I HAVE A GREAT FAMILY

I am back from Michigan. OK, I confess, I have been back for 8 days. And catching up and feeling guilty about not blogging. It was a wonderful trip filled with happy and hilarious moments and I did not want to come home. I am so blessed to have a family that is not one bit dysfunctional and full of love and respect for each other.

I got to do quite a bit of reading despite all the goings on (a Big Birthday BBQ celebrating 5 birthdays plus the Family Reunion to celebrate my Mom's 90th which is coming up on Jan 1, 2009. The reunion was attended by 80 friends and family members. My two sisters and I made all the food, with lots of help from sons and daughters.)

I read a great first novel, All About Lulu, by Jonathan Evison.

I got to read my friend Laurie Gailunas' first sci fi novel in manuscript form; about infertility and how a planet dealt with and overcame it. Very good, very full of women and sex and hormones. I can't wait until she gets published so you all can read it.

At long last I read Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf. Now I can read The Hours and see the movie.

The latest foster child memoir, Hope's Boy, by Andrew Bridge was fabulous.

I napped my way through A World of Love, by Elizabeth Bowen; a book from the 1955 reading list.

I started but have not finished: Scrambled Eggs at Midnight, by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler, recommended by my daughter-in-law's sister, who is a twin and both sisters read more than I do.

I also started Neal Stephenson's The Confusion, Volume Two of his Baroque Cycle. After 800+ pages of that plus another 800 or so in Volume Three, The System of the World, I will get to read his new book, Anathem, which was just released. My husband is reading it now.

So that is the roundup. I am thinking of starting a weekly post called What I am Reading. What do you think?

As always, I love to hear from you, my readers, to find out what you are reading and anything else you have to say about the reading life.

Stay tuned for micro-reviews of the books mentioned above.