Lily lounges and Lola checks out the scenery on the Iowa/Nebraska state line.
When they've hoofed it a half mile or so, they began to calm down enough to get a nice sit out of them.
Lily checks out the river. And apparently I'd yelled for them to say "Cheese!" since they are looking very expectantly at me.
I think we hit a perfect and balmy 90 degrees. Then five days later we shivered through the second coldest 4th of July on record. Go figure. They say that if you don't like the weather in Iowa to stick around for 20 minutes because it'll change.
My friend Kim says I'm eclectic. My friend Michelle says I'm a freak. They probably mean the same thing and I'm taking both as a compliment. Here are a few scenes from Saturday's shopping marathon.
Notice the adorable kerchief-headed ninnie-muffin. These photos were the alternating views in my rearview mirror.
And let's just say a van containing five females who happen to find kerchief-headed ninnie-muffin hilarious is not a quiet van.
The cup-on-the-head incident pales in comparison to the delirious scarf dance at the store that directly followed the cup-head factory.
In my defense I'd like to claim peer pressure AND the saving up of shopping urges.
That said. Four pairs of shoes. Buy One Get One 1/2 Price - all. One pair has already been worn. Another ended up netting me an additional four $ off.
I am the queen of justification.
Gifts. Bargain ones at that. Really. How can THAT be bad?
An uber-bargain on bar stools for my new island...the one that is still in my hubby's mind and hopefully falls out very soon in a three-dimensional form with doors and drawers.
I didna spend much at all at Target, and only three $ at Bed, Bath and Beyond. And I really felt that was necessary since a burst of enthusiastic behavior may have lost them a few customers.
But the best thing of all...was a set of pictures that I have wanted for an entire year. I saw these at the art festival last summer and regretted not purchasing one or both. Together they cost me way less than a daily cup of McD's drive thru coffee. And they bring me as many smiles.
My wonderful husband told me to get both. I hesitated twelve seconds and then slapped the plastic magical buying implement down on the counter.
Aren't they cute? They will be fabulous against my red kitchen walls.
Siri Mitchell has visited the Dregs before. Click here to read her interview and reviews of some of her previous titles. She has written one of my favorite chick-lits and a favorite historical. Me likey Siri Mitchell. : )
About the Book:
In the small Puritan community of Stoneybrooke, Massachusetts, Susannah Phillips stands out both for her character and beauty. She wants only a simple life but soon finds herself pursued by the town's wealthiest bachelor and by a roguish military captain sent to protect them. One is not what he seems and one is more than he seems.
In trying to discover true love's path, Susannah is helped by the most unlikely of allies, a wounded woman who lives invisible and ignored in their town. As the depth, passion, and sacrifice of love is revealed to Susannah, she begins to question the rules and regulations of her childhood faith. In a community where grace is unknown, what price will she pay for embracing love?
If you would like to read the first chapter of Love's Pursuit, go HERE.
My Review:
One of my all time favorite books is Geraldine Brook's Year of Wonders. Siri Mitchell's Love's Pursuit comes close. Both are tragic and horrifying in their raw honesty. Both are beautiful in description and detail, in character, and in ability to transport the reader to a vastly different time and place.
Mitchell has earned her spot in a short list of authors that I'm guaranteed to want to read regardless of the title or subject matter. And Love's Pursuit is not a book I'd pick up based on the title or the cover. A romance this is not, love story, yes. But as we all know a love story is not guaranteed a clean and happily-ever-after ending. Some reviewers have struggled with the back and forth first person point of view and the slower pace. The novel is literary fiction, meant to be absorbed, and if you expect slow going you will probably have less struggle.
The aspects of faith are woven seamlessly into the struggle of the characters' lives. But be warned that the horror of the hardships and brokenness of some characters could be troublesome for sensitive readers. The details of the Puritan life were fascinating. Mitchell, wielding a brush of vivid and stark prose, creates a story full of abuse, sexuality and violence, and paints the lives of a people attempting to create a new Zion or a city of light on a hill, and falling far short.
In his second book, novelist Michael Snyder introduces us to three very unusual and distinct voices all torn by tragedy: Willy Finneran, washed-up genre novelist with an espresso maker that just won’t die and a habit of avoiding conflict even if it means putting the truth on a sliding scale. Ozena Webb, single mother and Javatek’s top customer service representative. She spends every evening playing board games with her twelve-year-old son who is mentally crippled from an early childhood accident. Shaq, a small and scraggy homeless man with trauma-induced blank spots on his memory, trying to piece together the story of his life while assisting Father Joe at the Mercy Mission. As their stories intersect, the narrative vacillates between hope and naivete, comic relief and postmodern ennui. Startling in its authenticity, this unforgettable novel reveals that no matter how far one has strayed from hope, there is always a way to return
My Review:
I was a little hesitant to read Return Policy. I loved Russell Fink and the characters Michael Snyder created so much that I was a little afraid that he couldn't quite do it again.
Return Policy is a very different book. Same unique lad-lit voice, similar deeply flawed and broken characters, same creative and capable wordsmithing, but very different. This time Snyder uses three first person points of view to tell a series of separate stories that end up connecting in a somewhat unbelievable spider web. I saw a few connections unfolding early on, but a couple snuck up on me right before the t's were crossed and the i's dotted.
Snyder's strengths are in excellent characterization. I grew to care about these people and kept reading to find out what would happen to them, hoping they would find good things at the end of the book. Snyder also manages to write almost heartbreakingly poignant scenes that scream with the unfairness of life and the tragedies that seem to wait around the corner ready to pounce on the unsuspecting and innocent. Gifted with a bizarrely charming sense of humor, Snyder laces his prose with quirky thoughts and situations. The spiritual skeleton in Return Policy is buried under the subtle layering of muscle and skin and becomes the frame on which the story is hung. Bottom line, someone not looking for a religious read may not even notice that Jesus has entered the story.
Not everyone who reads Return Policy is going to love it. Fans of action packed page turning novels will likely get frustrated with the introspection and pace of this novel. Those who read only G-rated and scripture laced fiction may have issues with some of the situations, a few words and the fact that there are no conversions in this story. Discussions, yes, but. Toward the end the pace hurried a bit, and the final strings were tied very neatly, maybe a bit too neatly. I didn't have any trouble following the changing POV, the sections and scenes are marked.
Overall, I'm a solid Michael Snyder fan and look forward to his next novel which I hope is in the works.
Lily lounges and Lola checks out the scenery on the Iowa/Nebraska state line. 
