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I am a very contented woman. I am sitting in a comfortable, red leather armchair, looking out windows at a snow covered slope, with pine trees and a blue sky. My first Honey Jack Daniels/diet 7-up/Rockstar is comfortably warming my belly and I just finished a great book.
You know those books that you slow your eyes down as you're reading the last few pages in an attempt to make the experience last? The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly was one of them for me. I felt a bit of sorrow as I saw the pages that were read far outnumbered the pages that were left to read. This first Young Adult novel by a practicing physician and lawyer, who was born in New Zealand, raised in Canada, and currently lives in Texas, is a Newbery Honor book. It's a keeper.
The book is about young Callie, only girl of seven children, living in Texas. The year is 1899. Callie is an observer and has been recording her sightings and scientific thoughts/questions in a little notebook. When a particularly puzzling question about some different grasshoppers leaves her stumped, she musters her courage and approaches her grandfather, with her query. Although her grandfather has lived with them her whole life, all of the children are a bit frightened of this gruff old man who spends his time in his Library or out in the former slave quarters cum Laboratory where he is working on distilling pecans into a drinkable whiskey.
Her curious mind and boldness catches his attention and soon their friendship and explorations became the most important thing in their lives. Callie's mother is determined to make a lady out of her, forcing her to spend endless hours learning to cook, bake, knit and tat (lace making). In her stolen hours she steals away to spend with her grandfather, during which time they discover what might be a new type of plant. They take the specimen into town to have it photographed and sent off to the National Geographic Society.
As I read this delightful book, I thought often of my late grandmother, Edna Boyd, who had many stories about her life on the farm in Minnesota and how she and her many siblings spent their time. She would have gotten a kick out of this enduring story. I am also particularly drawn to stories about girls who lived before electricity. I still have my first copy of Little House on the Prairie.
What eased the bittersweetness of ending this lovely book was the fact that we recently arrived in Running Springs (in the San Bernardino Mountains) to stay for the weekend at a cabin of a distant cousin. He has invited us up repeatedly over the years and this is the first time we've taken him up on it. Boy, have we been missing out. This cabin is divine. Decorated to the last inch in vintage Western, you can tell this place is his pride and joy. (He's a brave guy, inviting us up with three kids!!!) Soon as the majority of our baggage had been brought in and enough stuff had been put away to assuage any guilt over being "lazy", I sat down in this cool chair with my delicious beverage and finished the book. (Ironically enough, this chair reminds me of one owned by my grandfather, Kenny Gribble, also a gruff and slightly intimidating old man.)
Don't worry, I have three more books with me. I am almost halfway finished with The People of Sparks, book two in the City of Ember series, a third through Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, which I started yesterday at work, and have some required reading in The Essential Ernest Holmes, for a class I am taking, plus magazines and five picture books that are up for the California Young Reader Medal award that I wanted to run by my niece before I start reading them to the kids at school, after which they get to vote for their favorite, state-wide.
This place is adorable, from the jukebox stocked with old school (and very palatable) country, the bear skin rug in the master bathroom, to the distressed wooden doors.
Tonight I will be taken out to a Valentine dinner with my sweetie. Life is good. Thanks for listening.
You know those books that you slow your eyes down as you're reading the last few pages in an attempt to make the experience last? The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly was one of them for me. I felt a bit of sorrow as I saw the pages that were read far outnumbered the pages that were left to read. This first Young Adult novel by a practicing physician and lawyer, who was born in New Zealand, raised in Canada, and currently lives in Texas, is a Newbery Honor book. It's a keeper.
The book is about young Callie, only girl of seven children, living in Texas. The year is 1899. Callie is an observer and has been recording her sightings and scientific thoughts/questions in a little notebook. When a particularly puzzling question about some different grasshoppers leaves her stumped, she musters her courage and approaches her grandfather, with her query. Although her grandfather has lived with them her whole life, all of the children are a bit frightened of this gruff old man who spends his time in his Library or out in the former slave quarters cum Laboratory where he is working on distilling pecans into a drinkable whiskey.
Her curious mind and boldness catches his attention and soon their friendship and explorations became the most important thing in their lives. Callie's mother is determined to make a lady out of her, forcing her to spend endless hours learning to cook, bake, knit and tat (lace making). In her stolen hours she steals away to spend with her grandfather, during which time they discover what might be a new type of plant. They take the specimen into town to have it photographed and sent off to the National Geographic Society.
As I read this delightful book, I thought often of my late grandmother, Edna Boyd, who had many stories about her life on the farm in Minnesota and how she and her many siblings spent their time. She would have gotten a kick out of this enduring story. I am also particularly drawn to stories about girls who lived before electricity. I still have my first copy of Little House on the Prairie.
What eased the bittersweetness of ending this lovely book was the fact that we recently arrived in Running Springs (in the San Bernardino Mountains) to stay for the weekend at a cabin of a distant cousin. He has invited us up repeatedly over the years and this is the first time we've taken him up on it. Boy, have we been missing out. This cabin is divine. Decorated to the last inch in vintage Western, you can tell this place is his pride and joy. (He's a brave guy, inviting us up with three kids!!!) Soon as the majority of our baggage had been brought in and enough stuff had been put away to assuage any guilt over being "lazy", I sat down in this cool chair with my delicious beverage and finished the book. (Ironically enough, this chair reminds me of one owned by my grandfather, Kenny Gribble, also a gruff and slightly intimidating old man.)
Don't worry, I have three more books with me. I am almost halfway finished with The People of Sparks, book two in the City of Ember series, a third through Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, which I started yesterday at work, and have some required reading in The Essential Ernest Holmes, for a class I am taking, plus magazines and five picture books that are up for the California Young Reader Medal award that I wanted to run by my niece before I start reading them to the kids at school, after which they get to vote for their favorite, state-wide.
This place is adorable, from the jukebox stocked with old school (and very palatable) country, the bear skin rug in the master bathroom, to the distressed wooden doors.
Tonight I will be taken out to a Valentine dinner with my sweetie. Life is good. Thanks for listening.
