Weekend

Summertime, and the living is easy.

I'm not sure if it's because of the season.  Or because things at work are at a slower pace.   Or because even though my new boss is super-charging our workload and raising the bar big-time, I feel motivated at work and able to define my life and my schedule (which in June meant, I took every Friday off, and today meant that I worked from home in the morning, ducked out for G's performance, and then headed to the office at 1:30, but proceed to work 'til 7pm...on a Friday,...in the summer).  But at any rate, I'm feeling pretty chillax.  And I'm looking forward to a weekend that is mixed with lazing about, doing chores, and being lightly social - or "social-lite."

Tonight was "Book" Club - hardly about books, and hardly a club - but a bunch of irreverent urban moms who like to host good friends, cook great food, eat it well, accompanied by choice beer and wine, and proceed to talk and laugh until midnight or so.  Our bike commutes converge as the blocks get closer in, so one biker, turned to two at my place, where we caught up with two others a few blocks away, and half a block from our host's house found the other three biker contingent coming from the north end of our neighborhood.  I'll spare you the (delicious) menu (there are so many damn food blogs out there these days) and the topics of conversation (to protect the innocent, and because you had to be there), and skip to the end, when my ride home with two others took us the long way to better revel in the cool (in  DC July!) air, the clear black sky, the round bright silver moon,  and the car-free city streets.

Tomorrow's chores include a grocery shop, picking up my computer back-up drive, a trip to the library for returns and pick-up of the books I've reserved online.  It also involves some cooking - a Mexican bean salad and some homemade ice cream (can't decide how I'll top last week's ginger peach, but I'm leaning toward strawberry almond or cinnamon blueberry).  I'll swim in the newly-discovered 50m (Olympic-sized) DC pool that feels simply tremendous in the glorious sun and blue sky and experienced by my working, churning body.  There's a plan with G - perhaps some recreational swimming, and a night in with gameboards (she's learned Sorry!) or cards (Skip-bo, by the makers of Uno).

Sunday will find us at church, followed by brunch with friends...and then we must encamp somewhere for the Women's World Cup (USA!), before heading home at the very last minute for visiting with G's godmoms and kids.

It may very well turn into the Perfect Weekend.

Words We Love Too Much

The NYTimes has a fabulous blog on English grammar, usage, and style.  This post on Words We Love Too Much discusses the Times' overuse and misuse of the word "epononymous."  Epononymous is hardly a word that rolls off the tongue, and it certainly slows down the fingers on the keyboard, yet the Times used this highfalutin word 64 times in the last year!

Highfalutin, on the other hand, does seem more commonly used in every-week-or-so language, yet I certainly had no clue how to spell it until I just checked.  The more commonly used "highbrow" is probably in daily use.

I love words, language, grammar, and punctuation (the last being my weakness).  One of my favorite books is Eats Shoots and Leaves  on how punctuation use and misuse can really alter the meaning and intent of a written sentence, often to humorous (to a nerd) effect.

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons. 'Why?' asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. 'Well, I'm a panda,' he says, at the door. 'Look it up.' The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. 'Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.'

Eats Shoots and Leaves has been adapted to a younger audience, intended for those in grades 1 to 3.  Here, "Eat here, and get gas," or "Eat here and get gas"  really illustrates the critical importance of proper comma use!

The Afterlife of Stieg Larsson

Wow! The drama and intrigue of the late Stieg Larsson's family and long-term lover are nearly as compelling as his novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I blogged about here.

That novel, the first installment of the Millennium trilogy crime thriller series, was wildly successful. All three books are soaring best sellers, translated into multiple languages, and adapted into mainstream films.  All of that translates to -  as we say here in the 'hood - "BANK!"  But Larsson, who died at the age of 50 of a massive heart attack before the first book was even published, has never seen a single cent...er...a single Swedish kroner.  Without a will, that money (which just keeps pouring in) goes to his estate, his brother and father. His long-term lover and partner of 30+ years, Eva Gabrielsson,  is not recognized under Swedish law.  With no children together, and having never gotten married to Larsson, she is Nobody.  Interesting, that in socially liberal Sweden, there is no such thing as common-law marriage - only the real deal (gay or straight) traditional "Married"  with a capital "M."

And the bitterness, allegations, insinuations, and accusations are flying...Money! Who gets all the dough?  What is she entitled to? His brother and father were legally awarded half the apartment that Larsson and Gabrielsson shared, then demanded an arrangement of Gabrielsson to buy them out, and later caved to social and moral pressure to just give her the Larsson half outright.  Mystery!  What were Larsson's intentions?  And now even, who wrote the books? She has alluded that she had a hand in creating them.   Family strife! She says Larsson was estranged from his brother and father. Psycho girlfriends!  Brother and father say, of course, that Gabbrielsson is "mentally unstable."  (Grrrr...don't get me started on that one!)  Revenge!  Despite it all, she still holds a great hand of cards.  Why?  Because Gabrielsson just happens to have Larsson's laptop with the nearly complete manuscript, outline, and notes of a 4th novel .  That's right, folks, more "BANK!"

So, there's quite a drama behind the crime thriller trilogy.  The subtext, the sub-plot, the intrigue make for a whole other bestseller.  I'm fascinated! - and staying tuned for the next installment of Reality Lit.

Books 2010: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Wow.  This book got me.  Published under the crime novel genre - not at all my usual - I was absolutely spellbound, one night even reading it from 3am to 6am (ok, coupled with jetlag, but still...).

The gripping tale takes place in Sweden, and follows a somewhat disgraced, but totally righteous, journalist (and his lovers); a disturbed young punk hacker (and her abusers); and a wealthy aging industrialist (and his multi-generational back-stabbing family, each member with shares in the family empire).  The main story is solving a 40-year old mystery, the disappearance and suspected murder of a young teenage girl.  However, there are seemingly a bizillion sub-plots - and their twists and turns, and unexpected connections make for a very complex web indeed.

Parental discretion is advised.  The crime novel includes just about every type of crime - rape, murder, serial murder, hate crime, financial crime, and cybercrime - at times so complicated, I could barely follow.  There's some bondage (not all in the name of crime, if you know what I mean).  And the mystery and its investigation involve some highly repellent, hugely graphic depictions of rape, sexual assault, torture, animal torture, and more.   Around page 450, there was a description of a tortured confession that went on so long - 40 pages or more - and was so vividly described, my stomach churned and my head was addled.  The characters in this book are sick, I thought. The author is a sick man for writing this.  I am a sick woman for reading this.  I briefly considered abandoning the book here - just too much for me.

But I continued.  It was also around this point in the nearly 600 page novel, that it lost just a bit of its hold on me.  The sub-plots, as they were wrapping up, were taking yet another turn, perhaps one too many.  And there were just so many sub-plots to wrap up - I thought the book still could have been great with  2 or 3 fewer plots!  A few seemed to hasten to finish, in order to wrap up without hitting the 800-page mark.  Some of the delicious pacing got compromised to this end.

One thing I definitely loved about the book was it's Swedish setting.  (I'm so predictable).  You could really feel the summer white nights and the long, dark winter nights with their bone-chilling cold.  Stockholm's modern cosmopolitan life was juxtaposed against the spare, simplicity of northern Sweden's secondary towns with their hearth-warmed cottages.  The endless pots of very strong coffee could be smelled brewing throughout.  And the lovers, and the other lovers, and the lovers of one's lover, and the lovers in their 20's and their 50's (sometimes even lovers of each other).  Ahhhhh...Sweden....

All in all, a satisfying read - 3.75 stars of 4, just slightly marked down because of pacing and (over) complexity.  But still, completely enticing and engrossing, and never, ever cheap.

Read for Peace

I'm a total sucker for a good story about books, health care reform, Iowa and Obama! 

The link to the entire Publisher's Weekly article is above, but the exceprt here says it all....

...During his speech, Obama gave a shout-out to Prairie Lights, celebrating them for being a local small business that has offered health care coverage to its full-time employees for 20 years.

After Obama's noontime speech, Prairie Lights co-owner Jan Weissmiller reports that "someone in a suit" came into the store and asked to speak to her. When she told the man she was on the phone with a Washington Post reporter and he would have to wait, he responded that she'd better hang up the phone because, "I'm from the White House and you're going to have a visitor." She told PW she knew instantly he was referring to the president.

Emphasis added - warms my heart!

Menu: January Book Club chez moi

Clucks - a book group of wonderful and irreverent moms where more than half the people read more than half the book more than half the time

Carrot soup

- with sherry and orange essence

Spinach quiche

Lentil Salad

- Lentilles de Puy with citrus vinaigrette

Baby greens with walnuts and chevre

Cheese plate

- with fig preserves

Baguette

- with sweet farm-fresh butter

Apple tarte

- with homemade ginger ice cream

Red wine and assorted microbrews
Celebratory champagne