"Digging to America" by Anne Tyler

Disclaimer: This is my opinion and mine only.  Take it with a grain of salt or a cup of coffee...however you'd prefer.  :)

I recently joined an online book club with my fellow March 2010 due date Mommies.  We're all in the same boat of juggling growing toddlers, work, and home life while wanting to still make the time to persue our own interests.  Reading has always been a joy of mine, but I've let it slip to the wayside in the past few years for other endeavours (i.e. mostly internet surfing, grad school, baby raising, house cleaning, and flat out laziness).  Well, it's about time I went back to basics and read a real book with a spine and pages that smell like a library- you know that musty paper smell that can be oh so addictive?  Our club picks one book a month to read and then we discuss online in a chat room on the 15th of each month.  Each mom gets to pick a book of their choice for the group to read.  February 15th was our official start date.

Last month, I joined my local library and was pleased to find out I still remembered how to use a catalog system to find the first book on our list on the shelf.  Luckily, it was in stock and I checked out my first book from the library since perhaps I was a middle school student!  I hope to show M the ropes of the library as I partake in this book club and when she's a bit older, I'll even get her a library card of her own and we can make visiting the library a regular thing.

The first book on our list was Digging to America by Anne Tyler.  I didn't even read the description of the book before I picked it up, so I had no idea what it was about.  Come to find out, the first chapter opened with the adoption of two Korean girls and their families waiting for them as the plane arrived at the airport.  I cried.  Not from sadness, but from joy.  I know it's just a story and the words really weren't even that moving, but adoption is close to my heart and I can imagine the joy of couples in real life who get to experience this momentous occasion.

After the first chapter, I felt the book moved rather slowly and it was hard to get through the next few chapters.  By the time I made it to chapter 7, it became an easier read and I flew through the last few chapters.  I didn't quite get the closure I look for at the end of a novel, but the book was okay.  It was a great story of adoption and family.  There was also some culture mixed in with a lot of reference to Iranian and Korean traditions which I found interesting.  I like that fact that it implied that family wasn't just a mom, dad, two and a half kids, and a house with a white picket fence.  Families come in all different forms.  Would I recommend this book to others?  Possibly, but it wouldn't be on the top of the list.

Stay tuned for my next review:  Book #2 is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and needs to be completed by April 15th.