BlogHer Book Club - Girl In Translation

Please click here to read my review of Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok over at BlogHer!  I really liked this book, I think you will too!

Chapter Books!!!

The age I've been waiting for since I got pregnant in 2004 has finally arrived.  Mary Grace is old enough for Chapter Books!

Up until recently, she hasn't had the attention span to read books without pictures, where the story spanned several days of reading a chapter or two at bedtime, but her cousins gave her a stack of their old Junie B. Jones books, and she is hooked.  Claire is a little less into them, but she'll get there.

Actually, we sort of screwed up with Claire and reading - we have always read at Mary Grace's level, which meant that the books were above Claire's head and she was completely uninterested.  We didn't figure it out until she was about 2-1/2.  As soon as we got out Mary Grace's old books and started reading at Claire's level, she got interested.  It's really important, with multiple kids, to make sure you're reading to each child at their own level (or just a smidge above their level).  Claire still loves books that teach the ABCs, with big pictures, and shorter books with lots of rhyming and meter, and that's fine.  There's no better way to ruin a kid's love of reading than to push them too far too fast, IMHO.  There's plenty of time for War and Peace later.  (She'll listen to the chapter books, but she gets bored quickly and wanders away.  I think she listens as long as she does because she wants to be like her big sister.  If she were an only child, she wouldn't sit still as long as she does for them).


Anyway, back to chapter books...  the first thing I did was order the Little House books (see convenient picture ad, above).  These were my favorites when I was a kid.  I must have read them a hundred times, and I was Laura for Halloween more than once.  They shipped today, and I can't wait to start them.  (Plus, Laura is a better role model than Junie B.  Let's face it, that Junie B. is a brat.  We've already had lots of discussions about how Junie B. is NOT someone we want to emulate.)  I also want to read the Madeline L'Engle books to her.  I remember that I loved A Wrinkle in Time even though I have no idea, now, what it was about.

I know a bunch of you are teachers, and a bunch of you are book lovers.  Some of you are both!  Help me build a good list.  What are your favorite books for little girls just starting chapter books?



(The links above are Amazon Associates links, which means that if you click them and buy stuff I get a penny or two added to my own book fund, so thanks!)

Product Recommendations!

If you know me in real life, you know that I've been walking around like a plumber for about a month now. ALL of my pants are falling down.  Even my formerly-tight ones!

YAY!

I know a lot of you are on this journey with me, so when I found and tried this product (which I bought with my own money, no one is compensating me in any way to write this, except Amazon Associates if you decide to buy it via this link - I think I get 75 cents or something) I knew I had to share it with you.

Behold, the ADJUST-a-BUTTON!

This is one of those products that I look at and think, "Duh! Why didn't I think of that??" It's a button on a lapel pin. If you've lost weight and you need to tighten up your pants (so you're not lookin' like a fool, right?), all you do is stick the pin through the waist of your jeans a couple inches past where the button is sewn, and then you button the button hole through the button on a pin, rather than the button that's already there.

Brilliant.

I'm hoping that with this product I can buy every-other-size of pants, rather than every size, on the way down. Thus saving myself lots of money.

Money that I can spend on cute tops, instead.

Speaking of tops, have you tried VitaTops?  HungryGirl swears by them, but I was skeptical (mainly because of the name, who wants to eat something that tastes like vitamins?).  I tried them yesterday, and YUM.

They're only 100 calories, and there's a lot of good fiber and vitamins and stuff going on in there.  I got mine at the grocery store for about $1 each, but you can buy them from Amazon for a bit more and get them shipped straight to your door.  Note that you have to keep them in the freezer, because they don't contain any preservatives, so before you go and buy a case, make sure you have the freezer space to deal with them, ok?  I got the "deep chocolate" that I linked to, there, but there are lots and lots of flavors.  Try them and let me know which you like.  (FYI, Kroger carries the Deep Chocolate and the Corn Muffin flavors).

Speaking of corn meal, I made mush for my kids for breakfast the other day, because Claire is obsessed with Goodnight Moon ("Goodnight nobody, goodnight mush...").  They didn't love it.  It was super easy, though.  All you do is mix 1/2 cup of corn meal with 2 cups of water, and stir it and stir it on the stove until it thickens.  It looks and tastes kind of like cream of wheat.  Like I said, my kids didn't love it, but it was kind of fun anyway.  I like to "cook the book."  When Mary Grace was obsessed with Peter Rabbit (I must have read that book 1000 times) she really got into having chamomile tea for snack.

One last thing, speaking of corn, have you seen Food, Inc.?  Oh.  My.  God.  It made me feel really good about our decision to feed our kids organic milk (Horizon, usually) and organic beef (that we get from BJ's uncle, who is a farmer south of here).  I'm currently shopping for an organic pork farmer - the farmer's market starts in April, and I'm 85% sure I remember a pork farmer being there.  I have a source for "happy chickens" (coincidentally it's the same person I get happy popcorn from, and it's way better than grocery store popcorn.  Please don't eat the microwave stuff with any sort of frequency.  The yellow dye in the butter will kill you.  Besides, it's super easy to make real popcorn on the stove and it tastes a zillion times better).  Anyway, jeez, ramble much Amy?

Food Inc. is about the way our food is made in the U.S., and all the things that are wrong with that system.  I really think that we all need to think more critically about what we're eating, and why we're eating it, and what we can do to make healthier, more sustainable choices.  You know this is something I've been thinking about a lot, lately, because I wrote this not too long ago.

If you have Netflix you can download Food Inc. and watch it for free.  It's also available on-demand from Amazon for a couple bucks  - click here -  Food Inc.  Did you see Oprah talking about this last week?  She had Alicia Silverstone on, who is my age and still looks 17 so she must be doing something right, along with Michael Pollan and they talked very carefully about food (because Oprah got sued a few years ago by the beef industry for saying, "I'm not eating hamburger anymore..."  Crazy!  Isn't this America??). 

Anyway, it was very thought provoking, and I challenge all of you to see it, and tell me what you think!

That is enough rambling for today.  Go forth and shop!!  Let me know what you think if you try (or have tried) any of this stuff.

My Profundity Has Been Published

Right in between Jane Austen and Bernard Avishai, on pages 24 - 25 of this book, you will find three quotes by yours truly, in an actual book that my friend Mike Muth compiled.

You can get your copy for a Kindle here.  If you don't have a Kindle, you can get a copy of the "Kindle for PC" or "Kindle for iPhone" program at the same link.  If you don't use a PC or an iPhone, you'll have to wait for Amazon to come out with a "Kindle for Mac" program, or buy a Kindle (Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation)). 

This kind of thing only serves to encourage me...  Hee!

War and Peace

(... so titled because this post is really long...)

I feel like I should rename this blog "Pretty Viruses" or "Infectious Babies" or something with all the H1N1 talk. But I had to share this article about research from Purdue University with you, which suggests that the H1N1 pandemic has already peaked.

I'm not going to tempt fate by saying "neener neener."

Meanwhile, Claire is sick. She's got a fever, a slightly runny nose, and a cough. The cough has made her hoarse, so she sounds like Kathleen Turner, which is really funny coming out of a 2 year old. Her fever topped out at about 102, so I don't think it's anything more serious than a cold. I've kept her home from "school" (which is actually the Mommy's time out program at the church where MG goes to school, but Claire thinks it's school) and all our activities have come to a screeching halt. I did get eight loads of laundry put away yesterday, though, so that was kind of awesome (once it was done).

A couple of you asked questions instead of just leaving one word in your comments on this post.

ChicagoGoebel wrote:

BTW - Any more toddler discipline nuggets of wisdom to share? We JUST started time-outs last weekend due to a rash of braining his cousins with wooden toys (sigh). I've been thinking a lot about a comment I heard "most people forget that the word discipline truly means to create a disciple," so I'm trying to approach discipline in a teaching/leading mindset, as opposed to punishment. Your thoughts??

...and I was all ready to write, "Dude, I gots nothin'..." because it has been neither peaceful nor easy around here lately, when I ran across something in the book NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children which I've been reading in between Mary Roach books. I'm going to paraphrase this, because I don't feel like typing it all out, but basically it said that if you tell a kid to stand still, they'll stand still for like a minute. But if you tell them that you're going to "play soldier" and that they need to stand still for as long as they can, they'll stay put for like ten minutes.

I tried it with MG, and she stood still for one minute, as predicted, when I just told her to stand still. She stood there for like 2 minutes and 30 seconds when I told her it was a game. I have a feeling that if I'd made her a princess or a ballerina instead of a soldier it would've worked better - she doesn't know or care about soldiers very much, because they don't wear much pink or tulle.

So I got to thinking about how we could use this as parents. The cleaning up game? The standing still in the parking lot so that you don't get hit by a Mack Truck game? I'm still working on it, but I think it's clear that making things a game, making them fun, is a powerful tool with children that we should exploit.

Plus, if you're constantly playing silly games, imagine how much more fun your house's atmosphere is going to be than if you're constantly barking orders, right? (Not that you are barking orders, CG, I'm using the universal "you.") I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that an atmosphere of play and fun is better for kids.

Also, get the book, 'cause it's good.

Along a similar vein, Anonymous writes:

Oh yea, btw, when are you going to post your comments on that article you put up about time outs meaning we don't love our children??

...which made me feel guilty because I promised you that over a month ago and I never followed up! If you'd made it a game I might've done better...

Basically, the article said, "Sure, time outs work, but if you use them your kid won't like you." My first reaction was, "Well, I didn't become a parent to be liked. I am trying to raise future adults, here, and if they don't like me sometimes, I think that means I'm doing something right! Pushovers aren't good parents! I don't want to be my kids' friend, I'm their mom!"

But then something really interesting happened. A couple weeks after I posted that article, Mary Grace started crying and saying, plaintively, "Mommy, do you still love me?" whenever I sent her to time out.

"Holy carp," I thought, "Did she read the article??"

It turns out that she thought we were going to sell her to Egypt... but it got me to thinking that I might be missing something. So, I went back and re-read the article I wrote back when I was smarter about Time Outs and how to do them right, and I realized something crucial.

I've been skipping a step.

I've been asking her, when it's over, "Why'd you get a time out?" but I've forgotten the part where you hug and say, "I love you, let's do something else."

I think maybe after four years of telling her, it's tempting to assume that she knows I love her. It's certainly faster to get back to whatever I'm doing if I yell, "Why'd you get a time out?" over my shoulder at her, but in order for Time Outs to be effective, you have to process the kid out correctly. In order to avoid the effects that article suggests are inevitable, I think we need to be mindful about how we're removing kids from time out, and to make sure that we're doing all the steps. Perhaps the most important one is where you hug the kid and say, "Hey, I love you, let's move forward now."

Now, CG, I'm not sure how you're going to make not hitting into a game ("Let's see if you guys can get along for 5 whole minutes... Ready? Go!"), but certainly make sure that you're doing time outs right. (I'll make all the mistakes so you don't have to!)

The hitting thing is usually frustration. Your kid is 18 months old or so, right? How's his language? Could it be that he's getting mad because he can't express himself? If so, know that it'll pass as he gets older and can speak English. Consider teaching him a few, basic signs for things that seem to annoy him (or you!) the most. Remember that his receptive language is better than his expressive language - he understands a lot more than he can say back to you. Explain to him why he's not allowed to hit. "No hitting, that hurts Cousin and Cousin won't want to play anymore!" might be effective things to say after the time out.

18 months is prime time for behavior problems, which is why I suggest starting time outs at the relatively-compliant age of 12 months! I remember feeling like my kids were possessed at that age. They're big enough to really hurt themselves (or others) but they have no common sense at all, and they want to be able to communicate but they don't quite have the motor skills, yet, to form the words. It's got to be hard on them, too! But I know it's hard on us. I remember clearly, thinking, "Oh my God, if it's this bad now, what are the 'terrible twos' going to be like??"

At least they know how to talk when they're two. Not that we always want to hear it, or that we always listen, but some of that frustration at being unable to communicate wanes as they get bigger and better at speaking.

18 months is kind of the border between baby and toddler, too. We start having greater expectations at that age. It's tough on everyone. And I had Claire when MG was 19 months old, so I don't remember much else about it, other than that it was really, really hard and I was really, really tired.

In other news, we finished all of our homework yesterday and made our turkey into a princess.

This is only half the finished product - BJ brought home glitter glue, and we made her sleeves purple glitter and her hat pink glitter and the towers' caps silver glitter and the flags blue glitter... Then, after the glitter dried overnight, MG colored in the sky and the towers and the turkey's head this morning. And of course I forgot to take a picture before she took it back to school this morning. I'll get one later once they post them at school.

I was off by a day...

I finished my book last night. If work, the kids, and a migraine hadn't interfered, I would certainly have been done by Thursday. It was good. Not my favorite of the series, but it was good. Reading a book that's seventh in a series is kind of like seeing old friends again. Unfortunately, I won't get to see them again until the next book comes out - probably when Claire is in first grade.

That kind of puts it in perspective.

At least I'll have more uninterrupted time to read then than I had this time!

In addition to reading too much, I've been getting us ready for our upcoming trip to Florida (for which we have a house sitter so don't even think about taking the opportunity to rob us blind. Besides, we're taking all the good stuff with us). Did you know you can use Priceline for rental cars? I got a full sized car for $25 a day (plus $70 for the week's worth of goofy taxes and fees and whatnot). Not too bad! Next time I'll try $20 a day.

BJ's taking the kids to Brandon's with him today, and I'm going to go shopping. I need to get some stuff for myself, and I have a coupon for Kohl's. I guess it's going to be hot while we're in Florida, which is nice because we'll get another chance to wear our summer clothes.

I have thoughts about that article I posted yesterday, but I'm still digesting the book. I think I'm going to (slowly) read through the whole series again. I know there's stuff I missed because it's been several years since I've read the preceding books. Normally I don't read the same thing over and over, but these books have lots of layers, reoccurring characters, and foreshadowing. I know I'll catch more of it if I give it another read.

However, I won't read it with the urgency I've been reading it with the first time, so I'll still have time to post, check on my Facebook Mafia, and keep up with my Google reader which currently has over 500 unread items. We won't even discuss the state of Chez Austin. It's a little scary.

What are you up to this weekend?

AFK

I'm going to be away from my computer for a while, because this:


is going to be arriving shortly!!! If you haven't read any of Diana Gabaldon's books, you really should. They're my favorite. Start with Outlander. I'd love to summarize them, or give you an idea of what they're about, but they're really indescribable.

Here's the Amazon review of Outlander:

Amazon.com Review
In Outlander, a 600-page time-travel romance, strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century, and a lover in another. Torn between fidelity and desire, she struggles to understand the pure intent of her heart. But don't let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare you. It's one of the fastest reads you'll have in your library.

While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn't all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she's never known before.

An Echo In the Bone is the seventh tome in the series. I'm so excited to read it that I actually downloaded the Kindle preview so that I could start it this morning before UPS arrives with my copy. It's 832 pages, so I should be finished by Thursday. The last new one came out when MG was a baby. I've been waiting for this day for a long time!

I'm tempted to reread the series before I start the newest one, but it would take a couple of weeks, and I'm too anxious. Last time I read the new one, then reread the series afterward. I always find new information and details that didn't stand out in my last read when I reread these books. The scope of them is just incredible. And the steamy scenes are really steamy!

Shhh! Mommy's Reading

Jennifer at Playgroups are No Place for Children kindly sent me the first book in the Twilight series, and now I'm on the fourth. This could explain several things - 1) why my house is a mess, 2) why I haven't posted, 3) why I have 302 items in my feed reader to read and 10 e-mails to reply to, 4) why I have a headache.

Reading 2000 pages in less than a week will do that to you.

But reading is distracting me from the other thing I want to do, which you know about if you need to, and you don't need to know about if you don't (or if you're one of my kids reading this in the distant future)... so it's good.

I need to get the kids dressed, though, and take them to MG's new language study at the University. I forgot about it last week. I was reading. Whoops. I think missing appointments due to reading is indicative of a problem, don't you?

The good news is that I'm in the last part of the last book, so things should return to normal around here very shortly.

Books I'm Reading...

I've been slacking on my reading the past few days, but recently picked up a book called Endangered by Johann Christoph Arnold, and found a poem that I wanted to share with you...

child, though I am meant to teach you much,
what is it, in the end,
except that together we are
meant to be children
of the same Father,
and I must unlearn
all the adult structure
and the cumbering years
and you must teach me
to look at the earth and the heaven
with your fresh wonder.
~Jane Tyson Clement

I thought it was beautiful, and especially appropriate as we begin the Christmas season. For me, the best part of being a parent is seeing the world through a child's eyes again, through my kids.

I'm only about halfway into this book, but I'm finding excellent things to think about. It really addresses my fears about raising children in such a violent, unchildlike, unsafe world. I haven't gotten to any answers, yet, on how to insulate them, except to love them. If they know that I will walk with them through life, and help them to become who they're supposed to be, no matter what, maybe they'll be ok.

What's inspiring you today?

Book Review: The Green Collar Economy

Elisa at MotherTalkers sent me a PDF copy of a new book called The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones to review and tell you about. Because Elisa occasionally kicks me the phat traffic, I try to do what she says.

Unfortunately, there was a small matter of a huge wedding that interfered with my reviewing this book in what could be called a "timely manner," and without one iota of help from me, this book has already hit the New York Times Bestseller list (as I write this, it's #31). Since I'm not one to turn down a free read, though, even if it does mean sitting in front of my computer for hours and hours, I am going to go ahead and tell you all about it, beloved readers...

I was only a few pages into this book when the following paragraph leaped off of the page and grabbed me by the throat:

Right now, we are still scurrying about on our planet's surface, eking out of living as part of a vulture society - living off the dead. Out of the Earth we suck the liquefied remains of dead organisms. We burn our ancestors' remains in our engines, without ceremony. Then we go back to the Earth, like vampires, to suck out even more oil. Our coal-fired power plants munch daily on the black bones of the ancients-and belch out death. Today, the climate itself threatens to bring everything full circle: if we keep pulling death from the ground, we will reap death from the skies.

Woah.

But rather than spend 200+ pages berating us for our abuse of the planet, Van Jones presents a plan for saving our economy AND the planet. Through solar power, wind turbines, and turbines in the sea, and by tapping into the heat below the earth's surface, Jones suggests that we can create green jobs (that are not ever going to be farmed out to Mexico or China), revitalize the economy, and start saving the planet.

Jones suggests that the government needs to launch an initiative similar to the Manhattan Project to jumpstart research and investment into green, renewable energy production. He explains why ethanol and nuclear energy are false solutions, in clear concise language.

I think the best news in this book is that these new "green collar" jobs will be filled by people who used to have "blue collar" jobs in the 20th century. The skill sets for repairing a gas engine and an electric engine are relatively the same. The folks who worked at factories (now closed) making steel and cars and trucks can be retrained to make solar panels and windmills and turbines to put in the seas. We can take the "fundamentals of our economy," as McCain put it, and put them back to work improving the environment - and if those guys and girls are back at work, our economy will rebound. Everyone wins.

Ok, I'll admit, I've only had time to read the first chapter... but it's a good book already, with good ideas that deserve serious consideration. Let me know what you think in the comments!

If I spent all this time running instead of reading I'd be a size 2

Thanks for all the awesome book recommendations! Right now I'm about halfway through Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. I'm honestly not that into it, but it gave me something to do during the 2+ hours it took to put the kids to bed tonight.

ARGH!

It drives me absolutely bonkers that they will lay down at Dawn's and take a two hour nap with no shenanigans - no reading, no snuggling, no "rub my back," or "rub my foot." They lay down, alone, on mats, and they sleep. At home we have to go through a circus act of bouncing and rocking and singing and shushing and reading and rubbing (and MG takes my fingers and shows me how she wants her back rubbed, because apparently I don't do it right anymore, until I say, "I am DONE, just go to SLEEP!"). Talked to Mom today and she says this is normal, and that they're not just doing it to drive me insane, but I'm not entirely convinced that I believe her.

Dad got my S.O.S. e-mail earlier, and though it was too late to come over and take the kids away, he did leave ice cream in the freezer (rocky road - excellent!) and promise to come over and make purple chicken for dinner tomorrow.

I am intrigued. Dad's cooking repertoire generally consists of peanut butter and microwave popcorn. I asked him how he gets the chicken to be purple, but he said it's a chef's secret. Google was no help.

To be honest, as long as I don't have to cook it, I don't care what color the chicken is!

I think I'm cranky because I've been having trouble sleeping. I've had to take Unisom the last two nights, because I just lay there, wide awake, looking at the ceiling until 1:30 or 2 am. The neck pain thing that I saw the chiropractor (or "back quack," if you're BJ) for isn't noticably worse at night, or when I'm lying down, so I don't know what my problem is. I get tired, but not sleepy. I don't make any sense, but thank God for Unisom otherwise I'd have been a real peach today. Can an overdose of zucchini make one sleepless?

Nighty night, internets. I hear the siren song of the Unisom, calling me upstairs. A big day of laundry and gymnastics tomorrow. It just doesn't get much more exciting than this!!

I can haz books?

This is just going to be a quickie because it's been a really busy day and BJ and I are about to watch a movie... But I have over 50 credits at PaperBackSwap (see link over on the right and down a bit), and I wondered if anyone had read any good books lately. I have about a dozen in my to read pile, but I can't get into any of them. Wrong mood. I need a new author to fall in love with so I can work my way through his or her complete works (as I've done with Diana Gabaldon, Jodi Picoult, etc.).

So, what are you reading? Who do you love? What do you recommend? I think I need something funny and quirky, and romantic, but maybe a little dark... I need a little darkness in my books to balance out all the Berenstein Bears I'm made to read every day.

Knock Yourself Up by Louise Sloan

Immediately after I volunteered to review Knock Yourself Up by Louise Sloan, I got nervous. You see, generally, when you agree to review a book or product on your blog, the people who grant you the privilege expect a favorable review in return. But while I was waiting for the book to arrive I started to think, "Fathers are so important, and being a single mother is so hard... What if I can't truthfully recommend this book? What if I hate everything it stands for?? What am I going to say?"

Fortunately, all of my fears were alleviated within the first chapter or two of the book. Ms. Sloan isn't advocating that all women go out and knock themselves up. She isn't dreaming of a world without men. In fact, quite the opposite. She, and most of the women she interviewed for the book, always expected to find a partner and have children in a committed relationship. But things don't always work out the way we planned, and the relationship didn't materialize in Ms. Sloan's life. With her biological clock ticking, she made the difficult choice to go it alone.

Her stories are so cute and funny. Some of the situations reminded me of the movie Baby Mama, although the "happily ever after" Hollywood ending in Baby Mama doesn't happen often for real women in the life Ms. Sloan chose (she talks about that in the dating chapter). But how often do happily ever afters happen in real life for any of us?

In reading this book, I began to look at my happily ever after life, with my two kids and husband and picket fence and dog and cat, and to realize that I'm really lucky, and not everyone is as lucky as I am. Some people don't fit the cookie cutter. Some people are gay. Some people don't find their other half, or don't find him or her in time to have a family. Who am I to deny them (with my judgment) a chance at having all of the joy and pleasure and, yes, work (I mean, I spent 30 minutes cleaning up puke yesterday - oh the glamor!) of childrearing? Who am I to say, "You should adopt!" when my own desire to have a biological child was so strong that I spent 24 months trying, and crying, over it? Who am I to say to anyone, "The way you've made your family is wrong"?

Knock Yourself Up is a guidebook for women who find themselves on a different path from the one we typically think of when we think "family." In the same spirit as a "Girlfriend's Guide," Ms. Sloan says to other women, "I've been in your shoes. I know what it's like to want a kid so badly that you're willing to do it by yourself. Here's how I did it, and what I learned, and what I laughed about. You can do it too."

The birth story in chapter 10 is especially touching. I've always loved birth stories, especially when I was pregnant, and Ms. Sloan's writing brought me right into the story. And her discussion of the potential complications is especially important for women choosing to knock themselves up. These days, it seems that it's rare for any woman to have a completely uncomplicated pregnancy and birth. A strong support network is essential for any pregnant woman, but especially so for a woman who is becoming a single mom.

In e-mail correspondence, I asked Ms. Sloan why she thought that it was so rare to hear about a single by choice dad in our culture. She said that she has heard of men doing exactly that. I guess it's because she's in New York City and I'm in Indiana. I guess maybe Rent a Womb - the Single Man's Guide to Becoming a Dad could be the next book I review.

In reading this book, I became a little more accepting, and a little less judgmental, about other peoples' choices. The author's note is called "Love Makes a Family," and that's so true. Now that I've sort of been inside the head of a woman who chose this path, I hope that I'll be more prepared to support any real women who may cross my path and be in a similar situation. If you're on the path to single motherhood, I can't recommend Knock Yourself Up enough.

State of Emergency

Yesterday I mentioned that I have been neglecting my housekeeping duties because I've been reading a really good book. As soon as I hit "publish" I realized that I have neglected the commitment I made to write a review of Knock Yourself Up by Louise Sloan, and I immediately felt extremely guilty.

But seriously - my house is at DEFCON 1 (DEFCON being short for Definitely Condemned) and I had set aside the next 8 hours to whip it back into shape. We are completely, and I do mean completely, out of diapers. We are nearly out of toilet paper. I can no longer blame the mess on the kitchen project, as the mess has spread and is now inhabiting every corner of every room in my house. My dust bunnies have dust bunnies. It's BAD. It's so bad I'm tempted to call a service and have it done for me, until I realize that I'd have to spend all day cleaning to get it clean enough for the service to do their thing, and it would just be easier and cheaper to do it myself.

I can't even find the book I am supposed to review!

So I'm going to throw on clothes and run to Walmart, to arm myself with diapers, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies. That'll give the AC a chance to dehumidify the house so you don't find me, stroked out, in a bathroom up to my elbows in Comet and humiliation.

When I come up for air, I'll sit down and write the review, Louise, I promise... and I'm sorry it has taken me so long. So stay tuned, kids. It's this kind of excitement that keeps you coming back day after day, right?

(Image borrowed from www.babble.com/cs/blogs/strollerderby)

The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield

Have I mentioned that I love books? I do. When I'm in a good book, the house goes to pieces, the kids wear dirty clothes and eat things I can give them to manage on their own (like string cheese), and the husband only sees the top half of my face peering at him over the spine of whatever book I'm obsessed with at that moment.

There are novels that I have read over several times, and every time I find something new. Then there are the novels that I've just recently found, which make me want to go out and find everything the author has ever written and bury myself in them for a month.

As if my house could stand to be neglected that long!

That's where I've been the past 3 days. With the exception of two prior engagements (my step-sister's baby shower and a playdate with Jennifer of Playgroups are No Place for Children) I have been buried in The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

I've just finished it, and I've already decided to read it again before I relist it on Paperback Swap. I need to let it sit and sort itself out in my head, a little, first. And I have about half a dozen other books that I'm in the middle of right now, but I know it's one that I'll read again (and again?) because I know I'll find something new in it the next time I open its cover.

The story is about a writer who is asked by a famous, elderly author who has always lied about her past, to write her life story. The elderly author is eccentric, and tells the writer that she will not allow any questions or jumping ahead in the story. No looking at the last page before its time. And so the story of the writer unfolds as the story of the author unfolds. And it's a convoluted story of love and loss and madness. It references Victorian Gothic novels like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights... and with good reason. By the end of the story it becomes clear that The Thirteenth Tale is, itself, a Modern Gothic novel. It has all of the qualities - mystery, unrequited love, violence, death, tragedy - that we love about the Victorian Gothics. (Ok, I just looked at the Wikipedia page for Gothic Fiction - just to make sure I had all of my adjectives right - after all, it's been a while since college English - and I found a reference to one of my college professors - Susan Gubar. CRAZY! Now I have to go and find all of the people I know who have Wikipedia pages. That could take a while... What's truly astonishing is that I remember anything at all from the two years I spent at IU, but that's another story for another day).

It was very, very good, and if you're looking for something to add to your summer reading list, I recommend it.

What are you reading? What's your favorite Gothic novel? Mine is Jane Eyre. I guess reading it for the class of an expert in the field of literature didn't hurt. I also love The Phantom of the Opera, but mainly because of the play.