Happy Birthday, David!

Quick entry today to just say that my husband, my love, is turning 26 today.  We have a big BBQ planned, hopefully the weather will cooperate and it will be fantastic.

 (David is seen here learning how to fire spin, two weeks ago at a friend's house).

Happy birthday, hon.  I love you!

Review: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

I love a good three-day weekend.  And I can't tell you how excited I am that after today, I won't be in the office again until Tuesday.  It's been a rough few weeks here at work, between being sick and just not feeling it, and being stuck in a rut.  It will be good to get out this weekend.  Plus, it's David's 26th birthday tomorrow!  So lots of excitement happening over the next three days.  I'm going to be very busy, but I can't wait.

And...I finished another book!  Number 44 for the year...we're getting to the halfway point!  No hopes of getting to 50 before the beginning of June, but I'll definitely be there (or past there) by the month's end!

Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is by far one of the quirkiest, most bizarre novels I've ever read.  Our heroine, Rose Edelstein, is only nine years old when she takes a bite of her mother's special chocolate lemon cake, and realizes that she has a strange gift -- the power to taste the feelings of other in the food that they prepare.  Daunted, Rose treats her secret like the affliction she believes it is, feeling utterly alone in the world and in her special knowledge that she find herself incapable of sharing with the world.  But through the years, Rose begins to understand that she is not alone with her "gift".  Though she believes it to be a curse, Rose realizes that there are many, many people who have abilities that they cannot share with others.  The book begs the question of the reader...is having a special power or talent a gift, a burden, or a liability?

To say that I found this book bizarre is a rather large understatement.  When I picked it up and began reading it, I believed that I was reading contemporary literature.  Yet by the end I realized that I was reading contemporary fiction with a touch of fantasy or the supernatural -- not something I was expecting.  Bender's writing style is very fluid and elegant -- I was reminded of Janet Fitch's White Oleander several times -- and my one complaint is her lack of quotations, a la Frank McCourt, of which I have said before I am not a fan.

The twist in the plot really stunned me, to the point where I was thinking I must be crazy, this isn't where this book is going, is it?  Am I nuts?  When I finished Lemon Cake, I hopped onto Goodreads and checked the other reviews, and lo and behold, I was right.  Bizarre, but interesting. 

This is a book really requires a second reading.  Unfortunately, with my goal to read 100 books in 2011, it's going to have to go on the shelf until 2012 along with my other "to be re-read" books, such as The Hunger Games series, Bumped (I feel like I missed a lot when I read it the first time around, and I want to check and make sure I didn't miss stuff) and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (which I just loved).  Fifty-six books left to go before I can re-read.

Rating: *** and 1/2

Yarn Along! May 25, 2011 edition

It's been FOREVER since I participated in a Wednesday Yarn Along!  This was mainly due to my complete lack of inspiration (and being stuck on the same pair of socks forever).  But the socks are finished, and I figured it was time to get back into the game (seeing as my blog is called "Read, Knit, Blog" and I haven't knit in forever).

I started the Lady Bertram Shawlette last night (against my better judgment), but I didn't get far before I decided it was getting late and I should really be getting to bed.  For the record -- learning a garter-tab cast on?  Sucks.  I recommend Youtube.  Suffice to say, I managed the cast on after two attempts, and am ready to start the actual knitting later today.  

Several months ago (yes, before David and I were married), I started knitting him Elizabeth Zimmerman's Seamless Sweater (yes, I am aware of the sweater curse, but considering how slowly I knit, I figured we'd be married long before it was done, and I was right).  I got cold feet and put it aside sometime in August (also, I was bogged down with wedding planning).  Picked it up this morning and realized that it is right around the mid-chest area, and I am about six inches away from needing to put it aside to do the sleeves.  I'm making it out of (what else?) Cascade 220 in the "irelande" shade (appropriate considering that David is very Irish, as is our last name).

As for my book, I'm reading The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, which I picked up at Borders the other day (oh shush, I had a 40% off coupon).  I'm about halfway through; so far, so good.  It's a little difficult to get into (like Frank McCourt, Aimee Bender doesn't use quotation marks, so that's fun) but the premise -- a story about a girl who can taste the emotions of the people who prepare the food she eats -- is an interesting one.  I will probably be done with it within a day or two.  Depending on how the hockey playoffs go (go Bruins!) and how much time I'm willing to put aside my knitting.

Happy Wednesday!

I knit stuff, too, sometimes

For some reason (like clockwork), my knitting mojo always comes back when I reach an emotional low point.  And this is one of those times, unfortunately.  I don't talk about it much on this blog, but I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and car accident-related PTSD back in 2008, and this is one of those so-called "low points" that I get to every so often.  I don't know what triggered it, I'm not sure, and even if I went back and retraced my steps, I don't think I would find it.  But in the past few days I've been having tiny, harsh panic attacks every so often.  They're not the full-blown, suckass ones that I used to get, but they're short, and harsh, and sharp, and they suck.  I don't see them coming, they just happen...and I'm left to counteract the results and wonder what the hell I'm doing wrong this time.

Fortunately, as I said a few months ago...there are many, many babies being born into my circle of friends this year.  So I've no end of knitting with which to occupy myself.  Knitting is one of those perfect activities to do when anxious.  It has the benefits of both calming the nerves and giving you something to occupy yourself with, while also letting you think (unless you're knitting something complicated -- then you're on your own).

Today I'm knitting another of Ginny's Newborn Hat with a Hint of Lace.  This one is for another member of David's family who is having a baby (not finding out the sex.  Yarn is something I bought on sale at WEBS, just  because it was soft and shiny and on sale and I was weak.  I don't remember the color name or the name of yarn (it's a pretty shiny silvery color).  I'm knitting it on US 3's.  It's even coming out a little big, which kind of surprised me.  On 3's I expected it to be a little smaller than normal.  But.  That's the way knitting goes, I guess.

I've really been thinking a lot about the Lady Bertram shawlette kit that I picked up a month ago.  I don't know if starting lace is the best idea right now (baby hats seem so much safer).  But it can't hurt to just wind the yarn, right?  And should I feel confident enough, maybe I'll give it a whirl.

And with any luck, be feeling more like "myself", soon.

Review: The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

While having a cold affects your productivity in a lot of ways, it certainly doesn't hurt your reading!  I tore through two books yesterday on my self-appointed "day of rest", and now I will review the second.  But a note first, so that (hopefully) I'll look back on it and remember.  Pushing myself to get better has the opposite effect on me.  It only makes me worse.  I took one half day this week in an attempt to rest up and get better.  This was clearly not enough, as I spent the latter half of the week in a zombie-like state.  Taking Sunday off to sleep, rest, and read was the best decision I could have made.  Maybe I'll be smarter next time.

Anyway.  On to Number 43 of 100.

The Birth of Venus is historical fiction set against the backdrop of late 15th century Florence, Italy, during the city's control by the ruling houses of Medici and Borgia.  A young woman, Alessandra Cecchi, is torn between her family's wishes for her and her own great desire: to become a artist.  When her family brings in a painter to decorate their personal family chapel, Alessandra is immediately drawn to him and his work.  But the politics of Florence on the brink of invasion by the French, along with the loud protestations of Friar Savonarola, lead Alessandra into a hasty marriage that has serious repercussions.  As Florence and its inhabitants are caught up in the whirlwind around them, Alessandra takes her destiny into her own hands and makes the only decisions she knows she can, in order to secure the future.

This book was not easy to get into.  The prologue has a great hook, but the first few chapters are slow and difficult at first.  I put Venus down to read Bumped, I will admit.  The story doesn't really pick up until after Alessandra is married.  After that turning point, I found it much easier to stay involved with the book.  The ending is unfortunately, as another reviewer put it, a "cop-out".  Alessandra's much-beloved painter is never named.  Also, the title is misleading -- I believed until about midway through the book that the painter was Sandro Botticelli, the artist who painted the titular "Birth of Venus".  After that, I was lost until I got to the afterward -- and even then, author Dunant never explicitly says who the painter was...it's more of a hint. 

It's an extremely vivid book, however, if one is interested in both historical fiction and art.  I took a class in Art History my freshman year of college, and Renaissance artwork has always been a favorite era of mine (I would dearly love to travel to Italy and see these masterpieces first-hand).  Dunant is very good at painting a vivid picture (excuse the pun) of Florentine life around this turbulent period.  The book definitely makes me want to learn more about Italian history, particularly the Medicis and the Borgias, who are hinted at throughout the book.  However, it's not something I'm likely to reread, and I submitted it on PBS right after I was finished.  Good, but not a re-read.

Rating: ***

Review: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott first wrote Little Women as a submission for a newspaper column's call for "a girls' book" -- and that really is, at its heart, what Little Women is.  I'm sure there must be some men who enjoy it (I don't know any) but it is a book about and directed towards young women.  A unisex book, this very much is not.

Alcott patterned the titular "little women" of her book after herself and her three sisters, which may explain the very lifelike characters and very obvious failings of each girl (except for Beth, of course, who has no failings -- more on that later).  Gentle Meg is sweet and nurturing, but her vanity and covetous nature often lead to heartbreak.  Tomboy Jo is always blundering into one mishap after another, though she has a heart of gold and a fervent desire to do good.  Pretty Amy is spoiled and pettish, but quick to repent of her wrongdoings.  As for character development -- the book is rife with it (and should be, since it takes place over the course of fifteen years), and the girls' natures are tried and changed throughout.

The language is antiquated and can be difficult, not to read, but to endure without eye-rolling at times. Despite their clearly-outlined weaknesses, the girls speak like "Mary Sues" at times, parroting their elders and, when criticized, falling docily into line.  Also, there's the issue of the character of Beth.  *sigh*  There is a reason why nobody ever says that Beth is her favorite character.  Because Beth doesn't really have much of a personality.  Sure, she's sweet and good, but that's it.  The only chapter in which one really starts to feel any sort of emotion about Beth is where she visits the Hummels when the baby has scarlet fever.  Other than that, she's relatively forgettable.  Perhaps the personality was true to life -- Alcott modeled the character of Beth after her own younger sister, Elizabeth Sewell Alcott -- but when compared to the vivacious and entertaining personalities of Meg, Jo, and Amy, Beth fades into the background and becomes largely forgettable.

I think I loved this book more when I was a teenager, because it is more a teenager's (or even a child's) book.  Not necessarily because it has a happy ending (it doesn't in the fairy tale sense), but because it truly is a story about "little" women coming of age.  Nevertheless, I will keep the paperback on my shelf, to hopefully share with a daughter of my own someday.

Rating: *** and 1/2

A FO foiled, and a new bag

By rights, I should have had a FO to show you today.  I have finally finished the stupid pair of Noro Silk Garden Socks.  Unfortunately, as soon as I finished the second sock, I realized that I have somehow misplaced the first sock.  Fail.  They were meant as a gift, too.  So I figure I'll be spending the better part of the weekend tearing the house apart in search of that sock.

I bought myself a new bag this week.  I've been admiring Vera Bradley for awhile (my future SIL has a few beautiful pieces) and I decided to pick up a sale piece for myself.  It's the Vera Bradley Villager and I bought it in the "Sittin' in a Tree" motif, which is now discontinued, but you can still get it through the website.

I LOVE this bag.  Very soft, very big, tons of space.  It holds pretty much everything I need to carry on a regular basis, and it slings over my shoulder comfortably (and stays there).

Inside (try not to judge): Knitting, The Tudors DVDs, a paper book (The Birth of Venus), Kindle, wallet, cold medication (I've been sick all week), and that's not even looking in the pockets, which are also full.  Good stuff, right here.

I'm also working on a number of baby hats, as I said before.  There are still three new babies coming into the world this summer, and all will be kitted out with new hats.  I have one (a girl's cap) finished already.  The other two babies' sexes haven't been determined yet, so I am making them of unisex colors (and stashbusting at the same time).

I leave you with this last picture -- a little Eye Candy for Friday.  I received a pretty pink plant as a "thank you" from someone at the church, and it's been flourishing!  The started baby cap is next to it -- still have a long way to go, but it's a start!

Happy weekend!

Review: Bumped by Megan McCafferty

Confession: I am not usually a fan of dystopian literature.  Or of young adult literature.  Or at least, I thought I wasn't, until 2011.  The last "YA" books that I read were Twilight and the Princess Diaries series.  We all know my feelings on Twilight, I doubt that I need to go over it again; and as for the Diaries...I found myself liking them less and less the further on I went.  I liked the originals, but as time went on, Princess Mia's lack of character development really started to chafe on me...but this isn't a review of Diaries.  This is my four dystopian-YA lit book review of the year (after all three books of The Hunger Games series).

In Megan McCafferty's Bumped, it is the year 2036, and the United States has been stricken with a virus that renders everyone over the age of 18 infertile.  For the first time in history, teen pregnancy is not only encouraged, it is a booming (and expensive) marketable enterprise.  Sixteen-year-old, separated-from-birth twins Melody and Harmony find themselves on opposite viewpoints regarding the business of giving birth.  Ambitious Melody is days away from sealing a contract that will give her a six-figure deal and a guaranteed position at a prestigious college in exchange for "bumping" and giving a couple her baby.  Virtuous Harmony has come to visit her sister, determined to help her find faith in God and realize that bumping for pay is a sin.  But a case of mistaken identity sends the two girls into tailspin, forcing them to admit to each other what they have never been able to give voice to on their own.

This book is (there's no other way to put it) a very quick read.  I bought it around 6 PM last night and I finished it this morning.  With cliffhangers at the end of nearly every chapter, it is nearly impossible to put down.  Unfortunately (and I expected this), the end is a cliffhanger as well -- McCafferty is said to be writing the sequel to Bumped right now, but since the book just came out at the end of April, I think it's going to be a very long time before the next installment of the saga of Melody, Harmony, and everyone else in their universe.

The biggest hurdle I had to overcome in reading Bumped is the futuristic language.  The world that McCafferty has created is wholly different from ours, where technology has literally taken over everything (except, ironically, bumping -- more on that later) and sometimes (especially in the beginning) trying to figure out what the characters are saying or doing can be difficult.  Once you clear the hurdles of the technical terms and slang, however, it's an easy read.

The book is eerie, not because it is so far-fetched, but because, as Bill Watterson once said in a Calvin-and-Hobbes strip, it's "not enough, really."  We talk today about the idea of being able to create life in a petri dish, or "test-tube babies" -- a world where sex-based procreation no longer exists, because it is unnecessary.  McCafferty envisions another world -- a world where sex is mass-market, where pregnant teens are the world's most expensive commodity, where safe sex is a myth and "everyone is doing it" isn't just a slogan, it's a way of life.  And yet, for all the sex that is going on, the emotions are cut right out of the act itself.  Even though sex is rampant, the heart of it is out.  "Lovemaking" is obsolete, even something to be scorned; a girl's worth is determined by how fruitful she is and what her genetic makeup will provide in the way of children; men are deemed worthless if they are missing a couple of inches in height or if their IQs aren't top-notch.  We talk constantly about "preserving the sex act" but in McCafferty's world, the sex act is preserved but emotionless -- leading me as the reader to imagine "what if we went in the opposite direction?"  Is it all that far-fetched, really?

As for character development: I have to admit that at first I did not sympathize with either Melody or Harmony, since they make themselves so very unsympathetic in the beginning of the book.  Melody comes across as a jaded opportunist, a girl who is willing to sell her soul and integrity for six figures and a good college.  Harmony is an insipid Bible-thumper, parroting what she has been told her whole life, someone to be completely ignored and overlooked.  Yet as the book progressed, and each girl endures her own tests and trial by fire, so to speak, the character development was impressive, and I found myself liking both girls immensely.  In regards to the back-up characters, with the exception of one, they were all completely zombified, toeing the party line on bumping and pay-for-pregnancy.  It was hard to relate to any of them, but I think that's where McCafferty was going with it.

I enjoyed Bumped very much, and I will be on the lookout for its sequel, whenever that day comes.

Rating: ****

In My Mailbox -- May 16, '11

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme by The Story Siren -- click that link if you want to know more!  I don't know how often I'm going to be doing this (probably not every week), but since I definitely had an influx of new books this past weekend, I thought I'd join in!

All three of these are from PaperbackSwap, which I've mentioned before.  I requested these a little while ago.  One arrived on Friday, and two today!  It was a nice surprise after a long day of work on rainy day when I'm developing a cold.

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant. (From Goodreads): Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter’s abilities.  But their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when Alessandra’s parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy, much older man. Meanwhile, Florence is changing, increasingly subject to the growing suppression imposed by the fundamentalist monk Savonarola, who is seizing religious and political control. Alessandra and her native city are caught between the Medici state, with its love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, and the hellfire preaching and increasing violence of Savonarola’s reactionary followers. Played out against this turbulent backdrop, Alessandra’s married life is a misery, except for the surprising freedom it allows her to pursue her powerful attraction to the young painter and his art.

I'm currently reading this book (chapter three) and so far, so good.  I love historical fiction, particularly historical fiction of the Renaissance, and this is (so far) reminding me a little of Girl With a Pearl Earring.  Hopefully it doesn't disappoint.

Atonement by Ian McEwan.  (From Goodreads): On a summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives, a crime whose repercussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century.

This is, unfortunately, my first PaperbackSwap disappointment.  I requested this book on April 29th, and the sender marked it "mailed" on April 30th.  When I received the package today, it said it had been postmarked on May 12th.  Very irritating.  I had already received one email from PBS asking if I'd received the book yet.  When I marked the book received this afternoon, I made a note that the seller and the postmark were not the same.  Not too happy about it, but eh.  What can you do?

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.  (From Goodreads): On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's Syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this story that unfolds over a quarter of a century - in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by the fateful decision made that long-ago winter night.  The Memory Keeper's Daughter articulates a silent fear close to the heart of every mother: What would happen if you lost your child, and she grew up without you?

This one I picked up on a whim.  I have heard both good and bad things about it, so I thought I would take a gamble and see for myself.  

I also have two Kindle books on deck right now: The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger, and Shoeless Joe by W.P Kinsella.  So it appears that I won't be in need of new literature for quite some time.  We'll see if that keeps me away from Borders though!

Review: Anne of Avonlea by Lucy M. Montgomery

Forty books down, sixty to go!  My goal was to be halfway through by June 1.  I don't think I'm going to quite reach fifty by that point, but I shouldn't be more than a book or two off!  The last few books have flown by, and I've enjoyed them immensely.  This book, number 40, also fulfills the requirement of "book that continues a series I've started already" for the Nest Spring Book Challenge (SBC).  So let's get to it.

I first read Lucy M. Montgomery's classic Anne of Green Gables when I was in fifth grade (I was captivated by the paperback cover picture of Anne "walking the ridge-pole of the roof"), and it's safe to say that I loved it from first read.  I never really bothered to get into the rest of the series as a child.  I picked up the second book a year later and couldn't get into it.  The other day, I decided to download it to the Kindle and give it another shot.

As the title suggests, Anne Shirley has grown and branched out from her earlier moniker, and has now become Anne of Avonlea.  Fifteen years old and now the mistress of the school she used to attend, Anne believes she has become quite grown up indeed, and sets out to do a world of good for anyone she meets.  Whether it's the crotchety old bachelor who moved in next door, or a pair of orphaned twin cousins that she and her adopted mother, Marilla, resignedly adopt, or pretty imaginative Miss Lavender, the self-proclaimed "old maid", Anne is determined to spread her good influence (and a little bit of cheer) to everyone she encounters.  And of course, there's always Gilbert Blythe, her tormentor-turned-competitor-turned-friend, who seems to have something else entirely on his mind...

It is nice to go further in the series and find out exactly "what happened?" to Anne, Marilla, Mrs. Lynde, Gilbert, Diana, and the host of other "Avonlea folk" from the first book.  The hamlet of Avonlea is still, author Lucy Montgomery assures us, the prettiest place on earth with the most interesting and well-meaning inhabitants to ever grace Prince Edward Island.  Yet, I wasn't prepared for the amount of reminiscing on what happened in Green Gables.  Montgomery clearly doesn't belong to the writing school of "show, don't tell."  In nearly every chapter, I was greeted with another recap of one of Anne's many misfortunes from the first book.  I guess, for the reader who isn't familiar with Green Gables, it would be helpful, but for someone who has read it so many times, it just came off as tedious.

Some of the character development (especially Anne's and Marilla's) was interesting and continued to captivate me up until the very end.  Unfortunately, I can't say the same for all of the characters -- Dora Keith and Paul Irving in particular.  Montgomery has mixed feelings about "perfect" characters.  Where Dora and Paul were equally praised for their sweetness, diligence, and obedience, Dora was referred to as placid and boring, and Paul was "angelic".  I can't think of a reason why Montgomery would choose to exalt one character and patronize the other -- unless it is because Paul, unlike Dora, aped the same penchant for "imagining" that our heroine Anne did in Book One.

Going down the road to Avonlea a second time was fun.  But I am not sure I'll be continuing on with book three, Anne of the Island.  Maybe I, like Marilla, just want to keep Anne the same scrapgrace she was when she first came to Green Gables at age 11 -- red hair, freckles, imagination, and all.

Rating: ***

Review: The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

SHEESH, Blogger!  Way to be down for half the day!  I finished this book last night, and went on to execute a review...only to find that I couldn't even get onto Blogger itself.  Well, no harm, no foul.  I waited impatiently to write this review, and here it is.

The Other Boleyn Girl is the story of Mary Boleyn, sister of Henry VIII's notorious wife Anne.  Mary is a shy, sweet teenager when King Henry first notices her and makes her his mistress.  Pushed by the ambitions of her family and her affection for Henry VIII, she willingly accepts her role, only to be ousted later by her beautiful, ambitious sister.  But as court politics and intrigue begin to lead the Boleyn family down a dangerous path where the only way to win is to risk everything, Mary must take her destiny into her own hands if she plans to survive.

I have a love-hate relationship with Philippa Gregory. I'd say it's about 20% love and 80% hate. I love that she chooses real characters. I love that she writes historical fiction. I love that she paints a vivid picture of life in Henry VIII's court. I love that this book is something I can read over and over again and tire of it -- and I have read The Other Boleyn Girl approximately 10 times or so since I first bought it in 2007.

But I hate quite a lot more.

I hate that she distorts history. For all those Anne Boleyn haters out there (and there are many, like my husband): this is THE book for you. If you want to read historical fiction where Anne Boleyn is not only a villain, she is THE villain -- look no further! Gregory's Anne is not the selfish, conniving, calculating Anne of, well, every single piece of media created about her life (with the exception of the film Anne of the Thousand Days. Oh no. She is all that and much, much more. In TOBG, Gregory takes every single rumor about Anne Boleyn that was ever created by a court that hated her and a king who wanted to set her aside, and passes them off as truth. Whether it involves poison, adultery, incest, or witchcraft, you name it, Anne does it. She's not just evil, she's borderline demonic.

And in Gregory's world, if the evil are demonic, the good are saintly. Mary Boleyn should have been renamed Mary Sue Boleyn. She is placid and malleable, constantly parroting that she has no choices in life and must do as she is told. She does basically the same thing that Anne does -- seduces the king and becomes his mistress -- but Mary does it for the "right" reasons (love) while Anne does it for the "wrong" reasons (ambition). Many have theorized that Anne Boleyn seduced Henry VIII motivated by equal amounts of ambition and affection, but you won't see that in TOBG. Mary, on the other hand, is simpering and obedient. Gregory goes out of her way multiple times to show you how wonderful Mary is, especially when compared with Anne's twisted malevolence. In Gregory-World, the good are good, and the bad are...Satanic.

I also despise Gregory's lack of vocabulary. I realize that the title of the book is The Other Boleyn Girl, so I didn't need those four words repeated at least ten times throughout the novel. Gregory stresses the love-hate rivalry between Mary and Anne, bouncing one sister and then the other in and out of power, leaving you wondering who is the titular "other Boleyn girl" and more importantly, why does it matter? Many, many times I wanted to slap Mary and tell her to just give up and go be happy in her own right, instead of constantly envying a sister whose lot really isn't all that enviable in the end. In addition, the phrase "we have everything to play for" was so overused by the end of the novel that I felt like beating my head against a wall. It had completely lost its meaning.

Also, Gregory throws in historical factoids that I (as a history major) understood, but that people who are reading it more for the "fiction" than the history wouldn't necessarily get (such as mentioning Purkoy, Anne's dog, in one sentence towards the end of the book, in an awkward, fleeting fashion that wasn't necessary at ALL). I applaud Gregory for her research, but not all of it has to be put in (I'm looking at you too, Susan Higginbotham).

It's a great work of fiction (very elaborate fiction), and in many parts (especially the characterization), it doesn't represent the history it is depicting well at all. But in the end, I have to (begrudgingly) give this book three stars. It served its purpose, you see; it sucked me in, and made me read it more than once.

Rating: ***

Review: Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

We have all heard it said, in a disgusted, or almost derogatory term, to "quit being a Pollyanna."  The name Pollyanna, it seems, has become synonymous with obnoxious, in-your-face optimism, and so, even having seen the Hayley Mills film a couple of times when I was a kid, I started Pollyanna with a smidgen of trepidation.  Just how sugar-coated vanilla-cupcake sprinkles-on-top was this book going to be?

Pollyanna Whittier is the original "cockeyed optimist."  Orphaned at age 11 when her missionary father dies unexpectedly, Pollyanna is sent to live with her no-nonsense old maid Aunt Polly Harrington, who makes it clear she is only doing her duty in taking Pollyanna in, and that she has no interest in children.  Pollyanna insists on making a bleak future bright by playing "The Glad Game" and teaching it to anyone who will listen.  The Glad Game, she says, originated when she received a charity present for Christmas.  Hoping for a doll, Pollyanna was dismayed to find that she'd been given a pair of crutches.  Her father quickly said that she should be glad that she got crutches, since she "didn't have to use 'em".  Pollyanna's bright-eyed, optimistic way of turning every bad situation into a good one slowly begins to win over even the most caustic and ornery inhabitants of the town.  But when tragedy strikes, it is Pollyanna who needs reminding that even the worst situations can be made the best of.

The book's titular heroine reminds me in many ways of Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables.  Like Anne, Pollyanna is eleven years old, freckled, orphaned, and adopted unwillingly by an older person who did not originally want her.  Both girls talk a blue streak and endear themselves to anyone in their paths.  But Pollyanna lacks some of Anne Shirley's drama, theatrics, and love of tragedy.  In Pollyanna's world, the sun is always shining, and if you're miserable, it's only because you haven't found the reason why you should be happy yet.  The saccharine-sweetness I expected never did come.  Pollyanna is optimistic, yes, but she isn't a "Mary Sue" -- she realizes that there is darkness and sadness in the world, and she doesn't shy from it; she is only determined to make the best of every situation.  And when her life takes an unexpected turn for the worst, she exhibits very real little-girl emotions. 

This book was a very quick read -- I think because it's definitely geared more towards children or young adults -- so I read it in two days, and I liked it.  I don't know if I'll reread it, since it was geared towards someone much younger than me -- but still, very cute.

Rating: *** and 1/2

Review: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Recently, I joined PaperbackSwap, which I'm sorry I never discovered before!  The premise is easy -- you post books online that you don't mind "swapping" (not getting back).  Someone requests one of your books, you pay the shipping and you send that book out.  For every book you swap, you get 1 credit towards a book of your choice.  You choose a book, that person pays for the shipping -- free book for you!  I've traded three of my books so far, and I've requested three.  The first book I requested was Lisa See's story of 19th-centure China, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

The protagonist, Lily, is a young girl of seven when the village matchmaker comes to her parents with a unique proposal.  As a girl, Lily is worthless to her family, and only precious to her in-laws if she produces sons.  She is not expected to find constant companionship in anyone, be it parents, children, or in-laws -- until the matchmaker suggest pairing her with a laotong ("old same"), a girl who is her same age, to be bound to her as her best friend for life.  The laotong is the titular Snow Flower, a girl from a proud and highly-ranked family, and the two girls find intimate love in each other immediately.  They communicate by sending each other messages on a fan, in the secret language of nu shu, known only to Chinese women.  Over the years, tragedy and happenstance threaten to divide the girls, but nothing can come between them -- except a terrible misunderstanding that threatens the bonds of their eternal friendship.

I have to note: this is one of the saddest, harshest books I have ever read.  If you have read Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, you are probably already familiar with the philosophies and the attitudes displayed in this book -- particularly the cult of women as worthless slaves.  Snow Flower herself reminded me several times of O-lan, the long-suffering wife of a Chinese farmer from The Good Earth.  But nothing could have prepared me for the second chapter and the graphic, brutal description of the Chinese custom of footbinding.  It made me cringe to read it, almost made me sick to my stomach, and when I reread Snow Flower, I will most likely be skipping that chapter.  Nevertheless, it is very crucial to understanding the position that Lily, Snow Flower, and the other women in China were put in at that time -- for, as Lily explains, if they did not bind their feet, they were worthless and unmarriageable.

The writing style is very beautiful, and the characters are as interesting as they are intricate.  I wish that the book had been written in the third person, rather than told from Lily's point of view.  It would have been interesting and perhaps more fulfilling to know what Snow Flower was thinking throughout the novel, understand her thoughts, see the world unfold through her eyes.  Unfortunately, with the restrictions caused by first person POV, we don't understand much of what Snow Flower is thinking, and this story of a beautiful female friendship gone awry is a little too one-sided.  Still, a beautiful, though extremely sad, novel.

Rating: *** and 1/2

Review: A Little Princess by Frances H. Burnett

Because so many "classic" novels are free on the Kindle, I hauled off and downloaded a whole bunch of them back in December when I received the e-reader as a Christmas gift from my family.  When I saw that the SBC (see above link) featured a "read a classic" task, I had any number of books on my Kindle to choose from -- many of which I have never read.  But I went with an oldie that was a favorite as a kid: A Little Princess, by Frances H. Burnett (author of The Secret Garden).

Sara Crewe, the titular "little princess", is pre-teen royalty at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Girls, where her wealthy, pampering father leaves her when she is only seven years old.  A girl who is used to having everything her little heart desires, Sara is sweet-natured, sympathetic, and generous with her many, many possessions -- qualities that skyrocket her to the coveted position of most popular girl in school.  But when Sara is eleven years old, tragedy strikes, leaving her alone, penniless, and entirely dependent on the school's headmistress, Miss Minchin, who has secretly resented and despised her for several years.  Her world obliterated, Sara must face up to the lonely, difficult years ahead of her, striving all the time to behave as if nothing ever happened, as if she is still just "a little princess".

I read a scathing review of Princess on Goodreads, stating that Sara Crewe is the original "Mary Sue" -- a disparaging name for a female protagonist who is unnaturally sweet and empty, with little to no character development or negative qualities.  I very much disagree.  Although Sara remains a gentle, good-natured character throughout the novel, she experiences quite a bit of personal growth.  At the beginning of the novel, she is depicted as a feisty child, who enjoys discomforting others who are cruel to her by refusing to stoop to their level of rage and simply staring at them in response.  She falls back on this quality throughout her years of tribulation -- admitting, during one particularly dark night of the soul, that it is not always easy to hold in her pain and anger.  I feel quite the opposite from the reviewer about Sara Crewe's character -- I think she's a very natural depiction of a little girl.

Burnett's novel, at its core, is the tale of a child who must face a terrible adversity, who squares her shoulders and accepts the burden she is forced to carry, without believing that she will ever have a reversal of fortune, without any hope that her situation will change someday.  Warning: if you have seen the Warner Bros. adaptation of the novel, the ending of the book will come as as surprise to you, and possibly not a pleasant one (I read the book before I saw the movie; my sister did not, and she disliked the book as a result).  The ending of A Little Princess is fairy-tale like, while retaining some level of believability.  The film ending is, well...what we've all come to expect from a typical children's film (re: Disney-esque) ending. 

Rating: ****

Read, Knit, Bake: Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Homemade "comfort food" meals were invented for crummy Mondays.  I believe this with my whole heart.  Yesterday shouldn't have been a crummy day -- but I had very little (and restless) sleep, took too long to get going in the morning (due to reading my FB status feed), had some awkwardness at work...it was just a long, long Monday, and by the time David and I settled in to decide on dinner (around 6:15 PM), all we could think of was baked macaroni and cheese.

I've been honing my mac and cheese for about two months now, and I think I've finally found a combination that I really like.  I use chili powder in my mac and cheese, because I like my cheese spicy (like taco cheese).  David is not a fan of overly-spicy food (having had an unfortunate red pepper incident as a child), but I make it just spicy enough that it's got a kick, without overpowering his senses.

A couple of friends asked for the recipe on FB, so I'm writing it down here.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

1 box of pasta (your preference -- I like to use rotini)

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbs. flour

1 cup of 2% milk (I use 2% but you can substitute any kind)

2 cups of grated cheddar cheese

1 tbsp. salt 

1 tbsp. ground pepper

2 - 3 tbsp. chili powder

1/2 cup bread crumbs

Grated cheddar cheese (for garnishing)

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

- Cook pasta as directed on stovetop.

- In a small saucepan, melt butter.  Add the flour, stir until it bubbles slightly (stop before it scorches).  

- Add milk and cheese and stir constantly until cheese melts and sauce thickens.

- Add the salt, pepper, and chili powder to taste.

- Drain pasta.  Pour cheese sauce over pasta and mix well until it is coated evenly.

- Pour the pasta into a non-stick (or sprayed) casserole dish.  Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese and bread crumbs.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until the top is browned and crusted over. 

First Third of the Year: Results

Note: I was going to do a report like this at each quarter of the year, but I forgot to do so in March, so I did April, for thirds of the year.  The next one, I guess, will be at the end of August.

April was a busy month for me -- David and I moved into a new (bigger) apartment (that was definitely the most exciting and busy part of the last four weeks, Easter Week happened (always busy at my place of business), and assorted other things.  Work is still busy, of course, it always is during the Spring.  

But my grand total of books for April '11 was 11 books!  Technically, 11 and a half, because I was more than half done with Into The Wild, but I didn't complete it until yesterday, May 1, so it doesn't count.  This adds to my counts for January (12), February (6), and March (5), for a grand total of 35 books read so far!  My goal is to hit 50 by the end of June, which means I have about two months to read 15 books.  I'm up to the challenge -- one down so far!

One-third of the way through the year, and one-third of the way through my challenge of 100 books, where do I stand?  Which books so far, IMHO, have been the best and worst?

Best

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.  I still can't say enough good things about this book.  It blew me away, completely.  Especially the end.  I realize that it's long (upwards of 950 pages, depending on the edition), but the saga of the building of a cathedral in 12th-century England is worth every single word.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I decided to try some YA literature (my hatred for Twilight being what it is) and loved it.  I wasn't so much a fan of Mockingjay, but I hear that's pretty common, and it didn't tarnish my love of the first two books in the series.  Just amazing.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.  One of the saddest and most moving pieces of literature I have read to date, Krakauer's account of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster is difficult to get out of your head.

Worst

Labor of Love: A Midwife's Memoir by Cara Mulhahn.  Should have been entitled "Labor of Love: A Midwife's Ode...to Herself."  Mulhahn's endless self-satisfaction and pats on her own back made this an odious, extraordinarily boring saga that left a bad taste in my mouth.

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler.  A played-out theme and boring characters devoid of personality render this book almost impossible to slog through.

Don't Die, Dragonfly by Linda Joy Singleton.  Yet another supernatural YA story about a teenage girl with "issues" and the brooding hottie who won't give her a second glance.  Maybe the series improves when you get past Book One, but I couldn't be inspired to care enough to read further.

It's been a great four months, and happy reading for the remainder of 2011!

Review: Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer

One week ago, I read Jon Krakauer's horrifying account of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster, Into Thin Air.  At the time, I was stunned and eerily fascinated by the allure that these people found in climbing a mountain that proves fatal for one out of every 10 climbers.  Why would someone willingly endure something that, in the end, has a 10% chance of being fatal (even moreso if the individual is inexperienced and unprepared)?  

Four years before he climbed Mt. Everest, Krakauer became obsessed (as he puts it) with the story of Chris McCandless, a graduate of Emory College who left home abruptly after graduation, abandoned his car, burned all of his cash, and set out, as he put it "into the wild".  Two years later, his body was found, emaciated and frozen, in an abandoned bus along the Stampede Trail in Alaska.

In Into The Wild (title taken from one of McCandless' journal entries), Jon Krakauer acts, once again, as historian and forensic psychologist.  He follows McCandless' trail from Atlanta, GA, to the Yukon wilderness, tracking down and interviewing the people whom the boy met along the way.  The story is as tragic as it is fascinating.  Why would a twenty-four year old boy with his entire life ahead of him choose to give everything up to die in the wilderness?  Though it seems ridiculous to me (and probably to many), in his research, Krakauer shows that not only is this theology of life common, it's almost predictable in certain people -- including himself.

I didn't find myself as drawn to Into The Wild as I was with Into Thin Air, and I think this is mainly a formatting issue.  In Air, Krakauer went through the events surrounding the Everest disaster chronologically, whereas in Wild, he interspaces Chris' fatal travel to the Yukon territory with anecdotes from his friends and family, stories about other doomed hikers who battled the elements and lost, and a tale from Krakauer's own youth, when he himself attempted to go "into the wild."

At first I found it difficult to feel sorry for Chris, in the same way I did with the doomed Mt. Everest hikers in Air.  It was his own fault, I thought to myself.  He should have known better, should have been more careful -- maybe then he would still be alive today.  But by the end of the book, Krakauer had made me feel that I understood McCandless more, and to feel sorrow, not for his loss of life, but that the life he lost was cut off so young, before an old man can realize a young man's mistakes, before age brings wisdom and a little clarity to us all.

Rating: ****

CT Sheep and Wool Festival 2011

I've been a knitting since I was a junior in college -- so almost eight years now -- and yesterday I attended my first local "fiber festival".  Growing up, the autumn country fairs were part of the changing seasons (I'm a small-town CT girl), but I had never been to one that was strictly dedicated to the fiber arts (spinning, knitting, crocheting, and weaving).  When I found out there was one only half an hour away from my house -- in Vernon, CT -- I grabbed three of my friends, and we were off.

The Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival is the first of these such annual fairs in the northeastern US, culminating with the famous Rhinebeck festival in NY in October.  The CT one is small, but we had a wonderful time.  I love supporting local vendors, and it's nice to find yarn that you won't find mass-produced, for amazing prices!  We had a ball.

My friend Drea posed as an alpaca:

 

We saw the most adorable baby lamb ever, who was too timid to let us pet him.

 

We saw alpacas (Drea would like me to add in that she, in fact, petted an alpaca).  I would have petted one, but I'm terribly allergic, unfortunately.

And it wouldn't be a yarn festival if I didn't come home with something (as I said, I like supporting local artists!).  

This is a skein of Super Sock 416 (75% merino, 25% nylon, 450 yards), from the Ball and Skein in Barton, Vermont.  The color is black cherry -- very apropos.  The owner was extremely nice and helpful, and they had their skeins kitted up with patterns -- how could I resist?  The pattern here is Wendy D. Johnson's Lady Bertram Shawlette -- those of you who are readers will recognize the name from Jane Austen's Mansfield Park!  There were several kits with shawls named after Austen characters, and I was so enchanted that I snapped this one right up.  It took me a while to pick out the right color to match what I was looking for, but I think the black cherry will suit perfectly.

All in all, a wonderful Saturday afternoon, and I'm so glad I went.  I'm trying to get the same friends to go with me to the fair in Massachusetts later this summer -- we shall see :)



Today: I'm going to be 90% finished with our formal living room!  The only thing lacking is going to be a living room rug.  Pictures when I'm done, I can't wait to have my own little space to entertain.  David has his "man cave" (which is far from being finished and may never be as long as he's able to play video games in it), and now at last I'll have a place to have girlfriends over and watch movies or knit or whatever in peace.  I can't wait.