Books read in February 2013

I’ve joined a new book group which is going to send my month totals higher than they have been lately.  It’s a book group consisting mostly of people who are Youth Librarians at the Multnomah County Library.  Every month or so they circulate a list of picture/children’s/young adult books and then they get together and discuss them.  My favorite librarian friend mentioned I might enjoy this.  Would I?  You betcha’!  So my total this month is back up to eight, but three of those were picture books and went by quickly.

Read
I, too, am America
Langston Hughes
Illustrated by Bryan Collier
Read for Youth Librarian Book Group
I enjoyed the illustrations of this poem, and even more so when I read the note from the illustrator afterward.

Ellen’s Broom
Kelly Starling Lyons
Read for Youth Librarian Book Group
One of the things I loved about being a history major was finding out little details from the past.  The author seems to have the same enjoyment because this book is based on a little bit of history she found: a list of former slave couples who were finally able to really marry once they were free.  In this book, Ellen tells the story of her parents who were first married by jumping the broom, but after freedom were able to walk to the courthouse and make it official.  Illustrated with lovely woodcut illustrations.

Dodger
Terry Pratchett
Read for Youth Librarian Book Group
I loved this tale of the Artful Dodger as a teenager.  The book was lush with Victorian London details.  There was also fun slang and interesting characters, some taken from history, some taken from fiction.  Overall, it was a delight.

Love’s Winning Plays
Inman Majors
My library branch (the most excellent Kenton Library) had a “blind date with a book” display and I took this one home mostly because the two hearts on it said “Romance” and “College Football.” Intrigued, I tore open the wrapping and dove into a very funny tale of a Graduate Assistant Football Coach at a big football-centric state school in the South.  It did indeed provide me with both romance and college football and also enough laughs that I disturbed the boyfriend while he was taking a GRE practice test.

10 Little Indians
Sherman Alexie
Read for Kenton Book Group
Enjoyable stories about many different kinds of Indians.  This was the 2013 Everybody Reads selection of the Multnomah County Library and I found it (refreshingly) racier than the usual choices.  The stories were funny in places and sad in places and I greatly enjoyed reading them. 

The Leftovers
Tom Perrotta
A ticket-seller at Portland Center Stage gave this an “okay” review and thus I took my time getting around to read it.  I think he was spot on.  It was interesting to examine how different people deal with a good chunk of the population just disappearing, poof, into thin air. But it was not incredibly gripping.  A solid book, “good effort” is the rating I give.

Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog
Kitty Burns Floey
A short book full of the author’s love for diagramming sentences. As a child, I cried through most of my sentence diagramming units, but as an adult I want to have enjoyed the process.

Electric Ben
Robert Byrd
Read for Youth Librarian Book Group
History of Ben Franklin with each two-page spread covering a different period of his life.  Ben Franklin’s quotes are sprinkled throughout the book and also included on both inside covers.  It was interesting to realize how many of our sayings come from Mr. Franklin.

Art Building


I’ve sensed a pattern.  Outside supports start to go up and the exterior of the next story is finished a day or so later.  Light shines through the windows of the newest floor.  Then the next level’s ceiling/floor must appear and block the light, as it has with the second floor.  After that, the process repeats itself.  The building is going up fast now, and I suspect that after they hit the final floor, it will seem like a lot of nothing is happening, because I won’t be able to see most of what’s going on.


Yesterday, when I took the picture, the flagger said, “Hey! Take a picture of me!”  So today I did.  He’s quite nice and will usually stop traffic when we cross the street for recess.  He’s like our own crossing guard.

Fuller’s Coffee Shop


Fuller’s is a coffee shop located near where I work.  They make their own bread and jam and probably a lot of other things.  The waitresses are of the “hon” variety.  Everyone sits at the counter, because there are no booths.  They don’t take credit cards, their menus are laminated standard diner fare and you can buy rolls of mints and candy bars at the counter.  They open at six AM, god love ’em.  They are old-school all the way, the Pearl District before it was the Pearl District.  Fuller’s is a restaurant that delights me.

Somewhere along the way, someone created an iconic drawing of people sitting at the counter.  The original hangs on the wall of the restaurant, and the drawing has migrated to shirts, including the shirts the staff wears.  Today, walking by after they had closed, I caught one of the employees sitting at the counter, wearing the shirt picturing people sitting at the counter.  Beautiful.

More fun from the Parade Magazine

If you don’t want to make any chair a cozy one, perhaps instead you need a magic pancake pan?
I think my favorite part of the ad says “You can make: French Toast, Grilled Cheese, Eggs Over Easy, Crepes and more!”

Then, there was a short article on a new film about the Bible.  Read this excerpt and guess what my favorite part is:


Did you guess this:  “Adds Roma Downey, 52, who plays Mary, ‘We wanted the audience to think, ‘I know these people.'”
Well, Roma Downey, I can’t say I knew Mary, but I can say that she sure as hell wasn’t FIFTY-TWO YEARS OLD when she gave birth to Jesus.

Seriously, is anyone in Hollywood sane?

Where were these nine years ago?

When I wanted to start keeping a five-year diary (one page per day, four lines per year, five years on each page) I looked everywhere for one, including Powell’s and the Internet.  Nothing really worked, so I made my own.  What does Powell’s have today on their shelves? More than five different kinds.
 
This one looked promising.
 
I know someone who would like this one.

I’ve still got the rest of 2013 and all of 2014 to finish my current diary, but I’m tempted to buy one of these and hold it in reserve, just in case the drought returns at the end of 2014.

House and lot.


I’ve had my eye on this house since I moved to the neighborhood because it’s right by downtown Kenton, plus it’s a tiny house on a huge lot.  It looked like old people lived there and I worried they would die or move before I could buy it from them.  I could do a lot with a lot that size, even with that big tree plopped in an inauspicious place.

Sadly, the house went on the market in September and sold pretty quickly.  And there are suspicious signs that the huge lot will soon be no more and there will be a tiny house on a tiny lot and a huge new infill house on what was once the rest of the lot.

Phooey.