Review: Summer Half by Angela Thirkell

I do so love the wonderful set of books comprising the Barsetshire chronicles by Angela Thirkell. Summer Half is not too far into the series but as all her books, may be read out of order (unless you are seriously quirky like me and must read in order). This particular book focuses on Colin Keith, Tony Morland, Rose Birkett and several others. Colin, not wanting to be a further financial burden on his father, decides to apply for a job in a boy's public school during the short summer term. here he comes in contact with Tony Morland, who is quite the young man now and with the self-centered and rather unconsciously entertaining Rose Birkett, who is leading her wildly jealous fiance a merry chase. Half of the story takes place at the school, where Rose is intrigued by Colin, who is entirely unimpressed by her but must try and diplomatically convince Winter, a fellow master and Rose's unhappy fiance, that he wouldn't touch her with a ten foot pole. Thirkell's great strength in these well wrought and thoroughly entertaining books is to capture the minutia of the everday absurd so beautifully and believably. The other half of the book returns the reader to the Keith house and local area and allows the school relationships to be seen outside the distortingly small arena of a boarding school. As are all of Thirkell's books, this made me chuckle, grin, and just warmly enjoy the reading experience. And really, there's little higher praise than that.

Behind: A Perpetual State of Being

Don't you wonder about those people who always seem on top of everything? I sure do. And I'm clearly not one of them. I started this blog to help keep myself on top of my book reviews, keep me chatting about my running (which assumes I actually get off my rear and run), and just generally keep an ongoing glimpse into my life for anyone interested (or just plain bored). Somehow I've managed to fall behind on all three of those goals and I just started this thing in November! I swear I did learn that keeping on top of life was the best possible plan but I just seem congenitally unable to manage it. Shoot, I haven't even pulled off a birthday party for my daughter (her birthday's in September). Actually, I haven't even called to reserve the place yet. How appalling is that? And because I am nothing if not equal opportunity about neglecting things for all of my children, I have never made the playdate my oldest has been asking about since the beginning of the school year. I only signed my youngest up for tennis lessons today because he is home half days to nag me (and he missed the first session anyway so don't think I was on top of that either). Maybe one of those days I will morph into an on the ball sort of person. In the meantime, at least I'm fairly laid back about being a day late and a dollar short. (We'll get the house on the market sometime before the spring, I promise--or maybe sometime after the spring if we're working on "Kristen time.")

2008 TBR Challenge

Well, another challenge I've discovered that I'm going to play along with is the 2008 TBR Challenge. I generally do read from my own collection but I'm going to try and choose books for this one that I've passed over many a time so that I actually get them read. So here's the list and the 12 alternates.

1. So Big by Edna Ferber
2. Toehold by Stephen Foreman
3. The Grand Tour by Tim Moore
4. The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
5. Blind Submission by Debra Ginsberg
6. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
7. The Effect of Living Backwards by Heidi Julavits
8. Rex and the City by Lee Harrington
9. The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
10. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
11. There's a Slight Chance I Might Be Going to Hell by Laurie Notaro
12. Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
alternates
13. Before you Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian
14. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
15. The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizake
16. Made in Detroit by Paul Clemens
17. Still Life With Chickens by Catherine Goldhammer
18. Pure Dead Batty by Debi Gliori
19. Pomfret Towers by Angela Thirkell
20. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
21. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
22. Chasing Shakespeares by Sarah Smith
23. Dog Is My Co-Pilot by the editors of Bark
24. Blue Valentine by Alison Tyler

Because I am having fun joining challenges and I definitely have the books to complete this one in my stash, I'm joining the Jewish Literature challenge too. It can be found here: http://jewishliteraturechallenge.blogspot.com/. My potential list for this one (plus an extra) is:

1. My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
2. Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
3. A Wall of Light by Edeet Ravel
4. The Nazi Officer’s Wife by Edith Hahn Beer
5. Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky
6. Early Bird by Rodney Rothman

Should be an interesting mix of reading!

Decades 2008

I participated (rather unofficially) in the By the Decades reading challenge for 2007 so I thought I'd sign myself up for it again (albeit officially) for 2008 . I found a gem or two that I didn't expect over this past year and want the impetus to look closely at some older books that didn't find their way onto the new releases table at Barnes and Noble. So here's the potentials list, although as I understand the challenge, I can swap out titles at any moment. Good thing for this mood reader! And by all means, feel free to suggest your favorites to me although I've tried to choose books that I'm reading for other challenges already so I don't completely overbook myself (like usual).

1990's Skating to Antarctica by Jenny Diski or The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce or Medieval in LA by Jim Paul or The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn
1980's Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon or A Not Entirely Benign Procedure by Perri Klass
1970's The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner
1960's The Golden Spur by Dawn Powell or Mr. Bridge by Evan Connell
1950's A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell or Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer or Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
1940's The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham or The Locust’s Have No King by Dawn Powell or The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner
1930's Pomfret Towers by Angela Thirkell or Remembering Laughter by Wallace Stegner
1920's The Bride’s House by Dawn Powell or So Big by Edna Ferber or Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
1910's The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley or Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
1900’s The Man of Property (Forsyte Saga) by John Galsworthy or The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy or Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton or The Wings of the Dove by Henry James

They hate me

So all three of my children have been banished to their rooms. One of them is sobbing quite heartily and repeating "I hate my mom" almost like a mantra. I have my suspicions which one it is. So, should I go up and check? I really don't care (nor do I believe it for an instant). Or simply let the child wind down and hopefully drift off to sleep? Actually, I wonder if I can just hand in my parenting resignation right now. No one seems to be available to take my notice though.

Duh!

Life is still not any better for me. After spending all day on a problem that was completely computer generated (not user, no way, no how!) for the volunteer position I was sucked into for the kids' school, I decided to check my e-mail. How pitifully exciting it was to see an offer from Snapfish in there that would make the Christmas calendars I make for my whole family significantly cheaper than I've ever gotten them before. I diligently chose the pictures, fought with stupid Windows Vista to get them uploaded, created the calendar and then could not get the dumb site to recognize my gift card numbers. I was beside myself. I emailed support and eventually found a phone number to call. So I wait on hold for 25 minutes (no joke--good thing I had e-mail to read while I was waiting) only to realize once the customer support person comes on that my gift cards aren't for Snapfish. They are for Shutterfly. ARGH!!!! Good thing you can't blush over the phone.