what I'm reading

Frank Auerbach: Speaking and Painting by Catherine Lampert
Purity by Jonathan Frazen
The Last Love Song by Tracy Daugherty
Hold Still by Sally Mann

(obviously on a bit of a non-fiction kick.)

What are you reading?

summer lovin' (part 1)

in my opinion, there are two other necessities to a perfect summer at our cottage (aside from sun, sand, and sea):

good reads

mine
H is for Hawk
Delancy
Everything I Never Told You
Year of the Cow (by our neighbor Jarod!)
Station Eleven (recommended by Michael Christie - see below - with Gulf Island setting)

d's
If I Fall, If I Die (Michael and his family live on Galiano)
A Death In the Family

e's
The Outsiders
21 Proms
Read Between the Lines
More Than This
The Infinite Moment of Us
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
The Woman in White*

k's
Rain Reign
The Giver
Gathering Blue
Messenger
Son


*9th grade summer reading list

Galiano Winter IV

walk from our cottage to Sticks beach





things I want to remember about this trip:
building the best fires
marathon poker games
k's poker face
Moxie in her raincoat
the rain & a full moon
geese flying over the cottage at night
the crazy cat puzzle we never finished
new year's eve by candlelight

what we read:
k
The Essential Calvin & Hobbes
Wildwood

e
The Truth About Alice
Let's Get Lost
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
The Death Cure

d
The Goldfinch

me
The Lacuna
The Paying Guests
The Rise and Fall of Great Powers

{summer} reading list

wanted to try and capture this, as we did last year.

K

Pegasus: The New Olympians, by Kate O'Hearn
Wonder, by R.J. Palacio
The Winter Pony, by Iain Lawrence
Dark Horse, by Jenny Hughes
My Friend Flicka, by Mary O'Hara
Summer Pony, by Jean Slaughter Doty

E

The Maze Runner trilogy, by James Dashner
Four: A Divergent Collection (Divergent Series), by Veronica Roth
If I Stay, by Gayle Forman
Paper Towns, John Green
We Were Liars, E. Lockhart
The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne


and on mine:

The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert (I never would have picked this up normally, somehow the tagline "author of ...Eat..." turned me off. But K's teacher told me she was reading a book this spring that reminded her of me. This is it. Curiousity got me.)
The Vacationers, by Emma Staub
Criddle De Diddle Ensis: A Biographical History Of The Criddles Of Aweme, Manitoba, Pioneers Of The 1880's, by Alma Criddle (I'm going to re-read this book that I read many years ago. Last summer I enjoyed reading For Elise, a newer look at the history of the Criddle-Vane family. I am related to the Criddle clan - and curious to revisit their history.)
The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (from my university literature class - now on E's 8th grade reading list. I'm rereading this one with her too)
Trauma Farm, by Brian Bett
Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell (on E's recommendation)

what's on your list?

room to grow con't

we are still working away on e's room. converting from home office to bedroom has had a couple of challenges. first off - what to do with all the books that were stored in this room, and two - how to maximize the small space to allow her to have room to hang-out and study. when d first started with this room, he tore out the closet to add built in book cases, and an area for a flat file. you can read about it, and see it here. (2006!!!) he now has converted the flat file space with drawers so e won't need a dresser. it is perfect.

here are some in progress shots before we get to the big reveal. soon!

lots of nothing

we really unplugged these last two weeks. so very good.







we played the ukulele. cribbage. and went through a series of suduko puzzles like nobody's business. we walked favorite roads and paths and played outside and got a lot of yard work done. we read by the fire.

i read:
chasing aphrodite (so good in the museum gossip dept. if you have been part of that world - and more specifically the getty part of that world)
the daylight gate (pretty graphic and disturbing at points. but i have a longstanding fascination with dr. dee and alchemy and this fit in nicely. plus winterson's prose never disappoints.)
the paris wife (i loved this book. with my love for hemingway and historical fiction, a friend recommended it to me a while back - and i'm so glad i finally got to it.)
the goldfinch (i had a plan to buy this on island, at my favorite bookshop, only to find out they were sold out. thankfully lindsay gave me her copy to read. i'm only half way through but am having a lot of trouble putting it down. always a good sign. makes me want to reread a secret history.)

you'll have to ask the others about the specifics of their reading lists but...

d read:
the golden spruce
telegraph avenue

e read:
allegiant
an abundance of katherines
eleanor & park
the probability of miracles
the book thief
fangirl
after iris

k read:
fortunately, the milk
flora & ulysses
dork diaries: tales from a not-so-graceful ice princess
dork diaries: tales from a not-so-happy heartbreaker
and a stack of betty & veronica double digests

saturday bookshelf :: week three

Title: Woodcutters

Author: Thomas Bernhard

Reader: D

Thoughts: I've read about half a dozen books by this author. Translated from German. I guess I'm a secret hipster. So what is this book about. Well it's more about the author's constant critique of the bourgeois in Austria. He dissects them in such a loathsome manner one would think it as pure hatred, but I think that he is trying to inspire them to be better, truer, more substantial human beings.

In the excerpt below, Bernhard derides the Auersbergers, old friends that he now is estranged from...Yet accepts an invitation to an artistic dinner. (intellectual masochism)

"All her life she was constantly trying to escape from her origins, just as he was from his - she from the idyll of her gentle Styrian birth, he from the paternal destiny of petty local officialdom and the maternal low pressure zone inhabited by butcher's assistants - all of which was bound to appear irresistibly comic to anyone around them who had eyes to see and ears to hear."

Boring you say? Well it gets bleaker. Bernhard writes this singular thought diatribe of a novel in one paragraph(180 pages). Sheesh. He is relentless in his character attack of the Austrian people and takes no prisoners. Banned in Austria. Reads like a weird art film.

Saturday Bookshelf :: week two

I try not to edit what the girls want to read*. (love Neil Gaiman on this subject.) it is not always easy - and these days finds them reading things as disparate as poorly written movie tie-ins to heady young adult material. I've noticed that they don't really come to anything before they are ready to talk about it. and books have always, for me, provided a wonderful opportunity to talk about it.
*********



Title: Looking for Alaska

Author: John Green

Reader: E

Thoughts: "When I look at my room, I see a girl who loves books"

Looking for Alaska is the story of sixteen year old Miles, nicknamed "Pudge, who moves to a new boarding school. Through his roomate Chip he meets a girl named Alaska. She has a tragic life. The story is funny, adventurous and sad. It keeps you thinking because it is a bit of a mystery too. It is so well written; I really love this book.

Mom note: this book holds some pretty sophisticated stuff - and is recommended for grades 9 and up. I'm reading it now and preparing for some discussion around various subject matter.




*for the record I do edit what I buy for them. thank goodness for our neighborhood public library.

Saturday Bookself :: week one

"This or any other procedure is merely a dam against the springtide of memories which surges toward any collector as he contemplates his possessions..."

do you know walter benjamin's essay on "unpacking my library"? it is filled with quotes like the one above. and well worth a read. (or reread as the case may be.)

i am in the process of packing up the girls' "library" and am incredibly nostaligic as i box up so many memories along with the books. i struggled with what to do with these. and part of me knows i should let them go / pass them on. but i am a collector by nature and a bibliophile too and so the most dear are being put away, with the hope that they will be shared again with someone i love, someday.

i want to start documenting (weekly) what we are reading here. both as an incentive (for me) to finish books i begin and to record what we can about what we are reading.


*********



Title: The Curve of Time

Author: M. Wylie Blanchet

Reader: T

Thoughts: This is one of those books that in the beginning I wasn't sure about but by the end found myself transformed by. It is an epic true tale of a mom and her five children (and their dog) exploring the coast of British Columbia on their 25 foot boat Caprice over fifteen summers in the late 1920s early 1930s. (The same boat from which her husband disappeared, leaving her a widow.)

There is so much I could say. This is a book about a place I have loved - and describes a landscape etched in my own heart. (White shell beaches, purple sea stars, barnacles underfoot...) It is a book about adventure and raising children and being a mom. On death. And on living.

Its not terribly well written - but it provided personal connections that made it hard to put down.

"Destiny rarely follows the pattern we would choose for it and the legacy of death often shapes our lives in ways we could not imagine."

It is a book I will read again. (And again.)

{summer} reading list

we are in the groove of things now. camp has begun. (we are trying out an every other day option this summer. i think enough time for me to work - and enough time for us to play.) and we are looking ahead to hitting the road and escaping to our paradise. one birthday is in the pocket - and another right ahead.

in an effort to supersede requests for screen-time, we hit the library yesterday. the girls' love of books always makes me smile.





on their starting summer reading lists:

K

Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry (a beautiful vintage gift from my mom!)
Amelia Rules! by Jim Gownley
Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great, by Judy Bloom
More Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School, by Louis Sachar
The Bobbsey Twins' Mystery at Meadowbrook Farm, by Laura Lee Hope
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsburg (we are reading this aloud. I never tire of it!)

E

Trixie Belden The Mystery Off Glen Road, by Julie Campbell (another gift from my mom)
Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret, by Judy Bloom
Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself, by Judy Bloom
Ten Things I Hate About Me, by Randa Abdel-Fattah

and on mine:

Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
Dear Life, by Alice Munro
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
Furious Love, by Sam Kashner & Nancy Schoenberger

any suggestions?

we are all keeping reading logs. will let you know what transpires...

{day 17} what we are reading

the girls committed to reading 20 books while we are up here. they are one track to meet their goal...



K: Mr. and Mrs. Bunny – Detectives Extrordinaire!
by Mrs. Bunny
translated from the Rabbit by Polly Horvath
illustrated by Sophie Blackall

K is a huge Ivy and Bean fan and so it was the illustrations by Blackall that first caught our eye. The book tells the story of 10 year old Madeline, living on a Northern Gulf Island (connection!) and her search for her kidnapped hippy islander parents by evil foxes. I don’t want to tell too much. I highly recommend this one! I read this one aloud to K. It was so good that we had trouble putting it down. Everyone in the cottage wanted to hear what would happen next.



E: The Whole Truth
by Kit Pearston

The story of two sisters who journey from Manitoba to a small island between Vancouver and Victoria to live with their grandmother. (How could we resist?) There is a mysterious secret as well. E really enjoyed this book. It is next on my “to read” list.



Me: The Age of Miracles
by Karen Thompson Walker

I’ve been wanted to pick this up ever since I heard an interview with – on NPR. I’ve just began, and am enjoying it so far.



I’ve also had my head in Pure Green magazine, which I picked up at Munro’s in Victoria (possibly my favourtie bookshop of all time?) It is lovely.



Free-Range Chicken Gardens
by Jessi Bloom
photos by Kate Baldwin

I found this there as well. We will come home to two newly rescued hens (you are a good man D) and with the final touched on our garden looming this looked like perfect inspiration. (The girls are intrigued by the section on training your chickens. Ours all come when summoned, but no tricks. Yet.)

good book night

and happy world book day.

books have been such a huge part of my life. they have been with me when i was lonely. and guided me when i was looking for direction. they have brought me happiness and taught me so much about myself.



I was giver today for World Book Night.

it was a kick handing out books to those who admitted to not really being readers.

the instructions stated to choose a book you had read. i chose to hand out nicole krauss' The History of Love in front of our neighborhood elementary school.



i spoke with a young mom, new to L.A. from New York who told me her english wasn't very good - but that she would ask her husband to read to her. to a grandfather who told me how much his granddaughter loved to read and so he wanted to read more too. to twenty people i don't know as they entered to pick up their children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors... from school.

a few asked me what they had to do in return.

and i answered "just read it. enjoy it. let me know what you think of it.".

so fun to share the joy of a good book.

reading list

we stuck with the

something you want
something you need
something handmade
and something to read

for the holidays. the something handmade was tangrams.

as for the something to read, we all received many good books. the girls and I are all compulsive readers - with many books on the go at the same time. for me it is usually a mix of fiction and non-fiction. for e it can be the same - plus a good dose of manga. and for k, a handful that she is reading on her own, along with a couple for reading together.

a peek at what we read over the break, and what we are reading now from our holiday booty.



I am on a non-fiction/biography kick.

Mordecai: The Life and Times

A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney by Martin Gayford

The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure

Eva Zeisel: On Design
(I've wanted this book for a long time and was happy to get it for Christmas. then surprised to hear of her death a few days later at 105.)

The Arms of the Infinite: Elizabeth Smart and George Barker by Christopher Barker

requisite bedtime fiction...
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides



E received a kindle from Santa. Touch. Not Fire. I wanted her to have the "e-ink" rather than the IPS. I really feel she already spends enough time in front of a screen (I read this years ago) - and given the rate at which she plows through a book we decided this was a good way to go. and kindle books are available through the Los Angeles Public Library. she still received (and wants) paper books as well. especially manga - as she tells me you don't read back to front on the kindle.

Rose and the Lost Princess by Holly Webb

Wildwood by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis (I need a Kindle so I can borrow this!)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell



K loves anything that makes her laugh.

The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl

Toys Come Home: Being the Early Experiences of an Intelligent Stingray, a Brave Buffalo, and a Brand-New Someone Called Plastic by Emily Jenkins
(we love this whole series. so fun to read aloud.)

Ivy and Bean: No News is Good News by Annie Barrows
(she is hooked on these books.)

The Adventures of Tintin: The Shooting Star by Herge
(I really wanted the girls to experience these books before seeing the movie. they were a mainstay of my childhood. we haven't seen the film yet. have you? any good? they loved this one. and K is still going around quoting the final line: "Worse than that!... We are out of whiskey!")



while the girls and I read by the fire - D is usually working on something. he used to chuckle at my family who are known to get together then all sit around reading.  but he is used to it now.  he is a bedtime reader.

Nemesis by Philip Roth

so what good books have you curled up with lately?

good evening.

i finished object of beauty last night. thought it was a great bedtime read.

a friend, hearing of the stacks of books by my bed, suggested i read more on the ipad. i balked. then thought - perhaps recipe books will be my gateway e-book drug. we will see. now i hear my mom is reading an e-book. shocking mom!