Burger Shack

Despite having the flu, 2011 has been pretty swell to me!

Paul, one of my good friends, had won tickets to see the illustrious Jesca Hoop at the Hotel Cafe on January 12th. Gotta love winning tickets on KCRW! He was kind enough to offer me his +1. Perfect timing because I'd been meaning to hit up a show, especially at Hotel Cafe, one of my fave LA venue haunts.

We had some time before Jesca hit the stage. We decided to grab a bite to eat at the Umami Burger in the Space Twenty Fifteen complex down the street. Who knew Umami Burger would be hustlin' and bustlin' on a Wednesday night. Paul and I took up a couple stools at the bar, ordered some drinks, then opted to order our meal there, too, because we were not going to get a table anytime soon.

Toward the end of our meal I glance around the restaurant. The guy next to me (who I was convinced was a producer for the show "Chuck" because he was reading a script) had just left. That is when I noticed Tammie to my left. She just happened to be reading The Shack while finishing up her meal at the end of the bar. I lean over and ask her about her read. Tammie proceeds to explain a bit of the plot to me - a man's daughter had been kidnapped and murdered in this shack.

I automatically think that this book is about the father's vengeance but Tammie tells me that it is nothing like that. "It's more about the man dealing with this loss and great sadness. Then he experiences a spriritual awakening." And he finds it all in the very shack his daughter was murdered in.

"This is a story about family...but a different kind of family. In this shack he meets God and Jesus. What I like about this book is that things aren't as you would normally expect it to be. God isn't the being in the clouds with the white beard. In this book, God is portrayed as an older black women. Jesus is not the typical Jesus we would be used to. And the Holy Spirit is a woman!"

Tammie shares some passages with me. They describe Heaven and how it is filled with children who are simply radiating. Each child's essence is represented by different colors like auras.



Tammie was nearing the end of the book. "I am actually taking my time and reading it slow because I don't want the book to be over!" She really loves how the book is so unexpected. "The book really makes you question what you think you know. I like how it challenges me. I've never read a book like this before." She also enjoys the peaceful nature of the story. It's not scary at all, she tells me. Another overall theme that really resonated with her is that "life just is and you do what you can with it."

When asked about what she typically reads, Tammie shares that she doesn't normally read fiction. "I heard the author on a radio talk show. He was talking about the book so I decided to check it out."

Visit Tammie's site & blog at the Mosaic Quilt Studio