Movement

Do you like to read? I really love it. My love to read was cemented when I moved from everything-I-knew when I was 10 to everything-that-I-know-now. More concretely, when I moved away from my friends and family in Ohio to go Down South with my parents. Culture shock is a hard thing on a 4th grader and I hid myself away in books to escape the strange reality I currently found myself in.

Now, my favorite books are actually fantasy. I like knights and faeries and magic. Harry Potter makes me squeal like a teenager and the new Spiderwick movie sent me clamoring to the library workers to get me all five books, stat. (I did enjoy them, even though they were really simplistic and can't wait to see the movie version.)

But my favorite book is not a Tamora Pierce or Holly Black. Not even an Alison Croggon (although these are all fantastic authors), it is not a fantasy or YA novel at all. It is Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer.

The first time I came in contact with this book, I was commuting to grad school an hour away and I was using my travel time wisely in the form of books on CD. There wasn't a huge selection at my local library, but I had heard of Kingsolver's name and decided to pick up the only novel available. The feeling this book gave me, just listening to the first chapter, was initially mystical. Not in the traditional sense, but I could see Deanna, walking up the hill in the green and swarthy mists. When Eddie Bondo showed up, my prudishness exerted its prune-withered-porch-sitting-self. I literally said to my radio, "If this book is all about sex, I am so not listening to the rest of it."

But that's the thing. The book really IS about sex. And all it's glory. The World Almighty. Life and Death and Continuation of this species and all the others. Amen. After Chapter 2, I was fully in love with Lusa and would never let her go. I was gently drawn into Deanna's and Eddie's story, into Garnett and Nannie's. I would never be the same. I have read the book, but this is only a reasonable option for me because I have listened to it so many times, I can hear Kingsolver's voice on every page. I hear the bird calls mixed in with the transitions. I know their voices.

I am a huge advocate of books on tape. This book is one of the reason's why. The second is Bridget Jones (I hated the book, itself, but listening to Barbara Rosenblat was some of the best hours of my life. Swear.) But that is another story. Speaking of other stories, I set out to tell you about Prodigal Summer, but really just as a segue into Animal, Vegetable, Miracle...