Hope you had a lovely Labor Day. Rich and I had a great day off, in which we, um, worked. Rich has a paper and a presentation due today, and so he spent most of the weekend knocking that out. I, on the other hand, am trying my best not to make a fool of myself on the first day of school. So, I worked on lots and lots of school-y things.

I also ran a bajillion dumb errands and during my ample waiting times, I read. I finished two books this weekend, both of which were about dysfunctional families. Hooray!

The first was The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. This is a memoir of Wall's life, and it basically reads like a manual on how NOT to raise children. In the first page, adult Walls sees a homeless woman on the street and realizes it is her mother. Walls does a good job of not condemning her parents and, instead, lets the reader make up his or her own mind about the parents. This was a totally enjoyable read, though sad and haunting. There are several images from this book that I will never forget.

The second was The God of War by Marisa Silver. This is the book our town is reading together this year. (Yes, our town essentially has a town-wide reading group. My sister says we live in Stars Hollow.) The book follows Ares, a pre-teen boy, as he helps care for his developmentally disabled brother, as he learns how to relate to his free-spirited mother, and as he negotiates his small town's social life. All in all, this was a good read, though, again, sad and angsty. This book made me glad I am not a teenager anymore. (Not that my teen years were anything like what is described in this book.)

I'd recommend them both!