baby baby fallin' in love

5 Pic 5riday

Are the cicadas attacking everyone or is it just me?

pic I can't tell if this is real or fake.

Monkey saves Puppy.

Cleaning Big Ben. Not as big as I thought.

Cat with 4 ears????

Summer Reading Roundup: Far North

This is the cover of Wolf Whistle by Lewis Nordan, one of my favorite books, and what I tried to draw your attention to via highlighting or some kind of very simple text-boxing (but couldn't, because apparently this computer doesn't have a thing that will do that) is the review in the middle: "Six words of advice: Read him. Read him. Read him."

I always laughed at that review, but it's the best I can come up with right now for Marcel Theroux's Far North. I blew through this one in like two days, and I wish it would go on f

orever or that the author would write 100 sequels. Read it, read it, read it!

Again without going too much into detail, Far North's protagonist is the sheriff of an abandoned town in Siberia settled by Quaker Americans during what seems like our lifetime. Then, later in our lifetimes, the earth heats up until there's famine and disease everywhere except the Arctic Circle, so the peaceful Quaker towns they'd settled are overrun with basically everyone in the world who can make it north to look for food. Nuts!

Don't read the NYT review of this book, by the way: it's favorable enough but the reviewer gives away some exciting twists in the plot and gets a few details wrong. Which is a bad combo! I had the luxury of reading this without having heard or read anything about it before--so everything was a surprise, and I liked it that way. I should also say that this was impressive because/despite I'd never read the other big apocalyptic-dystopia books (The Road, The Stand, etc.) and this was all fresh.

Sooooooo, Far North gets an A and might be the best book I've read all summer??????????

Busy week!

There's a lot going on this week, all over the country. Here are 3 events I've considered, yet I can only make it to one...can you guess which one????

11th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos (August 12-15, Cave-in-Rock, Illinois)

The Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting (August 11-15, Washington, D.C.)

U.S. Masters Swimming's 2010 Summer Nationals (August 9-12, San Juan, Puerto Rico)

Summer Reading Roundup: Eating Animals

I'd never read anything by Jonathan Safran Foer before, but I was always drawn to his cover art. Eating Animals was no different, plus it was on a topic that matters to me, and I may have bought it for Robert this Christmas because I wanted to read it. Well folks, I finally got around to reading it, a mere 7 months later!

I get preachy enough on JOP that I'll spare you a point-by-point summary of this book, but you should know that it is really good, really thoroughly researched, really well written, and I am vividly sicked-out by the bacon that just a few weeks ago I (a "vegetarian") ate.

The premise is that we all know animal slaughter is disgusting; we all know factory farming is wrong. The information is there for all of us and nobody doubts how awful factory farms are for us, for the environment, for communities, and finally for the animals. So why do we ignore that and keep eating meat? "Because it tastes good." Weak! Don't start with the "protein" junk, either. Americans get way too much protein and it has a lot to do with our cancer incidence.

But don't take my word for it! Eating Animals, which is a quick, page-turning read, gets the solidest A.

Titlez

Really sick of books titled in this way: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, The Girl who is going to burn all these book titles because they are so boring.

Rude Boy

How did I never realize this until now? But Rihanna's video for Rude Boy is just like JOP's classy Blingees!

I'm Lovin' It

Lovin' It:
Eddie Money's Greatest Hits CD. An off-the-cuff beach trip purchase that has proven to be the best cd purchase since 2008 for me. Also, it's probably not technically his "greatest hits" because it was in the Borders $5.00 bin and looks like a compilation they threw together. Still - it's totally awesome!

Adam Lambert's single "Whataya Want From Me". It's only slightly embarrassing that I like this song. I watched his season of American Idol so I feel like I understand him to some extent. This song is best for driving.

Truman Capote's Summer Crossing. Wish I had this book at the beach last week because it would have been fun to read in no AC. Really capture the mood of the book you know? So far it's a quick read and the most interesting one I've read this summer.

Cashews. Just because.

Things I'm Not Sure About:

Pretzel M & M's. I saw a commercial for them last night. It really BLEW MY MIND. Review to come once I eat one.

Summer Reading Roundup: Mattaponi Queen

I've been on a short story kick recently, starting with some McSweeney's books I read while I was housesitting, going through Alice Munro's Runaway (which really deserves its own post), and winding up with Belle Boggs' Mattaponi Queen.

I bought Mattaponi Queen a few weeks ago, then when I was at Quail Ridge last weekend I saw that the author was coming this week! So for a few days I was reading Alice Munro's stories and Belle Boggs' simultaneously. I don't recommend this. The stories in Runaway pack a bigger punch and are better-constructed, but that is also a career-topping collection for Alice Munro. Belle Boggs, who is much younger, writes like the recent MFA that she is. Which isn't a bad thing, but I couldn't keep from comparing the two as I read. Maybe just don't try to read two similar books simultaneously in general!

The stories in MQ are really nice vignettes (or longer arcs) and the rural Virginian scenery is laid out beautifully. The characters are believable if not so heart-grabbing as Munro's; the pace is also not as quick, or it feels slower, which is sort of what I mean by the MFA style--the characters take a little longer to get in your head, and the overall feel is not so dynamic as it is ruminative. But I would recommend it. Did I grade the other book(s) with letter grades? If so, MQ gets a B+.

And! Belle Boggs was at Quail Ridge last night and I went to see her read. She and her mom pickled some stuff and made jams to pass out at her readings, so here is a jar of "Loretta's hot bread & butter pickles" (the pickles and jams were all named after characters...maybe there will be another collection of their recipes and cooking habits?) pictured next to the book. Isn't the cover art beautiful?? Obviously I brought my copy for her to sign. She asked if I was a writer, to which I replied "uhh...well..." because I don't know if "yes" is an honest answer to that, but neither is no. You know.

"Well, I teach high school," she said, and signed my book with all best wishes. She also pressed a four-leaf clover into the title page.

Read this book, everybody.

World Cup Love

Not to be all cheesy, but this is the sweetest thing.