I thought this book was fantastic. Imaginative, beautifully written, gripping, at once outrageous and realistic. Life in the circus is squalid, stunning and romantic. It can also be brutal and dramatic. And Gruen makes it hard to look away as events unfold.

I burned through it in two days which is record time for me in recent years, since I usually read books in small sips between other engagements. But I raced through Water for Elephants, and will totally buy Sara Gruen’s next book in hardback – high praise in my library.

• Here’s an excerpt, provided by the publisher.
• Author Sara Gruen’s Web site
• BookGraf on Facebook: Good books? Great company? No effort? What’s not to like?

• Born March 1, 2010
• 6 lbs, 13 oz
• The nurses gave her a gold star for her incredible head of hair (not pictured).

Am hoping not to make a habit of blogging about the minutiae of new parenthood. There are lots of people who do this really well, and it’s not my niche. But… maybe… once in a while…

In the spirit of science, here are some initial observations.

• No matter what you tell your mother in the months before your water breaks (or the 35 years of your prior acquaintance), she will still want to stay in the delivery room for the main event. And you just might not care at that point. This happens to everyone, right?
• The moment of delivery is astonishing on a number of levels. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.
• Epidural. Say it loud. Say it proud. Say it early. Don’t wait and go through hours of suffering if you’re heading for the drip anyway – save your strength.
• Let me repeat: Epidural. As someone who has been in pain before, I have the authority to state that there is nothing noble or interesting about it. Nature does lots of painful undignified things to us that we don’t have any trouble interfering with.
• Somehow this six pound human facsimile is controlling four full-grown adults 24 hours a day. I know this does not make us unique, so I won’t bitch about it further. For at least the next five minutes.
• You *can* make a baby almost entirely out of Skittles.
• Those enormous boobs I ordered when I was 15 arrived today. Shazam.

Nobody knows what they’re talking about. Conversely, everybody knows what they’re talking about.

In the last two days I’ve been told the following by a series of legitimate medical professionals:

• Unwrap the baby for feedings so she’s a little agitated and alert.
• Swaddle the baby for feedings so she’s comfortable and relaxed.
• Keep the baby’s hands and fingers covered so they don’t flail around and disturb her.
• Free up the baby’s hands so she can comfort herself – she’s had them in utero, why take them away now?
• Take the baby’s temperature in the ear or armpit.
• Take the baby’s temperature rectally.
• Start good sleeping habits right away, it’s never too early.
• Spend the first couple of months just doing whatever she wants, you can’t start bad habits yet.
• Never wake a sleeping baby.
• Wake her up for feeding times.

So now that we’ve got that straight. Am I missing anything?

I don’t want to be a meta blogger, blogging and pontificating about blogging (present post excluded), and I don’t want to use the words “meme,” “leverage” or “blogosphere.” I don’t want to be a social media expert, and I don’t want to concentrate on the medium.

I want to tinker with topics and develop new, short-lived obsessions before being distracted by something shiny and moving on to the next new thing. I want to pick the brains of people who really seem to be getting something right, who have found something they care about, have developed an expertise and who seem to derive great joy from what they do. I want to poke at and pick apart some of the mysteries of daily life. I want to read books and talk to people about it, and I want to learn about things that are just totally awesome. And I just want to be funny and make people laugh. Is that so wrong? And I don’t want to be hemmed in by picking one topic or one community. The world is just too full of cool shit to pigeonhole myself.

And so the struggle will continue. I can only hope that you enjoy the ride as much as I do.

Navel gazing concluded.

I’d been really enjoying Phillipa Gregory’s series of books about the women of Henry VIII’s court. Yeah, I’ll admit it. While I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of being associated with the bosom-intensive covers on the train in the morning, downloading the books to my phone were a great solution to this petty and childish concern. They’re almost guilty pleasures, but have a little too much history in them to be totally brain candy. So, the other week when I was browsing the offerings at Daedalus books (a truly superior discount bookstore), I was tickled to find a book that looked kind of similar.

• Henry VIII? Check.
• Bosomy cover? You betcha.
• Promises of intrigue on the back? It’s in there.

Gave it a try, and this one was different. It was preachy and didn’t have the right flow. It was more about a guy (named More, actually) who was sanctimonious and good and smart, but got hisself in a heap of trouble with the petulant, egotistical, hedonistic king that I’ve come to know through Gregory’s work. But trouble just made him more beatific and intent on suffering for his beliefs. This is a guy who wears a hair shirt. And the book kind of him. And the trick is that while it’s not hard to admire someone who is noble, it is more difficult when this person isn’t conflicted at all. But that may be more of a treatise on human nature than anyone cares for.

Also, the book is billed as “The Story of the Daughter of Sir Thomas More,” and it’s kind of not that at all.

So, the upshot: A decent book about a man who was probably quite remarkable. But somehow I wasn’t put out when bad things happened to him. Possibly because he didn’t seem to mind. But I found it wearing.

Did you read it? Are you glad you didn’t? Got something to recommend? Hit me in the comments, or join us over at BookGraf on Facebook.

Enormous orange cucumber

Since the Snowpocalypse, I’ve been fantasizing about hot summer days, citronella-infused evenings, and growing some more mutant produce in my yard. Every year I learn something new – like that neglected cucumbers turn all orange and terrifying, and that these Earth Boxes produce an alarming amount of… produce.

So I’m thinking about what to grow this year. Tomatoes are a given, I’m afraid. I think it’s genetic. My grandmother grew them, my mother grew them, and now I do. I think I’m the worst at it, but I just. Can’t. Stop.

Had way too many peppers of various heats last year, and the cucumbers almost took over the world the year before that. On the menu for 2010, we’ve got various herbs, two kinds of the ubiquitous tomato, some small crunchy cucumbers and… what? I’d like to try something new, and am looking for a good candidate with a long harvest period that we’ll actually utilize.

Free-form advice welcome in the comments below, also feel free to get your vote on.

Also, not that you asked, but here are a couple of gardening-related sites that I’ve really come to love. Ketzel would be proud. Or appalled.

American Meadows – their wildflower seed mixes are pretty cool, and I just love their attitude. Great prices, product and service.

Seed Savers Exchange – dedicated to saving and sharing rare and heirloom seeds.

Seeds of Change – rock on with your organic selves.

Local Harvest – don’t want to grow your own? Find a farm, a farmers market or a CSA program near where you eat.

It doesn’t matter what you say. Kids only learn from what you do.

You watch TV? Good luck following the American Academy of Pediatrics advice to keep them away from TV until age two.

You like healthy food? With a few small battles in the toddler years, your offspring will probably grow up eating their veggies most of the time.

Same thing with naps and bedtime. If you believe in sleep and take it seriously enough to put them in a quiet, dark place at more or less the same time(s) every day, they will learn to nap. And well-rested kids are happier kids.

You know, I’d take this farther and come out and say that “walk the walk” is good advice for more than just parenting. Know where you stand and live your ideals.

Have something to add? Currently seeking words of wisdom about work, parenting, home maintenance, cooking, relationships… Tell me what you know!

There's work to be done.

The weather outside is deeply disturbing. And something about the air pressure make me keep tipping over on the sofa like a buffalo with a dart in its flank, napping randomly. But I am delighted to report that I have successfully worked my way through this pile of New Yorkers, and resolve to stay more on top of things moving forward.

• Winter wonderland photos and Deathsnow Challenge Part I
• Bare shelves at Safeway, and Deathsnow Challenge Part II

February 8, 2010, continued

Okay, so after the Keyser Söze piece, I did enjoy the profile of gospel singer Tonex, and his complicated past and present. Best of luck to him in all of his future endeavors. ‘William Burns’ by Roberto Bolano was a dark and disturbing piece of fiction that I was happy to end. Castle in the Air – about a ginormotron skyscraper in Dubai – Vegas of the Middle East, but without the class – was honestly pretty cool. No matter how repulsive  a city it is, they do build some cool stuff. None of the other reviews/critiques really moved me.

And on to the big, fat 85th Anniversary Issue, the last in my series.

Feb 15 & 22, 2010

In Talk of the Town, comparing the week’s takings for Avatar to the federal budget deficit is an unspeakably depressing thing to do. Thanks.

And so we move on to “The Trial,” and Eric Holder’s battle about trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Lots of bloodthirsty people on all sides of this equation who don’t want this to go to trial. Easy for them to say, seems to me. And while we’re at it – if none of the places where people died on 9-11 want to host an expensive and divisive trial, they should just have it here in DC. We never make our budgets anyway and public transportation is already a disaster. Also, c’mon people, due process and human rights are what America’s all about. Love it or leave it, man.

Mules? By the way? Are awesome. And this piece about alcohol and alcoholism across different cultures is really interesting. As is the incredible civil rights photographic portfolio by Platon and introduced by David Remnick – a class act.

And with that, I’ll get back to obsessing about the weather and the poor performance of WMATA. I thank you for your kind indulgence.

• Read Part I of the Deathsnow Challenge

Meanwhile, Spouse had to walk me around today, in advance of this latest storm, so we went to our neighborhood Safeway. A couple of snapshots, to give you an idea of the carnage. I think Spouse was having flashbacks to his youth in Moscow. He kept muttering “if you are for the first time in Moscow, welcome.” and something about 12 kilos of potatoes. Poor Spouse.

February 1, 2010

Bed bugs, Lady Gaga, and the ongoing tragedy in Haiti open up this week’s issue. I kind of lucked out this time, since my copy is missing a bunch of pages from the middle – the result being that the article about Dresden merging awkwardly with one  about the Department of Investigation, also known as “the city’s secret police.” I think.

Meghan O’Rourke’s piece about grief hit kind of close to home, what with my rockstar Grandma dying just a couple of weeks ago. Which reminds me to point out that Cancer is Still an Asshole, and that I’ve had some great success with the Amazon affiliation since launch. There will be a donation to the ACS, as promised, just as soon as Amazon submits their tally. Not bad! Remember, all you have to do is go through this link or any on the Cancer is an Asshole Web site, buy whatever you’re going to buy on Amazon anyway, and they’ll kick me 4% or so of your purchase price, every cent of which I will send to the ACS.

The analysis of the Leno/O’Brien squabble is best summed up as “an abject failure of leadership” and left to die. Never cared for any of those programs myself, so it’s hard for me to take this story or the analysis thereof at all seriously.

Meanwhile, this is taking me so long that I just got another issue. And damn! As the special 85th Anniversay Issue, it’s a fat one.

February 8, 2010

Naturally, this issue opens with a couple of remembrances of J.D. Salinger. More power to ‘em. Moving on to the tragedy in Haiti, the story about Nadia provides a vivid picture of the harsh realities on the ground – both now and before the earthquake.

I don’t know why, but the Shouts & Murmurs pieces have been pretty weak for the last few issues. I could also be humor impaired after sitting in the house all this time. Now, I’m working my way through a really great article about a guy they’re comparing to Keyser Söze, but keep getting interrupted by things like dinner, extremely welcome phone calls, and Spouse wanting to read that article even more than me.

But since it’s Still Frakking Snowing, I’ll have some time tomorrow to finish up.

I must admit to a family history of affinity for the circus. My uncle (who passed away years ago) was a fanatical fan and obsessive collector of posters, photos, memorabilia and other errata. He also belonged to a number of organizations and developed long and mutually rewarding friendships with others so afflicted.

The history and mystery of the circus has long captivated our imagination. This book is also captivating, and I hope that you enjoy it.

• BookGraf, the low-impact book club is on Facebook. Stop by and/or join us.

It was a good system for several years. Then a bunch of stuff started interfering (trains running in a nauseating manner that was not conducive to reading, that damn iPhone having so much fun in it), and I fell behind.

And here we are – with two feet of snow on the ground, and five magazines to get through.

January 11, 2010

Chainsaw class? Phyllis Diller? A great start to the issue, but I’m afraid I’m just not going to get through the big economics feature. Too antsy watching the state repeatedly plow us back in after Spouse shovels us out. Stupid state. Meanwhile, there’s a really interesting article about the fountain architect who brought us the spectacle at the Bellagio, and another (and very long) about Justice Sotomayor. The review of Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book (Committed) is way better than I thought her first book – which was kind of solipsistic and itch-provoking.

January 18, 2010

The Sure Thing: Oh, Malcolm Gladwell. Your analysis of what makes a (wildly) successful and predatory entrepreneur is as engaging as it is useless to me. No way will I be able to just balls my way through making a multimillion dollar company into a multibillion dollar enterprise. Guess I’ll have to stick with my day job.

Udder Madness: I think only Jews from New York use the word “homunculus.”

Rodarte looks cool, Ted Olsen and David Bois are unlikely allies in the fight for marriage equality

January 25, 2010

I usually don’t get into the fiction so much, but “The Trailhead” was pretty great – and ants are totally violent, but not as violent as King Lear (what with the eye gouging and assassinating and stuff), a review of a half-assed production of which follows. Also, the tricky thing about memoirs, in addition to mortifying friends and family, is that so many of them turn out to be embellished or just not true. On the other hand, no one really seems to care if things “happened,” as long as they “feel honest.”

Didn’t make it the whole way through, but this is great progress!

Good God, I’m dull.