Quote of the Day

Give thanks for what you are now, and keep
fighting for what you want to be tomorrow.
-
Fernanda Miramontes-Landeros Via Roots of She 

Theme Thursdays -- Crockery/Utensil -- Sea Change by Jeremy Page

Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event that will be open from one Thursday to the next. Anyone can participate in it. The rules are simple:

• A theme will be posted each week (on Thursdays)
• Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
• Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post
• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)
  Ex: If the theme is KISS; your sentence can have “They kissed so gently” or “Their lips touched each other” or “The smooch was so passionate."

This week's theme is Crockery/Utensil:

When the kipper is lifted out on to a plate, he sits a know of butter on top, and watches it gradually slide down one side. His mouth waters.  And then he thinks of a surprising addition -- he suddenly fancies it -- several raw onions which he cuts in quarters and quickly blanches in the fish pan.  He's never had raw onion for breakfast before, but he's at sea, so what the hell [. . .] After he's finished, he looks at his plate.  It seems suddenly poignant.  What was it they found on the Mary Celeste?  A half-eaten meal and a broken rail?

pages 24 & 25, Sea Change by Jeremy Page


This book throws the reader right into the story -- it opens with Guy & his family spending a lovely morning in a peaceful field but the morning takes a sudden and tragic turn, changing Guy's life in one irrevocable instant.   We next encounter him five years later, alone, on a houseboat on the North Sea, writing nightly, in his journal, his imagined story of his life without that morning in the field.  Intense stuff.


I'm counting the plate, in the quote above, as crockery, partially because I think the excerpt is a good example of  Page's style and the tone of the book.  It's quite a lovely book (I'm on page 93) language-wise -- one of those books where you keep finding powerful little snippets that you want to make into your new e-mail signature line.  (Or am I the only one that happens to?)

The Improbable Cat by Allan Ahlberg

Cover of The Improbable Cat

The Improbable Cat by Allan Ahlberg is a Gothic-y, Edgar Allan Poe-ish, (extremely vaguely) Coraline-ish, tale told in the first person by David Burrell, a 12-year-old whose family takes in a cat.  From the front flap:

At least, that's what the creature appears to be. But David and his faithful dog, Billy, immediately sense something terribly amiss.  Then indeed "something crazy -- impossible -- horrific" happens . .

 I didn't find myself as drawn into this one as I'd expected.  I read it with my almost seven-year-old daughter, however, and she seemed to enjoy it.  I intentionally chose to read it with her on a bright and sunny day sitting on the couch in the living room where we are house-sitting.  I think that helped make it a little less spooky for her (and maybe for me. :))  I think it's funny that Ahlberg is also the author of The Jolly Postman and Each Peach Pear Plum among other picture books.  I like it when authors can genre-switch like that.

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

This was an entertaining look at the history of the domestic life of humans.  Though I've been familiar with Bryson's name for quite a while, this is the first of his books I've actually picked up and I understand why people enjoy his writing. 

He uses the current home, a former rectory in Norfolk, built in 1851, as a starting point for a rambling, broad sweeping tale of just how exactly humans have developed their dwelling places over the years.  At Home's chapters are each assigned a room of the rectory (with the exception of the first two, which deal with the year & setting in which the house was built) and Bryson then regales the reader with all sorts of esoteric bits of information that he manages to connect with each room.  I enjoyed waiting for him to make those connections and the many anecdotes he shares with his readers. 

All Clear by Connie Willis

I've just finished All Clear by Connie Willis -- the conclusion of the time-travel/WWII/great characters story she began in Blackout.  With both books, I felt a little muddled and confused at times.  Not only does the reader go back and forth between 2060 Oxford and WWII-era England, but that reader must also follow the pathways of a given character at various points during various years.  I couldn't decide if I was confused because I'm dumb, because the reader is supposed to be confused (which I'd be okay with), or because I should be less ignorant of WWII history/European geography.  I'm guessing that it may be a combination of all three.  ;)

Nonetheless, it all largely came together for me by the end of All Clear and I'm glad I persevered.  Willis' storytelling is rich and the conclusion so satisfying.  I'm a big fan of what ifs to start with and that is a part of the appeal but there is more than that to my enjoyment of her books.  And of course I was amused by the brief cameo of a certain mystery author in her role as a dispensary worker.

Teaching Your Child To Be Assertive

Check out this great post about giving your child ways to stand up for themselves -- even if it's you they are standing up to!

http://www.authenticparenting.info/2011/03/most-effective-tool-youve-never-used-to.html