Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

It’s after dinner and I usually don’t have it in me to write a book review by then; on the other hand, I’m determined to get back on track with posts, and my youngest is headed off to dance with her dad, so here we are. First, however, my day…

This morning I fell back asleep while doing my Duolingo, but I still managed to clean out the top two shelves of my fridge (plus the top shelf in the fridge door) before lunch, so go me. Duplicates were combined, sketchy things have been tossed, and yet there’s never as much more space as I expect there to be–probably because organizing what goes back in means nothing’s crammed anymore. Still, it got done, I took my walk, my son’s med check got taken care of, and dinner has been made and consumed by all. (And the leftovers put away–neatly!)

Alrighty then. Last night, while my hubby was at a BYU basketball game with my son and his friend and all the girls were off to bed, I finished listening to Amy Sarig King’s Attack of the Black Rectangles. (It’s been on my radar for a little bit, but my 15-year-old saw it at the library and was interested, so it moved up on my TBR list considerably.) It’s an interesting, almost-a-fable sort of read; the censorship issue itself is believable, but the town’s various rules and ordinances range from unlikely to patently absurd. The author’s point, however, is well made. I always wish such books had more conservative-but-tolerant characters, but the nature of the fable made that less of an issue for me than usual, and I especially appreciate that Mac’s teacher’s capacity for kindness is noted, along with the incredibly important truth that ‘no one is ever just one thing.’ (I will say that Mac is FAR more mature than the average 6th grade boy–I have a summer-birthday-seventh-grade boy at home, and I speak from experience.) Mac’s incredible granddad lends an originality to the common (but realistic and relevant) difficulty of his unimpressive father, and I especially appreciated how his friendship with Marci is handled. All in all, this is a solid story about both censorship and finding your voice, and I’d recommend it. (You don’t have to have read The Devil’s Arithmetic to fully appreciate it, either. I have, so I know!) My biggest criticism is that it moved awfully fast for everything that it packed in; it could easily have longer.

And there you have it, folks–a post-dinner review! Now on to more things on my to-do list…