Friday Reading List
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I absolutely love that I can go into my local little library and take this this book home for two weeks. I won’t say much to ruin the suspense, but it makes those “i never thought it would happen to me” letters to Penthouse look like Saturday morning cartoons. I find myself blushing, alone, in my own room.
Another book I took out of the library last week was The Secret History of The Pink Carnation. I picked it up because the author was going to be doing a reading there and it looked interesting, even though I’ve never been a huge devotee of either romance novels or historical fiction. But I was pleasantly surprised. This was a page turner, the love scenes were quite well done and I put down the book wanting to know more about Napolionic France and their relations with England. The author’s biography is a bit of a hoot - she went to Harvard University for a Ph.D. in History to write historically accurate romance novels - I don’t know if she defended or not, but I can’t imagine any dissertation getting the kind of wide spread distribution this one is getting. Good for her.
Next up on my shelf is a book that has come up in my bookclub quite frequently, but is never chosen. The Crimson Petal and The White, by Michael Faber. The hard cover version was in a remainders pile for $3.50 at The Harvard Book Store in Cambridge. Couldn’t pass that bargin up. I opened up to page 1 last night and then we lost our power. So I will be going back to it this afternoon.
My women’s studies list is coming along nicely. I’ve found a few other fantastic resources, and will be working to make a women’s studies wiki for my final project. Do you Wiki? (www.wikipedia.com). I’m finding that I lose all sense of time when I get in there and start digging.
And finally, I’m closing in on the 50# mark - not goal mind you, but well on my way. The problem is that my weight loss has stalled. I need to jumpstart my system and work on getting motivated to do my weight training. I’m still exercising 5 times a week, mostly yoga and walking (a 4 mile loop). Intellectually I know that weight training will speed up my metabolism, doing weights actually takes less time than my other exercise, but I can’t seem to motivate myself to do it. I think I need a reward system, because that worked so well when I was just getting into the exercise habit, but I haven’t come up with a good, non food based reward yet. Any ideas?
Welcome to Movable Type 3.2
12 hours to upgrade? Not quite as easy as Movable Type promised. The problem wasn’t with the installation instructions, it was with permissions for my webserver’s folder. Oh, and I had an extra “d” tucked into a word.
Who else is making Annie Modsett’s Corset? What yarns did you use? Although I swatched with Artfiber’s Kyoto (thank you whomever put those samples in the GSRP box - I love this yarn), finances dictate that I not spend $150 on a corset right now. So, I’m thinking about Knitpick’s Andean Silk. Have you used it? While I’m there, what other yarn would you tell me to thrown in my shopping cart?
For Sandy
mommychic & women’s studies
It is almost time! Elizabeth over at CurlyPurls will be hosting a MommyChic along, watch this space for details.
bitchin’ house
When I was in college, my womenfriends and I were completely overtaken with women’s studies and gender theory. We founded The Women’s Issues Theme House, we sponsered speakers and designed our senior thesis around gender issues - we liked to think we gave feminism a good name. In grad school I tried to keep up, but ended up getting seduced by a dead gay man . Eight years in the heavily male dominated financial services industry put the final nail in my women’s studies consciousness.
I want to fall in love again, and I’m thinking of designing a 21st century women’s studies class as a project for one of my classes. But where to start? How about with my wise and brilliant readers?
If you could assign one book to college age women for an intro class, what would it be? What was your favorite book? What would you avoid?
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The results so far:
A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Possession by A.S. Byatt
In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan
Personal Politics by Sara Evans
What do you think?
A little Grad School Trick
When I was in graduate school the first time, a good friend let me in on a little secret - always keep a pleasure book going, allow yourself a chapter or two in between other, assigned reading and research - otherwise you’ll forget you actually like reading for enjoyment and relaxation and it helps break up your tasks. When I was preparing for my oral exams, and had a year to read about 300 books, this advice was my lifeline.
Now that I’m back in school and can read most of my assignments online, (while knitting, thank the goddess!) I need to keep a “real” book by my side, both to give my eyes a bit of a break and as a little sugar to help the medicine go down.
I had to put Kingston by Starlight down because it was a one week read from the library and my one week was up before the heroine made it to Kingston. Set in the Caribbean, the heroine boards a pirate ship (in drag, of course) because being a pirate seemed far more interesting than being a common whore (I have to agree with her there…) I can’t tell you more, but I can tell you that as I’ve been driving my kids around I’ve been listening to Dan Zane’s Sea Music - an amazing collection of songs that may have been sung on pirate ships. I think my favorite right now is all for me grog sung primarily by an 11 year old boy.
Chorus:
Well it’s all for me grog, me noggin’ noggin’ grog,
all for me beer and tobacco.
For I spent all me tin with the ladies drinking gin,
Far across the western ocean I must wander.
I’m sick in the head and I haven’t been to bed,
Since first I came ashore with me plunder,
I’ve seen centipedes and snakes and me head is full of aches
And I think I’ll take a bath for way up yonder
Where are me boots, me noggin’, noggin’ boots,
They’re all gone for beer and tobacco.
For the soles they were thin and the uppers letting in
And the heels were looking out for better weather.
Well, Where is me shirt, me noggin’, noggin’ shirt,
It’s all gone for beer and tobacco,
For the sleeves have got worn out and the collar turned
about
And the arse was looking out for better weather.
Haven’t we all had days like that?
Knowing I only had a week for Kingston by Starlight, I also checked out a book that has been on my amazon wish list for ages, The Shopenhauer Cure by Irving Yalom. Yalom is a prominent San Fransisco area psychiatrist and has written what sound like the leading text books in the field. However, he also happens to be an excellent novelist and I’ve really enjoyed his previous books (Lying on the Couch & When Nietzsche Wept : A Novel of Obsession). I’ve only just started reading, but can tell I’m going to enjoy this one as much, if not more than the others.
Back to school
Last week, I pulled out my finishing basket and got to work catching up on some seams. First up, my Blue Jazz shirt. The greatly modified pattern is from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac.. What modifications? Well a couple. I used an I-Cord border for the bottom of the sweater, in addition to the bottom of the sleeves. I like the way this lays flat, and by using two strip of border and picking up around them without seaming together, the inverted v of space I get gives the bottom of the shirt some flow, so it doesn’t pull across my belly so much. Also, this is my first time switching needle sizes about half way up, to result, just enough ease around my hips/belly, but pulled in nice and snug around my chest. I think it makes the sweater look more like a shapely t- hybred.
I wore this to my first weekend of classes on Saturday and felt fantastic. I have two more sweaters to show off in the next few days. I just need to seem up one more sleeve and I’m ready for winter!