Completely forgot to post a Tuesday Teaser yesterday. Probably in part because I haven't written anything in about a week and a half.

Bad Cate!

I think I need to break down and move, so I can get a flatmate. I do much better taking care of myself when it's a side effect of taking care of other people.

Cate

So, this weekend was the wedding of one of my cousins. Yes, I did survive, perhaps because no one asked me "Why don't you find a nice boy, Cate?" (A phrase that makes me "argh" on several levels.)

Plus, I could tell myself that I shouldn't have to do this too many more times. Out of the ten cousins in my family, only two and a half not married -- I'm single, as is M, but K is already engaged to a lovely violinist-pilot (wedding in December, which gives me time to crochet my newly-traditional afghan for their gift).

So, the wedding was surprisingly un-nightmarish, but getting there? That was another story.

On Saturday, when we planned to fly out, my poor mother was having a rotten day, complete with nasty customers and co-worker mistakes and all sorts of bad things. She called me mid-morning to rant, and also to warn me that she was going to try to change our flights for the next morning so she had more time to sort out work-stuff. The ceremony wasn't until 4pm, so this would have worked out fine.

Well, the change fee would have been huge, so in the end, she arrived to pick me up within a reasonable time to catch our original flight. (My mother lives an hour's drive out of town -- this becomes important.)

We dropped her car off at Park and Jet and took the shuttle to the airport. As we approached the terminal, my mother starts riffling through her purse, first casually, then more urgently.

She'd forgotten to put in her wallet. Which meant she had no ID.

There proceeded to be a frantic number of calls using my cell phone to try and find someone who could a) get into my mother's condo and find her wallet and/or passport and b) get it to us in time.

Trouble was: remember that part about my mother living an hour out of town?

So in the end, I flew ahead to meet my brother and sister-in-law and my mother drove back for her ID. Luckily, the ticket agents were very helpful and put her on standby for the next flight that evening, which was much cheaper than the full change to the next morning would have been.

Of course, in all the rigamarole, we forgot that the actual hotel was about an hour's drive from the airport. We should have called the brother and sister-in-law to tell them to pick us both up after the second flight. They could have enjoyed the hot springs....and, after all, I did have the Bag of Family Free Fun. But on the other hand, I got a chance to grill my SIL about her taste in afghans. Turns out my original idea is actually her favourite. (*small cheer*)

And in defence of my dear, dear, stressed and scatterbrained mother: At 3:30 the next afternoon, with the wedding at 4:00, my aunt opened her suitcase to find she'd forgotten to pack the dress she intended to wear....and had to run out and buy something

...and, yes, she looked gorgeous.

Cate

I am first on the library's hold list for Chabon's next essay collection, Manhood for Amateurs!

Though knowing how slow libraries' orders are to be filled, processed and cataloged, I might end up reading a store copy (and that's only if my quest for an ARC is unsuccessful).

Cate

Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands by Michael Chabon.

Published as a collection in 2008
ISBN: 9781-93241689-3

Rating: Liked it (4/5)

This thoroughly enjoyable set of essays is collected from publications as varied as their contents. Everything from golems to graphic novels to maps of planned communities that never came into fruition.

Chabon says, much more clearly that I could, things that I've known and believed for years. Things about the push and pull, the give and take that exists between reader, writer and inspiration, shifting the sands beneath their feet so that no one can see where the borders were, or if they ever really existed in the first place. All writing is fan fiction. We're all exploring the borderlands of our inspirations, looking for new spaces to claim as our own.

I'm also much comforted about that fact that I have a stuffed puppy I named after my main character. (I'm just surprised that Jack hasn't yet grown to fill my apartment.) The question of genre as regards Twenty Years After, however, is even more confused, but I'll think about that tomorrow.

Though I've not yet read any of Chabon's novels (emphasis on yet) I did pick up his novella The Final Solution about eighteen months ago (review here), and this collection does make it clear exactly why Chabon wrote an ending that left me slightly dissatisfied. I'm now convinced that's just the reaction he wanted when he left his own borderland for someone, for everyone to sketch in their own ideas.

Just practising what he preaches, I guess.

Cate

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Translated from the French by Alison Anderson

Published in English in 2008
ISBN: 978-1-933372-60-0

Rating: Loved it! (5/5)

It's not often that a book makes me cry, but that's exact what I did at the end of Elegance.

Renée, a fifty-four year old concièrge who lives mostly within her mind, along with the philosophers and writers whose work she so enjoys and who is terrified that her employers will discover her intelligence and think she is getting above her station.

Paloma, a disaffected and intelligent young twelve-year-old who feels so disillusioned by the future in store for her that she plans to set fire to her parents apartment and then commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is primarily a character study of these women, but it's also about the transformative power that one person can have in another's life. It's truly a beautiful book.

I cannot really say much more without spoiling the book. It's a cop out, I know, but it's also true.

Cate

Hooked for Life: Adventures of a Crochet Zealot by Mary Beth Temple

Published in 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7407-7812-4

Rating: Enjoyable (3/5)

This little title was left at the store for me by a publisher's rep who is a fellow yarnie.

It's a rather cute volume of essays about crochet, along with a few patterns. Nothing groundbreaking, even to a newcomer like me, but definitely a fun afternoon.

Two things that did catch my eye.

First, a pattern for the inevitable crocheted spare-toliet-paper-cover-doll -- but she's goth! (I picked up a suitable [cheap] doll and am just waiting for a remnant in an appropriate colour.)

The other is Temple's amusing rant against the wordplay of "crocheters are hookers", complaining that "crochet gets little enough respect...without calling its practitioners the same name as those who play their trade at the world's oldest profession". Because we all know that without exception sex workers are the dregs of society and have no value because they've sold their bodies. </sarcasm>

(Actually, some say that the word "hooker" comes from the fact that lace-factory owners openly expected their workers to turn a few tricks to make up for their low wages. But I've yet to see this claim linked to historical evidence.)

Amusingly, I object to the word "crocheter" as vehemently as she objects to "hooker", though for different reasons. Etymological ones. Crocheter is such an awful, awkward, half-French, half-English word. Awkward to spell, awkward to pronounce. I would far prefer crocheteur, or (if we must be gender specific) crocheteuse. After all, we do have voyeur, auteur and agent provocateur, don't we?

Cate, aka a happy hooker

Trick or Treat by Kerry Greenwood

Published in 2007
ISBN: 978-1-74175-000-3

Rating: Liked it (4/5)

Opening note: I would like Professor Dionysus Monk for my neighbour, please and thank you.

Alas, Corinna's bakeshop has fallen under the fate of so many independent businesses. A franchise has opened, down the way, drawing off her customers.

Also, the too-perfect Daniel starts to act like an ass (I've actually been expecting this from the first book and was pleased to see it).

Samhain is approaching and the witches have descended on Melbourne. Not all of them good ones. There's a rash of madness going around which seems to be linked to a seller of soul cakes, something which greatly worries Corinna's Wiccan friend Meroe.

Nazis, sunken treasure, love, madness and betrayal. The latest Chapman has it all. I must talk to my Aussie book pusher about a little shipment when the next one is available.

But I confess, I think I still read them mostly for Jason.

Cate

The Stolen Princess by Anne Gracie

Published in 2008
ISBN: 978-0-425-21898-3

Rating: Liked it (4/5)

One of the interesting things about historical women is that they can be wonderfully strong persons but still heartbreakingly naïve due to their lack of education.

Callie is one of those characters. Her naïvety has led her wrong in the past, and though she thinks her eyes are now open, she continues to make assumptions, some silly, some serious. As in the last Gracie I read, it's this use of historical attitudes that makes this author's books so enjoyable for me.

The plotline of The Stolen Princess is relatively simple, dealing more with political motivations and machinations than actual actions. Gracie's characters, however, carry it off in fine style. Especially Callie's young son Nicky, who is sweet and spunky enough to even win me over.

Cate

First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh

Published in 2009
ISBN: 978-0-440-24422-6

Rating: Enjoyable (3/5)

Alas, I waited too long between reading this book and sitting down to write the review.

I do recall it was well enough, but not as good as the Anne Gracies I read before and after it.

And perhaps it's a bad sign that I remember so little of the plot...

Cate

The Script part was a success. The Frenzy was not.

The Script: I intend to keep working on this script/outlne as it makes me work on my weakest writing skills using my strongest ones. I hope to have a full outline by the end of July.

The Frenzy: I've probably got about sixty pages, simply due to my procrastination/distractibility.

But I do have a teaser for you this week. One line:

( Read more... )

Cate