Vacation!!

Colorado Rocky Mountain High~

Can I say how much fun we had?? Nope.
Can I say how cool and green it was?? If you must.
Can I say how hard it is to come back to reality?? Never!

Denver is trendy...they're fit and under 40!
I swear!
Everyone rides bikes and walks dogs.
I felt like I was missing out by not having either one with me.
We loved it - the city is awesome!

We were so impressed by the kindness of everyone we met in Colorado.
We adventured daily and ended up on spur of the moment side trips.
I feel bad that there are no photos of our Segway tour.
I was camera-less.
It was my favorite event.

We visited The Tattered Cover Bookstore in downtown Denver
and spent 2 hours there searching the aisles.
In their honor I leave you with two short reviews on books I finished on vacation.

Savvy
by Ingrid Law

I don't think I can put into words how poetic this book is.
What a sense of voice!!
I was bowled over.
The book description does no justice to this book.
You just have to dive right in and get ready for some great writing.

Mibs is turning 13. That's the age when folks in her family get their "savvy" - their special powers. Mibs is waiting for hers. Will it be electrical, like her brother, Rocket's? Will it be a hurricane like her other brother? Will it be to always be perfect, like her mom? When Mibs gets hers she finds that it is not an easy one to live with, but like life, she learns to listen to the right voices at the right times.

This book was quirky and delicious - all at the same time!

I loved what the author had to say when she talked about sitting down to write the book -

" Well, when I started writing Savvy, I sat down one day and decided -- I knew I was going to write a new book. I didn’t know what I was going to write and I simply decided I was going to write the craziest sentence that came into my mind without editing it or judging it or anything. And so I wrote, “When my brother Fish turned thirteen, we moved to the deepest part of inland because of the hurricane and, of course, the fact that he'd caused it.” And it turned out to stay the very first sentence of the book. From that one line, the story sort of grew. That one line was the seed for the entire story.

However, I did have some other thoughts that went along with it after I came up with that line. I have been reading a lot of tall tales and I liked the idea of creating a story about magical children that never used the word “magic” and relied much more on a sense of big fish stories, tall tales, this sense of Americana magic, really, which is based more in the individual finding strength within them to overcome whatever their challenges are."

I recommend this one to teachers, writers, 4th grade and above students and those willing to read some delicious writing!

(PS - The author is from Colorado - what a great way to start the vacation!)


The Violets of March
by Sarah Jio

A heartbroken woman stumbled upon a diary and steps into the life of its anonymous author.

In her twenties, Emily Wilson was on top of the world: she had a bestselling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of GQ, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after.

Ten years later, the tide has turned on Emily’s good fortune. So when her great-aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. Researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal startling connections to her own life.

Pleasant and engaging. I enjoyed this companion of a book as we traveled. I really enjoyed how the book evoked my feelings and memories of growing up on Mercer Island in the Puget Sound. Predictable? Yes, but I was ready for that.

Welcome back to the surface of the sun!!!

(And on to paint at J&K's new house!! I guess that means the vacation is over....)