Books for a Fried Brain - 09/30/2007

After reading the Hemingway book, I decided I needed some light reading. Having only read one book in September, my reading goal had gone WAY down.

I read "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White, mainly because I never had, but also because I knew I could knock it out in one day, which I did. Cute story of friendship and I know had my brain not been Heming-fried, I would have cried, but I didn't.

The second book I read was "S is for Silence" by Sue Grafton. Ms. Grafton has a series of books about a female private eye named Kinsey Milhone, and all the books start with a letter of the alphabet. I started reading them years ago, stopped reading them for whatever reason, forgot about them (swiss-cheese memory) and decided to re-read them all. In 2005 & last year I read "A is for Alibi" through "R is for Ricochet." Some stories are good, some are mediocre, but I like the character Kinsey, even if she cuts her hair with nail clippers.

Weird problem with this series: When Ms. Grafton started writing the series, it was 1983. She gave Kinsey a firm date of birth of 1950, so then, Kinsey was 33. Well, here we are in 2007, and Kinsey would be 57 years old. Mr. Grafton meant to write the books quicker? did not think about the dates she had set? Not sure but now Ms. Grafton is stuck making her character be in the 1980's, even with her current books. Kinsey can't use the internet, she doesn't have a cell phone, she goes to the library and makes photocopies of things, she carries a portable type writer in her trunk, she uses 3x5 note cards for Pete's Sake! She's stuck in the 80's and Ms. Grafton even explains this time warp in the introduction to one of her many books. This book was a quick read, but the whoddunit was a bit of a letdown. I await for "T is for Trespass" in December.

For Whom the Bell Tolls - 09/27/2007

Well, I finished Mr. Hemingway's book, thank GOD. Let me say though that the last 4-6 chapters were actually very good & fast paced. It was getting to the last chapters that was painful.

The book is about the Spanish Civil war in the 1930's. I know nothing about it. I wikipedia'd it and still know nothing. The main character, Robert Jordan, is an American Volunteer helping the rebels/guerrilla's/whatever. He's not "official" and neither are the other American Generals, corporals etc. "official" who are trying to help these rebels overthrow the government. Right there, I am over it. Sorry, but military stratagem is not my forte. THEN Mr. Hemingway takes an odd twist to the writing. He's in Spain, so let's write in Spanish...but translate it to English. Let me try to explain: he's writing in English, but in the way it would sound if it were being translated directly from Spanish. For me, I got it. I could do the translations in my head.

Example: the Spanish word for the verb "to bother" (as in don't bother me) is "molestar." In English, the word "molest" does NOT mean bother. It has a more nefarious connotation. In Spanish we say "No me molestes," or "don't bother me," so Mr. Hemingway "translated" that back from Spanish to English by writing "Do not molest me." It doesn't jive.

Also, Spanish people have two forms of the word "You." The formal "Usted" or "Vosotro" which is used to people you just met, your elders, your superiors. Then there is the informal "Tu," for people you know. To show the difference in the Spaniards' speech, Mr. Hemingway would write things like "Does thou understand?" when the formality was necesary in Spanish.

The whole book was like this. Only when we are reading Robert Jordan's private thoughts do we hear our everyday vernacular. It was tiring. Also, the tangents Robert Jordan took were too long and sometimes made no sense; they were the internal arguments one has with oneself and it was odd. There were too many back stories being told by the Spaniards that had nothing to do with anything. I just wanted to know if they got the job done. We did not need 700+pages to do so.

Sorry, not one of my favorites of my top 100 books.

Weepy Baby-Lady 09/27/2007

For my birthday, I got Josh Groban's 2002 debut album. I got it on Sunday and did not get to listen to the end of the cd until Tuesday on the way home. Song # 13 is The Prayer, by Josh Groban & Charlotte Church. If you don't know who these people are, get thee Googling. So it's Tuesday, it's rush hour, this song starts.....and I am crying like a baby-lady on my ride home. It is SO beautiful. This video does not even do the cd version justice, but here is the song that turned me into Weepy Baby Lady.

Flying Pastries? 09/13/2007

Isabel cracks me up. She loves getting "High Fives," only she never remembers it's called "High Five!" When she feels she has done something cool, she comes up to you, put up her hand and says "High Pie!!" We all now "high pie" all the time. We tried correcting her a few times, but we kind-of like "high pie-ing," so we think we'll keep it.

To Kill a Mockingbird, the Movie - 09/13/2007

After reading "To Kill a Mockingbird," I was sure there was a movie made of this book, so I rented it from Blockbuster on-line.

It was a really good adaptation of the book. Like all movies based on books, they had to cut some things out, but for the most part, were I Harper Lee, I would have been proud of this 1962 adaptation. In my mind, I saw Jimmy Stewart in the role of Atticus. I was close. Gregory Peck had the lead role. He did a terrific job of playing Atticus' quiet strength. Out of all the characters, I loved Atticus most. The story is told by his daughter, Scout, and some felt that the story was more about Jem's coming of age (Niki) but I still loved Atticus. His 1930's character embodied something we sorely miss; I sorely miss.

The movie was like the book; sweet & thought-provoking. The only draw-back to the movie for me was the actress playing Scout. I am sorry, I know she was young, but her acting was just so bad. It was her first role, poor thing, I know. She just never shed a tear in the crying scenes, not a one. She would make a scowling face and 5 seconds later, she's straight-faced again. I was really disappointed at her acting when she finally met Boo, played by the way, by Robert Duval (cool!!!) who had no speaking lines.

Here she is meeting BOO for Pete's sake! She's supposed to be tearing up. Instead we get a goofy, too wide-eyed look. *sigh* Aside from that, I enjoyed the movie almost as much as the book. May the Atticus be with you!

A Whole in the World - 09/11/2007

Although I have been in the doldrums and have not felt like blogging as of late, I do want to take a moment to remember today.

Crossing to Safety - 09/03/2007

August was a good book month for me. I read...a lot. Seven books total. The last one to make the August cut was Wallace Stegner's "Crossing to Safety."

This book was given to me by one of David's aunts to read. It is the story of two couples, told through the eyes of one of the men, Larry. The story is told in the present time and also in flashbacks from his memories.

Larry and Sally are a very young, pregnant couple who move to Wisconsin for a teaching job Larry was fortunate to get at the tail end of the depression. They are poor but happy. Larry spends his time teaching and submitting his short stories to magazines in order to supplement their income. Then they meet Sid and Charity and their lives are changed. Not only is Sid extremely wealthy, Charity is a force of nature on her own. She commands attention, she wills her husband to be a success and will accept nothing but. At first, I thought her to be fantastic, but as the book continues, I don't find her very appealing. I find her mean, stubborn and I feel for the hen-pecked Sid. These two couples love each other immediately and we see their lives in bits of Larry's memories for the next 30 years or so.

It's a quiet book. There's no sex, no violence. There's no adultery, no crime. It reads like a beautiful memoir (but it's not). It is a peek into the lives of 4 people, two totally different couples, who were fortunate enough to be together.