Monthly Archives: September 2006

This has been one of those weeks where I have to force myself to talk. Not only on my blog but in my life as well. I just feel like I don’t have anything much to say. I’ve been very…trapped…inside my head lately. Thinking about things; my life, work, the direction it’s all taking. It’s kind of depressing. And I am in a funk of sorts, which became worse when I realized I had an OB appointment yesterday, that I didn’t need, but meant that I would have heard the heartbeat yesterday. It just broke my heart all over again.

Thank God for books. And thank God my funk hasn’t touched my reading yet. After supper last night I curled up with the kid and read Little Women while she watched Baby Einsteins Baby Bach. It was a relief to loose myself with the lovely March girls and the handsome Laurie.

I had forgotten how much of a crush I had on Laurie when I read this for the first time. I must have been about 12 or so and I thought Laurie was the perfect guy.  He may have been my first literary crush.  I think Laurie is still pretty hot.  Doesn’t hurt I picture Christian Bale whilst reading either. 

Well, after a couple of chapters of Little Women I switched over to The Woman in White. Dang this is getting good! I had forgotten how much I love a good mystery!  Anne Catherick has just reappeared on the scene and I’m dying to know her secrets. I can’t wait until lunch so I can read.

My RIP prize arrived today and Lord I sure did need it today.  It was a very long, busy, tired day, but when I returned to lunch I found a package on my desk.  And it had RIP written on it.  My excitement knew NO bounds!  Especially when I opened it and saw what was inside!

So here it is, sitting on my bed.  I looooove it.  Thank you SO much Carl V, not only for the lovely amazing goodies, but for the unique fun of this challenge.  I’m having SO much fun with it!

And just look how excited Ellie is about Fall being here!

I found it!!

My daughter, the pack rat, had decided to hide all her toys behind her bed.  And, apparently, that included my book, several books I had pulled to take to the UBS, and all the little bitty Penguin 60s that I have.  And I think I have all of them.  They are tiny little books, short stories and excerpts of larger works mostly, that Penguin published at their 60th anniversary.  My grandmother bought all of the ones she could find.  And I, being the only other reader in the family, got them when she passed.  I am assuming they published 60 (I can’t find anything about them on the net) and I can only find 59.  Must scour the house for the last one.

They are pretty neat, I think.  I first met DH Lawrence through these little books, when I read Love Among the Haystacks.  And I can have a taste of Stephen King, Dorothy Parker, Emerson, Thoreau, Colette, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Dostoyevsky, Mark Twain and more.  They were very cheap too, running on $0.95 in 1995. 

I did find this article about them, if you are interested in learning more.

In other news, I recieved another freebie from Simon & Schuster; Just Between Us by Cathy Kelly.  From the cover it appears to be a “chick lit” book, something I definitely have to be in the mood for.  I enjoy the occasional chick lit book, but only it small doses.  And usually from exceptional writers, like Jennifer Weiner.  It’s funny actually, the cover is all chick lit, the woman with the missing head holding a hot red purse and wearing expensive clothes unlocking a hotel door, but the back reads like a cozy comfort read.  Except for the TV soap opera writer character, the single and brilliant attorney who looks like a “Renaissance Madonna,” and the shy beautiful sister who lives a bohemian lifestyle.  on second thought, it does sound exactly like chick lit.  Maybe I’ll get to it sooner or later.

I am an infamous loser.  And by that I mean I loose things all the time.  ALL THE TIME.  I can sit on the couch, use the remote for the TV, put it down and not be able to find it.  Without having left the SEAT.  I usually have to get up and scour the couch for it, only find it underneath somehow.  It’s a very strange disease that I have.  Looserofthingsitis or something.

Well, I lost something yesterday, without having left the room, the house, or practically the SPOT I was standing it. 

I lost my book.

The book I am reading.

The Woman in White.

I can’t find it anywhere.  It’s not in the living room, which is where I was.  I have tore my house up, the living room, the kitchen, the bedroom, bathroom, computer room, even my CAR and I can’t find it.  I am so frustrated. 

Maybe I should look under the couch?

Needless to say I am frustrated beyond belief.  It doesn’t help that I was getting to a REALLY good part.  I will find it, if it’s the last thing I ever do!

And, since I can not go to work without a book, I picked up The Tattooed Girl by Joyce Carol Oates to carry along.  Been meaning to read some more Oates, the 2 books I’ve read by her so far were amazing. 

But I still want my Woman in White.

I won an award! See!  It’s over there, in the right hand sidebar, under the calendar.  Thank you to whomever nominated me. I am tremendously honored.

This is going to be VERY spastic, but I have a lot of things roaming around my mind this morning.

My new issue of Book Forum came in the mail yesterday. This is only my second issue, but I ate up the first one I received, so I’m sure this will be no different. There looks to be a fascinating article of Shakespeare by James Shapiro called “Much Ado About Shakespeare” amongst other interesting articles. And of course lots of books, books, books. I can’t wait to dig in. The reviews alone look good. This may be my new favorite magazine. I just wish I came out more often.

This has to be one of the most touching, yet also horrible, stories I have read in awhile. After 65 years, two siblings who were separated by the Holocaust have been reunited. 65 years. Not knowing that the other was still alive. I cried like a baby reading this article. It’s just so wonderful. And sad.

I am enjoying The Woman in White immensely.  I am finding Collins to be much more accessible than Dickens, his contemporary.  But, you could sense the but couldn’t you?  But, I am not totally sure I appreciate the way he writes women.  So far only woman woman in the book (I’m about 150 pages in) seems to have any wits and backbone about her.  I’m holding out hope she stays that way. 

Is anyone going to do NaNoWriMo this year?  If you don’t know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month which is November.  You have one month to write a 50,000 word novel.  It can be about anything you want, any genre, any style, as bad as can be.  You just have to write a novel.  I participated last year, but didn’t do very well.  It was right after my grandmother (really, mother) died and I was so wrapped up in my grief I couldn’t really concentrate.  I still have that novel in progress (sort of) because it’s (I think) a fantastic idea.  I’m tempted to use it again, even though you are not supposed to use pre-existing work, but I really would like to get this book written.  And I don’t know if I can come up with another idea.  Well, actually I’m sure I could, but I don’t know if I want 2 novels going at once.  Decisions decisions.

See what happens when I have caffeine?  I don’t drink much, but when I do, my mind goes all over the place.  Maybe I should drink it a lot in November.  Would make for interesting writing.

After the pain and annoyance of going to the dentist today (I’m cutting a wisdom tooth. At 28. I’m a late bloomer.) it was SO nice to come home and find BOOKS waiting for me!!  Of course, I’m SO excited.  Doesn’t take much when books are involved.

I received 4, but was only expecting 3. Last week I finally broke down and ordered Twilight by Stephenie Meyer because New Moon , the sequel, came out last month and I have been dying to read it. I loved Twilight so much, I’ve already read it twice in less than a year, and couldn’t wait for New Moon! Incidentally, isn’t that a great cover?  I really love it. The innocence of the young hands holding the apple, the perpetual symbol of tempation. Really ties into the book nicely I think. I also got, since Amazon is so sweet to give you free shipping for orders over $25, The Haunted House by Charles Dickens, et al.

I am really excited about The Haunted House. Why?

On Christmas Eve, a party of friends descends on a purportedly haunted country retreat, charged with the task of discovering evidence of the supernatural. Sequestered in their rooms for the holiday, the friends reconvene on Twelfth Night at a great feast and share their stories of spectral encounter. “Conducted” by Charles Dickens and counting Elizabeth Gaskell and Wilkie Collins among its contributors, The Haunted House examines quintessentially Victorian themes–sex and longing, nostalgia and loss–in ways that continue to resonate today. Ingeniously conceived and written, and spiked with flashes of Dickensian humor, this volume is a strange and sheer delight.

And all three of these will fit for my RIP challenge!

Oh, yeah, the fourth, surprise, book. Simon & Schuster, those lovely lovely people who sent me The Thirteenth Tale (God bless them) sent me the new Philipa Gregory novel The Boleyn Inheritance!  I loved The Other Boleyn Girl when I read it several years ago, as well as The Queen’s Fool.  I have The Constant Princess (somewhere) but haven’t read it yet.  I wonder if I should read it first or go ahead with this one.  I was reluctant, because I wasn’t as impressed with The Virgin’s Lover as I was the first two.  I wonder if she might not be spitting these out so fast the quality is lacking?  We’ll see.