Category: Books

I have known Rita Arens since we worked together at a failed dotcom (was there any other kind?) in 1999. We’ve been friends ever since.

She is one of the most driven and determined people I have ever met – exactly the sort of person who gets an idea and makes it happen through hard work and sheer force of will.

She started blogging a few months after I did, and was my roommate at the 2006 BlogHer Conference. (In fact, she’ll be my roommate again this year.)

Early in 2006, she started getting in touch with other moms who blogged to see if they’d be interested in contributing to a mommy blogger anthology.  I’ll drop out here and let you read what happened over the next two years from Rita’s perspective.

How’s that for grit and determination?

Best of all, the book includes the writers of some of my favorite blogs:
Amalah
Binkytown
Birdie’s New Mexico Time Machine
CityMama
Finslippy
Friday Playdate
Fussy
IzzyMom
Laid-Off Dad
Mom-101
Mommy Needs Coffee
Mommytrack’d
Motherhood Uncensored
Not Calm (dot com)
Paper Napkin
Rancid Raves
State of Grace
Surfette
Surrender, Dorothy
Sweetney
The Modernity Ward
The Naked Ovary
Three Kid Circus
Woulda Coulda Shoulda

So I’m here to report that I just pre-ordered three copies (one for me, two to give as gifts) at Amazon. It’s also available for pre-order at Barnes & Noble and BookSense.

Mommy or not, if you like good writing and personal stories, you’ll want to add this book to your collection.

Way to go, Rita!

I’m not much of a fan of Florida. Too hot, too touristy, too alligator-infested. Once my grandparents passed away, I pretty much assumed that I’d never have reason to go there again.

I think I’ve just changed my mind.

It occured to me this week that if I’m to read The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd in time to discuss it knowledgeably at a book club meeting on Saturday, perhaps I should purchase it. 

I had noticed it at Target on Tuesday evening, but didn’t buy it then.  On Wednesday, I realized I was running out of time, so I stopped by a Barnes & Noble on my way home to pick up a copy.  They were out of them, but I did find a copy of The Pirates! In an Adventure With Ahab by Gideon Defoe, which I bought even though I could have saved $7 if I’d been patient enough to order it from Amazon instead.

So anyway, I went back to Target, picked up "The Mermaid Chair" and dove in (dove in! mermaid!  get it?  yeah, nevermind.) last night.  So far I’ve made it through 241 pages, so I’m home free for Saturday.

Lately, most of my reading has been confined to other people’s blogs, often while watching TV at the same time.  It’s kind of refreshing to get back to an entertainment medium that requires my undivided attention.

Now that I’m back in reading mode, can anyone recommend a book I shouldn’t miss?

Early last year, I started attending book club meetings with a group of women who combine book discussions with wine tasting.  (Woohoo!)  At the end of the first meeting, we drew names to see who would choose the next book, and my name was drawn.

I had just started reading Sock by Penn Jillette and I could tell I was going to really like it, so I chose it as our book club selection for the following meeting.  What a colossal mistake!

Before the meeting even took place, people’s comments on the Evite foreshadowed trouble.  There was talk of how excruciating the book was and what a drag it was to get through.

By then, I had finished the book (and loved it!) but knew it was definitely not for everyone.  It’s deliberately weird, provocative and controversial.  My one-sentence synopsis when I compiled the discussion questions was, "A love triangle with a gay man, a straight man and a dead woman told from the point of view of a sock monkey."  That’s probably about all you need to know to decide whether you’d be interested.

When the discussion began, it was quite heated at times.  Interestingly enough, the people who had read the whole book liked it better than the people who had given up somewhere in the middle.  I was still the only person who really liked it a lot.  I think my youthful appreciation for Tom Robbins novels may have helped pave the way.

After the disastrous book club meeting, I was at a loss as to who to give "Sock" to next.  I was hesitant to pass it along to anyone who might have a strong negative reaction. 

At Christmas, I decided to take some books to my aunt, so I hunted down "Sock" to include in the pile.  She called today to tell me that she absolutely loved it.  She is also a Tom Robbins fan, which is what helped me decide to give it to her.  She even complimented the discussion questions I’d written and tucked into the book.  I’m on fire!

It was nice to get a little vindication of my taste in literature.  I still say the book isn’t for everyone, but there are a couple of us with similar genetic makeup who liked it very much!

Yvonne DiVita of Lipsticking and A-ha! has asked me to provide an "Average Jane’s" perspective on one of her publishing company’s new books, Know Your Bones – Making Sense of Arthritis Medicine by Stephanie E. Siegrist, M.D.

Know Your Bones is divided into self-contained chapters that explain what causes arthritis pain, what various medicines and remedies do to ease the pain, and what risks are associated with each remedy.  There are handy charts for comparing dosages and costs between different brands and varieties of medications, salves and supplements.

The book is designed to give arthritis patients an easily understood, comprehensive guide to treatment options.  In her introduction, Dr. Siegrist says, "You and your doctor can only spend a few minutes together; what will you do to help yourself in the weeks between these brief appointments?"

The first chapter covers the anatomical aspects of arthritis and much of this information pops up again in subsequent chapters.  It seems repetitive on a complete read-through, but for someone who is researching a single medication or other topic within the book, it is clearly valuable to have the whole story spelled out in each chapter. 

Dr. Siegrist’s writing style is conversational and peppered with metaphors to explain some of the more esoteric medical concepts.  For example, "The rough surfaces within the joint act like a match head on flint.  Imagine a wobbly knee where every step causes the jagged surfaces to rub together, igniting a little fire.  The fire is the inflammation of painful arthritis."

I’m not sure I quite understood what arthritis was before I read this book, but now I have a much clearer grasp of it.  I have some grandparents with arthritis, so there’s a chance I’ll need to know this information someday.

The majority of the book is given over to discussions of various arthritis treatments, including over-the-counter and prescription medications, topical pain relievers, nutritional supplements, injections and surgery.  Despite the book’s focus on medical treatments, Dr. Siegrist constantly urges the reader to make overall wellness, nutrition, exercise and healthy body weight important priorities.

The newness of the book means that it takes into account last year’s much-publicized withdrawal of Vioxx® from the market.  The book’s explanation of the study results and FDA decisions are matter-of-fact and stand in contrast to the excitable media coverage that the story received at the time.

I think anyone with osteoarthritis could benefit from the information in this book.  The newly-diagnosed would find a detailed overview of all of their treatment options;  someone who has been dealing with arthritis for a while may learn of some new remedies that could complement his or her existing treatments.

It would be nice to see books like this on other medical topics.  If there had been a "Know Your Blood Sugar" book available when my husband was diagnosed with diabetes, I think we’d have been on better footing to start changing his diet and coping with the treatments.

Even though I ended up kicking myself over the last online meme I took on, I had to bow to Cagey’s challenge to answer these questions and "tag" other people to do the same.  Here are the questions and my answers:

1. You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be saved?
This is such a tough question!  I guess I’d have to forego books I appreciate for pure enjoyment and choose my encyclopedic dictionary for its wealth of information on a variety of subjects.

2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
I’m sure I did when I was younger, but I don’t remember any of them.

3. The last book you purchased?
According to my Amazon records, my most recent purchase was We Thought You Would Be Prettier: True Tales of the Dorkiest Girl Alive by Laurie Notaro.  It hasn’t arrived yet, though.

4. What are you currently reading?
At bedtime I’ve been reading The Golden Rule of Schmoozing: The Authentic Practice of Treating Others Well by Aye Jaye.  It’s a little cheesy, but I think it has some good advice for interacting with other people in positive ways.

5.
Five books you would take to a deserted island?
I’m going to follow everyone else’s lead by including some series:  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy five-volume trilogy, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Gone With the Wind, the Harry Potter series (as many volumes as are available when I arrive on the island), and the US Army Survival Manual (in case I’m obliged to do more than sit around and read all the time).

I’ll "tag" Me, Pharmgirl and Fi, knowing full well that they’re all quite busy and probably won’t get around to playing for a while.

When I was growing up, I read so many books that eventually I’d read every children’s book in our small, local library that I wanted to read. I believe I was in elementary school when my mother began selecting books from the grown-ups’ section of the library for me.

In the summertime we often visited my great-aunt in Lake Andes, South Dakota and one of the highlights of those visits was the town’s Carnegie Library. It was filled with fascinating old books like the Edgar Rice Burroughs “Tarzan” and “John Carter of Mars” series (both of which would be considered highly inappropriate for children and extremely politically incorrect by today’s standards), Oz books I’d never seen before, and exotic treats like the Bobbsey Twins series.

My particular favorites were the Oz books. I still have a pretty good collection of the trade paperback Oz books from the ’70s and I like to re-read them now and then. I even have one hardback that belonged to my grandfather when he was a child, but I haven’t bought any more because they run about $70-$100 each these days. Fortunately, you can find a pretty good selection of full-text versions of Oz books online here, thanks to Project Gutenberg. If “The Wizard of Oz” movie is your sole exposure to the Oz world, you owe it to yourself to check out the rest of the stories and the wonderful illustrations that accompany them.

A lot of my favorite book series were written in the late 19th century and early 20th century. I imagine that’s partly because my parents and grandparents eagerly shared their favorite books with me. It certainly helped me develop a wide-ranging and somewhat obscure vocabulary. Of course, I was the kind of kid who’d sit on the teeter-totter at recess reading the dictionary, so there you are.

I’m very much looking forward to sharing my old book collection with my niece when she gets a little older. Pretty soon she’ll have the attention span for me to be able to start reading Oz books to her. Maybe then we’ll have another generation flummoxing her classmates with her large and ever-so-slightly anachronistic vocabulary. I sure hope so!

A few months back, a friend and I decided that it might be fun to gather other avid readers-n’-writers of our acquaintance to re-read literary classics and discuss them. We rather randomly chose Wuthering Heights as the inaugural volume. At the time, I thought I had read it back in high school or college, but it turned out that I had never read it before. Wow, what a dysfunctional bunch of characters!

I’d actually gotten a pretty good Wuthering Heights primer in the form of Jasper Fforde’s “Thursday Next” series. If you’re at all a fan of literature and have not yet read this series, I recommend that you run out and get the first book, The Eyre Affair. The books are just about everything an English major could hope for in reading entertainment, with only the occasional misstep (such as a character named “Jack Schitt,” which is probably only funny if you’re about nine years old).

We had a delightful time discussing the horrendous personalities of most of the characters in Wuthering Heights, speculating about potential character relationships that were not stated outright in the text, and talking about the fact that the novel was considered “lurid and shocking” in its day (according to the jacket blurb on my copy). We also had fun comparing book covers, as no two of us ended up with the same edition. My favorite was a Wal-Mart paperback with “2/$1.00” printed permanently on the cover under an illustration depicting Lockwood struggling with the ghost of the elder Catherine. The back cover copy was written to be as sensational as possible, and seemed to be trying to give the impression that the book was contemporary.

When the time came to choose the next book we should read, we quickly reached the consensus that “evil sluts” would be an excellent theme for all our selections, especially after Wuthering Heights had kicked off the topic so effectively. The decision to make Lady Chatterley’s Lover the next book we would read followed quickly. Only one of us had read it before, so we figured it would be a perfect choice: yet another scandalous work, but written forty years later than our previous selection.

We won’t be meeting until early May, but I went ahead and purchased Lady Chatterley’s Lover yesterday, since I was already at the bookstore buying some gifts. I actually didn’t quite finish Wuthering Heights before yesterday’s gathering, so I need to give myself a headstart for next time.

Another fun thing that will be part of our next meeting is a short story writing assignment. It seems there’s a shop in town that sells nothing but really expensive socks, and our friend who lives nearby swears she’s never seen anyone go in to buy something. Our task is to write a 1-2 page story about how the sock store is a front for some other nefarious or mysterious activity. I’m looking forward to trying to decide what it might be!

I was a huge spaceoid at work today. I did fine at a morning meeting away from the office, but after a relatively productive morning, I discovered that I couldn’t account for large portions of my afternoon time. I think the problem was that I didn’t pick up any lunch on my way into the office. I was forced to make do with a tiny, microwaveable cup of corn chowder and a couple of snack bars. It was not enough food, even if you add in the cup of hot chocolate I drank late in the afternoon to keep my blood sugar from plummeting. I think I need to start stocking up on sandwich fixings.

After work I went to supper with a friend and we proceeded to a BookCrossing Meetup. If you’re not aware of BookCrossing, it’s a site that allows you to register your books then “release them into the wild” for other people to find. If you’re lucky, the finder logs into the site and adds a journal entry about the book. I’ve been participating for a couple of years now, and it’s really quite entertaining. Plus, it keeps my natural hoarding tendencies in check, at least in regard to books. It was a small but friendly gathering, but we did some brisk book trading.

It’s hard for me to believe that I was once very shy. These days I participate in a number of activities that involve walking up to groups of total strangers and introducing myself. If I could get through the last psychological barrier and actually steel myself to sell things to strangers, I’ll bet I could make quite a good living at it!

But back to BookCrossing. I haven’t done many “wild releases” lately, but only because most of my books are either in my “to be read” pile or of such questionable quality that I’m afraid they’d get put straight in the garbage. Every year when a friend of mine has her neighborhood garage sale, I gather a big box of books to give away. They are seldom journaled again, but it’s an efficient way of dispersing them. When someone does “catch” one of the books I’ve released, it’s very exciting. My chiropractor’s waiting room has been a very good release location in the past.

If you’re a book hoarder, I highly recommend BookCrossing. It makes you evaluate your collection and really think about whether you’re really going to read most of your books again. Sure, I have certain ones I’ll keep forever, but the rest are expendable. Why not let someone else enjoy them?