There comes a time when you have to let down your guard. Relax. You have to give up the devices that keep you from being your true self, such as you really are. Really. There comes a time when I can no longer understand you as you think you are. I cannot pretend. Yes, you with the ego so fragile you have to come across as bragging and boisterous. I really do not understand your lack of humility or modesty. Is it a game?Why do you have to let everyone know you think you are the greatest? Do you need to yell to drown out the doubting voices in your head? Always looking to make sure you were heard, you were noticed. Looking for the compliment, begging for the praise. What a good dog. Please don’t. I’m begging you. Don’t. Your constant jokes. Your constant need to be smart. Pathetic. Please relax. You are loved the way you are. Really.
Month: October 2008
From There You Are Not
I take pieces of you home with me. Little by little, piece by piece. Do you feel yourself diminishing? Do you sense yourself growing smaller? Stealing from home to make a home away from home home. Scouring shorelines for colors of sea tossed glass, speckled, inexplicably beautiful rocks, broken buoys of red and gold. Like a song about romance I steal them all home with me. Vain attempt to bring me back to where I am not.
I cannot bottle the heavy salt air. I cannot take the earthy decay of fallen leaves. I have to leave the sunsets of gold behind. So, instead I take the glass, the rocks, the shells. Bottled and bowled I keep them, cherish them in my home away from home.
Artemis Fowl
Colfer, Eion. Artemis Fowl. New York: Talk Miramax Books, 2001.
Another book that I finished in a day. I suppose it helped that it’s a book for young adults so it was a breeze to read. The real reason was it was a fun read.
Meet Artemis Fowl. Only 12 years old but already a millionaire – a criminally brilliant millionaire. When we first meet Artemis we learn he is out to kidnap a fairy. Let the games begin! From the very beginning Artemis Fowl is full of folklore. Besides fairies there are goblins, dwarfs, gnomes, a centaur, trolls and the ever tantalizing hoard of gold. Artemis, though only 12, has devised a plan to rid the fairies of their riches by using their own powers against them. For being a childrens’ book it is pretty fast paced and violent.
Favorite lines: “…A ragged apron does not a waiter make” (p 4), and “Holly unhooked a set of wings from their bracket. They were double ovals, with a clunky motor. She moaned. Dragonflies. She hated that model….now the Hummingbird Z&, that was transport” (p50). Can you just see it? Fairies don’t have wings! They have strap-ons! The idea that Holly was “stuck” with Dragonflies rather than her preferred Hummingbirds cracked me up.
BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter, ”
ps~ From what I understand Artemis Fowl was made into a movie. This is one to put on the NetFlix list!
Special thank youuuuu to Kisa Too Cool for posting…
Generation Gap
Me: I still can’t believe my blog has 77 hits today.
Much Older You: Hits? What does that mean?
Me: It means my blog was looked at 77 times.
You: Doesn’t that worry you, having 77 people look at your stuff?
Me: Well, it could also be one person going back 77 different times.
You: Oh. Well. That’s much better. That must mean they like you.
Me: ??? Um. Errr…If you say so…
Special thanks to the Love of my life for posting…
Big If
Costello, Mark. Big If: a Novel. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002.
I love it when everything about a book comes together. Meaning, when the plot is exciting and moves along like a river after a good hard rain and characters are detailed and dynamic and even the small stuff is interesting. When all these things come together I can’t put a book down. I read this over the weekend. that should tell you something.
Jens and Vi Asplund are adult siblings with very different lives. Jens lives in New Hampshire with his real estate wife and toddler son. He spends his days as a computer programmer writing programs for violent video games his patriotic father never approved of. His sister, Violet is Secret Service bodyguard sworn to protect the life of the Vice President of the United States during an election campaign. She has nothing that resembles a social life, a love life, or even a home life. If she is lonely she would never admit it.
Big If takes you inside the creative and neurotic genius of software programmers. Simultaneously, you are drawn into every potential threat made to high powered public officials, as well as reliving old threats-come-true like the assassination attempt on President Reagan. Jens and Vi couldn’t have different lives and seem worlds apart…until they collide.
Favorite line: “This was another Rocky trick, fukc this legalistic sh!t, talk to crazy people in the crazy people language” (p36).
BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter “New England Novels” (p 177).
Special thanks to the Hot One for posting…
Ode to the Destination
Just couldn’t resist. Sorry for the exuberance!
Special thanks to The Man for posting while I’m away.
Same Old Song
Funny. I wrote this on October 5th, 2006. Listen to it as October 10th 2008 and ask yourself – what, if anything, has changed?
We will rise before the sun and face the day with the thought that today will be different from the day before. Much different. We will look towards coffee as the great motivator but really, in our heart of hearts, it will be the open road. We will stop for alcohol and then when we can drive no more, stop for the sea. When we reach the ocean we will know we can go no further. We will ride the waves and smell the salt. I can’t speak for her but I will breathe. Breathe in and out. Breathe like I haven’t in days. We will spot my mother and gossip all the way up the hill. We will finally drop our bags in sighing relief and a great sense of freedom. We will call our husbands while drinking wine and staring out over the ocean. Distracted. What we won’t do is talk about work because we promised. We will (try to) keep that promise. For love and sanity, we will.
I came across this…as I was packing. How perfect is that? Nothing has changed. I could have written this yesterday. Or next year. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Talking to Myself Again
I am very used to talking to myself while driving; having full conversations while cooking alone; debating the issues with me and moi in the shower. It’s all been said before – to myself. What I’m not used to is talking to myself when I *think* someone else is supposed to be listening; getting the message, and responding. It’s been happening a lot and I think it’s driving me crazy.
The first time was when I was on the phone with mum. Blah blah blah. We can talk for hours. That’s my fault. I call once a month or less. We have a lot of catching up to do. The last time I was going on and on about something – not important because even I can’t remember what it was – when all of a sudden my mother is asking hello? hello? like I had hung up on her. How long had I been blathering? More importantly, how long had I been talking to myself? How much did she didn’t get? Sighing and ignoring my husband’s bemused look with raised eyebrow, I started from the beginning.
Then there’s the small incident with texting. I was deep in conversation when all of a sudden I noticed my last three texts had gone unanswered. Was I texting to myself? Was I a disconnected dork? Feeling a little put out I shut off my phone and buried it under a bag.
Most recently there was FaceBook. I have to admit I think there is a conspiracy afoot. FB and Google have me good. My problem is I am too rushed to notice if my email is a Facebook message or a real, honest-to-goodness email. Lately, I am assuming the latter and write back these big long, dramatic, here’s everything that has been going on with me emails. I pour out my trials and tribulations leaving no detail untyped. With great satisfaction and a feeling of connectedness I click send on my communication….only to have message delivery failure message pop up because the message I thought I was responding to wasn’t actually an email.
I don’t think there is a moral to the story. I don’t think there is a cure for what ails me. I will always talk to myself in some fashion. Waiting for someone to respond is just part of the game, I guess. In the meantime, I guess I should log onto FaceBook and answer some messages or walls or whatever!
Accidental Tourist ~with spoiler
Tyler, Anne. The Accidental Tourist. New York: Berkley, 1985.
This was a reread. I couldn’t remember anything about it and rules are rules: if I don’t remember the plot, I don’t remember the main characters or, I don’t remember how it ended I read it again. This one was a cinch. I reread it in a day.
Macon Leary is a man stuck in his ways. He’s so eccentric I almost disliked him in the beginning…until I met his family. They’re all the same way. Macon is the author of unique travel books centered around business travel. The problem is Macon doesn’t like to travel, doesn’t like meeting new people, doesn’t like being in unfamiliar places. Upon separating from his wife Macon’s whole life turns upside down. He learns how to feel emotions, to see the world as if through the eyes of a completely different person. The Accidental Tourist takes you on a journey of awakening and growth.
Lines that hooked me: “Could you really drive a car without reversing?” (p 18). Okay, not the most poetic of lines, but here’s the story: Kisa has a coworker who consistently parks in the turn around instead of using the lot – the huge lot. We used to complain about it until we found out his car couldn’t reverse!
“”She always seemed about to fall over the brink of something” (p 63). Love the imagery!
“Macon got out Miss MacIntosh just for something to pin his mind to” (318). It was at this moment that I knew Macon loved Muriel and would return to her. Don’t ask me why.
BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter, “Real Characters” (p 197). Incidentally, The Accidental Tourist was made into a movie. I’m thinking if Nancy Pearl ever writes another Lust book she should include books made into movies (worth seeing). I’m betting she would include this one.
Something From Yesterday
Advantage for the Taking
Someone unexpected lifted me out of my self-imposed anger today. I had been walking about with this you done me Wrong attitude and she turned it into a Right. Not only unexpected but downright heart stopping shocking. I had written her off a long time ago. Suddenly, I am seeing the faint lines of forgiveness coming through the hate. Am I mad?
I hate being lied to and this lie was self-indulgent and stupid. I could have handled the truth but something chose to make it worse by putting my heart in the mix. The smokescreen was as ridiculous as the lie. Could I not see through it? I couldn’t help but vent. After all, I am allergic to smoke. A sort of blood letting for the hurt, so to speak. The kicker is that I chose to spew my frustration to someone who used to produce just as much irritation as I was trying to release. I couldn’t help it and to make matters worse, there was no stopping me once I got going…you know how it is.
Surprise of all surprises, my rant was met with calm. Understanding. Even a solution of sorts. I couldn’t help but laugh, feel a litte silly. Just how old am I anyway? So, there we are: the barnacle, the newbee, the about face and me. Go figure.
Carry On, Jeeves
Wodehouse, P.G. Carry On, Jeeves. New York: A.L. Burt, 1927.
This book just feels good in my hands. Published 10 years before my father was even born, it even looks its age. I guess I just like old books.
Carry on, Jeeves is a series of stories about how Jeeves acts as man-servant while repeatedly saving the day for Bertram Wooster. Each chapter sets up a different dilemma “Bertie” and/or his friends face and how Jeeves cleverly resolves every one of those dilemmas. There is a formula to these moments of crisis: someone is usually misleading a family member (usually an aunt) to think he is wealthy, in another part of the country, worth marrying, not worth marrying, etc. Jeeves’s solution is to mislead the “aunt” with a lie or two. The lie is the smallest of gestures and usually something humorous happens – like the plan backfiring. While the general plot seems repetitious, Wodehouse’s style of writing is very funny. Side note: Bertie and Jeeves always seem to get into curious arguments about fashion.
Lines I liked: “I strained the old bean to meet this emergency” (p 47).
“I’m never much of a lad till I’ve engulfed an egg or two and a beaker of coffee (p 89).
“If this was going to be a fish-story, I needed stimulants” (p 167).
BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter “P.G. Wodehouse: Too Good To Miss” (p 235). What I find hysterical about Pearl’s entry is her first sentence: “If you can ignore his somewhat rummy behavior…” (p 235). “Rummy” is a word Wodehouse uses over and over and over in Carry On, Jeeves.
October Is…
October is Halloween! For anyone who knows me, Halloween starts on October 1st and runs for 31 days. This is the way it should be. I have a whole big box of Halloween stuff and every October 1st out it comes. Okay, so this year it was a little early. I bought a tiny skull completely off timeline, too! The skeltons, black cats, bats, witches, goblins, and of course, my fave – jack-o-laterns!
October is also another chance to slip away to Monhegan for a handful of days. Home Sweet Autumn Home. For music it’s Sean, of course. There are other trips, I’m sure. Just ask Joe.
For reading, here’s how it stacks up. For the Book Lust Challenge:
- Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler ~ in honor of Anne’s birth month
- Artimis Fowl by Eoin Colfer ~ in honor of National Fantasy Month
- Big If by Mark Costello ~ October is the best time to visit New England
- Carry On Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse ~ in honor of Wodehouse’s birth month
- Crime Novels: American Noir of the 30’s and 40’s by Horace ~ in honor of Crime Novel month
That’s about it. Pumpkin Fest later. Big charity walk for breast cancer on the 26th. Natalie’s birthday…
Any Given Doomsday
Handeland, Lori. Any Given Doomsday. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008.
Any Given Sunday was a football movie. Any Given Thursday was a John Mayer dvd. Any Given Doomsday is my latest Early Review book for LibraryThing. I have to start off by saying this book was out of my comfort zone. On purpose. I don’t read traditional “chick lit” and I steer away from “fantasy” genre. Any Given Doomsday s eemed to be both. But, like with the Book Lust Challenge (which is teaching me to appreciate all styles of writing), I wanted to give this book, and myself, a chance. I’m sorry that I did.
Reading Any Given Doomsday was like trying to enjoy a decent omelet only to have it occasionally spoiled by the jarring crunch of a careless eggshell. The overall plot, monsters are going to take over the world, was thrilling but what was so unsettling was my dislike for the main character, Elizabeth Phoenix. There wasn’t enough character depth to make me appreciate her tough-as-nails attitude. Her strength definitely was a necessity to her position in life (seer, psychic, etc), but I tired quickly of her horny, yet angry mood swings. She was attracted to a few different monster/characters and for every sexy thought she had an equally violent one (clenching fists etc). When she finally “gave in” to having sex with that “must I?” attitude the seductions were weak and the sex was gratuitous and predictable because of Lizzie’s libido. Of course, the transfer of supernatural powers through intercourse made the graphic scenes easy to include.
All in all I thought Any Given Doomsday tried too hard to be over the top dramatic use of religion as an explanation for the plot, the use of sex as a vehicle for smut, and the shallow character development made
I’m not a big fan of stupid characters. Here’s a great example. Liz is raped by her exboyfriend turned monster. Afterwards he tells her she is to be his sex slave for life: never wear clothes and “give it to him” whenever and wherever he wants. She leaves to take a shower and is somehow shocked and offended to find her clothes missing when she gets out. Duh? She’s outraged despite the fact “the rules” were laid out for her. Insert eye roll here.
Completely off topic: the chick on the cover, who I am assuming is Elizabeth Phoenix, reminds me of a member of the Nashville, TN band called Jypsie. As a result, I kept wanting to put a Southern drawl in Liz’s mouth!
~*LunaSea*~ 