nose in a book Archives | Page 8 of 9
previous ten entries | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | next ten entries
Thursday, April 29, 2004
cat + laser pointer + Jennifer Cruisie book
I swear that now that we have Molly and Mary, I'm not going to fill my diary with inane kitten stories, or insights about purring on laps and somnolent contentment and what else do you need and what all. I'm not. But dang, it seems like God invented cats with laser pointers in mind, doesn't it? Cat + laser pointer = me narrowly escaping peeing myself laughing. I always have been easily amused.
I just finished reading Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie. Actually, I got it from the library yesterday, and I read it yesterday afternoon and evening, and, well, much of the night, too, if you really must know. (Jennifer Crusie is like that). Anyway, this book was recommended to me by a source I trust, and she was right; I obviously enjoyed it well enough to have a hard time putting it down. One thing I'm not sure she was right about, though, is that the book would change my perspective about dieting. It didn't so much. You'd have to read it to know exactly what I'm talking about. So please do -- go check it out of the library or pick it up at your local independent bookstore or Barnes and Noble or whatever, and read it, and tell me how realistic you think it is. It's not Tolstoy or Dickens but still, a book discussion is a book discussion! :)
--------
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Elizabeth Berg and rain
Elizabeth Berg books should come with warning labels. Something like the following:
DANGER. This book may cause sleeplessness. May cause reader to remain awake until 2 a.m. in order to finish in one sitting, even when reader began intending only to read one chapter and go to sleep as reader must get up early next morning for something very important. WARNING. These pages contain sentences which will zing the reader with their eloquent truth, causing reader to re-read said sentences repeatedly just for the painful pleasure of letting said eloquent truths sink in. CAUTION. May cause reader, in 2 a.m. haze, to ponder the meaning of life, love, friendship, marriage, or other topics, with such joy and depth as to induce soppy diary entries which, if written for a public forum, must be deleted before the rest of Western civilization gets out of bed or cause extreme head-shaking and ridicule.
They'd be much safer then.
Also, so much for "sunny California", huh? These are the days they don't show on postcards. It is raining absolute torrents outside, and since our lovely red clay foothill soil reached the saturation point after the first few drops, everywhere the eye can see there is water moving downhill, pushing past grass stems -- "scuse me, scuse me, pardon me, gotta find my own level, scuse me" -- making little creeks on our street, gathering in a small pond at the bottom because the drain grate thingie is always, ALWAYS covered with debris after about three minutes of precipitation. I like it for a change of pace, and because it's cozy inside, but it does cause minor craziness in my kids, so generally I catch that and we end up putting on boots and taking our umbrellas to go outside and stomp in puddles. Sometime right after we got back from Florida, when we were still under that state's 75-degrees-and-sunny envy spell, T heard from one of his friends that the almanac says it's supposed to rain into and possibly through March. Ha ha, we said at the time. DANG! we are saying now, because so far it has come to pass. Yesterday was a rare break from the rain, and it was still cloudy and windy; the forecast says rain rain rain. Good thing I have a quilt to work on and some books on CD, I guess.
later....
Thursday, January 29, 2004
book insanity
You know that Hayley Mills movie, "Summer Magic"? Well, maybe you don't, but anyway, we like Hayley Mills and we like this movie and T had the opportunity to get a free copy from someone whose kids all moved out of the house so she was giving away their movies, so he took it, and MY kids just watched it and oh my goodness I'm so glad it's over because the sound on it was all skewed as if our VCR had had a few drinks too many. It almost made me seasick to listen to it.
I am on a book-waiting-list purge. Ever find yourself with a bookmark in like six or eight books, unable to finish any of them? I finally sat down and made a list of all the books I had bookmarks in, the day before yesterday:
- Jane Eyre
- Anne of Green Gables
- Mexifornia: A State of Becoming
- Dawn on a Distant Shore
- Les Miserables
- A Joyful Noise
- Fifteen
This resolution lasted about thirty hours.
I started out well -- I finished Fifteen really quickly (I love, love, LOVE this book; I had the biggest crush on Stan Crandall when I was an early teenager), then had the delicious experience of finishing Jane Eyre (although every time I read that I feel a stronger inclination to shove St. John Rivers over a cliff -- he is the type of Christian who helps to make some non-Christians despise Christians) at 1:00 in the morning after that sigh-worthy reunion with Mr. Rochester; I read the last five or six chapters of Dawn on a Distant Shore this morning and got well into Mexifornia. Then the library called. My hold was there. It's a Marian Keyes book. Marian Keyes!! Am I expected to plow through nonfiction -- not to mention reading a 1200-page epic translated from the French -- before cracking that 350-page all-nighter-of-delight? I've had it "on hold" since March, and finally it is in my possession and I'm supposed to wait because of a rule I made myself? I'm only human, after all, and I don't know if I can stand it. --------
Monday, December 29, 2003
mostly about books
recent googles: "diaryland husband sex"; "Luann puddles"; five ZILLION hits for the 80's music quiz.
I'm childishly hoping it will snow tonight. This is especially immature of me considering that while I would get to stay indoors and look out at the pretty scenery, and perhaps bundle the kids up for a few minutes of playtime outside, my hard-working husband would have to slog through the weather to get to work, which is no fun, and actually somewhat dangerous. Not to mention that a good deal of his actual work does take place outside -- nothing like hiking through a blizzard to work on some remote radio repeater, eh? Still, though, the childish hope is still there. It's raining really well and the temperature's about 37 degrees, so there's a slight chance of it, if the temperature drops during the night.
I finished a book today -- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. I had read her Magician's Assistant a while ago, and loved it. At first I was a little disappointed in Bel Canto -- the first half of it was really more atmospheric than character-driven, and I had to make myself keep reading at times because I wasn't drawn into the story much. I was rewarded for my perseverance, however, and the second half of the book was searing and intense and wonderful. This woman is one amazing storyteller; she'll break your heart with her prose. I'm going to try The Patron Saint of Liars next.
Speaking of books, I got some REALLY great gifts for Christmas, including a good-sized balance in Barnes and Noble gift certificates. I placed a really big (well, big for ME) order online and still have the pleasure of a whole lot of browsing in the actual store to look forward to as well. With the online order I finished out my collection of Dickens novels (planning to put myself through a chronological read-through of his books this year), and got a few other odds and ends like The Making of Pride and Prejudice (referring, of course, to the 1995 BBC production-from-heaven), the P&P soundtrack, a couple of Mitford books I've read but don't own, that sort of thing. I'm counting the days till the box arrives -- Christmas all over again! :)
--------
Monday, November 17, 2003
the ballet lesson and other stuff
C's ballet lesson today was just precious. There's no other word for it. Unfortunately since we haven't bought a digital camera yet (although it's in the works), and Snappy sucks and I don't have it installed on this machine anyway, I can't post pictures yet. I'll have some up when I get the film developed, and you will agree, "precious" is the only suitable word. The studio hasn't changed in the ten years since I was last there (nannied for a family whose daughter took ballet there), and there's just nothing more precious (really! with all its connotations) than a gaggle of 4-year-old girls in ballet clothes running around on their tiptoes to the tune of scratchy vinyl LP music (the same music she played when I had ballet lessons 20 years ago, I'm sure it's the same records), there just isn't.
I am feeling all this parental guilt, though, because now things are uneven. As far as scheduled weekly activities go, C has ballet and Awana and Sunday school. LT just has Awana and Sunday school. Maybe this is how families wind up with five different activities for every day of the week. We've been contemplating Cub Scouts for LT but they meet on the same night as our Bible study so we're still just thinking about it. That's as far as we're going; I refuse to do soccer and all that (LT doesn't want to anyway). I simply won't. Maybe gymnastics...
Today I experimented and made mini meatloaves (in muffin tins), for the sake of speed of cooking. I wholeheartedly regret this now; I ate too many of them (BAD me!) and now just typing about them is making me nauseated. urrrgh. For the record, however, if you should want to try it, it does make cooking much faster, but cleanup is a royal pain, especially when the smell is making you sick to your stomach. Oh, please, can we talk about something else?
I finished a book today. I've been reading a new-to-me Maeve Binchy, Circle of Friends. I really do like it; it may be my favorite of hers so far. I love how real her characters always are, and in this one she does an even more masterful job than usual of exploring the relationships among her characters. If you like that sort of book I can definitely recommend this one.
--------
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
book review -- The Magician's Assistant
I had this book recommended to me by someone whose taste in literature I trust, so I sought it out and read it, and I was not disappointed. Let me say first off that the subject matter of this book is not something I would ordinarily read or enjoy, but I was able to put that aside and really enjoy the storytelling. Ann Patchett is a brilliant writer; her characters live in a very rare way. I can't say too much about the book without starting to spoil the story; just try it yourself.
--------
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
bummer, I thought I'd like this...
I have been reading Home to Harmony by Phillip Gulley, which was another of the holds the library had waiting for me last night. Amazon.com recommended him to me because I like Jan Karon. At first I was really enjoying this book, but by the time I was a few chapters in I was tired of it. This is mainly due to the Full-House-Cheesiness of his writing style. Remember on the TV show "Full House" (which I actually, truth be told, enjoyed, for the most part), once you'd watched a few of the shows, you could always predict the exact moment that the sappy music would start, near the end of each episode? ("Aw, Steph...") It's like that. The last two paragraphs of every chapter are dedicated to the overly-obvious inculcation of a predictable and sappy moral. You get the idea that the author thinks he's being subtle about it -- but he's, um, not. It's distracting, and makes me inclined to make fun of the book rather than just enjoy it.
--------
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
wonderful wonderful (stinky) book
I am 26 pages into What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox-Hunting to Whist -- the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England, and I have already added it to my Christmas list. I am in love. This is the book I have always dreamed of having. Where has it been all my life? (or at least, where has it been since I discovered 19th-century literature in high school?). It has ALL KINLT of information on all sorts of topics I've wondered about for years. Like, for example, all those shillings and pence and pounds and stuff, and the locations of the counties (finally I know where Derbyshire is). All this is information that can be had online as well, I'm sure. In fact, not being one to sit around and wonder, I have looked up some of it and found it. But to have all this kind of thing bound between covers in one place is just delicious. Even if it does smell like stale cigarette smoke.
Another benefit (?) is that the author keeps quoting little bits of Victorian books, some of which I have read, and some of which I haven't, and the effect this has on me is to make me want to go pull these books off the shelf and READ, NOW. I sense that I will be up quite late tonight.
--------
stinky book
Don't you hate when you get a book from the library and it has that smoker's-house smell? Ick. The kids and I went out walking tonight and remembered while we were out that the library was still open, so we went and got a few books (do I even have to tell you that LT got one book about Legos and one about Star Wars?), and I collected some (oh joy) holds I had waiting for me. It's the copy of What Jane Austen Ate And Charles Dickens Knew, which looks to be exactly the book I was hoping it would be, that stinks. It makes me want to put it outside for the night to air out.
--------
Friday, October 24, 2003
giving platelets... or not
Well, what a waste of an afternoon. For the most part. I zipped into Barnes and Noble on the way to the blood bank, and bought four nice matching Austen books (thereby finishing my collection of her novels in nice matching paperbacks), as well as a Maeve Binchy, and, on impulse, Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue, so that I would have a couple of options to get me through the two hours sitting still with needles in my arms. I negotiated the dreadful Fresno freeway traffic (uurrrggghg), got to the blood center, did my little "have you had sex with any prostitutes in the last two years" survey (I wonder, does anyone ever answer yes on that question? probably), got my finger poked... and got sent away because my iron is too low. Damn. I had forgotten about that -- not that they told me it would be checked -- they just said no alcohol, no caffeine, no this, no that, when I made the appointment on the phone. But I do have low iron. I'm not sure if it's because of my horrific periods or not. Anyway, I was so depressed for a few minutes -- I felt like I let Conor and Jared and Kayli down (all kids with this rare and vicious form of leukemia -- I'm friends with Conor's mom and it's through her that I learned about the importance of giving blood products, and found out about the other kids). I felt like I let the blood bank down, and I felt absurd for having stressed so much about getting there on time, pawned my kids off on my parents, etc., all so that I could go do this, and then I couldn't. I got over that -- after all, I tried, and after I work on getting my iron to normal levels I can try again. But I do feel kind of silly having scheduled this whole trip down there around that and then having the main event fall through.
I did get a lot of cool books though. So all was not lost.
I also went to Borders after the blood bank, returned a book T had given me (bless his heart, I love Jane Austen, and he got me a Jane Austen biography, but not one I'm interested in), and got three books: one with Jane Austen's and Charlotte Brontė's juvenalia, one with four of Shakespeare's comedies, and My Antonia. I did a little bit of necessary shopping (and got some surprises for the kids; they were gratifyingly pleased about that when I went to pick them up) and went to the Olive Garden, where I was treated rudely and the food was not as good as usual and I just generally wished I hadn't gone there. So. On the plus side, snazzy new books. On the minus side... almost everything else. sigh.
Good news though -- T just called and it looks like he'll probably be home by Tuesday. yippee!
--------
nose in a book Archives | Page 8 of 9
previous ten entries | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | next ten entries
