Let's Get This Weekend Book Party Started

Many thanks to all of the people who commented on my last post--you have no idea how much your encouragement, your insights, and your hugs meant to me! I'm feeling much better today, thankyouverymuch. It's been a "one word at a time" climb, but this morning, I am the girl on top of the cake: inspired, grounded, grateful, and enthusiastic. By the way, the cake is tiered, like boxes that get smaller and smaller, all piled on top of each other. It is chocolate-coconut flavored, with butter cream icing, and it tastes delectable.

I'm finishing "In Cold Blood" this weekend. It is an amazing book. Through skeins of detail, Capote made me feel sorry for one of the criminals, Perry. Capote depicted an angry but sensitive man, able to compartmentalize his violent actions. A killer who made each victim comfortable before he fired a gun into his or her head. A man of impeccable manners. An insecure, yet arrogant man with remarkable perception. A life wasted, along with four others (and I guess 5, if you consider the other criminal--but I really don't count him because he had a compulsion to run over dogs and I just couldn't get past that). Very emotional, but just a stunning and significant story.

I like the idea of being able to read in Spanish, so about a year ago, I bought myself the Easy Spanish Reader. This is a nice little book, although I've read it a few times and am tired, now, I tell you, of the stories about Enrique and Maria. Like Dick and Jane, they are incredibly simple people. I do not care that they are good students. I do not care about the size of their houses or their families. I do not care about their relationship with one another. I want drama. I want intrigue. I want tweedy texture. I want Dr. Phil and bowling pin explosions and spit shined windshields and stainless steel appliances. I want a momentum of words. In Spanish.

So, I took two copies of my kind of book, Sandra Cisneros' short story collection, Woman Hollering Creek, out of the library last week, one written in English and the other in Spanish. I'm going to read the English version first (have perused a couple of the stories and am insanely jealous of this woman's talent--I want to write JUST LIKE SHE DOES), then try the Spanish one. With the English copy right next to me, in case I need it for a reference (like I won't).

If this works well, maybe an untranslated reading of Don Quixote?

I'm kidding.

P.S. Read Sandra Cisneros. Her work is so good. "The House on Mango Street" is one of my favorite books. It is poignant and moving. So is "Carmelo." Oh, and we just borrowed a children's book that she wrote, "Hair/Pelitos," from the libary. It looks delightful.