Historical Fiction: Live by Night, by Dennis Lehane

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So yeah, I haven’t written about the books I’ve been reading in ages and ages although I have kept pretty much up to date with commenting on them on GoodReads. I guess I need an app for my blog, ha.

I thought this book was just beautiful. While it is one part of the story of the Coughlin family, and partly a story about gangsters (cough, outlaws, sorry, Joe) and corruption and American history, it’s also got this incredibly romantic streak running through it. The things that carry Joe through his life: not just the women he loves, but the places he loves, the objects he loves (that watch, for example).

I read the first book in this series (Any Given Day) in a furious rush over spring break while visiting my dad’s library and similarly when I picked this book up, I really couldn’t put it down either. I remember liking Lehane’s Kenzie/Gennaro series back in the day when I read those (pre-2004) but not like THIS.

Big Screen: Inside Out

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Maybe this was too overhyped for me. Or maybe I never like animated movies that much anyway. Or maybe I think movies that try to ride that middle ground between 1) kids will find this funny and 2) adults will still find it smart! tend to just annoy me. Why? Because there is no real middle between those two grounds. Most of it was over the heads of both the kids I went with while concurrently being too simplistic for me. We get only one positive emotional base versus four negative? Come on. Wouldn’t our global suicide rate be even higher if that were the case?

I see why other people liked it. I laughed at times. But I didn’t cry or feel all “OMG that was ME as an 11 year old girl” or any of the kinds of things my friends and reviewers have been saying. Sorry, it just wasn’t for me.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Reading: Lots and lots of romance novels. Hey, I am only FOUR days, yes 1-2-3-4, into my summer and I just really needed a quick escape right now. I have Delicious Foods waiting in the wings–I’ve actually started it twice but then not done any reading immediately after that (heh). I’ll probably (re)start it next week.

Watching: For some reason I started rewatching The Office (US) last week. It’s amazing how fast one can burn through a series one has watched before. I mean each episode is only 20 minutes long, you can easily sit down to open your mail and hello three hours just went by.

Listening to: Kick-ass girls: the latest albums from Taylor Swift, Kate Tempest, SOAK, Madonna. Also some really sad stuff like Sufjan’s Carrie & Lowell, my god people don’t listen to that without a fresh supply of kleenex. I also spent some time yesterday listening to Obama’s speech in SC and wishing he had been that president all 8 years.

Eating: Still on a major egg kick, as I have been all year. Fried, scrambled, omeletted, hard-boiled. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. When is an egg not what I want? Almost never.

Drinking: Really happy to have Ruby Redbird back for the summer. Also liking Stealin’ Time.

Knitting: I actually got back to knitting over spring break but it’s gone by the wayside once again. I have a looooong February Scarf in progress and a pair of socks…and I’m hoping I get motivated to knit again soon.

Quilting: So many plans.

Sewing: And many plans here as well. Hopefully soon!

You people and your creativity.

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Just finished A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall which I really loved more and more as it went on and these two interviews (this one and this one) with the author are wildly entertaining, intriguing and informational.

Thanks to NPR’s MonkeySee podcast, just started listening to this British rapper Kate Tempest and started reading about her award-winning poetry and her other work and am just blown away.

This Is Just to Say.

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unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve probably heard reference to William Carlos Williams’ apology poem (or IS IT. Reread that last stanza).

So let me tell you a funny store (hang on to the end, that’s where the funny is!)

Every year, I use that poem as a template with my students to write their own sorry / not-sorry poems. After we examine the poem’s structure, and some previously written student examples, we usually write one together as a class to get started. My morning class wanted to write to our principal. For reference: Nobel bucks are reward dollars we give out for being respectful, responsible or safe (and students can redeem them for actual items at our school store).

Here’s what we wrote:

“Dear Mr. A.,
This is just to say
We have stolen
the Nobel bucks
that were piled on your desk
which
you were probably
saving
for good kids.
Forgive us,
it was worth
all the toys
that we got.”

NOW HERE’S THE BEST PART: I emailed it to our administrators “Here’s a poem 208 wrote for you” and in the body of the email I wrote “based on William Carlos WIlliams.” Well, our principal didn’t read that part, he just clicked on the image.

Our assistant principal told us that all of a sudden he was scrambling around his desk saying “WAIT A MINUTE WHERE ARE MY NOBEL BUCKS!!!!”

Hahahahahahaha.

Best prank ever especially considering we didn’t even intend to prank. The kids are going to FREAK tomorrow when they hear about his reaction! 😉

It’s the little things, peeps.