I just finished The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond. The story intrigued me because the main character is a professional photographer who actually loses her fiance's 6-year-old daughter, Emma, on a foggy beach in San Francisco when she looks down for a moment to photograph a seal. The story then follows her endless quest to find Emma, with whom she was quite close and loved very much, and the unraveling of her relationship with Emma's father Jake following her error in judgement -- by looking away for a few seconds -- and how she deals with her guilt and own memory of the incident.

I think the thing that impacted me the most was the thought that this could happen to anyone and how your life can change in 10 seconds. I'm sure as photographers, many of us have found ourselves pulled into the lens, pulled into something we are photographing, where we do in fact take our eyes off our children for a second too long and they could be gone in an instant. I wont spoil the ending and it is hard to put down because you so want to get to the end to find out what happened to Emma.

Now I digress into the consequence of reading such a book: I liked the book overall - and it's well written and engaging - but as a Mom, it is difficult for me to read or watch things that deal with stories about kidnappings, abuses, traumas, neglect, or kids dying before their time. I can barely even watch the evening news anymore, because every single story it seems is about children being killed, children being beaten, or kidnapped, or intentionally left at airports by their mother, and it literally -- literally -- makes me ill. Something in my heart changed when I become a Mom and I want to protect and love all these damaged children even though I know I cannot. And as much as I want be knowledgeable of world events and the news, it's hard to take it all in sometimes, and my thoughts about human beings in general shifts to a more negative state than normal. Not a place I want to stay too long.

So bottom line, it's a good book and quick read, but if you are a parent you might find it hard to always separate the fear from your own child.

E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
Simply put - a great book. A must read for any small business owner. This book was recommended to me by a few people over the years and I finally picked it up and read it a few months ago. I then gave it to my husband and he read it in a week and then bought 3 copies for clients to read. It describes [quite accurately] the life cycle of small businesses and outlines why the majority of them fail. And how to create a business that is more capable of surviving over the long term. Even if your business goal is to stay small, it is a still a great book in terms of strategy, thinking big and evolving.

The Boleyn Inheritance - The follow up to The Other Boleyn Girl which chronicles the women that followed after Queen Anne Boleyn's downfall including those who played a role in her demise. If you were a fan of The Other Boleyn Girl (one of my Top 10), then you will probably like this one too. The characters are just as well drawn out and the story, while not quite as complex as the first, is also incredibly engaging.

And a few movies I've seen/rented recently...

Four out of five stars for me. I was a fan of the series and appreciated how the movie really focused on the friendships of these four women and how close bonds like that get us though many of the chapters of our lives. I also thought SJP/Carrie did a good job getting quite serious through the middle half of the movie and showed her true acting chops a little more. I laughed, I cried, I pondered. What more can I ask.

NOWHERE near as good or detailed as the book. In fact, the movie changed several things and I don't think was able to establish the complexities of the book or the women and why they made so many of the decisions they did. I'd only give this one 2 stars.

The Kite Runner:: Another book-to-movie-adaption, but I liked this one. I thought the movie did a good job following the book and developed the characters quite well. I found this to be a thought-provoking and moving story of betrayal, guilt, and redemption told through another culture. 3 1/2 stars.

There is more, much more, but this post is already too long. You guys reading any good books out there?