I finally remembered to join the Saturday Review of Books. You should join too. You should also surf some of the reviews this week. I’ve found it interesting to do because there are often books on the list that I would never have heard of or thought to read.
Book Reviews Around the Blogosphere Read More »
I finally finished The Inheritance of Loss. It was difficult. Everytime I would start to read, I would start to yawn… my eyes would get so tired I couldn’t keep them open. Great bedtime reading if you need something to help you fall asleep.
It really was well written and it’s obvious why it won the Booker Prize. But it isn’t a book I will ever read again. It isn’t a book I want to own. It isn’t even a book I’m glad to say that I read. It just didn’t DO anything for me – except put me to sleep.
The Inheritance of Loss Read More »
In honor of our library’s Friends of the Library Sale, let’s top our cupcakes with miniature books. You can go all out and grab some special, miniature books – they’re expensive but very cool. You could get the Harry Potters or the Tolkein books, if you are having one of those themed paries. If you aren’t picky, you can get a “library assortment” (16 assorted for $24). Thankfully, there are inexpensive dollhouse miniature books that would work just fine.
Daily Dose of Cupcake Toppers Read More »
OK this is for Lee, since she likes Chris stories so much.
My son came home from his girlfriend’s house. He walked in the front door. I yelled “hello” from the bedroom. He yelled “hello” back. He said “How’s it going?” I said “ok, how’s it going with you”. He said “I got stung by a scorpion.” I said “Huh? ummm have you been to the hospital?” He said “No, it’s fine.”
Ummm scorpions are bad. I know very little about them, having lived in areas where they weren’t really a problem. In fact I started to think “Does Florida even have them? Is my son delusional in the way that Michelle is in always thinking she’s been bit by a spider because the 1/2 child is constantly telling spider bite stories?”
So Chris is at the bedroom door and I am here on my laptop trying to remain calm as he tells me that it’s no big deal and his g/f has been stung a lot and I’m googling scorpions in Florida. Resisting the urge to call the hospital immediately and act like the freak out mom I’m NOT.
Thank goodness. He’s right. There are scorpions and Florida but it’s not that big of a deal. Except that they are as ugly as can be and I think he should avoid them and areas where they live in the future. Because the idea of one crawling on me is making me ill and Elvis Rat is beginning to look good compared to these things.
Sheesh.
Daily Dose of Chris Read More »
Well, that pretty much covers it – a little make up here, a little photoshop there. Beauty.
UPDATED: And look at this – a before/after magazine cover tool. (Thanks to Lisa Stone for bringing Erica at I’m sick of your insane demands to my attention.)
Daily Dose of Women – Evolution Read More »
I have been ranting for several years about walkers and joggers in my neighborhood. And over the last six months or so I’ve taken to ranting about a couple of joggers in my town for the same reason. None of them use sidewalks.
We have sidewalks in this neighborhood. Why do single walkers and joggers and groups of walkers and joggers and moms walking with strollers and men walking their dogs not use them? What makes them walk in the road at all hours of the day and night? I don’t understand it. At. All. It’s annoying and it is dangerous.
Sometimes, early in the morning, I have to drive someone to work and when I do I always see a jogger on NW 8th Ave. And I do mean ON NW 8th Ave. He isn’t on the sidewalk. He is in a LANE like he’s a car or something. He isn’t even crossing from one side of the street to another, illegally, he’s simply JOGGING in the MIDDLE of a lane. Does he not realize it is dark at 6:30am and CARS use the road? It’s a four lane, very busy road, at 6:30 and 7am – particularly on weekdays when it is a prime thoroughfare to the University. What is this man thinking? Why isn’t he on the sidewalk? Does he have a deathwish?
Pedestrian deaths are a problem. I wouldn’t be surprised if that jogger or some folks in my neighborhood became one of those nasty statistics sometime soon. I don’t think the Florida DOT is getting their message out very well – or maybe these people just don’t think it could happen to them – or their children.
Daily Dose of Pet Peeves – Side Walks Read More »
I love Minette Walters. After reading Devil’s Feather I am tempted to ignore Inheritance of Loss a bit longer and read another Walters that is calling me from the “to be read” shelf. But I won’t, I’ll read Inheritance now and then get back to Walters!
I think TW said that The Devil’s Feather was boring. I’m not sure why she found it boring. The initial area of the book, the foreshadowing so to speak, was a little slow – but once the bad guy got really bad, it was anything BUT boring.
I liked both Connie and Jess quite a bit. I disliked Dr Peter from start to finish but that’s ok – which says something about Minette Walters… that I can dislike a major character, one who has solid relationships with the two main characters that I love, and not hold it against the author – that never happens.
(Terrorism abounds in this book. Rape, torture – it’s pretty ugly. If you’ve got personal “triggers”, this may not be the book for you.)
The Devil’s Feather Read More »
In order to talk about Now It’s My Turn, I probably should tell you how I felt about Mary Cheney before I read her book and how I felt about her during the 2000 election, too.
In 2000, I thought Bush made a good choice in Cheney for VP. I had no real feelings about Mary Cheney except that it’s too bad her orientation will be used in the campaign. But, since it is the republican party that has been responsible for discrimination of GLBTs in recent years, I didn’t have a whole lot of sympathy for her.
When the campaign got going and she and her family seemed so shocked and insulted that HER orientation would be used in the campaign, I thought their acting was pretty bad. To ever think she wouldn’t be used throughout the campaign, by both sides, was ridiculous and to pretend to be shocked and appalled was simply stupid. But even so, well into the first term, I had no issues with Mary or with her father.
But my feelings changed when Bush started pushing so hard for an amendment to the constitution that would very specifically discriminate against gays and lesbians. The idea that Mary Cheney would continue to work for a president who thought it was fine to add discriminatory language to our constitution was enough to send me over the edge. And then to be so angry and so insulted when she was again used during the campaign in 2004 – well that did it, I lost all respect.
Now about her book… I was moving along just fine, and I liked her just fine, until she got to the 2004 election and started talking about her decision to stick with the campaign even though she did not agree with Bush’s defense of marriage act…. even though her father (and the rest of her family) did not agree with such an amendment…. even though staff member after staff member told her that they did not agree with President Bush…. even though a staff member called her in fear of his job because he thought he was going to be outed….
Mary says she stuck with President Bush because she believed he was the candidate who could lead this country and under his leadership we would live in a country where GLBT and marriage could be discussed. And apparently, under democratic leadership we would become so weak that we could no longer discuss such an issue. Ummm Huh? That makes absolutely no sense to me. It’s an excuse and a poor one. It’s smoke that Mary has thrown up to take the heat for being too weak to stand up for what she believes in – or to come right out and say, “I don’t really care about the constitution of the US right now, I care about getting my dad back into office.”
How could supporting a president who thinks it’s perfectly fine to write discriminatory language into the constitution be good for our country?
Mary talks about the interracial marriage issue, as compared to the GLBT marriage issue) and the fact that it took 40 years to get those laws overturned. She doesn’t think it would take 40 years to end discrimination against gays. How long does she think it might take? She doesn’t say. And in the meantime, doesn’t it bother her that people (like that staff member) are terrified of losing their jobs? (and they don’t have her daddy there to help them keep their jobs, like that staff member did)
Doesn’t it concern her that the more President Bush pushes this discriminatory language, the more power it gives to those who would choose to physically, emotionally and economically attack GLBT people? What about all of those young people who are victims of verbal or physical assault right now – what happens to them when Mary’s choice for president manages to get that amendment passed? Even if it doesn’t pass, he has still given people like him the confidence and the ammunition to attack more young people, doesn’t that bother her? Oh wait, it’s ok because it won’t take 40 years for us to “overcome” like it did peple in interracial marriages. I guess Mary has decided that all of the gay folks who suffer under President Bush’s administration aren’t important. Maybe those folks she considers “acceptable losses”.
I have absolutely no issue with Mary Cheney the lesbian conservative republican, I like lesbian conservative republicans. I do have an issue with Mary Cheney’s choice to work on that campaign with full knowledge that the president believes discriminatory language belongs in our constitution. I take issue with her ability to blow smoke and scream foul when the democrats used her orientation to prove a point (or two or three) while she stood by and supported that president and his efforts to change our constitution in this manner.
Mary Cheney’s book – bah, just like Mary Cheney herself – all smoke and mirrors. I respect her dad just fine but I don’t respect her.
Mary Cheney: Now It’s My Turn Read More »
It’s been a long time since I put off sleep to finish a book. Sleep trumps just about everything right now, my life is just like that. That all changed last night when I found myself closing the final pages of The Birth House at 1:44am.
Sassymonkey and others have been raving about The Birth House for ages. My library, as wonderful as it is, didn’t have it and I couldn’t get it through inter-library loan. So Sassymonkey, she surprised me with it. At first, I was grouchy about that. I owe her a seriously large package and I’m horrible about mailing things. And here she is, sending me package after package after package – making me feel more guilty with each knock on the door by the postman. Also, I’m behind on my reading. How dare she send me books I am dying to read? HMPH.
TW picked up The Birth House before I had a chance. And she read it straight through, staying up long after I’d fallen asleep. This also made me grouchy. TW read MY book BEFORE I had a CHANCE. HMPH. And then she had the nerve to talk about how AMAZING it was. HMPH again.
I decided to ignore the huge stack of library books waiting to go back and picked up The Birth House on Wednesday evening. I read the prologue and promptly went to sleep wondering why this was a book to rave about… the prologue wasn’t. On Thursday evening, I picked up The Birth House and read 12 pages and promptly went to sleep wondering if I was going to be sorely disappointed in this book. I picked up The Birth House on Friday evening and read it straight through – every single page, stopping only to run over and pick up Michelle at 11:30pm and bring her home (whining about her cutting into my reading time).
The Birth House – awesome. Maybe the best book ever written. OK OK not the best book ever written but still, wonderful – spectacular – extraordinay (to borrow TW’s description). And by a Canadian, too. I mean really, Canadian writers rarely grab me and keep me – but Ami McKay, AWESOME.
Buy the book. Read the book. Give it to friends and family. Man, I might have to read it again today! Oh wait, I can’t, I need to read Inheritance of Loss, darn it.
Thanks to Rebecca, I know just how much my library is worth to me in dollars… $1308 a MONTH. That’s right, $1308 a MONTH. Granted, we’re a famil of 7 at the moment but still… Next week, when it is Friends of the Library Sale time – I’m going to buy twice as many books as I’d previously planned. $1308 a MONTH. I love my library.