the one that came in the mail.

As part of my budget plan, I signed up for paperback swap. You swap books with other members and only have to pay shipping costs for the ones you send out. You get a free book credit for all of those books you ship. It's been kinda fun and also helps me clean my shelf of less than desirable books.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php

Ann Patchett is an author I collect. I didn't rave about Bel Canto like others but I really liked Truth and Beauty. She gave a commencement speech at Sarah Lawrence and the book What Now? stems from it.

I didn't like this book as much as Anna Quindlen's A Short Guide to a Happy Life.  Love.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Short-Guide-to-a-Happy-Life/Anna-Quindlen/e/9780375504617/?itm=10&USRI=anna+quindlen

Patchett  discusses being a waitress and how it was the best ever preparation for being a novelist.  And I thought about how working in a psych ward was distressing and hard but gave me such compassion for the diversity of people and the emotional struggles others go through - struggles they didn't necessarily ask for.  Working at Fairview was the most challenging job I've had yet in this lifetime and yet it changed me forever.

What Now? was only 97 pages but it made me think.

My favorite line? "It's up to you to choose a life that will keep expanding."

the ones that disagree.

I'm calling a halt to certain parenting books for the time being.
They all confuse me and encourage me not to trust the emerging instincts that parents are supposed to have.
I don't like how they cast judgment and try to fit families into a box. Matt, Maren and I just don't fit.

Babywise

Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child

Dunston

Secrets of the Baby Whisperer

I'm too confused & sleep deprived to even comment on the strategies these books describe. I think it's clear my little one has a bit of the flux which may or may not go away with sugar and dairy deprivation or the passing of days. It's clear that my desperate attempts to research and discover the root of it all is making things worse. Our best days are when I embrace the cries, even the "phantom cries" I hear in my sleep.

I know I'll sleep again someday. It will never be quite as blissful as it once was.
I will never again sleep like a baby . . . whatever that means.

the one I'm totally on top of.

so proud of myself.  this book is not due until 2011 and yet I FINISHED!
not going to say much here . . . would rather save comments for book club.
BUT I liked it, I kinda liked it.
this was a book that developed.  i wanted to get to know the characters.
the humor was quirky and nice. 
felt a little like Love Actually the way the plot weaved in and out.

so book clubbers, resolve in 2011 to read this one.  if I can do it, so can you!

the one about despair.

This was not a book to read Thanksgiving week.  The December pic for my Stillwater book club was A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick.  Worst. Book. Ever.

I'm going to give away the whole book right here so no one EVER has to read it.  The main character has a god awful mother who mistreats him.  He develops a sexual addiction and traipses all over Europe finding a countess to marry.  The countess then cheats on the sex addict and has a baby boy with the gardener.  The sex addict beats the Boy.  The countess dies.  The Boy then spends his eternity attempting to kill said sex addict.

It really just disintegrates from there.

The writing is terrible.  Third person that sounds like "he did this and then she did that."

on page 281, "it was just a story about despair."

Um. Maybe you could have started out with that disclaimer and saved us all the trouble.

the one I want Kate to read.

I just finished Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum.  Love. Love. Love.

This book reminds me what it was like to be a middle school counselor and how absolutely raw and genuine those kids were.  I miss those exhausting, exhilarating days now and then.

My favorite line:
"this was a feeling that Ms. Hempel couldn't shake: a conviction that she spent her days among people at the age when they were most purely themselves.  How could she not be depleted when she came home, having been exposed for hours, without protection, to all of those thrumming, radiant selves?"

This is a lovely book.  And the voice of a middle school teacher is spot on.  Like being in the trenches again.  A must read.

the one that confused me.

I just finished the novel White Teeth by Zadie Smith.  I'm not sure I have the words or the energy to discuss the confusion I'm feeling about this book.  Discussions on immigration, militant Islam and a crazy Freudian family. 

Too many characters, too many pages. 

I've read other Zadie Smith and I like her wry wit.  I just didn't get this book. 

But I did finish it.  I can say that much. 

the ones I never thought I'd read

I know how this looks but bear with me . . . because life is good.

I just finished:
Down Came the Rain by Brooke Shields (and her editor)
It Sucked and Then I Cried by blogger Heather Armstrong
Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems

Brooke's book just made me angry at Tom Cruise and incredibly empathetic for her struggle (minus the baby nurse, luxury CLEAN condos and oodles of support).

Naked Mole Rat made Matt and I laugh out loud. We read it to Maren. She didn't get it. BUT hopefully someday she will rather read than scream. 

It Sucked and Then I Cried was SO crass and hilarious. Had I read this book two months ago, I would have disparaged it. Now I have a sailor's mouth worse than anyone I know, have lost all modesty about my body and have reached even lower expectations about the cleanliness of my house. Impossible! 

I'm not depressed but I can see how incredibly easy it would be to enter that state. If Little M hadn't taken to the swing this week, I might have completely lost my marbles.  I totally get it now, mothers and fathers of the world. And I will never, ever again look smugly at the screaming toddler in line at Target.


I no longer have to write a book about having an infant because it's already been covered here.  My favorite chapter of It Sucked was "Her Screamness Who Screams a Lot Every Day With the Screaming" followed by "I Never Thought I Would Become This Woman".

Ditto.  Nuf said.

the one that brings me back.

I was reading EAARth by Bill McKibben aloud to Maren when I realized that was a little too depressing and morbid for my baby's first book. I know she can't actually understand the words. Thank God. Bill McKibben paints a pretty dismal picture for the future of our young ones, global warming and all.

Anyways, I switched it up.  Honestly, it was a little too dismal for me.  And so, I'm going backwards and re-reading the Little House series. It has the perfect length chapters to get me started with this read aloud gig. Brings back so many memories: the sugar snow, when cousin Charley is naughty and gets stung by the bees, Laura's doll Charlotte. Is it just me or are parts of the book just a little racist?

Little House is also on the Hallmark Channel A LOT. I'm realizing just how often as I nurse little M here at home. I guess I prefer the books. On to the Prairie . . .

the timely one.

My Stillwater Book Club chose the book Gift from The Sea.  Unbeknownst to me.  I was busy at the time having a baby in the hospital when they selected the book.  Ironically though, the name Maren (MAH RIN) translates to "gift from the sea."  What a lovely coincidence.
 
Matt and I chose the name Maren for several reasons. 
One: It's Norwegian. 
Two: We thought it wasn't so tricky and would be a good match for Prestegaard.  Hah!  Apparently in MN the name Maren is not so common.  My Dad has given up on the pronunciation and is calling her Matilda instead.
Three: Personally, the name reminds me of my favorite place in the entire world.  Marin County CA (different pronunciation but same happy reminder).

Back to the point though. 

Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote a reflective piece called Gift from the Sea way back in 1955. The book still has a lot of meaning for women today.  It talks about ideas such as solitude, simplicity, marriage, growth, etc.  I'm not feeling particularly insightful today so I'll offer a quote from the book instead:

"The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too inpatient.  To dig for treasures shows not only impatience or greed but lack of faith.  Patience, patience, patience is what the sea teaches.  Patience and faith.  One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea.

I have been waiting for little Maren most of my life.  I get frustrated every day as we learn each other's temperaments and find a way to trust.  I need to remember that the greatest gift my little Maren will teach me is patience and peace in not knowing.

the one that should just be.

News from the book publishing world.  JK Rowling may not be finished with Harry yet.

"I could definitely write an eighth, ninth, 10th [book]," author J.K. Rowling tells Oprah Winfrey in an interview airing Friday.

For now, Rowling is content with leaving the characters for now.

"I'm not going to say I won't. I don't think I will ... I feel I am done, but you never know," the British author added, saying that she is "in a new phase."

Honestly, some things should just be left alone.  Brett Favre, Sex and the City and Harry Potter . . . may we relish in memories of your greatness.

But go away already.