- 21:34 Nicholas and Alexandra on TCM. Great film. Awesome Olivier. Why don't they make movies with Intermissions anymore? #
- 08:21 Amazon.com: Ramones Greatest Hits: MP3 Download - $2.99 bit.ly/4sqI7Y #
- 13:32 Instead of having to eat their fattening food, Sam's Club now allows you to skip that step entirely. brizzly.com/pic/DR6 #
- 16:25 Hall and Warren Oates? #characteractorrockbands #
- 16:33 The Talking Agnes Mooreheads #characteractorrockbands #
- 16:36 Ralph Bellamy and Sebastian. # characteractorrockbands #
- 16:37 Tommy James and the Cromwells (OK, enough already) #characteractorrockbands #
- 16:48 Dead Arthur Kennedys #characteractorrockbands #
- 16:51 Medeski, Strother Martin and Wood. I win! #characteractorrockbands #
- 17:12 @MikeHasTweets Gunton 'n' Roses? #characteractorrockbands #
- 17:19 Joan Blondell as Police Woman #characteractorrockbands #
- 17:27 Michael Pollan says never eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food... Chili dogs a re OK, right? #
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Peter Rock's My Abandonment is the first book read in my Book Club by Proxy project. That's the one where I read other people's book club books for them. AmyH told me about this book. I probably wouldn't have bothered except the book was only 225 pages long and the blurb on the back sounded interesting.
My Abandonment is the story of a thirteen year-old girl named Caroline who lives in the woods outside of Portland with her father. Caroline and her father get by pretty well when you consider that they live in a hobbit hole. Their lives are shattered when a jogger stumbles upon their home and reports them to the authorities.
I must admit that this book took me by surprise. I read it as a joke and wasn't expecting much, but My Abandonment was an exciting, well-written story that was a pleasure to read. It was a damn good book. It's actually one of the highlights of my literary year. I would highly recommend this book to you, AmyH, or anyone else with a few hours to spare and an interest in quality reading.
What follows is the portion of the post dealing with cheating at book club. It starts out with my in-depth synopsis of My Abandonment's eight chapters and then ends with a couple talking points that should convince others that you've read the book. The thing to remember here is that what follows will absolutely ruin the book for you. Do not proceed if you have any interest in reading the book for yourself.
The Happy Days in the Forest Park (p. 1 - 48): Caroline and her father live in the woods outside of Portland. Caroline is thirteen; her father is a veteran who has bad dreams about helicopters. They've got an underground dwelling full of sleeping bags, a chess board, and Caroline's toy horse, Randy. They keep to themselves, but once a week they put on their city clothes and go into town. They go to the library, the Safeway, and stop by the post office for the father's government check. One day a jogger accidentally stumbles upon their camp while Caroline is lounging in a tree. The jogger tries to talk to Caroline, but she stays in her tree and hides. The jogger returns a few days later with the police, a canine unit, and a man named Jim Harris. Caroline's father is arrested and Mr. Harris takes Caroline.
Getting Caught and Put in the Building (p. 49 - 76): Mr. Harris drives Caroline into the city. During the drive, she makes reference to a foster family and a younger sister. Mr. Harris turns Caroline over to a woman named Jean Bauer at some sort of detention center. This woman cleans the girl up and gives her some new clothes. Then she subjects Caroline to a series of physical and psychological exams. She determines that Caroline is is good shape for a girl who has been living in the woods for years. Miss Bauer eventually returns Randy the Toy Horse and gives Caroline her own room...one that looks out on her forest.
Living on the Farm (p. 77 - 110): After a chapter apart, Caroline and her father are reunited outside the detention center. The police drive them out to a horse farm owned by a man named Mr. Walters. He's agreed to employ Caroline's father on his farm. In addition to the job, Mr. Walters is allowing Caroline and her father to stay in the bunkhouse on his property. Things are looking up. Caroline meets some neighbor boys and thinks they might turn out to be friends. She gets her first bicycle. She's excited about starting real school in the fall. Her father isn't doing as well, though. He starts to get paranoid and begins to imagine people spying on them from behind hay bales. He tells Caroline to pack her old backpack. As the chapter ends, the two sneak out to the bus stop in the middle of the night.
Living on the Streets of the City (p. 111 - 134): Caroline and her father head back to the woods, but that turns out to be a bad idea. They then decide to hide out in public...where they walk on opposite sides of the road and communicate with umbrella signals. Caroline gets a haircut and dye-job. She and her father set up camp in an abandoned hotel. Caroline's father starts doing "deliveries" for a mysterious man named Vincent. You can tell he's a villain because he has a pointy beard. Guys with pointy beards are always bad. Caroline gets recognized by Taffy, a girl she met at the detention center in Part Two.
Escaping Down Through the Snow (p. 135 - 160): Caroline's father is getting even more paranoid, and he decides they need to hop a train out of town. The only thing is that he's never done it before and he falls off the train as he tries to board. They opt for a bus. Caroline's father gets angry at her when she talks with a woman on the bus. He forces the bus driver to let them off in the middle of nowhere on a snowy night. They sleep outdoors and try to keep warm at a thermal spring. The next day they break into a cabin. Caroline recognizes all the books in one of the rooms. She used to have the same books when she lived with her foster family. They spend the night in the cabin and then use snowshoes and a sled to travel to the nearby town of Sisters, a town that Caroline's father seems to know.
Losing Father in the Cave (p. 161 - 192): Caroline and her father hike out of town, but are soon lost in a sudden snowstorm. They stumble upon a yurt and join a woman and very weird boy inside. The four of them spend the night in the yurt. In the morning Caroline and the very weird boy go out for a sled ride and the two adults stay inside to talk things over. The woman eventually comes out wearing a wig and Caroline's father's backpack. She gives Caroline's snowshoes to the very weird boy and the two of them head off. Caroline goes back into the yurt to find out what's going on. Her father is dead. It appears that he has been electrocuted or burned by the yurt's heating mechanism. Not knowing what to do, she puts her father's body on the sled and wanders around in the snow. She stumbles upon a keg party taking place in a cave. She hides her father's body and joins the party. She waits until the party breaks up and then brings her father's body into the cave. Sitting by the fire, Caroline thinks back and remembers when she first met her father. She remembers how he took her from her foster parents' backyard in Boise. She remembers how he handcuffed her in a hole while he joined the search party to look for her. She remembers how he changed her named to Caroline. She remembers how she used to see her picture on missing posters.
Boise (p. 193 - 210): Having left the man's body in the cave, Caroline heads for Boise. She walks around freely, knowing that nobody will recognize her now that's she's grown and looks different. She walks by her old house and then goes to her former elementary school where she sees her sister Della. She follows Della for awhile and then goes over to a cemetery. She can't find the headstones she's looking for. She takes the bus to the mall where a couple girls follow her into the bathroom and try to talk with her. They run for their mother when they notice that Caroline's foot is bleeding all over the place from frostbite. Caroline runs out the emergency exit.
There is Not Much to Say (p. 211 - 225): Time has gone by. Caroline has left Boise and returned to the town of Sisters. She gets her GED and studies at the community college. She becomes a part-time librarian. She also gets a job as caretaker at a rich man's house. He's rarely there and doesn't mind that Caroline lives in a yurt on his property. She compiles her thoughts and journals into eight sections and types them up at the library. She finds out that Randy the Toy Horse is actually a Chinese acupuncture model.
Something to Discuss in Your Book Club: Perhaps the book's most important sentence takes place on page 222 when Caroline writes about the book she's writing about her experiences with her father. She says, "I remember the conversations as best as I can. If I make up words he says at least they're close or taken from his notebook. I stitch it together and I only add what I have to. If I don't remember something I skip over it and leave it out." Is Caroline a reliable narrator? Do these sentences change your thoughts on what you've read in the earlier chapters? What do you think Caroline added to her book? What do you think she skipped over or left out?
Smart-Sounding Thing to Memorize and Regurgitate at Your Book Club: Did anyone else here find this book reminiscent of the work of independent film director, Kelly Reichardt? I certainly did. Rock's Portland-area setting combined with his protagonist's fascination with canines, brought to mind Reichardt's 2008 film, Wendy & Lucy. Should a film adaptation of My Abandonment be in the works, I think she should definitely be in the running to direct. I can already see Will Oldham in the role of "Nameless". I love the irony of a man with so many nicknames portraying a nameless character. Hah hah!
- 20:48 @lizypo Pork Tenderloin? One of my favorites! #
- 20:49 Ft. Hood Officer's wife quoted on ABC News: "I wish his name was Smith." #
- 09:33 @lizypo I wondered why you were taking pictures of raw pork.. :-) #
- 15:28 Beatles Box Lesson: The UK version of Help! is one of their best albums unlike the piece of crap they issued in the US. #
- 17:44 Episode 1 'Bored To Death' - never quite got Jason Schwartzman, but Ted Danson is great. #
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Did you join a book club because you thought it was the cool thing to do? Now that you've joined, do you have difficulty finding the time to read your club's book selection? Well, you can stop worrying about it. I've decided to offer my reading services to those of you who are either too tired, lazy, or busy to read your own book club books. Just let me know the title and author of your book and then sit back as I read the book for you. Once I've finished, I will provide you with a detailed synopsis and an in-depth analysis of the book. If you'd like, I'll even give you some insightful questions and talking points that you can use to impress and amaze your fellow book clubbers.
My first client is AmyH, who was worried about finding time to read Peter Rock's My Abandonment. This is going to be good for both of us. She'll be able to enjoy the social aspect of her book club without the additional time commitment of actually reading the book. What do I get in return? Well, I get a chance to redeem myself after my miserable showing in the Anna Karenina Book Club of 2002. I finished that book before the others and blurted out the ending. I ruined it for everyone, so now I feel I need to do something good for a different book club.
I picked up a copy of My Abandonment at the library a couple days ago. I'm about halfway through it.
- 11:17 RT @huffingtonpost One Term President? New York Review Blog By Garry Wills bit.ly/4A5Atr #
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Received from: Thomas Nelson.
Rating: 7 out of 10 (might have been higher had I read the first book -- this is the second)
Synopsis: The more than four hundred thousand readers stirred by the story of Ron Hall and Denver Moore will resonate with the all new, stand-alone true stories of hope and healing offered in this intimate, authentic follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Same Kind of Different as Me. With new "Denverisms" and reflections from Denver on his personal dealings with homelessness and disrespect from others, additional insights from Ron on what we can learn from people not like us and from those dealing with a terminal illness, and the stories of readers who have been impacted by the book's central themes, this inspirational reader will generate a host of new fans.
My review: I really wish that I'd read the first book, Same Kind of Different as Me, before I read this one. I have it coming to me from the library, so I'll review it soon. This book says it's standalone, but I really think I would have benefited from reading Same Kind first, just so I could have known the background of the three people What Difference focuses on -- Ron, Denver, and Deborah. Half of the chapters of the book are written by Ron, and half by Denver. Both had a lot of interesting things to say on the subject of homelessness and Christians. There are also stories of people around the country who were inspired by the first book. There was even a woman from West Sacramento mentioned -- her story hit very close to home. Needless to say, I really got a lot out of this book. It shifted my views of homeless people quite a bit, and it challenged me to think differently about the people I pass every day on the street. I don't have enough space to quote all of the different passages that affected me, but this one that really stood out (it was written by Denver, in his own voice):
"Since I been visitin a lotta churches, I hear people talkin 'bout how, after readin our story, they felt "led" to help the homeless, to come alongside the down-and-out. But when it comes to helpin people that ain't got much, God didn't leave no room for feelin led. Jesus said God gon' separate us based on what we did for folks that is hungry and thirsty, fells that is prisoners in jail and folks that ain't got no clothes and no place to live. What you gon' do when you get to heaven and you ain't done none a' that? Stand in front a' God and tell Him, "I didn't feel led"? You know what He gon' say? He gon' say, "You didn't need to feel led 'cause I had done wrote it down in the Instruction Book."
Hello conviction, I'm Cori.
(Finished 10/30/09)
Borrowed from: the Sacramento library
Rating: 8 out of 10
Synopsis: This sequel brings back the young wizard-in-training to face suspicious adults, hostile classmates, fretful ghosts, rambunctious spells, giant spiders, and even an avatar of Lord Voldemort, the evil sorcerer who killed his parents, while saving the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from a deadly, mysterious menace. Ignoring a most peculiar warning, Harry kicks off his second year at Hogwarts after a dreadful summer with his hateful guardians, the Dursleys, and is instantly cast into a whirlwind of magical pranks and misadventures, culminating in a visit to the hidden cavern where his friend Ron's little sister Ginny lies, barely alive, in a trap set by his worst enemy. Surrounded by a grand mix of wise and inept faculty, sneering or loyal peersplus an array of supernatural creatures including Nearly Headless Nick and a huge, serpentine basiliskHarry steadily rises to every challenge, and though he plays but one match of the gloriously chaotic field game Quidditch, he does get in plenty of magic and a bit of swordplay on his way to becoming a hero again.
My review: Ah, the adventures of the young Harry Potter continue. Again, I listened on audio book and fell in love all over again with Jim Dale's reading. He just brings everything to life. Also, he sounds exactly like Maggie Smith. Which is weird and awesome. This book is a little more intense than the first, especially toward the end. The characters are expanded more in this book, as are the growing mysteries surrounding Voldemort and Hogwarts. It's was also really well-paced -- unlike some of the others in the series, this one doesn't really get bogged down in the middle (I'm talking to you, Deathly Hallows). Plus, we get to see more of Ginny. And I just adore her. (Finished 10/13/09)
- I was opening a can of cream of celery soup on Sunday and sliced the absolute hell out of my pinkie. Went-to-the-hospital sort of slice. Almost fainted sort of slice. Bloooood sort of slice.
- Barf.
- Would have thought it would have been a knife that would have done me in. But no, apparently I cannot work a can.
- I knew I couldn't be trusted in the kitchen.
- No stitches for the cut. Mostly because I didn't want to wait around in an emergency room full of the swine flu for three hours.
- The cut is healing better than I would have guessed, though. It's only moderately gross now.
- Because I cut my hand, I had to get a tetanus shot.
- The shot didn't hurt. But GOODNESS GRACIOUS, my whole arm is killing me now! It feels like someone is trying to yank my arm from my body. Pain pain pain!
- I am SUCH a wimp. And a complainer.
- I'm stopping now.
- I have been writing about my New Zealand trip, so I'll hopefully get that posted soon. Needless to say, I had an incredible time! Amazing! Phenomenal! If you'd like to see one of the many, many, many photos, visit my flickr.
- I want to go back! There was so much that I didn't get to see!
- I'm reading this really great book right now called Angry Conversations with God. It's so good!
- I miss Amy (my coworker) -- she's in Denmark. Work is just not the same without her happy face around.
- We are apparently world travelers around my office.
- Remember back when we complained because Thanksgiving was barely over and Christmas decorations started going up? Yeah, there's already trees and santas and candy canes EVERYWHERE.
- I had other things to hodgepodge, but the Motrin has made me all la-di-da.
- La-di-da.
I'm still trying to catch up.
Ok Musicophilia was just plain fascinating. It's by Oliver Sachs, the author of Awakenings . The book explored the unique relationship of the Brain and Music. As an amateur musician myself I enjoyed traversing the journey with sever tic's that calm when music is played. Those who have lost all capacity to remember, until music is involved. The miracle of perfect pitch and all it's connections. I even did some tests myself. After reading an encounter with a composer/musician who had lost perfect pitch after a stroke, he discovered he could remember the pitch of a song and then pull the perfect pitch out of it. I tried it myself and in 90% of all songs I can do the same. Think it, sing it, and then play the recording and be Right On! The exceptions are songs that I've played/heard in multiple keys. I think I'm going to have to get this for my mum for Christmas.
Julie and Julia was rude delight. I completely understood Julies need to do something that made her stand out. And what an undertaking, trying to cook every recipe in Julia Childs' Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie struggles, and has issues, and loves Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She swears, hates aspic (meat flavored cold Jello). Cooks a mean Crepe, and tries an egg for the first time. You salivate at some of the descriptions, feel tremendously sorry for her husband on occasion, and root for her to succeed. A great read, Highly recommend for all who struggle with mattering.
Then I embarked on a couple of Austen fan fiction. Austenland is the story of a Pride and Prejudice obsessed single woman who's wealthy relative bequeaths her a holiday living the story and time period. She struggles along, trying to find her footing in reproduction Regency England. She makes out with a 'servant', predictably hates the Darcy stand-in, and along the way learns about herself. It wasn't horrible, just fluff, and not the best fluff at that.
Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict is the story of a Regency girl, obsessed with (you guessed it) Pride and Prejudice, and as the result of a gypsy fortune teller, and horrid horse riding accident, ends up in the body of a girl in LA who's just caught her Fiancee cheating on her. Well mayhem ensues, and her friends don't really understand her lack of memory and weird fascination with all things technological. Eventually she learns about herself, and manages to snag the right man. I felt a bit at sea in this book at first, and the technological discovery became ridiculously redundant before long. I did find, however that this is meant to be book two of two, and I imagine that would have helped.
And here would be the naughty book of the bunch. April told me I should read it, and I got it on CD and read it in my car. I kept having to turn it off at the bank drive through, and Taco Bell because it was beyond racy. It was interesting having a different cultural view, as the three protagonists in the book were three strong African American women. That was about the best part of the book. I was blushing far to many times. Yeah, this is not for the faint of heart. And Definitely NSFW!
Catching Fire. What can I say? An excellent follow up to the fabulous Hunger Games. If you haven't read these books, mark them in your schedule, buy them now, but for your sanity's sake...wait until the third and final installment comes out next year to read them.
Good Lord I love these books. I'll recommend them to anyone. They are gripping, philosophical, post-apocalyptic, and with gritty and engaging characters. Katniss and her family and friends face the latest challenges with the government, and life will never be the same. This book is full of twists and turns, and meaty encounters. You will eat this book up. READ IT! (Next year)
Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant was just one more occasion for her to showcase her remarkable talent to spin a tale that enthralls and engrosses you. The book is lyrical, beautiful, haunting, and hopeful all in one. In this story an orphan visits a fortune teller to see if his sister is still alive. She tells him that he should follow an elephant and that elephant will lead him to his sister. At the same time a Magician is performing and decides that today he want's to really DO magic, and summons an Elephant, much to everyone's surprise. I cried 4 times. I'm not gonna lie. I finished the book mourning the fact that I had no one to read it to. I even called my dad and told him that. It is beautiful.
The World According to Bertie is the latest in the 44 Scotland Street novel series by Alexander McCall Smith. This book, like all the ones before it in the series, are written serially and published in a Scottish Newspaper. It is really fun visiting these characters again. Seeing Matthew meet his soul mate, following Angus Laudy as he tries to get Cyrill acquitted, and hearing Bertie tell more than one person that he thinks his new brother Ulysses looks just like his psychotherapist. A delightful addition to the series. Great character study, and almost like a visit home, via Big Lou's coffee shop.
a) One Christmas she stays at school, not wanting the drama of home, and has Christmas with friends. She then goes home to an empty house, and is overwhelmed with loneliness. She has a conversation with God, telling him that she knows it's supposed to be enough that his son came, showed us a new way, offered freedom and love. Jennifer then says that it is enough....but "Please don't make it have to be enough". I totally resonated with that place of celebration of who God is, but with that bit of fear that says "Please let me not be so alone that all I have is you".
b) She shares the journey she has of dealing with failed relationships, and also walking with a friend, Hannah, who wrestles with and then chooses to cheat on her spouse. Jennifer shares Hannah and her husbands pain in the aftermath of the infidelity. She talks about how they all go to a wedding together, and all three of them are in their own pain, Jennifer because she wishes it was her, and Hannah and her Husband because they're still reeling. She also shares about how Hannah and her husband conceive a year later. She talks about how that baby is a place for them of choice and renewal, but also a reminder. Jennifer shares that it's also a place of sacrifice for her, as it's a reminder to her of what she doesn't have yet. I feel her all to well.
c) Jennifer shares how, in the early church, they would often give communion to those dying so it would be bread for the journey. She shares from the story of Elijah, who was asleep by a brook when the angel came to awaken him and feed him. "Rise and Eat lest the journey be to great for you". She shared that communion was not a place of great meaning all the time, but instead it became what she needed to complete the journey. I like that imagery. I think I'll give it a try if I'm ever allowed to lead it at church.
Ok. Soon I should have October's great and Terrible reads posted. Enjoy.
I have a confession to make; I've been going to school with a nasty cold. I realize everyone is ready to throw rotten vegetables at me and discuss how rude and inconsiderate I am but it is not like I have the dreaded H1N1 and also... I really cannot miss anymore school (I was already sick in October and missed a week).
So. I basically plotted out how I was going to go to school sick:
- sit near the back corners of classrooms far away from everyone else whenever possible
- take a cough suppressant in the morning so that I minimally interrupt lectures with coughing fits
- carry around massive amounts of water and drink it like it is going out of style to avoid coughing fits
- get up early to ensure that I look nice (and therefore am not suspected of being sick - nothing says sickee like bedhead and sweatpants ... actually that also says hangover. well whatever)
- at all costs avoid speaking (because I don't have much of a voice, so the minute I open my mouth it is like a dead give away)
And it should have worked.
Why is it that when I am deliberately trying to minimize human contact, that suddenly a plethora of social opportunities arise?
On my way to my post-modern British literature class I encountered the professor. He actually acknowledged me (which is like a dream opportunity for the frantic english student who is desperately trying to get letters of reference for grad school) and so I end up chatting with him across campus all the way to class.
[Digression, I am pretty much in love with this professor because he announced that his favorite bits of grammar are hyphens and semicolons - which just happen to be my favorites too, and it is so rare that you find someone who shares that sort of a passion and. and. and.]
He was very polite and did not comment on my voice which sounded a lot like fingernails on a chalk board. I hope he thought I had just been at some sort of grammar rally and had lost my voice cheering for semicolons. That would be good. Very good.
These events continued pretty much all day. People that I don't normally talk to asking me questions in class. People asking me for directions. People asking me where I got my scarf (mental note: do not wear pretty scarves when ill; where boring scarves, hideous scarves. second mental note: purchase a boring hideous scarf).
The day rounded off with a person from my Arts Writing class introducing himself to me, and proceeding to talk with me all the way to the bus stop (this is a relatively long walk).
Needless to say, my cover is completely blown. I guess I will pour out libations to the gods, and hope to hell that I wake up miraculously healed.
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