Before You Know Kindness | 
Continuing the countdown of my books, from 1st to 25th, THE JACKAL‘S MISTRESS. Today it‘s my 10th, BEFORE YOU KNOW KINDNESS (2004). Fun fact: the lobster boy character? That's me. Also, though I was and am a vegetarian, I spent days in the woods with deer hunters researching this novel.
My novel BEFORE YOU KNOW KINDNESS was published in 2004. I view it as a novel about animal rights and (yes) a dysfunctional family. But today a reader reminded me that page one describes the horrors a bullet inflicts on any animal…including humans.
pickThis book reminded me of this poem (from where I'm assuming it takes its title 😀)
pickA family matriarch whose daughter is married to a militant animal rights activist, and whose son is a secret hunter. Two preteen granddaughters who get too little attention from their parents. One tragic accident. I stayed up til 1:30 this morning to finish it. Nan exhausted me with her “vigor” yet she was my favorite character.
6 years...Wow! I tend to go through periods where I'm very active here and then trail off a little depending on my life, 😆but whenever I pop in here I'm met with, hands down, the best community (not to mention, the best content)!
Tagging the book I'm currently reading since I didn't get around to posting about it yet!
so-soGood, but not outstanding. Less going on than in most of his books. More of a slice of life/character study type of novel.
#spinepoetrychallenge
Before you know kindness
Bring up the bodies
Beyond a darkened shore
The Deathless Girls
Last True Poets of the Sea
Water witches
💕📚
Thanks for the tag, @Meaw_catlady 😀 This was a lot of fun! 💕
I‘m not entirely sure how I managed to survive so many years without my amazing husband but I appreciate everything I have so much now! He never fails to be kind & thoughtful. He knows I‘ve wanted to try these Kit Kats for a long time so he brought home two for me when he saw them at the gas station!
I suppose this isn‘t really book content but I threw a book in so it counts. Have you tried these before? What are your favorite chocolate combos?
Do you have any favorite online book shops? @The.Book.Drunkard on Facebook is my top favorite. It‘s a great community and the owner, Traci, sells some awesome secondhand books at great prices!
“The clouds were moving like whitewater, streaming in lines to the south. Occasionally the sun would appear, adding bright fibrous spheres to the oyster-colored mass. Each time the sun would emerge, the crow would look up, his dark eyes attracted to the sparkle.” So begins the last chapter of BEFORE YOU KNOW KINDNESS, published 14 years ago this week.
Trying another by Chris Bohjalian. Free from my library and the Cloud Reader app.
Today is World Vegetarian Day. This is from my 2004 novel: “As Jeremy Bentham had asked about animals well over two hundred years ago, the question was not whether they could reason or talk, but could they suffer? And yet, somehow, it seemed to take more imagination for humans to identify with animal suffering than it did to conceive of space flight or cloning or nuclear fusion. Yes, she was a fanatic in the eyes of most of the country."
Because June IS here: one of my book covers that invite you into the water.
“Sara knew that behind its locked front door no home was routine. All households had their mysteries, their particular forms of dysfunction.”
― Chris Bohjalian, Before You Know Kindness
On my way home to Vermont. But I love this city. I love this view. "Let the river run, let all the dreamers wake the nation. Come, the new Jerusalem." My youth. My world as a newlywed and an aspiring novelist. Where my amazing Grace Experience lives now and where I still do some of my very best work. The setting for parts of THE GUEST ROOM and BEFORE YOU KNOW KINDNESS and others.
