There are still the flowers to buy

I hadn't actually heard of The Hours until the movie came out. Of course that happened long before I started this blog, and thus long before I was on top of new books coming out, so it sort of makes sense. For awhile now the book has been in my periphery. It was a gook that I wanted to try and figured I would like, but never enough to go out looking for it. Then it was on sale and I love those.

Unfortunately it's been awhile since I read this (I am real far behind on reviews) which means I can't remember a lot of the book. On the other hand, that's a good indication on how I felt about the book.

I'm sure you probably know the plot, but just in case, it's about three different women all connected in some way by Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. The first is Virginia Woolf who is writing the book, the second is Laura Brown, a 1950s suburban housewife who is reading the book, and Clarissa Vaughn, nicknamed Mrs. Dalloway, who is throwing a party for her friend/living out the story. The three women aren't completely happy with their lives. We know what happened to Virginia Woolf. And even if you didn't, the book starts with her suicide, so now you know. Spoiler, I guess. Laura feels trapped by her life and is possibly in love with a neighbor. Clarissa's best friend and dear love is dying of AIDS.

Here's the thing about the story. I liked it enough while I was reading it. For the most part it kept me engaged. For the most part. But when I put the story down, it was an effort to pick it back up again. Because overall, I didn't care too much. There were nice moments. The writing was beautiful. I really wanted to like it. And I didn't dislike the story. I just nothing-ed it. Perhaps if I had written this not long after I finished reading it I'd have more to say. Maybe. But it's been awhile and I got nothing.

I'd like to see the movie. I have hope that I'll like the movie more than the book. I don't really know why I think that. That's not true. Both Meryl Streep and Allison Janney are in the movie, so already we're starting in a good place.

Title quote from page 9

Cunningham, Michael. The Hours. Picador, 2002. First published 1998

Thanksgiving: ALL THE PUPPY PICTURES

I hope everyone, at least those in the States, had a lovely Thanksgiving. For the rest of you, I hope you at a lot of food anyway. Just because food is delicious.

I was lazy getting the puppy pictures off of my phone, or you would have gotten these yesterday and the November reading wrap-up today. but as it was I wrote part of the wrap-up before November is over and hadn't started this yet. And while my travels on Monday were uneventful, it was still about 8 1/2 hours of door-to-door travel to get from my dad's house in South Carolina back home to NY*, so I was tired.

My Thanksgiving reading didn't play out as I anticipated. And by that I mean I ended up not reading  A Storm of Swords because after Bridget Jones I was in the mood for the original and re-read Pride and Prejudice. But then I wanted something to break that up so I started The Shining. Because I have schizo reading choices. I did however spend time listening to the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, and I'll have you people know I'm very disappointed you didn't bring this to my attention sooner. Really, very disappointed.

 But as promised, here are puppy pictures!!

Dad has 4 dogs: the mutts Clyde, Lucy, and Ranger and then a miniature dachshund Puccini. Puccini is a terror, but an adorable terror so he gets away with a lot. Clyde could get away with a lot too, if he tried, cos he's sort of the favorite (and the oldest and THE BEST ONE). But he's pretty well behaved. As long as you're not a squirrel, cat, or bird. If you're an animal smaller than him, you better be faster cos otherwise you'll be a snack. There are also 3 cats (one of them saved from the outside and the wrath of Clyde) but I only saw them briefly (they mostly hide in the master bed room) so I have no pictures of them. It's cool though, cos PUPPIES

LOOK AT THIS FACE 

Lucy 

Clyde & Ranger

Clyde, laying around some more

And there are no puppies here, at least not in frame, but here's my Dad and brother frying up one of the turkeys. Because we celebrated in the appropriate southern tradition. I believe this was even the cajun bird.

Om nom nom

I'll get around to actual reviews soon. You know. Probably.

*If you're curious my travels consisted of: a car ride, a shuttle van ride, 1 airplane, a monorail, and 2 different commuter rail lines. Because ADVENTURE. Or you know TAKING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.

November Reading Wrap Up

I know I've said this with pretty much every monthly wrap up, but still, time flies. How is it already December? This is nuts. I am finally ready for all of the Christmas commercials and decorations that I have been bitching about since Halloween. But seriously people, I do not acknowledge your holiday decor until that is the next holiday to come up. Stop expecting me to get ready for Christmas when we haven't had Thanksgiving yet. I don't care if it makes me a hum bug, I'LL NOT HAVE IT. However, as soon as Thanksgiving is over BRING ON THE CHRISTMAS!

Before this becomes a full rant about the appropriate time to put up Christmas decorations, let's get into the books I read in November

Also there will be a Thanksgiving post filled with puppy pictures soon. Except this week to be a bunch of procrastination posts.

Number of books read
7
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Why Have Kids?: A New Mom Explores the Truth about Parenthood and Happiness by Jessica Valenti
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (review from last year; and updated review over here)
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

Number of pages read
1,765

Percentage of fiction read
57% - look at all the non-fiction I read. I'm surprised

Percentage of female authors
71% - Can I say how proud I am of this? I didn't try to read lady authors. It just sort of happened, which is how I would like all of my reading diversity to work out. PLUS even the books written by guys are focused on women. So that's pretty exciting.

Percentage of white authors
86% - Look! It's not 100%. I mean, I know. It almost is. Baby steps

Percentage of US authors
86% - this was ALMOST all US

Percentage of ebooks
86% - I'm surprised by this since usually physical books win.

Books written by decade
1950s - 14%
1990s - 29%
2000s - 14%
2010s - 43%

I'm pretty happy with how my reading turned out in November. Which is extra exciting because I didn't try to read more or anything. I happened to read a lot of books that were quick reads. And I re-read Attachments and I think I forgot HOW much I love that book. A lot, is the answer.

Thanksgiving Reading

From BookRiot

The Celebration of Caloric Debauchery/Thanksgiving is just one day away here in the States. As for the past I-don't-know-how-many-years now, I'm going to be down in South Carolina.* Actually by the time this posts I'll be on my way down. I'll be MIA over the next few days while I eat way too much, play with the dogs, and hopefully get a lot of reading done. I won't get too much internet-ing done because internet is in short supply down there, and I'm pretty much limited to my phone.

What will I be reading while I'm down there? I'm not exactly sure. I just bought & recently started Bridget Jones's Diary. I'm pretty sure I'm one of the last people to read this book. (I haven't seen the movie either.) I've been in a Pride & Prejudice mood recently, and I thought this would be a good time to try it. I'm also thinking I might pick up the next Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire book A Storm of Swords since I first picked up the series last Thanksgiving so it seems like a good choice. Besides, I can't think of many Thanksgiving themed books, so why not make my own Thanksgiving reading tradition? Or maybe I'll go with something else. Who knows.

Since this is the season and all, I wanted to talk about how thankful I am for all of the book blogger friends I've made. I was going to say I'm so grateful for this blog, but really the blog wouldn't be nearly as fun (and I can't promise I would have kept up with it) if it wasn't for everyone else. I'm so grateful for the friends I've made. You all kick ass and I hope you're all having a great Thanksgiving. Even those of you outside the States, you should probably eat a lot of food and think of the things you're thankful for because why not? How many excuses do you need to do this?

I'll return shortly hopefully with more book reviews and definitely with some animal pictures.

*To would-be robbers, be warned while I'm out of town Boyfriend+ is holding down the fort. 

One night last summer, all the killers in my head assembled on a stage in Massachusetts to sing show tunes

Earlier this year Alice introduced me to Sarah Vowell. I knew of her but it wasn't until Alice sent me a copy of The Wordy Shipmates that I actually read anything by her.* Then I saw Assassination Vacation was on sale and snatched it up. Wordy Shipmates, you were fun, but Assassination Vacation wins.

AV is about presidential assassinations, specifically Lincoln's, Garfield's, and McKinley's. She discusses the history of the U.S. during the time right before and after the murders. I realize this sounds like a downer of a topic, but if you're already familiar with Vowell you know this is not the case. If you're not already familiar with her, know that she refers to Robert Todd Lincoln as Jinxy McDeath, as he was present in some capacity at all three assassinations.

I think my favorite way to learn is to be tricked into it. Bill Bryson does a good job with this. So does Vowell, who I would consider very similar to Bryson, albeit in different topics and she cites more sources.** AV focused more on her travels around the country to visit the various sites of the assassinations, see the relics leftover, etc. I think this is why I enjoyed this one more than WS, because her talking about her travels are the funniest parts. Besides, this means her young nephew Owen gets to be a character, and he's adorable. I mean, he calls cemeteries "Halloween parks" because adorable. Also because he's a small child whose aunt keeps bringing him to "Halloween parks" so she can visit the graves of various famous historical figures. Plus we get lots of awkward stories about her traveling like when she's at a B&B sitting at breakfast with a bunch of strangers and suddenly starts going on about presidential assassins and the musical she recently saw. As she describes:

Now, a person with sharper social skills than I might have noticed that as these folks ate their freshly baked blueberry muffins and admired the bed-and-breakfast's teapot collection, they probably didn't want to think about presidential gunshot wounds. But when I'm around strangers, I turn into a conversational Mount St. Helens. I'm dormant, dormant, quiet, quiet, old-guy loners build log cabins on the slopes of my silence and then, boom, it's 1980. Once I erupt, they'll be wiping my verbal ashes off their windshields as far away as North Dakota.

It's her humor that gets me through a topic I can't imagine I would read about otherwise. Not unless forced anyway. I feel like just typing that pains certain friends of mine, but American history is not exactly my favorite subject. Hence needing tricked into learning. Vowell brings a human element to a subject that I've mostly experienced through textbooks. She describes how Booth timed his shot during a joke in the play, so at least "the bullet hit Lincoln mid-guffaw". She describes the man who tended to Booth's ankle, broken when he jumped down to the stage after shooting Lincoln, Mudd and even goes to visit the Caribbean prison he was kept in for his part in the assassination. See, now that's dedication.

She spends the most time on Lincoln, but of course there's the most information there. Garfield and McKinley weren't really considered martyrs at their deaths the way Lincoln was at his. Of course it could also be the matter that I know more of Lincoln anyway, so I'm just remembering there being more of that. However I do like the knowledge that Garfield was sort of a slacker, or at least preferred reading to most other things, including running the country. Maybe not the greatest trait in a president, but still.

When I look back over all the sections I highlighted, I realize the majority of them aren't about the presidents. A few are about Owen (cos adorable) and the others are mostly things like "You know you've reached a new plateau of group mediocrity when even a Canadian is alarmed by your lack of individuality." OK, so maybe I didn't learn all that much. I'm sure I'd still fail a test on the topic, but that's fine. It would just give me an excuse to read this again.

I'll need to give Unfamiliar Fishes a try now.

*And I just looked at that post and realized I said pretty much the same thing about knowing of Sarah Vowell because I am repetitive. Let's consider it a quirk instead of a fault so I don't have to go back and rewrite those first sentences.

**Yeah, yeah, I said this in the last review too. Quirk, remember?

Title quote from page 1, location 100

We say motherhood is important, but we sure don't act that way

I've wanted to check out some more Jessica Valenti since I read her book Full Frontal Feminism a zillion years ago.* I have a few of her books on my TBR list and it turned out Why Have Kids was on sale one day, so I went with that one. Many of my reading choices are based on what's cheap at the moment.

I only somewhat remember Full Frontal Feminism at this point, but I'm still pretty confident in saying Why Have Kids is better.

Despite the title of this book, it isn't really a discussion on why one should or shouldn't have kids. The subtitle A New Mom Explores the Truth About Parenting and Happiness is much more accurate. But it's less of an attention-grabby title, so I understand why they went with what they did. Valenti talks about her experiences being a mother and how the culture of motherhood is deeply flawed. Not that being a mother is a bad thing or a negative thing but the deification of mothers is bad for women because it suggests the ONLY way a woman can be worthy is if she's a mother.

She argues this isn't only a problem for women who have no interest in becoming a mother and having society pity them and tell them "you'll change your mind" and other very patronizing things, because man, society can be terrible.

She talks about how the whole idea that "mothers have the hardest, most rewarding, most important job in the world" is a way to tell women "the most important thing you can do is be a mother, so maybe don't worry so much about having a different career. Or at least don't worry about being paid so little for other work. I mean, that's not your true calling anyway."

She also talks about how the problem extends even to those women who want to be mothers, who are mothers, and who discover that being a mother isn't the key to ultimate happiness that they were promised.

She talks about how many laws do everything possible to protect the rights of the fetus while simultaneously ignoring the rights of the woman. How sometimes the woman is ignored as a person even when she's not pregnant because she could possibly become pregnant.

The book talks about a lot of things that make me rage-y, but that's sort of the point going into this book. You know with Valenti you're going to get feminist rants. That's why you're reading the book to begin with. The biggest argument Valenti makes is that motherhood is not the end-all-be-all. It's not necessarily going to be the most important thing you do. And that's OK, and it doesn't mean you love your kids any less, and the fact that this even needs to be affirmed shows how much of a problem this is.**

I highlighted a lot of this book and in what seems to be a theme here, I'm going to share a few of these quotes with you.

Parents expect their children to be their soul mates in the same way they expect of their spouse-they want children to make their lives and families complete. When these sweet little beings who are supposed to be the center of parents' universe don't manage to fulfill their lives completely, we come back to the most overwhelming sentiment of mothers across America: guilt.

The sentiment that women overwhelmingly hear is that if we don't think parenting is the most difficult thing we've ever done, if we don't find it exhausting and draining and killing our sex lives...well, we're doing it wrong.

How insulting is it to suggest that the best thing women can do is raise other people to do incredible things? I'm betting some of those women would like to do some great things of their own.

Overall a book I really enjoyed, despite the rage-y-ness. Because of the rage-y-ness? Both. I've been trying to figure out who I'd recommend this book to: women who want to have kids? are unsure if they want to have kids? know they don't want kids? I dunno, all of that, plus guys? Yeah, I think that last one works. It's an interesting take on the concept of motherhood in current American (and mostly Western) society.

*OK, it was like 3 years ago. But in internet years that's roughly a zillion. Also I apologize that my review for it isn't really a review but like 3 sentences mentioning that I read it and that I like the quote "Keepers of the all-powerful hymen." It really is a good quote, so not a total waste.

**There was recently a Guardian article titled "Sorry, but being a mother is not the most important job in the world" which goes over many of the same ideas, and you should probably read this as well.

Title quote from page 65, location 1044

Valenti, Jessica. Why Have Kids?: A New Mom Explores the Truth About Parenting and Happiness. New Harvest, 2012. Kindle edition.