do I need another reading project. Penguin Classics seemed like such a good idea, but frankly I’m a little intimidated by the next one on the list. It’s La Regenta by Leopoldo Alas, a big fat obscure 19th century Spanish novel. Interlibrary loan only allowed me to have it for, like, ten days — as though [...]
Monthly Archives: January 2007
The problem of goodness
I wouldn’t be surprised if half of Ann Arbor wrote blog posts this week with the same title. It’s that time of year again when our “community read” program is in full swing. This year the book is Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World, by [...]
The cat that swallowed the…
Oh, God. This is so NOT the post I was planning to write today. I have tons to write about, but it all blew out of my head when I got out of the shower this morning and heard my cat meowing urgently. There was an unfamiliar note in his meow that worried me. I [...]
Poetry Thursday #4
I’ve been struggling over the collected poems of Marianne Moore. Is it just me? Or is a six-line poem supposed to take an hour or longer to understand? I’m still working on it and hopefully by next week I’ll have found one that I can make head or tail of. In the meantime, here’s another [...]
Poetry Thursday #3
Here’s another one from Carl Sandburg (I promise someone else next week). I’m sharing this one in order to cheer myself up after a night where Daniel woke me up four? five? times requesting slight adjustments of his blankets and kisses on invisible boo-boos. I really like this one — poignance and happiness all wrapped [...]
At the doctor’s office
with Joey, and I felt like Mr. McAfee in Bye Bye, Birdie. Do you remember him? He’s the father who reacts with such dismay and indignation when he hears the word “puberty” uttered in his presence. My firstborn is apparently beginning to show signs of it. I am not ready for this. I console myself with [...]
Poetry Thursday #2
We don’t exactly have a house full of poetry here. In fact, what we’ve got here is slim pickin’s. From our upstairs bookshelves I had a choice of two: War Poems by Siegfried Sassoon or Harvest Poems by Carl Sandburg. Hmm, war or harvest? I went with the harvest. And guess what? Harvest Poems is a [...]