books...what else?
books going back to the library today that I READ:
IceBlink by Scott Cookman. Fairly interesting book on the fate of the Franklin expedition to discover the Northwest Passage in the early 1800s. Turns out their canned provisions were laden with botulism. Hell of a way to go but from the sound of it, faster than scurvy which was the most prevalent scourge. I found the book interesting but it seemed full of conjecture to me. It had all sorts of extra stuff at the back - provision list, expedition manifest, but I question the hard evidence. Not that it's not a fascinating conjecture. Most explorers just froze to death. So instead of saying, "I am just going outside and I may be a while." they could say, "I am just going to eat this can of soup, I may be a while." Sorry, explorer humor. I should stop reading these books. Yet next up is Beryl Bainbridge's Birthday Boys, a fictionalized account of the (also doomed) Scott expedition.
Also going back to the library is Mary Kay Andrews' Savannah Blues. God are her books fun. This one was just as fun as Hissy Fit but not as funny.
And I started a book by Kate Atkinson last night, Case Histories. I picked it up randomly at the library because it looked good..I have tried Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum and wasn't nuts about it...but I cannot put this one down. Yes I know I need to go run and then paint the entryway and hang coathooks and then at three, oh joy, the preschool Christmas pageant (I sent Simon with Scooby Doo pajamas for his Christmas-pajama-costume, they were all I could find in his drawers, will it scar him for life?) but I want to just read this book. Instead I have to listen to ten four-year-olds sing Jingle Bells and then all the 2-year-olds cry while the teachers sing Snowflakes on my Nose. I know, my mother license should probably be revoked.
I find that I have spent a ton of cash at Barnes and Noble this Christmas - what's new, you ask? I know...but I just bought my little brother Shadow Divers, because he'll dig the U-boat history I think, and his wife The Time Traveller's Wife (I am holding to the now three-year tradition of buying her one of the best books I have read in the previous year - last year it was Khaled Hasseini's The Kite Runner, and the year before that, Ann Patchett's Bel Canto.), and Dan's smart ass priest uncle whom I adore, The Know-It-All, which turned out to be very entertaining and informative. I can't tell you what I bought Gina, because she'll read this blog : )
posted by BabelBabe @ 8:48 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
You better mean that you BAKED me a book, Valerie Catherine Mattis (See--I mean business!) Sweeney!
you just love me for my cinnamon rolls, Suzanne. Forget patriarchal oppresion - it's all about your fat-loving, butter-craving, dough-needing friends! I hie myself to the kitchen.
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