Me Gusta Leer

I like to read.  What I don't like to do is fold and put away laundry:

That's about 4 days worth of laundry there.  It never ends, and just when I get caught up, children need baths and to be put into jammies and dirty clothes in the hamper, and the cycle starts all over.

And I know I should say I'm thankful to have clothes to wear, and I'm thankful to have a washer and dryer and electricity and the money to buy nice smelling detergent that cleans our clothes, but I'm not.

I need to change my heart about the laundry, but until that happens, I just hate it, and I hate the fact that it never ends.

This particular mountain, though, was not overcome by my hands.  Yesterday evening I left the house to workout, and when I returned, my sweet husband had folded it all and put it all away.  Isn't he romantic??!  I think so!

And the most romantic thing about it is he didn't even mention it when I came home.  He didn't fish for a thank you.  He just did it for me because he knows I'm a bit overwhelmed with the chores at home and the 3 little children who need me so.  I love him!

But back to the love of reading........  This past year I read some really great books.  God has blessed me with some women in my life who love to read as much as I do and then pass their books onto me.  And of all of the books I borrowed and read in 2010 (totaling probably 8), three in particular stand out as really great books that you must read for yourself.

So in no particular order, here are my 3 favorite books of 2010 with a summary (from Publishers Weekly via Amazon b/c I don't have the time to write my own):

1.)  Starred Review. What perfect timing for this optimistic, uplifting debut novel (and maiden publication of Amy Einhorn's new imprint) set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams. Assured and layered, full of heart and history, this one has bestseller written all over it. (Feb.) 

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

2.) Seventeen years after being forced into a polygamous marriage, Jessop escaped from the cultlike Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints with her eight children. She recounts the horrid events that led her to break free from the oppressive world she knew and how she has managed to survive since escaping, despite threats and legal battles with her husband and the Church. Though sometimes her retelling overflows with colorful foreshadowing and commentary on how exceptional she is, the everyday details she reveals about this polygamous society are devastating and tragic. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

3.) Starred Review. Freelance writer Walls doesn't pull her punches. She opens her memoir by describing looking out the window of her taxi, wondering if she's "overdressed for the evening" and spotting her mother on the sidewalk, "rooting through a Dumpster." Walls's parents—just two of the unforgettable characters in this excellent, unusual book—were a matched pair of eccentrics, and raising four children didn't conventionalize either of them. Her father was a self-taught man, a would-be inventor who could stay longer at a poker table than at most jobs and had "a little bit of a drinking situation," as her mother put it. With a fantastic storytelling knack, Walls describes her artist mom's great gift for rationalizing. Apartment walls so thin they heard all their neighbors? What a bonus—they'd "pick up a little Spanish without even studying." Why feed their pets? They'd be helping them "by not allowing them to become dependent." While Walls's father's version of Christmas presents—walking each child into the Arizona desert at night and letting each one claim a star—was delightful, he wasn't so dear when he stole the kids' hard-earned savings to go on a bender. The Walls children learned to support themselves, eating out of trashcans at school or painting their skin so the holes in their pants didn't show. Buck-toothed Jeannette even tried making her own braces when she heard what orthodontia cost. One by one, each child escaped to New York City. Still, it wasn't long before their parents appeared on their doorsteps. "Why not?" Mom said. "Being homeless is an adventure." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Now that I've shared my favorites for 2010, share yours.  I always morn the end of a really good book because I don't want to be done reading it.  And for the past month or two I pick up books and can't get into them.  I need recommendations please!  I need my next fix from a book I just don't want to put down at night.  I'm a book junkie.