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June 29, 2006
Where Are My Peeps?
People, I need some feedback. Where have all the comments gone? Aside from Mr. Bastish blushing about "hallway talk", it's like an echo chamber in here.
To make it easier, here are 10 statements/questions that beg for an opinion. Choose one and leave a comment. If we all work together, we can save the world--or at least make me happy for an hour. And frankly, I need that hour desperately. So chip in, you can comment anonymously if you want.
1. Hilary Clinton will not run on the 2008 ticket, claiming that she "can do more good as a Senator from the great state of New York." Instead, Omaba and Biden will emerge as the leading contenders for the Democratic nomination.
2. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches are infinitely superior to peanut butter and jelly.
3. Besides Write Again Soon (of course), the best blog out there is El Guapo in DC.
4. Cats are infinitely superior pets to dogs--if only for the reason that cats never sniff the crotch of strangers who come to visit.
5. If I decide to take a part-time job, what would be my best bet? Starbucks would feed my addiction, as would Barnes and Noble--but neither would be something I'd like to add to my resume. "Big Idea President" and "Barista" don't belong together in the same year.
6. Of the following 50 Things to Do Before I Die, I am the most unlikely to accomplish:
-- Get a Ph.D.
-- Write a novel
-- Hold a public office
-- Run a 5-K
7. Between Martha and Rufus Wainwright, Martha is the vastly underappreciated one.
8. True or false - by the end of 2007, the Big Idea will be turning a profit.
9. Given a month to visit anyplace in the world (with cost as no expense), people should pick something challenging and drastically different than their normal lives, rather than just a place by the beach.
10. Did anyone actually choose to stop reading when I said "readers beware--read on at your own risk"? Did anyone *not* click the link to Ms. NYC Rouge's blog (the one describing my weekend adventures) because they didn't want to be tainted with smut?
Posted by madchen at 11:38 PM | Comments (12)The Perfect End to a Perfect Day
Dear Reader, I've had a very stressful day. First, I got a $35 parking ticket during my morning meeting...and I know for a fact that the parking gestapo must have been standing there waiting for the meter to expire because I arrived back at the car only 5 minutes late and they were nowhere to be seen. Bastards. That was one expensive cup of coffee.
Then, I got back to my office and immediately started juggling a handful of urgent Big Idea projects. First was the conference call with Ms. Connecticut to strategize about our meeting with a Big Big Company tomorrow...and to try and determine why our project isn't flourishing quite the way we had hoped. Not pleasant. Second was the call from Mr. Professor who needed to check in before our meeting tomorrow to go over why we hadn't yet send out the Big Idea email about an event to which people are supposed to be responding by Friday. Also not pleasant. Third was the flurry of calls with Mr. Glint (when he laughs, it seems like there should be a glint in his teeth) to come up with a close-to-final draft for a Big Big BIG Proposal that we planned on having completed last Friday...then Monday...then Tuesday morning...then Wednesday evening...and now tomorrow morning before 9 a.m. Of course, it's due to the Big Big Intergovernmental Agency on Friday at 5 p.m. No pressure there! Fourth was the task of sending out 17 individualized emails, asking people to sign on to said Big Big BIG Proposal--with only 24 hours to consider it and not enough background information. Sigh.
From there I took a quick breather and went to book club, where we ended up running LATE, and where I nearly killed one of the attendees (my already shortened temper made me a little irritable and it took all my good graces to remain my charming self). A quick carpool back to the house let to a new round of phone calls and Skype conferences with Mr. Glint, from whence I hurriedly contacted--COUNT THEM--four new people to pitch the Big Big BIG Proposal to ask if they would consider coming on as consultants.
At 1:30 a.m. (but only 1 p.m. in Malaysia--the other end of my latest conference call) I decided that my coffee with Ms. ADA scheduled for tomorrow morning was not going to happen. For one thing, I still had at least an hour's worth of work left to do--and I have a full day out of the office tomorrow, complete with five seperate meetings with five seperate groups. I don't expect to be back in the office until at least 7 p.m., at which time I will need to devote at least 5 hours to reviewing the long-awaited draft of the Big Big BIG Proposal, following up with the potential 4 outside consultants, confirming the three meetings I have set up for Friday, and responding to the approximately 75 Big Idea emails I get every day.
And what happened just as I was typing the email to Ms. ADA, begging her to forgive me for the late notice cancellation? The cat started throwing up. And not just once. She threw up seven times, all within a few steps of each other. She looked truly pathetic, her little body heaving and a horrific wretching noise issuing from her tiny mouth.
But frankly, it took all of my restraint not to drop-kick her down the stairs.
Posted by madchen at 01:35 AM | Comments (0)June 26, 2006
Isolated
There is something about torrential downpours that makes me grumpy. Partly it's the throbbing sinus headache that accompanies the change in barometric pressure. Partly it's the embarrassment of running a quick errand to the post office only to discover that the car seats are soaked through (stupid convertible top) and have left strange wet marks all over one's pants. Partly it's the isolation of being in a big, empty house with LOTS of work to do and only the internet to keep one company. Is it possible that I've exhausted what the internet has to offer?
Last night--faced with inadequate summer reruns and a small child shrieking every 10 seconds--I finally brought out my new laptop, purchased during the "my computer has died, OH NO it's back" saga of mid-May. Since my old computer was up and running again, it just never seemed worth it to drag out the new one, load up all the software, transfer over all the files, and set up all my preferences. And yet, once I had spent the 4 hours getting everything in order, I have to admit that my new computer (it's GIANT screen is practically bigger than the television downstairs) is quite a lovely thing indeed.
So at least today, when I've gone out on a limb with the Big Idea and am fielding responses (both positive and negative) every 10 minutes, I have a state-of-the-art (or only slightly out of date, depending on how fast you consider technology to be improving) computer at my side. My trusty steed.
One of the major changes is my new RSS Reader. I've abandoned Sharp Reader in order to try out Awasu. It's MUCH prettier, but I'm not sure if it's The One For Me. Only time will tell--but it would sure help if my favorite blogs would update a little more. How can I test out the features if no one updated today?
I seem to have completed the majority of my Big Idea work for today--in a record 10 hours. Of course, I *actually* have another couple of things on the list, but frankly, the rain has got me down and I think that a nice early night is just what the doctor ordered. Along with a prescription for Zoloft. But I'll take what I can get.
And now...to brighten your day...
**********Conservative Reader Alert--Read On At Your Own Risk**********
Her: Hey, I forgot to ask you last night—did you check your schedule to see if you were able to join me for the [weekend of fun]?
Him: Sorry, I forgot to tell you that I'll be at [something else] that weekend. :( We'll have to find another time for [weekend of fun].
Her: You suck.
Him: Nope, that's your job! :)
Her: Hmm, that statement makes me bitter, but it’s so hard to dispute.
Him: Ha!
Her: Said the person who was NOT on their knees in the hallway…
Him: Exactly.
Posted by madchen at 06:37 PM | Comments (1)Books I Read This June
Total Book Count: 86
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Entertainment Weekly: “Superbly unsettling, impeccably controlled . . . . The book’s irresistible power comes from Ishiguro’s matchless ability to expose its dark heart in careful increments.”
My Review: I had enjoyed Ishiguro's work before--most notably his famous "The Remains of the Day", but I believe this is his best novel to date. I was immediately caught up in the intrigue of the plot, and was captivated by the way that the mysteries were never fully explained, but merely referenced in the natural course of events. It drove me crazy, made me love AND hate the characters, and made me feel like I was part of their world even after I finished the last page.
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Heaven Lake
by John Dalton
Publishers Weekly: Sober and searching yet sublimely comic, this impressive debut about a modern-day missionary in Taiwan charts a journey away from reflexive faith and toward a broader understanding of the world and its ways. Reminiscent of the work of Graham Greene and Norman Rush, but possessing a quirky innocence and gravitas all its own, the novel is crammed with heady matters, clashes of cultures, ill-considered schemes and unrequited love. Vincent Saunders, a man with strong religious beliefs, leaves his tiny Illinois hamlet to take a job as a Christian missionary in Taiwan. As the only volunteer in the mid-sized city of Toulio, he establishes and runs the ministry house, while teaching English classes to make ends meet. His Toulio acquaintances are an odd bunch: fellow boarder Alec, a foul-mouthed, hashish-smoking Scot; Shao-fei, the crippled son of Vincent's landlady; Gloria, a late-arriving volunteer with a passion for Chinese calligraphy and proselytizing. There is also Mr. Gwa, a local businessman, who offers Vincent $10,000 to go to mainland China, find the lovely young girl who has long bewitched the rich merchant, and pretend to marry her in order to bring her back. At first refusing to take the job on moral grounds, Vincent is forced to reconsider after he succumbs to the aggressive advances of Trudy, a wayward teenage girl in one of his English classes, which costs him his job and standing in the community. Rethinking Mr. Gwa's offer, he heads for China to bring back Kai-Ling, the man's bride. It is during this memorable journey to the heart of modern China that Vincent comes of age, emotionally and spiritually, enduring thieves, bizarre encounters and false promises from a reluctant bride with a lover on the side. Artfully pacing the series of revelations that rock the book on its way to a surprising conclusion, Dalton revises conventional assumptions about contemporary China and collective cultural views of love and marriage. This is a noteworthy first novel by a writer to watch.
My Review: Unlike my normal "plow through" reading method, I put down this book for weeks at a time. It wasn't that I disliked the plot, exactly. No, I just wasn't drawn in by the main character, who--for much of the 451-pages is wishy-washy and irritating. Yet somehow I identified with him, a traveler in a foreign land. There were scenes that I felt I had lived through--times when the language barrier was exhausting and yet the thought of home wasn't exactly appealing. By the end, I was--if not rooting for Vincent--at least pleasantly surprised to see how the whole thing turned out.
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The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Publishers Weekly: Ruiz Zafón's novel, a bestseller in his native Spain, takes the satanic touches from Angel Heart and stirs them into a bookish intrigue à la Foucault's Pendulum. The time is the 1950s; the place, Barcelona. Daniel Sempere, the son of a widowed bookstore owner, is 10 when he discovers a novel, The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax. The novel is rare, the author obscure, and rumors tell of a horribly disfigured man who has been burning every copy he can find of Carax's novels. The man calls himself Laín Coubert-the name of the devil in one of Carax's novels. As he grows up, Daniel's fascination with the mysterious Carax links him to a blind femme fatale with a "porcelain gaze," Clara Barceló; another fan, a leftist jack-of-all-trades, Fermín Romero de Torres; his best friend's sister, the delectable Beatriz Aguilar; and, as he begins investigating the life and death of Carax, a cast of characters with secrets to hide. Officially, Carax's dead body was dumped in an alley in 1936. But discrepancies in this story surface. Meanwhile, Daniel and Fermín are being harried by a sadistic policeman, Carax's childhood friend. As Daniel's quest continues, frightening parallels between his own life and Carax's begin to emerge. Ruiz Zafón strives for a literary tone, and no scene goes by without its complement of florid, cute and inexact similes and metaphors (snow is "God's dandruff"; servants obey orders with "the efficiency and submissiveness of a body of well-trained insects"). Yet the colorful cast of characters, the gothic turns and the straining for effect only give the book the feel of para-literature or the Hollywood version of a great 19th-century novel.
My Review: How strange that upon searching Amazon for the blurb to write this review, I noticed that Amazon is offering a discount if you buy Heaven Lake with The Shadow of the Wind. I bought these two books months apart (one at Barnes and Noble and one at Politics and Prose), and only through remarkable chance did I read them in the same week. Nonetheless, between the two books, there is no contest--The Shadow of the Wind was FAR superior. I don't know what the reviewer from Publishers Weekly was thinking (bad day, perhaps?), but I thought the whole book was woven together in a masterful way. I giggled aloud, I was scared to get out of bed lest Lain Coubert (the devil) grab at my ankles, I was touched by the inevitable star-crossed lovers. This is a book that I will return to in the heart of winter, over a cup of cocoa, to savor again and again.
Posted by madchen at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)June 23, 2006
No Time to Write...Too Busy Having Amazing Sex!
No, not really--just wishful thinking.
What I am busy with is the Big Idea. In the last 3 weeks it has become a monster breathing down my neck. Between conference calls and happy hour events, meetings with potential clients and afternoons with current collaborators, I am exhausted. I actually came home last night, plopped into bed at 10 p.m. and slept until the alarm went off at 8 a.m.--when I started it all over again. Is it possible that I'm becoming a real businessperson with a normal schedule? (Given that I was up until 3:30 a.m. the night before working on Big Idea updates, I think probably not.)
Anyway, I'm coming up to July 1st, my self-imposed deadline to decide the future of the Big Idea. According to my 2006 Resolutions:
I will devote myself to the Big Idea for the first six months of 2006. I will cultivate networks, clients, and projects—always looking for ways to be financially self-sufficient. I will make a point of attending relevant conferences, meeting with local organizational allies, and following up on all new contacts. In July 2006, I will reevaluate this decision; at that time I may choose to re-engage in a search for regular full-time employment.
So now it's almost July and time to start some critical thinking. I'm planning on taking July 1 & 2 to do some real planning in terms on finances, clients, partners, etc. I've already started a brainstorming list--it seems that I'm never out of ideas, just lacking ideas with a lucractive future. That said, there are one or two ideas that I think might really take off.
Long story short, no hot sex, just regular old entrepreneurship.
Posted by madchen at 12:18 PM | Comments (1)June 20, 2006
One Click Away
Special thanks to Ms. NYC Rouge, who has graciously allowed me to do a guest post on her blog describing my rather unusual weekend.
Note: parents and conservative friends should NOT click on this link. I mean it. If you click here, I don't want to hear ANY sniffling or see ANY head shaking.
Posted by madchen at 10:08 AM | Comments (2)June 19, 2006
My Secret NBA Husband...
...or, Why I Love Dirk Nowitzki.
I have never been much of a basketball fan. Ok, truth be told, aside from playing h-o-r-s-e in the driveway with my high school boyfriend, basketball has basically been a non-sport for me.
But this year somethng changed. I caught the last few minutes of a Mavericks/Spurs playoff game and I was hooked. I loved how the Mavericks were so NICE in their interviews--everything was about teamwork, about the support of their families, about the honor and joy of making it to the playoffs. And, of course, the fact that Maverick foreward Dirk Nowitzki vaguely resembled Mr. FWB didn't hurt.
Suddenly, evening trips to the gym weren't so bad. I could get on the elliptical machine and get lost in the game. I found that 75 minutes of vigorous exercise was needed to get through the first half, and then I had plenty of time to get home during halftime. By the time the Mavericks had defeated the Spurs and then the Suns, I was hooked.
So now the Mavericks are in the finals, playing against the Miami Heat. Game 5 was last night, and like the preceding 4 games, the highlight was watching my secret NBA husband play. I cheered, I grimaced, I imagined cooking dinner for him. I even went so far as to look up details on his personal life. Here's the summary:
Position: Forward
Born: Jun 19, 1978
Height: 7-0
Weight: 245 lbs.
From : Germany
But possibly my favorite thing is his Dear Dirk advice column. I mean, who doesn't love a 7' tall professional basketball player from Germany who answers questions like this:
Dear Dirk ... I'm getting married at the end of the month and I've been put in charge of picking out centerpieces. What do you recommend?
Dirk says: "I suggest bouquets of 15 long-stemmed, yellow roses in clear or green vases. If you want to add some light to the display you should consider putting matching votives around the vases."
Or, from a previous Dear Dirk column:
Dear Dirk ... I grew out my blond hair because yours was long. Now that you've cut yours, should I do the same? Thanks for you advice Dirk.
Dirk says: Yes, of course you should do the same.
And...
Dear Dirk ... Hi! Great job this year -- MVP for sure. I have been married almost three years and I am really searching for a romantic restaurant in the Dallas area can you recommend any that are really special and will leave my wife breathless?
Dirk says: "Do I look like I take anyone on romantic dinners?"
Posted by madchen at 03:03 PM | Comments (1)The Admiral Disapproves of Such Talk
Grandad, Grandma, Janie, and Ms. Write Again Soon in the car yesterday...
Janie: Grandma, is Grandad an Admiral?
Grandma: That's right, he is. In fact, we should call him that from now on. [In a snooty Southern voice.] The Admiral likes to watch football on Sunday afternoons. The Admiral thinks we should spend the summer at the lake.
Janie: [Getting into the spirit of it.] The Admiral has goose poop on his windshield!
Posted by madchen at 02:54 PM | Comments (3)June 13, 2006
Boobs
Janie, do you need help with your seatbelt?
"Yes please."
[Picture me leaning over, trying to maneuver between Baby Janie--her doll, swaddled in three blankets and a baby carrier--a half liter of water in an obnoxiously big sports bottle, and a squirming 5-year old in a Barbie Princess car seat.]
"AAAUUUGGGHHH!!!!"
What, what, what???
"AUNT JEN, YOUR BOOB IS TOUCHING MY LEG!!!"
[I sigh.] Yeah, sometimes that happens. But weren't you the one who was looking down my shirt this weekend? You didn't seem to have a problem THEN.
[She sighs.] "Aunt Jen, that was TOTALLY different."
Of course, how silly of me.
Posted by madchen at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)June 12, 2006
#4 -- Fly a Plane
Last Friday I drove out to Winchester to take a Discovery Flight with Valley Aviation.
A discovery flight is an excellent way to experience flying for the first time. It gives the student a chance to see what learning to fly is all about. During the discovery flight the instructor will let the student take-off, go through a few basic flight maneuvers and experience navigating through the Shenandoah Valley. The flight will end with a landing at Winchester Regional Airport and a future student pilot asking when the next flight lesson will be.
Although I certainly wasn't asking when the next flight lesson would be (instead, I spent the first 5 minutes of the flight wondering where the airsick bag might be), it certainly was an experience. Andrew, my instructor, was delightful and I wasn't once in fear for my life--despite the fact that the cockpit of the Cessna made my Miata look like an RV.
Final reflection: I see no need to be a pilot, but I'm happy to check it off my list.
Posted by madchen at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)June 11, 2006
Weekly Roundup
Local Celebrity Sighting: Matthew Lesko, the question mark man, at the Bethesda Caribou Coffee. I was at a Big Idea meeting with a visiting professor at UDC, who knew that Lesko used to teach there. We struck up a conversation and--lo and behold--we actually got some really good ideas for additional funding opportunities for our Big Idea project.
Best Meal: The seared ahi tuna salad at Houston's, with Ms. Secret Blog and her Boy. Yum.
Most Action of the Week: An attempted groping at Orange Ball Billiards Cafe during a trip to the bathroom. The guy was obviously drunk, and I nearly knocked him down in my brusque move to extricate myself.
Favorite Part of the Weekend: Sitting around the fire in Ms. Secret Blog and her Boy's backyard with a dozen friends, helping them celebrate a new graduate degree and a completed deck.
Second Favorite Part of the Weekend: Snuggling into Ms. Secret Blog and her Boy's guest bed after abovementioned BBQ.
Number of NBA Finals Games Watched: Two--if you count the one I'm watching right now.
Favorite Blog Entry: La-on-a-stick. Need I say more?
Most fulfilling Big Idea Moment: Depositing TWO checks in the Big Idea bank account.
Number of Times I Thought I Was Going to Vomit: Two--once in a tiny Cessna (see next entry) and once driving home this morning with a helluva hangover.
Posted by madchen at 10:28 PM | Comments (2)June 07, 2006
Things that Make Me Giggle
I picked up a new book last night, but had to put it down after just 3 pages. Supposedly, Juana Manuela Gorriti was the female Argintinian writer of the 1800s, and her collection of fiction entitled Dreams and Realities promised to provide "a generous dose of swashbuckling adventure and romance".
Her short stories tell of homelessness and nomadic yearnings, taking the reader from the Peruvian highlands, where Spanish colonizers plot to rob the treasures of the Incas, to the Argentine capital city plagued by sinister political intentions. Her later fictions move from Chile to scenes of the California Gold Rush.
Covering the wide landscape of the Americas, Gorriti tracks the spirit of nineteenth-century adventurers and dandies, nation builders and soldiers who participate in the conflicts of settlement in a new and lawless land. Women are the protagonists here, mediating episodes of civil strife as they voice their despair about the treachery of fortune seekers in Latin America in the years following Independence from Spain.
Dreams and Realities offers a sampling of Gorriti's stories, showing the range of her commitment to political fiction drawn in the romantic style. Originally published in four volumes under the titles Suenos y realidades and Panoramas de la vida, her works deal with the tyranny of the Rosas regime, the mediating role of women, and the clash of European and indigenous cultures.
Wow--that sounds pretty amazing, I said to myself. And yet, when I started her first story, I was immediately swept back to those poor 1930s movies where the dialogue is laughably full of exposition. To demonstrate, I give you page 2:
"Rosa! My love!" he said. "I have never seen you as beautiful as you are right now; never have your eyes shone with such divine fire, nor has your voice ever sounded more magical to my heart."
[So far, so good. A little cheesy, but full of swashbuckling potential, no?]
"And yet, you are about to leave me. You say all this, but are ready to abandon me to the unbearable persecutions of the hateful Ramirez--who, armed with the approval of my father, of whome he is a friend and colleague, insolently considers me his future property, completely ignoring my wishes. But I shall make them learn the strength of my will, which they ignore. For even if you abandon me, I shall fight this terrible battle on my own; my courage shall not fail me. Go on then, keep to yourself that fateful secret that you refuse to confide to your beloved, and which--since it impedes you from asking my father for the hand of his daughter, who has already given you her heart--might, for all I know, be some tie that binds you to another..."
[Aye, que problema! And then, on the next page...]
"Rosa! My angel! Do not increase the horrible grief that fills me hear with your tears. Oh! I have been postponing the moment when I must destroy your heart with the weight of my secret, but the hour has arrived...So be it!"
[Drumroll, please.]
"Do you wish to know who this Hernan is, the man whom you met at the bullfight as you sat next to the viceroy? This Hernan de Camporeal, educated with the sons of the great men of Spain, is a descendent of the exiled race, which all of you, especially your father, look upon with so much scorn, having dethroned it and enriched yourselves with its wealth. The man who loves you--the proud daughter of Judge Osoria, the man whom you prefer over the powerful and magnificent Judge Ramirez, is the son of an Indian woman. The man who loves you is an unfortunate soul who does not possess anything in this world, though his feet tread upon the treasures that his forefathers confided to the depths of the earth to keep them from the sanguinary greed of their tyrants."
Yes, it continues in this vein for at least the next 2 pages, at which point I put it down with a giggle and a roll of my eyes. Maybe I'm not the swashbuckling, adventure-seeking, Spanish treasure hunting reader I though I was. Or maybe it's all just lost in translation.
Posted by madchen at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)Internet Search Terms
In the past 5 days, 106 search terms have resulted in visits to Write Again Soon. Demonstrating the breadth of topics covered on this blog, dear reader, here are my favorite:
-- young hippopotaumus
-- may 7 1937 bear a striking resemblance to those of the disaster-ridden autumn of 2001. on that day the new york times cried
-- wrestlemania 16 entrance themes
-- i hate my thesis
-- why does my kitten meow while i take a shower
-- 1 2-benzenedicarboxylic pesticide perfume
-- a paragraph about a cat named serafina
-- brazilian and mexican lalita ladies for marriage
-- 2006 email contacts of sheep farm companies
And my personal favorite: getting rid of child vomiting smells out of furniture.
Posted by madchen at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)June 05, 2006
Books I Read in May
(Total Book Count Since I Began Tracking: 83)
Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell
From Publishers Weekly: At once audacious, dazzling, pretentious and infuriating, Mitchell's third novel weaves history, science, suspense, humor and pathos through six separate but loosely related narratives. Like Mitchell's previous works, Ghostwritten and number9dream (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize), this latest foray relies on a kaleidoscopic plot structure that showcases the author's stylistic virtuosity. Each of the narratives is set in a different time and place, each is written in a different prose style, each is broken off mid-action and brought to conclusion in the second half of the book. Among the volume's most engaging story lines is a witty 1930s-era chronicle, via letters, of a young musician's effort to become an amanuensis for a renowned, blind composer and a hilarious account of a modern-day vanity publisher who is institutionalized by a stroke and plans a madcap escape in order to return to his literary empire (such as it is). Mitchell's ability to throw his voice may remind some readers of David Foster Wallace, though the intermittent hollowness of his ventriloquism frustrates. Still, readers who enjoy the "novel as puzzle" will find much to savor in this original and occasionally very entertaining work.
My Review: I listened to this one on audiobook, which had multiple narrators and made the whole book a treat. I love the "novel as puzzle" approach, even if the book did drag in places and took me nearly a month to get through. By the end, though, I was hooked.
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Arsine Lupin, Gentleman Burglar
by Maurice Leblanc
Booklist: Intelligent, daring, but oh what a rogue. Nothing is safe from Arsene Lupin, the intriguing, intrepid thief. Only his good friend Inspector Ganimard has managed to arrest him, but only briefly. Even Sherlock Holmes, who arrives to sort out a complicated burglary is embarrassed by Lupin's much publicized wiles. Good plots, great narration (a super job by Covell) and the wonderful Lupin create an excellent few hours of short stories.
My Review: I'm a sucker for period detective stories, and this was a fun look at the other side high crime. I wish there were sequels.
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Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam
by Asra Nomani
Chicago Sunday Tribune: Asra Nomani’s Standing Alone in Mecca is the ideal introduction to contemporary Islam.
My Review: This was one of the heaviest book club selections ever. While I thought there was genuine merit to her story, I found the author to be a little to self-congratulatory ("hurray, I'm single-handedly changing Islam!") for my taste.
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Jennifer Government
by Max Barry
Publishers Weekly: The most unnerving thing about Max (formerly Maxx) Barry's new novel is that its hyperbolic vision of the not too distant future doesn't seem too far out there at all. The world is run by giant corporations who literally go to war with one another; Australia and the U.K. are annexes of the United States; the police are for sale to the highest bidder; and employees take the last name of their employers. Thus, the cast of characters includes John Nike, Georgia Saints Nike (she volunteers at the Church of Latter-Day Saints), Billy NRA, Buy Mitsui, Hayley McDonalds, and so forth. Jennifer Government, a former advertising executive turned government agent, is hot on the trail of the villainous John Nike for murder. As the mastermind of the latest Nike campaign, he planned the murder of 14 teenagers in order to build up the street reputation for Nike's new $2,500 sneaker, Mercurys. Frederick's reading of this wacked-out morality play is first-rate. His obvious enjoyment of the satire fuels his performance. Especially entertaining are his stereotypical foreign accents, which would seem out of place under most circumstances, but they fit the comic book-type characters waging chaos in this saga like an Aris glove.
My Review: What a fun summer read! I love the whole idea of this book...and I could definitely see a sequel for this one as well!
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Popular Music from Vittula
by Mikael Niemi
From Booklist: When a Beatles record falls into the hands of 11-year-old Matti, neither he nor his home village of Pajala, Sweden, will ever be the same. It is the early 1960s, and both Matti and Pajala are about to enter adolescence. This is a beautiful, poignant, often very funny novel about growing up in a remote area. Niemi writes with real poetry as he strings together the culturally rich vignettes of Matti's experiences, snapshots of childhood that are at the same time intensely personal and universal: the burn of the first alcoholic drink, the thrill of a first kiss, the awe of first sex, the special closeness of a first best friend, the pain of the first real loss--all rendered pure and convincingly as a young boy's perceptions. Niemi also seasons the book well with the mysticism of childhood that suffuses the usually hidden psychological space where the transformation from child to youth occurs. An exquisitely beautiful novel, artfully translated.
My Review: This book haunted me, reminding me of my brief experiences in Northern Sweden and making me want to hop on a plane to relive the 20-hours of sunlight joy of the far north.
Posted by madchen at 12:49 AM | Comments (4)June 04, 2006
Where in the world is Ms. Write Again Soon?
Since my last entry, what exciting things have happened? Let's see:
1. I sat in the owner's box at the DC United game, rubbing shoulders with Councilman Kwame Brown (and his two adorable children) and various military bigwigs during Armed Forces Appreciation Day. As part of our VIP status, we got to go down on the field, where I got to see firsthand how all the members of the team were WAY too young for me.
2. I sewed a skirt. Unlike most of my other forays into wearable arts and crafts, I think I might actually wear this one outside the house.
3. I had too-many-to-count meetings related to the Big Idea, which is now actually taking up a legitimate 40 hours a week (and usually more). I even applied for a $10,000 prize for women entrepreneurs, which would be oh-so-nice.
4. I had two cavities filled by my dentist-to-the-stars. Well, actually, he was the dentist to the president (Bush I), but that's good enough for me. The man is a genius.
5. I discussed books with my book club (consisting this month of three people, two of whom didn't finish this month's selection). Suffice it to say, not the most intellectually rewarding meeting we've ever had.
I've also gone to the gym 4 times, watched nearly every basketball playoff game (hurray for Dallas), and done laundry (most of which needs to be done again). And tonight I'll get back on the Big Idea bandwagon and finish up some projects that are breathing down my neck.
Posted by madchen at 05:55 PM | Comments (0)
