Le Chat Mange*

The NPR review title suggests that even dog-lovers would like The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide.  It doesn't mention "people who travel too much to own a pet" however with only a 140 page commitment, I would take the plunge.  Judging from the country's high book sales, it seems the French have already taken to it, so we're loosely continuing our Parisian theme with a slight detour via Japan.  Happy reading!

* Title a nod to a close friend who after a year of French lessons could only remember this phrase.

Run Louis Run

Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand:  the book that has reminded me that my January could have been a lot worse (and that's just from its first 30 pages).  I've had Unbroken in the queue for a little while now and started it Sunday night after a marathon day of knitting with a side of running.  The novel has quite a strong opening before it dips back into Louis Zamperini's childhood.  I like him already.

des bérets, s'il vous plaît

With a space-time continuum challenge each month, I look forward to the meeting recap.  GBC Carole (Not the Singer) had a great summary of this month's meet, and with her permission I wanted to include it for you.  [A few names and two sentences have been omitted for the privacy of the attendees.]

What a chummy, cozy evening we had on Tuesday! Book club is always such a warm, welcoming place, but even more so when it’s so chilly outside. Thank you, Nancy and Susan S., for a repast worthy of that ultimate Francophile, Julia C.  We filled our bellies with creamy cheeses and fresh radishes, an elegant salad, crusty bread, to-die-for boeuf bourguignon. The wine was free-flowing (much of it French, thanks to Marcia’s suggestion) and there was plenty of book discussion (leading to many a tangent… a parallel perhaps to Ernest and Hadley’s peripatetic lifestyle?)

Dessert was tempting in triplicate. Why have just one when you could indulge in a fruit tart piled high with a kaleidoscope of colorful berries, a flourless (but decadent nonetheless) chocolate cake and a lemony tart, too!

Bill arrived wearing a beret (but, of course!) and Marcia reported that many of cafes, clubs and hotels mentioned in The Paris Wife were still standing, still operating today.

Love Hemingway or not, he always makes for great discussion. There’s Hemingway the author. Hemingway the not-so-great husband. Hemingway the legend. The Paris Wife did not disappoint, except maybe the cover art. Hadley may not have been the most stylish woman on the left bank but she definitely did not wear shoulder pads in the early twenties. (And the Germantown “Ain’t We Got Fun” Book Club knows its 20’s!)

Oh, and several members did indeed dance with the green fairy at the after-party. The Absinthe After-Party. (See what happens when you put your coat on and skedaddle on home too early?) ’m not sure there were any hallucinations going on, but as a completely sober bystander I saw things even Toulouse-Lautrec couldn’t dream up. Or get out of my head. (OMG, the faces!) Anyway, Hem said it was good.

Those that couldn’t make it… we missed you! Hope to see you in the flesh next month at my house. Now bundle up with a good book, mes amies/copains and stay warm!

Le Jardin

Garden Gates
Southwest France, 2010

Today's Friday photo a nod to The Paris Wife by Paula McLain our GBC read for January.

"Ernest once told me that the word paradise was a Persian word that meant "walled garden."

Paris wasn't at my fingertips this morning, so a garden in southwest France will have to suffice.  I can't recall the location exact, but there were a number of lovely peacocks milling around.  It was a great place to read.

Record Breaking

Special thanks to The New York Times for introducing me to the Calliope Author Readings this morning.  In the early 1960s, Harry and Lynne Sharon Schwartz along with Howard Kahn, readers and entrepreneurs, tackled a project to give authors their voice on 33 1/3 rpm vinyl for the value price of $1.95.  As one might imagine, while this project managed to break even (thanks to the help of Kahn's parents), it wasn't a storming success.  [And to be fair, this was a tough era to compete for vinyl dollars with The Rolling Stones and well, The Beatles.]

The story of the onset of the original project is fascinating and the author's list is quite notable:  James Jones, Phillip Roth, and John Updike are highlights.  The series will be released for a second time in a two-volume set; the authors' recordings are between 14 and 24 minutes.  I cannot wait to hear it.  

10 for 15

Tips for giving up Reading Water for a month (while only two weeks in):

1. Target your second busiest work season.  Your team will love you.
2. Incidentally, your team will call you nuts and/or crazy with brilliant (but not for polite company) adjectives preceding.  You will get used to this after a few days weeks.
3. Drive over random things, preferably one each week. Fiberglass insulation at 30 degrees?  Piece of cake.  Two nails in the tire at 30 degrees?  How else would you have discovered your gauge reads down to 3 psi?   It's fun to work on your car, and weren't you just mentioning something about tires?  
4. Increase your intake of caffeine by one-third.  It gets tiring [pun #3] drinking only fizzy water and juice.  Why not supplement your espresso with two more cups of daily tea?  You will enjoy the extra hours stretched into your day so you can...
5. Start ambitious knitting projects.  That pattern that you've been afraid to try?  Do it now.  Use three colors and really small needles.  It will be such an accomplishment.
6. Speaking of accomplishments [#5], sign up for a LOT of races.  You're already at the gym because you need some outlet for stress [#1] and since you're not sleeping anyway [#4] and stepped up your workouts to two-a-days on three days of the week, you'll be just fine. Trust me.  The soreness will go away in about two weeks.  
7. Buy a TEN dollar half-gallon of heavy whipping cream instead of milk.  While it was an accident, you'll enjoy the puzzle of trying to create various recipes to use the cream so that it's a) not wasted and b) you don't gain 10 pounds.
8. Don't check your receipts while you are in the store.  Wait until you are home and it's raining before you discover [#7].  Bonus points if you also get charged for your single artisan cheese twice. 
9. Embrace the wardrobe malfunction.  Twice.
10. Carry protein bars, preferably a variety so if you have to eat one for breakfast, lunch and dinner [#1], you will have variety.  Luna, the spice of life.  

Also:

Laugh a lot.  You've got a good story.

I Do Not Think it Means What you Think it Means

The last thing I expected to do on a Saturday night is get into a serious discussion about Sun Tzu's The Art of War.  [Aside:  bookcases can be quite the conversation starter.]  Truth be told, I have not picked up this book (except to move it four times) since 2006.  It was required reading for one of my strategy classes and I had opted to scan just the necessary passage instead of the entire book as I was working full time, studying 20 hours a week, running, yoga-ing, and working my way through a Tammy Wynette spelling song.

It was busy.

Also, judging from the small slips of paper inside, I was more concerned in 2006 with using this book as a good place to tuck away the tire size to a 1988 Pontiac and various scheduling routines.

So there I was, trying to remember something about it while suppressing the Edwin Starr song which was trying to present itself like an accompanying soundtrack in my head.  For the most part I could just listen, but debate, I could not.  It's now a book that's been re-added to the reading list but as a life strategy, I'm sticking with Vizzini's suggestion:  "never get involved in a land war in Asia."

Throw Back Thursday (and the rest of the week too)

Frozen milk.
Insulation run.
Would readily admit
this week is no fun.

Computer fails.
Crazy dreams
An item of clothing
losing seams.

But still yet

Deep breaths
Laughter creeps in
New discoveries
Adventure's your friend.

Reading Not Knitting Not Reading OK Knitting

I had every good intention of starting the next GBC read.  But then Sunday, after work I decided to visit the yarn store to get a bit of yarn for this pattern I had in mind and of course they didn't have quite the amount of yarn in the colors I needed so the pattern had to be abandoned, but I still need to knit the thing so I was in search of a new pattern in a different yarn.  Enter 60 Quick Baby Blankets by Cascade Yarns.  In the typical manner in which I shop, I held the book in my hands for a quick few minutes to decide.  Vibrant, interesting patterns, easy to follow instructions, and located conveniently next to the yarn I could not stop touching.  (100% sweet, soft cotton.)  Of course I bought it (and the yarn).

So that evening, after a baking disaster where I learned that a half-baked cake does not go back into the pan as easily as it comes out, I tucked myself away for a little reading (not hiding).

I'll just thumb through a few patterns, I thought.   An hour later, after reading it like quick chick lit, I had glided through nearly every pattern in the book, gaining more excitement after seeing words like Fibonacci, Fringe and Mistachioed.  Then, when I thought it wouldn't get any better, I turned the page for "My Little Robot" and "Union Jack".  And the bonus:  there's a pattern for a lamb at the end.

I'm fairly certain I dreamed about knitting that night.

So, go forth and have children, so I can make them blankets.  It would help me if you spaced them evenly a bit to give me ample time to finish each one.  Thanks in advance.

Le Weekend

We had absolutely gorgeous weather this weekend.  Warmer sunny days, one crisp clear night, and one amazing thunderstorm (so I heard as I managed to sleep solidly through the night).  I've just taken a cranberry bread out of the oven and am gearing up for a little reading before slumber and that oh so early siren call for the gym.

The next GBC read is The Paris Wife by Paula McLain and I might just have enough time to finish it before next week's discussion.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Russian Away

The travel urge is kicking in and I've been a bit nostalgic about some of the places I've been and wondering what should be included on the list for 2014.

Here's a look back to St. Petersburg around 2006 and a nod to traditional black and white film photography.  I can't recall the name of this building in the city centre.

"You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved."

- Ansel Adams (sourced GoodReads)



St. Petersburg, Russia

Easy Go-ing

The beautiful thing about prepping your evening meals on the weekend and having early morning workouts, is the time after sunset can be completely devoted to reading.  You can sit on the sofa with your cup of tea while the wind bites and savor a few hours of quiet nothing.  It's a rather decadent start to the year.  Last night, I was determined to finish GG (which means I didn't quite my A game with my frozen garage door this morning but hey, there are always trade-offs).  

If you've ever felt a little twinge of regret about your selection of partners for a relationship, Gone Girl is a book for you.  You will no longer think twice about anyone who has earned a nickname gem.  You know you dodged a bullet with the Valentine's Day Crazy Cat Gun Guy but there were some figurative ones as well. The Werewolf, The Diva, The Rose Cop, and the Tropicana Screamer?  All relatively tame, when you're standing side by side with Amy and Nick.  Be grateful.  [Also, be glad that you vetted a few of these out while you still had your brick cell phone whose number you left behind just after the guy with a four word, eleven syllable name (who still made you reference the III).]

There were two noticeable shifts in the books; the first, about midway through, was my tipping point to finish.  I wanted to know what happened.  Thanks to all of you at the GBC who didn't give me any spoilers as I was six months behind you from last July's selection.  (I may however call you to review the ending!)  I think this book fits a summer read, a winter break, or a spring break read nicely.  Read it in chunks and take a big sigh of relief at your life choices.

Gone and the Wind

You've had an extremely busy day yet you managed to get a lamb and eggplant casserole in the oven.  You splurged for a very nice bottle of wine when picking up the groceries because it's your last for the next 30 days.  You have two book options waiting for you:  a literature classic and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  It's Saturday night...what do you do?

I opted for the novel with the same initials as my car.*  Over the course of the last day and a half, it has become one of those books where I've said to myself:, "I have four minutes, I can read a bit."  It's been a little while since I've stood over the electric kettle with a book in hand squeezing out a few more sentences.  GG is a title that has had a fair bit of press and lots of my friends have already read it.  I resisted it for that reason and until the kindle price dropped to the level where I could optimize my book budget for the month.   Now I'm devouring it like the chocolate cookies with nuts I did not anticipate I'd like either.  

Januaries can be so unexpected.  Hope your week is off to a brilliant (and warm) start.  

*Admittedly not sound logic, but it did sound more like a you-don't-have-a-date so read a fun book choice.

Ready Set Go

something about...

  running
      reading
        cleaning
  resolution-ing
      rebooting
        caffeinating
  reusing
      recycling
        creating
  writing
      riding
        contemplating

Following the Stars to a New Year

Little did I know that the next day after finishing Don't Go Where I Can't Follow a loved one would enter the hospital.  By the time I would arrive, the drawing of all the connections on page #74 was my reality (though I was spared 4 of the 9 attachments).  Prior to this time, I could not have described the feeling of helplessness and exhaustion that comes with sitting bedside.  I actually don't know that I could now, but the experience made me appreciate the book even more, and I have given considerable thought the last two weeks of the simple beauty of holding another's hand.

I had downloaded a few books in anticipation of a scheduled trip that had to be canceled.  During my visit, I started The Fault in Our Stars, not remembering the topic, and then about 30 pages in decided 1) it's not a good idea to read a story about life and cancer back to back and 2) if you need a good cry from your hold-it-together-hospital-day at night, read a story about life and cancer back to back.

But it's unfair to say the books can be lumped into three words "life and cancer".  There is an abundance of beauty around us and sometimes it takes a measure of pain to see more of it.  One of my favorite excerpts from The Fault in Our Stars was: "We made the story funny.  You have a choice in this world, I believe, about how to tell sad stories, and we made the funny choice."

If you asked me about my holiday, I would probably tell you about the crazy ambulance ride with the driver complaining about bad brakes while we listened to Black Sabbath or the nurse who got a sub for the IV because the last time she left a pool of blood in the patient's lap.  [I told her it was good she knew her strengths.]

Despite these moments of time standing still, life goes on and there's a weird sort of funny amazement in it.  To that end, here's to a year of discovering beauty and gratitude in unexpected places.