Books of 2007

I've misrepresented myself. I love to read. And not only as a way to put myself to sleep.

I wanted to compile a list of everything I've read with reviews and links and all that stuff, but that's proven to be WAAAAAY too much work. So here's the list haphazard as it may be. If you want more info about anything, leave a comment and I'll be more verbose.

Here's what I can remember reading so far in 2007:

1. Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection (*****): Fascinating read.

2. Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (NF-Memoir ****): Blogging and french cooking. You must have the ability to stomach A LOT of strong language to get through this book.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird (*****) This book gets better every time I read it.

4. Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie (NF ****)

5. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (Historical Fiction ***)6. Mary: A Novel (Historical Fiction ****)

7. The Girls: Lori Lansens (*****) Craniopagus siamese twin girls convince you they've lived a normal life. Beautiful writing.

8. Dave Barry's Guide to Money (HUMOR **) that's not the real name, but I'm too lazy to look it up. We "read" this book on CD while we drove cross country. It's Dave Barry. And he's funny. That's it.

9. Bridge to Terabithia (****)

10. The Bell Jar: Sylvia Plath (**) I really wanted to like this book.

11. The Radioactive Boyscout (*)

12. The Lightening Theif, Rick Riordan (J Fiction *****) This is the first in a really funny series that sets characters from Greek Myths in modern days. Highly recommend.

13. Good Wives (NF ****) This book is a good read, but it's much more scholarly (and not in a good way) than her A Midwife's Tale that I read and was inspired by in 2006.

14. A Drowned Maiden's Hair (YA ***)

15. The Memory Keeper's Daughter (*) O.Press.Ive. I had such a hard time with this dark, dark book.

16. The Secrets of A Fire King (Short Stories) This book is also by Kim Edwards who wrote #15. She has a real talent for holding an image in your mind, so I thought I might like her short stories better. And I did.

17. Framed (J Fiction *****) this one is pure fun about how great works of art bring life and joy to a tiny English town.

18. A Dance for Three by Louise Plummer (**)

19. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (*****) I thought it was the right ending for the series and it kept me reading and reading and reading and reading

20. The Botany of Desire (NF ***) This was ok. I feel a little guilty that my favorite part was learning how to cultivate marijuana

21. The Thirteenth Tale (*****) Couldn't put this one down

22. The Ladies Auxiliary (*****) Led the discussion in my book group for this gem. The women in this book are Jewish in Memphis Tennessee, but the totally sound like an LDS Relief Society. Poignant and funny at the same time.

23. Middlesex (*****) Strange that this one is right after the more churchy book and I gave this one 5 stars, too. Because it's about a hermaphrodite. And it is brilliant. The strange anatomy is downplayed because truly it's a book about finding connections with other humans. Read this book.

24. Parallel Play (**)

25. Stormbreaker (YA Graphic Novel **)

26. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (***) I think I like her name the best, but this book is good, too.

27. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (***) This is soooooo different than his other books in a good way. Post apoctalyptic isn't usually my favorite, but this one's ok.

28. The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems (*) yeah right

29. The #1 Ladies Detective Agency (***) couldn't get over the structure. But it's fun.

30. My Sister's Keeper (****) Probably my favorite Jodi Picoult book

31. Welcome to Higby (*) Same author as Ella Minnow Pea, less original.

And some books I didn't make it through:
The 10th Circle
The Folded World
The Corrections
Uglies
The Loud Silence of Francene Green
The Beach House
The Alchymist's Journal

Plus some that I'm excited for:
Lottery
Austenland
Wicked (I'm on page 3)
March

And of course, picture books that we've liked this year:
Grumpy Bird
Not a Box
Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend
The Perfect Nest
Hunches in Bunches
Sleeping Ugly

Somewhere in the world there is a woman with a cute wash and wear hairstyle and I want it

Whoever said that short hair is easier to maintain is wrong.

And whoever said that it's just hair and it will grow back was also wrong.

I want my ponytail back and I want it now. I do not want this cute A-line Katie Holmes-esque bob that is the fifth cut on the road from Natalie Portman back to the mom whose-long-hair-although-not-very-clean-is-at least-up-in-a-ponytail-out-of-her-eyes. With this blog as my witness, I will never copy cat a celebrity hairstyle again.

I'm cranky (even with all the nice comments everyone left me for WFMW) because my mother-in-law is out of town and that means I'm that in addition to herding kids away from the least sharp edges of a very un-kidfriendly house, keeping breakables intact, cleaning around other people's stuff, and cooking for my family as well as my father-in-law and sister-in-law: both of whom can't make a sandwhich.

And because I'm living a lie. See, I started this blog to "keep up with technology" and I've been so proud of my links and my blogroll. But today it took me 15 minutes to reprogram the clock on the microwave. Then Deirdre crawled over, pounded on the laptop once, and taught me there's a button on the keyboard that brings up the calculator on the computer screen. Genius. I had no idea.

So I'm a phoney. With really bad hair.

Works for Me Wednesday: Count Down to Bedtime

Every single night, sneak into your sleeping children's rooms and marvel at their tiny hands, their peaceful faces, and their fragile but capable bodies. Take a minute to be glad they aren't jumping off the arm of the couch, rubbing peaches into their scalp, or pouring water out of the bathtub one cup at a time. Enjoy how innocent they look, and laugh a little bit, because that SO isn't like them.

But after that minute, lean in close and kiss their foreheads. Remember that if it weren't for you they wouldn't exist. You would never have met this unique, exasperating, glorious human that lives right in your own house and who is going to wake up elated to see you in just a few short hours. Let yourself be a little frightened and completely awed by that thought. Kiss them again if you need to.

And then stand up and look around the room and ENJOY this tranquil moment with your child safe and asleep in your house. It won't last as long as you think. And no matter what this book says, if you drive across town, climb in a window, and rock your sleeping, grown-up son, the police think that's breaking and entering.

Blanket, anyone?

Right now the house is decorated in Contemporary American Blanket. A "swimming pool" at the bottom of the stairs, a nest on the couch, a picnic, two lily pads, a pirate ship and two girls cuddled up fast asleep with theirs.

I'm going to find one of my own.

ACK!!

It's Tim's 20-something-eth birthday and I'm completely unprepared. Somehow, in the next 11 or so hours I've got to

1. Find a recipe for, buy ingredients and prepare Grilled Sirloin with Creamy Blue Cheese Sauce

2. Make a Funfetti Cake

3. Call bowling alley and set up a few lanes.

4. Find a present that tops flying lessons and/or a T-shirt Quilt.

5. Clean the bathroom. No really, that can NOT wait until tomorrow.

6. Do the laundry because I'm out of clean underwear again. Apparently, living with my in-laws makes me act like a teenager.

All this while dragging around two girls who would much rather be in the sandbox.

ACK!

Update:
Sat on the floor to peel potatoes while steak marinated. Deirdre crawled over and CHEWED ON UNCOOKED POTATOES. Contemplated calling someone to see if raw potatoes are bad for babies, but instead watched Lana stick candles onto Daddy's cake in an impressively straight line. Didn't clean bathroom, all loads of laundry but one dry (note to self: the step after the dryer sheet, cleaning out the lint trap, loading the wet clothes in, and setting the dryer is to START THE DRYER). And then we played in the sandbox.

Updated again: And he liked his present.

Sunday Link Love

Make a twirly skirt FAST

See where the tooth fairy lives

The third date

Have I mentioned that we live with my in-laws? Classy, I know. It's not the first thing I tell people, but, you and me? Well, we have a three day relationship going on here, and I thought you should know about my living arrangements before we go any further.

So, again, I live with my in-laws. And in the interest of full disclosure, this is the fourth summer that I've lived with my in-laws. Tim's a student at a far-away-unnamed-for-privacy-issues university in the east, and he has a summer internship in an equally-unnamed-for-the-same-privacy-reasons company here on the west coast. Where his parents happen to live. And where they happen to have two occasionally empty rooms. And where they graciously let us live and feed us while we act ungrateful and blog about the ups and downs of bringing a family of four back in with the 'rents.

Generally, the free rent and the access to loving, free babysitters is an enormous draw, especially to two students who were, I admit it, irresponsible enough to welcome not one but two extremely expensive beings into their care without a way to support themselves, let alone buy diapers.

But the real reason we keep coming back is that every single year I hear "This is really the last summer! Really."

Well, you know what they say: fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me; fool me three times and I deserve the whining three-year-old screaming for special treats and Grandma.

Because this year Lana knows that there's a Grandma who gives chocolate milk to her cousins. And who makes french toast any time of the day or night. And who will happily lets her run through muddy puddles in her white lace dress with no mention of stain removal products. And lo and behold: this Grandma lives in the same house with us.

So Lana lives on chocolate milk and syrup and no one with ever learn their colors from looking at her clothes. Unless they want to learn about the color brown. Or about spots. Because those things aren't ever coming clean.

I'm ok with that. And actually, my mother in law Colleen (Sainthood pending) works really hard to keep boundaries.

The biggest issue is that occasionally, Lana knows that calling me by my name gets my attention a LOT better than "Mommy." And the parent formerly known as "Dad" is now "Tim" or even "Timothy" depending on her mood.

Ok, I'm new age enough that I can handle being called Amanda by my three-year-old. But if we're going to be equals, let's talk like equals. Politics, books, movies, decorating ideas, a recipe swap. Instead:

I am awakened with a stark "Amanda. I need French Toast." or "This hose is not on. Amanda."

And it spills past demands:

"AAAAAAAmAAAAAAAAAndAAAAAAAAAAA!" she yowls in pain with every bump.

Here's what I'm waiting for:

"DO NOT WASH MY HAIR, 'MANDA!" she says in the bathtub.

"Mommies wash their little girl's hair," I say.

"TIIIIIIIIII-MOOOOOOO-THY!!" she calls.

And then, when that fails, the inevitable: "GRANDMA!!!!"