The Name Says it All

Can we just say I'm really not feeling the love right now?

Time to Vote

Ballots are now available online for this year's Bloggie Awards. It's a great way to check out a wide variety of blogs in many different categories. There really is some wonderful writing being published online--I should know, I subscribe to over thirty different blogs these days. Probably the reason I don't have as much time to read "real" books as I used to.

There are cooking blogs, travel blogs, blogs that feature gorgeous photographs, even minimalist blogs (maybe someday we'll be voting for Beth). Don't forget to visit the pages for previous years to find even more fantastic sites. And if any of you have a favorite blog, I'd love to check it out.

http://2009.bloggies.com/

Busy Week!

Things have been pretty hectic around here, what with the inauguration (even though I was smart enough to celebrate from home), and birthdays, and the ramshackle creation of a new soap blog. So very little time for reading!

I did inhale the latest story by Janet Evanovich, Inc. called Plum Spooky. It could have been worse. At least I didn't finish it wishing for that hour of my life back. And you can never have too many bird-flipping monkeys in this world.

Bathtub Books: January 19

So it's that time of year again when I spend every evening in the bathtub, reading a stack of books and recovering my sanity. So here's what I polished off this past week:



What's Age Got To Do With It? Don't ask me why I bother with this crap. I can't stand Dr Phil and his perky wife Robin drives me up the wall (so much for sane tubby time). Robin McGraw's book is all about how to be fit, healthy, and happy at any "advanced" age, but she really uses this book as a way to boast about how wonderful she is (hasn't had refined sugar since she was 26? Bet she never sleeps in her makeup, either). Life's too short to worry about how best to apply mascara to thinning lashes.



Winging It : This book is the sequel to Catherine Goldhammer's Still Life with Chickens. It talks about her daughter leaving the nest (gotta keep with the bird theme). Goldhammer, a single mother, had a rough time dealing with the separation and with the freedom that comes once the responsibilities of motherhood are over (or less--we're never completely free, are we?). The one thing that hit me was that we both attended the same Edward Hopper exhibit and had the same favorite painting: Sun in an Empty Room. I could look at it for hours. (You can look at it too at this site: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hopper/interior/hopper.sun-empty-room.jpg) It's part of a private collection so we were very lucky to see it at all. The book was a decent read.

Finished The Magician's Book (see fucking elf below). Also read the Chronicles again. And after hearing all those Tolkien stories I have a feeling Lord of the Rings is in my near future. Maybe I'll cheat and see the movies instead.

Amarcord: Marcella Remembers is the autobiography of Marcella Hazan. It was fascinating to read how a scientist became the leading Italian cooking teacher and author. I had never known that her right arm is useless due to a childhood accident and that she rarely showed it, even during televised cooking demonstrations. Interesting, but to be honest I prefer to read the cookbooks themselves.

And finally, Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher. I loved this book, and not only because I totally wanted to look like her when I was fourteen years old (the hours spent in front of the mirror with a cake of Max Factor eyeliner! Can you even buy that stuff anymore?). This is an expanded version of Fisher's stage show. She talks very openly of her fishbowl childhood, the crazy fame that came with Star Wars, and her mental health issues (addiction, bipolar disorder, and electroshock therapy). It shouldn't be funny, but the way Fisher tells her stories is hilarious. There's great warmth in the book as well. I give it an A.

"Not another fucking elf!"

Quote from Inklings member Hugh Dyson when faced with the latest installment of Tolkien's work.

I'm reading all about C S Lewis (and his Oxford friends) in The Magician's Book, a literary critique of the Chronicles of Narnia by Laura Miller. Really a must if you're a big fan, which I of course am.

I want Dyson's comment on a t-shirt.

Vacation Reading

This pretty much sums up what we did on our Christmas vacation .

Can't believe it's been so long since I've posted (well, actually I can) but between all the traveling and soap-catching-upping, I haven't really had time to cozy up with a book.

I always have a hard time reading books on planes and while on vacation. Too many interruptions (as opposed to being home where all I do is let animals in and out every fifteen minutes). I did read a lot of magazines at Tania's (Health, Prevention, and Cooking Light) and Mom's (Gourmet, Bon Appetit, and Real Simple). You can get a real feel for a person from the magazines they read.

With that in mind, here are all the magazines that Mike and I subscribe to. This doesn't include the odd glossy picked up at the grocery store or airport. This stuff is coming into our house at least once a month:

The New Yorker

The Economist

The Week

Domino

O--the Oprah Magazine

Ladies Home Journal

More

Elle

Harper's Bazaar

Vanity Fair

Vogue

Good Housekeeping

Woman's Day

Family Circle

Redbook

Washingtonian

Southern Living

Loudoun Magazine

So what does that say about us?

(And don't worry, every single issue is passed on to another reader or two before being recycled).