The Tapestry trilogy

I just finished reading the second book in The Tapestry trilogy, The Second Siege (the third book is due next year). I had a lengthy discussion with C about whether or not the series was a Harry Potter rip-off. While I have to say that there are many similarities, there are a number of differences.

The major difference, to me, anyway, is that The Tapestry books are rooted firmly in mythology. Now, don't get me wrong - Rowling is also clearly a student of mythology, and she draws on that knowledge. But The Tapestry books draw on these myths for major characters and story lines. The main character, Max McDaniels, is Cuchulain reborn, and he's frequently referred to as "the Hound of Rowan" (also the name of book one of the series). He and his roommate at Rowan, an academy for "gifted" students (really those with a talent for magic), get themselves caught up in incredible and very dangerous adventures to protect their school and the world at large from the Demon Astaroth.

Although some of the characters come across as stock characters, these are pretty good reads, and I enjoyed them. I'll be looking forward to book three.

Movie Review: Persuasion (BBC)

I watched Jane Austen's Persuasion the other night - the 2007 version that was shown on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre this past year. I also saw recently another version (1995), with Ciarin Hinds as Captain Wentworth.

I definitely liked the 2007 version better, and this mainly revolves around my dislike of Hinds as a romantic lead. Anyone who's seen a film adaptation of an Austen novel knows that the male lead is inevitably brooding. Hinds just comes across as antagonistic - something that I also found watching him play Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre. He doesn't even really come across as likable at the end of the story.

Twilight series

I just re-read the first two books in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, Twilight and New Moon. I certainly don't classify this series as classic literature or anything like that - even I was a little freaked out that I was reading a romance story that revolved around vampires and werewolves. But I do have to say that Meyer definitely tells a good story and gives you realistic characters to sink your teeth into. (Har.)

I've read some reviews that really pull Bella apart as a character, claiming she's not a believable character and that she's selfish and lets Edward tell her what to do. (This is actually why I re-read these books - I didn't remember feeling that Bella was such a whiny push-over.) And I have to say that while the Bella in New Moon is definitely a complete basket case over Edward, it's not without reason - he did leave her, and manage to convince her that he'd never come back. Other than that, I found Bella to be a very strong, believable character. She continually holds her own against vampires and werewolves, and her plan for escaping James in Twilight is way more realistic than any of the vampires'.

Edward, however, does tick me off in New Moon. I mean, for a guy who professes undying love for Bella, what the hell is he doing leaving her all alone and completely undefended? Even if he felt he had to leave, he definitely should have had some sort of contingency plan for keeping an eye on Bella, who is, after all, incapable of going anywhere or doing anything without falling down and hurting herself. Oh yeah - and some vampires have already tried to kill her.

I keep thinking back to my reading of the last two books in the series as well (I read the fourth book when it came out in August, so that's pretty fresh in my mind). Two comments: first, what the hell is with the name Reneesme?!? Second, Jacob imprinting on Reneesme still freaks me out. Not even just that he'd been all about Bella until R. showed up (by being born), but just the fact that she's an infant. I mean, come on. I know it's not even necessarily supposed to be a romantic thing on the werewolf's part, but it's still icky.

But, all criticisms aside, I loved these books. Stephenie Meyer is an amazing storyteller, and Bella and Edward are great characters. I could wish that they weren't quite so inward-oriented, since that leads to bad things; and also, the pace of Twilight is almost laughable. They dance around one another for months, barely speaking and brooding almost continuously, and then suddenly they declare that they're beyond boyfriend/girlfriend and Bella is part of the Cullen family. And then, practically the next minute, they're racing to save Bella from the tracker James. But then, it's fiction - which many reviewers don't seem to have a strong grasp on.

My Favorites

Everyone who loves books has a list in their head of their "favorite" books. Sometimes they're books that they come back to again and again, and some are books that struck a chord at a certain stage of their life. Here's my list of favorites:

JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings trilogy
JK Rowling, The Harry Potter series
CS Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia series
Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
LM Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables series and Emily of New Moon series
Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Emma
Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising series

Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

I can remember my first reading of each of these books or series very vividly. It's amazing how just thinking about a certain book can spark a flood of memories about what was going on in my life when I was reading it.

The Sisters Grimm

I just finished the fifth and sixth books in the series The Sisters Grimm, called Magic and Other Misdemeanors and Tales from the Hood. Each of the books in this series (there are six already published, with at least two more to come) is a fast read. There's lots of action, mystery, suspense, and fairy tale characters who turn out to be real. The Sisters Grimm are two young girls (Sabrina and Daphne) who are descendants of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, who wrote the fairy tales.

Some of the characterizations within the series can be a bit one-dimensional, but at least some of this is due to point of view issues (the main character is Sabrina, and she's got some serious issues with trust and her inability to allow certain other people to have an opinion or make a contribution). I really enjoy this series, and I especially love when fairy tales are "twisted" and you get to see an alternate version of what might have happened in the story.

These are fun reads, and I definitely recommend them. I have enjoyed reading these books as a bit of a break from some of the more serious fare that I read.

The Manchurian Candidate

Last night, we watched The Manchurian Candidate. C was watching it for a class, and I was just along for the ride.

The story is of a group of American soldiers that gets captured in Korea (in 1952) and gets brainwashed. One member of the group becomes an assassin, and upon their return to the United States after an 18-month tour, he gets introduced to his American operative.

I was really impressed with how this story unfolded. It was absolutely chilling at times - and Angela Lansbury (as the assassin's mother) is amazing. Plus, who doesn't like getting to watch Frank Sinatra thinking he's losing his mind? Old Blue Eyes is just fun to watch.

Verdict: Watch it! I'm pretty squeamish about over-the-top violence, but this movie is fairly low on the gore factor - though there are at least half-a-dozen on-screen deaths. Having said that, this is definitely a PG-13 movie. Younger children would just find it disturbing and confusing.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I'm playing around a bit with the design/layout and also the color scheme. I'd like to get more of an ochre-colored background than the yellowish color I've got right now.

Also, I'm going to start posting my recent reads and reviewing them. Yay! I've been keeping a reading journal since I was in high school, but I've always wished that I wrote down more about what I liked/didn't like about a book. I have a pretty hazy memory of some books, and some I can't remember at all. :(

Books to Look For:

Stuart Hill, Last Battle of the Icemark
Juliet Marillier, Cybele's Secret
Shannon Hale, Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack
Nancy Farmer, Islands of the Blessed
Christopher Paolini, Brisingr
Michael Buckley, The Sisters Grimm: The Everafter War
Alison Croggon, The Singing (Book Four of The Books of Pellinor series)

Favorite Modern Authors

A short list of several of my current favorite authors. I tend to read a lot of YA (young adult) lit and plenty of fantasy.

Shannon Hale, Princess Academy, Book of a Thousand Days, and Austenland
Juliet Marillier, Wildwood Dancing and others
Nancy Farmer, The Sea of Trolls
Tasha Alexander, And Only to Deceive and A Poisoned Season
Stephenie Meyer, Twilight series
Robin McKinley, Spindle's End and Beauty, many others
Jane Yolen, Briar Rose and Sword of the Rightful King, Wizard's Hall, many others
Susan Cooper, Dark is Rising series, others

New Projects: Baby Blanket and Cross-Stitch

I recently finished a fairly major project, cross-stitching a pattern I created of 1 Corinthians 13 (Love is patient, love is kind...) for my husband. So, feeling accomplished and slightly restless, I moved on to a counted cross-stitch I've had stashed away for a few years. It's mostly to keep my hands busy, to work on while watching TV or whatnot, but all the better - sometimes it's nice to not work under pressure.

Although I did also start a blanket for a baby shower gift, and that's coming up pretty quickly now, so I should get on that. Blue and yellow for a baby boy, plain crocheted stripes. I think it'll be cute. And, more importantly, warm and toasty.

My Reading List(s) Overfloweth

I recently finished organizing many of my reading wishlists into one massive list, some 800 titles long. (And that still doesn't include many classics that I'd like to read, but feel pretty intimidated trying to tackle on my own.) In the interests of not losing my mind about how many wonderful books I should be reading, I've decided to methodically chip away at the list. Every month, I'll choose 15 books to attempt to read, from 10 specific categories plus two "fun" "books of my choice." (The quotations are because these selections will probably end up being determined by books I've started and haven't gotten around to finishing, but feel I ought to. Not necessarily fun at all, you see.) The 10 categories are: Caldecott Medal/Honor Books, Newbery Medal Books, Classics, Adult Fiction, Adult Non-Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy, Folk/Fairy Tale/Mythology, Poetry/Drama, and Mystery/Historical Fiction.

I plan on choosing 4 Caldecott books each month, because I enjoy them a lot, can share them with my 2-year-old son, and they go really quickly, which gives me a huge sense of accomplishment! I've been plugging away at the Newbery Medal winners since I started library school 5 years ago (sheesh! that long?), and had gotten away from them, so I'm making a new effort. It's not that I don't like them (I can count on one hand the Newbery winners that I've disliked, and I've read several dozen), it's just that, as I may have mentioned, there are so many other tempting books to lose myself in...

The other categories are all either catch-alls (adult fic/non-fic, etc.) or genres that I especially prefer (fantasy, YA, historical fiction). Plus, I was an English major, and will feel until the day I die that I haven't read enough classics, or poetry or drama, for that matter. In fact, when I read too much genre fiction or modern stuff, I begin to feel that I'm letting someone down. I can't think who it might be, but it's a pretty powerful sensation, so I feel I ought to do something about that, too. Oh, dear...

I haven't really any expectation that I'll actually be able to get through 15 books a month, even if 4 of them are picture books. I do plan to limit myself to reading the books from my list before other books, however, and plan to move books to the next month that I haven't finished, or (gulp) even managed to start. I might should make myself tackle those first, even, but that might be too many rules even for me.

On the off-chance that I manage to get through all of my selections, anything is fair game, which I don't expect to happen often.

As I've managed to knock 50 titles off my reading list in the past few months, I'm already down to 750, and I hope I can knock that down another 50 by the end of the year. I'll post updates, but they're mostly for myself, since I can't imagine anyone else finding my Quest to Read Every Book that Looks Interesting (to me) will be compelling to anyone else.

April Reading List

1. Caldecott - various
2. Newbery - Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
3. Classic - The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
4. Adult Fiction - Atonement by Ian McEwan
5. Adult Non-Fiction - The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
6. Young Adult - Alcatraz versus the evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
7. Fantasy - The golden dream of Carlo Chuchio by Lloyd Alexander
8. Folk/Fairy Tale/Mythology - The Old wives' fairy tale book by Angela Carter
9. Poetry/Drama - Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
10. Mystery/Historical Fiction - The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
11. Choice - The book of air and shadows by Michael Gruber
12. Choice - Route 66 A.D. by Tony Perrottet

March Reading List

X1. Caldecott - various

X2. Newbery - A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
This was a quick read of a few hours for me, but I enjoyed it. There's something so wholesome about many of the Newbery Medal winners that I find quite appealing, and this book has that quality.

X3. Classic - Persuasion by Jane Austen
I couldn't believe I had never read this book before. I've been reading Austen since middle school, and believe I've re-read P&P somewhere in the 6-8 times range, as well as several read-throughs of S&S and Emma. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've seen Austen movies, either. It's something of an addiction, and no, I can't very well explain it to you. You either get Austen, or you don't. So a new (to me, anyway) Austen book to read was quite a pleasure. I can understand why this is not as popular as the three above-mentioned titles, though it is still perfectly enjoyable. I found the main characters appealing and everything charming, of course; though the Eliots (father and sister) I found flat and trivial beyond belief. Though, to be fair, they were portrayed as completely self-absorbed, so they couldn't be all that interesting, could they?

X4. Adult Fiction - I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
I have to admit that I was disappointed with this book. I'd read a review recently that compared this book positively with Austen's work, and though I should know by now never to get my hopes up so much, I couldn't help myself. I wanted quite badly to like this book, but in the end, it just didn't strike me right. The characters were very odd, and they seemed to fall in (and out) of love with all the wrong people at the drop of a hat. Aside from that, and some bizarre motivations, it was a decent read. Although I'm always left a bit flat by such a bittersweet ending.

X5. Adult Non-Fiction - My Life as a Furry Red Monster by Kevin Clash
Yes, Elmo. I'm sure some would enjoy this book, but I didn't. I wanted to know more about Muppeteering, and less about how Elmo is the coolest. (Besides, Cookie Monster is way better than Elmo.)

X6. Young Adult - Pearls Before Swine collections by Stephan Pastis
I love PBS. Often irreverent, but just plain funny.

7. Fantasy - The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer
Started last night, but too sleepy to continue. I'll try again in a day or two.

8. Folk/Fairy Tale/Mythology - Fairy Tales by Oscar Wilde
I've read some already. I enjoyed the couple I could find in comic form (illustrated by P. Craig Russell), though these were adapted. Very funny and slightly odd to read these stories. I've read several Wilde plays, and of course Dorian Gray, and these are (for the most part) remarkably dissimilar. Though with the same Wilde humor, naturally.

9. Poetry/Drama - The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Not started. Hopefully soon!

X10. Mystery/Historical Fiction - A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander
I can't help but like this book, a sequel to And Only to Deceive (which I loved). Romantic and sexy without being vulgar or crude, great mystery involving multiple characters and a variety of incidents, reference to great literature and a fascination with Greek antiquity, and above all, a heroine so outrageously rebellious against Victorian society as to be almost laughably implausible. I'm looking forward to the next book, which I believe is due out later this year.

X11. Choice - The Professor's Daughter by Guibert & Sfar
This was a recommendation from a library comic I read called Unshelved (check it out: library humor is totally funny to non-librarians! I swear!) They do a "Sunday Book Club" feature where they talk up a book (conveniently called a "book talk"). This one sounded really fascinating, but the interest was all in the possibility, I'm afraid. Short read - 20-30 minutes - but even so, not really worth it. Never lived up to the promising set-up (several-thousand-year-old Egyptian Pharaoh mummy comes to life in Victorian England and falls in love with an antiquarian's daughter).

X12. Choice - The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More Roald Dahl
I'm attempting to read through all of Dahl's books, and this is a collection of short stories. Well-written and (at times) funny, but nothing like as compelling as Charlie or Mr. Fox, et al. Not a bad read, overall. This was one of my "must finish" choices.

Scarf-a-Rama

I'm starting a new scarf. Whenever I finish a knitting project, I feel kind of bereft. So I wanted something new - and hopefully relaxing. Unfortunately, this isn't shaping up that way. It's crochet, which I thought would be a breeze, but it's full of color changing mayhem. Also, there's a right side and a wrong side. I should have realized that was a bad sign. I'm doing pretty well, aside from the yarn twisting like mad. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but it looks pretty. Hopefully I won't lose my marbles and tear it all apart before it starts looking like something wearable.

Next time, maybe I should be less ambitious. But I've always wanted to make one of those hood/scarves. One of those could be mighty handy in the coming months...

Storytime

T and I went to storytime at the library today. This fall, he has only made it through the entirety of storytime once. He always wants to leave about 5 minutes after we get there. Of course, I usually get to the library pretty late, and he doesn't get time to wander and check things out. So today, we got to the library at 9:40 and wandered around. He was so good during storytime. The librarian always displays books on a table, and he went right up and pointed at A You're Adorable, which he knows from Grandma's house. The librarian read it especially for him, and then she did another one I'd never seen before, based on a song from Guys & Dolls - I Love You A Bushel and a Peck. It was adorable. And then T sang along and did the motions to "Ram Sam Sam!" First time I've heard him do that.

Of course, this just fits right in with what I've been noticing for a long time about T-Man. He responds to music like nothing else. He's always loved Here Come the ABCs by They Might Be Giants, and Dog Train by Sandra Boynton. We're pretty excited about giving him Here Come the 123s, Philadelphia Chickens, and Rhinoceros Tap in the coming months.

But I've found a bunch of board books based on songs at the library, too. They're some of our favorites to read before bed: "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Down By the Bay" from Raffi are both big hits; he also loves "Hush Little Baby" by Marla Frazee.

He loves books and being read to, A LOT, but the music just wins him over. I think he gets it from me. =P

Gift-giving fun

I have always loved Christmas and birthday celebrations. My family never made a huge deal out of them as a kid, so I really get excited now that I can make a big deal out of them for T-Man. I get so into it, actually, that I tend to be more excited to watch him open his gifts than to open my own. (Not that he has actually managed to open a gift on his own. He might be there in time for his birthday.) With Christmas and his birthday coming up, I am getting very excited about T-Man's gifts.

For his main birthday gift, we bought him a whole set of play food. We also got him a bunch of cooking things: pots & pans, a colander, measuring stuff, utensils. Today I found a little chef's hat, too. Naturally, I'm pretty stoked about the whole thing - I love to cook myself, and my only sadness about the whole thing is that he's much to young to cook with me. We tried it with the cookies the other day, and it wasn't a disaster or anything, he just doesn't get it yet.

For Christmas, I just picked up the Play-Doh creativity center. It's a neat little desk with cool molds and cutting tools, extractors, and the like. Also, it came with a free 24-pack of Play-Doh. Just picking up the boxes at the store brought back memories of playing with Play-Doh when I was little. I don't think we had Play-Doh very often, but I do remember having a lot of fun with it. One cool part of the creativity center is that the top try has a bunch of built-in molds, and the bottom part is a massive storage container for all that Play-Doh and those cool tools.

We're not the kind of parents to really spoil our kid and buy him anything he even glances at twice. We buy him cool toys second-hand sometimes, and we buy him things we think any kid should have (last year, we got him a wagon 'just because'). But we don't just go out all the time and buy him new toys to play with. After all, he's taking over our living room with his toys as it is. He's definitely not lacking in that department. I was a little concerned about adding more toys to that amount, actually. But I'm feeling better about it now. (And planning to play with that Play-Doh, just as soon as he gets it for Christmas.)

So, here's my dilemma. How do I wait a month and a half to watch him open it?

And yes, in case you're wondering, I have most of my Christmas shopping done. I think there are two more gifts I need to pick up (one being an exchange that we haven't yet picked names for), and my husband hasn't done anything much, but that's his concern. Also, I have some really cool handmade gifts that are either all done or mostly done. I do have a scrapbook gift I need to get started on...

You may be cringing to yourself, but I like to plan gifts ahead of time. It's so much fun when you think of or find the perfect thing, and I love thinking about the joy each gift will bring.

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning, Oh What a Beautiful Day!

It's been a good day, I'm happy to say, even in spite of the gray skies. T and I have had a quiet morning. We had scrambled eggs for breakfast; we watched Sesame Street (as much as I get tired of Elmo, I love that tricycle song!); I worked on my cross-stitch project while he was engrossed with Cookie and Elmo; he "helped" (mostly watched) as I mixed up the cutout cookie dough, and then helped me pound it flat with a rolling pin before chilling (this was by far his favorite part). We traced his hands a couple of times to make turkeys, which I finished off with legs and comb and beak and he mostly scribbled on. We made one for each set of grandparents. It was grand. And he may be learning his colors; he guessed red and yellow correctly. We had lunch, rolled out the cookie dough, and then cut out and baked cookies. Since he mostly wanted to eat the dough, and I'm hugely paranoid about him getting sick from raw eggs, he didn't get to help too much with that, unfortunately. But we did talk about leaves and pumpkins and sunflowers and turkeys, some of the many cutters we used. We read some stories, and then I cleaned up the kitchen.

Here's the only let-down of the morning: my first disappointment from the King Arthur Flour books. To be fair, it is my fault. I read through the recipe notes (for King Arthur's Special Roll-Out Sugar Cookies) and the ingredients, then scanned through the recipe before beginning. But somehow I failed to absorb that the recipe, if rolled thinly, would produce crisp cookies, and if slightly thicker, crunchy cookies. Now, here's the problem: I'm not a huge fan of crunchy cookies, and crispy cookies might as well be dog biscuits, as far as I'm concerned. Well, as I'm not very consistent in my rolling thickness, I ended up with a mixture of crispy and crunchy. Sigh. However, all is not lost. I think that I'll be mixing up a batch of buttercream frosting this afternoon. I have rarely met a non-burnt crunchy sugar cookie that could not be much improved and softened with the addition of icing. And, really, I'd eat anything with icing on it.

Goal for the afternoon: library and bubbles, and then delicious roast chicken with potatoes, biscuits, and green beans for dinner. We may skip the park, as it's chilly and gray, but we'll see what Dad wants to do about that.

Book Recommendation: The Knitting Circle

I just finished a book called The Knitting Circle, by Ann Hood. It's the (semi-autobiographical) story of a woman whose only child, a little girl named Stella, dies suddenly at the age of five. This book blew me away. I have never suffered the loss of a child, thank God, and I hope I never will. But I could feel this woman's grief; I could understand her paralyzing fears and inability to move on with her life.

On my better days, I hope that I'm as good a mom as the character in this book. I wish that I could say that every day was a good day; but this book makes me realize what I take for granted: all those little moments that are tiny gifts from God. The way my son smiles and giggles when you tickle him, the way he studies things when he's absorbed, the way he dances, the way he gets so excited to see someone come in, or to go outside and take a walk. His determination that every drink he's given should be juice. The way he clutches his Bear, and the way he sleeps, sprawled.

I have a to-do list on my fridge, and I never get to everything I want to do. For the past few weeks, it's been a struggle for me because I haven't felt well. I get tired easily. But tomorrow, here's my to-do list: Bake cookies (let T help, even if he needs a bath afterwards). Walk to the park and the library. Run around outside and blow bubbles. Trace our hands and make turkeys out of them. Make copies for the grandparents. Read to him whenever he asks.

The Knitting Circle is a good book. Hard to read, but truthful, and though there are some sad endings, there are also happy ones. Oh, and there's lots of knitting. (As if you hadn't guessed.)

Better be Gryffindor!

I'm so happy with how this scarf turned out. And it looks so cute on him! Whee!

Picture updates

New pictures posted on flickr, as promised. There are a couple cute Halloween snaps, and the rest are fairly random. T has such cute clothes. I wish I loved my clothing half as much as I love his.