"We are bad bears. We are not to be trusted."

I have clearly been slacking.
But I did manage to format a bibliography, proof a resume, and start editing a 100-page dissertation draft – without seriously curtailing my Facebook Scramble activities. Hey, something’s gotta give…

Mostly I haven’t been feeling very clever or funny or anything close to approaching my normal witty and erudite self – not to mention I have been amazingly cranky and nasty with the boys and there’s truly nothing funny about THAT.

Although I believe I have good cause to wonder: is it possible that I indeed have the world’s most annoying child (Primo), the world’s whiniest AND loudest child (Seg), and the world’s most stubborn child (Terzo)? It seems like way too much of an – ahem – honor to truly believe I have all three. But I FEEL like I do.
So enough about boring, cranky me. Let’s talk books, that always makes me feel better.

Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons - Shirley Jackson. If you, like all the rest of creation, were required in high school to read Jackson’s morbid short story “The Lottery,” or later ventured into her creepy novels We Have Always Lived in the Castle or Haunting of Hill House, you will have a tough time believing that the same woman penned these dry, witty, somewhat tongue-in-cheek accounts of her life with husband and four children in a ramshackle old house in a small town. They read like early Erma Bombeck, or, for those of you lucky enough to have read it, Theresa Bloomingdale’s laugh-out-loud funny I Should Have Seen It Coming When the Rabbit Died. They have been perfect reading while my four children wail and cry and whine and beat on each other the first few days of spring break.

Devil in the White City – Erik Larson. Loving it. More when I am done…

Prompted by an amazingly delicious, dark and velvety chocolate Guinness cake brought to the party Saturday, I purchased Nigella Lawson’s How to Eat yesterday from Amazon. I originally bought Beth Gutcheon’s new novel, not due out till July, and Mary Doria Russell’s newest novel, but to qualify for Supersaver Shipping, I would not receive the Russell till July, when the Gutcheon comes out. So I had to cancel that order, reorder the Russell, and find something else to buy. Hence, Nigella. I love Nigella. I own How to Be a Domestic Goddess and have never, not once, cooked anything from there that wasn’t incredibly delicious and mostly pretty easy. Victoria sponge has become a staple in my baking repertoire.

Oh, and I also bought Bad Bear Detectives. Because those little stinkers Irving and Muktuk have wormed their devious way into my heart and make me smile. Just like...my obstreperous children. Sigh.