Right now Pink thinks that only one lady is laying but we expect the others to join in shortly.
earning an earning
6 years ago
6.27.2009
eggs!
I can't believe I forgot to blog about this - our chickens have started laying eggs! We got the first one last Sunday, the 21st. Since then we've had three more, all of them already eaten.
The Queen's Fool
Author: Philippa Gregory
Category: stacks
Chronologically this is the fourth book in the series whose most recognized novel is The Other Boleyn Girl. While I feel like the story's enchantment was lacking in the third in the series, The Boleyn Inheritance, it was resurrected with The Queen's Fool and makes pushing through to it completely worth the time.
This part of the epic focuses on Queen Mary, King Henry's "bastard" daughter by Queen Katherine, her most sad life and troubled ascent to the throne of England. It also serves to rightly introduce perhaps the most well-known beside Henry himself, the queen-to-be Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry and Anne Boleyn.
I think the beauty of Gregory's novels is that there is real history involved but made utterly compelling by her fabulous imagination. Once I clear out the rest of the queue I'll definitely be putting the next in the series, The Virgin's Lover, at the top of my to-read list!
6.22.2009
6.08.2009
Dreams From My Father
Author: Barack Obama
Category: Purchases
This book was selected for the book club I didn't want to be in. I'm actually going to make it to the discussion this time so bravo for me, and I guess it also means I should start showing some unconditioned allegiance. Henceforth, it shall simply be referred to as, "book club."
Obama was asked to write this after being selected as the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review, a fact that escaped me before now. As my Dad would chide me for never reading or watching the news (which I do actually do now, occasionally), I likewise didn't pay much attention to things besides a few key issues during the election so it's no surprise to me that this book was teeming with new information that most of the rest of the world probably already knows. It was like meeting someone for the second time without all the social awkwardness and with all the familiarity of an old friend.
I guess I particularly liked the candidness (is that a word?) with which I felt he wrote. It was published in 1995 so it's pretty clear to me that he had no idea or intentions of being the President, which I think made this a more honest account of his personal history than it may have been otherwise, or if a different kind of person was writing it.
He's a great storyteller and a rather good writer. And my opinion of his massive intelligence is completely solidified. I was going to say that I was less interested in his personal struggle (the main theme of the book) and more in his personal history, but of course one gives way to the other and by the end the two were indistinguishable. Extraordinarily educational and highly recommended.
Category: Purchases
This book was selected for the book club I didn't want to be in. I'm actually going to make it to the discussion this time so bravo for me, and I guess it also means I should start showing some unconditioned allegiance. Henceforth, it shall simply be referred to as, "book club."
Obama was asked to write this after being selected as the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review, a fact that escaped me before now. As my Dad would chide me for never reading or watching the news (which I do actually do now, occasionally), I likewise didn't pay much attention to things besides a few key issues during the election so it's no surprise to me that this book was teeming with new information that most of the rest of the world probably already knows. It was like meeting someone for the second time without all the social awkwardness and with all the familiarity of an old friend.
I guess I particularly liked the candidness (is that a word?) with which I felt he wrote. It was published in 1995 so it's pretty clear to me that he had no idea or intentions of being the President, which I think made this a more honest account of his personal history than it may have been otherwise, or if a different kind of person was writing it.
He's a great storyteller and a rather good writer. And my opinion of his massive intelligence is completely solidified. I was going to say that I was less interested in his personal struggle (the main theme of the book) and more in his personal history, but of course one gives way to the other and by the end the two were indistinguishable. Extraordinarily educational and highly recommended.
EDIT: Changed the category to Book Club.
6.01.2009
Slapstick
Author: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Category: Christmas
KVJ is my most favorite author (my cats are named Kilgore and Trout, and certainly by no accident). Several years ago I read just about everything I could get my hands on by him. I had heard that his greatest work had been the Sirens of Titan so I saved that book for maybe 3 or 4 years - the best for last, so to speak (although it clearly turned out I had missed a few others).
Finally, some time early in 2007 I just couldn't hold out any longer so I read it. And then the unimaginable happened. I killed my hero.
Within weeks of my finishing Sirens KVJ passed away. Who knew I had been keeping him alive all along by starving myself of his greatest work? I was devastated, literally.
But alas, I hadn't quite been as completely read in KVJ as I had thought. Missing from my library was not only Slapstick, but also Welcome to the Monkey House, both of which I received first editions for Christmas from my most wonderful Pink.
Slapstick was one of the most heartfelt books I've read by him, even drawing tears in the introduction. For this particular edition KVJ described more about him personally than I ever knew and elicited such tears of sadness. The INTRODUCTION! The story itself, of course, had the usual expected quirkiness of a Vonnegut story, but knowing the basis for which he wrote it made it more meaningful and less satiric for me, slipping it in just behind Cat's Cradle on my list of Vonnegut favorites.
Category: Christmas
KVJ is my most favorite author (my cats are named Kilgore and Trout, and certainly by no accident). Several years ago I read just about everything I could get my hands on by him. I had heard that his greatest work had been the Sirens of Titan so I saved that book for maybe 3 or 4 years - the best for last, so to speak (although it clearly turned out I had missed a few others).
Finally, some time early in 2007 I just couldn't hold out any longer so I read it. And then the unimaginable happened. I killed my hero.
Within weeks of my finishing Sirens KVJ passed away. Who knew I had been keeping him alive all along by starving myself of his greatest work? I was devastated, literally.
But alas, I hadn't quite been as completely read in KVJ as I had thought. Missing from my library was not only Slapstick, but also Welcome to the Monkey House, both of which I received first editions for Christmas from my most wonderful Pink.
Slapstick was one of the most heartfelt books I've read by him, even drawing tears in the introduction. For this particular edition KVJ described more about him personally than I ever knew and elicited such tears of sadness. The INTRODUCTION! The story itself, of course, had the usual expected quirkiness of a Vonnegut story, but knowing the basis for which he wrote it made it more meaningful and less satiric for me, slipping it in just behind Cat's Cradle on my list of Vonnegut favorites.
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