Sunday Salon, April 27

Flowering tree discovered on walk around Green Lake.

Weather: Rain. Sun. Rain. Sun. Wind. Rain. Sun. Rain. (You get the picture.)

Musical Selection: from Sunday Baroque program on public radio (check it out in your area.) Cue the music and listen while reading the blog post.


Last week: I didn't post a Sunday Salon last week because of Easter. We had thirteen people here for dinner after an inspiring church service. It was a lovely day and I enjoyed the socializing so much. Instead of typical Easter fare we served PNW surf and turf which was salmon and flank steak. Others brought asparagus, potatoes, rolls, and a fruit tart for dessert. In keeping with out new root beer obsession we held a blind taste test with three brands. Bulldog Root Beer won.

Seattle University Choirs concert: today is my daughter's last concert with the Seattle University choir as she is a senior. Where has the time gone? We went to the program on Friday with my parents and enjoyed it immensely. Every song had something to do with animals. Today we will go to the Sunday program with Don's dad and his wife. It will be a very bittersweet experience, I am sure. Will she find a way to incorporate music into her life as she moves on to the next phase?

Silly poetry: Several of the songs the choirs performed were from silly poems by Ogden Nash. Here is one I found especially delightful:

The Panther 

by Ogden Nash

The panther is like a leopard,

Except it hasn't been peppered.

Should you behold a panther crouch,

Prepare to say "Ouch."

Better yet, if called by a panther,

Don't anther.

Books read the past two weeks:

• Cress by Marissa Meyer- book three in The Lunar Chronicles. LOVE it! Review here.
• The Shadow of the Wind by Luis Ruiz Zafon- a book within a book. Please read my review here.
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen-Finished the read-along a week early. I was pleased with the book and find Austen less intimidating if taken in small bite-sized pieces. My last post here.
• A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver- a small poetry book for National Poetry month.

Books currently reading:

• Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter- a book about things that are falling apart. This is my audiobook selection.
• 100 Poems to Lift Your Spirits- I am trying to finish this book before the end of the month but am currently stuck in the silly poem section. Must be a theme.

A Card in Every Hand: Our public library has issued a library card to every student who doesn't have one already. This week I deliver them to English classes with a small presentation about on-line resources available to library patrons. It was a bit of a task getting the cards sorted by teacher and class but all that is done now. So far the reception has been very positive.  Isn't it a cool thing they've done?

Wild: my two book clubs discussed the same book this month Wild by Cheryl Strayed. It it the All-Pierce County Reads book of the year. Cheryl walked a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail alone in 1995. She was supremely unprepared for her walk and gained many insights into her life during the very difficult journey. It was lots of fun to discuss the book with others.  If you are looking for a good book club selection I'd recommend it.

Scripture for today: Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Prayers for: the family of Kim. Kim died this week after a bout with lung cancer. She was our daughters' piano teacher and a wonderful person. She will be greatly missed.

From www.ShortPoems.org

Snapshot Saturday...April 26th

Yesterday, while we waited for the Seattle University Choir concert at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Seattle to begin, I ran around taking pictures of the stained glass windows with the sun pouring in. They were so lovely. The concert was excellent, too!

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

Friday posts: SECRET SON

Book: Secret Son by Laila Lalami

Book Beginnings:

"The rain came unexpectedly, after nearly three years of drought. In those days, Youssef still lived with his mother in a whitewashed house that huddled with other others like it along a narrow dirt road. The house had one room with no windows, and a roof made of corrugated tin held down by rocks."

Friday 56:

"His mother was sitting cross-legged on the floor, piling couscous into a mound on a large plate..."

My thoughts: This is a book I have to read for book club. Reviews on it are mixed, some love and others hate it. From the first quote to the one I found on page 56,  it sure doesn't seem to be an action-filled tale.  I certainly get it that the boy and his mother are poor, very poor. They live in Casablanca. I've never read a book set in Morocco. For that reason I will try to maintain an open mind as I start the book this week-end.

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Participants don't select their favorite, coolest or most intellectual books, they just use the one they are currently reading. I'm reading:

Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

I just completed the third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cress by Marissa Meyer. What I'd rather be doing right now than writing this blog post is reading Winter, the fourth book in this fantasy series based on fairy tales, but unfortunately for me Winter hasn't even been published yet. Let's talk about Cress!

I read Cinder, the first book in the Lunar Chronicles, a few months after it was published for two reasons. 1. Marissa lives (lived) in the same area as my school and one of her neighbors, a boy who has I wouldn't identify as a reader, came to the library to talk to me about the book and asked me to buy it. 2. My daughter, who loves any story related to fairy tales, read it and couldn't stop talking about it. As I started the book I was pretty critical of the writing but the plot caught my attention and the ending has this huge cliff hanger, so, of course, I had to read the sequel, Scarlet to find out how things turned out.

I don't always make a point of reading all books in a series, especially if all the books aren't published by the time I start it. Enough time passed between reading Cinder, roughly based on Cinderella, and the publication of Scarlet, that I had to take a refresher course to remember all the characters and the plot-line of the first book before I could enjoy the second. With Scarlet, based on Red Riding Hood, there were more characters to keep track of and yet I enjoyed the writing more and felt myself becoming ensnared in all the plot twists and turns.

My experience with books in a series is often the first book is the best. That is not the case with The Lunar Chronicles. In my estimation Cinder was good, Scarlet was great, and Cress was fantastic. The writing has improved with each book right along with the character development and the exciting plot. With this upward trend, Winter should knock my socks off.

Cress, our title character, is patterned after Rapunzel who is imprisoned in an escape-proof space. She even has super long hair. She is rescued by Thorne, a handsome but unlikely hero. They meet up with Cinder and get tangled up with her plot to stop the wedding between Emperor Kai and Queen Levana. If I counted correctly, there are eight (maybe nine) different narrators with point-of-view chapters. Each character has a unique voice and adds to the unfolding story.

As I said in my opening paragraph, when I closed the book on the last page of Cress I was ready immediately to open up the next book and start reading. In lieu of being able to do that I contemplated rereading Cress from the beginning. I talked to a friend who also read Cress this week-end and she felt the same way. She cried, "A year. We are going to have to wait a year for Winter. How can we wait that long?"

I'm not sure. But wait I must and wait I will because I have fallen in love with a series and I HAVE to know how it all works out in the end.

Disclaimer: I listened to the audiobook version of Cress with Rebecca Soler reading. Soler's pacing and voice inflections were spot on and I enjoyed the experience immensely. I checked the audio CD set out from my public library.

TTT: Top Ten Characters that really irritate me

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is to pick characters who really X. I decided to create a list of really irritating characters. Check out the characters I think are really irritating. Do you agree with me? Can you think of others? Please leave a comment below!

1. Bella from Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer...I could barely stomach the first book because Bella was so whiney. I didn't read on in the series, no matter how much everyone loved it, for that very reason.

2. Andi Alpers in Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. Andi has a lot to be sad about. She also has a lot to be mad about but it just irritates the heck out of me how she takes drugs, swears, and mopes around. Andi is the main character in the story set in both modern France and during the French Revolution, despite this fact I did like the book.

3. Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Ashley should have told Scarlett that he didn't love her, that he loved Melanie. What a whimp.

4. Lydia Bennet in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Everything about this character is irritating. Almost as bad are Mary Bennet and their mother, Mrs. Bennet.

5. Professor Umbridge in Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Perhaps "irritating" is to mild of a term for Umbridge. There is something despicable about adults who take out their frustrations on children. Ugh.

6. Eustace Scrubb in the Chronicles of Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. At least in the beginning of the book Eustace is like the kid next door that all the kids in the neighborhood try to avoid because he is such a know-it-all. One of the best opening lines in all of literature is about this boy:

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”

7. Abigail and the other hysterical girls in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Mob mentality. Ugh.

8. Olive Kitteridge in the book by the same name by Elizabeth Strout. This begs the question, can you like a book if you don't like the main character? Oh boy, is Olive irritating but I liked the book a lot.

9. Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was so wishy-washy, a girl who did not really care about anyone but herself.

10. Amy Dunn in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Amy is a B***h, everything she does is calculating. She is simply AWFUL.

11. The Cat-in-the-Hat by Dr. Seuss. Even as a kid I found this cat irritating. I didn't want him to get the kids in trouble with their mom. Ha!

Mansfield Park Read-along, the last

Edmond finally realizes that he loves Fanny.

The end. I have completed Mansfield Park and now I can say that I have read all of Jane Austen's books. Sigh! I couldn't stop myself at 50 pages this week.

Action: Fanny is at her parent's home in Portsmouth. She sees flaws in both her parents that she didn't realize existed. She is especially disappointed with her mother who is a poor manager of the household. Her only ally is her sister Susan since her older brothers have left for the Navy. She is very homesick for Mansfield Park and recognizes that she now thinks of it as home, not here with her family. Henry shows up for a visit and stays a few days.  He is charming and not too pushy. His motives and actions actually seem to have improved and Fanny softens a bit toward him. When he leaves, he promises that he is a changed person and will wait for her to come around. He is in love and will prove himself. But not long after he leaves, Fanny receives a letter from Mary asking her to ignore all the gossip about Henry and Mariah Rushworth. Then a newspaper article hits Portsmouth that details the affair: Henry and Mariah have run off together, breaking up Mariah's marriage. Not long after letters from Mansfield Park and from London fill her in on the details. These letters include alarming information about Tom's poor health. Poor Fanny is stuck in Portsmouth and cannot help anyone. Eventually Edmond comes to get Fanny. He tells her that he has broken things off with Mary because he realized he had been blinded to her real personality by her charms and looks. Finally, in the course of time, Edmond realizes that he loves Fanny. They wed and live....in the parsonage (you thought I was going to say, "happily ever after.")

Surprises: After Henry leaves Portsmouth, the majority of the action is captured in letters to/from Fanny. Even though she is the heroine of this story, she is on the sidelines for most of the action. In some ways it felt like Austen was trying to finish up the story and just wanted to speed things along. Austen also inserts herself as the author into the narration. For example, when Austen refers to the time period that passes before Edmond realizes that he loves Fanny, she says, "I purposely abstain from dates on this occasion..." It is an interesting literary device that I've noticed Austen uses in several of her books, it gives the feeling of hurrying the plot along. Just when we, the modern reader, think we are getting to the good stuff about Edmond and Fanny's love we are almost dismissed by statements like this:

I only entreat everybody to believe that exactly at the time when it was quite natural that it should be so, and not a week earlier, Edmond did cease to care about Mary Crawford, and became as anxious to marry Fanny as Fanny herself could desire.

Sigh. I wanted a few more lovey-dovey details than that! I knew to expect this rather abrupt ending to Mansfield Park because I had read the ending before I finished the book. Overall, however, the reading experience was very satisfying. It was very Austenesque. For the past few weeks I've been able to live alongside Fanny Price, having been transported back to the Regency time period by one of the world's truly great authors, Jane Austen.

Read-along fun. I want to encourage you, my reader, to consider joining me for my next read-along. It is a fun way to read the classics in small, weekly, bite-sized pieces that make the task quite doable. If you want to join me and want to weigh in on my selection, leave me a note in the comment section or send me an e-mail. I am leaning toward Middlemarch by Eliot or something by Dickens. But I could probably be persuaded to read some other classic if you will join me. Let me know.

If you'd like to book back on my previous updates/installments, follow the links:

• Mansfield Park Read-along begins -- Introduction
• Mansfield Park -- First Installment (50 pages)
• Mansfield Park -Second Installment
• Mansfield Park -- Third Installment
• Mansfield Park -- Half-Way Point
• Mansfield Park -- Fifth Installment
• Mansfield Park Read-Along, the 6th
• Last installment and conclusion -- you are reading it here.

Snapshot Saturday, April 19

Poor Muffy. Our dog has a skin rash that has been difficult to treat. We've tried everything: antibiotics, change in diet, lots of baths. Nothing has worked. Here my daughters decided to lather her in a cream that was supposed to calm down her skin. The directions on the bottle said to put a t-shirt on the pet afterwards to avoid getting it all over the carpet. What you see is a not-very-happy (obviously) Muffy in a camisole. The indignity of it all!

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

TTT: Bookish Items I'd like to Own

Yesterday's TOP TEN TUESDAY topic: Bookish items I'd like to Own

Thought I'd make a list even though I am a day late.

TTT is hosted at Broke and Bookish

 1. My Ideal Bookshelf Custom Painting

The only problem with this wish is what seven books would I pick?

 Just about anything Jane Austen.

Here are a few bookish JA items that I think are especially cute:

2. Bennet Sisters Clothes Pin Dolls

To add to my doll collection

3. Captain Wentworth and Anne Clothes Pin Dolls

Since my first name is Anne, I have always been partial to Anne Elliot things.

4. Jane Austen Playing Cards

I bought these to use as a prize for the winner of Jane Austen week.

Now I want my own set. They contain quotes from four of her books.

5. Pemberley Collection Tea Cup and Saucer

I am very partial to blue and white china.

If it says it came from Pemberley (home of Mr. Darcy), I'm sure it did! Ha!

6. Pride and Prejudice Purse

All of the sudden I've decided that I MUST have this super impractical purse.

7. Bookish T-Shirts

This sentiment seemed to match my mood today since it is raining.

I'm from the Seattle-area. You know what that means about me and coffee.

Coffee, Book, and Rain. "Oh What a Perfect Day."

8. Bookish Charms and Necklaces

This is my favorite quote from The Fault in Our Stars

"We fell in love the way you fall asleep; slowly and then all at once."

9. Book Earrings

I actually have two pairs already but, hey, I'm a librarian, so it is not weird. Right?

These are The Hobbit book earrings.

10. Book Art
OK. I admit. This particular piece of art is pretty weird.
But you get the idea of where I am going with this.
I really do like things printed on dictionary pages, especially if they relate.

11. Clear page holder

OK. I confess that I have seen this on just about every other list and I stole your idea.

But honestly.
I need this.
When I eat my lunch and read it is hard to keep the page open.
Pop this puppy over an open book and, voila, I can read and munch at the same time.

 

Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

A review of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Where to start?

Let's see, first should I identify the genre? Not sure I can do that. If I had to pick one genre I'd say it was a gothic romance, but it was also a mystery, set in a historical time frame. It has ghosts, or at least rumors of ghosts. And in a strange way, it is a coming-of-age story.

We meet our protagonist, Daniel, when, as an eleven-year-old, his father took him to the cemetery of forgotten books. There he was instructed to select one book and to make it his. Daniel selects the book, The Shadow of the Wind by a relatively unknown author, Julian Carax. After reading his book, Daniel sets out to learn as much as he can about the author. What he learns frames the rest of his life. It changes the whole trajectory of the course his life takes. It places him in harms way, but also leads him to love's door.

The plot of The Shadow of the Wind is labyrinthine, containing spirals within spirals. For this reason, this should not be a book selection made by a casual reader. If a person is looking for an easy-to-read book that is straight-forward, this is not the book. But even as I say these words I am picturing the first student I will recommend this book to. Many high school readers are mature enough to enjoy complex novels, especially ones with spooky plots and complicated characters. In fact, it was a high school student that suggested that I purchase it for the library several years ago.

I was enthralled with this book right from the first line, "I still remember the day my father took me to the cemetery of forgotten books for the first time." I couldn't figure out the mysterious bits. I cheered for young love and wept for love lost. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that few reviewers writing for newspapers around the world liked it. Or, more accurately, these reviewers liked aspects but were very critical and had issues with parts of the book. Once again, I want to reiterate that this book is not for everyone. But I also think that book reviewers have to be a bit controversial to appeal to their readers. If you want to see what I mean, take a look at the review by Andrew Riemer from the Sydney Morning Herald. Then come back for a less complicated but more complimentary review, right here!

I listened to the audiobook of The Shadow of the Wind. Jonathan Davis narrated it beautifully. Perhaps I loved this book because of Davis and his marvelous reading skills. I don't speak Spanish so I appreciated his pronunciations and the way he handled names and locations that I would have botched on my own. For example, I didn't know that Barcelona is actually pronounced Barthelona, sounding almost like the speaker has a lisp. Interesting. One aspect of the audiobook that I adored was the music in the background. I understand that it was written by the author. Impressive.  If you pay attention at the very beginning of this audio clip on YouTube you will hear a little bit of the music. Unlike most audiobooks, listeners are treated to the music at various intervals throughout each disc, not just at the beginning and end of each.

 

I want to mention the fact that this book is translated into English from Spanish by Lucia Graves.
I didn't notice that it was a translation until the translator was mentioned in the credits.  What? That was a shock. Usually I am aware of language nuance issues with translations. Not with this book. Lucia Graves did an excellent job.  She obviously understands the subtleties of both languages equally.

Lastly I want to highlight a few quotes from the book. In a lot of ways this book is just a love story to literature. No wonder I loved it.

“Once, in my father's bookshop, I heard a regular customer say that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later—no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget—we will return.” 

“In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been somebody’s best friend.”

“Time goes faster the more hollow it is. Lives with no meaning go straight past you, like trains that don’t stop at your station.” 

“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside of you."~Julian Carax” 

“Destiny is usually just around the corner. Like a thief, a hooker, or a lottery vendor: its three most common personifications. But what destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it.”  

Exquisite, simply lovely.

Sunday Salon, April 13, 2014

Weather: Uncommonly lovely! Sunny and warmish! Great dog-walking weather.

Musical selection of the week: Josh Groban, Higher Window. Cue the music and listen while you read the this blog post.

Yesterday: We drove up to Seattle and took a walk around Green Lake. It is a lake in the middle of Seattle that has a park all the way around it. There were hundreds/thousands of people enjoying the beautiful weather. Every year, on a sunny day in spring, our local news station will send someone to Green Lake to film all the people exercising and just spending time outdoors. I've always wanted to go see what all the fuss was about. We called and invited our daughter, who lives in Seattle, piled the dog in car and drove. Parking was an issue, it always is in Seattle, but we found a spot and had a lovely afternoon. (See photo above and below.)

Perfect root beer: Our town has a store that only sells root beer. It has hundreds of brands of root beer (and root beer flavored stuff.) We have set out to find the perfect bottle of this delicious beverage. Rules: 1. we limit our intake to one or two shared bottles per week, recognizing that delicious isn't necessarily healthy. 2. we serve it cold without ice. 3. Each person grades it on a 1-10 scale, with 10 being best. After sampling eight different concoctions in as many weeks we have found a perfect ten: Bulldog Root Beer made by the Orca Beverage Soda Co. right here in Washington State. Look for it! Yum!

Books read this week:

• Maddie on Things by Theron Humphrey, a photo journey of Maddie, a coonhound, on things all over the USA. Very clever and fun. Check out the website.

Currently reading:

• Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I thought I'd be finished with this book by now because I have been obsessive about listening to its audiobook this all week. But alas I am only on disc 15 of 16. Look for the review sometime this week.
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Almost done. I've been reading this in bite-sized pieces in a read-along format.
• Cress by Marissa Meyer. Just started this book then got the audiobook from the library. Will commence reading in earnest after I am done with the Shadow of the Wind.

Holy Week: Today is Palm Sunday, a day on the church calendar that celebrates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This week represents the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. During this week Christ held his last supper with his disciples, was imprisoned, tortured, crucified, and finally, was resurrected on Easter. This week I am dedicating myself to prayer and fasting, each day with a different focus:

• April 14th (Monday)- The children and youth of our church and community
• April 15th (Tuesday)- The leaders of our community, state, country, world
• April 16th (Wednesday)- Unity among those who disagree (in families, schools, churches, community, and workplace.)
• April 17th (Maundy Thursday)- For those people I love
• April 18th (Good Friday)- For those people who find themselves in a dark place
• April 19th (Holy Saturday)- For family and friends who are grieving a recent loss of a loved one.

Have a blessed week!