Patch

I got a cat. He is super great as cats go. I think. I haven't had a cat since I was nine, but I think this one is going to be good. He's a little nervous and spends most of his days under my bed; but when he comes out, he's ready to play. Also, he purrs every time I touch him. And once in a while, he lets both my kids pet him at the same time.

I would post a picture, but it would cost like more than a hundred dollars because my camera appears to be dying. He is a very good looking black and white boy, ten months old.

Hah! He just pounced at nothing. What a cat! Eew. Less cute, he just pounced in and out of the litter box, which is in my room because he's not really interested in leaving my room. Gross.

Seriously, what the hell is this fricking cat doing?

He's crazy.

I wish I knew more about cats.

Sadly, it's too late to call Stimey. She knows all about these things.

Read all the way to the end of this post--I've got fun news!

I feel sort of boring and predictable, but I'm reading Emma. Again.

Jane Austen, I can't get enough of her. She is always so fresh and perfect.

Off the Women's History Month table in the library, I also grabbed Laura's Album: A Remembrance Scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder compiled by William Anderson. It is really fun to see photographs of the Ingalls family and adorable Almanzo. Mrs. Wilder was apparently quite a sassafrassy. Between her childhood and her later years when she wrote her books; she was a noted farmer and active in her town and church. She was adorable and stout like a little French horse! Almanzo was surprisingly good looking, and a half-pint as well as Laura. Laura's Album also gives an accurate timeline of her family's travels, as she simplified for the children's books. It's a fun book to look over, and now I will probably have to read some Little House books for the fun of it. Maybe my kids are big enough now to listen to them.

Speaking of reading to kids; I have been trying to get my kids to listen to a chapter book lately, and they aren't biting at anything. Last year we read like five Ramona books. I have tried Trumpet of the Swan by E.B White and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty Mac Donald, to no avail. Maybe Little House in the Big Wood will spark their interest.

Speaking of Ramona though; today the three of us visited the local Humane Society to look for a cat. A CAT! And we found one. In discussing names, we turned over Rosepetal, Katie, Sally, Susan, Skipper, Apple Pie and others, but Ramona was our winner. I love it. And I really hope I love this cat. EEk! She's tiny and is black and white. She sat in my lap and purred. We were very disappointed to have to leave her at the shelter while we await our interview. Cross your fingers that I am judged to be a responsible cat owner-- my super nice landlord said that he would highly recommend me when they call him to make sure it's allowed. Aww.

Another Assignment

Back to Elizabeth Strout. My aunt visited the East Coast recently and brought me a few books, one of which came with an assignment. Read it and advise on whether to pick The Wife by Meg Wolitzer or Amy and Isabel by Elizabeth Strout for her book club next month. Last time I think she chose something by Ayn Rand so she wanted to give the ladies a break I think. Or maybe just not get kicked out of the book club.

I wasn't thinking very much when I glanced at them and didn't connect Amy and Isabel by Elizabeth Strout to Olive Kitteridge byt the same author. Duh.

I picked up Amy and Isabel a few times and said, to myself, "boy is this going to be good. I sure am tired though." So I turned of my light and went to bed after twenty minutes. Last night I picked up A and I at about eleven and it started to get really good. So good in fact that I read the whole book. And when I finished at two, I was so wound up I didn't sleep til three.

It was that good.

There are some ick parts to be sure. Watching a teenager come to sexual maturity is never pretty, and there are a fair number of images of middle aged sex, but Man. What a story. So beautfully written. I am putting Elizabeth Strout officially on my list of favorite authors. I love her.

The only negative comment I have about this book is the title. It comes off as a non-serious book, especially leading off with Amy, it seems fluffy when it definitely is not fluffy and addresses coming of age and sex and female relationships so thoughtfully. I don't have any suggestions for a better title, but am not a fan of the current one. Although really it's permanent. I wonder if Ms. Strout thought of it herself or had it forced upon her by a tyrannical publisher.

I love castaway stories!

Although I haven't been blogging for a few months, I have managed to get through a few books in the moments when I was not knitting.

One terrific book I read recently was In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. I grabbed this from Stimey's basement library because I cannot get enough of shipwreck and disaster stories. Morbid and creepy, I know. However, from all these books I have learned that I most certainly could become a cannibal. I shocked my poor friend today when I suggested that if my child were starving I would cheerfully slaughter my dog, stew him up and feed him to my children.

I am always planning for my own personal apocalypse, and so reading these survival books maybe helps me to mentally prepare for the starvation I seem to think is inevitable for me. I read them almost like textbooks, noting gruesome details so I can identify the signs of scurvy or maybe another horrible vitamin deficit in myself.

I absolutely love reading these stories of tongue swelling thirst and sucking on the bones of your first mate. Mr. Philbrick did a tremendous job of bringing this important American story to life. He described how is became Melville's inspiration for Moby Dick, and did a bang up job explaining nautical terms. Generally when reading books about ships, my eyes glaze over when they start talking about mainsails and knots and starboard but Mr. Philbrick gave one particularly useful diagram of a ship and used details from the life of a greenhorn to clearly portray how a ship leaves a harbor. I was not bored stiff when he recounted the voyage southerly around the tip of South America, or by the description of tides.

Now that I'm thinking back, this was really a great book. Not only did it have a gruesome and horrifying castaway story; it includes a colorful description of Nantucket and the unique culture that sprang up around the whaling industry as well as pertinent follow up stories about the survivors. Philbrick also touches on such thought provoking topics as the order in which people died while adrift at sea-- Blacks first. Hmm..prior nutrition patterns matter when your body is challenged. As do family and cultural ties.

Thanks Stimey for introducing me to the wonderful world of horrifying survival books. It hasn't made me morbid at all.

More books for Old Ladies

Remember how I spent like a ridiculous amount of time reading a Barbara Walters biography, and it mostly just left me fearful of being a serial marryer and dying alone? This time at least the book was funny and a quick read. (I read it last night in the bath.)

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron. It was a very funny book on aging. Ephron reviews her approach to looking good, a cooking history, thoughts on New York city and apartments, stuff like that. Boy do I wish I were a successful script writer director living in New York. She has gobs of cash to spend on her hair and waxing and Maintenance (one of the chapter names.) Plus her old apartment had eight rooms. My old house didn't have eight rooms. This book was really fun to read, and refreshingly light and silly and at moments poignant, but would I spend the list price of $21.95? Nope. I got it at the Friends of the Library book sale for $1.50.

As I read it, I was also a little puzzled by the flow of the individual chapters, and when I went back to read the front material, she had previously published all the essays in separate publications, then grouped them together for this book. The chapter on food and cooking is sort of funny, but wasn't a great follow up to the neighboring chapter on aging and beauty. The chapter on falling in and out of love with Bill Clinton "Me and Bill: The end of Love". Not so funny.

If this little book finds it's way into your field of vision for a reduced price, should you read it? Yes. Do you need to rush to the bookstore to find a cute book about aging? No.

Starting up again. Thanks Stimey.

Hi all friends of Stimey,

I suppose that because I purport to be a blogger, and a reader, I should maybe write a post. I lost steam on this blog for a while due to single parenthood, Christmas, knitting, watching television etc. And while I feel like I haven't been reading at all, really I have. Maybe tomorrow I'll post a list.

Right now I'm reading Persuasion by Jane Austen. I caught part of the Masterpiece [Theatre] adaptation and decided that as it was the last Austen novel that I had not read, I ought to. So I am.

It's kinda hard.

When I read other Jane Austen stuff, I've already read it like six times so I know who everyone is and what's happening and what they are going to say next. With Persuasion, I actually have to concentrate. There are alot of sisters in this one, lots of accomplished young women and a few naval captains. It's tough to keep them all straight.

The very best thing about Miss Austen though, is that she keeps the suspense about whether the main characters you want to fall in love will. Its uncanny. Everytime I read Pride and Predjudice, I'm on the edge of my seat, worrying that Elizabeth and Darcy won't manage to make it. And in Mansfield Park-- those two are mighty close relations to make it work. But she does it everytime; pulls everyone together and makes romance work.

She's so great.