I believe this is the longest I have ever gone without posting since I started this humble little blogabode.  I do realize that I missed writing about Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the new year – what I think is generally collectively regarded in blogland as the blogging holiday trifecta.  Whoops.  I may make some retroactive posts including, but not necessarily limited to, those events.  Or I may not.  I haven’t yet decided.  

There were many contributing factors to my unintentional leave of absence, none of which are interesting, so I’ll just move right along.

New Year's Eve: Tennessee Style

This being my first post of the year, I feel it’s appropriate to at least mention something new-years-ish.  I’ve never been one for new year’s resolutions.  Personally, I find them depressing.  So instead of publicly announcing a list of unrealistic goals I’ve set for myself, I decided to kick off my 2011 blogging by celebrating some success I’ve had in keeping up with a goal I’ve already set.  (Please pardon the cynicism.  It’ll wear off right along with the new year hype, I promise.)

I borrowed Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants from a friend.  Much like The Help, I couldn’t put it down.  It’s a raw, enveloping story about a young man who, after losing both of his parents unexpectedly, jumps a train in the middle of the night and very quickly discovers that not only has he unwittingly joined a traveling circus but that he has also gotten much more than he bargained for.  Be advised, it is gritty.  It’s definitely not Sunday school reading material (but then again I can’t imagine that a traveling circus during the Great Depression much resembled anything akin to Sunday school). 

Another borrow/recommendation from a friend:  I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley.  It’s a memoir of sorts, a collection of essays about the author’s wonderfully awkward life events that leaves you feeling simultaneously like you know more about life and like you know nothing at all.  In a word, hilarious.  (Thanks, Hillary!)

I’ve also been reading more C.S. Lewis.  A few years ago I made a really great decision and bought a book that included seven of his classic works.  Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, A Grief Observed, and The Great Divorce I have devoured sporadically over the last few years.  This week, I finished The Abolition of Man.  It’s a little slow-going through the middle but totally worth the work once finished.

Yet again, my husband displayed his awesomeness when he gave me Lewis’ Surprised By Joy for our anniversary last week.  I just finished chapter one, and I’ve already been moved to the brink of tears.  Stay tuned.

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