Category Archives: Books

Books

I added the Mary Magdalene book to my list of books read, as well as My Hollywood and Cutting for Stone. The list appears to be putting itself in alphabetical order, which I don’t love, but am too lazy to work on that right now. After I read My Hollywood, I read a review of it which made me like it more. But there is just something about reading a book about the complicated relationship between women and me, women and children and women and their nannies, that wasn’t really the type of summer read I was looking for. It was very well done, and the characters were very real, but ugh.

I can’t remember which book it was, (A Fine Balance or The God of Small Things) but something I read caused me to put a hold on all Indian literature, because it’s always more tragedy than I can handle. I bought Cutting for Stone when I was on an Amazon gift card shopping spree without knowing much about it, but since it’s been on my shelf, I think it’s been recommended to me at least three times. It takes place mostly in Ethiopia, but the characters are mostly Indian. India+Africa really takes the tragedy up a notch. (It goes to 11, as they say.) It took me maybe a week to read the 665 pages, and one night, I finished working around midnight and thought, I better not try to read just a few pages, I’ll end up staying up until 2am to finish it. And then I flopped down on the couch and started reading. Yup, at 1:59 I read the last page. I had some major problems with the main character at the end, but I have been thinking about the book ever since. So yes, I recommend it.

Luke is reading the Harry Potter series, and I am trying to keep up. He finished the first book in less than a week and he’s almost finished with the second. I have heard from a good friend who does her research (Jena!) that books 1-4 are age appropriate, and 5-7 should maybe be saved for later. Luckily, Luke received the series from his Grandparents this summer, and the one book that is missing is book 5. So we may have a natural break while we look for book 5. Of course, he saw it at the Boulder Bookstore this weekend and almost died because I didn’t buy it. Somehow I have to leapfrog in front of him, and start reading the books before he gets to them to see what I think.

So, Harry Potter fans, how am I going to get Luke to stop reading and wait a few years for book 5? Maybe school will start just in time.

Fire Cracker 50

Dave did the firecracker 50 yesterday, which is a 50 mile mountain bike race in Breckenridge. As I was telling my friend Laura today, marathon bike races like that are extremely exhausting. It involves a lot of preparation, training, planning, logistics, and then all the hard work on the day of the race. For example, this race was two 25 mile laps, and I had to walk back and forth from our home base to the mid-point/finish line at least 5 or 6 times. Sometimes with Jack and Lucy, sometimes with just Jack, sometimes by myself. Our home base was the van, which was parked in the driveway of an awesome rental our friends had for the weekend, and it couldn’t have been more convenient, but still. It took a lot of out me.

Dave finished in an impressive 5 hours and 31 minutes, and said the race was a lot more technically challenging than the Bailey Hundo, but that he had a good time. His pre-race breakfast of champions (bowl of oatmeal, and 4 donuts) worked like a charm again, but his electrolyte supplement (bag of salted peanuts) didn’t work out that well. He did a shot of Wild Turkey at the Wild Turkey aid station, and was extremely excited to see Luke working at aid station towards the end, handing out Cokes.

I used to get sort of caught up in the excitement of the various races that Dave does and start to think that I might like to do something like that. But then I was sitting with my friend Tami between Dave’s first and second lap, and we were reading magazines, and watching the kids play in the hot tub, and that seemed like a lot more fun. Also fun? Shopping for jewelry at one of the race vendor stands with my friend Laura. I did go for a ride the day before with the ladies, and that was fun too, although it would be more fun if I was in better shape. And if my adorable biking skirt wasn’t so tight. So I made a multi-step training plan.

1.) Buy a bigger biking skirt

2.) Enjoy biking more, thus, bike more

3.) Possibly fit back into smaller skirt.

4.) Put feet up and read more magazines.

So I get to shop, and train for my post ride magazine reading. Sounds perfect.

Netherland

That word was on my mind a few weeks ago when I was composing a blog title about my latest injury. We spent the weekend in a cabin, and the boys and I were Dave’s support crew for the Bailey Hundo, a 100 mile mountain bike race. After the race, Dave ate, and hydrated, and we all headed back to the cabin for quiet time, and then we hit the playground. For reason’s unknown to me at this time (dummening relapse, perhaps?) I raced Luke around a building, in heels, while carrying Jack on my hip. Long story short I lost my balance and tore my glute. So Mr. 100-mile-bike-racer-fathers-day-celebrator was treated to a great deal of whining (I need ice! Water! I need to hydrate! I thought we were going out to dinner?! I need a butt massage! Wait, no I don’t! The PAIN, my God, THE PAIN!) instead of plan A. Plan A was all about Dave.

And why Netherland? Well, because prior to my injury, I was reading a stack of magazines from the cabin and in Family Circle, I read a list of summer reads. One person recommended Netherland, because President Obama had just read it. How does he have time to read? And why Netherland? With his job, he should be reading Bossypants. Netherland was too angsty and full of ennui. I just had to look up both those words, and I was right about what they meant! On the Boulder Book Store page it says, “Fascinating…. A wonderful book.” —President Obama, interviewed by Jon Meacham in Newsweek (May 25, 2009 issue) Just how old was that Family Circle Magazine anyway? And those are some pretty boring adjectives, no offense President Obama.

When I got my new iphone, my favorite thing about it was my new system of electronic lists. Instead of reading a book recommendation in a magazine, and trying to remember the book, or folding the corner of the page down, or writing it in my planner, or ordering it immediately from the library, only to have 10 books arrive the same day, I add it to my iphone book list. Simple. Simple, but I can still screw it up. I may have already blogged about this, and the importance of spelling the title correctly. I still can’t believe I would have read a review of The Lost Girl by D.H. Lawrence and then chosen to read it. I think I also need to start adding in the name of the person who recommended it. Then I can thank or shun them later as appropriate. And, I’d like to avoid the sinking feeling I get when I start wondering if I am reading a book recommended by Yoko Ono on O magazine.

Care to be thanked or shunned? Leave a summer book recommendation in the comments

>It’s Almost Alice Cooper Time

>The countdown to the end of school is in full swing and we are all singing our favorite song: School’s Out. Last year Luke was a precious first grader, who loved his teacher, so he was very unhappy about blowing the school to pieces, and teacher’s dirty looks. Unfortunately, it’s such a catchy tune, that it’s really hard not to sing the refrain all morning before the last day of school. We tried to modify it a bit, but I can’t remember what we came up with and I am too lazy/multi-taskery to look and see if I blogged about this last year.

But now that Luke is a too cool for school second grader, going on third grader in 5 days, he started the whole thing with a little Alice Cooper sing along before bed. Or maybe I started it. Regardless, I was very interested to hear what he had to say after, “I’ll modify this song so it’s more appropriate for me.”

School’s out for summer.
School’s out for evah!
School’s been blown to pieces.
No more pencils
Lots more books

Sigh. I just love my little bookworm.

On that note, did I mention that I updated the list of books read? (See above re: too lazy to look at yesterday’s post.) Hopefully Luke and I will spend the whole summer reading, if I survive this weekend.

>It’s All Greek To Me

>Recently, Luke read a book that sparked an obsession with reading. It is called Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief. I have very vivid memories about the first book I read that turned the switch for me from someone who knew how to read into someone who loved to read. I was in fourth grade when I read A Wrinkle in Time, and I can remember where I set it down on the book shelf in the living room when I needed to stop reading and eat dinner. And I remember being in the backyard thinking about the characters, and imagining the book in my head. So it has been very fun for me to watch Luke have a similar experience with his first book obsession. When I read the Amazon reviews of the first book, it seemed targeted at older kids, so I read it too, because I am a good parent. I liked it! There is a lot of adventure, and Greek Mythology, and it’s exciting, and funny. I love that Luke is learning so much about Greek Mythology. I used to have a book called, It’s Greek to Me, because I always thought I would be a better person if I knew about Greek Mythology. But I don’t recall reading it, just sort of occasionally noticing it on my shelf. I told Luke about it and he was quite annoyed that I don’t still have the book. Although now that I am reading the description, I think I probably got it to study up on my greek roots as SAT prep. (Lame!) But I know more about Greek Mythology now, from reading just one Percy Jackson book, and discussing the rest with Luke every day, than I ever did. And that is very cool.

The funny thing is that I kept saying Luke was too young for Harry Potter. But one of the reviews I read on Amazon described Percy Jackson as something like a less earnest Harry Potter. I found that to be funny. I let the whole Harry Potter phenomenon pass me by, so I think it will be fun to read the books with Luke when he finishes this series. He had the last book checked out from the school library, and he was forced to return it because I guess the library starts to close down a month before school ends. He was devastated and convinced that when he gets another copy (friends have promised to loan it) it will take his entire independent reading time to find the page he was on. We might have to head to the regular library (or Main Branch as Jack says) to get the last book and get a head start on figuring out where he left off.

>Origami Yoda

>A month or so ago, Luke spent an afternoon writing to authors of the books he was reading. One was to Tom Angleberger, the author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. The letter was something like,

Dear Mr. Angleberger,

I really like The Strange Case of Origami Yoda because of all the details.

Sincerely,
Luke

I said, “Do you care to elaborate on that?”
Luke said, “Nope.”
I said, “Because, if you really like details….”
Luke, “Please hand me an envelope.”

This week, a letter arrived for Luke. I said, “Luke, you got some mail.” Luke said, “Who is it from?” while barely turning his head away from his wii game. I sighed, because that sort of question makes me feel a tiny bit like Luke’s secretary, but I said, “I don’t know, the return address looks like a puzzle piece.”

He was across the room, shouting, “Remember when I wrote to the author of Origami Yoda!” and ripping open the envelope. It was pretty darn exciting.

We took a bunch of pictures of Luke with Origami Yoda on his finger, including this one, with my new photobooth app.

>Books 2010

>
I updated my list of Books for 2010, and there are a total of 26, which was my goal for the year. It seems funny now because instead of finishing 2 books a month, I probably finished 26 books over several 3 day periods.

Unfinished books for the year include: The Infinities (awful) and The Inheritance of Loss (boring). I should admit that I haven’t actually finished The Long Song, because Miss Beth got me Freedom for Christmas and I have been reading that instead – but I think I can finish it before the end of 2010.

I included a screen shot of my list for those that only read posts via email, but if you are on my blog, you can click the link for any book and it should bring you to the Boulder Book Store for your viewing or purchasing pleasure. I did accidentally link to the study guide for The Remains of the Day, but that is fixed now!

>And, I Am Back

>As Dave says, you know you aren’t ready for your vacation to end when you are taking 30 mile side trips (to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison) on your way home. Sigh. I’ve been back at work for 2 days and I am still not ready for it to end.

But here is what you can look forward to reading as I force myself to get back into the swing of things:

1.) The Commenter Contest Winner
2.) Embarrassing things that I have said at work
3.) Something asinine about my job
4.) Vacation Jackisms
5.) Family photos gone wrong
6.) Vacation round up
7.) Dave’s bike ride
8.) Mouse’s chocolates
9.) Update on books read
10.) Peaches

Ok, ok, I’ll let you know that commenter Laura won the commenting contest. Yea! Laura! Thanks to all July commenters. Commenters appears to not be a word. Commentators? People who left comments?

Anyway! Thanks! I need to devote an entire post to Laura’s prize, and that is number 8 on the list.

One more thing – As you can see on my Books Read 2009, I have already read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Loved it. I also read 3 books on my vacation, which pretty much means my vacation was awesome.

>Dear Internet

>Dear Internet,

How’s it going? Have I mentioned lately how much I love you? You are pretty cool, and I like a lot of the stuff you can do. Do you know what would be cooler though? If you could create a little widget that made it really easy for me to post a list of books I am reading or would like to read to my little blog called MetaMegan. Yeah, I know you already have lots of easy ways to do that, but what would be cooler, is if it was really easy for me to link this list of books to an independent book seller such as The Boulder Bookstore. Or maybe IndieBound.org, which links to lots of independant bookstores. See, the thing is, Amazon does it. And right now, the method I have of doing this sort of thing for myself is sort of clunky and annoying. Amazon makes it easy, and tempting. I really like to support independant bookstores, but I am also very lazy.

Please help.

Thanks!

Love,
MetaMegan

>Must Be Bath Night Because Some Ears Need to be Cleaned Out!

>Luke: I am rooting for The Netherlands.
Me: Don’t be offended, but I think I am going to root for Spain.
Dave: Oooh – in house rivalry. Do you to want to place bets?
Luke: NO! I took a bath last night!

???

Me: Jack, can you finish your yogurt or is that now impossible?
Jack: I can’t. It’s a popsicle.

???

In other news, we went to The Library today, and because it only takes 100 times for me to learn my lesson, I took Jack into the bathroom as soon as we got there. No dice. He just slowly backed out, somberly shaking his head “no”. It paid off though, because after dinner, I brought a big stack of reading material into the bathroom with Jack and… He POOPED on the POTTY! Big news. We now owe him a trip to Chuck E Cheese. Or Chuckie Cheese, as Luke would say.

Then, I heard Dave scheming with Luke and they planned a trip to Casa Bonita to celebrate a full week of pooping on the potty, when and if that ever happens. Not sure how I feel about it, because that place sounds like it could scare the poop out of anyone. Luke went there on a camp field trip, and in my research, I found this description, “it’s like Disney had sex with Tijuana and left the goofy-looking bastard to fend for itself in a random strip mall on Colfax. “

In other poop related news, my new favorite line from a book is, “Mr. B is making it happen.”