Long Live the Streak!

The last year or so, I have been lamenting the fact that nothing I have read or listened to has really lit a fire under me. I have to say that still holds true for the listening part - I am not sure if it is because I don't have the free time for true listening immersion that I once had, or if it is that my persepective has changed so radically after having children. (I actually like it when REM does "Shiny Happy Monsters" or Goo Goo Dolls do "Pride" on Sesame Street; I even think the beginning of the Go, Diego, Go song "Rescue Pack" sounds like the beginning of Janes Addiction's Had a Dad. I am sure you see how this is problematic?) Or maybe the music is just totally sucking. It seems that I used to have a love affair with a book or CD every month or so. To be fair, I must say that I am liking Band of Horses and Kings of Leon a lot right now. But am I in love with them? Not really. Anyway, if anyone has been blown away by something they listened to lately, for God's sake, drop me a line and let me know what the fuck it was.

Then, suddenly, I read Ecology of a Cracker Childhood. Magic! I had not been so excited over a book in years. (Well, excepting the Diana Gabaldon Outlander series, which is more of a crack-like addiction than something that sings in my soul. Okay, actually, that is not a fair comparison, but i will have to blog about Outlander some other day. Suffice to say, Gabaldon herself says that the best Outlander description she has read was by Salon.com:

"The smartest historical sci-fi adventure-romance story ever written by a science Ph.D. with a background in scripting 'Scrooge McDuck' comics."

Well said. Check them out. Fun reads.

Whoa. Tangent. Okay, as I was saying, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood excited me in a way no book had in years! I even blogged about it here. My sister and husband were not quite as thrilled with it as I was, but their tastes simply aren't as refined as mine. Todd and I often share books with one another, because while we both have our own interests (I like redemption, he likes the dregs of society stories), there is a common ground where those interests overlap. Todd picked up a used copy of Ferrol Sams' Run with the Horsemen at our local independent bookstore, Bound to Be Read. After he finished it, he mentioned that I might like it. I opened it, and a streak was born!

Run with the Horsemen was like reading Mark Twain for the first time. The protagonist, Porter Osborne, Jr. is as puckish as Huck and as smart as Holden Caulfield. Did I mention that he is laugh-out-loud funny? I may be in love with a fictional character. (Wouldn't be the first time.) Porter struggles with adolescence, and education, race, and the realization that his parents might not be as perfect as he thought they were. And it all takes place in 1930s Depression-era Georgia, so it is close to my heart. Todd and I both couldn't believe that we had never heard of it before, and wondered why it was never taught in literature classes. (This would have to take place at the college level, though, because Porter is quite preoccupied with breasts, wet dreams, and penis size.) For the second time in months, I was sad to see a book end.

Then, when I visited my friends James and Dana (a voracious reader herself), I looked up at their bookshelf to see Run with the Horsemen, and come to find out that they also love Ferrol Sams' Porter trilogy. Trilogy? Trilogy!? Praise the Lord! There are more of them! We have purchased the second book, The Whisper of the River, and if it is half as good as the first, I will write about it here, I am sure

I picked up The Secret Life of Bees, with not a lot of hope for a repeat of the pleaurable reading experienced during Run with the Horsemen, but I was wrong. Sue Monk Kidd's novel is smart, beautifully written and echoes with the emptiness an absent mother could leave in a daughter. It deals with being Southern, and with race, but also with the universal theme of love and finding it in the most unexpected places. Kind of like the way that the riches of a good read are found in the most unexpected places. Long live the streak!