What I just finished reading a moment ago...

Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser

This story won the 1997 Pulizer Prize, and I can see why. Millhauser is a master descriptionist (if that's not a word, it should be, just to describe him). The novel takes readers on a journey through the American Dream as the nineteenth century ushers in the twentieth in New York City. As in the other Millhauser stories I have read, this one magically unites the minute with the grandiose, the public with the private, business with pleasure, real with fantastic. Dressler faces the challenge all New Yorkers know well (even those who lived there for three years): where do I go from here? On his unending quest to fulfill his desires and satiate his dreams, much is lost. Along these lines, Millhauser gives us the paradox of success and failure, gain and loss - and, how close they are to each other.

Overall, a delightful read. Beautiful prose. A bit melancholy, but countered nicely with a sense of wonderment and energy that permeate the pages.

Check it out!

Caroline's Wedding!

What a beautiful and fun weekend!

Caroline married DeWayne this weekend, and I was honored to be in the bridal party. Friday and Saturday were filled with wedding festivities, including hitting the Salon for manis and pedis, lunch at the Ivy house, the rehearsal, Olive Garden for rehearsal dinner, hair and make-up at the Payne home before the wedding, the wedding itself, and a reception afterwards at Plantation Hall in Haile. Caroline looked beautiful, and the day went incredibly smoothly. Lots of great food, great guests, great music, beautiful flowers, sweet moments, and stunning photos. I definitely felt like a princess with my nails, hair, and make-up done. Thanks, Caroline! Oh, and I wore five-inch heels. Hey, what can I say? They made my legs look good!

Enjoy the pictures!

At the Salon...

My sweets at the wedding...

The bridesmaids. What a great group of girls! And so beautiful.

A close-up of our beauty.

Barbie would be jealous of our nails...

...And our toes and shoes!

So colorful!

The beautiful bride and I after hair and make-up.

My hair from the side.

From the back. I look like I have a ton of hair!

At the rehearsal.

Lunch at the Ivy house with all the women: friends and family.

Look, you can't even tell I am missing three toe nails!

My EYE!

Actually, it's not that bad, but I did want to post about my black eye because I think it's cool. I have only had two so far in my life: one from an elbow in a basketball game and the other from bunting a ball into my eye during softball practice senior year of high school. This one comes from a game of pick-up basketball Wednesday night. Most people just think I over-did my make-up on the one side. . . .

Gotta love battle wounds!

What I'm Reading This Week...

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

How long: I started Friday morning and I just around 5:00pm today.

Overall: Excellent, clear, concise prose. A real page turner.

I met O'Brien last summer at Sewanee after hearing him speak. His craft lecture was very similar to this book: a mixture of lessons in craft, lessons in life, a little about love, a little about death, a taste for the supernatural that is indeed a part of life, some truth, some fiction, maybe a lot of fiction, many contradictions, and a lot about story-telling.

Here, you get a war story (Vietnam, more specifically), a love story, a story about brotherhood, a coming-of-age story, and a narrative about story-telling itself. The chapters themselves often read as complete short stories, and that fragmented nature of the book lends itself well to the many different areas it covers - and, its success in telling so many stories at once.

I cannot wait to read more O'Brien. Oh, and if you don't have time for the whole novel, just read the title chapter: The Things They Carried. Great stuff there. Really great.

Five Wonderful Years!

Today, Shawn and I reached a milestone: our five year anniversary. While five years seems like a substantial amount of time, it truly does seem like yesterday that we were starting our life together. In the past half-decade, so much has changed and so much has stayed the same. Shawn is still the goofy, adorable, responsible, kind, and thoughtful man I fell in love with. Someone who would do anything for a friend in need. Someone who I trust to calm me down when I get overwhelmed or frustrated. Someone who makes me laugh intensely, live fully, and love completely. And yet, now I get to see him be an incredible father for Riley - and, I am falling in love with him all over again. In five years, we have cruised Hawaii, visited Oregon, road-tripped, vacationed in Williamsburg, spent summers in Tennessee, moved to Florida, spent Christmases in Virginia, visited family in Texas, had a baby, watched countless movies and TV shows curled up on a couch together, seen Taylor Swift in concert, watched Wicked in Tampa, hiked, walked, laughed, shopped, dined, and enjoyed each other - and, I cannot wait for five more years of our adventures together. And then five years after that. And five years after that. You get the idea.

Shawn: I love you. As a friend, father, and husband, I adore you. Thank you for five beautiful, beautiful years.

To celebrate, we have already spent a week together (just the two of us ) in Williamsburg, which was great. Very relaxing. Just what we needed before the school year starts again. Tonight, we are heading out to Embers for a very nice dinner. I can't wait!

What I'm Reading This Week...

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Brilliant writing. Incredible story. Complicated and compelling narrator. There was so much to like in this 500+ page novel. You get a taste of village life, Detroit life (during better times and not so good times), suburban prep-school life, European ex-patriot life, and life on the run. You encounter portraits of families that are at once loving and tortured, beautiful and hideous. The narrator takes a great deal of narrative freedom in the beginning, claiming pre-birth ominscence to tell the story of his grandparents, and the results are beautifully rendered passages that ultimately help explain the narrator's complex sexual situation. A terrific read!

Side note: In case you are wondering why the sudden attention to what I am reading, my goal this year is to read a book a week. After leaving Sewanee this summer, I decided I needed to try to make up some ground on all of the books I need to read and the authors I need to know. So here we go! If you have any recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments! Anything literary fiction and great writing, whether ancient or contemporary, is game.