I ate this book

For a while, I volunteered doing "story times" for kids in a Head Start program in Oakland. In order to qualify for what turned out to be a terrific volunteer gig, I had to attend a training led by a commensurately terrific children's librarian. We had to introduce ourselves and say something about ourselves, and when my turn came, I was so excited that I got up and said "I EAT books!" and then had to inarticulately explain that I am not a crazy person, and I meant that I LOVE reading and I tend to get absorbed by the world I'm reading.  I'm a Method reader! I mean, I don't dress up or anything, but I'm definitely right there with the characters.

I just finished reading a book that I totally ate. Part of what sucked me in* is that it resonates strongly with my personal sense that bad things are just a breath away all the time. The protagonist of this book keeps dying and then living her life again, avoiding by luck or by her own efforts whatever it was that killed her last time around. The first part of the book is all about children dying unexpectedly (and escaping death during the next go-round and then dying some other way). You can see how it snagged my attention, given that I think of my kids (and life in general, actually) as simultaneously tediously indestructible and terrifyingly vulnerable. 

Anyway, it's a good read. You should take it on your next plane trip. Get your own copy, though, because I ate mine.

*I read this thing all day. I propped it up next to the sink and the cutting board and the frying pan, and I ignored the actual human beings in my life all day. When Skipper and I left the house (late) to pick up Dutch from school, I tried and failed to remember the experience of dropping her off that morning; apparently I had been thinking about the book more than what I was doing. Thank goodness I don't have a job.