Half Magic

 Books  No Responses »
May 172005
 

Half Magic was a very cute book. Kudos to Leta for reinforcing the recommendation.

The NPR summary is a little inaccurate. Half Magic is the story of 4 siblings who are bored and facing a whole summer of boredom. Their father passed away a few years before the story begins, and their mother is raising them alone. The setting is the 1920s, but it feels more like the 1950s, which is when it was written. That said, it ages well.

The oldest daughter, Jane, finds a nickel-sized magic charm that gives the bearer half of anything they wish for — only it takes some mistakes and bizarre experiences to figure that out. Brother Mark accidently sends all of his friends half-way back from whereever they’ve gone for the summer, the whole group goes to a desert instead of a desert island, the cat half learns to talk, and because we need to learn moral lessons in children’s books, the kids manage to humiliate Sir Launcelot and almost get him exiled from King Arthur’s Court. Fortunately, Merlin steps in and saves the day, so Arthurian legends are saved.

I could have done without the moral instruction, but the book is very cute and imaginative, and I liked the characters.

 Posted by Liza at 6:20 pm

UPDATE: A Plethora of Yummy Booklists

 Uncategorized  4 Responses »
May 172005
 

I have the delightful feeling of too many good choices for reading ideas in the next few months. :) :) :)

First, I have Pat Skarda’s reading list for her first year seminar, Groves of Academe. Oddly, I’d read about a third of the "recommended reading" list, but only one or two books on the required reading list. I thought the syllabus was online, but sadly, I can’t seem to find it. I’ll add books as I read them.

UPDATE:  THE GROVES OF ACADEME  READING LIST

From the hard copy Pat distributed:

Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis
The Horizontal Man, by Helen Eustis
Publish and Perish, by James Hynes
The Crazed, by Ha Jin
Changing Places, by David Lodge
The Groves of Academe, by Mary McCarthy
The Student Body, by John McNally
Overnight Float, by Clare Munnings (aka Jill Ker Conway, former President of Smith College, and Elizabeth Kennan, former President of Mount Holyoke)
The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath (I’m probably going to skip this one)
The Human Stain, by Philip Roth
Straight Man, by Richard Russo
The Small Room, by May Sarton (haven’t read this book, but she’s great)
Ivy Days, by Susan Allen Toth — I read that some time back, maybe even before I went to Smith
The Wife, by Meg Wolitzer.

That’s just the required reading list. I’m out of energy to add the entire recommended reading list.  I’ll leave it only at the three I’ve already read and can recommend: Gaudy Night (my absolute favorite Dorothy Sayers mystery), Moo (which is very funny!), and both The Road from Coorain and True North, by Jill Ker Conway.

END OF THE UPDATE

Second, the Georgia Center for the Book published a list of the 25 books it recommends for all Georgians in 2005.

Personally, I think 25 is an awfully large number of books to recommend in one year. Most people just don’t read that much, and  I’d like to get recommendations from more sources than that. At my current rate, that’s almost 3 months of reading, just from the Georgia Center for the Book. I might read a lot of books on their list, but I’m unwilling to commit to a full quarter of Georgia-oriented books. 

There is a book on both lists, Wit, which I’m not going to read having seen the play so many times when Jill was in it last year. But I recommend it highly — you may want to try the film version, with the incomprable Emma Thompson as Dr. Vivian Bearing.

Then, this morning, listening to public radio on my drive in to work, a really fun reading list came up. Celeblibrarian Nancy Pearl recommends a cool list of 11 children’s fantasy books for those of us waiting impatiently for the next Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince , due out July 16.

The only bad thing about Pearl’s list is that I’ve already read Five Children and It, The Phantom Tollbooth, and Sabriel. But from Pearl’s comments on NPR, Whales on Stilts, Half Magic, and Gregor the Overlander sound wonderful and I can’t wait to read them.
 

 Posted by Liza at 3:15 pm

Guardian of the Horizon

 Books  No Responses »
May 162005
 

Let me preface this by saying that I am generally a big fan of Elizabeth Peters and her Amelia Peabody series.

But I couldn’t figure out how this book works in the timeline of the rest of the series.

Guardian of the Horizon is set in 1907, before the Great War. In this book, Ramses is 20, and Nefret is 23. They haven’t fallen in love yet, but they’re building up to it.

The love story actually becomes fulfilled in Lord of the Silent, which is set in 1914. But By then, Nefret would be 30, and at that time, that would have been a remarkable age for a woman to be unmarried (ok, technically she was a widow, but she had only been married for a couple of months, to the wrong man) and childless.

But in these novels-of-manners, with their heavy social commentary, that’s never remarked upon. It seems strange.

 Posted by Liza at 11:23 am

Weekend Pt 2: What I Like About My Life

 Personal, Training and Development  No Responses »
May 122005
 

The other part of last weekend that was amazing, is that I spent the weekend in class.

The 2 coolest things about class last weekend were:

1) A great discussion with everyone there about what we like about our lives. Here’s a partial list of what I like about my life, in no particular order:

  • I have a wonderful relationship with Jill,
  • I have absolutely amazing friends,
  • I have an extraordinary family,
  • I am a home owner of a single family house,
  • With a garage so when it rains, I can get out of the car, unload the groceries, and not get wet,
  • And a big deep bathtub suitable for soaking,
  • I can afford to buy the books I want to buy,
  • I’m confident in our retirement/future planning,
  • I’ve been able to travel to really interesting places,
  • I have awesome role-models,
  • I’ve had the experience of making a difference for people,
  • Good beer,
  • Dark chocolate,
  • Dark coffee,
  • Intellectual challenges….

Then we had to tell the people we’d done the exercise with, something we liked about them. One of my classmates told me that he thought I was a role model, particularly for young lesbians.

Wow. It blew my mind.

THEN, we moved on to the second coolest part of the weekend:

2) I sang a duet in our class talent show, and we BROUGHT DOWN THE HOUSE.

I’ve been waiting to post about this because I wanted to include pictures, but I haven’t gotten them yet. I promise to post them as soon as I get them.

My buddy Dave and I sang a Barry Manilow-Lily Tomlin duet, "The Last Duet," which is a spoof of cheesy ’70s duets. It was AWESOME. We dressed in 70s glam outfits, acted out the parts, and BELTED out our song. By the end, half the class was up and dancing. Easily half a dozen people told me that we were the best act in the show. We were the grand finale.

I’ve never done anything like that before, and it was a blast. I want to do it again. Dave and I wish we could reprise the act elsewhere. Neither of us even cared that we can’t carry a tune in a bucket.

 Posted by Liza at 4:19 pm

Heck of a Weekend, Part 1, Margaret Edson

 Theatre, Uncategorized  No Responses »
May 092005
 

The Smith Club of Atlanta is breathtakingly efficient. Some weeks ago, they found me here and sent me a newsletter, and also invited me to a talk, "Groves of Academe:  Academic Fiction Set at Smith and Elsewhere–An Evening with Dr. Patricia Skarda."

I almost didn’t go, but then I did. It was a VERY SURPRISING evening. The people were friendly and fun, and I wish I’d taken a class with Pat when I was at Smith. After an hour or so of food, drink, and conversation, Pat began her talk.

Very shortly into it, she mentioned that "Maggie" was in the kitchen, reading Pat’s first year students’ final essays, which were on Wit.

Pat clearly  assumed that we all knew Maggie and who she was. I sat there thinking, "Wit??? Like….WIT? The play Jill was in last year, that won the Pulitzer prize a few years ag…I think the author’s first name WAS Margaret. That CAN’T BE what I think it is."

I snuck off to the bathroom and peered in to the kitchen see if I could discern anything. All I saw was a tall thin woman studiously reading papers at the kitchen table. No new info.

Back in the living room, we had a great discussion about academic fiction and the challenges of teaching and learning to write. (Expect to see a lot of Pat’s recommendations on the booklists.)

As soon as the discussion ended, I bolted for the kitchen.

Maggie was gone.

I whipped through the dining room, and spotted her in the foyer.

"Maggie?"

"Yes?"

"Wit…the play?"

Big smile. "Yes!"

"My partner was in a production last year in Washington DC, that won a major award from the British Embassy…"

She cut me off. "Was she Vivian?"

I shook my head. "She’s still too young to play Vivian. She had a number of the smaller roles, a student, a technician…but the Vivian was amazing. I saw the play 5 times."

"Where was this?" She’s clearly thinking about something.

"The Silver Spring Stage, in suburban Washington DC."

"Wait! I heard about that production! My mom saw that one! She said it was wonderful."

The discussion continued for a couple of minutes, and she got how big a deal the award was from the British Embassy and was clearly delighted.

And then, with some embarassment, I asked if I could get her autograph for Jill. And while she was writing, I thought, I should really ask if she’ll also sign something for Trish — the outstanding actress who played Vivian.

So at the moment, I’m happily in possession of two "Hello" name tags with very sweet — albeit short — notes from Margaret Edson. Trish’s will go in the mail later today.

I love being dorky like that.

 

 Posted by Liza at 11:25 am

The Opal Deception

 Books  2 Responses »
May 022005
 

I’m addicted to Eoin Colfer’s series of Artemis Fowl books. Every time a new one comes out, I tell myself that they aren’t THAT good and I’m not going to buy the new one in hardback. I’m going to wait.

So far, I’ve failed 100% of the time. The only book I own in paperback is the first one.

The premise is clever: Fairies, Sprites, Pixies, Dwarves, Trolls, etc, are all real. And humans are kept minimally aware of them due to the hard work of Leprecons. Or LEP Recons; Lower-Elements Police Reconnaisance Officers, to be more specific.

Their technology is light-years ahead of "mud men" or human technology, and anyway, we humans aren’t too bright. Except for a 12 year old criminal mastermind, Artemis Fowl, who manages to unlock the fairy book of knowledge and kidnaps Holly Short, rising star of the LEP.

The books are clever, funny, and would make great movies. They do tend to be slightly heavy in the fart joke department — Dwarves are great miners and diggers because they eat dirt and air, and can then, er, use the waste products in all kinds of previously unimaginable ways.

 Posted by Liza at 12:00 pm
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