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Book review - Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood.
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
- Cat's Eye: More Than Just a Marble (zaraalexis.wordpress.com)
It's been a good week...
Don't know whether it's the cooler weather or all the arts events I attended, but I feel more like writing.
First though, I've been reading Mary Gordon's Pearl, a novel concerning a young American woman studying in Dublin who goes on a hunger strike in support of a casualty (at least in her view) of the troubles. What is particularly interesting to me is the voicing of the work. If I am not mistaken, it is written in the first person, the author's voice, which was at first difficult to read. For example, at the beginning of the second section, she writes:
This is who and what Pearl Meyers believes she is, what and what she is to herself. But what is she to us? A twenty-year-old woman. A woman who is starving, a woman chained to a flagpole in front of the American embassy in Dublin, Ireland. A woman who is lying on the ground.
But who am I? you may be asking.
Think of me this way: midwife, present at the birth. Or perhaps this: godfather, present at the christening. Although of the three people with whom we are concerned, perhaps the most important, Pearl herself, was never christened. If not the christening, them, perhaps the naming. Present at the naming. A the speaking of the most important word.
I am about two thirds of the way through this work and it's a little slow going, but (I think) an important read.
It's Monday....what am I reading?
I've got four books on the go right now which is a lot. But so far it's working for me.
- What to Eat by Marion Nestle. Nestle is a big-wheel nutritionist and from what I've read so far, sensible, straightforward, and no-nonsense. The book is rougly organzed by food group, starting with fruits and vegetables, then dairy (and non-dairy substitutes) and now I'm on the chapters on meat. The only quibble I have so far is the dietary-cholesterol-raises-blood-cholesterol story, which I'm not sure is still considered a given, at least based on what I've read in Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories and the associated research. I would be in interested in Nestle's take on that book. While I'm only a third of the way through Nestle's 600 page book, I'd recommend it. I'm also planning to check out her newest book on feeding pets.
- Blankets by Craig Thompson.An at times heatbreaking graphic novel about a young man growing up in Wisconsin, his difficulties with his family, faith, and friends. I've been on the hold list at the library for ages for this novel and am reading it slowly, savouring it. Am about two-thirds of the way through this 600 page tome.
- The Good Guy by Dean Koontz. I picked this up specifically for a Seasonal Reading Challenge task and have never read anything by this author before. It's a crime/thriller novel and I am very much enjoying it. The premise is interesting, if somewhat implausible, but the characters are engaging. I'm listening to this on audio and the production is excellent.
- The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. I read Morton's The Forgotten Garden last year and very much enjoyed it. I've had this novel on my Kindle for some time, but just started reading it when I finished the paperback I had in my purse while I was downtown and needed something else to read. Also set in England, Kent to be precise, I'm not very far in but loving it already. I suspect I'll keep my Kindle in my bag while I'm attending TIFF, for all the lineup-and-waits, so this will be a good novel to have on the go over the next couple of weeks.
Take a deep breath.....and read!
The Goodreads Seasonal Reading Challenge Summer 2011 has come to a close. I hit a personal best for these 3-month challenges, reading (or listening to) 61 books and almost 19,000 pages. My list is here (I managed to read the books in bold type.)
Most of the tasks have been posted for the Fall Challenge, and I've made up my reading list. This varies over the challenge as new books come my way or I move some around, but I'm trying to read from my shelves this quarter so that I can continue with my book purge.
I'm starting off this challenge with a few items from the library:
Books:
What to Eat by Marion Nestle. I've been wanting to read this ever since it was published, but hadn't gotten around to it until it finally came up on my hold list at the library. It's 600+ pages of clear, straightforward, no-nonsense writing and I'm enjoying it.
The Idle Parent: Subtitled "Why Less Means More When Raising Kids". Recommended on the excellent blog Mental Multivitamin, I'm reading this mainly to feel better about our laid-back attitude to parenting, as it's too late to change much at this point.
The Young Man From Atlanta by Horton Foote. I borrowed this Pulitzer Prize winning play from the library for the summer challenge, but didn't get to that task. I'm hoping to find a place for it on my list when all the tasks have been posted.
Three graphic novels that I picked up after browsing at my local library branch. I like this genre because the story is told in fewer words but the artwork is typically engaging and tells a good part of the tale. The first two are by American writers and the third Japanese.
Audiobooks that I've downloaded from the public library onto my iPod:
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande. I know about the essence of this book having read an article in the New Yorker (I think), but I'm looking forward to a longer description of this approach to reducing errors in different industries.
The Night Road by Kristin Hannah. I don't know this author and the book was published in March 2011, so I must have read a review of it somewhere and put it on my hold list.
Prisoner's Base (Nero Wolfe mystery) by Rex Stout. I like Nero Wolfe mysteries and they're good, quick listens.The narrator on all the ones I listened to in the past has been excellent.
The Good Guy by Dean Koontz. I chose this for a task where you have to read a book by an author who has a retired hurricane name. You "get out" of reading a second book if the book you read was written in the year the hurricane name was retired, in this case, 2007.
Seven Quick Takes Friday
- I was interviewed by a writer from the Wall Street Journal yesterday for a piece on white noise apps. I had blogged about it at some point
(although I can't seem to find the piece now) and she contacted me by telephone. While white noise machines have been around for a long time for use in helping people sleep, the emergence of apps for smartphones is relatively recent and she's exploring what people do with them. My main uses are to block out noise when I am trying to read (in a waiting room, on the subway, etc.) or to help me sleep when I'm in a noisy environment like a plane or train. The app I use is White Noise and it's available from the App Store on iTunes. - I dropped by the Oakwood branch of the Toronto Public Library for the first time this week.Michael was at a trombone lesson nearby and it offered comfy chairs in a lovely light-filled space. Check out the door handles!
- We've been loving our new grill! I can't believe how much more I am willing to cook in the summer when it does't involve heating up the house. We've made some great steaks, chicken, lots of grilled veggies with onion and mushrooms, and tonight we've got some wild salmon that I think I'll do in foil. Corn is in season, so I've also been enjoying that, although I haven't grilled any yet. I'm going to try that tonight using the advice from the National Post, which is to just shuck it, brush the cobs lightly with oil and pop it directly on the grill. Easy peasy.
- A couple of pieces from Zen Habits have really struck me this week. The first is a guest post by Chris of Zen to Fitness called Four Simple Fitness Fundamentals in which he encourages people to focus on the basics of living a fit life before getting all fancy. These include (1) using your bodyweight (squats, pushups); (2) not hyperfocussing on cardio; (3) walk and stretch every day; and (4) live an invigorating life.The second piece, written by Leo Babauta (the host of Zen Habits) is The Amazing Power of Being Present. So many people have monkey-brain these days, and spend a lot of time worrying about what they SHOULD be doing instead of focussing on what they ARE doing. There is definitely a lesson for me here, and practicing this, along with using the brain dump(pdf) recommended in Getting Things Done, are probably crucial to moving forward the million projects I have spinning around in my head.
I'm looking orward to living an invigorating life when the temperature drops a bit!
- I just discovered Val McDermid, a writer of rather gory police procedurals set in England. I've read the first two Tony Hill and Carol Jordan mysteries namely The Mermaids Singing
and Wire In The Blood
. Very gory. But hard to put down. I put them down when I needed a break from the gore and then picked them back up again.
- Another discovery this week: we have free on-demand stuff with our cable* service. Maybe it's a new thing, but there are quite a few decent movies and a bunch of series that we can get. I watched the HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce earlier this week and it was fantastic! Starring Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce, it is apparently a more accurate portrayal of the James M. Cain novel than the 1945 film starring Joan Crawford. I'm now catching up on Season 3 of Nurse Jackie that I somehow completely missed. Makes ironing pass quickly!
*[Edited to correct: we don't have cable per se. We have IPTV or internet television. Glorious HD over a telephone wire.] - My current reads are:
Book: Bech: A Bookby John Updike. I haven't read any of the Bech novels, so am looking forward to this one.
Audio: Apple Turnover Murderby Joanne Fluke. Slightly better than I was expecting, plus bonus recipes for baked goods.
Kindle: Alice Adamsby Booth Tarkington. Haven't actually started this yet, but it's on my Goodreads list to finish by the end of August.
Pop on over to Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Takes!
- Posted from ON and Toronto, Canada
Books on the road
I scanned my Summer Reading Challenge reading list for potential candidates...books that either I own or can buy used, and that would be enjoyable to read while travelling. I already have a few on my Kindle:
- A Connecticul Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (I'm about a third of the way in to this).
- Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
- The Distant Hours by Kate Morton (I don't currently have this assigned to a Challenge Task)
Other books that I had on hold at the library that I thought would be suitable are:
- Ann of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I decided to reread this during the recent Royal Visit, which included a stop at Green Gables in PEI.
- Friend of the Devil by Peter Robinson. It's the next up (for me) in the Inspector Banks series.
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry in Values by Robert Pirsig. I read this long ago as a teen, but it's the group read for the challenge and I'd love to give it another read.
I managed to find these at The Handy Book Exchange, my local used bookstore just around the corner on Avenue Road. (They're dog friendly which means I can pop in for a look when I'm walking Wilson, and they give him treats while I'm there.) I'll take off the library holds on these three and plan to leave them in Sweden with a BookCrossing sticker once I've finished them.
There are also a few books that I own that I'll consider taking with me:
- Trader by Charles de Lint. I've never read any of his work before, and I picked this up some time ago at Value Village. I'm becoming more open to the fantasy genre so we'll see how this goes.
- Open Secrets by Alice Munroe. Another one that I read some time ago and would like to re-read, and then give away.
Six paperbacks and a Kindle? Maybe that's excessive. Maybe I'll have already devoured one or more of these before I go. Either way, I feel prepared!
Seven Quick Takes Friday: Iris Murdoch Edition.
- It's the late Iris Murdoch's 92nd birthday, and I happen to be reading her novel The Nice and The Good. First published in 1968, it's a tale of a complex household in Dorset that includes a married couple (Octavian and Kate), their two children, an elderly uncle, a divorced friend of the wife whose ex-husband works for Octavian and her twins, a widow (friend of Kate) and her son, a housekeeper, a refugee scholar who lives in a cottage on the property, a cat and a dog. Also in the cast of characters is a friend of Octavians who is in love with Kate, said friend's girlfriend who he is trying to break up with, his manservant, and an ex-lover of the divorced friend. There is also a suicide (murder?) victim who works for Octavian. I had to make a little cheat sheet about 50 pages in to the novel to keep track of who everyone is. But it's a good read and I'm about halfway through.
- Our 18-year-old nephew, Marc, from France has been here for three weeks. He did two weeks of English language lessons at a terrific school here in Toronto, had done the requisite trip to Niagara Falls, spent a weekend at our cottage, and has hung out with our boys in the evenings when they're at home. He's really easy-going and has been a pleasure to host.This weekend will include the new Harry Potter movie and a day at Canada's Wonderland with Alex. He heads home on Tuesday with (I hope) great memories. We've been encouraging him to consider University of Waterloo for graduate studies (he's in Computer Engineering) and I know he'd love to return to Canada at some point. (Photo is Marc and Z at....guess where?)
- We've finally hired a cleaner to deal with our house as I have simply not been up to the task. The "deep" clean was thie past Monday and apparently we had a remarkable amount of dust throughout our house (she feigns surprise). Gleaming Glenn will be back each Monday to keep us sparkling and it will let me focus on decluttering.
- Z was a witness before the CRTC earlier this week at the Usage Based Billing (UBB) consultation. He'll be back next week for more. It brings back my old days at Bell when I was involved in a number of regulatory proceedings, responding to interrogatories and preparing witness testimony and backup. I loved that work and have enjoyed discussing the current hearings. I've been following the twitter feed with much interest (#ubb for any geeks out there.) We're such romantics!
- I've started a family history wiki, private to family members at the moment, where I am trying to compile data, photos, stories, etc about my ancestors. If you're in my family and would like an invite, drop me a line. It's still in a fairly preliminary stage and it's my first time creating a wiki (I'm using the free version of PBworks) but I think it has great potential to become a repository of multiple types of information and a way to pass on the family history after I'm gone.
- Michael is taking Grade 11 Physics at summer school to free up a period in his schedule next year to permit more practice time. He's half-way through the course and it's going very well. A tiring exercise (five days a week, 8:45-3:30), he gets a full year credit in less than a month and, frankly, keeps him occupied through the summer. The teacher is excellent and he seems very focussed on doing a great job. He'll have three weeks break, and then two weeks of music camp to top off his summer, a week of jazz with his trombone and a week of band/classical with his tuba.
- One of the big results of our visit from Gleaming Glenn was his tidying of the boys rooms. Michael was so happy, that he did a whole bunch of additional decluttering and has decided to move all his instruments upstairs, along with the digital piano. He asked for a smaller desk so that this could be accomodated, and we found one at Value Village for $14.99 (less 20% student discount):It is basically particleboard with an ugly faux wood-grain base. Two cans of RustOleum Universal spray paint (black) yielded this:
Another few hours to cure and it'll grace his room.
Read more Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary.
- Posted from Toronto, Canada
When Fenelon Falls by Dorothy Palmer - A review.
When Fenelon Falls by Dorothy Palmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Tide Road by Valerie Compton - A review.
Tide Road by Valerie Compton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
WWW Wednesdays...and book giveaway!
Haven't participated in this recently, All you need to do is answer these three questions, and post your link over at Should Be Reading:
- What are you currently reading?
- What did you recently finish reading?
- What do you think you’ll read next?
Here goes!
Currently reading: I've got three four books currently ongoing:
- Richard III by William Shakespeare. Trying to get through this before my trip to Stratford on Thursday. I really need to buckle down and make a serious effort to get at least through the first two acts. Then Act III can be a surprise, LOL!
- The Likeness by Tana French. This is a big book, clocking in at just under 700 pages. It's the second police procedural by this author and is set outside of Dublin. An intriguing premise: a young woman is found dead, and she is the spitting image of a police officer who used to work undercover. The ID on the body is that of the undercover officer's "persona" and said officer ends up going back into character, pretending that the woman didn't actually die, and moving in with her housemates. Hard to put down!
- The Last Summer of You and Me by Ann Brashares. I've just started this audiobook and don't have much to say about it yet. It's the first adult novel by Brashares who wrote the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants and other YA titles.
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain. I'm reading this via DailyLit and am about 15% of the way in. There are funny bits interspersed with boring bits.
Recently finished:
- The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (audiobook). Excellent fantasy adventure, and that's high praise from me as I don't usually enjoy fantasy literature. I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. Philip Pullman narrates the novels and there is a cast of other readers which makes the audiobook very enjoyable.
- Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. Beautfiful novel about a young woman who immigrates from Ireland in the late 50s. If any of my readers would like my copy, drop me a line and it's yours. First come, first served! Email, comment, Facebook, whatevs...
- The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. Loved the format of this novel set at an international newspaper headquartered in Rome. Tells the story of the paper in chapters, each the story of an employee or reader of the paper. Chapters are interspersed with third person narratives about the history of the company. Funny, poignant, and well-deserving of the accolades it's received.
Up next:
- Needled to Death by Maggie Sefton. This is a book from the "Knitting Mystery" series. It'll go quickly after I finish The Likeness. Got this one from Value Village a few months ago.
- Alone in the Classroom by Elizabeth Hay. This novel's been getting some great buzz. Got it from the library.
- Black Rose by Nora Roberts. This is my next audiobook. It's the second in the "In the Garden" trilogy and a follow-up to Blue Dahlia that I read a couple of weeks ago. It's a romance novel with some gardening and genealogy thrown in to keep it moving forward. Can't beat a good romance in the summer!
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