Cranky Monday/Stuff I Like

Maybe it is because I have been hit with a new wave of homesickness after my weekend trip to Seattle, maybe it is because that trip meant I had to spend three hours sitting in the Chicago airport yesterday, and more hours crammed into flying tin cans, or maybe it is just because it is Monday, whatever it is, I am feeling cranky today. So instead of telling you about my trip (which went really well, apart from crankiness) because I would probably just rant about fellow travelers etc, I will tell you about a few things I really like right now.

• Kickstarter:  "A new way to fund creative projects," Kickstarter is a website that allows people with creative ideas to find funding to help them realize their projects. You can find all sorts of things on there, from movies to music to public art and a calendar made entirely from keyboard keys (I am thinking about pledging for that one). If the project doesn't get at least 100% of its funding pledged, it doesn't happen. You can't lose your money. Everyone who pledges is rewarded in some way - at the lowest levels, that is often just a thank you card, but at higher levels, you often get a copy of the completed project, signed items, etc. I have pledged for a couple of movies, both documentaries, that I am really excited to see when they are finished. 
• Twitter - OK, not a new thing, and not terribly original, but I have really gotten into it lately. At first, I didn't see the point, but that was because I wasn't following anyone. Now, I use it to find new articles about topics I am interested in, and to interact with some of my favorite authors. I don't really share many of my own thoughts or whatnot on Twitter, the way I do here or (less and less often) on Facebook, but if I find a good link, I will probably throw it up there. It feels less invasive to share on Twitter than it does on Facebook, in part because I don't have to have all my personal info there to share with a wider group. And if I never tweeted myself, I would still be welcome to see what others post. 
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. A really good new fantasy novel. I won a copy in a contest on, where else?, Twitter. A mix of magic, romance, mystery and a circus. Makes me want some cotton candy and cocoa.
• Jonboy Caramels: Found these at the Bellevue Farmer's Market last week, while I was home. I bought a box of the Absinthe with Black Salt. Now I must restrain myself from ordering the minimum 5 boxes...and wipe up the drool.

Judgment Day by Penelope Lively

Judgment Day by Penelope Lively
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love Penelope Lively's books, and I always find it so hard to describe why. They are generally quiet, without the bluster or bombast of so many novels, yet they are not cloying or claustrophobic. They are observational, but not overly full of description. Generally, I have to like a character in a book to like the book, but I don't feel that need with Lively's books. Certainly, there are characters I empathize with, and others that I dislike immensely, but I don't latch on to any one person.

Judgment Day is very much a Lively novel, in all of those senses. Set in a small English village, it is centered around an ancient church and its neighbors, and the events that happen one spring and summer when they plan a church fundraiser. The fundraiser is to be a play based on several violent moments in the history of the village and church. Throughout the story, there is an undercurrent of tension, or possible violence, like a tiger waiting to spring, and you don't know until the end how or if it will strike. Several of the main characters ponder faith and fate and existence, as many people do, and come away changed, and yet the same, as most people do. Lives are changed forever, and not changed, as is so often the case in real life. A picture of a village, and a picture of the wider world.

Note: This was one of my TBR challenge books for this year.

The Terrible Minutiae of Daily Life

I wish I had something amazing to share with you here. I don't, since life is pretty much trundling onwards, with only minor diversions and hiccups. One of the problems of keeping a random-focused blog is that there isn't any one topic to fall back on when nothing is going on. I mean, I played four tennis matches in 2 days this weekend, but since I am really just an amateur and the stakes weren't very high, I doubt that qualifies as an exciting adventure. Now, if I were writing a tennis blog, I could feel justified in regaling you with all the details (as much as I remember of them). Instead, I will just say that I won one of my two singles matches, and lost the second, and Benjamin and I didn't win our mixed doubles matches, but we didn't disgrace ourselves either. We got t-shirts.

Apart from that, I am heading home to Bellevue on Thursday for a few days to visit my parents while my dad continues to recuperate from the open heart surgery he had last week. I think my main job is to keep him occupied and save my mother's sanity - not necessarily easy tasks when done at the same time! Anyway, the upshot of that is that Benjamin and I won't be having any interesting hiking adventures this weekend, and I won't be taking my camera to Bellevue, so you won't even have any pictures of my mother's extremely fat cat (he's 30 pounds, but he has an extended colon and possibly glandular issues...). Then Benjamin is going out of town the next weekend for a conference, and I will be left up to my own devices, which means I will probably watch far too many episodes of Leverage and clean the house. Ooh, I can feel your excitement building from here.

Maybe I will think up something clever to say while sitting on the airplane, and if I do, I will try to write it down so I can share it. Otherwise, you may have only books reviews and observations about how mundane my life is for a little while.