I just finished, The Book of Bright Ideas by Sandra Kring tonight. It was a recommended read and a gift from my mom for my birthday.

Would I have picked it up in a store if I were shopping on my own? Probably not … because it was not going to be in the romance section. The narrator and entire point of view came from a nine year old girl. The story centered on her relationship with her new found best friend, over the summer and had a distinct bent toward all the normal female relationships — mother, aunt, friend.

These are things that don’t change as we age. Whether we’re 9 or 29 or 59, friends come and go in our lives, but family is always there. Sandra did a great job of building those relationships and showing them in all their glory — be it the good kind where everyone likes each other (Aunt Verdella) or the kind that starts off with the bad kind of fireworks and blossoms (Freeda and Jewel).

I’m not a sappy story kind of person, but I did think the book was a good one. It took me a while to read because I’ve been reading so many stories at the same time (though this is the only published one). But I finished it on my couch in my sitting room, which was the perfect place to turn to the last page. My couch is in front of a window. 🙂 Should the author ever read this passage (ha!) she’ll know why that is significant.

In any case, I absolutely recommend this story if you want a light read, from an interesting perspective.

There is some strange child-like language and colloquialisms as well as the setting is 19xx — not ‘today’. They didn’t even have color tv as a standard. 🙂 My kids would want to know if they had iphones though. 🙂 No, in this setting, for this book, to hang out and play meant exactly that, not texting silly messages to your friend in the opposite chair.

I have to admit that it was slow going in the beginning because I just wasn’t into the perspective, but I hung in there based on that recommendation and because I wanted to know what the 100 bright ideas were.

I guess I’ll have to come up with my own.

Bright Idea #12345 to some random power, because I’m certain there are plenty more bright ideas out there. When you finally clean out your sitting room, make sure you have lots of books and a couch so you can lay down and read good books.

Enjoy!