Happy Birthday, Mom!!

On this day 70 years ago the most amazing woman I know was born!!

I don't have the words to let you know how much you mean to me and the impact that you have had on my life, so I'll just look at you in a sappy, meaningful way, with movie soundtrack music swelling in my head and you'll just know....

This picture was taken last year at the Japanese Gardens in Fort Worth.

I love you, Mom. Happy Birthday!!

2010 Book 23 - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I told you...I am on a roll. I'm addicted to reading at the moment....Can't get enough....

I just finished Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows' book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and loved it. As always, let me give you the back of the book blurb first:

January 1946: Writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.

Let me first say that I wasn't initially drawn to purchase this book. I had seen it on the shelves of many a bookstore and never even picked it up. But then, I recently put in an order of books at Amazon.com and for some reason decided to include this in my order. Amazon seemed to think I would enjoy it as he/she/it kept including it in my "recommendations", which by the way I check almost daily and seemed to flag at least a couple to go into wish list. I thought this book was going to run along the lines of Fannie Flagg and her Fried Green Tomatoes book, and that is probably only due to the strange foods mentioned in the titles. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I picked this book up, looking for a short tome from my shelf, and found that the entire tail is told through a series of letters. I thought "what a great idea to convey a story" and as you can tell completely ate this book up (although not sure I would do the same for a potato peel pie). In my opinion, this is a feel-good, hopeless/hopeful romantic, warm fuzzy, sad and poignant tale that is a totally flipped coin from the last book that I read (The Last Child). This book I give a big two-thumbs-up and hope that if any of you out there want a little cupcake for your mind, you will pick this book up and enjoy it as I did.

(By the way, I call this a cupcake for the mind as it isn't necessarily empty calories like brain-candy but it also isn't a full meal for the mind, either.)

(Also, I've never read any Fannie Flagg, although I have now included FGT on my wish list.)