Friday, May 09, 2008
a joke for all us readers

My SlowTravel friend Eden posted a wonderful joke today on her blog. But you have to click through to her blog to read it. If you're a reader, I highly recommend going over there and checking out.

Thanks Eden!

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Thursday, May 08, 2008
Manual Labor

Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

I have a few, although obviously I don't use them (really, for the same reason I don't keep track of unknown words...I'm lazy). Unless Hamburger and I are playing Scrabble and someone puts down an unbelievable word. Then I'll go get the dictionary, because I hate to lose at Scrabble. And yes, it's me that goes and gets it, because he doesn't know where it is. Hamburger is in charge of all the tools, though, so it's a fair trade.

I have two dictionaries, one is a two-part set that I've had since I was a kid. I don't know where it came from, but I love it, because it has historical people in it and charts in the back that show all the kings and queens of England. But it's outdated, so I also have another dictionary that I bought two years ago during my brief foray into grad school. At that time I also had to buy an MLA or something like that guide, because for the life of me I couldn't remember how to cite anything. Come to think of it, I can't remember now, either, and I don't care. I also have a thesaurus, another remnant from high school. And I have a grammar book somewhere that I bought in a misguided attempt to educate myself. Now I'm like chartroose, and I embrace my inner ungrammatically correct self.

I also have a little dictionary at work, which comes in handy when no one in the row of cubicles I live in can even get close enough to spelling a word correctly so that spell check will help us out. And my buddy across the aisle has the thesaurus for when we need to find another way to say something...so together, we're covered here at work. As far as grammar goes, we've been known to argue with the grammar checker. I don't trust it, because once I typed in something and it put the nasty green squiggle underneath. So I changed it to what it suggested, and the green squiggle re-appeared with the suggested correction being my original phrase. It was a vicious circle for awhile until I slapped my computer upside the head and gave up.

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Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Wicked Lovely

Wicked Lovely
Melissa Marr
2007
328 pages

Aislinn sees fairies. Beautiful, frightening, mischievous and mean, she sees them all. And she's doing a good job of not letting on that she sees them. That is until the Summer King starts stalking her. Aislinn isn't too sure why Keenan has taken a fancy to her, but she's determined to ignore him. Until he starts to convince her that she could be his Summer Queen.

Although the characters and the stories are very different, this book reminded me of Stephenie Meyers' Twilight series. Maybe it's the teenagers. And the romance between Aislinn and Seth. Both books are really intended for teens, but appeal equally to adults. At least this adult.

Anyways...I liked this book (although not as much as the Twilight series, if I'm being honest). I especially liked the first half. The second half...well, I think it could have been tighter. Seth kind of got forgotten at the end. Oh, he's there, I just would have liked more info on how he fits into the whole faerie world. And Donia...without giving too much away, how did she get picked? And Aislinn...how is she handling high school now? So yeah, weak ending.

But the ending didn't detract that much from my overall enjoyment of the book. And I'll still be reading the next one, Ink Exchange.

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Sunday, May 04, 2008
Gods Behaving Badly


Gods Behaving Badly
Marie Phillips
2007
292 pages

Greek gods seem to pop up frequently in books these days (Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series and Neil Gaiman's American Gods are just two examples that pop into my brain). In Gods Behaving Badly the gods are living in a dilapidated house in London, squabbling and well, behaving badly.

This is a fun, quick read. Despite their sometimes despicable behavior (and their disgusting housekeeping), the gods are amusing. Aphrodite is working as a phone sex operator, Eros has found Jesus, Dionysus owns a dive bar, Apollo is in love with himself, and expects everyone else to be, too...basically, they are still their stereotypical selves. And they have way too much time on their hands. After Apollo turns yet another woman into a tree, Aphrodite and Artemis force him to take a pledge not to harm mortals for 10 years. Then Aphrodite decides to mix it up a bit and makes Apollo fall in love with a mortal who will not love him back. And since he can't have her but can't harm her, more scheming occurs.

In the end, things turn out well for both the mortals and the gods. In fact, life couldn't be better. Everything is tied up neatly in the end, but I wouldn't have expected otherwise in this cute, light, but still highly entertaining read.

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A Box of Matches

A Box of Matches
Nicholson Baker
2003
178 pages

I found this book in a used bookstore in Savannah. The name of the shop was The Book Lady, and I couldn't resist going in and checking it out. It was a tiny little place, crammed full of shelves of books, with boxes of books crammed into the corners. I found this one out of place, propped up on a shelf that was not the fiction section, even though it is a fiction book. The cover caught my eye. Then I opened it up and the quirky first line of one of the chapters sucked me in:

"Good morning, it's 4:52 a.m., and I'm very glad to be conscious when no one else is conscious."

All of the chapters start this way...Good morning, it's 4 something a.m.. For some reason I never quite figured out, the narrator has decided to get up early every morning, make coffee and light the fire (all in the dark) and sit and contemplate things. This quirky little book is entirely comprised of his morning reflections on mundane things such as the family duck, the shape of his beard, how he met his wife, his briefcase, the kids, peeing at night while sitting down, his job, and whatever else happens to flit through his mind at 4 a.m. Each morning he lights the fire with a match from a box of matches. When the box is empty, the book ends. There's really no plot, no story to resolve...just a series of short recollections by an ordinary man.

I actually liked the book, probably because it was quirky and different from what I usually read. Although I wouldn't go quite so far as to say it is "virtuoso writing, idiosyncratic, brilliant, hilarious and touching," like the over the top quote on the cover claims. Idiosyncratic I'll agree with. Brilliant and virtuoso I won't.

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Saturday, May 03, 2008
May is here

It's May already? How can that be? It doesn't feel like May (maybe because the green is already fading from the hills). It really doesn't feel like prom season...not that I'm into that, but I went to get a pedicure today (the toes are now Russian Navy, in case you were wondering) and it was super busy because of prom. To me, prom means the end of the school year is approaching and summer is around the corner. How can it be that time of year already?!?

Humph, I guess I'll just have to accept it. But I'm really not all that into May right now. I have to travel to places I don't want to go this month. First, an overnight trip to Ontario for a work meeting. Then a down and back in one day trip to Orange County for my aunt's 70th birthday. And later that same week another down and back in one day trip, this time to Solvang for a work conference. And like my recent trip to Sacramento, none of these trips are alone. Not that I don't like my travel buddies, it's just way too much time (especially in a car) with other people. I'm actually travelled-out at the moment, an almost unheard of state for me. I just want to hibernate at home with my books. Which is probably why I'm not feeling all May-like. I'm in more of a January mood.

Which might explain why my toes are currently blue.

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Thursday, May 01, 2008
Mayday!


Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do??

And, no, you did NOT have time to grab your bookbag, or the book next to your bed. You were . . . grocery shopping when you got the call and have nothing with you but your wallet and your passport (which you fortuitously brought with you in case they asked for ID in the ethnic food aisle). This is hypothetical, remember….

Oh, I can so relate to this question. Although it wasn't an emergency, I was stuck at the airport not that long ago with nothing to read.

First, I ate breakfast at MacDonald's. Because it was 5am and there was nothing else open. Not even the newsstand. So I ate my egg mcmuffin and people watched. Although at 5am that's not too exciting.

Then I played spider solitaire on my laptop (although that probably wouldn't count in this case).

Then I called Hamburger on my cell phone and woke him up and made him feel sorry for me because I had nothing to read.

Then Starbucks opened, thank god, because the MacDonald's coffee sucked and it was 6am and I still had half an hour until take-off. And I was able to buy a USA Today. Woo-hoo! This meant I had a crossword puzzle, which I finished on the plane. Then I did the sudoku puzzle. Then I did the word search. And then the other weird little puzzle they have.

So that's probably what I'd do...buy a newspaper, or a puzzle book, along with a few magazines and a book or two at the newsstand. And yes, I'd buy more than one magazine and more than one book, because a girl needs options (this is why I always pack more than one pair of shoes) and I never ever want to be stuck at the airport again with nothing to read.

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Monday, April 28, 2008
on the road again

It's Monday morning and I'm at work. Which probably sounds normal to most people, but for me is akin to being placed on a rack and tortured with thumb screws. Not that I know what that feels like, but you get the picture.

See, normally I flex (in other words, I work 7-5:30, Tuesday through Friday), and Mondays are my day to do whatever I feel like. Sleep in, read, go shopping...whatever. And by the time I come to work on Tuesday, most people have gotten the normal Monday grumpies out of their system, and I've avoided the grumpies altogether.

Except today I'm here. Because I have to go to Sacramento/Davis for a couple of trainings. And usually I'm like, "Cool, I get to go somewhere. Woo-hoo! Let's hit the road." But it feels like I just got home and settled back in to a routine, and you know, I kinda like hanging out with Hamburger in the evening. So not only am I grumpy about working on a Monday, I'm also a little whiny about going out of town, even if I will only be gone until Wednesday night.

Aren't you glad you're not at work with me this morning?

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Tales of a Female Nomad

Tales of a Female Nomad
Rita Golden Gelman
2002
320 pages

Publisher Comments:
"I move throughout the world without a plan, guided by instinct, connecting through trust, and constantly watching for serendipitous opportunities." — From the Preface

Tales of a Female Nomad is the story of Rita Golden Gelman, an ordinary woman who is living an extraordinary existence. At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world. Rita's example encourages us all to dust off our dreams and rediscover the joy, the exuberance, and the hidden spirit that so many of us bury when we become adults.

I prefer Alice Steinberg's Without Reservations. While Gelman travels to some exotic places and has interesting stories to tell, she's just too hard-core for me. I'll admit, I like a little comfort with my travel...I don't want to be on an anthropological expedition, which is what Gelman's travels seem like, nor do I want to be made to feel like she who dies with the least toys wins. Gelman takes pride in getting by with the absolute bare minimum, and I'm sorry, but I'm just not into that.

So, an interesting book, but just not my cuppa tea.

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