Blustery Day

We are having the strangest weather here! December we had a cold snap. That was the month that we got 3 snows. January is much warmer than usual. We have had 50-60 degree weather. EXCEPT for yesterday and today. EXTREMELY strong winds. And very cold too.

I know that I said I don't usually read award winners or "message books" as I call them, but I just finished A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, and it was EXCELLENT. In the late 1940s, in a small town in the south, a young African-American man is accused of murder and sentenced to death. He had gone to the local store with his friends when they decided to rob the store and murder the owner. Even though the young man, Jefferson, did not participate in the murder, he was there and the town wanted someone to be held accountable. Jefferson is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins is an African American man who grew up in the town, but left to go to college. He returned to teach in the plantation school. The his aunt and Jefferson's godmother ask him to go speak to Jefferson. It seems that in an attempt to save the life of Jefferson, his lawyer claimed that he was not smart enough to plan a robbery and murder. He was not man enough to do it. Now Jefferson refuses to eat. His godmother wants Grant to teach him how to be a man. To have pride in himself. Grant does not want the responsibility, but visits Jefferson anyway. Mostly just so he does not have the pressure from his aunt and Jefferson's godmother. And during these visits, not only does he teach Jefferson, but he learns a lesson himself.