Book It November 2011

I skipped last months booking it but I am back in the saddle. I am still on that Biography/autobiography kick. I am linking to Life as Mom for her Book It 2011.  Please check out what the other ladies have been reading.

I read Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and and Love by Kristin Kimball .
This book is the story of the two love affairs that interrupted the trajectory of my life: one with farming—that dirty, concupiscent art—and the other with a complicated and exasperating farmer."



Single, thirty something, working as a writer in New York City, Kristin Kimball was living life as an adventure. But she was beginning to feel a sense of longing for a family and for home. When she interviewed a dynamic young farmer, her world changed. Kristin knew nothing about growing vegetables, let alone raising pigs and cattle and driving horses. But on an impulse, smitten, if not yet in love, she shed her city self and moved to five hundred acres near Lake Champlain to start a new farm with him. The Dirty Life is the captivating chronicle of their first year on Essex Farm, from the cold North Country winter through the following harvest season—complete with their wedding in the loft of the barn.  - excerpt from Amazon.com

It is about a CSA farm.  CSA is community supported agriculture.  It was about experience about the farm life going back to the basics.  At this farm, they provide not only produce but protein as well. It was refreshing. 

I also read My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock. Noelle spends a year conquering her fears using experiences Eleanor Roosevelt had for inspiration and motivation.  Some of her adventures included Trapeze, Diving with Sharks, Going to the Morgue, Volunteering, and Climbing Kilimanjaro

"Do one thing every day that scares you." - Eleanor Roosevelt.
Noelle tried to conquer a fear everyday. I am also a big Eleanor Roosevelt fan.  I remember writing a paper in 6th grade about her.  I also have some fears or limitations I put on myself.  I found this book enjoyable and moving. 

"We are constantly advancing, like explorers, into the unknown, which makes life an adventure all the way. How interminable and dull that journey would be if it were on a straight road over a flat plain, if we could see ahead the whole distance, without surprises, without the salt of the unexpected, without challenge."
Eleanor Roosevelt.

Last, I read the novel, Lincoln Lawyer by Micheal Connelly.  I thought it was excellent and a real page turner.  I happen to like lawyer novels so I really enjoyed this.  No, I haven't watched the movie but I just got it from Redbox.  So that is what I will be watching tonight.