On Writing

My uncle is Stephen King. THE Stephen King, you ask? Of course! THE Stephen King who writes books? Oh. No, not that one. The one who lives in Oregon.

This book by the author Stephen King (not my uncle, as clarified before) gets a 5 out of 5. Beautifully, truthfully written. And thats the point, isn't it? To write our truth as vividly as possible so people get a glipse into a life? You can write beautifully about a terrible story, and I realized that is what King does in his novels. This memoir gave me a picture of that.

It made me self conscious for a few minutes-- am I a bad writer? A compement one? Do I make Shakespeare look like a chapter book or Danielle Steel look like a genius? Honestly, I don't know yet. And it doesn't matter, because I'm not there yet. These posts are SFDs (Shitty First Drafts, thank you Anne Lamott) and what King would call "writing with the door closed". My door is both physically and metaphorically open, because it gets damn hot with it closed, and because people can read my first drafts, but I'm cool with it. Eventually I'll edit and see what we come up with, but for now, enjoy the spelling errors and occasional bad grammar.

Is it ok to have a crush on Stephen King? I'm realizing that every book I fall in love with, I end up falling in love with the author too. I don't know if I'm ready for Carrie or The Shining, but I do want to read some of his fiction. Any suggestions?

The Prince (Sons of Encouragement)

Another book in the Sons of Encouragement series done! You know, while I am glad I have read this books, I'm not proud to include all of them in my challenge. Yes, they are quality fiction by a well known author, but they are, well... short.

I guess I feel like a terrible person for reading a novella when I should be reading literature or longer memoirs, but enough of that.

This is a book from the perspective of Jonathan, Saul's son and David's best friend. It was pretty interesting to see things from his perspective-- I guess I hadn't really thought about him being as caught in the middle of a battle that wasn't his (between his father and David).

Well, expect a longer, more vivacious book with a ravishing review tomorrow my dear readers.

Pnin

As I was reading Pnin today I realized how greatly under read I am in Russian literature. I think the extent of my exposure is this novel, a sci-fi book based in a fantasy world with Russian tendencies (The Winds of Khalakova- which is also worth a read) and the tiny mice in the children's movie Babe who peep "Crime and Punishment teeheeeheee" at the beginning of one of the movie's "chapters".

Does this make me a horrible person? Probably. Or at least a vastly undercultured bibliophile. Oh well. Most of Tolstoy's and Dostoevsky's work is too long for this year.

But Pnin fit the bill. It was a captivating, succinct, endearing and bittersweet. At first glance, I felt a patronizing pity for Pnin, but as I got to know him through the book and watched his character develop I was very endeared to him, and while he had his faults, was a full character, and indeed a worthy protagonist.

So if you have been interested in reading some Russian lit but wake up with night sweats after nightmares about reading the tome of War and Peace, give this a go!

Hello, Bento!

Today's book is a... you guessed it... cook book! As I have been asking people for recommendations a fair amount of people of the female persuasion told me that they mostly read cook books, so I decided to give it a go.

Unless you're reading a biography of Colin Firth, its hard to find non-fiction that makes you salivate. But just reading through the ingredients and the narrative about the final creations almost made me jump on a bus to the nearest store, purchase all the needed ingredients and release my inner Julia Childs.

Even though I did not, in fact, stuff my face with bento goodness, I am really excited to experiment more with Asian cuisine (my wonderful neighbor Hee Sook offered to help) and make cute lunches for the hubs. And for those of you who have not experienced bento boxes, the actually definition of one is "a meal packed in a box". So even if you just shove an apple and a spam sandwich into your child's lunch box, you are, in fact, a bento maker.

And now, just for fun- pictures of Bento boxes!

 Courtesy of News & Nonsense and Live Journal Bento Challenge

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE CORGIS????!?!?!!!!

Einstein the Lazy Kitty (and Melody the Lazy Reader)

Feel free to laugh, blog friends, but today's book is about a lazy, lazy kitty who sleep everywhere and never plays with her poor distressed owner.

Ok, today's book is kind of a joke. But at least it's an ENTIRE book! It's been a long week at work, so my level of reading comprehension (and speed) diminishes drastically. Hence, Einstein the lazy kitty and lazy, lazy Melody.

But it did get me thinking about children's books and how influential they are in helping children comprehend big ideas like love, bed time, first days of school, even loss. There are books out there for everything!

One day a few years ago I was playing with my nephew and all we had to play with was an apple and and a drawing of a snail, and Scary Apple was created. My first idea for a title is "Scary Apple and the Snails' Potty Party" which is how Scary Apple (who is not so scary at all, in fact) runs into a bunch of snails who are having a party at a potty (potty training) and since Scary Apple has never been to a potty party before, the snails show him how to P-A-R-T-Y!!! Gertrude is the princess of the snails and occasionally slips into spoonerisms when she gets excited.

What ideas do you have for childrens' books? What was your favorite growing up?

The Warrior

Today has been a long, full day. After work and dinner, my poor lonely house-husband wanted to get out and do something fun, so I agreed to go watch a movie at 10pm. I imbibed superfluous amounts of Coke so I would stay awake, and I think I'm still feeling it now. We watched Men in Black 3- which was surprisingly good! But really, even if it was bad I would have loved it-- I have a secret crush on Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords, who plays Boris the Animal, the villain in the movie. I guess my crush isn't a secret anymore, since I've just told the whole internets. (I think Jared secretly has a man crush on him too.)

But about my book! I read The Warrior by Francine Rivers, the second in the Sons of Encouragement Series. (Side note: I first typed "Spoons of Encouragement". I feel like that book would have gone in a slightly different direction than Sons of Encouragement).  It was a book from the point of view of Caleb during the Old Testament exodus, leading up to the capture of Canaan, the promised land. Even though all of River's books are fiction, this one was less believable than others. Don't get me wrong, Caleb is a stud, but the background my picture of him. But only 195 tiny pages, so its worth reading to experience the author's perspective of the story.

Since I've had so much Coke, I've spent the last 15 minutes trying to come up with a storyline for the "Spoons of Encouragement" series. No luck yet. I think there's a reason I typically go to bed by 11.

Another thing that I typically do is take off my pants when I'm tired.
Goodnight.

I'm tired.

The Priest (Sons of Encouragement #1)

Today I read The Priest by Francine Rivers, which is the first book in the Sons of Encouragement series. Before I talk about this books specifically, just a general shout out to Francine- her books are great. She paints biblical characters as people! Which, you know, is what they are! So often I read the bible and just read the stories as vague stories, not stopping to think about the people in the stories: their thoughts, feelings, and the fact that they were HUMAN and SINNERS! Just because they were in the bible doesn't mean that they were perfect, it just means God chose to use them.

While The Priest wasn't my favorite book by Francine Rivers, it gives us insight into the world and mind of Aaron- the elder brother of Moses. How would you feel if your younger brother was chosen by God for something great? That he lived in a palace while you were a slave? While Aaron's attitude was kinda whiny at times, it was a not often portrayed view point and therefore very enjoyable.

On a side note about today: if you are going to go to Starbucks to blog, be prepared to wait for a table to open up. And if you decide you don't want to wait, bring your computer cord so that you can plug in your dead computer. And if you don't bring your cord, be sure that you have a library account. And if you don't have a library account, be sure that you try to get one on a day that the library computer systems are working. That being said, I'm back at home blogging in my office. On a more positive note- my husband and I bought curtains for our living room today!