The 3 R's: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness

At the movies: "The Dark Knight"

2008-07-24T06:30:00.000-07:00

The Dark Knight
Action/drama, 2008

Welcome back to Gotham City, not exactly the most welcoming of places.

The Dark Knight picks up about a year after Batman Begins, and some of Gotham's citizens believe that things have gotten worse since Batman came on the scene - and at times, Batman himself wonders the same thing. He has his (not very effective) imitators, and his detractors, including Gotham D.A. Harvey Dent. Since he operates as a vigilante, no one really knows what rules he follows, and he only has the trust of a very few people - and at least one of them, Gotham Police Lt. Jim Gordon, doesn't know his true identity. Gotham's criminal mob doesn't care much about who's under the mask; they just know he's making life difficult, and the proverbial wild card comes their way to present a solution. "Wild Card" is a far more accurate description of the menacing, dangerously unpredictable character better known as The Joker - he is not at all a funny guy.

My husband absolutely loved Batman Begins and has been eagerly anticipating the release of The Dark Knight all year. I was far more ambivalent about it, since the first film never really connected with me - I respected it artistically, but I just couldn't warm to it - but I was pretty sure I'd see it with him anyway. Excellent decision. Whatever elements I felt were missing in Batman Begins are present in The Dark Knight, and by that I mean far more than storyline and special effects, neither of which was really a problem in the earlier movie. Having said that, I think the story in The Dark Knight is much more compelling; while I find superhero "origin stories" interesting, sometimes the sequels are an improvement (no, seriously) because the background's already been established and the movie can get directly into the crisis at hand.

What makes the crisis at hand particularly involving here, from my perspective, is that the story's focus is fairly well spread among three main characters this time: Bruce Wayne/Batman (still conflicted over his mission); Harvey Dent, the DA whose crusade to clean up Gotham mirrors Batman's, although it uses very different tactics; and The Joker, a force of anarchy like no one has ever seen before. Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker has been justly praised; this character is truly scary, and impossible not to watch. But don't for a minute think that this is a character study, though; even at 2.5 hours running time, it's a fast-moving, intelligent (if sometimes a little confusing, at least for me), high-intensity action drama.

Batman was the first "superhero" without superpowers, and his "hero" qualifications aren't always clear-cut, which is what makes him interesting. He's not a "white knight" who will deliver Gotham out of the hands of the mob, but a dark knight - and while eventually he may be able to achieve the same goal, his methods will be very different.

As I mentioned, I didn't really warm to Batman Begins, but The Dark Knight engaged me from the very beginning. It's not a "feel-good" movie, and not even particularly fun - if you want a fun superhero movie this summer, see Iron Man (again) - but it's a really good movie that's well worth seeing, even if you didn't see how it all "began." (NOTE: It's NOT a movie to take your kids to, though. It's rated PG-13 for good reason, and is not appropriate for young children unless you really want to give them nightmares.)

Random bookworminess and Weekly Geekiness

2008-07-24T06:00:00.001-07:00

Thursdays are usually review days around here. Today I'm offering a movie review - because I haven't managed to finish my current read - but not wanting to stray from books entirely, I'm answering this week's book-themed "Randomness" meme.

Randomness: Bookworms (hosted by Naida)

1. What are you currently reading? Still reading Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller. It's a long book, so I'm not sure how soon I'll get it reviewed, but it's provoking a lot of response from me so far.
If you're not reading anything right now, what was the last book you read? I'm never "not reading anything":-).
2. Where is your favorite place to get your books from? I'm definitely a book buyer, so the answer is "bookstores in general," but most of my business seems to go to Borders and Amazon.
3. Name a book you read and did not enjoy. The Bridges of Madison County. Don't get me started.
4. How has your taste in books changed over the years? What types of books do you read now as opposed to five years ago? I answered a similar question here:

When I was younger, I read more genre - mainly mystery and fantasy - than I do these days, but fiction is still my first love book-wise, and probably always will be. I'll branch into nonfiction mainly for memoirs, biography, and history, and I try for every third or fourth book I read these days to be nonfiction, which definitely is a change for me.

I have noticed in the last few years that I prefer reading books that are a bit less "literary;" critics may swoon over them, but I have found that some are too self-consciously "modern" or gimmicky for my taste, or more about style than content. I appreciate good writing, but not so much writing that calls attention to itself. Call me old-fashioned, but the traditional elements of character, plot, and theme still work for me (and generally in that order). I think my tastes probably qualify as solidly middlebrow, but not necessarily mainstream. Trade-paperback, non-genre, sometimes award-winning, sometimes book-club-sanctioned (any book club, not necessarily mine) fiction is what usually grabs me.

5. When you walk into your favorite bookstore, where do you go? Mystery...Romance...Latest Releases....Non-Fiction...etc?
I'll usually head straight to the "new in paperback" display table when I first come in. Next stop, if I'm in Borders, is usually the "3 for 2" paperbacks, and then I'll go to the best-seller shelves. If there are any special seasonal displays, I'll browse there, and then I'll finally make it to the Literature & Fiction secton.

Weekly Geeks #12 (hosted by Dewey)

1. In your blog, list any books you’ve read but haven’t reviewed yet. If you’re all caught up on reviews, maybe you could try this with whatever book(s) you finish this week.

2. Ask your readers to ask you questions about any of the books they want. In your comments, not in their blogs. Most likely, people who will ask you questions will be people who have read one of the books or know something about it because they want to read it.

3. Later, take whichever questions you like from your comments and use them in a post about each book. I’ll probably turn mine into a sort of interview-review. Link to each blogger next to that blogger’s question(s).

4. Visit other Weekly Geeks and ask them some questions!

I try to do my reviews as soon as possible after I finish a book, so I'm not behind on anything, except for the book I mentioned above that I'm still reading. So, do you have any questions about Girls Like Us? You may want to know a little about the book first:

This is a parallel biography of three of the most important and influential female singer-songwriters of the late 20th century. It's also a story of the 1960's and 1970's and how American society was changing for everyone, but especially for young women. It's a story of friends and lovers, and career/family choices. The book delves into creativity and collaboration, opportunity and talent and luck, and considers these individuals in the context of their times.

If you're interested in knowing more, please leave your questions in the comments!

Weekend Assignment #225: You can't spell "routine" without "rut

2008-07-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week, Karen says: "Okay, this one is more participatory than most Weekend Assignments. I'm not just asking you to write something; I'm asking you to do something. Are you up to the challenge?"

Weekend Assignment #225: What are you going to do this weekend (or on your next day off) that's different from what you usually do? Make plans to break out of your usual routine, and tell us what they are.

Extra Credit: What else would you do that day, if you had the time and the money?

...And when her shift is over she goes back to Mineola,

Sits on her couch, opens up a diet cola and says

"I'm so, I'm so sick of this place

I'm so ready for a change of pace

I'm just looking for a new routine"

So she spins a globe, and the next thing you know

She's living in Lichtenstein

- Fountains of Wayne, "New Routine" (from Traffic and Weather, 2007)

To be honest, for the most part I actually prefer routines, and I'm sure that stems directly from my personal control issues. I function best when I know the plan, and I know I'm not unusual in that way. At the same time, though, I'll make jokes about the routine - "Off to Target - another exciting Friday night for the Vasquez crew" - and I do chafe against it sometimes. After all, you can't spell "routine" without "rut."

I didn't exactly break my routine wide open this weekend - shoot, going to BlogHerCon would have really fulfilled this assignment! - but I did shift things around a bit. Sometimes, it takes baby steps.

To begin with, we did NOT go to Target on Friday night! Tall Paul and I went out for some dinner, with the intention of a trip to what Elder Nephew used to call "the circle store" afterwards, but we decided to go home instead, relax on the couch, and watch the previous night's episode of Burn Notice from the DVR. (BTW, people, are you watching that show? It. Is. Awesome.)

On Saturday, after coffee with my sister at Starbucks - a part of my weekend routine that will actually be suspended for the next couple of weeks while she and her family are on vacation, so I didn't want to change it this week - I did the Target run, as well as my other weekend errands. My husband, meanwhile, was at the movies without me, seeing Hellboy II: The Golden Army (which he really enjoyed, by the way), and my original intention was to use that "alone time" for some writing, but - well, I was already out, and we should all be conserving gas by combining trips, right?

I spent a good part of the afternoon writing, though - more productive than usual, because I actually closed Google Reader, which is without a doubt my favorite place to procrastinate. I do have a little extension for Firefox (Google Reader Watcher) that keeps up with my unread-feeds count, so I really don't need to keep my Reader tab open all the time. And since that actually did help me get stuff done, I've adopted the same policy at the office (see? new routine!)

Not being churchgoers, our Sunday mornings are open, and we spent this one at the movies, seeing The Dark Knight (review to be posted tomorrow). Afterwards, we had lunch at Octopus, a Japanese-fusion restaurant that we'd only been to once before - and we both ordered different things than we'd had on our first visit, so I think that qualifies as trying to avoid starting a routine/rut. Once we got home, I did have some parts of my weekend routine that I'd been procrastinating about; I did a couple of them, but I'll be honest in telling you I skimped a bit on the housecleaning. If there's anything that feels more rut-like than the chores, I'm not sure what it is.

It's good to tweak the routine, or out-and-out let it slide, sometimes; it gives me a change in perspective, and things usually don't fall apart. Thanks for the nudge, Karen! I'd like to do this more often, but if I make too big a thing out of it, it may become a routine too.

As for the extra credit, I'd play hooky from work for a few days - with no plans at all.

Have you felt like you're in a rut lately? How do you plan to shake up the ol' routine - or do you like it that way?

Change of address!

2008-07-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't moved, but my blog has a new address: it's now being published on its own domain. Welcome to www.3rsblog.com!

I've changed the Feedburner settings, so hopefully this post will be showing up in your feed reader or e-mail just as it usually would. (If you recently saw a bunch of older posts dumped into your reader, it had something to do with the address change/re-set of the feed.) I've been monitoring the feed from my end, and it seems to be picking up everything, so I think that worked - you shouldn't have to change your subscription settings at all.

Bookmarks and links are supposed to redirect from the Blogspot address; if you've linked here, you may notice the change in the links themselves without your having to do anything. Searches should still end up here with no problem. If you have the site bookmarked or listed in your blogroll, you might want to switch to the new address within a few days, once it's "live" all over the Internet.

If you notice any problems, please let me know about them!

Ten on Tuesday, sort of: Celebrity Edition

2008-07-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

This week's Ten on Tuesday topic, "10 Least Favorite Celebrities," really isn't doing much for me. I try to stay away from the entertainment-gossip-oriented websites and TV shows (although having said that, TMZ on TV can be hilarious, mostly because of the snarky voiceovers), which helps limit my exposure to so-called celebrities who may have been on a reality-TV show once or twice, but are now mostly famous for being on gossip websites and in tabloids. That means I'm having a hard time thinking of ten celebrities that I'm sick of - that aren't the same ones that everyone else is sick of too. Also, it bothers me that, for the most part, the celebrities that come to mind are women, but as long as the media keeps spotlighting their foibles more than men's, this is what we have to work with.

On first thought, a few names came to mind:
Britney
Paris
Madonna...

and then I stalled. Then I decided it wasn't worth trying to come up with any more.

Instead, I'm going to go the "Just pick one already" route, via Meg Fowler (who calls it "Choose Ye.") I'm not sure it's easier, but it's a little more positive. The rules are simple, per Meg: "No 'it depends' or 'both!' or 'neither'… you must choose!" My choice in each pair is underlined - and to be honest, some of them are just completely random.

Robert Redford or Paul Newman?

Bill Murray or Steve Martin? (mostly because of Groundhog Day)

Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly?

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?

George Clooney or Brad Pitt? (not as tough as choice as you might think)

Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holiday?

Garrison Keillor or David Sedaris?

Stevie Wonder or Al Green? (sorry for betraying my Memphis roots on this one)

Sophia Loren or Marilyn Monroe? (Some Like it Hot, my friends)

Lawrence Welk or Percy Faith? (in honor of my great-aunts, who watched him on TV every week)

Miles Davis or John Coltrane?

Tina Fey or Sarah Silverman? (Total no-brainer. Tina Fey is a nerd goddess, and 30 Rock has 17 Emmy nominations!)

Denzel Washington or Russell Crowe?

Ron Popeil (of SET IT AND FORGET IT fame) or Billy Mays (OXY CLEAN!)

John Cusack or Matthew Broderick? (Bueller? Bueller?)

Benicio Del Toro or Javier Bardem?

Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino?

Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn?

Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant? (See The Philadelphia Story, and you get both!)

Bob or Doug?

Julia Roberts or Reese Witherspoon?

Roger Moore or Sean Connery? (Sorry, but he's the Bond, James Bond I grew up with)

Salma Hayek or Penelope Cruz?

Matt Damon or Ben Affleck?

Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett?

Who do you choose? Tell us in the comments, or post them on your own blog!

Traveling again...

2008-07-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm holding down the fort at Sunshine's place today. She issued an invitation a few weeks ago for guest bloggers to contribute posts talking about what's great about their home states. My current state of California was already spoken for, but this is where it comes in handy to have moved around as much as I have - I was able to but in a bid to post about one of my previous home states. Bending the rules just a little, maybe - but she said I could do it if no one who still lives there asked for it.

Well, I guess no one did, because today I'm hosting your virtual tour of Tennessee over at ...and the pursuit of happiness. Y'all come over and see me! Please? Thank you, thankyouverymuch. Oh, and if you have comments, please leave them on the guest post (not here) - don't worry, I'll still get them!

BlogHerCon post-mortem, in absentia

2008-07-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, the annual BlogHer Conference took place in San Francisco. You may have heard about it somewhere - going or nor going to BlogHerCon has been quite the topic of blogversation lately, although no one but me has called it "BlogHerCon," as far as I know (no, wait, someone has); most peple just call it "BlogHer," and its "official" short name is "BlogHer08" (this year's model). But since BlogHer is also the community for women who blog that organizes the conference every year (and which provides the ads in my sidebar), I'm going with BlogHerCon. Maybe it will catch on next year. Hey, my nerd factor is a matter of record - every conference or convention is a "something-con."

If you normally spend your time in parts of the blogosphere where the topic of BlogHerCon rarely, if ever, came up, and you're wondering what this is all about - well, wonder no more! And it's not just the conference itself that gets people wound up; it's the parties and mixers and face-to-face meeting and networking that surround it too, as hundreds of women bloggers get to match a face to the words. Many of the blogs I subscribe to are women's personal blogs, and last week, a lot of them were talking and Twittering about BlogHerCon - either they were excited to be going, or they were regretful that they weren't. The excitement and the regrets seemed to be at least as much about the surrounding socializing as they were about the conference content. And many of the attendees kept up the talking and Twittering with live updates from BlogHerCon - the sessions, the parties, the swag - once the event was underway, keeping everyone informed.

If you're wondering why I haven't mentioned it here before - well, I didn't go, and I really didn't have a whole lot to say about that beforehand; therefore, you may be wondering why I would have anything to say about it afterwards, given that I...well, wasn't there.

I first became aware of the conference last year, but felt like far too much of a blogging newbie even to consider going. This year, on the other hand, I did give it some serious thought. In fact, I thought about it for so long it ended up being too late to do anything about going. Procrastination over a decision sometimes winds up making the decision for you, I've noticed. And in this case, in some ways it was a relief to have it decided. My introversion and discomfort with in-person networking are as much a matter of record as my nerd factor, and the idea that I would willingly step into a situation that's so heavy on the networking is ...well, at least a little out of character. And given the fact that this year's conference sold out, with literally a thousand registered attendees, I can easily see being overwhelmed by it all.

As I said, I'm somewhat relieved and not sorry that I didn't go this year. I've read some attendees' dispatches from BlogHerCon, and have most appreciated the live-blogs and reports from particular talks and panels. That's the real meat of a conference, and to be honest, there's a fair amount of it that I would have been interested in hearing. Besides, when you're in an auditorium or conference room listening to speakers, you're there for a reason, and in a crowd of unknowns, I'm much more comfortable with structure. At the same time, I got the message from some people there that it was all very big, crowded, and could indeed be overwhelming.

It's the surrounding social stuff that makes me more nervous. Some attendees admitted, via blog and Twitter tweets, that they were spending more time at parties than in sessions. That's worthwhile; bloggers come to feel like we know each other because we share so much online, but actually meeting in person and spending time together makes our relationships truly personal. However, reading about who was at which parties, and who else was there, and what people were wearing loses its appeal for me after awhile - it can start to sound more like name-dropping and "look at what I got to do!" than "let me share this experience so you'll know what it was like." That's too much like the outside-looking-in high school experience that I prefer to forget, thanks. I think that's also one reason why some bloggers who couldn't attend, or chose not to, just get tired of hearing about it all, or outright backlash against it.

The vendor handouts - the swag - don't really excite me, and honestly make me just a bit uncomfortable. Some attendees talked about getting three or four goody bags, from various parties as well as the conference itself, and they weren't full of trinkets and cheap T-shirts. There has to be an expectation that people will blog about what they got - this is a big marketing opportunity, clearly. You know, I'm still writing most of my reviews here about books I bought myself and movies that I've seen on my own (well, usually with my husband, but you know what I mean); I don't seek out freebies. I'm still getting used to the idea that people offer to send me books for free, and I probably decline more than I accept, because it's still interest-driven for me. I'm really trying to keep it that way.

But despite uncertainty, reservations, and the backlash, I'm seriously thinking about attending BlogHerCon next year - location, timing, and cost all permitting, of course. I've never been to a blogging conference, and I do take this seriously enough that I think I could learn a lot. As far as the social side of it goes, thanks to my new association with the LA Moms Blog (oops, I'm guilty of a little name-dropping there myself), I actually will know a few bloggers in person by next summer, and that will help make it a little less intimidating. Would any other newbies be interested in taking on BlogHerCon 2009 with me? Let's start talking about it soon. And if you went to BlogHerCon this year, what's your advice?

Friday Q&A - this time, it's a classic

2008-07-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Thingers 7/15 - Book-swapping (hosted by Marie of The Boston Bibliophile)

Today's topic: Book-swapping. Do you do it? What site(s) do you use? How did you find out about them? What do you think of them? Do you use LT's book-swapping column feature for information on what to swap? Do you participate in any of the LT communities that discuss bookswapping, like the Bookmooch group for example?

Well, I have to say "yes and no" to the "Do you book-swap?" question. Inspired by the "read and release" philosophy of BookCrossing (which I joined almost six years ago [as bookcookie39] but where I'm no longer very active), I rarely hold on to books once I finish reading them. I'll give them away to friends (my off-line book club includes a book swap our meetings), donate them to the Friends of the Library for their bookstore, or just leave them in a safe place where they might be found and taken. When I was an active BookCrosser, I did quite a lot of "releasing by mail," sending my used books to other members who requested them. In that tradition, these days, when one of my blog readers leaves an insightful comment on a book I've reviewed and expresses the intention to keep an eye out for it, I've been known to offer to send her my copy - if I didn't plan to keep it anyway, it's nice to know where it's going (and look forward to another review!). I actually like doing this, except for the part that involves going to the post office - and that part is the admittedly lame reason why I do much less of it than I used to.

I've never been all that big on true book-swapping, though. I'm happy to give you a book I've finished reading, but I'll rarely take one in return. That's another BookCrossing-related thing; when I was arranging to send someone one of my books and she offered "something from (her) BC bookshelf" in exchange, I started finding it tiring and time-consuming to browse all those other people's collections, especially when they didn't seem to have much in common with my own, so I basically copped out on trading and just gave away books. (Responding with "Oh, it's fine, you can just have it," seemed more polite than saying, "Sorry, you just don't have anything that I want.") In-person swapping, with the books in hand at the time, is much more manageable for me. If I ever change my mind about that, though, I may have to check out LT's swap-sites links. If the book "giving" and book "getting" are separate transactions, that may be worth trying. If one of you book-swappers can enlighten me on how all that works, I'd appreciate it!

Vacation Spots - Booking though Thursday (hosted by Deb)

Another question inspired by the Bunch of Grapes on Martha’s Vineyard having burned down on the Fourth of July.

Do you buy books while on vacation/holiday?

Do you have favorite bookstores that you only get to visit while away on a trip?

What/Where are they?

I’m still devastated about the Bunch of Grapes, even though I usually only got to visit it once or twice a year–it was such a vital part of my trips to Martha’s Vineyard. Its (hopefully temporary) loss won’t affect my day-to-day book habits, but it was such a wonderful store on one of my favorite places. Stopping there was such a strong tradition, and I’m going to miss it as part of my vacations. But it made me think–I always buy books when I’m away from home. They’re as much of a trip-souvenir as any t-shirt or trinket. Better, even! And it occurs to me that I can’t be the only one of us who does that, huh?

I partially answered this question in last week's BTT response:

There are usually some books in my TBR collection that I have mentally set aside as "good vacation reading" for time or thematic reasons (if not both), and I'll take a few of them with me. I'll usually take more books than I think I can possibly get through, just in case I have more reading time than expected - I would not want to run out of reading material! However, if that should happen, it would just be a good excuse - as if I need one - to check out a local bookstore, which is something I'll rarely pass up an opportunity to do.

Since I don't have a "regular" vacation spot that I return to every year or so - my in-laws do have a fishing cabin in the Eastern Sierras, but there are no bookstores for miles - I don't have a specific "away" bookstore that I visit. But it's rare that I don't end up in a bookstore at least once during any vacation (or at least check out the books display in a gift shop). It may be an intriguing-looking local shop - sometimes I've found books in those stores that wouldn't have crossed my radar at home, and bringing them back with me has turned out to be a very good decision. At other times, it may be a nearby Borders or B&N, just because I'm jonesing for some new reading material (even though I did bring books with me).

Because here's the thing about me and bookstores - if it's rare for me not to end up in one, it's extremely unusual for me to leave one empty-handed. What about you?

Friday Fill-In #81 (hosted by Janet)

All questions this week are courtesy of Sherry; thank you, girl!

1. If I could be a fly on the wall I would listen in to what goes on in some of those meetings I'm not invited to (boring, huh?).

2. Jealousy is occasionally motivating, but usually just unpleasant.

3. When I see a shooting star my wish would be that I could have three more wishes.

4. I'd rather be early than stuck in traffic any day!

5. Certain songs when I hear them make me wanna push the "skip" button on the iPod or change the station on the radio.

6. If time were in a bottle I'd use an extra couple of hours of it every day (most likely for sleeping)!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to something I haven't quite planned out yet, tomorrow my plans include writing, reading, and maybe even some housecleaning and Sunday, I want to see The Dark Knight with my husband, and then write a review of it to post here!

I haven't started a new book this week - still reading Girls Like Us - so I'm bypassing the Page 123 meme. Instead, here are my responses to the Classics Meme that has been making the rounds. It was started by Kristen at Book Club Classics to promote her new site LitGuides.com (a site dedicated to helping teachers/students navigate classic literature), and I've seen it at Just a (Reading) Fool, Blue Archipelago, and My Own Little Reading Room (and I'm sure there are others who have posted their answers too - I just haven't seen them myself!)

What is the best classic you were “forced” to read in school (and why)? Huckleberry Finn. I read Tom Sawyer on my own - it's more of a kids' book, in my opinion - but might not have read Huck if it weren't required American Lit. reading. It's a good story with a great main character, but from where we are now, it's also an important historical document in context of its time and place.
What was the worst classic you were forced to endure (and why)? Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff isn't a tortured hero, he's just a beast. Far too much romantic mythology about "the bad boy" sprung from here. Sorry, I can't really be objective - I just heartily dislike this book.
Which classic should every student be required to read (and why)? Slaughterhouse-Five. It's a more modern "classic," granted - it may even be postmodern in its blend of elements (history, science fiction, existentialist absurdity) - and that in itself is enough reason to read it. So it goes.
Which classic should be put to rest immediately (and why)? Beowulf. I took Shakespeare instead of British Lit. in high school just to avoid it :-). Seriously, though, I don't really have an answer for this one - I suppose I could vote for Wuthering Heights, though.
**Bonus** Why do you think certain books become classics? They're well-written, their themes are universal and timeless, and they have at least one appealing, sympathetic character.

What would your answers to these questions be?

Bookworms Carnival #14 - The scoop

2008-07-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

It occurs to me that my announcement that I'll be hosting the August Bookworms Carnival might need a little background information, especially if this is your first invitation to the Carnival.

The monthly Bookworms Carnival is organized and facilitated by Dewey at The Hidden Side of a Leaf, but each individual Carnival is conducted by a volunteer host. While the Carnival's aim is to help build the book-blogging community, please note that you do NOT have to have a books blog in order to participate - ALL bloggers are welcome, as long as you're able to submit a post that fits the carnival's theme!

As the host blogger, I have chosen the theme "You're Never Too Old - Children's and Young-Adult Literature." Since these seem to be popular genres with bloggers, I'm hoping for a successful Carnival with lots of submissions! Decisions on which submissions to accept, and how many to include in the Carnival, will be made solely at my discretion.

The "You're Never Too Old" carnival is open to various types of posts. Some examples: book reviews (of course), posts remembering your favorite kids' and YA books and/or those you've shared with your own kids, critical discussions of the genre, even your own short fiction written for a kids'/YA audience. The posts don't have to be new, either - if you have something in your archives that fits the theme and you'd like it to be included, go for it!

Your submission should be posted at your own blog no later than the submissions deadline of August 8th (obviously, this won't be a problem if you're submitting an archive post). Please e-mail the link to your post to me at 3.rsblog AT gmail DOT com, and include "Bookworms Carnival" in the subject line. My Carnival post will collect all the links, and readers will have to click through to your blogs to read the submitted posts.

Feel free to grab a Bookworms Carnival button from Dewey's Carnival Info page, and add it to your submitted post at your blog. When the Carnival goes up, I'd appreciate it if you'd link back to it here - community-building is all about the linky love, right?

I'd like to reiterate that you do NOT have to be a "book blogger" to join in! The readers here come from a variety of blogosphere niches, so no matter what you usually blog about, you're more than welcome to blog about children's and young-adult literature for this Bookworms Carnival. I'm looking forward to reading everyone's submissions!

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments for this post or e-mail me.

Book Club book talk: "Veil of Roses," by Laura Fitzgerald

2008-07-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Veil of Roses

Laura Fitzgerald

Bantam, 2006 (paperback) (ISBN 0553383884 / 9780553383881)

Fiction, 320 pages

First Sentence: As I walk past the playground on my way to downtown Tucson, I overhear two girls teasing a third: Jake and Ella sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

Three sentences from Page 123

Book Description: Tamila Soroush wanted it all. But in Iran, hope is a dangerous thing for a girl. That’s why a one-way plane ticket to America is the greatest gift Tami’s parents could have given her on her twenty-seventh birthday. Getting to America seems easy enough, but figuring out a way to stay for an extended period of time proves to be a whole other matter. Hoping never to return to the suffocating life that awaits her back in Iran, Tami must find a husband in the three short months she has in the United States. However, dealing with feelings she has never before experienced and desires she never imagined could be fulfilled, Tami must decide exactly how much she is willing to give up in order to stay in America.

Comments: This is my favorite kind of "chick-lit" - heavier on the "lit," and having more substance than one might expect. (Does that upgrade it to "women's fiction"? I'm still not entirely clear on the distinctions.) On the other hand, the cover illustration makes it look like a more serious book than it actually is. While the plot of Veil of Roses isn't exactly groundbreaking - girl wants to find husband, but there are obstacles - and I found the outcome predictable, I really enjoyed reading this.

Laura Fitzgerald tells this story from an outsider's perspective, and Tami is an engaging character. Her desire to stay in the United States, and to experience the sort of freedom and choices that would not be available to her in contemporary Iran, gives a sense of urgency to her three-month visit to her her sister and brother-in-law in Tucson, Arizona; the most likely way to extend that stay is to find a husband herself, and that is the primary goal of her trip. Tami's experience of life in America, both among other immigrants and with natives, gave me a fresh appreciation for what we have in this country, particularly as women, when compared to other places in the world. Tami notices that too, and at times doesn't think that Westerners appreciate their freedoms enough; she sometimes struggles to make her new acquaintances understand that she comes from a very different worldview, and that they take certain things for granted that she cannot.

I didn't have much trouble visualizing the action in this novel as I read it, particularly in the last third of the book. With some tweaking, it's not hard to imagine this story on a movie screen, as a multicultural romantic comedy. I'd probably see that movie, actually.

I selected this for my book club to discuss at our next meeting, and I'm curious to know what the other women in my group will have to say about it.

Rating: 3.5/5

Other bloggers' reviews:
Melody's Reading Corner

If you have reviewed this book, please leave the link in a comment or e-mail it to me at 3.rsblog AT gmail DOT com, and I'll edit this review to include it!

Midweek Scraptacular: News and notes and links and stuff

2008-07-16T06:00:00.001-07:00

I didn't have a lot of links to share this past Sunday - partly because work was so busy last week that I skimped on blog reading! - so I decided to keep the collection open a little while longer this time.

Announcements:
******** I have set up a FriendFeed - it's yet another way to share online activity, centralizing your participation in various services. In my case, it's recapping blog posts, Twitter updates, LibraryThing activity, and Google Reader shared items. The nice thing about it is that once you set it up, it can be completely effortless (unless you get involved in its "discussion" capabilities...). If you're using it too, let me know so I can subscribe to your updates.

********* One of my favorite book-blogging people - make that favorite people, period - is Wendy, better known as Literary Feline of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. In honor of her blog's second anniversary, she is offering a chance to win 14 books in Hachette Book Group's Summer Reads Giveaway. Even though your entry will reduce my own chances of winning, if that sounds like your idea of a good time, you can find out about the books offered and how to enter in this post on Wendy's blog (deadline is August 2nd).

******** Just a reminder that I will be hosting the August Bookworms Carnival! The details:

Deadline for submission: August 8

Theme: You’re Never Too Old - Children's and Young-Adult (YA) literature
To submit a post, email: 3.rsblog at gmail dot com
Book reviews, essays, or even your own short fiction are welcome, as long as they are related to children's or YA literature.

********* Next week's topic for Ten on Tuesday is "10 Least Favorite Celebrities," and I'm taking a write-in poll. Who has totally worn out his or her welcome with you? Leave their names in the comments (you don't need to list ten yourself, unless you really want to), and I'll work them into the list - with credit and a link to you, of course!

New in Google Reader:
The Unfocused Life, via Everything Under the Sun
Mar Vista Mom, via Twitter
Blog Nosh Magazine - what's that? find out more here

Random reading:
I was a little behind on blog-reading last weekend, so I didn't get to these excellent Independence Day-related posts until after I posted last Sunday's "snippets." Speaking of blog-reading (and writing), were you aware that the average blog lifespan is two months? Thanks to Cynical Dad for that tidbit as he marked his third year of blogging! It's been well over a year now for me, and I suspect most of you who read here regularly have been at it for far longer than that average as well - in fact, let me know in the comments just how long you've been blogging!

It's not like Mir Kamin needs me linking to her, but I really related to much of what she said in this post, particularly the parts I'm about to quote:

I dislike the implication that ANYONE needs a mate to be happy...You cannot rely on a PERSON for happiness, because the last time I checked, people were fallible and that’s a crappy paradigm for emotional stability. Just sayin’.

I believe that we are all working out our own salvation. Put plainly, we don’t get what we can’t handle or what we’re not ready to receive. I am positive that this phase of my life fell into place once I had done the personal work necessary for it to happen...

I think these great loves came into our lives when we were finally ready for them. We are happy now in large part because we have mates with whom to share our lives, yes, but we have those mates in large part because we’d figured out how to be happy without them. See?

I would say the same, except she already said it just fine.

"Career" vs. "job" - what are the distinctions? And both in and out of the career/job realm, I've always been most comfortable in the second-banana role myself - what about you?

Well, what do you know? Twitter serves a purpose after all.

I'm a dog person, which is one reason I enjoy reading people's rants about their cats. I also enjoy their rants about their husbands, even though I probably shouldn't have laughed quite so much at this one. (Dude, just read the manuscript - your armpit hair is at stake!) And don't almost all of us rant about spam?

=====================

My first post at the Los Angeles Moms Blog is up! The blog is in "soft launch," but building an archive and adding contributors, and I'm excited to be one of them. This time, I'm talking about life with an eight-year-old Pokemon addict:

I have been a parent long enough to know that kids go through these periods of intense attachment to particular interests or activities. In some cases, it does turn out the be the proverbial "going through a phase," particularly with younger children. Sometimes it lays the foundation for a lifelong love affair, like the one my son has with baseball. But regardless of the eventual outcome of the obsession, it can make living with the obsessed one very interesting - or, just as likely, very boring... My stepson's all-consuming interest in everything related to these junior-grade anime characters is something else - and for the rest of us, but especially for me, what it mostly is is exhausting.

If you'd like to read the rest, just click here - and it would totally make my day if you'd leave a comment for me over there, too!

Ten on Tuesday: Vacation!

2008-07-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

I could actually take the easy way out on this week's Ten on Tuesday topic, "10 Favorite Vacation Moments," and link back to the 10 days of vacation moments I recently posted about as the "Road Trip Diary," but I decided that I should look back further than last month's vacation, and see what past experiences stood out. The list is organized by destination and travel year, and some vacations have more than one "moment" worth recalling.

Boston, 1989
When my son was five years old, he, his father, and I traveled to Boston to visit some friends for a few days. We drove from upstate New York, but didn't really want to use our car around the city, since Boston has an excellent public-transit system. We got a map of the "T" before our trip, and Chris studied it carefully. While we were in Boston, he acted as our tour guide, making sure we knew which train lined to take and where to make our changes.

San Francisco, 1990
I made this trip on my own, not long after my sister had moved to the Bay Area. I stayed with her for an extended weekend, and one of our activities was a baseball game at Candlestick Park (Giants vs. Mets). The game was played late afternoon/early evening on a Sunday (East Coast prime time - the game was being shown on ESPN) in mid-August. We wore winter coats, huddled under stadium blankets, and drank hot chocolate.

Bay Area, 1993
This was my second trip to see my sister in San Francisco. I stayed a little longer this time, and since was more familiar with the area by then, we were able to explore more, and even go out of the city - we planned an overnight trip to Monterey and Carmel. She didn't own a car - didn't need one - and I had come by airplane, so we made the side trip in a rented white Ford Festiva that we named "Stubby."

Caribbean cruise, 1995
This was the first cruise for my family. As it turned out, it was a great one to take an 11-year-old sports-obsessed boy on, because it was a theme cruise - basketball, with some former NBA players as special guests. There was a special basketball clinic for the kids on the ship, which was fun to watch. It was also fun when we participated in a sports-trivia contest; the three of us joined someone we'd met on the ship to compete as a team, and he turned out to be a "ringer" - he worked at the Basketball Hall of Fame. Thanks to him and Chris, our team came in fourth (Chris' dad and I would have ranked down near the bottom without them).

Olympics, Atlanta 1996
It's mostly the fact that we were there at all that puts this vacation on the list.

I had to skip ahead about ten years to find some more worthy recollections. During the interim, I bought a house, sold a house, got divorced, moved to California, and met my second husband. Tall Paul and I have had some wonderful travels already in our three years together, and I look forward to many more.

San Francisco and Monterey, 2006
This was our first trip together, a few months after we got engaged. We'd both been to San Francisco before (I've already mentioned my previous trips there), but it was Tall Paul's first visit to Monterey. We stayed in a beautiful hotel on Nob Hill in San Francisco, located at the corner of California and Powell streets (not far from my sister's old apartment), and our room overlooked the intersection of two cable-car lines. We were without a car in the city, and walked or took the cable cars or trains everywhere we went. We saw a baseball game at AT&T Park, which is a gorgeous ballpark and nowhere near as cold as Candlestick Park was; we were in town the same weekend as our hometown Dodgers, who blew a five-run lead over the Giants in the ninth inning.

We rented a car for our trip to Monterey, where we stayed in a bed-and-breakfast just across the road from the beach. The waterfront was overrun by California sea lions.

Tennessee, 2007
When I returned to Tennessee for the first time since I'd moved away, five years later, I was looking forward to two things: my son's university graduation, and introducing my native-Californian second husband to things I still missed about Memphis - most notably the food. We did the obligatory (for me - he actually wanted to go) visit to Graceland, and I loved taking him to visit my old workplace, The Memphis Zoo. I took him to his first minor-league baseball game at the Memphis Redbirds' AutoZone Park, and we saw the Peabody Ducks do their evening march across the hotel lobby.
But after two years of hearing me pine after things like Back Yard Burgers and Memphis barbeque, Tall Paul had the chance to try Southern cooking for himself. I'm looking forward to taking him back again for more!

Together, we also visited parts of the state that were new to both of us. Since I hadn't been back to Tennessee since my son started university, I had never visited Knoxville before, and I'd spent very little time in Nashville (there's a little rivalry between Nashville and my old hometown, and Memphis has a bit of an inferiority complex about it). We spent a day in the heart of the Smoky Mountains, and after years of seeing its billboards, I finally had the chance to see Rock City and its famous view of seven states.

I'm pretty sure there at least ten favorite moments scattered through this post, maybe more. I'd love to know about some of your favorite vacation memories too, and if you've played Ten on Tuesday this week, please leave a link to your post in the comments!

Weekly Geeks #11 - Helping Dewey Move

2008-07-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

Weekly Geeks #11 is a special assignment - a request for help from our fearless WG leader, Dewey. She says:

Here’s the thing. I have a big pile of books waiting to be reviewed.I have less than two weeks before I move. I do not want to have to packand move all these books. So what I would like is some help gettingthese books reviewed, so that I can post my reviews and get rid of thebooks in giveaways or by returning them to the library.
How can you help? Please choose one of the books [listed in her post and needing a review] and ask me three questions about it in your blog. I will write a mini-review answering the three questions (and, obviously, linking to the questioner’s blog), and offer the book to the blogger whose questions I answer, IF the book is mine to give away.

After looking over Dewey's list, I picked a book that has caught my eye on my last few visits to bookstores, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein. Here's what I'd like to know:

The book is subtitled "Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes." How does the book accomplish this? Does it actually accomplish it?
Who do you think is the ideal reader for this book? Was it you - if not, why not?
Please share one of your favorite jokes from the book - one that not only makes its point, but is also funny.

Now it's in Dewey's hands - will she choose these questions to answer about this book? I'm anxious to find out!