Reviewing this week:

I’ve been spending a lot of time at our brand-new neighborhood library with all 20,000 of its brand new books, DVDs and CDs and this makes me even more happy than you’re probably guessing. I grabbed a copy of a new book by Allison Winn Scotch (“Department of Lost and Found” was her first novel; this is her second). It’s called “Time of My Life” (Shaye Areheart Books, 2008, 286 pages, $23). I’ve had the theme to “Dirty Dancing” stuck in my head ever since I brought this book home, but that’s alright. It’s a great book — really enjoyable. Jillian Westfield, one of those mommies-who-has-it-all, doesn’t. She’s lives in the suburbs, she’s horny, her husband is out of town all the time, she’s having trouble bonding with her baby girl and she doesn’t have a boyfriend. She doesn’t have one, that is, until she goes back in time, to find herself hungover and in her ex-boyfriend’s bed.

Hmm.

Chaos and wedding planning — and the fiance is not her husband, by the way– ensues. This book is not at all what it first appears to be, and I mean that as a compliment. Now, I’m turning this post over to my kid…

“Darklight” (by Lesley Livingston, HarperTeen, 2010, $16.99, 312 pages) came in the mail as a review copy. But it was the sequel to “Wondrous Strange” (HarperTeen, 2009, $16.99, 327 pages). So, I put the first book on hold at the library and when it came in I read it.

It was a good book. It’s about a girl named Kelley Winslow, who meets this boy named Sonny and it turns out that he is a mortal trapped in a fairy world. She is… okay, that is a surprise, you’ll have to read it and see.

Well, Sonny is not trapped, but taken away by the fairies. Kelley is an actress who acts in Shakespearean plays. (They have themes about fairies and otherworldly places in Shakespeare. In the sequel, she’s acting in “Romeo and Juliet.”) In “Wondrous Strange” she is acting in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

I’ve started the sequel and am on page 45. It’s good, too. I like how they weave the fairy world and the real world together — one chapter is about Kelley and one chapter is about Sonny, it alternates. It’s kinda like “Twilight,” but with fairies, and the books are shorter. I would say these books are good for ages middle school and up. There’s a lot of cussing in there. — Wacky Girl

for steve, cuz home really is wherever i am with him. looks like it’s all coming together with the houses, we’re pretty thrilled.

— wm

What better way to celebrate spring and International Women’s Day than to throw a nice little peace rally over at the Portland Public Schools World Headquarters? So my friends and I are doing that, next Monday, March 8th at 6 p.m. in beautiful North Portland, Ore., at the BESC, 501 N. Dixon (2 blocks from the east end of Broadway bridge).

My friends, and the rally’s supporters, include (but are not limited to) a bunch of exceptionally cool and smart moms and our friends (yeah, as a matter of fact, they blog, too), Jobs with Justice, Whitefeather Peace House, Students United for Nonviolence and the Oregon Peace Institute.

Also the American Friends Service Committee’s Peace Building Program is endorsing our rally.

And the vets are speaking out, too.

(Add to the list of supporters: Recruiter Watch PDX; War Resisters League, Portland Chapter; and The Military & Draft Counseling Project. And my husband, Mr. More Hockey/Less War, himself.)

Everyone? Thank you for the support, it means a whole lot to me. Dear readers, I think it’s important to have friends and allies who love peace as much as I do, y’know? You want a little speech? OK, ready? I think that peace is something that people shouldn’t just want “in theory,” I think it’s something that people should practice and fight for every day, even if it’s just a little bit. And yes, I see no small amount of irony in “fighting for peace,” i mean, how ridiculous is that? I will, though. I will fight for peace.

I will also light my candles every day for our soldiers, both abroad and at home, and pray that they come home safely. I want us all safe.

So for me, “fighting for peace” sometimes means nothing more than raising my hand and saying, Our country is at war, children should not be on military bases.

I really don’t think it’s smart for anyone to try to get between mamas and their babies. A person could get in trouble doing that. Just sayin’.

So… so, so, so. It’s not enough I’m fighting my own demons, now i’m fighting other people’s demons, too. Wacky Mommy, Super-Hero at large. Uh, yeah. What are you scared of? Don’t be scared, hon. Work it on out.

Seriously? Yes. Seriously. I am upset about Starbase, about the need to throw a little peace rally/protest, it kind of pisses me off. I think it’s nice that it will be on International Women’s Day, but that isn’t, like, a comfort to me. I think it’s bullshit that women have to keep saying, No you can’t have our sons (and daughters, nowadays, too), no you can’t have access to the children. That is the bullshit that’s been going on since time immemorial, no?

Also, I’m speaking out in honor of my late friend, Terry Olson, who was just the coolest dude; my late father, who was a big ol’ 6 foot 4 pacifist (my mom jokes that he didn’t have to fight, “He just stood up and that ended it”); and my late friend David Johnson, who signed up to be a cook in the Army and instead died being a gunner in Iraq.

God rest all three of their amazing souls.

Anyway, if you are in or near Portland, Ore., USA and would like to join us, please do. Send me an e-mail or leave a note in comments if you want more details.

Peace, always, peace, love, peace,

— WM

(For more on the military’s recruitment of our students, see this article by David Goodman in Mother Jones.)

Reading & watching this week:

I saw “Au Revoir, Les Enfants” in the theater when it first came out in 1987. Written, directed and produced by Louis Malle, it tells his story of attending a Roman Catholic boarding school during World War II. It’s one of the most gripping films I’ve ever seen. Steve had never watched it, so we saw it together this week. It is a quiet, intense movie, well-acted and beautifully written, and I am as moved by it now as I was twenty-three years ago. Appropriate for mature pre-teens and teenagers.

I had never read Roald Dahl’s “The BFG” (Big Friendly Giant, or “Big Effin’ Giant,” as my son prefers to call it). We’ve been reading it as a family and it’s great, especially as a read-aloud. Dahl always has a way with dialogue, in this one in particular. Good for all ages, unless your littles are prone to scary dreams.

Atwood, my hero. I love Atwood all the way back to “The Edible Woman,” her first novel. OK, I tried to read “Oryx & Crake” and it just absolutely terrified me. No, I don’t know why, it just flipped me out and I could barely start it, much less finish it. Any and all dystopian society books just scare me, alright? They hit too close to the bone. So when the second book in the trilogy, “The Year of the Flood,” came out, I wasn’t sure if I’d be into it, petrified by it, lost in translation, what. I picked it up and haven’t been able to put it down — I’m almost finished with it. It’s one of those books I am savoring, because I won’t want to say goodbye to it once it’s done.

Lucky for me, the third book will come out at some point, and I’m ready to delve into “Oryx & Crake” again. I am that brave now.

“The Year of the Flood” is fantastic, and stands on its own, even if you haven’t read the first book.

Happy Sunday, y’all.

— wm

“Experts have / their expert fun / ex cathedra / telling one / just how nothing / can be done.” — Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996)

me to the kids in the car on the way home: “I want to make you as miserable every day about doing your homework as you make me miserable every frickin’ day about not doing your homework, see?”

the kids (silently to each other): Don’t make eye contact with that woman, we’ll be fine.

i rock at motherhood.

ouch.

Noted anti-war activist S. Brian Willson spells out why the school board should stop selling the US military access to elementary school students.

my favorite donut recipe… ever.

DONUT PUFFS

2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 cups sifted flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 T butter

Crisco or oil for deep frying

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg or cinnamon or…

powdered sugar

Mix ingredients, dip batter by spoonful into oil, fry ’em. Let cool on paper towels.

Roll in sugar/nutmeg, sugar/cinnamon or powdered sugar.

“Mmm… donuts…” — Homer Simpson

The Beechers are so nice.

(because you knew i had to say it.)

steve took me out for a bite to eat. and vodka, cuz we’re moving and it was the middle of the afternoon and I was having an “episode.”

steve, looking around the bar (because where else would you go, in North Portland, in the middle of the afternoon on Valentine’s Day?): “I won’t miss the ironic North Portland hipsters.”

me: “yes you will.”

then i eyed four sets of lesbians making out at the bar. four sets. that’s sixteen breasts, for those of you who are counting. i gave a little sigh.

“I’ll miss that.”

i was thinking, i’ve lived in North/Northeast Portland my entire life, right? Then steve asks, Didn’t you live in New York? (my son, suddenly impressed): “You lived in New York?” me: “yeah, for awhile.)

and i lived in Southeast (off Hawthorne, and in Ladd’s Addition, in an old church; also in a heinous apartment complex in Southwest for awhile; and in chi-chi Multnomah Village — Southwest PDX — and in chi-chi Westmoreland — Southeast PDX).

I’ve lived other places.

i’ll be fine.

house on market asap; will keep y’all posted. It stinks like cleaning products in here, gives me headache and sneezes. am glad i’m not frantic mad housekeeper; it can’t be good for your brain cells.

xo

your little hunny,

wm