{a thought for Thursday} Confusion

"I wondered how it could be that people could love God and hate one another."
— Julie Orringer (How to Breathe Underwater)

Julie will be at Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee at 7 p.m. tomorrow (April 29) for her new book, The Invisible Bridge. (Read the Journal Sentinel's interview with Orringer.)

{wordless wednesday}

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

{read: fiction} Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

An alligator-wrestling tourist trap in Florida, a dead mother, a sister who's dating ghosts, and a grandfather who was exiled to a retirement home after biting a man - what's not to love about this coming-of-age story?

Ava Bigtree wants to follow in the footsteps of her famous alligator-wrestling mother, Hilola Bigtree. She wants to swim among the Seths (their name for the alligators, who are all named Seth), but her family and Swamplandia!, their tourist trap, are both in decline. After Hilola dies from ovarian cancer and the World of Darkness steals all the tourists, things aren't looking good for the Bigtrees. Her brother Kiwi escapes to the mainland, her sister begins to date ghosts, and her father leaves to raise money to fund his plans to upgrade and save Swamplandia!

Russell has a way with language and crafts some sweet sentences. Although I felt stuck in the swamp in the last third of the book, she wound up the story in a way that seemed believable and not too pat.

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Knopf, 2011)
My rating: 3.5 stars

{crafts} peeps

Do you have a lot of left over Easter candy? Why not make a diorama out of it! Check out this year's 2011 Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest.

{a thought for Thursday} Celebrate National Poetry Month!

National Poetry Month -- April -- is almost over. Check out www.poets.org for a list of easy ways to add poetry to your life.

Here's a poem from Issue 105 of Verse Wisconsin.

snowman 

on the warm sidewalk

child pose

—Jari Thymian, Aurora, CO

{wordless wednesday} waterfall

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

{read: fiction} When the Killing's Done by T.C. Boyle

If you've never given a thought to what happens to the steaks, chicken legs, and pork roasts before they end up neatly trussed and packaged in your supermarket, I'd encourage you to pick up When the Killing's Done. This novel explores what rights animals have and whether humans should interfere with nature to protect native species and the environment, even when it means the mass murder of another species.

The two main characters who butt heads over this last issue (Alma Takesue, a National Park Service biologist who wants to preserve the environment at any cost, and Dave LaJoy, an animal rights activist opposed to the murder of animals) bring to life the tough choices that people face once they start to think about these kinds of issues. Once you know, you can't not know.

In the end, Dave comes up with a creative solution to thwart Alma's plans. Without giving the ending away, I think that it creates a sense of balance with a hint of irony. Although the history and descriptions were a little long-winded in the beginning, the plot picked up speed as the book went along. I enjoyed the story and the way it brought to life the issue of animal rights.

When the Killing's Done by T.C. Boyle (Viking, 2011)
My rating: 3 stars