Things are happening and Malarkey is not one of them

I would have completely taken the week off without mentioning it because we were going to Tulsa and I didn't have time to put up a Monday Malarkey post or pre-post any reviews but then I ended up staying behind because Isabel was (and is) sick. I've mentioned this everywhere I can think of, so I'll say it again . . .

THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR PEOPLE OWNED BY CATS

Don't let your cat eat even a small amount of avocado. The pits are toxic. Thankfully, Isabel did not chew on a pit. But, she did lick a mostly-empty salad bowl that had remnants of avocado flesh and that was enough to cause her so much pain she could hardly walk. She ate the bits of avocado on Thursday night. Friday morning, she was moving verrrry slowly and her tail was down. I could tell she had a bellyache and figured it must be the avocado. I didn't catch her licking my bowl till it was too late.

Isabel got an antibiotic because there's a chemical in avocado that throws off the gut flora and a shot to soothe her tummy. It helped and she was all full of affection on Friday night. Saturday, she was back in pain and I had commencement in Oxford (son is not officially graduating till after the summer session but he wanted to go to his graduation ceremony) and then we came back and I had a whopping half hour to close my eyes before going to Paint Night with Brittanie. The next day, we hopped in the car and drove to Meridian, MS, to meet up with Marg (it was a great weekend for meeting up with blog buddies!) and we decided it was too late to go get her an after-hours shot when we returned but clearly her tummy ache was back. So, back I went to the vet, yesterday, while Husband went to Tulsa without me. If she's still hurting tomorrow, she'll get a third shot. But, she's slowly improving and she's eating and drinking.

So, no Malarkey. And, I've decided to go ahead and make this a staycation. 

When I realized there was no way I could possibly go to Tulsa (even though Kiddo is here, I figured he'd be spending most of his time with his future wife, which he is) I wrote up a big ol' list and I'm going to make this a week for chores and reading. I'll be back for Malarkey, next Monday. And, hopefully I'll have good news to report about Isabel. It's been awful seeing her so miserable. Most of my cat-loving friends on Facebook were unaware that avocado is dangerous to cats. There were two exceptions. One lost a kitten after he ate avocado (the flesh, not the pit), so clearly even the flesh can be deadly.

Off to do chores and read. Wishing everyone a happy week!


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Tuesday Twaddle - Reading, life, blogging, arrivals, etc.

This has already been a busy week and it's going to become even more overwhelming, so this might be my only post.  Then, hopefully, I can get back on the ball and post some of my backlog of reviews.  I've decided I'm not going to pressure myself about reviewing as soon as possible after finishing a book and, fortunately, I have a pretty good memory so it shouldn't be a big deal to wait another week to hit the reviews.  There may be no Monday Malarkey or Tuesday Twaddle post, next week, just so I can dive straight into reviewing. We shall see.  

Last week was unique! 

• I was summoned for jury duty (for a "petit" crime). I'm to report for duty in November.
• I went to an architectural salvage store with my new BFF.  The bottles shown above were my only purchases.  I've been looking for a milk bottle for quite a while and after I bought the bottle, I looked up the dairy, online.  Babblin' Brook Dairies operated in Tyler, Texas from 1929 to 1943.  So, my bottle is at least 70 years old, although it looks new.  How cool is that?
• Husband had me running back and forth between old house and new.  Now that it's cooled off, I can get a lot more work accomplished at the old house (which unfortunately "breathes" a bit too much -- it's not well insulated).  Heat and I do not get along.
• We forgot to put out the recycling, last week, so our two bins are both overflowing.  Usually we're quite good about putting out the recycling because we've found we put out more recyclable trash than garbage.  I love curb-side recycling.

Reading:

I finished 4 books, last week:

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Woman in the Dark by Dashiell Hammett  (one of my recent book sale purchases)

The Compound by S. A. Bodeen (also off my shelves; read and discussed with a friend)

Before I Die by Candy Chang (which I started pretty much the moment it walked in the door)

I'm currently reading The Radleys by Matt Haig, a library check-out.  I think I'm going to give The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly a second go, next.  I wasn't in the right mood for it, the first time I picked it up, but we hear a great deal about the Great Flood of 1927 in Mississippi and I'm quite anxious to read a novel set during that time.  Hopefully, this time it will click.

Blogging:

I wrote about my September reads, shared an anecdote about my husband's desire to debone a chicken, babbled about my reading and bafflement over cat hatred and wrote a lengthy review and F2F report about Donna Tartt's new release, The Goldfinch.

Recent Arrivals include:

• Snow on the Tulips by Liz Tolsma, which I signed up to tour before I gave up the blog. I haven't yet received a tour date.  
• Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier - The third in a series (sent by friend Tammy).  I haven't read the first two books and my library system doesn't carry them so I've added them to my Paperback Swap wish list, for now. I may eventually buy them.  
• The Report by Jessica Francis Kane - A WWII novel received via Paperback Swap.
• Before I Die by Candy Chang - nonfiction about a fascinating and quite illuminating project to paint walls with the sentence, "Before I die I want to ______."  People can fill in the blanks with chalk. The idea has spread around the world.
• A stack of books from my friend Sandie, which I've already dragged away to the bedroom.

Other things:

We spent one day working on painting and putting in a new light fixture at the old house, this weekend, the other day deep cleaning in the new house.  One yard has been mowed, the other needs work.  Husband has removed wallpaper in both bathrooms in the old house and started the painting, which leaves one last room with wallpaper to remove. When we moved in, every room was covered with wallpaper, dark panelling or both, and we worked on updating the walls and flooring the entire time we lived in Vicksburg.  I have always disliked wallpaper (and dark paneling, although I'm okay with lighter woods).  If wallpaper makes a comeback, you won't see me joining in on the trend.  

Photography:

I finally managed to take a few new pics of the kitties and I took the camera along to snap a few pics (including the bottles, on a bench outside) at the salvage store.  I've also photographed the wild, abstract painting I bought at a recent flea market, to share with friends.  Otherwise . . . nada. But, I'm happy that I managed to snap a few pics.  It's a start.  I can also look at photos of River without even feeling a pang of loss, now.  Progress!

Sidebar failure:

I haven't been updating my sidebar as I've been reading and I may just ditch the "Currently Reading/Recently Finished" updates -- another very small way to save time online.  It'll probably vary, depending upon how my week is going.  I think it will be easier to just do weekly updates.  

Hope you've all had a fantastic week! 

Bookfool, enjoying Autumn

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey - Maybe things will get back to normal, now

Totally for fun:  A shot of Isabel sitting in the window on our snow day.  I thought the light behind her created a lovely, soft effect.  

Believe it or not, this is my first post since Kiddo returned to school from Christmas break.  Seriously, school is just beginning tomorrow! Hopefully, that means blogging and blog-hopping will get back to their regular pace.  We tagged along behind Kiddo, this weekend, to help him move back to Oxford with one brief stop in Water Valley, MS:

We went to The B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocery because Huzzybuns read about it in Food & Wine magazine.  It's the kind of place you go when you want food fresh from the farm and we emerged with cream, milk, freshly-baked bread and some gorgeous strawberries.  The milk was from Billy Ray's Farm.  This might not mean much to anyone who hasn't read the late Larry Brown, but Larry wrote a book of essays entitled Billy Ray's Farm.  At the time the book was published, Billy Ray was still working on fulfilling his farming dream.  It's been quite a while since I read the book but I loved it. I thought of Larry Brown as kind of an "Everyman Mississippi" and just walking out the door with a glass bottle of milk from his son's farm was a kick.

After stopping at Kiddo's apartment, we dashed off for what was intended to be a quick trip to Memphis that became a little bit of a nightmare.  Our first stop was no big deal, a road block to check validity of drivers' licenses.  Mine is all in order and the highway patrolman thanked me politely and said, "Drive carefully."  So, it was a pleasant road block, as road blocks go.  But, after we finished up at our destination (the Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma outlet stores), we had a little trouble getting out of Memphis.  Five patrol cars with flashing lights passed us and a million FedEx trucks that were stopped on the same route south (Memphis being a major distribution hub) before Huz decided perhaps The Wife was right and opted to go the long way around.

The other route, as it turned out, was also backed up but at least traffic was moving.  There was a point that we started to theorize about why everyone was trying to leave Memphis and nobody was succeeding. Had the plague arrived? Was the zombie apocalypse beginning? Did the ghost of Elvis head back to Mississippi?  At any rate, it was a long day but we arrived home safely with a new end table from the West Elm portion of the Pottery Barn outlet store and the next day I bought a lamp. So, now I have a nice, new reading corner.

It looks better with coffee on the coaster and a pile of books next to the lamp.  I tossed some change in the bowl and Isabel promptly showed up to check out the table and play with the coins.  This may have just become one of my all-time favorite cat photos:

You're probably wondering when I'll mention reading, at this point. Now is the time. As you can see from my sidebar, I'm way behind on reviewing. Again. Hopefully, not having family around will help me knock out some reviews, this week.  I've read 12 books, so far, in 2013 -- 16 if you count the 4 children's books I stopped to read as I was sorting through old children's books to purge.  January is always my best month and then the number I read per month tends to drop off until July or August -- always my low point because the heat makes everything slow down.  I'm currently reading The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin.  It's an ARC and the release date is February, so even though it was sent by a friend rather than the publisher, I thought it would be fun to read and review before everyone starts talking about it. 

Three books arrived, this week:

Well Wished by Franny Billingsley from Paperback Swap
Firefly Island by Lisa Wingate for tour
The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen by Syrie James for review

I am waiting on two other books, one for tour and one for my book group to share (I'm receiving quite a few copies and they've already all been claimed -- our group leader had to create a first-come, first-served list).  They seem to be taking their sweet time arriving and I confess I'm getting a little anxious about them.  One of them is due for tour in 9 days but it's not here yet.  The box of books for my book club will need to be distributed for February discussion.  I hope neither has been lost in the mail.  I'll let you know what happens.

UPDATE:  The Tutor's Daughter by Julie Klassen has arrived!  Woot!  It's the book I'm to tour on the 29th.  

I missed the presidential inauguration, today, so I'm off to read a transcript of Obama's speech.  I've heard it was uplifting.  Happy Monday, MLK, Jr. Day and Inauguration Day!  Even if you're not from the U.S., at least one of those works.

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey - In which Tennessee welcomes us

Sorry for my absence.  I meant to pre-post a Fiona Friday photo but forgot to do so before we left for Northern Mississippi and Tennessee to stay in our "vacation home" (aka "Kiddo's apartment), visit with Eldest, DIL and grand-dog Peyton, attend a Straight No Chaser concert, shop a bit, spend another night in our vacation home and drive home in really yucky weather.  We had a blast, really.  Nashville has grown on me in recent years.

Straight No Chaser allowed photographs!  That was a nice surprise.  I just happen to have tucked a D-SLR in my purse, just in case, although I really expected a stern, "No photography!" announcement.  I didn't mess with settings because I tried to keep the amount of camera viewscreen light to a minimum for the sake of those around me, but the changing lights might have made settings difficult, anyway.  So . . . here are the singers grooving, overexposed, and slightly blocked by the head of hair I couldn't quite get my lens around:

Our grand-dog is currently undergoing heart worm treatment and not a happy camper.  But, she looked regal, as always, except when decapitating and removing the limbs of a stuffed monkey.  Poor monkey had been removed, by this point, although some of his stuffing remained next to her paws.

We got to briefly walk through the Nashville Public Library, on our way to the concert.  Oh, wow.  I definitely want to go back and wander around there, sometime.

We did a good bit of shopping, almost entirely for groceries (with a few last-minute Christmas gift items).  Both of us get a little carried away in terrific grocery stores, so we came back with quite a few boxes, jars and plenty of fresh produce from Trader Joe's, an Italian market called Coco's and a little from Whole Foods.  Isabel was most impressed with the fresh pears . . . to the point that I had to remove them from her grasp.

And, about Bookfoolery . . . the blog and the concept . . . I've been thinking about dropping the words "and Babble" for quite a while and removed them from my header, last night.  What do you think? I also considered changing, "and Babble" to "and Catfoolery".  Eh.  Not sure.  The babble was just starting to bug me.  As to the foolery, not a whole lot of reading occurred, this week, thanks to all the driving.  But, I have some books in progress and hope to finish something soon.  Not sure what I'll end up finishing, since I keep leaping from one book to another.  We shall see.  I got a couple books in the mail and bought some in Oxford at Off-Square Books.  I'll photograph them and share the titles, later in the week.  Tomorrow, I have some children's Christmas books to review.

Speaking of children, I had no idea that yet another school massacre had occurred on Friday until 11:30, that night.  Since there have been murmurs of poor, inaccurate and offensive media coverage, I am happy to have missed seeing anything on TV.  Not seeing the visuals doesn't change the facts, though, and when I found out, my first thought (after the initial stunned disbelief) was relief that I didn't post the normal Fiona Friday pic. It just wouldn't have seemed right to post something light-hearted on day that involved so much horror and grief.  My heart goes out to the parents, friends, loved ones and victims of the Newtown murders.  I'm not a political person but I think we've gone far beyond the time to take serious preventive action in the U.S., as stated in this New York Times op-ed.  Please don't be put off by the beginning of the article.  It's very logically stated.

More later.  It's almost 3am.  I have no idea why I'm so hyper, but I need to try to get some sleep.  Happy Monday to all!


©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Yes, I know I am being a bad, bad blogger . . .

. . . but I have several excellent excuses.

NaNoing, for example. So far, life seems to be occasionally getting in the way of the novel writing (you know, sleeping -- my current Life Focus -- and working out, appointments and errands and bill-paying, etc.) but I've completed about 20% of my 50,000 required words and it's been ridiculously, stinking fun. My hero was dreadful in that, "Good grief, he has absolutely no flaws . . . I think I'm going to heave," way. So, I turned the first 8,000 words into a dream sequence and now I'm being just flat mean to my characters. It's such a hoot. Where else can you have that kind of fun without actually hurting anyone?

I've also been driving around town, snapping photos of fall color. We knew a storm was coming after Oklahoma's freaky weekend "Quakenado" (first the quake, then the tornado -- I didn't come up with that cute coined word, unfortunately) because Oklahoma's messes tend to land in our yard, so I rushed out to capture as much as possible. We are having an unusually beautiful fall, probably thanks to several unseasonably early and sharp cold snaps.

We did lose quite a bit of foliage in the storm, but not enough to end the beauty completely, so I'm still at it. Today, I took some pics in the Big City because I had to go there anyway, so I figured I might as well drag the camera along and look for more photo-opportunities.

And another thing! I've been playing with my cats. They are very demanding, but how could you possibly turn down a face like this one?

Impossible. Incidentally, Isabel's perched on top of our entertainment center in the photo above; and, shortly after I snapped that picture and several others, she rolled off. Poor Izzy is really bad with heights. I worry about that girl. Fortunately, I had a bin full of clothing to break her fall. It sometimes pays to be a lousy housekeeper.

I've been trying to sort through my million squillion photos of Japan, but to be honest I'm just intimidated. Between the two of us (Huzzybuns and I), I'm pretty sure we took about 2,500 photos. There's a lot of tossing-out to do -- neither of us is brilliant at photography, I'm afraid -- but plenty of decent photos will remain and there's much to tell. I've set up a travelogue blog, but at this point in time I'm keeping it private. I'll sprinkle photos into this blog, now and then. Never fear.

Yes, we rode the bullet train!!! Did you know it's actually easier to eat salad with chopsticks than with a fork, once you get the hang of eating with them? I learned a lot in Japan. Also, if you're going to order spaghetti at a Japanese Italian restaurant, for heavens sake don't order the kind with tomato sauce. White cream sauce is good.

I do everything I can to keep you informed. Gotta go. We'll talk books later, 'kay?

©2011 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Well . . . that was what I call a break

I'll update my sidebar in a bit, but I just wanted to drop in to say, "Hello! I'm alive!" I'm still going to be on limited-blogging status for as long as it takes to get my house in order and all that fun stuff (that could be eons) but I'm at least back to reading.

While I was away, I hardly read a thing -- literally, did not finish a book for almost 3 weeks. It was distressing. But, on the other hand, I had good reason in that for a good portion of the time I've been gone I was losing my mind over packing all the proper things and then for much of the rest I was hanging out here:

Huzzybuns and I went to Japan! We got to hang out with the charming Nat of In Spring it is the Dawn (and her delightful husband, H., the one day he was available). And, then we came home and one of us basically slept for a week. Can I just say Nat is (besides an excellent guide and lovely lady) a person with great stamina?

We had such fun. We ate a lot of terrific food. This is one of my favorite dishes. Anyone care to hazard a guess? Eel soup! Seriously, I love eel.

Anyway, we had a blast and now it's back to cleaning, purging and National Novel Writing Month. Unfortunately, I started out NaNoWriMo with a bang and then . . . you know . . . basically slept for a week. So, I was ahead but now if I continue at my current rate, NaNo is telling me I'll finish my novel by Christmas. Haha. I love it. I plan to get back on the proverbial horse, today.

The one book I managed to finish whilst on break was Philippa Fisher's Fairy Godsister by Liz Kessler, a Kindle freebie that I chose because it was easy reading and I was dead on my feet. We had pretty full days in Japan. I didn't finish it till a couple days after we returned.

However, today I just finished my second book since my arrival home: Remembering You by Tricia Goyer. And, I'm back to reading Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin ("back," although I did manage to read a handful of pages while we were in Kyoto) and Emory's Gift by W. Bruce Cameron (which I'd barely begun before we left, so I restarted the book -- and am currently on page 71). I'm also reading The Wind is My Mother by Bear Heart and enjoying it immensely. TWiMM is a book by a "Native American shaman" from Oklahoma and, at one point, I had to set it aside briefly to let myself wallow in homesickness. But, I got over myself and actually used one of his healing techniques to make my husband's achy shoulder feel better when it was keeping him awake.

So . . . that's everything I'm currently reading. I'll get back to Drama by John Lithgow soon, as well. Drama is a very enjoyable read by a stunningly down-to-earth actor. I think you'll like it if you're a fan of memoirs by the famous (I am normally not, but I have another one on the stacks, here, and I have a poetry book by Lithgow that I've only partially read -- enough that I already knew he was a decent writer and pretty much lacking in the usual arrogance, by the point at which Drama was offered to me).

My bottom-line assessment of Japan: Totally freaking awesome.

Would I go again? I would not have left, if there'd been an option to stay.

The People: Love 'em. So polite. You pick up on the bowing thing pretty quickly, but I only learned how to say, "I'm sorry" or "Excuse me" (kind of a general-purpose word, I think: "sumimasen") so I would definitely purchase a phrase book before returning.

Did I miss reading? Oh, yes. It was horrible not feeling like reading, but I just had no interest in reading at all! Weird.

And, yet, I managed to get zen for a time . . .

I missed my kitties but they were well cared-for by my son's lovely girlfriend, so we returned to relative calm in spite of our lengthy absence.

Since I'm working on writing a hasty novel, I can't say how often I'll check in during the month of November, but I'll be back whenever I can squeeze in the time.

What did I miss in Blogland, while I was away? Anything marvelous? Any flaming controversy? I hope you had a great time, too! Read anything wonderful?

©2011 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

How to Survive the Titanic by Frances Wilson

How to Survive the Titanic or The Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay

by Frances Wilson

Copyright 2011

Harper - Nonfiction/History

352 pages

How to Survive the Titanic is partly a biography of J. Bruce Ismay --the wealthy former owner of the White Star Line whose reputation was permanently ruined when he left the sinking Titanic -- and partly a fascinating comparison between Ismay's downfall and several works of literature that mimicked his story.

Anyone who has read much of anything about the Titanic will have heard of J. Bruce Ismay, but How to Survive the Titanic goes into greater depth than more general Titanic books. The author delves into Ismay's upbringing, schooling, personality, telegrams sent from the Carpathia, testimony in both the U.S. and U.K. inquiries into the disaster and Ismay's correspondence with a Titanic widow. The author also draws from numerous opinions by literary giants of the time as to Ismay's guilt or innocence and thoughts about whether or not those who stayed behind could be considered "heroic".

As for the language of heroism employed by the halfpenny press, 'There is nothing more heroic in being drowned very much against your will, off a holed, helpless big tank in which you bought your passage than in dying of colic caused by the imperfect salmon in the tin you bought from your grocer'. It would have been finer, Conrad suggests, 'if the band on the Titanic had been quietly saved, instead of being drowned while playing -- whatever tune they were playing, the poor devils'.

from pp. 187-188 of How to Survive the Titanic, Advance Reader Copy (some changes may have been made to the final print version)

I went into the reading of How to Survive the Titanic thinking Ismay deserved a fair shake and came out of it thinking he had a serious case of irresponsible entitlement. The fact that Ismay sent messages using the code name "Yamsi" (Ismay backwards) insisting that a ship should be held so that he and the surviving crew members could immediately return to England whilst he was ensconced in the doctor's cabin on the Carpathia seems damning enough. But then the author carefully brings those messages into question.

I liked the fact that Wilson made me go back to Square One -- Wait just a minute, there, did he really mean to dash away from responsibility? -- and then turns right around and deals out all the vast evidence that Ismay coldly stepped off the boat in full knowledge of how few would be saved from the sinking ship and without bothering to even inform any of the people who worked directly for or with him that the boat was definitely going under. He was not apparently tormented by the disaster and did not accept one iota of responsibility nor was he technically "ruined". Ismay's story is both fascinating and appalling.

Unfortunately, there really wasn't all that much to say about Ismay's post-Titanic life, beyond his testimony, his letters and the raw facts about his retirement and withdrawal to an estate in Ireland. So, the subtitle of the book is a tiny bit misleading. Yet, How to Survive the Titanic is a fascinating addition to the many works about the disaster.

I confess that I got a little tired of the lengthy description of Joseph Conrad's fictional Lord Jim and how closely the downfall of Jim paralleled that of Ismay, but I enjoyed the vast majority of How to Survive the Titanic and definitely recommend it, particularly to those who hold a fascination for the disaster.

The bottom line: An intriguing addition to the many books about the sinking of the Titanic, with focus on one infamous survivor and some interesting literary parallels to his downfall (some of which go on at surprising length). Recommended. There are a few annoying repetitive grammatical errors. Hopefully, changes will have been made to the final copy. I received an uncorrected proof from HarperCollins.

I think I'm going to go back to rating books numerically, at least occasionally. In this case, I'll say 4/5 -- very good; not a book I'd reread but definitely enthralling enough to recommend.

In other reading news:

This past week has not been particularly productive. I've floated from one book to another and put aside too many to even mention, although I'm enjoying The Education of a British-Protected Child by Chinua Achebe. But, yesterday I saw mention of a book that I know I used to own on Twitter in a tweet about German literature and roamed out to the shelf where I kept it for an embarrassing number of years. Apparently, I either moved the book (Homo Faber by Max Frisch) or decided I was never going to read it and donated it. But, I did happen across a different German author and whipped through Demian by Hermann Hesse, last night. While I can't say I really liked it all that much, at least it got me back to reading and I appreciate the sense of completion.

After I finished Demian, I moved on to The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai, which I'm enjoying immensely. Hopefully, that's a sign I've reached the end of my week-long fiction slump.

Recently walked in (in the past few weeks):

Never Been Bit by Lydia Dare - ARC from my friend Melissa

The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma - from Paperback Swap

A Darcy Christmas by Grange, Lathan and Eberhart - from Paperback Swap

Nothing: A Portrait of Insomnia by Blake Butler - from HarperCollins

The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar - from HarperCollins

A Man of Parts by David Lodge - from my friend Sandie

Cat news:

I discovered there's a kitty setting on my new camera! Unfortunately, I don't think it's an improvement over the regular automatic setting, which I overuse because the camera seems to do a better job of focusing than I do, now that I'm old enough to have trouble seeing the focusing screen.

Today, a neighborhood cat waltzed up to our window and sent poor Isabel into a frenzy. She wildly scratched at the woodwork, trying to dig her way outdoors to fight him off. That would be quite an unfair fight. Slim is a big, muscular boy and Isabel is tough but she's a featherweight. Fiona was never bothered by Slim before Isabel arrived in our household; the two would just blink at each other through the window when he dropped by our house. But Slim growls at Izzy, which Fi naturally finds a wee bit upsetting. At any rate, Slim's visit is an excellent reminder of why it's good to keep the cats indoors-only.

©2011 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Recent Arrivals and some other inane jabber

I underestimated just how tired I was from our vacation and spent most of yesterday being a complete and total bum. So, today you get a hodge-podge including a photo of most of the books that arrived while I was gone and the purchase previously not shown (there weren't many arrivals - and you already know about Simon's book, which I will likely talk about so much that it'll make your head spin).

Top to bottom:

God Gave Us You by Lisa Tawn Bergren from Waterbrook for tour
The Beekeeper's Lament by Hannah Nordhaus from HarperCollins for review
The Wild Life of Our Bodies by Rob Dunn from HarperCollins ditto
The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson - Double ditto
And, the spine of Churchill by Celia Sandys, which I purchased at the Imperial War Museum

Not pictured is Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy, which is beside my bed.

I had to photograph one silly London purchase before opening it:

This is a t-shirt compressed into a cube approximately 2" x 2" on each side, which we happened across at Selfridges. I bought a little dress in London that I think the shirt will go under nicely. I don't travel enough to save the t-shirt in compressed form for future trips, otherwise I'd leave it as is, although I do carry an emergency outfit in case luggage goes astray.

And, I'm thinking you might like to see how the kitties are getting along:

Very well! Apart from one little tiff over who got to nap on top of the IKEAs, Fiona and Isabel have been really sweet together. Kiddo was home to care for them, while we were away, so they were happy and relaxed when we arrived home. They came running to greet us as we walked in the door and I've had fun playing bird-on-a-stick and rattle ball games with Izzy, laser chase with Fi. Since Kiddo was quite busy with work and school, I assume the girls were forced to rely on each other for companionship in a way they normally are not.

A little more about England. To soak up a little bit of literary London, we went to Keats House at Hampstead Heath on Simon's advice. There was a poetry event due to begin later in the afternoon and I'm sad to have missed that due to time constraints. Although I'm not familiar with the poet apparently in charge, Simon Mole, I do plan to look up his work. He was walking around and lounged on the lawn, eating his lunch, near us. I didn't realize he was noteworthy until I saw a life-sized poster of him in one of the upstairs rooms.

Keats House hosts occasional poetry events. If we lived nearby, I'd definitely purchase a membership and return as often as possible! Visiting his home has piqued my interest in John Keats. I loved reading the bits of poetry and excerpts from letters that were on laminated cards for visitors to read. He was quite the romantic.

And, here is one of my favorite moments from our walk around Hampstead Heath, which started out with two people shouting, "No Betty, no Betty, no Betty, NO!!" and was followed by a splash:

Poor Betty thought she wanted to go for a swim. She had regrets. Her human had to fish her out of the pond. Then, she ran around in circles, shaking herself off, much to the amusement of passing sun worshippers. It was a beautiful and rather hot day in London. I got a touch sunburnt, actually. Very surprising.

I've got a lot of tidying to do, since Kiddo seems to have really, really enjoyed spreading out, being King of the House, while we were gone. Hopefully, I'll be able to do a little blog-hopping, soon. I may have also overestimated how much time I'll have to post, but we shall see. Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend!

©2011 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Notes on a delayed review

My apologies for the delayed review of 10 Lessons from a Former Fat Girl. I'm having a slumpy reading week and a busy week, all-around; I have not finished a single book. I'm enjoying 10 Lessons from a Former Fat Girl very much and will review it as soon as I finish. It's a very spiritual book, about how each of us has a "God-shaped hole" in our hearts and we try to fill it with things other than God -- food, shopping, drugs or drink, even exercise.

I hope to finish the book today, but I still don't feel much like reading, so I can't say I'll succeed. You can now find the sneak peek chapter from 10 Lessons from a Former Fat Girl at my free chapter blog; and, I'll post my review as soon as I'm able.

Bubbles!! Or, what happens to people (me) when they (I) try to read all day.

Yesterday's personal reading marathon day went quite well. I finished two books, both of which I'd read only a tiny bit of before mysteriously setting them aside:

Why We Need Love, edited by Simon Van Booy

I previously made it to page 7, probably because the excerpt that begins on page 6 is from Silas Marner, a book I've overheard so many teenagers grousing about at the pool that I had it in my head I would never read the story.

Actually, it was really quite touching how the weaver, Silas, claimed the small child who toddled into his home. After I really got going on Silas Marner, the rest of the story was a breeze and then I enjoyed the usual thought-provoking mix of readings that comprised the rest of the book. I've read the entire series of Simon's philosophy books, now, and will review both Why We Need Love and Why Our Decisions Don't Matter, soon.

After I finished reading Why We Need Love, I moved on to

Detectives Don't Wear Seatbelts by Cici McNair.

Cici McNair spent years saving her pennies in preparation for her escape

from Mississippi (her childhood home) and then traveled the world, working a stunning variety of jobs before she found her calling as a private detective.

Detectives Don't Wear Seatbelts tells about how she became a private detective, why she left home and what drew her from one place and job to another before she finally settled down and began her own business.

Like Simon's book, there is really no explanation as to why Detectives, etc. sat in my sidebar and on the floor by my bed for so long. Mood, I guess. It did require a little focus, though, so I think reading it cover to cover in a single day was a good choice. Again . . . review forthcoming.

And, of course there were the bubbles:

This is what happens to a very, very easily distracted chick on a full day of reading. Glance off to the side at your water glass and . . . "Bubbles!! Oooh, those are so pretty. And, look at the window through the glass! Doesn't that look cool, kitties? Must find camera!!!"

"Ooooh, the bubbles look like little jewels!"

I'm sure they'd look even more interesting if I hadn't managed to break my ancient macro lens, a year or two ago. I snapped the photos above with my little point-and-shoot. I'm shopping for a macro lens, now.

But, hey! I had fun!! Two books finished and a bit of fun taking bubble pics! I'm calling Wednesday a success.

Just walked in:

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens - from Knopf Books via Shelf Awareness

Books that have walked out, so far this week:

21 donations

4 swaps

1 book sent to a friend

The Emerald Atlas is the only book that has walked into my home, this week, unless you count this little gem I found in the library sale, which huzzybuns agrees we should frame:

How cool is that? The copyright date is 1953 and the binding is in tatters, but the illustrations are (pun intended) out of this world!

©2010 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

2 DNFs; 2 Arrivals

It seems like I've abandoned more books than usual, recently, but at the moment I can only find two. One I will return to and one I will not. Here's why I didn't finish them, and whether or not I'll give them a second go:

Jane's Fame by Claire Harman

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Jane's Fame. Don't let the fact that I've set it aside twice fool you. The first time, I simply had too many books going at once. The second time was one of those phases when non-fiction was just not grabbing me, although even then I enjoyed what I read. In fact, I totally dumped everything I was reading and started over on a new batch, at some point. So, Jane's Fame was simply a victim of an attention-deficit summer. I will definitely continue to read Jane's Fame, when I get over my summer slump . . . which seems to be lingering.

The Outer Banks House by Diann Ducharme

I got an ARC of The Outer Banks House from Shelf Awareness, based on the description and that gorgeous cover. I'll admit, the cover really grabbed me. Read this excellent review at Fiction Addiction for a full description of the story. To be honest, there's little that I remember apart from how I felt as I read. My general feeling, as I was reading the book, was that the story was too contrived. It didn't work for me; it didn't flow and the book never succeeded in capturing my interest. After two attempts, the book went into a roving book box being passed around by friends and I will not give this book another try.

Just walked in:

Beneath the Thirteen Moons by Kathryne Kennedy - An ARC from Sourcebooks to be released in December, 2010. I really like the cover at left, but that's a cover from a previous edition. The new Sourcebooks cover has a slightly mystical look at the bottom and a man with his shirt open on top. Have I ever told you what I think of bare-chested-man covers? About the same thing I think of scantily-dressed female covers. I think they're self-limiting, meaning some people will look at them and assume "romance" then refuse to touch them. Romance is actually the top-selling genre, so it's probably a good move for Sourcebooks to go with the bare-chested look, but it's one I tend to dislike. Fantasy is not as big a seller, but I do love a beautiful fantasy-related cover and that's why I thought I'd share the old cover.

Part of the cover description: She's an outcast, but at least she has her independence . . . Mahri Zin would stop at nothing to save her village, and when they needed a healer she didn't think twice about kidnapping one. But when she realizes that the healer she so impulsively stole is none other than the crown prince of the Sea Forest, Mahri knows that she has a chance to change the fate of her people.

Whisper on the Wind by Maureen Lang

Whisper on the Wind follows the story of Isabelle Lassone, a Belgian-American socialite whose parents whisked her away to safety at the start of the war. Yet at great personal risk, Isa sneaks back into the country to rescue those dearest to her, Edward and his mother. But Edward refuses to go, and soon Isa is drawn into his secret life working on the newspaper -- and into his heart.

Again, that's just a portion of the publisher's blurb. I requested Whisper on the Wind for a blog tour because I read Lang's My Sister Dilly in 2008 and thought Maureen Lang's writing was excellent. I've kept her name in the back of my head but hadn't managed to acquire any more of her books, so I jumped at the chance to review another. My Sister Dilly was contemporary, so it will be fun to see how the author handles historical fiction.

In other news:

Gosh, there's not much of that to be had. It is still way too quiet, around here. I'm trying to motivate myself to clean like crazy but it might take me some time to get into a new routine that doesn't revolve around Kiddo. The best news is that I hear from him regularly. Although he plans to come home on weekends, he's already reconsidering because he doesn't yet have a roommate and that means his dorm is a quiet place where he can study and get plenty of sleep -- better sleep than he's ever managed with an insomniac mother padding around at all hours. He's happy, so far, and that's nice to know.

In case you missed my last post, I'm giving myself 2-4 weeks to catch up, get used to the empty house and ponder what to do with myself. I have a lot of reviews to catch up on and I've found that I write best in spurts, so don't be surprised if one day I write three reviews and then you hear nothing for a week or two. Be patient with me. I've been a stay-at-home wife and mom for over 25 years. This empty nest business is a bit of a shock!

Love to all,

Bookfool, a little wacky but eventually she'll figure it out

©2010 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Bookfoolery and Babble, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Well, hello there! How are you doing?

I've decided to go on part-time blogging status (Fiona is just going to be a full-time handful). That means I'll be here when I can, although not back to regular posting for a while. Blog hopping will not resume for a few weeks.

Update Thingy:

I've only finished 3 books in the two weeks I've been away from the blog:

Stash by David Klein

Benny and Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti (thanks to Care!), and

Moose Droppings and Other Crimes Against Nature by Jim Brennan

I'm not even certain how many books I've abandoned for lack of concentration or still need to review, but I'll gather them together and write a list as I'm packing Kiddo for college, purging and all that. His bedroom is scary. Teenagers.

I will be an empty nester within a week!! Like, freak me out, dude.

What the heck am I doing?

Well, besides all the tidying to pack up the Kiddo, we did kind of zip up to Alaska for a week of vacation. This particular trip was Kiddo's graduation gift. There was literally nothing else he wanted, so we offered him a vacation and he chose to return to Alaska -- which is, at this point, apparently his favorite place on the planet because it's cold! The Moose Droppings book was probably a big hint as to where we've been. I bought that at Sam's in Anchorage.

There's a bookmark view, for you -- a pic I took on the Seward Highway. It was one of the few times the sun came out on our trip, but the temperature stayed in the 50's to 60's, most of the time we were in Alaska. We cooled off nicely and we're very happy about that. A little rain didn't ruin the trip. Or, actually, a lot of rain if we must be honest.

There was a parcel from HarperCollins on my porch and may be more at the neighbor's house, as my next-door neighbor kindly watered the plants we hadn't already killed (our green pepper looks great!) and watched the porch, for us. Here's what I got from HarperCollins, "Compliments of the author":

Why Our Decisions Don't Matter by Simon Van Booy
Why We Fight by Simon Van Booy, and
Why We Need Love by Simon Van Booy

Let us pause for a moment of Simon Van Booy fan joy. Thank you Simon and HarperCollins!!! Oh boy, do I have some fun reading ahead of me. We'll see if there's more to come. I also have to go fetch the mail.

How are you doing? Read anything brilliant, lately?

Bookfool, on her 4th load of laundry and occasionally stopping to reassure the furball that I'm still here . . . it's okay . . . she can stop tearing the house apart (please, please).

Random Quotes and a recipe

Because I'm weeding books from a bedside chest (and other places . . . like the floor) to make room for a new bed frame, I have collected a few quotes I think worth sharing before I pass on the books. And, a recipe that I haven't tried. If you beat me to it, let me know how it turns out.

Quotes and a recipe!

Being in this recession feels like watching a nature film about the disintegration of a major polar ice shelf: Huge chunks of everything we thought was solid keep breaking apart and disappearing into an abyss, the depth of which no one knows.

from Cherries in Winter by Suzan Colon

"A little while later, we got pulled over by a state trooper. We thought, What now? He took a look at our license plate and said, 'Do you mean to tell me that you-all drove here all the way from New York in this car?' Daddy said, 'Yes, sir, we did.' And the trooper said, 'Well, God bless, and welcome to Florida.' "

from Cherries in Winter by Suzan Colon

Quick Apple Cake

1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 cup sifted flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine [plus about 1 Tablespoon, melted]
2 apples, peeled and sliced
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, beat the egg with the milk. Sift together into a second bowl the flour, baking powder, salt and tablespoon of sugar. Cut the butter or margarine into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture is the consistency of cornmeal. Stir in the egg and milk. Spread batter in a greased pan (8 x 8 x 2 in.).

Press apple slices into batter in rows. Brush top with part of the melted butter or margarine, sprinkle with the combined sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and top with remaining melted butter or margarine. Bake in a quick oven until the cake leaves the sides of the pan and is nicely browned on top, twenty-five minutes or more. Serve warm or cool cut in squares.

--also from Cherries in Winter

Over the PA system, the captain came on again. "I'm sure y'all have noticed we've been circling. We're trying to use up some a that big ol' tank a gas before we come on in." He proceeded to tell us that there was a little ol' problem with getting the landing wheels to go down. That got everyone thinking. Now all you could hear was the vibration of the propellers slicing evenly through the dark, and the muffled terror of people mentally preparing to die. Only the Indians in the back appeared unconcerned; what did they care--they'd be back.

--from Dead End Gene Pool by Wendy Burden

The thought of performing operations on numbers was much slower in coming because performing arithmetic requires a certain degree of abstraction. Anthropologists tell us that among many tribes, if two hunters fired two arrows to fell two gazelles, then got two hernias lugging them back toward camp, the word used for "two" might be different in each case. In these civilizations, you really couldn't add apples and oranges. It seems to have taken many thousands of years for humans to discover that these were all instances of the same concept: the abstract number, 2.

--from Euclid's Window: The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace by Leonard Mlodinow

I am living once again in the town where I grew up, having returned here several weeks ago in a state of dull torment for which the Germans probably have a word.

--from All New People by Anne Lamott

The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy (new HarperPerennial edition)

The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy

Copyright 2007 - short stories

New edition printed 2010 by HarperPerennial (includes a bonus story)

174 pages + 20 pages of extra material

"It's just a Peter Pan rose," Edgar said.

The man laughed, and his eye slipped from its moorings. "And I suppose that the wind is just air? And not laughter's laughter?"

--from "Where They Hide is a Mystery"

There are some lies that, under the right circumstances, are the only truth.

--from "Snow Falls and then Disappears"

It's no secret that I'm a die-hard fan of Simon Van Booy. So, naturally, I had to acquire a copy of the new HarperPerennial edition of The Secret Lives of People in Love, which contains a bonus story not printed in the Turtle Point Press edition: "The Mute Ventriloquist."

Drake remembers his mother kneeling to explain that the man upon whose lap he perched could not speak, whispering to her son that the ventriloquist probably had something wrong with his own voice.

But Drake found nothing so strange about someone unable to find words for life. Children spend the mornings of their lives in a sea of imagination before being hauled out onto rocks by jealous adults who've forgotten how to swim.

--from "The Mute Ventriloquist"

I've read and reread this book since it was released by the smaller press and it only improves with repetitive reading. Simon's writing is so carefully, brilliantly crafted that each reading is a new experience. Different portions speak to the reader and his or her place in life and love, while at the same time beautiful phrases and sentences that seemed to jump out on the first reading reassert the author's subtle genius and stunning empathy.

And, now the strange bit . . .

The first time I read "The Mute Ventriloquist," I must have been in the wrong mood for Simon's writing because it just didn't seem to fit and I didn't get the point. That's why it's taken me such a long time to write a review. I knew I must be missing something, whether from fatigue or mood or just the wrong moment. So, I set the book aside and waited for about 6 weeks, maybe longer. When I finally picked up the book to reread the new story . . . well, let's just say I was baffled that I could have possibly felt that "The Mute Ventriloquist" was anything but classic Simon. It is a sweet, understated story of love and loss, tenderness and pain. Like all of Simon Van Booy's stories, it quite simply took my breath away.

Bottom line:

Exquisite writing that owns a permanent home on the good shelves. If you haven't read Simon Van Booy's writing, you definitely should.

In other news:

I didn't have access to a computer, most of last week, because we were here:

We rented a cabin in Fraser, Colorado to celebrate the 50th anniversary of my delightful in-laws. At our peak, we had 18 people in the house. I need a house like that. We had no problem fitting everyone, although at least two people had to sleep on couches (very comfy couches) on our busiest night. It was cool and heavenly dry and the weather was perfect nearly every day. We had a wonderful time.

Fiona was boarded at the vet's and totally freaked when she arrived home, but she finally settled down after about 3 hours of madly zipping around the house and wailing. That was very odd. Fiona is not a talker, but she let us know she was deeply offended. Fortunately, she is back to her normal self, now. I'll have to either snap a quick pic, tomorrow, or dig in the files in order to find a photo for Fiona Friday.

My sidebar is heinously out of date, so I'll work on that and a review of A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware, this weekend. How was your reading week?

Oh, no! Bad, bad blogger!

Wow, have I been a bad blogger! I'll try to amend that, but in the meantime a little update . . .

Reading Goes Splat

After I finished reading The Passage by Justin Cronin, I could not concentrate for about 3 days. Nothing appealed to me! I think that's partly because I was so immersed in Cronin's fascinating future world that I couldn't stand to look at another book and then needed time to exit the future, partly because I've been very tired and just didn't feel like reading (or writing -- and a days-long migraine wrapped that up with a tidy bow). Unfortunately, that included reading other blogs, so I went into "fly on the wall mode" and only commented 2 or 3 times, last week, and then this week I haven't even done that much. Either way, it's been a lousy couple of reading and writing weeks. But . . .

Things Improve

Emma by Jane Austen finally broke my reading slump. It took me a long time to finish (I've only read 3 books in the entire month of June!!!) but I finished it and I have found a new favorite heroine. Emma Woodhouse is a total delight. I can't believe it took me so long to get around to reading Emma. Since I am all astonishment at Jane's storytelling skills, I've moved on to reading Jane's Fame by Claire Harman. I began reading Jane's Fame once before -- about a month ago, I suppose -- but it was one of those times that I was balancing too many books at once and it fell by the wayside. So far, I'm finding it fascinating and well-written. Right after setting down an Austen is definitely an excellent time to delve into a Jane biography.

I've also begun to read Bird Girl and the Man who Followed the Sun by Velma Wallis, an Alaskan folk tale. This will be my third book by Velma Wallis, an author I discovered when we traveled to the Great White North and I sought out anything and everything to read about Alaska (both before and after that delightful vacation). Two Old Women was a ridiculously fortuitous find. You can find out how I acquired it and read my reviews, here, if you're interested:

Raising Ourselves: A Gwich'in Coming of Age Story from the Yukon River (mini review - page down to find it)

Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival

It's so nice to be reading, again!!!

And, then there was that bloggiversary thing . . .

Totally dropped the ball on the annual celebration. My official beginning as a blogger (not including the first two attempts, both at sites that made uploading photos nearly impossible) was June 6, 2006. So, I just zipped right past the milestone of having completed 4 full years as a blogger. I knew it was coming and planned to get a cupcake and 4 candles to photograph, but then I missed the day. After about a week, I got around to buying myself a single cupcake . . . and it somehow managed to end up upside-down in the bag, so I just ditched the idea of taking a picture and have been hacking away at my cupcake. It's a big one -- white with white frosting and multi-colored sprinkles, along with some bizarre little plastic fish that are now swimming in the trash can. You would have loved it.

Speaking of bloggiversaries . . .

Has anyone else noticed the diversity of spelling when it comes to that word? Bloggiversary, blogiversary, blogoversary -- I don't even know how many ways I've seen it spelled. Here's why I spell it the way I do:

--The rule of double consonants after a short vowel - Like the word "blogger", it makes sense to me to double the "g" because of the short "o" in the word blog. Seriously, I actually sat around thinking through the whole spelling concept.

--The word "anniversary" contains a doubled consonant, an "i" (although, to be fair, that probably has to do with the Latin root word) and "versary". I'm really just imitating.

--I'm a fruitcake. Well, some of us just think spelling is really, really important.

I hope to get at least one review written, tomorrow, although I'm going to be away from the computer most of the day. In the meantime, Fiona and I wish you a lovely day. Have you read anything wonderful, lately?

Fiona says, "Wherever I pose, there are books." Wahoo for both! Happy Wednesday!

Bookfool, trying to get her reading/writing groove back on