Citizen Beta

I am sure you know this stuff already.  But, please read it if you have a minute (and a strong stomach).

From FactCheck.org

From Yahoo news

And, to be fair, here is this.  But it is far less menacing, in my opinion.

Right before I cracked the spine to begin How Far Is The Ocean From Here by Amy Shearn I got really nervous. What if I hated it? What if it was no good? Actually I was confident I would like it and that it would be good, and I wasn’t disappointed, but as I had requested, from the author no less, a review copy, I was hoping to have only positive things to say about it. I had originally planned to review it for this publication which still OWES ME MONEY (and seems immune to both my polite requests and my harassment) but because of how they OWE ME MONEY I am of course, no longer writing for them. I started looking around for another venue for the review, particularly something local, but I also wanted to get the thing published in a timely manner. Bookreporter.com, who usually assigns me books, was kind enough to publish a review they knew I had written for someone else. Please visit Bookreporter because they are good people.

So, you can read my review there but let me say that it started out as a 100 word review for you know who than I lengthened it in the hopes of getting it someplace else but then finally edited it to fit the BR format. Maybe it is not my best writing, but trust me, this is a good book. Right before I found a home for this review I saw the book touted in O Magazine (which I always stick my nose in at my in-laws because I am fascinated by Oprah’s huge ego and because it takes a long time to read thus eating away at the quiet hours spent there) and so Amy didn’t really need my help to get the word out on this novel. Not that I thought she did, but I felt I could relax about the whole thing at that point.

How Far Is The Ocean From Here is getting lots of good press because it is a good book. It wraps up a bit neat for my taste but when I sat with that ending for a while I got it better: it was not a perfect fairy tale ending at all but it is a good resolution for the book. As I say in the review, the writing is lovely, the characters are interesting (and challenging to like often, which I admire in a story) and the setting, well, the setting is near and dear to my heart. This book I will be gifting for birthdays and holidays this year.

Another book I have enjoyed a whole lot recently is Say You’re One Of Them which I also reviewed at BR. Maybe enjoy isn’t quite the right word because these short stories are pretty bleak. But they are beautifully written and thought-provoking.

I have a bunch of new books to review lined up right now and am halfway through one of my own choosing. I have recently read The Post-Birthday World and I really don’t have much to say about it. I didn’t want to give up on it but closed the cover at the end feeling unsatisfied and passed it along to someone else the next day.

 A few recent reviews:

My Name is Will—fun book although some aspects worked better than others.

The Gargoyle—this book is getting tons of attention and not in the least because the author sold the US rights for some ungodly amount of money. It is good, but not, in my humble opinion, great. I tried to explain to someone the other day that I felt too much of the author coming through the book: like, the story was interesting and at no point did I want to stop reading it but I could totally envision the author with a smug smile on his face looking over my shoulder saying, “you like it, don’t you? Everyone likes my book. Isn’t it great, aren’t I clever?” The interview I did with him didn’t help matters for me.

A kid’s book about fairies and magical creatures.

I am on a term break from work and getting a few reviews done, too. However, I have had to cut ties with one publication who owes me for reviews and an article dating back to April. I am beyond peeved. They are not even returning my calls or emails. I had planned to write a review of Amy Shearn’s (excellent) debut novel for them but had to find another publication instead (keep your fingers crossed for this one). So, I am really discouraged about all things writerly right now…Ack.

I have not closed up shop.  I am still here.  Are you still there?

Nothing but sky…

Some pretty cool things are happening in my back yard.  The garden is doing great mostly thanks to warm days and rainy nights.  Pumpkins are starting to put out big leaves, beans are vining, and we have had a crazy bumper crop of brocoli–in July, I know! The tomato plants are getting unruly with  new little green orbs discovered daily.  Our only failure so far are the (numerous) pepper plants. L and A have their own raised bed now and though I think the birds made off with the seedling flowers, the transplanted petunias are looking lovely and the lavander smells divine.  

Thanks to the chickens we are composting again.  Speaking of chickens, the girls are getting huge and quite chickeny.  I don’t think I mentioned before that they are a type of chicken called Easter Eggers.  This is because they generally lay blue or green eggs.  They are a hybrid of Ameracauna chickens and so have really cool “muffs” and “beards.”  Here is Evie:

Because our yard is (slowly, slowly) transforming from a small lot filled with dirt, weeds and dog poop into a much more pleasant place to be I told D I wanted a backyard swing or glider for my upcoming birthday.  I wanted a place to swing, sip a drink, read a book, snuggle with the girls, and watch the chickens and plants grow.  We looked at some at the store a couple of weeks ago and they were much more expensive than I thought they would be.  I said, maybe next year…Then, at my aunt and uncles house a week ago my aunt showed me an old swing that she was planning on getting rid of; if it didn’t sell at her yardsale it was going to the dump.  I’ll take it, I told her.  So, it is the latest addition to my not-quite-yet-oasis. 

My grandfather built the swing out of an old bed frame which makes it cooler than anything ever.  Last night the girls and I sat and read in it after the heat of the day had passed.

I just couldn’t decide on a cityscape image so here are two shots of the same building: the downtown bus station.  Where are you traveling to this summer?

Hey there! What’s new? It has been a while since I wrote about books or linked to any reviews so today seems as good a day as any to do so.

First, though, I just finished The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold. This is one of those books I wouldn’t pick up on my own. But, it was lent to me and is good so there you go. I found it sad and creepy. Anyone read it?

Here are a couple of reviews of kids books:

The Piratetology Handbook—this is fun and my kids liked all the stickers and flaps a lot.

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat –L and I really enjoyed reading this odd chapter book. The illustrations are great.

Anyway, you can read more if you follow the links above.

I also reviewed the new Philip Pullman, Once Upon a Time in the North which is a prequel to the His Dark Materials trilogy. I recently saw the first film (“The Golden Compass”) and while it was beautiful and everything I found it pretty dull and dumbed down. Disappointing.

As for grown-up books, I reviewed Machine which is really a quirky little book. I have passed this one along to a bookish neighbor because I really wanted to see what someone else thought of it.  He didn’t like it.

One final recent review: Dear American Airlines.   I would tell you all about it, but, hey, you could just read the darn review!

In other publishing news I recently wrote this article about urban chickens, which, as you may know, is my most recent obsession.  I am pretty happy with the article except the “we kid you not” that was added after I submitted it, for some unknown reason.  While I love to publish things online there is just something about your work in actual print—another reason this made me happy.  

Now I am working on a review of a new bio of Golda Meir, a book of African short stories and something about Shakespeare.  Oh, and teaching, gardening, parenting, cooking and cleaning, daydreaming, drinking Guiness and enjoying our summer storm season.  And you?

Wow.  That is…well, ahem, bananas!

I haven’t had the energy to post all the old cityscape images to Flikr yet so they are still huge…

someday, someday…

I have been thinking about food a lot lately. Not just because I like to eat, which I do, but because over the past couple years I have become concerned with the kind of food I eat and where it comes from. Don’t worry, I am not going to preach at ya! This is just to say that I have read two books lately that have really given me a lot to think about and confirmed for me what I have been thinking all along.

First I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I loved that this book was really a collaboration with her whole family. I loved that she spoke so wistfully about asparagus. I love that she included yummy recipes and the truth about slaughtering your own animals and the difficulties of eating healthy in America. Next I read Michael Pollan’s latest In Defense of Food. Now, I think I would’ve preferred to read this one first because Kingsolver’s book seems to be, in many ways, Pollan’s ideas in practice. But, it was still a really thought-provoking read. I didn’t like it as much as the two other books (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Botany of Desire) I have read by him but it was short and to the point and packed with good and useful and interesting information about how Americans eat and how we can, quite easily really, eat better.

Related to all of this was our decision to get chickens and to finally join our CSA (community supported agriculture). The chickens are about good, fresh, organic eggs and also raising animals that, unlike dogs and cats, we cannot cuddle with but we still benefit from. We give then a good, peaceful life in our yard and they give us eggs and poop for the garden. Our five chicks have grown so big in the past few weeks and as of last night live outside (still in the brooder but out of the garage!). I am growing suspicious however, that one, if not two, are roosters. One rooster we can deal with. Two? Nope. The girls are already invested in the chickens, too. They like to check on them, watch them and feed them. It is a family project I am really proud of and I know we will learn a lot. I have read a bunch of chicken books and am addicted to this website and forum.

When we planted our garden this year we put in fewer tomato plants (I’m not a huge fan) and more pepper plants (yum!). We also put in broccoli which we eat a lot of, but too late and so it is not doing anything. I also planted two kinds of beans because they are good to eat and fun to pick and easy to grow. We tried to simplify the garden and really think about what we will actually eat. Both my mom and D’s parents have huge productive gardens every year so we end up with spinach and squash and cucumbers and things we don’t grow ourselves. We also end up with lots of local peaches. To complete our own garden we have lots of herbs, which we use faster than they grow: oregano, thyme, basil and rosemary. And, I cannot forget the silverskin garlic I have growing on the kitchen windowsill.

In an effort to reduce what I get at the grocery and compliment the healthy foods I am growing myself I join the local CSA on a four week trial basis. I opted to get the box every other week to start out with: I am not much of a cook so need to get up to speed with some new recipes and make sure that we eat the food fast enough (although chickens love scraps!). This week we got: 2 mangoes, 3 avocados, head of bibb lettuce, bunch of arugala, blueberries, strawberries, 4 yellow onions, green beans, broccoli, two cucumbers…am I forgetting anything? It was a lot of food! Of course not all of this was local but some was and all of it was regional (although our food region is pretty large because we live in the blasted desert). All was organic. Next, I had to cook.

Tuesday night I was suffering from a cold and it was a million degrees and our swamp cooler was broken so I wanted something cool to eat. I made cucumber soup which I liked and A ate. D ate but didn’t really like and L wouldn’t even touch it. I also made this green bean dip from the Kingsolver books which I thought was super yummy and again, A liked and D ate but didn’t like and A pretty much went hungry that night. Last night I made some pasta with veggies from the box (green beans and broc) and herbs from the garden. I also grilled the trout that L and I caught at her preschool summer camp fishing trip yesterday. We had a big salad with the lettuce, arugala and avocado. Besides the pasta in the pasta salad all was (essentially) local, all was fresh and organic. Nothing besides the pasta was processed. It was delicious and comforting and just the type of meal I am aiming for.

I am not sure what we will have for dinner tonight…maybe leftovers, maybe even a big box of processed mac and cheese. I am just happy to be on a path of mindful eating and happy to have chicks to feed and plants to tend and books (books!!) about chickens and gardens and food to keep my busy on these long light summer nights.

Anyone want to share a favorite heat-of-the-summer recipe? It is close to 100 every day here lately and we need some refreshing new dishes to try!

It really is!  97 degrees today and the same expected all week.  And lordy lordy, it is only June.

How is it where you are?

So here are the lovely ladies I have referred to a couple of times. They are keeping us quite busy but are entertaining as hell. I am also busy with a couple reviews, an article and teaching two summer classes. More on chickens, books and summertime soon.

A recent Bookreporter review: The Outcast  by Sadie Jones.  I liked this book a lot. 

Also an interview with Holly Lisle and a review of her first book for young readers I did for Teenreads.com 

I always enjoy doing author interviews and I think Lisle’s responses were interesting and thoughtful.  The book was fun, too!

Okay, I have changed the design once again…but now the non-Flickr images are all janked up.

But, this one below is my first Cityscape on Flickr so at least something is working.

Still playing with all this…