HOW TO CLEAN THE HOUSE

1. Open a new file in your PC.
2. Name it “Housework.”
3. Send it to the RECYCLE BIN.
4. Empty the RECYCLE BIN.
5. Your PC will ask you, “Are you sure you want to delete Housework permanently?”
6. Calmly answer, “Yes,” and press the mouse button firmly……
7. Feel better?

Truly…I have no words to preface this ingenous link! Tho, I know some of you will enjoy it more than others! *wink wink* *nudge nudge*

I’m the Decider

Which reminds me, you should also check out the map Candace posted on her blog a couple weeks ago! HI-LAR-I-OUS!

I just spent an hour performing one of my favorite rituals at Borders bookstore. My ritual is as follows:

1. Enter the store and head straight to the “Buy 2 get 1 Free” table. Examine all covers of books. Pick up and read the backs of those that have pretty covers, interesting titles, approved-of authors, etc. If the description on the back of the book makes it sound intriguing, add it to my Maybe Pile.

2. Wander through (alphabetically, of course!) the Fiction and Literature section of the store to look for more interesting books. Add any that pass to the Maybe Pile.

3. Paruse any other “Book Club Readings,” “Women’s Literature,” and “Bestselling Paperback” sections, still adding to the Maybe Pile.

**It is not unusual for me to end up with a dozen or more books in the Maybe Pile. This seemingly expensive pile scares Honey, as he is not yet accustomed to these steps!**

4. Find comfortable chair in secluded area of store (preferrably where there are no cell-phone chatters nearby). Read the first two pages of each book in pile. Repeat to self the mantra my mother taught me: “Do you care about the character or what’s going to happen next?” If the answer is yes to this question, add to new (hopefully smaller) To Buy Pile for purchase.

5. Purchase books and walk out feeling satisfied and slightly guilty for spending so much money on more books!

Needless to say, I bought a few more books for our club. Right now I’m on Smashed. Here are the next few books:
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
“When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow…. When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.”

Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus–three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.

Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout’s first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children’s consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well–in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout’s hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind “when you really see them.” By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often. –Alix Wilber

I believe there are only two (maybe three?) of you involved in my book club. For those of you who aren’t reading along with us but would like to join, it’s never too late to jump on in!!! Click here for a list of what we’re reading and what’s to come! Right now, we’re working on To Kill a Mockingbird.

I am now taking requests and suggestions for books to read after we finish The Poisonwood Bible. You can leave your suggestions here in comments and please feel free to recommend good books, even if you’re not in our club!

The following are some books that have been patiently waiting for my attention on my bookshelf. They may not be what we’re looking for if we’re looking for light summertime reading but take a look and tell me what you think:

Prep by Cutris Sittenfeld

The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

Watership Down by Richard Adams

1984 by George Orwell