Just a quick note to my faithful 2 or 3 readers.
Haven't abandoned the blog, just got sick and then had recurring back problems and the usual insomnia, but through some righteous prescriptions am feeling much better.
In the meantime, I finally bought a computer--although I still don't have internet access at home quite yet--and racked up a lot of reading, so I have a lot of catching up to do--
Cats are fine, although Zelda managed to get herself locked in the bathroom (I'm assuming wind from the open window blew the door shut) Saturday night. I woke up two or three hours into her entrapment, and she'd managed to both shit and vomit on the floor, as well as tear apart a bag of recycling I had hanging from the doorknob.
yeah, what a dearheart.
I'll be back at my post soon.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
etc./Kindle 2=Evil
I'm being wooed.
I hear it now, calling to me, and it knows my real name. Big fat (okay, no, slim 10.2 ounces) evil bastard.
Now holds 1500 books. Better graphics. Better techie things I don't understand. Downloads instant gratification--hear the review on NPR, a couple of minutes later: book--like having a literary crack dealer on retainer. The extra space I'd have in the real world, the trees I'd save!
But, with cover and 2 year service plan, an utterly ridiculous 450 or so bucks. Absurd!
Amazon is trying to corner the market and thus pressure publishers to reduce their pricing on ebooks. And, as much as I love the big A, Jeff Bezos is starting to look a wee bit too smug for my taste.
truly, I know I don't need it, I really do.
I mean, I don't even have an iPod, and I love music. I have a pay-as-you go emergency cell phone that does nothing but make calls.
But, I will get approximately $525 back as a tax refund. It knows this as well.
Melissa has suggested that I tell myself all these negatives . . . and then buy it anyway.
She, and Mr. Evil Kindle Numeral both know me all too well.
La, la, la! I can't hear you, you evil bastard device! la, la, la
I hear it now, calling to me, and it knows my real name. Big fat (okay, no, slim 10.2 ounces) evil bastard.
Now holds 1500 books. Better graphics. Better techie things I don't understand. Downloads instant gratification--hear the review on NPR, a couple of minutes later: book--like having a literary crack dealer on retainer. The extra space I'd have in the real world, the trees I'd save!
But, with cover and 2 year service plan, an utterly ridiculous 450 or so bucks. Absurd!
Amazon is trying to corner the market and thus pressure publishers to reduce their pricing on ebooks. And, as much as I love the big A, Jeff Bezos is starting to look a wee bit too smug for my taste.
truly, I know I don't need it, I really do.
I mean, I don't even have an iPod, and I love music. I have a pay-as-you go emergency cell phone that does nothing but make calls.
But, I will get approximately $525 back as a tax refund. It knows this as well.
Melissa has suggested that I tell myself all these negatives . . . and then buy it anyway.
She, and Mr. Evil Kindle Numeral both know me all too well.
La, la, la! I can't hear you, you evil bastard device! la, la, la
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him - Danielle Ganek
This is probably a cut above most "chick-lit" (a term I hate, because it was originally coined as one of empowerment, and has been co-opted for a great deal of bad writing that rivals Modern Career Romances, (see childhood reading) as far as I can tell) -- I actually almost picked it up in hardcover, but wound up passing until the paperback, which pleases me.
Set in the New York art world, the title refers to a gigantic painting of a young girl creating her own painting, which becomes the centerpiece of an exhibit by a barely known artist, her uncle, who is mowed down in front of the gallery by a cab hours before the opening.
Yes, it's a comic novel.
There is a clever, wry, perhaps even smart novel struggling to emerge out of whatever this one is--I didn't hate it, but I found the narrator, Mia, just a little too self-consciously naive. She has worked in the gallery for a number of years while trying to become a painter herself, but much of what she announces is transparently foreshadowing. As soon as she declares she will not fall for the photographer who is hanging around, and who must not really like her, yeah, well, of course she will, and of course he does, and it will all turn out just fine in the end, as all chick-lit must.
Which is not to say there aren't some very good moments, not the least of which are the entire description of the Lulu painting itself, the snobby, mysterious gallery owner, all the players who converge to fight over the ownership of Lulu, including the now adult niece herself (the friendship that grows between Mia and Lulu is wonderfully drawn) and the obvious inside knowledge the author has of the milieu.
So, sort of fun, definitely attentive to detail, particularly of the ridiculously over-the-top habits of the art world, and a nod to how art can shape and transform our life.
But, no masterpiece. Yeah, I did just say it.
Set in the New York art world, the title refers to a gigantic painting of a young girl creating her own painting, which becomes the centerpiece of an exhibit by a barely known artist, her uncle, who is mowed down in front of the gallery by a cab hours before the opening.
Yes, it's a comic novel.
There is a clever, wry, perhaps even smart novel struggling to emerge out of whatever this one is--I didn't hate it, but I found the narrator, Mia, just a little too self-consciously naive. She has worked in the gallery for a number of years while trying to become a painter herself, but much of what she announces is transparently foreshadowing. As soon as she declares she will not fall for the photographer who is hanging around, and who must not really like her, yeah, well, of course she will, and of course he does, and it will all turn out just fine in the end, as all chick-lit must.
Which is not to say there aren't some very good moments, not the least of which are the entire description of the Lulu painting itself, the snobby, mysterious gallery owner, all the players who converge to fight over the ownership of Lulu, including the now adult niece herself (the friendship that grows between Mia and Lulu is wonderfully drawn) and the obvious inside knowledge the author has of the milieu.
So, sort of fun, definitely attentive to detail, particularly of the ridiculously over-the-top habits of the art world, and a nod to how art can shape and transform our life.
But, no masterpiece. Yeah, I did just say it.
Etc./ Movie/The Station Agent
In the section of Tea I read this morning on the train, the lead character ordered a cafe con leche, which made a wonderful movie pop into my head.
It's a simple story of friendship and loneliness: beautifully written and acted. It stars Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, it's about a guy born as a dwarf whose only friend dies and how he makes his way in the world afterwards.
Okay, so I'll admit that I avoided it for a long time because I thought it would be all icky heartstrings, but after I rented the DVD, I had to buy it. I watch it every once in a while, when I need to remember that just because my life sucks at that moment, it doesn't always, and even I should hold out hope in my dusty, crusty heart.
Not to be missed!
It's a simple story of friendship and loneliness: beautifully written and acted. It stars Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, it's about a guy born as a dwarf whose only friend dies and how he makes his way in the world afterwards.
Okay, so I'll admit that I avoided it for a long time because I thought it would be all icky heartstrings, but after I rented the DVD, I had to buy it. I watch it every once in a while, when I need to remember that just because my life sucks at that moment, it doesn't always, and even I should hold out hope in my dusty, crusty heart.
Not to be missed!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Book Lust - Nancy Pearl
Basically a list, this is a clever little book from a librarian whom I've often heard on NPR, highlighting what she terms as books that flew under the radar.
I've read a lot of what she mentions, and strongly disagree with some of them (see American Pastoral) but what I love is her directing me to out-of-print and/or favor books and authors I've never even heard of before. Through half.com, I've tracked down a few--The Girls From the Five Great Valleys, by Elizabeth Savage, a novel from the late '70's, set in 1934 in one of my favorite places in the entire world: Missoula, Montana; a couple by Hamilton Basso, who was an editor at The New Yorker for many years--before my time, admittedly, but totally unknown to me.
Pearl has a second volume, which I have yet to dip into.
Highly recommended for its sheer eclecticity--there is something here for every taste.
I've read a lot of what she mentions, and strongly disagree with some of them (see American Pastoral) but what I love is her directing me to out-of-print and/or favor books and authors I've never even heard of before. Through half.com, I've tracked down a few--The Girls From the Five Great Valleys, by Elizabeth Savage, a novel from the late '70's, set in 1934 in one of my favorite places in the entire world: Missoula, Montana; a couple by Hamilton Basso, who was an editor at The New Yorker for many years--before my time, admittedly, but totally unknown to me.
Pearl has a second volume, which I have yet to dip into.
Highly recommended for its sheer eclecticity--there is something here for every taste.
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