Read: October Books

source: strandbooks.com

E.M. Forster: Howard's End
Ben Hecht: 1001 Afternoons in Chicago
Jasper Fforde: One of our Tuesdays is Missing
Peter Carey: Parrot and Olivier in America

It was a pretty good reading month. There was some seriously good reading (Forster and Carey), some fun (Fforde), and a nice surprise (Hecht). Hecht's book is a collection of columns written for the Chicago Tribune in the 1920s. A thoughtful friend gave me the book this summer and since our shipment was delayed, it was the only book out of a box that I hadn't read yet. Lucky me – it was delightful. The character sketches in particular were really nice. The illustrations were also really neat with the title of the story worked into each illustration.

Last month, I became a member of the local library. Local is no exaggeration either, the library is two doors down from our front door. How's that for living downtown? They have a surprisingly large collection of English language novels for a university town in the Netherlands. Chapel Hill is a university town too, but their foreign language section pales in comparison. The same was true in Haarlem, so go Holland! I picked up Fforde and Carey there. It turns out that I can reserve books for free via their website, so with some luck, a few choice selections will be waiting for me this week.

source: Literatuurplein.nl

We read some good kids books this month as well. We read the Dutch versions, but two are translated from English and one (de Cock) is a book without words.

David Lucas: Hendrik Heilbot (originally Halibut Jackson)
Sjoerd Kuyper, Daan Remmerts de Vries: Sjaantje doet alsof
Martin Waddell and Jill Barton: Plons! (originally The Pig in the Pond)
Nicole de Cock: Aan de overkant
Peter Brouwers: Bertje Big

Peanut liked the two pig stories the best (Waddell and Brouwers) – at least those were the ones we read the most. When it came to returning books, though, the only one he wanted to keep was Hendrik Heilbot. I loved de Cock's Aan de overkant, which is a love/friendship story in beautiful spare images. Sjaantje doet alsof (more or less translates to “Sjaantje pretends”) is a tear-jerker about a little girl who spending a silly pretending afternoon with her grandfather. On the last page, we learn that her grandfather's already passed away. Cue the tears. I liked it, though.

Did you read anything interesting last month? How do you choose which books to read, for yourself or your little ones?

One Month

I promised myself to blog every (week) day for a while and so far, so good. It's taken a surprising amount of discipline to do it, in part because the days seem to go on until about 9:30 or so, then cleaning up and then blog? Oh my.

But it's been good. It's been very good. It's been a wonderful way to reflect on my life. It's given me a reason to get the camera out more often, to notice my life, to look for the positive, to see what is unique about our family and our life. There will be more...

For now, I'm home solo with two little ones while Papa braves the snow at a conference in DC. Pumpkin is sick. She has the absolute most pathetic little scratchy voice cry. She wants badly to be by mama all the time. Peanut is helping a lot. He set the table for breakfast today. When we were done, he cleared it, without being asked. It was so neat.

I'm reading Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline, which was recommended by Meg at Sew Liberated. It's having a big impact on the way I talk to Peanut and a positive effect on his behavior. Thank goodness. All the biting, hitting, pushing over (I call it three-year-old tourettes) was driving me nuts. Or I should say, I felt angry when he hit, bit, pushed. It's happening less. We're getting through. There's hope.

Otherwise, we are just having slow days, staying home, eating out of the freezer, and looking forward to Papa coming home!

Read: September Books

this is the paper I'm spending the most time with lately

A long, long time ago, I used to post about the books I read each month. It's time to revive an old habit that I quite enjoyed. Only now, I'm not the only one in the family reading, so I'll add some notes about what the little ones are enjoying as well.

The List

• Paul Cohelo, The Alchemist
• Heleen van Royeen, De gelukkige huisvrouw
• Harry Mulisch, De Zaak 40/61: een reportage

These were all over the scale of reading seriousness. The Alchemist is an inspirational allegory. De gelukkige huisvrouw (The happy housewife) is modern, sad, raw, triumphant. De Zaak 40/61: een reportage is a psychological analysis of Adolf Eichmann written during his trial for WWII war crimes. All good books. All made me think. Not coherently, of course, but I thought.

I've decided to throw myself at more reading in Dutch. The last time we lived in the Netherlands, I stuck with almost exclusively English language books. This presented some logistical challenges and contributed to an ever-growing collection of books brought back from vacations and thrift stores as a sort of insurance fund in case of book shortages. Book shortages never actually happen. Huge piles of books in our house do. So I'm going to read more in Dutch. Suggestions are welcome!

We are currently living two doors down from the downtown library in Nijmegen. It makes for happy mama and Peanut. Peanut has already got his library card and is having a blast. Here are some titles from our first run. Two picture books here are particularly good, Hond in de Stad (Dog in the City) by Boiry & Frédéric Thiry and Waar gaat Ollie naartoe (Where is Ollie going?) by Julliette de Wit. They are both books without words, but wonderfully illustrated. I particularly like how very Amsterdam de Wit's book is. I know a bakfiets lover who should have a copy.

An Ideal Moment

I could have spent this afternoon doing something on my list. Let's see - there's the Summer blouse muslin, the pile of papers sitting on the desk begging for attention, moving pictures from camera to computer (always a chore), folding the laundry, emptying the dishwasher, putting away toys, or any other thing that seems generally mama-like and responsible. But I didn't. Peanut is off on an outing with his grandparents. I'm on my own with Pumpkin and she's a piece of cake so long as I wear her, so I recharged batteries instead.

Recharging involves a latte (I'm two days late on taking care of this reward), a bookstore trip (in which I buy nothing, of course), writing a lot, reading blogs and other interesting things on-line, and allowing my mind to wander. I have been allowing myself to explore the materials of a more creative life, but would like to help my brain shift gears as well. Some poking around lead to discovering Danny Gregory's Creative License which I now think I might have to read or at least own. I found a couple more amazing blogs to be inspired by: innner pickle and apples with honey. It's also possible that I need to challenge myself to open up and write or rather to open up when I write. It's funny to realize that you're being evasive even when you journal. Or maybe not evasive but certainly vague, ambiguous, general. I'd give you an example, but...

So this has turned into an ideal me moment. I've accomplished nothing but it feels like the world is one, no two shades rosier about now. And that while the sun's setting. Not bad at all.

Sitting Pretty

Here's another little finished project and a funny picture to go with it. The picture shows the men in our family doing what they do best - building with Legos and generally acting silly. Peanut, despite any evidence you might have seen here to the contrary, rarely looks at the camera for a picture. He also rarely sits still. Capturing as something other than a blur is always a bit of a triumph. Building Lego constructions is probably Peanut and Papa activity number one. There have been quite a few Sears Towers (the real name)constructed after dinner. They tend to come complete with several helicopter pads (of course) and parking garages far above street level (double of course). These constructions must remain in place for at least 24 hours in order to permit proper appreciation by the whole family.

As for the project, you may notice a little rabbit in the Lego chair. We call her Nijntje. Her English name is Miffy. I knew nothing about her before living in the Netherlands, but Peanut has prompted quite the education. The books are lovely with bold illustrations and rhyming, rhythmic text. Our doll version is based on this pattern, using appropriately colored yarn we were gifted upon our departure from the Netherlands. She's my first stuffed knit object and I'm sort of satisfied how she came out. I'd probably use smaller needles next time just to get a more solid surface. This one shows all the loose stitches between needles. Otherwise, a success.

She sews, too!

This time, I have a set of finished products! They are correspondence folders, inspired (again) by Amanda Soule. They are very late Christmas gifts for two lovely girls who always make me smile. My version has pockets that could work for cards, a notebook, and postage stamps. I thought about adding a pen holder, but figured it would only end up bulkier and bigger than it already is.

The main challenge in making these was trying to do a decent job on the top stitching. I don't think I really managed and find them a bit scraggly looking in that detail. There hasn't been much sewing going on around here and I'm pretty rusty. Practice will make perfect, though, so I'm planning a few more projects. I treated myself to a copy of Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing and have flagged half a dozen projects I'd like to try. What with all the free time I'll have in the next few months, it should be no problem!

"Little House" in my heart

I'm a voracious reader. Until January 2011. For the first time in years (maybe decades?) I went a month without finishing a single book. It's a bad sign. Carefully analyzed, this anomaly was the result of two things. The first was trying to push through two books that weren't right for me at the moment despite being good books. The second was not feeling like I had any other option. Luckily, both issues have been resolved.

Step one was putting the other books away. That would be Independent People by Halldor Laxness and The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco. Both of them simply require more concentration than my pregnant, toddler mama, stealing moments here and there to read brain can handle. Generally, this kind of literary fiction is my favorite. But sometimes, a girl's got her limits.

Step two was figuring out what I do want to read. This involved much aimless bookstore wandering. Can anyone tell me why books are so expensive? Finally, it hit me. Jane Austen. That woman is the answer to any reading slump of mine. When we moved to Chicago, we brought the last of my book boxes from the parents' attic in North Carolina. In hopes of finding a copy of Emma, I went through all but one (woke up Peanut from nap. oops). The only Austen I found was Sense and Sensibility. There was another great treasure waiting to be re-discovered, though. My Laura Ingalls Wilder books.

I kid you not, these books still make my heart beat a little bit faster and a little "aw" escapes when I see them. Collecting the series was a major undertaking for me back in my Rapid City, South Dakota days. They cost $2.95 plus tax each. My allowance was 50 cents a week and I had to have them all. They are the first books I remember buying for myself and they are treasures.

Last night, I started reading Little House in the Big Woods. It was so familiar and lovely. Scenes of candy making in snow and Pa fighting the wood stump bear were wonderful to read again. Reading it now, I see how it follows a year of seasons and how these books had such a profound influence on me. In particular, my interest in a simpler, homemade life. Little House on the Prarie is next and I can't wait to start!

What books do you remember from your childhood?

Polar Expedition

This weekend we went to the Polar Adventure Day at the Northerly Island hosted by the Chicago Park District. They promised hot cocoa, sled dogs, and ice sculpture and they delivered. One of the nicest things about the event was that they weren't selling anything. There were no booths, crafts, vendors, food, etc. Just a nice outdoor experience. The Northerly Island is just south of Adler Planetarium. To my surprise, it's a relatively unused public park area right on the lake. Most folks probably get to the museums and figure there isn't much more to see. I'm glad we had an excuse to go a bit further.

Peanut had a great time. He got his first taste of hot cocoa, which he loved. There's nothing funnier than a toddler nursing a coffee cup. He refused to let anyone else hold it as long as there might be liquid at the bottom. Getting a picture without chocolate mug in front of his face took some work. It wasn't only food, though. We also saw some animals, including a barn owl that he's still talking about. I've been making up animal stories for him at nap time and night and one is about an owl family. His eyes are even bigger now when he listens. The other animal that made a big impression was the hedgehog, also related to a story we've been reading, The Happy Hedgehog Band. The adults were a little more taken with the ant eater, but that's not particularly polar, is it?

My favorite discovery was a set of three beautiful metal sculptures dancing out on the snow covered peninsula. We were bundled up in layers and thermals, but these ladies by Dessa Kirk made me think of spring. The Chicago winter isn't as bad as I expected, but thoughts of trees budding and green shoots of grass are starting to invade my imagination, nevertheless.

My hat is one I made (quickly) for myself after losing one earlier this winter. It's made from Malabrigo worsted, a yarn I would live in if possible. Details here. Judging from the pictures, it should be called the Conehead Hat!

Reading Notes: Ahead of the Curve

My notes on Ahead of the Curve by Philip Delves Broughton. I read this as light reading for my PhD work, but think it would be very interesting for a much wider audience.



This book was a tremendous pleasure to read. I had not anticipated how engaging Philip Delves Broughton's tale of life as a Harvard MBA student would be. Broughton, former Paris bureau chief for the London Daily Telegraph who quit his job to attend Harvard Business School, is a gifted writer with a thoughtful and entertaining story to tell.

What makes this an interesting memoir is the fact that Broughton traces the arc of his feelings about attending an MBA program at all. His ambivalence about the program and his participation in it never fully dissipates. Broughton is troubled by his own interest in the MBA program and distrubed by the lack of self-reflection he finds in many fellow students. He describes himself as a capitalist but is not prepared to stop being critical of the extreme ideology that the MBA program and especially the financial world seem to encourage with regards to importance of money-making. He takes particular offense to any suggestion that business is the most important institution in society and wonders frequently why social and political issues aren't given more attention throughout the program and by his fellow students.

Ultimately, and really not surprisingly, Broughton finds his own path and career aided by but not determined by his MBA experience. His original goal was to be able to live happily with his wife and two sons as well as be able to work independently. In other words, he wanted to be his own boss and still have a pesonal life.

For me, this book is interesting on many levels. Academically, I find it a rich resource for information about the Harvard MBA program as well as the influence of business schools on society. Personally, it's an inspirational story about how a person maintains their individuality in a situation where conformity is expected. One of the most valuable lessons here is that your resumé doesn't determine who you are, either professionally or personally. The thing that really matters is having the courage of your convictions and the willingness to go where they take you, no matter what anyone else thinks is “right.”

Chicago: A Novel

Chicago: A Novel by Alaa Al Aswany

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


An interesting and unexpected perspective on life in Chicago. The particularly confronting race relations issue is actually black-white as opposed to Arab-American. Style took some getting used to. The device (build up to climax/cut to next scene) got a bit tiring after only a few chapters and made it sometimes difficult to keep track of the multiple characters and plot lines.



View all my reviews



I'm writing these for Goodreads anyway, so why not share them here, too!

Shocking Review

I am saddened to report that the New York Times Book Review and I have are in total disagreement about The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet. The book review I read today, written by Ginia Bellafante, criticizes author Rief Larsen for the very things I admire, namely the way he combined visual and written work. That which I find inspiring, Ms. Bellafante finds tiresome. All I can say is that I'm glad that the book came to me long before the review entered my gmail inbox - and in the end, we have to follow our own feelings about things like books.

As a side note, if you have some time to kill (and don't we all?), the book has a great website!

Have any of you read The Selected Works? What did you think?

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this book. Think of it as Harriet the Spy for the new millennium. The story of a young boy from Montana who likes nothing better than to record his life in precious notebooks. His records take the form of intricate and beautiful maps that are featured in the book as sidebars and notes. I originally bought this book because it was fun to look at. I'm recommending it (and sending copies to friends) because it's also a great story. I didn't read anything about it before starting, so this review stops here. Read it, be surprised, and I bet you'll end up adoring it, too!

Knitting for Good

Knitting for Good!: A Guide to Creating Personal, Social, and Political Change Stitch by Stitch by Betsy Greer

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A friend gave me this book over the holidays and it helped me see my crafting impulse in a couple of new ways, which was great. One new perspective is that of crafting as a way to subvert consumerism. If I make my own bag or socks or sweater instead of buying, the result is a totally unique item that I get to take complete ownership of. This helped me understand why so many of the items in the stores are just not quite what I'm looking for.



Betsy Greer also talks about the meditative side of knitting. This part truly spoke to me. I've been known to spend hours on the couch knitting and watching TV in order to clear my mind. Sewing projects begun on a rainy afternoon could last through meals and breaks without me noticing the time at all! Now that there's a baby in my life, the TV is off but the knitting and sewing continue and it helps me find a little bit of peace in all the new madness.



I may never achieve the activism that Greer aims for and describes in her book, but I have started to realize that my crafting might be a worthy undertaking on its own, and not just a silly past time!

August Reading

Not much of a reading month. Quite pathetic, actually.

Agatha Christie: The Hound of Death

One word review: w-eerie

No rule saying I can't make up words, right?

Great First Lines

I just read this first line of a book review in the New York Times.

Funny is like pornography. You know it when you see it.

I won't forget it. No idea what the rest of the review says. But I know I'll keep reading!

July Reading

Lynne Truss: Eats Shoots and Leaves
Michael Pollan: The Omnivore's Dilemma
Robert Ludlum: The Altman Code

And the one-word reviews:

Truss: pithy
Pollan: compelling
Ludlum: lite

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves

Lynne Truss's book is about proper punctuation, preferably proper British English punctuation. She discusses both the historical and modern uses of punctuation and tries to find a middle ground between her stickler's instinct to keep it all the same and the inevitable changes that any language will encounter. Unfortunately, the main problem with the language at the moment isn't punctuation but the writing. Before anyone devotes another 150 (small) pages to the demise of proper punctuation, maybe we need to have a good conversation about the proper use of words between the squiggly marks.

This is the third poorly written book I've read in the past few weeks and it's starting to be a bit disheartening. Tulip Fever was a terrible experience and I only finished it because it takes place in the Netherlands and it was important to me to be able to tell students and friends exactly what it was about and what I thought of it. I also tried to read Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated and was sorely disappointed. To his credit, he is trying to do something very specific with language, namely imagining how someone with a thesaurus and limited knowledge of English might write. The problem is that the writing becomes so stilted and complicated that all the pleasure gets sucked out of it.

Today (if the rain lets up just a little bit) I'm off to the library to get some more books and hoping I have better luck. My bad luck streak has me wondering if I was better of buying books. At least then I was pickier. Books only came home that met higher standards. Now, I'm at the mercy of what's on the shelves and perhaps just not being picky enough. We'll see.

June Reading

And here's another list for those of you keeping track...

Suki Kim: The Interpreter
Rusty Young: Marching Powder
P.G. Wodehouse: Jeeves in the Offing
Milan Kundera: Immortality
Deborah Moggach: Tulip Fever
E. M. Forster: A Room with a View

And how about one word reviews?

Kim: good
Young: interesting
Wodehouse: humorous
Kunders: brilliant
Moggach: terrible
Forster: intriguing

Grotesque

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Grotesque was on a fantasy reading list related to sleeping beauty. Due to availability, I ended up reading the list in reverse order, so Grotesque was first on the list instead of last. For those of you who have read Kirino's Out, this second translated novel will be a bit of a disappointment, however it was still an enjoyable read. The disappointment wasn't comparable, for example, to the disappointment of reading Donna Tartt's The Little Friend after loving The Secret History.

On the surface, Grotesque is the story of how two young Japanese students from an elite high school both end up working as prostitutes and dying similarly gruesome deaths. However, Kirino tells a more complex tale of how jealousy and hubris twist the way different characters see themselves and the world around them. Kirino effectively accomplishes this by allowing several characters to speak in the form of letters, court transcripts, and diaries as well as through first person narrative. What emerges is a series of sad stories in which nearly every character is the victim of their own illusions.

The central character is Yuriko, a beautiful girl and skilled seductress from a young age. She becomes a prostitutes and is the first murder victim. Her sister, who is never named, is the main narrator throughout the novel. When she steps aside, it is only to give the reader glimpses into documents written by or describing other characters. The sister suffers from tremendous jealousy of Yuriko and develops a talent for maliciousness and misinterpretation from a young age. Yuriko, in contrast, seems to be an honest observer. She is keenly aware of how she is perceived, both at the height of her beauty and attractiveness and as she ages into an overweight, garishly painted, unwanted streetwalker.

From this reader's point of view, one of the most redeeming features of this book is the fact that Kirino takes on so many different voices and view points in telling the story. Most of the narrators, including the anorexic classmate, tell colored tales designed to put themselves in the best light while more or less trashing everyone else around them. With the exception of Yuriko, no one takes responsibility for the path their life takes, preferring instead to blame any person or circumstance they can think of. There is predictably irony in the fact that the virgin (the unnamed sister) is untrustworthy while the whore (Yuriko) seems to tell an honest story. In the end, however, this is less the story of two murdered prostitutes than a story of how our own warped self-images can shape our lives.

May Reading

May was a slow month for reading, but here's what I managed:

Orhan Pamuk, Snow
Natsuo Kirino, Grotesque
Gabriel García Marquez, Memories of my Melancholy Whores

I had relatively high hopes for all three books, but wasn't as impressed as I hoped to be. Snow turned out to be not much different for me than Pamuk's The New Life, which I found to be interesting, but slow. With Snow, I had the same impression. It was a good book, well written, with a lot of depth in literary terms, but I had a hard time enjoying it as a good read. Lucky for me, the month only got better in terms of reading... but I'll save those for another time.