Snow and The Age of Miracles

Sunrise was at 7:51, sunset will be at 4:49. Snow.

Okay. Now I feel like I've made the correct decision about staying home today. The reports on the news are that buses are hard to get and not getting where they're going anyway, and it has snowed at our house continuously since it began at around 4 am. We have 5 inches of snow in the yard, the birds are flocking into the bushes, and the neighbor's squirrel feeder has been completely emptied.

It's so pretty and looks so cold. The wind is beginning to pick up and snow is dropping off trees and power lines.

I am spending the day writing up reviews on Goodreads, updating my book list, and sorting books, crap, and stuff to donate, give to schools or to sell. It's an "extra" day, a day to do things I don't normally do because it's such a special one, a free day. I may even take a nap after hauling stuff around. I WILL finish the Christmas wrapping of the presents that still need to go out to the family today and I WILL get them mailed by Saturday. The snow inspires me to do so.

I read this GREAT book last night, thanks to one of our Random House reps, David Glenn! It was on my desk yesterday morning and I was up late finishing it. It is called The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker, and is an interesting look at what might happen if the earth's rotation started to slow.

One day, not too long from now, scientists announce that the earth's rotation has started to slow and that the days, and nights, will start to get longer. Within days, people are able to see the changes, a news crawl along the bottom of the tv screen announces how many more minutes are in each day, people begin to feel symptoms related to the slowing, birds start walking their migration routes, and whales beach themselves in long rows where the waves end.

The government institutes a 24 hour clock day, one that doesn't necessarily follow the light and dark of the earth's rotations, and those who want to follow circadian rhythms are ostracized and vilified. It's an amazing description of the effects of a slowing earth - the children who go to school are sometimes waiting for the bus at what might be (in old time) 2 am. Periodically, daytime and nighttime activities correspond with the clock day hours and people can party in the dark and walk to school in the daylight.

In a world that is constantly changing, 11 year-old Julia just wants her best friend back and to be noticed by Seth Moreno, a cute skateboarder with a dying mother.

Julia's family is pretty standard, a California family, two parents and a child, who begin to fall apart during the slowing. It's funny, in a way, how adaptable we all are to destruction. When the days reach 48 hours in length and people are beginning to crack under the pressures of being awake for 24 hours in a row, we still look for love and acceptance and justice.

Julia has lost her best friend and is trying to navigate the dangerous waters that make up her middle school. She wants a bra (and the bosom to fill it), a boyfriend, any kind of friend, but she's a quiet girl who doesn't want to be too noticed, so she watches the negotiations that make up the lives of the other teenagers in her cul de sac as the world rolls slowly to a stop. As the slowing continues and becomes a part of daily life, everyone continues on, breaking up, falling in love, going out to dinner (no matter that the sun may have just come up) eventually figuring out ways to adapt to an environment that is increasing dangerous to be in.

I loved the descriptions of their town as the dark goes on and on, the cold and the noise of the insects, the heat as the light time goes on for 60 hours, melting asphalt and giving sunburns. It's a very quiet book for all the violence and drama surrounding this family, it feels very much like a memory being repeated, like an old photo or postcard, graying and soft around the edges, easier to recount each time it's remembered.

Such a true look at how we live, even in the midst of our world's destructing, we still want to find someone who'll love us, someone who will still love us after we screw up, we still want to belong to someone or something, we want people to know we were here.

The Age of Miracles will keep you up late and then make you wonder at how neatly we all fit into the world, how dependent we are on everything else being exactly as it is. It will make you want to notice each sunrise and sunset and the precise distance between each, preferably with someone you love close to hand.

I like that the book is written from somewhere in the future, our Julia is writing about this time in history from a farther place, and I would really like to know what happened to her as she made her way there.

This would be a great read for YA audiences. The main character is a tween and the storyline is so very cool! All that science, too. (Random House. Available 6/26/12.)

Happy New Year!

Today is the 3rd of January.

I've been thinking about my goals for the year, for the decade; you get to be this age, your resolutions need to be longer than a year. Mine are pretty standard ones: Eat better, lose weight, figure out money. It sure seems that everyone I hear talk in re: resolutions, talks about those three things. Why is this so hard to get under control, so hard to change? Habit? Emotion? Too big to get your mind around? If I need to lose 50 pounds, why is it so hard to lose that second 5 pounds? Why is it so easy to just say, I'll be good tomorrow? Why do we use judgmental terms like good and bad?

Arghhh. So, here it is: I'm starting small. I avoided the pizza at the gym last night (yeah, I know, pizza in the gym once a month) - I looked at each one, the smell of melting cheese and hot tomatoes are a couple of my food triggers - but I closed the lids and walked on out.

But, here's the thing: I went to the gym last night. I took my clothes and told myself that it's only half an hour. Once my shoes were on, I was good to go. It's getting the shoes on that's so hard.

I am going to drink more water. I'm sure that most of my cloudiness at work must be due to something in the air, the fluorescent lights, the dust, so I don't need to amplify those things by being dehydrated.

From there, the world's my oyster: that first step on the treadmill will eventually lead to a 5 or 10 K "run" by the end of next year; that first drink of water will lead to feeling fuller earlier so I won't be as hungry for solid food so that first 5, then the second 5, pounds will be a little easier to handle.

I'll deal with the other things as they come. We are already choosing to eat out of the pantry rather than shopping every day for things to put together into a meal. We've made meals out of the stuff in the freezer. I'm going to keep the slow cooker on the counter rather than putting it out of sight. We are thinking twice about spending money on impulsive buys- if we still want it in a month, well, we'll think about it then. We are taking lunches to work.

I want to make an extra house payment a year. I want to go on a real vacation. I don't want to eat dog food when I'm too old to work. That's going to take a lot of thoughtfulness and work so small steps: Eat lunch in. Put 100 dollars aside when possible. Learn how to use eBay and sell stuff rather than donating. (Yeah, I know that donating is a good thing but sometimes we need the cash rather than the tax credit. That's even if we remember to keep track of the donation.)

Oh, one more thing! I am going to learn how to use the machines and materials D. has accrued in 30 years of geekery and make cards and framed gifts out of the decades of photos we've taken of the families. I've made one photo, so far, with way too much help. I will learn how to do it on my own!

I am also going to be better about posting reviews on Goodreads-I love that widget they have about reaching book goals. Last year I read 150 books and I got started in March. This year, I am planning to read 200 books and review them, not just list them.

Well. There you go. Aim at losing 50 pounds. Save 100 dollars a month. File paper. Read, list and review 200 books. Simple words, hard to do, but small steps to a larger goal for a more stress-free life.

Good luck to you all with the changes you are making in your lives!

Happy Solstice!

Sunrise was at 7:55, sunset will be 4:20.

Solstice will fall today, Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 9:30 PM.

I just have to mark this longest night, shortest day of the year with a post. The sun is up, and it is shining at its lowest point in the sky. Today, the sun's rays only illuminate a very few of the windows in the buildings on the east side of Beacon Hill-they are already fading from a molten gold to beige....and gone!

There are weeks when we get no sunlight at our house and nothing really dries out, only evaporates and then turns green, mossy and slick. Reading in the window light means sitting with one's head at an angle, book held close, everything tilted toward the little bit of ambient and reflected light that makes it through. There will be an extra second of daylight tomorrow and I will thoroughly enjoy it!

Still reading The Storyteller, and I have Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Lockdown on the bedside table, Sisters is on the buffet for quick meal reading, and I just finished reading Josh Bazell's sequel to Beat the Reaper, Wild Thing. I LOVE these books.

Josh's books are funny and profane and gruesome but there's something endearing about our "hero", whoever he is this time. They are smart and filled with all kinds of sidebar facts, they are mysteries about a man in witness protection trying to keep himself safe and out of his old life. He is a medical doctor but can only work in iffy jobs as a result of his past. The medical part is what makes the books more than a little gruesome, but the writing is so funny and our hero so wants to do good that everything else just adds more substance to the story. Beat the Reaper is out in paper, now, and if you like that kind of hardboiled crime story with a little whimsy thrown in, you really should give them a try.

Books you'll miss your bus stop for

Sunrise was at 7:54, sunset will be at 4:20. One more day 'til Solstice, tomorrow will be the long dark and then we start the upswing into the light, a few seconds a day until summer swings us back into the dark. I woke at 7:30 this morning, still dark, clouds glowing from city lights still on, the football field's arches streaking red and green, red and green, red and green.

I have read a few books recently that I have either missed my bus stop reading or started in bed and had to finish before sleeping. In the last post I wrote about The Last Princess, by Galaxy Craze (don't you just love her name?), a book I started when I went to bed and had to finish before I could go to sleep.

I missed my bus stop reading Embrace, by Jessica Shirvington, last week. I remember looking up while still in Seattle and the next thing I knew I was at a stop I didn't even recognize. I had to get off and walk back along the route to reach my destination. So funny to have that happen; you think you are jaded because you read so much, but, no. If someone writes a good story, it will take you out of your life enough to make you miss your stop. Embrace is a really good story about exiled angels and humans who are half-angel.

Violet is in heavy physical training for a number of sports, marathons, rock climbing, kickboxing, and may have more than simple feelings for her trainer, Lincoln. When Phoenix walks into Violet's life, all the secrets that Lincoln's been holding about himself and her literally lead her into hell. Violet's been training for something more than the local 5K, she is one of the Grigori, an angel/human mix, someone who is on earth to keep the exiled angels from taking over the world.

There are a lot of angel books out there but this one is, I think, the best I've read, yet! It's the first of a series and the next one (Enticed) will be out in September (Embrace won't be out until March, 2012) and the third 6 months after that! YAY for series written in other countries and then released in the U. S., and YAY for publishers who recognize that people who read series may outgrow or forget and then not care about the next ones if they have to wait a year for that book. It's really good and I can't wait for others to read it! (Sourcebooks, price TBA. Available March 2012.)

Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater, one long read, one long wish that it would never end. I read nothing else while I read Scorpio Races. I didn't want to sully the pictures in my head or to dilute the story with something else. That never happens - I almost always have 3 or 4 books going at the same time (until one book tugs my attention away from the others) - and I would have turned it over and started it again if it weren't for the shelves of unread things pulling at me. Best book of the year.


And now I'm reading The Storyteller, by Antonia Michaelis, and all I want to do is read. It's beautifully written and I'm only a few chapters in so I don't know what's going to happen, but the author's ability to convey emotion and to put together a storyline is entangling. I started the book last night and read until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. I woke up and still had the book in my hands, upright on my stomach, legs bent in a V behind it.

So far, we have Anna, a good girl, finding herself fascinated with bad boy Abel and his little sister, Micha, a sweet child who loves Abel. Abel tells amazing stories to Micha, and sells drugs on the school campus. Anna may actually be falling in love even though she has only just met him. She just followed him to school where he picks up Micha and then to the university cafeteria where she hides herself and listens into his conversations with his sister. I can understand her compulsion to follow him, to try and engage (she actually buys some drugs so she has a reason to talk to him). He is two different people in one body, the outside is tough, Nazi-like, and the inside is white noise and Leonard Cohen poetry and a big brother raising and caring for a little girl.

I tried to convince D. that I could take the bus today instead of driving (so I could keep reading) but it would get me home after 10 tonight and sometimes my neighborhood isn't the safest for walking in. I will be thinking about this book all day. (Amulet. $18.95. Available January, 2012.)

Last Princess, Galaxy Craze

Sunrise was at 7:43, sunset will be at 4:18. The air is still and water laden. It's foggy and wet this morning and it probably won't get much above the low 40s-I'm not complaining about that! It's not snowing. There is a flicker on the telephone pole across the way, pecking away at a hole up towards the top. Flickers are one of my favorite birds, their cool tails with the patch of white you can only see when they fly, their strong beaks, that great dun color, flecked with black.

I talked to the Lake Forest Park Preschool yesterday, stayed late and talked about some of my favorite picture books. It's always weird to have such a different schedule: the sounds in the store are different, the staff is different, the way we interact with customers is different. Folks are a little more laid-back, coming in from the dark, looking for something to read.

I must remember to make a list of what was in the stack of books.

So, it was late when I got home and I had a glass of wine and watched John Stewart, finished sending out the BookNotes newsletter, before heading up to bed with a new book.

I don't know how you all choose what you read when but when the evening gets late and turns to night, I tend to look for what might be considered lighter fare for reading to sleep. I usually pick up something funny in the middle grade/chapter book genre or something science fiction-y. I don't have to think too much about those kinds of books, I won't miss too much if I fall asleep over a couple of pages- do you fall asleep still holding the book upright in front of your face? Sometimes I dream I'm still reading and when I wake up I realize I the book doesn't make sense and I have to start over.

Yesterday, in a black box on my desk, was a new book settled in a nest of purple confetti: The Last Princess, by Galaxy Craze. I grabbed it up and stuffed it into my bag on my way out the back door to the car. When it was time to go to bed, I had a pickup sticks conglomeration of books on the kitchen table to choose from and I chose The Last Princess- if it was worth reading, I'd know soon, and not lose much sleep over it if it wasn't. Well, I was up until I finished it (thankfully I read fast and I didn't have to be up early) and it was worth every single second!

It's 2090, the earth is in an environmental shambles, and the Royal Family in England is challenged by and then overturned by a revolutionary group. In a violent coup, two of the three royal siblings are arrested and imprisoned. The third child, Eliza, escapes and swears she will avenge her family and re-instate the Windsors to their rightful place.

In a rough and tumble world, Eliza joins the revolutionaries to find out what she can about her family, learning along the way just how tough she is and how strong she is going to have to be if she is ever going to find the remnants of her family.

The Last Princess was REALLY GOOD and well worth every second I gave up in sleep. There were pretty good descriptions of battles, the disgusting streets filled with rats Eliza has to hide in and hunker down in seemed realistic, and I think the environmental disasters that changed the world we know into one we don't holds as a basic story line. I really enjoyed the few "historical" links to our days, Eliza runs her hands over the dresses her great-aunts Princesses Kate and Diana wore, touching the robe Elizabeth wore when she became Queen.

There's a nice romance, one filled with secrets but sweet for all of that, a wonderful, brave dog and a war horse named Caligula that Eliza wins over. Good, good, good! 12 and up. It will be available in May of 2012. $17.99. Poppy (an imprint of Little Brown). I just saw on the Little Brown website that Galaxy is working on a sequel to Last Princess! Yay!

It's Good to be Home

Nothing like coming home after dark, unpacking the car of groceries, book bag, books, walking laden up to the porch, feeling the thump, thump, thump of a bass in my chest, throwing the door open and being awash in Pete T's voice. Mmmmm. Thank you, D. That was nice.

Presents for Me!

Sunrise was at 7:40, sunset will be at 4:19. Beautiful morning, blue skies, cold (39 degrees), windows across Beacon Hill exploding in color orange and yellow.

I don't have to be at work until 10:30 today because we have an author coming at 5:30, so I can watch the hummingbirds in the fountain and hope the swelling in my right eyelid goes down enough to be able to see.

I don't know what happened, one minute it itched, the next it started to swell. Maybe I touched my eye after touching spices on something we sampled at Pike Place? There's a little white spot on the swollen part, maybe a bite? I can't see my tear duct and it looks really weird. My eyelashes haven't turned under yet. I wish I'd taken a Benadryl last night but I forgot and now I'm worried that, if I take it now, it will put me back asleep.

We went to Urban Craft Uprising and Pike Place Market to shop and be around people yesterday- nice to see so very many people shopping at booths and filling bags with homemade local goods. Too crowded for me but it was exciting to be in the scrum! D wanted to shop at the market for stir-fry veggies and it was just a blast to be in the middle of all those locals and tourists. The colors of the vegetables fairly glowed in the lights as the sun went down.

Just a veritable bounty of bookish goodness at my house: John Green's manuscript of The Faith in Our Stars, the new Krisin Cashore sequel to Graceling and Fire, Bitterblue, and Bloodrose, the last in the Nightshade series by Andrea Cremer.

I am so looking forward to getting the couch cleared so I can just settle in for hours and read. I think there are times when you just need to skip the sweeping and the folding, let the cat deal with her own issues, put something in the slow cooker, and then provision yourself with a full pot of coffee, cheese and crackers and salsa, warm and thick socks, the coziest sweats and blankets, plump up the pillows and move your couch so it's under the window so you can read in natural light for as long as you want. During the daylight hours! Doesn't that sound positively decadent? Doing something completely for yourself? It would be a spa day without ever leaving the house.