.
My three year old wanted to participate, so she and I made a game out of choosing the winner for my giveaway of The Country Life. I wrote the names out on a piece of paper (nine, my lucky number!) and then she
snipped them apart,
.
Eva from A Striped Armchair tagged me for this meme a while ago; sorry I\’m so tardy! Well, here\’s some random tidbits about myself:
1. I can wiggle my ears. Separately.
2. I can\’t stand driving with the window down and having my hair blow all over (and no, it\’s not styled.) It just annoys me to have wind in my hair! I\’ve never ridden in a convertible, but the idea of it makes me shudder.
3. I prefer to wash dishes by hand. The dishwasher is storage space.
4. I don\’t like avocados. I lived in San Francisco for several years and people were always astonished that I couldn\’t stand the slimy green mushy things. Avocados are apparently a favorite of native Californians.
5. I have a habit (annoying to others, soothing to me) of fanning or thumbing the pages of a book continually while I read. I\’m sure it looks really weird, and it bugs some people. I don\’t know why I do it. Nervous habit, I suppose.
6. I know how to drive a forklift. Despite the fact that I keep getting urged to seek an office job (which pays better) my warehouse job (summers as a college student) remains my favorite- probably because it was active work that didn\’t involve pleasing customers!
I don\’t know who to tag; probably everyone who wanted to has already done this meme. But if you haven\’t, consider yourself included and play along!
by Donald McCaig
Whenever I start skimming a book instead of reading it, I know it\’s time to quit and find something better to read. This book just wasn\’t doing it for me after about eighty pages. I probably should have known better than to even try it, after reading several reviews that indicated people who really liked Nop\’s Trials didn\’t care for Nop\’s Hope. I felt kinda marginal about Nop\’s Trials to begin with. In Nop\’s Hope, the focus seems to be more on Penny\’s struggles than on the dogs. And it was the dogs\’ perspectives and descriptions of their work that I really enjoyed in the first novel. The story is told in the same dry, rather choppy fashion, which worked okay when I was half-distracted waiting at the motor vehicle office to get my new lisence, but failed to engage me in the quiet of my home. Time to move on again.
Abandoned 230 pages, 1994
An American Doctor in El Salvador
by Charles Clements
Dr. Charles Clements is a physician who in 1982 went to El Salvador to provide basic medical care for civilians in several rural communities. In his book Witness to War, Clements gives an insider\’s look of US oppression in El Salvador and other Central American countries, and what the lives and sufferings of the guerillas were like. I found it interesting to read about the rural lifestyles in El Salvador, and how severely affected the people were by lack of adequate health care, supplies or basic education. Dr. Clements worked hard to improve their situation, and the more involved he became with the local people, the more he questioned what American forces were doing in El Salvador, even though he tried to remain neutral to both sides. A very fascinating and inspiring book. What I like most about it is its portrait of the central american peoples, how they lived and survived in a time of warfare.
Rating: 3/5 320 pages, 1984
by Sally Carrighar
Like One Day on Beetle Rock, this charming nature novel tells of a day\’s events through the experiences of fourteen different animals. It is set in a marsh at Jackson Hole, Wyoming and based on hours the author spent watching the native wildlife. One Day at Teton Marsh features otters, trout, osprey, mosquitoes, scud, mink, a hare, merganser, moose, leech, frog, snail, trumpeter swan and beaver. I enjoyed this book more than Beetle Rock, because it features a storm, which introduces more drama than just the everyday survival habits of the animals, and because the intertwining of storylines At Teton Marsh is really well done. Not only do you see how each animal experiences the same event (the storm) but also how closely they relate to and influence each other, even without meaning to. It\’s fascinating. If you like reading about nature, I highly recommend this book. Now I really need to get my hands on Icebound Summer, which is a similar Carrighar book I haven\’t read yet.
Rating: 4/5 …….. 253 pages, 1955
by Mary O\’Hara
I can\’t remember how I came across this book, but I\’m certainly glad I did. Mary O\’Hara\’s books about a Wyoming horse ranch- My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead and Green Grass of Wyoming have long been favorites of mine. So I was thrilled to find this fourth volume. I thought it was a continuation of the Goose Bar Ranch story, but I was wrong. It\’s a semi-autobiographical novel based on O\’Hara\’s diary. I was surprised to learn that long before writing novels, Mary O\’Hara worked on screenplays for Hollywood, and composed music for the piano. Her descriptions of the Wyoming land and ranch life are pleasant, and the way she writes about music is simply wonderful. It\’s usually difficult for me to imagine hearing music by reading about it, but O\’Hara\’s words bring the music vividly to my ears. Wyoming Summer traces the path she took from composer of music to writer of beloved novels. This book is a real jewel and one I hope I can add to my personal library someday.
Rating: 4/5 …….. 286 pages, 1963
Win a Free book!
I\’m giving away my (slightly used) copy of The Country Life, by Rachel Cusk. If you\’d like to win this book, just leave a comment here! You have until sunday 5/11/08, I\’ll announce the winner sometime monday, and somebody will have a book in the mail! Sorry, but at the present moment my giveaways are only open to US or Canadian residents. I just can\’t afford to send books overseas right now.
For a second entry, mention my givewaway on your blog (with a link back to this post) and leave another comment here so I know about it!
by Rachel Cusk
I actually finished reading this book a day or two ago, but my house is still in such chaos from moving I didn\’t have a moment to sit down until now.
What a curious book. Part of me felt compelled by it, so that I was really immersed while in the moment of reading. The other half of me felt frustrated by it, over and over again. The Country Life is about a city girl, Stella, who suddenly drops everything in her life, gets rid of her apartment, destroys years\’ worth of memorabilia, evades her family and disappears into the country where she takes a job as an au pair. The family is rich and eccentric. They own a farm, but not much is described of farm life, or about the country at all except the excruciating heat and a few incidents where she gets severe allergies from walking through a grain field. The teenager she\’s there to take care of is disabled and in a wheelchair, but except for one awkward afternoon at an activity center for disabled kids, the issue is never really treated seriously.
Instead, what we get are endless pages of Stella\’s internal dilemmas over the smallest things. She worries herself over every little incident like whether her employer will notice she\’s worn the same clothes twice, what the checker will think of her purchase at the grocery store, or which path she should take to the front door. Every little personal interaction is analyzed too, especially what everyone thinks of her and how she fits into conversations. It is an interesting look at human nature, but sadly this is the main strength of the novel. There were so many tantalizing pieces of the story left incomplete and unanswered that ultimately I found the ending unsatisfying. It felt unfinished. But as a redeeming factor, there are some completely hilarious parts, like where her inability to drive (a requirement of the job) is suddenly discovered and she attempts to learn on the spot, or when she accidentally breaks a bottle of champagne, drinks herself silly and then knocks the family dog senseless with a lawn umbrella.
Rating: 3/5 342 pages, 1997
Congratulations! Let us all know what you mooch (for curiosity\’s sake). Sorry for the delay everyone; I just barely got online again today and have been far too busy with the new house to even attempt a library visit. Swapna, I\’ll gift you the points momentarily before I go offline.
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All books reviewed on this site are owned by me, or borrowed from the public library. Exceptions are a very occasional review copy sent to me by a publisher or author, as noted. Receiving a book does not influence my opinion or evaluation of it
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