Five Things Before Next Birthday

Lisa at Books on the Brain has a delightful Sunday Salon post full of good stuff and today, I want to answer her question of the Five Things I want to do before my next birthday.    (She said the next ‘big’ birthday, but ALL my birthdays are big!!!   I LOVE birthdays and tell EVERYONE how many days they have left to buy me a present…   You have ~40 days…)

Visit Provincetown MA

Visit the John Quincy Adams House in Quincy MA

Visit the RISD Museum

Walk the 20 mile Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger (May 4, yep, like NEXT Sunday!??!?! eek)

Create Greetings Cards for Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (part of my volunteer efforts, discovered while looking at volunteermatch.org – an awesome website!)

 

If I was a bettin’ gal, I would say the least likely I will accomplish is the RISD one.  But, ya never know.   Once you WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS, the chance of completion goes up quite considerably.    Tis true!

 

 

 

 

Vocabulary Extravaganza!

One of the Booking Through Thursday blogging ideas was the question of what you do when you find a word you don’t know.

It all depends for me.   Sometimes, I skip over and assume from context that it all works out.   Sometimes, I actually get up to find a dictionary.   And sometimes, I keep a list, for later.   I keep a journal and have EVERYTHING written in it:  grocery lists, to dos, phone numbers, sketches, notes to remember and just venting, and sometimes silly doodles.    I have no concerns about whatever is in it.   I love to start blank books and make a mess of them.   They are me.

So, when the BTT I’m referring to was all the rage, I had just started  House of Meetings by Martin Amis.   I enjoyed this book very much.    It had humor and horror.    Brutality and tenderness.    AND quite a few words I didn’t know.    Fortunately, none of these slowed me down or annoyed me.  

 Before I get to the list and give you all a chance to feel really good about big words you know that I didn’t, allow me to say that some of these words I write down as if I don’t know them and yet I MUST.    I can prove I’ve looked up some of these a thousand times.   I think it’s habit.   Or my brain wanting to laugh at me!     I can just hear my 11th grade English teacher telling me in that tone, “you know this.”     I wonder if I just don’t trust myself to KNOW it.   Anyway, I will show those words in bold.   

I am also citing paragraphs that impressed me but I gave my book to my book-friend and now can’t provide those passages for you!   SORRY.       If I wrote in my notes how the word was used, I put it in parenthesis.

I read this book as part of Trish’s HEY LADY! blog Novella challenge.   It was the ONLY book that popped up for me in my town’s library computer system when I asked it for novellas.    It was just under 250 pages.    So, this is sort of one of those books that found me.   

It’s a last letter to an only daughter from an old man who survived WWII and then prison camp in Siberia.   He himself waited until the end of his life to read a letter from his brother, the brother who married the woman that the old man had been in love with.   That letter was to explain WHAT HAPPENED in the “House of Meetings” on a particular date.  So, the old man’s letter tries to explain why he could never ’just get over it and move on’, as well as how being Russian, he is and can only be what he is.  The book has treachery and brutality of war and politics all the while interweaving the details of the love triangle.    Though written by a Brit, the book attempts a Russian voice and brings up Tolstoy and Dostoevsky so it assumes the reader knows the specifics of what makes Russian literature “Russian.”     It is a fascinating look into a national consciousness.    Many interesting insights to all sorts of human dilemmas.

Ready for some words!?

P.10 – scalene – having all sides unequal, usually in reference to a triangle

p.10 – verst – (defined in next sentence!)  Distance, barely more than a kilometer

p.11 – pelf – boodle: informal terms for money

.11 – claocal – (as in cloacal frenzies) – A sewer or latrine. Zoology. The common cavity into which the intestinal, genital, and urinary tracts open in vertebrates.

p.14 – cruising north, but downriver, which feels anomalous (I so understand!)

p.19 – rictus (mirthless rictus) – a gaping grin or grimace

p.27 – urka – orig. in camps, ‘hardened criminal’, ‘criminal type, tough guy

p.35 – solipsistic – Solipsism (Latin: solus, alone + ipse, self) is the philosophical idea that “My mind is the only thing that exists”.

p.40 – scrufulous –  Literally, relating to scrofula (tuberculosis of the lymph nodes, particularly of the neck)

 p.63 – tannoy - a loudspeaker

p.65 – seigneurism – spelling!?   Seigneuralism?  The tendency to define fixed, mutually exclusive stages of socio-economic

p.65 – insouciance – carefreeness: the cheerful feeling you have when nothing is troubling you

p.70 – obloquy – state of disgrace resulting from public abuse

p.72 – voulu – contrived or forced: said as of certain effects in a literary or artistic work

p.74 – sisters:  coercion, fabulation, amnesia

p.80 – onanism – masturbation: manual stimulation of the genital organs (of yourself or another) for sexual pleasure

p.95 – succubus - In medieval legend, a ‘succubus‘ (plural succubi; from Latin succubare, “to lie under”) is a female demon which comes to men, especially monks, …

p.126 – regnant system – reigning; dominant, as a queen regnant

p.131 – entire paragraph!    …had quaffed sublimity and love.  

p.142 – modernity – I just like how that sounds….

p.151 – croupier – An empoyee of a European casino. Operates the roulette table with other croupiers.

p.167 – entire paragraph – comparing literature per its origin country…

p.168 – bilious (I prefer more bilious colors – browns and greens) – relating to or containing bile  

p.174 – who is Wilfred Owen?

p.181 – deliquesce – melt away in the process of decay

p. 222 – bathetic – effusively or insincerely emotional; “a bathetic novel”; “maudlin expressions of sympathy”; “mushy effusiveness”; “a schmaltzy song”; “sentimental

p.233 – entire paragraph – lifeful… specific deformation

p.241 – senex (from satyr to senex in an afternoon) – Latin for old man. In Ancient Rome, the title of Senex was only awarded to elderly men with families who had good standing in their village

 

After I had read this, I found a short story [God Sees the Truth, But Waits] by Tolstoy about a guy in a prison camp for many years even though he was innocent.  On the day he was exonerated by the guilty party confessing, they find the man dead in his bunk.  The end.     I wish I could explain how well this stamped in the concept of Russianness to complement the House of Meetings!    Futility?  is that what I’m supposed to get?   I think so.     Life sucks so get used to it?    And yet, it’s not presented to be depressing, it just IS.

 

 Other Reviews:

NY Times from Jan 2007

Taking Advantage of the New WordPress Search (for House of Meetings/Amis)

 One of my favorite book blogs! Verbivore at Incurable Logophilia

 

I Care

A few things to tend to because I CARE  (as I avoid my to do list today)…

I found a few giveaways!   So fun to win books, isn’t it?   What I like is that I don’t have to return them to the library before I’ve even started.    I have a tendency to put holds on books I want and BELIEVING the system when they say it will be 4-5 weeks before they can get it…   Uh huh.   The next day I’m told it’s in, come pick it up!   Which I do.   I don’t know why I do, but I do.

 I took this photo of a Hemlock(?) on Highland St on my walk yesterday…

To celebrate Earth Day a few days late, I share with you a post about a kid’s book geared towards protecting our planet:   Down To Earth Guide to Global Warming

To tell you about an interesting new idea from Dewey that will encourage book blogging and community, click here:  Weekly Geek Idea     A chocolate monkey might find its way to me…

And, what was the other one?    Comfort Food  book by The Written Word, I think…    Let me run over there and check…

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Yep, found it.   Here’s the link:  The Written Word ’s Comfort-Food-and-a-Giveaway

Coming soon, the Care’s Increase Your Vocabulary Through Literature Extravaganza!    a.k.a… my response to last week’s Booking Through Thursday combined with a review of House of Meetings by Martin Amis.

 

 

 

 

 

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On Chesil Beach

[This post was updated on July 27, 2008, to suggest an alternative review.  or rather, a proper  review!  Go see Lightheaded's post on her thoughts about this book...]

Cover

 I was inspired to read On Chesil Beach for more than a few reasons. The first is the many, many great reviews I’ve read here in blogland and second, it fit the page length to be included in the Novella Challenge. Third? I’m in love with Ian McEwan.

I am not, however, inspired to review this. I am needing to get my butt on the treadmill and walk for more than a few miles. I’m still in my pjs! I have an 11 am appointment, my book is calling to me, and it is SOOOOO nice outside! I love sunny mornings; the birds are singing, chirping, and yet there is an expectant quiet to the air. I love Morning-Sensations. I just want to sit and soak in it. and drink my coffee. and not yet get dressed.   I also warn you that my blogging might decrease because I want to be outside!  Planting flowers…

Today, SOON.   I must WALK some miles. I have signed up to do 20 miles the first weekend in May for a Feed-the-Hungry Fundraiser and my 40 year old body is aching just thinking about that day after. Plus, my dog might like a walk, too. So – NOW HEY! that’s a terrific idea! I could get dressed and walk down Highland St south and have done a 4 mile loop! The O-Pup would be thrilled, he would.

I rate On Chesil Beach FOUR STARS.

    

For an EXCELLENT review, please click on this link:  http://booksidoneread.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-chesil-beach-ian-mcewan.html

No, I Can’t Loan It To You…

I noticed it was Buy-A-Friend-A-Book week either last week or the one before and I hope I was able to do my part by shipping off I’jaam to Beastmomma – that counts. right?   Even if it was Softdrink who (I assume) held up the ‘buy’ part of the deal.    I paid shipping, so I’m counting it.

Anyway, this isn’t the point of this post.

My point, ahem, is that I want to give LIBRARY books to my friends!   But they are due back at the library and so I don’t.   Although, come to think of it, my bookish friend IS trustworthy enough that I could safely give my library book and know it will be turned back in on time.

So…  what’s my point, again?

Hmmm.   I was trying to rant about my issue that I am not supposed to write in, turn down pages, and generally KEEP library books.  But I want to!   but I also want to save money! 

I have such a long list of books I want to read, and fear of failure holding me back on writing my reviews (uh, WHAT is THAT all about?!) and now On Chesil Beach is due.   Occasion for Loving is due TODAY.   (ooh, and it’s GOOD!  I’m only on page 29.)

And, just wait til I go through all the vocab words from House of Meetings!   Yep, I’m one of those:   I write down words I don’t know or just don’t quite know or just want to learn more about and jot down what page it’s from and then…  SOMETIMES…  I actually go and look them up.  later.

But I intend to; I do.  This time, I will!

Why Do We Read?

Why do I read?   

Fun, escape, challenge, to feel like I’m being challenged, education, to create a connection to another who has also read whatever, travel without leaving my chair, gain knowledge, to catch up (not miss out!), to participate, to improve my vocabulary (ha, I feel like I look up the same words ALL THE TIME! has my brain reached its capacity in 3 syllable words?), to share experiences, to experience something without REALLY having to go through it!, to find out IF I might want to experience something?, to understand, to appreciate ART, to appreciate my world, to make sense of things, to discover…

Why do YOU read?

Atonement

I have had this post in draft form, empty, for quite awhile now.

I can only keep saying that “I loved this book.”   

Then I saw the movie.    I keep saying, “I really liked the movie.”

However.

I can’t seem to find any whys!    I have no words?      So this is one more ’sort of review’. 

Just trying to clean up my drafts!     Thanks for reading.    In the meantime, until I finish On Chesil Beach, also by Ian McEwan, when I hope to give a PROPER review, please enjoy this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eCWGV6An74

It’s almost 5 minutes, but oh!  so, tender!   and HOT. 

PS – I discovered that I need to upgrade my IE or get Firefox, and that is why the trouble with linking and image/video uploading.  FYI.  In case you care.   I know you do, don’t you.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

Review     The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

PS as in PRE-script:   DO not read further unless you have already read this book.    I’m not going to tell you what it is about.   and I’m going to complain.   Be so warned.

I am not going to be able to read every word.   But I will read the last chapter!    I am impatient for these ends to tie up and be finished and I really want to move to my next book:   On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan.

I know, I know, I promised somebody in blogland that I would read The Book of Air and Shadows after I read Occasion for Loving after I read House of Meetings, but I’m going to interject the McEwan book.  It’s short?!   It’s for my Novella Challenge!   So is House of Meetings but it’s on the long side of short at 252 pages.

As I became engrossed in TMKD during my self-imposed (“I will sit here for one hour and READ this.”) assignment, I had such great thoughts pop into my head!   OOOooo, I must blog about that!    But I never wrote them down and on those few turned down pages, I can’t recall the tidbit I knew I had to share.

I did get the sense that the author herself was not sure how if she wanted to see these kids grow up.   OR that she was one of the authors who ‘hears’ her characters and only writes down what these characters tell her as she writes; that she is only there to allow the story to unfold.   Oh no, not casually but certainly deliberately.   [How many 'ly's allowed in a sentence?]    She DOES write beautifully, I won’t deny.  

But hurry it up already!  

What pages I have skipped over…  huh!?   who is this chicky in his childhood home and how did he get tied up!?    skip it.    I wasn’t even curious.    egad, another character?  what is she all about?

So, now I’m about to read the very last chapter.    As Norah is about to run off to France and then Caroline drops the bombshell.

OK, I have already read the last sentence, too, but it didn’t tell me anything, really.    Brother meets sister and all is well with the world?

Maybe I’ll just watch the TV Special that airs – oh…  that was LAST night, wasn’t it.   Oh well.

NEXT!

Favorite Book Meme

MEME:  A FAVORITE BOOK meme!

1. A book that made you cry:    Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables

2. A book that scared you:   We Need to Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver

3. A book that made you laugh:   Naked - David Sedaris

4. A book that disgusted you:   ??   can’t think of anything.

5. A book you loved in elementary school:   The Hobbit?   (My 5th grade teacher read this to us during lunch hour.)

6. A book you loved in middle school:    I didn’t go to middle school - we had grade school thru 8th grade then on to High School, but I would have to say “Are You There, God, It’s Me, Margaret” – Judy Blume

7. A book you loved in high school:  Les Miserables

8. A book you hated in high school:   The Sound and the Fury – Faulkner

9. A book you loved in college:   I didn’t read for pleasure in college!   I was studying textbooks or out drinking beer.  Nope – just thought of one!   Tracy Kidder’s The Soul of the New Machine

10. A book that challenged your identity or your faith:   Can’t think of anything here, either.

11. A series that you love:   The Chronicles of Narnia

12. Your favourite horror book:   Flowers in the Attic?

13. Your favourite science-fiction book:  Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson, the last one I read…

14. Your favourite fantasy book:  The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

15. Your favourite mystery book:   Can’t think of anything for this category either!   They just don’t stay with me?   I did read a bunch of Agatha Christie as a kid…  

16. Your favourite biography:   Truman - McCullough

17. Your favourite coming-of-age book:  The Red Badge of Courage - does that count?

18. Your favourite book not on this list:   I have to think hard about this.    This exercise is almost like the memory challenge to think of things you can’t remember just to see what you DO remember!   

 

Library Chats with Care

As I sit here this morning, alone, at the computer in the library of the Home for the Aged where I had attempted my Silver Book Club, I reflect on a very important concept…

MARKETING.        What’s IN IT for THEM!?       Find a need and fill it.

I bring Oscar to visit every other Thursday and we are well-received.  We are thanked.  We don’t spend a lot of time with each person because my dog is a mover.   He’s active and sometimes I really wonder if he is giving enough attention.  But everyone says they enjoy it, I enjoy it and I’m starting to get more comfortable.

So when the Activities Director asked me to schedule a time for the ‘guests’ to come visit me and calling it ‘Chats with Care”, I said, “Sure!”

But apart from being added to the activities SCHEDULE, I have done little to build excitement.   The exercise class is going over their alotted hour and so, here I sit, typing away on the computer, on my book blog, composing a post.   With not a soul checking in.

I’m generating ideas to advertise and sell this hour of ‘Chats With Care’…   I won’t give up.

In the meantime, until there is some traffic from which I can recruit some visitors, I will participate in the BTT, specifically Trish’s request to join in:  http://trishsdiary.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/booking-through-thursday-3/

[I am having linking issues but since this isn't my home PC, let me see if I can embed that link better...   Trish's BTT.  Hey!  yippee!  it works!!  ]

Go to page 123 and select the first sentence, then connect with the last sentence, and see what happens:

From The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards,

(Oops, page 123 is a blank page between chapters so I’ll use page 125.)

“He’s allergic to bees,”  Norah told the teacher, watching Paul run across the new grass of the playground.   She was already moving off, her clear voice calming, like a bell, to help a little girl with sand in her eyes.

Most of this page is about the mom being a little paranoid that not enough attention is being paid to her son and that the teach needs to be making sure Paul is being cared for appropriately.   I think.  I am only on page 93 so will be at this section soon to get a better handle on it.