Homesick for a land I've never been to

I have been pondering lots of spiffy blog posts in my head, but I have been too darn busy to write them down--and then I forget most of them.

I recently read the sequel to one of my all time favorite books "Anything Can Happen" by George and Helen Papashvily. It is a charming little book* (literally--because it was published during WWII while there was paper rationing, the hardbound book is only a little larger than the size of a paperback) which I found at a library book sale in my early teens. George was a natural storyteller, and this delightful autobiography of his adventures of coming to the US from Georgia (near Russia, not the state of the US) influenced my life for ever after. I just found that he wrote (in his book "Home and Home Again") about his return to visit his home village in Georgia after 40 years in the US.

Reading his books makes me homesick for a place I have never been to--and, because of the political instability in Georgia (which, for those who are not totally up to date on their former Soviet countries, is located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe--bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan) I probably never will.



Which is a shame, because I would LOVE to visit a country with over 9000 years of history! It is one of the oldest countries in the world, which has retained its own culture, language and traditions in spite of being smack in the middle of the territory everybody else wanted--which brought about hundreds of invasions.



Ahh, well--I am a great armchair traveler, and Google Maps has made it even more fun!

*and because it was a bestseller and book of the month selection, it isn't very hard to find a copy--the reissued 1984 paperback lists on amazon for .40!

Books!

I have read more non-fiction in the last few months than in the whole rest of my life combined (probably). Some was dull, some had a few sparkling bits in the dross, and a few have just been excellent. Three I recommend (and boy, do they cover the spectrum!):

"Garlic & Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise" by Ruth Reichl. This was such a fun read--as good as well written fiction, lots of plot twists-BUT--Caution: It will make you HUNGRY! It is about Ruth becoming the food critic at the New York Times, and the lengths she would go to to provide accurate reports. Very fun!

"The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century" by Edward Dolnick. It is the story of a mediocre artist who managed to fool the world and the psychology he used to do it.

But one of the best books I have read lately is very short, but wonderfully sweet--
"The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor" by Amy Hollingsworth. It might not be to everyone's taste, but it had some wonderful treasures for my heart, for where I am at right now, and for how to become who I want to be.

I have had big plans all week about the awesome blogs I want to post--but BigGirl (poor, poor thing!) had a stomach bug and threw up every half hour, all night long, and we are both exhausted--and I am going back to bed!

Summer Reading List (at Last!)

What would you do if you were a compulsive reader? Someone who read all the time, to the point that you read the shampoo bottle while you were in the shower and the small print in contracts? What if you read really fast, so you could get through a lot of books in a hurry (and you were very good at ignoring minor things like housework and cooking?)

And, even more to the point, what if you were a compulsive reader who had a great local public library less than one block away from your house, AND you found a booklist compiled by people from all over the world who had similar taste in books and wanted to share their favorites with you?

Yep, you would spend all summer reading. Me, too!

I have mentioned the “Pollyanna Booklist” a couple of times on this blog. Two of my favorite authors (Orson Scott Card and Robin McKinley) each have their own reviews and online recommendations for books, and I have really come to trust them. So, here is the long promised list of “Books I Read This Summer” (Although, this list goes up until last week, so not technically still summer).

They are in the order I read them (pretty much!), and I am going to use a 1-4 star rating system. Even the 1 star books were a pretty good read—none of the books on this list was a waste of time or of space in my brain, it is just that some of them didn’t resonate with me the way others did.

Audrey, Wait by Robin Benway ***
Gerald Morris’ series based on King Arthur ** up to ****
Kate Seredy’s The Good Master ****
“The Miracle of the Bells” by Russell Janney *** (don’t give up on it, it gets better!)
The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne * (a little too “bodice ripper for my taste--truly the only one I wouldn't recommend)
Tea with the Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy * (strange, but enjoyable)
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner **** I loved this trilogy, very creative!
Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede ***
Magician’s Apprentice by Patricia C. Wrede ***
Elantris, Brandon Sanderson **** One of the best fantasies I have ever read!
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett **
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith *
The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope ****
The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope **
Diana Wynne Jones’ Chrestomanci books **
Princess Ben by Catherine GIlbert Burdock. **
Georgette Heyer –I love all of hers!
In the Castle of the Flynns by Michael Raleigh **
The Mistborn Trilogy, Brandon Sanderson **** I LOVED this trilogy, TRULY AWESOME!
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld ****

If you haven't been spending time in the YA section of your library, you are missing out on the freshest, most creative enjoyable writing that is out there.

Update on The Solitude

Wow, it is fun! I sleep when I want, I eat when I want . I am trying to remember about eating well, it is going pretty well so far--I have a tendency to eat really badly when I am just feeding myself--"a batch of cookies makes a lovely breakfast, and then I can just eat the leftover cookies for the remaining meals"!, but this time I have had quite a fair bit of protein, fruits and veg, as well as toast (the other food group!)

I have managed to accomplish:

*Build and string a tomato trellis. (Pictures may be forthcoming)
*Clean out the chicken coop and lay down fresh sawdust (which involved HUGE amounts of chicken panic, and a bold--but futile--escape into the garage).
*Cleaned all the piles of junk out of the future chicken yard.
*Updated my Calendar
*Washed and put away LOTS of clothes
*Washed my fabulous sheets--and rejoiced in my fabulous bed!
*Paid the bills and balanced the checkbook
*Watched half of season 1 of "Pushing Daisies"
*Read for fun! And BOY, have I read! I found my new favorite thing-- On the "Robin McKinley" Blog--(the link is to your right and down a bit) on the upper left side is the link to "Pollyanna's Bookshelf"--recommendations from people who like the same types of books that I do! WHOOWEE! It hasn't steered me wrong yet! I just started at the top, and am going down, requesting the books that I haven't read yet from my library.

Which means, over the past two days, I have read (and enjoyed) Audrey, wait! by Robin Benway, I capture the castle by Dodie Smith, two by Gerald Morris The princess, the crone, and the dung-cart knight, and The savage damsel and the dwarf . I am currently reading The perilous gard by Elizabeth MariePope (It's a Newberry Honor book, and she wrote a book I love-The Sherwood Ring, so I have high expectations. I also read a fun one I grabbed off a library shelf-- Fancy white trash by Marjetta Geerling.

Lest you be too stunned by this list, I have to state that I have not gotten ANY form of housecleaning done. Sink FULL of dishes (I'm just eating out of the container, and washing forks as needed), Living room that looks like a small tornado went through it (true--and she has red hair!) vacuuming that is WAY past due. I'm just sayin'!

Good Tears and book reviews

I stayed up until 10:15 reading (again) which wouldn't be bad for normal people, but I get up at 4:30 in the freakin' morning (with a cheerful morning person hubby! URG! I stumble around like a zombie, while he is all cheerful and chipper. Urg.). So, any staying up at all creates dire waves the next morning. Usually after I finish teaching my seminary class I go back to bed for an hour--usually snuggling my sweet kids. But this morning, I read my email, and one of the moms on my online support group recommended this video (STRONG Kleenex warning)

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5RDJnF2vI"

(Still can't get my computer to link to things, sorry!)

Whoa! I can't even listen to Collin Raye in the car, because every single song he does makes me cry and here he goes and does one about my life, and being the mom of a daughter with neurological handicaps--yeah, I haven't stopped crying all morning.

I stayed up reading "The Sugar Queen" by Sarah Addison Allen.


Last summer I read (and was utterly captivated by) her book "Garden Spells".


I love her new reality, where magic is just lightly tossed in as a part of regular life. I was not as captured by "The Sugar Queen" which merely means that it was much better than most other books. I really, really loved "Garden Spells", so almost everything falls short of that.

However, another good read, on a TOTALLY different wave length is "A Girl Named Zippy (Growing Up Small in Moreland, Indiana)" by Haven Kimmel.

This is written with a very dry, midwestern voice, and her humor is so sly that it takes me by surprise, and then I find myself falling off my chair laughing, and wondering how she did it.

Anyway, now I have used up all my sleep time on the computer (again). Today I have to prepare for the "ordeal of the yard sale" which will happen tomorrow. Big Sigh.