So many things have changed since my last post: graduated, GOT A JOB, moved to Memphis, GOT A JOB....
And I am happy, for one, I LOVE the working 8:30-5 (yup that's a full-time day for me) instead of the kill-myself, don't sleep for an entire semester, study 24-7 school. It is SUCH a nice change, it really is. And the company I work for is great. Sedgwick CMS is a claims management company, which takes is (mostly) workers comp and disability claims for other large companies and manages those claims in their system (JURIS). I am a conversion programmer/analyst. My job is to look at the data coming in and determine where it should go in our system and how to convert it there. Sounds pretty easy, huh? Not always the case. I am really enjoying it, there have been a LOT of new things to learn, and I am still learning new things everyday, but hopefully with time I will become more experience and more of an asset (sometimes I feel much more like a burdon with the billion questions I ask per day)!
Daily Read
So, enough about that- there are several things I would love to blog about, one of them being what I am recently reading, "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. Now I was not familar with Ken Follett, even though now I see he has written about a hundred books. I am by no means the expert, but as far as I can tell he writes mostly historical fiction (which I have come to discover I love, if you haven't read "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Phillipa Gregory, I highly recommend it- or the movie if you're more into that (however, NEVER judge a book by it's movie!!!). I think I enjoy historical fiction so much because you actually get a dose of history but a much more exciting tale blended in. Because let's face it, I think I speak for a majority of people when I say that history from a textbook can be, well, boring. I think I am putting this as nicely as possible.
Anyway, this book has some amazing characters, and is really the reason it's such a hit. The story takes place in England (and I have been planning a family vacation to England, and every place they go I think- I WANT TO SEE THIS WHEN I GO, lol). You begin with strange circumstances- a hanging of a young mantaking place, ending with his pregnant lover (Ellen) cursing his executioners. Then you meet Tom, a mason who aspires to work on a cathedral one day, and his family. Then there is Phillip, a righteous, yet ambitious monk who discovers a plot to overthrow Stephen, the heir to the thrown after Henry the I dies. Character after character you meet only deepens the plot. Each character has their own tale and as the story progresses you find their stories intertwine and connect in the most subtle ways. I can't help wondering how this book will turn out, every page something new and exciting happens.
"The Pillars of the Earth" is being turned into a Ridley Scott-produced miniseries starring Donald Sutherland, Ian McShane and Rufus Sewell; shot in Hungary and Austria, it is to air by June 2010. I can totally see why they made it into a mini-series, it reads just like one. Which I usually don't enjoy, but the writing is excellent in this case, and I think that's why it's the exception.
The book rose to fame when Oprah put it on her booklist, which is why I am reading it of course. And the only reason I would recommend you don't read it is if a) you aren't a fan of historical fiction and b) you don't like long books (this one is a 600 page whopper) otherwise, I recommend ya read it, because so far, it's awesome!
I have decided to start reading most of her list :) which can be found here:
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