Yellow Wallpaper

Lately I seem to alternate between making a lot of goals, following them closely for a short while, and then abandoning all pretense of self-improvement by spending my precious free time eating ice cream and watching episodes of The Closer on DVD. I think I need more balance in my life. Although, I read the other day that trying to achieve 'balance' is an illusion and that we can never really have balance between all elements of our lives. I think I like that better; I can't be and do everything so I'm not even going to try. The hardest part is figuring out what is essential and what can be pruned and left behind. Some of my bigger goals for the year are really hopes, because I don't have much control over the outcome. First of all, I want to get a 'real' job, meaning one which has regular daytime hours, decent pay, and benefits. I like both my jobs now; well, I love my library one and I tolerate the other one. However, I feel like I'm holding my

Please Look After Mom by Kyung - Sook Shin This is one of my new favorite books to recommend to people. It's translated from Korean and a little hard to describe, partly because the bare bones of the plot make it sound uninteresting and partly because the narration has an impossible-to-describe poignancy that is hard to convey in a simple review. Read it--you won't regret it. The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle This was a fairly standard YA book about a girl learning to cope with life after her family was killed in a car accident (haven't I read something like this before?). It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that memorable either. Letters in the Jade Dragon Box by Gale Sears This was a book that I really wanted to like more than I did. I think the main problem is that it is marketed as adult fiction, but the level of the writing and the age of the protagonist (and the plot) make it feel very YA. In fact, a somewhat younger YA. It's a good book, but I t