wednesday january 31
For a first novel, this little book made it big—the author of Fields of Glory, Jean Rouaud, went from selling newspapers to being the 1990 winner of the most prestigious French literary prize, the Prix Goncourt.
I read the book in its English translation by Ralph Manheim in 1992, and it’s one of the books that have stayed with me over many years. It’s tiny (only about 150 pages) and gently effortless to read, but it’s indelible.
The unnamed narrator, one of the grandchildren of a family in a little Loire Valley town pays tribute to his eccentric elders—his grandparents and his Great-Aunt Marie—whose lives were long ago altered by the Great War.
At first, the humorous stories of their oddities charm and amuse. There’s Aunt Marie’s card catalog of saints and their specialized responsibilities, Grandmother’s martyrdom to Grandfather’s notoriously dangerous driving, and so on. But gradually the stories become more poignant.
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tuesday january 30
I am not one of those crafty hobbyist people. But in the last year or so, I have found a hobby that is fun, rewarding, and serves both the creative, right-brain person and the left-brain, analytical science guy within. I am talking about brewing beer. Though not an alkie or a weekend warrior, I do enjoy beer. Good beer, that is, as I am a serious beer snob. Enough about me, though, let's talk about brewing. It is simpler than you might imagine. Just hop (pun intended) in the car, drive down to
Listermann's, buy the gear and a kit, bring ‘em home, and brew it up right in your very own kitchen. Three weeks in the fermenter (a five-gallon bucket with a lid), three more weeks conditioning in the bottle, and you have two cases of yumminess to imbibe. Time for a party!
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monday january 29
Olympus Fashion Week in New York City is looming, when all the designers showcase their new looks for Fall 2007. Couture Week is in full swing, and the collections vary all the way from Jean Paul Gaultier's beautiful sleek monochromatic lines to Elie Saab's diaphanous fanciful frills.
Not everyone owns a couture gown, but everyone owns a pair of jeans. In Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon (2006) by James Sullivan you can find out why.
Designer and fashion expert Randolph Duke helps us all dress well in his book, The Look: A Guide to Dressing from the Inside Out. In a very comfortable way, he helps us look at our figures and work toward expressing our own personal style.
Truth is, high fashion really does trickle down to our department store sales racks and into our closets. Fashion Week shows set trends, highlight colors, and establish the general mood for the clothing we will be wearing. My question is, Will there be any blue jeans on the runway?
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saturday january 27
Selling junk from around the house on eBay is fun, but driving to the post office is kind of a drag. When I saw Julian Dibbell's Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot, I thought I might be onto something I'd enjoy. For one thing, when my daughter got sick of Neopets, I took over her account, and I'm glad to report that our oldest pet, Jenifrlopez, is now 1,298 days old. (My daughter's gotten into Runescape: she's the girl with a chef's cap who goes around butchering virtual zoo animals.) Right now on eBay, someone is trying to sell a Runescape virtual Santa Hat for $100. Some virtual items have sold for hundreds of real dollars, presumably to game players who don't want to spend the hours it can take to earn rare items.
There is no market for virtual Neopets stuff on eBay, and my daughter refuses to sell her Runescape items. Neopets is not exactly a MMORPG ("massively multiplayer online role-playing game), and Runescape is not one of the more popular ones. Check the MMORPG Web site or similar ones for an update.
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friday january 26
I occasionally enjoy the TV show Numb3rs, both for the sexy TV-geeky* guys and the not-so-subtle attempt to make math seem a little more exciting and attractive. Geek Logik is a new book that also proposes to make math useful and a little more attractive.
OK, that last sentence was a little tongue in cheek; it's actually a humor book. The subtitle of the book is "Easier Living through Mathematics", and the premise is geeky in the extreme. The book provides algebraic equations to answer such pressing questions as: "Should I call in sick?" and "Do I have a snowball's chance in hell with her?" It's a very amusing book, especially if you have a grasp of the math involved. However, even if you don't remember your high school algebra there's a refresher page in front so you too can find out if you "deserve a personal assistant".
*TV-geeky: A word I've coined with a similar meaning to TV ugly
For example: "Ryan Phillippe in Antitrust" geeky rather than young Bill Gates geeky.
thursday january 25
Last month, I blogged about Elisabeth Robinson's The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters, a novel about a woman overwhelmed by her sister's recent cancer diagnosis. This got me thinking about other novels dealing with the relationship between sisters. There are some really good ones out there. Here are a few:
- In Her Shoes--Jennifer Weiner--Philadelphia lawyer Rose Feller and her younger sister Maggie try to repair their fractured relationship with the aid of their long-lost maternal grandmother, Ella.
- Rise and Shine--Anna Quindlen--After an on-air gaffe threatens her career, Manhattan talk show host Meghan Fitzmaurice turns to her younger sister, Bridget, for guidance.
- The Girls--Lori Lansens--Deserted by their mother shortly after birth, Canadian conjoined twins Rose and Ruby Darlen struggle to adapt to their unusual situation.
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Oscar-nominated films now in theaters began as books. The satirical tone of Tom Perrotta’s Little Children gets a bit lost in the film, but the disturbing performance by Jackie Earle Haley has caught everyone’s attention. A desperate Judi Dench knows Cate Blanchett’s secrets in Zoe Heller’s What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal. Will Smith and son bring Chris Gardner’s astounding and inspiring memoir The Pursuit of Happyness to a wider audience.
