37. “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Zora Neale Hurston.
I cannot express how great this book is. Fabulous fabulous fabulous. The story of a Black Floridian woman as she watches the stature of blacks in the state grow through grow through three husbands (two bad, one good). Her description of the terrible hurricane in 1928, which destroyed farm worker towns south of Lake Okeechobee is incredible and so, so sad. It was the anniversary of the storm last week, actually- I’ll link to an SPTimes story about it whenever it gets posted. I finished that part of the book on the plane to SND, as I was worrying about weather Ike would strike Florida and flood my car (only major possession= must keep it safe). So that wasn’t a great move. But still an awesome book.
38. “We were the Mulvaneys,” by Joyce Carol Oates
This book is good, but a little long. Tells the story of the disintegration of a perfect-seeming family after a crisis that none of them handle very well… that they all handle quite badly, in fact. Some parts made me really angry, and it was a bit boring at times but I kept with it through because I wanted to find out what happened at the end. Such is life.
And, I know I said would blog more from SND, but I can’t tell you what happened there because, you know, it has to say in Vegas. Not really. I just ran out of time. But below are links to some podcasts I did for Visual Editors! We used Utterz and it was sooo easy- I highly recommend it whenever you, er, podcast next. Easy to upload, easy to embed.
Martin Gee on how he used SND to transition into his new gig
Interactive basics with MSNBC’s Paige West
Kate LaRue, daily student designer of the year, on conceptual illustration
SND was great, though! Got to catch up with some Missouri friends and make great new contacts 
. Now I’m back in Florida (on the news art schedule until mid-October… so sticking around here for awhile at least). It is STILL HOT here and it’s kinda great. For example, in Grand Junction today, the low was 53 degrees. Columbia, 51. Chilly. St. Petersburg? 77. It just never ever gets cold here, and it’s still a little weird to me, but nice because I always know what to expect. Should I take a jacket on my weekend trip to Palm Beach? Um, no, no. Just shorts. And a bathing suit. *Loves it.*
