Monday, March 28, 2005

miscellany

I'm not going to count these in my book count, because I didn't read them straight through, I've just paged through them a lot.

You Grow Girl by Gayla Trail, the creator of YouGrowGirl.com. If you are into gardening at all, you must read this book. It made me feel like I can actually tackle this gardening thing without destroying the earth and all its inhabitants. (Yes, I find that happens often.)

Eat More Dirt: Diverting and Instructive Tips for Growing and Tending an Organic Garden by Ellen Sandbeck. The title says it all. Sandbeck has good tips and ideas, and explains them well, plus it's a very pretty book.

Leading The Artful Life: Interiors Designed With Artistic Intuition by Mary Engelbreit. Apparently Engelbreit has a magazine called Home Companion, and a lot of people were tetchy because this book reprints a lot of info from the magazine. I've never heard of the magazine, though, so that didn't bother me. Beautiful interiors, very inspiring. Some of the styles I didn't like so much, but the good ones made up for it. I'm looking for some other books like this, but can't find any that have the right mix, only stodgy ones that are not my style at all. I also checked out a little book of spring crafts that was done by Engelbreit, and now I know why I haven't seen much of her stuff before. It's just not something I'm into. I really liked Artful Life, though.

And I've been going through other gardening books, but none of them are especially interesting. Fitzgerald kind of stalled me out on fic for a while. I might try to pick something up tonight, but it's going to have to be GOOD.

twenty-four/fifty-two

Finished This Side of Paradise last week. It's another Fitzgerald, recommended on GetCrafty. I figured I'd give him a second chance while I was still in the early-20th-century mindset.

I am noncommital. I liked it, but I wasn't roaring to finish it. This one was about a guy named Amory (I thought he was named Anthony, like the protagonist in Damned, on first page-through, and I was so confused. Then I remembered how to read.) and was basically a coming-of-age story. Amory was nowhere near as annoying as Anthony, and I kind of liked him for the most part. The story was okay -- I was really interested in it at times, and at times I wanted to skim.

I think part of my problem with Fitzgerald's stories is that so much of them happens inside the characters' heads. I'm not one of those readers who has to have an Exciting! Adventure-Filled! Thrilling! plot in order to enjoy a book, but his characters just don't think in any way I can respond to except in an "uh-huh. And? . . ." manner.

He also seems to have a fascination with women curled up on sofa corners with pillows. How Roaring '20s of him.

All in all, more enjoyable than The Beautiful and Damned, but I think I'll put off reading any more Fitzgerald for a little while.

Friday, March 18, 2005

twenty-three/fifty-two

Ready for a long title? Here goes: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents: America (the Book). And as a special treat, here's a negative review of the book. I feel like I keep unfairly linking to good reviews of books I like, so there's a little change of pace for you.

But I liked it. It was like an extended Daily Show in book form, and that's exactly what I expected and wanted it to be. I laughed out loud a lot, which is something that almost never happens. And unlike SeƱor Reviewer, I think it stood up pretty well to a read-through, although I will admit to having an unhealthy fondness for satire. It was pretty smart, too; it was like reading a fun high school Government refresher course.

craving

I really, really, really wish my copy of Savage Beauty could be sitting on my bookshelf when I get home instead of in storage. Do you think if I wished hard enough a blue fairy would come along and make it happen?

(The title reminds me of the time I bought one of my best friends a Savage Garden cd and had to apologize to her mother after she found out, because it was evil Satan music. According to my dad, the music was not so bad, but the NAME? Baaaaad. I wonder if that makes this book evil as well. I suppose since it doesn't refer to vampires, no.)

twenty-two/fifty-two

Okay, so now that I've bitched and moaned all over creation about this book, it's not that hard to see which way this reviewlet's going to go.

Boo to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned. Actually, now that I'm a few days removed from it, I have to say it wasn't that bad. Fitzgerald's writing took a while to get into -- it was really dense most of the time and he had a put in a lot of (dated, obviously) popcult references.

The characters, though, holy crap, I wouldn't be able to stay in the same room with them for more than two minutes, if that. Snobbish, lazy, disagreeable, with a giant hit of feeling the world owes them a living. The main characters (Anthony and Gloria), anyway. The secondaries seemed to be okay, if still a bit snobby at times.

I think Anthony and Gloria ruined the whole thing for me. I actually liked the story, though, and by the end of the book, I kind of enjoyed Fitzgerald's writing style; I think I'm going to try another of his just to give him a fair shake.

Monday, March 14, 2005

that easy procrastinating feeling

So while I'm avoiding Gloria and Anthony and their infuriating senses of entitlement, I'll name my current top three cookbooks:

3. It's All American Food: The Food We Really Eat, the Dishes We Will Always Love by David Rosengarten. This is not the best cookbook ever, but the diversity of dishes is lovely, and this weekend it's the only place I could find a good creamy sausage gravy recipe. Even the old Southern Hospitality cookbook didn't have one. It's All American Food is good for ideas if nothing else.

2. Jack Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. My favorite vegetarian cookbook. This is actually the only one I have that I've cooked anything from yet. I like to look through Anna Thomas's The Vegetarian Epicure, but I LOVE to cook from Bishop's book. The recipes are accessible and so effing delicious.

1. Appetite by Nigel Slater. Oh, I wanted this book for so long, and it's one of those rare things that was worth the wait. I just looked through it Thursday and I've already made two dinners from it. And both of them were good.

I think Nigel Slater has replaced Nigella Lawson as my favorite British cookbook author. That might also have something to do with the story I heard on GetCrafty about Lawson acting snobbish when presented with a gift from a craftista. But I think I also am kind of tired of seeing photos of her swanning around looking sexy. It's like the food takes a back burner to her hotness. I mean, I think she's sexy, but that's not going to make the food taste better. And her recipes usually have one ingredient that I don't have and can't get, and it drives me batty.

Slater has a very down-to-earth writing voice, not cutesy, but not technical. I love it. And I love the way he puts food together. I liked Real Fast Food, too; it introduced me to the wonders of baked fruits last summer.

stalling

I'm reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned. It's not beautiful, and it's damned irritating. I want to make paper dolls of most of the characters so I can tear them up into little bitty pieces.

I hope that was what Fitzgerald was going for.

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

twenty-one/fifty-two

Back to the short stories . . .

Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You, by Laurie Lynn Drummond, is a collection of stories all told by female cops. (excerpt) I really like the way Drummond writes, and these stories were very compelling -- I couldn't put the book down. A few spots got a little too gruesome for me (the end results of torture, for example), but it wasn't like the whole book was nothing but cruelties. The stories are each narrated by one woman, and it was interesting seeing how Drummond wove all their stories together a little bit; for example, one narrator trains a rookie (whose name is mentioned in passing) who has a couple of stories later on in the book.

I've had a run of good reading luck lately. I have to finish a few more library/just-bought books, then it's on to my backlog of waiting books. I already have them sorted and ready to go (in my head, but that still counts, right?).

twenty/fifty-two

It may seem like I have tons of free time with all the reading that's been going on lately, but it's mostly due to the fact that Rabbit is taking an hour or more to get to sleep during her naptimes because of her meds, and after I read her a book a few times, I lay down next to her and read while she looks at one of her books until she falls asleep. So I've had some extra time to read this month.

I don't think I can say enough good things about Lynda Barry's One Hundred Demons. It was great. It's a graphic novel, or close enough to one to call it that, that addresses several of her "demons": dancing, dogs, hate, lost worlds, etc. I loved the stories; they seemed very honest and charming in a bittersweet way. My favorite part, though, was all the collage work throughout the book. Each chapter started with a collage that referenced that chapter's demon, collages that were made from paper, rick-rack, drawings, glitter, photos, fabric. They were beautiful.

This was a library book; it's one I want to eventually add to my collection, though.

Monday, March 07, 2005

nineteen/fifty-two

I very much enjoyed FOUND, from the folks at FOUND Magazine (namely
Davy Rothbart). It's (and by "it" I could mean the book or the magazine) a compilation of the stuff people find on the street, in restrooms, in abandoned buildings, hotel rooms, wherever. Found items. Some of it is the craziest crap.

Not really a lot to say about this one; it's either your kind of thing or not. I loved it.

the end of times

Sweet lord, they gave the Everyday Italian urchin her own book.

Where's my Apocalype emergency kit?

eighteen/fifty-two

The Bone Lady: Life As a Forensic Anthropologist (by Mary Manhein) is a quick little read; it was recommended to me after I said good things about Stiff, and I expected it to be along the same lines.

It wasn't. I liked it a little better, actually. This is closer to a memoir than an investigative piece of work -- it's like a memoir combined with a book of short stories. Manhein's cases are mixed in with the history of forensic anthropology and her own personal history, and the results are quite nice. You can tell that Manhein really digs (hehehe) her job.

I kind of wish the book had been longer, that's my only complaint. It seemed like an abridged version of a longer book. But really, if that's the worst I can come up with, how bad can it be?

trippy

I haven't read a book on a trip in a while, because our trips are by car and for some reason for the past few years I've been unable to read during long car trips. I either get too sleepy to read or I start feeling carsick. This was never a problem for me growing up, and it's really annoying now that we have to make three or four long trips (12 to 14 hours) a year. Bah. Sometimes I lay on the floor of the van and that works okay, but I'm too paranoid about car accidents to do it for more than five minutes. ANYWAY, I'd read long, complicated books that would take hold of you and not let go for a few hours if I could read during these trips. So here's my list (it would be longer, but I've misplaced my old book reviews and my memory sucks) of roadworthy books:

* Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
* The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
* The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
* The Other Boleyn Girl, The Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory (in that order)
* The Secret History by Donna Tartt

and I hate that all my Already Read books are packed up, because I know there are more, but I can't remember them.

Of course, those are all kind of thick books and heavy if you're going by air and not car. On the fluffier/not-as-bricky side of roadworthy, I think:

* I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
* Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
* His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

would all be good. And then of course there's the fluffy-fluffy stuff, but that's another list and one that's a lot more subjective. Chick lit vs. mysteries vs. graphic novels, you know?