Thursday, April 01, 2010

Books I read in March 2010

Welcome to the Books I read in March. This is a blog format that I basically invented a year ago. I read books and then I list them on my blog. It has really changed the way people blog.

I started a lot of books in March that I did not finish. Here is a list of the books I did finish.

Past Imperfect by Julian Fellowes. This novel is about richies and the people who resent them. If you hate snobs, you'll love this (which is ironic because Fellowes's first book is actually called Snobs. So it could also be said that if you love Snobs you'll love this.) Past Imperfect contains the following: secrets, grudges, estrangement, paternity mysteries, and galas.


Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show by Frank Delaney. I love this book--it's Frank's latest. (I call him Frank now.) I don't know how Frank thinks of this stuff. Well, you all know how I feel about Frank. In this book there is a ventriloquist's dummy named Blarney. He disturbs me.
Keeping House: The Litany of Every Day Life by Margaret Kim Peterson. This book is what so many relief society lessons purport to be but I find it much more interesting and really quite beautiful.
From Publisher's Weekly: In this deeply theological, welcome book, Peterson (Sing Me to Heaven) argues in favor of the idea—no longer fashionable—that Christian service and spiritual growth are inherent in the acts of keeping people fed, clean, housed and comfortable. Housekeeping, she says, is akin to a litany, a long public prayer to announce needs and requests. A litany is repetitive and focused on the basics: food, health, shelter. Similarly, housework is ongoing and incarnational, teaching us about Jesus' earthiness and decision to live among us; it requires perpetual tending, much like God's active sustaining of the world. "All the more is this so when our homes are not all we might wish them to be," Peterson points out. "God's world is not as he wishes it to be, either." Addressing such topics as laundry, cleaning, shopping and cooking, Peterson offers persuasive biblical interpretations and incisive theological and cultural commentary. The two chapters on food and its preparation are especially groundbreaking, with Peterson enumerating helpful criteria for how Christians in a food-obsessed culture might determine whether a particular food is worthy of eating. At times, her domestic opinions have the whiff of superiority, as when she speaks disapprovingly about microwaves and dishwashers, but these moments are far outweighed by the book's well-researched and generous approach to domesticity.

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos. What a great book! And totally readable and juicy. I don't know why, but I kept thinking about Twilight while I was reading this. I guess I was thinking that grown women should like this book better than they like Twilight. Because it's better. But it's still fun--with cattiness and a handsome man. PS It's not about vampires. And now I'm going to read a story to my daughter. The story I will read is A Bargain for Frances, one of my favorites. When I was growing up I think I thought Frances was a Koala bear. Now I'm not so sure. What is Frances? I don't know. But I do know this: Thelma is trouble. So many kids I know are just like Thelma. I hate them.

"Be careful. . . because when you play with Thelma you always get the worst of it."

Plastic tea set better and more valuable than a china tea set? Riiiiiight.

25 comments:

  1. This is my favorite recurring theme you blog on. I'm riveted. Keep em coming!

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  2. Frances is a badger! GEEEEZ, Kacy!

    My first grade teacher gave me a copy of a Frances book and wrote an inscription in it that still gives me warm fuzzies 27 years later.

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  3. I love a Bargain for Frances. And that Keeping House book sounds intriguing.

    I haven't read Twilight and hope not to. Just one bandwagon I don't want to jump on.

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  4. No, she's not a badger. She's like a mole or a nutria or some kind of hedgehog or opossum. Or what was that thing that lived next to X the owl? One of those.

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  5. I actually own the Keeping House book if you want to borrow it, Christina.

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  6. Bread and Jam for Frances.


    (The badger.)

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  7. Oh man. I can't even READ Bread and Jam for Frances without my mouth watering over that other kid's lunch with the hard boiled eggs and little salt and pepper shakers. That's living.

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  8. She is a badger. Reals.

    Being careful isn't nice, being friends is better.

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  9. Henrietta Pussycat lived next door to X the Owl. I don't think Frances is a cat, although Henrietta didn't look much like a cat, either.

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  10. I'm a new follower. Found your blog through MMB. I think I'll really enjoy it!

    Just wondering if I can duplicate your idea on my own blog - about listing all the books you've read during the month. I read. A. LOT. I'd love to list the books I've read. Hope that's ok. Thanks for the idea.

    Kara
    www.mystorymoments.blogspot.com
    (and other blogs) ;-)

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  11. Because I know you will appreciate this, I am re-reading the Eric Clapton Autobiography right now. Why I started this, I don't know. BUT, Pattie is still just as annoying the second time around. Just thought I'd let you know. Seriously, why was she such a hot ticket? George Harrison, Eric Clapton!?!?

    I also read "An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir" by Elizabeth McCracken. I recommend it.

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  12. Keeping House reminds me of the book Simple Abundance which I've read over and over because it has good stuff about honoring the mundane tasks as divine which changed the way I looked at emptying the dishwasher. I'll have to read KH. Maybe it will validate my slightly obsessive compulsions!

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  13. Belong to me is a good book. You should read Love Walked In, which has the same characters. I enjoyed both books.

    Love Frances, she's great.

    I plan on requesting a couple of your books at my library. Thanks.

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  14. This was my month for not finishing books. (I think that blogging and writing/submitting poetry is getting in the way of reading -- it's like I can only do one or the other).
    I may have to let it go and move on to new books... the review of Keeping House (i haven't read it) made me think of a story of a monastery where the monks talked about God being everywhere. Even peeling a potato can be a spiritual experience if you are present for it.

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  15. A Bargain for Frances is a genuinely suspenseful book.

    Frances is a badger. Oh yes she is.

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  16. Bread and Jam for Frances has been our nightly staple this week since we got it from the library. I say, "Norah, aren't you afraid that if we read the same book every night, I will get sick (of it) and my teeth will fall out?" She says, "Oh, that wouldn't happen for a long time." Then I cry and ask for spaghetti and meatballs.

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  17. That Thelma is ruining it for the rest of us.

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  18. Kacy, if you can find it, you MUST MUST MUST read "The Sorely Trying Day" by the Hobans--the couple who wrote the Frances stories. MUST.

    I would lend you my copy, but the scriptures say not to borrow or lend, so . . .

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  19. Frances is a badger - it's come from the mouth of 3 or 4 witnesses - besides, she is a badger - and maybe you have a hard time with that idea because badgers are somewhat loathsome in real life!! (And I love ALL the Frances books!)

    The books look intriguing - did I spell that right? (That's a rhetorical question, btw.)

    I've read a number of books over the years celebrating the true nature of housekeeping. Isn't it odd that we have to have someone tell us that? Shouldn't we just know that?

    I know that now - it's taken a lot of years to get to the point though - so maybe that is the point.

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  20. Frances books are my absolute favorite kid's books (she's a badger btw :) ). Thanks for the grown-up recommendations. I'm definitely getting that one with the boots on the cover (too lazy to go look at the title again :) ). I live in Bangkok so by the time it hits my English library it will be a year or two from now- but I'll look for it!

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  21. I love the comments after your blog so much.

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  22. I think Frances is a really small tiger.

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  23. My mom gave me all the Frances books when I had my first daughter. We love them. I grew up with my mom making up the tunes to all of Frances' songs. Do you do that too?

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  24. I read the Frances books. I also thought badger/large rodent???

    I read Belong to Me and Love Walked In. Want to know another reason they are good? The author is also a poet, you know, like Billy Collins.

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  25. I just finished "Belong to Me", and loved it. Thanks for the suggestion.

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