book club

We had our monthly book club meeting tonight. We took turns discussing the books that we had chosen for the past month. It was so fulfilling just hanging out in someone's living room, connecting with these women through our love of books. Some books that were discussed:
Hannah's Suitcase by Karen Lavine (a holocaust story)
Survivors: True Stories of children in the holocaust by Allan Zullo and Mara Bovsun
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory
Every Good Thing (compilation of 1997 LDS Womens Conference Talks...one especially good one by James M. Harper, I think his name was...)
The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander Smith (This one sounded the most intriguing, set in Africa. It is book 5 in a series. The first in the series is called The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency )
and then I talked about The Joy Luck Club. After I read it, I watched the movie (by the same name) and all the dialogue and narration in the movie was identical to the book, which is rare. It is a story of 4 women living in China who move to America and each have a daughter. It is told, in turn, from the perspective of these 8 women. The movie leaves out a lot of good stuff so I wouldn't recommend it. The stories of the mothers when they were growing up in China are pretty remarkable. I feel like they are true stories.
So, it turns out that I will be scratching another book off my have-always-wanted-to-read list because the club has chosen classics for the next month so I am going to finally finish Pride and Prejudice. Ah yes, it is all falling into place...

Planet called Treason

I just reread Treason by Orson Scott Card. It has been one of my all time favorite books for a long time. I remember my grandfather reading it to me and my cousin when we where kids. I must have been 7 or 8 at the time my cousin 11 or 12. He had a copy in English and translated it into Icelandic as he read on. I know now that he must have toned it down a bit for us as it is quite violent and bloody in parts. This is the third time I read it myself and it did not let down my memory of it. The story is almost lyrical at times, the character of Lanik starts out arrogant but ends up humble but always simpathetic. The violence is never just for violence sake it is always written to futher the story. The story itself is a journey of personal growth and a classical coming of age story, its also about greed, waste, and love. Orson Scott Card is one of the master writers of SF but he is very spiritual at the same time one of the few that can pull that of. Treason was only his second published novel but remains in my mind his best work beautiful in its simplicity, Ender´s game is a close second though.

mascato youth choir

the photo's not the greatest but i went to go see a coule of awesome choirs recently; the Kokapelli youth choir and the guests the mascato youth choir from namibia. they were great and if you want to hear clips you can go the their websites. the best part of the concert besides the traditional african folk music, the tenors that could hit a high G, the two blind guys in Kokapelli or the beautiful combined songs was that after the standing ovation, everyone picked up a drum and just started dancing. it was thrilling.

Something pretty

Medicine Road by Charles de Lint, illustrated by Charles Vess is a lovely book. De Lint braids a beautiful story full of celtic and north american folklore and music. The characters are instantly likable and at the same time very human with all the flaws that come with that. It is a spiritual journey and a lovestory.
I´ve never been to Arizona where this story takes place but the characters/authors obvious love for the nature and the local culture woke a longing in me to visit the place which I never thought I would experience (there are scorpions and spiders in the desert). The illustrations by Charles Vess are beautiful, he really is one of my favorite fantasy artists. http://www.greenmanpress.com/
Bottom line is everybody should read it. I have now ordered everything I can find by this author for the store, (read as me) .

Veniss Underground

I bought this book in London last year and finally got around to reading it. I had been looking forward to it as Locus listed it as one of 20 most interesting books last year. I do love interesting visions of the future but this one kind of left me feeling sick.
You get to know the city through the eyes of the twins Nicolas and Nicola in the first two parts and their description of a world falling to pieces draws you in.
The storyline takes second place to the city itself and I did not mind as the author is a first class worldbuilder and you just want to know more about the world around the city and why it is like this.
The third and final part of the story takes you to Veniss underground the city below the city, it is a hellish tale that has a distinctive mythological flavor, it almost reads like a fable. It´s also very disturbing on so many levels, a big part of the story is genetic enginering and dna manipulation and once you get to Veniss underground it gets really discusting, including cathedrals of human flesh and mountains of severed legs.
I like a good dark gothic tale once in a while but this one kind of went over the top.
http://www.veniss-underground.com/
So I liked it but it left me feeling sick and not wanting to read anything else by this author. Does that make sense?
I´m reading something pretty next.

Well, my nonfiction phase is over; didn't last as long as I would have hoped. I thought maybe I would become this incredibly learned individual, but alas, i am an escapist. The only thing that I am more knowledgeable about is gardening. I couldn't read more than a page of The Teacher Man, so I tried another one: Of This Earth by Rudy Wiebe, but only made it a few chapters before calling it quits. The Teacher Man was well written, I suppose, but I just didn't like the author's voice...does that make sense? I didn't like his personality I guess. Of This Earth is a really good book about growing up as a mennonite in the forests of saskatchewan. It was interesting and I know that someday I would like to read it but, like I said, my nonfiction phase appears to be over. So I am reading one the books from my have-always-wanted-to-finish list; The Joy Luck Club and I am genuinely loving it.

another way to love belle and sebastian

Two of my favorite things have come together; graphic stories and Belle & Sebastian.
Put the Book Back On the Shelf came out in February 2006. It is a collection of interpretations of their lyrics by different comic artists. It is still too newly published for me to get a copy from the library system, but I am looking forward to it...I will have to wait and see if any libraries will even consider it for their collection; it's probably not really considered popular reading...

edible flowers

Halli's recent post on gardening got me thinking of edible flowers. There is a book out there by Lois Hole called Herbs and Edible Flowers. Her books are good because they apply to the Canadian climate. This book lists some edible flowers that will grow well here and it even includes recipes for muffins, salads, etc. that use the flowers. My favorites are pansies because as a child I always loved their individual "faces". They have a pretty mild flavour; my kids like them. This year I am trying nasturtiums because they are supposed to be a little spicy and they attract bugs, keeping them away from the rest of the garden. Marigolds are supposed to be good for this purpose too. So with edible flowers you can have the best of both worlds: beauty and practicality.

club

Well I've done it. I've gone and joined a book club. Me and some ladies meet once a month. We will alternate between all reading the same book and all reading different books. This month is reader's choice and as I am on a nonfiction kick, I've picked Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt. It's about his life as a teacher in New York. He's the guy that wrote Angela's Ashes (about his childhood in the slums of Ireland).

unresolved reads

Aside from Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, I have had several unresolved relationships with books. The ones that for some reason or another, I could never finish but that I just can't forget about and might need to finally finish someday.
Among them are:
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
Watership Down, Richard Adams
The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

I had to give away Pride & Prejudice and The Unbearable Lightness of Being because I couldn't stand seeing them in my bookshelves; a constant reminder. Somehow the other ones didn't anger me so much. Probably because I didn't invest as much time in them. I gave up as soon as I realized I wasn't enjoying myself and stopped pretending that if I just kept reading maybe I would.

You have to see this

Finnish disco at it´s best

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8610362188397291938

Vampire fun

For smutty vampire fun read The Vampire´s seduction by Raven Hart. I picked it out randomly from the vampire literature I am ordering for the City Library and was plesantly supprised. Despite the awful cover and the corny goth pen name (Raven Hart has to be made up). The characters where lots of fun and are obviously this writers strong point. I almost put it down after the first few pages then realized that the writer was making fun of the (Anne Rice?) vampire novel with its over descriptive goth prose. A change of perspective soon brings the more down to earth voice of my favorite character, Jack a 150 year old vampire who runs an all night garage and loves cars. Beware, the sex is gory.

MEAT

This guy is on a mission to document his adventures in weird meat. I realize that I am culturally influenced into a barf reflex when i read his blog and see some of the pictures, but there's something about putting a creature in your mouth that's trying to bite you back that just doesn't appeal to me. Rus, on the other hand, thinks it's very cool. I am quite proud to say though that I was able to eat rotten shark meat in Iceland and he wasn't. HA! 2 points for me.

A book about books...

The author, an avid book reader, challenged herself to read one book a week for a year; not always an easy task for someone who is a mother and a full-time job-holder. This is a sort of diary of that year. I'm just in January but it is a surprisingly good read. I know it sounds horribly boring; reading about someone who is reading, but I have enjoyed it so far. I can relate to her and her frustrations and experiences. I like that she doesn't think she's a highbrow intellect or literary elitist. So this book sits by my bedside this week, along with squarefoot gardening and mexico guidebooks. I had been in a reading rut, where everything I picked up either irritated or bored me, until I got more interested in nonfiction and realized that I'm just heading into a nonfiction phase. I guess that means I don't need or want to escape the real world as much??

better than the zoo

We toured the pet stores in lethbridge with our kids yesterday. It made us too late for a wedding dinner and we missed out on the food and comradie, but we were having so much fun. One of our daughters was literally shaking with excitement at the mice scurrying in their cages. It's better than the zoo in some ways because it's free and you can cuddle the rabbits and let the birds hang out on your arm. Too bad Rus exudes something that makes animals aggressive. He was bit by a furious little albino hedgehog!

The Dorking Gap Affair!

I came across this book and just loved the title, in my head I had some good ole poking fun at the Gap kind of fun:
"The Dorking Gap Affair"

Turns out that it's actually some kind of "Mycroft Holmes Adventure" novel. Mycroft Holmes is Sherlock Holmes' brilliant older brother, apparently. Who knew?
So say the title with an English accent and maybe it will make sense.

pride and prejudice chick

i saw the new pride & prejudice. i liked it (even kierra knightly). the book (and the movie) is one of those impossible love stories that guys might find cheesy, but every woman secretly wishes for. who wouldnt want a loving family with a pile of sisters to support you. who wouldnt want to spend their days perfecting their artistic talents, in a mansion with servants to do the dirty work. who wouldnt want a lonley troubled millionaire to fall desperately in love you. especially one with the phattest side burns ever.

Rooftop Gardens

I have always loved this concept. What a great use of space. Just imagine a world where every flat-roofed building had a garden on top.

griffin and sabine

I finished the rest of the 6-logy... hexlogy... hexology... whatever. The trilogy in six parts (see post below titled "the end"). I think my brow was furrowed in agitated concentration the whole time. It took a lot of effort to stay focused on the story. The interaction between Griffin and Sabine became more intense,complicated, and mystical as another couple, Matthew and Isabella was added to the correspondence. I can't say that the story itself would stand on its own, as it was fairly ambiguous and confusing at times. It was the illustrations and the presentation that brought it to life. My imagination was exercised to the limit, which was agitating at times (hence the agitated confusion), but ultimately good for that part of my brain that has become lazy. phew! I'm reading something a little more obvious next.

The Concert

I´m still at loss for words over the Depeche Mode concert last weekend in Copenhagen. I admit that I have not been to many big concerts so I don´t have a lot of comparison but this one was just fabulous.

I did not take these pictures I got them of http://depechemode.com but they are from this tour. The stage was fantastic and Dave Gahan is just a maniac. The crowd just responds beautifully to him. I was not close to the stage but I could see it very clearly from the side and I saw the screens well and I had a wonderfull time watching the crowd interact with the band.

They started with songs from Playing the Angel
which I´ve come to like very much, and then
moved on to older songs, I got chills all over my body when they started "Walking in my shoes" which has not even been one of my favorite songs. The crowd (including me) went wild during predictable songs like "Personal Jesus" "Never let me down again" and "Behind the wheel"and "enjoy the silence" and ofcourse they where amazing.

The high point for me though was after the first encore when Martin Gore performed "Shake the disese" acommpanied only by keyboard.

He was so incredable, it was like he put his heart and soul into it. I´ve never seen or heard anything like it. He is just an incredable preformer.

Music just is not the same when played live, I had epiphany about the meaning of some lyrics at this concert and before you ask, I have not been taking any drugs.

They closed with a beautiful rendering of "Goodnight lovers" after 3 encours

The bottom line, best concert I´ve ever been to
magnificent band I might quit my job and follow them around. It´s all your fault Rus if you hadn´t given me that "Construction time again" tape I would still be sane.

I think this might be close to the order of the songs

> Intro> A Pain That I'm Used To> John The Revelator> A Question Of Time> Policy Of Truth> Precious> Walking In My Shoes> Suffer Well> Damaged People> Home> I Want It All> The Sinner In Me> I Feel You> World In My Eyes> Personal Jesus> Enjoy The Silence
encore> Shake The Disease> Just Can't Get Enough> Everything Counts
encore #2 Behind The Wheel> Never Let Me Down Again>
encore #3 Goodnight Lovers