The Little Women Letters

2011, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Feminism, Fiction, Women /

Sigh.

I didn’t hate it. Really, I didn’t.

The problem is that I didn’t love it. And I really, really wanted to love it.

The Little Women Letters had so many things going for it – I should have loved it. A feminist mom who does a good bit of patriarchy blaming. Interesting sisters. The “March girls’” letters.  I could go on, you get the point.

So many things I should have loved but I just didn’t.

Yes, I did chuckle in places – which TW took as a good sign.

I did smile on numerous occasions. And I did even sigh at the end, cheesy as it was.

But no, I did not love it. Something was missing. I don’t know what it was but something. Something important.

Have you read it? Did you love it or did it let you down?

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I Have a Headache – But It’s Not Because of the Patriarchy

Daily Dose /

I woke up too early – let’s blame TW. And birds. But not RJ’s bird, surprisingly.

The prairie dogs also woke up too early. Well one woke up too early, Pebbles. And she has banged on her cage ALL. DAY. LONG.

We have to leave the house at some horrible hour in order to get to the Noyes Cultural Center to see Elly and the other Circus Freaks perform The Princess Bride. TW says we have to get there an hour early to avoid the fist fights in the lobby. I do not understand this. Fist fights in the lobby? For circus freak?

This was not the post I was going to write today. But. See above.

Instead – go read about nesting and the patriarchy.

Oh. You should also go read my review of A Jane Austen Education – speaking of patriarchy and headaches and but not nesting – Jane Austen wasn’t really a very good nester, was she?

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More Than Half Way — Less Than Half Way

2 Comments / 2011, Books in Bed /

I’m mad at Sassymonkey. She was mean and wrote a post asking about our reading goal progress. See – that’s really mean of her, isn’t it?  

So here I am dutifully looking at my progress – which is hard since I only barely remember what my goals were. It’s been that kind of year.

Two are easy – Nancy Drew Challenge that I started on last year…  I’ve read 10 of those, so that’s not TOO bad. I wish I’d read 12 but such is life. I’m getting close to the end of the ones I own and will have to begin to buy them so I’m not in a huge rush right now. 

The Cybils Short List Challenge is the same challenge for me every year but this year, I’m not doing so well. Quite a few books on the short list weren’t available in my library system and that was a pain so I stopped trying to reserve them. I’m trying to get back into the swing now but it’s slow going. I think there are 76 on the list and I’ve read… 32. Ugh. This is not going to end well, is it?

I joined the Queer Reading Challenge and… um… I’ve read a good number of queer books, I just haven’t shared them with the Queer Reading Challenge people. Oops.

Same with the Adoption Challenge. I’m not even sure how many of those I’ve ready (Sorry Jenna! I’ll go through this weekend and figure it out and update the challenge thread. Really.)  I know I read two – and I think I shared both over there. Maybe? *Hanging my head in shame*

I wanted to listen to more books on audio this year and though we started out well, we’ve kind of dropped the ball a bit – ok a lot. We’ve only listened to SIX books on audio. That’s just appalling. A book I wasn’t really into. A couple of books that were all “skippy”. I’m renewing my pledge to listen to more audio books. Really. I just reserved a couple more.

And then there was the whole Christmas in July idea. What the hell was I thinking? Whatever. Not happening, obviously. I think I can still read three Christmas-y books this year. Maybe.

And then there’s the really big problem – the From the Stacks by Color Challenge. Do the Penguin books floating in here for the BlogHer Book Club count? Or not so much? Because if they count – I’m doing really well. If they don’t, I’m screwed – it looks like I’ve only read THREE books from my stacks. Three. Plus the Penguins. Aye yi yi.

How many books have I read, so far, this year? 108. Sigh.

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Trying to Keep My Head Above Water

Daily Dose /

As I write this, I’m officially on PTO. I was supposed to take off an hour ago – that didn’t happen. Mostly because at some point yesterday something happened and none of our computers (or devices of any kind) will talk to the God Printer. Something also happened that caused me not to be able to watch video of any kind on my computer.  I accidentally ran an update which caused me to be unable to work during the last hour of my work day – so when that update finished, I was an hour behind.

And then I got a phone call.

And then I got an email I really wanted to answer.

And I need to make a phone call but the person I’m trying to call is not answering – oh there she is now.

Where was I? Oh. Keeping my head above water. Hah.

Not happening. Not enough hours in the day.

But on a good note – we’re going to see Lorena tonight, which makes all of today’s little annoyances worth it.

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We are Swimming in Soda

1 Comment / Daily Dose /

TW was a Coke addict when I met her. Coke as in the drink in the red can, not the white powder-y stuff. She’s talked about cutting back and even quitting, and from time to time she’s had some small success with both.

But that never lasts. She just plain likes Coke.

When we were down south, in May, for BlogHer Food and to visit family, Cokes were on sale. She thought we should buy them and bring them back. I said we didn’t need to because there would be another sale soon – and I was right.

Shortly after we got home from that trip, we stocked up on Cokes again.

And then TW found a new drink addiction – Komboucha.

I didn’t realize that the Komboucha addiction had actually taken over for the Coke addiction. I thought she was still drinking one Coke a day, most days – along with her one Komboucha a day.

Last week there was an awesome sale on sodas – so we bought 8 more 12 packs of soda (4 Coke, 2 Fruit Punch, 2 Orange Fanta) and TW couldn’t figure why we bought that. (It actually was one of the things that put us over budget.)

I told her we bought it because we needed it.

She said we didn’t because she wasn’t drinking Coke anymore.

I rolled my eyes.

Today, I reorganized the stockpile room.

She was right – she’s not drinking nearly as much Coke. I’m shocked.

I don’t know how you replace a Coke addiction with a Komboucha addiction. Komboucha TASTES horrible. (And also – it’s freaking expensive.)

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The Dead Boys

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

Oops. I had it in my head that The Dead Boys was a Cybils Shortlist middle grade graphic novel. Imagine my surprise when I picked it up last night and discovered it wasn’t. Hah. It’s definitely a Cybils short list middle grade fiction but it’s so not a graphic novel, (though it would make a truly excellent one if the right someone drew it.)

This was one hell of a creepy story and I think a whole lot of kids will love it – I’m really surprised at the ending. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a book like this, end this way…

**spoiler – do not read this part if you think you might read the book!!!**

Every 10 years, one 12 year old boy disappears. The bodies are never found… flash forward and a new 12 year old boy moves into town and something wants him to disappear now.

But he figures out what’s happening and finds those missing boys. They’re still 12 year old boys… and in the end, the boys are brought back… as 12 year olds.

I want to know how that goes over with their families… that’s just weird, and creepy!

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Three Graphic Novels – One Great, Two Not Horrible

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

From the Cybils short list middle grade graphic novels list, Guinea Pig Pet Shop Private Eye: Hamster and Cheese was my least favorite. It was cute but I was annoyed by the pet store owner who knows nothing about animals. I don’t believe that was really necessary. I did, however, really like the part at the end with interesting information about animals. That was the best part of the book.

Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess was what you’d expect. The Fates spin us stories about Athena. I didn’t love the drawings but I didn’t hate them either. The stories were fine. Nothing to write home about, really.

My favorite of these will not surprise you. Mercury, written by the author of Chiggers. This one is better than Chiggers and as all good graphic novels should, it left me anxious to find out what happens next! (Which is good because at the beginning, I wasn’t sure I liked the jumping between times. It was jarring until I got comfortable with the characters.

I can’t wait til Elly gets home so she can read these three and tell me what she thinks.

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The Last of the Easy Readers – Surprising!

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

I’ve finished all of the books from the Easy Readers category of the Cybils Shortlist, yippee! And that deserves an  extra yippee because besides the somewhat boring but nicely illustrated Cork & Fizz: The Babysitters, I actually enjoyed this year’s Down Girl and Sit: Home on the Range. It had prairie dogs! I laughed all of the way through it.

This was a good year for the easy readers. I actually loved a Down Girl and Sit and an Elephant and Piggie book. (That doesn’t mean I want to see either in next year’s list. Let’s not press our luck, ok?)

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The Summer Without Men

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Women /

Earlier in the week, I was looking for something to read that was either short, funny, or a quick read because nothing on the library stack was really screaming “Read ME Next!”. The Summer Without Men looked like it might work. Short book, interesting title, interesting cover, interesting paper, and the author has an interesting name.

Two pages later I realized that while this book is short, it’s not really funny or a quick read. It was downright serious and, gasp, literary! So a book I thought would take me a day – took a week. Now that’s not a bad thing, it just wasn’t what I was interested in at that moment. With no significant time to read and fried brain cells when I did have time to read, this book would have been better read on the weekend because it wouldn’t have taken me nearly as long.

50 something woman (who happens to be a poet and a Colombia professor) has a bit of a breakdown after her husband tells her he’s having an affair (with a younger woman, obviously.) She spends the summer in a small town, teaching a poetry class to pre-teen girls (with all of the mean girl madness that goes with something like that), in the house next door is a young mom of two whose husband is an ass, and her mom is in a retirement facility nearby where we also meet some wonderfully interesting “swans”.

The book is just plain brilliant. I think it’s miss-titled but I can overlook that.  I’d like to own it. In fact, I think I’ll put it on my “this is what I want for my birthday list”.

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