explosions, weird noises, and gas masks, oh my!

I love me some monster movies and this makes my Cloverfield senses tingle!!!

More Monsters Videos

Aunt Holley

I love being an aunt.

In fact, I can hardly imagine anything better. It suits my personality down to the ground and, no offense to all the great parents I know, it is the ideal way of life for me rather than having any of my own.

I babysat my honorary nieces on Tuesday night and am a little chagrined at exactly how much fun I had playing hide-n-seek. The girls are at the PERFECT age, before h-n-s becomes so brutally competitive. We were all content to just hide until found, no running for base, no arguments about who's it because they don't want to chase people. We just hid and tried not to giggle. The only draw back? They are young enough that they want to hide in your hiding place with you...and they giggle, A LOT! Not very stealthy, but it does the heart good :-)

This afternoon my brother called to say my niece and nephew are spending the night at his mother's house so I surprised them with a call for the movies. We're going to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which RottenTomatoes said was "less than spellbinding" for all but the "least demanding viewers" and that describes me to a T so I'm sure I'll love it.

It's a movie, not a literature class. Lighten up.

What are you watching?

the most awesome awesomess of awesomedom

money pit

no...not really, and I do love that movie.

So, between tires, an axle, and the potential cost of my increasingly poorly functioning refrigerator, I'm feeling more than a little broke. I hate, hate, hate asking my mom for money but it's better than getting behind on something I suppose.

Of course, the fridge problem couldn't happen at any time during my vacation days. It has to happen now. I know it needs to be unplugged but that will have to wait until I can bring home some ice for the cooler for what little is in there. It just wasn't something I was prepared to do tonight. So, a flotilla of towels are stuffed under the front to mop up the steady drip of water. I don't know when I'll be able to call someone, much less how I'll pay for the sh!t. It's at times like these that I sometimes wish I rented, that way it would be someone else's problem...wouldn't it?

I wonder if I could get my dad or stepmom to come over and wait on a repair person...might be worth thinking about.

As usual, nothing much going on here. I do think my knee is going to be fine without drastic help, hopefully. The brace and the rehab exercises seem to be doing the trick although I had to lay off the anti-inflammatories as they were causing some indescribable intestinal distress despite taking them with food. In the interests of keeping what few readers I may have, I'll leave it at that.

On a more pleasant note, I am reading the new book The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham and totally falling in love with someone who not only died in 1965, but was also of a homosexual persuasion though he never turned a blind eye to an exceptionally pretty lady either. I can feel a challenge coming on...to read, watch, and own everything he's ever written that I can get my hands/eyes on. I like it. I shall make it so.

What are you in love with lately?

June reads

Read it and weep, ya'll! Thirteen books last month! Thanks in no small part to finally finishing the epic-ly bad 28 CD audiobook Anathem, after which I need to listen to short, sweet, AND GOOD audiobooks to get the bad taste out of my ears. I'm not changing that. Also, my new, much beloved Nook, which accompanies me where ever I may go. Mucho helpful for all the time spent waiting in doctors' offices lately.

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

Lisbeth is back and badder than ever, and getting into more trouble than ever! The ever lovable and somewhat bumbling Mikael Blomkvist must race to save her. Seriously people, download it, check it out of the library, buy it, steal it, borrow it, BUT READ THIS TRILOGY!

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

My personal hell, long hand. People who like math, all living together, doing math for fun and talking about nerve gas farting pink spotted dragons. AVOID THIS BOOK AT ALL COSTS! If it hadn't been for a book group (and you don't get to vote if you don't read it and I'm depressingly honest at times and I want to give it a smashing bad grade), I would have accidentally dropped this in the pool. I may hate this book more than Catcher in the Rye...I'll have to ponder that awhile.

Troubles by J. G. Farrell

Due to a rule change in 1968, there was no Man Booker Prize awarded in 1970. In January this year, the Man Booker judges perused a pool of 22 books published in 1970 and awarded the Lost Man Booker and Troubles won! My book group was discussing Booker prize winners so I chose this one for fun. Very odd, and profits those most who have some background knowledge of the "troubles" of Irish history. Major Archer returns from war to seek out a woman to whom he seems to be engaged, based on her letters. Her family owns the Majestic Hotel, but it's anything but majestic when he gets there. In fact, things are quite batty indeed. Farcical, yet sad commentary on the decline of the gentry. I'm all for the decline of the gentry, but it was a bit sad at the same time. First in a trilogy which I may indeed finish one day.

Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis

Tregillis is part of G.R.R.M.'s Wild Card writers group and gets an endorsement from the big man himself right on the front cover! Alternate history of WWI. The German's human experiments result in a small, but deadly, superhuman force. Crazy good, and magnificently written for a first novel!

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

The last in the trilogy and the title could not be more apt. I lost sleep, skipped meals, and was absent-minded at work in my drive to finish this book! See GWPlayed with Fire above.

Dog Blood by David Moody

Um, yeah. This is not for everyone, I'm not even sure who I'd recommend it to but I'm addicted to these books. This is the second in what I hope will be a trilogy. Any more than that and it starts to get Left Behind-ish...minus anything to do with religion. Just plain old too much for too long. In the first book, a random change begins to occur in the population and some become Haters (the title of the first book). They see the rest of humanity as dangers to themselves and must kill them on sight. Apocalypse ensues. Book two follows one of the Haters, Danny, as he searches for the daughter he discovered was just like him right before his wife and children flee after he goes postal. VERY violent, VERY gory. See my review of Haters.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

This is a YA novel, but for older, mature readers only! Christina goes to visit her father (parents divorced for many years) and falls in with the meth crowd. A heartbreaking journey down the rat hole. I listened to the audio so I didn't realize that the novel is written in verse. One of the Amazon one-star customer reviewers titled her review, "Unless your kids are already knocked up and hooked on drugs, they probably shouldn't be reading this." and I feel a certain amount of chagrin to kind of agree with her.

The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry

Barry's first book, The Lace Reader, blew me away! This, not so much. I loved it and I'm glad I read it (on my Nook!) but for me it missed the punch and the magic of that first book. Zee, a psychologist, has just lost her first patient to suicide. The woman reminds her so much of her own mother, and that suicide, that she is having real trouble dealing with it. Throw in her father's decline from Parkinson's and her own misgivings about her upcoming wedding and disaster is not hard to predict.

Willow by Julie Hoban

I'm not real sure why I'm on the Lifetime movie track of teen audiobooks. In this outing, Willow is a 17 year old girl who is a cutter. The previous winter, her parents asked her to drive them home after they had a little too much to drink at dinner. In the horrendous storm that night, she lost control of the car and her parents were killed in the wreck. Now living with her college professor brother, his wife, and their new baby, Willow can't deal with the runaway pain of her grief, but there is a pain she can control...the razor. Enter the knight in shining armor, Guy. Can the love of the right person help her past her grief?

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller

A book group selection, though I was intrigued because it is asked for at the library ALL THE TIME. *sigh* I just don't get it. I found this tedious, silly, and way too self-righteous, even though the author mentions on SEVERAL OCCASIONS how unselfrighteous he is. Um, I think that cancels it out.

Hawkmoon: The Jewel In the Skull by Michael Moorcock

A not-bad fantasy novel, but not riveting either. This is for the sci-fi/fant book group I'm in. A deposed prince is captured and gang pressed into spying on the last stronghold in the kingdom. The motivation is the obsidian jewel they magically implant in his forehead to record the proceedings. Luckily for him, the leader of that stronghold is friendly and has a few tricks up his sleeve for dealing with their dark magic...and a beautiful daughter.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Okay, technically this is a short story, but the edition I read was a stand alone movie tie-in published shortly before the movie came out. I haven't seen the movie yet but look forward to it to see what changes were made. In short, a person (played by the now tiresomely handsome Brad Pitt) is born an old man and ages backward. It was kind of silly in the beginning with the father dressing a grown man in specially made babies clothes, making him play with rattles, and the kid sneaking down to smoke his father's cigars when he wasn't around, but it got more serious and thought provoking as the story moved towards its conclusion. Where does he end up when newborn is as young as you can get?

The Vanishing by Tim Krabbe

This slim novel is translated, from Dutch or German, I don't remember exactly, and was made into a film several years ago. I'll be watching it soon. A man and his girlfriend stop at a gas station. He fills up the car, she goes in for drinks and disappears. Eight years and uncounted police searches and newspaper reports later, an meeting with an oddly unemotional man may yield the answers he's been searching for, but at what cost. I noticed in the front flap text that the movie does not include the ending in the book because it was considered too shocking. I've been reading too many books like Haters and Dog Blood, not to mention my raging horror movie habit, to have found it shocking, but I give him many kudos for not even considering the hopeful ending, much less a happy one.

What are YOU reading?

shame on me!

I have no excuse for not showing up here more and just phoning it in with my books-read once a month. No excuse at all.

I'm petsitting again, but hey! At least they have wi-fi! I don't recall mentioning here that in May I sent a letter out to all my clients letting them know I was getting out of the business and they have until the end of August to find a new petsitter. I am done with this...or, at least, I will be September 1st. It's no fun anymore, I don't make THAT much extra money, and Binky is 14 years old and I'd rather not leave her alone all the time anymore. My last extended period of petsitting in March, my septic tank dried up because I wasn't home to use it. Let me tell you how fun and exciting that was. No, I'll let you guess. AND I got home once and smelled something dead when I opened the storm door and lost. my. mind. I thought Bink had died while I was gone. In hindsight, it wasn't QUITE stinky enough to be a large cat (it was a mouse) but for a minute there....

Moving on. My doctor and I have decided to take a somewhat more aggressive approach to my weight loss so I'm trying an appetite suppressant. Things seem to be going well so far. A little trouble sleeping is all and the doctor recommended cutting back on my dosage. That seems to be working. I really, really want to succeed this time and I'm committed to doing that. I keep a food and exercise journal, though of course, at this exact time I develop some sort of knee problem and can't exercise as I'm accustomed to. I got a steroid shot under my kneecap but that only worked for a few days so I have a referral to an orthopedic office mid-July. That's a long time to wait and limp around, but if it will get something done it'll be worth it. I was accustomed to taking the stairs, walking frequently during the week, and just getting around fairly speedily in general and this is more maddening than the discomfort of it all. The elevator at the library is ssssssllllllllllloooooooowwwwwww.

I did another of my epic batch cooking marathons two weeks ago. $163 worth of groceries cooked up to 111 portioned and frozen entrees. I made turkey sausage and corn chowder, chicken and dumplings, taco soup, curried chicken and rice, turkey meatloaf, pot roast, chicken enchilada casserole, and vegetarian lasagna. On the more processed side, I got some turkey sliced at the deli for sandwiches, hot dogs, soy burgers, and a Kashi thin crust veggie pizza. Both freezers are filled to bursting and I just have to get lettuce, fruit, cheese, and soymilk as needed. I feel like I'm doing alright in that arena.

What's up with you?

the movie with the girl with the dragon tattoo

KT and I went to the Capri Theater in Montgomery last night to see the Swedish film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (adapted from the book of the same name) and IT. WAS. AWESOME! Hollywood is remaking it right now and I have to be honest...at this moment, I'm terribly unenthusiastic about seeing it. The director did an excellent job of condensing the lengthy book into a manageable film that doesn't seem too forced and hasn't sacrificed too much to keep the forward motion going. All the way home we discussed what was included that we especially enjoyed and what we were disappointed was left out and both heartily agreed that enjoyment easily won out over disappointment. I thought the actress playing Lisbeth was PERFECT!

I read some of the less favorably reviews on Rotten Tomatoes just to see what the critics didn't enjoy and for the most part it was the violence and I thought to myself, "Did they even KNOW this was adapted from a book?" and if so, "Did they even bother to read it?". The screenwriters (Arcel and Heisterberg) cut a lot of the violence but left everything that was central to both the plot and the course of the trilogy as well. I look forward to seeing what Sweden does with the other two books in the series, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

May Reads!

May was a colossal month for me and I have no idea how I managed to read 10 books in with all the other crazy stuff, but I did! Ten books and only one dud. I'm kinda ashamed that I finished it. Oh well.

The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott

A young man is abducted by demon clowns and taken down an elevator shaft in a port-a-potty to the "circus" where people's souls are drained while they watch violent and disturbing acts that they don't remember afterward. This was the dud. I thought it would be creepy and edgy but it was silly and gratuitous instead.

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Academics called Historians spend years specializing in historical eras, then are sent back in time to those eras to study lifestyles, customs, etc. However, Kivrin's drop in the year 1320 was doomed from the start. Loved, loved, loved it! And this despite some tediously repetitive story lines. For me, the whole story overcame those small details to be a standout for the month. I definitely will read her other works dealing with "historians".

Claiming Ground: A Memoir by Laura Bell

Laura Bell graduated from college in 1977 and was a loose ends with what to do with her life. A fateful summer trip to Wyoming led her to seek a job on a sheep farm there as a herder. For months on end it was Laura on a mountaintop with 1,000 sheep, two dogs, a horse, and her own company. Beautiful vistas, contemplative introspection, gorgeous writing! This is the most beautifully written book I've encountered in recent memory. I sent an email to the publisher to tell them they should consider submitting it for the National Book Award (because, you know, my lofty opinion is so highly valued...seriously though, I HAD to!). I got a response from them saying that it was definitely on their shortlist!

Monkeyluv: And Other Essays On Our Lives As Animals by Robert Sapolsky

Biology lite. Entertaining, but sometimes dry. I enjoyed Jonah Lehrer's books much more.

Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey

James Stark somehow manages to escape Hell, still alive after an 11-year stint as a gladiator-turned-demon assassin in Hellian society. He's back in L.A. and looking for revenge on the group of Magicians who sent him "downtown". Now THIS is what I thought the earlier book would be. Unapologetically irreverent and dripping with sarcasm, Stark hammers his way to the truth of why his friends betrayed him and how he managed to stay alive in Hell.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Narrated by Death, this wonderful book chronicles the early life of Liesel Meminger. Liesel's mother, sensing that her own Communist leanings would be her downfall in Nazi Germany, sends Liesel to live with a foster family in Molching. Hans and Rosa Huberman, her foster parents, are merely going through the motions of Nazi patriotism and teach Liesel how to do this also. Late one night, Hans Huberman's past catches up with him when the son of a long lost friend shows up seeking asylum. Now, having learned to read, Liesel now learns how to keep a secret...there is a Jew being hidden in her basement.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I mean really, what person who considers themselves a reader doesn't know about this? If you've just now emerged from under a rock, this is the first in a Swedish crime trilogy. A journalist, wrongly sentenced to prison for libel, digs to uncover the truth behind a 30 year-old murder. A mysterious young girl with seeming magical computer hacking skills is the only one who can help him. Family secrets, depraved killers, suspenseful investigation. This book has it all. It is translated from the Swedish and it is immediately apparent but give it 100 pages or so and you won't even want to go to sleep!

The Girls From Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty Year Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow

Zaslow got the idea for this book from a piece he wrote for the Wall Street Journal on women's friendships. I found this book about a group of 10 women who've been friends since they were young girls to be delightful, insightful, AND made me want to call all my friends and get together.

Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

A highly philosophical, prose driven (VERY little dialogue) short novella about an embittered man who has retired away form what he considers the tedium of civilization and its people. Alone and preferring it that way, he thinks back on the wrongs he imagines done to him and how foolish and shallow society is. I don't know quite why I like things like this, but I loved it. Reminded me a lot of Beckett's Genesis and Twain's What is Man?

The Golden Globe by John Varley

A Shakespearean actor out in the far reaches of the galaxy, on the run from the law due to a 70 year-old crime. Modern science kept him 8 years old for 20 years while he was on a kid's show but his life spiraled out of control after he chose to grow up. He committed the crime and has been running for the past 70 years. All the parts of this book in present tense are funny and adventurous. The huge portion that is flashbacks and, ridiculously, corporate memos and tv reviews of the man's former kid show, should have been cut. It was like slogging through mud in a straightjacket. I did like the genetically engineered Bichon Frise, Toby!

my (non)favorite time of year...

...is when the library descends into madness while the local junior and senior high schools have exams.

When did this trend of not having to go to school while exams are on start? I remember that in college, but not in high school...maybe my high school was just too rural. Who knows?

All I do know is that I've been snickered at by the loud kids and yelled at by the grumpy adults annoyed by the loud kids over which I have no authority to bring about a semblance of quietness. Not that I couldn't bully them into being quieter if I could, but we are not allowed. These are the children of our donors, library foundation members, and board members.

Thank you, child. May I have another?

hair of the dog

Not for me, you understand. My days of overindulgence are as over as I can make them.

My across-the-street neighbor has a big, unneutered pitbull (possibly a mix) and he runs over to my car and barks at me when I get home. Lately, he's been getting closer and closer. When a dog that big and nervous gets near you, it's disquieting to say the least. On the other hand, if someone other than myself comes in the yard, I kind of like the thought of the dog being big, noisy, and aggressive. I just don't want him barking at me.

So, the other evening when I got in, I went in the house and got a piece of cheese. The dog is still outside barking at my front door so I go out and offer him the cheese.

No dice.

He backs up when I hold my hand out. So, I bite off a piece and make an appreciative sound. His barking cuts off with a squeak and he's now zeroed in on my hand and is drooling and licking his chops.

He's mine, to a point.

I throw a piece out in the yard and he picks it up, lies down, and chews and chews and chews. I take some stuff from my car into the house and come back out. He's lying about 15 feet away, looking. That's better. This time I offer him the cheese in my hand, refusing to drop it. Not the best idea with a skittish dog but hey, you only live once. He creeps up, delicately takes it from my hand, and backs off to settle to the grass and chew once again.

When I get everything put away in the house, I peek out the window and he's lying in the grass, head on paws, staring at the door. Not a bad start!