tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6680847424336935932024-02-19T03:36:56.152-08:00arch thinkingan architect's thoughts about books, and sometimes about art and architectureLorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.comBlogger600125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-66572156294542622212019-01-10T12:51:00.001-08:002019-01-10T12:51:11.547-08:00Review: Girl Waits with GunI read a book that I quite enjoyed: <a href=https://www.amystewart.com/books/girl-waits-with-gun/>Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart</a>. It is set in northern New Jersey in 1913/14 - at a time when most of New Jersey was still rural and Paterson was a mill town. It was a little slow to get started but I didn't want to put it down at the end. The characters are all sympathetic and the tone of the book was so evocative - I really felt immersed in this family and their associates.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-91718789992554845812012-12-23T14:51:00.000-08:002012-12-23T14:51:03.660-08:00Review: The Good Fairies of New YorkI read another book! Wow, if this keeps up, I may actually get back to reading regularly sometime before my daughter turns 4. Sigh. Anyway ...<br />
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I read <span id="btAsinTitle"><em>The Good Fairies of New York</em> by Martin Millar. It's a little hard to describe so I'm just going to paste the back of the book description here:</span><br />
<span><blockquote class="tr_bq">
When a pair of fugitive Scottish thistle fairies end up transplanted to
Manhattan by mistake, both the Big Apple and the Little People have a lot of
adjusting to do. Heather and Morag just want to start the first radical fairy
punk rock band, but first they’ll have make a match between two highly unlikely
sweethearts, start a street brawl between rival gangs of Italian, Chinese, and
African fairies, help the ghost of a dead rocker track down his lost guitar,
reclaim a rare triple-bloomed Welsh poppy from a bag lady with delusions of
grandeur, disrupt a local community performance of <i>A Midsummer Night’s
Dream,</i> and somehow manage to stay sober enough to save all of New York from
an invasion of evil Cornish fairies.<br /><br />If they can stop feuding with each
other, that is.</blockquote>
This book is about as silly as they get but then there will be these moments of heartbreaking realness - like when the human heroine changes her colostomy bag or a homeless person dies in her front step. It's kind of a strange mixture but is easy to read and hard to put down. I'm not sure I need to read everything Millar's ever written now, or anything like that, but I enjoyed it.<br />
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Find <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Good-Fairies-New-York/dp/1933368365/ref=la_B000AP999S_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356302806&sr=1-2" target="_blank">The Good Fairies of New York</a> on Amazon.</span><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-66573838094493455132012-11-20T11:03:00.001-08:002015-08-21T14:27:24.113-07:00Finance Blogs (& Books)Since my daughter was born, I've taken getting my finances in order way, way more seriously than I ever did before. In fact, I had a freak out when she was a few weeks old, started looking closely at my financial records, and decided I needed to do something about it all, particularly if I ever intended to send her to college or some other useful thing.<br />
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The first step, for me, was Personal Finance blogs. I started with Get Rich Slowly, just going back and back into their archives until I had read almost everything they had. GRS was founded by JD Roth but is now run by a company and has multiple authors, all in various stages of financial health. From there, I found a bunch of other good blogs, my favorite of which is <a href="http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/">Mr. Money Mustache</a>. I like MMM because he's a little more irreverent and funny (and having spent much of my career around contractors, cursing doesn't bother me).<br />
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After devouring the archives of several PF blogs, a few book titles came up multiple times as being very influential for the bloggers own lives. Foremost among these was <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-Relationship/dp/0143115766/ref=la_B000AQ1TVI_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353437188&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Your Money or Your Life</a>. <a href="http://ymoyl.wordpress.com/summary-of-your-money-or-your-life/" target="_blank">YMYL</a> is about, above all, having enough and living your life to your best purpose, by letting money support you and not drag you down. It's simultaneously practical (how to save, etc.) and very powerful.<br />
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The other book I read and really liked was the well-known book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising/dp/1589795474" target="_blank">The Millionaire Next Door</a>. This takes a very statistical dry look at financial health by using surveys to identify real millionaire's common traits. And by real millionaire, I don't mean the flashy guy driving a Bentley but who has two mortgages and no savings, but the man with the paid-off house in the good, but not prestigious neighborhood, who never has to work for a living again. Underneath the statistics, <i>Millionaire Next Door</i> is, like <i>YMYL</i>, about having enough.<br />
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Let me know if there are any good PF blogs or books you'd recommend.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-35800356231038919162012-11-07T14:13:00.000-08:002012-11-07T14:13:02.425-08:00My New Pastime - AudiobooksMy life is so different now than when I started blogging. In the past four years I've become a mom, moved into a bigger house, switched jobs, and, most recently, started commuting by public transportation. I like my life a lot more now than I did four years ago but one thing kind of sucks - I don't read books anymore. I still read magazines, websites and some blogs, but I hardly ever sit down and read for an extended period of time. And I get terribly car sick, even on the train, so that's out. Happily, I recently found a solution - audiobooks!<br />
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This may be an incredibly obvious solution to you, but it took me a while to warm up to the idea. "Listening to a book doesn't count," I thought. And I think being read to is terribly boring (I even hated it when I was a kid in school). But my husband loves audiobooks and when a friend lent me her old iPod, filled with good books, and I decided to give them a try. I love it.
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The caveat, of course, is finding the right audiobook. It's important to find a good book from a good writer and it may be even more important to find a good narrator. The best audiobooks aren't like being read to at all - they are more like listening to old radio plays. Two of my favorite books I've listened to so far are <a href="http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B002V8DEKC&qid=1352325770&sr=1-1">The Graveyard Book</a> and <a href="http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=pd_rsp_1?asin=B00354ZSS2">Neverwhere</a>, both written by and read by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman does voices and just imbues the story with so much charm - I loved them. On the other hand, I tried listening to Gaiman's <a href="http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_3?asin=B0036KV7Y4&qid=1352326008&sr=1-3">Good Omens</a> (co-written with Terry Pratchett and reviewed by me <a href="http://archthinking.blogspot.com/2009/09/review-good-omens.html">here</a>). No offense to the narrator, but he just left me cold and I found my mind wandering from the story. I stopped after just a few chapters.<br />
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By the way, I highly recommend using an audiobook app, like <a href="http://www.audible.com/">Audible</a>, to listen, rather than just playing the book via your regular music player. The ability to just back a few seconds and to place bookmarks is key - it got rather frustrating when I was listening to my books on the iPod.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-89835305046582415402012-04-30T14:49:00.000-07:002012-04-30T14:49:11.296-07:00Poetry MonthToday is the last day of April, the <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html">cruelest month</a>, and therefore the end of <a href="http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41">National Poetry Month</a>.<br />
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When <a href=http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/49>Adrienne Rich</a> died last month, I found a letter to the editor she wrote in 1997 on <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/print/1997/aug/03/books/bk-18828">Why [She] Refused the National Medal for the Arts</a>. She wrote a lovely, thought-provoking letter, but my favorite part quotes other writers, which I present in honor of April. <blockquote>"If there were no poetry on any day in the world," the poet Muriel Rukeyser wrote, "poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger." In an essay on the Caribbean poet Aime Cesaire, Clayton Eshleman names this hunger as "the desire, the need, for a more profound and ensouled world."</blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-12883170392512636672012-03-31T20:45:00.000-07:002012-03-31T20:45:23.236-07:00An update, of sortsUm, hi, everybody. It's been pretty quiet around here, hasn't it? I posted only 14 times in all of 2011. and most of those were posts I had at least started before my daughter was born. What did I do instead of blogging? Mostly, I got to know my daughter. She's 14 months now, on the cusp of walking and has the best laugh in the world.<br />
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I also had a pretty tumultuous year, career-wise. Not long after I returned to work after maternity leave, I was laid off from the position I had held for six years. It was awful to be let go, but really liberating, too. I spent the summer freelancing and doing contract work, which gave me the opportunity to spend some great time with my family. At the end of the year, though, a new opportunity came up and I went back to work full time for a new firm.<br />
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I haven't quite decided what all this means for my blog. As much as I love reading and sharing my passion for books, I don't know if that passion extends to blogging anymore. But neither am I ready to go away entirely. So I guess I'll just keep posting when I feel like it and see what happens here once my life settles down a little. Feel free to drop me a line anytime.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-27853816772805880212012-01-16T15:59:00.000-08:002012-01-16T15:59:11.698-08:00Review: Magyk: Septimus Heap, Book OneThere are a lot of books out there angling to be the next Harry Potter, aren't there? That's certainly how the Septimus Heap series was being advertised when I picked up the first volume, <i>Magyk </i>(last year, when the sixth novel was published). There are a few parallels - there's a magical boy and his friends - but not a lot.<br />
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The series is about a boy who is the seventh son of the seventh son and therefore has extra special magic powers. His best friend is secretly the heir to the castle, which is ruled by the bad guy. Book 1, <i>Magyk </i>sets up the series and not much else. I felt that, as a stand alone book, it was pretty thin. Maybe this is one of those cases where I'm not the target audience and a middle grade reader would love it. Then again, why should we assume kids need to be talked down to? If I can see the "twist" ending telegraphed from page one, I think my 8-year-old nephew could too. It's not a terrible book - the characters are interesting, the premise is fine - but it certainly doesn't make me want to read the rest of the series.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-84564778361492324752011-12-29T06:00:00.000-08:002011-12-29T06:00:05.644-08:00Review: The God EnginesThis book - <i>The God Engines</i> by John Scalzi - was intense. Normally, half of my review of a novella or short story is kvetching that the story was too short, the author should have delved deeper, etc, etc. Sure, Scalzi probably could have gone more in depth and revealed more about the world he's built here but I'm not sure I'd want to go any deeper. This is a book about unpleasant people doing unpleasant things. It was intriguing and a good read, but not something I think I'll read again.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-36371196989347429822011-12-08T12:39:00.000-08:002011-12-08T12:39:00.483-08:00Review: Dreams from My Father<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Dreams_from_my_father.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Dreams_from_my_father.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 450px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 296px;" /></a><i>Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance</i> is a memoir by President Barack Obama, written after he was the first African-American elected president of the Harvard Law Review. It was first published in 1995, before his first political campaign, and was republished in 2004, during his U.S .Senate race. So while there are politics in this book, it is not about his life as a politician. And unlike so many of the books politicians put out during a campaign, it is still interesting to read when the race is over.
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The outlines of President Obama's life are well-known: his white mother from Kansas and his black father from Kenya met in college in Hawai'i, married, and had him. Soon after, his father left, first to go to Harvard, then back to Africa, and only returned for a month when Barack Jr was 10. Barack Sr. died without his son having gotten to know him as an adult.
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<i>Dreams from My Father</i> can be read on two primary levels: one is simply as a man's life story. Obama's young life was somewhat unusual - growing up in Hawai'i and Indonesia, time as a community organizer in Chicago, family in Kenya - but not, I think, so extraordinary as to be incomprehensible. (It's not like he grew up on Mars, after all.)
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The other way one can read this book is as a meditation on race in America. Obama explores what was like to grow up as a black man, even though his white mother and grandparents raised him. Along the way, he discusses how race effects the way a person is viewed in this country and what it means to straddle different cultures, not just brown vs. white, but African vs. American.
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I found <i>Dreams from My Father</i> to be an interested, thought-provoking read. Would it be as interesting if you didn't know this young man would grow up to be President? I believe so.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400082773/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1400082773">Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-56688160139006228222011-06-07T06:37:00.000-07:002011-06-07T06:37:00.989-07:00Review: Outliers<a href="http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Outliers_Cover.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 266px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" alt="" src="http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Outliers_Cover.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div>I really enjoyed <i>Outliers: the Story of Success</i> by Malcolm Gladwell. The premise of this book is, what makes high-achievers (and low achievers, really) different? Gladwell argues that the answer lies much less in their innate talent (or faults), and more in the atmosphere surrounding them - their culture, family, upbringing, etc. Some of these factors may be obvious - your parents education level has a huge impact on you, which makes sense - and many are not. I was particularly interested in his examination of the "Culture of Honor" and why the famed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield%E2%80%93McCoy_feud">Hatfield-McCoy feud</a> was not the rarity I thought (for more, here's an <a href="http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/outliers_excerpt2.html">excerpt from <i>Outliers</i></a>).<br /><br />I will say that I had heard Gladwell interviewed about this book several times, so some of it didn't feel fresh to me. For example, I had heard quite a bit about the part of the book dedicated to exploring why almost no star hockey players are born in the fall. Still, I thought it was interest and it certainly confirmed my thought that the birthday cutoff for kindergarten should be moved up from the typical December deadline (something our local school system has started doing for budget reasons).<br /><br />Some readers might complain that Gladwell is oversimplifying complex social issues. They may be right. But I found this to be a fascinating look at a complicated question.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316017930/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0316017930">Outliers: The Story of Success</a> was released in paperback today (June 7).</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-18979050550304499392011-05-04T13:06:00.000-07:002011-05-04T13:06:00.480-07:00Series Thoughts: Anne of Green Gables<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Montgomery_Anne_of_Green_Gables.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 461px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Montgomery_Anne_of_Green_Gables.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>While I was out on maternity leave, I re-read the entire <em>Anne of Green Gables</em> series. I really enjoyed reading the series but something struck me that I'd never thought of before: these books are kind of sad. Maybe its that I was just recently a mother myself but the shear quantity of dead people (especially mothers and babies) struck me. After my husband found me crying while reading for about the fourth time (granted, postpartum hormones were probably not helping), he asked me "are you sure these are supposed to be kids books?" None of this is to say that you shouldn't read <i>Anne of Green Gables</i> or its sequels yourself or to your child. They really are quite charming and I love Anne as much now as I did when I first read the series.<br /><br />I was surprised by how much I loved the last book in the series, <i>Rilla of Ingleside</i>. This book focuses not on Anne, but onto Anne's youngest daughter Rilla. It takes place during World War I and has a more serious tone than the early books. Maybe this is just me, but I know so little about WWI that I had to look up many of the references in this book - this could have been annoying, but I enjoyed getting the history lesson. (Per Wikipedia, <i>Rilla of Ingleside</i> is "the only Canadian novel written from a women's perspective about the First World War by a contemporary.")<br /><br />There's something else that I realized for the first time on this go-round through these books: the chronological order is not the same as the published order. For example, <i>Rilla of Ingleside</i> was published sixth, but is the last/eighth book chronologically. Normally I am a firm believer in reading books in publication order (see <i>Chronicles of Narnia</i>, etc) but I liked reading these chronologically. It was like getting to watch kids grow up. There were some odd moments by reading them this way. For example, the love letters between Anne and her beau (my lame attempt to not spoil something that everyone in the world knows anyway) were published in the (mostly-epistolary) <i>Anne of Windy Poplars</i>. Chronologically, this book is fourth in the series, but it was the seventh book published. Those love letters are referenced in <i>Anne's House of Dreams</i> (book 5) in such a way, I think, to make them sound private, which was weird since I had just read them. But that is a pretty minor point. What do you think? Should you read these books in published or chronological order?<br /><br />Find books by L.M. Montgomery on <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?default_prefix=author_id&sort_order=downloads&query=36">Project Gutenberg</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26redirect%3Dtrue%26ref_%3Dsr_tc_2_0%26keywords%3DL.M.%2520Montgomery%26field-contributor_id%3DB000AP8S68%26qid%3D1303361684%26sr%3D1-2-ent%26rh%3Di%253Astripbooks%252Ck%253AL.M.%2520Montgomery&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957">Amazon</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-88712939245247289992011-04-27T13:23:00.001-07:002011-04-27T13:26:31.361-07:00Alvar AaltoThere's a very nice slideshow up on Slate today about the residential design of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto: <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2291605/">A Low-Key High Modernist: The unpretentious houses of Alvar Aalto</a>. Villa Mairea is one of my favorite buildings, but I also loved the last house in the show. I have the exposed brick in my house - now I need a lovely little reading corner like that!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-1591108207267629532011-04-20T06:32:00.000-07:002011-04-20T15:53:43.343-07:00Review: My Man Jeeves<em>My Man Jeeves</em> by P. G. Wodehouse is one of those books that everyone says is funny, but I'm always suspicious that it actually is. So, get this - it is! <em>My Man Jeeves</em> is a collection of eight short stories by Wodehouse -- half feature the perfect* butler Jeeves and his employer, Bertie Wooster, while the others are about Reggie Pepper, an early prototype for Wooster. While I definitely preferred the Jeeves stories over the Pepper ones, the whole book is quite amusing. And short! Just the perfect thing to read between diaper changes and late night feedings, when your brain is too frazzled to read anything more serious. Or maybe that's just me.<br /><br />Buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599868342/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1599868342">My Man Jeeves</a> on Amazon or download free at <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8164">Project Gutenberg</a>.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">*</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Edited for bad writing!</span></i><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-71539517636424327232011-04-13T06:40:00.000-07:002011-04-13T06:40:00.867-07:00Review: The Cookbook Collector<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-3C_hNkklM3CyLe415Z7qcUC5CAqTFfV7KeJCXGDW_oEU2SLa_eVE4kQqq0Cx6vNMNiRwQt48W6l9O5TYnjRjS4ayD6LC9hFs9HxlhtjiWTPvK3Oyu_58sF9fbKN3J8pk2K8aVmejnzC/s1600/CookbookCollector.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 210px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-3C_hNkklM3CyLe415Z7qcUC5CAqTFfV7KeJCXGDW_oEU2SLa_eVE4kQqq0Cx6vNMNiRwQt48W6l9O5TYnjRjS4ayD6LC9hFs9HxlhtjiWTPvK3Oyu_58sF9fbKN3J8pk2K8aVmejnzC/s320/CookbookCollector.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594798581303674082" /></a><i>The Cookbook Collector</i> by Allegra Goodman is about two sisters, one a successful, practical-minded business woman, and one a somewhat flighty perpetual grad student, as they navigate life and love during the dot-com boom/bust and the 9/11 attacks. It is, I believe, a modern day retelling of Jane Austen's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553213342/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0553213342">Sense and Sensibility</a> (not having read the Austen, I'll take everyone's word but the plotline seems very Austen-y to me.) This is the second book I've read by Goodman, after <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385323905/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0385323905">Kaaterskill Falls</a>, and I much preferred it to the earlier work. Maybe that's because it is set in Berkeley, CA and Cambridge, MA, two places with which I am quite familiar.<br /><br />I read this book for my book club and we had an interesting discussion about it. One of the women in my group had experiences that were very similar to the book's main characters - MIT, Berkeley, worked at a start-up, and so on. She said that at first, she liked that someone had written a book about these experiences, but as the book went on, it was all just a little off - just not quite right about what that time and places were like.<br /><br />I didn't really love <i>The Cookbook Collector</i> in totality - it tried to do a lot with its big cast and broad scope and just ended up being spotty. But there were pieces - little moments, like someone eating a peach - that I did love. It was a worthwhile book, though not one I'd call a classic.<br /><br />The paperback will be released on July 12, 2011. Pre-order <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385340869/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0385340869">The Cookbook Collector: A Novel</a> or buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385340850/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0385340850">The Cookbook Collector: A Novel</a> on Amazon now.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-49650235423954481082011-04-06T06:19:00.000-07:002011-04-06T06:19:00.252-07:00Review: HeidiYodelay, yodelay, yodelayheehoo! There's no actual yodelling in <i>Heidi</i>, the classic children's novel by Johanna Spyri. Nor does a cherubic Shirley Temple pop out to say all the charming platitudes that the little Swiss girl spouts during the book. But otherwise, it was much like I remembered it from reading it in my younger days. <br /><blockquote><br /><p>Orphaned at an early age, Heidi is sent to live with her curmudgeon of a grandfather high in the Swiss Alps. But Heidi soon finds that things are not always what others say they are, makes friends with her grandfather, and happily runs wild in the glorious mountains with the goat boy, Peter, and his goats.</p><br /><p>Suddenly her aunt returns, and Heidi finds herself confined in the city to be companion to the invalid Klara. But Heidi is bitterly unhappy away from her grandfather and the outdoor life she has grown to love.</p></blockquote>There's actually a lot in common between this book, which I enjoyed, and <a href="http://archthinking.blogspot.com/2011/03/review-secret-garden.html">The Secret Garden</a>, which I did not (link goes to my recent review). I don't know what the difference was. For example, where I found Colin in <i>The Secret Garden</i> to be insufferable, I thought Klara was quite sweet. This is definitely a kids' book - I don't expect to see it suddenly become hot beach reading - but I thought it was charming to read again. Buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0689839626/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0689839626">Heidi</a> on Amazon or download free at <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1448">Project Gutenberg</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-77313220899931437202011-04-04T06:22:00.000-07:002011-04-04T15:11:46.010-07:00Review: Bird by Bird<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU8957DGjbDPPx3G8SlJECkhz_losXF1uHxaRzbp1sLRjcKMefydAjgsycNoHiLb1VGYOwMpx1h7cmmiJ0qfJkKWjHdANdGYiyeXzLveUDTzpTUWPYT9dK-Uow-F76y3YfynDZ98xrdF8r/s1600/bird.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5587737589457945458" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 126px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU8957DGjbDPPx3G8SlJECkhz_losXF1uHxaRzbp1sLRjcKMefydAjgsycNoHiLb1VGYOwMpx1h7cmmiJ0qfJkKWjHdANdGYiyeXzLveUDTzpTUWPYT9dK-Uow-F76y3YfynDZ98xrdF8r/s200/bird.jpg" border="0" /></a>It seems like <i>Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life</i> by Anne Lamott took me forever to finish. I started it eagerly - I had heard so many good things about it and the beginning was great. I just loved the story that inspired the title: <br /><blockquote>Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'</blockquote>But after that great start, this book felt very scattered, like a series of unconnected essays rather than a coherent thought. It was easy to read just a little bit then put down - unfortunately, it was just as easy to forget to pick up again. As I said, I loved the story behind the title, but the rest of the book didn't live up to that promise.<br /><br />Buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385480016/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0385480016">Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life</a> on Amazon. <br /><br /><i><span style="font-size:85%;">My apologies to those of you who accidentally saw this in your feed reader last week - I had some bumps in trying to get it to publish correctly!</span></i><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-28645165473073776302011-04-01T15:52:00.000-07:002011-04-01T16:09:32.928-07:00Friday UpdateThis morning, little M rolled over! She's done it before, sort of by accident, but this morning she did it three times in a row! M is four months old now and just gorgeous. Here she is, looking rather thoughtful and playing with her favorite toy. (Don't worry - she's in her car seat, but she's not in the car. I'm not letting her ride around without her belt fastened.) <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3uW7yKuuJsWsberqTgMXkbh7AC3wCexb9pLBuc2ykKoxm7x7WnAM5HzyNN6GtM3BRdb3kp9BL5Ch2iHulF6XQIVc2iYCGr5cyOqGCjGt1H-cY-XLuVIiqDI9Pluq3zajnbzsYsBmc7w8d/s1600/110329_m.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590756060176300354" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3uW7yKuuJsWsberqTgMXkbh7AC3wCexb9pLBuc2ykKoxm7x7WnAM5HzyNN6GtM3BRdb3kp9BL5Ch2iHulF6XQIVc2iYCGr5cyOqGCjGt1H-cY-XLuVIiqDI9Pluq3zajnbzsYsBmc7w8d/s320/110329_m.jpg" border="0" /></a> Enjoy your weekend!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-68457123911233709002011-03-31T06:34:00.000-07:002011-04-04T15:44:58.627-07:00Review: The Secret GardenHere are my thoughts on <span style="font-style:italic;">The Secret Garden</span> by Frances Hodgson Burnett in one sentence: Not as good as I remembered it. Doesn't that suck?<br /><br />For those of you who haven't read it, or read it so long ago you can't remember it: Contrary little Mary is sent to live with a relative on the Yorkshire Moors after her parents and household die in India. The spoiled girl has never even dressed herself and is quite friendless. But with the help of two boys, a gardener, and an abandoned garden, she becomes a new person.<br /><br />Clearly, I have become a jaded, terrible person, one who can't even enjoy such a magical story. I felt terrible for Mary and was happy about her transformation - but found angelic Dickon to be annoying and Colin to be insufferable. That said, I loved this book when I was a girl so hopefully someday, if I read this to my little M, I'll be able to enjoy it through her again. Until then, I think I'm too old to enjoy this one.<br /><br />Buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451528832/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0451528832">The Secret Garden</a> on Amazon. Or do what I did, and download it free via <a href=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/113>Project Gutenberg</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-68679412013364367752011-03-29T14:53:00.000-07:002011-03-29T14:59:57.230-07:002011 PritzkerAs you've probably heard by now, the winner of the 2011 the Pritzker Prize has been announced: <a href=http://www.archdaily.com/122929/2011-pritzker-prize-eduardo-souto-de-moura/>Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura</a>. I am not too familiar with him, to be honest, but the images I've seen of his work are striking.<br /><br />I have a feeling I posted this link last year, when they announced who won the Pritzker, but I think it bears repeating:<br /><a href=http://www.slate.com/id/2187868/>Architecture Is a Team Sport: So why do they award the Pritzker Prize to just one person?</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-82056509312106414472011-03-28T06:52:00.000-07:002011-03-28T06:52:00.388-07:00Review: The Order of the Odd Fish<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVI7-m5DgfaVhbOzp0hKdXvx3kJhVFopkRUsFC9w0Qvy4-NhGsmGZEpMAG_Feb9PcfnxtuBp03DGpQYl66LAylNxtPyKcZPn7wuUlFyvygaDd8aSNhvdSHqxoF0TCuipR3lS3o11YTEOMR/s1600/Odd-Fish-PB.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 195px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVI7-m5DgfaVhbOzp0hKdXvx3kJhVFopkRUsFC9w0Qvy4-NhGsmGZEpMAG_Feb9PcfnxtuBp03DGpQYl66LAylNxtPyKcZPn7wuUlFyvygaDd8aSNhvdSHqxoF0TCuipR3lS3o11YTEOMR/s320/Odd-Fish-PB.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5587728341106836402" /></a>Before I even start the review, I'll make a disclaimer that my sister gave me <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0440240654/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0440240654">The Order of Odd-Fish</a> and it was written by a friend of hers, James Kennedy. I don't think I've met him, though, so no bias here. Moving on...<br /><br />Jo Larouche, age 13, was found as a baby with this note: <span style="font-style:italic;">This is Jo. Please take care of her. But beware. This is a dangerous baby.</span> Despite the warning, Jo leads as normal a life as possible with her eccentric Aunt Lily- until she's transported to the bizarre world of Eldritch City. There, now installed as a member of the Order of Odd-Fish, Jo learns the truth about who she is and why she has to confront the Belgian Prankster, who is either a villain or the world's scariest comedian.<br /><br />When my sister gave me the book, I didn't know what to think, actually. The cover was cute but strange, the title was definitely offbeat and the first chapters decidedly weird. It was, no doubt, an odd book. But as I kept reading, I found myself pulled in, really wanting to find out who Jo is and how she will handle the truly awful circumstances thrust on her. Despite the bizarre trappings of the story, at the heart there is a sweet girl making difficult decisions in an unfamiliar context. I rather enjoyed it.<br /><br />Buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0440240654/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0440240654">The Order of Odd-Fish</a> on Amazon.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-53530019933462359212011-03-25T06:25:00.000-07:002011-03-25T06:25:00.083-07:00Back!Maternity leave has come to an end and I am back to work (part-time at first), so with it, I've decided to try to blog again. Starting Monday, I plan to post a review or two a week, plus other items of interest. I have no plans to post pictures of the baby here, however, so if you'd like to see more of her, please find me on Facebook instead. Or drop me an email and I'll be happy to go on (and on!) about how adorable and perfect she is.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-73971258275407000472010-12-10T10:25:00.000-08:002010-12-10T10:31:39.515-08:00Announcing...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgwy-OTeZvM91jf9r5zc_Zrc1FXNbTwfq1OQjhIBGdhmAzni2pjSHFJ2N1aEO1eXEzt9ok7abf1N1jhGdrVWvM58zYswmZ783D5M2JUMPjbAVO19e6BWlrun4ccaggjbKrlQjnBHi95u1e/s1600/photo.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgwy-OTeZvM91jf9r5zc_Zrc1FXNbTwfq1OQjhIBGdhmAzni2pjSHFJ2N1aEO1eXEzt9ok7abf1N1jhGdrVWvM58zYswmZ783D5M2JUMPjbAVO19e6BWlrun4ccaggjbKrlQjnBHi95u1e/s200/photo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549122976893834386" /></a>We are happy to announce that our daughter, Baby M, was born at 9:21 AM on November 29th! M weighed 9 lbs. 1 oz. and was 20 inches long. We are all healthy and happy, and enjoying getting to know each other.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-82193381622623543302010-12-06T06:37:00.000-08:002010-12-06T06:37:00.333-08:00Review: RampantI loved unicorns when I was a little girl. I was convinced - 100% convinced - that somewhere out there, unicorns were real. I remember going to see the circus one year when they were showing a unicorn. Despite the skepticism around me (from my older, wiser sister), I was sure that this was proof that unicorns were real. I don't know when I finally grew out of this belief, but I was probably much older than I should have been.*<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT33gpiChaXkkzKiepk3HLv75Q3cMkUuOGzGpe_5fASS8FG86BsrDDHxscdRt8GbMpn50kl9Tw7jou1-YOH4DNSfP_Q2-NK4WJUC4_RApV1yNieiyRga3tJzkiVOs13PxIjp8LKfypFLEj/s1600/rampant.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 138px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT33gpiChaXkkzKiepk3HLv75Q3cMkUuOGzGpe_5fASS8FG86BsrDDHxscdRt8GbMpn50kl9Tw7jou1-YOH4DNSfP_Q2-NK4WJUC4_RApV1yNieiyRga3tJzkiVOs13PxIjp8LKfypFLEj/s200/rampant.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544375414722396738" /></a><br />Given this, it's actually surprising to me that it took me this long to get around to reading <i>Rampant</i> by Diana Peterfreund.<br /><blockquote>Astrid Llewelyn has always scoffed at her eccentric mother's stories about killer unicorns. But when one attacks her boyfriend — ruining any chance of him taking her to prom — Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient Cloisters the hunters have used for centuries. However, all is not what it seems at the Cloisters. Outside, unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from bone-covered walls that vibrate with terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to her growing attraction to a handsome art student ... an attraction that could jeopardize everything.</blockquote>Did I like it? Absolutely! The book was much darker than I expected - the unicorns were really bloodthirsty, the battles with the girls were high-stakes, and the threats from outside were disturbing. But Astrid and the other girls were take-no-prisoner heroines and I loved reading their story. I can't wait for the sequel.<br /><br />Buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061490040?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0061490040">Rampant</a> by Diana Peterfreund on Amazon.<br /><br />* So, obviously, Team Unicorn, people. Team Unicorn all the way. And in case you have no idea what I'm talking about: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416989536?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1416989536">Zombies vs. Unicorns</a>.<br /><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-31869496480528852010-12-01T06:35:00.000-08:002010-12-25T22:58:43.253-08:00Review: Life from Scratch<i>Life From Scratch</i> by Melissa Ford is about a woman starting life over. Rachel Goldman feels helpless - she's divorced, on leave from her unsatisfying job, and lonely in her little NYC apartment. She doesn't even know how to make an egg! So she starts at the beginning: she will learn how to cook and venture out on a few dates. To her surprise, the blog she writes to track her progress is a hit. But life is complicated and Rachel can't make herself forget her ex as easily as she can teach herself to make dinner.<br /><br />This was a really charming, sweet read. Rachel is a likable heroine and the author has done an good job of making her and the other characters - even the Latin love interest (I pictured <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000849/">Javier Bardem</a>!) - fully fleshed out, while keeping the tone very light. I also liked the structure of the book, with snippets from Rachel's blog at the beginning of each chapter (though I was surprised that the author didn't incorporate recipes into the book as well - maybe that would have been overkill, but it would have fit).<br /><br />While <i>Life From Scratch</i> isn't a heavy book, it is an endearing story that I think many readers will enjoy. I look forward to the promised sequel when it comes out.<br /><br />Buy <a href="http://www.bellbridgebooks.com/books/LifeFromScratch.asp">Life from Scratch</a> by Melissa Ford from the publisher, at <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Life-From-Scratch/Melissa-Ford/e/9781935661986/?itm=1">B&N.com</a> or on <a href=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1935661981?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1935661981>Amazon</a>.<br /><br /><object height="205" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/V5eCiemI1L8&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/V5eCiemI1L8&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="205" width="320"></embed></object><br /><div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-668084742433693593.post-74542784110821605212010-11-29T06:39:00.000-08:002010-11-29T06:39:00.617-08:00Review: The Magicians<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqzHyFcb1bKpSBxBVnaK39ervj0fWYQoJxaZj8cBrUU8VL6KgBogeVUsXayN56AgGKAG7ICgY3g1pN16ryWEbkK9qBMurKdz9QJKZwzLR5cslE_aqLLzQ_Euui17g9FbLk1sgVHVtzqMHV/s1600/magicians-grossman.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 131px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqzHyFcb1bKpSBxBVnaK39ervj0fWYQoJxaZj8cBrUU8VL6KgBogeVUsXayN56AgGKAG7ICgY3g1pN16ryWEbkK9qBMurKdz9QJKZwzLR5cslE_aqLLzQ_Euui17g9FbLk1sgVHVtzqMHV/s200/magicians-grossman.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544282922076025730" border="0" /></a>Right off the bat, I'll say that I really liked <i>The Magicians</i>. Yes, it feels a little like the author, Lev Grossman, took a dozen popular books and mashed them together. But, at least for me, I thought it came out delicious and not derivative.<br /><br /><i>The Magicians</i> is the story of an ordinary high school student, Quentin, who finds out he has magical abilities and goes to a school for magic (see: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/059035342X?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=059035342X">Harry Potter</a>, et al). Once there, Quentin meets up with a group of like-minded students, all equally interested in magic and fun. They learn that there are other worlds (hints of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006447268X?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=006447268X">The Chronicles of Chrestomanci</a> by Diana Wynne Jones, perhaps?) and, after some aimless young adult wandering, decide to find out if the magic land of their favorite childhood books (clearly <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0066238501?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0066238501">The Chronicles of Narnia</a>) is real.<br /><br />Unlike these books, however, <i>The Magicians</i> is decidedly written for an adult audience. For one thing, the group of friends reminded me more of the murderous Bacchanalians in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400031702?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1400031702">The Secret History</a> by Donna Tartt than Harry and his buddies. For another, there is a distinct pathos about all of them. What's the point in trying when everything can be gotten by lifting a finger?<br /><br />I think that anyone who read the Narnia books as voraciously as I (and Quentin, under another name) did will really enjoy this book. Or you might find it to be derivative garbage and hate it. But it's worth the read to find out.<br /><br />Buy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452296293?ie=UTF8&tag=archthinking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0452296293">The Magicians: A Novel</a> by Lev Grossman on Amazon.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><div>~~</div><div><i>This post was written by Lorin for <a href=http://www.archthinking.blogspot.com/>arch thinking</a> and may not appear elsewhere without express written permission.</i></div></div>Lorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03931566230820899463noreply@blogger.com0