Sunday, Sept. 13: Gray, Cool and Rainy

It's beginning to feel more inside-y and more like we might eventually hit sweater weather––the fact that my hot flashes have paused for a while probably helps, too. We got heavy rain on Thursday night/Fri. morning, and now have a drizzly Sunday which slows everything down.

I'm working on a list for the fall, as I/we adjust to one son being an adult with a home/camp about 4 miles away and the second one established at his college 2 hours away as a sophomore. My course load is a little less crushing this semester, so I feel a little more reflective and a little less swamped, though I *do* start a School Law class on Sept. 21, so this state may be short-lived. However, I am working to fit some balance into my life. Therefore, some goals:

*stay off Facebook (mostly) during the week. Too much of a time-suck.
*Work a little each day on a project: Nate's long-promised socks (one done, one 3" in, as pictured below)

     or on the runner I want to make and have actually cut a few strips out for. It's so easy to feel that I can't get anything done during the week that my projects all come to a standstill, when, really, I do have pockets of time, and I am lucky enough to have a place to leave them out! 

*Keep in touch with my family. I call Mom once a week, and soon we'll be headed regularly to Bates to see Nate in plays and concerts, so we'll see Dad and Mom pretty often, but I do want to stay in written or phone touch with the rest of the crew more regularly. 

*Fit in some fun stuff during the weekends: I hope to go out to lunch someplace new in Bar Harbor next Saturday, for example. We'll see if that works. 

So that's my list so far. I also have a nice set of new audiobooks that I got at the Audible $4.95 sale, so I can keep "reading" even when I'm sewing or knitting something that demands my full attention––or even doing laundry, cooking/baking, or cleaning up! So much good stuff ahead. 

In the meantime, I think I'll make a cup of tea (my first in a long time!), call my mama, and write my sister. Happy September. 

Saturday, September 12: Hey! Life Goes On!

Me Being Me Is Exactly as Insane as You Being You by Todd Hasak-Lowy
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Well. Maybe, in honor of the book's format, I'll do a bulleted list of pros/cons/and observations.
1. I read the book in a few days, interested in finding out what the heck it was going to do/where it would go.
2. The format is an interesting one, but sometimes fiddly/unnecessarily confusing.
3. The book was sexually explicit in a weird way: almost as if an actual 15 year old boy had written it. I was not 100% comfortable with that. I wonder who would be. I don't think actual 15 year old boys would be comfortable with that, in fact.
4. The characterization in the book was extremely uneven: I couldn't really get a sense of many/any of the characters except Nate, the stoner brother. Darren was hard to read, and the pivotal character, Zoey, was even more confusing or underdeveloped--in a classic case of the author "telling, not showing," I could understand the events and conflicts, but I couldn't really feel them deeply.
5. Overall, I think this book needed less style and more developed content. It treats some serious issues shallowly and, therefore, cheats the readers a bit.

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Stephen Briggs as a reader: Terry Pratchett as author: Tiffany Aching as main character: what's not to love?

This is not Pratchett's strongest outing. It IS his last, and it's a huge bonus in light of his diagnosis with Alzheimer's. There's an afterword that sums up nearly everything that I thought as I was listening to it, but the gist is as follows:
--this is Terry Pratchett's last book. It offers some poignant, funny, honest insights on life, humans, humanity, change, and death.
--there is a lot in the book: elves, trains, Ank-Morpork (sp), Vetinari, witches, goblins, and the Nac Macfeegles all intersect, but the novel is not the 500 pages it deserves (and wants) to be--Pratchett just ran out of time. Preston gets very short shrift, as does Vetinari! Unfortunately, the Wee Free Men are short-changed, too.
--I think each reader needs to decide if s/he feels it's worth it to visit one last time, even if the master is diminished, or if s/he would rather stick with the more complete and polished works.

Ultimately, "it is what it is." I'm glad I had a chance to read Pratchett's last--though definitely not his best--work.

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Saturday, August 29: Looking Back at a Fantastic Summer!

2014-15 was a brutal school year emotionally: while my teaching was the best it's ever been (yay!), the appreciation, support, sanity, work demands, and interpersonal work atmosphere was exhausting and draining. Nothing like working harder and more successfully than ever and having the School Board decide it's time to Take A Stand on the contract. Wow. Anyway: what a great time to have an absolutely transcendent summer. Truly. I did some school work, but not a lot; I went into school twice only, and I had a series of fantastic, fun activities that really proved that "a change is as good as a rest." I wonder if I can post a picture for each event! June 23: Andy and I went to see Keb Mo at Stone Mountain Arts Center.

What a great place, and what a great concert. 

A few days later, Nate, Andy and I had a wonderful week in Denmark with Silas and his family:

At Helsingor, Hamlet's castle, with our fabulous hosts

which we followed up with another great week in Norway with Camilla and her family!

Hiking at midnight in Molde with Camilla and Amalia

Even after we returned to the relative normalcy of Ellsworth, Maine, the fun didn't stop. We sailed the newly-restored "Fabulous" out of Sorrento Harbor: 

I went for several hikes with friends: 

On top of Dorr with Dawn and Cathi

went to the twins' first birthday, a Sea Dogs' game with Andy, Dad, and Ann, and spent three days in Rye with Julie! 

Big ice cream!

Whale watching! 

After all that, I ended my summer with a weekend in Brunswick with Ann and Sue. We added to my string of 5ks with the Topsham Veterans' Support Run: 

Post-race: matching tee shirts.

Post paddle. 

and we added Lynne for an afternoon of stand-up paddle boarding!

Back home, there was plenty of this: 

and we still have Labor Day weekend forthcoming. 

First week meetings were upbeat and cheerful, which was great––the magic continues! 

Unnatural Death: The Dawson Pedigree by Dorothy L. Sayers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a delight: I thought I'd read this one quite a bit, but discovered I'd been confusing it with another Miss Climpson story (the one where she meets with the seance people), so this was only vaguely familiar! What a pleasure to have an almost-new Wimsey. This one moves pretty fast, and has some unusual characters (I will say no more); it's fun to see Miss Climpson in her earliest stages, and Peter and Parker just beginning to set forth.

The 1969 edition is a true classic: acid green cover, tiny cramped font, and various typos/editing mistakes, including a few lines transposed on a page. Not easy to read in dim light, but certainly a vestige of a time when publishers were so sure people would read that they didn't woo their readers with attractive packages.

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Thursday, August 27: Finally, the humidity broke!

Paris, He Said by Christine Sneed
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I agree with many of the reviewers listed below--oddly, with those who say this is wonderfully written, *and* with those who say, "What the heck happened here?" Sneed's writing voice is compelling, clear, and elegant, but the book left me flat, and I almost deserted it midway through. I guess my issue is that the people in the story have no pulse. They have a lot of sex and live interesting lives, however.

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Monday, August 24: A Few Post-Weekend

Marry, Kiss, Kill by Anne Flett-Giordano
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Certainly a lively plot, but Flett-Giordano tries a bit too hard for the sparkling repartee and Chandler-esque "crackin' wise, see?" dialogue--it gets annoying. Example: one character makes a tasteless remark and another comments that it was offensive "like dry-swallowing an elephant tranquilizer." Or "The sex that night was baby-bear's-bed good." Classic mixed one: "she was stumbling like a new-born colt after a couple of martinis." Colts? Martinis? Really?

Bodies end up everywhere, and character development is heavily of the "tell, don't show" variety, but it would be an entertaining book to find in a summer rental.

Girls' Poker Night by Jill Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nearly gave up on this due to its super short, super zippy one-liner format, but am ultimately glad I stuck with it, as Davis manages some really interesting character development in the last third of the book. Davis is a funny writer, and it was nice to see her turn a laugh-track into a more rewarding and reflective novel about relationships, friendships, and trust. Stick with it!

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A classic, beautifully structured and paced story written when young adult writers didn't think their readers were stupid. So much to recommend it--listening to the story, which I've known since my father read it to us numerous times as kids, the miles flew by. Highly, highly recommended. Why has no one given this a serious, historically appropriate rendering like Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle's Pride and Prejudice? It could be fantastic!

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Thursday, August 19: Updatin'!

Alice, I Think by Susan Juby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Started off well with an hysterical satire of over-permissive parents who indulge their kids in any weird whim and don't prepare them for the realities of life; Alice's travails as she enters high school start to drag, and then the plot seemed to lose all direction and I skimmed to the end. An early Susan Juby.

Making Piece: a Memoir of Love, Loss and Pie by Beth M. Howard
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Making Piece was recommended by Orangette, the blogger whom I adore, but I did not like it at all. Her writing is self-conscious and dense, full of mixed metaphors and tortured similes: "His hands crimped the crust's edge, moving aroudn the circle with the deft and speed of a seaman coiling ropes". "This grieving business was like making pie for the first time. One needs some instruction in how to do it--consult a recipe, make a grocery list, and go after the goal with gusto."

She tries to do a symbolic examination of loss . . .and pie. . . but wow. Major fail in my mind.

Other Waters: A Novel by Eleni N. Gage
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Enjoyed this novel much more than I expected to. It's written by a Greek-American woman in the voice of an Indian-American woman, focusing on the issue of relationships, finding a spouse, and pleasing one's parents. The inside-view of life in India was fascinating even as I wondered how legitimate it was. Enjoyable and vivid, if a little "where is my life going/why can't I find a guy?" whiny in spots.

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August 12: Rainy Day = Reading Time!

Kissing in America by Margo Rabb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Moving, funny, well-written, and original, Kissing in America is an outstanding ya novel. Rabb manages to make Eva appealing and understandable while also letting her flaws gradually show through so that we can rejoice at her growth. Highly recommended.

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think The Middlesteins would be a great book group novel, as I enjoyed it but would really like to discuss it with someone! Attenberg's writing reminds me of Elinor Lipman's, but in this novel she tackles a difficult subject--obesity--and shows how it impacts both the obese person and the people who love, or try to love, her. Thought-provoking, sometimes funny and sometimes painful to read, the novel delves into relationships, needs, histories, perceptions, and the whole idea of appearance, health, and what we owe to each other. Highly recommended.

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