Confessions
The Bell Jar
From the back: "The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood; brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under- maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic."The novel is beautifully written and thrusts the reader deep into the madness of Esther. Esther describes her predicament as living under a bell jar- where the air is stale and she can't break free. Falling deeper and deeper into her own despair, Esther's trials mirror those of Sylvia. Interning at a magazine in NYC, breaking down and suicide attempts were all a part of Sylvia's life- which to me is why the novel is so well written- it boarders on memoir. Much of the novel is obviously embellished for literary reasons, but the backbones are built around the truth of Sylvia's life.
Coming up:
I've begun Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl by former city slicker Susan McCorkindale. So far, I love it. I can relate and it is laugh out loud funny. Matt even picked it up and read the first chapter and laughed!
Also...
We are seriously beginning to look at houses - get a small move-in ready as a starter and build our own?... put a modular on our land and later build on?... continue to rent and start building on the land? Decisions decisions! At least I know what I want my INTERIOR to be. I am a total country girl. So anyway, I figured we would be starting within a year (any of the above options) so I better get started on some interior additions- like cross stitch designs. Soooo I will have a few of those that I am starting to share at some point.
Cut by Patricia McCormick
Blurb from the back: Callie cuts herself. Never too deep, never enough to die. But enough to feel the pain. Enough to feel the scream inside. Now she's at Sea Pines, a "residential treatment facility" filled with girls struggling with problems of their own. Callie doesn't want to have anything to do with them. She doesn't want to have anything to do with anyone. She won't even speak. But Callie can only stay silent for so long...The Wednesday Sisters
up girlie girl books. The last time I read any chick-lit was when I was in high school. Not to say that this brand of literature doesn't have its place- I just don't love reading these types of books. So, imagine my own surprise when I decided I needed a break from all of my mind benders and non-fiction novels and ended up picking up a book from the "hot summer reads" table at B&N. The tag line was what intrigued me - a story about friendship, motherhood, and writing. And it was set in the 1960s. Without giving the story away... it is a beautiful novel about friends who meet every week to grow and learn from one another. Their kids play together, their husbands work together, and they write together. It is a story about sisterhood - the bond formed between women. The book made me feel excited, enraged, happy, empathetic, disappointed, relieved, strong and a whole host of other things. I laughed, cried, and sang their praises. It was a great ride of emotions and the more I read, the more I was pulled in. I also loved the book because it discusses many notable novels and authors in literature. Books that I believe every person should read before they die (especially Jane Austen). I suggest this book to any woman - young or old, single or married, mother or not. The general pull on emotions will reach any type of woman.

