For Rene

I have been neglecting this blog for a few weeks, just kinda feeling lazy about it and not doing a whole ton of reading, but a few things have happened:

1. I read a book

2. I bought a book

3. I spoke to my grandmother who has been reading my blog and is now reading Song of the Lark by Willa Cather.

Holy guilty! My poor old grandmother is checking my blog and I'm not posting. Geez.

The book I read is Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. It is a collection of humor essays and very enjoyable. I will probably pick up something else by this guy.

I had seen this book in stores and in everyone's home but hadn't picked it up because with its chalk title on a green chalkboard background, it somehow looked to me like a story of an abused or feral child. I know, I'm bizarre and moronic. So finally, I was at my sister's house and this book was on the shelf, so I figured I could at least trouble myself to look at the back. The blurbs trumpet: "Wildly Entertaining" "His most sidesplitting work to date..." Apparently this book is not about a feral child. Sedaris is a riot. I have learned an important lesson about judging books blah blah blah.

Also, I was cruising Costco today and saw Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout laying on top of a stack of cookbooks. Poor thing, all out of place, I tossed it into my cart and am excited to start reading. I've been hearing a ton about this book of short stories on NPR. It won some super award, but I can't figure out which in a quick google search.

Anyway, this book is making a splash, it's a series of linked short stories set in Maine. I think is is not going to be warm and fuzzy, more a look at the real sometimes brutal sides of people's personalities. I'm looking forward to it.

A Big Box of Books

My mom brought me a box of books she was finished with, and it is still sitting in my living room, but it is lighter one book.

I picked up Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

It's great. The main character, Greg Mortenson reminds me in a passing way of my brother-in-law, they are both gregarious mountain climbers.

Mortenson was raised in Africa, is very devoted to his family and after a failed attempt to summit K2; dedicated himself to building schools in Pakistan. I haven't finished it yet, but I am fairly sure it is going to end well, and be a good read.

I love books about the Afghanistan/Pakistan region and may formulate a list soon of books involving that part of the earth. Stay tuned.

Pride and Prejudice

The day I finished W&P, I also spent five and a half hours watching the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. It was awesome. We taped the miniseries when it aired on A&E in the mid 90's. For years, whenever I was alone and with a VCR I would steal a few hours with Elizabeth Bennett, Mr. Darcy and old carnival cruise commercials.

So, on July 4th, I spent the day watching Pride and Prejudice (which I recently purchased on dvd at Best Buy)and the evening finishing War and Peace. It was an odd Fourth of July, but not unhappy. The next day, I was wondering how the novel compared to the mini-series, so I picked up P&P and read it. And loved it. Jane Austen manages to keep me in suspense until the very end. I have read that book probably three times, and watched the (very faithful) mini-series probably ten times, and every time I am dying to know if they can get it together, and I am always very angry at Lydia and Mrs. Bennett for being morons. I know it is a terrible cliche, but Pride and Prejudice is so great I am thinking of naming Pride and Prejudice as my number one favorite. It is at the very least in my top three.

War and Peace Wrap-up

Let me first apologise for the lack of posting I have been doing. I think I finished W&P and didn't have much to say really. I did it. I finished War and Peace. It feels as if a small weight has been lifted off my shoulders. It was a long hard slog and I'm pretty happy its over. Was it a great book? Probably. Was it my favorite book ever? No. I liked Anna Karenina better. It was much more manageable for me, much less about war, much more about human relationships.

This may sound really obvious, but had I known beforehand how much war and philosophy would be in War and Peace, I would have done a better job reading it. For those of you considering tackling this book someday, Tolstoy tracks the war with the French from 1805-1812. The story of the Russian battle against Napolean iis interspersed with the stories of Russian aristocrats, mostly, Pierre, the Count Bezhukov, Natasha Rostov, her brother Nikolai Rostov, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and his sister Princess Marya Bolkonsky. These young people, along with their families and aquaintances come of age during the war, fall in love, become soldiers, become heroes, are torn asunder and reunited.

I have a list of people I think would really love this book, and a list of folks to whom I would say "Don't bother" I'm sure you all can sort yourselves out.


Now, all I have to do is find a bunch of easy, stress free stuff to read for a while. Suggestions will be appreciated.

War and Peace: Done

Phew. I finished W&P last weekend. I am brewing on it, and relaxing with a little Pride and Prejudice. As soon as I can put together something coherent, I will post a wrap up.


New reading suggestions are very welcome.

Double Feature

Last night, instead of reading W&P as I intended, I got hooked by TCM. First I had to watch The Philadelphia Story because as we all know, NO-ONE can pass up Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. All in the same movie!!! It was great. Katherine Hepburn was great, her clothes were kinda bad. I would never pick that party dress. Jimmy Stewart was great, he won the Oscar that year. Cary Grant was gorgeous and charming. His hair was super black and shiny. sigh.

Then they played another George Cukor movie, The Women, and it was great too. This film is a love it or hate it, with stereotypical portrayals of women, and old fashioned views on marriage and fidelity. The Women, based on a play by Clare Booth Luce starred Joan Crawford as the baddie, Norma Shearer as the excellent Mary Haines and Rosalind Russell as the very funny Sylvia Fowler. Russell's physical performance alone made the movie worth watching. Not to mention all the hair, hats and fabulous socialite outfits.

The crazy thing about this film was that there is not a male in it. At All. Even the entire supporting cast including extras was female. Female background people, female orchestra, female servants. Amazing. I kept expecting a husband to stroll on screen to subdue the wacky women. Nope.

Being a modern gal, it was a little tough to take this portrait of women as gossipy and silly and preening and dependent on men. The people I really take issue with were the absent male characters. What a bunch of lice! Cheating, Cheating Cheating. What were those poor New York Socialites to do? Gossip and file for divorce I guess.

Edited to Add:

I keep finding that I cannot stop mentally revising my posts. Now that I wrote about Skeletons on the Zahara, I have so many more things to say about it. Plus I keep seeing things that would totally go with that post. Plus I hate what I wrote.

I did use "Edited to Add:" yesterday. A little trick I learned from my blogging mentor Stimey.

I also suck at revising. Tenses, run-on sentences, spelling, it never ends. I can spell almost any word aloud, but typing coherently is very difficult for me. Every time I click back to review this blog I see something I need to correct. Already clicked published? Phooey, I just hop right in and change it. Y'all will probably never notice anyway.

Another super hard thing about having a book blog is reading. One has to read books to talk about them. It's tough to read books when you spend so much damn time watching TV. For instance last night, I watched Obsessed and My Life on the D-list. Kathy Griffin KILLS me. Then for good measure, and because I want to be supportive of his new show, I put in a little time with Conan. By midnight, I wasn't into reading a whole lot about Pierre and Natasha.

I think it's time for a TV free week, I will have to DVR So You Think You Can Dance and maybe then I will be able to complete War and Peace, which is on it's second renewal. See what I mean about run-ons?