Don't Judge a Book by its' Fantastical Creature Content.

     I definitely enjoy getting into a good book.  It seems the past several years though, I've mainly been reading dietetics oriented books with a thick bibliography section or more how-to type things like How to Keep an Organized Home when you have a Disorganized Head (it was something like that.)  But an amazing thing has happened in the past seven months and that thing is me becoming a housewife.  And housewives that don't have kids yet get to do woman of leisure type things like read books all morning with really good coffee and dark chocolate biscotti while their husbands are at work.  If they play it right and have a nice dinner on the table when husband comes home, husband usually doesn't ask too much what you did all day.  So the book before last I read A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken, which is by far the greatest romance novel ever written.  It is not actually a romance novel but a non-fictional memoir.  I promise it rivals "The Notebook" anyday.   By a long shot.   It is tear your heart out, sobbing on the pages, make you want to tell your husband he is the most wonderful person in the world and you are so grateful he goes to work all day while you read in your pajamas kind of good.  Well that was several months ago... 

     Either wisely or unwisely, I gave myself a job as owner/employee/dishwasher/cook/marketing director/driver/financial advisor and errand girl of my own little business and now my days of not having to be anywhere are getting fewer and fewer.  Which is great and exciting and good.  But also kind of terrifying and rushed.  So Monday, in a great moment of "seeing the silver lining of every situation," I realized that having my laptop down meant that on our trip this weekend I couldn't do any "work."  We have a lot coming up with the holidays (we'll have exciting news to share in a few weeks here!!) and our trip can really be a great time to rest up before keeping the oven going full speed the next month or so. 

     Our friend is getting married at Chataqua in Boulder, Colorado so we booked a little cottage there for a long weekend.  We've got an early morning flight and then of course I'm sure typical delays, etc. so I started looking for a good book to read.  Reid and I briefly contemplated buying "dueling" books such as "Trickle Up Poverty" and "Dreams of My Father."  (Or my new food processing book and "In Defense of Food.") I figured if I wanted to make my head spin though I'd at least read something useful like "Small Business for Dummies."  I finally decided I just needed to find something for pure enjoyment.  Not deep. Not useful.  Just a good page-turner I could curl up with on the flight or surrounded by snow (thanking the good Lord I live in Georgia). 

     Luckily for me, a Washington, GA local just released her second novel and it is the perfect vacation book.

     I feel I need to preface how I came around to reading her first book "The Unicorn Girl".  In January of this year I was up in Washington visiting my future husband and town.  We had coffee at The Fitzpatrick Hotel and I noticed there were novels on sale in the lobby titled "The Unicorn Girl."  I (correctly) assumed they were written by a local author.  I passed over them because a) I was busy planning a wedding and b) I'm not really into unicorns.

     Months later, post wedding and early market, I noticed "The Unicorn Girl" on sale at one of the Washington Farmer's Market's vendors table.  I assumed the vendor either knew the unicorn author or was the unicorn author, but I didn't ask to find out.  Honestly I didn't really want to inquire when I really had no intention to buy a book about unicorns.  I thought it may be weird and I didn't want to be put into a situation of not liking it and then avoiding whoever the author or author's friend was for the rest of my life so they wouldn't ask me if I liked it. 

    Months after that, I got to know Sandy, "the unicorn book vendor", and found out it was her daughter Melissa who was "the unicorn author."  Even though Sandy was completely normal I still tried to avoid asking any questions about the unicorn book.  I honestly did not think any book about a mythical creature would be anything I would be the least bit interested in.  But finally last month, on a spur of the moment whim probably caused by lack of sleep, I bought the unicorn book.  I felt kind of brave for doing it especially with the whole possible social awkward interactions it could cause.

    But instead of not liking it I was absolutely captivated.  I started the book Sunday afternoon and read it late until the night along with a package of our leftover "Better Than's" (cheese straws) from the market and a glass of wine.  Then I stayed in my pajamas all morning and into the afternoon Monday reading it with coffee.  I kept thinking "I'll stop at this chapter and get some laundry done" until I finally just decided I had to finish it before I could do anything else.  It had been such a long time since I was that sucked into a novel that I literally couldn't put it down. 

    I think "officially" the book is targeted toward adolescents but I'm 26 and kind of really loved it.  It is about this young girl growing up in a huge castle that becomes friends with a (nice) witch woman who had been best friends with the girls' deceased mother.  A rival cousin is involved as well as a king, a prince, a (mean) witch stripped of her powers, a mysterious illness, and of course some unicorns.  After the mysterious illness she runs away from her home and embarks on an epic journey to fulfill whatever her calling is that is associated with her illness.  It is a book that has unicorns in it but I swear to you it is good, not weird. 

    What I really enjoyed is that I never felt like I should be "getting" the real meaning behind the characters and plot.  It was just fun to read.  On one hand Melissa's writing style is really straightforward.  She doesn't make you do mazes in your head trying to figure out what she's saying or get you lost in a five page description of a tree which I loved.  But on the other hand she has a fantastic ability to not reveal too much so that the plot really isn't predictable.

    I think maybe she accomplishes this by really keeping the reader "in the moment." Reading it is like enjoying a really great dinner with friends where you are so happy just to be where you are but the conversation is still moving forward with building interest. (I feel like I'm reviewing a book for AP English writing this..."the reader.") 

    Instead of using fifty adjectives to describe an everyday object, she creates a new object.  For instance she came up with this bag called a "Replenisher."  The replenisher is an old tattered burlap sack that belongs to the good witch.  It works by the person just thinking of what they want (like to eat, drink, etc.) and pulling it out of the bag to replenish themselves (get it?).  The young girl takes it with her on her journey so throughout the novel you get to see what she eats.  After the "repelenisher" was first introduced I thought, "If this is a fantasy novel it hit the nail on the head for a ton of people.  I would totally fantasize about a bag that contained 10 year sharp cheddar and grapes and probably chocolate cake whenever you wanted it." (I told Melissa I could definitely tell a "foodie" wrote the book because the girl pulls out some pretty delicious meals for being stuck in a forest.)

     But back to the book I'm taking on our trip out west.  (I just checked and it is going to be 23 degrees tomorrow night.  Oh how I love Georgia.)  I saw on Facebook where Melissa had just gotten her shipment of her newest book in and thought, "Yes!  This is perfect-no political downers, no business books about the hundreds of things I should probably be doing and nothing that is going to make me go into deep reflection on my life."  And oh so luckily for me I was planning on being at the LeGette household (one of the most fabulous places on earth) early Tuesday morning to go with Sandy to that pickling/hypochloride class.  Early Tuesday morning I was excited to get one of the first copies-signed by the author with "To Kathryn: May you make almond toffee. -M.L.LeGette"  (I'll be interested to see if toffee is in the book or if is a Southern Scratch order in which case I'll have to find out how much she wants). 

     By the time I get back from Colorado I'll have finished "For the Kingdom"  and then jump right back in to baking!  I think Melissa is doing a booksigning at the Mary Willis Library (oldest public library in the state of Georgia I believe right here in Washington, GA!) December 9th from 3:30-5:30.  Sandy will also have copies of it at her booth at the market (along with the now "not so weird" unicorn book).  Don't be afraid of asking about it because Sandy is not weird and the book is really good I promise.  I've already peeked at a few pages of this new one and I think it is going to be really good too. 

    Melissa said she is working on a third book so maybe we'll plan our next vacation around it's release date...

    Hope everyone has a great weekend!!  We (obviously) won't be at the market Saturday but will be back the morning of the 20th!  There should be produce year round (possibly even tomatoes in December thanks to a wood heated green house) so you haven't missed it for the season.  Next Thursday's meal (the 18th) is our last one for 2010 and then we will be doing 2 meals/week starting in January (a family friendly night on Tuesdays and the Weekday Gourmet on Thursdays).