My First Flight and a WINNER

My first airplane ride was with my Dad when I was 10 years old.  He had been working on his pilot's license for two years and I'd spent hour upon hour at the Weld County Airport looking at airplanes and watching him take off and land.

I was his first passenger after he got his license, I remember feeling so small in the big leather seat.  He flew a Cessna 150 back then so I'd crane my neck to see out of the window and down to the earth below.  I love the smell of airplane fuel and my Dad let me help him with the check list.

The best part was when he let me hold the yoke and fly the airplane!  I couldn't believe that I was really flying and I loved every moment of it.  Year later, I'd try to get my pilot's license but I started getting air sick.  I've got a log book with a bunch of take offs but no landings.  

The winner of a copy of The Aviator's Wife is.......

Ricki from Art @ Home!!

August Selection: The Aviator's Wife

I love when I put a book on hold at the library and it comes up quickly for me to read! I've been wanting to read The Aviator's Wife for quite some time now.

 I first read about it in the newspaper one lazy Sunday. I love historical fiction so I thought it might be the perfect book for me.  I'm a couple chapters in....and I realized that THIS is the book I want to pick for the August Book Club selection!

With both of my kids in school all day, it looks like I'm going to have a lot more time to read!  I'm so excited about this that I can barely contain myself.

If you would like to read The Aviator's Wife: A Novel with me, then please leave me a comment telling me when you rode in an airplane for the first time.

I will take entires until Wednesday, August 21st and then a winner will be selected!  Only readers from the US please.  

Eleanor and Park

Bono met his wife in high school, Park says.

So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers.

I’m not kidding, he says.

You should be, she says, we’re 16.

What about Romeo and Juliet?

Shallow, confused, then dead.

I love you, Park says.

Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers.

I’m not kidding, he says.

You should be.

I have to give all of the credit for the selection of this book to Mimi.  She had mentioned it a few months ago and I put it on my list of possible book club selections.  I am so happy that y'all picked this book because I think I love it!

I take that back.  I know that I love it!  I started reading this book a few days after my brother Robert passed away and it was the perfect distraction.  I was able to escape to 1986 for an hour or so each night and savored every page.

In some ways I could relate to Eleanor with her soft, full body and not right clothes.  Being different when you are a teenager is a curse and hard to overcome.  I dang near had a panic attack every time the book found Eleanor in her house with a Mom that wouldn't protect her.  I worried for her and her siblings.

The oasis in Eleanor's life was her relationship with Park and the refuge at his parents house where she was able to see what a real family looks like.  Even thought park and his Dad had their differences, his Dad still loved him and trusted him.

The ending.....left me wanting more.  

Have you read Eleanor and Park?  We've been discussing the book in our facebook group.  Join us!