What Are You Reading And Why?

I have several blogger friends that do book reviews and book give-a-ways, in fact if you haven't been to Callapidderdays then I suggest you go and check it out. She has an awesome book give-away going on right now. I have finally decided "Why not?"

Let me set the record straight, I have not figured out how to do the book give-a-way yet but I am working on that.

So basically I will have to start with the book review. Hang in there with me as this is all new to me. I do love to read, thanks to my mom and I never go anywhere without a book, for that matter neither does The Kid.

I do read basically for my own enjoyment. I like to read books that often challenge what I am thinking but sometimes I like to read something that just takes me somewhere else.

I currently am reading Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish.

The premise seems simple: Annie Freeman has died and has sent a package to Katie, Annie's oldest and dearest friend. The package contains the following: red high top sneakers filled with Annie's ashes, a list of "pallbearers"(Katie, Marie, Laura, Jill, and Rebecca), and instructions and destinations for a traveling funeral that will take the pallbearers from California to Manhattan, from Florida to Seattle.

This however is not simply 5 girlfriends getting together to bury their good friend.

The pallbearers are Annie's closest and most important girlfriends who do not really know each other but have each had an impact on Annie's life and now Annie wants to share the most important places of her life with these women. (In the instructions Annie lets the women know why each destination is important and why she has sent them there.) At each locale they will spread a little bit of Annie but more importantly they will get a little bit of themselves back with each mile that they travel.

This unlikely group of women will share memories of the spontaneous, free-spirited woman that has brought them together and they will embrace those long-buried secrets that have been the turning points in their own lives. They will learn to rejoice, dance, dream, and live once again like the powerful women that they are and see the wonderful that is in their daily lives.

As women we get so wrapped up in the daily life of work, running a home, and our families that often times we forget that what we do is awesome and that the world around us is fascinating. This book takes the time to show us that everyone of us has those qualities and even the most mundane area around us has something fascinating and wonderful to behold.

Friendship is a wonderful thing. I truly believe that women could not survive without our friends. I have lived in several locations and I know that in each and every location there was a Rachel, Katie, Marie, Laura, Jill, or a Rebecca that got me through more than one life changing event.

It has been said that funerals are for the living. This funeral was definitely for the living but Im not sure that Annie didn't get quite a bit out of the planning of it as well. I like to think that she was with the girls each and every leg of their journey and enjoyed their banter and experiences.

That having been said, who would you invite on your traveling funeral and where would you send them?