could.

As I finished the book, I couldn't help but think of my brother. My brother, Shane died a year and a half ago following a severe heart attack. He was in a coma and on life support for 2 weeks before he died. My family loved and cared for him so much that we had to make a decision to end his suffering and unhook him from his machines. He died 5 minutes later surrounded by family.

I think that George did a very noble thing. Earlier in the book, Candy (apprehensively) let one of the other guys take his best friend (his very old and ill dog) out in the woods to shoot him. Later on Candy told George that he should have shot his dog himself...that is wasn't right to let someone else do it. I think this is how George felt about Lennie. They were best friends and George loved Lennie enough that he needed to be the one to kill him.

I enjoyed this book, however, I think my next read will be a little more uplifting. Any suggestions?

>>LIVE OFFA THE FATTA THE LAN

I'm currently reading Of Mice and Men. I'm reading it now because for some reason I refused to read anything while in high school. Last night while I was falling asleep, all I could hear in the back of my head was Lennie asking George if he could take care of the rabbits. Over and over and over again.

"An' rabbits, ... An' I'd take care of 'em. Tell how I'd do that, George."

and

"They'd nibble and they'd nibble. ... The way they do. I seen 'em."

You just gotta love Lennie.

I think I'll finish the book tonight. I really like it. It's too bad it took me so long to finally read it.