Just a Few Books

Recently I read this book and it was so fun.  

The book is built around a teenage girl who is saved by reading--mostly Science Fiction (SF--I had to look it up when they used that abbreviation in the book.  I know, I'm clueless) and it was so fun.  On the plane back from Utah the gate agent pulled me aside and told me that he had moved the person  next to us so that we could have the whole row to ourselves (which literally brought me to tears).  Noah and Claire were both very well behaved and I had two whole hours to read.  This was a major bonus because I was in the throws of Among Others and possibly could not have put it down even if I had wanted to.

The best part about Among Others is that she talks about a million books that I have never read and my "to read" list has grown leaps and bounds.  Luckily, this overachieving reader made a pinboard of all of the titles mentioned in the book.  I have The Charioteer requested from my local library and hope to pick it up at story time this afternoon.

Among Others is not going to win the Pulitzer prize but it did make this NPR list of the best books for the omnivorous reader (I also plan on reading the other books on the list because they all look awesome).

Speaking of Pulitzer Prize winners I did recently read a book that should win it.  The Round House by Louise Erdrich was one of the best books I've read in a long time (It did win the National Book Award last year so I'm certainly not the only one who loved it).  Erdrich is one of the best modern novelists around.  Her books deal with the Native American experience but I hate to call her a great Native American novelist because that makes is sound like 'she's a great Native American novelist.'  She is a great Native American novelist but she is also one of the best any kind of novelists around.  

So.  The Round House.  Read it.  You'll love it. 

Just a few more books

I forgot to mention that I read one of the most enjoyable books that I have read in a long time and it's called City of Tranquil Light.  My mom loaned it to me and when I called her to talk about it after I'd finished it she said, "You're not mailing it back to me are you?"  I stumbled around and said, "well, I want to read it again" and I blundered on.  My mom finally said, "I'll go buy a new one."

It certainly isn't going to win a Pulitzer (and the reviews were mixed on Amazon) but I loved it.  It's the story of a Mennonite missionary in China at the turn of the century.  It was one of the most thought provoking books that I have ever read about religion.

The other book is one that I haven't started yet but I will soon.  This week I got this package in the mail.

Inside was this book with this recommendation from my friend Claire (and a drawing from her Eli for my Claire)

"I thought it was pretty good--perhaps not as great as the Amazon reviews led me to believe, but worth a read. It did give me a bit of validation--which I have also been searching for."

And taking a lesson from Claire's kindness, I will mail the book (when I'm finished) to the first person who comments that they want it (be warned that I dog-ear pages and underline haphazardly).

Book Club: Bring Up the Bodies

Ugggg.

I can't tell if I am just over Henry and Ann or if this was not a great book.  I suppose I have to assume that the former is the case as I keep seeing it on "Best of 2012" lists.  But uggg.  I had a hard time finishing it.  I did find myself reading with my phone next to me so that refer to wikipedia whenever I needed.  I also found myself thinking about and feeling sorry for a populace ruled by someone who was truly crazy.  Depending on your political affiliation you might think that Bill Clinton was crazy or George W. Bush but really, these guys have nothing on Henry.  According to Wikipedia (where I get all my facts) they suspect that he truly was crazy.  That he suffered a traumatic brain injury that changed his personality and there was nothing anyone could do.  He was the supreme leader appointed by God and God would not allow him to make bad decisions.  Scary.

I'm currently reading

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking.  I'm finding it fascinating.  I feel comfortable with my own introverted tendencies but someone suggested this to me because she and I are both raising children with introverted tendencies.  This book doesn't talk (yet: I'm only 100 pages in) about how to nurture children who are introverts but I'm learning really fascinating things that I feel like will help me as a parent of someone who likes to have quiet time in her room after her friends come over to play.

I also checked out The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton from the library last week on the suggestion of a girl with whom I went to college. She is really smart but edgier* than I am.  I'll report back when I finish.

*I know what you're thinking. How could anyone be edgier than I am?  After all, one of the people with whom I share a bedroom did wear these rocking guitar jammies to bed last night.  

And... he'll probably wear them all day too (don't mind the boogers smeered all over his face in this picture.  I swear my kids have the cold that will not go away.  We've had it since Christmas).

And a double guitar jammie pic just for good measure.

Book Club: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Remember months ago (before Noah was born) when I decided to read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks?  That's probably because it was sooooo many months ago.  Oh well.  I did read it.  I read it like that next week.  I was just a little uninspired.  Don't get me wrong, it was a great book but I expected to be angry at the way a woman was taken advantage of and I expected some solutions as to how we could help but really I was just reminded that so many people in this country live a life that is like living in a developing country--they have no health care, they are uneducated and their lives seem hopeless.  I wasn't outraged, I was disheartened.  I am thankful for Henrietta Lacks and I wish that her family had a better life.

Since then I've been reading mystery novels and I just reread all of the Harry Potter books.  Reading books that entertain and require little brain power has helped corral the emotional nightmare of not being able to nurse a second baby (feeding takes up a lot of time during the day and if you have a book open that requires your attention but not your brain power you can push aside all other feelings of guilt).  With Claire I assuaged my guilt by telling myself that it would come easier the second time and that I would be able to nurse this baby with only occasional bottles. Wrong. This time around was even worse.  my doctor told me that it could have to do with some underlying medical conditions I have (when did I become old enough to have underlying medical conditions?) and then Noah's doctor told me not to worry about it, that he would be fine and that I was doing the best I could (easier said than done and even writing this I could break into tears.)  So we're weaning.  And I'm hoping that I can be cool with it and maybe tackling a really hard and hearty book will help.

This week on Fresh Air I heard Hilary mantel talking to Terry Gross about her new book Bring Up the Bodies which just won the Booker Prize (and I just have to say that Terry is not my favorite NPR personality.  Asking a guest if she would rather be beheaded with the ax or the guillotine is pretty much a recipe for air time awkward silence) and I was fascinated.  Historical fiction about Henry and Ann Boleyn--seems right up my alley.  I downloaded it last night and I can tell it's going to be a slow read.  Remember moby Dick?  Yeah, that kind of slow but I feel like we're going to love it.  So read on.

Book Club: The God of Small Things

When I was with pregnant with Claire I started reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.  I have a very distinct memory of being nearly 3/4 of the way through the book.  I was sitting on our bed (the big log bed that the hubbs and I sold when we moved here) with a pillow over my lap and I was sobbing.  Just sobbing.  I called my mom and said, "you just have to tell me how it ends.  I can't finish it."  So she did. 

And here's the kicker.  The part where they are keeping people in the cellar so they can eat them. I made it through that just fine.  It was the part where they were in the bomb shelter (or maybe it was a store--but it was a place where they were safe) and he share's a soda with his son.  That's what I couldn't handle.  Oh pregnancy hormones.

The God of Small Things had a similar affect on me. Imagine me, sitting on the couch with my back to the front windows a pillow on my lap crying my eyes out over this passage. 

[the mom, Ammu, says something nice about a man they have just met]

"So why don't you marry him then?" Rahel said petulantly.

Time stopped on the red staircase.  Estah stopped. Baby Kochamma stopped.

'Rahel,' Ammu said. 

Rahel froze.  She was desperately sorry for what she had said.  She didn't know where those words had come from.  She didn't know that she'd had them in her.  But they were out now, and wouldn't go back in.  They hung about that red staircase like clerks in a government office.  Some stood, some sad and shivered their legs.

'Rahel,' Ammu said, 'do you realize what you have just done?'

Frightened eyes and a fountain looked back at Ammu.

'It's all right.  Don't be scared,' Ammu said. 'Just answer me.  Do you?'

'What?' Rahel said in the smallest voice she had.

'Realize what you've just done?' Ammu said. 

Frightened eyes and a fountain looked back at Ammu.

'D'you know what happens when you hurt people?' Ammu said. 'When you hurt people, they begin to love you less.  that's what careless words do.  they make people love you a little less.'

A cold moth with unusually dense dorsal tufts landed lightly on Rahel's heart.  Where its icy legs touched her, she got goosebumps.  Six goosebumps on her careless heart. 

A little less Ammu loved her.

I can not tell you how many times I have thought of that little girl and the icy cold moth on her heart telling her  that her mother loved her a little less. The good news is that I did actually finish the book.  The bad news is that I didn't love it.

Pretty sure that when I am pregnant I should not read books where children are either loved and protected in horrible circumstances (The Road) or ignore and belittle their children (The God of Small Things).  This book was just so sad and there were only 3 people that I actually liked in it; the twins (when they were kids) and Velutha.

So next month I think we should read this book.

I mean a book about poor southern black women who the medical world takes advantage of?   The women whose cells have been used for everything from developing the polio vaccine to studying the effects of radiation on humans.  You can still buy her cells for $25 a tube. 

This seems right up our alley, doesn't it?  My really smart friend Dana recommended it and I pretty much trust her implicitly.  Let's hope this book produces less hysterical sobbing than the last choice.

I've already started because I made my mom buy it for me (sorry mom, that's what you get when you share a kindle account with me and it's been a hard week)

Hey Girl

Now that we know Fitzwilliam and Collin both endorse women who read let's talk about The God of Small Things on Friday.  Okay?  Okay.

Let's Begin Again Shall We?

I'm ready to read again.

And not just historical fiction about Elanor of Aquitaine and the mystery series that have been taking my time these days.  Last night I started The God of Small Things.

Dang.  I had almost forgotten that there are some books where you can't pound through 50 pages in a night. So what do you think?  Are you interested in joining me?  It's going to take a while to get through so what if we discuss it in a month?  Are you in? Depressing book about India?  Count. Me. In.

Book Club: The Sense of an Ending

I'm pretty sure that it was January when we said we would read The Sense of an Ending.  It's April now.  The book is only 160 pages.  I think I had it read 2 weeks after we announced it (it was the first new book I bought on the new Kindle I got for Christmas).  I loved it.  I've thought about it since.  I've told other people that they should read it.  

So....I'm not really sure what happened.

But it's behind us.  Let's talk about it now.

For the purpose of this discussion let me just give you a brief summary. Anthony is the narrator of the book.  He's in his 60s, divorced and looking back at his life.  In high school Anthony had a group of friends that toward the end started hanging out with a boy named Adrian.  They go their separate ways and in college Anthony finally starts dating his first real girlfriend (Veronica).  The relationship ends badly and a few months later Anthony gets a letter from Adrian saying that Adrian has started dating Veronica.  In response Anthony sends a scathing letter saying mean things about Veronica and cutting them both off. Several months later Anthony gets news that Adrian has killed himself.

Anthony is looking back on the situation because the Veronica's mother (whom he met once) has just died and has included him in her will.  The meat of the book is Anthony looking back on the situation and trying to figure out what happened and why he would be included in her will.

The thing that's been running around in my head since I read the book is the letter he wrote.  Anthony wrote the letter when he was really angry.  He got a lot off his chest (said some really mean things) and at 60 he didn't even remember what the letter had contained and had moved on.

It turns out that some of really mean things he said about his ex-girlfriend turned out to be a true.  When he said, "I hope...{insert mean thing here}....." It happened.  

The letter didn't mean anything to Anthony, he could hardly recall it at 60.  And yet, that very same letter was a major life turning point for Veronica.  That's what I've been thinking about.  How often do we say something mean or petty or spiteful out of anger that we quickly forget it but it becomes a major life turning point for the people we've spoken to or who have overheard us?  It's tricky because I know that I've been on the opposing end of it.  I've had people say things (to me or just in front of me) or I've seen them in parenting weakness moments and I've recorded the memory and made mental note that I'll never do that or never say that or whatever.

I don't really know what conclusion to draw from that.  Is it fair?  No. Can we watch everything we say and do and avoid it? No. 

So what do you think?  Is there anything to do about it? Does it matter?  Have you done it?

Maybe Anthony said it best when he said, 

"How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but - mainly - to ourselves." (95) 


Or maybe he put it more painfully when he said, 


"There is accumulation.  There is responsibility.  And beyond these, there is unrest. There is great unrest."


So what do you think?  Is there anything to do about taking meaningless moments and giving them great meaning? Does it matter?  Have you done it to other people?  Have they done it to you?

Book Club: A visit from the goon squad

This month we read A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize.

 When I first picked up the book I was nervous that it was going to be another gritty novel with lots of drugs 
and sex (yawn). I was pleasantly surprised when I started the second chapter that it wasn't like that at all.  It was one of the fastest Pulitzer reads we've had so far.  I finished it in less than a week because every day I was so excited to keep reading. 

That being said, I'm not actually sure I liked the book.  I know I liked reading the book. I like the sense of not knowing what was coming next and who would be taking next (I will say that some of the jumps between characters were hard for me.  I'm a smart person and there were lots of times when I couldn't remember who was who.)  There were chapters that I just loved (oh, the darling 12 year-old and her powerpoint presentation which actually contained very good parenting advice.) but when I finished the book I sort of forgot about it. 


I did some reading of reviews online and the reading world seems to be pretty divided--readers either love the book or they hate it.  I feel like I don't know where I fit in.  I guess I don't really feel anything about the book.  Time is the goon that the "goon squad" title refers to and you would therefore think that time was an important theme in the book.  I guess it was.  That and aging.  And how time and age affect relationships and other people.  But as I'm sitting here typing I'm having to stretch to think about the the conclusions that were drawn about that.  Okay.  So time changes relationships.  Now what? 

Am I just not being smart enough?  What did the rest of you think?

And for next month we're reading the 2011 Booker Prize winner (the Booker Prize is like the Pulitzer but in the UK) which is The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barns.  my friend Dana suggested that we try out some of the Booker Prize winners and I thought it was a great idea so we're trying it out.  Let's see how the Brits compare.

*If any of you need a reminder about the "plot" of A Visit from the Goon Squad here is the 

best description I've found (stolen from here)

The stories circle magnetically around a few characters who recur a bit more frequently than others, and broadly around the American music scene: Lou, a coke-snorting, teenage-girl-seducing music producer in the 1970s, becomes the mentor of an untalented young bass player, Bennie, who becomes a music producer himself, who hires a young woman, Sasha, who has a problem with kleptomania, who sleeps with a young man, Alex, who much later ends up hired by Bennie to engineer the comeback of Bennie's high-school friend Scott, who went off the rails as an adult and ended up one day in Bennie's office with a fish he'd caught in the East River, where Sasha's best friend and boyfriend in college had once gone for an early morning swim with tragic consequences. Bennie's wife works for a publicist named Dolly whose daughter, Lulu, will end up working with Alex; Bennie's wife's brother is a journalist who is arrested for the attempted rape of an actress named Kitty Jackson who has her own fall from grace and is later hired by Dolly to enable the public rehabilitation of a genocidal Latin American dictator.

And now those of you who have not yet read it are dying to.  It was the kleptomania that got you.  Wasn't it?

Book Club: Jane Eyre Pt 2

Didn't you love this book?  I did. This isn't the first time I've read Jane Eyre and there was something about already knowing the story that made some other things easier to spot in the book.  I've done some reading online about what other book clubs have discussed (they mostly just compare it to Pride and Prejudice and really, other than them both being written by British women I don't see too much of a connection between them.  And, for the record, they all liked P&P better.)

I'm going to list the themes that I saw in the book and a couple of thoughts on each.  Feel free to comment of these themes or whatever it is that you thought about when you read the book

Psudo-science. Ahhhh the science of Phrenology.  I loved it.  I loved how they sized up everyone's character with the shape of their heads. In some ways it reminded me of Moby Dick and Ismael's description of the whale class and family distinctions.  Everyone believes and subscribes and it is so totally wrong. I have undertaken the study of my own head shape.  Here is a helpful graphic for you to discern your own character.  

As an advertisement at the time ran--know yourself.

Gothic Novel:  This is one of the things that, in my mind, so distinguishes this from any of the Jane Austen books.  This novel is a refreshing thriller of sorts.  There's not too much blood or gore but it is tense.  The descriptions of Bertha that are things like "the clothed hyena," "the maniac," "that purple face," and "the lunatic" are downright scary.  And isn't "the clothed hyena" such a great description? 

Coming of Age:  This is another theme that distinguishes this book from the Austen books.  We get to see Jane grow up.  She goes from a young girl who yells at her Aunt Reed and is tortured by her cousins to a well educated, thoughtful, informed pleasant young lady.  I love how we get to see that in the book.  Sure, she skims over much of her Lockwood experience but we still get to see her come of age. 

Religion/God: This is a problematic area for me.  Jane refuses to go with Mr. Rochester on moral grounds but she is not really a pious person.  Jane does seem to have some mysticism in her though. She shows an uncanny knack for seeing the future.  She knows that if she goes with Mr Rochester he will fall out of love with her.  She knows that she and St John wouldn't be happy if they married.  These seem like religious premonitions but religion doesn't really play any other role in the book and the two examples we have of clergy are hardly flattering (St John and Mr Brocklehurst)

Passion and Love: I have to start out by saying that this read through any page that contained even the mention of St John was painful to read. He's just so...so...awful.  And arrogant.  He drives me batty.  And Jane even thinking about going to India with him made me sick. 

St John is passionately in love with Mary Rivers and he won't marry her because of the passion. Jane and Rochester are passionately in love but, as I mentioned before, Jane knows that if she goes with Rochester before they are married it will be ruined. 

That being said, when Jane and Mr Rochester finally are reunited the dialogue that ensures is one of my favorite literary moments of all time. Here's just a snippet, 

"This St. John, then, is your cousin?"

"Yes."

"You have spoken of him often: do you like him?"

"He was a very good man, sir; I could not help liking him."

"A good man. Does that mean a respectable well-conducted man of fifty? Or what does it mean?"

"St John was only twenty-nine, sir."

"'Jeune encore,' as the French say. Is he a person of low stature, phlegmatic, and plain. A person whose goodness consists rather in his guiltlessness of vice, than in his prowess in virtue."

"He is untiringly active. Great and exalted deeds are what he lives to perform."

"But his brain? That is probably rather soft? He means well: but you shrug your shoulders to hear him talk?"

"He talks little, sir: what he does say is ever to the point. His brain is first-rate, I should think not impressible, but vigorous."

"Is he an able man, then?"

"Truly able."

"A thoroughly educated man?"

"St. John is an accomplished and profound scholar."

"His manners, I think, you said are not to your taste?--priggish and parsonic?"

"I never mentioned his manners; but, unless I had a very bad taste, they must suit it; they are polished, calm, and gentlemanlike."

"His appearance,--I forget what description you gave of his appearance;--a sort of raw curate, half strangled with his white neckcloth, and stilted up on his thick-soled high-lows, eh?"

"St. John dresses well. He is a handsome man: tall, fair, with blue eyes, and a Grecian profile."

(Aside.) "Damn him!"--(To me.) "Did you like him, Jane?"

"Yes, Mr. Rochester, I liked him: but you asked me that before."

I perceived, of course, the drift of my interlocutor. Jealousy had got hold of him: she stung him; but the sting was salutary: it gave him respite from the gnawing fang of melancholy. I would not, therefore, immediately charm the snake.

"Perhaps you would rather not sit any longer on my knee, Miss Eyre?" was the next somewhat unexpected observation.

"Why not, Mr. Rochester?"

"The picture you have just drawn is suggestive of a rather too overwhelming contrast. Your words have delineated very prettily a graceful Apollo: he is present to your imagination,--tall, fair, blue-eyed, and with a Grecian profile. Your eyes dwell on a Vulcan,--a real blacksmith, brown, broad-shouldered: and blind and lame into the bargain."

"I never thought of it, before; but you certainly are rather like Vulcan, sir."

"Well, you can leave me, ma'am: but before you go" (and he retained me by a firmer grasp than ever), "you will be pleased just to answer me a question or two." He paused.

"What questions, Mr. Rochester?"

Then followed this cross-examination.

"St. John made you schoolmistress of Morton before he knew you were his cousin?"

"Yes."

"You would often see him? He would visit the school sometimes?"

"Daily."

"He would approve of your plans, Jane? I know they would be clever, for you are a talented creature!"

"He approved of them--yes."

"He would discover many things in you he could not have expected to find? Some of your accomplishments are not ordinary."

"I don't know about that."

"You had a little cottage near the school, you say: did he ever come there to see you?"

"Now and then?"

"Of an evening?"

"Once or twice."

A pause.

"How long did you reside with him and his sisters after the cousinship was discovered?"

"Five months."

"Did Rivers spend much time with the ladies of his family?"

"Yes; the back parlour was both his study and ours: he sat near the window, and we by the table."

"Did he study much?"

"A good deal."

....

"Ah! here I reach the root of the matter. He wanted you to marry him?"

"He asked me to marry him."

"That is a fiction--an impudent invention to vex me."

"I beg your pardon, it is the literal truth: he asked me more than once, and was as stiff about urging his point as ever you could be."

"Miss Eyre, I repeat it, you can leave me. How often am I to say the same thing? Why do you remain pertinaciously perched on my knee, when I have given you notice to quit?"

"Because I am comfortable there."

"No, Jane, you are not comfortable there, because your heart is not with me: it is with this cousin--this St. John. Oh, till this moment, I thought my little Jane was all mine! I had a belief she loved me even when she left me: that was an atom of sweet in much bitter. Long as we have been parted, hot tears as I have wept over our separation, I never thought that while I was mourning her, she was loving another! But it is useless grieving. Jane, leave me: go and marry Rivers."

"Shake me off, then, sir,--push me away, for I'll not leave you of my own accord."

"Jane, I ever like your tone of voice: it still renews hope, it sounds so truthful. When I hear it, it carries me back a year. I forget that you have formed a new tie. But I am not a fool--go--"

"Where must I go, sir?"

"Your own way--with the husband you have chosen."

"Who is that?"

"You know--this St. John Rivers."

"He is not my husband, nor ever will be. He does not love me: I do not love him. He loves (as he CAN love, and that is not as you love) a beautiful young lady called Rosamond. He wanted to marry me only because he thought I should make a suitable missionary's wife, which she would not have done. He is good and great, but severe; and, for me, cold as an iceberg. He is not like you, sir: I am not happy at his side, nor near him, nor with him. He has no indulgence for me--no fondness. He sees nothing attractive in me; not even youth--only a few useful mental points.--Then I must leave you, sir, to go to him?"

Okay, that quote turned out to be really long.  But isn't that just so romantically perfect?

Love it.

Okay.  How did you feel about Jane Eyre?  What struck you?

And for next month we're reading A Visit From the Goon Squad.  It's back to the Pulitzer prize winners people. I just downloaded it on the new Kindle I got for Christmas.  Thanks hubbs.  You're the best. 

Book Club: Update

This is just a little weekend note to say that Clarissa picked Jane Eyre for us to read.  There are so many things to love about Jane Eyre.
1) Mr Rochester
2) A love story where the girl is not the most beautiful girl on the block and where she is determined and follows her own heart
3) You can download it for free to any reader or mobile device.

You have 3 weeks.

Begin.

Oh.  And Happy Weekend. I am just back from seeing "Breaking Dawn" with a group of ladies and it is everything you are hoping:  terrible acting, weird moody/painful glances (see below), vampires with too-white makeup, men who remain shirtless for no apparent reason and 100% wonderful.

Book Club: Moby Dick

Call me obsessed.

Moby Dick ignited an obsession within me.  I can not get enough of whales lately.  I read the book with wikipedia opened next to me so I could check facts and look at pictures of sperm whales.  I would guess that I have spent hours looking at pictures of whales and reading about them since I started the book.  Did you know that they still use "spermaceti" as a lubricant in space?  True story. Did you know that Starbucks original name was Pequod but the board of directors nixed it so they had to go with Starbuck?  Also true story.

My next big plan is to go whale watching.

I am sorry that this isn't a real book club where we are sitting around and eating treats and talking about the book because there are a couple of things I would like to hear your opinion on.  So, I'll just ask, and you can tell me what you think in the comments.

1. Ishmael.  I am still trying to get my head around his role.  Do we trust him?  And if we know that he is the narrator and he was actually on the ship why is the book full of stage directions and siloques.  The reason novels have narrators is, presumably, to tell the story so why does this one require stage directions?

2. Lunacy.  Oh, the crazy people who inhabit the pages of this book.  Some, the world deems crazy (Pip, Elijah) but they are the ones who seem to have a deeper grasp on reality and some, (Ahab) are actually made ship captains and sent to sea to make fortunes.

3. Heathen/Religion/Prophecy.  I think the Quequeg is my favorite character.  He is the person who first hinted to me that I would love this book.  I was sorry that his role vanished as the book went on.  I loved how he is, perhaps, the most Christian character of the book (even though he is a cannibal).  Maybe prophecy should have it's own topic, but it does seem to fit with religion and heathenism.  But why do we need 100 prophecies that Ahab will fail in his venture?  I actually thought the prophecies were a little heavy handed. 

4. Anthropomorphism. My book from the library was more than 700 pages long.  On my phone it was more than 2300.  When an author dedicates that many words to such a singular mission, killing the white whale, it's easy to get caught up in the furry.  When the moment came (I should say here that Moby Dick actually only appears in the last 3 chapters of the book--maybe a total of 40 pages) for Moby Dick to arrive on the scene I found  myself a little scared.  So many captains and ships had met him and told of his cruel nature--the way he maliciously smashed ships and carried off sailors and sons--that I found myself just waiting to see what this cruel creature would do next.

Then I had to remind myself.  Moby Dick is a whale.  He is not trying to kill innocent sailors.  He is just trying to survive.  There's no malice in his actions.  He is all nature, a look at Darwin's "Survival of the Fittest" in action.

I think that we do this in our lives all the time. I find myself doing it with Claire.  Claire is just on the brink of really talking.  She says words all day long and only about 1/2 of them are distinguishable.  Pass (short for pacifier)  and bus sound almost exactly the same. And as I try to understand what she is saying there is often lots of crying and frustration.  I have found myself (in Claire break down sorts of moments) thinking, "Why are you being so manipulative?  Why can't you just be a little more patient?  Why are you trying to frustrate and fluster me?"

Sometimes I have to step back and remind myself that she is not being manipulative.  She is just trying to get what she needs and she is communicating in the only way she knows how.  I think that applies to grown ups too.  Of course, maybe the grown ups we deal with in our own lives are trying to be manipulative but maybe they are just trying to communicate in the only way they know how.

This leads to one of my favorite quotes of the whole book.  Starbuck and Ahab are fighting in the cabin because Starbuck thinks that it is suicide to pursue the white whale.  The language is strong and threats may have issued forth but Starbuck closes with,

"Thou hast outraged, not insulted me, Sir; but for that I ask thee not to beware of Starbuck; thou wouldst but laugh; but let Ahab beware of Ahab; beware of thyself, old man."

I think that's wise advice for all of us....beware of thyself

Okay.  Comment away. And Clarissa, please post what book we're reading next.

Death of a Whale

I know that we are supposed to talk about Moby Dick tomorrow but I'm not going to be ready.  I'll probably finish the book by tomorrow but I have to do some research about Melville.  I mean, a guy doesn't just fill a whole book with odd facts about whales, character soliloquies and a narrator who I still can't figure out and not have a reason.

The good news is that the interweb seemed to know that I would need a little more time and provided me with this little gem this morning.

A whale can live for 50-75 years.
A whale's decomposing corpse can support an entire ecosystem for 50-75 years.


Whale Fall (after life of a whale) from Sharon Shattuck on Vimeo.


So noodle on that until Monday.
And Clarissa, you're picking the next book so start thinking.

Book Club: The Shipping News

Reading the Shipping News made me terribly sad that we aren't a real book club who gets to meet together and eat snacks and talk about things because there are so many things I want to discuss about this book. This was one of my favorites that we have read so far. 

So instead of one thought explained you are getting a list of the things I want to talk to someone about. Think of it as book club but without so many delicious snacks and comment away.

1) Cousin Quoyle: 

Cousin Quoyle and his story-line were perhaps, my favorite parts of the whole book. I loved the white dog who terrorized Bunny that no one else believed in who turned out to be real.  I loved the knotted pieces of string.  I loved when Quoyle went to go visit his cousin.  Quoyle had lived in fear of his cousin, felt like he was being harassed and worried that his cousin would put up a fight for the family homestead but when he got to his house, cousin Quoyle was a pathetic, poor, old man who did not have much life to live.  I love that idea and metaphor--how many of the things that we fear and dread are really poor, pathetic old men dying in the corner.

2) Pulitzer Prize Winners

Reading the Pulitzer Prize winners has been more depressing than I anticipated.  I understand that deep and thoughtful writing has to examine the deep and thoughtful things of life but by golly....these books have been hard--kids shooting up their high schools, the misdeeds of war, the cruelty of other people, slavery.  The Pulitzer Prize winners have it all. 

In this book I kept expecting things to go wrong.  I kept expecting people to take advantage of one another, for their home to be taken away...for something to go horribly wrong.  It didn't.  People, on the whole, are kind to Quoyle and his family.  He finds people to care for his children, he succeeds in his job, he makes friends.  Sometimes life does turn out.   

3) Hope

I loved the signs and thoughts of hope in the book.  Jack Buggit coming back to life was perhaps my favorite of them all.  I loved the final lines of the book.

For if Jack Buggit could escape from the pickle jar, if a bird with a broken neck could fly away, what else might be possible? Water may be older than light, diamonds crack in hot goat's blood, mountaintops give off cold fire, forests appear in mid-ocean, it may happen that a crab is caught with the shadow of a hand on its back, and that the wind be imprisoned in a bit of knotted string. And it may be that love sometimes occurs without pain or misery.

4) Life and Progress

I loved reading about life in Newfoundland.  I grew up in the suburbs and now live in the city.  The life they describe in the book is so far removed from the ones I know.  I really liked reading about the way modern life is creeping in.  I didn't have to feel guilty that Walmart is making us all stupider, the way that they addressed what's happening was so much more gentle. I loved this quote from the book.

"There's two ways of living here now. There's the old way, look out for your family, die where you was born, fish, cut your wood, keep a garden, make do with what you got. Then there's the new way. Work out, have a job, somebody tell you what to do, your brother's in South Africa, your mother's in Regina, buy every goddamn cockadoodle piece of Japanese crap can. Leave home. Go off to look for work. And some has a hard time of it. . . . Now we got to deal with Crock-Pots and consumer ratings, asphalt driveways, lotteries, fried chicken franchises, Mint Royale coffee and gourmet shops, all that stuff"

I also very much enjoyed the descriptions of the old way of doing things.  The fishing, the sailing, the dragging of the Quoyle family home across the frozen ocean.  I appreciated that even though Quoyle was new to Newfoundland he was taken in by the people and they showed him what life had been like.

5) Change

Along the same vein of life changing the characters of in this book grow and change in the best ways. Quoyle, who has never been successful at anything finds his nitch.  The Aunt who has lost love gets to find it again--people get to change.  So often I pigeon-hole myself and others.  I say, "I'm not good at so and so." or "She is like x."  This book was a nice reminder that life isn't really like that.  We're not just one thing or another.  Even if I am x I don't have to stay that way.



So what did you think?

Book Club: Sept 2

I've taken a couple of months off of book club and in that time I've made a horrible discovery. 

Are you ready?

I love fantasy books.  It's humiliating and brings to mind all kinds of even more embarrassing things like dungeons and dragons and teens with braces. Yikes.  Before you judge too harshly just think of Harry Potter.  Lord of the Rings.  Twilight.  Ender's Game. Those are respectable fantasy books right?  You've read them.  Me too.  And I guess that my love of fantasy started there but it's progressed.  You show me any book where people can do magic or trees talk and I'm going to love it. 

The bad news is that my mom loves those same kinds of books so my summer vacation in Utah was an indulgence (and I mean about books. Though come to think of it, it was sort of an indugence in every other way too. My mom has a whole shelf of her storage room dedicated to Swiss Chocolate.) but I'm ready to get back to intellectual reading (and not eating a candy bar every day). 

For September we're going to read The Shipping News.  I've heard that it's charming and we're going to love it.

And I know that this is not a design blog and any designer who came to my house would be terrified (Even though it's breaking the first of Jonathan Adler's 10 commandments I am a minimalist) I love this.  I think I'm going to try to recreate it (but maybe in my living room).

Book Club: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

You all already know that we're working with Claire on discipline.  She really does love to hit people in the face. In some strange way I think that she thinks it's a way to show excitement but we're trying to break her of the habit. She also throws things.  At other people.  All the time.  On Sunday she picked up one of our friends' toys and smacked him in the head with it.  The good news is that our friend (who is only 8 months old) didn't seem to mind at all.  I did mind.

But even as we're trying to discipline her I'm so worried that she's going to lose the spunk that we love.  (By the way, we are taking any and all suggestions on the discipline front.) 

That being said, Minli is just the kind of girl that I want Claire to read about--just the right mix of spunk, bravery, discipline, kindness and love for her family (When Claire and I read the book together I will be sure to stress that running away from your family is absolutely not allowed.)

The pictures are beautiful, the story is good and I walked away from the book with  lots to think about.  We have lived in San Diego for nearly a year and still there are days when I am driving down the freeway (for some reason this feeling seems to hit me on the San Diego freeway way more often than it hits me any other place) and I am overwhelmed with the fact that we live in California--a thousand miles away from my family in a totally new place and that doesn't look like it's going to change.  Some days that feeling brings me to tears (once again almost always on the freeway that can't be just a coincidence) as I imagine missed playdates with cousins and grandparents.  Missed recitals, soccer games and talks given in church.

***Spoiler Alert*** As I read through the book I tried to imagine what was the word written on the paper that was the secret to happiness. I imagined things like Love or Service or something else that was equal parts cheesy and true but I am pleased to report that the traditional Chinese tale didn't disappoint and the key to happiness in our lives in Thankfulness.

I live in San Diego, California.  It is paradise.  We have only been here 10 months and we have amazing friends who love us and support us. And even though it is 1,000 miles from home (actually it's not even close to that but that makes it sound as far as it feels) my own dear mother is always only a phone call away. Gratitude is the only cure for that tightening in my chest (that and a quick call home or to the hubbs) and I really do believe that it is the key to happiness.

Ok, so what did you think of Minli?
And do you have suggestions for next month's book club?

Book Club Reminder

Ladies and gents I just wanted to remind you that for book club this month we are reading Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.  I started this book club because I wanted to continue to read challenging books and talk about them (a girl who stays home with a toddler has to make sure that she uses her brain every day).  I read lots of books that I don't talk about on this blog but I wanted to be sure to continually read books that couldn't be summed up with a declaration of either being on team Edward or team Jacob.

That being said I should warn you that Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is written for a 3rd grade audience.  Let's call this break from the Pulitzer prize winners our summer vacation.  And instead of reading something so sad we want to poke our eyes out (March...I'm looking at you) we're reading something fun and light-hearted.  One of our book club members recommended it and it had this glowing recommendation on Amazon

"This review is from: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Paperback)

I got Where the Mountain Meets the Moon in my Easter basket. This book is so creative and I haven't read anything that even stands up to this book. The characters and art in this book are amazing. I am in third grade and would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading. This book was very touching and even gave me some tears in my eyes. I loved how the author told about Chinese culture and legends. I couldn't put this book down! Go grab yourself a copy today...quick!"

How could we say no? On July 1st we'll talk about the book and we will be accepting comments from all friends, book club members and third graders.

Nerd Alert

The bad thing about watching movies (or masterpiece theatre classics) on Netflix of books that you love and have read multiple times is that you know what it going to happen.  So even though you love seeing Heathcliff and Catherine as young people running around on the moore you know that in not too long Catherine will be wandering the moore half-mad and will die from the exposure.

The good thing is that if it's getting late and Mr. Rochester has just proposed to Jane Eyre you can stop right there (feeling all lovely-dovey and romantic) and leave the hard part for tomorrow.

 

****And if you haven't watched Downton Abbey yet (also from Masterpiece Theater and available streaming on Netflix) you should stop reading right now and being.  Right now. You will love it.

Busy busy bumblebees

We have been very busy.

Busy working in the garden

Busy working at home

Busy going to see the sites (you should all go to Cabrillo National Monument--Mom and Dad we will take you here next time you come visit us. Actually we'll take any of you who want to come and visit)

Busy relaxing with dad

And very busy showing off our intelligence 

(this was in the car--sorry about the terrible cinematography)

Book Club.  I made an executive decision and this month we are reading March.  It's a Pulitzer Prize winner that is written from the perspective of the father of the March girls from Little Women. I'm closing in on the end and I'm liking it but have lots of questions.