Reading Roundup: April 2008

Spindle's End by Robin McKinley

Though I spent most of my life (up until the last five years) avoiding fantasy novels, I did fall in love with Beauty by McKinley sometime around eighth grade. This is the second book I've read by her and I really liked it. As some of the reviewers on Amazon point out, the plot and characterization really aren't all that unique--if you want a unique take on Sleeping Beauty you should read Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. But McKinley's writing is beautiful and this book is truly "spellbinding".

Making Peace: Personal Essays by Eugene England

Click on the link, spend seven dollars, and buy and read this book. Seriously. It will be the best seven dollars you've ever spent. During the last few years I've started collecting books by Eugene England and I haven't been disappointed yet. The essays in this collection are all well-written and timely--although published over ten years ago most of them discuss peace, diversity, and violence and seem quite appropriate for our time right now.

March by Geraldine Brooks

I've only read Little Women once and it was a long time ago, but I still liked this book. The idea of expanding on the life of a fictional character is an intriguing one to me and it seemed like Brooks did this fairly well, especially since the fictional character was himself based on a real person. I thought the story and the writing were both beautiful.

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust

I heard an interview with the author of this book on NPR shortly after reading a review of it in the NY Times and they both piqued my interesting enough to put it on hold at the library. Then it serendipitously arrived at the same time as March and I got to spend several weeks reading about the Civil War. I thought this book was fascinating, and it's well-written and very readable. Books like this always make me want to become a historian instead of a literary scholar, but I guess I'll just enjoy well-written history books instead.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

We read this book for my book group this month and I liked it a lot more than I expected to. The writing isn't fantastic, but the story is really fascinating. We had a great discussion about cultural interaction, aid to foreign countries, religious belief and education. I think this is definitely a book more people should read and discuss.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

I also didn't expect to like this book; the plot seemed very cliche and it uses just about every convention in modern literary fiction. But I still found myself falling in love with the characters and I really cared about what happened to them. It was a surprisingly good read.

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz

I struggled through the first chapter of this book and nearly put it aside for later. Thankfully I kept reading because it turned out to be one I couldn't put down. The author traces the steps of Captain Cook around the Pacific and writes about his adventures as well as the history of Cook's voyage. I liked the combination of historical narrative and modern travelogue and felt like I not only learned a lot, but also enjoyed the trip.

Movies

Bride and Prejudice

So this wasn't the most artistic movie we've ever seen, but it was still a lot of fun. We laughed out loud during a lot of parts and enjoyed all the singing and dancing. I really liked the way the director combined a variety of styles to create something unique; I love stuff like that

Knocked Up

So I read a lot of reviews of this movie stating that it was "surprisingly good"; we weren't all that impressed. We don't watch very many crude movies and were actually uncomfortable with the level of crudity in this; I was reminded of why I don't miss high school much. It did have some funny parts, but it wasn't really that great. I liked Juno better.

The Aviator

Another movie that didn't live up to the critical hype for me; it had some good parts, but I found myself looking at the clock a lot while watching it. The acting is great and I liked a lot of the aspects of the direction, but the story wasn't very exciting and it went on for way too long.

Heroes

This is actually a TV show, but it took up a lot of our time this month so I'm counting it here. At first I wasn't sure about this, but I loved it and Mr. Fob and I are officially hooked.

The Bishop's Wife

We've only ever seen the remake of this with Whitney and Denzel, but I was pleasantly surprised by the original. I think it's a very sweet movie about learning to listen to other people and to appreciate them for who they are. Next Christmas watch this instead of something lame like The Santa Clause or Elf. (Me, opinionated? No way!)

The Sea Inside

This was a very interesting movie; it's a little slow and mostly involves talking instead of action. But the questions it raises about life, love, and our obligations to other people are fascinating. The acting is pretty amazing and so is the cinematography, so it's no surprise that this one swept the Goya awards in Spain and won the Academy Award for foreign film.

Notorious

I've read a lot about this film from a critical perspective, and I agree that the acting is great and the sexual dynamic is quite complex. But I still thought it was kind of boring and slow to start. The tension and resolution come late in the movie and resolve relatively quickly. Not my favorite Hitchcock, but still an OK movie.

Like rain on your wedding day

For about a month now I've been looking forward to Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's ice cream. There's a store in the mall near my house, and I tried to go last year but the kids were sick and I didn't remember until the evening and the line was too long. So this year I had it marked on my calendar and have been looking forward to walking over early enough in the day to beat the lines. Well, the other day I walked through the mall and realized that there is no longer a Ben and Jerry's there. They are turning it into a frozen yogurt shop. So sad. There's not another store in Seattle that's participating in the promotion either. Maybe some day I'll get free ice cream from Ben and Jerry's.

Then a friend of mine posted about the fact that tomorrow is a promotion at Baskin Robbins. There actually is a store near our house--I know this because we just went last night to use my birthday coupon. We chose Monday night because my family has a tradition of going out to Baskin Robbins for Family Home Evening. I'm just laughing that we spent five dollars on ice cream last night when we could have waited until tomorrow. How ironic.

Fear

I've been thinking about fear lately. It seems like there is a lot of uncertainty in my life right now, both in the world in general and in our particular situation this year. The other day I was randomly reading the blog of a friend-of-a-friend and she wrote about a dream she had. In her dream, she and her husband went to a store to buy food and the only thing on the shelf was a bag of rice. It cost three-hundred dollars, but they bought it because that was the only thing available. Reading that filled my heart with fear and I've been thinking about it ever since. Sudden inflation is a reality in many countries around the world, and it could certainly happen to us here in the US. For years I thought of food storage as primarily something to have on hand for disasters and emergencies. During the last few years I've really seen the wisdom of stocking up in order to "shop from your pantry" for meals. Generally we have a fair amount of food on hand and, as I've pointed out, I can keep my grocery bills low by stocking up on sale items. We probably do have several months' worth of food in our pantry, although it would be kind of difficult to eat from our supply without fresh stuff to supplement it.

With my new feelings of fear I'm tempted to start panicking and run off to the store to load up my pantry. But I'm trying to figure out how to deal with the problem rationally. We'll be moving in about two months and I hate to pay money to ship a bunch of food. I also struggle with using up stored food because we don't like many of the things that store well; I'd rather each fresh food. But I think we need to be prepared for what is to come. It's just a question of fighting the fear and moving forward to doing something productive.

I've also thought about fear as I've read a number of posts discussing the best way to parent out children these days. Many people I know speak from a deep, but vague, sense of fear about their children and the dangers they face. I feel the same fear, but it bothers me because I don't like to act simply out of fear. I want to act, not just react. The thing is, I'm tired of always hearing about how the world is "becoming more evil". How do we measure that, anyways? How do we really know? Does it matter if the world is "more" or "less" evil than it used to be? To me, I feel like that is irrelevant and spending so much time stirring up fear is counterproductive when it distracts us from discussing concrete solutions. I do think the world has changed during the last few decades and that we do need to change our parenting strategies, but I don't think it's a matter of degrees of "evil". I think the real problem is that we now live in an age of vast amounts of information and we have to learn how to deal with and sort that information as well as to help our kids learn how to interact well with information.

But that's a topic for another post. What I've been talking about is fear. I don't want to make my decisions in my life based on fears that I have. It can be a powerful motivator, but it doesn't come from God. He doesn't want us to be fearful and panic, He wants us to use our heads and hearts to be productive and do stuff instead of just sitting around worrying about it. Fear tends to encourage reactions while faith produces action and change.

So, what do you eat?

I feel like I've been posting a lot about food and grocery shopping, but cooking is a passion of mine so I'm going to keep talking about it. As I've mentioned before, we've gone mostly vegetarian lately. I'd like to find a local, healthy meat source, but when we do we'll probably just eat meat a few times a month. Maybe just for Sunday dinners. We still have a bag of frozen chicken from Costco in the freezer that we're trying to use up right now, but I think we only have one meal left. I think that cutting out meat has been one way to keep our grocery bill low. We also don't buy chips, soda, lunch meat, or very many processed foods (canned soup, Hamburger Helper, bakery items, frozen foods, etc) at all. Most of the time my shopping list includes produce, bread, and dairy products like yogurt, cheese, and milk. I also go to Costco occasionally (like every six months or so) to stock up on things. I've found that I can often buy things on sale for cheaper than Costco though. But I regularly buy butter, rolled oats, granola bars, canned vegetables, chocolate chips, and a few other staples there.

For some reason I'm fascinated by the idea that what I eat is probably totally different from other people. It's interesting that regular meals or snacks in our house are not at all what other people might eat. I remember in high school when I would eat at a friend's house and her family ate all kinds of things we'd never have at my house: Reuben sandwiches, Hamburger Helper, bagel sandwiches. My kids only eat cold cereal for breakfast. We're too hungry to take the time to cook in the morning, and S-Boogie refuses to change. I sometimes cook oatmeal, but she doesn't like it. I usually try and buy the healthy varieties of cereal, but it's definitely something that I stock up on when it's on sale because our store's regular price is way to expensive (5 or 6 dollars a box). I've lately discovered that our Target has cheap cereal, even though it doesn't really sell groceries. I don't go there very often but when I do I usually stock up. I also make my own granola somewhat frequently. I don't really buy stuff that's specifically for lunch; we just eat leftovers or sometimes peanut butter sandwiches or quesadillas. The last week or so we've had:

Last Monday: Crepes filled with hash browns, cheese, and scrambled eggs. We had some kind of fruit with it, but I can't remember what now (oranges?). For our FHE treat we had more crepes filled with raspberries and vanilla yogurt.

Tuesday: Lasagna, made with lentil spaghetti sauce. I made this sauce a few months ago and froze several containers of it. Lasagna is an easy recipe to make meat free and I prefer it without meat. I think we had corn and oranges with it.

Wednesday: Falafel, couscous salad, and fruit. I've never tried falafel before, but I liked it. We just used a mix, and then I tried making my own pitas. They tasted good, but my rolling and baking technique needs more work.

Thursday: I'm pretty sure we just had leftover lasagna since we had so much.

Friday: Oatmeal cookie pancakes and hash browns (I make the pancakes without the bananas). Normally I would make some kind of fruit topping or a fruit smoothie to go with pancakes, but we were feeling lazy.

Saturday: We had a ward "international dinner" and I brought a potato salad from Spain and a "tres leches" cake from Mexico.

Sunday: I used some chicken to make the most incredible pot pie in the world. It takes a lot of work, but it is one of my new favorite recipes. I've made it before without the meat by just increasing the amount of vegetables and I thought it tasted just fine. I was planning on having salad, but got lazy and we just had cut up pears with it.

Monday: Leftover lasagna again because we still had two pieces hanging around the fridge. I made these yummy bread sticks and we also had salad and fruit.

Tuesday: I made the lentils and rice and the Greek salad from this post for a friend who recently had a baby. We also had some fruit (strawberries).

Wednesday: This yummy quiche, the last of the bread sticks, and sauteed vegetables that I got last week from the produce delivery. I love getting produce and we've enjoyed the variety of new things we've tried. Last night we had broccoli rabe and patty pan squash sauteed with garlic and onion.

I think tonight we're just having leftovers; we actually do that at least once a week since many of the recipes I have make a lot of food. I usually try to make things interesting with new side dishes or something when I do use leftovers. I just thought I'd post a week's worth of recipes that are almost all made without meat. So far I haven't gotten bored with the meatless thing, but we'll have to see how I feel in a few more months.

Sometimes we do have fun

In an effort to appreciate more fully the fleeting moments of childhood I will now write a post about the great Family Home Evening we had tonight. I think it was only ten minutes long, but that's part of what made it so great. We've actually been pretty consistent about having FHE every week for some time now, but I will admit that I've often just focused on the fact that it's a great excuse to make treats. Usually the lesson is just a story from The Friend or something like that. Today I decided to make a little more effort and came up with a treasure hunt. S-Boogie has been into playing "pirate" lately and I thought she'd enjoy it. I made a bunch of simple clues like "I'm a yellow fruit that [Little Dude] likes to eat" and she figured out each one. She had so much fun running through the house finding each clue for us. S-Boogie loved her treasure hunt and I felt good about picking an activity that helped her talents really shine. She told me it was "the best Family Home Evening ever". Especially since our treasure was brownie cookies and I let the kids each have two for our treat.

That was our shining moment for the day. It kind of makes up for this afternoon when S-Boogie pooped her pants on the playground or the incident later tonight when Little Dude took off his pajamas and diaper and peed on his crib (and the floor). Or the guilt I feel about not going on S-Boogie's class field trip tomorrow. But I'm not blogging about that--just the good moments, right?

Realizations

A few random thoughts that aren't worth putting in their own post:

I think hummus and pita is the new chips and salsa. We had a ward "international dinner" the other night and there were several kinds of hummus and pita and absolutely no chips and salsa. Asian and Mediterranean foods are the cool ones now and I guess Mexican is not so exciting anymore. It's interesting to see where food trends go. I wonder what will be cool next?

*****

I've been trying to figure out my classes for the Fall and feel a little lost because I don't know what I'm supposed to register for or when to do it. I'd also like to learn Portuguese but they don't seem to have any classes available. I should have done that while I was at BYU. Maybe I'll start looking into grants for a trip to either Brazil or Portugal next summer. The idea of living abroad is kind of overwhelming, but I think it could be a lot of fun for us.

*****

I hadn't really thought that grocery prices were rising until this last week or two. Suddenly I do feel like stuff is more expensive, even though I still mostly shop the sales. I am pretty surprised by all the articles I keep reading about families trying to cut down from spending 600 or 700 dollars a month on groceries for a family of 4. Prices do vary around the country, but we're usually under 300 a month here. I also laugh at all the doom and gloom about how stuff like eating out and getting pedicures are "becoming a luxury". Haven't those things always been luxuries?

*****

This week has been designated "TV turn-off week", and even though I should be on the bandwagon for that, I'm not this year. It's still too cold to play outside and I'm afraid we'd go a little crazy without a wee bit of TV time. A few weeks ago we set a limit for S-Boogie of four shows every day (a total of 2 hours) and she's been really good at sticking to it. I honestly don't feel like that's too much and we're good at limiting the TV to only those times. I watch a few hours a week as well as Jeopardy (which I tape and watch later at night) so I honestly don't feel like TV is too out of control in our house. I see the problems with excess TV and totally understand them so maybe some time later in the year we'll do a "TV free week". Right now I think we're doing OK with our two hours or less of PBS a day.

*****

Like I mentioned, it's still freezing cold here. I think this has been the longest winter of my life. We love Seattle and think it's gorgeous, plus we'll miss all our good friends here. But neither of us is going to miss the winters. The forecast has been "mid-40s and rainy" since last October and I'm starting to go a little nuts. The winters may be mild (compared to Alaska), but it's a bit too much for this California girl and her Hawaiian husband.

We have some winners!

So I'm still a little sad that only 11 people thought enough of my cooking skills to enter my contest (Mr. Fob said he would enter but that he already gets plenty of baked goods for free). But all that means is that those who commented had a better chance of winning. I chose the winners completely randomly and they are:

1. Desmama
2. Audrey
3. Emma

If I don't already have your address, email it to me so I know where to send the goodies. Thanks for playing and maybe we'll have some other sort of random giveaway in the future :)

Take Two: Pay it Forward

So my last post included several different memes and I guess that the last one kind of got lost in the confusion. So I'm reposting it, since I'm surprised that so few people want free cookies:

I first saw this on Dandelion Mama's blog, but unfortunately didn't win. But my friend mhuff won and posted on her blog, so I was lucky enough to win over there. She mailed me a beautiful necklace a while ago and I feel bad that I have taken so long to return the favor.

The way this particular thing works is that you have to leave a comment in order to be entered into the contest. I will pick three random commenters on Sunday Night and they will win a prize made by me. Since I'm not very crafty, I will make some sort of baked goods. If you live near me it might be something like cupcakes, if not it will be something more sturdy that will last in the mail. You must be willing to pass on the good will if you win, so remember that when you enter the contest. Why don't we make things interesting by describing our favorite and least favorite baked goods?

Write it Down, Pass it Around

Sometimes it's seems like I've done all the little memes floating around there in blogland, but new ones keep popping up.



Mr. Fob tagged me to do the book one, but I've done it before.



Silly Marie recently did this post and I thought I'd go ahead and tag myself to do it:



Rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.

2. Share 5 facts about yourself that:



a. explain how you got your first or middle name

My parents got my first name from a country singer who was Waylon Jenning's wife and released a number of hit albums in the 1970s. They did change the spelling a bit. My middle name is from my grandmother on my father's side. She died when he was only ten years old, so I look forward to someday meeting her because many people tell me I look and act a lot like her.



b. where you were born

I was born in San Diego, CA nearly 30 years ago. In my parents' living room.



c. your favorite fruit

I love a lot of fruits: lemons or cherries when cooked in things, raw apples or pears with cheese, pink grapefruit, clementines, raspberries, mangoes



d. something embarrassing about you

I think that if you read this blog long enough you will find out all kinds of embarrassing things about me.



e. answer the question "Your dream wedding would have to include..."

Our wedding day actually went pretty well. I think if I were to do it over again I would have included a lot more flowers, but they can pretty expensive when you're getting married in November. I would also not include our photography who was creepy and took bad pictures and turned out to be a child pornographer. I probably would also do it in a different temple so as to not include hordes of other people getting married. Really, though, it was mostly a great wedding because we had our family members there and we had a great party for our reception.



3. Supply at least one funny photo that goes with one of your facts.

Ooh boy. I actually have photos of my birth somewhere, but I don't think anyone wants me to post that on the internet. I'll post a photo of something embarrassing I blogged about last year; I have a bad habit of cutting my daughter's hair even though it turns out terrible every time.



Now, for the really fun part of the post, I present the "pay it forward" meme. I feel bad that I've procrastinated posting it for so long, but here goes. I first saw this on Dandelion Mama's blog, but unfortunately didn't win. But my friend mhuff won and posted on her blog, so I was lucky enough to win over there. She mailed me a beautiful necklace a while ago and I feel bad that I have taken so long to return the favor.


The way this particular thing works is that you have to leave a comment in order to be entered into the contest. I will pick three random commenters on Friday night and they will win a prize made by me. Since I'm not very crafty, I will make some sort of baked goods. If you live near me it might be something like cupcakes, if not it will be something more sturdy that will last in the mail. You must be willing to pass on the good will if you win, so remember that when you enter the contest. Why don't we make things interesting by describing our favorite and least favorite baked goods?

Are we having fun yet?

On Friday we drove up north about an hour to check out the "tulip festival". There are a bunch of farms in the valley that raise tulips and daffodils and during April they have extra activities and things to entice people to come up and see the flowers. We've had a late spring so only about half the tulips were blooming, but the daffodils sure were pretty as you can tell from this picture. We first took the kids to a little "petting farm", where they had some animals in an old barn for the kids to see. Little Dude loved the chickens and the calves. S-Boogie, in her usual style, ran through the entire barn in about five minutes and was ready to go. After the farm we went to "tulip town", ate a picnic lunch, and then drove the long way home down Whidbey Island so we could ride the ferry and see more of this state we're about to move away from. The kids fell asleep for most of the ride home, and I nearly did too. Thankfully Cheetos are a good way to stay awake while driving in the middle of the afternoon.

After we got home that evening I realized something about the day: I think I don't know how to have fun any more. I really don't. We often take the kids places because it's good to get out and experience life, but I don't think I usually have fun on these excursions. I've been trying to figure out why it is that I rarely let go and enjoy myself anymore like I used to.

First of all, having kids and being a parent has made me feel very anxious. All the time. I'm really trying to overcome this because I'm tired of feeling stressed out about everything. Mr. Fob's brother and his wife recently had a baby and are always posting pictures of their hiking adventures with her. Just looking at those pictures makes me break out in a sweat, because I spent the first few months of each baby's life paralyzed with stress. I could barely manage taking the baby out of the house, let alone on a hike. What if they get hungry? Or tired? Or they cry? Or what if they poop? I don't know why I can't just relax, but I really stress about my kids and making sure they're doing all right and having fun.

I also realized that I tend to think that if I'm working hard I'm not having fun. Taking kids anywhere is a big fat hassle. Getting them in and out of the car; redirecting them away from mud puddles and electric fences and surly older people; answering the forty-million questions that S-Boogie asks all the time; it never ends. I'm not big on hassles--I'd much rather sit around my house reading a book than do anything else. Mr. Fob is the same way. Unfortunately having kids is not for wimps and I think I just need to accept the fact that if we do anything with our kids it's going to involve a fair amount of work.

I'm not sure if this post really has a point. I'm just trying to figure out why I'm a big walking ball of stressed-out surliness all the time, because I'm tired of feeling this way. Do other parents feel this way? How can I relax and just enjoy spending time with my kids instead of always feeling put out that I have to do stuff?

Farewell to old friends

My mom bought me these shoes at Price Club about fifteen years ago. At first I didn't really like them; I thought they were clunky and looked funky. Since I usually only wore jeans and T-shirts with airbrushed pictures of wolves on them at fifteen, I find it kind of funny that I turned my nose up at a good pair of Birkenstocks. Thankfully over the years I came to love the way they fit my feet and to realize that they didn't look that bad. I had them resoled a while ago when they started wearing through to the cork on the bottom. About two years ago I realized that it was probably time to do that again, but I procrastinated. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the heels are now worn clean through to the footbed. The footbeds are cracked across my instep, the straps are coming unglued, and they are filthy. My mom bought me new sandals when I was in Las Vegas last week and I'm excited to wear them (they're not Birks). But for some reason I still can't bring myself to throw these away.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is that I am teaching a class this quarter. There's only one available, and even though I'll miss the extra money I'm looking forward to more free time. And it means that we have more income and a plan through the end of June.

The other good news is that the college of Humanities at Davis has awarded me a special four-year fellowship. I get tuition and a stipend for four years of school, plus I don't have to teach the first or fourth year. Hopefully this means that I'll actually be able to get finished up in four years. I'm not sure since I might have to take some extra classes because I'm going from a single-language program into comparative literature. I don't really know yet what my requirements are or anything like that.

The bad news is that my stipend at Davis doesn't start until November first. It's also just enough to cover rent and maybe a bit more, so one of us needs to get a part-time job. And Mr. Fob's stipend ends in June when he graduates. So right now we have a gaping hole of four months where we need to be able to pay rent and feed our family. We're building a little bit of savings, but moving is expensive. Add this stress to the general economic unrest in the air right now and I'm trying hard not to get too panicky. At this point we're exploring our options and I'm praying a lot for something to work out. It usually does, even though it's not usually what I had in mind. What I really want is for Jeopardy! to call me up tomorrow so I can fly down to L.A. next week and win a million dollars. That would be nice.

The longest two-and-a-half hours of my life

I have officially been humbled and will no longer be optimistic about air travel with small children. Especially on Southwest Airlines. The kids and I just got back from spending a few days in Las Vegas visiting my parents. S-Boogie and I had spring break this week so I thought it would be fun to get away for a few days somewhere warm. When I sat down to buy the plane tickets that were on sale it turned out that trying to find cheap flights to Vegas was harder than I thought. The biggest problem was that most of the flights were not direct and there is no way in (you know) I'm taking a flight with a layover with small children. So I optimistically booked us on a Tuesday afternoon flight (naptime) and an early Sunday morning flight (butt crack of dawn). Both flights were 15o minutes of pure torture for all of us. First of all, both flights were completely full. So no carseat or extra space for Little Dude. I'm kind of glad he's almost too old to be a "lap child" since that usually means "squirming, cranky, kicking child who smashes an entire bag of Cheez-Its in the tray table and cries for twenty minutes during take-off and landing". Then we had less-than-stellar experiences with the airports, like the security employee this morning who cut in front of me in line and plunked his stuff right in between me and my four-year-old daughter. I didn't dare say anything since I was in a hurry, but I was more than a little annoyed that he seemed to assume a preschooler could fend for herself in line. Or the guy at the gate who asked "can I help you?" and then immediately walked off to help someone else. Sigh. And Southwest fed us Cheez-Its. At seven-thirty in the morning; not exactly my favorite breakfast. No wonder everyone hates air travel so much.

Other than our flights, however, we had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Lots of pool time, sandbox time, and chasing the poor kitty cat around the house. We discovered that Little Dude loves hummus and chips and that S-Boogie adores ants and spiders (not to eat--just to look at). My mom bought me some cool new sandals and we ate some fabulous Thai food one night. It was a fun, relaxing trip and I'm glad I went; maybe I'll just mail the kids next time.

Reading Roundup: March 2008

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder by Richard Luov

I already wrote down some of my thoughts about this book in this post. I thought it was an interesting read, but I had some trouble getting through it. He uses a lot of quotes and his writing seemed disjointed at times. I liked some of his points about children and nature, but the argument wasn't quite convincing.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

I find it interesting to read the negative reviews of books on Amazon; it often seems that people come to books with certain expectations, and when the book turns out to be not what they thought, they end up bitter and angry. This is not a how-to book on local food or on farming; it's a memoir. Also, although it's not really clear until you read the whole thing, this was not the author's first attempt at farming. The family's year of local food comes after many years of learning about gardening and farming. Many people thought it was too rosy and upbeat, but I enjoyed that aspect of it. She is obviously very enthusiastic about her subject, and I liked it. In fact, the upbeat nature of the book actually made me feel less enthusiastic about trying the experiment for myself because I don't think I could pull it off half as well as Barbara Kingsolver does.

After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away by Joyce Carol Oates

The plot of this book is standard YA stuff: girl is involved in a serious accident that kills her mother, ends up bitter and angry, falls into wrong crowd and self-destructive behavior, finally opens up to a trusted friend and starts to heal. I thought the writing made it beautiful and the characters were well-drawn and not stereotypical at all. As much as I felt repelled by the protagonist, I also felt strong sympathy for her as well.

The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson

After I was pleasantly surprised by A Company of Swans last month I thought I'd give another book by Ibbotson a try. I didn't like this one as much, although the writing was just as good and the characters interesting. I also was surprised more than once by the complicated plot. The problem was that I never really liked either of the main characters; I could see them together, but I had a hard time rooting for them when I really wished they'd stop acting so weird. I guess I just wasn't in the mood for romance when I was reading this.

This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff

I think my enjoyment of this book was lessened by over-hyped expectations. I've been hearing about it for years and I enjoyed Wolff's memoir of his time in Vietnam, but this one really didn't do much for me. The writing was great, but I had a hard time empathizing with him and wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel about his life as a hoodlum teen.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

This was the last Austen novel that I had yet to read, and I really think it is one of my favorites. Of course, I think I can read each one and declare it a favorite. But I really do like this one because it is so complex. The characterizations of all the characters and their various problems as well as the contrasts between types of families portrayed in the novel add a depth to it that makes it about so much more than just love and marriage. I also feel like I really identify with Fanny Price for a lot of reasons, plus I think Edmond is one the noblest of Austen heroes. I've seen two adaptations of this book, and now that I've read it I don't particularly like either one. This one gets Fanny completely wrong, and while I enjoyed this one, the interjection of certain elements to "sex it up" really leave a bad taste in my mouth. The book is great on its own, even if the story isn't quite as flashy as it could be.

Movies

The Last King of Scotland

The title character is actually Idi Amin, the outlandish dictator of Uganda who liked to confer titles upon himself. This film was mainly notable for Forrest Whitaker's portrayal of Amin, and he did a great job. I also like the trend lately of filming movies about Africa on location and using African music in the soundtrack. James McAvoy also played his role well, although I found myself struggling with trying to find sympathy for a character that isn't very sympathetic. Also, there are some very violent, disturbing scenes in this movie. I'm just glad I watched it while making cookies so that I was somewhat distracted.

The Queen

Another movie most notable for an Oscar-winning performance by the lead. I liked this movie quite a lot more than I expected; I'm also excited to add another film to my dissertation, since this one does fascinating things with mixing fact and fiction.

The Best Years of Our Lives

Mr. Fob and I were both pleasantly surprised by this movie. I thought it might be kind of long and a little boring, but instead the nearly three hours went by quickly and I wanted it to keep going. Also, the story really doesn't feel dated and the acting is all phenomenal. It was interesting because it managed to both portray a time that is in the distant past now while at the same time touching on issues that are still current today. Definitely worth watching.

Waitress

I enjoyed watching this movie quite a lot, and wish they had included more pie. That being said, it still wasn't that great of a movie. The actors were great, but the characterization was hard to read for a few of the characters. I wasn't sure at times if it was trying to be more realistic or more fantastic and it made it difficult to understand some elements of the plot. Make sure you have a good dessert planned for watching this because otherwise you'll find yourself going out to Marie Callendar's late at night.

It's a Wonderful Life

I guess I am now a true American since I have finally seen this movie. I was prepared not to like it since it has become so hyped and so cliched over the years. Surprisingly I found it was a well-made movie and that there is a good reason why people still watch it. It was also a lot more mature and subtle than I had expected, and I found myself genuinely touched by the ending. Maybe we'll have to make this a Christmas tradition when the kids get older.

Justice League: The New Frontier

This was obviously Mr. Fob's choice, not mine. That being said, I really liked it. It imagines what the world would have been like if there were superheroes alive during the 1950 years of McCarthyism and the Cold War. Very interesting. Kind of a combination of The Right Stuff and Superman.

The Refugee All Stars

Stylistically this is just your average documentary about a band. On the other hand, the story is fascinating and the people involved are friendly, warm, and fun to watch. That sounds kind of weird describing a group of survivors from a brutal civil war, but their attitude about life is still mostly upbeat. There are some moments when people describe horrific things that happened to them (and some really gruesome footage), but I was impressed by how they were able to channel their pain into music. The songs include lyrics like "when two elephants fight, the grass gets trampled". The music is great and I would recommend watching this for the insight into how other people in the world live today.

Once

My only complaint about this movie is that it is just too short. I wanted it to keep going so I could find out more about the characters and their lives, and listen to the music some more. It's a great movie with a nice story and beautiful music. I think there was some swearing, but their accents are so thick that I couldn't really understand it.