Fall/Winter Books II

I consumed Margot Berwin's Hothouse Flower: and the Nine Plants of Desire (Vintage Contemporaries).  This novel was another $2 find from the library used bookstore and it would have been a bargain at twice the price, as my Aunt would say.  The book is about a thirty-two year old Manhattan woman still healing from her divorce when she decides to bring a plant into her all white studio apartment. What follows is adventure, love, magic, travel, desire, and more!  88/100

A good friend happily handed over The Birth House: A Novel (P.S.) by Ami Mckay and I was intrigued by this historical novel, set in Canada in the early 20th century, and the teenaged protagonist who is sent to live with the local midwife one winter when she's too old to stay in the one-room house with her brothers.  Interesting story and good writing.  89/100

It's not often I can feel my IQ dropping, but reading Nicole Richie's Priceless: A Novel certainly did the job.  If you're going to hire a ghostwriter, why not hire one that can actually write?  You may be wondering why I would read a book like this (embarrassing to be seen with in public) and the answer may surprise you: Ellen Degeneres.  My mom was in the audience of Ellen and left with this book.  My mom was too embarrassed to have it in her house so she sent me home with it with instructions to leave in whichever airport I finished it in.  90/100

I picked up the audiobook of Jeff Lindsay's Dexter by Design: A Novel (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) so that My Heart's Desire and I could listen to it on a car trip.  We got through about a third of it, then I was hooked.  I'm not usually fond of crime novels (particularly when the murderer is the good-ish guy), but I found this to be clever and the story held my attention.  91/100

Today I am grateful for flannel sheets, being able to make healthy choices, reading glasses (yes, I am now officially old), the LA Dodgers blanket from my friend Carlos that keeps me cozy on chilly days at work, clementines, being prepared, hot tea on cold days, and enjoying the holiday spirit.

Little Stalker

Yes, Jennifer Belle's Little Stalker was another find from the garden of inexpensive used books.  This book started off well, and I had medium hopes, as I have enjoyed the author's previous works. However, the more I read, the less I liked. If it wasn't December, I would have abandoned it before the first third. Her previous books were more enjoyable. Either that or I crossed over on the wrong side of the age bracket that likes this type of book since I read her last one.  I do wear reading glasses now so that very well may be the case.  87/100

When You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair

I came across Geneen Roth's When You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair: 50 Ways to Feel Thin, Gorgeous, and Happy (When You Feel Anything But) at the library used bookstore and the price was right ($2) so I bought it. I hadn't read this book in a few years and liked it as much as I remembered.

The title refers to the suggestion of always sitting down while eating (though Roth does not encourage eating at the fridge), and eating alone the way that you would eat with someone else. And that reminded me of my personal rule not to eat anything (hot pockets, mac and cheese, ramen) at home that I wouldn't order in a restaurant. This book also contains good information about meditation and treating the self kindly, which I can always use. 86/10

Fall/Winter Books

Elizabeth Crane's When the Messenger is Hot is a collection of amusing stories.  I picked this book up for a song from the library used book store and read it on a flight.  While the stories were kind of uneven, most of the writing was good.  80/100

I don't know if I didn't like Merrill Markoe's Walking in Circles Before Lying Down: A Novel because I read it when I was home sick, or if I just didn't like it.  Then I remembered that last year I read her book It's My F---ing Birthday: A Novel and didn't care for it either.  81/100

Though science fiction's not usually my favorite, I loved every syllable of Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood: A Novel.  I listened to this book in my car and found myself taking the long way everywhere.  No talking on the phone while driving?  No problem.  This smart and interesting book had me thinking about how I see the world.  82/100

I picked up Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen for fifty cents and could hardly put it down once I started reading it.  A fast and very enjoyable read, this story about a veterinary school student who winds up joining the circus after being orphaned during the Depression.  This book would have been worth full price. 83/100

My honorary grandmother lent me My Hollywood by Mona Simpson (which tickled My Heart's Desire since that is the name of Homer Simpson's mother). She really liked it and encouraged me to read it, which I did, but I couldn't really connect with it.  The point of view alternates between the mother (a well-educated composer) and her nanny (a middle-aged mother who works to educate her five in the Philippines). 84/100 

Lit: A Memoir (P.S.) by Mary Karr is a memoir about living and drinking, and living and not drinking.  She pulls no punches are the results are honest, dark, and humorous.  I had heard this book was good but until I started reading it, I had no idea just how good.  85/100

I Give Thanks For Sneakers

Turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie get a lot of press around the holidays.  But the real unsung hero of Thanksgiving is butter.  Lots and lots of butter.  Butter makes the turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and almost everything else on the table delicious.  And My Heart's Desire's family does not skimp on the buttery goodness.

On Thanksgiving Eve, I checked the weather report and did some searching to see if I could fine a race within a reasonable distance.  If I say: I'm going to workout, I might.  If I plan on going and pay good money, I will definitely workout.  I found a 5K a few towns over, set my alarm, and trusted the GPS to get me there.  I was slow but steady and finished the race. 

For the past month or so, I've been sporadic with exercising, but I don't fool around when it comes to the holidays.  I feel so much better when I workout, especially when it's treat season.  I laced up and walked the following three days as well.  I kept up the momentum and have worked out the past four days this week.  Feels good to be in an active groove. 

I'm setting a workout goal for December: 26 workouts!  I'm confident this is doable. Yoga, walking, swimming, workout DVDs - I'm planning on having an active month.

Labor Day

One of my colleagues recommended Joyce Maynard's Labor Day to me, with the assurance I could read it in one sitting.  It took me two sittings, but only because I picked it up late in the evening.  This clever book could be a crossover novel for teens and parents. The fast-paced story is interesting, if a bit predictable, but what kept me turning the pages was good writing.  You could pick up this book, consume the whole thing during a flight, then pass it on to another reader with a smile.  79/100

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I bought David Sedaris' Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk when I first laid eyes on it at Barnes & Noble, reviews unread. I rarely buy hardbacks and this was the first one in years I'd purchased without a coupon. I'm such a big fan of his writing, I just gave Me Talk Pretty One Day to a friend with the promise that she would love it.

This tiny book contains animal fairy tale parables, of which a few were amusing. It's basically an illustrated pamphlet. Maybe if I had read them in The New Yorker I wouldn't have minded.

A few Christmases ago my sister got me a copy of Holidays On Ice, a classic, and he inscribed it to me: Amina, I am so mad at you. Well, David, now I'm mad at you. 78/100

Up From the Blue

While perusing the aisles of Target with a gift card burning a hole in my pocket, I purchased Up from the Blue by Susan Henderson to read on a trip.  It's the story of Tillie's coming of age in a family with a mentally ill mom and military dad.  The book starts and ends with Tillie going into an early labor, with her husband overseas and reaching out to her father, who she hasn't spoken to in years. It was an okay book but not great. 77/100

Today I sent out my Sunday School class curriculum, admired the fall leaves, went to meet a friend for brunch, got stuck in horrible traffic (repaving the parkway meant my 15 minute drive took an hour and a half!), showed up late, she was very understanding, caught up over a yummy vegan sandwich at Le Pain Quotidien, met a mentee for coffee, had tea instead, walked and chatted and enjoyed a perfect fall day, ran into some friends still tanned from their honeymoon, gave advice about which type of pots and pans to buy (the kind where the handles don't get hot!  learn from my mistake, I really wish I had spent the extra money), went to My Heart's Desire's cousin house for family fun time, met an adorable infant, had dinner, and came home to get ready for tomorrow.

Room

Wow. Emma Donoghue's Room is an amazing novel that I read in one sitting.

The ripped from the headlines premise is the story of Jack, a five-year-old boy and his Ma.  They live in an eleven foot square shed and are captives of a man known as Old Nick.  The hook? It's told from the Jack's point of view. Everything he knows - and loves - is in the room. His routine (breakfast before bath), and activities are all normal to him.

Shocking, tender, and unique, this book knocked my socks off.  76/100

Today I am grateful for: family fun time, sleeping in my own bed, being able to be flexible, libraries, the candle that makes my living room smell good, Lincoln Park At Midnight (my current fave nail polish), La Brea Bakery sourdough, falling leaves, and independent films.

2010 Goals: October Progress

I set specific 2010 goals so here's an update on my October progress.

Read/Write/Blog
1. I read 9 books this month, so that's 73 books from January - October. I'm on track to read 100 books this year.

2. My writer's group caught up over coffee and went to an author reading. We heard Andre Dubus III read from his forthcoming memoir Townie. It was a phenomenal reading, probably the best one I've ever been to. I loved his book House of Sand and Fog (read my review here). This was also a milestone year for my MFA writing program, so I went to an event to celebrate it and saw many of my former classmates, teachers, and mentor.

3. Yes, I am happy to report a poetry submission for October. I've been a bit sporadic in my submissions and I figure a little something is better than a lot of nothing. I average 50 rejections per acceptance, so if I want to get something published I need to get a lot of rejections first.

4. This is my 152nd post of the year, so all is on schedule for me to meet my goal of 200 posts this year.

Healthy
5. I met my goals of participating in 2 races, raise money for a worthy cause, and go outside my comfort zone. I have participated in four races: Earth Day 5K, Girls on the Run 5K, Race for the Cure 5K (where I raised money with my Furiously Walking team), and in September I participated in a Half Marathon! October was a lot more relaxed, with yoga, walks and some more walks.

6. My original goal was to eat vegetarian 90% of the time. This month I did not keep track of how many meat vs. vegetarian meals I ate. I'm still enjoying produce from the CSA and trying to cook healthy meals. I made spaghetti squash (based on Facebook suggestions) from the CSA and it was terrific. I made spaghetti squash from the grocery store and it wasn't nearly as good.

Fun & Friends
7. A new thing I tried in September was visiting the "What Makes Us Laugh?" exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. It was my first time at the museum and I really enjoyed the exhibit and laughed and smiled a lot. The museum features a lot of work by non-professional artists, mostly of the self-taught variety.

8. I exceeded my goal of seeing friends at least once a week. I went on walks with a friend, got a fancy pedicure with a friend, went to a baby shower, a new life/housewarming party, and attended an alumni event for my undergrad university.

9. My Heart's Desire and I had a pretty low-profile month. We went to a wedding (the last of the 2010 weddings, as far as I know) on a perfect fall day. We also enjoyed going on walks, watching movies, and made our first fire of the fall on Halloween Eve.

10. Photo taken of My Heart's Desire and I? No. Maybe we could get a decent photo of us taken in November but I'm not holding my breath.

Bonus! It's All Relative.
11. My father-in-law came down for a weekend and stayed with us one night. We all went out with My Heart's Desire's aunt and uncle and cousins and toddler for dinner (kabobs, of course). It was very nice that My Heart's Desire and his dad got to spend some time together.

I liked The Magician's Assistant so much that I kept my eye out for other work by Ann Patchett. Then I read this article about her life and home in The New York Times that made me want to apply for the unofficial writer's retreat at her cozy home in Nashville. Or at least sit on her porch and drink tea.

I enjoyed her nonfiction book Truth and Beauty. It was good, but I was blown away by Bel Canto. I know this was a big book when it came out but for some reason I had been reluctant to read it. I got into it right away and read the whole book in one day (on two flights). Interesting story and really beautiful writing. 74-75/100

Last Night at Chateau Marmont

I was looking for a light, fluffy read and Last Night at Chateau Marmont by Lauren Weisberger fit the bill perfectly. I did not like The Devil Wears Prada novel or read her other books, so my expectations were pretty low. Fine, Last Night at Chateau Marmont was on sale and you know I love a bargain. It's about a nutritionist who works two jobs to support her singer-songwriter musician husband, and his decade of hard work turns him into an overnight success. Success, fame, and paparazzi soon follow. For what it was - a gossipy, fast read, it was pretty good. 73/100

The holidays have arrived... in the mailbox!

Last week My Heart's Desire and I noticed that the holidays have started to arrive via catalogs in our mailbox. We already have received at least a dozen catalogs, from Crate & Barrel to Heifer International. We have decided to save them all from now until Christmas Day and see how many we get, with a friendly wager. I bet that we will receive 44lbs of catalogs (oh, our poor mail carrier!) and he put his wager on 25lbs.

Promises to Keep

I liked Jane Green's early books, like Jemima J, so much that I have read most of her books, hoping against hope for the good stuff. Alas, I'm still waiting. I got Promises to Keep from the library, having learned my lesson many novels ago that they aren't worth cold, hard cash or even warm, soft gift cards. 72/100

Hallelujah! The Welcome Table

I listened to Maya Angelou's Hallelujah! The Welcome Table and was utterly charmed. Read by the author, I loved hearing her tales and found this book a real treat. Any reader will feel Maya's love for food, writing, and travel (from Stamps, AR to Italy). The only downside? Now I'm craving caramel cake. 71/100

Today I am grateful for the lovely flowers My Heart's Desire surprised me with last night, a good night's sleep, magazines, beautiful fall days, honeycrisp apples, bargains at the library used book store (this week I bought 7 books for $16 - I used a coupon!), that it's almost flannel time, jazz, and knowing that the only constant in life is change.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender is a novel about Rose, a girl who can taste what people are feeling when she eats what they've cooked. A gift or a curse, Rose fears what she'll find out in every bite of food cooked by someone she knows, and seeks out junk food made my machines. Rose has her own struggles growing up and a complicated home life. This book was pretty good. 70/100

The Magician's Assistant

Ann Patchett's The Magician's Assistant is a beautiful novel that does everything right - characters, plot, action. Sabine is the title character, and Parsifal the magician was her companion and friend for 20 years. After Parsifal's lover dies, Parsifal and Sabine marry. When he dies (I'm not giving anything away, the first line of the book is "Parsifal is dead") she discovers he was not the family-less orphan he claimed to be. Tender, funny, and touching, this book was the best I've listened to in ages. 69/100

Om

In the spring, when my half marathon training kicked off, I realized I wanted to be outside more. So I quit the gym, happy to be no longer paying the monthly dues, and saw the world as my gym. Well, the world and some workout DVDs I borrowed from Netflix. Considering what I paid for swimming and race fees, it probably worked out to the same amount of money, but because I had so many different experiences, I feel like I got a lot more.

Since I am done with the walk/run training (yay! but I do miss it sometimes), I've been keeping my eye out for something new to try. When there was a deal for 10 yoga classes for $29, I bought them. I've done yoga with Rodney Yee for ages. I had a VHS tape of his A.M. yoga, which I actually wore out after watching and rewinding it for years and years so I replaced it with a DVD.

The yoga classes I've taken before were either at my fancy gym in L.A., or at a hippie studio that smells like nag champa. So that's what I was expecting when I went to the fitness studio for my yoga classes. Instead, I found a youngish guy who said peace about 15 times in 50 minutes and we practiced yoga to Bob Marley. No nag champa, no hippies, not even a dreadlock!

Mama Said

When I was in high school, I was surprised when my boyfriends (aged seventeen or eighteen) would be interested in playing video games with my little brother, who was then eleven or twelve. At first I thought they were just trying to get in good with the family by being nice to my little bro, then I realized that they were geniunely having fun.

My mom told me then that some guys, no matter what their age, are just big boys. The last three books I listened to proved her point.

Jonathan Lethem's Men and Cartoons: Stories wasn't my favorite. Some stories were clever "The Spray," being the standout. The rest of the stories were uneven. I was midly amused by You Don't Love Me Yet, which could best be described as lad lit with a touch of Details magazine. 66-67/100

The Way Home by George Pelecanos takes place in and around D.C., features a middle-class teenaged boy who lands in a reformatory for juvenilles, and when he comes out, he's not still a boy but definitely not a man. Overwritten and tedious, I only finished listening to this book because I couldn't get to the library. 68/100

Today I got up early, made fruit salad, took it to a baby shower, aww-ed over tiny booties, tub toys, and onesies, visited a garage sale across the street from the shower, returned a cardigan, went purse shopping at Filene's (no luck), came home and made a spicy black bean/corn dip, went to a housewarming/new life together celebration for the youth minister at my church who teaches Sunday School with me, chatted up the proverbial storm, came home and shared Chinese food with My Heart's Desire and watched some guilty pleasure television.

A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White is a good novel. Almost great. This book explores the complicated relationship between two half sisters who grow up together, until a plane crash tears their family apart. The younger sister is sent to live with her aunt in San Francisco, while her sister goes to live with her dad and his new family in southern Virginia. I read this book in 48 hours, then called my honorary grandma to tell her about it. 65/100

2010 Goals: September Progress

I set specific 2010 goals so here's an update on my September progress.

Read/Write/Blog
1. I read 5 books this month, so that's 63 books from January - September. I am confident I will soon reach my goal of reading 100 books this year!

2. I met with half of my writing group in September, and we caught up over coffee and went to an author reading. We heard Carolyn Parkhurst read from The Nobodies Album. I updated my essay for the Real Simple's contest. And...

3. I submitted the essay to the Real Simple contest! Finally, a submission! Now, to focus on a submission mailing.

4. This is my 139th post of the year, so 200 posts this year will likely be here before I know it.

Healthy
5. My goals were: participate in 2 races, raise money for a worthy cause, and go outside my comfort zone. I have participated in four races: Earth Day 5K, Girls on the Run 5K, Race for the Cure 5K (where I raised money with my Furiously Walking team), and in September I participated in a Half Marathon -- way outside my comfort zone! My summer was a blur of long, early-morning Saturday run/walks and shorter training run/walks during the week.

6. My original goal was to eat vegetarian 90% of the time. This month I did not keep track of how many meat vs. vegetarian meals I ate. I focused more on healthy meals, eating plenty of fruits and veggies, and consider myself a flexitarian for now.

Fun & Friends
7. A new thing I tried in September was going canoeing with My Heart's Desire. Of course My Heart's Desire has a canoe (paddles, life jackets, etc.) and we strapped it to his car, picked up sandwiches, and drove to a local lake. For the first time ever, I went canoeing and we paddled around the lake. Then we ate our sandwiches on a bench in the sunshine.

8. Seeing friends. I met my goal of seeing friends at least once a week. I went to a lovely wedding, dined on paella with my honorary grandmother, went to brunch, and celebrated a friend's birthday.

9. My Heart's Desire and I did have fun this month (see #7). We also went for walks, hung out at home, and had weekend breakfasts together.

10. Photo taken of My Heart's Desire and I? No. I'm considering making this a 2011 goal.

Mercury in Retrograde

Amazon recommended Paula Froelich's Mercury in Retrograde to me. After reading the reviews I decided to wait until I stumbled across it at the used bookstore. Lo and behold, I did and parted with $2 for the paperback.

It's easy to tell this novel is written by the former editor of Page 6 and is liberally sprinkled with horoscopes for the various characters, which wasn’t my favorite. $2 is the most I could part with for a book like this. Three stock heroines, a plucky journalist (is there any other kind?) of the Bridget Jones variety, a brave but scared attorney (professionally successful, personal life a blank), and the requisite socialite (financial cutoff from parents ensues shortly). If you need a book to read and leave on a flight for eight quarters or less, look no further. 64/100

Today I went for a quick walk/jog (the first real jog since my half marathon two weeks ago), made a Green Monster for breakfast, for the first time in a long time, when I left for work I was chilly and needed a jacket, said hello to fall, worked, bought honey crisp apples at the farm stand, considered pre-ordering Mariah Carey's new Christmas album (I love holiday music and am already working on this year's mix), hung out with My Heart's Desire, and wished it was chilly enough to require a fire.