Summer

Currently residing in Sunriver, Oregon (aka, the last bastion of Summer, seeing as though school starts up again next Thursday), I'm finding it a bit hard to devote enough time to things like blogging while I'm forced to watch my last dregs of summer sun slip down the drain below the horizon. However, I'm taking time now, and here's what I've had the time to read, between floating the Deschutes river in kayaks, and shopping around Bend.

First on my reading list was Glory, Passion, and Principle by Melissa Lukeman Bohrer. It details the lives and accomplishments of "eight remarkable women at the core of the American Revolution", as it proclaims on the front cover. Remarkable, indeed. Judging by how important these women were, I was surprised to have only known three out of the eight, seeing as though the courage, integrity, and ability these women possessed practically outshines their more famous male counterparts. Of course, these women were forgotten soon after they were recognized, because of the simple fact that they were, indeed, women. However, Bohrer does a spectacular job bringing these women out of the dusty pages of long-forgotten history, and into the lives of women today, with no short amount of adventure, and a little modern feminism thrown in for good measure.

The women included are: Sybil Ludington, a practical parallel to American Girl's Felicity, whose long, treacherous journey puts Paul Revere to shame; African-born slave-poet Phyllis Wheatley, who turned the hearts of Americans and Britains alike with her words; First Lady Abigail Adams, who was never afraid to point her husband in the right direction; author Mercy Otis Warren, documenter, critic, and satirist of the war; old, but steadfast Lydia Darragh, who saved her family, while doing her best for her country; legendary Molly Pitcher, whose lore attracts as much skepticism as it does pride; soldier Deborah Sampson, an American Mulan, minus the dragon and the man; and Native American Nancy Ward, who overlooked racial barriers on her quest to save her freedom.

After reading about those historic women, I was up to read another fierce female's story, in a lighter, slightly girlier format. Sunriver Books & Music rapidly provided me with Candy Apple Red, Electric Blue, and Ultra Violet, the first three books in the Jane Kelly mystery series by Oregonian author Nancy Bush. All three solid, bouncy, popcorn reads, with a stereotypical leading lady working as a process server/wannabe private investigator, solving crimes with barely a misstep (until you reach the third book, which was definitely the weakest of the three). It is definitely vacation reading, something you can read by the pool (which I did), and is enjoyable, without being emotionally taxing or dark.

At any rate, I'm here for a few more days, and the inescapable grasp of the American Public School system is reaching ever closer. I wonder what's going to distract me until then.

(P.S. I would have lovely Oregon photos in here, but our vacation home's wifi connection is spotty at best! Sorry!)