Secret Life of a Bee Swatter
I finished reading The Bridge on the Drina earlier this week. It's the sort of book I never would have chosen to read on my own, but really enjoyed it. Sort of like assigned reading in high school. It is one of those books that probably has a deeper meaning, but I read it lazily in the hammock, so my enjoyment was purely on a superficial reading. I have magazines stacking up, so I read several of those before diving into The Secret Life of Bees. Last night I tried to stop reading with ~50 pages left, but after I turned out my light, I kept thinking about the book. Finally, I crept down the hall to my office and finished the book. I took a Southern fiction class in college and really like that genre, which I suppose this book fits. I'm now feeling a bit guilty for swatting a bee on the porch at Gentleman Caller's parents' house last weekend. At the time, I thought I was saving the grandparents from a bee sting, but now I know that I should have given love to the bee, and maybe drawn it out of the porch with marshmallow peeps or Smarties. For penance, today I bought a tube of Burt's Bees chap stick, in the new honey flavor. Can't say that I'm wild about it; it's a bit gritty. Original is definitely better.
I walked to the library this morning to return the two books and to check out two more. I like to get library books in twos: more than two and I feel I don't get enough exercise walking to and from the library, fewer than two is inefficient. Today, though, I got three. All three looked like fast reads, so it shouldn't be too long until I trek back to the library. I got Home Land, which is about guy who writes to his high school alumni newspaper about how he turned out to be a dud. I'm not sure how this got on my list, but the thesis has potential to be quite funny, though I'm unsure about the execution. I started reading this one when I got home from the library. The other two that I checked out are Holes, recommended by Black Cake, and Running with Scissors, recommended a long time ago by my brother.