Friday, October 21, 2005

In Case You Were Wondering...

Charlotte, the spider is Charlotte's Web, does not die...she runs out of string. This is the world according to Garrett. I think she says she is out of strength, but if it makes Garrett happy...

49

49. The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve

I think this is my last Shreve book. I'm not pretty enough or delicate enough to read about these women.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

48

48. Judy Moody Predicts the Future

We really liked this one. We are going to read more Judy Moody. Right now we are reading Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly School Bus.

Always a Bridesmaid

I got my November/December issue of Poets & Writers yesterday and found yet another classmate with a book forthcoming. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Part of me thinks it is a good thing because if I know people coming out with books then I must really be a writer, a real writer, not a pretend writer. I know the distinction is probably lost on most nonwriters, but I believe there is one.

I write. Every day. It is a big part of my job. And my writing does get published. Every day. But it isn't the same. There is still a huge difference between me and say Susan Orlean. She writes for The New Yorker. I write for Mason Spirit magazine. Now Susan could write for the Mason Spirit. In fact, if she was willing, I would be delighted (but couldn't afford her). Could I write for The New Yorker? Probably not. I'm still trying to conquer less competitive magazines like Brain, Child, and there the competition (100 essays submitted for every 1 published) is still fierce. That's the distinction.

Now the bad part. When I bought home the last novel published my someone I went to grad school with, my husband asked: "What does he have that you don't have?" I turned the question around: "It is actually, What do I have that he doesn't have?" The answer is kids. Well, Art remains firm: the kids are staying so I need to find another solution. That's the kicker with this last publication. She has kids: three of them, I believe. Now what do I have that she doesn't have? The answer: a job.

Of the women I started So To Speak with, two have books (and children), one has an agent and a manuscript in New York (but no children), and one is writing this blog. No book, no manuscript making the rounds in New York, but Mason Spirit with its circulation of 42,000. Which by the way hit "newsstands" on Friday.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Mount Baldy, Alaska


My nephew Mark on Mount Baldy.
(Yes, he is a dog, but a cute one.)

Monday, October 17, 2005

Another One

47. Sideways by Rex Pickett

My favorite author, Alison McGhee, had a new book released last week. It is called All Rivers Flow to the Sea and is a young adult novel. I ran out to get it at Borders this weekend, using my educator's discount, mind you.

I also bought Zainab Salbi's Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tryanny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam. Zainab went to Mason and we have featured her a number of times in our alumni publication. She started Women for Women International while still a student at Mason.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Another One

46. The Bright Forever by Lee Martin

Sunday, October 09, 2005

My 2005 Reading List

1. The Corrections (completed)
2. The Bad Beginning (completed) by Lemony Snicket
3. Rules of Engagement by Kathryn Caskie
4. The Last Gift of Time (completed)
5. The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket
6. The Logic of Wings by Vanessa Haley
February
7. Above the Thunder (completed)by Renee Manfredi
8. Snap by Alison McGhee
9. Snow Angels by Stewart O'Nan
10. The Secret of Roan Inish
11. The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan
12. The Celery Stalks at Midnight
13. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
March
14. The Rise of the Graphic Novel
15. We Have Always Lived in a Castle by Shirley Jackson
16. A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan
17. Reading Lolita in Tehran
18. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
19. The Speed Queen by Stewart O'Nan
April
20. The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo
21. Atonement by Ian McEwan
22. In Fond Remembrance of Me by Howard Norman
May
23. Mother of Sorrows by Richard McCann
24. Wonder When You’ll Miss Me by Amanda Davis
25. Blankets by Craig Thompson (graphic novel)
26. Middlesex
27. Confessions of a Teen Sleuth
June
28. The History of Love
29. Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi (graphic novel)
30. Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman
31. Don’t Kiss Them Goodbye by Alison DuBois
32. The Last Days of Summer
33. Prey by Michael Creighton
34. A Year and a Day
July
35. The Lake, the River, and the Other Lake
36. Second Glance
August
37. The Dream of Water by Kyoko Mori
38. Freakonomics
39. Shadow Baby by Alison McGhee
40. About a Boy by Nick Hornsby
41. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
September
42. Kite Runner
43. A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson
44. The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman
October
45. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

If it says completed, it seems I only finished it this year. I have an insane number of books that I start but don't finish right away. Right now I am reading Shizuko's Daughter, Crow Lake, The Turtle Warrior, The Pilot's Wife, and Sideways. Hard to say how it is going to go...

Thursday, October 06, 2005

She's a Maimer, Not a Killer



Alice/Muffin/Kitty has developed a penchant for mousies, little tiny ones that she finds in the woods. Garrett is opposed to this...vehemently opposed. He says, "One more mouse and that's it."

Sunday, October 02, 2005

In the Routine

Now that we are in the first month of school it looks like we have our routine down. Some mornings Garrett waits for the bus with Claudia; other days he does not. Claudia now know what days she has PE so we don't wear a skirt or boots although she has run two laps in one of her skirts before.

She also reports that she is faster than the other kids in class and sometimes this one boy tries to keep her from lapping him. She runs around him anyway.

We had Cheddar this weekend, the class's guinea pig. Alice/Muffin/Kitty was quite intrigued by him. She has begun hunting so he was even more fascinating.