Marion's Blog

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Over the weekend I finished reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman on my Kindle. It is my 12th book this year. The list of books read this year is here.

This is the first Gaiman book I have read but it won't be the last. The Graveyard Book won the Newbury award this year. To quote form the American Library Association web site "The Newbery Medal honors the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children."  If you want to smile you should read Gaiman's blog about the phone call he got saying he had won the award.  In fact I would recommend reading Gaiman's blog regularly it is very entertaining.

The Graveyard Book is a children's book in the same way that the Harry Potter books are children's books. In fact Harry Potter is the closest thing I can compare The Graveyard Book to. But The Graveyard Book is also different. For one thing Bod is the only child living in the graveyard.

This is a book that you want to read. It is intriguing, entertaining. As I was reading it I kept thinking of people who I knew would enjoy it. I will be very interested to hear Allie's opinion of the book, and Shan's opinion, and Linda's opinion and the list goes on.

I usually would not enjoy a book that starts with a toddlers parents and sister being killed. In the graveyard Mr and Mrs Owens eventually adopt the baby. When I read the following my heart was warmed and I was hooked

"Mrs. Owens bent down to the baby and extended her arms. “Come now,” she said, warmly. “Come to Mama.”

Because it made me laugh one of my favorite quotes from the book is the following:

"It is going to take more than just a couple of good-hearted souls to raise this child. It will,” said Silas, “take a graveyard.”

Neil Gaiman was interviewed on The Colbert Report . He said that the moral of The Graveyard Report is "Life has meaning". I like this quote from the book about potential.

"You’re alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you’re dead, it’s gone. Over. You’ve made what you’ve made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished.”

I think this is the crux of why The Graveyard Book is so wonderful and why I might just read it again soon.

If you've read other Gaiman books which one should I read next? Maybe one of his adult science fiction books?

Angels Fall by Nora Roberts

Last night I stayed up late reading to finish Nora Robert's book Angels Fall. I don't read romance novels very often but when I do Nora Roberts is my favorite author. Angels fall is a Murder Mystery too. I used to read a lot of murder mysteries. I've read everything that Agatha Christie wrote. I have never read a Nora Roberts mystery before It turns out that this was the best murder mystery I have read in years. Maybe I'm rusty but I didn't figure out what was going on until Roberts revealed it.

For escapism and entertainment I definitely recommend Angels Fall.

Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher

I just finished reading Barbara Sher's book Refuse to Choose on my Kindle. I have read Barbara Sher's other books like Wishcraft and I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It and really enjoyed them. Refuse to Choose is about people who have multiple interests and could never have just one passion.  That is me. Which is why I call myself a renaissance woman. I don't really like that label and I like the label Sher uses "scanner" even less. But I can't come up with a better one.

Sher does have some really good ideas about how to maximize your potential if you are a multi-facetted individual and I found the book very empowering. My only complaint is that she spends a lot of time talking about jobs for scanners and about how you shouldn't feel like a failure because you can't focus on just one thing in life. Neither of these things are issues for me. Like Ben Franklin I am no longer employed and I am exploring my multiple interests and loving it.

The other thing I loved about this book is that Barbara Sher has a very active Twitter community and a good web site. It makes the book all the more interesting.

This is my tenth book this year. Here is my list.

Snowshoeing at Northstar at Tahoe

My nephew and his room mate are staying with us while they ski this week. Up until yesterday they were catching a bus at the Peppermill to take them to the ski resorts. Yesterday I drove them to Northstar at Tahoe and I went snowshoeing while they skied. It was a beautiful warm day and there was still lots of snow. The lady at the snowshoeing and cross country skiing lodge took this picture before I started out.

 

Northstar charges $25 for a snowshoeing day pass. I think that is probably why I saw very few people all day. After all, you can snowshoe free lots of places so why pay.

I made a five mile loop. Many of the trails had no footprints to follow so I was following the little yellow snowshoe markers and the pink flags. There were lots of them so it was easy to find the trail by standing at a marker and looking for the next one.It was fun too.

 

There are two warming huts on the trails. I didn't stop at the caboose hut.

But I did stop for lunch on a bench outside the Swiss Hut with a fantastic view of Truckee meadows. After lunch I read my Kindle for a while with the Sun warming my back. Such decadence!

If you would like to see all of my pictures for yesterday they are on Flickr here.

25 Randon things

I very rarely do the things requested when I get tagged. But for some reason this Facebook meme grabbed my interest. Plus I am reading Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher and one of her exercises is to make a list of the things you have done so here is 25 Randon Things about me. I have also posted this on Facebook.

1. I was a certified scuba diver but haven't dived in 20+ years

2. I had a general class amateur radio license and I know morse code.

3. I have a computer science degree from Iowa State University. I worked in the computer industry for almost 30 years at Boeing, Sperry Univac, Spectra Medical Systems, Digital Research, Ansa Software, Sun Microsystems and Intuit.

4. At Digital Research I managed one of the first software support organizations in the home computer industry. Our product CP/M was the first home computer operating system for micro computers.

5. I had never had a job before I graduated from college and started as a software engineer at Boeing

6. I took all the required classes and passed the CFP (Certified Financial Advisaor) 2 day exam

7. I went to High School in Australia but graduated from High School in London

8. I know how to sail and have basic keel boat certification. I was a sailboat racer in college.

9. I'm into Genealogy

10. I studied French and Latin in School but now I am teaching myself Spanish

11. About a year and a half ago I started taking Yoga classes.

12. I have taken flute and guitar lessons but most recently I took several years of piano lessons

13. I have two wonderful daughters and one very cool grandson who is 2 and a half.

14. I love to read. I just got a Kindle. I have a goal to read a biography of each of our presidents. I'd like to write a biography some day.

15. I've climbed Mount Whitney.

16. I love to hike and snow shoe. I used to cross country ski.

17. I consider myself a renaissance woman because I have so many interests and am always interested in trying and learning about new things. My goal in life is to be interesting.

18. I joined a sorority in college (Delta Zeta)

19. Charlie Rose is my favorite TV show. I would like to start a podcast interviewing interesting people.

20. My guilty pleasure TV is watching Survivor.

21. I have a blog. I started blogging in September 2004. Blogging is something I love to do.

22. I love to travel. My favorite country is England. I have a long list of places I want to visit.

23. My Mom died in July 2007. I miss her. My Dad moved to Reno last year to be near me. I spend about 24 hours a week as his secretary and chauffeur. My parents were always marvelously supportive. They are the reason I am who I am today.

24. I was born in Hibbing Minnesota and spent the first 12 years of my life in Bismarck North Dakota.

25. I met my husband Duke on Match.com We have been married for 5 and a half wonderful years

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

I've had Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster on my bookshelf forever and have been meaning to read it for even longer. It is considered a classic. The 100 books in 2009 book challenge motivated me to finally read it and I finished it a couple of days ago.

Phantom Toolbooth is my 9th book this year. It is aimed at young adult readers. I enjoyed it very much The picture on the cover is Milo meeting the Watchdog. Milo is a young boy who is bored with life. He receives a gift of a toll booth and uses it to go on an adventure to The Kingdom of Wisdom. It is hard to explain the attraction of this book so I'll just include an extract. I love the word play.

Milo is in a land called Ignorance and has just met a bird that looks like a dirty floor mop.

""I don't think you understand," said Milo timidly as the watchdog growled a warning. "We're looking for a place to spend the night."
"It's not yours to spend," the bird shrieked again, and followed it with the same horrible laugh.
"That doesn't make any sense. you see--------------" he started to explain.
"Dollars or cents, it's still not yours to spend." the bird replied haughtily.
"But I didn't mean------------" insisted Milo.
Of course you're mean, interrupted the bird, closing the eye that had been open and opening the one that had been closed. "Anyone who'd spend a night that doesn't belong to him is very mean."
"Well I thought that by-------" he tried again desperately.
"That's a different story," interjected the bird a bit more amiably. "If you want to buy, I'm sure I can arrange to sell, but with what you're doing you'll probably end up in a cell anyway."
"That doesn't seem right," said Milo helplessly, for, with the bird taking everything the wrong way, he hardly knew what he was saying.
"Agreed," said the bird, with a sharp click of his beak, "but neither is it left, although if I were you I would have left a long time ago."
"Let me try once more," Milo said in an effort to explain. "In other words----------"
"You mean you have other words?" cried the bird happily. "Well, by all means, use them. You're certainly not doing very well with the ones you have now."
"Must you always interrupt like that?" said Tock irritably, for even he was becoming impatient.
"Naturally," the bird cackled; "it's my job, I take the words right out of your mouth. Haven't we met before? I'm the Everpresent Wordsnatcher. and I'm sure I know your friend the bug." And then he leaned all the way forward and gave a terrible knowing smile.
The Humbug, who was too big to hide and too frightened to more, denied everything.
"Is everyone in Ignorance like you?" asked MIlo.
"Much worse," he said longingly. "But I don't live here. I'm from a place very far away called Context."
"Don't you think you should be getting back?" suggested the bug, holding one arm up in front of him.
"What a horrible thought." the bird shuddered. "It's such an unpleasant place that I spend almost all my time out of it. Besides, what could be nicer that these grimy mountains?"

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin

My First Kindle Book!

If you follow me on Twitter or read the Twitter updates on the right hand side of this blog you know that I got a Kindle ebook reader for Christmas and it was just delivered. The Kindle allows you to download book samples to help you decide whether to buy a book. As soon as I got my Kindle I downloaded eight books and read the samples.

Steve Martin's new book - Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life - about his stand up comedy career has been on my to-read list for a while so after I read and really enjoyed the sample I bought the Kindle version of the book.

Kindle also allows you to highlight sections of the book just as if you were reading the paper version of the book but the Kindle can be attached to the computer and you can download your highlighted sections

The first sentence in Steve Martin's book is -

"I DID STAND-UP COMEDY for eighteen years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four were spent in wild success."

One of the most impressive things about Martin and his career is how long and how hard he had to work with very little success. He also says -

"I was not naturally talented—I didn’t sing, dance, or act—though working around that minor detail made me inventive."

and

"my growing professionalism, founded on thousands of shows, created a subliminal sense of authority that made the audience feel they weren’t being had."

How many people are willing to work on something for 14 years? I have a new found respect for Martin and what he has achieved. He created a new unique kind of comedy. When he gave up stand-up comedy cold turkey he went on to achieve significant success as an actor, a writer and a musician. He just released a CD of banjo music -The Crow New Songs for the 5-String Banjo which looks very good.

Born Standing Up is an example of what a good writer Martin is. It is entertaining and compelling. I really enjoyed this book. Steve Martin is inspiring!!

And I really enjoyed reading on the Kindle. I LOVE my Kindle!

The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean

The Madonnas of Leningrad is about a woman, Marina,  who survived the German blockade of Leningrad and is now remembering that time as she loses here current memories to Alzheimer's disease. That kind of a description would normally make me avoided reading  a novel because I find books about Alzheimer's too depressing. But this was the March selection for the Reno Newcomers club book club so I got the book from the library.

I am so glad I read it. It is amazingly not depressing but instead is a beautiful uplifting novel. Marina was a tour guide at the Hermitage, Leningrad's immense art museum. During the German bombing and the blockade she and other museum workers lived with their families in the basement of the Hermitage. Her detailed memories of the Hermitage and its art make them come alive. I especially loved the method one of the old Babushkas taught Marina to help her remember the art that had been evacuated from the museum.

"When I was a girl, we made memory palaces to help us memorize for our examinations. You chose an actual place, a palace worked best, but any building with lots of rooms would do, and then you furnished it with whatever you wished to remember."

As the winter and the starvation of that winter progressed Marina built a mind memory palace of the Hermitage and its art.

I missed the book club meeting because my grandson is here visiting but I'm really glad I read Madonnas of Leningrad. Its art, love and poetry  made me feel good.

This is my 7th book this year. My list is here.

Thomas Jefferson's advice on how to be interesting.

One of the podcasts I really enjoy is the Thomas Jefferson Hour with Clay Jenkinson. Jenkinson portrays Thomas Jefferson our third president  and has been doing so for many years. A podcast I just listened to is an audio recording of a iChat video conference he did with a fifth grade class in Naperville , Illinois (episode 757). It is great fun to listen to the questions the fifth graders asked President Jefferson and to listen to his answers. I especially liked his advice to the fifth graders in closing.

1. Read, read read - As a child Jefferson said he read 10 hours a day.
2. Learn languages - at least two. Jefferson knew 8 languages
3. Learn to play a musical instrument - Jefferson played the pianoforte and the violin

Jefferson said that if you do these things you can not help but be an interesting person.

Be interesting is one of my big goals in life and I was pleased to see that I am working on all three of Jefferson's suggestions.

1. I love to read and have been doing a lot of reading lately
2. I have studied French and I am currently studying Spanish
3. I play the piano.