Scraps of Thoughts

Today, my friends, on this glorious sunny happy refreshing lovely day (I’m in a good mood), I have just a few itsy bitsy things to share.   At least, that’s what I’m hoping!    Sometimes when I think I have just a few short things I want to yap about, it ends up being 678 words.    I’ll give you a count at the end.

First, I wanted to do a Monday Mailbox but I missed Monday.   I got to work yesterday!   and it was FUN!   well, sort of fun.   And since the teacher I sub for reads this, I’ll share the highlights only.    I got to ask these bright and lively kids about Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls (doesn’t he make baseball gloves? – who am I thinking of?)   I’ve not read this book, but it was fun to discuss with the students – especially what a cliffhanger is (chapter 4).     And the other English class I got to participate in was  one chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird. I know most of these students from last year – and though they claim not to remember me (ha!),  I really like them all; they’re fun.

OH MY!   What a discussion we had!    Their first question for me was how many questions they ‘had to’do’ after we listened to Sissy Spacek read the text, and I answered them, “Seventeen’.   Oh.  the groans and moans.    “SEVENTEEN!?!??!?!”    You’d have thought I was going to make them eat the dirt off of D___’s shoes.      We really only had five questions to answer (in complete sentences, of course) and I was truly sad to not have more.   I wanted to keep talking, sharing, discussing, and stimulating their young inquisitive minds…  (oh, how they enjoy laughing  at with me)    Alas.       [I suppose I should share that I sub in the Special Education Department?   I'm probably violating some no-sharing rule anyway so - eek!    But this is ok, right?]

SO.   In my mailbox was:    Where the Red Fern Grows by….    — wait for it!  — Wilson Rawls!!!    coincidence?    not really.   anyway.   I also received Green Grass Running Water by Thomas King.   Both bookmooched.      Both because they are classics, (right?)    The King book came recommended by somebody at book club and it might be that teacher I subbed for yesterday!

Next, I will be posting an unusual non-review-just-thoughts about my reading experience with Lolita.    Closed that book last night.     I think that I can quickly say that I was impressed and not impressed and liked it and really didn’t like it.     AND, that I am amazed how many people don’t have any thoughts or recognition come to mind when you say “I’m reading Lolita.”     I actually had to explain to my husband what it was about.    I just figure everyone knows – oops.    And yesterday, somebody at the HS didn’t know anything about Lolita either, and she is a reader.   [She is reading the new Dan Brown.]

FINALLY!!    What  you’ve all been waiting for – if I didn’t lose you by now, is I need help.     Here are the first two sentences of the two books I have chosen to possibly read next.   Both stories are contained in one bound tradeback book by extremely local-to-me author Joyce Keller Walsh.  This is for the Literary Road Trip Challenge.   And both stories are part of The Pittsley Country Chronicles.   I think Juckets comes first.    Bog Men is the 3rd book.

UPDATED!!   I’ve changed my mind – since these books are related, like in a (gasp!) series, I had better read the first one!  Silly me, I was going to ask you to help me decide which to read first.   Nevermind, I will start Juckets today.

Juckets:    WINTER     Saturday, January 12th

“Heart’s no good.  Can’t use it.”

Swamp Yankees:    SPRING    Monday, May 31st (Memorial Day)

“I hate you,” she whispered hoarsely over the bronze gravemarker that lay like a fallen soldier amidst the taller granite headstones.

Yep, too long:   645 words!

Weekly Geeks 2009-38

It’s Weekly Geeks Time!   The theme this week is to consider how your blog appears to a first time visitor.   Please visit the official website to get the full scoop by clicking on this sentence.

Hi  New-Person-To-My-Blog.   Welcome.

How are ya?

My name is Care and it’s a nickname; short for my real name.   I like to use ‘CARE’ because when I write letters, I love to sign them

The four letter name is shorter and thus QUICKER to write.   To be honest, few people verbally call me this, but I don’t mind when they do.

I like to read books.

I used to have a [just-'life'] blog – wait!  I still do!  I just don’t yap there very often anymore…    I just got to be a bit obsessed with books and …

Sometimes, though, you might wonder that I only like to post about books, blog about books, waste time on the interwebs twitting about books, talk excessively about books (especially to people I just meet, like at parties and such), etc – - but actually spend little time READING books!    At least it feels like that some days.

To read about the Who and What of “Care’s Online Book Club”, just click on that tab above that says WHO? WHAT?

And if you want to see what kind of books I’ve read, just click on the tab above that says BOOKS I’VE READ.     <=== or click on that. I list them by date – last read is listed first.    Also, if you visit that tab, you can find out about my love for PIE and how I rate the books I read.

I think I read a variety of genres.  I know I’ve read a ton of different stuff now that I’m blogging and getting recommendations of books I doubt I would have ever heard of before.

I don’t do ARCs.    Which stands for Advanced Reader Copy, by the way.    These are books that publishers often send to bloggers for pumping up enthusiasm before the book hits the stands (available for purchase.)    I don’t have enough confidence to write reviews when somebody is eagerly anticipating it – too much pressure.   I don’t think critically and hate to do negatives.

Which is why I don’t do book tours, too.    I don’t like the over saturation feel of seeing them everywhere and trying to think of something new and different to say.       I rarely talk to authors.  I enjoy reading all those interviews but I shy away from interviews.

Which, I suppose is odd.   I do like to talk to people and wouldn’t call myself shy.   oh well.

If you want to add me to your Google Reader and visit me often, that would be nice!     I have no idea how to add an RSS feed button.   I have never ever gotten the concept nor has it worked out for me when I’ve clicked on anyone elses.   I do the copy/paste method to add to my Reader.    But if you all think I should do so, I’ll go figure it out.    I also don’t understand the meta tag thing and suppose I should go try and read that explanation again but that lazy apathy is getting in the way.

I really don’t care about stats.    I only care when I get crickets.    Sure, I get a little sad and worried that I’m not clever enough or exciting enough – especially when I visit a blog and they don’t come back here to say hello.   Then I get over myself and keep on keeping on. and then my favorite people always seem to stop by and I keep finding new people to add to my favorites and if I get any more I’ll explode!   so, really, no biggie to me if I don’t see more visitors here.    No offense!     I didn’t respond to that BBAW* goals meme because I have no goals except to continue.      I have no ambitions to change it up, improve – impress, go get all self-hosted and whatnot  – I don’t want any technical headaches at all:  NOT INTERESTED.   I am happy to be on the fringes of the book blogging party and be a wall-flower over here, spiking the punch.   No desire to be on stage.

So, if you are here and want to say hello, join in!    I’d love to meet you!   But I don’t see you as a number.    I see you as a person.    Welcome.   Tell me your favorite book!    Have you read The Help yet?     What about The Book Thief?   Not your kind of book?   What’s your favorite genre?!

*BBAW is Book Blogger Appreciation Week, by the way.   It was a few weeks ago.   Amy did a fabulous job.     She’s in my BLOGROLL to the left as Amy – My Friend Amy in the ‘Other’ section.    Yea, I agree – I have a ton of blogs ‘rolled’, don’t I?   and the why I group them like that is determined by how I have to be signed in to leave a comment.      OK, here’s a goal:    improve my blogroll.   A few of them have gone self-hosted and the links are likely invalid.    Another good goal might be to list books I’ve read by __   ….   nah, too much work.     You can always search a book title – the search box is in the upper right corner under the header banner.

And I love dogs;   this is Oscar on the dock looking east at Greenwich Bay Rhode Island.   I was reading Lolita by Nabokov.

The Help

Thoughts   The Help by Kathryn Stockett, Amy Einhorn Books/GP Putnam Sons/Penguin Group 2009, 451 pages

Five Pies

[The following was written immediately upon reading the last page and shutting the book...   It was last week and I only had my journal with me.]

I just finished The Help and, of course, I’m trying to keep the tears that are  welled up in my eyes from spilling down my cheeks and bringing mascara with them.     I glance out of the hotel window overlooking Grant Park and Lake Michigan and I blink and think

“hey -the sun is shining!”

It had been gloomy dreary cloudy grey all day.    I start to cry all over again.   My eyes are brimming too full; I’m choking up, snorting with snot-filled gasps and reaching for multiple tissues.

Because, isn’t that the point?    That we emerge from the darkness of hatred and racial misunderstandings to reach with hope towards clarity and bright sunshine?    To seek beyond the clouds for sunny skies?   As Ms Stockett says in the Afterword,

“… trying to understand is vital to our humanity.”

SO…   that’s what that sun-filled view spoke to me as I sat contemplating what I had just read in this book.   and now I’ve done lost all my poetics.

Quotes I jotted down:

p.29   “My face goes hot, my tongue twitchy.   I don’t know what to say to her.  All I know is, I ain’t saying it.  And I know she ain’t saying what she want a say either and it’s a strange thing happening here cause nobody saying nothing and we still managing to have us a conversation.”

p. 278  “I no longer feel protected just because I’m white.  I checkover my shoulders often when I drive the truck to Aibileen’s.  The cop who stopped me a few months back is my reminder:   I am now a threat to every white family in town.  Even though so many of the stories are good, celebrating the bonds of women and family, the bad stories will be the ones that catch the white people’s attention.   They will make their blood boil and their fists swing.  We must keep this a perfect secret.”

p.418  “Wasn’t that the point?   For women to realize, We are just two people.  Not that much separates us.  Not nearly as much as I’d thought.

π

You may recall that I have a pie theme going on here at Care’s Online Book Club.   I had even started including in my reviews any mention of pies that I encounter in the books I read.   Well…    If you have read The Help, you know that there is a doozy of a pie in this one!    That’s all I’ll say.

For some excellent REVIEWS of this book, please visit Belle of the Books and Fizzy Thoughts.   [THANKS Jill for sending me this book!   I gave it to my friend in Chicago and she is going to pass it along to her mother in Arizona.]

Wondrous Word
p.263 peau de soie – a smooth, finely ribbed satin fabric of silk or rayon.

The Father of All Things

Mini-Review   The Father of All Things by Tom Bissell, AUDIO – Pantheon 2007, 407 pages?

A Marine, His Son and the Legacy of Viet Nam

MOTIVATION for READING:   I failed to read this in time to participate in the latest book menage at Citizen Reader’s blog and was so impressed by the discussion that I rushed out to find it.   What I found at the library was the audio version – I don’t think I had ever “listened to a book” before.   Thoughts on that near the end of this post.     Also qualifies for the World Citizen Challenge.

WHAT it’s ABOUT:   A father is invited by his adult son to visit Viet Nam approximately 30 years after fighting there as a marine.     This book is family memoir, history and politics lesson as well as travelogue on today’s Viet Nam.

WHAT’s GOOD:   I learned a LOT;   a WHOLE bunch about the Viet Nam War.

WHAT’s NOT so GOOD:    This is MY fault, not the book’s: I did not enjoy the negatives of having to listen rather than read.   And, it’s been too long for me to remember what else I was annoyed with.

I must note that this was listened to while driving.    Thus, lack of focus?  concentration?    Attempting to not go off the road?!   It took me MANY weeks and lots of time gaps since I don’t drive far or often and would not listen when others were with me – which was a lot because my niece visited and my parents visited during a three week stretch.

I wanted to jot down words to look up later!   I wanted to re-read/re-listen and was annoyed with jumping too far back to replay and then missing what it was I wanted to hear again!

FINAL THOUGHTS:    I will not be enjoying any audio books in the near future.    Maybe I would for a cross country drive when I knew I could listen for hours.   Perhaps a different genre, not nonfiction and not something so foreign to me.    I know I’m not speaking to this book much…

If you like history and want to know more about the Viet Nam War while exploring the relationship of a Marine and his now adult son (plenty of the kid’s growing up time, too) and if you are curious about traveling to Viet Nam, this might be a fascinating read/listen!

Also, I never did figure out – or I missed – why the title?

THREE PIE SLICES

I must say that I am now more open to the idea of visiting this country some day than I had been and I do think I should give Mr. Bissell another try;  but next time in paper and ink.