The Pioneer Woman Black Heels to Tractor Wheels: A Love Story by Ree Drummond

Ree Drummond began blogging in 2006, and her blog www.thepioneerwoman.com showcases her photography, and documents her transition from city life to ranch wife on a working cattle ranch near Pawhuska, OK.  She shares recipes on her website and has written a book called The Pioneer Woman Cooks.  I have followed her blog for some time now, and find it interesting (some posts more than others) and I always love the pictures she posts.  This book just fills you in on how she met her "Marlboro Man" (her name for her husband) and the early days of her transition from city woman to farm woman, which eventually led to her metamorphosis into her Pioneer Woman persona.  It is an opposites-attract love story told with Ree's self-deprecating humor.  It reminds us that love really is a heart-thumping, blood-pumping, passionate roller coaster ride when you are lucky enough to meet your soul mate and pursue the beautiful dance of commitment and honor and, yes, adjustment that is involved in blending two disparate personalities into one happy entity.  I found it to be a funny diversion, an easy uncomplicated read.  Ree Drummond is a hoot, and I've never read so many pages written in so many different ways about just... making out.  Nobody's perfect--neither Ree, nor her cowboy--but the love they shared always seemed to triumph...and who doesn't like to read a good love story?

Nature-Infused Altered Books

Rachael Ashe is an emerging, self-taught artist who also sees the beauty in books. The Vancouver-based artist creates lovely works that all have a nature element to them.  "I live in Vancouver, BC, a city surrounded by mountains, forests, and the ocean. Nature is ever present within the city, but I also don’t have to go far in order to immerse myself fully in natural surroundings.  I think incorporating imagery of birds, trees, and even using found objects from nature in my artwork is a natural byproduct of the environment in which I live."  Her work is truly beautiful.

Too true

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This story is told in the voice of Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old, who lives in the country of Panem in a post-apocalyptic world.  The Capitol, a highly advanced Metropolis, has political and military dominance over the rest of the nation where the country of North America once existed.  The Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl (aged 12-18) from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised outdoor arena until only one person is left.  District 12, where the story begins, is located in the coal rich region that was formerly Appalachia.  Katniss volunteers for the Hunger Games in place of her younger sister, Primrose, who was drawn in the lottery.  Also selected from District 12 is Peeta Mellark, the Baker's Son, who has a crush on Katniss and actually saved her from starving once. 

They are taken to the Capitol where they are groomed for the Game (along with the other Tributes)
and publicly displayed to the audience along with an interviewer who conducts interviews with them both.  Audience members are encouraged to send gifts and become sponsors.  Katniss has hunting and outdoor skills that help her and Peeta survive.  Due to Katniss and Peeta's image in the mind of the audience as "star-crossed lovers", Katniss plays up this angle to win the sympathy of the audience.  The rest of the book is devoted to how the Games play out.

The book tackles issues like severe poverty, starvation, oppression, etc.  The choices they make and the stragegies they use are often morally complex and the themes of power and the down-trodden add to the complexity of the book.  There is also the theme of self-sacrifice and hope that is played out in the story.  An enjoyable read, despite the grim nature of the story.