Annie Lennox's blog

Annie Lennox has a blog on her site and she's posting really frequently. One post has a list of beauty hints (I think of her song "Keep Young and Beautiful" when reading it).

She also has various thoughtful things to say about her activism for HIV/AIDS, plus random things like stories of seeing rats outside venues that she's performing in, of watching a couple actually arguing in the middle of one of her shows (!!!) etc.

It loads in really slowly because she has various artsy graphics. Right now I just want to read the text in the blog, but the page reloads every time I want to see a new blog post...

There and Back Again, by Max Merriwell, by Pat Murphy

Rereading There and Back Again because I picked up a nice pre-signed copy at Borderlands Books when I bought The Wild Girls.

This is Pat's space-opera homage to The Hobbit -- but here it's not Bilbo, it's Bailey Beldon, a norbit (I think I read somewhere that the word was coined for Pat by Ellen Klages) who ventures forth from The Restless Rest, his cozy home in our solar system's asteroid belt, in the company of Gitana, a mysterious female wizard-like figure, and Zahara, with her group of "sibs" (female clones).

What I love about this book is that I usually get caught up in all of the stuff Pat herself has dreamed up - the 'pataphysicians, the space travel through black holes, etc, the base 12 math, etc.

-- and I forget about the underpinnings to Tolkien. But when there's a more clear or obvious reference (such as when Bailey finds his "ring" and goes through the riddles scene)
I think - "Oh cool, that part is familiar - that's how she tied that in..."

I had forgotten that this book, like "Adventures in Time and Space..." and "Wild Angel" has a "mysterious Murphy" -- here, it is "The Curator" who presides over a host of artifacts which sound suspiciously like they could also be Exploratorium exhibits!

I like the cover as well - maybe because every time I look at it, it reminds me of Annie Lennox, who is another of my favorite people.

I also love the character of "Fluffy"! Read the book to find out who (or what?) Fluffy is!

The Stone War by Madeleine E. Robins

This is a book that has the lions in front of the NY Public Library coming to life to fight on the side of a band of survivors of a bizarre disaster in New York City -- plus emotionally gripping characters and relationships, and a faun!
That is a very simplistic rendering but this blog is more for me to keep track of what I was surprised or delighted about.

Books for Motherless Daughters (and others too)

I started thinking about making a list like this because in various groups and talking to my sisters I am always recommending books, movies, music that has helped me.
Either these help me dredge up feelings that I bury otherwise, or make me feel less alone.

Kari and I talked about this list and she added several others

Books
The Wild Girls, by Pat Murphy
* this is a book for the 12-year-old that I still feel like I am, because that's when my mom first got really sick (in the coma).
And for those whose mothers left them as children or are emotionally distant, there's a lot of stuff relevant to them here too...

Motherless Daughters and Motherless Mothers, by Hope Edelman
These are both great books - Motherless Daughters is divided up by age the person was they lost their mother. We find in our group that people sometimes don't feel ready to read these for a while, it's just too close.

Summer of the Great-Grandmother, by Madeleine L'Engle
L'Engle is best known for "A Wrinkle in Time" and the rest of her Time Trilogy, as well as many books for adults. This is one of her Crosswicks Journals, about the summer when her mother was declining into senility and they brought her north to their house (Crosswicks) to take care of her before her death.
This is a great book for everyone and especially for those with a recent loss -- L'Engle remembers the mother she knew, and her mother's past, that she doesn't really know. And talks about how hard it is to take care of a mother who's sometimes herself, and something not.

The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion
This book is about the year after Joan's husband suddenly died in their house, while she was making dinner. I was moved by this book because she has feelings that I thought only kids who experienced loss were having (like extreme guilt about not being able to help, and wanting to save his shoes because of a fantasy that he'll come back and get them)

The City, Not Long After, by Pat Murphy
The main character in this book loses her mother, and then goes to San Francisco to warn the city of an impending invasion (she and her mother were trying to do this when she died).
Oh, by the way, there's been a plague in SF so it's back to a more agrarian trading existence. The girl (Jax) finds the house where her mother lived and feels her presence there. I guess I also like it because she's very self-reliant but learns to get help from people (which I have trouble with)

The Magician's Nephew, by C.S. Lewis
One of the Chronicles of Narnia - in this book Digory's mother is sick, but he is able to bring her a magic apple and she gets better! Oh wish fulfillment! Of course she doesn't live forever, but she does get better.
C.S. Lewis' mother died when he was a child.

The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis
Another Chronicle of Narnia, the last. Our pastor (whose mom also died when he was a kid) finally showed us that he had actually read all of the series, when he used the below when he spoke at our mom's funeral:
All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page; now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read; which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before.

The Wild Girls, by Pat Murphy

This is the review I posted on Amazon.
I wrote more about this in my journal and in an email to Pat.

I love this book.

I don't want to give any spoilers about the content, and I think there's enough information about the book at Pat Murphy's site and here on Amazon for readers to learn about that. The book itself is just really good.

Plus, it makes me want to
1. write more, and
2. also get to know my mom better via the questions that Joan and Fox learn to ask in the book (unfortunately this is not possible for me, except via #1).

Pat has written that she wrote the book for the twelve-year-old that she once was, and I feel like she wrote it for the twelve-year-old that I was also. And for the 33-year-old that I am now (and all the ages in between).
I bought an extra copy for my 13-year-old niece.
The woman working at the bookstore where I bought the book (Sorry Amazon, I went for a local bookstore on this one) told me that she has been waiting for this book "for years!"

December 5, 2007
I still love this book.
It really did serve as a good inspiration for my NaNo novel.

Discovered recently the link to Pat on the Speculative Fiction Database
which also includes her birthdate. We are both Pisces, which somehow does not surprise me too much.
Useful for potential gift surprises...

Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life by Michael Krasny

I just bought this book on Sunday morning when hanging around at Kepler's while Dave was working in Menlo Park nearby.
I got up to the counter to ring it up, and the guy said, "Are you going to the event?"

"What event?"

He points at the huge sign to the left of the counter. Michael Krasny, host of KQED's Forum (ie my constant companion if I'm in the car from 9 am to 11 am, and I often listen to the podcasts other times) - was discussing the book, the next day, Monday.

But I had to be at focus groups at work so I couldn't make it. Nicely, the Kepler's guy offers that they'll have Krasny sign it to me.

I just picked it up today, and was reading it tonight after bringing pizza to Dave, at work tonight too. He had written, "To Solveig - Best wishes for a good life with good books and good listening!"
All the "goods" were underlined. It's pretty cool - seems like he could be a bit more original with his adjectives, but I'm not complaining. I haven't finished the book yet. Maybe this is an inside joke.

It's kind of fun to read about some of his interviews, like his early one with Gore Vidal, that didn't go so well. He usually sounds so prepared and put-together on the radio, it's quite amazing. Also he manages to make the book, at least in the first part I've read before he meets his wife, a little bit spicy! I was surprised.

Summer of the Great-Grandmother, by Madeleine L'Engle

I wish I could still find a graphic of the cover art for the edition of this book that I have.
I store my letter that I got from Madeleine in 1990, in my copy of this book. My mom died in 1990 but the letter is dated several months after that.
This book overall was very comforting -- as I think I started reading it at some point when my mom was sick and perhaps after she had moved home with us.
L'Engle talks in this book about what it was like to spend her mother's last summer, with her in their house at Crosswicks, with all the generations - grandchildren, etc.

She writes about the mom she knew, and what she knows about her mom's life before she was born, and how the two differ, and about how hard it was for her when her mom sometimes seemed to be there, and be her mom, and sometimes was somewhere else. (Her mother was declining due to Alzheimer's).

The Severed Wasp, by Madeleine L'Engle

I was also reading my beloved copy of "The Summer of the Great Grandmother" this week and also decided to check this out from the library, because I wasn't sure if I had read it or not.

Much (all) of the present storyline of the book takes place in New York, in and around the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I know that she actually spent time at the library of this cathedral - Kati and Kari and I had always wanted to bump into her on the grounds, and we're sad now, that that is never going to be possible.

It's interesting that in these couple weeks where I seem to be quite present for my teen self (doing the focus groups, promoting Pat's "middle grades" book, thinking about what I was doing during these teen years) -- that I read this book and will be reading "Wild Girls".
This book, although an adult novel, has a lot of teens and children being mentored and encouraged to develop their talents (both in Katherine's past and present). Katherine Vigneras, the distinguished pianist who is the main character, becomes a teacher/mentor for a young girl who finds she is a good composer (she loses her ability to practice her main talent, dancing, because of a tragic accident).

Yolande, a former pop singer, teaches another young girl who has a singing gift.
And really there is a good mystery here, but on top of that is just feeling like I'm spending some time hanging out with Madeleine L'Engle. You feel that L'Engle herself, as a famous author living in NY, may have dealt with some of the prank calls and other trappings of fame, that Katherine does in the book.
And then in Pat Murphy's "Wild Girls" -- we have a charismatic writing teacher who brings out the talents of Joan and Fox...

PBS Once Upon a Time show on YouTube and elsewhere

On YouTube and at the link above, there are actually people talking about the PBS Show Once Upon a Time. I found this by googling Kerfumbly after nostalgically looking at the "Teeny Little Super Guy" videos from Sesame Street.

This was one of my favorite shows but i usually mainly ended up watching it when home sick I think because it came on during the day.

The person who made the site above wrote the following - they watched the show on South Dakota Public TV - I watched it on Praire Public Television (North Dakota). I wonder why North Dakota's was not called by the name of the state also.

"It was produced by NPTV (Nebraska Public Television). Actually the Nebraska Department of Education had a hand in it, and it was produced at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. The story revolved around this librarian named Marian that had been kidnapped by a witch named Kerfumbly. Kerfumbly demanded a story every day, and Marian would put ingredients into a machine and out would come a book with a story containing elements of all the things she had fed into the machine, and Marian would read the story to us (and the witch).

Chronicling some reading on Facebook

I am also chronicling the "what I am reading right this minute" on Facebook's iRead.

And I started a group for Pat's Wild Girls book - see on profile.

Haven't posted here much at all since earlier this year, though.

The Falling Woman, by Pat Murphy

I am resurrecting my blogging habit here since I'm also keeping my iRead app on Facebook updated.
This is Pat's Nebula-winning novel -- it's been often described as more mystic realism than science fiction, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.
I could not remember for sure if I had read this already or not. There is some sort of parental abandonment/early loss thread that is certainly present here (although it doesn't speak to me as resoundly as "The City, Not Long After" does.
Here Elizabeth leaves her daughter Diane to go off and be an archeologist.

In "The City" Jax's mom actually does die, but her spirit still seems present in San Francisco, and it appears that in "The Wild Girls" -- Fox's mom inexplicably leaves her and her dad. Fox believes that her mom must have turned into a fox.