Sons & Mothers

Earlier this week I finished reading a collection of essays called Sons & Mothers that I picked up at the book sale in Columbia this fall. It was relatively unremarkable (odd cover image of a woman squatting--in profile--wearing only a bathing cap sort of thing on her head and a newborn baby on her back??). When I read the intro, I was expecting deeper, more thought provoking content than I actually found. There were 8 essays from mothers, 8 from sons (not pairs).

A good quote though: "I also believe that C-minus is the top mark for motherhood. Each generation strives to build faster, cleaner planes, trains, and automobiles and to be better parents than their own. Without this margin for error, there can be no growth, no development" [as a species].

This is hard for me to swallow as a quintessential 4.0 overachiever student type. I like A's dangit! LOL! ;-)

I've been sick with a nasty flu with a bad headache as the "centerpiece" so I also read the lightweight & semi-trashilicious book The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc. Southern belle shakes up small hometown when high school boyfriend shows back up after 14 years away. Set in 1956 in Louisiana and explores racism and sexism as sub-themes.