Currently Reading...

or actually, I just finished reading... Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. This is the first book, of my own choosing outside of the needs of my teaching career or taking classes of my own, that I have read in a period of less than 2 days in longer than I can remember. Typically, books that I select outside of academia are carried in my purse for weeks or months, only to be read a few chapters at a time whenever I find that I have a spare moment. My schedule has been jam-packed for the longest time, but I found time. I read late into the night on Tuesday night, then woke up early on Wednesday morning and this morning to read it.

The author has developed characters with such realistic life experiences that caught me up and drew me into their world, and Allen's portrayal of the complex reality of the human experience is combined with touches of supernatural, simple, rural Appalachian folklore that does not overwhelm the realism of the story but colors it with a special, nameless ingredient, that which provides excitement, hope, and comfort that, I believe, we somehow all seek outside of the pressures of the daily grind. The book also has a carpe diem theme to it with elements suggesting that we all have our destinies, but in the mean time, let's make the best of what we have and enjoy life in the moments that we have together here and now.

This was a nice, quick summer read.