Summer Reading

I used to spend my whole summers buried in a book either under a tree or on a swing, I miss those days and having time to read. So when I had two friends loan me books this summer, Eat Pray Love and Coal Miners’ Wives, I was excited to read something different. I shortly found out why I don’t read anymore though. With knitting I can sit outside while the kids play and still watch them, answer their questions, drop it down fast, and keep track of what is going on. Trying to read the books outside was very different about the time I would get into a book, I would have to put it down lol. Just not as easy to do with kids.

The Coal Miners’ Wives book just really touched a core with me, it was about things that I grew up hearing. I knew women that lived this life (my mom being one) and although times were different when I was growing up, not much had changed. We didn’t live at the company camps but we still knew the fear and dread. We all dreaded the shift changes, the strikes, the fear, the companies wanting the money first and the miners were lower on the priority, and the layoffs. We would have fish sticks so many times when dad would be laid off, that I still can’t stand to eat them. Dad would work construction jobs and then a midnight job at the park, while mom worked as well. I remember going to school in dresses mom had made or shirts that were boys, and she would make them up pretty for me. I would love to see this book as a documentary on TV and encourage others to read it. It does have slow moving parts but is a really good book and really tells how Coal Miners’ Wives live.

Ok now for Eat Pray Love…I’m not going to be very popular on this review. I really did not care for this book and I know that it was on Oprah and everyone loved it, but I found the author jumped around A LOT. You would be in Italy talking to someone and then boom in another city or town doing something else. It did have some funny parts and I wish more of the book was written that way. She really didn’t stop jumping around till the end when she met her guy but then of course I don’t like reading what you do to satisfy yourself or each other in bed so that didn’t win me over either. I’m glad others have found enjoyment out of reading this book and the peace they needed from it…but I found no peace and was glad to close the back cover on this one. (My typical books are classics or Christian novels (Oke, Livingston, Lewis, and etc).


On a positive note I did finish my 2nd square and the color change looks better. I think I’m going to continue making these for my n’bor’s Christmas. I wanted to make them a throw of some kind…the red, white, and blue works well for them too.

I hope you all have a great day of knitting : )