Creepy stuff kids say and a book review

Happy Friday my dears!!  It is finally upon us!  I am too excited for words.  Ha, JK.  I always have words.  Hence the blog.

Did y'all enjoy the house tour yesterday?  So much mid-century goodness. 

And now for today's topic. Did any of you read this list on Buzzfeed? The 13 Ceepiest Things a Child Has Ever Said to a Parent

#7 and #10 are what inspired this post. I recently read a book that relates to these statements.

I know I am supposed to be reviewing books from this list for y'all, and I will.  I have read two more books on the list but I just haven't felt the urge to write about them.  Not a good sign for the books I would say.  Instead, I wanted to tell you about another book I read over this past weekend.  My Name is Memory.  Tagline: Sometimes love lasts more than a lifetime..or something like that.

This book is about re-incarnation, or rather, the theory of recycled soles.  It talks about how you encounter the same individuals many times over and in many new forms in these new lives.  There is a comforting theme that if someone played a significant role in your life that they would also be present in your following lives, but in a new way.  Of course this goes for the bad people in your life as well.  Not so comforting.  However, karma usually takes care of them.

The book is pretty good.  It starts off super strong as you follow one of the narrators throughout time because he is one of the few people that can actually remember his past lives very clearly.  It eventually gets tedious, mostly because there is a wishy-washy girl narrator for a while and I have issues with wishy-washy chicks. (Bella Swan and Anastasia Steele).  What the obsession is with using girls like this as heroines is beyond me.  Maybe because it is easier for a wider audience of women to identify themselves with the leads???  Not sure.

Moving on, the book mentions how many children will talk about experiences or their dreams about experiences that their parents know that didn't have and eventually the children learn that they should suppress these thoughts and not talk about them.  This eventually ends up leading the children to forget them or to brush them off as imagination.  I just felt like this was a strange coincidence that I read this book a day or two later this list came out and included children talking about past lives.

What are your thoughts?  Kind of an interesting topic, no?  This book seemed to me to be going in a direction that would eventually lead to a moral epiphany of live in the now, love the family you have now because it truly is the only one you have right there in that moment.  Stop constantly looking ahead or wandering about the seemingly greener grass over the fence.  Live in the moment.  That kind of stuff.

Also.....spoiler alert...the end of this book SUUUUUUUUCCCKKKSSSS. To put it mildly.  But I heard there is going to be a sequel because so many people voiced annoyance over the ending.  It is a pretty interesting read with a great male narrator and an ok female one.  Give it a go!

Off the topic of creepy kids and onto the topic of adorable ones....look at my niece last night...

Now that is a baby after this basketball playing auntie's heart!

Also, whoop whoop for sweater weather almost, finally, kind of making its way to Dallas!  I have been waiting for you for one million years it seems.

 

Tell me your thoughts on this recycled soul stuff,

tbg

65 Books You Need to Read in Your 20's (or whenever)

Those of you who know me well know that I love to read.  I usually read about a book a week, sometimes more. 

I love finding lists of suggested reading and then reading the entire list.  I love books.  I love to read. I love lists.  I love crossing things of lists.  Lists of books are a no brainer for me.

Recently I came across this list on Pinterest.....

 

I have read a few of these but I found the list to be intriguing.  So, although I am no longer in my 20’s (just barely), I decided to jump right in and read all the books I should have apparently read before last March. Here’s to hoping these books still apply to my 30 year OLD ass.

I am not going in any particular order.  Basically I am starting with the ones I find the most quickly and for the least amount of money on my Kindle.  Over the weekend I read, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz. 

All I can say is wow.

Wow Wao.

The book begins with a story about a young boy and his growing pains with his body and girls.  It deceptively lulls the reader into thinking that what you are about to read is a heartwarming and humorous tale of a boy coming into his own while suffering some heartbreak and few embarrassments along the way.   And you do read that…..just with more emphasis on the heartbreak than on the heartwarm.

This book unfolds an entire familial history spanning decades. I was introduced to cultures that I knew nothing about and really didn’t even know existed other than seeing the chunks of land that these cultures occupy while glancing at maps.  

Much of the book is set in the Dominican Republic during times of political turmoil.  At risk of sounding very self-righteously American, on top of being very informative, this book also really made me think about the everyday freedoms we have without ever realizing they are freedoms. 

There a a lot of heart wrenching moments but the lessons you take away and the little bit of humor you do squeeze out of the words is worth it.  The narrator, speaking in broken English, slang and sometimes Spanish, really has a unique voice that I suspect is very real and without pretense.  But I really wouldn’t know considering the lack of knowledge I have on the culture. But it feels sincere and that is more than half the battle I would assume.

This book embodies an idea, or belief, that I have held for a long time.  I believe that our ancestors and family’s course influences us in ways that we could never imagine.  The past, although doesn’t necessarily have to shape who we are, it most certainly influences who we become.  And I believe this is true of family members and occurrences that may be hundreds of years removed and that we know nothing about.  I believe things come full circle without our ever knowing it.  And my idea of Heaven (like actual Heaven, not just my idea of a heavenly day or something) is one day meeting those ancestors and knowing and understanding  those occurrences so that we may better understand why we were the way we were and why we felt the way we did about things.  Your own personal meaning of self.

This book embodies these ideas in its own way…..and through a curse.  Which is cool.

Which of these books have you already read?  Plan to read?  Which books are on your list?

A little too existential for a Monday,

tbg