Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I finished Joyce Carol Oates’ After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away three or four days ago, but I’ve been putting off this review because my feelings about this book are complicated.  A quote from The West Wing has been running through my mind:

Well, first of all, let’s not kid ourselves.  The Reykjavik Symphony can play.   These guys have some serious game.

(I really loved the first few seasons of that show, by the way.  I disagreed with the politics fairly frequently, but oh, I loved it!)

President Bartlet pretty much summed up my thoughts about Joyce Carol Oates right there.  The woman can write.  I hated the poem by her I read in junior high, mind you, but it took me quite a while to grow up enough to appreciate and admire writing that I didn’t find personally enjoyable.  (“Death of a Salesman” did a lot for me in that respect–props to Arthur Miller.)  After the Wreck isn’t precisely my cup of tea, either topically OR stylistically, but it was incredibly well done.  Jenna’s downward spiral after surviving the car accident that killed her mother feels all too believable, even if the parent in me was tearing her hair out over it, and the stream-of-consciousness-ish style worked in a way few others would have.  Some characters were far more developed than others, but that made sense with Jenna as the narrator.  Crow, as the older boy who helps Jenna deal with her trauma, seemed somewhat improbable, but he certainly wasn’t impossible.  It ended rather abruptly for me, but that worked in context, I think.

Bottom line?  Ultimately, this wasn’t my thing, but it was an excellent novel nonetheless.  If it is your thing, don’t miss it.

What do bloodsucking iguanas, aliens, and abandoned children have in common?  Anyone?  Anyone?  (Bueller?)

Stumped?

They are, of course, integral plot components of Look Out For The Fitzgerald-Trouts, which is the sort of book you’d get if you crossed The Swiss Family Robinson with The Boxcar Children and Pippi in the South Seas and made Roald Dahl the author.  It tells the tale of the Fitzgerald-Trout children, who have a complicated family tree and aren’t all actually related to each other, but are still very firmly brothers and sisters.  They live in their car and look after themselves; Kim (the oldest) is actually quite a safe driver (even if she needs stew cans attached to her shoes to reach the pedals).  As they grow, however, the car is starting to feel cramped, and so finding a house has moved up to the top of their to-do list.  How they do so is quite the ride, beginning in jail and ending past the bloodsucking iguanas.  (My personal favorite attempt may have been an aborted night in what was clearly IKEA under an assumed name.)

Make no mistake–this is a strange book.  It is, however, quite the tale; it drew me in quickly and kept me reading.  If your elementary schooler enjoys humorous adventure, he or she is certainly going to find it here!

I wanted to finish either one of the novels I’ve almost done with, but I was up from 1-3 this morning and I was incredibly sleepy today.  I did, however, read a bunch of picture books ‘one last time’ with my kiddos before putting them in the library bag to go back, and these two are standouts for me.

BookSpeak!: Poems About Books is a must for every book lover.  The poems are told from the book’s/part of the book’s point of view, and the index’s poem cracked me up; the Middle’s Lament (a poem for three voices) was fabulous, and the End poem was simply perfect.  If you love books, you absolutely CANNOT miss this one.

Normal Norman, on the other hand, will appeal to just about anyone.  The junior scientist/narrator is using Norman (presumably a gorilla) to illustrate what “normal” is; unfortunately for her, Norman keeps exhibiting behaviors that are anything but.  He will crack you up even as he quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) turns the (useless) idea of “normal” on its head.

It doesn’t matter if you have kids, folks.  These two are worth reading either way.  Enjoy!

1.  We currently have 196 library books in our house–and more on hold.
2.  I officially have a plane ticket to attend my 20th  high school reunion, which means RI in October, which means I want to dance around singing, “I’ve got a golden ticket!”
3.  AND my glasses are in at Costco.  It almost killed me not to be able to pick them up today, but tomorrow–here I come!
4.  I’m bringing soup to a women’s service project for my church tomorrow night, so I made a BIG pot tonight for dinner.  (I’ll have someone else’s tomorrow!)  Now, what do I serve my kiddos before I leave?
5.  My bed looks like a laundry room exploded on top of it.  I’ve miles of folding to do before I sleep.
6.  But I’m going to RI in October!

Among the books we’re returning to the library this week are Doreen Rappaport’s Lady Liberty:  A Biography and Carole Boston Weatherford’s Voice of Freedom:  Fannie Lou Hamer:  The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement.  These are picture books meant for older elementary students or adults, really.  Lady Liberty is a series of vignettes from different perspectives about how the Statue of Liberty came to be; Voice of Freedom is a series of poems about the life of an amazing civil rights activist that I had never even heard of.  Their illustrations are lovely and their stories are fascinating.

You should read them.

When I picked up Treaties, Trenches, Mud, And Blood–the 4th of Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales–I couldn’t figure out how he was going to make a book about WWI anything but depressing.  Trench warfare was ugly, the casualties were awful, and all in all, it was a fairly pointless war.  I have to say, though–the man came through.  He uses different animals to represent the nations/empires/etc. involved; bears for Russia, bulldogs for Britain, otters for the Ottoman Empire…

(Sounds of a 37-year-old mom giggling.)

It was a perfect strategy–it totally worked.  This is a exceptional installment in Hale’s series–it’s fascinating, humorous, and packed to the gills with information.  Please get these books for your kiddos, if you haven’t already…especially your reluctant readers.

They are SO worth it.

I generally take the time to go through the books I stick on my almost-10-year-old’s shelf.  I’m not actually worried about most of them being inappropriate (although occasionally I find one that seems a little old for her); I read through them because a)I pick what looks good and why not read through it while it’s in my house? and b)I want the books I’m providing for her to be worth reading.  I’ve never censored anything she’s picked, but I have, on occasion, read through a book I thought looked good for her and thought–life’s too short to bother giving her that.  There are too many excellent books in the world for me to waste time bringing mediocre ones to her notice.

Now, I generally don’t review the books I skim through, because I don’t feel I’ve fully read them; on the other hand, some of them still ought to be brought to your attention.  Without further ado, then, here is my first ‘Books That Made the Cut’ list.  I’m sure it won’t be the last!

1)Chasing Vermeer, The Wright 3, and (presumably) the books that follow.  Blue Balliett’s philosophical bent works, in part because there is also emotional depth, plenty of action, and a dose of mysticism.

2)Operation Bunny, The Three Pickled Herrings, and (presumably!) the rest of the Wings & Co. series.  Hilarious, but (again) with emotional depth and some extraordinary creativity.

3)Mr. and Mrs. Bunny, Detectives Extraordinaire, and its sequel.  Polly Horvath has done herself proud–oh, how I laughed!

4)Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains.  This is a bit of an odd mix of a plot, but it works.  Laurel Snyder has some excellent picture books as well.

5)Upside-Down Magic.  This first in a new series has three authors, and there’s quite a lot of depth here considering that it’s definitely aimed at the younger side of the JF spectrum.

Give any or all of these a try–or give them to your elementary-age daughters!

I am beat, probably because the BYU/Arizona game started (and therefore ended) so frustratingly LATE last night.  (It was a nail-biter at the end, too, but the win–by brand-spanking-new coach Kalani Sitake–was satisfying.)  Add that to early church and a fussy 1-year-old (she’s got a cold, the poor love), and all I want to do is crawl into bed.  Until next time, folks!

No, I didn’t get involved in a land war in Asia.  (I’m not actually THAT stupid.)  I did, however, go grocery shopping hungry.

Twice.

To be fair, it was my son who begged for the Spicy Dill Kettle Cooked Potato Chips at Trader Joe’s–thanks to my sister, he’s hooked–but I can’t remember exactly how many weird flavors of chips I bought to try.  In addition, I now have lemon curd, pickled beets (that are weirdly sweet but still pretty good), cookie butter (because oh, the pumpkin spice puppy chow!), Honey Mustard and Onion pretzel pieces (those things are amazing)…SO.  MANY.  THINGS.

I’ll keep you posted about the weird chips.  In the meantime, although the Swedish Fish Oreos were the worst Oreos I have ever put in my mouth, someone posted a pic on FB of Nutella Oreos…those are bound to be better, right?

I have problems.