Suzy Q Homemaker

It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn’s shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.  Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler.  Calli’s mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter’s voice.  Petra Gregory is Calli’s best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. Desperate to find his child, Martin Gregory is forced to confront a side of himself he did not know existed beneath his intellectual, professorial demeanor.  Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.

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Some of my readers know that my husband Jamie works with autistic children. He has worked with the same family for years now and I’ve seen many of their ups and downs. So on some level, reading about children with special needs fascinates me. I have so much respect for the parents and caregivers because they seem to have a strength and patience that I feel like I lack. Read more…

Most of you know that my husband is an English major.  And I’m a big nerd, too.  Our house is packed with books and we even have boxes of them in storage because there’s no room for them all on our bookshelves.  Every night, Jamie reads to the boys and we both spend time reading in bed before falling asleep. Read more…

Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set, by Charlaine Harris

Hey, a book post!  I haven’t been diligent about updating my sidebar or doing book reviews.  It isn’t that I haven’t been reading, though!  During the months of March & April, I finished (in no particular order):

• The Inner Circle, by T.C. Boyle
• She’s Come Undone, by Wally Lamb
• More, Now, Again, by Elizabeth Wurtzel
• A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey
• My Friend Leonard, by James Frey

In between reading these, I started cruising through some of the Sookie Stackhouse books.  While they aren’t exactly intelligent literature, they sure are fun!  Last year, I got hopelessly addicted to the “True Blood” series on HBO.  The series takes a lot of liberties with the storyline, but Sookie’s character is true to the books.

The new season of “True Blood” starts in June.  Yay!

It weirds me out that Aiden is actually reading these days. Is it wrong of me to still see him as my baby? He’s grown so much since starting Kindergarten that when he does stuff like bring home his first Advanced Reading ribbon, I just want to cry. What a big boy.

Oh, and Simon’s not trying to steal his thunder. Not at all.