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Books: a two-fer

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Vaclav and Lena: A Novel

Vaclav and Lena: A Novel

I listened to this story on audio and I really think that it added to the experience. There were two narrators (although mostly one) and there were accents (done well) and there was a lot of emotions put into the reading.

Two children, best friends at 9 years old, living in Brooklyn with Russian parents, and then the separation. And the mystery. Years and years. And then they meet again.

Good story. 🙂

The Wisdom of My Grandmothers by Adriana Trigiani
The Wisdom of My Grandmothers
by Adriana Trigiani

4 of 5 stars
Read from October 29 to November 01, 2011
I’ve loved Adriana’s books for years. I won a copy of this book and then listened to Book Club Girl’s blog radio interview with Adriana tonight.

Adriana was blessed with strong grandmothers who lived into her 30s. They were born in 1895 and 1907 and both were hard-working career women who found the love of their lives. It is easy to see the influence these women had on the fictional characters you find in Trigiani’s novels.

I especially loved the passage where she says, “Looking back, now, I realize that you only ever need one person who lights up that way when you enter a room. One person is all it takes to give a kid confidence.” Yes.

Good stuff.

A Sense of Connection: LaoTong

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Cover of "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan:...

Cover of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel

Almost two weeks ago I went with my friend Cindy to see the movie “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.”  We are both Lisa See fans and read this book in preparation of seeing the movie this summer… and then thought we’d be renting it (ala “Jane Eyre”) but it came to Rochester with an Independent Movie Series!  Yay!

We both agreed that it was a beautiful movie, even with the modern storyline which wasn’t part of the book.  The book tells the story of two girls who are matched to be LaoTongs, or Old Sames, at a young age.  Wikipedia and Lisa See (the author) describe LaoTongs in this way:

Lao Tong or Old Sames was a more rare and formal relationship between women and was exclusive and life-long. Women of suitable birthdays, ages, backgrounds and birth-signs would be paired this way in a bond of exclusive sisterhood that would last a lifetime and would survive marriage, child-birth and widow-hood. A Lao Tong relationship would be rarely renounced or broken. (Wikipedia)

“A laotong match is as significant as a good marriage,” Lily’s aunt explained. “A laotong relationship is made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity. A marriage is not made by choice and has only one purpose – to have sons.” “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” is the story of such a friendship. (Lisa See)

I haven’t been paired with an Old Same since birth, but I do have friendships with amazing women that have survived (ha!) marriages and children and distance.  I also see great value in creating meaningful relationships and maintaining connections with them.  After I read “The Girls from Ames” I set out to create a group of women that meets monthly to create a real-life network of amazing women, to learn from each other and support each other.  We are in our second year and our time together is something I look forward to each month!

The Chinese women sworn to be Old Sames used a secret women’s language – nushu – to communicate with each other.  We use Facebook, email, or phone calls to maintain connection with those who live a distance away, or we use walks, dinners, or girls’ night out to maintain and grow connections with those we can have more frequent contact with. No need to send servants between villages and households with secret language written on fans, but we can write letters to be delivered by the US Postal Service.

With the release of the DVD on 11/1, many book clubs are having LaoTong Nights – groups of women getting together to watch the movie and discuss their female friendships and the things they do (or can do) to maintain connections.  Below is the information they are encouraging people to think about and discuss as they think about their friendships and watch “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.”

What would you add to the list below?  Have you ever planned a way to reconnect with someone you lost touch with?

Lily and Snow Flower had an intense friendship that lasted a lifetime.  Nushu helped them communicate and remain close, even in distance.  Everyone has that old friend they have known for a long time, yet find it hard to keep in touch.  Both get busy with their separate lives and don’t take the time to catch up with one another.  In honor of Snow Flower and the Secret Fancoming to Blu-ray and DVD November 1st, here’s a guide for keeping in touch with your besties, through whatever life may put between you.

Write Letters

There’s nothing like a handwritten letter to let someone know that you care and are thinking about them. Make a point of writing to your long-distance friend at least once a month, and giving them updates on what’s going on in your life, and asking what’s new in their life. If you’re so inclined, you can include photos or other small tokens of your friendship with your letters. This simple, heartfelt update will go a long way in making your friendship last.

Take a Trip Together

If it’s within both of your budgets, you and your bestie should take a trip together! Meet up in different places each year – places that are either meaningful to you both, or places that you two have always wanted to visit together. Have a weekend in Las Vegas, a week at the theme parks in Orlando, a glamorous trip to Hollywood, or a long, restful weekend in New England. Making new memories (or reliving old ones) will help keep your friendship vibrant.

Skype

One of the greatest inventions for modern day friendships is Skype. Making a weekly or biweekly “Skype date” can give you a chance to both talk to and see your long-distance friend on a regular basis. Best of all, Skype is free to use, even if you’re video-chatting someone internationally! Skype is great because, in addition to getting to hear your friend’s voice, you can also actually show them what’s new with you, or do something new together!

Start an Online Photo Album

There are so many different ways to share photos online these days, and you and your friend should take advantage of that! You can make a private album that only the two of you can access (you can do this on Facebook, PhotoBucket, etc.), and then you can both upload and comment on each other’s photos and keep up with what’s going on in each other’s lives.

Send Each Other Gifts

If you’re ever out shopping and see a little something that reminds you of your friend, or something you think your friend would love, why not send it to them? With USPS’ Flat Rate Boxes, you can send as much as you want to your long-distance friend for a small fee. Why not make a care package, filled with things you know they like (like homemade treats, or products specific to your area that they can’t get where they live)? If you exchange small gifts every few months, it will remind your friend that you’re thinking about them, and help you two stay friends forever.

40 Things (30!)

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The Passage of Time

Image by ToniVC via Flickr

Following along with Boof’s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday, day 30!  Her topic is:

30) A favourite sensational novel

I wasn’t quite sure what Boof meant when she chose this topic – a book that makes a sensation when published? a book that has a storyline so sensational that you can’t believe it? a book everyone is talking about?

So I googled it.

And got a lot of hits for “sensation novels,” British novels written in 1860-1880.  (See Wikipedia definition summary: The sensation novel was a literary genre of fiction popular in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s, following on from earlier melodramatic novels and the Newgate novels, which focused on tales woven around criminal biographies, also descend from the gothic and romantic genres of fiction. Typically the sensation novel focused on shocking subject matter including adultery, theft, kidnapping, insanity, bigamy, forgery, seduction and murder.)

Well I’m pretty sure this is what Boof meant, as I’ve seen her talk about some of these books and she is British, and I’m also pretty sure that I haven’t read any books of this type.  There was a list of books in this genre and the closest to anything I’ve ever read was “Great Expectations,” except I haven’t read it.  I’ve read Charles Dickens.  🙂  Crime fiction is not my favorite type of fiction and I don’t read too many books written pre-1900.  One book that I loved (that doesn’t fit this in the true sense of the term or at all, really) was “Time and Again” by Jack Finney – a story about time travel to New York City – 1880.

Goodreads summary:  First published in 1970, this highly original cult classic tells the story of Simon Morley, a young Manhattan illustrator who is selected by a secret government agency–presumably to test Einstein’s theory that the past actually co-exists with the present–and finds himself suddenly transported back to the New York of the 1880s. Written with style and elegance, this bold, visionary novel provides “Mind-boggling, imagination-stretching, exciting, romantic entertainment.”– San Francisco Examiner.

I loved this book and was excited when the sequel was written in 1995.  I believe I have that one on my bookshelves.

Harry Connick, Jr. - Oh, My NOLA

#30 on my list of 40 things was: Go to see Harry Connick Jr. in concert, which I did on April 5, 2007!  Deadra and I both have loved Harry Connick, Jr. since his early days – his music and his goofy acting career.  Will and Grace – loved it!  Hope Floats – how fun!  When Harry Met Sally music – superb!  I have a LOT of his albums so was glad that he toured during the time that I was working on this list and we were able to see him at the Orpheum in Mpls.  Good times with good friends and good music.

Off to read!

Books: Catching up with myself!

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Cover of "Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, w...

Cover via Amazon

I’ve been busy blogging about Boof’s list and my list and meanwhile books are being finished!  That’s a good thing.  I’m definitely going to make my Goodreads goal (and surpass it!) of 55 books by year end.  Good times.  Love Goodreads.

So far in September I have finished the following:

“A Lover’s Dictionary” by David Levithan – My Goodreads review:  A quick, satisfying read. David Levithan tells a love story through word definitions (and you know I love the dictionary!). Sometimes silly words, often powerful words. It tells a story fully in short, packed definitions. Good stuff.

“Attachments” by Rainbow Rowell – My Goodreads review: What a fun and unique book! Told through emails that get caught in a filter and the IT guy who reads them. It was amazing how much you learn about people from reading their emails and all characters were very likeable. I was cheering for them to be happy and really unsure how it was going to turn out until the very end. How satisfying! * I already posted this info but it’s worth posting twice!  It is going to be a favorite of 2011 I think!

“The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake” by Aimee Bender (audiobook) – My Goodreads review: I tried to read this once and it didn’t grab me. It remained on my TBR list so I got it on audio from the library, and I’m sorry to say it didn’t grab me again! It got better as it went on, but I wouldn’t have finished listening to it if I hadn’t had some miles to put on the car this week. The author read the book and it sounded like it would sound if I read the book – nothing special. Just being read to.   That said, there were a few moments I will remember for a while – the story (parable) that Rose tells about her classmate that couldn’t read and then found out that he couldn’t see was quite powerful.

Sorry for being unoriginal and simply posting my Goodreads reviews about these books.  Don’t have many more thoughts than I’ve already written!  🙂

I’m currently reading (and loving!) “Lunch in Paris – a Love Story with Recipes” by Elizabeth Bard.  How fun!  I think it’s going to have to go on my wishlist to own and go on my cookbook shelf right next to “A Homemade Life”!  They are similar in that there are recipes relating to each chapter but Bard’s book is filled with yummy sounding French recipes.  Ooh la la!

And on the books into movies front, I purchased the new “Jane Eyre”  movie and I am patiently waiting for friend Cindy to find time to watch it with me!  In the meantime I found a 1983 British miniseries of Jane Eyre on instant Netflix so I’m refreshing my memory on the story – in 11 episodes it is probably not too abridged!

A few Italian movies I reserved during Ferragosto have come to me from the library so I have another to watch tonight.  There are a few in the theatres I’d like to go see but we’ll see how it goes!

Off to read!

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40 Things (5)

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Non-Fiction Section

Non-Fiction Section Image by mlibrarianus via Flickr

Following along with Boof’s40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday…her 5th question is:

5)  A favourite non-fiction book?

Non-fiction isn’t something I read often.  Should I be ashamed? Because I’m not.  The few that I have read, I have enjoyed.  Probably non-fiction books that I don’t enjoy don’t even get finished, thereby they don’t make my “Read” list.  🙂

Here are a few good books:  “The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and Friendship,” “No Journey is So Far: Two Women and their Historic Journey Across Antarctica,” “A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table,” and “Reading Lolita in Tehran.”  (When I look further at the non-fiction books that I have read, there is a common theme of a title with a colon (:) and a subtitle following.  Is that requisite in non-fiction?  Have to explain the title further to get people to read them?)

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table

“The Girls from Ames…” inspired me to invite a group of women to commit to getting together monthly in order to nurture relationships, so that’s kind of a big deal.  I met Ann Bancroft and she signed my “No Horizon is So Far” book, so that’s kind of a big deal, too.  I refer to “My Homemade Life” often, and in fact, it is with my cookbooks rather than on my bookshelf.  It is full of recipes that are fun to dream about (and do-able if a person were inclined to cook).  And “Reading Lolita” is a wonderful glimpse into the lives of women in Iran.
Any #5 on my list of 40 Things was SAY “NO” MORE.  This was something that I was consciously doing before I made my list, but also something I needed to keep in the forefront of my mind.  There was a time when I said YES to everything and had many volunteer commitments and work commitments.  I was busy and getting a lot done but the joy was taken out of it so I needed to evaluate what was important to me and pare down the things that were sucking the life out of me.
Again, no great shakes, but the list made it a conscious choice.
Off to read!

40 Things (4)

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Cover of "Persepolis"

Cover of Persepolis

Following along with Boof’s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday… her fourth question is:

4) A favourite translated book

Hmmm..  Not sure how many translated books I have read, but there have been a few.

I own and LOVED reading “My Life as a Dog” by Reidar Jonsson.  A Norwegian book whose movie adaptation won best foreign film in 1987, I believe.  I loved the movie and the book even more.  I have memories of riding on public transportation in Madison and literally laughing out loud and also having my heart break.

I really enjoyed “Persepolis,” by Marjane Satrapi and translated by Mattias Ripa.  A story about growing up in Iran.

I read an abridged version (shameful, I know) of “War and Peace” by Tolstoy and didn’t really enjoy that much.  It was a long hot summer and there are so many names …

I’m sure there are others, but “My Life as a Dog’ wins.  🙂

And on my list… my #4 was “Learn some Ukranian / Russian” and I failed miserably. Again, I listened to Russian podcasts and downloaded vocabulary sheets.  Not much stuck.  We had a foreign exchange student from the Ukraine so that was the motivation to attempt it.

Off to read!

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Books and Movies – Love ’em!

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Before the midnight showing of Harry Potter pt 2

I ended up going to a midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 2, with no regrets.  Marissa and I watched Pt. 1 on PPV at home (without popcorn) and then went to the theatre!  We arrived around 10:45 and the there were a lot of people there in costumes and I don’t know how many theatres were actually sold out.  The one we were in was already 2/3 full by the time we got there.  It was exciting to be there with all of the other “giddy” people, to hear the applause throughout the movie – even before the movie started – and to watch the final book come to life.  There were differences, of course, but there was also word-for-word sameness in a lot of dialogue.  Good stuff.

The books are more amazing, of course, but the movies add to the experience.  One of my favorite podcasts, Filmspotting, reviewed the movie after reading ZERO of the books (or even seeing all of the movies), so they had tons of questions, although they gave the movie pretty good reviews.  Marissa hadn’t read any books beyond the first and enjoyed the movies on their own.

So now what?  Other book-related movies are coming out soon.

  • “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” is in theatres now (7/15) but I don’t see it showing up in Rochester for a while… I will keep my eyes peeled for that one.  I had that one on audio but lost it somewhere (probably on my dead iPod) so I downloaded a digital version from the library (MobiPocket Reader anyone??? Yikes… another program downloaded to read books) but also requested a paperback – and today I got an email that it was ready and waiting!  Yay!  I’ll dig in tonight!
  • “The Help” comes out on August 10 – and it looks so good!  What a fun book to read and discuss.  It will be a book club event to see that together!
  • “One Day” comes out August 19.  (July 15 was the ONE DAY featured in the book!  Should have acknowledged it!)  I look forward to seeing that book on the screen.  I enjoyed reading it – mostly – although the ending didn’t sit right with me.  😦
  • “Jane Eyre” hasn’t made it to Rochester yet – meaning it won’t?  It was released in April, so that’s probably a good bet.  I have it in my Netflix queue but there’s no release date there yet.  Sigh.  I read that book in anticipation of the movie.  I’m glad I caught up with a classic and I know there are multiple versions of the movie that I can pick fromI
  • “Sarah’s Key” was made into a movie!  The book about the Vel’d’Hiv Roundup in 1942 in France was another sad Holocaust story, telling about another unknown-to-me piece of history.  Kristin Scott Thomas stars and it might be French, as the title is listed as “Sarah’s Key (Elle s’appelait Sarah)”.  Releases 7/22!
  • I heard that “Austenland” is being made into a movie starring Keri Russel.  I liked that book, so that’s pretty fun.  Gotta love all things Austen!
There’s the “movie news” portion of the blog – ha!  Just so much good stuff coming up, I guess.  Lots of good material to choose from!
Speaking of book club events, we had book club this afternoon.  I got there late – around 2pm – and we discussed our book (“Olive Kitteredge”) very little!  No one loved the book, although a few of us thought it was good enough.  It’s really short stories about small town life with the character of Olive showing up, being featured, or simply being mentioned somehow in each one.  So the plot and story-line was not easy to follow and the characters were many and difficult to remember.
But oh, did we laugh about other stuff!  Suddenly it was 5:10 and we wondered if we were staying for supper!  Good stories and catch-up time.  Who knows what we’ll do next, but it may be just a movie date along with dinnertime discussion of “Heaven is For Real,” since many had read it already and really wanted to discuss it when done.
Well, I can’t wait to dig in to “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.”  What are you excited to read?  What movies are you excited to see?
Off to read!
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Did ya miss me?

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P question

??? Image via Wikipedia

Wow.  I was blogging pretty regularly for a while and then I stopped!  I’ll tell you what happened.  A few things, actually.

Reason #1- I got an iPad 2 from work.  Less need to sit at the laptop or desk top and less convenient to blog on the iPad.  I now read all my blogs, read tweets, search the library website, check email and facebook, and play Words with Friends all on the iPad!  Tonight I downloaded my first library book to the iPad!  Who has time to blog!  🙂

Reason #2 is that I received some news that kinda rocked my world a few weeks ago – they are looking at cutting my position at work for next year.  It’s been an emotional roller coaster.  Tons of sadness, a little anger, and growing excitement at what may be.  Every day at work is emotional because it is hard to talk about it with coworkers.  Hard to think about not working with them and the district families anymore – after 18 years of being there.  But I’m thankful for the support I am feeling from coworkers and parents so my new coping strategy is an attitude of gratitude.  I hope it helps me sleep at night. 🙂

Reason #3 is that Easter happened!  Monday night (5/2) when I crawled into bed, I realized that it was the third night I’d slept there since April 20.  I went to Mom and Dad’s for quite a few days during my break from work and then we left last Thursday for a trip to Denver for a wedding!  It’s a lot easier to blog when I’m home and alone.

So with all of this going on, my house is suffering.  Tonight I dealt with the piling up of clothes and tomorrow I’ll have to tackle the mail and dust.  As I said, I also tackled downloading an e-book from the library tonight.  That was quite a task.

So about the iPad.  It’ll have to go back if/when I leave my job but I really think that I will need to get my own.   I have the nook, kindle, and iBooks apps on there.  Overkill or what?  And then to download library e-books, I had to download Overdrive and Adobe.  They don’t work together?  I’ve been wondering about just getting a nook or other e-reader, but I might just need the whole iPad she-bang.

Thoughts?

And now about books (and maybe a movie) – My Spring Thing reading list is below – and there is progress!  How fun is that?  I just finished “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand” and it was good.  Not super good, but good.  I liked the characters, was confused about the inclusion of some of the characters, but would like to meet Major Pettigrew.  Or just travel to England. 🙂  Before that I read “The Hundred Foot Journey.”  Can’t remember if I blogged about that, but I liked that book, too.  Again, not life-changing, but good. I really need to get some good Indian recipes in my repertoire.

On Easter Sunday Marissa and I went to see “Water for Elephants.”  It was good, but not nearly as good as the book (of course).  You just don’t get the emotions and tensions that you get in the book.  The characters were pretty well cast, although I didn’t picture the main guy to be as cute as Pattinson.  🙂  But it was true to the story.

Spring Thing Reading List:

  • Mockingbird
  • The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
  • Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
  • Heart and Soul
  • The Hundred-Foot Journey
  • Fly Away Home
  • Winter’s Garden
  • Harry Potter (2)
  • Harry Potter (3)
  • Harry Potter (4)
  • Harry Potter (5)
  • Harry Potter (6)
  • Harry Potter (7)
  • Jane Eyre
  • Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

Well, off to read!  On the iPad!

My Bedside TBR Pile

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It just keeps getting bigger and bigger!  Added two more books to it today!

image

April Fool!

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alarm clock, bought from IKEA

What is your preferred reading time?

About ten days into spring – and I’m moving along on my Spring Thing List!  I’m almost done with “Heart and Soul” by Binchy and then I’ll start “Saving CeeCee Honeycutt.”  I’m going to attempt all the Harry Potter’s on audio this spring, so that’s an addition to my list!  So far, watched one movie (I only cheated because I forgot which book came first and ordered the wrong one from the library!), listened to book 2 and starting book 3.  Maybe I will get them all read by the time part 2 comes out!  A girl can dream…

I’ve been enjoying setting my alarm clock for about 30 minutes before I need to get up and reading in bed in the morning.  Lately, I am not a great night-time reader – probably all of the blog reading I’m doing at night and the getting up early to read in the morning!  Gotta trim time somewhere!  So I am enjoying reading and have only procrastinated a little too long one morning!  Can’t wait for tomorrow… no alarm!

Things that made me smile this week:

  • Finally admitted that I can’t grow anything in my dark downstairs so moved the herbs to my bedroom.  I don’t know if there’s hope, but we’ll see.
  • Improv Everywhere – a little Friday night fun.
  • Laughing at my crabbiness on Tuesday
  • Marissa’s April Fool’s joke!
  • Reading in bed
  • Next week’s plans – Mexican food and Cosmo Girls!
  • Tomorrow night’s plans – the Minnesota RollerGirls!
  • Fake Baking.  Just a little light therapy.

And now, books on my list:(I’ve added to the list… it’s still a work in progress!  And we’ll see… it’s getting more and more ambitious!)

  • Mockingbird
  • The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
  • Heart and Soul
  • The Hundred-Foot Journey
  • Fly Away Home
  • Winter’s Garden
  • Harry Potter (2-8)
  • Jane Eyre
  • Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

How are you doing on your spring reading?  What is your preferred time of day to read?  And what made you smile this last week?

Well, off to read!