My Memorial Day Week

Posted on 05/31/2008 by chick

On Sunday, we went to my aunt and uncle’s for a barbecue. It was a beautiful day and the baby birds, eager to see it, were peeking out of the birdhouse. I found out that one of my cousins is getting married this June. Given how difficult it is for gay men to marry in this country, it amuses me that he’s getting married before me. I wonder what else will happen before I get married. Continue reading →

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After the Binge

Posted on 05/31/2008 by chick

I finished reading three of the books that I recently bought.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Grade: B+

The Westing Game is a mystery. Sixteen people are invited for the reading of a millionaire’s will. The will is a puzzle and whoever solves it will be the heir. The reader is given all of the clues and has the opportunity to solve the puzzle, too. Enjoyable and not nearly as dated as its 1978 copyright suggests, The Westing Game is an excellent choice for a clever child.

The Adventures of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide

Grade: A-

This book contains two stories about a little boy named Treehorn, who has magical adventures that the adults in his life can’t seem to notice. Both stories are very short. Even together they are barely large enough to justify the publication of a book, though the stories and the Gorey illustrations are very good. I think that a larger collection of such stories would be a joy. Alas, as far as I know, there are only three Treehorn stories in existence. Luckily, they do sell the three in one volume (The Treehorn Trilogy), which I may buy someday. Though I enjoyed The Adventures of Treehorn, this copy is beaten up and heavily tanned, not worth keeping.

The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Second) by Lemony Snicket

Grade: B+

I didn’t entirely enjoy the first book in this series (The Bad Beginning). I thought the unfortunate events were too mature for a children’s book, but this series is so popular, I began to wonder if I had missed something. I decided to give the series another chance by reading The Reptile Room.

In The Reptile Room, the Baudelaire orphans find a new home with their giddy uncle, a herpetologist who plans to take them on an adventure to Peru, but bad luck isn’t done with the children yet.

I was once again dismayed by the unfortunate events. Of course, kids do need to learn about the awful things that happen in this world, and maybe the nonthreatening environment of a children’s story could make it easier for them to absorb the information. So, I guess I wouldn’t fret if my child read this series, but as an adult who likes happy endings, I wouldn’t specifically recommend it to anyone. I don’t plan to keep this book and I don’t know if I’ll read any more from this series.

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Mystery Thing #2

Posted on 05/29/2008 by chick

I heard a strange sound in the woods today. I was a sound I recognized, but one I hadn’t heard since the so-called gypsy moth infestation of about 20 years ago. It was the sound of caterpillar poops raining down from the treetops. The thought of caterpillar poop in my hair was unsettling, but the questions that it raised bothered me more. You see, I was told that it was gypsy moths that we were fighting all those years ago, and now I’m almost certain that it wasn’t.

That summer there were caterpillars everywhere. There were so many of them, we tried to save the trees by scraping the caterpillars into jars, which we then sealed up and threw away. An interesting thing about caterpillars sealed in a jar—they sort of explode. It’s really disgusting (and gooey and green), but as a means of killing caterpillars, it’s not as bad as you’d think. At least you don’t have to actively squish them.

Having sent so many of those little beasties to Caterpillar Heaven (or Hell), I remember what they looked like, and they didn’t look like this (the gypsy moth caterpillar) but rather like this this (the tent caterpillar).

So we come to Mystery Thing #2. It’s not a true mystery, because I had already come to a conclusion about it before I took this picture, but maybe you can tell me if I’m right or wrong. I think this is a tent caterpillar nest and I think that it is tent caterpillars who are happily chewing their way through the local forests.

Thing 2

Am I right?

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Let It Die

Posted on 05/25/2008 by chick

Just the other night, I was reading along happily, lost in the magic place that exists between the words on the page and the visions in my head, when a jarring word knocked me back to the real world. The word was crapulous.

Crapulous is a word that just shouldn’t be used. Whatever its true meaning, it sounds like crap and so crap is what I think of when I see it. No more would I want a word like shitterary or poopital or fecessive.

So I beg you, all of you authors out there in the world, let crapulous die!

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A Gate to a Strange Land

Posted on 05/24/2008 by chick

The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper

Grade: B

The Gate to Women’s Country takes place in a postapocalyptic world. Forced to eke out a rough living in the lands between “desolations” (vast radioactive areas where nothing will grow) the women have decided that the only way for the human race to survive is to curb the militarism of men. The women do the majority of work and make all the rules while the men live in military garrisons just outside the towns. The men meet with the women during scheduled “assignations,” and any boy children that come from those unions must leave Women’s Country at age 5 to live among the men. At 15, the boys are given the choice whether to stay with the men or rejoin the women. Most choose to be warriors, and much of the story focuses on the pain the women suffer when they give up their children, when they are rejected by their teenage sons, and when they lose their warrior men to the battlefield.

In spite of the extreme feminist bent, the bleak assessment of male-female relationships, and the focus on sorrow, I still might have given this book an “A” had the author not gone to Inbred Hick Land about two-thirds of the way through. At page 180, I put the book down in disgust and almost didn’t pick it up again. I stuck to it, though, and having read it all the way through, I think it’s a decent book overall, but I caution potential readers—you may not like what Tepper writes in that section. The men are vile and the women are cruelly mistreated. The images are still with me and they are deeply disturbing.

Sheri S. Tepper writes powerful books. I don’t always like them, but they almost always affect me strongly. That’s why, even though she has written some truly horrendous things, I continue to read her work.

I have several of her books in my library, but I’m not going to read all of them during the GLP. Here’s what I have decided to do with them.

  • The Gate to Women’s Country: This one will go. I have no interest in rereading it in the future.
  • Raising the Stones: This one will also go. I remember reading it, and I know I found it interesting at the time, but I can’t recall any of the details of the story. It is one of the few Tepper books that did not leave a strong impression, and I figure that means it’s not worth reading again.
  • Grass: I’m going to keep this one. It’s disturbing but also very good.
  • After Long Silence: I’m going to reread this one to see if it’s as beautiful as I remember.
  • Beauty: If I still own this one, I’ll try to read it, but I won’t give it any more than 100 pages to win me over. I remember being thoroughly disgusted the first time I tried to read it.
  • Jinian Star-Eye: If I still own it, it will go directly to the Chopping Block because I didn’t like it that much (not surprisingly, since it’s the 9th book of a series and I didn’t read the other 8!)
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Unexpected Beauty

Posted on 05/23/2008 by chick

I am grateful for the unexpected.

I was waiting for Faithful Reader to finish work so that we could go out to dinner. I looked outside and noticed that the ground was wet, and yet there was blue sky overhead. The “rainbow alert” started chiming in my head, so I looked for a rainbow, and there it was.

You never know when you’re going to get a rainbow. That’s what makes it so special.

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Great Library Binge

Posted on 05/23/2008 by chick

It wasn’t my fault! They were selling books at the library, so what was I to do? Just ignore a whole roomful of cheap books? I’ve heard that some people have that ability, but not I. And so yesterday I came home with a bag o’ books that included the following:

  • The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
  • Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
  • The Tolkien Reader by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 2) by Lemony Snicket
  • The Adventures of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide
  • Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Maugham’s Choice of Kipling’s Best

I shouldn’t have bought them. I’m supposed to be getting rid of books, not accumulating more or them.

But it wasn’t a bad haul for $4.50!

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Mystery Flower #2

Posted on 05/22/2008 by chick

There’s a shrub growing near the corner of our driveway. It’s not an attention grabber most of the time, but during the spring it decks itself out with these stunning coral-colored flowers.

Can you guess what kind of shrub it is?

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Of Flying Peppermint Sticks

Posted on 05/21/2008 by chick

Mary Poppins Opens the Door by P.L. Travers

Grade: B

Mary Poppins Opens the Door feels a little too formulaic after the other Mary Poppins books, but it still retains some of the magic from the original idea. I love the character of Miss Calico, a pin-covered old lady who charges a mere pin for the delight of riding on a flying peppermint stick. Each peppermint stick is like an enchanted horse and she calls them back to her at night. Most of the other new characters and adventures seem a bit stale to me, but I would still recommend this book for fans of Mary Poppins.

Alas for the GLP, I could never get rid of this book, even though I only gave it a “B” grade. First, it’s an important part of a beloved series. Second, my copy is a lovely old edition from 1943 that gives a welcoming (though somewhat worrisome) crackle every time I open it, and the pages smell exactly the way pages of an old book are supposed to smell. There is also a gift inscription from Christmas 1943 (not to me, of course!), something which many book collectors would not like, but which I do. I love to see books given as gifts, though there is a touch of sadness in the thought that the original recipient of the book gave it away. Of course, if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t own it today. His loss. My gain.

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Say It Ain’t So!

Posted on 05/20/2008 by chick

I just don’t feel like I have much creativity these days. It makes me worry. And then I worry more when I read quotes like this one by Doris Lessing, recent winner of the Novel Prize in Literature.

I keep telling anyone younger than me, don’t imagine you’ll have it forever. . . . Use it while you’ve got it because it’ll go. It’s sliding away like water down a plughole.

Uh-oh.

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