tired
This is the audiobook that took me from San Antonio back home yesterday. I have already read and talked about this incredible book here on the blog, but I loved having a second chance to visit with Miranda and her family and friend in WHEN YOU REACH ME (Wendy Lamb Books, 2009). The narrator perfectly captures Mira's 12 year old thoughts and feelings and fears in this mystery/science fiction/coming of age story. The pacing is slow and deliberate, absolutely essential for the careful unfolding of this multi-layered tale. What I especially love about listening to a book I have already read once is that I catch those wonderful turns of phrases, those perfect little sentences, those encapsulations of an event or an emotion: what I call wordsmithing. Rebecca Stead is a master smither of words here. What a lovely way to travel!
On the way home, FYI, I spotted an ostrich striding past a bronzed sculpture of a bison in a horse corral and a plaster gorilla painted in shades of green and purple in a churchyard outside of La Grange (insert ZZ Topp riff here). Ah, Texas...