The Crazee Chick's View of Life

I'm a huge Sophie Kinsella fan. She's one of the few authors who can actually make me laugh out loud. Even snort. It's not that she's just funny but I think it's that she's my kind of funny . You know when you have those goofy, or embarrassing thoughts, or those ones where you think that there's no way anyone with a rational mind would think this way? Or you wonder how in the world you can justify that crazy hair-brained idea? Do you have those ones? Please tell me you do. Well, what's nice about Kinsella is that SHE HAS THEM TOO! It's like she's crawled up inside my brain and has dissected each synapse (all two of them) and recorded them for future writing material. Her characters get embarrassed daily, they do things that they KNOW are stupid yet are compelled to do them anyway, they spend too much money, they love too hard, and they want to please everyone. That's me. In a nutshell. There. Done. Now you know me. I am Rebecca B...

So the first book I downloaded onto my Kindle was one that I've been waiting for YEARS to read.  It was the third book from a series called Almost Sisters, written by three LDS authors, and I've been waiting because I didn't want to pay shipping and handling charges to order it online. (how cheap am I?) So the series is about three women who meet at BYU Education week when they are in their early 20's.  These women live in different cities and states and so they correspond over the years via letters and email.  They share their challenges and their successes with one another and the author addresses some fairly poignant  issues such as teen preganancy, gay marriage, and other 'hot' subjects. These books are simply written so that you feel that you are part of the letter writing and reading--you become attached to these women and their struggles over their 25 year friendship.  You find yourself worrying about them. I came to really care about a couple of the...

In a word, this book is...sobering. Terrifying. Beautiful. Pure. Oh, right, I said I'd only use one word, didn't I? Oops. This book is a beautiful love story, but not a traditional one.  It's about a love that leads to a teen suicide. Yep, see why I said it was 'sobering.' It's one of those topics that you never think to discuss with your well adjusted, responsible, life-loving, child.  Yes, we talk about sex and drugs and making good decisions.  We talk about responsibility, reputation and rational behaviour but we don't usually talk about erratic, irrational and radical behaviour.  Maybe we should. That's what this book is all about. It's about talking to our kids.  About being there for them talk to us and knowing that we are going to listen.  Unconditionally. It's about not putting enormous amounts of pressure on our progeny to perform. To allow them to be less than perfect. To allow them to just...be. If you wan...