books, books, and more books

This week I have been ignoring my looming Saturday deadline for a writing assignment and retreating to the bedroom to read and eat Special Dark chocolate bars. The stack comes straight from the new book selection at the local library. Usually when I go trolling for books I have exactly 15 seconds to look at the cover and flap before I pop it in my tote or shove it back on the shelf. After every book I have to scan the children's section and count little bodies before I go onto the next title. Tim often asks me after flipping through the selections, "Why on earth did you bring this home?" He doesn't understand the multitasking that go into getting any grownup books home at all while I am surprised that I end up with so many good reads.

American Food Writing by Molly McNeill, a 700+ page anthology of foodie writing and recipes from Thomas Jefferson's adventures with ice cream to a snippet of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. My favorite chapter was one I had read before by food critic Ruth Reichl when she found an exquisite sushi place by following a Japanese fashion plate and asking the waitress to bring her, "whatever she is having." While I doubt I will ever try eating beautifully presented raw fish, Garlic and Sapphires is a wonderfully written account of her job dressing in disguises and eating in the most famous restaurants in New York City.

Good Little Wives by Abby Drake, a murder mystery set in upper crust trophy wife suburbia land.

I Wear the Maternity Pants in this Family by Susan Konig, a cute, but shallow look at life with 4 children.

The Other Mother by Gwendolyn Gross, an okay, slightly interesting read about 2 mothers in suburbia land and the stresses each has, one as a stay-at-home mom of 3 and the other as a working mother of an infant.

Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr, a image-rich view of living in Rome for a year with newborn twins right around the time that Pope John Paul II died and the election of Pope Benedict XVI. It took me right back to our first few months in Naples, especially since we arrived in Italy with a baby the same age as the Doerrs. The food, the noise, the customs, the contrast of decay and exuberance that typify Italy was shown in a thoughtful and introspective way. This was my favorite of all this week's books and if you want to transport yourself to those sad, yet historic days try to find this one at your local library.

Okay, now that I have had my reading escape from needed tasks, back to writing words children might want to read.