Summer | Book Chatter

This is the first summer where it has not felt like summer to me at all. Weather wise, yes…yes, it’s summer but the feeling is not there. You know that feeling. That feeling you have when it’s blazing hot outside and you are sitting inside with a tall glass of iced tea. Or that feeling you have when you are sitting outside with a good book and you can hear the sounds of kids splashing in the pool a couple of houses down.

Nope. This is a Bummer Summer.

The Boy is too busy with summer school, his ASB and cross-country activities and I am too worn out trying to keep track of everything. I mean, what kind of acid am I on? I have a wide open Sunday and what do I do? I scrub the floors. How pathetic.

We did manage to work some fun in though. Yesterday we hit another concert in the park but the band was only so-so and everyone kind of got bored. I mean, when the band plays the same song THREE times, you can’t help but grow bored. However, The Boy had some friends with him and we met up with some friends there, so The Girl was happy. Of course right in the middle of the concert the teens yelled (quite loudly) over the Zimmerman verdict. I have my opinions over the whole thing but the Huffington Post said it best, “Not Guilty. But, not innocent.” Very true.

What am I reading?

I just started Eva Moves the Furniture by Margot Livesey. I thought it was a ghost story which is why I picked it up but from the write-ups I’ve seen of it, it looks like it may be magical realism and I cannot stand magical realism. Can anyone tell me if it is?

What am I cooking?

Tonight we are grilling steaks, baking some potatoes and roasting corn. There may be ice cream too.

What am I watching?

We plan to watch Oliver! the musical later. That is the next show the kids are in and although The Boy did the show once before when he was 10, it will be The Girl’s first time doing it. They are both looking forward to it. So many great songs.

What do you have planned for today?

Jaws
By Peter Benchley
(Random House, Hardcover, 9781400064564, Originally published 1974, 320pp.)

The Short of It:

Nearly 40 years old and it STILL gives me goosebumps!

The Rest of It:

Last year or the year before, my student assistant told me that she had never heard of JAWS. I was rambling on about movies and when she said that, I stopped mid-sentence, looked the movie up on Netflix and gave her orders to see that weekend.

Did she listen? No. But, it was at that moment that I remembered the book. I had not read the book before and thought it might make a good summer read and boy, did it! As perfect as a book about a man-eating shark can be! The story takes place right before the July 4th holiday, in a small beach community called Amity. The presence of a shark, made evident by the aftermath left behind, forces city officials to close the beach during one of the busiest weekends of the summer. As you can imagine, most of the revenue for such a small town comes from tourists visiting for the summer so the closure of the beach is a big to-do and not a move favored by everyone. As the town digs in to find this shark, a rag-tag group is hastily formed and off they go, in search of the Great White.

The book is actually really, really good. I hate mass marketed copies of anything but if you have a copy lying around, I urge you to dig it out. The pacing is perfect, the tension is just right and there is just enough of a back story to keep you interested.

That said, there are some major differences between the book and the movie and those differences involve main characters. I won’t go into them because I want you to experience the book for yourself. A friend of mine said that the book is all about the shark but I disagree. We get to know the human characters quite well from the book, whereas in the movie… we are only given a tiny bit of their personal lives.

Still, it was the perfect summer read and even though the movie was different in some ways, I still consider it one of the best movies ever and it’s 35 years old!! So, with July 4th just around the corner, I dare you to take a dip!

Source: Borrowed
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