New Adventures Start Next Week

I am finishing up my last week with my current employer and preparing to start my new job next week. I was told that I will be learning to drive the book mobile the end of the week. Normally I would be terrified by this kind of news but I am a bit excited, truth be told. No one is more stunned than I, at this revelation. I guess staring down one fear after another in the past year prepares you for adventures that you actually want. That hasn’t happened to me in a while. Bonus material.

We had a day of summer weather, warm and breezy. I was disturbed to hear a fire has started (already) in our foothills. It’s way too early for that, and the prelude to water rationing that is surely on it’s way. I wonder what the golf courses will do? I also wonder what drought ridden countries would think about the amount of water it takes to keep golf courses green, or swimming pools for that matter. The word drought changes how you look at water consumption, to be sure.

I have been catching up on some reading, I had five books come in this past week. I just finished The Orchardist and was sweetly surprised at how it pulled me in. Some of the chapters are only a paragraph or two, and I liked it. The story revolves around quiet and contained Talmadge.  He spends his life caring for his Pacific Northwest, isolated orchards of apples and apricots at the turn of the century. This book sneaks up on you. The author, Amanda Coplin, makes a stunning debut, with her layers of complex relationships, in this story of loss and redemption. Talmadge never really resolves the mysterious disappearance of his only sibling, off the mountain where they were raised. His need to care for two wild-child women, who seek shelter on his property, change the course of his quiet life forever. This story is disturbing, compelling, and one that I couldn’t turn away from, even though I wanted to at times. It has a meandering quality that makes you want to see what is around the next bend.

I have just started The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler that is very promising, about a woman in the aftermath of WWII who steals someone’s identity and then, next, a wonderful book by Robert Gottlieb called Great Expectations, The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens. Mr. Dickens fathered ten children, but wasn’t the most ideal dad. His own childhood and notoriety (remember Norman Rockwell?) got in the way.  None the less, he left a priceless legacy of literature, full of unforgettable young characters. I couldn’t resist this one because of my thing for Mr. Dickens and his brilliance. His passionate, sexual nature make things more interesting. I’m enjoying it so far. It does however, take away some of the mystique and romance from the man, kind of like when I read the biography of Charles Schultz. Seriously. Do I really need to know that depression inspired Schulz’s altar ego Charlie Brown? Being the arm chair psychologist I am? Most definitely, and I think a bibliophile does too. We want to know everything!

It will be interesting to see how I keep up with blogging with my new job. Of course, I don’t have to spend hours changing resumes and applying for jobs. At my last library job, books inspired me to write regularly, but this will be a little more demanding. We shall see won’t we? Thanks for coming along anyway.