Monday, January 07, 2008

"What an excellent day for an exorcism!" *

The boys are out playing in our E. coli-festering mudpit of a backyard. Ok, maybe it’s not quite that bad, but until we get the fence rebuilt, the dog poops back there (which I do clean up every morning at the least, plus right after he’s gone out on the warm days), and we have NO grass because you wouldn’t have any grass either if you had three- um, make that four – hockey-mad males in your family. And it’s been raining and warm, and the Appalachian-themed dirt has become Appalachian-themed mud, ringed with the composting remnants of the magnolia tree’s leaves. I made the boys wear their Crocs so I could just hose them off when they came in. I would take a picture and show you the yard, but it’s frankly too embarrassing.

I ate half a pound of chocolate-covered raisins last night – I was reading Siri Hustvedt’s excellent What I Loved and chewing my nails and bloodying my cuticles. I decided chewing raisins was preferable to rendering my fingertips useless. But that many raisins? Regardless of whether they are coated in chocolate or not? Equals severe heartburn and tummy distress. I am just recovering, after power-napping for the past twenty minutes underneath the laundry piles (where it’s warm) on my bed. Additionally, the fourteen pounds I have lost this pregnancy are going to pack right back on with a vengeance if I continue eating chocolate-covered anything in this manner. And we do NOT want that. At least I don’t. What I do want is to read Hustvedt’s other books now. And since I took care of all the important errands on Saturday, like renewing my library card, I think I’ll scoot over to the website and request them right now.

I am concurrently reading Zoe Heller’s What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scanda which is ok – I am sort of waiting for it to pick up; and Haven Kimmel’s The Solace of Leaving Early, which is so far just as interesting and engrossing as her other books. I have a chapter or two left in Terra Incognita, which I enjoyed very much but feel like I have been reading FORever.

Next up: a novel I picked up because (I can’t believe I am going to admit this) I liked the cover: Justin Evans’s A Good and Happy Child. I am hoping it is not just going to be a throwaway thriller. But check out those demons – don’t they bode well?




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* Pazuzu, in "The Exorcist"

8 comments:

blackbird said...

All e coli aside, I think you have to start watching those binges...what if your water breaks right after you eat
a half a pound of chocolate covered raisins?

Am I the only one thinking this way?

tut-tut said...

I read Notes on a Scandal as a very very black comedy; the movie version did not see it that way at all. I wonder if I'm the only one who saw it that way . . .

lazy cow said...

I loved What I was until about 3/4 of the way through.
Partial to chocolate covered sultanas (smaller than raisins, therefore probably even worse for me as the choc-fruit ratio is larger, or is it smaller?)
Those demons scare me.

Jess said...

Notes on A...never did pick up....

I imagine chocolate-covered raisins would wash any nasty taste out of your mouth...

Kathy said...

I've considered picking that book up many times because I like the cover.

Joke said...

Did you actually judge a book by its cover??

-J.

Anonymous said...

I liked A Good and Happy Child.

As for the back yard, look at it this way- at least you don't have to mow.

Gina said...

I read A Good and Happy Child last month. Creepy and cool, it's sort of The Exorcist Lite. It's not nearly as violent or scary, but it's immediately engrossing and both a fun and troubling read.

I won't say it tempted me to sleep with the light on, but it did make me think about some things I hadn't considered in a long time.