My Mom's Messy Book Club

My mom told me today that her book club has chosen to read none other than American Dirt this month. In a moment of true daughter pride, my mom told me she has already spoken to the club about problems she has with the book, without even telling her about our big feelings over here. I sent her a couple articles today in hope that she will forward them along and I am thinking I might have to attend the next meeting just to make sure they know what they are getting themselves in to. As you have mentioned as well, I am hoping to watch Oprah's show thing to see how she handles the whole conversation. And who knows, maybe I can sneak out a copy and read some of it and get back to you on that as well.

Along similar lines, when looking for articles to send to these lovely ladies (they are nice...just misled), I stumbled across one covering different authors and why they chose to write characters outside their own identities. It was an interesting read and I would love to hear your thoughts and how it relates to the whole American Dirt involvement as well.

As for what I am reading, I just finished a short story called "Perfection" by Mark Helprin which follows a Hassidic boy who believes he is on a mission from God to save the Yankees. It was really interesting and odd as I dont usually gravitate to 'sports' stories but this one held its own in a sense that I felt drawn to the characters and the message. The whole short story is about the balance of perfection and how things must be good and bad to summate perfection. One example given was that the rich and the poor may not seem equal on earth but both are necessary for them to be seen as perfect in heaven. Kind of a lot to think about and unpack there so I will leave you with a quote that helps with the same idea:

"The subway, inexplicably elevated aboveground, rolled down its track, taking Roger home. It made many turns indirectly in directions different from the one in which he was headed, but the sum and subtraction of the departures would constitute the precision of the aim, and had the train gone merely in a straight line, it likely would have missed."

A nice thought. Hope you all are well.