In the next day or two, I hereby solemnly promise to blog about the following:
- My new house (I took photos, but some turned out blurry. I'll see if I can take some more this evening).
- The second half of my trip to Chicago.
- My "angry dreams."
But first...
It's been a while since I posted some book reviews. But I'm feeling really lazy as the list gets longer and longer, so here is a quick synopsis of what I've been feeding my brain:
Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet was the fascinating story of an autistic savant who clearly maps out what its like to live with his condition. My Rating: 8 out of 10 for being really interesting. The man can recite 22,512 digits of pi for goodness sake! I can't get past 3.14...
Bertie Wooster Sees It Through by PG Wodehouse is another fun romp by the incomparable Wooster and Jeeves, this time at Aunt Dahlia's house. When Wooster and Dahlia get together, it's pure hilarious magic! My Rating: 8 out of 10 for being such a good diversion from life. I want to live in a Wodehouse novel!
I listened to the audio version of this book -- the Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff -- and really wish I'd read it instead. It's the story of a girl who comes home looking for answers, and it is interwoven the stories of her ancestors. The main character, Willie, came off as whiny and immature. Grow up! But I did enjoy the stories of her family. My Rating: 6 out of 10, but that might be higher were I to read the paper version.
Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë -- the lesser-known Brontë -- was the story of a young woman who becomes a governess to help out her family, which is in financial dire straits. My Rating: 7 out of 10 for making me wish Anne was more prolific -- her writing was lovely. As a side note, the book could be renamed The Nanny Diaries: Kids Were Brats in 1847 Too.
Jasper Fforde's fifth book in his Thursday Next series is First Among Sequels. It's been several years since I finished the fourth book, so it took me a while to get back into his crazy literary world. My Rating: 6 out of 10 for being a little flat and harder to follow than the first four books.
I read Joan Didion's the Year of Magical Thinking for my June book club. I felt the retelling of her husband's death and her daughter's illness was very clinical and not emotional enough. But I can understand that's how she experienced it all. My Rating: 5 out of 10 because I was annoyed that she sort of named dropped. In random news, my old apartment was a block away from her childhood mansion (which was for sale for 1.2 million dollars, if you're interested).
In Notes from a Small Island Bill Bryson travels around England, Scotland, and Wales, complaining about the weather, hating modern architecture, but altogether loving Britain. My Rating: 7 out of 10 for being pretty funny, but somewhat competitive and a wee bit whiny.
The Gathering by Anne Enright was De. Press. Ing. It was my July book club book, and it was only for the book club that I finished the thing. It featured light-hearted subjects such as suicide, child molestation, alcoholism, child neglect, sexual repression, near-infanticide, attempted murder, affairs, deranged anger, and running away from your problems. Woo! My Rating: 5 out of 10 for being way too dark for my taste, although Enright's writing was very good. But it doesn't matter how good the writing is if I want to gnaw my own arm off while reading it.
I have this sign on my cube wall at work.
Once there was a tree... and she loved a little boy.
People often use the word 'classic' to describe something that they feel embodies a certain time of place. A film is destined to be a classic if you know it will evoke nostalgia in you ten, twenty, thirty years from now.
I can understand why people think that way, but that's not a classic as I see it. A classic is something that can speak to anyone, at any time. I did not have to be alive during the civil rights movement in the US, nor even know much about it, to be thoroughly moved by To Kill A Mockingbird. It's a classic because childhood, injustice and family dynamics exist for all of us. What makes it special is that those universal themes are explored in a unique and beautifully written way.
This is what makes The Giving Tree so powerful. A straightforward tale of love and selflessness, with deceptively simple illustrations, it doesn't touch on any new or unique ideas. It does, however, visit them in a distinctly different way. The necessary narrative spareness of a children's picture book strips the meaning down to the bare facts, moving without mawkish sentimentality, and speaking to children with honesty and intelligence, as they deserve.
It was first published in 1964. In 2004, a teacher training tutor reminded my class how much power to teach it still had. Long may they recommended this.
DH threatened to take the camera to work today. I promised him I wouldn't touch it until I was done shopping and packing. I should pack it (camera) first, but I won't. I might get done early enough to sit on the front porch and shoot for a while. I've got the menus and the list done, it is all a matter of just packing everything up and buying what I need today. We have the group dinner Saturday night, burgers and brats and corn, but I want to go to Waukesha to get some potato salad for Saturday night, V Richards has the best. The rest of the stuff I can get at Wally World. The only problem is they are 2 different directions! I don't really need much, but the dang potato salad is so far away.
I've got my first haircut and 3rd color (lol) on Monday! I might cancel the color, I'm pretty happy with the stuff I've been using. It seems like forever since I've been to a salon. Last time was October 2007! It has grown down over my ears now! It is still coming in perfectly even and super curly, but now I'm starting to look shaggy. I believe I'm going to keep it short. I was looking at some garden photographs from last year and ran into a picture of me from May, I was shocked to see that I've aged 10 years in the last year.
I just hope I can find my smile soon. Have a great weekend y'all.
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So, I caught the news about how 90s dance diva/pop singer, Cathy Dennis, is still making a living in the music business - not as a performer, but as a music writer. She's responsible for huge hits for Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, S Club Juniors, and Janet Jackson, just to name a few. I'm happy to see her doing so well!
Anyway, this news caused me to flashback of my high school youth. I had seen her beautiful 60s haircut and neon green album cover and fell in love with her. I got her debut album, Move to This through my primary way of purchasing semi-cheap CDs: BMG Music Club (which I'm still currently a member).
I think at the time, she had "Just Another Dream" as a hit single, a dancey number with that catchy line "is it for real or is it just another dream (just a dream)", followed by "Touch Me (All Night Long)" which shows off her dancing skills on MTV.
Once I had the album, I was drawn to her sweet lullaby love song, "Too Many Walls". This song, complete with the violin parts, did really well on the Billboard charts.... and I believe it was the last time we heard from her in the States.
I don't know what happened really, she disappeared as quickly as she appeared on pop radio.
Looking at her discography, I can tell you that she did release two other albums, and a greatest hits, but as far as I know, they were only a blimp on the radar in the US. I'm sure she fared far better in her home country.
As luck would have it, Discopop reported a brand new Cathy Dennis album called Sexcassettes should be out in 2008:
Her manager, Spice Girls svengali Simon Fuller, adds that the album has “a real contemporary guitar feeling” - which is less encouraging.
I don't know about 'less encouraging', but it should be interesting to hear her new original songs.
Dennis, from the recent Yahoo article, adds more details:
Actually, yes. I've been working for the last year-and-a-half with a band I put together called Sexcassettes. We're shooting a video for the first single, "Killer Love," this month, and I hope to have it out by the end of the year. It's more of a band sound than produced pop. As usual, I have no idea what to expect.
- 14:07 @MsRedPen That's the next book on my list! It's for book club. #
- 14:07 @sassenach I hope everything turned out OK on your street. #
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What's this all about? Learn more about Slumber Parties on their website, or feel free to contact Kristi directly. Tell her enSue (Susan) sent you!
