What I'm Going to Read: Round 14

Just to prove that persistence does occasionally pay off, the Random Integer Generator chose Amy's Eyes by Richard Kennedy which Janelle has suggested seven times now. And the library has it on the shelf, thank you very much. I shall get cracking on it very soon. 

Other excellent suggestions:

• The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse (Saskia)
• Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins (Bart)
• The Price of Motherhood by Ann Crittenden (Melanie)
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Miri)
• Lost by Jacqueline Davies (Lexiloo)
• Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Mary and Parkers)
• Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns (G)
• The Cradle by Patrick Somerville (Life of a Doctor's Wife)
• The House at Riverton by Kate Morton (Holly)
• The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Lotte)
• The Likeness by Tana French (Senora H-B)
• Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson (Lisa)
• The Road Home by Ellen Emerson White (Angiegirl)
• The Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carmen (Carly)
• East of Eden by John Steinbeck (Merry)
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Sherry)
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wall (Heidikins)
• Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Katie)
• Unwitting Wisdom by Helen Ward (Ashley)
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman (NGS)
• Blink by Malcom Gladwell (Em and Trev)
• It's All But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg (Elizabeth)
• Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (Brianna Soloski)
• A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken (Grace Marie)
• Precious Bane by Mary Webb (Melissa)
• Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl (Katie Rich)
• Half the Sky by Nicholas D Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (Jenny)
• Talent Code by Daniel Coyle (Mad Hadder)
• The Postmistress by Sarah Blake (ACQ)
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (Leslie)
• Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins (Peaceful Reader)
• Weisenheimer: A Childhood Subject to Debate by Mark Oppenheimer (Kristine)
• The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (Mia)
• Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (Jenn)
• This Book is Overdue! by Marilyn Johnson (RA)
• Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (Trish)
• The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines (Liz)
• Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Sarah)
• The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Laura Schlessinger (Sam)

Of these, I've read:

• Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
• Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wall (Review here)
• Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
• Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (Review here)
• The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Laura Schlessinger

Oh, if only I could read faster and more frequently. . .there are just so many good books out there!

Tell Me What to Read: Round 14

You may not have noticed, but I skipped Tell Me What to Read in August because I was TWO books behind (no longer!).

Fortunately (fortunately, right?!), I am now settled in with a new library card (who am I kidding? I totally had the old library card - I just updated my address and also got Ella added on which means I can now check out FORTY-FIVE books at a time, instead of my previous piddly 15 and can also request 9 books at a time, which is a lifesaver. I have, to no one's surprise, already maxed out my requests.

I. . . .just wrote a whole paragraph about my library card. I am a sad soul. 

Pretend not to notice how pathetic I am, and instead busy yourself with suggesting something for me to read in September:

1. Comment with the title of one book you think I should read (any book you want). One title only, please, lest my brain explode.

2. I'll select one comment at random and announce it on the blog within the next week.

3. On the off-chance that I've already read the book you select, I'll contact you and ask for a follow-up suggestion (make sure there is a way to contact you either by blog or email).

4. I'll get a copy of the book and read it by the end of September.

5. I'll write a review of it here. Even if I hate the book, I will not hate you.

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

8 of 10: Full of great characters, Finnikin of the Rock is the kind of fantasy I can really love about a kingdom that's been cursed, and Finnikin's quest, a decade later, to break the curse and restore peace. If you like Graceling or Fire, you'll likely enjoy this one.

Last year, I read Jellicoe Road and named it one of my Top 10 Books of 2010. I loved it.

So when Finnikin of the Rock came out, I requested it immediately from the library. And never read it. I checked it out a second time. I never read it. But . . .it was fantasy! And Melina Marchetta usually writes realistic fiction! And. . .sometimes fantasy scares me, what with the complex maps in the beginning of the book and a bunch of made up words and cities and animals and . . . I just didn't even open it.

Now, clearly, I have rectified the situation. And it was a terrific book. Of course it was.

Despite having those terrifying maps in the front of the book, this book was the kind of fantasy I can deal with, where there aren't talking animals or something - instead it's fairly normal except that there is some curses/spells that are cast and some people can walk through the dreams of other people. I can handle that.

Finnikin grew up in the kingdom of Lumatere (the Rock refers to the area of the kingdom where he lived), where his father was Captain of the King's Guard. Because of his father's position, Finnikin spent a lot of time in the castle and was dear friends with Balthazar, the heir to the throne. But then, when the boys are still fairly young (around 10 or 12, I think), the kingdom is attacked, the royal family murdered, and the king's brother usurps the throne.

In the resulting chaos, the people of Lumatere blame the people who live in the Lumatere Forests on the border of the kingdom, slaughtering them in great numbers. When the leader of the Forest people is brought to be burned at the stake in the middle of the square, she puts a curse on the kingdom. The ground opens up and people begin fleeing the city, until the gates seal shut and a dark mist descends on the kingdom which makes it impossible for anyone who has left the city to reenter and anyone who remains in the city is trapped within.

It's now been ten years since these events and Finnikin, who did manage to escape the city, has been wandering the other kingdoms in the land with the King's advisor, looking for refugees from Lumatere and trying to convince one of the other kingdoms to give them a small piece of land for the refugees to gather and build a new home.

And then, in a dream, Finnikin is instructed to go to a convent-type place where someone is waiting for him. It's a girl, named Evanjalin, and she has broken her vow of silence to claim that the prince, Balthazar, is still alive and can help break the curse and overthrow the imposter king.

Finnikin is both hopeful and skeptical. Of course he hopes that his friend is alive and that the life he knew before can be reclaimed, but he also thinks it is unlikely that this girl, who claims to be able to walk through the dreams of others, really knows what she's talking about.

Now that I think about it, it's really a journey book, as this little band (which grows along the way) goes in search of Finnikin's father and his guards, the priest of the kingdom, and the prince, with the hopes of returning to Lumatere and setting things right again.

All the things that make Marchetta such a great writer of contemporary fiction are in play in this book. The characters are so richly drawn - by the end of the book, I was amazed at how many many characters were that you knew well, that were completely fleshed out, full of human flaws, but still admirable or likable. It can also make for a frustrating read because people react as real people would, not always with common sense or in the most reasonable ways.

Like Jellicoe Road, this book asks you to trust the author - things are complex in the beginning and she spins out the clues slowly. I had to just keep reading with faith that I'd eventually understand what was going on. And, what do you know, by the end I did.

Also, there is a twist at the end that took me completely off guard. Oh, how I love it when that happens (not that I'm hard to fool as a reader, but still . . .).

And it STOOD ALONE. There was no sense that this was a set-up for a sequel. There was no cliffhanger. Things were resolved (but not so neatly as to be eye-roll inducing). I felt satisfied when I closed the book.

This is definitely a book aimed at an older YA audience. It's not gratuitously violent, but it doesn't skirt around the fact that war and power-struggles are messy, ugly businesses. People do horrific things and some people truly are evil. Consider yourself warned.

And now I'm going to stop procrastinating reading her other books. Because two home runs should be convincing enough for me.

Copy checked out from my local library. Three times.

I'm Still Not Regretting This Move

Bart and I talked a lot over the last year about where we might want to end up permanently.

Many cities, of course, came up for discussion, particularly those where our family members lived, but we kept returning to Austin. I've gone on at length about all the reasons I adore Texas, so I won't bore you with them again, but you can imagine much of what we talked about as we hashed through every city on the map.

Every time we contemplated Texas, however, Bart would voice his major hesitation: the fire ants.

If you have not had the pleasure of acquainting yourself with a fire ant, you are missing little. They are small, but evil ants that live in the grass, bite you when you least expect it, and then the resulting bite itches like crazy for days (like. . .seven or eight days) before it finally goes away.

Each time, I'd brush off Bart's concerns, telling him it wasn't that big of a deal, certainly nothing to keep us from moving somewhere that was, in nearly every other way, an ideal location. Just keep your shoes on when you're on the grass, etc.

Of course, after all my downplaying of the horrors of red ants over the last many months, it is poetic justice that, within a week of returning to Texas, I was bit by a mysterious red ant (I have no idea where or when this occurred).

And this ant bit me not once, but four times.

On my hand (and arm).

A place that is incredibly hard not to scratch accidentally because YOU ARE USING YOUR HAND ALL THE TIME what with the holding of books, the burping of babies, the cooking of food, and the using of computer mice.

Did I mention this is my right hand? And that I am right handed?

Oh the eating of humble pie, it chokes me.

(Also, it's really difficult to take a non-blurry picture of your dominant hand when 1) your camera is too heavy for your weak little left arm to stabilize very well and 2) you can't get your hand far enough away from the lens to get it to focus).

P.S. I know this picture is so horrific that some of you might suggest I might want to get a medical professional to look at it and make sure it's not infected or that I won't wake up some morning with my hand on the opposite side of the room from the rest of my body, but let me assure you that one of my friends from church is a nurse and I had her look at it on Sunday. She confirmed that I am not in danger of losing my hand (unless I chop it off to STOP THE ITCHING!).

One Month

Darling Ella,

The day after you were born, your dad and I opted (as we had the night before) to send you to the nursery for the night so that we could get some sleep. The evening before, I was so exhausted from delivery that I was asleep before they took you away, but that night, I was wide awake when you left, and I lay in bed feeling ridiculously sad that you were gone. Half of me felt desolate, half of me laughing at myself because I could not believe I felt this way.

I never really have felt like I was much of a baby person. I mean, I like babies and all, but I was never anxious to hold someone else's baby or have even really felt particularly baby hungry.

What I am, though, is an Ella person. I love you so much more than I expected to.

I can't believe that, when you wake up in the middle of the night, I'm actually happy to see your little face with those big eyes staring up at me.

 

I am so surprised that it doesn't feel like a burden when I have to leave a social event to go feed you for 30 minutes or when I eat a hamburger one handed at a BBQ because I'm rocking you with the other.

What surprises me the most, though, is that I still feel just like me. I really was worried that it would fundamentally change me, somehow, to have a baby and that I'd feel like a stranger to myself. I don't; I'm still me. I just have you now.

I'm so glad you're here.

Love,
Mommy

General Winston's Daughter by Sharon Shinn

8 of 10: General Winston's Daughter is the story of Averie's experiences in a (made-up) foreign country that her country has taken over and is currently attempting to colonize. Her time there changes the way she sees her own life and the people around her.

I checked this book out from the library in Boston and read all of about ten pages before there was simply too much moving/baby stuff to do and I returned it.

Happily, once I was settled back in Texas, I discovered that my local library had the book sitting on the shelf, and I finished it in a single day (thanks in large part to the time I spent at the DMV registering the car and the social security office).

Averie is the main character, the "General Winston's Daughter" referenced by the title. Her father is overseeing the occupation of Chiarrin, a country that is perfectly situated for trade routes and full of natural resources. Things are relatively calm in Chiarrin, although her father is kept fairly busy by a small band of rebels who don't want to accept the colonization of their country. 

Averie has come to Chiarrin with her chaperone to spend six months with her father and also to have some time to see her fiance, Morgan Stode, who is one of her father's officers. Needless to say, he's handsome and charming and has a good-looking military career in front of him. 

While some of the wives and families who are in Chiarrin with their husbands and fathers find it hot and strange and frightening, Averie quickly falls in love with this new place. She's always been a bit of a free spirit, doing whatever she wants and flouting the rules of decorum and this location gives her even more opportunities to do so.

As you may have guessed, Averie's life has been pretty sheltered; she has plenty of money and status and her exposure to diversity of any sort appears to have been basically zero. Now she's exposed to a completely new culture and as she makes a few new friends (one is a soldier in her country's army who is from another conquered society and one is a native woman), she starts to question the actions of her country and the motives of those who carry out those actions, including her father and fiance. 

The blurb on the inside flap of the book gave away quite a lot, but the descriptions were so simplistic that I was surprised when the plot developed in a much more natural and realistic way. I didn't feel like people changed instantly or acted completely out of character. Instead the characters grew in ways that made complete sense in context. That's something I love in a book.

And speaking of characters, it really is Averie that made this book for me. Sometimes I got a little bogged down by the details of the civilizations, but Averie was so real to me and so thoroughly likable that I could forgive the things I didn't like so much. She's a little flighty, yes, a little quick to do exactly what she wants with no thought for the consequences, but she's so good, so kind too.

I love the title of this book - it so accurately sums up the change in Averie. She goes from being someone's daughter to becoming her own person, with views she's developed on her own.

It's not a stand-out title in my mind, not one I would rush to recommend to everyone I know, but it's a solidly good read and I certainly enjoyed it.

Book borrowed from my local libraries in both Boston and Austin

I Wasn't Born in Texas, But I Got Here As Fast As I Could

Might I highly recommend moving back to somewhere that you recently lived? Having moved several times in the last five years, I can say with great authority that this is the true way to move.

You can call someone (named Ralphie) and make her come pick you up at the airport. Then you can stay at her house for two days and have her feed you delicious meals and also lend you all the baby stuff her baby has just recently outgrown. This was very well planned on my part.

And the nice friends from church have brought us in dinner nearly every night since we arrived (and we're talking some seriously good meals here).

You go furniture shopping and know where all the stores to check out are (and if you don't, you have plenty of people to ask). And then you call some other friends and ask to borrow their truck to bring home your couch (so that you don't have to pay more than 25% of the couch's cost on DELIVERY, thank you very much). Those same friends offer you sheets (since yours haven't arrived in the mail yet), a pack and play (since your crib hasn't arrived yet), and some tall drawer sets to maximize your closet space.

If you're Bart, you go wakeboarding on Saturday morning.

So, yes, the move went smoothly. The baby slept through most of the flight. We've bought a couch and a bed and a kitchen table. Ella's crib arrived on Saturday and is all assembled. Bart's job is going well. I have a washer and dryer in my very own apartment. 

But most of all, I'm just happy to be back in Texas.

And Ella is happy to be here too.

August 16

A year ago today, I woke up early in Nashville, Tennessee. Bart and I spent the day driving a Budget truck with our car behind it towards Pittsburgh, the last stop before we arrived in Boston.

During the drive that day, we listened to The Hunger Games, discussed some of the logistics of moving in, and daydreamed about what life in Boston would be like.

It was also our fourth wedding anniversary.

Today is our fifth wedding anniversary. We're back in Texas, and our family looks a little different now.

I think it looks even better.

 (Photo by Bethany Jackman)

Names

On Tuesday, I got a phone call from the doctor's office confirming an appointment for Ella.

"Is this the parent or guardian?" they asked.

I confirmed that I indeed was and the nice man on the other end said:

"I'm just calling to confirm his appointment tomorrow at 11:15."

Oh, little Ella, welcome to a world where half the inhabitants think your (I think very feminine) name is a boy name. It's a world I've lived in a for a long time.

Moving

Oh right. The blog.

Really, it's not the baby. It's this MOVE. 

You kind of don't realize how much stuff you have until you have to deal with every single bit of it. 

My mom flew out here on Thursday, so we've been spending a ton of time sorting, packing, shipping, and organizing. I think we'll actually make this thing happen. 

Plus, we're forced to spend many hours a day talking about how ridiculously darling this baby is. And that kind of work doesn't do itself.