Twilight, Stephenie Meyer. Wow! What a great book. Love, adventure, thrills and chills, scary bad guys, blood, hot guys, overcoming self doubt, a beautiful setting... Why haven't I read this before?! Oh, wait, I have... a couple of times.

Warning... Sad Post!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part -Time Indian, Sherman Alexie. This is one of the novels I found on Stephenie Meyers MySpace, listed under books that she loves. I normally wouldn't have ever read a book like this... it swears way too much and it talks about teenage boy issues that I would rather not know about. However, it grabbed my heart right from the first pages and wouldn't let go... even now that I've finished it. It reminded me too much of my time on the rez. The book is about a boy who realizes, with the help of a teacher and a thirty year old Geometry book, that he has to leave the rez if he wants to survive.

Someone who isn't familiar with rez living might think the book goes a little over the top... but it doesn't exaggerate at all. It brought back all of the pain and the joy of my three years on the rez. The smell of fry bread, the excitement of a pow-wow or the Bluff fair, going to sleep to the sound of drums from a ceremony going on in a teepee across the street from the school. I really lived in a "compound" made just for teachers, and I loved the people.

The book talks about the alcohol and death. Just like Steward Sam who died in a car accident on his way home from the Gathering of Nations Pow-Wow in Alberqueque. They had stayed up all night at the '49er drinking and singing and they crashed on the way home. JR Joe survived High School only to get killed in a car wreck a few years later. Jerri Billie was one of the few who went away for college. She came home on a break and went to a party. Although she didn't drink she got in with a drunk driver and was the only one to die in that accident. Shilo and Shauna who had a baby as teenagers... Shauna was at a laundromat and her two year old ran out the door and got hit by a car and died. Roy Whitehorse who died over Christmas break when the hogan exploded. Apparently the propane tank had a leak and when Roy tried to light it, the whole hogan exploded. Those are a few of my students who died, too many to believe, I know.

I also must mention Norm and Shirley Begay from White Mesa. They were killed in a head on collision on Hwy. 666. Then there is Hutch Johnson, who I just adored as a student and a neighbor. When I came home from my mission I asked him why he hadn't written and his answer was that he knew I wouldn't want to hear that he was just getting drunk every weekend. He was right. One night on the ambulance we took a kid in who told us he cut his arm on the window. The next morning an FBI agent was knocking on my door to ask about the wound... he said it had been a stabbing. I was so innocent back then.

Happy times from the rez: Jimmie Claw was the basketball hero, he was tall and talented. I got to coach Jr. High basketball... I loved hearing Ophelia Joe call me coach. We were beating the tar out of Blanding's team and we just kept feeding the ball to a little girl on our team who hardly ever played and scored her only basket during that game in Blanding. Our team and fans just erupted when she finally made a basket. I was invited to a traditional wedding or two. Maurie Yazzie was such a sweet girl and I was thrilled to hear that while I was on my mission she got baptized. I became an EMT! I ate achi' (sheep intestines), learned a lot of Navajo words, took a Navajo class from Clayton Long, can now recognize every pow-wow dance, bought beaded barrets, sand paintings and jewelry at bargain prices, learned I Am a Child of God in Navajo and made many friends. I miss the Rez.

Beloved Bridegroom, Donna Nielson. This book was recommended for book club and rejected for lack of interest. Wanda, the lady who recommended it, wanted me to read it... she kept offering it to me and I finally relented. It only took me about five months to read it... but it was worth it. I learned a lot about Jewish marriage customs and it is always nice to remember that everything points to the Savior. The thing that annoyed me about the book is that at times she quoted from other versions of the Bible, trying to put the Bible in modern language. That always bugs. I am also grateful that the friend of the groom was not waiting outside of the room while my marriage was consummated so he could announce it to the group of people gathered for the celebration.

A Countess Below Stairs, Eva Ibbotson.
I just finished this delicious book. It started out rather droll (who knows if it was funny ... it kept using words I didn't really understand, like droll and there weren't enough context clues that I could grasp to really "get it"). The author knows way more than I do about music, art, jewels, history, you name it. I was also having a difficult time remembering the names and keeping people straight. However, I stuck with it and was greatly rewarded. What a fun story! The book is about Anna, a countess in Russia. Her family looses everything during the Bolshevick revolution and she becomes a maid. She is someone I would like to be more like, humble, hard working, kind, fun and full of light. Oh, and the best part of all... Love, love, love conquers all.