the girl's guide to hunting and fishing

To start, this book (by Melissa Bank) has nothing to do with literal hunting or fishing. It has to do with the elaborate dances we as females do throughout life to attract 'the one.'

I saw this book on a list of 'books to read before you turn 30' and serendipitously spotted it at a thrift store a week later. As I am turning 30 later this month, I sped through the book this last couple weeks, striving to see what made it make the 'list.'

The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing was engaging and a quick read for me. I was able to identify with some of the main character Jane's experiences. Jane narrates most chapters, and each is told at a different period of her life (adolescence, twenties, middle aged, beyond). I enjoyed watching Jane grow as a more self respecting woman as she aged.

This book was definitely not life changing for me in the ways that many others have been. The one take away I have is that through all the different periods of her life, Jane's voice was still Jane. Yes, she grew wiser through experience, she stood up for herself more, she began to love and respect herself more. Yet, her voice was consistent. I have heard many older women say they feel like their 20 year old self in an older body and reading this book helped me understand that. Even as Jane aged, she still had the same hopes, dreams, memories, sass, etc.

I would recommend this book to other women my age who want a quick read that will have them laughing, relating and reminiscing.

poisonwood bible

My mom, sister and I decided to have a book club this summer. We read Poisonwood Bible and met up for a weekend to enjoy one another's company and discuss the book.

I read Poisionwood Bible as a high school junior. I remember sitting in Mrs. Worthington's class discussing the nuances of the text with a classroom full of AP students, all of us in various stages of discovering our own philosophies on life. Growing up in liberal Olympia but also in a fairly conservative family, I understood both sides of the debates that would often emerge in class in response to Kingsolver's words.

Reading Poisonwood Bible for the second time, a little more than ten years later, was a different experience. Rather than reading the book while my own perspectives were still growing and moldable, I read it this time against the backdrop of fairly solid views about life. Rather than push me towards some idea, this time Kingsolver's words challenged or agreed with beliefs I already hold.

What stood out to me in this reading was the fact that I could identify with some aspect of each of the Price daughters. I wonder if Kingsolver wrote them in a way that they each represented some element of humanity.

I identified with Rachel as someone who can sometimes have a limited view of the world. Living in the United States this is so easy to do. We do not have a sense of where the food we eat comes from, the labor that goes into the products we use on a daily basis, the suffering that is happening on the other side of the planet. Although Rachel was not a likeable character for me, many times I felt I could see myself in her naivety and simplified view of life.

Adah was the character I identified with most at the beginning of the book. Adah sees herself as often in the shadow of others, even forgotten. While her twin sister Leah is always aiming to please, Adah does not believe she could please her father if she tried (or even cared). While I do not feel these things as poignantly as Adah, I identify with parts of this and especially the vivid (albeit sometimes strange) inner dialogue she has.

This time around I identified more with Leah than I had before. I identify with her childhood spent striving to be a perfect daughter in her father's eyes, and her adulthood spent seeing her father as the mortal, imperfect man he's been all along. I also identify with Leah's experience of this perspective change not only with her earthly father, but her heavenly father as well. Though not in the same ways as Leah, I can identify with her view of life, death and humanity expanding, forcing her narrow view of God and faith to be stretched beyond capacity. After what she has experienced in the jungle, Leah would be unable to keep believing in the God she grew up believing in, unless she allowed that faith to be transformed to something bigger and in many ways, altogether different. I have been through this process as I have grown up and seen that life is a lot bigger than me- so God needs to be able to be too.

Lastly, there is Ruth May. She is the youngest, and the first to die, however I believe she had the most positive and long lasting impact on all the lives the story touches. Ruth May is the character I hope to grow into. She loves selflessly, gives without asking questions and is completely honest.

Reading Poisionwood Bible for the second time was a gratifying experience. I especially loved being able to discuss it over breakfast with my mom and my sister. I hope to read many more books together with them through the years!

one page at a time

I have always been an avid reader. As a child it was my mother who instilled the love of words in me. When I was young she worked as a journalist, and I remember visiting her at work and being enchanted by all the text and type surrounding me. Beyond writing, my mother has always been a reader. She is the type of person who can devour a book in an evening. At a young age, she read to me, and encouraged me to tell stories, acting as my scribe as I concocted whimsical tales.

I enjoyed reading all throughout my childhood. I still recall getting carsick on family road trips because I refused to put my book down even on the most windy roads. When riding in the car at night I'd strain my eyes to catch a few words off the page at each street lamp the car passed under.

My love of reading continued through elementary, middle and high school and into college. Since college, I have continued to read and have discovered some books, poems and essays that have altered my perspectives, given me a voice and inspired me to action. While I have participated in a couple book clubs, and have read books in unison with friends and family, I miss writing about what I read.

I hope this can be my outlet to wade through the books (and other texts) I am reading. I do not know yet what form it will take, but that is what I am looking forward to. I am excited to examine my journey through books- and through life- one page at a time.