I've been laid off so I have time to blog. Ridgetop's loss is mybloggers's gain. Economy sucks but you know that.

I think I'll be the book review blog. I have a whole stack of books and time to read them so here I go.

I'm currently reading "The bean tree" by Barbara Kingsolver after just finishing "Pigs in space- I mean heaven" which is the sequel. Let me review Pigs in Heaven.

Barbara was the daughter of a Kentucky tobacco farmer who moved to Tucson for 25 years before returning to her roots in Appalacia. The protagonist Taylor Greer follows the same trek, from Tennesee to Tucson. In "The Bean Tree" she picks up a toddler in Oklahoma who didn't have anyone taking care of her. A Cherokee child she calls Turtle because she grabs hold of Taylor. In Pigs, they come to national attention. Our laws allow the Cherokee Nation to control adoptions of their children so Taylor and Turtle go on the lam to avoid a possibly adverse ruling by the Cherokee court. The book is about their adventures along the way.

The reason to read Kingsolver is because all the charactors are quirky. Not evil, not good, just not quite right. She has a stand up commedienne's eye for irony in American society. If what she says weren't true in some sense, it wouldn't be funny. Kingsolver mixes drama and comedy very well which is hard to do. I don't read much fiction but this book kept my attention throughout.