A classic by E.M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread explores the differences between society in post-Victorian-era England and in Italy. The English 20- or 30-somethings in this novel struggle with their uptight, snotty, heavily-ruled society. They are bored out of their minds, wishing to shake things up.
A trip to Italy adds much-needed excitement, but Italian society turns out to have its own drawbacks. A major flaw is that the women only socialize with family members. If you're sick of family intrusions, you'll just sit alone, forbidden to go outside alone, while your husband gets drunk in town.
The plot is that a young widow travels to Italy with another woman as a chaperone. While there, the widow meets and falls in love with a young Italian man. Scandal!
The best, funniest detail of the novel: the Italian man is socially beneath the English family because he's merely the son of a DENTIST! They look down so ironically on the profession of dentistry.
Great little book. My favorite line: "The train reached Charing Cross, and they parted -- he to go to a matinee, she to buy petticoats for the corpulent poor."
In other news, we have moved to a new apartment and are loving it! We still have boxes and messes and piles to be sorted and put away. We've made quite a big pile of things to donate (too bad we didn't have more time to sort BEFORE we moved it all over here, but the important thing is to get rid of the extra stuff that's dragging us down).
It feels great to lighten up and let go of stuff we don't need. This is the perfect time to be unsentimental -- when we just hauled SO Much stuff around and now are realizing that there's no place for it. My mantra: Let It Go. Let It Go. Just Let It Go.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Still Packing!
The garage is half-full of packed boxes and it feels like we should be done, but my office looks nearly untouched!
Francis The Cat just found a long-lost toy and proudly showed it to me before batting it around and losing it amongst packing supplies. It used to be a white ball, but now it's pretty dark grey. Nasty!
Imagine if humans had to carry everything around in our mouths. How hard would moving be THEN? I've got it EASY and should just stop typing and get back to work, feeling grateful for hands and opposable thumbs.
Francis The Cat just found a long-lost toy and proudly showed it to me before batting it around and losing it amongst packing supplies. It used to be a white ball, but now it's pretty dark grey. Nasty!
Imagine if humans had to carry everything around in our mouths. How hard would moving be THEN? I've got it EASY and should just stop typing and get back to work, feeling grateful for hands and opposable thumbs.
Friday, September 18, 2009
We're Moving!
Oh, we're so excited to leave our current place. We are overrun here with little kids and their nosy parents, especially the busybodies next door. The Rat tail family didn't end up moving, so their 5 kids are still here, still clickety-clacking their scooters up and down the sidewalk for hours on end, screaming at each other, "stop following me!"
The crayon drawings on the sidewalk and our driveway have faded a bit, but I believe they will still be visible in 2010.
Our new place is another townhome, but the neighborhood is a lot less crowded. There is a lot more distance between our door and the sidewalk (here, it is 2 feet). I have not seen any kids or noisy people at all near our building. I'm sure there will be plenty of surprises there, but at least the Rat tail family and the busybodies won't be there!
The experience of meeting with the landlady yesterday at the new place gave me lots of ideas for scary or mystery stories:
* The landlady doesn't really own the place, but is having us move all our stuff in and she'll steal it. She has a lot of personal information about us which she will use to steal our identities. (The fact that she's a scam artist explains why she has no idea which mailbox is ours, or what day is trash day!)
* The landlady is actually the last, bad, dirty tenant! She and her common-law husband will kill us in our sleep, like they did the landlord & landlady.
* If you crawl far enough into the crawl space, you'll find the real landlord and landlady's bodies.
I better stop daydreaming and get back to packing now. I might be back with more scenarios later.
The crayon drawings on the sidewalk and our driveway have faded a bit, but I believe they will still be visible in 2010.
Our new place is another townhome, but the neighborhood is a lot less crowded. There is a lot more distance between our door and the sidewalk (here, it is 2 feet). I have not seen any kids or noisy people at all near our building. I'm sure there will be plenty of surprises there, but at least the Rat tail family and the busybodies won't be there!
The experience of meeting with the landlady yesterday at the new place gave me lots of ideas for scary or mystery stories:
* The landlady doesn't really own the place, but is having us move all our stuff in and she'll steal it. She has a lot of personal information about us which she will use to steal our identities. (The fact that she's a scam artist explains why she has no idea which mailbox is ours, or what day is trash day!)
* The landlady is actually the last, bad, dirty tenant! She and her common-law husband will kill us in our sleep, like they did the landlord & landlady.
* If you crawl far enough into the crawl space, you'll find the real landlord and landlady's bodies.
I better stop daydreaming and get back to packing now. I might be back with more scenarios later.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Book 76: Shakespeare's Trollop
Another one of Charlaine Harris's Lily Bard mysteries from the library. Lily is a super-tough cleaning lady in a small town in the South. She accidentally gets embroiled in murder investigations quite often. This time, the town tramp is found murdered -- found by Lily, of course.
This one's pretty well-written. And you can't guess who did it until it's almost over.
I had burned out on Charlaine, but when the library notified me that this was in, I hurried to pick it up and read it in two days. I guess I'm over being over her. Now I have to figure out how to use inter-library loan to get the rest of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries (also by Charlaine Harris).
This one's pretty well-written. And you can't guess who did it until it's almost over.
I had burned out on Charlaine, but when the library notified me that this was in, I hurried to pick it up and read it in two days. I guess I'm over being over her. Now I have to figure out how to use inter-library loan to get the rest of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries (also by Charlaine Harris).
Monday, September 14, 2009
Book 75: Every Secret Thing
Another mystery! I think that without this two-books-a-week challenge, I would read fewer mysteries. But they are such quick reads, and I have keep up with my own dare.
Every Secret Thing is by Laura Lippman, and she is a great writer. She tells the story from several characters' perspectives, and she develops all the characters well. The two criminals are 18-year old girls who killed a baby when they were 11. Children doing really bad things is always scary and uncomfortable in our culture, because we pretend that kids are inherently Good.
The mother of one bad girl slowly reveals her side of the story to us.
The murdered baby's mother is another major character. She wants vengeance, of course.
There are two more women who share their perspectives with us: a police officer and a reporter.
Everyone has their own past problems which make them unreliable witnesses. Each woman has her own reasons for wanting to reveal the truth (or keep it hidden).
It's a fun read, and very well written.
Every Secret Thing is by Laura Lippman, and she is a great writer. She tells the story from several characters' perspectives, and she develops all the characters well. The two criminals are 18-year old girls who killed a baby when they were 11. Children doing really bad things is always scary and uncomfortable in our culture, because we pretend that kids are inherently Good.
The mother of one bad girl slowly reveals her side of the story to us.
The murdered baby's mother is another major character. She wants vengeance, of course.
There are two more women who share their perspectives with us: a police officer and a reporter.
Everyone has their own past problems which make them unreliable witnesses. Each woman has her own reasons for wanting to reveal the truth (or keep it hidden).
It's a fun read, and very well written.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Have I shrunk?
I've been 5 ft 10 in since I was 14 -- or I've assumed I've been that tall. I realized that I haven't been measured for maybe 15 years. When I go to the doctor's office, they weigh me (usually) but they just ask me how tall I am... even though they use that scale with the height measurement thingy on it.
So I measured myself today, old-fashioned-style. I drew a pencil mark on the edge of the bathroom door (so I could stand on the flat tile floor rather than on carpeting). Then I used two different tape measures and a ruler to see how tall I am.
5'7" (weight-loss measuring tape)
5' 8 + 1/2" (sewing measuring tape)
5'11" (ruler)
5' 9 + 3/8" (hardware store tape measure)
Wha?? Next time I go to the doctor, I'm having them measure me!
So I measured myself today, old-fashioned-style. I drew a pencil mark on the edge of the bathroom door (so I could stand on the flat tile floor rather than on carpeting). Then I used two different tape measures and a ruler to see how tall I am.
5'7" (weight-loss measuring tape)
5' 8 + 1/2" (sewing measuring tape)
5'11" (ruler)
5' 9 + 3/8" (hardware store tape measure)
Wha?? Next time I go to the doctor, I'm having them measure me!
Book 74: Running With Scissors
Running With Scissors is a memoir by Augusten Burroughs. It's in the same vein as The Glass Castle: the writer had a horrible childhood but basically turned out okay as an adult.
I liked the humor of the beginning, and then the middle became too awful. I think the detailed description of a 14-year old losing his virginity non-consensually to a pedophile was just too much for me. Aside from that section, I could endure that Burroughs's parents abandoned him, and that he faked a suicide attempt just to get out of going to school (with the help and advice of his doctor), that he was surrounded by insanity and fortune-telling poop.
He tells his story with humor and from the perspective of having made it out alive. He can laugh at the past, and we can laugh with him (at least some of the time), because he escaped.
Probably not for sensitive readers.
I liked the humor of the beginning, and then the middle became too awful. I think the detailed description of a 14-year old losing his virginity non-consensually to a pedophile was just too much for me. Aside from that section, I could endure that Burroughs's parents abandoned him, and that he faked a suicide attempt just to get out of going to school (with the help and advice of his doctor), that he was surrounded by insanity and fortune-telling poop.
He tells his story with humor and from the perspective of having made it out alive. He can laugh at the past, and we can laugh with him (at least some of the time), because he escaped.
Probably not for sensitive readers.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
33 is just like 32, so far
My wish didn't come true yet, but I neglected to wish for it to happen Quickly or Soon or Immediately. Dang it!
Monday, September 7, 2009
The Computer Store is Crowded!
This weekend we drove for like an hour to get to a "real" computer store for a new disc drive and stuff.
Look how far away we had to park! The lot was packed and the inside was stuffed with computer guys (and a few women).
The cashier said it was much busier than usual -- but what did you expect when all their competition had gone out of business?
Jason explained that Comp USA has gone under (I could only think of Circuit City, but that wasn't a "real" computer store).
It's another example of how the poor economy is benefitting those who can hang on.
Plus, while we were driving around, we noticed that Hatch chili roasters have taken over Federal Blvd. It's chili time.
33 on 9/9/9
I'm turning 33 in a couple days! 09/09/09 seems like an auspicious date on its own. But 33 = 3 & 3 and 3x3=9. So it's like triply auspicious. My wish better come true, or ELSE. It's a reasonable wish, but I can't tell you what it is without risking jinxing it. But please cross your fingers for me and send vague good wishes. Thanks!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Rag Doll -- first try
I made my first rag doll. She is funny! I like the legs, but the rest needs tweaking. I'll keep working on it. I think the next one will be pretty cute.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Book 73: Just After Sunset
This is a collection of short stories by Stephen King. If you know me, you might know that I love Stephen King. I think he is a great story teller. He is one of the all-time best at character development.
YES, he has his problems:
1. not knowing how to end a novel and tacking on some lame Deus ex Machina ending.
2. too much reliance on gore and violence.
3. making too many stories into epic battles between Good and Evil, when it they would have been MUCH more powerful if kept on a smaller scale, about particular people, or even the good and evil inside people in general, rather than bringing God and Satan into it.
If you think you don't like him, or you think he isn't a good story teller, ask yourself if you ever saw either of the decent movies that are based on his writing: Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption. Man, how I wish he'd write some literary fiction some day. I was hoping for that when he announced that he was done writing horror.
I must have been 11 or 12 when I first asked my mom if I could buy a paperback copy of Pet Sematary and she said Yes. I've been hooked, on and off, ever since. Even that darn movie still gets me once in a while. Do you remember when the little back-from-the-dead-boy cuts Grandpa's Achilles tendons with a rusty old straight razor? He was hiding UNDER THE BED (or under something) and Grandpa (or maybe just an old neighbor -- I can't remember) walked too close. That was a good lesson: THERE COULD BE SOMETHING HORRIBLE UNDER THE BED. Sometimes I still jump into bed from about a foot and a half away. And that kid's voice, so innocently asking Grandpa, "Don't you want to play wiff me?"
So, I guess I should talk about this new book some time, huh? I liked it. It has a good mixture of a little gore, a little gross-out, 9/11, nuclear bomb, premonitory dream, some suspense, and lots of human nature. I never felt disappointed in an ending, which was great (see Problem #1 above). I didn't love every story, but when do you ever in a short story collection? If you like SK, you'll like something in this book.
You know how he gets you to relate to the characters so well? I don't know either. But one thing is, he gives them each their own voice. They all have special little vocabulary quirks or pet names for things, or song lyrics that remind them of a certain event. You learn these special linguistic codes and in doing so, you bond with that character. When that certain term arises, you and the character share a little secret language and you know exactly how to decode it. It's similar to having an inside joke with someone in real life.
In his ending Notes, SK hopes that his stories will keep us readers awake at night, and that we'll all develop a sort of paranoia-based OCD (which will make sense if you read the stories). I haven't had any nightmares about any of the stories in this book, and I doubt I'm going to. I haven't developed any increase in paranoia or OCD. Sorry, Mr. King! You didn't get me this time.
As an update on my reading challenge, I'm currently two books ahead of schedule. I'm in the middle of a few books, so I'm 2 books plus 2 x 1/2 book plus 3/4 book plus 2 x 1/8 books ahead of schedule. Something like that. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it.
YES, he has his problems:
1. not knowing how to end a novel and tacking on some lame Deus ex Machina ending.
2. too much reliance on gore and violence.
3. making too many stories into epic battles between Good and Evil, when it they would have been MUCH more powerful if kept on a smaller scale, about particular people, or even the good and evil inside people in general, rather than bringing God and Satan into it.
If you think you don't like him, or you think he isn't a good story teller, ask yourself if you ever saw either of the decent movies that are based on his writing: Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption. Man, how I wish he'd write some literary fiction some day. I was hoping for that when he announced that he was done writing horror.
I must have been 11 or 12 when I first asked my mom if I could buy a paperback copy of Pet Sematary and she said Yes. I've been hooked, on and off, ever since. Even that darn movie still gets me once in a while. Do you remember when the little back-from-the-dead-boy cuts Grandpa's Achilles tendons with a rusty old straight razor? He was hiding UNDER THE BED (or under something) and Grandpa (or maybe just an old neighbor -- I can't remember) walked too close. That was a good lesson: THERE COULD BE SOMETHING HORRIBLE UNDER THE BED. Sometimes I still jump into bed from about a foot and a half away. And that kid's voice, so innocently asking Grandpa, "Don't you want to play wiff me?"
So, I guess I should talk about this new book some time, huh? I liked it. It has a good mixture of a little gore, a little gross-out, 9/11, nuclear bomb, premonitory dream, some suspense, and lots of human nature. I never felt disappointed in an ending, which was great (see Problem #1 above). I didn't love every story, but when do you ever in a short story collection? If you like SK, you'll like something in this book.
You know how he gets you to relate to the characters so well? I don't know either. But one thing is, he gives them each their own voice. They all have special little vocabulary quirks or pet names for things, or song lyrics that remind them of a certain event. You learn these special linguistic codes and in doing so, you bond with that character. When that certain term arises, you and the character share a little secret language and you know exactly how to decode it. It's similar to having an inside joke with someone in real life.
In his ending Notes, SK hopes that his stories will keep us readers awake at night, and that we'll all develop a sort of paranoia-based OCD (which will make sense if you read the stories). I haven't had any nightmares about any of the stories in this book, and I doubt I'm going to. I haven't developed any increase in paranoia or OCD. Sorry, Mr. King! You didn't get me this time.
As an update on my reading challenge, I'm currently two books ahead of schedule. I'm in the middle of a few books, so I'm 2 books plus 2 x 1/2 book plus 3/4 book plus 2 x 1/8 books ahead of schedule. Something like that. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Book 72: Love in the Time of Cholera
In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s delayed-gratification love story, Florentino Ariza waits over 50 years for his dream woman’s husband to die so he can try to court her again. Is that extremely romantic or sort of pathetic?
I really enjoyed the writing, which is perfect, and the historical nature of the story (the Caribbean circa 1880 – 1930). I never knew that Colombia is considered part of the Caribbean, so I got to learn a new geography fact. :)
One line I loved, and that I will envision forever, is about some passengers on a riverboat: “… and Florentino Ariza had noticed them only because they carried the sleeping child in a large birdcage.”
I got a little tired of the characters by the end. Florentino Ariza, having sometimes-unusal sex all over town, with hundreds of women (including his 14-year old niece – when he’s old) while keeping up the appearance of being a respectable man (though widely suspected of being gay) became less and less appealing to me. That he passed up his chance at actual love with his co-worker to wait forever for Fermina Daza’s hypothetical love was exasperating.
Fermina Daza, so haughty, so stubborn, so prideful. I sometimes really enjoyed her and her confidence and strength. Eventually I just thought that she deserved Florentino (kind of as a punishment for her snootiness).
Marquez has said that this is not just a simple love story. You can see it as a metaphor for all the different kinds of love. You can see love as a disease, like cholera (Duh).
BUT, I think maybe you can see it also as an unromantic view of romance. Love isn't convenient or easy. Sometimes you do have to wait and then settle for the person after they've wasted time and grown jaded and wrinkled and they smell old and need help up the stairs. Love is imperfect, like life and like people. It's work and sacrifice and disappointment -- not just attraction.
Whether you see it as the ultimate romance or not, this is a perfectly written book. My edition was translated by Edith Grossman, and I highly recommend it.
I really enjoyed the writing, which is perfect, and the historical nature of the story (the Caribbean circa 1880 – 1930). I never knew that Colombia is considered part of the Caribbean, so I got to learn a new geography fact. :)
One line I loved, and that I will envision forever, is about some passengers on a riverboat: “… and Florentino Ariza had noticed them only because they carried the sleeping child in a large birdcage.”
I got a little tired of the characters by the end. Florentino Ariza, having sometimes-unusal sex all over town, with hundreds of women (including his 14-year old niece – when he’s old) while keeping up the appearance of being a respectable man (though widely suspected of being gay) became less and less appealing to me. That he passed up his chance at actual love with his co-worker to wait forever for Fermina Daza’s hypothetical love was exasperating.
Fermina Daza, so haughty, so stubborn, so prideful. I sometimes really enjoyed her and her confidence and strength. Eventually I just thought that she deserved Florentino (kind of as a punishment for her snootiness).
Marquez has said that this is not just a simple love story. You can see it as a metaphor for all the different kinds of love. You can see love as a disease, like cholera (Duh).
BUT, I think maybe you can see it also as an unromantic view of romance. Love isn't convenient or easy. Sometimes you do have to wait and then settle for the person after they've wasted time and grown jaded and wrinkled and they smell old and need help up the stairs. Love is imperfect, like life and like people. It's work and sacrifice and disappointment -- not just attraction.
Whether you see it as the ultimate romance or not, this is a perfectly written book. My edition was translated by Edith Grossman, and I highly recommend it.
Book 71: Take the Cannoli
Ah, now THIS is the Sarah Vowell I love, who keeps me snickering and thinking and reading in my every spare moment. The Wordy Shipmates left me feeling a little... bored sometimes, so it's nice to return to her usual style of shorter essays.
The essays are about America, and American culture, and being an American. And one is about living in the Netherlands.
The one that gives this book its title, Take the Cannoli, is about Vowell's one-time obsession with The Godfather movies. I had never seen The Godfather, and of course I always felt left out and incomplete when even a Meg Ryan movie (You've Got Mail) was quoting this movie all over the place. Finally, I got The Godfather trilogy from swapadvd.com, and I managed to watch the first movie.
It was just as Vowell said: comforting. Because there are rules in that world. Straight-forward, easily decoded rules. It makes some sort of sense. It’s a really nice fantasy, that you can always deal with problems by threats and force and violence, (assuming your reasonable offer is rejected).
Since I hate confrontations and have a fear of people being mad at me, the idea of having a relative or friend or Connection who could take care of my troubles for me is really appealing. I wouldn’t have to think of how to phrase, “Neighbor, it is not okay for you to keep your portable basketball hoop abutted up to my driveway. You need to keep your things at YOUR house.” Instead, Tony and Fabrizio (or whoever) could pay them a little visit and then all the neighbors would dutifully respect the boundaries of our property lines. I wouldn’t have to be involved at all!
But of course there is a dark side to the world of offers they can't refuse: women are totally second-class citizens in that place. The men all cheat and lie. Plus the small detail of that line of work having high mortality and incarceration rates.
I was pleasantly surprised that it was set in the 1940s rather than the 1970s. I was also surprised at how un-creepy Al Pacino used to be. Now I can finally see why ladies used to find him attractive.
So, thanks, Sarah Vowell, for entertaining me yourself AND finally getting me to watch the most iconic of mafia movies. Some day I will probably watch The Godfather II and III. Maybe even this year. As soon as I find 6 or 7 hours free.
The essays are about America, and American culture, and being an American. And one is about living in the Netherlands.
The one that gives this book its title, Take the Cannoli, is about Vowell's one-time obsession with The Godfather movies. I had never seen The Godfather, and of course I always felt left out and incomplete when even a Meg Ryan movie (You've Got Mail) was quoting this movie all over the place. Finally, I got The Godfather trilogy from swapadvd.com, and I managed to watch the first movie.
It was just as Vowell said: comforting. Because there are rules in that world. Straight-forward, easily decoded rules. It makes some sort of sense. It’s a really nice fantasy, that you can always deal with problems by threats and force and violence, (assuming your reasonable offer is rejected).
Since I hate confrontations and have a fear of people being mad at me, the idea of having a relative or friend or Connection who could take care of my troubles for me is really appealing. I wouldn’t have to think of how to phrase, “Neighbor, it is not okay for you to keep your portable basketball hoop abutted up to my driveway. You need to keep your things at YOUR house.” Instead, Tony and Fabrizio (or whoever) could pay them a little visit and then all the neighbors would dutifully respect the boundaries of our property lines. I wouldn’t have to be involved at all!
But of course there is a dark side to the world of offers they can't refuse: women are totally second-class citizens in that place. The men all cheat and lie. Plus the small detail of that line of work having high mortality and incarceration rates.
I was pleasantly surprised that it was set in the 1940s rather than the 1970s. I was also surprised at how un-creepy Al Pacino used to be. Now I can finally see why ladies used to find him attractive.
So, thanks, Sarah Vowell, for entertaining me yourself AND finally getting me to watch the most iconic of mafia movies. Some day I will probably watch The Godfather II and III. Maybe even this year. As soon as I find 6 or 7 hours free.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)