Two Splendid Books

With your kind indulgence, I am diverging from the normal topic of donks and clucks and am
offering up two book recommendations; one I happened to hear briefly mentioned on NPR and the other is penned by a cherished author.

The nonfiction first.

Two 30-somethings living in Cambridge set a goal to live in the woods of Vermont.  Frugality becomes their norm.  They saved enough to purchase their new Vermont house with cash, buy two used cars with cash, etc.  The philosophy behind their move to frugality rang true with me. 

"Our unifying activity as a culture is shopping and the one thing we all are is consumers.  Consumption has become our spiritual outlet, our means of building relationships, of identifying ourselves by the brands emblazoned on our clothes, cars, shoes, laptops and it has supplanted our interpersonal dependencies."

Ain't that the truth, and one I have been guilty of.

"It [frugality] guides my decision making by encouraging me to simplify, to be grateful, to never deny the abundance that surrounds me and to recognize that there is very little I need in order to live a meaningful, fulfilled existence."   

This feel so very right, I'm trying to adopt it as my own.

Book #2

If you'd like a wonderful fiction read, please dip into this author.  This is the latest in her Inspector Gamache series, sometimes also known as the Three Pines series.  

Friend Carla clued me into Louise a few years ago and I will be forever grateful.  The writing itself is just complex enough, the storyline always engaging and the characters those you would wish to meet.  If you choose to dive in, please start with her first book, "Still Life".  You'll want to get to know the group of characters as they evolve through the series.

I'll return to the chonkeys next post.  I promise.