Connected: operatorLA is back

well, kiddies, it is true, operatorLA is back in the wonderful world of LA LA Land after a brief stint in the cornfields of Indiana (although, to be honest, at this time of the year they are more like dirt-fields). He really couldn't blog while he was away because: A.) His family seems to believe that technology is for those high-minded folk in them big cities and B.) nothing blog-worthy happens in the small town, Hoosier burg that operatorLA calls his birthplace. I mean, seriously folks, nothing happens. These people measure their days by how high the corn is!

So what is a boy like operatorLA to do with so much free time? He caught up on some reading and has two books to recommend.

The first is The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. This book-length essay chronicles the year following her husband's death, during which Didion's daughter, Quintana, was also gravely ill. The book is both a vivid personal account of losing a partner after 40 years of professional collaboration and marriage, and a broader attempt to describe the mechanism that governs grief and mourning.

It is a frank and stark look at how the human mind deals with loss and the grief associated with it.

The second book is Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. This is one of operatorLA's new favorite novels. What starts out as a fiendishly funny story of mis-communication and mis-adventure slowly and poignantly turns into a touching look at love and the Holocaust. This is one of the most refreshing, original and creative novels that operatorLA has read in awhile. It has also put Foer on the top of operatorLA's Jewish husband list.