A List Serve

As I am sipping my reading water and perusing the list of books I should "pack" for my upcoming adventure, I found a link to this Guardian list for Holiday reading.  The five authors have assembled a list of Fiction (legitimate summer reads), Crime (maybe, but I am traveling alone for part of the trip and really would like to sleep at night), and Nonfiction (a bit too serious for my summer reading however Levels of Life by Julian Barnes seems a book I shouldn't try to escape).

How are you doing on your summer reading?

Just a Swinging

Here's hoping the Friday photo inspires some weekend rest.

The lone hammock
Outside of Atlanta, GA
June 2013

Don't Panic

25 June 2013

Dear Banana Republic,

I am a big fan of your Non-Iron Fitted Long Sleeve Cotton Shirt.  For the 2014 Spring Collection, might I suggest that you consider including a water absorbent option for the career-minded female who after an eleven and a half hour day would head to the pool for her Endurance workout only to discover that she was not quite equipped for her long swim session?  I think this would be a very big seller, particularly in pink.

Sincerely,

A voracious reader who was clever enough to reference Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy to a forum of 107 yogis under a rocket but didn't manage to remember her towel*

*"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough."
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"  http://www.towel.org.uk/

As Old As you Feel

Once you're a few lines in, you'll understand that this piece doesn't really need an introduction:

At 52, Not Too Old for a Debut Novel by Edward Kelsey Moore in discussing his The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat.

I learned to bike in my 20s and swim in my 30s so I don't think you're ever too old for anything...well, perhaps a couple of things that Moore mentions.

Star Struck

Tonight I stood outside on the cool grass and scanned the night skies looking for movement and trying to recall long-ago learned constellations and star names.*  For a brief two to three minutes, I also watched the International Space Station speed over Earth.  From my vantage point, this tiny, bright moving "star" represented dreams of childhood, dreams of humanity, and I felt at the same time both large and small in this Universe.  It was magnificent.

I hope your weekend has provided inspiration and joy in unexpected ways.

Aside:  I took college Honors Astronomy so I could share class with a cute physicist.  

To Fit the Bill

GBC P@1ge always has the most enticing summaries of book club so I've again used her words below.  I wish I could have been there on the porch.  I've overdue a seat between a couple of you.

It may have been the last al fresco dining opportunity for several months, so our host did good by us and got us outside for a lovely, late spring dinner (after light snacks around the kitchen island of course--it wouldn't be book club at Bill's without that!). As always, Bill prepared an incredible dinner with Tuscan chicken, saffron rice, ratatouille, Rugby salad and a green salad. Topping it all off for dessert--a gelatin salad. Light. Refreshing. Fun.

Now, of course, those words describe dinner, but not The Roundhouse. While the book was well liked and elicited a lively discussion, and the author did insert moments of great levity, one can't describe the book as "light". It was a great coming-of-age/crime novel that also educated us on some Native American history and folklore. I'm happy to pass my copy along to anyone who didn't get a chance to read but wants to.

Summer and higher temperatures are right around the corner, so it's a good time to find a shady spot outside or a comfy chair inside with the air conditioning and read our upcoming selections.

UPCOMING SELECTIONS:

July 16: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 

August 20: YOUR CHOICE A BOOK BY DONNA LEON: some of her titles include Friends in High Places; Fatal Remedies; or Willful Behavior

September 17: A Summons To Memphis by Peter Taylor

October 15: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

November 19: The Price of Justice

Don't Skipper Ahead

I'm fairly certain someone gave me Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen as it is not a novel I can recollect purchasing.   I remember JoLayne (as people who have capital letters in the middle of their names do hold a special place in my heart) and I remember laughing as I read it.  I didn't break the spine, so I must have enjoyed it.

The recently published Bad Monkey had a pretty fine review yesterday in the NYT.  Ms. Maslin notes the novel isn't serious and there will be loose ends, so readers, this likely won't make our Top 100 list from Sunday.  Nevertheless, it will make my summer reading list.  Ever since my real-life Alaskan Whale Watching Tour turned stormy 3-hour Gilligan's Island rough weather where I took pills from strangers boat survival ride with Captain Hook*, I can't resist a crazy boat story.

*Two hooks actually.  True story.

Russian Through

Happy Father's Day greetings - I hope you all had a very fine day.

From The Guardian, this list of 100 Greatest Novels of All Time, should keep you busy.  After you have recovered from your flashback to high school English class, how many have you read?  I think I'm just over a quarter (thanks to my Russian writer reading phase).

How ever did I miss number 89, The Periodic Table?

Giddy up

Today I went horseback riding.
My horse's name was Lovey.

GBC P@1ge asked me if I believed in signs.
I think the answer has to be yes.

What the World Needs Now

It is the last night of my third decade.  The urge to wax philosophic is there but has been suppressed by a third glass of reading water.

As I sit in this little cottage with only sounds of nature (note to self: purchase or invent an iphone4 to iphone5 adapter for in room players), there are a number of thoughts on my mind but one resounding theme.

It is the stuff of songs, poems, youth, and bad texting.  It is painted on billboards, etched on school bathroom doors and whispered through parting hugs. A word never said, a word used until dull.

Love.

Love big and offer love to everyone you meet. One life. Make it full.

Lucky Genes

It was one of those books in which I saved the end.

On my best days I don't like to be interrupted when I'm reading the final chapters of a novel, but in this particular case I knew I had to be alone. Alice Sebold had garnered my full attention. She'd kept me company on a long flight, a Saturday night, and a Sunday morning where I needed more than courage to leave the warmth of a down comforter for a sub 80 degree lap pool.  She had earned it.

So in the oasis between gates with a glass of reading water in the tiniest plastic cup, I read about Lila and about Alice.  I lost myself in words.  Sometimes it takes a story a long while to find the happy bits...and even then, happy can be relative.

This would not be a book I'd place as a typical summer read but I think better on a warm sunny day than in the cold dead of winter.  We all have the inner stories which make us lucky and we each eventually find our way, sometimes the hard way.

Lucky One

My day was extended by two hours.
I was enrapt by Alice Sebold's Lucky for three hours. 
I had reading water in the afternoon and then a nap.
I had a vacant middle seat.
I drove along the coastline and saw the ocean. 
I had an apple waiting for me in my room and instead ate my favorite cookie that I'd packed.
I've had kale and quinoa and sang aloud to the car radio.

It's felt like Saturday and I'm happy. 

Rhye Smile

Normally, I find inspiration in the morning: a fresh start, the break of day, the first rays of sunlight, chirping birds, coffee....normally...beauty and words.  This morning, even my surprise, gifted, triple venti latte after my cafe con leche wasn't enough to bring me out of the haze.

So this evening, as I've rationalized Cheezits and wine for dinner for the second consecutive evening, I turn to the thing that always lifts my spirits and never fails to inspire.  Music.

Hope you enjoy a little Rhye.

Summer vs Winter

I like conversations that drift into stories about books.  Today a conversation about business strategy and drifted into something like this:

Add this to your list but don't read it now...it's depressing.
Is it a winter book?
Exactly.
I need a summer book.
Inferno is a good summer book.
Should I really read that?
It's a typical Dan Brown formula, it's predictable in a way and yet you want to keep reading.
So a summer book?
Yeah, a summer book.
Have you read 100 year old man?
Yes! It was so funny.
A great summer book.  

The strategy of book reading.

A Bit Squirrely

To complete the weekend, sometimes all one needs is a half bottle of wine and a hour and a half phone conversation with their best friend.

No matter if you were camping, running, walking, or programming, I hope your weekend was pleasant and absent bugs.

I also hope that were you running, you didn't have a squirrel run out in front of you (twice).  Allegedly, it may cause a runner to make quite the squeal.