mamajoan

I don't even know where to start when it comes to "bringing this journal up to date," ha ha, so I'm going to ramble a bit about books I've read recently.

Belatedly last week I tried to update my "read in 2026" tag on LibraryThing, but I'm not entirely sure that I remembered everything I've read so far -- and there are some books I can't quite remember whether I read them in January or December so I didn't add them. But the tag currently has 19 books in it, which is pretty good for the end of March even if I'm not missing anything.

(Nine of those 19 are by T. Kingfisher aka Ursula Vernon, whose work is my latest intense obsession, but that's a topic for a different post)

A lot of those were rereads; I've been on a rereading spree over the past year or so and have reread a whole bunch of books/series that I hadn't read in a long, long time. Some of which were quite literally gathering dust on my shelves (*blush*). Among other things, I reread the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold, the Ancillary series by Ann Leckie, the Jumper series by Stephen Gould, and the delightful "Sorcery and Cecelia" series by Patricia Wrede and Carolyn Stevermer. It has been SO interesting to discover how much, or in many cases how little, I remember about books that I loved in the past!

But the ones I'm going to talk about here are the Kestrel series by Kate Ross, because in that reread I had the unique experience of reading a book where I remembered one particular huge plot twist very clearly, while at the same time remembering absolutely nothing else about the plot!

( This got long-ish so here's a cut. Is it still good etiquette to use cuts for long posts? Also, I'm trying really hard not to spoil much, because you should really read these books. )

I think my next series rereads are going to be the Russell/Holmes mysteries by Laurie King and the Temeraire dragon series by Naomi Novik. Those should keep me occupied for a little bit -- maybe even until the next Murderbot book comes out? (My intense obsession with Murderbot is probably yet another topic for another post....) Meanwhile I *am* also reading some new-to-me stuff, and of course recommendations are always welcome!

Oh life is just so busy and I want to post here but I don't and then I fall so far behind. augh.

So much has been happening! I shall attempt some bullet points.

* Mom had her last chemo treatment two weeks ago. This weekend we're having a party to celebrate. It's great to have chemo behind us, but now we have to wait and worry and wonder whether the cancer is going to come back. I'm staying positive though. I think everything will be fine.

* I bought a new fridge!! w00t!! I am loving it. I got the kind with the freezer on the bottom, which is great. I love not having to bend over to look for stuff in there. It has only been here a couple of weeks so it's still all nice and clean and shiny-looking. That won't last. ;)

* Isaac started Little League and is loving it. I'm discovering how erratic things can be when you have an all-volunteer organization. *roll eyes* Isaac's coach is not entirely dedicated to the task, shall we say, but a few of the other parents on the team have been stepping up, so it's going okay.

* Ruthie is toilet-trained!!! I am so freaking excited. No more diapers in our house! Well, we still have pull-ups for nighttime, but that doesn't count.

* Ruthie is also starting to read! I spelled some words on the fridge with letter magnets and was very surprised at how easily she sounded them out. This sentence shall serve as a placeholder for a lengthier musing on how different are the learning paths of the first vs. second child, based on parental involvement/attention level. ;)

* Maybe you heard that we had a water emergency here in the Boston area. A pipe burst and we weren't supposed to drink (or wash hands with, or cook with) the tap water for several days. It was an adventure. It made me think deep thinky thoughts about privilege, luxuries, assumptions, all that good stuff.

* I continue to read a lot. My "read in 2010" tag on LibraryThing is up to 21 books. I just finished The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second in the Millennium series, and am on the edge of my seat waiting for the third book, which ww1614 kindly offered to send me. w00t.

* Stuff is happening at work, but I'm not talking about that right now. Oh, but I will say that I got a cost-of-living raise, which is nice. It only amounts to about 2.5% of my salary, but every little bit helps.

That's about it for now. But I'll close with ( a few funny things the kids have said lately. )

I don't want to talk about yesterday's election here in MA. Let's just skip it, okay? Thx.

I wrote the other day that I've already read 5 books in 2010. I thought I'd try to write just a little brief thing about each one. I wanted to start with the most recent, which was Free-Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy. You may have heard of her; she caused a huge controversy a couple of years ago when she wrote a column about letting her 9-year-old son ride the NYC subway by himself. People called her "the worst mother in America" and similar delightful things, which prompted her to start this sort of "movement" which she calls Free-Range: the idea that it's okay, even beneficial, to give your kids some freedoms.

So the book talks about how America got to this place now where parents are afraid to let their kids do anything at all unsupervised, take any risks. Parents who drive their kids to school even though it's a short walk -- or worse, drive them to the bus stop! Parents who put helmets and kneepads on their babies while they're learning to crawl and walk. Parents who won't even let their kids play on the lawn because they could be abducted or who knows what. Skenazy debunks all this stuff by talking about how truly astronomically unlikely these things are, and delves a bit into the psychology of how we came to be so fearful (hint: blame the media), and offers some suggestions for how each of us can work on being a more Free-Range type parent. She writes in a friendly, witty sort of way, which is also how she writes her blog and Twitters (which in turn is what got me interested in reading the book).

So I enjoyed reading her book, but I fear that it's kind of preaching to the choir. I don't think there are really going to be all that many parents who pick it up and go "OMG she's so right! I must completely change my way of parenting starting today!" Maybe some people who are sort of on the edge will benefit from it, I guess. I personally did appreciate all the research and statistics she quoted, to show that kids are pretty safe nowadays, as well as the information about how they do things in other countries. (One thing that stuck out for me was that in modern-day Germany, a kid at the age of three is considered old enough to go down to the corner bakery to pick up the day's bread. Alone! I think about my 3-year-old Ruthie, and...well, yeah. I can just barely see it, if we lived in a more suburban type area, and if I didn't have to worry about having Child Protective Services called on me.) I also found it interesting to learn that in all of recorded history there is not a single actual substantiated case of a child being poisoned by Halloween candy by a stranger. And those are just a couple of examples.

Anyway, good book. And the others I've read so far this year are:
* Julie and Julia by Julie Powell, which I felt a little embarrassed reading on the subway because I don't want people to think I'm just jumping on the bandwagon now that there's a movie out. I kept wanting to yell "I've had it on my Amazon wishlist for years! I swear!" ;) It was pretty good and now I'm interested in checking out the movie at some point.
* One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, via the Early Reviewers program at LibraryThing.com. An interesting story of people trapped in a visa office after an earthquake, telling each other stories of why they are trying to go to India.
* In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith. What can I say, the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series continues to delight. I never want it to end! And yes, I want to see the TV show too, which my mom has seen some of and says it's great. Some day I'll get around to that.
* Sorcery and Cecilia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, one of those books I've had on my wishlist for ages, and now that I finally read it I'm wondering why I waited so long!

And now I am reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Hmm, I was going to talk about other stuff in this post too, but it got long so I'll save it for another time.

Happy New Year! I'm not going to do an actual "2009 in review" post, because those are boring (sorry, but they are). Let's just say that it was quite an eventful year for me, in good and bad ways. Of course, it drew to a close with me getting a good new job and my mom getting cancer, so that sort of sums up the whole thing, in a way.

On another note, I ended up with a total of 43 books read in 2009, which, funnily enough, was also my total for 2008. I might have made it to 44 if not for Ruthie getting sick last week. I had to spend most of the day on Tues and Wed at home with her, which was not exactly conducive to reading. ;)

I did almost no reading at all during the time I was unemployed in 2009, which was about 4-5 months. So it's kind of amazing to think how many I might have read if I had been employed that whole time! Of course, during Jan-April, I got a lot of reading done because I had a longer subway commute -- eight stops from Davis to South Station, whereas now I just go four stops from Davis to Kendall. So, we'll see what shakes out for 2010. I hope to make it at last to 50 books, which should be doable. I've already finished one book in 2010: Julie and Julia which I've had on my wishlist for probably two or three years now. I was annoyed to find that they had made it into a movie, because that makes me look like I'm jumping on the bandwagon when I'm reading it on the subway. In fact, yesterday a guy at the bus stop actually asked me whether I had seen the movie. Siiiigh. Oh well. It was a pretty good read and I am interested in seeing the movie now. It might be fun.

In other new year / holiday news, I got us a Wii for [insert December holiday here]. So far it's a pretty big hit. Isaac is LOVING the sports games, especially the tennis, baseball, and golf. He really gets moving when he plays the tennis, which is what I wanted from the Wii -- to help us get out some of our cabin-fever energy during the winter. Toward that end I also got Dance Dance Revolution yesterday, although both kids hated it on first look -- perhaps because it was just me dancing and them watching ;) -- or maybe because they wanted to be playing A Boy And His Blob.

sandykidd got me A Boy And His Blob, or "boy and blob" as we call it in our household. It's an adventure/puzzle type game where you are a little boy who travels around various worlds (sort of vaguely Mario-style, with jumping over things, running, avoiding monsters, etc.) with your pet blob. The blob is an alien creature that came to earth to find you to help him. You feed the blob various jelly-beans which transform him into various different useful tools, like a ladder, parachute, jack, etc. So, the puzzles in each level are about figuring out which beans to use on the blob in order to get through. Along the way you collect treasure chests and there are various different kinds of monsters that you have to kill or avoid.

Anyway, it's a lot of fun, and challenging. Some of the puzzles are quite tricky to figure out. Isaac is enjoying that aspect of it, discovering the thrill of how good it feels to figure it out and get it right -- especially when he suggests something and I say "I don't think that will work" but then it does. Which happens entirely too often. ;) Ruthie mostly just likes watching, and occasionally I let her push the button that makes the boy call the blob or give him a hug. (Sometimes the blob gets scared and you have to hug him to calm him down. Really. It's cute. ;) ) Occasionally they get scared -- there's one particular type of adversary that Ruthie really doesn't like and she gets upset whenever we encounter one of those. Also, after every ten levels, you have to fight a huge monster in order to progress to the next world (this is called a "boss level") and those big monsters terrify both the kids. Literally they are both in tears hiding their faces when we get to that point. So I end up finishing those levels after the kids go to bed. ;)

So that has occupied a lot of our time lately. We're almost through all the levels, which I'm glad about because I'm thinking that after we finish it we can take a break. ;) Although I'm sure the kids will want to go right back to the beginning and start over again! oy. ;)

OK, I have more but this is long enough for now ;)

Eons ago (well, sometime before 2004), I was at a Worldcon (that's the World Science Fiction Convention to you mundanes) and someone handed me a free book. This happens frequently at Worldcon, which is one of the many things to love about it.

Anyway, I had never heard of the author, but I read a few pages and it failed to grab me so I set it aside.

Years went by, and then a week or two ago I was looking for something to read while I waited impatiently for the fifth naominovik book to arrive, so I picked up the aforementioned free book again. This time I got farther into it, and managed to plow through the whole thing. The book, by the way, is The Ill-Made Mute by Cecilia Dart Thornton.

You know, sometimes you read a book that's so well-written that you don't even mind that the story itself is not really all that interesting or original. Conversely, sometimes a story can be so gripping that you can overlook writing that's maybe not the best.

And then there are those times when neither of those apply, and yet, you keep reading. Why? Who knows?

This is not a bad book. The story is somewhat cliched but with a few interesting twists. But man oh man, if there isn't a word for the scifi-fantasy version of purple prose, we'll have to invent one just for Cecilia Dart-Thornton. Oy.

Try this excerpt on for size:

Here where the sun never shone, a bone-coldness permeated -- the intense frigidity of stone that had never quickened to the touch of the day-star. Yet even though the river flowed somewhere high above, no dampness reached out clammy fingers or slid weeping down the walls. The air was not dank or musty or tinged with the odors of subterranean centuries -- soil, stone, roots, pale, soft-bodied things that hid from light -- instead it was as sweet as the free and blowing airs of the upper world, which carried the scnet of flowers and leaves and the subtle freshness of clear skies.

Oy. Or this:

"Fair device!" he exclaimed, his eyes alighting upon the container of blueberries. "This horn is wrought more cunningly than any I have seen." He picked it up, turning it in his hands. Berries scattered like beads of lapis lazuli. "Its aspect is antique," he murmured to himself, "yet it is as unblemished as if newly made. Such curious and exquisite craftsmanship! Methinks this is some family heirloom, perhaps fashioned during the Era of Glory."

I say again OY. And the entire book is like that -- nearly 500 pages (hardcover) of that kind of language. It's unbelievable really. It started to take on a kind of morbid fascination, as I kept wondering whether she could really keep it up throughout the entire book. And indeed, she could.

And then the dang book ended without wrapping up the whole plot! I knew it was the first of a trilogy, but sheesh.

So now I find myself in the interesting position of wanting to know what happens, but not wanting to actually READ the other books. I wonder if I can just read the Amazon reviews and learn enough to satisfy my curiosity. heh.

In related news, my "read in 2009" tag on LibraryThing now contains fifteen books. Go me! :)

Also, completely randomly, ( here's a muffin recipe. )

Wow, is it really that long since I posted? ack.

Well, last time I posted, I was afraid that Isaac would wake up barfing in the middle of the night, because he had complained of a tummyache. I'm pleased to report that he did not wake up barfing that night, or any other night since (*knock wood*). He has complained of pain in his tummy a few more times since, but it always seems to pass very quickly, so I don't know. I guess it's probably just gas or something.

As for me, I continued for quite a few days to feel mildly queasy every time I ate. It was really annoying. Then I had a bit of diarrhea one day and since then have been feeling okay again. I guess if that was my version of the virus that's going around (which I hear for some people can involve one day of vomiting followed by up to TEN days of diarrhea) then I'm okay with it!

Did my twitter from the last day of 2008 come through, where I talked about the books I read in '08? I set myself a goal for the year of 40, and read 43, so I'm pretty pleased. I'm going to go for 40 again this year, with a secondary goal of 50 if possible. I've already read 4 books in 2009 and am almost done with the fifth! go me!

(It helps that I now have a lengthy subway ride each morning and evening. Although sometimes much more lengthy than I would prefer -- like tonight when we sat in a station for 10 minutes and then were told to get off the train and had to wait for the next one. Ugh. The MBTA is just teh suck lately!)

I never got a chance to finish up posting about my new recipes in 2008, but uh, I made a bunch of 'em. Most importantly, I found a few that have/will become part of my permanent regular repertoire, which is great. And of course '08 was also the year I started baking my own bread, which continues to bring me a lot of satisfaction.

HEY! How about that big news event of the day yesterday?? President Obama! It still gives me chills! w00t.

Isaac apparently watched the inauguration at school, and his favorite part was "the pictures of the music," meaning the terrible hokey stock-footage of various American landmarks that they showed while Aretha was singing. LOL.

As for Ruthie, I asked her if she knows who Obama is, and she said yes. I said, oh, who is he, and she replied: "The CD!" I eventually figured out that she meant Libana, a musical group whose album "Night Passages" we listen to every night at bedtime. OMG LOL! :D

Oh so much more to post about...so little energy. this'll do for now.

No news from the doctor yet about Ruthie's condition. I shall keep you posted. (really!)

( Meanwhile, here's a rundown on some of the books I've read recently. )

My total books read for 2008 is now up to 33! Go me! :) My "Read in 2008" tag on LibraryThing.

Urgh, where to begin....

Friday, Ruthie was sick. ( the minutiae thereof )

Anyway, she seemed basically fine this morning so I took her off to daycare as usual and my fingers are crossed.

On Saturday we went out to the cottage with my mom again. sandykidd and Baz were there, having slept over Friday night, so we played with them and had a cookout and then we all slept over. SK and Baz slept in a tent on the lawn, which they seem to have quite enjoyed (sooner them than me ;) ). Sunday, the kids woke up around 7:30. Or was it 8? I can't remember, because my mom took them outside and let me go back to sleep. Have I mentioned recently how great my mom is? ;) I slept till just about 10am. It was a gorgeous day and we spent the rest of it doing the usual cottage things. Isaac is getting much more confident in the water, splashing and floating on floats and all that kind of thing, which is great to see. Ruthie, of course, has been confident from the beginning. I swear that kid will be the death of me. She just walks right into the water up to her chin and would keep on going if someone didn't grab her! Oy!

Anyway, fun was had by all, and Ruthie and Baz at least were kind enough to take turns engaging in 2-year-old typical behavior, rather than doing it all at once. ;)

Then we packed up and came home, which is always sad. snif snif.

Last week I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I must say I was underwhelmed. I'd heard so much about it, but it failed to really affect me the way it obviously did many others. Not really sure why. But I'm still glad I read it, and looking forward to discussing it with bookclub starting tomorrow.

I started in on The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of, which has been sitting on my to-be-read pile for ages and the news that Tom Disch (the author) had committed suicide pushed me to grab it. But then at the cottage I felt a need for some fiction, so I also started on A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer, and I'm about 3/4 through that now and really enjoying it despite the only-average-quality writing and the large number of fantasy cliches. I guess that didn't really sell it, eh? I think I shall actually reserve judgment until I finish the thing. But really, I am enjoying it and eager to see where the plot's going to go.

In other random news, we have decided to try calling our new kitty Grover instead of Chubby. It's hard to tell yet whether that's going to stick, since we're still in that phase where we mostly call him "Chu-I-mean-Grover." But he definitely needs a name other than Chubby, because he's really very svelte.

I think that's all the news that's fit to print for the moment...more to come, one hopes....

* The concert last Sunday went quite well. I hope I shall have a chance to write more about it at some point. (I say that a lot, don't I? sigh.)

* Monday was a glorious day both weather-wise and activity-wise. We spent basically the whole day in the back yard, with six(!) other kids coming over to play at various points. The fabulously wonderful wneleh was kind enough to bring us an enormous play structure that her kids have outgrown, and my kids and their friends LOOOOOVED it. She brought it over in pieces, and as we were putting it back together, the kids were literally climbing all over it. It was all "Get down from there! Don't crawl through the tunnel until it's hooked up! Climb down off that! Have a little patience!" LOL. Anyway, this thing is teh awesome. I shall post pix at some point. The kids are lovin' it and it's going to be great for Isaac's party.

* However, the lesson learned from Monday is that it's about damn time to buy a new bottle of sunscreen. I acquired quite the sunburn across my shoulders and upper back, and it is rather painful these last couple of days, making wearing my backpack -- or even clothes! -- somewhat uncomfy. d'oh. Fortunately the kids seem to have gotten off easier (though I keep meaning to ask metafrantic and sandykidd whether Baz got any burned, since he's so much fairer than my kids -- and he was looking quite pink by the time we decided we had better get him inside. yikes).

* Apparently I have agreed to foster for an unknown period of time a kittycat whose people are looking for a cat-friendly apartment (long story). The timing is unclear but it seems we'll be taking custody of "Chubby" within the next few days. I'm excited! and also a bit nervous, but it will all work out somehow.

* Isaac has developed an unhealthy fascination with the Weather Channel widget on my Firefox (it shows little icons in the status bar to tell you the weather for right now, later today/tonight, and tomorrow). He runs over to check it like every five minutes. It is kind of annoying, LOL.

* Ruthie's daycare teacher today said that Ruthie is "such a happy kid," always laughing and cheerful. That was so nice to hear. She is mostly like that at home too, except for the occasional screechy tantrum of course, heh.

* Tonight I made pancakes out of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I've made pancakes before of course, but never this simply from a recipe, so I'll count it as number, uh, 32 I think? (edit #33) Anyway I subbed whole-wheat flour and cornmeal for half the flour, and they came out too dense and the kids didn't really like them much, alas. ah well.

* I finished re-reading Stranger in a Strange Land and then read Grammar for the Soul, a totally delightful little book by a guy who is a friend of my mom's and the dad of one of my best childhood friends. It's basically centered around the premise that the grammar we use affects our mindset and attitudes -- and vice versa -- and that by mindfully changing our grammar we can positively affect our mental/emotional state. Okay, it sounds hokey but it's really a fun, witty, engaging, and thought-provoking book. I really enjoyed it (obviously). Highly recommended.

* And now I am reading Imaro by Charles Saunders, which I believe was recommended by morgan_dhu.

* And of course I have lots more to post about but that's enough for now.