etc.

I’m not sure why, but some time ago I stopped reviewing books on these here pages. Which might lead you to believe that I stopped reading, but in fact I’ve been reading all along, not at the same pace to be sure, but reading nonetheless. Here is a list of books I’ve read since, oh, January, with a few words by way of review:

The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
I read this in one day over the Christmas holidays and it was perfect. Perfectly perfect, in fact. I don’t think I would recommend reading it any other way. And that’s all I will say because it was 6 months ago and I’ve forgotten everything else about it.

Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre
Scathingly good. Someone, I can’t remember who, compared this book to A Confederacy of Dunces, one of my favourite books of all time, and as soon as I read that, I knew I had to give Vernon a try. And it was good (scathingly good, I did say), although it did not leave the same indelible impression upon me that Confederacy did. That’s all.

Happenstance, Carol Shields
Oh, Carol Shields, I never can tire of you! Happenstance is one of Shields’ earlier novels, a single tale told from the perspective of both a husband and a wife. The wife is a quilter and the husband is a middling academic with a severe case of imposter syndrome. So, I identified with them both!

Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology, Eric Brende
I was unconvinced by this book. Quick recap: as part of his research for his grad work on the influence of technology on society, Brende moves into an Amish/Mennonite community (he doesn’t identify the community) for 18 months to live as the “natives” do, without machinery/technology. The notion of living off the tech-grid appeals to me in the most paradoxical of ways (how quaint to live without the trappings of 21st Century life! But, wait! I get jittery when I’m away from my computer for too long!), and I’m not sure I can put my finger on exactly what it was about this book that didn’t convince me — was it that I didn’t get a good sense of how much Brende and his wife really “bought into” what they were trying to do? was it the unimaginative tone of the narrative? (I admit, I’m seduced by purple prose) — probably a combination of the two.

Jane Austen: A Life, Carol Shields
Carol Sheilds made me feel like Jane Austen is my friend, and for that I am truly grateful. Beyond words.

The Music of Chance, Paul Auster
Forgettable. Seriously, I have no recollection of having read this book and, if I hadn’t written it down, it would have been lost to memory altogether. Which should tell you something.

Raymond & Hannah, Stephen Marche
Umm, good. I mentioned before that I went to grad school with Stephen, and this novel is set in the same institution (University of Toronto), in the same department (English). Which is why I couldn’t just let myself settle into it as a novel: for me, Raymond was a thinly veiled Stephen and, for better or worse (probably worse), I found myself deconstructing every grad student and faculty member Raymond met at every party he went to (I wonder if that’s X? Could that be Professor Y? Ooh! That sounds suspiciously like Mr. Z!). You get the idea. I almost feel like I should read it again, to do it justice. But I won’t.

Spending: a Novel, Mary Gordon
I picked this up from the library on a recommendation from Jill. Go read her review, she sums it up better than I could.

There, then. I feel like I’ve caught up. I’m going to start up the regular reviews again, and in anticipation, I’ve added a “currently consuming” list over in the sidebar for books and music currently in the hopper. Which is a perfectly clunky segue into asking you if you’ve heard the new Keane & Blue October albums. Have you? They’re both quite delicious.

PS: Thank you for your movie recommendations! I have at least 7 rentals (and one maybe trip to the movie theatre) lined up as an antidote to the insufferable movie-mediocrity in which we’ve been wallowing lately. You’re so good to me, kind readers, thankyouthankyou!

• The New World **
• Wolf Creek ***
• Hostel ***
• Imaginary Heroes ***
• Lord of War ***
• Man on Fire ****

Verily I say to you: do NOT watch Wolf Creek and Hostel back-to-back, for it will inevitably lead to all manner of terrifyingly gripping dreams of rusty knives and sociopaths. Verily.

I think we’re in a movie-rut. There’s been an almighty amount of mediocrity lately (except for Man on Fire. Have you seen it? It’s good!), probably because we’ve turned into lazy film-watchers, tuning in exclusively to TMN and Pay-Per-View for our film-fix.

So tell me, dear readers, what should we watch next? Clearly, we need your help. And while we might be lazy film-watchers, I think I can probably muster a trip to Blockbuster, whereas a trip to the movie theatre is out of the question. Verily.

So, the course description is up, making the reality all the more, well, real I suppose. Gosh, that was awkward.

Anyway, my last day of work to-day, I’m staring down 10-days off (I said 8 before, but that’s because I forgot our long weekend next week. Wheeee!) and the course description couldn’t have been posted at a better time because the next 10 days are going to be solid, nose-to-the-grindstone, no-messing-around. I’m going to take a few moments to-morrow to plan out a schedule for myself, something along the lines of: 9.30 am – 3 pm work, half hour for lunch somewhere in there, break at 3.30, craft for a bit until the mister gets home. Hey, I guess that’s it, The Plan.

I’m throwing crafting in to provide a bit of variety and some sanitymaking (as opposed to crazymaking, another non-word that I enjoy) and also so that I don’t fall drastically behind on a few softie committments I’ve made. Including, Plush You II, thank you Kristen for posting and emailing about it, and thank you Fiona for starting your submissions now, thereby making me realize that now is not early at all, but just in time!

Also, a new coffeehouse has opened right in our neighbourhood (yes, that’s what they’ve called themselves, “somethingorother coffeehouse”, because “coffeehouse” is trendier by far than “coffee shop”, you know) so the mister and I have a date to investigate it this weekend. He’s interested in good coffee, I’m interested in free WiFi. If all goes well, I might have a new place to get work done, 9.30 am – 3 pm next week. Hip hip!

3 pounds of strawberries and a pitcher of homemade raspberry iced tea. Looks like summer to me.

Hey, guess what? This domain celebrated it’s 4th birthday yesterday and I forgot to do anything about it. Despite some firm-ish resolve to not let another domain birthday pass with nary a word, nevermind celebration. I suck. Truly.

The weekend was spent almost exclusively with kith and kin, it’s been weeks since we’ve had good visits with our respective parental units, so good visits were had in the company of piles upon piles of food. Speaking of food, I am drowning in fruit at the moment: apples, pineapples, strawberries (so cheap that we bought 6 pounds worth!), bananas, blueberries, melon (two varieties), cherries, grapes, fruit, fruit, fruit. More fruit than I’ve ever had all at once, and it’s just lovely, all of it, sweet, cold, perfectly refreshing. Cold and refreshing are good things to have at home at the moment since our air conditioner sputtered to an untimely death two weeks ago and our bountiful fruit has kept us both cool and refreshed. Ever had a cold banana on the nape of your neck on a hot day? It works wonders!

Second-last week of June already. I’m off for eight-days starting next week, so everything’s in motion in preparation for being away (from the library, not from home; I’ll have my nose buried in my computer most of the time. Speaking of which – hey, look! My course is listed on the faculty page (under Fall 2006, LIS 757)! Still no description though, I should get right to that). I have to admit, as much as I hate to use our air conditioner, I am relieved that it will be fixed by the time my 8 days off rolls around. Nothing quite as uncomfortable as a hot laptop on bare legs in a sticky house with warm cats underfoot (where they insist on lounging). Ick.

Subtle red for this, the last day of colour week. This is my favourite fortune. I carry it with me, tucked in my coin purse, where I catch sight of it everyday, and it serves as a gentle reminder that there is beauty, potential, and inspiration in the most ordinary of things. I put it in a rusty white enamel bowl for this picture (the rusty bits are quite a brilliant red too, but they look remarkably brown here).

The last of the colour week favourites:

• Blue and Black, by Cotton Strudel
• red, by Snuffywump
• blue2, by Morran
• threshold, by two trees…with roots like these
• blue, by Max Arlo, Superhero
• june11_white2, by think pretty

And that’s just a few of the lovelies posted this week, more at Flickr. Thank you little birds & port2port for the inspiration! Now I’m off to blog elsewhere about a conference I’ve been at most of this past week that was inspiring in a different way entirely.

A happy Friday to you and you! And you, too.

A tiny slice of my studio for blue Thursday. Not a lot of blue, granted, but turquoise is a current fixation of mine (there’s ample evidence of this on my Flickr favourites page) and when I opened the door to my studio this morning, that splotch of dried blue paint caught my eye.

More favourites from this week of colour:

• brown3, by shash
• black & gray, by wisecraft
• Black/Grey, by Aunty Cookie
• gray/black wednesday, by little birds
• Colour week: wednesday, by hop skip jump

To-morrow, last day of colour week: red. This has been excellent fun!

Two of my very favourite things are black & gray. And here’s a bonus shot of my favourite black, because she’s notoriously difficult to photograph and I’m tickled that I managed a decent picture of her.

And now, rather than link to the same thing as yesterday (and the day before), here are a few of my favourite pictures from color week thus far:

• colorweek::white, by mommycoddle
• magnolia brown, by martha snail
• brown, by Max Arlo, Superhero
• white barrel, by Bella Dia
• brown, by SouleMama

To-morrow, blue. And more favourites.

A brown cow. I took this last weekend when we visited The Farm to celebrate the mister’s brother’s 40th birthday (happy birthday for to-morrow, Pete!). It’s not a working farm but they do have neighbourhood cows hanging out in their fields (heh, “neighbourhood cows”! Only in the country…) and this chap did not like it one bit that we got so close to his crib (hey, it is a working farm after all, I find out later). He stared us down the whole time. We’re city folk, the mister and I, so we giggled a lot (well, I giggled, the mister did not) and took a bunch of pictures.

More “color week” on Flickr.

Albeit bluish, here’s my contribution to “white” for colour week. I’m a big fan of white (and, yes, also neutrals) and tend to wear a lot of it during the summer. Especially white linen, this is one of three white linen shirts in my closet (and I will probably amass more white linen before the summer is through!). Thanks to Stephanie & Mav for the lovely & inspiring idea, more on “color week” is here and here. And it looks like “colorweek” is the Flickr tag of choice. (Update: colorweek2, actually.)

To-morrow, brown! (There’s a similar embarassment of brown linen in my closet but that would be a bit predictable, wouldn’t it?)