Quarantine is slowly killing all of our souls. I miss happy hour and play dates and Target runs soooo much!! But we are doing the right thing and staying safe at home. So I’ve had to re-discover things I could do at the house to bring me joy. Guys! There is this thing called “reading for pleasure”, I know, I was skeptical too, but turns out it’s actually pretty great. You get to imagine you are somewhere else! Any where else!!! (I think I’d even voluntarily go to the DMV right now… jk I wouldn’t do that, but you get the idea). Well here it is, Book Club round #3 and our first recommendation!
“Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens. OK, so I might have been the last person on the planet to hear about this book….Apparently its a national phenomena and my friends couldn’t fathom that I hadn’t read it yet… But you know, 3 kids, Primary Care practice, ranch life, sleep… all those things that keep me from reading for pleasure had me in the dark about the literary wonder that is, “Where the Crawdads Sing.” Then COVID happened, and suddenly I needed a distraction from the news and work, and this was just what the doctor ordered! Hahaha I crack myself up.
Guys, this book is a revelation!! Its soooo good. I think I finished it in just under a week. Which by mommy terms means, I couldn’t put it down. It usually takes me a month to get a book read when I’m sneaking in 5 minutes here and there, between all of life’s interruptions. “Mommy I’m hungry. “Mommy Ella stole my crayon!” “Mommy I have to poop…. mommy, I need a wiiiiiiiiiipe.” Some day I’ll teach these tiny urchins to cook and wipe their own butts. Until then, I’m stuck reading in my car when pretending to not be home from work. Shhh that’s my little secret, no need to tell my husband.
“Where the Crawdads Sing” has been on the New York Times Best Seller’s list for months and months and months (30 something weeks, but who’s counting). And for good reason. With elegant pros and poetry, It tells the captivating story of a young girl, Kya, who is left to fend for herself in the marsh lands of North Carolina at the tender age of 6! Inter-woven with her story of survival and perseverance, is a love story and murder mystery! Turns out the perils of a wild, coastal marsh pale in comparison to the complexities and evils of social prejudice. This is a fierce coming of age story, with plot twists and turns that will keep you up until midnight reading “just one more chapter.”
You guys, did I mention there is a love story, and I just. can’t. even. Its so beautiful and heartbreaking and unexpected. It will give you allll the feels. I love a good romance, and I refuse to read non-fiction without one, mamma doesn’t have time for any of your serious, melodramatic, artsy books.
Owens also manages to interject a whole lot of -ology into the story and it makes my science nerd heart oh so happy! There is ornithology (the study of birds), conchology (the study of shells), agrostology (the study of grasses), and my personal favorite, ethology (the study of animal behavior). She also makes quite possibly the best ever literary reference to the female praying mantus, who lures a male mate and starts eating the mate’s head and thorax while his abdomen is still copulating with her… “Female insects, Kya thought, know how to deal with their lovers.”
So, get going! Order it online from your favorite book seller, borrow it from a friend (they can drop it on your front porch no need to break quarantine), or have it delivered from your public library. Just find yourself a copy and snuggle in to you favorite couch cushion. You know you have one now. Right cushion, next to the arm rest, you are my happy place.
Health and Happiness with Dr. Hathaway 
A very good read! Thanks Dr. Hathaway
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