Barbara Kingsolver is my newest favoritest author...
The Poisonwood Bible is the third book I've read by Kingsolver. Animal Dreams and The Bean Trees were also incredible.
Kingsolver can take a basic image--like a tree or a snake (or a moth, thanks to Kirstin for loaning me Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer,which I just started)--and re-create it as if I'm standing right in front of it. The Poisonwood Bible chronicles the life of the Price family, a family of four daughters, a mother, and a crazy evangelical Baptist missionary man. The book follows the lives of these women (and the man, by way of the women's thoughts on him) through their time in the Congo as missionaries. The family is transported from everything they've known in Georgia to a village with...well, with what seems like nothing. In almost every sense of the word this family falls apart. However each character grows to renew her own sense of self and new ideas of family.
I found myself relating to every woman/girl in the book at least a little. I found that sometimes their disturbing thoughts were only disturbing because I could see those thoughts in me. I rooted for a couple of the characters and cried for all of them. There's just no way a review (at least one I write) could do this book justice. It was amazing.
The quote that made it to my journal: "But that exacting, tyrannical God...has left me for good...trust in Creation, which is made fresh daily and doesn't suffer in translation. This God does not work in especially mysterious ways. The sun...rises and sets...A caterpillar becomes a butterfly, a bird raises its brood...if these things aren't always what I had in mind, they aren't my punishment either."
Really, you don't have to read this one. This is just something I was thinking about on the way home tonight: the soundtrack of my life. Not necessarily songs that represent me, but songs I love enough to have played at my funeral. Or maybe just before, at the pre-funeral party (so I'm alive for it). Those songs that get turned up really loud in the car and make me miss my exit.
But like every mix tape I've ever made anyone, this is like maturbation. It's really just fun for me, so you don't have to watch. Er, I mean...read. :blush
Hmm...Becky Mix. Ok.
Bring Me Some Water...Melissa Etheridge (good times...)
Wild Thing...Tone Loc (shut the hell up, you weren't supposed to read this far anyway)
Kiss Off...Violent Femmes (yummy middle school crushes)
There's a Tear in My Beer...Hank Williams (nod to redneck heritage)
The Safety Dance...Men Without Hats (yay, the 80s!)
Total Eclipse of the Heart...Bonnie Tyler (yay, the 80s!)
I Hate Myself for Loving You...Joan Jett & The Blackhearts (ok, ok, stop with the 80s)
Flower...Liz Phair (perfect for the time in my life that I found it)
She's In Love With the Boy...Trisha Yearwood (country is my little guilty pleasure)
I Build This Garden for Us...Lenny Kravitz (I could live in this song)
7...Prince (If you haven't seen Ike dance to this, you haven't lived)
I Am a Rock...Simon & Garfunkel (I sang this to Jake as a lullaby when he was a newborn...)
I'm Good At Being Bad...TLC (I only wish I was that cool)
Last Dance...Cure (a nod to slow songs)
My Baby Just Cares for Me...Nina Simone
Ok, that's a good length for a soundtrack, I guess. It doesn't include everything, of course, but it's getting later and later. Hmm...just like a mix tape. Staying up all night for something no one will appreciate but me.
That's right, everyone. Passive Aggressive really IS my middle name...
After deleting an entry written in some bizarre state of anger last night, I am marveling at my own passive aggressive nature. Is it healthy? I think not. But is it healthier to just be aggressive and say aloud what I think? I mean, every time? Hmm...I think not.
I've been told before that I need an outlet for my anger. Like a video game or a shooting range. It's true, the things I surround myself with (books, small children) are not acceptable places for me to show anger.
I just won't get angry anymore, ok? No more anger from Becky. Nice sweet me. :angry Oh, I mean :smile