Don't be afraid!

The last meeting of the Fearless Readers was a little light on attendees with a grand total of two. None of the people who had actually wanted to read Lamb was there, so we spent all of two minutes on it:

Angie: "So, what did you think."
Aldina: "I didn't hate it as much as I expected to. I guess if your expectations are low enough..."
Angie: "Your favorite part was the jew-do, right? Tell me it was."
Aldina: "Um, no. That was awful."

Anyway, we did have a lovely time catching up, which was great fun! And, we chose the next book: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Regarded as one of the best modern novels to come out of Africa, it's a classic that appears on rankings galore: 1001 Books to Read Before You Die, Time Magazine's Top 100 English-language novels, The Novel 100, the Radcliffe Top 100 and the Guardian Top 100. It's short but challenging, and should be great for discussion.

Please consider this an open invitation - anyone who reads, and is fearless enough to show up and get bookie with it, please join us! We're looking at July 13 (I believe) at the Black Sheep in New York City. Interested?? Yay!!

French Quarter, New Orleans

Right on the heels of Mima and Boppie's postcards from New Orleans, we got one from Aunt Jessie, visiting the same city with a bachelorette party:

Why the delay in posting, you ask? Simple. The Bug loves mail. When we get postcards (or cards, letters, thank you notes, invitations, etc.), I read them to the Bug. Then, she stashes them away somewhere. If I don't get a postcard scanned right off the bat, it can disappear for weeks.

Steamboat Springs get-away

Joker and I had a really nice time at Steamboat Springs, Colorado - two nights together without the girls! We stayed in a really comfy place, ate amazing food, enjoyed beers by the river, rode bikes, visited the hot springs... and would have hiked a bit if the trails hadn't still been snowed in.

The drive up the Poudre River Canyon is stunning, one of the most scenic in Colorado. Not far from Ft. Collins is one of Colorado's coolest outdoor music venues, Mishawaka Amphitheatre.


Just outside of Steamboat the beautiful 283-foot Fish Creek Falls. Several trailheads converge at the base of the falls; the view is absolutely worth the short walk to both the upper viewing platform and the old bridge at the base of the falls.



We drove home through some of the most spectacular ranch country I've ever seen. Located on between the Front Range and the Western Slope, the dirt road through the tiny town of Rand provide a unique vista: flat, arid ranch land surrounded by tremendous mountains.


Spring was a fabulous time to visit Steamboat; we are both looking forward to returning to experience the other seasons, too!

Lamb

The subtitle of Christopher Moore's Lamb, "The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal", is about as clever as this complete waste of time gets. Incredibly, more than 600 people on Amazon rave about it, and it's got a 90% positive rating on Facebook's Visual Bookshelf application. This should tell you nothing about the book, but it does say a great deal about the pedestrian reading habits of mainstream America.

Biff was Jesus Christ's best friend back in the day, and he's brought back to life by an angel who wants him to write his version of what happened between Jesus' birth and death. This leads to a bunch of super lame exchanges between the angel and Biff, between which he recounts his story. According to Biff, he and Jesus traveled to Asia, lived with each of the three wise men for a spell, made up the theory of evolution while talking to the Yeti, created Judo (more precisely, "Jew-do", or kung fu for Jews, I shit you not), and had a great deal of witty repartee with hookers and hobos and each other.

This book is terrible. If it's not the worst book I have ever read, it's second only to Ishmael, the story of a talking monkey who hates farmers. However, if you do choose to read it, and especially if you find anything whatsoever redeeming about it, please join us at book club next Tuesday, June 15.

Persuasion

So apparently I'm a huge Jane Austen fan, something I never expected to be the case. After my thorough enjoyment of Emma, I was excited to read Persuasion, Austen's final novel and perhaps her tightest narrative. It is a pleasure to read, characteristically witty, and there's even a bit of suspense until the end.

Anne Elliot is the second daughter of the pompous and arrogant Sir Walter Elliot. Her older and prettier sister is cut from Sir Walter's mold, as is their youngest sister Mary. Anne, however, took after their late mother, and is interesting and generous, intelligent and kind. Eight years before the events of the book, her father, sister and family friend had convinced her to reject the marriage proposal of a poor sailor, Frederick Wentworth, though she loved him dearly. Since then she has struggled with that decision, never again falling in love, rejecting all subsequent marriage proposals because of her continuing love for Wentworth, and wondering what would have happened if she had given him her hand.

When financial hardship forces Sir Walter to rent out his estate, Anne is reacquainted with her former love. Now Captain Wentworth, having received promotions and compensation for his success in the Napoleonic Wars, is a wealthy and desirable man who has neither married nor forgiven Anne for what he saw as her weak-mindedness. He enters into a flirtation with both of Mary's sisters-in-law, which comes to a head after young Louisa suffers an injury on a trip to Lyme. Enter William Elliot, Anne's cousin and the heir to Sir Walter's fortune, who fixates on Anne as an eligible bride and the key to securing his inheritance. The action moves to Bath, and though you know Anne is going to get the man, you're not quite sure which one it will be.

Anne Elliot differs from Austen's other heroines on a couple of counts. She is "past her prime" at the ripe old age of 27, and she has a strong sense of morality rather than a steadfast reliance on propriety. The entire novel is seen through Anne's eyes, and her inner dialogue so clearly illuminates her personality the reader is completely immersed in her story. I'd highly recommend it to Austen devotees and neophytes alike.

Next up: Atonement by Ian McEwan

Colorado visit

We spent last week in Colorado - the girls absolutely adore the farm and my parents and Aunt Jessie (who came out, too) - and the highlight for Joker and me was a two-night trip to Steamboat Springs... sans girlies! I'll post some photos tonight - it is absolutely beautiful, and so relaxing to get away for a few days.

Also of note...

• The Bug is still there for a few days of solo time with her grands. We actually got on the plane to come home without our 3-year-old daughter. Yes, I cried. But she is having a fabulous time, and I'm pretty sure she thinks that the farm is a camp. Mima flies her back on Wednesday, not that I'm counting the days or anything.
• The Bolder-Boulder. I ran a 9:35 pace (which wasn't too bad considering my trick knee) but by the important numbers I completed 15 high fives, ran through 5 sprinklers and was hit by 1 Super Soaker. And there is something to be said for a race that gives a free beer to every competitor.
• The Bunny's first tooth popped on Memorial Day. Plus, she's really close to crawling.
• Consistent with our zoo tradition, we spent a day at the truly superior Denver Zoo. Bonus points for the soft-serve ice cream.

Almost three

The Bug turns three this week, and where the time has gone I couldn't possibly guess. We have quite the series of events planned; as the Bug says, she's having three birthdays this year.

Today we took the cousins, Aunt Katy, Pop-pop and Uncle Nick to the Bradley Zoo - we have a great time there, and the Bug considers it to be "her" zoo. The kids - and the grown-ups, too! - had a blast. Big animal news is that we now have three bald eagles, and we got a close-up view of a mother duck sitting on a nest filled with eggs. We ate cupcakes outside after a carousel ride, and at our post-zoo pizza lunch the Bug actually ate a few bites of 'za! (No, that's not a mistake - she usually just eats tomatoes and olives from the salad. Embarrassing, a kid who doesn't like pizza. But I digress.)

On her birthday proper we are going to have presents in the morning and her favorite dinner (which is whatever Joker and I determine to be her favorite dinner - all she wants is more cupcakes).

And next weekend, we'll do a reprise of her second birthday at the farm - baby animals, driving the tractor, enjoying the family and (hope, hope!) playing in the mud.

To kick it all off, I took her to get her first pedicure yesterday. No, it wasn't the relaxing treat I usually savor, but damn! was it cute: