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Reading etc.

Oh, the indignity


Posted in: Reading etc., Twins

Me: Have you done a poo, Michael?

Michael: No.

Daniel then grabs his brother by the top of the nappy peers inside and sniffs Michael’s bottom: Yes, poo, Mama.

NaBloPoMo – M is an excellent letter

But first, I forgot Philip Gourevitch under G. “We wish to inform you that tomorrow you will be killed with your families” is a brilliant and appalling book about the genocide in Rwanda. “A Cold Case” which I rushed out and bought on the strength of the Rwanda book was a bit dull. I am unsure.

I also forgot Ursula Le Guin under L yesterday. I like the Earthsea quartet though they do have notions. It’s a fantasy offering about a place called Earthsea aimed at teenagers but I came to her as an adult and found her well worth my time and minimal effort.

Where was I? Oh yes, M.

I once shared a miserable flat in Dublin with a friend and, to abate the misery, she gave me Betty MacDonald’s “Anybody Can do Anything”. It worked. It is very funny as is “The Egg and I”. I must buy more. Do you think that she is still in print?

Nancy Mitford – anything she ever wrote is worth reading. I am not quite so convinced by Jessica. “Hons and Rebels” is fine and interesting by way of mad Mitford background but “The American Way of Death” certainly wasn’t for me. I haven’t tried anything else, what do you think I am, a glutton for punishment?

I am a little ambivalent about Ian McEwan. I loved “Atonement” but I wasn’t so keen on “Amsterdam”. I am holding out on buying “On Chesil Beach” until it comes out in paperback.

I think Blake Morrison has written some of the best books I have ever read. “As if”, his account of the Jamie Bolger murder, an unpromising subject (at least for me) was an astonishing and moving account of the trial of the two boys convicted of the murder, their motivations and their backgrounds. His book about his father “And when did you last see your father?” was also a wonderful book but, obviously, in a very different way. I thought that the book he wrote about his mother was less successful though still very, very good. I would buy anything written by him.

You won’t understand this


Posted in: Belgium, Reading etc.

At least, not unless you have lived in Belgium for a long time, ideally all your life.  But this is funny.  Also, I see that the long disputed Brussels Halle Vilvoorde (BHV to its friends) constituency rated a mention in the FT the other day.  And I have kept a supplement that came with Le Soir on the linguistic regime in Belgium.  I may put it up on my wall.  All this on the day that the French say they wouldn’t mind Wallonia being tacked on to France.  Sigh.  This is all beginning to take its toll.  As is NaBloPoMo.

Onwards.  L is for Lewis.

C.S. Lewis, of course, another convert.  I read “The Magician’s Nephew” when I was in second class (7/8).  I can still remember how hard it was to read and stumbling over the unfamiliar words.  I got it from the library at the back of the classroom and I sat at a sunny window and read and read.  I think it must have been by far the hardest thing I had ever read and I took long breaks to look at the picture on the cover and wish that there were perhaps a couple of more pictures accompanying the text.  I can also remember having real difficulty in imagining how “Digory” might be pronounced.  It is probably still my favourite Narnia book.  They are all wonderful although I find “The Last Battle” a bit depressing now.  I remember having a lengthy argument with my (11 months) older friend (now an Ambassador to Vietnam) about how “The Magician’s Nephew” was the first of the Narnia books, which it was.  Very annoyingly, using her 11 months of knowledge to the full, she was able to inform me, quite rightly, that “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was written first and “The Magician’s Nephew” was thought up to explain it.   I still have, here on the bookshelf, the full set of the Narnia books that my father brought me home from London as a present in the 1970s and I still read them very regularly.  I hope that my children will love them too.

Reformed Character


Posted in: Family, Reading etc.

A quiet Sunday, here on the ranch. We went to the revamped Dinosaur Hall in the natural history museum this morning and the children were fascinated by a 3D dinosaur in a cage effect. They were also terrified, particularly when it banged its head on the glass and cracked it (immediately restored by the wonders of technology). Jurassic Park, how are you?

This afternoon we walked, very, very slowly to the park and when we got there it started to pour down; a particularly icy shower too.

This is what happens to your blog when you write every day.

In other news, we recorded, for posterity, the Princess singing a song my brother taught her.

Finally, thank you all very much for the glasses advice. Most helpful.

NaBloPoMo – K is for Keyes, Keillor, Kellaway, Kingsolver and Klein

I like Marian Keyes. Irish romantic fiction (no sniggering at the back, please). I have bought all of her books. They are readable and funny. Unfortunately, she suffers from the same problem as Maeve Binchy, her 20 year olds are not 20 they are the same age as she is. That was less of a problem when she was in her 30s but she’s well into her 40s now and her younger characters aren’t cutting the mustard for me (am I or am I not the queen of cliche?). I think she should bite the bullet and have her main characters all be in their 40s. To hell with the 20 somethings. If you want to give her a go, I recommend “Watermelon” as your best bet. It may interest you to know that my husband’s family lived second next door to the Keyeses when he was growing up (fame!) and he says that the kitchen described in “Watermelon” as “the kitchen that time forgot” is very familiar to him.

It was Garrison Keillor who first alerted me to the fact that a whole swathe of North America is actually Scandinavian. I love the gentle humour of his books and their timeless quality. I suppose they might be a bit annoying, if you are actually from the prairie.

Lucy Kellaway writes the “Martin Lukes” column in the Financial Times and for, at least, the last seven years, my loving husband and I have dutifully shared his highs and lows. Of course we bought the book when it came out. It’s hard for “Who Moved my BlackBerry?” to have the hilarious immediacy of the column, but it’s not bad. If you care, Martin has just been made chief exec of A-B Global and his new wife is expecting triplets. For a taste of marvellous Martin, try this.

I enjoyed “The Poisonwood Bible” very much as did Oprah’s book club. I also liked “The Bean Trees” but I am slightly reluctant to attempt Ms. Kingsolver’s latest offering which has been so positively reviewed. I mean, really, is it likely to endorse my choice of fishfingers as a foodstuff suitable for my children?

I wouldn’t say that I am a Naomi Klein fan but I did enjoy “No Logo” and it briefly made me stop in my consumerist tracks.

Glasses


Posted in: Middle Child, Reading etc.

Daniel got his glasses today. The poor little mite is +5 and he must have been blind as a bat. I’ve looked through the lenses and it’s pretty blurry. He finds patterns alarming with his glasses and, if there is a change of pattern underfoot, he is reluctant to walk on it. This is unfortunate given that Brussels is heavy on cobblestones.

He has been very, very good about wearing them all day long and not taking them off. I am not sure whether this is because he is a good child or because he likes being able to see. Tonight when we took them off, his ears were all pink. Does anyone know, is this normal? It didn’t seem to bother him. But again, he may feel that it is the price he pays to see.

NaBloPoMo – J is not a good letter.

J is for Henry James whom I am never going to read because I gather he is all about inner agonising and “The Line of Beauty” by Alan Hollinghurst is Jamesian. And, with all due respect to C (who recommends) and the Booker jury, I found it tortuous. Go on, convince me on Henry James.J is also for Joyce; “Dubliners” is fine but everything else is too hard. J is also for Erica Jong who, I would submit, has not aged gracefully. In fact, the only J which inspires even mild enthusiasm is Jerome K. Jerome and I wouldn’t exactly put “Three Men in a Boat” in my top ten. Slim pickings, people. Any suggestions?

Happy Birthday


Posted in: Reading etc., Siblings

Today is my little sister’s birthday.

I am seven years older than her. Despite this, we are great friends. She is mature and wise for her years, I am not. When my parents used to go away and leave us to look after ourselves (sometimes for whole days at a time), they used to leave her the money to mind and dole out as appropriate.

She hasn’t lived in Ireland since she was 22 (10 years ago, since you ask) and for a lot of that time, I’ve lived abroad as well. She has lived in England, Germany, China, India and the US. I have lived in Ireland and Belgium. She’s a bit of an overachiever my sister. So we haven’t seen much of each other though she has made Trojan efforts to visit us, even travelling from India for long weekends (if the words carbon footprint escape your lips, may you spontaneously combust). And we are always on the phone.

On Monday, my sister moved home to Ireland. I am so glad that she is back that I am surprised. I had no idea that I was so sorry she was away.

I hope that she has the happiest of happy birthdays and wish to extend a fond welcome home to the returning yank.

NaBloPoMo – I is for Ishiguro and also for Irving

Yesterday, I forgot George Hagen. H is such a marvellous letter. I was a bit disappointed with “Tom Bedlam” but I really enjoyed “The Laments” which was a bit like John Irving only better. Which brings me on to John Irving. I read “The World According to Garp” in my early 20s and moved on speedily to everything else I could lay my hands on but by the time I got to “The Hotel New Hampshire” I was tired of it all and washed my hands of him. Not entirely sure that I am keen to go back in the bear filled waters, particularly when I see that his latest offering, “Until I find you” got dreadful reviews.

I have read “The Remains of the Day” a couple of times, it is cringe making and sad but very real in an odd kind of way. Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go” is completely unreal but in a spooky mysterious, science fiction kind of way and I absolutely loved it. I am willing to try others on the strength of it. I should say that I have a weakness for science fiction having spent my youth reading the box of it my mother had brought to her marriage and kept in the attic for her own obscure reasons. I think I read “Childhood’s End” by Arthur C. Clarke a dozen times, lots of Asimov, Poul Anderson and so on;I was bred to appreciate science fiction, it’s possible that you were not. Just a friendly warning on the Ishiguro offering.

Any suggestions?

Pumpkin terror


Posted in: Reading etc., Youngest Child

For a child who is physically daring, Michael is a scaredy cat. He was terrified of our pumpkin for Halloween and it could only be deployed for about half an hour before we had to abandon the effort in the face of his terror*. He still points to the windowsill and says “Pumpkin, scared” even though it has now been taken away and incinerated by the bin men. It also extends to a fear of pumpkins on the street or the supermarket. He is scared of the wolf music for “Peter and the Wolf”. He is scared of me, if I pretend to tickle him. He quite likes being tickled, it’s when I wave my fingers about in the air that he gets nervous and has to bury his head in my shoulder and tremble.

NaBloPoMo – H is for Heyer, Hustvedt and Hornby.

H is a fruitful letter. Georgette Heyer is my favourite author. I am not exactly proud of this but I am proud to be at an age where I can admit it. I read my first Georgette Heyer on a camping holiday with my family when I was 12 or 13. My mother remembers me pumping up air mattresses with my nose deep in a book. I remember sneaking round to the back of the tent to be left in peace to finish off “The Reluctant Widow”. I can still remember my surprise and shock when the heroine married the hero. “But she hated him” I thought to myself. I had much to learn in the ways of romantic fiction.

I only like Georgette Heyer’s regency romances, not her historical novels or her detective fiction. I have read these books so many times that the plots are horribly familiar, alas. But still, I suspect I shall read them many, many more times, at least there are about 20 of them so I can alternate my pleasures. If you care, my favourite is “Cotillion”.

Siri Hustvedt is probably my next favourite author in an entirely different way. Whereas Georgette Heyer is a comfortable old pair of slippers, Siri Hustvedt is a slinky black dress. Her books are really, really interesting. I come away from them bubbling with excitement, full of new and interesting ways of thinking about things and desperate to talk about them. She writes beautifully. I took “What I Loved” to hospital with me when the Princess was born. I can’t imagine ever finding a Siri Hustvedt book disappointing.

Nick Hornby completes the H trio. I like Nick Hornby’s books. They’re entertaining and readable. I would always buy a new Nick Hornby but I probably wouldn’t be rushing to reread the old ones.

Any H suggestions? Tomorrow we will have, wait for it, i.

*On reading this post, my husband said that he thought only George Bush was allowed to use the word “terror” that often in one phrase.