Although I've not been subbing much this month - too busy painting the new addition and doing remodel errands - I did manage to finish Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Wonderful story, wonderfully told. It's told in two different voices, which I make note of with my font, just as Barbery does in the book. And then there were the whole chapters that I wanted to include here, beautiful. Several had tears rolling down my face.
Page 90: We have never had our tea together in the morning, and this break with our usual protocol imbues the ritual with a strange flavor.
Page 91: At moments like this the web of life is revealed by the power of ritual, and each time we renew our ceremony, the pleasure will be all the greater for our having violated one of its principles.
Page 106: Ah, sweet, impromptu moment, lifting the veil of melancholy... In a split second of eternity, everything is changed, transfigured.
Page 108: The death of Pierre Arthens has been wilting my camellias.
Page 119: We live each day as if it were merely a rehearsal for the next.
Page 128: We have to live with the certainty that we'll get old and that it won't look nice or be good or feel happy. And tell ourselves that it's now that matters, to build something, now, at any price, using all our strength. Always remember that there's a retirement home waiting somewhere and we have to surpass ourselves every day, make every day undying.
Page 143: Madame Michel has the elegance of a hedgehog: on the outside, she's covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary - and terribly elegant.
Page 162: There is one chocolate Florentine left, which I nibble out of greediness, with my front teeth, like a mouse. If you change the way you crunch into something, it is like trying something new.
Page 247: I have always been fascinated by the abnegation with which we human beings are capable of devoting a great deal of energy to the quest for nothing and to rehashing of useless and absurd ideas.
Page 250: Eternity: for all its invisibility, we gaze at it.
Page 279: Melancholy overwhelms me, at supersonic speed.
I also read Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal, by J.K. Rowling. Just keeping my Spanish up.
There was one quote I kept.
Page 21: -- Sí, sí es todo muy triste, pero domínate, Hagrid, o van a descubrirnos -- susurró la profesora McGonagall... (my translation: "Yes, yes it's all very sad, but control yourself, Hagrid, or they will discover us," whispered Professor McGonagall.)
It's the domínate that I like, which means control yourself. Dominate yourself? Made me smile.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
What an enjoyable read! I definitely recommend Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It was full of imagination and characters transcending their tragedies with creativity and love. My MIL loaned it to me and I wanted to read it in September since 9/11 is central to its plotline. I found lots of quotes that I love, but I also liked what I couldn't quote about this story - the way it was interwoven.
Page 2: I desperately wish I had my tambourine with me now, because even after everything I'm still wearing heavy boots, and sometimes it helps to play a good beat.
Page 33: The end of suffering does not justify the suffering, and so there is no end to suffering, what a mess I am...
Page 74: I woke up once in the middle of the night, and Buckminster's paws were on my eyelids. He must have been feeling my nightmares.
Page 108: ... songs are as sad as the listener...
Page 126: ... maybe great books were coiled within him like springs, books that could have separated inside from outside.
Page 224: Time was passing like a hand waving from a train that I wanted to be on.
Page 209: The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did.
Page 2: I desperately wish I had my tambourine with me now, because even after everything I'm still wearing heavy boots, and sometimes it helps to play a good beat.
Page 33: The end of suffering does not justify the suffering, and so there is no end to suffering, what a mess I am...
Page 74: I woke up once in the middle of the night, and Buckminster's paws were on my eyelids. He must have been feeling my nightmares.
Page 108: ... songs are as sad as the listener...
Page 126: ... maybe great books were coiled within him like springs, books that could have separated inside from outside.
Page 224: Time was passing like a hand waving from a train that I wanted to be on.
Page 209: The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Mari's Books of August
I wanted to read a classic to my kids this summer, so I chose William Golding's Lord of the Flies. I think they expect something slow and dry, even if the story is good, when they hear "classic." But with such a weird and wicked story, they were certainly captivated. We stayed up quite late a couple of August nights and finished it quickly.
Page 137: The half-shut eyes were dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life.
Some time ago I had picked up a little book at our local library's overstock sale, Sinister Sudoku by Kaye Morgan. Both my mom and my MIL like to do sudoku. I thought I'd pass it along to one of them after I read it. Story was fine but it's not a book I need to keep.
And since then I have not been reading much. Busy getting ready for school, our family trip to Silverwood, getting our exchage student enrolled and ready. I subbed a six day assignment, starting the second day of school. I thought I'd get lots of reading in with lunches and prep periods, but I found that I actually had to do lots of prep. It wasn't until the last day or two that I read anything. I do like the book I'm currently reading. It's a good September book.
Always carry a book. *smile*
Page 137: The half-shut eyes were dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life.
Some time ago I had picked up a little book at our local library's overstock sale, Sinister Sudoku by Kaye Morgan. Both my mom and my MIL like to do sudoku. I thought I'd pass it along to one of them after I read it. Story was fine but it's not a book I need to keep.
And since then I have not been reading much. Busy getting ready for school, our family trip to Silverwood, getting our exchage student enrolled and ready. I subbed a six day assignment, starting the second day of school. I thought I'd get lots of reading in with lunches and prep periods, but I found that I actually had to do lots of prep. It wasn't until the last day or two that I read anything. I do like the book I'm currently reading. It's a good September book.
Always carry a book. *smile*
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Pacific Northwest Plein Air - last year
The Pacific Northwest Plein Air in the Columbia River Gorge is happening this Labor Day weekend. It is primarily painting, which is judged and accoladed, but there's a small (growing) writing portion. Last year was my first year participating in the writing.
I had published Eyes-Closed Tree inspired by The Gorge White House. You can read it here. Blush of Skin, my other piece, was inspired by Hood River's Waterfront Park and can be read here.
Each day for five days there is a location assigned, somewhere in or around Hood River Oregon. At the end the writer submits two pieces to be included in the online anthology. One of these will be displayed in the Plein Air exhibit at the Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River during the month of September. Opening reception this year will be on Friday 6th, 6 - 8pm. Attendees can vote for a favorite painting; the writing is not juried.
This year I am busy, with working, kids in middle and high school and all their after school activities, hosting an exchange student, co-chairing the school music boosters and being on the executive team at my church, oh almost forgot the steering committee of the Underwood Community Garden. Against all reason I'm going to do Plein Air again this year. The quickness of it is intimidating but it's a good exercise for me. And it's fun!
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
My July 2013 Reads
Still catching up with books and quotes... I finished reading The Amber Spyglass to the kids in July. This is the second of Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy. Love this series.
Page 141: Either Mrs. Coulter did not know the boil of feelings that her simple words had lanced, or she was monstrously clever.Ann Patchet's The Magician's Assistant was a pleasure. (Although I loved Patchet's Bel Canto more and recommend it emphatically.) I just saw a magician last weekend when my family and I visited Silverwood. He was pretty decent, even. After reading this book I have more respect for magicians and the level of commitment they have to have to their craft. All the practice. I loved the juxtaposition of the beautiful and polished Sabine from California and the rough and gravelly family in the Midwest.
Page 8: She took no stock in dreams. To her they were just a television left on in another room.
Page 106: It was the moment neither of them knew what would happen.
Page 121: When Parsifal died she lost the rest of his life, but now she had stumbled on eighteen years. Eighteen untouched years that she could have; early, forgotten volumes of her favorite work.
Page 174: Now she understood why he had lied to her, and how it was less a lie, the complete burial of an unmentionable truth.
My daughter borrowed The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chlosky from the library. She had seen the trailers for the movie that was based on the book. She finished it in a day and told me I should read it. So I did. I could hardly put it down either, I got so invested in this kid's experience. I didn't take any quotes and I'm not sure if it just didn't have one-liners or if I was too busy reading.
And that was July.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
What Was May; What Was June
Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates lasted through many lunch breaks and prep periods at school in May. Story told wonderfully.
Page 171: In the shivery water windblown clouds were reflected like fleeting thoughts.
Page 235: Insomnia is a shattering of the brain. Glittering puddles like slivers of broken glass in vast mudflats to the horizon.
Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter was shorter but no less captivating. I found the book at the library's overstock book sale.
Page 109: "Adele has the schoolteacher's low opinion of everybody," said Miss Tennyson. (The truism of that quote made me laugh!)
Page 128: In the poorly lit park, the bandstand and the Confederate statue stood in dim aureoles of rain, looking ghosts they were, and somehow married to eachother, by this time.
Page 160: For her life, any life, she had to believe, was nothing but the continuity of its love.
May for me ended with The Daughter's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick. I am lucky to consider myself a friend of Jane's. She is a wonderful writer and generous of heart. I've read many of her books and always feel enriched, learning life lessons alongside the protagonist.
Page 101: He disappeared the way a rock sinks to the bottom in a murky pond; one can't see it even though it's there.
Page 183: Snow fell like melting tears.
Look at that, two daughter stories in the same month. My first manuscript is about a daughter as well. It tells the mother's history through the daughter's discovery of it, and in so doing we learn the daughter's story as well.
In June I only finished one book: The Republic of Love by Carol Shields. (Well it is a bit longish, she says defensively. Except that it's not.) The story builds slowly towards a union that you know is coming, yet it surprises you in its fulfillment. Satisfyingly so. I loved the descriptiveness of the moments and the mermaids that she studied and through which she viewed her world. So much was too contextual to quote just a line.
Page 353: It's coming at her, it's about to pounce. The emptiness flowing toward her like a cloud of gas.
Page 364: Love renewed is not precisely love redeemed.
I find that I am reading less during the summer. No prep periods, plus kids home and all. I have so many books I'm looking forward to reading. My MIL lent me a stack, my daughter gave me a couple and so did another friend.
Take some time to read tonight.
Page 171: In the shivery water windblown clouds were reflected like fleeting thoughts.
Page 235: Insomnia is a shattering of the brain. Glittering puddles like slivers of broken glass in vast mudflats to the horizon.
Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter was shorter but no less captivating. I found the book at the library's overstock book sale.
Page 109: "Adele has the schoolteacher's low opinion of everybody," said Miss Tennyson. (The truism of that quote made me laugh!)
Page 128: In the poorly lit park, the bandstand and the Confederate statue stood in dim aureoles of rain, looking ghosts they were, and somehow married to eachother, by this time.
Page 160: For her life, any life, she had to believe, was nothing but the continuity of its love.
May for me ended with The Daughter's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick. I am lucky to consider myself a friend of Jane's. She is a wonderful writer and generous of heart. I've read many of her books and always feel enriched, learning life lessons alongside the protagonist.
Page 101: He disappeared the way a rock sinks to the bottom in a murky pond; one can't see it even though it's there.
Page 183: Snow fell like melting tears.
Look at that, two daughter stories in the same month. My first manuscript is about a daughter as well. It tells the mother's history through the daughter's discovery of it, and in so doing we learn the daughter's story as well.
In June I only finished one book: The Republic of Love by Carol Shields. (Well it is a bit longish, she says defensively. Except that it's not.) The story builds slowly towards a union that you know is coming, yet it surprises you in its fulfillment. Satisfyingly so. I loved the descriptiveness of the moments and the mermaids that she studied and through which she viewed her world. So much was too contextual to quote just a line.
Page 353: It's coming at her, it's about to pounce. The emptiness flowing toward her like a cloud of gas.
Page 364: Love renewed is not precisely love redeemed.
I find that I am reading less during the summer. No prep periods, plus kids home and all. I have so many books I'm looking forward to reading. My MIL lent me a stack, my daughter gave me a couple and so did another friend.
Take some time to read tonight.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
2013 Begins
I'm finally getting close to being caught up!
If you read my last post, you know I had just read The Hunger Games to my kids in December 2012. So of course I read Catching Fire and The Mockingjay to them in January of 2013. Although my daughter had read them, my son had not. The kids made lots of time for evening reading for those books and even asked me to read while they cleaned their rooms during the day. Gotta love good stories.
I meanwhile read Halldor Laxness' Iceland's Bell. It was recommended to me by an author friend who knew I was writing a story set in Norway. What an incredible, thick and wandering story! I loved it for the bold, quirky and snarky characters, so flawed and so wonderful. I only kept one quote from page 18: ...her involuntary smile dwindled into a look of panic. But the writing was exquisite and I just didn't keep other quotes because they were so contextual. I would've had to quote several pages!
February I read another MIL book, Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Oh my, oh wow. The same story from two women's very different points of view. Excellent read.
Page 95: It is a peculiar sensation, as a woman with a very good job, to be pitied by men with tatoos and headaches.
Page 123: It isn't the strong sleepers that sleep around.
My daughter gave me Christine Harris' Undercover Girl. Then I read The Paris Wife, which a friend had given me for my birthday before I went to Europe and I just hadn't gotten to it yet. I was glad I'd waited as I could see Paris better. The first two quotes are Hemmingway speaking.
Page 127: "The waiting helps you boil it down."
Page 186: "You have to digest life. You have to chew it up and love it all through. You have to live it with your eyes, really."
Page 259: His silence was as much as an admission that he was in love with her, but somehow he'd turned it all back on me so that the affair wasn't the worst thing, but that I'd had the very bad taste to mention it.
I borrowed How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely from the library in March and was glad to find it less a "how-to" and more a fun, fast paced novel. I read The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman to the kids. Love that book!
I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera, the English translation, and was so captivated by the story and the phrasing that one of these days I'll find a copy in Spanish to compare.
Page 7: ...an envelope... sealed with so much sealing wax that it had to be ripped to pieces to get the letter out.
Page 62: "Take advantage of it now, while you are young, and suffer all you can." (Florentino's mother, giving advice on love and the pain of passion.)
Page 69: ...his hair in an uproar of love...
Page 71: "Very well, I will marry you if you promise not to make me eat eggplant."
Page 116: Then there was such a diaphanous silence that despite the disorder of the birds and the syllables of water on stone, one could hear the desolate breath of the sea.
Page 155: ...soggy with champagne...
Page 197: ...and left her to wander the limbo of abandoned brides.
Page 221: If anything vexed her, it was the perpetual chain of daily meals.
Page 224: ...she would wake to find her nightgown soaked by the endless tears of Petra Morales, who had died of love many years before in the same bed where she lay sleeping.
Page 234: ...growing fatter and rougher as he sank into the quicksand of an unfortunate old age.
Page 345: ...love was always love, any time and any place, but it was more solid the closer it came to death.
In April I read The Subtle Knife to the kids, the second in Pullman's Dark Materials series. I also plowed through Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code as it'd been years since I'd read it. Fun to have my brief Paris visit to draw from. Also read two borrowed from my MIL: The Mozart Conspiracy by Scott Mariani and Anita Shreve's The Weight of Water. I've read a couple of Shreve's books before and am always transported.
Yesterday we picked up our Thai exchange daughter from the airport. I wonder if she'll have some books to recommend.
If you read my last post, you know I had just read The Hunger Games to my kids in December 2012. So of course I read Catching Fire and The Mockingjay to them in January of 2013. Although my daughter had read them, my son had not. The kids made lots of time for evening reading for those books and even asked me to read while they cleaned their rooms during the day. Gotta love good stories.
I meanwhile read Halldor Laxness' Iceland's Bell. It was recommended to me by an author friend who knew I was writing a story set in Norway. What an incredible, thick and wandering story! I loved it for the bold, quirky and snarky characters, so flawed and so wonderful. I only kept one quote from page 18: ...her involuntary smile dwindled into a look of panic. But the writing was exquisite and I just didn't keep other quotes because they were so contextual. I would've had to quote several pages!
February I read another MIL book, Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Oh my, oh wow. The same story from two women's very different points of view. Excellent read.
Page 95: It is a peculiar sensation, as a woman with a very good job, to be pitied by men with tatoos and headaches.
Page 123: It isn't the strong sleepers that sleep around.
My daughter gave me Christine Harris' Undercover Girl. Then I read The Paris Wife, which a friend had given me for my birthday before I went to Europe and I just hadn't gotten to it yet. I was glad I'd waited as I could see Paris better. The first two quotes are Hemmingway speaking.
Page 127: "The waiting helps you boil it down."
Page 186: "You have to digest life. You have to chew it up and love it all through. You have to live it with your eyes, really."
Page 259: His silence was as much as an admission that he was in love with her, but somehow he'd turned it all back on me so that the affair wasn't the worst thing, but that I'd had the very bad taste to mention it.
I borrowed How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely from the library in March and was glad to find it less a "how-to" and more a fun, fast paced novel. I read The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman to the kids. Love that book!
I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera, the English translation, and was so captivated by the story and the phrasing that one of these days I'll find a copy in Spanish to compare.
Page 7: ...an envelope... sealed with so much sealing wax that it had to be ripped to pieces to get the letter out.
Page 62: "Take advantage of it now, while you are young, and suffer all you can." (Florentino's mother, giving advice on love and the pain of passion.)
Page 69: ...his hair in an uproar of love...
Page 71: "Very well, I will marry you if you promise not to make me eat eggplant."
Page 116: Then there was such a diaphanous silence that despite the disorder of the birds and the syllables of water on stone, one could hear the desolate breath of the sea.
Page 155: ...soggy with champagne...
Page 197: ...and left her to wander the limbo of abandoned brides.
Page 221: If anything vexed her, it was the perpetual chain of daily meals.
Page 224: ...she would wake to find her nightgown soaked by the endless tears of Petra Morales, who had died of love many years before in the same bed where she lay sleeping.
Page 234: ...growing fatter and rougher as he sank into the quicksand of an unfortunate old age.
Page 345: ...love was always love, any time and any place, but it was more solid the closer it came to death.
In April I read The Subtle Knife to the kids, the second in Pullman's Dark Materials series. I also plowed through Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code as it'd been years since I'd read it. Fun to have my brief Paris visit to draw from. Also read two borrowed from my MIL: The Mozart Conspiracy by Scott Mariani and Anita Shreve's The Weight of Water. I've read a couple of Shreve's books before and am always transported.
Yesterday we picked up our Thai exchange daughter from the airport. I wonder if she'll have some books to recommend.
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