Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Okay - now we have geese, or at least a goose, in the neighborhood. Like the chickens and goats weren't enough? I feel like I live on a farm, but a weird farm that also includes the sounds of diesel truck horns blaring down on the main road, to tell the other drivers to get the heck out of their way as they come barreling through along with neighborhood cars' rap music thumping so loud your chest hurts. When friends say it must be so peaceful living on a tropical island I have to smile and tell them they have never visited St. Thomas! This is the party island of the Virgin Islands and is not quiet at all, unless you get way off of the beaten path on the West end of the island. Not an option for me - I need my DSL and cable. :-)

If you want a fun read get Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Dorian Cirrone. Kayla has a wicked sense of humor - something that is required when you are a ballerina with double Ds. She says "even NASA couldn't design a tank suit to camouflage my proportions." Kayla doesn't even think about the possibility of being anything other than who she is until she is passed up for the lead role of Cinderella because of her breasts - they would be a distraction says the visiting director Timm with two m's. Her ballet teacher suggests she see a plastic surgeon in relation to breast reduction if she wants to continue in ballet. Her older sister Paterson, the artist in the family, decides to focus on prejudices about body types/parts her art project and is censored by the principal because of the male nude in the picture. Kayla's new boyfriend Gray suggests that she look into different types of dance other than ballet as well choreography. Although the other guys in school seem to be obsessed with her boobs ( some are wearing save the hooters pins when they hear about her possible reduction surgery) Gray is not. He is the son of a poet who has taught him well - she researches the role of women and how they are oppressed in fairy tales. Hence the Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You title of the books. Rumor has it Kayla is out to get the girl playing Cinderella. After all, Kayla is dancing the role of the wicked stepsister, who wears red shoes. Yes, this an entertaining mystery/romance, but it also bears a message teenage girls need to hear - your body does not define who you are. Like Kayla, find humor in the stereotypical female body "stuff" when you can - she names her boobs Lucy and Ethel. Hey - guys name body parts - why not women? :-)

Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You should be hitting the bookstores about now - release date, Feb 1 2005.