(Photo by Steve Rawley)

(Just a shout-out for my girl Judy Blume.)

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

Sunday Book Review
On My Nightstand

“Grimms’ Fairy Tales,” illustrated by Fritz Kredel

I picked up this copy from the free shelf because I liked the cover (red, cloth, not battered) and I’m always on the lookout for something my students might like. They love old books and anything they consider “primitive.” I did a lesson this week on stamp collecting, with the third graders, and had to dial it way back when I realized how few of them knew what postmarks were. The stamps were from “the olden days” (circa 1980), and once they realized a few of the stamps were dated from the ’40s and ’50s, they were in awe. Old books, coins and stamps are all treasures to them.

So the Grimm collection is a find — pristine condition — but they’re not getting their hands on it, sorry, kiddos. I’ll take it in for them to look at, but I’ll keep it as part of my permanent collection. The translations were done by Mrs. E.V. Lucas, Lucy Crane & Marian Edwards. Fritz Kredel’s illustrations are cool — simple, with some splashes of color. It was published in MCMXLV (for those of you who aren’t up on your Roman numerals, that’s 1945) (according to Google, anyway).

Those Grimms… they were kooky, eh? Here are openings from a few of the stories:

“Fundevogel”
“There was once a forester who went into the woods to hunt, and he heard a cry like that of a little child. He followed the sound and at last came to a big tree where a tiny child was sitting high up on one of the top branches. The mother had gone to sleep under the tree, and a bird of prey, seeing the child on her lap, had flown down and carried it off in its beak to the top of the tree.
The forester climbed the tree and brought down the child, thinking to himself, ‘I will take it home, and bring it up with my own little Lina.”

“Jorinda and Joringel”
“There was once an old castle in the middle of a vast thick wood. In it there lived an old woman quite alone, and she was a witch. By day she made herself into a cat or a screech owl, but regularly at night she became a human being again. In this way she was able to decoy wild beasts and birds, which she would kill and boil or roast.”

“Cinderella”
“The wife of a rich man fell ill, and when she felt that she was nearing her end she called her only daughter to her bedside and said, ‘Dear child, continue devout and good. Then God will always help you, and I will look down upon you from heaven and watch over you.’
Thereupon she closed her eyes and breathed her last.”

“The Wren and the Bear”
“Once upon a time a bear and a wolf were taking a walk in a wood. It was summer, and the bear heard a bird singing most beautifully. He said, ‘Brother Wolf, what kind of bird is that singing so beautifully?”

— 30 —
(which means: The End o Fin)

What’s On My Nightstand, the March Edition

Ha! Leading off with the baby books is funny, funny, funny, because I am not pregnant (thank you, Jesus) (and science) and I am certainly not knitting any baby booties. (Both of the baby books are cute, by the way, and would be great baby shower/new mom gifts. The knitting book would be a sweet gift, too, for a new mom or anyone who’s wanting to get crafty.)

The review books have been arriving and I need to start keeping track, y’all. So here we go.

“Tell Me What to Dream About,” by Giselle Potter (“The Boy Who Loved Words,” “Kate and the Beanstalk”) is a whimsical new picture book about two sisters, and the littlest one just cannot fall asleep. But she doesn’t like any of the dreams her big sister comes up with. (Ages 3-7, Schwartz & Wade Books, 2015, $17.99, 40 pages.)

Amy R. Singer (Knitty.com) put together 30 pretty cool projects that even beginning knitters (such as moi) can tackle in “Knit Wit” (Harper Resource/Harper Collins, 2004, 127 pages). Wait. Is there some way to describe a knitter who is “almost” a beginning knitter? Because that would be me. I have fun with it, anyway, and over the years have taught tons of students at various schools how to knit. Seriously. Not exaggerating. Supplies, donated by the lovely ladies and customers of the Naked Sheep Knit Shop helped us on our way.

And, as is so often the case when you teach, they were showing me up within a matter of minutes. We knitted on chopsticks, donated needles, our fingers — astounding work. Beautiful work. I got them started, but I cannot take credit. It was them. One of my best, happiest memories from that time were the teenage boys who wanted me to teach them to knit.

“My granny won’t teach me.” (lol.) Followed by… “It’s a craze around here!” I did what I could and sent them on their way.

So imagine my delight once I finally learned how to purl (thank you, Ms. Singer!). That little “missing link,” so to speak, has not stopped me from knitting the ugliest scarves you’ve ever seen in your life, though. I’ve been doing that for years now.

Going into it, I make sure to tell my students exactly what I’m capable of: “I knit really, really ugly scarves,” are my exact words. So, hello, they’re not expecting much. But you know what I’m wicked good at? Casting on and teaching how to cast on. Seriously. Once you have that, you’re gold.

Steve bought me this book several years back, and I tucked it into my knitting basket so’s I’d look like I knew what I was doing. The other day I finally opened it up and lo and behold — it props itself up! Hands free! Next thing you know, I’m knitting one, purling two, like a hipster fiend.

It may be awhile before I make a pixie hat, though, or a birdless boa.

I’m also reading an interesting book called “Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World” (Penguin Press, 2015, $26.95, 276 pages). It’s a new release by Leigh Ann Henion.

Steve and I are both reading “It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War,” by Lynsey Addario (Penguin Press). Intense book, beautifully photographed and well-written.

And an intriguing little how-to book, “Careers: The Graphic Guide to Finding the Perfect Job for You” (how did they know?) also arrived. (DK US/Penguin Random House, 2015, $19.99, 320 pages.) Love this one — I’m taking it to school tomorrow and sharing with the 5th grade teachers, who are working on a college unit with the students. Most any career you can think of (teacher!, product designer, social worker, vet, lawyer, makeup artist, etc.) are all listed, along with pertinent details:

* How much $$$ you can make
* How much schooling/training is required
* What the job entails
* Skills guide
* Related careers

The format is easy to use, and the book is woven together well. I would recommend this one for school and public libraries, teachers, parents, and of course college counselors.

All good reading. See you soon…

wm

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

“We are the night ocean filled
with glints of light. We are the space
between the fish and the moon,
while we sit here together.”

— Rumi

“Bottom line is we’re all flawed in this world. No one’s perfect,” film director Richard Linklater, accepting his Golden Globe award for directing, “I want to dedicate this to parents that are evolving everywhere and families that are just passing through this world and doing their best.”

I’ll see how many categories I can hit here… Ready? Ready-steady-go!

* Pacific Ocean: It’s beautiful. It makes me happy, i love my negative ions i get from the ocean, and the wildlife is so fun to watch. The sea lions in that picture are making what’s called a “raft.” They all hold onto each other and float around. Hippies :)

* Book review? Here’s what on my nightstand (and on the Kindle): Re-read “Wild,” re-reading “Torch,” re-reading Carol Shields magnum opus, “Unless,” reading “Quiet” and learning all kinds of stuff about introverts, extroverts, high reactives and the modern age, just finishing Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy,” genius, and… that’s all I can think of.

* Recipes:

Oven-Fried Spuds (excellent, best potato recipe ever)
Soup! (Steve’s recipe. This one clears up your head, fast)

1 onion, sliced thin
1 bulb garlic
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
6 cups water

Reduce water and bouillon by half to thicken.

* Work… is going well. Super well. I love working at a school (computer lab again this year), I’m with the best staff and boss in the universe (no I’m not saying that because they might read this — they really are gifted, funny, smart, wonderful with the students and everything else I was hoping for) and I love that my students are willing to work on my Spanish with me. #yohabloespanolmasomenos

* My own kids… are great. Whoever said, “Eh, you think that when they’re little they really need you, but when they’re teenagers? That’s when they really need you,” that person was so smart. (Seriously, probably 20 people said that to me when the kids were toddlers, and I thought they were joking.)

* Nekkid Neighbors — remember them?

* Sex? Not at work, people, keep that in mind, always. Or with the Nekkid Neighbors. Just a bad idea, aight? Lol. We’ve been watching Californication on Netflix, and swear to God, every time I watch it, I feel like I’ve been in an orgy, and it was kind of great, but equally horrible. Yeah.

* Speaking of pop culture… movies. We saw “Wild,” loved it, “Nebraska,” also great, “Boyhood,” one of the best movies I’ve ever seen in my life. Seriously.

* Holidays: How can 2015 be a real year? It’s so space-age sounding.

* And in the category of Pets, Stupid… Our sweet, loving, funny Wacky Cat 2 passed away last month. I keep looking for him, thinking I see him, missing him. It just sucks.

* Houses & Homes: We’re cleaning & rearranging & opposite-of-hoarding like mad right now because we’re moving again.

In five years.

But, as one of my 80-something-year-old neighbors told me after New Year’s, “Every year, I don’t know what it is. The days go slower and the years go faster.” Then he gave me a big smile, I smiled back, and he pedaled off on his bike. I know just what he means.

All for now, xo,

wm

that’s right. Blogging is so four years ago, with the exception of those of us who still keep our online journals: Zoot, Y from the Internet, who I’ve known for so long I call her that, Amalah, Doocie, and me.

The big five, baby, that’s where we’re at. Not the big 5-0, the big 5. Kidding.

I will persevere.

I mainly blog nowadays because I need the archives — especially for updates on my kids (my daughter is driving now, btw) (uh, it’s true. This little girl…), a cookbook (you can always buy a hard copy), school work, and whatever else I need. Quotes of the day, funny jokes. Ha. Funny to me jokes.

So you know that your Facebook archives aren’t really archives, right? And that your photos might or might not disappear eventually, if that’s where you’re storing them? Just saying.

So here’s what I’m working on reading this school year. And first things being, as always, first: the potboilers.

I read Theodore Dreiser’s “Sister Carrie” when I was an 18-year-old college freshman and knew everything. I would like to talk with that girl and have her answer a few of my several hundred questions, now that I know nothing. Dear Lord, what a difference between 18 and 50.

“You should see her ass in that dress.” — my friend Nicole, to my then-lover, talking about me and my brand-new little black dress, circa many years ago. We were at a bar downtown. It may have been the Virginia Cafe. Or Hamburger Mary’s, or the Veritable Quandary, or that place where they served the delicious little Cornish game hens? The Vat & Tonsure. Then (to me): “You hit 27 and your ass just falls. I don’t know what it is.”

My main concerns then:
1) how am i going to get these bills paid?
2) where are the parties this weekend?
3) what about this “27 changes everything” thing? (defer)
4) why does she (neighbor/friend/family member/co-worker) put up w/ that shit? (from spouse/children/grown children/neighbors/co-workers)

I have to go water the yard now, and write more when I get back. No more bars, just chores, out here on the farm. I could really use another load of manure for the east 40.

Back! So. “Sister Carrie,” which I always throw together with “Portrait of a Lady,” “Anna Karenina,” “Madame Bovary” and “The Awakening”… Well, it’s its own animal. I just love the book.

Finished it up, and on to “An American Tragedy” (also Dreiser), which I’ve been meaning to read ever since I saw the Elizabeth Taylor/Montgomery Clift classic, “A Place in the Sun.” God, it’s brilliant, too. So I’m happy, with lots to read. And I have a good excuse (for the moment) to put off reading all of these for work (ps check out this week’s issue of The Nation. On the cover: “Saving Public Schools: A Growing Movement Confronts the Failure of ‘Reform'”:

Being Bad: My Baby Brother and the School-To-Prison Pipeline: Being Bad (Teaching for Social Justice)
by Crystal T. Laura

Bon appetit!

— wm

It’s been snowing like mad here the past two days, so that means cooking and reading. And reading about cooking :)

Yesterday I baked Russian Teacakes (in honor of the snow and the Olympics), red beans & rice (and cornbread, of course) and made the batter for gingerbread pancakes. We’ll have breakfast around noon, when the kids get up. That’s just a guess :)

Bon appetit and happy weekend to you, book lovers…

xo

wm

“Well, but it’s not as good a story if you dumped her. That’s how I remember things, anyway. I remember stories. I connect the dots and then out of that comes a story. And the dots that don’t fit into the story just slide away, maybe. Like when you spot a constellation. You look up and you don’t see all the stars. All the stars just look like the big fugging random mess that they are. But you want to see shapes; you want to see stories, so you pick them out of the sky. Hassan told me once you think like that, too — that you see connections everywhere — so you’re a natural born storyteller, it turns out.” — from “An Abundance of Katherines”

Man, do I love biographies. I’m reading now, don’t bug me.

The End

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

Here you go… just in case you missed this when it first ran.

“Video games and
cookies and hot chocolate
It might even snow!”

“Christmas time is here
It might not snow at all, but
We can still rejoice!”

— Christmas haikus from Elf on a Shelf, shortly before he was slain by his bitter enemy, Shelf Monkey

Two grown-up books and several kid books today, up for review:

First up: Michael Korda’s classic, “Country Matters.” I love the heck out of this book. “Have no fear, Roe is here!” I read this when it first came out, at my Mom’s recommendation, and we’ve both re-read it several times. It’s wiping-away-tears funny, especially if you love animals, old houses, and are surrounded by people who have “boundary issues.”

Speaking of comedy, this leads us to the best garden writer in the world… one Dulcy Mahar and the new book, “Back in the Garden with Dulcy” (Carpe Diem Books, Portland, Ore., $22.95, 262 pages). She was a lovely woman (we both wrote for The Oregonian, and I worked with her husband, Ted, too. He is a co-author on this title.) Dulcy was a delight, and in addition to being a gifted gardener, she was a funny, funny girl. And not just when she wrote about her Portland garden. I was lucky enough to tour her garden once and it was awe-inspiring, really. It’s a lovely space over in the Garthwick neighborhood, in Southeast. The book is a collection of Dulcy’s newspaper columns and includes memories from Ted. My friend (and my former editor) Peggy McMullen wrote the foreword. I miss Dulcy’s writing every week and am glad to have this book, a sweet reminder of a dear, classy lady.

It only makes sense to review the children’s book “The Gardener” next (Sunburst, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997). It was written by Sarah Stewart and illustrated by David Small. The pair also created “The Library” and “The Money Tree,” which are both so good, too. This Caldecott Honor book is a quietly powerful book that I like to read with my students, especially when we’re dreaming about community gardens. It’s set in 1935, and tells the story of Lydia Grace Finch, who travels to live with an uncle due to family circumstances. It’s a good choice for struggling readers, too. The text is written as letters, and the illustrations are elegant and grown-up.

The Rocket series, written by Tad Hills, is pretty adorable and just right for the littlest readers. (Schwartz & Wade Books, New York, 2013, $10.99, unpaged.) Rocket is an eager pup who wants to learn to read. The illustrations are colorful and sweet, and the main character is appealing.

“Love cannot be forced, love cannot be coaxed and teased. It comes out of Heaven, unasked and unsought.” — Pearl Buck

“Listen!” by Stephanie Tolan (HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York, 2006, $16.89, 197 pages) is a good choice for kids who are struggling with loss. (Anyone who loves a good dog story will love this one, too.) The author wrote another favorite of mine, “Surviving the Applewhites,”  which is an awesome read about an unusual family and some cool, misunderstood kids.

“Listen!” is a tale of a girl who has recently lost her mother, and is spending her summer, mostly alone, trying to tame a feral dog. This is a quiet and moving book.

And here are some Nancy Drew titles, just for fun. I included these, dear readers, just because I wanted to. (Grosset & Dunlap, New York, $5.99, various lengths, generally around 180 pages.) Did you know that’s who I was named for? Nancy Drew? Allegedly.

The End.

“Great oaks from little acorns grow” — Latin proverb

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

I only knew Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt (American author, 1901–1979) from “Pat the Bunny” (first published in 1940) and y’know, I didn’t even know that title from when I was a kid. I discovered it later, once my friends (and then later Steve and I) started having kids. “Junket Is Nice” was her first book (it came out in 1932). She also wrote “Now Open the Box,” “Lucky Mrs. Ticklefeather,” “Brave Mr. Buckingham” and “Tiny Animal Stories.” Altogether she wrote close to 50 books, including some titles for adults.

But “Pat the Bunny” is her best known work, and that is just fine by me.

I received a copy of “Now Open the Box” for review, but I picked it up from my P.O. box, and you know… there just happened to be the cutest little girl there, waiting for her mama. So next thing you know, I’m out a book, and she’s happy. So there’s your review.

“Junket is Nice” was recently re-released as part of The New York Review Children’s Collection (“Now Open the Box” is also part of the collection), and I’ve managed to hang on to my review copy, so far. I’ve reviewed some of the Review’s titles here before, and I just cannot say enough about them. The books look good, are well-bound, and are great individually or as a set. What I really appreciate is that they’re not precious. Don’t get me wrong — they are adorable and precious in the best sense of the words, but they are meant to be teethed on by those babies. That, at the end of the day, is what it’s all about. And these books are chewable.

“Junket is Nice” is a goofy-fun book that reminds me somewhat of Wanda Gag’s classic, “Millions of Cats.” The kids will like the rhythm of the book, and the funny images (a walrus with an apple on his back, a one-year-old lion blowing out the candle on his birthday cake, etc.).

I’m hoping to add a copy of “Jenny and the Cat Club: A Collection of Favorite Stories About Jenny Linsky” to my collection. (This is not Jennie from Paul Gallico’s “The Abandoned,” by the by; this one is by Esther Averill.) It looks good, too.