Month: April 2009

by Betty Friedan

This is a tough book for me to write about. I read it a long time ago, when plowing through piles of books on pregnancy, childbirth and similar topics. Not sure how this one got on my list as I don\’t consider myself a feminist. I thought I would find it uninteresting or difficult, but on the contrary it\’s an easy read, and very engaging. On the other hand, I didn\’t end up feeling indignant or frustrated like I felt the author intended me to. She thoroughly describes how housewives in the 50\’s felt bored, frustrated and oppressed, and urges them to make something more of their lives and stand up for their own interests. She makes it sound like a woman needs a job to feel fulfilled, and points out all the inequalities in how men and women are treated. I don\’t know, I just couldn\’t get riled up by it, because I\’m pretty happy to be a stay-home mom with a garden to tend, and books to read in the few spare moments I have. I never get bored or feel like my life is missing something essential. So I couldn\’t really connect with her views, although some of the points she brought up got me thinking. Others I kind of dismissed because they seemed rather forced. The sad thing is even though I know The Feminine Mystique is an important book, well-researched and chock full of thought-provoking info, I can hardly remember one specific thing from it… Hm. I got the impression that this book is to the feminist movement what Silent Spring was to environmentalism.

Rating: 3/5 …….. 587 pages, 1997

More opinions at:
arch thinking
Book Addiction
Life Under the Quill
the Square Doughnut

The first two on this list came from my reading of The Other End of the Leash. The rest are from Quicksilver. Even though I have made slow progress with this book (only 127 pages so far), it still supplies me with many many new words each week!

Sinusodial– \”The dogs would waver back and forth, moving in a sinusodial S curve, trying to follow the molecules of scent as they moved through the air…\”
Definition: curving (isn\’t the phrase redundant, then?)

Paedomorphic– \”This tendency to continue exuberant play into adulthood is one of the factors that leads most scientists to consider dogs and humans as paedomorphic…\”
Definition: retaining juvenile characteristics into adulthood

Coelestial– \”The tail of Ursa Major was like the hand of a coelestical clock, and Daniel had been studying how to read it.\”
Definition: another spelling for celestial

Spadroon– \”The black-clad fellow drew out a sword of his own, something dull and clanging, a heavier spadroon, and the scarlet boy came at him like a boiling cloud, with lightning movements darting out of the center.\”
Definition: a broadsword used both to cut and thrust

Sizar– \”Daniel finally recognized him as Roger Comstock, the sizar.\”
Definition: a student at Cambridge who having passed certain examinations, was exempt from paying for food and tuition and had lodgings at very low cost

Ween– \”I ween you are of the same mind, Mr. Waterhouse, but sailing on a ship across the North Atlantic is not for cowards, and so you are here.\”
Definition: to think or suppose

Lascar– \”The lascars spring up and busy themselves drawing up his equipage on ropes.\”
Definition: an East Indian seaman

Gnomon– \”Newton was constructing a sundial on a south-facing wall, using as gnomon, a slender rod with a ball on the end.\”
Definition: stationary arm on a sundial whose shadow indicates the time

Shawm– \”Stourbridge Fair was already audible: barking of dogs, wild strains from bagpipes and shawms whipping over their heads like twists of bright ribbon unwinding in the breeze.
Definition: a double-reed instrument that preceeded the oboe

Numismatic– \”If you would allow me to approach within ten feet of these coins, it would help me to appreciate their numismatic excellence….\”
Definition: having to do with coins or currency

Saturnine– \”In a country inn, on the way to St. Ives, he encountered a saturnine, beetle-browed chap name of Oliver Cromwell who had recently lost his faith, and seen his life ruined…\”
Definition: of a melancholy or solemn disposition, from being born under the sign of Saturn

Pedantry– \”…. out of a stubborn belief that pedantry and repetitiveness could through some alchemy be forged into wit.\”
Definition: giving excessive attention to academic learning or formal rules

Caitiff– \”Have you ever felt a certain annoyance, when one of your semi-educated Londoners speaks of \’a vile rascal\’ or \’a miserable caitiff\’ or \’crafty knave,\’ \’idle truant,\’ or \’flattering parasite\’?\”
Definition: a despicable person, a cowardly wretch

Homiletical– \”Daniel exhausted the Terms of Abuse in a few short hours, then moved on to Virtues (intellectual, moral, and homiletical), Colors, Sounds, Tastes and Smells, Professions (viz, carpentry, sewing, alchemy) Operations, and so on.\”
Definition: relating to or having the nature of a homily: an inspirational saying or moralizing lecture

Phew! This book is giving me words every other pages, it feels like. Visit Bermudaonion\’s Weblog to see what new words other readers discovered this week.

by James Herbert

I always enjoy stories written from an animal\’s point of view. Fluke starts out with the birth of a puppy, and follows him through the ups and downs of life as a stray in the city. But this isn\’t any ordinary dog- there\’s something different about him. He is more aware, intelligent, understanding of human habits- and has fleeting memories of a different life. Eventually the dog meets a few other animals who also have this higher awareness, starts to puzzle out what\’s going on, and sets off on a journey to find some answers. At first I thought this book was rather like an old favorite from my childhood, Scruffy by Jack Stoneley, until the dog\’s human memories came up. Then it made me think of Diana Wynne Jones\’ Dogsbody– so I was expecting something a bit supernatural- but it actually ended up having a religious theme: reincarnation. Most of the book flows at a well-measured pace, describing the dog\’s life, but at the end things start to happen more quickly, with a murder mystery to be solved and a little twist in the ending. A very fun and interesting light read, great for on the beach (when you have to keep half an eye on the kid near the water)!

Rating: 3/5                      191 pages, 1977

Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs
by Patricia McConnell

This book has been on my TBR so long (years) I can\’t even remember where I first heard about it. I never could find it anywhere (always missing or checked out at the library), until a few weeks ago I discovered a copy at a library sale. Ecstatic. And the read was wonderful. The Other End of the Leash is about the human-dog relationship, especially in regards to communication and training. McConnell, an applied animal behaviorist who helps people with problem dogs (mostly cases of aggression) explains how even though we can be very close to our dogs, many things inherent to the nature of canines and primates (ourselves) can cross the wires and cause continual misunderstandings. The message you are trying to send your dog may be the opposite of what he thinks it is (for example, dogs may not perceive hugs as gestures of affection, but dominating or even threatening). She shows how understanding the natural way dogs perceive and interpret our behavior, and changing it so that the message comes across clearly, can greatly facilitate harmonious living with canine pets. A fascinating book, one I\’m hanging onto for reference when I ever (the child is begging) get a dog of my own.

I read this book for the Non-Fiction Five Challenge

Rating: 4/5                    246 pages, 2002

from the beach. It was lovely. Sun, sand, surf, amusement rides, what more can you have perfect on a vacation? I even went garage-sale-ing with my mother-in-law (she loves bargains) and picked up this cute bookbag and a handful of cookbooks. Then out on the seashore I stopped at a local used bookshop (even though I\’d brought four books with me!) and bought three new ones.

These are all new to me. Kind of unusual for me; I rarely buy books I haven\’t read and loved yet. I\’ve always wanted to read Gorillas in the Mist, and Nymeth\’s review sparked my interest in it again. And Pigeons I\’ve wanted to read since I saw it in a bookstore some while ago. I gave in this time. Fluke was exactly that- picked up on a whim, but it turned out to be fairly entertaining.

I read two books entire, half of Shakespeare Wrote for Money, started The Ra Expeditions, and never opened Quicksilver, even though lugged the heavy thing around. Quickie posts on the books finished coming up!

by Sharon Lovejoy

Unlike the other gardening books I\’ve read, Trowel and Error is not full of instructions on how to design or cultivate a garden. Rather, it is crammed full of handy little tips on how to make gardening easier and more economical, like using common pantry items to whip up bug repellents and plant tonics or recycling household items into useful garden implements. There\’s even suggestions on how to decorate your garden with found items and worn-out garden tools. Some of the ideas were familiar to me- milk-jug cloches, flowers to attract beneficial insects. Others were entirely new -and exciting- like using infusions of willow to propagate plant cuttings, basil tea spray to fight cucumber beetles (which destroyed my cucumber and melon plants last year), aluminum foil to bounce light onto sun-loving tomatoes and peppers. That\’s only a few; the book contains \”over 700 shortcuts, tips and remedies for the gardener.\” I\’m ready now to roll up my sleeves and start concocting stuff in the kitchen to apply in the garden, hopefully with good results.

Rating: 3/5 …….. 206 pages, 2003

My in-laws are visiting for a week and half, so posts here are going to be sporadic- vacation time (we\’re going to the beach!). So I\’ll be missing out on all the Read-A-Thon hoopla. But maybe I\’ll make some inroads into Quicksilver.

The day before I got yet another blog award- from Books Please! The Lovely Blog Award. This one is to be passed on to fifteen other blogs recently discovered. Here\’s some new bookish places I\’ve found online lately (that being a relative term):

Book Maven\’s Blog
Literary Wombat
Nonfiction Lover
Book Bites
Bibliophile by the Sea
Books and Other Stuff
A Novel Menagerie
Bibliographing
A Patchwork of Books
Advance Booking
Bermudaonion\’s Weblog
The Curious Reader
The Inside Cover
Piling on the Books
The Narrative Casuality

There. Now maybe you\’ve something new to read while I\’m absent. Have fun with the Read a Thon, everybody!

Again, my new words come from two books. The first few are from Compost This Book! Then we get into Quicksilver, a heavy tome rich with descriptive unknowns. This is just the beginning of what I\’m going to be looking up in the next week or so (it\’s a 900-page book)!

From Compost This Book!:

Geriatric– \”There\’d be a whole ecosystem in miniature lurking in that geriatric vegetable.\”
Definition: relating to the aging process

Sybaritic-\”When Marty\’s heap is really cooking, the sybaritic creature is nearly always stretched out on top, luxuriating in the warmth.\”
Definition: devoted to or marked by pleasure and luxury

Chelating– \”Like the sugar coating on a pill, the chelating humus makes the minerals palatable….\”
Definition: to combine (a metal ion) with a chemical compound to form a ring

From Quicksilver:

Doppelganger– \”Now he knows why: his doppelganger is a lad, moving about like a drop of quicksilver that cannot be trapped under the thumb.\”
Definition: a ghostly double of a living person that haunts its living counterpart

Erudition– \”We have, as I said, found the place where your erudition gives way to ignorance.\”
Definition: profound scholarly knowledge

Mephitic– \”They break out into the mephitic bog on its western flank.\”
Definition: poisonous or foul-smelling

Azimuth– \”The schoolmaster adjusted his azimuth as the target moved, like a telescope tracking a comet, but none of his blows seemed to have actually been felt by the fair boy yet…\” (this usage does not make sense to me, with the def.s I could find)
Definition: the arc of the sky between the zenith and the horizon or the horizontal angle of a bearing measured clockwise from the north (in surveying)

Ontogeny– \”\”There was a dollhouse and a clan of rag dolls in diverse phases of ontogeny.\”
Definition: the origin and development of an individual organism from embryo to adult

Empiricist– \”Oh, he will be a great empiricist.\”
Definition: one who disregards scientific theory and relies solely on practical experience

Visit Wondrous Words Wednesdays at Bermudaonion\’s Weblog.

I was totally surprised this morning to find that Books on the Brain gave me the very cool “You Don’t Say?” award featuring a panda! Here’s what Sheri, who created the award, says about it:

We give and get awards for having a great blog and being a good friend. What I want to award is to those people whose comments have meant THE WORLD to me. It takes time to visit a blog and leave a comment. I wanted to take this opportunity to say “thank you” to each and every one of you who has left a comment for me on A Novel Menagerie. Also, I wanted to recognize some special bloggers whose comments have made such an impact on me. The “You Don’t Say?” Award is awarded to these special bloggers in hopes that they will pass the award along to 5-10 of their best commentors!

Thank you, Lisa, for this! I always try to leave meaningful remarks, and love it when others comment on my blog. The little bookish conversations we have are what makes blogging so much fun, and so rewarding. I’m passing this award on to:

Bybee of Naked Without Books!
Anonymous Child of Biblibio
Wendy of Caribousmom
Leslie of Books n’ Border Collies
Trish of Trish’s Reading Nook
and Black Sheep Books
and Bermudaonion’s Weblog

The Art of Composting for your Yard, your Community, and the Planet
by Tom Christopher and Marty Asher

If you want to turn all your grass clippings, autumn leaves, hedge trimmings, vegetable scraps, paper, cardboard, dryer lint, etc into garden food- or compost- then this book is an invaluable resource! I found it a lot more interesting and amusing than expected. Marty and Tom, the authors, share their differing views and methods of composting, as well as a plethora of other composting \”recipes\” they\’ve tested out. There\’s instructions on how to build your own compost bin (from simple to complex), and an overview of ones you can buy. There\’s information on exactly what compost is, how it works and what to put in it. There\’s even a history of composting, and all kinds of info about how different communities have used (or ought to) composting to help manage waste, improve the environment, reduce costs, etc. (including attempts that didn\’t work, and why). I smiled to see that my home town, Seattle, had one of the best composting programs out there! Did you know that some archeologists attribute early man\’s discovery of fire to compost (beds of leaves and other litter that spontaneously burst into flame!)? That George Washington methodically tested different formulas of compost? That the interior of a compost heap can get hot enough to warm a greenhouse, or cook a chicken dinner (not actually recommended). At the end of Compost This Book! the authors instruct you on how to actually break down their handy resource volume and add it to the heap. I wouldn\’t go so far as to destroy a book I find useful, but I did have one already in the recycling bin that I felt shamed to toss out- a book I received from Paperback Swap that had old gum sticking the pages together. So I committed a sacrilege (at least it felt that way to me, Tom and Marty would probably applaud) and shredded that book (minus the bindings and covers) into the top of my compost bucket. Wow. I just fed my vegetables a book (well, got it diced. They won\’t actually eat it for months).

Rating: 4/5                        248 pages, 1994

DISCLAIMER:

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

SUBSCRIBE VIA EMAIL:

Subscribe to my blog:

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

VIEW MY PERSONAL COLLECTION:

TRADE BOOKS WITH ME ON:

ARCHIVES: 

2024
January 2024 (21)February 2024 (22)March 2024 (45)April 2024 (38)May 2024 (34)June 2024 (33)July 2024 (34)August 2024 (44)September 2024 (21)October 2024 (26)November 2024 (6)
2023
January 2023 (27)February 2023 (23)March 2023 (25)April 2023 (11)May 2023 (17)June 2023 (11)July 2023 (23)August 2023 (23)September 2023 (14)October 2023 (14)November 2023 (26)December 2023 (14)
2022
January 2022 (12)February 2022 (7)March 2022 (13)April 2022 (16)May 2022 (13)June 2022 (21)July 2022 (15)August 2022 (27)September 2022 (10)October 2022 (17)November 2022 (16)December 2022 (23)
2021
January 2021 (14)February 2021 (13)March 2021 (14)April 2021 (7)May 2021 (10)June 2021 (5)July 2021 (10)August 2021 (27)September 2021 (16)October 2021 (11)November 2021 (14)December 2021 (12)
2020
January 2020 (14)February 2020 (6)March 2020 (10)April 2020 (1)May 2020 (10)June 2020 (15)July 2020 (13)August 2020 (26)September 2020 (10)October 2020 (9)November 2020 (16)December 2020 (22)
2019
January 2019 (12)February 2019 (9)March 2019 (5)April 2019 (10)May 2019 (9)June 2019 (6)July 2019 (18)August 2019 (13)September 2019 (13)October 2019 (7)November 2019 (5)December 2019 (18)
2018
January 2018 (17)February 2018 (18)March 2018 (9)April 2018 (9)May 2018 (6)June 2018 (21)July 2018 (12)August 2018 (7)September 2018 (13)October 2018 (15)November 2018 (10)December 2018 (13)
2017
January 2017 (19)February 2017 (12)March 2017 (7)April 2017 (4)May 2017 (5)June 2017 (8)July 2017 (13)August 2017 (17)September 2017 (12)October 2017 (15)November 2017 (14)December 2017 (11)
2016
January 2016 (5)February 2016 (14)March 2016 (5)April 2016 (6)May 2016 (14)June 2016 (12)July 2016 (11)August 2016 (11)September 2016 (11)October 2016 (9)November 2016 (1)December 2016 (3)
2015
January 2015 (9)February 2015 (9)March 2015 (11)April 2015 (10)May 2015 (10)June 2015 (2)July 2015 (12)August 2015 (13)September 2015 (16)October 2015 (13)November 2015 (10)December 2015 (14)
2014
January 2014 (14)February 2014 (11)March 2014 (5)April 2014 (15)May 2014 (12)June 2014 (17)July 2014 (22)August 2014 (19)September 2014 (10)October 2014 (19)November 2014 (14)December 2014 (14)
2013
January 2013 (25)February 2013 (28)March 2013 (18)April 2013 (21)May 2013 (12)June 2013 (7)July 2013 (13)August 2013 (25)September 2013 (24)October 2013 (17)November 2013 (18)December 2013 (20)
2012
January 2012 (21)February 2012 (19)March 2012 (9)April 2012 (23)May 2012 (31)June 2012 (21)July 2012 (19)August 2012 (16)September 2012 (4)October 2012 (2)November 2012 (7)December 2012 (19)
2011
January 2011 (26)February 2011 (22)March 2011 (18)April 2011 (11)May 2011 (6)June 2011 (7)July 2011 (10)August 2011 (9)September 2011 (14)October 2011 (13)November 2011 (15)December 2011 (22)
2010
January 2010 (27)February 2010 (19)March 2010 (20)April 2010 (24)May 2010 (22)June 2010 (24)July 2010 (31)August 2010 (17)September 2010 (18)October 2010 (11)November 2010 (13)December 2010 (19)
2009
January 2009 (23)February 2009 (26)March 2009 (32)April 2009 (22)May 2009 (18)June 2009 (26)July 2009 (34)August 2009 (31)September 2009 (30)October 2009 (23)November 2009 (26)December 2009 (18)
2008
January 2008 (35)February 2008 (26)March 2008 (33)April 2008 (15)May 2008 (29)June 2008 (29)July 2008 (29)August 2008 (34)September 2008 (29)October 2008 (27)November 2008 (27)December 2008 (24)
2007
August 2007 (12)September 2007 (28)October 2007 (27)November 2007 (28)December 2007 (14)
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984
1983
1982
1981
1980
1979
1978
1977
1976
1975
1974
1973
1972
1971
1970
1969
1968
1967
1966
1965
1964
1963
1962
1961
1960
1959
1958
1957
1956
1955
1954
1953
1952
1951
1950