January's Read: The Invention of Wings

Hello my sweet chinchillas!  

 

Happy New Year! How are you?

Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m living in the Berenstain Bears ‘Too Much TV’.  Let me explain…

Growing up, one of my favorite things to do was sit in my room all day long and read. Just read. I lived for reading. Summer reading programs at the library, book orders in Elementary School, camouflaging a novel with my textbook in science class. I remember when the second Harry Potter book was released late on a Friday night. Either my mom or grandma (maybe both) took me to Barnes & Noble at the mall Saturday morning to get my very own copy. When we got home, I sat in my room all day long and way into the night and had the book finished by noon Sunday. All eight hundred and something pages. One of my favorite gifts was a reading light that my parents clipped onto the headboard of my bed. I could read all night long, even when I was supposed to be sleeping. If I heard my parents wake up or the floor creak, I would quickly shut if off and pretend I was sleeping. Rebel yell, baby.

It's a bit sad to realize that I really don't read that much any more. My mom gave me a book a few months ago and the only times I've read it are when I'm at the salon getting my hair colored. Pathetic, to say the least. 

I’ve decided to make a conscious effort to read more. Instead of watching a half hour of TV before I get ready for work, I’m going to sit down with a cup of coffee and read. In lieu of playing on my phone or on the computer during my lunch break, I’ll read my book. Rather than watching those late night episodes, I’ll let them record and hop in bed with my book.  

So to start this off with a bang, I’ve chosen Sue Monk Kidd’s novel ‘The Invention of Wings’.  

As I mentioned before, our family is having a reunion in Charleston this June. I thought that for Christmas, I would give the ladies a couple books that were set in Charleston to get us in the groove. Everyone got a copy of ‘The Invention of Wings’, then I chose another book based on each person’s individual taste. I also included this streetmap of Charleston. All of the books are fiction, the second book for my sister was  ‘Oolong Dead’ - she loves tea.  The second book I chose for my mom is a murder mystery called ‘The House on Tradd Street’, it was kind of neat because when she looked at the map, she was actually able to find Tradd Street in downtown Charleston. Can you tell that I really like to get into vacation mode?

Back to the novel. It was partly inspired by the historical figures of sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimke, who were born to a slaveholding family in South Carolina. The book takes us back to the 1800s during a time of abolitionist and women’s rights movements. Beginning on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is gifted ownership of a handmaiden Hetty, or ‘Handful’ as she's called, we follow their lives over the next thirty-five years as the women form a complex relationship while fighting against oppression to create lives of their own. They experience loss, hope, love, sorrow and everything in between on their journey to create the meaningful life they know they're are meant to lead.

I’m starting it today and, after reading the inside flap, I don’t think I’ll have a problem setting the TV remote down.

Have you read anything good lately? Do you know of any other books set in Charelston?