I have a confession to make. I love The Witches of Eastwick. The movie is a total guilty pleasure, and I’m not usually guilt-induced by my movie preferences- if I like it, that’s good enough for me- but this one’s so over the top I can’t help but feeling a little embarrassed to admit how many times I’ve watched it. The book, however, is no guilty pleasure. It varies greatly from the movie, and is a great read while also being an interesting examination of women’s power, including how they use that power against each other and allow men to subvert that power. It’s really well written, and I’ve read it a number of times- it’s one of my go to books when I want a comfort read. I wrote more about it here, if you’re interested.

So imagine my excitement yesterday when, at the bookstore with the girls, I found Widows of Eastwick on the new fiction shelf. John Updike wrote a sequel! I seriously can’t contain myself, and am trying to figure out how to have time to sequester myself somewhere to read for hours. That won’t happen, but I still can’t wait to get reading.

One of the goals on my uberlist for the year (my list of 108 things to do this year- I’ve done 47) is to give a book I hated the first time around another try. I’m not really coming up with anything, at least not anything I want to try again. Last year’s book for this same goal was Jane Eyre, and I didn’t make it through it- not that I hated it again, I just got distracted. If I don’t come up with a different option this year, I’ll be forced to resort to Great Expectations, and I REALLY don’t want to have to do that.

So, does anyone have any ideas of a book that I might have read and hated? Or started and not finished? Potentially something I would have been made to read in high school or college? Help me out here, don’t make me have to read stupid Great Expectations, please!

Things that are making me happy today:
Even though Zoe is boycotting her nap, she is hanging out in her crib somewhat quietly and not screaming to be set free upon an unsuspecting world.

If you ask Zoe what her “2nd name” is (her term for middle name) she will yell, “CALAMITY SNELL!”. (Well, more like, “Ca-ameee Snell”, but you get the picture.) Highly amusing.

Peanut butter fudge

We’re getting a new vacuum cleaner!

Finding old friends on Facebook

One of my good, good friends is moving into a house with a yard, so we can go over and let Zoe and Ben run free in an enclosed space while we talk! Hooray!

I get to see Hilary next week!

That I can only come up with a couple things for my Christmas wish list. That must mean I have most of the things I want, right?

My wonderful life, husband, and kids. I recently had a glimpse into what my life could have been if I had made some different choices, and man, did I dodge a couple of bullets.

The song Fast Monkey by Stevesongs. It’s a kid’s song, and it cracks me up. All I know is that I am, in fact, faster than a fast monkey.

The new Christmas album by Kristen Chenoweth. She’s so tiny and her voice is so big, you just have to love it.

That is all for now. At least all that I’m typing at the moment. What’s making you happy? Is there something making you happy that should be making me happy too, that you think I don’t know about? Tell me! I’d do the same for you!

And anyone else who might care- I’ve updated my Blogs I read list, and added links to Zoe and Audrey’s blogs. That way you can witness their stunning cuteness at any time!

It’s been years, it seems, since I wrote about what I was reading. (Well, it’s been since August.) This happens because I read something amazing, and want to write a big, long, Lit class worthy post about it, and then I never get around to it and read other stuff and just get behind. So, to catch up:

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh: You know when you’re reading a book that just perfectly fits you and your mood and it’s bliss? That’s this book for me. Truly, one of the best books I’ve ever read. I was fully entranced with the life Evelyn created (we’re on a first name basis, it’s ok) and didn’t want it to end. It’s all about love, decadence, religion, struggles; simply brilliant. Brandy, if you’re reading this- you would love this book.

Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamont: This was good, not as fantastic as I wanted it to be. It’s a series of essays about all sorts of things.

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh: I need to splurge and just get all of Evelyn’s books, they’re all so lovely. This one is about a man whose wife is having an affair, it’s brutal and funny and marvelous.

Unicorns, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois: Ok, an explanation. I got this book of short stories out of my school library when I was in 4th grade and loved it. Years later, I thought back on the book, and thought, you know, I seem to remember there being things in that book that seem wildly inappropriate for a book in an elementary school library. So I searched and tracked down a copy, and wow. Short stories on unicorns by Theodore Sturgeon and a bunch of other big, adult names that I can’t remember at the moment and am too lazy to go find. Suffice it to say, I don’t know how much of the adult content I understood when I was 8, but there was quite a bit in there.

Time out for Parents by Cheri Huber: Cheri Huber is a teacher of Zen, and I adore her books. This one is (surprise!) about being present as a parent, and how to step back and not lose it.

Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi: FANTASTIC. I love these books. B wanted me to read them so I could read the last book in the series and meet a character he says I will love, and I’m looking forward to it. These are great science fiction, with wonderful characters and a really compelling world and premise.

Making a Change for Good by Cheri Huber: Another Zen book, also very good.

the mother in me, edited by Kathryn Lynard Soper: Oh my goodness, this book is wonderful. I seriously want to buy it for every woman I know for Christmas. It’s full of gorgeous, honest, raw essays and poetry about motherhood, divine nature, life, struggles- it’s beautiful.

Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price- This marked the end of my read through of all the LDS standard works. It’s the first time I’d actually read all of the D&C, and the first time I’d read the complete Pearl of Great Price. There’s tons of great doctrine in there, and great examples of hope and faith amidst huge adversity.

A Question of Death by Kerry Greenwood: This is a collection of short stories set in the world of Phryne Fisher, private detective of 1920’s Australia. Very enjoyable.

The Toddler Busy Book by Trish Kuffner: This book has 365 ideas of fun things to do with toddlers, and yes, I read them all.

Token by Alisa Kwitney and Joelle Jones: I’ve been waiting anxiously for this graphic novel to come out, mainly because I adore Joelle’s art. (And yes, we actually ARE on a first name basis. ) Jamie has been singing its praises for months and months, and it lives up to every note of that praise song. (That sentence went wrong somewhere along the way, didn’t it?) It’s the story of a young woman living in Florida in the 1980s, who loves old movies and whose best friends are her grandmother and her older neighbor. All she wants is a great romance, and she stumbles into one just as she turns 16. It’s a lovely story, reminiscent of the films Shira loves, and Joelle’s art is so vivid and so alive that when I think back on the story I remember it as though I watched a movie.

Ok, that’s it! I’ve surpassed my goal of reading 50 books this year, which is exciting. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up now. My next read is The Lost Colony by John Scalzi.

What are you reading?

It’s 7:39 in the morning, and everyone else in my house is asleep. Why am I awake?

(The non-rhetorical answer is that Audrey woke up just before 7 and I got her to go back to sleep in her swing but figured Zoe would be up any minute so didn’t go back to sleep, and now I’m in that slightly irrational mode of wondering if Zoe might actually be dead because she never sleeps this long-but I just checked and she’s not, so don’t worry- but that whole answer is just long and wordy.)

It’s quiet in my house.

I think I meant to post this over on Z’s site, but this is where I logged in, so here it stays.

Today at dinner, B was goofing around with Z, and getting some pretty funny reactions, when all of the sudden she says to him, in all seriousness and somewhat exasperated, “Goodness, child!”.

Ahem.

I’ll leave you to guess where she picked that up while I go… look at something over here.

An incomplete list of things that are making me quite happy recently:

The song Like A Friend by Pulp
The soundtrack to Tick Tick…..Boom. Utterly brilliant. I’d forgotten.
The end of the Office this last week. (Well, week before last. The one with the hugging.) Perfection.
Zoe singing Zippidee Doo Da and You are my Sunshine.
Zoe’s new found love of all things Halloween (with the exception of her pirate costume, but we won’t go into that here.)
Ana and Jack being in town.
Frozen grapes.
Audrey laughing.
That this season of Dancing with the Stars is quickly earning the name Dancing with Disaster. (Ok, so the massive number of injuries don’t make me happy, but the whole cumulative effect is rather funny. Although if Cloris Leachman dies or is seriously injured the funniness will be at an end and they should just give up the show for the season because apparently they’re cursed.)
Britney’s new single. Even though it smacks of the same crappy school of repetitive songwriting that Beyonce graduated from (honestly, it’s like they gave up part way through writing the chorus), it’s catchy, Brit sounds good, and I like it. Don’t love it, but like it, which is more than I can say for her last album.
Neil Patrick Harris. Because he should be on any list of things that bring joy.
The fact that Little Big Planet is actually out, and that B went and got it today. HOORAY!

A much longer post is on its way soon that will, in part, contain the dramatic details of Zoe’s costume craziness, but for now, this is incredibly awesome. Go, rich old camping man.

Please take a minute today to pray for this little girl. I don’t know her or her family other than through her mom’s blog- and honestly I don’t remember how I even came across it about a year or so ago. But I can honestly say that my heart has hurt for her as she’s gone through a great number of struggles, and that I’ve prayed more fervently in the last week or so that she be healthy and safe and that her little sister not lose her than I’ve prayed for anything in a long while. She’s getting a much needed liver transplant today (her 3rd so far in her short little life) on her mom’s birthday, so please join me in praying that everything goes incredibly well and her mom gets an incredible gift of many many more wonderful years with this precious, hilarious little girl.