Usually, I make it my policy not to correct people on Facebook, though there are many people who are frankly wrong out there. Except for the occasional stray bit of punctuation, and spelling “a lot” as a single word, I make it my policy to let things slide. Though many people want to make the world a better place through linking, I believe sites like … Continue reading Sunday Salon: I Trolled Someone On Facebook And I Liked It.
This book is not really about Paris. I read somewhere that A Moveable Feast is selling quite well in the aftermath of the Paris Attacks, but I think that group of readers will be disappointed. A Moveable Feast could be set in any city with lots of cafes. It really doesn’t have much to do with Paris at all. My partner C.J. spent his high school years … Continue reading A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Hanya Yanagihara’s editor asked her to make changes to A Little Life, specifically to tone down the abuse in the second half of the book and to cut several hundred pages from manuscript. Ms. Yanagihara refused, according to an article in The Guardian. Had she taken her editor’s advice, her book would have been better, in my opinion. Author’s listen to your editors. Still, A … Continue reading A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
I once dated a guy in A.A. who broke things off with me because I wasn’t an addict. He said that since I was not an alcoholic, I could never really understand him. There’s not really anything you can say to that. I’m not going to become an alcoholic just so I can win you over, not matter how blue your eyes are. (They were really blue, … Continue reading Sunday Salon: A Little Link Hate With Added Dating Advice From a Rambling Old Pro
Clovis is one sick puppy. We think he probably ate something that has upset him. If you’ve ever had a Bassett hound, or really any dog I suppose, then you know they will eat anything they can find and the not being able to chew it is no problem. Very likely he found an old plum under the plum tree and went for it. He … Continue reading Sunday Salon: One Sick Puppy, One Wandering Cat, and Bingeing on Cool Museum Visits.
One bad cliche spoils the whole bunch. Early on in Louis de Bernieres new novel, The Dust that Falls From Dreams, two of the major characters, Rose and Ash, have a chance encounter with a gypsy girl. When they ask the girl to read their futures, the gypsy tells Rose that she will have two and a half children. After she takes one brief look … Continue reading The Dust That Falls From Dreams by Louis de Bernieres
I’ll start by admitting that we use Jack London’s The Call of the Wild in our 7th grade English classes because I once found several hundred copies gathering dust in the book room. I believe in using classic literature with my students as much as possible. For several years I taught the now defunct gifted and talented class with groups of students who were very high … Continue reading The Call of the Wild by Jack London
You might think this one would be a bit of a stretch. This time the two cards I dealt brought me Ben Winter’s linked stories “BRING HER TO ME” and “BRING THEM DOWN” from The Apocalypse Trilogy and Joan Didion’s essay “Comrade Laski, C.P.U.S.A. (M.-L.)’ from Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Winter’s story is about a group of religious fanatics who believe God has told them to end … Continue reading Joan Didion vs. Ben Winters. A Deal Me In Short Story Challenge
C.J. and I really hate NPR (National Public Radio), but it remains the station our alarm clock is set to. C.J. says we have our radio set to NPR because when the alarm goes off in the morning, NPR will get us out of bed the fastest. We hate it so much that we’ll leap out of bed to turn the radio off and then start … Continue reading Sunday Salon: Why we hate NPR but keep right on listening.
I’ve been reading Kenneth Oppel’s book Half Brother during Reading Race time at school. Reading Race’s are this thing I’m inventing this year to replace student book clubs. I loved book clubs, but my district changed the make-up of my classes this year–apparently the district administration read a study; if you’re a teacher, you know what that can mean–in such a way that I can’t really manage … Continue reading Sunday Salon: What if you saw your mother nursing a monkey?
Serves me right, really. Going on a book buying binge, even a small one, like I did the day before The TBR Double Dog Dare began. And buying two books by an author I’ve never read based on her reviews alone. Karin Fossum has been getting a lot of praise around the book blog/book review world of late. Her Inspector Sejer mystery series has been … Continue reading Sunday Salon: One Book I Won’t Be Finishing and One I Might
Since we became homeowners, C.J. and I have taken to burying our pets in the garden and planting rose bushes over their graves. Because we have been in our house a long time, we now have a very beautiful garden. In fact, if I’m really honest, I’d like my ashes to be buried in my garden when the time comes. This is a legal practice … Continue reading Jessica Mitford is Snarkier Than I–The American Way of Death Revisited
May Contain Spoilers 