Ladybugs and Dragons for Summer
The first time I saw Ladybug Girl
So lucky me when my daughter fell in love with the book too. I was certain she would because its familiar. She has walls of books. She has a hound (we have a beagle named Geoffrey Chaucer). She absolutely adored her ladybug costume when she tried it on after I decided to do a ladybug themed one year birthday party.
All these thoughts rushed over me when we were at the library this week and Ayla discovered a Ladybug Girl board book called Ladybug Girl Makes Friends, featuring moments from Ladybug Girl picture books. She loves finding familiar things, so of course we checked it out and I vowed to look for it today at the Half Price Books Humble Story Time today, where I bought Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad. (We already own Ladybug Girl, Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, and I’m on a mission to find Ladybug Girl at the Beach.)
On top of all this Ladybug Girl excitement, we discovered The Touble with Dragons by Debi Gliori at the library this week. The Trouble with Dragons
Both these books are excellent choices to kick off your summer with, and they will both become long time favorites, through summer and beyond.
In additon to keeping your kiddos entertained, start your summer off right with by keeping your house smelling wonderful – lots of awesome summer scents available from Scentsy. Join the Summer Kick Off Party now: https://akklemm.scentsy.us/Scentsy/Buy?partyId=86754827
Kafka on Trial
Title: The Trial
Author: Franz Kafka
Publisher: I am reading from a paperback copy from Vintage Books published in 1969
Published in 1937 by Knopf
Length: 341 pages, including post scripts and translator’s notes
I’d like to start by saying I love Kafka, I do, I really do, I think.
I read The Metamorphosis over and over again, wrote a paper on it in high school and two more in college. I can’t count how many times I’ve read it, I just think its so wonderful. After reading The Castle and The Trial, however, I’m realizing that Kafka’s greatest skill is in writing the most frustrating scenarios a human being could be plopped into – alienation and bureaucracy. Whether it becoming a giant bug, living under mysterious and unfair authorities, or dying after a year long quest to discover what crime you have been accused of, Kafka has helplessness down to an art. I love Kafka!
I love him because his concepts are fascinating. He is the most wonderful creator of modern day myth that I’ve read. But I find that while reading his full length novels, I feel a bit as I did when reading Don Quixote – screaming at Cervantes, “I get it! Iget it! I get it already!” Halfway through Kafka’s The Trial, I groaned wondering when it was all going to stop, knowing that I knew Kafka well enough to know that peace would not be had in the end (at least not the kind brought about by resolution). I love the exasperation of the short story or novella written to drive these scenarios home. My heart can’t stand it in a full length novel. At the end of The Trial, I hate Kafka.
But the story was so good!
Kafka belongs to the world of novellas and short stories. That is where I love him best.
When We’re Not Reading…
My Daughter, Ayla, at the Zoo
… We Go On Adventures.
Today we went to the Houston Zoo and Hobbit Hole Cafe.
The Houston Zoo is a great place to take kids. When I was a kid it was free, but it wasn’t nearly as nice as it is now, and frankly, I’d rather pay money to enjoy my experience and see the animals enjoying their environment than go to a free zoo without shade, no amenities, and sad-looking creatures on display. The Houston Zoo of 2012, is beautiful. Paved (but not crappy concrete) walk ways, gorgeous fountains and statues, lots of shady spots and places to buy drinks and snacks (but they still let you bring drinks and snacks into the park, kudos and brownie points for that), and relatively happy looking animals.
The only animals that don’t look happy are the obvious ones… lions and tigers who should probably have more space, even though their habitats are quite large, and the injured animals that are being rehabilitated. The lions and tigers are too cool for school, as most cats are. They look grumpy and bored. Although the male lion did a lot of showing off, he posed for the cameras and even roared for us, he also got pissed off when we wouldn’t go away afterward and peed on the glass. There is no way on God’s green earth you can convince me that the lion did not piss on that glass directly in front of us on purpose to give us a lesson in privacy and manners. It was done in the attitude of ‘You came, You saw, I even showed off for you, NOW GO!’ As for rehabilitated creatures, there’s a bald eagle there named Liberty who has a cast because she was found in 2000 with a bullet through one of her wings. Her habitat is open to the sky, but she has no ability to fly. Beautiful bird with a sad, sad tale. Her cast today was neon green, which I thought was a cute touch.
I was looking forward to the otters because Ayla loved the otters at the Dallas Aquarium last year. They had a female otter that just swam and swam and swam in circles the whole time we watched. She did tricks and Ayla just giggled and laughed and thought it was the most wonderful thing she’d ever seen. The otters today were sleepy and looked oh so cozy snuggled on top of eachother. At that point, Ayla looked pretty sleepy too, so it wasn’t a disappointing moment at all.
But the big deal for us today were the giraffes and elephants. Ayla’s room is mostly decorated with these wonderful beasts and we’ve been spending a lot of time the last few weeks going over their names because without being reminded she calls them dogs. I really wanted her to make the connection between the live animals and their artsy counterparts on her walls and in her books. Lucky me, I got the reaction I wanted once we got home and she recognized the animal above her changing table as a giraffe with the most wonderful level of awe ever.
When she is older, I plan to get a zoo membership. We will be homeschooling and I think weekly outings to the zoo and the museums in the surrounding area will be a great addition to her library visits and lessons. (http://www.houstonzoo.org/membership/) For $94 a year I can get free admission all year for my entire household, plus discounts in the gift shop and special events, and a whole lot more. I’d say its a worthy amount to put towards Ayla’s “tuition.”
After our Zoo adventures, we went to the highly praised Hobbit Hole Cafe. Granted, I know Ayla was tired and pretty much done for the day and this could have affected my experience a great deal, but man that place does NOT live up to its hype. Hobbit Hole, sounds wonderful and bookish, and foodie fabulous, right? Well, the food was good, nothing to get all hot and bothered about, but nothing to complain about either. I had a Gandalf Classic (sandwich with mushrooms, avocado, and swiss cheese, I paid extra for onion rings (which were excellent). Despite the large sandwich, I could have done with more onion rings… $1.99 for 5 rings, I don’t care how delicious, I want a bigger pile of rings… after all, I DO eat like a HOBBIT! Other than the wonderfully named sandwich menu, though, nothing else was hobbit-esque or Lord of the Rings fashioned, other than the movie posters on the wall at the entrance. Most of the people around me (not my table, but in the cafe at large) were eating enchiladas. They’ve also got Jamaican dishes on the menu that, according to the Jamaican who was sitting next to me, don’t taste how they should.
Still, good food, but not worth going back to due to the awful service. Long wait at the door, long wait at the table, long wait for silverware once food started arriving, long wait for straws, long wait for food that wasn’t ordered with the other food, long wait for, well, everything. In addition to the long wait, we were crammed against other tables and lots of traffic. My chair was literally being crushed by the chair next to mine… and they were randomly assorted plastic lawn chairs. We were sitting at a square table slammed next to a circular table and I had the unfortunate luck at sitting in the awkward joint area, while I prayed the chair behind me didn’t slam into my back from people coming up the patio ramp to the front door. On top of all that, those chairs (put there to create an aisle where there wasn’t one and give people waiting at the hostess desk a place to sit) were being used by servers to set plates of food down because the plates were too hot to carry and too heavy to juggle (Anyone hear of tray service? Sorry, too long a server at a tray service only restaurant makes me cranky about people carrying plates diner style with their sleeve dipping into my food. Its gross.) When we were done, the server had us tally up our meals and food on the back of a bill and figure out what we owed ourselves. I’m assuming they don’t have a system in which you can easily split checks, I get that, but don’t ask me to do math on an 8 top, that’s your job. I can say that because I’ve waited tables with the best of them.
Once again, the food was good, but over all I’d only go back if I was in a group and somebody else wanted to go. It’s not on my list of places to return, but I feel like it should have been, because I’ve read so many glowing reviews (one even states that if you don’t like the establishment you’re just a terrible person). I fear they get the vast majority of their business from the false promise of their fabulous name. So people who love it… what did I miss?
Napoleon’s Wars
Title: Napoleon’s Wars
Author: Charles Esdaile
Publisher: Penguin
Length: 622 pages (including appendices and index)
Its amazing to me how history is so often rewritten. Like the American Civil War and the issue of slavery, history textbooks would have you believe that the French Revolutionary Wars were about liberty alone. It’s only when you dig deeper into fascinating works like Esdaile’s that you learn better, just like that moment you discover that the Civil War was about State’s Rights. Esdaile’s book is enlightening, gracefully walking you through power struggles, political schemes, battles, marriages, and all sorts of human conflict. Silly, I know, as there is always political drama behind the scenes of any war, but I was completely unaware.
I blame this on my childhood education as well as my idealist nature, which begs to believe that things are always done for moral principle and meaning. I like to root for the underdog and weep for the wronged. Yet, scholarly study and reality steps in and I discover that Abe Lincoln was not this amazing and caring man elementary schools brain washed us into believing, that the Union was not so kind they fought a war over slavery, rather they were controlling and greedy and wanted to dictate laws on a Federal level rather than celebrate the spirit of our unique existence by allowing States to make their own decisions, much like the war on drugs now. See, even here I see my brain and heart leaning towards the idea that the South were fighting for their rights with ‘free spirits’! Also emotionally driven and not entirely accurate. There’s no winning with me.
I need work like Esdaile’s in my life, to keep my brain on straight. He writes a beautiful historically accurate reality check, without casting blame or being cruel about the events of our past. He doesn’t bash nor celebrate Napoleon, he just explains the world that surrounded him. I picked this book up to help me wrap my brain around Hugo’s Les Miserables world, as the characters are living in the aftermath of the wars. I needed to comprehend the world at large at that time in order to really understand the characters’ world view, and to help me decide whether or not I even like Valjean! (Stay tuned for further updates on my Les Miserables reading, join my readalongs via the “Readalongs!” page on the right.)
What I found most astounding was the statement by Esdaile that “Napoleon came to power as a peacemaker. “(pg.75) Clearly, I didn’t know much about Napoleon, the history of France, the Revolution, any of it, before reading this book. Before, I always thought of Napoleon as a tyrant with a short man syndrome attitude. But in reading Esdaile’s work, I am reminded that people have to have something going for them to gain that much power. According to this history, it took quite awhile for Napoleon to acquire his ‘demon-like qualities’ and that ‘among the educated classes, he was widely admired.’ “[…] the emperor himself later remarked that the regime was ‘never afraid of him’ and ‘looked on him as a defender of royalism.’ ” So how do we get from there to Hugo’s Les Miserables? Esdaile gives us an answer with a quote from a pamphlet published in 1808:
“Napoleon… may be compared to the vine, a plant that if it is not pruned, throws out its branches in all directions and ends up by taking over everything. He wants peace, but at the same time wishes to dethrone kings… create new monarchies and destroy old republics… to undo the very globe and remake it in accordance with nothing other than his own will.” (pg. 344)
I love history, but I haven’t studied much of it in depth. My interests range through all of time and all over the globe, so at best I know a little of this and a little of that, but nothing thoroughly, nothing well. Prior to this book, if you had mentioned Mustafa, I probably would have said, “Oh, I love the Lion King.” Even that tidbit of ‘knowledge’ is wrong as the Disney cartoon lion’s name is Mufasa, which I didn’t realize until I went browsing for images to use in this blog post!
As a budding amateur historian, I still get excited when my history overlaps. Charles James Fox has a role in this time period of Europe and when I saw his name my heart leaped for joy. Someone I recognize, someone I’ve learned something about! Just last year or so, I read Amanda Foreman’s Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, where he had a huge role. As a huge supporter of the French Revolution, I was breathlessly proud of myself and the one little tidbit of something I knew while reading through a few pages of Napoleon’s Wars.
It also means that, even though I already have a book on the subject (but haven’t read it yet), I nearly fell out of my chair when I read that Napoleon went to Egypt (I didn’t realize that he actually went there, I thought maybe he just sent people there the way most rulers do). I’ve had a long-time obsession with Egypt, King Tut exhibits, Archeological Bibles, Nefertiti, Hapshepsut, the whole shebang. Even Amelia Peabody inspires me. So to see that I would have an opportunity to thoroughly study something that so heavily overlaps something I’ve studied, excites me.
I’ve taken so many notes on this book, its so fascinating (if you’re friends with me on facebook or in real life, you’re probably tired of hearing me rant about how awesome it is). Among my notes are scribblings about how these wars are shockingly worldwide. Why wasn’t this called a World War? I am baffled at how many wars (not just battles, but WARS) were fought, overlapping each other in years and on continents, during this time. Before Napoleon even steps into the picture there’s the 1st and 2nd Coalition Wars (1792-1797, 1798-1802), which I had never heard of because they are always just called the French Revolutionary Wars, which should have given me pause and realization that wars was plural, therefore there was more to the story than just the word “Revolution.” I’m still not 100% clear on how it all works, as more research is needed, because the Revolutionary Wars are dated as 1789-1802. Then, there’s a War between Britain and France during 1803 to 1814, but not the same as the Coalition Wars… Third in 1805, Fourth from 1806-07, Fifth in 1809, and the 6th overlaps the Invasion of Russia from 1812-1814 – but apparently is separate from the War of 1812 which was between the U.S. and Britain. Finally, things wrap up a bit after the War of the Seventh Coalition in 1815. Not to mention, I totally skipped the Peninsular War from 1808- 1814 which was between France and the allied powers of Spain and only ended when the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814. Again, I ask you, why was this never referred to as a World War? Why wasn’t the debate about this being called a World War addressed in school? Why has this whole ordeal always been flippantly glossed over with literature like The Scarlet Pimpernel, Horatio Hornblower, and then wrapped up with Jane Austen and Les Miserables., not that I have a problem with that literature (they are all wonderful and personal favorites of mine). Because I read too much fiction, ok, ok, I get it.
Now, more than ever, I want to know more. I want to take classes at the University of Liverpool where Charles Esdaile teaches. He’s a professor there with a BA and PhD and a FRHistS (Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, I had to look that up, its so cool). But, alas, I am not in Liverpool. Also, I am not in college anymore.
Reading this book made me go do some research that I desperately needed to do. Not just historical research, but personal research. I’ve been wanting, planning, gabbing about going back to school for some time now. But finally, I went to some websites and looked into what that would take. Instead of dreamily telling people I’d like to go back to school and get a second Bachelors from a state school (I currently have a BBA in Marketing and Management: Entrepreneurship) I can now say: I’d like to join the Post-Baccalaureate program at Univeristy of Houston. My first class, when I finally get the finances to go, and the nerve to go up to the school and not worry about the fact that I’d be 10 years older than the traditional students (not that anyone would notice my five foot nothing – I get carded everywhere- self), I’d like my first class to be ANTH 1300: Introduction to Anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. There, it’s out there, and you guys are now encouraged to keep me accountable to my dreams.
Until then, I plan to read more books by Esdaile and a number of other historians. Reading this has been a fabulous experience.
Goodbye Mr. Sendak
Photograph by Astrid Christie
I would be remiss as a blogger, book lover, mother, former child, dreamer, and all around human being if I didn’t post something about Maurice Sendak upon his passing. Most famous for Where The Wild Things Are
Sendak made it to a whopping 83 and his life will be celebrated by a posthumous publication of his most current work called “My Brother’s Book” which he wrote in honor of his late brother. How fitting and beautiful that it will be his last new publication, and that he too will be gone for it.
Maurice Bernard Sendak was born June 10, 1928 and died May 8, 2012. For a proper ode to his entire life work, please read the New York Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/books/maurice-sendak-childrens-author-dies-at-83.html?pagewanted=all
Weekly Low Down on Leprechauns… I Mean Kids Books 5/07/12
The Luckiest Leprechaun
The super challenge to parents: Read the whole thing with an Irish accent. I had to summon my inner Mrs. Paroo (from The Music Man), and I know that an actual Irishman would be ashamed of me, but I was quite proud of myself. Ayla may have just thought I was a weird-o, but she had me read it twice in a row even though its pretty lengthy for a kids picture book for her age, so I must have been entertaining.
I highly recommend this one. Justine Korman did a great job portraying a cynical, and somewhat rotten, leprechaun in need of an attitude change, unwillingly becoming best friends with the sweetest dog in the world (named Lucky). Its got the same illustrator as the Junie B. Jones books (Denise Brunkus) although I don’t know that I care for those books, the illustrations are awesome. I loved it. Ayla clearly loved it. It was an awesome library pick that I am sure to go buy, because I’ll be needing this every Spring for years to come.
Book to Film Fail
Remember my Water for Elephants review? I loved the book. It was wonderful. Read it in one day, and thought it was lovely. It was lovely in a raw and gritty circus animal way. At the end of my review I let you all know that I hadn’t seen the movie, but I’d let you know what I thought of it when I did. Well, now I’ve seen it and I’m royally disappointed.
It’s too clean.
The set looks clean, the characters are too clean. The magic of the gritty circus look is absolutely missing. I love Reese Witherspoon to death, but she was utterly wrong for the role of Marlena. Her acting is always impeccably perfect, but to no fault of her own she’s too blonde, too beautiful, and too old for the role. Vampire Boy/ Cedric Diggory/ Robert whats-his-face is entirely the wrong look as well. He should be a red head, couldn’t they have dyed his hair? Even the midget is too pretty of a midget. And the character that gets the Jakes should have looked a little more like Dopey from the 7 Dwarfs… no one looks their part. The train is too clean, the tents are too clean. Where are the dust bowls? Where’s the Depression?
In addition to all this clean-ness, the cinematography is too crisp. But not in a new movie way, its crisp like I’m watching an afternoon soap opera, or someone’s home movie. Everything is so bright, in the book I imagined the circus being a small series of twinkles in a long road of darkness.
The structure and mood of the movie is nothing of that of the book. If you’ve read the book, you remember the opening? The scene that sets up the premise for all that is to come – the scene that makes you want to read the rest of the book in the first place? That scene is completely omitted from the opening of the film. What’s so depressing about that is that they filmed it! You see it at the end! Why didn’t they edit it so that it matched the genius of the bookend style that Sara Gruen so brilliantly wrote?
As the last scene closes, my best friend, who waited to watch the movie with me because we both loved the book so much says, “That was lame.”
The movie had no umph.
Why I Loathe Rating Things With Stars
A Review of Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
I’ve been a voracious reader my entire life and I’ve always loved the classics. So it didn’t surprise me at all years ago when my AP English teacher handed me the semester syllabus with a list of titles to read and I unwisely blurted “I’ve already read them all,” with disappointment. He said “Fine” and later supplied me with a new list, all contemporary award winners I’d never heard of, including Snow Falling on Cedars
I read it. I re-read it. I couldn’t figure out why I hated it, and why I wanted to read it again.
Until now, when watching the movie, which is, amazingly, incredibly accurate from what I remember of the book – scene for scene.
At my core I am a romantic and idealist. I love forbidden marriages, truly and unhypocritically, as I am in one. I love childhood sweethearts, best friends, having secret adventures in the woods and on the seashore. I’ve been in love with my husband since I was fourteen, have now known him half my life, and am raising a beautiful daughter with him.
What I hate? That Hatsue doesn’t marry Ishmael. That she willingly chooses another, after giving herself to Ishmael like a little slut in the woods. What is a beautifully written piece of timeless literature, becomes an irritating anti-love story to me, until it becomes the ultimate love story by him saving her husband anyway. Poor Ishmael! Why did she not marry him? There’s so many reasons, so many. I cannot mar the merit of Guterson’s work, it is so well done. But I hate him for falling short in my ideally romantic heart. I cannot comprehend giving myself so fully to my best friend and then saying No to his marriage proposal for some loyalty to culture.
I remember that somewhere I’ve rated this book with 2 stars. 2, just 2. But –
I haven’t read this book in over ten years and still it resonates with me. Even prior to watching the movie, I could recall various parts of the book in extreme detail, it’s actually why I chose to watch the movie this week. I knew I was in the mood for it. Now, with the movie so fresh in my mind, I think I should re-read it soon. The story is brilliant, and true to what I imagine life was like then. But I will always hate Hatsue a little more than I should, because Ishmael is one of the most beautiful human beings ever written and though it unfair to ask every character to behave as I would – I would have married him and lvoed him ’til the day I died.
So truth? I think I love Snow Falling on Cedars. I love it with a hateful indescribable passion. I hate Hatsue for being weak. I hate the United States for putting the Japanese into camps. I hate Kabuo for being so easy to love. I even hate Ishmael for being as Anne Elliot describes in Austen’s Persuasion, one of those who “love longest, when all hope is gone.” I hate it because I long to re-read it and every time I do I bawl like a baby, because every time I expect it all to be different.
I have a hard time rating things with stars. My initial shelfari review, where I gave it 2 stars, stated:
I didn’t like it is too strong a phrase, and I liked it also too strong. But I am committed to re-reading it eventually to see if my opinion has changed since I read it for school at seventeen. At the time, I found it awkward and sad. I do remember enjoying his descriptions, it was the storyline itself I was unsatisfied with.
Unclear, vague, and starless. But the book stays with you for so long, so how can I rate it badly? In all honesty, I can’t. Not anymore. I feel compelled to change the stars to 5, but tomorrow I’ll only want to give it 3. This is why I prefer to read full reviews, and not rely on stars. This is why I prefer conversations, rather than one-lined opinions.
David Guterson, if you read this, you are a brilliant writer. And I have a love/hate relationship with your book.
P.S. I adore Ethan Hawke, who plays Ishmael Chambers in the movie made in 1999. He is also an author, and I enjoyed his novel The Hottest State. I also have a copy of his book Ash Wednesday, but have never read it. If anyone is interested in reading it with me, let me know. I am also interested in reading Guterson’s book on homeschooling
Les Miserables Readalong Update 5/04/12
I am currently reading Cosette. It is, of course, fascinating and full of all sorts of history and thoughts about the revolution and so on and so on. So of course, I had to put it down for a bit and am now reading Napoleon’s Wars: An International History by Charles Esdaile. So far its exactly what I hoped it would be, a broad picture of the world at large to help me better understand the smaller piece of France Hugo has us tucked away in for 1200 some odd pages. I am loving it and I hope that others participating in the Les Miserables 2012 Readalong join me with Esdaile as well. Full reviews of Cosette and Napoleon’s Wars to come.
To join this blog hop/readalong and follow the links to read Fantine: https://anakalianwhims.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/les-miserables-blog-hop-8/
To read my official Cosette review posted on 5/19/12: https://anakalianwhims.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/cosette/
Anakalian Whims 