There and Back Again

This month for our Mother and I Book Club (I changed the name to sound less juvenile.), Harrison gave me The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and I gave him Divergent by Veronica Roth.  I had not planned to let Harrison read the excellent Divergent series for a few more years because I felt the boy/girl scenes were a little too intense for someone his age.  However, a long boring story would make it clear that this was the only book I had to offer him at the time.

Of all of the YA novels set in a dystopian future and centered on a regular girl who falls in love and begins to question the system, this one is definitely my favorite.  I love that right and wrong aren't always clear in this series.  Harrison read it really quickly and really enjoyed it.  He said he would be in the Dauntless faction because he likes to climb on things.  We went out and saw the movie, which is fantastic (Helloooooo, Theo James.), and I was happy that he was as excited to see it as I was.

We went to Llewellyn's Pub for our book club meeting and there was totally a dwarf sitting behind us.  Nice!  By April 20th, I still hadn't started reading The Hobbit and Harrison was worried.  It had taken him seven months (off and on) to get through it and he didn't think I'd be able to make our deadline.  He even let me off the hook and gave me a shorter, quicker read.  As happy as I was to have an out, I knew it was important to keep my promise.  

I remember someone telling me once that there are two kinds of readers: those who savor books and those who devour them.  I devour books, and Tolkien's books demand to be savored.  That's part of their charm, I guess.  I loved his use of language.  Here was one of my favorite passages:

"There is nothing like looking if you want to find something . . . You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after."

I think Tolkien said it better than the Rolling Stones.  I loved this book.  I want to read it once every year, I think.  It's absolutely perfect and I'm so glad my son has good taste in books and that now I can cross one more book off my list of books the BBC says I should read before I die.

I took the kids to St. Charles one last time yesterday (before our book club meeting).  We walked around and remembered all of the good times we've had in that pretty city.

 It was May 1st.  So . . . it's May.  We move in May.  [Keep it together!]

[77 year old spoiler alert.]  It's May 1st when Gandalf and Bilbo come to the last road in their journey, the journey that leads home.  This passage made me cry:

"Merry is May-time!" said Bilbo, as the rain beat into his face.  "But our back is to legends and we are coming home.  I suppose this is the first taste of it."
"There is a long road yet," said Gandalf.
"But it is the last road," said Bilbo.

We're coming to the end of our journey here in St. Louis and even though there's still a month left, it is the last month.  So there will be many times over the next few weeks where we'll do something for the last time.  Like, eating ice cream on the bench in front of the Riverside Sweets and Ice Cream Parlor in St. Charles.

This picture doesn't really have anything to do with what I was saying.  I just felt it should be noted that Thursday was a good hair day for me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to the adventures ahead in our new home, but that doesn't make it easier to leave.