Parting Thoughts

Today, after a difficult week, Bogart (usually referred to as Bogie or Monster) went to the vet for one last visit. He'd had chronic renal failure, which became acute renal failure, complicated by a heart murmur and serious anemia. A friend, writing to see how I was doing, responded to the news with this:

My neighbor..., who has seen many beloved felines leave over the years, always reminds me that cats unlike people don't have goals or aspirations in life; they are not waiting to see a grandchild graduate from college or for a chance to visit the pyramids. Nor do they spend years dreading the idea of death and a final end, because they likely have no concept of a final end. What they want most is the love of their human, and as long as you provide that and they can recognize it, they have a good life. If their death comes surrounded by your love, it is a good death. I chose to believe this, as who really knows what goes on in the minds of cats. All we know for sure is that they continue to go on in our minds, long after they are gone, and I think that after a while that is a lovely thing.

 

1996-2013

Notable Quotes

After someone you love so dearly dies, you are absent from the world for a time, living only loss.  The pain of existing without the other is too hard to bear.  Only slowly do you return to life.  To being hungry, not just eating for sustenance.  To pouring a glass of good wine, not just drinking to quench a thirst.  To hearing the words of those around you and answering.

- M.J. Rose, Seduction

Notes from Mt. Bookpile

Not a bad start to the year: 100 books read.  I should easily make my goal of 300 - sadly for Mt. Bookpile, most of these were received in 2013.  Still I've read 7 received pre-2013; again, not a bad start.

Biography/Memoir

• The Astor Orphan, Alexandra Aldrich
• Good Riddance, Cynthia Copeland

Children's/Young Adult Fiction

• Dark Companion, Maria Acosta
• Loki's Wolves, K. L. Armstrong
• The Wrap-Up List, Steven Arnston
• Through the Skylight, Ian Baucom
• Dance of Shadows, Yelena Black
• Dualed, Elsie Chapman 
• Al Capone Does My Homework, Gennifer Choldenko   
• The Reluctant Assassin, Eoin Colfer  
• Invisibility, Andrea Cremer and David Levitan 
• Scorch, Gina Damico 
• Notes From Ghost Town, Kate Ellison 
• Heroes of Olympus, Philip Freeman 
• Fearless, Cornelia Funke 
• My Summer of Pink & Green, Lisa Greenwald
• When We  Wake, Karen Healey 
• The Time Fetch, Amy Herrick   
• The Eternity Cure, Julie Kagawa
• The Tragedy Paper, Elizabeth La Ban 
• When Love Comes To Town, Tom Lennon 
• The Incredible Charlotte Sycamore, Kate Maddison 
• Maid of Secrets, Jennifer McGowan 
• Crash, Lisa McMann 
• The Sea of Tranquility, Katja Millay 
• What We Saw At Night, Jacquelyn Mitchard 
• Requiem, Lauren Oliver 
• Dead Is a Killer Tune, Marlene Perez 
• Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, Matthew Quick   
• The Silver Dream, Michael Reaves
• Death, Dickinson, And the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia, Jenny Torres Sanchez
• The Rithmatist, Brandon Sanderson   
• Riptide, Lindsey Schiebe
• This Is What Happy Looks Like, Jennifer E. Smith 
• Trinkets, Kirsten Smith 
• The History of Us, Leah Stewart 
• Mind Games, Kiersten White 
• Absent, Katie Williams   
• In the Shadow of Blackbirds, Cat Winters 
• The 5th Wave, Rick Yancey

Adult Fiction

• S.E.C.R.E.T., Marie L. Adeline
• Stonemouth, Iain Banks  
• Benedict Hall, Cate Campbell
• & Sons, David Gilbert
• The Little Book, Selden Edwards
• Light-Waking-Nelly's Version, Eva Figes
• Z, Therese Ann Fowler
• All You Could Ask For, Mike Greenberg
• Baker Towers, Jennifer Haigh 
• Benediction, Kent Haruf
• Telling the Bees, Peggy Hesketh
• Flat Water Tuesday, Ron Irwin
• The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen, Syrie James
• Where You Can Find Me, Sheri Joseph
• Vampires in the Lemon Grove, Karen Russell
• Where the Light Falls, Katherine Keenum
• The Curiosity, Stephen Kiernan
• The History of Love, Nicole Krauss
• The Bookman's Tale, Charlie Lovett
• A Map of Tulsa, Benjamin Lytal
• At Weddings And Wakes, Alice McDermott
• Farewell, Dorothy Parker, Ellen Meister
• The Woman Upstairs, Claire Messud
• Margaret From Maine, Joseph Monninger
• Nowhere But Home, Liza Palmer
• Finding Camlann, Sean Pidgeon 
• The S-Word, Chelsea Pitcher
• The River of No Return, Bee Ridgway
• The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope, Rhonda Riley
• The Burgess Boys, Elizabeth Strout
• The City of Devi, Manil Suri
• The Last Telegram, Liz Trenow
• The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, Teddy Wayne
• The Fate of Mercy Alban, Wendy Webb
• The Ashford Affair, Lauren Willig

Horror

• The Demonologist, Andrew Pyper
• The Blood Gospel, James Rollins

Mystery

• Murder At the Lanterne Rouge and Murder Below Montparnasse, Cara Black
• Now You See Me and Dead Scared, S.J. Bolton 
• The Burn Palace, Stephen Dobyns 
• The Book of Killowen, Erin Hart 
• A Cold and Lonely Place, Sara J. Henry.
• The Ice Princess, The Stonecutter and The Stranger, Camilla Läckberg
• Reconstructing Amelia, Kimberley McCreight 
• A Matter of Blood, Sarah Pinborough 

Non-Fiction

• The Gutenberg Elegies, Sven Birkerts 
• The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Cahill 
• Banksy, Will Ellsworth-Jones 
• The Finest Education Money Can Buy, Richard L. Gaines
• The Girls of Atomic City, Denise Kiernan
• Help, Thanks, Wow, Anne Lamott
• The Holy or the Broken, Alan Light
• Unlearning Liberty, Greg Lukianoff 
• Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz 
• Going Clear, Lawrence Wright 

Speculative Fiction

• The Returned, Jason Mott

For Thee or Me?

Last Sunday, my good F/friend Gail and I had lunch.  Among the many things we talked about was my new habit of saying things like "back to reading Book [number]" and paying so much attention to how many books I've read.  I blamed a former colleague, who convinced me to review what I was reading (she was appalled that I just read and moved on) - the Killin' Time Reading blog is the result.  Ok, it was also a good way to see how high Mt. Bookpile had grown.

Then a couple of years ago I started to participate in the GoodReads reading challenge and managed to read 250 books (prior to then, I'd averaged 100-150 books a year since leaving college).  Then last year, 400.  This despite "wasting" time doing other things like watching tv, sleeping, working on consulting assignments, etc. - but not working full time.  400.  And now, when I go to GR to mark another book read or add some to Mt. Bookpile, I see the total I've read for this year's challenge (hoping for 300).

Still, after it was mentioned, I had to wonder: was I saying this for thee or me?  There's a wonderful flow chart that helps guide Quakers as to when they should speak in Meeting... or not. Over the past week I've pondered how I've been approaching the Books Read issue, as well as this blog, twitter, several of my e-mails... am I truly writing for thee, or for me?  Who really cares about the pensées of Lazygal, or her rants?  Do my book reviews matter?

Until I have clarity on this, don't expect too much from this blog.

Mika's missing the point

If you watch Morning Joe, you may have heard Mika Brzezinski going on about sugar and fat in our food - how dangerous the obesity epidemic is, how disappointed she is in the recent halting of the NYC "big drink ban."  Don't get me wrong, I think that it is important for us to be aware of how we've gone from some of these foods as occasional treats to part of our daily diet, much to our health's detriment.  It's disgraceful that schools have reduced recess time, time when young kids can run around and get exercise (one friend sent her children to private school because the local schools have completely removed recess, including the lunch recess!).  But...

First of all, she's too shrill about this.  Completely humorless.  As an occasional meal, McDonald's isn't going to kill you.  One of my favorite treats as a child was the freshly made donuts and hot chocolate we got after ice skating at the local college rink.  But that's the point: these were treats, not everyday foods.  Rather than railing against them entirely, advocating a complete ban, let's go back to the idea that every so often, it's ok to have a soda, or a donut.  Getting shrill about it just turns people off and then they ignore the importance of your message, only hearing the tone of your voice.

And then there's the irony: check out the nutritional value of 20oz of Coca-Cola and a 20oz mocha frappuccino (minus the whipped cream). Of course, because the show is "powered by Starbucks", she can't rant about the products they push, but if the point is to make people aware of the incredible amounts of sugar and other non-nutritional aspects of the foods and drinks they're ingesting, she should try to find ways to bring that into the conversation.

Notable Quotes

Well, think of it: there used to be whole libraries filled with books like this, copied out by hand.  Jesus, all the time and effort the poor buggers the monks put into each one.  We take it for granted now, don't we -- the printing press, the copy machine, the internet.  I mean, words lose their value, in a way, don't they, when you're drowning in them?"

Erin Hart, The Book of Killowen

Notable Quotes

It was like one of those times when you go to the library to check out a reference book for a science paper, but when you get there, you notice there's a new book out by your favorite author, so you check that out instead, leaving without any kind of reference book, and, in fact, you've forgotten all about your science paper because who can think about science when there's a new book out you haven't read.

- Kathryn Fitzmaurice, Destiny, Rewritten 

Book Question Meme

(found on Semicolon... saved until I needed blog content)


1. What book (a classic?) do you hate?
I have to go with Ethan Frome.  (if you've heard this rant before, please feel free to skip to the next question).  If you grow up in Upstate NY, in SmallTown, you know about tobogganing.  You know how easily you can go off track.  And you know how impossible an idea it is to commit suicide by toboggan.  I had to read it in 9th grade and I think my entire class was torn between disgust at the plot device and giggles that anyone thought it was possible.

2. To what extent do you judge people by what they read?
Hmmm.... I'm not sure that I do.  I do judge people by if they read.  When I was house-hunting, I actually asked my realtor if anyone read any more, because every place we visited had candles galore but no books!  I don't judge how much you read (or if it's magazines and newspapers over books - Thing One has read maybe 20 books in the 25 years I've known him), but if you don't read? There's probably very little we have in common.

3. What television series would you recommend as the literariest?
Gosh. Not sure what "literariest" means: based on literary novels (in which case, Masterpiece in all its incarnations)? based on books (in which case, add shows like Gossip Girl and Vampire Diaries)?  Intellectually stimulating?  C-SPAN's Book TV.

4. Describe your ideal home library.
I almost have it!  Fireplace - check.  Comfy couch - check.  Floor-to-ceiling bookcases - check. Cats to cuddle with - check.  What's missing?  A mini-kitchen with nibbles and an ever-brewing tea pot.  Not that my kitchen is that far away but this did ask for "ideal".

5. Books or sex?
Oh please.

6. How do you decide what to read next?
Depends.  Right now, I'm reading ARCs in the order of publication... once we head into older Mt. Bookpile territory, I randomly pull books from the shelves and read them.  The problem is that I should read LIFO but tend to read FIFO (what?).

7. How much do you talk about books in real life (outside of the blogging community)?
Oh, anyone that knows me in real life knows I can go on for hours about books: what I'm reading, what I liked, what I didn't like, what you should be reading, what my neighbor is reading, what I suspect my sister is reading...

Ponderables

(yes, a change from the IMponderables) RobinSF asks us to ponder "what are the things that will matter to us 90 years from now?" Go and do likewise.

What true love looks like

Thing One and I have been watching the Shakespeare Uncovered series.  Last night, he asked if I minded a spoiler - about Hamlet (surprise! he dies in the end!!).  Turns out he wanted me to know that Trevor Peacock was in one of the clips.

How can you not love someone like that?