August Update

I'm at a strange place in my life. Sometimes I'm torn on this blog as to how much of my personal life to post...on the one hand, I feel like it has no real relevance here and it's best to keep those to spheres completely separate...or as separate as possible. On the other hand, what is going on in my life greatly influences what I read and my general reading habits.

I have been sick for the last month. Of course it comes during Ulysses. It was supposed to be a happy time...my husband and I were expecting. But they lie when they tell it's "morning sickness" because I was sick ALL THE TIME, and for a week survived on chocolate poptarts, macaroni and cheese and baked potatoes. Then, mac & cheese started to make me sick so I switched to spaghetti. I couldn't read at all. This is why I needed something comforting, something easy. I finished Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit last Friday while sitting in my doctor's waiting room. An hour later, I knew that I had had a miscarriage. The next day, I spent a few hours in bed and finished the second movement of Dance to the Music of Time...so now I'm officially half way through it. Over the weekend I picked up Loving by Henry Green, which is ok so far and Once and Future King, which I don't really care for yet (I'm only on Chapter 2), but we'll see where it goes. On Wednesday I had a medical procedure done at the hospital, so for right now other than the big purple bruise on my wrist from the IV, I'm physically recovered or recovering. But I think that it will take a long time to recover emotionally. This has been a rough month, and now it's over, but I don't want it to be.

Yesterday, I picked up The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway. I bought this book two years ago and have been afraid to read it. Somewhere, I read or heard someone say that it's not a book to read when you're at all feeling down, because it is A DEPRESSING BOOK. But seriously, do they expect someone to read such a book when they're happy? I like it thus far. I can tell it will be bleak. But bleak is a place where I am at right now, and I'm sure it will be nice to have Galloway for company.