All posts by Dona

Smithville, MS

Events, Places

My Aunt Ginny and Uncle Jack live a quiet existence in a town in Northeastern Mississippi. Their days usually consist of watching game shows, talk shows and the hunting channel on television, watching barges going up and down the Tenn-Tom Waterway outside their window or cooking healthy meals. Every few days they take a ride either North or South on Highway 25 for groceries, appointments or other errands.

The town of Fulton is to the North of their house — whose high school is most recently known for canceling prom before letting a lesbian attend with her girlfriend then staging a fake prom to humiliate her.

To their south is a town they like to visit called Amory. In between their house and Amory is a tiny town called Smithville (but pronounced “Smithvul” “Smifful” [thanks Kelli]), which, as Dean noted last week when we visited Aunt Ginny and Uncle Jack, has little to offer than a Dollar Store. Uncle Jack pointed out the post office when we drove past and we also noticed a Piggly Wiggly.

Last week a strong storm — possibly a tornado — went through Smithville and Uncle Jack took us for a ride to see the damage. We saw several trees down and the local hardware store’s metal roof had been blown off and was lying on the ground next to the building.

Yesterday afternoon a massive tornado hit the town and finished off the hardware store, destroyed the post office and heavily damaged both the Dollar Store and the Piggly Wiggly. Aunt Ginny said she saw it going up the waterway and thought it was headed towards her house so she and Uncle Jack took shelter.

While Smithville is nowhere near Bethesda — this is the closest I’ve come to this kind of destruction, having seen the town intact a little over a week ago. My heart goes out to the residents of the town and all other towns affected by the storms yesterday.

Post office
Post office in Smithville, MS (photo courtesy of Corey Smith of Smithville)
Dollar Store
Dollar Store in Smithville, MS
Hardware Store
Hardware store hit twice in less than two weeks time.

Dona and the Three Books

Reading

When last you heard from me I was lamenting my inability to finish a book. Good news! I finished 3 books since last Saturday. I finished 3 books in less than a week. I don’t remember the last time I did something like that — perhaps elementary school.

Please note, I did not begin and finish the three books in less than a week. I just finished them although I did start and finish one within 36 or so hours.

The book that pulled me out of my slump was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I wasn’t excited about reading it — it was for my women-only book group. Someone suggested it a few months ago and the next month the host chose it for book group however it hadn’t been published in paperback at that time so we held off reading it until it was in paperback. I saw it at Costco and reluctantly picked it up.

The first couple of dozen pages did not leave me wanting more, but I persevered and after a while really began enjoying the book which goes back and forth between an in-depth discussion of cellular biology and a story about the family of the woman whose cells, taken and used for research without her informed consent, have led to many medical breakthroughs including the polio vaccine and the discovery that some strains of HPV is directly responsible for cervical cancer.

I preferred the science part of the book, which is unusual for me because I normally don’t like non-fiction. I had a difficult time relating to the family in the book. The author was brutally honest in her depiction of them — something she’d promised the daughter of Henrietta Lacks. I became weary of the daughter and her histrionics wore me out just reading about it.

I learned a lot about patient rights from this book — some things I’d never even thought about. I’m looking forward to our book group discussion of this one.

Directly after finishing Henrietta Lacks, I began reading Room by Emma Donoghue which arrived on my doorstep Saturday afternoon. Room was another book I was not looking forward to reading — I don’t like books written in a child’s voice. I didn’t want to read about a child and mother locked away in a room for years and years. I didn’t want to buy a hard cover book. I bit the bullet, however, and ordered it from Amazon (along with a cookbook I didn’t need). Truth be told — I did vote for Room when asked to choose my top three books out of a list of books I’d either read before and didn’t want to re-read or books I had no desire to read in the first place.

It took me from Saturday afternoon through Sunday night to finish Room and not because I loved it. It was compelling — I’ll say that about it. And I liked it more than I thought I would. I’ll not say any more about it in case you’re planning on reading it. I never got used to the child’s strange speech pattern and I felt it was unbelievable in parts.

After finishing Room I felt free to go back to Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson, which I did love. It is a sweet quirky romantic book with a couple of great characters. The fact that the author’s kids go to my son’s school is only a small reason I chose to read the book in the first place — I’d seen it on my “recommendations” page on Amazon and sitting in a friend’s living room. I suggested it for book group and no one was in the least interested. Ah well, I suppose it is a light read — not a lot of controversy really. It will make a pleasant movie — I’m hoping that the author gets her wish and Major Pettigrew is played by John Cleese.

So now I’m bookless — Fingersmith may be my next book, but I am listening to another Sarah Waters book at the moment and don’t want to confuse myself. I think I’ll read Susan Coll’s* Beach Week — to prepare myself for what to expect when my son leaves for his trip when school is out for Seniors.

*another (former) Whitman parent/author

I’m delighted that I am out of my reading slump. I feel back to myself again.

So many books…

Reading, , , ,

I feel like I’ve written this post before. I have a lot of books — books cause only mild guilt when I purchase them. When I can purchase them for a discount, for instance at Costco, all the better. Add that to being in two book groups and the long wait-time for popular books at the local library. Nearly every room in this house has a book or two (or a dozen) waiting to be read.

Besides the bookshelf filled with double-shelved books in my bedroom, most of which I want to read, I’ve got Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand sitting on my (bookshelf) headboard, face-down, open to the page I stopped reading a couple of nights ago. On my dresser is Let the Great World Spin, the book both book groups read and discussed that I got halfway through and found too boring to finish. (I don’t like books that are made up of short stories, even if they are connected by something). On Dean’s side of the headboard of the bed is The Siege of Krishnapur, another bookgroup read that I got partway through. I do plan to read all of these books.

In the living room I have more bookshelves filled with mostly read, but some unread books. On the table next to the couch are two more books. One is a bookgroup book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and a book I bought to read for fun, Fingersmith. I’m on page 23 of Henrietta Lacks and find it, okay but not exciting. I really want to read Fingersmith. but don’t feel right starting it with so many other books partway read.

The family room holds more bookshelves with double-shelved books as does Clare’s room. My office has work-related books I should read, especially since I’m planning on going back to work full-time in the fall.

It is not that I don’t have time to read — I have oodles of free-time, but I spend it on the Internet or watching television. Is it possible that I don’t like to read anymore? Has the Internet or aging changed my love of the written word?

I blame part of it on belonging to book groups — I don’t read non-book group books when I have a book group book to read out of guilt but don’t like the assigned books so don’t read at all.

I’d quit one or both book groups but they are pretty much the extent of my non-family related social life. Without them I’d be even more of a hermit.

This is an ongoing question, and a real problem for me — not the number of books in the house, but the number of books I want/need to read. Something needs to change and I don’t know what it will be.

Update: I read more of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks last night (about 1/3 of it) and am out of my reading slump. I’m really enjoying it now. Let’s hope it lasts!