Great library! Beautiful inside and out with a fairly substantial looking collection. They also have a little coffee counter there called the Cup and Chaucer. What a cute name, huh? The coffee "nook" wasn't open at the time I was there (8 PM), but it was nice to see. One of the things I love about the library where I am taking classes is that there is a cafe there. Maybe the combination of cafes and libraries (although the Cup and Chaucer is not really a cafe, just a counter) is an emerging trend. Coffee and books are certainly a great combination.
Reading:The White Hotel by D.M. Thomas. Great book. Pretty harrowing in parts, but lots of sex too. Writer said, "That book turned me on." She told me someone once said to her that if you could get through that book without masturbating or having sex, there was something wrong with you. ;-) Speak Softly, She Can Hear by Pam Lewis.
Watching: Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) starring John Hawkes and Miranda July. A great indie movie. Reminded me a little of The Puffy Chair, but it was way better (not that The Puffy Chair was bad). This was recommended to me by my friend Mary and now I can recommend it too.
The West Wing, Season Three. This is getting pretty intense and scary with CJ's being stalked!
The West Wing, Season Three. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Three.
Reading:Victory by Joseph Conrad. I finished this last weekend, and I feel a real sense of accomplishment since it was something I should have read back in high school, but never did until now. It's a bit dense, and there is definitely an ethnocentric perspective, but it was still a pretty good read.
The White Hotel by D.M. Thomas. Now I'm reading this. Very intriguing with lots of sex and death imagery.
I am currently reading Victory by Joseph Conrad. Monique has said that she hates Joseph Conrad, but this was after reading Lord Jim and I have a hunch Victory might be better. Also, I am determined to read it because when I was a miserably unhappy high school junior, I took a class called The Modern British Novel and this book was one that was assigned that I didn't read. I mean I guess I must have read some of it, because I passed the class, but I was a master bullshitter and was able to pull off Bs and Cs back then while doing a minimum of work. Anyway, I want to read it now in the spirit of completion. The other books in the class (which I also didn't read) were Brideshead Revisited, Where Angels Fear to Tread and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I have since read Brideshead and Angels, but I guess I will need to complete Portrait at some point. Anyway, so far Victory is fairly good, definitely well written. I can't remember if there were other books assigned in the class, but it occurs to me that it seems a very sexist selection. I mean, there were female modern British novelists too, right?
Today Sweetie and I went out for brunch at It's Only Natural. Sweetie loves going out to breakfast and now that he is eating vegan, his choices are limited so he really wanted to try this. I told him as long as I had time to prepare mentally for leaving the house on Sunday, which is traditionally my "sanctuary" day, I would go with him. So we went. I had a cafe au lait and the strawberry pancakes which were served with scrambled tofu and homefries. Sweetie had acai juice and the scrambled tofu breakfast which was served with broccoli with vegan hollandaise sauce, grilled bread and homefries. As usual, our meals were delicious if a bit pricey. I filled out the survey that came with the check which asked if we would still go there if they moved to New Haven, and although I didn't say "we'd cry" as Laura did, I wrote that we would go much less often. They also asked where we would like them to move and I wrote "Hartford or thereabouts" or that they could stay in Middletown. I don't want my favorite restaurant to move farther away!
Reading: Digging to America by Anne Tyler Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Victory by Joseph Conrad
Watching: Serenity (2005) starring Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres et al. The Looney Toons Golden Collection. The West Wing, Season Three. The Control Room (2005) An excellent documentary about Al Jazeera and the war in Iraq. All in the Family, Season One.
I like Slate even though I don't always agree with the viewpoints of their writers. Dear Prudence is certainly no exception, but the third letter inher April 26 column is interesting. Prudence's response is decent, but mostly I found the letter interesting because although my sister is not nearly as bad as "Anna," what the writer said about her friend reminded me of the way my sister talks sometimes. I have noticed her interest in others' eating habits and weight has really increased in the last few years, and it doesn't make me more insecure about my weight and size, but it does make me uncomfortable for two reasons. One, I'm trying to have a more positive attitude about my body and I think one of the best ways to do that is to stop judging others for what they eat and how they look. And two, I am always on guard for comments she may make that obliquely chide me about my weight.
Watching: Curb Your Enthusiam, Season Five. We finished this season, and I believe that was the end of the series. As I said before, the main character is unlikable, and the show is offensive, but it's also really funny.
Miss Marple: The Body in the Library (2004) starring Geraldine McEwan. They are having a run of Miss Marple mysteries on public TV here, with the "new" Miss Marple as played by Geraldine McEwan, and I tape them. This week's coming installment, Sleeping Murder, is one I that I saw before with Joan Hickson in the title role. I think I like Geraldine McEwan even better, and the stories are so good and complex, I can watch them again anyway.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Season Four. I'm about two thirds of the way through this, and looking forward to the release of season five. I'm very hopeful that they will release the whole series eventually. And I saw that season one of Rhoda is now listed on amazon. Its listing says "not yet released" but I signed up to be e-mailed when it is. Rhoda is another of my favorite shows so this is good news indeed.
Got this from Joanna at FriendSheep. Here's the rap: list 5 books that played an important role in your childhood and explain why. I don't know about you, but books were a big part of my childhood so I can't narrow this down to five. There are also books I can't remember the title or author of, but here are some that come to mind:
The Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren (Joanna reminded me of this one), Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright and a bunch of other books by Elizabeth Enright. I also read and reread the Cathy books by Catherine Woolley and the Betsy books by Carolyn Hayward and the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Lois Lenski's books. There was also a biography of Louisa May Alcott that I took out of the Plainville Public Library a bunch of times.
Why did I like these books? Well, they were mostly about girls and I always loved to read about girls, especially smart and pretty girls who were having adventures. Also most of them were about the past, a time that I always thought I would be much better suited to living in than the present. I would read these books over and over wishing my life could be like the girls' lives in these books.
Miss Rachel
