Friday Randomness
Friday again…what’s new pussycat? I hope you’re well. I haven’t been around here much lately, and it’s not because life is so darned exciting that I haven’t the time, or so darned horrid that I can’t manage it. It’s just how it’s been lately, I guess. The spirit hasn’t moved me. But it’s moving me a bit now, so I’ll give you some random ‘Thinking About…” type stuff, OK?
Maya and her chorale group from school sang at a swanky fundraiser last night at our local swanky rep center. The fundraiser was to raise money for the city education foundation, which spends its money on crazy, extravagant things like librarian salaries, English and math tutoring, counselors, etc. It was swanky, though, so we didn’t buy tickets. Instead, we spent a couple of hours at the local bookstore (Barnes & Noble…all of our independent places have closed down), and then we walked over to Starbucks and had a cup, and relaxed. We went over to the theater at the time they were supposed to finish, and they hadn’t gone on stage yet. So we went inside out of the sprinkling rain, and waited in the lobby. We were there for a little while, listening to the performance being piped in, when we got the great idea to try to sneak in and see them. They performed 2 songs, and we sneaked in about 1/3 way through the second song, so we didn’t see much, but they were GREAT. It was lovely to see her on a big time stage like that, and they really sounded good. Fun.
I was tempted by several books at the bookstore, but I decided to get them from the library instead. I know the bookstore needs my money, but I need it more than they do, and I trust myself to put it to better use than they would. So…the books I put on hold to read are:
- Disgrace ~ J.M. Coetzee
- The Sense of An Ending ~ Julian Barnes
- Mathilda Savitch – Victor Lodato
- The Last Runaway ~ Tracy Chevalier
- The Magician’s Assistant ~ Anne Patchett
- The Museum of Innocence ~ Orhan Pamuk
- The Great Gatsby ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
You can easily see that at $15 – $25 each at my local B&N, this was going to break the bank. So I did the right thing. I was a bit nonplussed to pop over to the library website upon our return home to find that I am 1st in line for several books at one time. I hate that feeling, having many library books come at me all at once. I feel like I have to rush through them and get them back for the next person.* Then I realized, duh, if I’m #1 in line for them, there is no one waiting, so I can renew them if I don’t finish in time. That was a relief. I’m very much looking forward to some good reading time in my near future.
I’ve read Gatsby before, of course, but not since high school, and all I really remember is laughing at my teacher’s massive crush on Robert Redford, which I did not understand, because he’s old and everything. I have a vague recollection of not liking the story much, but maybe this time I’ll enjoy it more? I want to read that one first or second, because I’d like to have it more freshly in mind before I see the new film adaptation that comes out in May. Actually, looking at that sentence, I realize I have more time than I thought I did. That’s a good thing, too.
I’ve read other books by Chevalier, Patchett, and Pamuk, and liked them all quite a bit, so I’m looking forward to reading these newer efforts. The others just caught my eye for whatever reason.
Maya is taking the SAT tomorrow. I don’t envy her that, but I do know that she’ll do well, and be relieved when it is OVER. This whole college thing is stressing her out. She doesn’t really know much of what she wants to do with her life, or where she wants to go to college. She’s thinking about teaching, and about some kind of journalism. I know she’d be successful at both, assuming there are still jobs in journalism in the next 10 – 20 years. I know the face of journalism is changing rapidly, but people still need to read and write, right? I sure hope so.
I’m going to lunch with Dorothy today. I miss her blog. I’m happy to see her pretty face, though, which is even better than her blog. But her blog was pretty funny. I do miss the days when so many of my real life friends and family were blogging.
Ted and I went to see Side Effects last weekend. Rumor has it that Steven Soderbergh is getting out of feature films or something to that effect, and this is his last big film. I hope that’s not true, that he takes a much needed rest for a few years, but comes back to it, because I am definitely a fan of his work. I’m not saying I’ve seen every film he’s made, or that I’ve loved every one that I have seen, but I did love Sex, Lies, and Videotape way back when, and have enjoyed many of his films since. I would say that Side Effects was among the better films in his catalog. It’s a twisty turny suspense type film, and not really what I expected it to be at all. I generally try not to read reviews of a movie before I see it, because I find if they hate the movie, it dampens my enjoyment, and I notice the things that they mention. So I won’t say more about this one, except that the performances were really good, the story was interesting and kept me guessing, and I came out of the theater really glad we had seen it. If you get a chance, I highly recommend it.
What else…not much. Watched an episode of The West Wing on Netflix the other day, and I’m thinking I’d like to re-watch that series. It’s a nice place to spend some time. Last weekend was girl scout cookies, and now we’re done with that for the year. It’s dry dry dry here, though it did sprinkle today. California needs a wet, wet spring, and we almost never get that. If you know of any rain dances, please, do one for us.
Happy Friday, and have a great weekend!
*Saturday evening update…went to the library today, and 5 books I had put on hold were there. Guess I’ll be reading a bunch in the next few weeks, yeah?
11 Comments
V-Grrrl @ Compost Studios
I read Sense of an Ending a year or two ago. I liked it very much–the ambiguity and mystery of it and the way it addresses how much of what we understand is filtered by what we’re willing to “see.”
I’ve read two books by Ann Patchett, Truth and Beauty, which was a memoir of an intense friendship she shared with another writer, and Sense of Wonder, a novel focused on research scientists in the Amazon.
I have a Tracy Chevalier waiting in my pile to be read; I think the title is Remarkable Creatures?
My son takes the SAT tomorrow as well. He hasn’t done much to prepare for it, and it’s been a year since he took Algebra II and Trig, so they’re not fresh in his mind. He generally tests well and he scored high on the verbal part of the PSAT. He’s interested in engineering, so math is the big thing. That said, college admissions people all know that SAT scores are not an accurate predictor of college success or readiness, so while I respect the test, I don’t see it as the end all and be all of the college application process.
Lately, I’ve had great luck with movies I selected from Netflix. For an interesting and intellectual twist on the romantic genre, try the movies Before Sunrise and the sequel, Before Sunset. I also loved The Giant Mechanical Man, the story of an aimless man and woman (in their 30s) finding themselves and finding each other.
J
V-Grrl, I’m glad to hear that you loved Sense of an Ending. It looked really good.
I’ve read Sense of Wonder, which I liked, and Run, which I also liked, but I think my favorite Patchett was Bel Canto, which sounded SO boring to me on the back cover, but was really good.
I’m pretty sure I read Remarkable Creatures, but my favorite Chevalier is ‘Girl with the Pearl Earring’.
Maya wanted to take a course for the SAT prep, but it was crazy expensive, like $1,000. I bought her a prep book instead, which she has ignored. So she’ll do how she’ll do. She scored very high on verbal on the PSAT as well, so it’s her math that’s the concern. We’ll see how they do! She is like your son in that she generally tests well.
I loved both ‘Before Sunrise’ and ‘Before Sunset’! I’ve seen them several times. Haven’t heard of ‘The Giant Mechanical Man’, though, so I think I’ll put that on my queue. Thanks!
Ted
The third part of the “Before” movies is coming out this year. “Before Midnight” picks up 9 years after the last movie and focuses on their relationship with their kids, their jobs, and I’m sure other fun stuff.
J
Oh, I didn’t know! I wonder if it will be good? I’m now confusing Julie Delpey’s character in those movies with the one in 2 days in NY.
V-Grrrl @ Compost Studios
Oh, I can’t WAIT. How cool to keep going with this series. So many rom-coms end at the “romance” and there aren’t many that explore long term relationships as characters mature into middle age.
Nuvashini Devi
Best of luck to Maya. She will do well! The books look interesting I haven’t read any. You are wise to go the library way. Enjoy your lunch today! I am heading out to lunch too with the usual group. Meeting them at PF Chang. Love you xxxxxx
J
Enjoy your lunch! I love the ‘long beans’ at PFChangs. 🙂 Love you, too. xoxo
Nance
Sigh. GATSBY. How I adore that book. If you don’t want to wait, the Aussies have it online, you know, for their Project Gutenberg. Can I put in a link? I’ll try. Here. Anyway, anytime you want to chat about it, let me know. I miss talking about that book so much.
Rereading books from your past is always a good idea. You get so many other things from them. Even when teaching books over and over from one year to the next, I still found new things. The kids found stuff–perspectives and insights–that I hadn’t though of. I love that.
And I love West Wing as well. So smart and quick and always worthwhile. I feel like that series never “jumped the shark.” Not many long-running shows can say that.
J
Thanks for the link, Nance. Turned out I didn’t have to wait long for Gatsby. I put it on hold Thursday night, and went to pick it up on Saturday. Now I’ve finished the other book I was reading and have started Gatsby. Wow, it’s so different from what I remember. Which isn’t strange, since all I really remember is a vague impression of Gatsby as having made his money in illicit ways, and a green light at the end of the pier that we had to talk about, a LOT, in class. But so far, delicious.
MAS
“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.” (Nick Carraway) Pursue Fitzgerald, JYWA, and oh! the rewards ye shall reap!
J
MAS, you’re so right. What a rich and layered novel. I don’t know if I didn’t really read it in HS, or if I was asleep at the wheel, or what.