Book Review ~ The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

There's one sure fire way to make a book a best-seller.  Ban it.  Ban it, then have numerous articles floating around the webs, and then people like me, who aren't up on the newest reads, who never would've stumbled across the book ever, then HAVE to buy the book, immediately.

True story.

So I read an article about this book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, and how parents were having it banned from a School Library, and how a group of teens started buying the books to give out, and there were cops involved, and free books, and angry parents.  Apparently the book was riddled with colorful subjects that parents weren't ready for their kids to read.

The book is really about a boy growing up on an Indian reservation, life as a teen, and throwing in the twist of going to school outside of the reservation.   Through candid words, and cartoons (the main character, Junior, was an aspiring artist), the writer takes you through illness, addictions, bullies, death, friendship, poverty, racism, life in a reservation, love, and life in general.

So is the book ban worthy?  Let's put it this way, I would not want my 8 year-old son to pick it up.  For now.  In a year or two, or three, heck yes.  The writing was wonderfully done, the story was captivating, moving, and should be read... just not by immature children.  There's talk of serious addiction, deaths, masturbation, but these are real life things that every child will have to face, and the way this book faces these issues is perfect.  So let's not ban it, but let's put it on the shelf away from the elementary kids... if you're asking me.

And no one's asking me if I think they should ban the book, but you may asking me if it's worth your time to pick it up.  And yes, yes you should read this book.  Especially in the age of poor writing and prose dominating the book store shelves.  And hey, every adult should be able to indulge in a book with cartoons every once in awhile.  ;)

Have you read any good books lately?  Did you pick up, "True Diary"?  What did you think?

~Emily


ps.  I bought this book with my own cash, and was not paid in any way for my review or my opinions.  

~May in a Glimpse~

I know they say, "April showers bring May flowers", but I think it goes more along the lines of  "Funky April weather brings May showers, and tons, TONS of bugs."

And by bugs I mean Inchworms.  Billions of them.  On plants, in the air, in your hair.  Everywhere.

And the damage they've been doing is awful.  Every tree is covered in half chewed leaves, and rolled up cocoons.  Which makes me thankful that my flowering plants are starting late this year from the winter, or I'd be spending every waking moment picking the gross things off.

And I promise that's the last of the worm pictures for now.  I just have never seen so many of them, and I'm hoping this isn't a sign on how the rest of the insect world will be doing this year.  If it is someone best be buying me a whole flock of Guineas and Ducks.  And then they better hire someone to take care of them too.  (Just in case that someone is reading this, and thinks I need a whole flock of anything right now.  ;p  )

May had been so full of rain that I didn't reach any of my gardening goals.  We were just excited for the few times we were able to get outside in between the storms.

Even Penny was excited.  But don't get me started on her.  She's been filling my days with getting tangled and stuck, or just plain out yelling, because a certain man around here has her so spoiled, that she's getting hard to enjoy.  But back to the garden....

Somewhere out there we have Zukes, and Cukes, Pumpkins and Squash.  Radish, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, Spinach (which never does well for me).  There's kale, loofah, chard, sunflowers, popcorn, and two Raspberry bushes.  The only thing we bought this year were the two raspberry bushes, and a flat of tomato plants.

I don't really have any great expectations for success this year.  I'm doing everything against the books.  My seeds are all over two years of age, and stored completely the wrong way.  I'm not really companion planting anything, and I'm by no means following the right planting schedule.  It's all fly by your seat gardening, knowing that next year, with all the added compost, and care of the soil from this year, it's going to be ten times easier to work with.

And hopefully soon, with some extremely creative budgeting, I'll get some sort of fence up around everything so I don't have to plant ten times the normal amount to count for losses due to animals and small children.

It's amazing how much a small toddler foot can wipe out in a second.  (And don't you love the black eye?  This child has no grace.  She managed this injury while sitting in a parked trailer.)

For June we already have tons scheduled around here.  I'm gutting both children's rooms, repainting, scrubbing, the works, all while trying to finish everything outside too, ohhh and there's knitting too.

Time to get back out there!

How's your spring going?

~Emily

~April in the Garden~

I have this little plan in my head to do a wrap-up at the end of each month.  Maybe week by week photographs of the garden in progress.  Even if it still only looks like this:

Which I do suppose is actually a lot of progress compared to past years, where I'd still be digging out rocks, and making compost heaps, and constantly burning out snakes.  There's just not quite the progress that I would like to see.  I'd like to see a fence there.  And hay, and mulch, and my compost bins moved...  but at least there's these:

Things are growing.  And thank you God for radishes that pop up in the blink of an eye and make you think there's hope after all.  And thank you even more for the super seeds I have that survived 2 years of storage, in a ziploc bag, under my desk.  That's a garden on a budget for you.  Nope we don't have any tomatoes, but I do have this odd mix of loofa seeds from three years back we can plant.  ;p

And heck, if it all fails, at least there's one little girl, who refuses to leave the ponytail in her hair, who has had a dang good time in her mud holes.  You know, for the whole five minutes I can get her to sit down.  And she's only there to see if the berries (that we have yet to plant) have grown.

So there's some hope in that there dirt.  And the memories are already sprouting up.

And spiders.  They're popping up too.  Everywhere.  Still better than snakes or snow.

How's your garden growing?

~Emily