Of Books and Hawks and Traveling Beasts

First the books, since this is allegedly a blog primarily devoted to my reading. I finished two, last week, and both were simply perfect for the moment.

90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper has been on my wish list at Paperback Swap for quite some time and my mother just happened to receive a copy while I was visiting in November. So, I borrowed Mom's copy whilst taking a weekend break from the hospital and gobbled it right up.

This is a Christian book, written by a minister who was involved in a horrific truck/car accident in which his car was crumpled and his body severely mangled. EMTs on the scene found no pulse and covered Piper with a tarp, then moved on to help other victims. Still without a pulse when another minister arrived on the scene and began to pray for his recovery, signs of life returned to Piper only after prayer. It was much, much later that the author quietly told a friend about his time in heaven and it took many years before he was able to write the story, with help from a published author.

The result surprised me. I thought the book would be a little hokey, with the usual "light at the end of the tunnel" description. Instead, Piper described being greeted by loved ones and the colors and sounds of heaven, as well as his disinterest in earth or returning to life. I found it oddly compelling and believable. A good portion of the book describes his excruciating recovery from injuries (so severe that several inches of bone from his leg were actually ejected from the car and never found). Definitely recommended, especially if you're in need of reassurance about the so-called "afterlife".

Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair by Laurie Perry was my January splurge. I'm on a strict book budget, this year -- only allowing myself to purchase one book per month -- and I took plenty of books with me to Oklahoma (honestly, can you imagine me *not* taking at least a dozen?). But, I was in desperate need of extra-light reading material because I simply couldn't concentrate for any length of time, so I grabbed this one off the racks on impulse. This particular book has been on my wish list since I read Laurie Perry's tribute to her cat, Roy and laughed and sobbed my way through it. If she ever writes a book specifically about her cats. I'll be the first in line.

Crazy Aunt Purl, etc. is, however, the author's account of the time after her husband abruptly left her. Because her divorce was traumatic, the book is a little sadder at the outset than I expected. But Perry has a terrific sense of humor and tells a pretty good tale. She describes her depression, the adjustment to her life as a single person and how knitting and new friendships brought joy back to her life. There are some knitting patterns in the back of the book and I hope to use those, one day. I'm going to pick up those knitting needles and learn to cast on soon, honest. In the meantime, I'm glad I read the book and definitely recommend it, especially if you're looking for a quick, light read.

On to hawks, or raptors in general. I've taken to counting hawks on the 9-hour journey to Tulsa (and, sometimes, the extra hour over to Oklahoma City or up to Ponca). Since I still don't know how to identify the different species of hawks all that well (some, like red-tails, are pretty obvious in flight - others make me scowl), I'm calling all of the raptors I spot "hawks" - including kites, northern harriers and the occasional kestrel. I can distinguish such raptors from a turkey vulture or crow, both of which are eliminated from my count. It's the counting part that's hard. I find myself counting like this: "42 . . . 43 . . . 44 . . . uh, 42." So, this time I kept a scratch-pad and pen on the passenger seat of the car and jotted down bars for each hawk spotted. I also counted patrol cars. Boy, was that scratch-pad messy. However, it was readable and the final count was:

135 hawks
11 highway patrolmen
6 local patrolmen

Hawk to Patrolmen ratio: 7.94 : 1

Go raptors!!! Here's one of the patrol cars, with its pretty flashing lights:


No, I did not get another speeding ticket. I would never.

My mother was in the Intensive Thoracic Care Unit of Baptist Hospital when we arrived in Oklahoma City on Christmas Day. Because it was a holiday weekend and the situation was critical, the guys went with me and we loaded up the cat and dragged her along. Here's Miss Spooky, Intrepid Feline of the Daring Road Trip, with maps of each of the states she's driven through (or, in the case of Mississippi, out of) on her back:


She was terrified but remarkably quiet. I don't think we could have asked for an easier road trip with a cat. We dropped off Spooky and kiddo at the home of my delightful in-laws. Both cat and teenager apparently made themselves very much at home and were spoiled mercilessly. At least, the cat was. She got salmon. And, since a trip to Oklahoma wouldn't be the same without a visit to Eskimo Joe's, Spooky got her first Eskimo Joe's merchandise. You can see she was elated:

This is, of course, the real reason you read my blog.

Coming up next: Book excitement discovered upon my return. But, for now, I have to go kick my dryer. It's currently not working and that ticks me off. I have mucho laundry to do.

Bookfool, very glad to be home but wishing she lived in a state where things actually dry out if you hang them outdoors

I forgot to say I remembered, photo tips, and a visitor

I confess. I'm slow, very slow. But, I didn't forget!!! Sci Fi Chick, Gentle Reader, and Bonnie (in an order I no longer remember) all tagged me for the Blogging Tips Meme. And, since I was poky, it has literally exploded into a huge monster of a list - 142 tips, if you go to the source. 142 tips would take waaaay too much space so, I'm going skipster. I had some ideas, but I'll save them for later. Call me Little Miss Party Pooper. I do love being tagged, I want you all to know. Many thanks to all three of you for thinking of me!

So, no blogging tips. I do, however, have a couple of lovely tomato photos to share. I can just see you bouncing up and down in your computer chairs.

You can see that it finally rained!! Wahoo! Not for long, mind you, but we'll take what we get. Here's the same tomato from a different angle, a few minutes earlier:

Why on earth did I post two different photos of the same little green tomato? I'm glad you asked. I just happened to walk outside shortly after the rain (it was nasty out there, by the way - the heat, the humidity . . . ugh) to take photos of the tomatoes because I observed that the lighting was good. And, then it occurred to me that I haven't posted the photo tips I promised and this was a perfect example of an excellent lesson. The forthcoming photo tips were intended to start the odd "Photo Tip Friday" post, but then I got hijacked by my husband and it turned miraculously into Saturday, overnight. Sometimes you just can't rely on having the time to blog, darn it. So, you get Photo Tip Saturday, at least this time around.

Photo tips of the week:

1. Lighting is everything. You probably already knew that, but in case you didn't . . . there you go. Obviously, the light changes all day long with the movement of the sun. Lotus expressed interest in knowing how best to take photos of flowers in her own garden. And, this is what I do - I watch the light. It's best to have a full day to go in and out, observing how the light hits your flowers (or, in this case, tomatoes) throughout the day. Do take the camera along to play, of course. If you can set aside a weekend day to occasionally go outside to check how the sun is hitting them - and, of course, sometimes you don't have till the weekend before they wilt, so sooner is better - do so. Otherwise, just keep an eye on what you want to photograph as you come and go.

Professionals, I've found, seem to all have their favorite lighting, although most everyone agrees that the softer morning and evening light is best for scenic photography because side light casts attractive shadows and eliminates the harsh glare of mid-day light. But, there are occasions that direct lighting is best. Overcast, "cloudy-bright" light (meaning it's overcast, but not heavily - there's lots of soft, even light on cloudy-bright days) is especially terrific for portraits. I used to deliberately take my kids out to photograph them on cloudy-bright days. But, it's also great for flower photography because you don't have to worry as much about a digital camera's light filter over-reacting, the shadowed lighting causing one part of a flower to be overexposed and washed-out, while another part is perfectly exposed or too dark.

Sometimes, direct lighting is actually terrific. Take this flower photo, for example:

This was taking mid-day, when the light was harsh but spread almost perfectly across the flower. This next one, however, was taken when the sun was low, late in the day, and lit up the petals with a lovely glow.

2. Walk around and look at your subject from different angles to check background colors. Look at those two tomato photos, again, and you'll see that the lighting is just a touch different but the backgrounds are completely changed. All I did was shift my angle a bit to change the background from dark to light.

Now, in my case, I often use a long telephoto lens and the joy of a long lens is a blurring of the background; the disadvantage is that most people really need a tripod while using a long lens, hand-held. I have extraordinarily steady hands and there are still times I can't get away with hand-held telephoto photography, but I like the muted background effect. I think most people will tell you it's best to use a short lens and a macro setting for flower photography, if you've got one. You will definitely get a clearer photo with a shorter, fixed focal-length lens than with a telephoto.

If you own a point-and-shoot camera, the best thing to do is read your manual and find out what the best setting for close-up photography is (most have at least 4 standard settings), as well as the optimal shooting distance and then watch that light.

**End photo tips**

And, now, on to the visitor. Youngest son and I spent yesterday in Jackson, shopping and eating out, followed by a trip to the theater in Clinton to view The Bourne Ultimatum - which is so action-packed, I came out of it with a stiff neck from sitting on the edge of my seat. I'm pretty sure I didn't get a lot of oxygen, either, because I was holding my breath most of the way through. Boy, talk about extreme. Jason Bourne is the perfect example of superhuman Hollywood action guy, in this movie. I liked it, though. There's a reason they wreck cars and then have the hero walk away. We like to think it could happen, that it's possible to actually walk away from a car that has gone backwards off a roof or to jump off a high-rise building into the water and survive, don't we? Sorry, just getting philosophical about action movies.

So, we walked out the door around 10:00 to head out for the day and I discovered the kiddo had left his trombone in the trunk. We unlocked the car and climbed in, but then I said, "You know, I'm pretty sure we don't want to haul that trombone around. We need room for cat litter." So, we both hopped out, walked to the house to carry the trombone inside, and saw this visitor in the bricks directly beside our front door:
Well, hey there, little fella! Yes, naturally Bookfool and her son became ridiculously excited. I ran for the camera. Kiddo peered at the snake's pretty coloring. The snake pretended to be invisible and hung there, immobile. The moment we backed the car out of the driveway, we saw him slinking down the wall. Funny. For those who don't know, you can usually tell whether a snake is venomous or non-venomous by the shape of his head. Venomous snakes have triangular heads; the cheeky-looking pouches that give them that shape are filled with venom, you see. While the non-venomous ones have have slimmer heads, some call them "spoon-shaped". There are exceptions, such as the coral snake. It's a good idea to know your snakes if you plan to photograph them when they show up by your front door.

Reading-wise:

I finished Taking the Plunge by Stacie Lewis, last night. It's an Estella review book, so watch for a review of that one to appear in the September issue of Estella's Revenge.

Currently reads not yet added to my sidebar are Lesley Castle (a small Hesperus Press book with two novellas and the very silly "A History of England") by Jane Austen and Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. Both are incredibly fun for entirely different reasons.

Recently walked in the door:
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (thank you, Amy!!)
Villa Air-Bel by Rosemary Sullivan
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Fifty Acres and a Poodle by Jeanne Marie Laskas (thanks to Les for the recommendation!!)
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Barefoot by Elin Hildenbrand (thank you, Barbara!!)

Most of those came from Paperback Swap, apart from the ones Amy and Barbara sent. Paperback Swap is so cool. All but one of the PBS books were recommended by bloggers, so if you see a title you've recently reviewed, you've probably influenced me.

Shameless impulse purchase:
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene (I love Graham Greene)

Kiddo goes back to school next Wednesday! Oh, my gosh! It's too early for school (but not for cool weather - I'd be happy to take an early cool front, no problem). Where does the time go?

Hope everyone's having a terrific weekend! Hope to catch up on blog-hopping, soon. Smiles all around.

Bookfool with green tomatoes and snake on the side

If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name by Heather Lende and a whole lotta linky stuff

While he talked, I looked through the open door at two eagles circling in the warm breeze high above the water. Although I've seen thousands, the sight of an eagle in flight still moves me in a way I can't explain. It's like a prayer. In Tlingit legend, all animals, rivers, and even places have spirits, just like people. Tlingits believe that human and natural spirits are not separate but intertwined and that those spirits move throughout time and space. A child who is named for a grandmother is so closely linked to the elder's soul that she is even called "Grandma" by her parents. In the same way, an old man's "uncle" can be an infant.

I fanned myself with the funeral program and wondered if eagles and spirits and mountains and maybe even strange lights and meteors are God's way of getting our attention. Do we feel God's presence because we are looking for him, or do we feel it because he is looking for us?

The minute I closed If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name, I thought, "Oh, man, this one's going to be hard to review." It's not so much that there's anything complex about the book. The fact is, I enjoyed it so much that I'm not certain I can do it justice.

If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name is a memoir written by tiny Haines, Alaska's obituary writer, columnist and radio commentator. She has a family of 6 (5 children, 1 husband) and volunteers for just about everything. She's spiritual, reflective, outdoorsy and loves where her family lives. Because she writes obituaries and spends a lot of time interviewing the survivors, a great deal of the writing in her book is wrapped around various deaths. But, it's not morbid or depressing in any way, although the stories are often touching (as in, "Pass me the Kleenex, would you, babe?"). Instead, Lende brings the characters of Haines to life and ponders what it all means - life and death, beauty and God, family and friends and how they all interact in a tiny town where you can skirt around people but they'll still know all about you and probably what you're up to while you're avoiding them.

The result is a quiet book of anecdotal reflection very much like Anne Lamott's writing, with the kind of wacky set of characters you only meet in small towns. I laughed and cried while I read it; in the end, as I closed the book I was snuffling and wiping away tears when the youngster walked into my bedroom. I told him about the ending and he nodded. He knew exactly why I was really crying - why the end of the book hit me in that way - and he was nice about it, even though he thinks I'm a complete sap. Okay, he knows I'm a complete sap.

Just before her planned book tour in 2005, Heather Lende was literally run over by a truck while biking. She's still alive, thank goodness, and writing another book. I would have been really heartbroken if there had been a tragic ending after reading about life in small-town Alaska through such a remarkable, warm-hearted person's eyes. You can read all about her, here. Or go to the home page of Heather's website. But, I'd recommend that you read the book. It's beautiful. I wish she lived next door to me.

5/5 - huge thumbs up

In other news: The spouse has just written me an email: "Okay, Sydney is on the short list of places to visit." Geez. Didn't I tell him that? I distinctly recall saying he could just take me along and drop me off in Sydney because it's one of the coolest places on the planet, judging by everything I've read about it. He has been longing for my camera the entire time he's been in Australia. And, I'm not so sure I shouldn't have just sent it with him. I did get some cool lizard, moth, little green leaf-imitator and bird photos. But, Australia is apparently rather exotic. He has sent me photos of spectacular sunsets, funky birds, and a very toothy crocodile. I feel kind of bad for hogging the good camera. Here's the crocodile:


With my camera, he could have gotten photos that a crocodile dentist would appreciate.

Meanwhile, I'm taking photos of exciting things like bluejays:


But, hey. Nice action, eh? Just one more day till we fetch the spouse from the airport!!

I'm still stalled at #44 in my "100 Things About Me" post. I'm not sure there are 56 more things worth mentioning. In fact, I keep looking at my list and thinking, "I should delete that one. And, that one."

Sitting here typing and a message has just come in . . . Yippee!!! Wahoo!! Another terrific Estella's Revenge ezine is online!! I've got two reviews in this one:

What I Believe by Norma Fox Mazer and
Held at a Distance by Rebecca Haile

My interviews with Colleen Gleason and Simon Van Booy have been delayed partly because Andi said she already had plenty, partly because I fell down on the job, and a little bit because I couldn't get in touch with anyone when I finally decided to scramble and get my act together. So, if I disappear and only two people hear from me (namely, Colleen and Simon) for a few days, it's because I have never missed a deadline in my life and I just blew it. Can I cry husband-on-the-other-side-of-the-world stress?

Recently Walked in the Door:

Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels
Hotel Du Lac - Anita Brookner
Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy - Lindsay Moran
Hurricane - Karen Harper (thanks to the wonderful, generous Book Fairy Barbara)
The Secret Life of Lobsters - Trevor Corson
The Ocean in the Closet - Yuko Taniguchi

It was already on my Non-Fiction Five Challenge pile, but I just moved The Writing Life by Annie Dillard to the top, thanks to the fact that Heather Lende mentioned it in If You Lived Here, etc. I figure if she enjoys Annie Dillard, I will. You'll be the first to know the verdict.

Is it just me, or does it seem like I'm always being spotted by these guys and glared at?


Okay, off to do the laundry, gather the recyclables, tidy the house and read. Hope you all have a peachy day!

Bookfool, anxious to have a husband back in the house (and not merely because he cooks)

The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle

The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
Scribner Fiction
305 pages
Released March, 2007

Sheila Altman had finally come back and we mucked stalls while the sounds of hammering echoed through the barn. "I'm thinking of giving it up," she said, and I stopped, the pole of my rake sweaty in my palms. The air around us vibrated with the noise of building, and for a moment, I thought about pretending I couldn't make her out over the din. But Sheila stared across at me through the white feathers of her eyelashes. I had heard every word and she knew it.

The quote above is almost random; I flipped through The God of Animals until I found a paragraph that I felt was fairly representative of Aryn Kyle's prose. Her writing is simple and straightforward, written from the viewpoint of 12-year-old Alice Winston, who lives on a run-down horse ranch with her overworked father and a mother who has been depressed since Alice's birth - so severely depressed, in fact, that she never leaves her room. Alice's sister, Nona, has run away with a cowboy, leaving Alice to bear the enormous responsibility of helping her father with cleaning and upkeep of both home and horse stalls, paying bills and caring for her mother. And, Alice's lab partner from school has been found dead, drowned in a canal.

Alice is understandably anguished over the tragic death of a child she knew, twisting her own mental image of her former lab partner to fit her emotional needs. In her mind, the dead child becomes the best friend Alice never had, while in reality she is unable to connect with the one person willing to offer her friendship, the wealthy client whom her father is training to ride Nona's old horse.

There's a lot more to the story of Alice than I can possibly describe without summarizing the entire story, so I'll focus on the characters and the overall feel of the story. In general, The God of Animals is depressing. It's about a young girl experiencing the harsh realities of life and reacting by grasping at love in a very odd place. At times Alice seems to be almost devoid of emotion - stony, quiet, stoic. At other times, she seems wise beyond her years. Her father, Joe, is a man who does the work he believes he's meant to do, but he has no head for business. He seems strong and courageous, but he's also incredibly frustrating. Nona is enigmatic and Alice's mother is baffling.

So, what kept the pages turning? Simply put: I wanted to know what was going to happen. Would Nona ever return? Would Alice's mother ever emerge from her depression or would someone find help for her? Were things ever going to improve on the ranch? The author's writing was not earth-shattering or beautiful in any way, and yet the book was a fluid read. I don't have any interest in horses, but I found that I enjoyed reading about the everyday workings of the ranch.

In the end, I had mixed feelings about the book. It's written well enough that I found the characters believable - so believable, in fact, that they angered or perplexed me. My biggest frustration was Joe's indifference toward his wife. It made no sense to me why anyone would let his wife languish in a depression so deep that she couldn't even summon the energy to leave her room. And, yet, The God of Animals is not Joe's story. The story is about Alice, about surviving tough times and reaching out, about a young girl's attempt to find escape in her own desperate way.

I think it's very telling that I knew, within the first 50 pages, that I would not ever reread the book. I knew I'd be able to read it and part with it easily, unless the author revealed some earth-shattering truth or ended on such an uplifting note that I would feel compelled to revisit the story in order to relive the experience. Kyle did not satisfy me in that way. The ending is neither horrifying nor uplifting, tolerable in that all the ends were tied up and yet disappointing for the same reason. It pulled me in both directions - loved it for ease of reading, hated it for heaping on so much sadness without revealing any great truth, wanted to kick the characters, found them somehow both dull and fascinating, admired them a little for toughing it out, thought they were stupid for the same reason.

Overall, I'm going to call it an average read. Had I not received The God of Animals as an advanced reader, I'm not certain I would have finished it.

3/5

Our weekend seems to have caught up with me, around mid-afternoon, so I'll leave you with a few bits of silliness.

Sign of the week:
Translation: "We have a high theft rate in this skanky hotel; if you pilfer the towels we'll find out and you'll pay dearly for our crappy linens."

You should probably pay for the good life insurance policy if you have the kind of job that requires a lifeline:

I wasn't kidding! Olympic athletes really do eat healthy food:


Coming up:

Photos of the two very hoopty authors I met, anecdotes about our journey, and whatever else hits me.

Fun of the day:

Running to Jackson to snatch up our luggage because the airline we were originally meant to fly on did not receive a request for our luggage and was threatening to hand it over to the other airline (the one that loses things). Followed by lunch at our favorite restaurant, a nap, and a whole lot of laundry. The food and the nap were really the only fun parts; but, I'm happy to have our luggage back.

I really missed finding the time to read, this week, so I'm off. Happy Sunday, everyone!