The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
New Years
Weekend Assignment # 351: What Are You Doing New Year’s?
Extra Credit: To the best of your recollection, have you ever managed to keep a New Year’s resolution for more than a week?
BTT: Annual Review
What’s the best book you read this year?
Worst?
Favorite?
Links are to the thoughts I wrote out at the time I read them. I am eliminating re-reads from contention, and can still only narrow it down to three Bests:
The Worst was While they Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family, by Kathryn Harrison – a true crime book.
My Favorite reads were two books written by old friends:
I would like to add a category – Most Disappointing. My award goes to Amsterdam, by Ian McEwan.
Incidentally, here is my complete list:
1. Sin in the Second City, by Karen Abbott
2. Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
3. Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris
4. Persuasion, by Jane Austen (re-read)
5. Paradise Lost, by John Milton
6. Living Dead in Dallas, by Charlaine Harris
7. Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen, by Lili’uokalani
8. Just a Geek, by Wil Wheaton
9. Clapton, The Autobiography, by Eric Clapton
10. Amsterdam, by Ian McEwan
11. Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin
12. The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet, by Colleen McCullough
13. Downtown Owl, by Chuck Klosterman
14. Die a Little, by Megan Abbott
15. Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow
16. An Insider’s Tour of the Pike Place Public Market, by Michael Yeager
17. Ophelia, by Lisa Klein
18. Taft, by Ann Patchett
19. The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara (re-read)
20. A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick
21. Sh*t My Dad Says, by Justin Halpern
22. The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown
23. Wild Swans, by Jung Chang
24. The Dahlia Connection, by Michael Dovell
25. Chance Occurrence, by Kristin Shaver
26. Chicago, by Studs Terkel
27. While they Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family, by Kathryn Harrison
28. The Unreachable Star: My Unauthorized Travels with Patti LuPone, by Maile Hernandez
29. Ellis Island: Tracing Your Family History Through America’s Gateway, by Loretto Dennis Szucs
30. Forgetfulness, by Ward Just
31. The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton (re-read)
32. The Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry
33. Club Dead, by Charlaine Harris
34. Falling Out of Fashion, by Karen Yampolsky
35. Niagara: A History of the Falls, by Pierre Berton
36. The Year She Left, by Kerry Kelly
37. Mr. Pip, by Lloyd Jones
38. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
39. People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks
40. The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
41. MacIntosh..The Naked Truth, by Scott Kelby
42. A Christmas Memory, One Christmas and The Thanksgiving Visitor, by Truman Capote
43. Hercule Poirots Christmas: A Holiday Mystery, by Agatha Christie
44. The Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Kostova
45. The Zookeeper’s Wife, by Diane Ackerman
46. Benjamin Franklin and a Case of Christmas Murder, by Robert Lee Hall
47. A Different Kind of Christmas, by Alex Haley
48. Christmas Classics, compiled by The Modern Library
49. Memories of John Lennon, edited by Yoko Ono
50. Goodbye, Columbus, by Philip Roth
Book Lists
The new Book a Day Calendar made me think about the list I made from the on in 2009. Let’s do a little status check:
- Dec 21 – The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, by Michael Lewis (Saw the movie, anyway)
- Dec 9 – The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, Daniel Mendelsohn (Bought it, haven’t read)
- Sept 10 – The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright (No)
- Aug 2 – Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books, by Maureen Corrigan (No)
- June 16 – Ulysses, by James Joyce (Yeah, right)
- April 19 – The Friendship: Wordswortth and Coleridge, by Adam Sisman (No)
- April 3 – The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, by Debby Applegate (No)
- Feb 24 – Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak (Bought it, haven’t read)
- Feb 16 – The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows, by Gabor Boritt (No)
- Feb 6 – Sliver of Truth, by Lisa Unger (Umm… One of her books is in my shelf. Might be that one.)
- Jan 17 – Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life, by Allen Shawn (No)
- Jan 16 – Forgetfulness, by Ward Just (Aha! Read that one!)
- Jan 7 – Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Austistic Savant, by Daniel Tammet (No)
Best Gift Ever
Weekend Assignment # 350: Best. Gift. Ever.
What is the best gift you’ve ever gotten from anyone?
Extra Credit: To the best of your recollection, what is the best gift you ever gave someone else?
Goodbye, Columbus, by Philip Roth
I had to purge my books again because my TBR bookcase is overflowing. I have it down to a full seven shelves and four additional piles. During that mini-project, it occurred to me that I haven’t read any Philip Roth this year. Roth is one of the authors that I like enough to try everything that he has written, so I buy anything with his name on it when I can find it for a dollar. This is why I have so many unread books.
Goodbye, Columbus was his first book. It is a novella and five short stories. The novella was a coming-of-age romance across the social classes. Neil was a Rutgers graduate from Newark that worked in the library and Brenda was a Radcliffe student spending the summer at the country club. They had a lovely summer that ended with his spending two weeks with her family, at the end of which is a wedding. Her brother married his pregnant girlfriend. Then Brenda goes back to school.
In between there were several Battle of the Sexes conversations, challenging conventions and some of what it meant to be Jewish in an upwardly mobile post-war America. I was particularly interested in one character’s comment (it might have been Neil) that African American families moved into neighborhoods in Newark that the Jewish immigrants vacated once they had made some money. I have heard that more recently as a sociological commentary. The theory, if I remember correctly, was that the Jewish community might have been a bridge to build better “race relations” because they came from the same place – neighborhoods and economics – as many African Americans, but it never materialized.
I found it all very interesting until the end. SPOILERS:
They break up because Brenda left her diaphragm in her house and her mother found it. Her parents demanded that she break up with that evil boy.
Really? It didn’t once occur to her to say, “Hey, Mom. At least he didn’t knock me up like my brother and what’s-her-name that got married five minutes ago in your own backyard.”
So I guess that part is just dated. And not in a way that gives us any new insight into anything.
The rest of the stories were good. I particularly liked one where a boy is challenging his rabbi to explain why, if God can do anything, he couldn’t have made Mary produce the baby Jesus without having intercourse. I remember my friend Noah telling me that Judaism encourages people to study the Torah and ask questions without relying solely on faith. The rabbi didn’t have a good answer for the kid, and drama ensues.
I am in the middle of two other books right now, with a third for my book club that I need to start. So I doubt that I will finish anything else before the end of the year. I might just start working on a 2010 Books and Reading Recap.
Rabbit Rescue
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1936343312&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrPeople find the idea of a parrot rescue odd, so in the interest of solidarity I’d like to point you to an article in USA Today about a lady who wrote a book to educate people about rabbits and adoption:
“Georgiana G. Hall (who goes by G.G.), a lifelong animal lover, took on her first rabbit nine years ago and found it (and the other rabbits that followed into her home and heart) so enchanting, and so misunderstood (they’re regularly dumped by the thousands weeks after Easter by know-nothing owners who find growing rabbits less charming than tiny bunnies) that she felt compelled to spread the word. The result: Hershey: A Tale of a Curious House Rabbit(Peppertree Press, $16.95) released last autumn.”
I believe I mentioned that I babysat for a rabbit earlier this year when a friend was on vacation. Joker is a charming creature, but he needs time and space to run around and fresh produce in addition to his pellets and hay and a clean cage (boy, was that a pain) and he chews on things and hides and generally requires just as much maintenance as my cat.
And you know what a pain my cat is.
So if you think you want a rabbit, please do your homework. The commitment is in time, attention, space in your home and of course, cash. And if you are then satisfied that a rabbit is the pet for you, please consider adopting from a rescue. Petfinder.com is a great resource.
Box Calendars
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0761157360&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr365 Little Ways to Save Our Planet sucked. I was so bored that I quit at September 6. I just now tried to run through the rest of the year to see if there were any good tips and I gave up at November 9. Here was a gem:
“Air transportation is now the fastest-growing source of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. Instead of flying to a vacation destination, why not explore your local area?”
Shut. Up. And anyway, if you people were really serious about your tree-hugging, you wouldn’t have produced a daily box calendar.
Luckily, I found the 2011 version of the Book Lovers Calendar that Joy gave me a couple of years ago. Not that I got around to reading the books from that list. But it was fun to look at every day.
Now to go recycle this junk.
Giving Credit Where Due
This story starts with me being an ungrateful brat:
There was only one thing of the tangible, go-to-the-store-and-buy-it-for-me variety that I put on my Christmas list. Didn’t get it. Got lots of good stuff. My mother in particular was listening to me talk about new laptops and charitable contributions and stuff. But no one picked up Season Two of Mad Men 
Happily, Target has it on sale for $14.99 (and so, it seems, does Amazon), which is a way better deal than anyone could have gotten for me, anyway. So I went in to get it. It wasn’t there, but Target is so kind as to leave Raincheck tickets, so that you can have the sale price when the product is back in stock. So I picked up a ticket and a few other things and got into the checkout line.
(Note: On the grand List of Places You Should Not Take Your Children: The toy aisle in the week after Christmas. You know you aren’t going to buy the kid anything, so why are you torturing him? The next parent I hear say, “You just got a whole pile of toys for Christmas” while standing in the toy aisle is going to get my Laser Stare of Death.)
The Raincheck ticket is supposed to be scanned, and a printout with a date is given to the customer. The cashier couldn’t make it work, so she sent me to the Customer Service desk. The one where people are returning things. The queue was a dozen people deep. I nearly walked out of the store, but I figured I could read a book and give it a minute to see if the line moves.
I didn’t even manage to take the book out. That line moved. After all the aggravation in all of the stores I visited today, Target wins my Official Approval and Thanks. (Except for the part where the cashier couldn’t make it work.)
The First Blanket
I finished my first blanket for Project Linus. No – I am not a crocheting prodigy. I have had the thing mostly done in a cubby since before Ainslie was born. I had only three skeins of yarn to go.
I only do one stitch and I only used one color of yarn, so it was ridiculously simple. But it was large enough and the color was such that it will be good for an older kid, which seems to be what they need. (Note: Toys for Tots has the same problem. They receive way more donations for toddlers than they do for the older kids.) So I am making the older kids my mission. Anyway here it is:
The Boxing Day Haul
Because of various plans and in-laws and other conflicts, my family gathers for The Gift Exchange each year at my house on Boxing Day. We order pizza. Some highlights:
- My niece, Ainslie, aged two, received a small etch-a-sketch thingy in her stocking. She started playing with it and didn’t want anything else. I tried to give her a great big box to open and she said, “No thank you.”
- My nephew, Alex is nearly six and he opens every gift like it is the best thing ever. “They’re Pajamas! With Mario on them! And not just Mario! Mario Kart!”
- My mother won the gift-giving prize this year. She commissioned (read as: got an artist friend to practice) mini-portraits of the three kids for my brother and sister-in-law. They made Becky cry.
- The handmade gifts were for our friend Janis, who actively volunteers with her church and a homeless shelter in her neighborhood. We filled a big box of hats and gloves and scarves for her to contribute to her group. We made the scarves and picked up the other things at random stores throughout the holiday shopping season. It looked something like this:
The Next Dark Age 