WorldCat

http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/RowenaDBurke/lists

Adrift in a sea of books here...WorldCat is a great way to keep track of what books I've read & to scope out more good books to read!

My Ideal Summer Hangout

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2012/jun/07/shed-of-year-2012-in-pictures#/?picture=391162617&index=1

Barbarian Nurseries

The Barbarian Nurseries
By Hector Tobar
Reviewed by Rowena Burke

Araceli, a name which means alter of heaven or heavenly homemaker, is truly the star in this new and highly readable novel by Hector Tobar. Without Araceli's constant efforts and often invisible labor, the Torres-Thompson household would be a much less beautiful place. She prepares the meals and she cleans for this family of four. A former art student in Mexico City, she creates art out of found objects in her tiny backyard abode. And she has attitude. Even with the attitude, they keep her, because she is such a capable powerhouse.

When the Torres-Thompson family lets go the other two Mexican household help, Araceli takes on more and more childcare, which is not her forte at all. She becomes adept at it, though, and does her very most thoughtful best.

Most, she misses Pepe, the gardener, who had transformed the yard to a rainforest and kept it up, seemingly effortlessly. She will probably never see him again. The undocumented in the U.S. lead invisible lives until they do wrong.

To me, Scott Torres and Maureen Thompson, the parents in this saga, are half-people leading half-lives. They have worked hard to forget their financially impoverished backgrounds and they have erased Scotts' father, after one politically incorrect comment that offended Maureen.

This very contemporary sweeping novel has been keeping me up late at might and giving me owl eyes- it is that good! The reader may want to keep a Spanish dictionary nearby to keep up with some of the phrases, which are often very pointed and very humorous.

Hector Tobar documents the undocumented and I highly recommend this book!

http://www.hectortobar.com/

The Wedding Gift

Shortly after their wedding in 1934, Josie and Richard received a phone call from a button-hole relative in town named Hattie Chase.  Hattie asked if Richard had the truck available and could they come by soon for their wedding gift.  Josie hoped that Hattie and her husband, who had no children of their own, wanted to give them one of her antique bureaus or tables. She wished it so hard, she dreamed it at night.

The next day, after a full day of work on the farm, Richard and Josie got into the truck and rode into town, where Hattie presented them with a very pretty green and brown, gold-rimmed plate, which Josie always referred to afterwards as the dish that needed a truck!