Friends' Babies

I just realized how long it has been since I posted pictures of my friends kids. I think it's because I feel like I get to see many of them so often, thanks to the diligent blogging of their parents. Here's Sophie, the budding artist.

You can follow the almost daily exploits of several more here:
Finn Hazen, his cousin Anna, and his future prom date Fiona.

July 2006 Book Reviews

I would be hard to top last month's selection; I did however finish several of the books on my to-do list. Next month, less contemporary fiction, more classics.

1. Matters of Chance, Jeannette Haien, Rating: 4.6
Wonderful, timeless love story . Or really, a series of romances. I was really surprised to discover that this came out in 1997--it has the feel of a much older story. Character development is superb.
2. The Moon and Sixpence, W. Somerset Maugham, Rating: 3.2
A fictionalized account of Paul Gauguin's life (according to wikipedia, just how fictionalized isn't entirely known), this is an interesting, if not entirely engaging, character study. I liked it enough to read more of Maugham's books, but found the narrative tedious at times.
3. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, Rating: 2.9
Interesting concept - a woman's life completely falls apart (divorce, depression, bad love affair) - and after wallowing for several years, she decides to spend a year traveling to three countries that specialize in the things that matter most to her. Pleasure is the first section (to experience this, she travels to Italy, a wise choice). Later destinations are India and Indonesia. Some of the writing is fun; a lot of it is boring and of the "why am I reading this?" variety. She's incredibly self-absorbed and self-serving - it should be a major tip-off that she sold the book rights before beginning her travels.
4. A Woman in Berlin, Anonymous, Rating: 4.0
Recently reissued in America after decades of out-of-print status, this is the supposed true diary of a civilian woman living in Berlin during the siege and fall of the city at the end of WWII. The writer claims to be a professional writer by trade, which perhaps explains the polished prose. She exhibits an amazing sense of humor in the face of truly awful events. This is a fascinating book and one well worth reading.
5. The All of It, Jeannette Haien, Rating: 3.0
Haien's first book, this novella lacks the epic scope and effectiveness of Matters of Chance. While it's fine, I surprised it ever found a publisher - it's much more suited to a literary journal.
6. The Last Gentleman Adventurer: Coming of Age in the Arctic, Edward Beauclerk Maurice, Rating: 4.2
Published just before his death, this is a snapshot of several of the years - beginning in 1930 - that Maurice spent in remote Canada working for the Hudson Bay Company. Left alone with the local population for the majority of the time, he writes of learning to speak the local language, dogsledding for days to bring food to a starving camp, hunting and caring for the entire camp during a flu outbreak, and much more. It's thoughtfully done, a careful portrait of an extremely unique experience.
7. Money: A Memoir, Liz Perle, Rating: 3.5
This book is exactly what it claims to be: a memoir. It's about her relationship to money, with a few supporting examples from other women. It's interesting because of Perle's candor, but I expected more - advice, pitfalls to avoid, something else. Ultimately, I guess that wasn't the point of the book.
8. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, Rating: 3.1
I listened to this as a book on tape, which really didn't do the book any favors. Read by the author, the audio form calls attention to how repetitive the narration is, and drives home the fact that there are still hours to go before reaching the incredibly predictable conclusion. A sensitive, light-handed ending is perhaps the book's one saving grace.
9. Labyrinth, Kate Mosse, Rating: 2.9
A throw-away summer read. Among its strongest attributes is the lovely attention to geographic details. The characters and plot receive less attention.

Los Angeles

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

Adam and I successfully survived our last trip of July - this time to Los Angeles. It was perfect: a day with his friend Karl, a day with several of my friends, several hours on the beach, lots of good food, and two celebrity sightings. The big one was Gwen Stefani + baby and husband. Of lesser wow-value was Paul Rudd, but still totally cool for all of you Clueless fans.

As much as I want to like LA (and this isn't to say that I didn't have a good time there), the traffic, haze, and people are just to much for me. Everywhere is an hour away - even if it's only 10 miles from your house. I just don't think I could handle it on a daily basis.

A Tired Elephant Seal

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

It's Adam's birthday tomorrow (29th). I'm baking him a ham - his request - and we plan to have a few people over. I took him away last weekend instead of buying a present (he takes a perverse pride in being hard to shop for), and we both had a wonderful time.

This pour tired lump is an Elephant Seal. We missed mating season by about 6 months, but apparently July is a good time to witness males molting. The ranger said the seals have to dry out a bit to be able to shed their skin. Elephant seals clearer aren't made to move on land - this guy would throw his weight forward, collapse, snort, then throw again.

Other fascinating facts:
- a female can keep a pregnancy dormant until she has enough body fat to support the gestational period.
- only 5% of males will ever mate.
- in the 1880s, there were believed to be only 50 surviving elephant seals. There are now 80,000.
- elephant seals swim to Hawaii (or thereabouts) annually. They can dive to a depth of 5000 feet.
- they don't sleep, but are capable of lowering their heartrate to a "resting" state.

Less fascinating:
- the call of a male sounds like a "sewer grate opening" (not my phrase), and you can smell them 1/2 mile away.

We plan to make another trip in January to see mating season - it's supposed to be wild. More info for the curious here.

A pond at Ano Nuevo State Park

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

Our cabin at Costanoa

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

This is where we stayed - a mere 3 miles from the elephant seals. You can reserve your very own cabin, there are saunas and a hot tub, and a very greasy breakfast is included. I loved it. The Costanoa website.

Frank and Lauren's Wedding

Adam and I made a whirlwind trip to Annapolis for Frank and Lauren's wedding. The happy couple is currently off on a 7 week tour of Southeast Asia - they're both grad students at Stanford and have the summer off. I'm unbelievably jealous.

Lauren made a trip to Vietnam prior to the wedding to have clothes made - that gorgeous dress you see here, Frank's suit, the lovely blue dress in the middle, her parents' clothing, and all the (numerous) bridesmaids and groomsmen. Apparently it all made it back to the states crammed into a duffel bag. Lauren is nothing if not determined and organized.

The ceremony was held at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Merrill Center, right on the water. You'd be hard pressed to find a more beautiful spot for a wedding.

June 2006 Book Reviews

June has been an incredibly busy month. I managed to spread myself way too thin and haven't had time for anything. Except, of course, reading - I think I've actually read more than normal just to wind myself down from each hectic day. It's also been a truly banner month in terms of finding great books.

1. Y The Last Man, V. 6, Vaughan and Guerra, Rating: 2.8
What a disapointment! I love this series, but this installment is a real dud.
2. Y The Last Man, V. 7, Vaughan and Guerra, Rating: 4.3
A return to form! If you're not reading this series yet, what's wrong with you? It's truly magnificent.
3. Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading, Maureen Corrigan, Rating: 3.0
Corrigan is the book critic for NPR's Fresh Air. Even if you don't recognize the name, you've probably heard her voice before. I like her reviews--I frequently read books based on her recommendations--and I was excited to read about what it's like to be a professional book reviewer. Clearly it's a busy life: Corrigan is also a teacher at Georgetown (as she herself admits, books just don't usually pay the bills), and reviews for numerous other publications. This book is a (not-entirely successful) blend of literary criticism, book review, and personal memoir. I wanted more of everything--except, I suppose, the criticism. Corrigan devotes at least half of the book to a discussion of the merits of detective fiction, the loss of the "work" novel, and "female extreme-adventure tales" (a category that I don't quite buy). In fact, all of her literary passions, which the exception of 19th century women's fiction, I'm not interested in at all. The other half of the book (her life) is great. So...I'm not really recommending this, sadly.
4. Black Swan Green, David Mitchell, Rating: 3.2
Decent. While I didn't find the subject compelling (the inner lives of preteen boys in 1980s England), the writing is quite good.
5. Possible Side Effects, Augusten Burroughs, Rating: 4.2
Very funny. Burroughs has taken a page from Sedaris and is no longer trying to structure his true-life stories into novel form; they're just lumped together into a fairly cohesive collection. His life is bizarre to the point of being unbelievable, but it's fun to tag along and wonder how he's survived.
6. The Madonnas of Leningrad, Debra Dean, Rating: 3.8
I heard an interesting interview with Debra Dean on NPR recently. She's a former actress (which comes across in her very succinct pronunciation) and currently a full-time writer. This novel deals with the effects of Alzheimer's disease, intertwined with a history of the hermitage museum during the seige of leningrad in WWII. It's quite well done.
7. A Death in Belmont, Sebastian Junger, Rating: 4.3
Fascinating! Junger (of Perfect Storm fame) has thoroughly researched the Boston Strangler. It's very personal and bone-chilling--the Strangler actually worked as a contractor in his childhood home for a time.
8. My Life in France, Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme, Rating: 4.7
This is absolutely the best book I've read in quite some time. It details much of Julia Child's life, focusing on a 20+ year span in which she married, lived in numerous European cities, and learned to cook. You can hear her funny, odd voice in every sentence. Her enthusiasm is boundless, she clearly loves all food and finds most people fascinating, and she lived a really remarkable life. (Prud'homme is her grand-nephew; he helped her assemble this book before she died, relying on letters Child and her husband sent to the states during their years abroad.)
9. Tender at the Bone, Ruth Reichl, Rating: 3.9
Reichl's first memoir, this deals with her childhood and early 20s. It's not so much food writing as a discourse on the evolution of a chef (who just got pulled out of the kitchen at the right moment).
10. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel, Rating: 3.4
This book is getting reviewed everywhere. It's a comic book memoir; Bechdel (author of Dykes to Watch Out For, a popular comic) writes of the death of her father and coming to terms with her own sexuality and that of her father (a semi-closeted, though married, gay man). The art is wonderful and very well integrated with the text. I failed to fully engage with the story, but I admire the effort and the willingness to be so open with such a private story.

May 2006 Book Reviews

This month: no books on mental illness. Actually, no, wait, there's a memoir about obsessive compulsive disorder. There's also one biography, 1 work of non-fiction, and a book published before 1970.

1. Devil in the Details, Jennifer Traig, Rating: 3.9
The aforementioned memoir about obsessive compulsiveness, Jennifer Traig, a currently functioning and fairly normal adult, writes about growing up with "scrupulousity," an odd manifestation of the disease that manifests itself in extreme religious behavoir(s). Traig, who also writes very clever young adult craft books, is quite funny. The book repeats itself and occasionally loses focus, but is overall fairly satisfying.
2. My Invented Country, Isabel Allende, Rating: 4.1
Do you have any interest in Chile? Plans to go there? Then definitely check this book out. This is a bit of a history of the country, but a very personal one--it's all about what Chile means and is for Allende. It's really quite interesting. You'll learn a lot about Allende along the way, too.
3. Beyond Black, Hilary Mantel, Rating: 2.8
Apparently Mantel is a fairly big deal in contemporary literary circles--this is the first book of hers that I've read, but her name shows up on a lot of lists. Honestly, I didn't like it all that much. It's odd, decently written, and just way too long. To quote the NYTBR, "Beyond Black is a fine work, and from a lesser novelist would have seemed a masterpiece. It is too long -- Muriel Spark would have managed the same effect in a hundred or so crisp pages."
4. Suttree, Cormac McCarthy, Rating: 3.6
Like most McCarthy novels, Suttree is intense, unique, and takes a bit of effort to get into the rhythm of the prose. There's certainly nothing wrong with this book, but I find his westerns much more compelling.
5. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark, Rating: 3.4
Speaking of Muriel Spark, I've finally read one of her books! I can't say that I found it a transformative experience, but Brodie certainly is a memorable character. She's a certain "type" that I'm sure has had great influence on other characters in books and film.
6. Mountains Beyond Mountains, Tracy Kidder, Rating: 3.9
I ran across a review of this title in a magazine recently, which said something to the effect that reading this book would make you a better person. A bold statement, right? Kidder writes about Dr. Paul Farmer, a surreal human being out to save the world. Farmer is an interesting mix of micro- and macro-manager: he founded a foundation that implements revolutionary programs for fighting tuberculosis around the globe; individually treats patients in Haiti; teaches and cares for patients in Boston; writes prolifically; and occasionally manages to spend time with his wife and child. I don't know if I'm really a better person now (honestly, reading about Farmer's life made me feel tired), but I really admire the man. This is a good read. As a sidenote, I really enjoyed learning about one of the secondary characters. Roald Dahl's daughter Ophelia was a long time girlfriend of Farmer and is currently director of the charitable foundation.
7. The Lost Painting, Jonathan Harr, Rating: 4.2
I didn't realize until listening to the author at the end (I listened to the audio version) that this is a work of non-fiction. It reads like a novel--compelling, well-paced, a little romance, a little mystery. Harr writes about the rediscovery of a painting by Caravaggio, and tells the story of the artist's life along the way. It's fun.
8. In Lucia's Eyes, Arthur Japin, Rating: 1.8
All I can say about this is that I was glad when it was over. Really boring.

There's a Fungus Amongst Us

My favorite thing about the house I live in? The meyer lemon tree in the back yard. It's huge and ridiculously productive--I have lemons year round. Hundreds of them.

I also have a white fly problem, ants all over the tree, and the leaves have an unslightly mold/fungus substance on them. I've done a little research into the issue, and knew that three things would need to be done:
1) prune the tree properly
2) consult the experts about how to get rid of the fungus and flies
3) likely spray something toxic.

I've pruned this tree before--a thorough job takes 5 or 6 hours. It's painful.

But...you're viewing a picture of the pruned, sprayed (with non-toxic materials) tree! You see all those lemons? That's after we removed 5 shopping bags full of fruit. What a tree. I'm making preserved lemons, lemon granita, and lemon bars today.

Book List Archiving, Cont.

Elese raised an interesting question to the last post--what's the male/female breakdown? I had no idea what to expect. I'm almost exactly even: 46% women, 54% men.

I also should have included a top 10 for the year. Here are the most highly rated titles:
1. My Year of Meats, Ruth Ozeki, Rating: 4.9
2. Y The Last Man (Series), Rating: 4.8
3. The Stand, Stephen King, Rating: 4.8
4. The Chosen, Chaim Potok, Rating: 4.8
5. American Gods, Neil Gaiman, Rating: 4.7
6. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute, Rating: 4.7
7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling, Rating: 4.7
8. The Promise, Chaim Potok, Rating: 4.6
9. The Vintner's Luck, Elizabeth Knox, Rating: 4.6
10. Nowhere in Africa, Stephanie Zweig, Rating: 4.5

Book Journal

I keep track of the books I've read in a cute little journal from Chronicle Books. It's really satisfying to flip through, but isn't particularly useful when I'm trying to figure when (or if) I read a particular book. I've been thinking about digitizing the records for the past few weeks.

I initially planned on just making an excel spreadsheet, and then decided to do a quick google search to make sure there wasn't already something out there for book tracking. I found a great free program called books for Macs (download it here). It's not totally perfect (it autofills with information from amazon, generally with the most recent edition. I'd rather have the original publication date), but it's simple and fast and highly searchable.

So, I now have book stats! Here's an overview of 2005.
Total books read: 102
Pre-1900: 3 (The Innocents Abroad, Around the World in 80 Days, Anna Karenina)
1940s: 1 (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter)
1950s: 4 (Town Like Alice, Around the Bend, On the Beach, East of Eden)
1960s: 3 (The Chosen, The Promise, Travels with Charley)
1970s: 1 (Lucifer's Hammer)
1980s: 2 (The Amateurs, Clan of the Cave Bear)
1990-present: obviously, a ton of books
Non-fiction: 16
Memoir: 11
Authors appearing more than once on list: 7 (Bill Bryson, Chaim Potok, John Steinbeck, Nevil Shute, Nicholas Evans, Sandra Gulland, Tom Clancy)

April 2006 Book Reviews

I seem to be reading a lot about mental illness and the pressures of modern life lately. I'm not sure what that's about. Possibly Adam's influence? He picked out To Hell with All That for me. Or is there a sudden flood of publishing in this area? Why would that be? Interesting thought to ponder...

Before launching into this month's reviews, I wanted to make a comment on the various blog pages you may be reading this on. I'm publishing the book posts in two places; you may want to select one or the other.

The Grand Tour: book reviews, vacation pics, and assortment of random things that interest me (and hopefully, you). All book-related content is repeated in the book archive.
Book Archives: just books. Lists, reviews, top 10 lists. A better choice if you'd prefer to not see where I went hiking this past weekend.
Crochet to Go: just crochet-related topics.

On to the list:
1. Oh the Glory of It All, Sean Wilsey, Rating: 3.0
I've had numerous people recommend this book. Sean Wilsey is the son of a San Francisco socialite, and (by my calculations) about 35 years old. The book gets off to a running start, detailing the excesses and idiosyncracies of his highly colorful parents. By the half-way point, however, the book has lost its focus. What's the subject? Sean's life? His mother? Boarding schools of the 1980s? Ultimately there's enough good material here to make it a worthwhile read, but you'll have to wade your way through all the surplus writing.
2. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro, Rating: 4.3
The writing in this book is stunning--Ishiguro is definitely one of the better writers out there today. I'd prefer to not reveal the topic (and would caution against reading any reviews of the book). Ishiguro slowly parcels out information, and it's best if you don't really understand what is special about the characters before he's ready to tell you. (One of my coworkers saw the book on my desk and said, "Oh, is that the book about the [deleted]?") Anyway, it's extremely well written, quite moving, and well worth your time.
3. Library: An Unquiet History, Matthew Battles, Rating: 3.9
It's my understanding that this is one of the standards in the world of writing about libraries. It's packed with interesting tidbits, as well as mountains of uninteresting tidbits. This is definitely not for everyone. I'm glad I read it, but it wasn't easy to finish.
4. Girlfriend 44, Mark Barrowcliffe, Rating: 3.5
Witty and trite, this is chic lit written by a man. Originally published in the U.K., the edition I read was packed with Britishisms (not necessarily a bad thing). The humor at times seems excessive, detracting from the plot. One of the better books in the genre.
5. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith, Rating: 4.4
This book is charming and somehow timeless, despite being over 50 years old. There's a fairly faithful movie adaptation out there, but stick with the book--the male actors in the movie don't live up to the promise of the literary characters. It's a teenage coming-of-age story and a romance, but don't let that stop you from reading it. The author is better known for writing One Hundred and One Dalmations.
6. My World and Welcome To It, James Thurber, Rating: 4.3
I need to read more Thurber--he's hilarious! His writing is definitely not P.C., but I supposed that's a major part of the charm. This book is a collection of some of his best New Yorker writing.
7. To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife, Caitlin Flanagan, Rating: 4.0
Flanagan writes for a variety of publications on various aspects of modern womanhood--having children, having a nanny, balancing work and house cleaning, our desire to be Martha Stewart and CEO, etc. She's very good at calling it like it is. I can't say that I'm going to change anything about my lifestyle as a result of reading her book, but I did find it very interesting.
8. Fragile Innocence, James Reston, Jr., Rating: 2.9
This book is popping up everywhere. Terry Gross interviewed Reston a few weeks ago, and Entertainment Weekly ran a long review. Reston writes about his daughter, who has an unknown disease that has left her without the ability to speak or function above a 9-month-old level. It's intriguing. It's also very flawed, in my opinion. Reston carefully documents the name of every doctor and teacher, but never mentions any at home help (yet makes it clear that he and his wife work full time, and believe it's impossible to leave the child alone). He also makes huge statements and completely fails to back them up in any way. His nervous breakdown gets 2 paragraphs, leaving one to wonder if it was just a figure of speech, or an actual episode? I felt that times that the book was a padded version of his daughter's medical record.

On Matt Davis Trail

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

The rain has stopped and the sun (finally) is coming out. Adam, his friends Justin and Brandon, and his brother Wes and I trekked out to the coast to hike the Matt Davis-Steep Ravine Trail yesterday. It was absolutely perfect--the streams are flowing, the undergrowth unbelievably lush, and everything is a luminescent green.

Boys in the fog

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

Mushrooms in the forest

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

Banana Slug

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

I talked Adam into kissing one. Did you ever do this? It was a right of passage for a preteen Californian (seriously). Some chemical the slug exudes makes your lips numb. And sticky, of course.

Redwoods

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

Stinson in the sun

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

Weekend in San Diego

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

I flew down to San Diego last Friday for a girls' weekend. I was incredibly flattered to be invited. The group (9 of us total) are all Cal grads, most of which Elese met through friends or business school. Sun Hee (who Elese and I visited in Switzerland last summer) certainly traveled the farthest to be there. It was great--lots of shopping, lazing about, and catching up (in my case, getting to know everyone better). Several of the girls remembered me from my year or so working at Wall Berlin--I'll see if I can dig up a photo from those days.

I definitely think getting away with the girls is something all of us should do more often.

Brunch

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

Here's a small sampling of the group, waiting for our table at brunch. Shannon, to my right, was the host of the gathering. You'll notice that the sun is out and we're all wearing flip flops. It was such a nice change! The weather here really is starting to drive me nuts.

Two of our hosts

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

We spent much of the weekend at Shannon's boyfriend's house. He and his roommates were amazingly accomodating--they cooked, cleaned, let us invade their space, and made a mean bloody mary.

March 2006 Book Reviews

March was a better than average month--lots of books, many of them quite good.

1. A Time to Run, Barbara Boxer, Rating: 3.1
I read the first draft of this in my Chronicle days, and was pleased by how well the final version was "directed" and edited. The effort is certainly admirable; the book is just okay. It's certainly not bad--just a bit forgetable.
2. Between the Bridge and the River, Craig Ferguson, Rating: 4.0
Entertainment Weekly gave this a decidedly lukewarm review, but I disagree with their comments--it's very funny, often laugh-out-loud funny. The kind of book that you quote from aloud whenever there's someone around to listen.
3. It's Superman!, Tom de Haven, Rating: 3.3
Another Chronicle book (actually, these first three all are), I was really excited to get my hands on this. Unfortunately, it's boring. You'd think the life of Superman would have lots of twists and turns, but I kept waiting for something exciting to happen. Too bad.
4. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough, Rating: 4.6
This is my second time through this book. My mom recommended it when I was in high school--she had read it for the first time while in labor with me. It's trashy and could be considered a romance novel, but as vacation books go (I bought this copy in a thrift shop in Hawaii, having finished all the books I brought with me) you really won't find much better.
5. The Bill from My Father, Bernard Cooper, Rating: 4.1
This was recently reviewed on NPR--a memoir by a man whose father billed him for the cost of his upbringing (2 million dollars). Please be warned that the section of the book dealing with this incident is at most 2 pages. However, everything else is extremely interesting, funny without being cruel, emotional without revealing too much*. It's great.
*With the exception of his relationship with his life partner. Please avoid this book if you're uncomfortable with men admiring and touching each other.
6. You're Wearing That?, Deborah Tannen, Rating: 2.1
Subtitle: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation. Which is exactly what this book is about--how moms and daughters communicate, what they say and what they actually mean. This author rubbed me the wrong way--I just didn't buy her credentials and "supporting evidence." She raised interesting points, but the book overall is not a success.

Adam swimming in Kaanapali

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

This is right outside of our hotel, the Royal Lahaina Resort, which was a few miles up the road from Lahaina. Despite being a bit of a "factory" for tourists, the hotel was comfortable, clean, and fairly quiet, and it's hard to complain about the beach access. Adam and I brought beers down to the beach our second night and just watched the ocean--we had the entire beach to ourselves.

On the road to Hana

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia. Hana, Hana, Hana--every guidebook you read insists that it's an absolute must when you're in Hawaii. My question--how did Hana get such a reputation? Yes, the drive is lovely, but it's so much prettier once you leave Hana! We stopped at a dozen different places before the town, and all paled in comparison to the hike we took in Haleakala National Park, a few miles past the town. Lindberg's grave is more exciting! So drive the road quickly, and linger at the better spots further on.