More Books

Delta Girls by Gayle Brandeis - First up, it's not the fault of this book that every time I saw the cover, the lyrics of  "Delta Dawn" would run through my head.  But since that's what happened, I secretly hold it against this book. Plus I figured out what the book was about in about four chapters and then I was not so secretly bored. I mean, it was interesting enough (what's that flower you've got on?), but I'm not the queen of figuring out foreshadowing, so when I can figure it out (could it be a faded rose from days gone by?), the book is probably not my friend. It was perfectly fine young adult literature, but (and did I hear you said you'd be a'meetin' him here today?) just not my cup of tea.

endgame by Nancy Garden - Somehow I picked up a string of books on bullying and the awful consequences of it and I was made sad by each one, including this one.  I wish I had done more in high school to help those less fortunate than me. I wish that when I taught high school I had talked to some of the kids who sat by themselves more often. I wish, I wish, I wish...


Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ron Koertge - This book took me the length of a bus ride downtown to complete. It was the kind of work that would have desperately appealed to me in junior high, so I can totally see why Koertge has his followers.

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull - I don't know about this book. Just like at the beginning of the Harry Potter series, there was something so stupid about Harry always doing stuff he wasn't supposed to do, there's something incredibly stupid about the little boy in this book always doing exactly the opposite of what he was told. I think this is because I don't naturally break rules, especially rules that have been explicitly explained to me by those in authority, but I cringe at those parts of books and, yes, maybe even skip them.  I just hated that kid and I don't want to read any more about him. 

So B It by Sarah Weeks - I went out to eat with my high school English teacher a couple of weeks ago and she recommended this book. I read it.  I don't know if it will be on my list of books to recommend to others. There's something so incredibly implausible about the premise(s) that I just couldn't stop thinking "really? no one has stepped in to do something about this?" time and time again.  Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but this is treading into dangerous territories.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwan - I went into this book very suspiciously. But I liked it. I loved the characters, the wildly predictable ending, and the look at the very environment where I live through the lens of another culture, another experience, another perspective.  I would recommend this one.

What I Believe by Norma Fox Mazer - Written in the same style as Shakespeare Bats Cleanup as a series of journal entries written in list/poem/rambling run-on sentence style, this book could inspire children to just sit down and start writing. I can't say anything bad about that, can I?

Summer Crossing by Truman Capote - This is Capote's "missing novel," his first novel, the manuscript of which was found years after his death. I found it in the teen section of our local library and I am not sure who the audience for this was and maybe that's why Capote abandoned his draft because it's much too mature for who I was when I was a teenager and too insipid and vacuous for who I am as an adult.  I think that if you're a Holden Caulfield fan, you will probably also like the character of Grady in this novel, but if you also thought Holden Caulfield should have jumped off a bridge on page two of The Catcher in the Rye and saved us all a lot of time, I think I would steer clear of this book.


What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell - Gladwell does the Steven Levitt thing and takes two completely unrelated things and somehow winds a narrative connecting them with some unifying theme.  He does this over and over again.  And, as an academic, I'm somehow impressed by the ingenuity of it over and over and over again.  I am addicted to unusual and interesting thought processes, even if I can't stop my inner critic from pointing out all the logical inconsistencies as I read.  Gladwell is Gladwell and you either love him or hate him and I'm just amused enough to be on the love side. 

Bethany's Letter

This arrived in our mailbox a little over a week ago. I am sort of in love with this letter.

(click to make the image larger)

Dear Residant, 4-8-2011
Hello my name is Bethany and you do
not know me personally. I am a volunteer
and I wanted to write you since I
am unable to visit you personally.
We are approaching the anniversary
of Jesus Christ's death. With that in mind
I would like to share this thought found
at Romans 6:23, "For the wages sin pays
is death, but the gift God gives is
everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord."
Certainly Jesus death means a lot for us!
I would like to invite you to come
show your appreciation for what Jesus
has done as we commemorate his death
on Sunday April 17th, 2011. This is your
personal invitation, and you will notice
the time and location as well. You and
your family are welcome. Please bring
your copy of the Bible, as we will be
using it. Thank you! I hope to see
you there!
Sincerely,
Bethany R.

P.S. If you would like to
learn more or if you are
interested in having a free
home Bible study please contact me
at: blah, blah, blah


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Questions:
1) How horrified do you think Bethany would be to learn I don't own a Bible? The boy has several and we refer to them regularly for a variety of reasons, but I don't have one of my very own.

2) What do you think Bethany is like? I imagine her as an agoraphobic 30-something with five cats, wearing too long skirts and thick glasses. It's completely unfair of me, but this is what I do.  What does she do for a living?  Again, with the free rein of my imagination, she works at home as one of those people who scans medical documents into digital form. 

3) I find the letter to be way more effective than if Bethany had stopped by. If she had stopped by, I would have cut her off at the word Jesus. But by sending this letter, I've read it approximately three dozen times and I've shown it to everyone who has crossed our apartment threshold. Now that it's been scanned for permanent safekeeping, I think I'm going to put in on the fridge. Do you suppose that's the reason Bethany was unable to visit us?  I mean, it wouldn't have mattered either way since I decidedly won't be attending, but I've read it.  And smiled while doing so.

4) Who is assigning Bethany addresses?  Did she write one to everyone in our building?  Everyone on the whole block?  That's a lot of people to write to.  Does she pay for the stamps herself?

5) Is Bethany worried about creepy stalker types going to her address?  I blurred it out for her before I published it here, but it's kind of creepy.  I'm kind of tempted to stalk her (what? she lives less than a mile away) so that I can answer the pressing questions about what Bethany looks like.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme (Literally)

When we moved in together, one of our friends gave us this teensy little spider plant. We begged off using the time honored "we're not plant people" excuse, but somehow this little tiny creature was left in our apartment and we had to deal with it. We ignored the poor thing, didn't water it for ages, and still! Still it managed to thrive and grow. It grew out of one pot and then another and then I was forced to split it into three different plants. Then I gave two of them away. Then it grew again and I was forced to split it into three different plants. I gave two of them away. And then it grew again. And I split it into three plants. Are you noticing a trend here? I'm going to give two of them away this weekend.

Last year I tried to grow herbs inside for the first time in my life. It didn't work great, but we used some basil, we used some rosemary, and we killed the thyme like it didn't matter. I also had a begonia that did quite well last year.

So this is a long introduction to say that we have become "not plant people" to people who have this in their itty bitty apartment:

Below you will see the original spider plant that has caused all of the splitting and repotting (it's the big one on the right). I don't think it's possible to kill a spider plant, although when we were catsitting for a few months, we had to keep the plant in the bedroom away from a direct source of light and it didn't do well, but it still survived.  Also pictured is a Christmas cactus we received around Christmastime from my inlaws (back left), the not sure how to keep it alive thyme (front left), and the little ones are chives and basil I'm starting from seed (no idea if that's going to work at all).

Below you will see the two offshoots of the spider plant we will be giving to our inlaws when we go to Iowa this weekend.  On the left we have two Italian parsley plants and on the right we have a sage plant and a rosemary plant.  The whole herb thing started last year when I wanted to grow Italian parsley. We use a ton of it in just about every recipe we use and it was starting to irk me that I was paying $3 every week for it when I could buy a plant for that price and have it keep going.  Anyway, we never found Italian parsley last year because once it began to irk me, no one was selling herbs anymore.  But this year we found it!

You will also see a bike and a guitar in this picture.  My husband is to blame for both. 

White & Black

There are green buds on trees. Occasionally you'll see something green poking out from the ground. There are American Coots all over the lakes and sometimes you'll see a loon.

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The forecast is for three to five inches of snow in the next thirty-six hours. I refuse to believe it.

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We spent Saturday afternoon huddled against the freezing wind in the Home Depot gardening department, buying Italian parsley and rosemary and fruitlessly searching for sage and thyme. I came home and split our spider plant into three smaller plants, planning on giving them to my inlaws when we go for a visit this weekend. The plants are everywhere in our house now, their lush greenery making me wish I had a garden of my own. Maybe I'll get an aloe plant, too.

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She is so nice, so wonderful. Yet I get impatient with her each time I talk to her. Everything is a drama, a soap opera, an event. I snapped the last time she nearly broke down into tears over her mother's extended illness. At least you know. You don't have to have dreams about saying goodbye.

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The email comes from out the blue. Thank you. You were great. You made it possible for me to do it. I am probably just as grateful for the email as he was for the class.

***********************

The unspoken remains unspoken. We talk around it. We talk beside it. We stress. He loses more hair, more weight, more confidence. I lose faith, optimism, and whatever starry eyed innocence I once had.

***********************

We will see all six of our nieces and nephews this weekend. I will snap pictures of them. I will play with choo choo trains and quiz about colors and letters. We will read book after book after book and just when I think I'm going to take Pinkalicious and throw her out the playroom window, we will go outside and spin in circles.

Books I Returned to the Library Today

The Quality of Life Report by Meghan Daum - Yesterday I met with an old friend who was visiting the Twin Cities for lunch and her seven year old son came along with us.  He has just started reading chapter books and we were sharing with one another some suggestions for good children's books when he started talking about how he's reading a Hardy Boys book and he can't stand it.  I told him he should feel free to stop reading a book if he doesn't like it.  He looked at me with a puzzled look on his face and quizzed me about how often I don't finish books.  And I told him that I didn't do it a lot, but when I really didn't like a book, I didn't feel too badly about just stopping in the middle because I could be spending that time on a book I did like.  He seemed satisfied with my response. 

And then I realized I should have stopped reading this book after page four when the narrator was talking about how awful gold jewelry was and I started hating her. It just didn't get better after that. That narrator was an idiot, she made idiotic choices, and I never knew if I was supposed to feel as completely superior to her as I did. I felt bad about myself when I read this book because I hated this make believe woman so very much. I know some folks loved this book, but I just didn't feel it.  Thumbs down, way down.


Service Included by Phoebe Damrosch - This was an interesting peek into the world of fine dining, a world I will never be a part of.  I heard some chef on NPR talking about some of the things that I read about in this book and I felt like the book did a much better job of explaining some aspects of fine dining to me. I liked it.

Dark Water by Laura McNeal - This is one of those damn books that tells you the ending at the beginning of the book.  I guess it's a popular thing in literature these days, but I'm going to yell at those damn kids to stay off my lawn and remain staunchly in the camp that it's a dumb trend.  Despite this, I really loved this book. It was creepy and strange and I feel like the character was developed in a weird way, but I loved it.  So there you have it.  I have no defense for my feelings for this book, but they are strong and they are true, so back off and let me love it.


Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer - I wanted to like this book.  I love that the main character is good at something, even if it is something kind of weird and mundane.  I love that the main character knows she's good at this and takes advantage of how she's good at it for her benefit and to help other people.  But this book just fell flat for me, Newberry Honor book or not. I didn't feel it at all and if that means I'm an evil, soulless woman, then that's what it means. The ending was contrived and unrealistic.  The secondary characters were caricatures.  The whole thing just sucked.  So, another thumbs down.

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Protector and Redemption by Laurel Dewey - I bought this two books for my Kindle.  They involve a female member of law enforcement (first she's a cop, then she's a PI, then she's a cop again - it's all very clear in the novels, but sound confusing as I type it and a couple of high profile cases she's involved with, along with a tale of woe in her personal life. I was momentarily obsessed with these books and I do think they are good, but I no longer feel an overwhelming urge to read the entire Dewey oeuvre.  Good reads, though. 

SATs, Small Towns, and a Book by Erin McCahan

There was only one place on the western side of Michigan giving the exam,  East Grand Rapids High School, a monstrous suburban prison for high schoolers that took my breath away when my friend Nick and I arrived one spring morning.  In retrospect, it wasn't anything special for a rich suburban school district, but it was unlike any school this girl from a tiny school that looked more like a big box store than a place where children should learn all the important things they would need to lead them to lives of joy and importance had ever seen before.  Nick's car shuddered to a stop in that parking lot and we both sighed in relief, knowing we were lucky the car had not overheated and exploded on the highway on the way down.

Elizabeth wrote about I Now Pronounce You Someone Else and said that the premise was stupid, so of course I immediately went to the library and checked it out.  (Sorry Elizabeth.) And (SPOILER ALERT) the premise was kind of boring and, as Elizabeth said, it would have been better and more interesting if they had gotten married, but honestly, it was like reading about my life 15 years ago, with an engagement broken and talk of small private colleges in Michigan.  And I loved it.

I especially loved the setting. The author grew up in western Michigan and everything she wrote reminded me of what I formerly called home.  My friend Nick from above, his last name was Vandersomethingelse, just like about a quarter of my high school class and many main characters in the book.  Last names of Dykstra and DeVos were common and as I read each name, I would say it underneath my breath and smile.  Referring to Lake Michigan as the lake, lazy summer days spent at the beach, and every character ending their sentences with a preposition made me happy. 

Obviously, I didn't lead the same life that the whiny main character of this book did.  But I want to invite the author over for dinner and talk to her about life on the lake and how much she hates living in Columbus where she currently lives and inevitably has to hear about how great Ohio State, I'm sorry, The Ohio State University is as compared to The University of Michigan when she doesn't really care at all about either school, but suddenly feels an urge to defend her home state as if her life depends on it. 

So I don't think you have to read this book.  Unless you grew up in the Grand Rapids area and still occasionally go The Grand Rapids Press web site just to hear about what the VanAndels are up to these days, then you might want to read this just for the nostalgia factor.