favorites this week.

this week i've been listening to edith piaf like a crazy person. she was a french singer, still considered one of france's greatest popular singers. she had an intriguing and dramatic life. i think you can hear it in her voice - there's a certain pain and intensity in her voice that i think is fantastic. have a listen in the post below.

also this week i'm reading american wife by curtis sittenfeld. this book has been sitting on my shelf for a few months now and i'm so glad i finally picked it up. the main character, alice blackwell, is loosely based on laura bush. alice is an only child growing up in the midwest. when she's a teenager, she runs a stop sign and kills a classmate. she then goes on to become a librarian and marry a boy from a prominent american family who later becomes president etc etc. the reason i like the book so much is because of the honest thoughts we get from alice. the accident starts a chain of unfortunate events that ends in an abortion by way of her grandmother's lesbian lover, one of few female doctors in the midwest. through it all, alice feels the way i imagine i would feel going through such trying experiences. she is a strong and stoic woman on the outside, but lets us into her inner workings where we find her sensitive and gilt ridden girl.

as you can imagine, when this book came out it cause quite a stir at the white house. you can't help but think of laura bush as you're reading this novel.