Well, it has happened again. I’ve been sucked into the vortex of control. This time, I’m trying to use my freakishly strong powers of control to make my cell phone ring with a very important call. I’ve been waiting on this call for over a year now. I’ve been waiting since I read a certain person’s horoscope in the in-flight magazine on a Kingfisher Airlines flight from Hydrabad to Delhi, and realized major changes were ahead. Research was done. Conversations were had. Letters were written, and applications were filled out. Months passed. And now, we are at the time when the phone should ring. Any minute now.
Somehow, miraculously, I had access to my inner Type B personality over the holidays. She was calm; she was laid back; she realized that constantly making sure the cell phone was never more than 2 feet out of reach would not make the call come one minute sooner. But she is gone now. And all I can say is, “Ring, phone, ring.”
And now, while we wait for the phone to ring, here are this week’s reading recommendations. Two books I read over the holidays before becoming one with my cell phone:
U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton. If you have not read this series, you are in for a real treat. Grafton’s books feature PI Kinsey Millhone, a take-no-bullshit PI who loves junk food and struggles with personal relationships. She once described a toddler as “finger-painting with the contents of his diaper.” As a mom of four, Kinsey brings a great vicarious escape. U is for Undertow is one of the best in the series.
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver also wrote
The Poisonwood Bible, one of my all-time favorites. But The Bean Trees, Kingsolver’s first book, is pure, magical fun. Taylor Greer is desperate to escape rural Kentucky without becoming a teenage mother. She makes her way to Tucson, adopting a baby on the way to building her new life.
- a new punctuation mark designed to emphasize a sarcastic message. The SarcMark website promises:
