Book 7: The Wordy Shipmates

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. Oh, you know I like Sarah so much, but this one is dry and almost boring. It's about the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company, who wanted to remain loyal to England while "helping" the Indians and escaping from Catholicism and the influence of "The Great Whore of Babylon," the Pope. They were rather boring, and a book about them is boring.



There are moments when Sarah's voice really comes through, sarcastic and hilarious. But mostly it reads like a dry history lesson.

I did read the whole thing, and pretty quickly, but it just wasn't the kind of humorous history that I expect from Sarah Vowell.

Maybe the most fascinating part was the description of a monster-baby that was stillborn to a woman who refused to toe the Massachusetts Bay colony line. The child "'had a face, but no head, and the ears stood upon the shoulders and were like an ape's; it had no forehead, but over the eyes four horns, hard and sharp.' Also, her 'nose hooked upward,' her back was covered in scales, 'it had two mouths' and 'instead of toes, it had on each foot three claws, like a young fowl, with sharp talons.'" A minister exhumes the body! And verifies that the body had horns and claws, scales, etc... That will stick with me for a while.

It all comes around

Dreams do come true!

Do you remember my third post on this blog? Here it is. I was dreaming of getting the Bowflex SelectTech adjustable dumbbells.

Jason got me the 2009 version for Valentine's Day!



I already get to start using them, and so far I love them!

Book 6: The Partly Cloudy Patriot

The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell. I love Sarah! If you don't know who she is, you might have heard her squeaky little voice on NPR, or you might have heard her as Violet in the animated movie The Incredibles.



I wish I would have read this book seven years ago, when it first came out. It's still a fun, entertaining, and educational read, but would have been a little better in 2002. For instance, she spends some time on the 2000 election, and I feel so tired of thinking about that right now. I'm ready to think about the Obama presidency!

I do appreciate her summary of the difference in how the candidates were viewed: Al Gore was the super-nerd that the average and below-average kids wanted to beat up. George Bush was the cool guy, kind of a dumbass, that everyone wanted to be friends with. This sums it up perfectly! I remember one girl in law school trying to articulate why she could understand that people liked him: "like, you could just sit down and have a beer with him!" The professor was utterly disgusted.

But I think a lot of people felt that way -- put off by Gore's enormous, obvious intellect and his complete suitability and perfect preparedness for being President. He was TOO good. TOO smart. Bush was someone who made mistakes, just like normal people do! He didn't know that much about the world, just like most Americans don't! He was cool! He wasn't some politics nerd, worried about how our government works or what the Constitution says, let alone what it means!

Sarah loves U.S. history, and I love to read her telling of it. She especially loves Abraham Lincoln and his writing. She talks about what his speeches must have sounded like, how we imagine him having a big, booming voice, a Presidential voice. But all reports say that Lincoln had a squeaky voice, like a 6-year old girl. She says, "I personally suspect that Abraham Lincoln sounded exactly like me."

Sarah loves to travel around the U.S., even though she doesn't drive. She gets friends or family to drive her to tourist sites. One site that I want to visit is Carlsbad Caverns. Since my family moved to New Mexico, I have wanted to go there. It's not close to their town, so I haven't had a chance yet. But Sarah informs that there is a cheesy 1970s-renovated lunchroom in the caverns, and the Parks people HATE it and are so embarrassed by it. Legislation was passed in 1994 to prevent the National Parks Service from using federal funds to close the Underground Lunchroom. I want to eat there! Maybe this summer we will make it to the caves.

There are lots of other essays included. I recommend her highly.

Book 5: The Gingerbread Girl

I forgot about this one: The Gingerbread Girl by Stephen King. Jason and I listened to this one on CD while driving back from New Mexico. Mare Winningham read it.



I always wish for King to write more stories and novels that don't involve supernatural elements, and here was one! Mare does a great job reading it, and is easy to listen to.

I haven't listened to a book on tape for a long time, so I kept tuning out and then having to remind myself to pay attention. I really liked the beginning of it, and the middle was okay, and the end seemed to drag on and on forever. I think it would have been better if I'd paid attention the whole time. I used to really enjoy books on tape, but I'm out of practice at listening for so long.

Yes, part of my job is listening, but it's usually about an hour at a time. I bet I listened to the first hour well, and then started to daydream and stopped paying attention.

So, I don't feel like I really gave it a fair listen. Perhaps I'll listen again sometime while cleaning or doing something else around the house, or while crocheting.

Book 4: Don't I Know You?

Don't I Know You? by Karen Shepard. I loved this book. A young boy finds his murdered mother in their apartment. Who did it? There are so many possibilities, and the writing is so good. Some lines are just poetry. You want to read it really quickly, to find out what happened, but you want to read it really slowly, to enjoy Shepard's talent.



There is a great description of an immigrant couple, of their lowly jobs in New York, how the mother crawls around on the floor hemming the clothes of people who stand above her. Then the simple line, "Back home, they were both physicists." (I don't have the book anymore, since I gave it to my dad to read, but it's something close to that.) She says so much with so few words. I will read anything else by her that I can find.

What I've Read So Far This Year: The Sister, The 158-Pound Marriage, Hell's Kitchen

1. The Sister by Poppy Adams. I really enjoyed this book. Two sisters grow up in a big, old house. The older one leaves as soon as she can, and the younger stays behind. 50 years later, the older returns to live with her sister. The narrator is clearly untrustworthy, but we can't tell precisely what's wrong with her. Secrets from their childhood are remembered and revealed throughout the book. The narrator becomes more and more unreliable as the story progresses. Very enjoyable!



2. John Irving's The 158-Pound Marriage. I love Irving's story-telling ability. This story's plot didn't grab me. It's about two couples in the 1970s who try to swap spouses without their children finding out, and without anyone getting hurt. It's okay, but seems very 70s to me, in a way that I'm not interested in at the moment. If you like Irving and this plot sounds good to you, check it out. I did like that the narrator (one of the husbands) was kind of a slimeball. It made it more interesting.



3. Hell's Kitchen by Jeffery Deaver. A mystery recommended by my Dad. Although my edition had terrible editing (are commas expensive to print??), there is nothing wrong with the writing! The book was quite enjoyable. I now have a stack of other novels by Deaver, and I plan to read them all. This one is about a pyromaniac in NYC, and especially in Hell's Kitchen. Though there is only one protagonist, several characters are developed. The history of Hell's Kitchen is fun to read. Best of all for a mystery, there is no way to guess the ending.

Resolution update

This past week, I lost about 1.5 pounds. I also lost some fat from my upper body, where I don't need to lose fat. My arms are smaller when relaxed, but the same size when flexed, so it was fat that was lost. I can see my shoulder muscles fairly clearly. I hope the fat loss spreads to the rest of my body this week! I want to see some ABDOMINAL definition!

This week, I'm going to try to tighten up my eating. I will continue with the exercising -- that was perfect this week and I don't see any reason for it to change.

Terrariums

These are the living gifts that I mentioned before Christmas. I made some little terrariums in jars.
 

I put rocks in the bottom, and then some aquarium charcoal (to help keep them clean), and then soil. Then more rocks on top, to make a landscape.

Some are drier, with succulents growing in them. Some are more damp, with ferns and moss. I did not have the best luck with the ferns or the moss. I followed the directions, and kept them moist, and kept them in dim light. I think they needed a little more light, maybe? I hope the ones I gave away will thrive (who wants to give a gift that fails?).

I still have a couple at my house, too, and I'm trying to get them going better. My ferns have died, but the one I gave to Mom didn't look as bad. Maybe she'll have the ferny touch and get hers to be happy again.

 

I put some little animal figurines in them. Also, Mom's had a little white slug that came in her fern. I left it up to her to decide to keep it or take it out. It's sort of cute, like a snail in an aquarium. I know they are a garden pest because they eat plants, but I don't know if one little slug can kill a plant, or if it takes a bunch of them to be a problem.

I think a really cute terrarium would have ferns with little dinosaurs living amongst them! From what I understand, and imagine, GIANT ferns and dinosaurs lived at the same time. So, someday I may make a Triassic terrarium. If I find some dinosaur figurines, which seems totally possible. And if I can keep a fern alive. :)