Still alive

[angela_o]

When the school year starts to wind down, time speeds up.  I didn't mean to let weeks go by without posting, but such is life. E and J have both left for their end of year trips.  E is on a 12 day trip through Appalachia with visits to museums, music festivals, and a day of whitewater rafting among other exploits.  J left this morning. Every year the freshman class at her school travels to the Episcopal Farmworker's Ministry in eastern NC and does service and outreach for the migrant worker populations there.  So, I'm down to 2 kids for the next week, which will be just plain strange.

Summer swim league practice started last week. It was a near thing this year.  The severity of the drought in NC made it unclear whether or not outdoor pools would be allowed to be filled.  Fortunately, the spring has been rainy and we got official dispensation to put water in the pool.  All four kids swim and G is one of the coaches which means that swim league will consume my life until the second week of July.  Although this year my in-laws are all coming to see a meet and that translates to more tension than I'd like to deal with.

Let's see, what else have I done in the past few weeks?  I've been quite the movie goer, for me at least.  You know that I loved "Iron Man" from my earlier post.  Well, I loved it enough to see it three times in the theater and it definitely holds up to repeated viewings.  It's the first thing that I've felt remotely fannish about in a long time.  We also took the kids to see "Prince Caspian" on Friday and I enjoyed that more than I thought I would.  The scenery in the movie is often spectacular and the kids have gotten a little better as actors.  Peter Dinklage is one of my favorite parts of the film though.  Yesterday G and I went to the "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".  My only requirement was that it be better than "Temple of Doom" and since it was, I was happy.  G was more disappointed.  I will say that it was completely off the charts on the implausibility scale, so don't expect thing to be at all realistic when you see it.  That will work to your benefit.

I've also been reading some on and off, so here's the remainder of my list thus far for this year.

39. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid.  The writing in this one was beautiful although the book is ultimately quite unsettling.  I recommend it .

40. Manhunt by Janet Evanovich.  A friend gave me  this one.  Essentially a Harlequin by Evanovich that I'm guessing dates to much before her Stephanie Plum days.

41. The White Queen by Boris Akunin.  This one is translated from the Russian.   Fascinating history from  the pre-Revolutionary days and an interesting mystery.   The ending is  a tragedy.  Which I suppose is in keeping with Russian literature.  Mel, I think you'd like this one.

42. Hello, Gorgeous! by MaryJanice Davidson.  Davidson moves from vampires to cyborgs.  A fun brain candy read.

43. Mr. Maybe by Jane Green.  Another of Green's chick lits.  I liked it less than my previous book by her.

44. The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan.  The fourth in the Percy Jackson series.  My younger two love this series and I find them enjoyable as well.

45. Temptation by Jude Devereaux.  A fairly forgettable Scottish romance.

46. English As A Second Language by Megan Crane.  Somewhat aimless 20-something goes to graduate school in England initially simply to prove to her ex that she can. Complications of various kinds ensue.

47. Anyone But You by Jennifer Crusie.  This one is pure wish fulfillment.  A recently divorced 40 year old moves into her own apartment and finds that the 30 year old doctor who lives below her isn't too young for her.

48. A Thoroughly Modern Princess by Wendy Corsi Straub.  A frothy confection about a princess who doesn't want an arranged marriage.

49. Caleb’s Story by Patricia Maclachlan.  The last in the "Sarah, Plain and Tall " series.  This one is  from Caleb's pov as the title suggests and looks at life during WWI.

50. Honus and Me by Dan Gutman.  A kid's book that I picked up while sorting.  A  boy finds a Honus Wagner card and is able to time travel with it.  I 'd heard about the rarity of the card, but hadn't realized what an amazing player Wagner was.  His stats were unbelievable.

51. Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson.  My book group book for May.  This is the story of a racially-motivated murder that took place in Oxford, NC in 1970.  The author was the son of the local Methodist minister and was friends with the son of  the assailant.  This is a powerful and moving book about race relations in the US.  Everyone should read it.  The past isn't past at all.

52. Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South by Osha Gray Davidson.  A subsidiary title for book group.  This one looks at the history of race relations in Durham and  focuses on the unlikely relationship that developed between an AA woman advocating for equality and the local head of the Klan while they were dealing with school reform and integration.  Fascinating reading.