Month: July 2013

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Peanut’s Picks: GOODNIGHT MOON

Peanuts Picks Lets Read

Adults!  Here I am!  LISTEN TO ME!  Sorry I’ve been away lately.  My mom has had a lot going on, what with all of her problems at the library and posting about audiobooks and other stuff that nobody cares about.  I kept asking her, “Mommy, when do I get to write another post?” and she’d say “Soon, sweetheart” and then jam another spoonful of watery zucchini in my mouth.  I mean, really.

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

So, as you can see, I’m being oppressed over here.  And not just by being made to eat soft vegetables.  My mom has gotten really smug about bedtime.  Did you see what she said in my ten month update?  She called bedtime a “sweet and cuddly time” and she told you all about how we read stories and say prayers and then I go to bed like a little angel.  Well… truth is, I have been going to bed like a little angel.  So first I’d just like to apologize to all of the babies out there, because I haven’t been keeping the faith.  My bad.

Anyway, to make it up to you, today, I’d like to share a very inspiring book about a bunny who does keep the faith.  It’s called Goodnight Moon, and it’s about a little bunny who convinces his grandma that he can’t go to sleep until he says goodnight to EVERYTHING IN HIS ROOM.  Seriously.  How inspiring is that?  (Okay, it’s not as inspiring as it would be if he’d pulled this over on Mommy or Daddy.  Everyone knows Grandma is an easier sell.  But you gotta start somewhere.)

So, the story goes like this: it’s bunny’s bedtime and he sits in his bed but he doesn’t go to sleep.  Nope, instead first he takes inventory of all of his toys.  This is a really important step, because if you don’t check to see that all of your toys are in the right place, how can you make the goodnights go on all night long?  Amirite?  Okay.  Then the bunny says goodnight to everything.  And I mean everything.  His room, the moon, the cow jumping over the moon (it’s just a picture, I know, I was disappointed too), his light (lights are great!), a balloon… I could go on, but I really want you to take this and make it your own.

This is my plan: all the babies, okay, all of us are going to take back Goodnight Moon.  Okay, babies?  Stop crying when you see the book come out because it only comes out at bedtime.  USE IT.  Ready?  Let’s practice together

Goodnight room.  Goodnight curtains.  Goodnight tulips.  Goodnight library cart.  Goodnight changing pad.  Goodnight stuffed lobster from Uncle Dan.  Goodnight rocker.  Goodnight quilt.  Goodnight pink baskets.  Goodnight little girl reading to bunnies.

I can do this all night, Mommy.

Goodnight fancy wipe container.  Goodnight linking rings.  Goodnight BabyLit board books.  Goodnight knockoff Robeez from Target.  Goodnight

sleepybaby

Lesson for parents: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

If you’re not too tired, buy Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown here, or take your babies out to your local indie bookstore!  And then to a Gymboree class because that’s what cool moms do.

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Mo’ Books, Mo’ Problems: Update 5

Mo Books 2

Alright kids, I know I said this would be my last of these updates, and that I was going to finish She-Wolves this week.  The best-laid plans… It’s been another bear of a week, friends.  I’m still completely swamped and utterly overwhelmed, and I’ve barely even been able to read this week, unless you count legal documents.  I even worked yesterday – a bummer, since the Fourth of July is normally one of my very favorite holidays, but there were things I absolutely needed to get done, and so I powered through.  I’ve tried to at least get through a few pages of “fun reading” each day, but She-Wolves is dense non-fiction and, well, I just haven’t been able to blaze through it like I normally would.  (It’s really good, though.)  Here’s what I’ve done:

  • Returned Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity to the library.  I’m just not up for it right now.  I need comfort reading. I’ll try to check it out again at some point in the future, but now’s not the time.  And then there were two.
  • Made it about halfway through She-Wolves.  I’ve been completely fascinated by the tales of these extraordinary women: first the Empress Matilda, then Eleanor of Acquitaine, and now Isabella of France.  Reading their stories has informed some of my fiction reading, too: Matilda features (as “Maud”) in the background of Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth; Eleanor of Acquitaine features in Sharon Kay Penman’s novels, such as When Christ and His Saints Slept, which I’ve been itching to read; and Isabella of France is a prominent character in The Iron King, which I just read this spring.  So I’m taking my time over this and enjoying it, but I’m not done.

Next week, finally, I think I’m going to get a reprieve.  Since my plans for taking off Friday and having a nice, relaxing four-day weekend went out the window, I might even try to take a “mental health day” or two to relax, hang with Peanut, and catch up on my reading.  This is something I’ve been trying to do since mid-May, so I desperately need to unwind.  I expect that next week will see me finishing up this library stack, so I promise this time: one more update and then I’ll refrain from embarrassing myself any further with library shenanigans… at least for awhile.

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Beachy Beach Reads

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Cornwall, UK, October 2011

It’s summer – hurrah!  I know that technically, summer started a few weeks ago.  But I always measured summer as beginning around the Fourth of July.  When I was a kid, I lived in upstate New York, and early July was when things really started to heat up.  That was when it was warm enough to swim in the lake and sit out for hours after dark.  In northern Virginia, it’s been hot for awhile (but not as hot as I hear it is out west – stay safe, everyone).  So to celebrate the beginning (for some) and continuation (for others) of summer, I thought it would be fun to pull together a list of good beach reads.  But I don’t just mean “beach reads” as “fluffy books to read on the beach.”  I picked out books for you that not only would be great to read on the beach, but that feature beaches or the ocean as an important part of the plot.  Enjoy…

Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter – There’s no beach in Porto Vergogna, but Pasquale Tursi is determined to change that fact.  Pasquo wants to make Porto Vergogna a genuine travel destination for Americans, like its neighboring Cinque Terre villages.  And it’s in building a beach that Pasquo is engaged when a boat pulls into Porto Vergogna’s rocky harbor bearing an American actress whose arrival will change Pasquo’s life forever.  You’ll feel the hot Italian sun baking down on you as you read about Pasquale and Dee and all the broken, but beautiful, people they encounter.  (Fully reviewed here.)

Seating Arrangements, by Maggie Shipstead – The beach here is a classic New England beach.  Winn Van Meter and family have returned to their summer cottage to prepare for the marriage of Winn’s daughter, Daphne.  Winn is preoccupied by his ongoing inability to get into an exclusive golf club, and he finds his eye wandering toward Agatha, one of the bridesmaids.  Meanwhile, Winn’s other daughter recovers from heartbreak near her beloved ocean.

The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller – This is a moving re-imagining of The Iliad, focusing on Patroclus and his relationship with Achilles.  Much of the action takes place on the great Trojan Beach as the reader witnesses the Greek forces massing on the sands and regrouping after each bloody day for ten years.  (Fully reviewed here.)

Skios, by Michael Frayn – Nikki Hook is the cool, efficient brains behind the operation of a cultural organization resident on a picturesque Greek island.  While coolly, efficiently managing the organization’s annual conference, Nikki is pleasantly surprised to discover that the keynote speaker is not the paunchy windbag she was expecting, but instead a rakish charmer.  Meanwhile, elsewhere on the island, Nikki’s friend Georgie squats in a villa preparing for an affair with a rakish charmer.  Imagine her confusion when, instead, a paunchy windbag shows up.  A simple case of mistaken identity leads to wacky hijinks under the hot Greek sun.

We, the Drowned, by Carston Jensen – The newest addition to the pantheon of seafaring literature, We, the Drowned follows the residents of the seaside town of Marstal from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of World War II.  There’s a touch of magical realism, a bit of war, and pages upon pages of adventure on the high seas.  (Fully reviewed here.)

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, by Ben H. Winters – Reader beware: much like Jaws, after you read this, you might find it hard to go back into the water.  Ben Winters takes Jane Austen’s classic Sense and Sensibility and recasts the Dashwoods and their acquaintances as island-dwellers terrorized by monsters from the deep.  It’s good fun, if a bit gory.  And very, very irreverent.

The Outermost House: A Year on the Great Beach of Cape Cod, by Henry Beston – Beston’s memoir is more like poetry than prose, containing such gems as the phrase “I walked in a shower of stars” to describe an evening stroll on the beach.  I read this one years ago, and I lingered for a long time over the gorgeous writing.  It would be best read alone on a craggy New England beach.

On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan – I love, love, love Ian McEwan’s work, and this tale of an awkward couple trying to honeymoon was a quick, but sad read.  You’ll feel the chill of the British seaside… and repression.  Brrrrrr.

N or M?, by Agatha Christie – Christie grew up in Devon, and several of her mysteries take place by the seashore.  This one is, maybe, my favorite.  The intrepid married detectives, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, have been sent to the English seaside to try to unmask a Nazi spy.  Well, Tommy is sent there, and Tuppence follows.  They take up residence in a boarding house and settle in to observe the comings and goings of their extremely suspicious housemates in the beach town.  I read this in high school, and several times since, and I might need to pick it up again this summer.

Rule Britannia, by Daphne du Maurier – Twenty-year-old Emma wakes up one morning in her sleepy Cornish town to find no telephone service, a warship in the harbor, and American troops walking the streets.  Soon, the government announces that the US and UK have merged back into one country, which will be called USUK.  But Emma, her eccentric grandmother, and the other residents of the village have their doubts about this “friendly” military occupation.  Soon the residents of the town, led by Emma’s family, are in revolt, and the beaches of Cornwall present a perfect location for sabotage.

If you’re going to the beach this summer, what book will be in your tote bag?

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Reading Round-Up: June 2013

Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby.  I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book.  Here are my reads for June, 2013…

Villette, by Charlotte Bronte – Read for the readalong hosted by Beth at Too Fond, and I enjoyed every minute.  I haven’t read any Charlotte Bronte in a long time, and this was a perfect way to fix that: reading with friends!  The tale of Lucy Snowe’s progression toward independence and self-sufficiency, and her resolution of her feelings for two men, is complex and provided plenty of food for discussion among the other readers participating in the #Villettealong.  If you missed my posts about Villette, you can catch up here: Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Reading Companions.

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, by Therese Anne Fowler – Seeing as I have a baby at home, I haven’t been able to get out to see many movies, and I didn’t make it to “The Great Gatsby” this spring.  So I haven’t fallen headlong into Gatsby-mania like many people.  Still, I enjoyed The Great Gatsby the few times I’ve read it, and I’m generally interested in the 1920s, so it was fun to get this fluffy glimpse into the Fitzgeralds’ life.

The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2), by Rick Riordan (audiobook) – Percy and pals continue to enliven my commute.  In this installment, Percy learns that someone has poisoned the pine tree that guards the entrance to Camp Half-Blood.  The pine tree isn’t just any old tree: it contains the spirit of Thalia, half-blood daughter of Zeus, and it protects the magical borders of the camp.  With Thalia’s tree dying, Camp Half-Blood is dying too.  The campers are overrun with monsters, and the usual lush landscape is withering.  Meanwhile, Percy’s friend Grover is in danger.  Percy, Annabeth, and new friend Tyson set out to track down the Golden Fleece – the one thing that can save their beloved camp – and rescue Grover in the process.  These teenaged demigods are so much fun, and pretty much the only thing that keeps me from going insane while sitting in traffic on 19th Street of an evening.

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World, by Matthew Goodman – I’ve been looking forward to reading this non-fiction adventure, and it didn’t disappoint.  I loved the descriptions of the two travelers’ frantic preparations, the exotic sights and tastes they experienced in foreign ports, and their dashes to the finish line.  I related more to Elizabeth Bisland – she was an Anglophile and a lover of books – and I thought she “did” the trip better than Bly, but reading both women’s journeys was fascinating.  Highly recommended; read my full review here.

Leaving Everything Most Loved (Maisie Dobbs #10), by Jacqueline Winspear – Maisie Dobbs always gives a good read.  In this tenth (!) installment of Maisie’s adventures, she has finally gotten a handle, somewhat, on that thing she does where she meddles in people’s lives.  She’s still not quite to the point of figuring out what she wants in her own life, but she’s thinking of an extended trip to India.  India comes to Maisie, though, when she is engaged by an Indian man who asks her to investigate the murder of his sister, an expat living in London.  Maisie delves into Indian culture and becomes more and more determined to travel.  (And she learns to cook Indian food – yum.)  I enjoyed this.  I wasn’t banging my head against the table the way I did in Elegy for Eddie, the last Maisie installment, and I’m really loving watching Maisie’s growth as a person.  Oh, and I do hope for a happy ending between Maisie and James.

Leonardo and the Last Supper, by Ross King – So, I thought this was a novel (not sure why) when I read about it on a book blog.  I was expecting something along the lines of The Agony and the Ecstasy, which is a novel based on Michaelangelo’s life.  In fact, Leonardo and the Last Supper is a non-fiction look at Leonardo’s life and work, through the lens of his painting The Last Supper.  It was fascinating and informative.  The author has written other, similar books, including Michaelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, which I am now itching to read.

The House Girl, by Tara Conklin – So, I had mixed feelings about this.  The House Girl tells two related stories: one of a young attorney in New York City, 2004, who is brought into a slavery reparations case and, in her search for a lead plaintiff discovers that some famously sensitive portraits of slaves might not have been painted by their mistress but, in fact, by her house slave.  The story of what happened to the house slave, Josephine, is interwoven with the plot involving the attorney.  I loved the historical parts of the plot – Josephine’s story was compelling and moving.  I also liked Lina, the present-day protagonist.  My only complaint was that some of the things Lina does at work are just… unrealistic.  No first-year associate in a large law firm would ever have “dozens” of briefs under her belt after only nine months.  She’d have dozens of doc review projects.  She also wouldn’t be the main drafter of an important brief: she’d get some research assignments, and if she’s lucky, may be allowed to write a paragraph or two on an unimportant, throwaway argument.  (Stuff like that is why I work for a mid-size firm, where I got to write briefs and have client contact right away, but that’s neither here nor there.)  The author was a lawyer in big firms before becoming a writer, so presumably she knows better – maybe this was her fantasy of life as a first-year associate?  My colleagues and I got some good laughs out of it.  But aside from my frustration with complaints being called “briefs” (there’s a difference) and the unrealistic portrayal of law firm life, I liked the book.  It was well-written and engaging.  Lawyers beware, though.

Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles #1), by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl – Uh.  So.  I promised my BFF, R, that I would read this book, because she raved about it.  And I tried, I really, really did, but I just didn’t get what was so great about it.  I never really got into it, and I never really was able to work up any real interest in the characters.  The story of Ethan and Lena’s relationship just didn’t ring true for me, and I just couldn’t care less whether Lena was “claimed” for Light or Dark. Blah.  Read if you’re into teen witch stories; otherwise, give it a pass.

The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England, by Ian Mortimer – Oh, this was so interesting, and so much fun.  I hadn’t even heard of Ian Mortimer before, but when NPR Books tweeted a #fridayreads with The Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England, I knew I had to check it out, and that’s how I discovered this.  It’s non-fiction and fascinating, providing a look at the life and customs of people of all stripes during the medieval times (defined for purposes of the book as the fourteenth century).  What makes it a unique history book is that it’s structured as a travel guide: where to stay in the fourteenth century, what to wear and what to do in the fourteenth century, incidentals like money and traveling arrangements – basically, everything a modern guidebook would tell you about a country.  I loved it, and I’ve got The Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England on reserve at the library – I’m sure it recommends taking in a theatre production at the Globe or the Swan, but beyond that, I can’t wait to find out everything I should see and do on my next journey to the past.

The Mother-Daughter Book Club (The Mother-Daughter Book Club #1), by Heather Vogel Frederick – I’ve been wanting to start reading this series for awhile.  It’s got such a fun, sweet premise: a group of moms form a book club for themselves and their sixth-grade daughters and spend a year reading Little Women together.  The daughters, who aren’t all running with the same crowds at school, are reluctant to join at first, but gradually they learn to put their differences aside and become friends.  It’s pretty charming middle-grade fiction; I especially loved Cassidy, the tomboy.  My only gripe was that the moms employed a pretty icky double standard, lecturing their daughters about bullying even while they bullied another mother (who was unpopular for good reason – she was a piece of work – but still, the book club moms were immature).  I was disappointed that the moms weren’t acting much like Marmee.  But I’m definitely going to keep reading, both because I really liked it otherwise, and because I’m hoping to see some personal growth on behalf of the moms.  (The girls too, but they’re twelve, so they have an excuse.)

The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris, by John Baxter – Since I liked Baxter’s most recent book, The Perfect Meal, I hoped for more good stuff out of this book and for the most part, it delivered.  Baxter, an Aussie expat married to a Parisienne, explores his adopted city on foot – alone, with his wife and/or daughter, and while leading literary walking tours.  I loved reading his anecdotes about the expat writers of the 1920s – Fitzgerald, Hemingway, etc. – and I think I would have very much enjoyed one of Baxter’s tours.  Occasionally, he delved too deeply into “This is where tourists went in the 1950s for some sexytime!” and I just wasn’t as interested in that.  But for the vast majority of the book, I was hanging on Baxter’s every word and wishing I could jump a plane to Paris right this very minute.  Alas, I can’t, but The Most Beautiful Walk in the World was a good substitute.

I’ve had a really busy month at work and at home, and it’s felt like everything has piled up on me and too much has just gone wrong.  I’m hoping to get some relief soon (hoping, always hoping) but in the meantime, I’ve been escaping into books.  As reading goes, this wasn’t my best month (October 2012 still holds that title) but it wasn’t my worst, either.  There were a few books I wasn’t overly crazy about, but for the most part, I enjoyed everything I read this month.  Getting the chance to sink into a good book has been my lifesaver this month and will continue to be for at least a little while.  I’m glad that I have reading; I’ve needed it recently.