Entertainment Overload

I feel like I should be scooping bits of gray matter off the floor as I type. Surely my brain has exploded. I have stuffed it with so much "input" the past week that I feel headachy! I've been on a book binge. Some sort of colonic of the head after 1776 - I've picked up new books by all my old favorite authors - books that you can read in an afternoon and I've read one of them each afternoon until the words are swimming on the page. I know there are bloggers out there dedicated to books that do that on a regular basis but it's a bit much for me.

And I've been pursuing the Holiday Movie Marathon - three full length features at the theater in three days. I started out with a girlfriend at The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - at a whopping two hours forty-eight minutes that almost counts as 1.5 movies. Then Youngest and I saw High School Musical 3 and the next day, Bedtime Stories. None will make my Favorite Movie A-Z list but they were a fun diversion during the long vacation days.

And I've been playing like a fiend on Facebook. My bro and I are trading top spots on the geography game which actually requires a bit of brain power for me - geography is not my strong suit and there's a whole section on flags, some from countries I've never even heard of.

So that's my exploding skull scenario - too much stuff to stuff into this tiny brain. I'm reading furiously the "last book", an Anita Shreve which I'm half way through and have just now figured out has a character that was also in Weight of Water which I DID NOT LIKE (twice). So I'm a little perturbed but trying to keep going and keep an open mind. This is the end, the last book, before I settle back into reality - what with going back to work tomorrow AND my book club selection arrived from Amazon and it's a historical fiction about Frank Lloyd Wright which sounds interesting but will be more difficult reading than the all the lazy afternoon ladies I've been spending my days with.

Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

From Picoult's website: When Daniel Stone was a child, he was the only white boy in a native Eskimo village where his mother taught, and he was teased mercilessly because he was different. He fought back, the baddest of the bad kids: stealing, drinking, robbing and cheating his way out of the Alaskan bush – where he honed his artistic talent, fell in love with a girl and got her pregnant. To become part of a family, he reinvented himself – jettisoning all that anger to become a docile, devoted husband and father. Fifteen years later, when we meet Daniel again, he is a comic book artist. His wife teaches Dante’s Inferno at a local college; his daughter, Trixie, is the light of his life – and a girl who only knows her father as the even-tempered, mild-mannered man he has been her whole life. Until, that is, she is date raped…and Daniel finds himself struggling, again, with a powerlessness and a rage that may not just swallow him whole, but destroy his family and his future.

I will surely win the blog award for most boring reviewer when I say yet again, about yet another book, "This book was good, but not her best". Can I think of anything else to say? Perhaps a little. As the synopsis above would imply, the father, Daniel, is supposed to be a pivotal character in this book. But I really couldn't get "into" Daniel. The Eskimo thing, the comic book thing, the stay at home dad thing - it all just wasn't my thing. I thought the daughter was fascinating, the mom was very interesting too - even her lectures about Dante's Inferno - which didn't interest me one whit when I was in school! The story started off a little bit slow but midway through, it all of a sudden got pretty interesting and the pace stayed good until the end.

I loved My Sister's Keeper that was my first Jodi Picoult book. I worried when I finished it, knowing that she had so many others already out, "Did I read the best one first? Am I going to be disappointed by all the others?" And if this were my only book to judge her by, I'd have to say, yes, I read the better book first. But everyone I have talked to says others are good too. So I am going to raid Bookworm's bookshelf at some point and read some more of Jodi Picoult before I pass my Final Judgment. Which circle of hell do you suppose is reserved for boring bloggers?

Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella

From the back cover: When twenty-eight-year-old Lexi Smart wakes up in a London hospital, she’s in for a big surprise. Her teeth are perfect. Her body is toned. Her handbag is Vuitton. Having survived a car accident—in a Mercedes no less—Lexi has lost a big chunk of her memory, three years to be exact, and she’s about to find out just how much things have changed, Somehow Lexi went from a twenty-five-year-old working girl to a corporate big shot with a sleek new loft, a personal assistant, a carb-free diet, and a set of glamorous new friends. And who is this gorgeous husband—who also happens to be a multimillionaire? With her mind still stuck three years in reverse, Lexi greets this brave new world determined to be the person she…well, seems to be. That is, until an adorably disheveled architect drops the biggest bombshell of all. Suddenly Lexi is scrambling to catch her balance. Her new life, it turns out, comes complete with secrets, schemes, and intrigue. How on earth did all this happen? Will she ever remember? And what will happen when she does?

Sophie Kinsella has a formula that works - quirky young English girl entangled with filthy rich English stud. It's a formula that results in fun - madcap adventures, lots of expensive name dropping, great English slang. It's fluff but it's right up my alley. I had to laugh when I went to Sophie Kinsella's website and there was a reading guide for the book. If my book club chose this book, there would be no discussion. It would be a quick, yeah, that was fun, where's the wine? How can you have a discussion about fluff? Well, I guess I am writing a post about fluff so it may be possible.

I had high humor expectations for this book and, unfortunately, it fell just a little bit short of the mark but I think that has everything to do with my expectations and not so much to do with the book itself. It was the same humor level as Undomestic Goddess - solidly funny. It was not laugh out loud and snort and make your family keep asking you, "Having a good time with that book, Mom?" funny like Can You Keep A Secret was. I wanted Can You Keep A Secret funny so I was a wee bit disappointed. But it was better than the never ending sequels of Shopaholic books so that is good! And, BTW, the original (and best) Shopaholic book is getting ready to come out as a movie - release date is Valentine's Day 2009.

The one bit of "deep thought" I could throw out about this one was the story's moral that you can't pretend to be something you're not and be happy. I have personal experience with this one. Having been a chronic "mover" with Ex-Marine and even in my younger days with my father's somewhat transient job, I have had my share of opportunities where I thought I could just reinvent myself in the new place. I could be the bigger, faster, stronger version of me. That never worked. I'll never forget one particular move when I resolved that at my new job, I would be healthy. On the day of my orientation, my new supervisor offered me a Diet Coke as I was filling out papers That was like offering kibble to a dog - diet Coke was one of my main sources of sustenance. But the "new me" was going to be healthy. So I replied, "No thank you, I brought a bottle of water with me." To which the mew supervisor replied, "Oh God, you're one of those", laughed, and walked off. I kept up the charade for maybe a month before falling utterly and completely off the wagon. The new supervisor ended up being a pretty good pal but her 44oz diet Coke from the 7-11 each morning hung in the air between us like raw meat dangling in a pool of piranhas. Finally I couldn't take it and I was chugging my 44 oz right beside her and, next thing you know, I was smoking too. You just can't pretend to be something you're not!

Christmas - check.

I'm checking off my "to do" list and judging by all the checked off items, with the exception of thank you notes and the accompanying wailing and screaming from Youngest and Tween over having to write them - Christmas is done. Christmas really snuck up on me this year. It was with complete and total surprise that I saw the Advent wreath decorating the sanctuary the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Where did my "cushion weekend" go this year? How is it that I was still reeling from the cooking and traveling of Thanksgiving and all of a sudden Advent was upon us and I was not ready?! So I got busy made my list, checked each item off as accomplished and now ..I'm done. Well, except for Christmas cards too.. but everyone knows not to expect those until the New Year - that's a Just Mom tradition.

Well, there you have it, the meat of many a homily. Christmas doesn't end on December 25th; Christmas begins December 25th. Advent is not the time to be ready...it is the time to get ready! Advent is not supposed to be everything is in place already around the house time...it's the open your heart, open your home, and GET READY time. So now that Christmas is here and I, apparently, am ready, what should I do to celebrate?

Today's celebration was quite a lot of work! The morning was unwrapping, and breakfast, and then Mass. After Mass was cleaning from all of the above and then cooking, and eating, and cleaning again. And then, at last, the lazy began!

The lazy today included:
1. Finishing my Sudoko book that I've been working on for months.
2. Reading my Christmas present book, Remember Me, by Sophie Kinsella. (Review to follow.)
3. Reaching another FreeCell milestone - 999,200.
4. Discovering a new game, Bubble Spinner...very difficult!
5. Uploading pictures from the camera to the computer and to Walgreens and maybe I'll even order some...nah.
6. Eating the Godiva chocolates I got from Ex-Marine.

So now that I have indulged myself, I feel like I should make some sort of spiritual plan for celebrating Christmas. Perhaps readign scripture, some sort of extra prayer, attending Mass more often? I'll think on it and get back.

Knitting Under the Influence by Claire Lazebnik

From the back cover: Sometimes it feels like their weekly knitting circle is the only thing that keeps Kathleen, Sari, and Lucy from falling apart. Their fine-gauge scarves may look fabulous, but their lives are starting to unravel.

She who always finishes a book, no matter what, (see post about Gravediggers Daughter or Weight of Water) didn’t really finish this one. I just skimmed it. 40 pages in I knew it was awful but there I was in the doctor's office with nothing else to read so I continued. I just could not care about these characters. I can enjoy frivolous, shallow people - I've watched every episode of Sex in the City, I've read all of Sophie Kinsella - emotional depth is not a requirement in my world. But these girls were bad. They were so one dimensional that they never felt remotely real - I could not have cared less about them or their problems. So I skipped huge chunks of text and just skimmed to find the few parts of the plot that I actually had any curiosity about in order to get to the resolution. The storyline about the child and adult with autism were somewhat interesting, I work with children with autism too. I am not a miracle worker like Sari (because I am real) but that part still piqued my curiosity. And then the laboratory scenes. The lab rat, David, was of some interest as well - I've always had a soft spot for nerdy guys.

Waking up at five o'clock in the morning on Christmas Eve with a throat so sore you feel like every swallow contains shards of broken glass…no fun. Sitting in the hospital waiting for the strep culture results when I should be wrapping and shopping and cooking…no fun. Perhaps all that misery colored my perception of the book. Maybe it's not really that bad. But, with probably 30+ books in my TBR pile,  I am NOT going to reread it to find out. I dropped it in the give away pile as I left the hospital.

Best part of this book - a "send off" at the end with drink recipes. I was tempted to rip those pages out before I dropped the book off. The recipe for "The Cozy Brown Afghan" 1 oz coffee liqueur, 1/2 oz chocolate liqueur, 1/2 oz Irish Cream liqueur, and a chocolate covered cinnamon reception stick sounded like just the thing I needed for my sore throat! But I decided instead to stick with amoxicillin and save the liqueur for later. Here's to later - cheers!

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

From the back cover: Every so often I read a book about age, and whoever's writing it says it's great to be old. It's great to be wise and sage and mellow: it's great to be at the point where you understand just what matters in life. I can't stand people who say things like this. What can they be thinking? Don't they have necks?   I loved this book! This is true confessions for women over 40. Nora covers everything from unwanted hair to heels that have the "consistency of a loofah". She's telling my life with her words. Except, of course, that Nora Ephron's life includes fascinating chapters on living in New York and dining with authors and chefs and celebrities, somehow those elements are missing from my world! Like the last book of Nora's that I read, Wallflower at the Orgy, this is not a novel but is a series of essays so in theory you could pick it up and put it down as you read the essays. But I couldn't put it down once I started. I planted my behind on the couch and laughed my way from one cover to the other. That's not completely true - there is death and divorce and other drama so it wasn't really non-stop laugh out loud funny but Nora's spin on things always ends up making you smile in the end.

And then she had her first hit of crack comments.

Word on the street is that comments are addictive. There is a very funny blog post about the stages of blogging that describes the progression from receiving an occasional comment to becoming a "comment whore" where you lose your sense of self just to generate comments. If I can ever remember where I read it, I'll post a link! Philosopher-Mom flirted with the idea of disabling comments so she could "see how blogging 'into the silence' differed in character from blogging with feedback via comments"... in the end, however, she choose not to.

I just had my first experience with comments. My first hit from the pipe of comment crack. I participated in a reading challenge and at the end, I went around to read other folks' wrap-up posts and basically wrote the same ineffectual comment on almost all of them. I have finally figured out the blogging etiquette that if you visit you should say something - even if you really have nothing to say. (The back story to this part "why I have nothing to say" is that the reading challenge that I stumbled on seemed to lean towards Christian fiction. So I would read entire lists of books and not recognize a single author or title because my reading preference leans towards profanity filled smut - not really but it felt that way by comparison. There was the exception of one blog that had a book list of science fiction slash soft porn that was both fascinating and repelling at the same time. Kind of like Nip/Tuck.) So I clicked and commented all over the Internet and then it happened. Many of those bloggers clicked over to my blog, read my wrap-up post, and left a comment. It was a flurry of comment activity! And it was fun! And I immediately contemplated whether or not I should pursue more comments - should I become a comment whore? Because what you want immediately after your first comment is your next comment.

A careful review of my previous blog posts revealed that I lack that "certain something" to become a comment whore. And that "certain something" would be humor. The blogs that get lots of comments have authors who are consistently witty. You are practically guaranteed a chuckle, if not a LOL, just by clicking. They are funny "haha" not funny strange. And so my fleeting time in the spotlight will end here. BUT...I have already planned to participate in the Spring reading challenge so I am looking forward to the deluge of comments to be expected sometime around May 2009.