Non-Fiction

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

2016, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women /

When you’re 53ish and reading Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl you find yourself wanting to give away all of your crap and move to Philly and hang out with your punk/goth kid and listen to all of the punk/goth music for awhile and do nothing else at all.

And then you might feel like after your kid is sick of you and you’re sick of Philly that it would be a good time to move onto the Pacific Northwest and hang out with another kid and see if you can figure out where all the cool indie musicians hang out and just listen to whatever it is that might be cool now.

At which point you realize that you don’t actually know what kinds of indie music might be cool and whether there is any cool indie music going on anywhere because you’re old now and you have all of these responsibilities and you have dogs, for godsakes (though Carrie has dogs, too, now… which by the way, the almost last chapter of the book comes at you from nowhere and you won’t be prepared for what happens and it might make you feel kind of ill and stuff… just warning you. You should still read the book… where was I?)

Oh yea, which then causes you to think maybe you should just put the book down, turn Sleater-Kinney up really loud and make a zine, which causes you to laugh your ass off because you can’t even manage to write anything decent on your own blog (or anywhere) or paint in your art journal or really do anything except work and think about mortgages and crap.

Which causes you to kind of be annoyed that you missed all of the cool stuff that happened in the 90s because you were busy raising kids and working, working, working — always working.

Whatever. You still have Sleater-Kinney to listen to. And there are some old zines on your bookshelves (or if you’re me, they’re packed in a box but will be back on your bookshelves someday…assuming the mortgage all works out, lol.) And you can listen to your goth/punk kids’ music any damn time you want and even sometimes listen to her playlist for her DJ gig. And… that will be enough. Mostly.

Read Carrie’s book. And listen to some Sleater-Kinney.

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A Fine Romance: Falling In Love with the English Countryside

2016, Art, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I can’t quite remember what led me to reserve A Fine Romance at the library. I saw it mentioned somewhere… a diary, with watercolors. Right up my alley. Except it wasn’t. Quite.

I enjoyed it. Really. It’s just not quite my style of storytelling/diary writing. I also don’t have that much love for Beatrix Potter. (I do have a lot more love for the Bloomsbury group and the Arts & Crafts Movement, which she learned to love a good bit on her trip.)

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Walter Camp: Football and the Modern Man

2016, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

When I heard Julie Des Jardins was writing a book about Walter Camp, I knew I wanted to read it. Not because I’m a big football fan (#GoTigers) but because I knew Julie would write something interesting, something I didn’t know or hadn’t thought of.

And, that’s exactly what she did.

I’ve never really thought a whole lot about the history of football — why it is what is is today, what it was in the beginning. I mean I knew all about the weird formations and pulling/pushing the ball carrier and the controversy around the throwing game but Walter Camp’s ideas about MEN and what being a MAN should be… that’s not really something I’d thought much about. And, it makes total sense.

Looking at football today (or listening to it, as I am now — to the Clemson/Alabama game, go Tigers) it all makes so much sense. And thinking about injuries — from the 1800s and 1900s and today. It all makes so much sense, in a senseless insane sort of way.

Really fascinating read. I highly recommend you read Walter Camp: Football and the Modern Man.

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Spark Joy

2016, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

It seems fitting that the first book I finished in 2016 is Spark Joy, Marie Kondo’s new book.

It’s short, even shorter than the first one, and I didn’t like it nearly as much as I’d hoped. It was fine, a lot of regurgitation of the first book and some clarification of the “rules” that some people might need, but I really didn’t. Not a whole lot more info about storage and organization then there was in the first book. Not really anything new at all, actually.

I’m not sorry to have read it because it was like getting a little Kondo refresh to help push me into the final stretch (and to remind me of things to think about when we buy a new house, pack up all of our stuff and then unpack all of our stuff.)

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Tis the Season for Non-Fiction

2015, Books in Bed, cookbooks, Non-Fiction /

Whenever my work or home life get busy, I reach for non-fiction because they’re often quick and easy to read. So, here are the five I’ve read in the last week or so… some pretty good, some not so much.

Lovable Livable Home is the newest Young House Love book and I liked it so much better than their first book. I mean, I really enjoyed it. A lot.

Next, Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less) is Angela England’s book and I could have sworn I’d already read it. I mean I’ve followed her blogs/twitter/facebook forever, how could I have not read her book. But, apparently I hadn’t. I enjoyed it. It’s a nice look at how you can have a backyard farm with not a lot of land.

The New Christmas Tree was an impulse pick up from the library shelf because it’s Christmas, after all. Some of the trees were really cute. I kind of want a snack food tree. But, I totally stressed over all of the lit candles in the trees. Don’t do that. Gah.

My Cool Kitchens was… not cool. Yes, there were some nice kitchens but I didn’t like the structure of the book itself. Ho hum.

Heartlandia was a nice enough cookbook but not really my thing, though it did make me want fried chicken (and maybe to go to their restaurant should I ever find myself in Portland.

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Two Non-Fiction Books

2015, Altered Book, Art, Books in Bed, cookbooks, Non-Fiction /

I enjoyed Thug Kitchen so much that I reserved Thug Kitchen Party Grub. This is a good cookbook, though I didn’t find it quite as good as their first book. Not quite as many, “Oh I want to try that” moments but still a very good book.

I enjoyed Bound: Over 20 Artful Handmade Books though it wasn’t quite what I’d been looking for when I picked it up. Still, I have some old books that I might just use to create a new book, someday.

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Unbuttoning of America: A Biography of “Peyton Place”

2015, Books in Bed, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women /

I read Peyton Place in the late 70s or early 80s and only barely remember it, so I’m not sure why I grabbed Unbuttoning of America off of the library shelf. But, I did and I’m glad. It was excellent and has inspired me to re-read Peyton Place. I highly recommend this book, whether you’ve read Peyton Place or not.

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Three Graphic Novels

2015, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

Through the Woods was excellent. Creepy but not overly scary and not silly, as kids’ scary stories sometimes are.

I loved, loved, loved, The Shadow Hero and I didn’t expect to. The afterword, with info about the 1940s Green Turtle just made it even better.

To This Day: For the Bullied and the Beautiful was very well done. Great illustrations, great stories.

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