A Day in the Life - March 2016

My BFF Trish is hosting another Day In The Life Linkup and I'm pretty sure participation was mandatory.  I recorded a typical Tuesday, March 22.

5:40  My alarm goes off. This is my "late" alarm, we went to bed later than normal last night because of a school function. I'm in Lauren's bed and Ezio is happy that someone is awake to play.  I stop and brush my teeth and spray some dry shampoo on my way to the coffee pot. (I only wash hair every other day, unless I need to look nicer than usual.)  I always set up the coffee pot the night before so it's waiting for me to get up. This may be the only habit I regularly keep.

You're Awake!?

6:08  Mike is up. Typically, Noah is the first one up, but today it's Mike. He gets coffee too and we sit on the couch in silence a few minutes and check email and facebook. By 6:30 all the kids are up so we start moving faster. I go to get dressed, Mike goes to shower, and we start our first round of "are you dressed yet? how about now? now?" My kids aren't big morning eaters, and no one is hungry today so that helps.  They all get a morning snack at school, and lunch is early, so I don't feel guilty.

7:20 Mike leaves early today so it's left to me to push everyone into coats and find shoes. I very very rarely leave before the kids, but somehow Mike misses this part of the program a couple days a week.

7:30 We are in the car! I hush the kids because my new car is making a noise and I want to record it on my phone.  The car does not repeat the noise but we are halfway to school before the kids realize it and start talking.

That's right, stop being cute when I take the picture.

7:50  First one at work! As usual. One of my bosses gets here and we chat while we wait for the coffee, and then it's time to buckle down.  I have 46 unread email in my various work inboxes. Most of my job is talking to applicants and processing applications for various state licensing boards. There are a lot of checklists involved, and a lot of basic applicant questions (Where do I get...? Where do I send....? Have you received...? Does this qualify?) It's not creative, but I really love it. I especially enjoy that every application has a built in check list, and even though I didn't make this list it is fun to check the last box and hand it off. Most applications take several weeks to complete with documents from multiple sources, and some can be 30+ pages in the end. It's a lot of detail, but I am good at it. (If a bit behind at the moment!)

8:20  Got distracted at the copier talking to one of the ladies we share a building with about last night's elementary school concert. (43 email)

10:00  Email count 65. This is not going in the direction I had hoped.

10:53 Turns out 24 of them were pictures of my worst phobia. This is statement is 100% literally true. And yet, I love my job!  Down to 45 email again.  Note, there is more to my job than email but sometimes email take over.

11:30  Super long call with a training school and it's time for a snack. I brought cottage cheese and cherry tomatoes from home today in an effort to be healthy, but the work pantry is stocked with goodies. I'm starting with my cottage cheese. Go me!  Typically I'd eat lunch around now, but my schedule is off today because I told the kids I'd pick them up instead of them taking the bus at 3.

12:23  I couldn't resist the jelly beans any longer.  Email count: 39

12:45  Trish can't help but ask if I've forgotten to keep track. Nope! So far so good!

2:00  Still working. Haven't go back into the jelly beans yet! Email count: 31

2:48  Finally! Time to go get my kids and run them home. The boys don't enjoy the after school program and are finally old enough to be home alone for an hour or so. We reward good behavior at school with this hour of free time.  Meanwhile, my email count is at 27.

4:00 Back at work. Picked up the boys and got halfway home before Tristan told me he forgot his take home math test and science presentation, both due tomorrow. We had to run back to school to get those and then back home again. Then I had to run a work errand at 3:30 that I skid into just exactly at 3:30 and now I'm back at my desk. I grabbed a snack of carrots and snap peas out of the office pantry and hopefully that'll carry me home at 5:00. Nope, had a handful of Pringles too.

4:50 One more quick meeting with my boss and I'm heading out at 5. Feeling fairly behind on most of my work today, as most of it was spent replying to email and putting out fires. Current email count: 16.

5:00 Leave work and head over to pick up Lauren at the after school program.  Got home to find Mike just back from a run, so I threw on my running clothes and headed out while he made dinner.  2.78 miles in light rain, real feel temp= 40F. Slightly chilly, but my running jacket is cheap and doesn't breathe so it was pretty sweaty inside.  Got home just as everyone was sitting down to eat (Red Beans and Rice with Ham).

Not my actual rainy run, Sunday's trail run.

6:00 Bath night. Oh joy. Not. Start baths and realize someone has to go get milk or there will be no coffee in the morning, so once Lauren is out of the tub I head to the store.

7:30 Home from the store to discover that the child who forgot his take home math test and had me take him back to school for it, did not in fact get his take home math test.  It is not a pretty scene.  We work on the science presentation for an hour or so though and he is amazingly cooperative about it. He's now grounded from fun electronics, so it's straight to bed after we are done.

Maybe next time bring your work home?

9:00  At some point Mike has put Noah and Lauren to bed, so I take Tristan. Sleep has always been an issue at our house, and it's no different these days. Lauren is sleeping in our bed, Noah is in his own, and I lie down with Tristan in his. As usual, I fall asleep there after reading a bit on my phone.

Midnight    I wake up in Tristan's bed and relocate into Lauren's empty bed. Most nights someone other than Lauren ends up sleeping there-- I should REALLY invest in a good mattress!

How was your day? Interested in seeing how other people live? Go over and check out the link up!

A Day in the Life from Books. Lists. Life.

Today I'm linking up with Trish for her a Day in the Life blogger event.  Make sure you click over to see how other people spend their days. I kept track of yesterday, March 26th. It was a fairly typical day.

5:45 My normal alarm goes off and Mike realizes his didn't. Typically I get up first, but today he needs to be on the road at 6. I go start coffee.

6:10 Mike heads out and I take a few minutes of quiet time, most days this is all I get.

6:30 I'm thinking I should start getting ready or I'm going to sabotage myself when it's time to leave. I skip washing my hair and use dry shampoo and my curling iron instead. I spent a full minute hating my winter clothes before getting dressed in an outfit I might regret later.

6:55 Start waking the kids. Lauren is in my bed and the boys are in hers. I have no explanation.

7:16 Everyone is up and dressed. Lauren is ready to go! Hallelujah! But the boys have wandered off to their Kindles.

7:17 False alarm. She does not like her outfit. That she chose. This is her new outfit. The first one was ALSO an Elsa shirt with a tutu like skirt over leggings.

7:41 Everyone in the car, yay! I swing past my favorite photo spot for a quick sunrise picture. Drop the boys at school and Lauren at daycare and pull into my office at 7:52.

7:52 First one at the office (as usual). I make coffee and then sit down for ten minutes of my morning online routine- Check Amazon daily deals, look at new listings on NetGalley, fire up Pandora, skim Woot.

8:30  Realize that my quick ten minutes of checking social media got out of hand and settle down to work. My bosses are back in the office full time today after a couple months of being at the Capitol for Legislative session and then well earned personal vacations. This means my to do lists will be massive soon and I'll start to feel crazy overwhelmed with work until I get it under control. I LOVE my new job, but it's got a lot of moving parts.

8:45 Ok scratch that, brief detour to Zulilly. THEN to work. Today I'm issuing licenses (Not driver licenses, that was my last job) and then sending out some letters.

9:00 It's snowing. WTF? I'm regretting my outfit.

10:00 Licenses are issued. Taking a brief Instagram/Twitter break. Normally I make the mail run now, but with the snow I'll combine it with my lunch break and hope the snow is done. It's not looking good.

10:35 Stopped in coworkers office to take a test run of the survey she's creating. Looked sadly out her window at my snow covered car.

11:15 You know, I can't even describe what I do all day. I'd an administrative assistant for an Association Management Company. So I send email and update databases and issue licenses and take phone calls and pay bills for a half dozen different entities. We also do lobbying and event planning and publish newsletters.

11:40 It's never going to stop snowing so I head out to check the mail (one of my jobs is to check all the post office boxes daily- we have 9 boxes- some clients share.) I ordered a taco salad for take out because I know the sugar free pickings at home are slim. Grab the mail, eat my lunch, read the internet. There's three inches of snow on my front porch.

1:00  Back to work. It's still snowing. I make a new cup of coffee, sort the mail, and then head into my boss's office to learn more new and exciting things (MMA, this time.)

3:45 Wrapping up that and having a quick snack before moving onto something else. (Pistachios, cherry tomatoes and unsweet tea. See: no sugar.)

4:55 Sneaking out five minutes early to hit Walmart before I start picking up children. It is never good to take the kids to Walmart and we need milk.

5:30 Since Mike is on the road I pick up all three kids and come home to make a quick dinner. They have individual frozen pizza, I have a hamburger patty with tomatoes and almonds (don't judge, I'm lazy.)  I waste some time on the iPad while the kids get increasingly needy and really really wish beer were on the sugar reset. The snow on my porch has completely melted.

7:00 A coworker gave me a couple bags of clothes and Lauren and I spent some time looking through them One of them was a longish, animal print skirt that Lauren declared to be "like Katy Perry" so we did a quick alteration on it so she could be like her idol.

8:00 Mike gets home with a literal ton of concrete patio pavers in the car, so we head out to unload. This is only half of what we need for the patio and the nearest store that carries them is a 5+ hour round trip. Yay for small town, middle of nowhere, South Dakota!

8:30 We railroad the kids through the tub and Mike runs to Walgreens. He comes home without anything for Lauren who throws a massive fit. I sneak out to put the boys to bed and let him deal with it. We are in bed at 9:00 and Noah is sound asleep by 9:04. Sirius Black assists in bedtime. He is a dainty, delicate little thing.

9:15 Both boys are asleep and I start thinking maybe I should climb out of Noah's bed. I relocate to my room where Lauren has been placated with an episode of "Young Justice", her favorite show. We hang out, I read a little more internet and text Trish a few times.

9:45 Lights out. Yes, it's early, but that gives me 8 hours of sleep. (HA. Like I ever get to sleep through, thanks kids.)

Happy 8th Anniversary Mike!

Happy anniversary to the best husband ever! I love you!

For our anniversary this year, I shamelessly stole this art idea from Happy Together.

Source: happytogethercreates.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I even stole her quote idea!  I did change it a little bit by using a 16 x 20 canvas from Walmart, but otherwise followed the original poster's instructions.  I used a dark brown paint with a tiny bit of metallic gold mixed in and it turned out to be kind of a burnished brown, very pretty. Not that you can tell from my terrific photography! I really wish I could have found lower case letters, but you make do with what you have available.  (The top one is mine, if it isn't clear.)

This will count as my first pin in Trish's Pin It and Do It Challenge for October!

Where in the World Are you Reading? A new monthly meme

With such a diverse and worldly bookish community, wouldn't it be fun to learn about or see pictures from all over the world? Trish, Kailana, and I have come up with a monthly meme to showcase Where in the World Are You Reading. Each month will have a different theme such as a local bookstore, your local library, your favorite reading spot at home, a cafe you frequent to read, etc. To start, Where in the World Are You Reading meme will rotate between our blogs (Kailana, Trish, and myself) each month. If it catches we might increase the frequency of the meme and include additional hosts in the rotation.

Each month there will be a different theme for Where in the World Are You Reading (link to static meme page). On the first Thursday of the month a linky will post and you can link up any (and as many) time during the month. Please feel free to piggyback your post with other memes such as Sunday Salon, Snapshot Saturday, Wordless Wednesday, etc. Just be sure to include the button and a link back to the linky post. At the end of the month we'll create a wrap-up of all of the links for you to enjoy. We're hoping that Where in the World Are You Reading will help you get to know other bloggers as well as travel vicariously all around the world.

Will you join us next Thursday as we kick off with the theme of Local Bookstore (hosted by the lovely Trish)? And follow us on Twitter using hashtag #wwread !

Upcoming themes and their host (don't worry if you can't remember where it'll be hosted. We'll all be reminding you on a regular basis!):
July – Trish – Bookstore
August – Kelly – Library
September – Lisa – Used Bookstore/Thrift Store
October – Trish – Coffee Shop, etc.
November – Kelly – Reading Companion
December – Lisa – Holiday Reading Escape
January – Trish – Unusual
February – Kelly – Comfy Spot
March – Lisa – TBD
April – Trish – TBD
May – Kelly – A Drink (Do you read and drink wine? coffee? Share!)
June – Trish – TBD
July – Lisa – TBD

The Standalong

My very favorite insane blogger Trish is hosting a read-a-long of Stephen King's The Stand. It starts on June 1st and we have two months to read the entire behemoth of a book.  I am really still debating if I want to do this at all (I have already read The Stand, but it was literally half a life ago), but I love Trish and she's nothing if not infectious (and as I type this, I have pinkeye, so I KNOW infectious!) so I'm signing up.  I checked out a copy from my library (same copy Trish has) and it clocks in at a massive 1153 pages and 4 lbs (yes, I weighed it.)  Trish asked that we answer a few get-to-know-you questions before we join, so here goes:

1. What makes you want to read The Stand? Trish does!

2. Describe your preconceived notions of The Stand. Well, I've already read it, so I have a vague memory of the plot and a clear memory of how much it scared the pants off me.

3. What was the last scary(ish) book you read or movie you saw? I don't watch scary movies. The last one I saw was The Ring, well before I had kids.  I read A Monster Calls, which some people find scary, and you can see my thoughts here.

4. Which version of the book will you be reading from? My copy is a massive hardcover from the library, the uncut version. The cover is similar to the on in the picture above, but with a big red band marking it as uncut. It looks like it only gets checked out once or twice a year, so with any luck I will make it all the way to the end of July before I have to return it.

5. What are you previous experiences with Stephen King? In high school and college I was a big fan of King. I read quite a few of his books (The Shining, Cujo, Christine, Firestarter, The Stand, It, possibly more) but the last one I read was The Tommyknockers, which I really disliked. I moved on to Dean Koontz after that, and then stopped reading anything scary at all.

6. Anything else you'd like to add (bonus points for being extra random). This is my first readalong, so hopefully I won't bail on it, but I refuse to feel guilty if I don't make it to the end.  Also, I think Trish will owe me a pack of post it notes by the time I finish marking off where I should be (roughly) at any given date.

Bookish committments

The last couple of months have  been full of tempting book commitments. I'm not usually one to follow challenges, and I don't commit to reading a lot of books that friends recommend. I'm much more likely to add a book to my endless list and eventually pick it up. I did promise (myself) that I would read all the books on Janssen's best of 2011 list, and I'm doing the personal challenge, but I'm not usually much of a read-a-long joiner. However, I find myself suddenly committed (or really interested in committing to) reading several books with or for my friends. It's been a while since I have you a bookish list, so how about one now?

• First, the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. A local friend lent me the entire series, and I really enjoyed the first three. I should review them, hm?
• Andi Can. Not. Stop. Talking. About Outlander . I read the first 200 pages, apparently I'm just at the point where it takes off. I promised her I'd pick it back up.
• My next commitment for the BlogHer Book Club launches on May 31st. I haven't started the book yet, but thankfully it's not a chunkster.
• Last, everyone's favorite rock star, Trish is hosting The Standalong, a group reading of Stephen King's The Stand to take place over two months in June and July.

If I just read those books and nothing else, that'll take me right through the end of the summer! Have you see how thick some of those are?? Tell me, did Andi or Trish convince YOU to read one of their pet projects? Have you read The Black Dagger Brotherhood? What do you have on tap for the next couple of months?

Pinterest Challenge #1: Almond Bars

I choose to do this pin for Almond Bars from Write Meg for my first entry in the Pin It and Do It Challenge.

Source: writemeg.com via Lisa on Pinterest

It looked tasty and miracle of miracles, it's all ingredients I actually have on hand. I mixed them up during naptime with the Bug, and he was the first tester. He LOVED them.  Success!

Here's my version of food styling:



Not quite so pretty as hers! 

I did have to increase the baking time from 20-25 minutes to almost 35 minutes, and then  they still didn't cut into pretty bars like hers did (as you can tell.) They still tasted terrific though, and that's really all that matters.

I'm also linking up to Weekend Cooking with this one.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend.You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.
-- Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Pin It and Do It Challenge

As I've said many times before, I love Pinterest. I have 36 different pin boards and roughly a zillion pins (some of them need tidied up, please forgive me.) The problem is, I have more pins than I can possibly ever do. I'm fairly good at trying recipes, but the craft and sewing pins are a wee bit overwhelming. Despite this, every time I do something silly like look at my quilting board, I get an itch to Quilt! Something! Now!  This is why I encouraged Trish to start a formal Pinterest Challenge.  You can see the details over there, but the short version is we have one month to complete x number of pins, and report back. I did try to do this on my own, with this board, but I forget to keep up with it, oops! Here's hoping some accountability will help a girl out.

The first pin I plan to do? This one:

Source: writemeg.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Are you on Pinterest? I'd love to see what you're making and doing! (But, to be completely honest, not what you're reading. That's what Goodreads is for!)

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Nine year old Oskar Schell's father has died in the World Trade Center on September 11th. Oskar has a really hard time accepting his death and is desperate to understand his dad's last minutes. When he discovers a mysterious key in his father's closet he sets out on a quest to discover what it unlocks.

I've had a copy of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer on my shelves for years.  I got my copy from Paperback Swap shortly after I joined. I had read that it was by the husband of author Nicole Krauss, who wrote The History of Love , which I just adored. (Sadly for you, I read it pre-blogging, but you can see the lovely TRISH's picture of it up there in my header!) I had also heard that it had a similar writing style, something unique that made it not a straightforward plot, as with The History of Love. I was sure I'd love it. So my copy came and it sat there a couple years, and then Trish (same Trish) posted this review and I added it to my "Ok, now you GOTTA read it (mental) pile." And then some more time passed. And then we moved. And then we moved again. And then I started to read it and I just wasn't hooked. I read about half and frankly, Oskar annoyed me. His mother, who is very very hands off even when I felt she shouldn't be, bugged me. His grandparents have all this crazy, well, crazy. The book got buried under a pile of sewing while I read other things.

I decided I needed to finish it. I needed to see how it all ended and how it came together in such a way that left Trish so in love with the book. I took it with me one day to pick up the Pirate from school. I typically get to read about two pages while waiting in line (some days, this is all the reading I do.) Well. Something got my attention and I was hooked. I spent all my spare reading time on this one for the next few days, and finally when I had about 30 pages to go I just sat down and read to the end. And, I was a bit underwhelmed. In the end, it was more about Oskar than about his quest and I really wanted the quest to end differently, ya know?

Oskar is certainly very well defined. He has a distinct voice and personality. The quirkiness of the book- the pictures, the markings, the different fonts- fit in seamlessly and perfectly. The part about the bombing of Dresden is harrowing (That link is even more so. Gah.) The writing is terrific. But for me, I think I've decided I prefer plot to introspection. (Sorry, Trish.)

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
by Jonathan Safran Foer
Houghton Mifflin Company
2005
326 pages



I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks. All content copyright Books. Lists. Life. at http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com. If you're reading this post anywhere other than there, you are reading stolen content.

A visit with Trish (and her hot-cycle)

Yesterday afternoon my family and I traveled to Keystone, SD to see the lovely TRISH, her husband Scott and his brother. They came to town to "see the Sturgis motorcycle rally" but really, it was to see me. Unfortunately, coordinating the schedules of  5 travelers plus those of us here with jobs is a bit tricky, so we only saw each other for a couple of hours. We ate dinner at a less then spectacular restaurant that made up for it's eh-food in favor of quiet. (If you've ever been to the rally, you know that quiet is hard to find.)

Then we walked down to see their hot-cycle (if you're the Bug, motorcycle if you're anyone else) and the boys were THRILLED to sit on it. The Bug is almost in awe of it, as you can tell by the look on his face.

Then, Trish gave me a giant bag of adorably cute girl stuff. (You REALLY shouldn't have! But, uh, I love it all so thanks!)  If I'd have been thinking, I'd have taken a picture of some of it to share. It's really the first new stuff baby girl has gotten! I have to admit, I can't wait to start putting some ruffles on this child.

All in all, it was a great, if way too short, visit! And if you're a reader of Trish's (and if you're not, why not?) you should know that her place of lodging has no internet or cellphone access, so I'm guessing you won't be seeing a mid-week post from her.




I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks.

What a great weekend!

We had a near perfect weekend this weekend! That is a picture of me and Trish! How awesome is it to get to meet the people you most enjoy stalking talking to on the internets! But first was Saturday...

For the Pirate, Saturday was like his birthday and Christmas all in one. First thing in the morning, Mike too him to Target to get a scooter. We've been talking about it for weeks and finally the Pirate was interested, so off they went. They came home with this Spider-Man Scooter... and a GI Joe Ninja costume! On the way home, they stopped for a haircut, which the Pirate loves to do.

While they were out, the Bug and I did a little shopping of our own at yardsales. I found the highly coveted (by my boys anyway) Little Tikes Cozy Coupe Car for the low low price of about $10. I also picked up some frying pans for the camper, a Darth Vader mask, and a bike seat for the Bug- total money spent- $22.

Then, the neighbor's son, who is 7, was home and the Pirate convinced him to come play in our yard. The boy has amazing patience, as the Pirate insisted on showing him every single item in our entire home ("look at this scrap of paper I have!") We got Happy Meals for lunch.

Next, the Pirate's best friend's sister had a birthday party, so off we went to the best friend's house. There we found a herd of wild boys and they had a lot of fun with water balloons and squirt guns. There was pizza and cake and ice cream and watermelon. Once the party was over the Pirate was invited to spend the night (second sleepover ever!) which he did with no hesitation.

On Sunday, we picked him up about 9 am and headed up to Mount Rushmore, where we met TRISH and her husband, Scott. They are both very nice people and Trish is about as cute as a button. The Pirate was about as crabby as you'd expect a kid to be on a hangover from a day like Saturday, so we only spent an hour or so with them. We went home where everyone had a nice nap and I got to spend a good bit of time reading. I finished up Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen before we met up again with Trish and Scott for dinner and ice cream. The Pirate agrees with her assessment that she looks like a Power Ranger in her helmet and I think he might have a slight crush on my "friend who is a Power Ranger." (Sorry, Scott!)

Today I had to work, but we're going to ditch the kids after and meet Trish and Scott for dinner at the rally... if they aren't sick to death of bikes and noise yet!

All in all, a perfect weekend.

Random Friday: TRISH is coming edition!

Two boys, one outfit.

Big Exciting News of the Week: TRISH is coming to see me! Ok, she's coming to see Mt. Rushmore and the Sturgis Rally. I just happen to live here too. I. Am. So. Excited!!! (see Trish, I can have CAPS-LESS emphasis too!)

Today's Dead Horse: Partial feed blogs. Seriously, why? I am really asking. If I subscribe to one it immediately gets labeled "chopping block", which means you get very few chances to wow me, and since you only have about 3 sentences to try it, you better be good in those three sentences.

You can't have read many book blogs in the last week and not seen anything about the controversy over Justine Larbalestier's Liar cover. While I see the original point, that the cover is not representative of the book by not having a black girl on it and that the publisher is being a bit racist, I can't help but notice that I've heard a LOT more about Liar than I would have otherwise. A small part of me thinks that perhaps the whole thing is working in the author's favor now.

I was reading and enjoying Graceling quite a bit. Then Mike stole it to read and now it has vanished. I hope it shows up soon. Meanwhile, I moved on to Along for the Ride.

In the interest of full disclosure, I signed up for Amazon Associates. I won't be linking to random crap, just the things I would have been linking to anyway. I don't expect to make anything off it, but I figured that I send so many links Amazon's way that they could send some back my way. Maybe.

Garden Update: Some of the tomatoes are rotting at the end, but SOME of the tomatoes are turning yellow, hopefully on their way to red. A couple more zucchini this week. A TEENY little pumpkin.

Boy's Life by Robert R McCammon

A month of so ago Trish reviewed Boy's Life by Robert R McCammon. We were just about to leave for vacation and despite my misgivings on the size of it, I picked up a copy and took it with me. It's not very often that a review makes me pick something up immediately and then actually read it, but I'm glad I did. It's a huge book and there are a lot of things going on. For much of the book I was wondering how McCammon was possibly going to tie it all together, but I think he managed. I'm about to get very thinky with this review, so if your brain doesn't already hurt you might want to skip the long version.

So what's it about? The narrator of the story is 11 (12?) year old Cory Mackenson, resident of Zephyr, Alabama in 1964. As the story opens, Cory and his father witness the cover up to a murder. The murderer isn't found and the identity of the victim remains a mystery. Cory is, understandably, very curious about what happened and as the story progresses there are tiny little clues that start to add up to the big finale. In between there are four friends, a summer vacation, a ceremony for a river beast, a flood, some voodoo, a naked man, some deaths, a monkey, the Beach Boys, some ghosts, a story writing contests, a little girl named "The Demon", some Nazis, racism and a shiny new bike, among other things. It's a big book.

The short verdict? I enjoyed it. I didn't love it, but I very much want to talk about it, so go read it.

The long version: Did I like it? Did it work for me? I'd say it mostly worked. There are a few moments that are either magical realism or the fantasy of a 12 year old and if it's the former then no, but if it's the later then yeah, it worked. It's hard to say which it was because it's all told like fact, but I like to think that it's how a 12 year old remembered it when writing the story as an adult. There is a strong theme of not growing up too fast, and as a fictional adult writing from his perspective as a child, adding those elements would make sense. Cory is definitely writing a story. He wants to be a writer and he addresses the reader directly on occasion, both as an adult and as a child. For most of the book you can forget this (and are supposed to), but there are moments where you have to wonder if it "really happened" or not. (Ok, yeah, this is a hard thing to explain. Of course it didn't happen, this is fiction. But it's hard to tell if it really happened to Cory Mackenson, the writer of the story in the story. Follow?)

The writing is excellent. If he didn't write such large books, I'd probably read another McCammon to see if the voice is McCammon's or Cory's. The scenes are drawn well and I can easily put myself into Zephyr, Alabama and see it all happen (ok, almost all of it.) There were some events that didn't really affect the story that could have been left out, but in hindsight perhaps they are events that were important to the 12 year old narrator? It's hard to tell. There are moments of perfect description and moments of heart-stopping terror. There is even a little bit of romance, if you count The Lady and the Moon Man.

One of the plot lines in it is a bit about a local writer and how publishers, and by extension readers, didn't want books about local towns, they wanted something fantastic to happen in them and I wonder if the whole book isn't really that same thing? A great book with Southern flavor with a heavier murder plot to make the reader interested, but the book is really just about the town and growing up in it. This is all getting very meta, but are we really supposed to believe it all? The small Southern town part is very well done. The other parts are much more heavy handed, like maybe a 12 year old inserted them. But, intentionally heavy handed. I am REALLY bad at explaining myself here. Maybe this isn't how everyone else who reads it sees it. An example of this, for those of you who've read it, is the thing from the carnival. While still very well written, it seems an obvious departure from say, the description of his last day of school and his old teacher.

If you're at all interested in it, be sure to check Trish's review, as her's is much more about the book and not so much about my tired brain seeing things that probably aren't there. You could also read CJ's review at My Years of Reading Seriously. Neither of them got all thinky like I did, so perhaps I am seeing things.

Boy's Life by Robert A McCammon
Thorndike Press
1991
837 pages
Large Print