Leave it to me to allow my life to descend into the realm of country music bathos...
Dudes -
My babysitter sprained her wrist and racked up her arm ligaments in a fall while on vacation.
Total suckitude, as Joke would say.
On so many levels that it's not even worth thinking about.
In book news:
Loved Sandra Gulland's latest, Mistress of the Sun (easily as wonderful as her Josephine books...as Gina said, though, the only bad thing is it's not part of a trilogy...)
Still enjoying the Tess Monaghan mysteries, and finished Love Walked In's sequel, Belong to Me, which was good but not as good as Love Walked In. A tad overwrought, especially towards the end, and parts were simply unbelievable, as in 'Never in a million, gazillion years would a person react that way to that particular piece of news.'
I read a short story in the New Yorker which The Lovely Becky linked in a recent post, "Miracle." The story is creepy and haunting and wonderful, and now I have to read more of Judy Budnitz's work. (Someone, anyone, please read that story and EXPLAIN IT TO ME.)
And I am reading Jennifer Haigh's newest book, The Condition, and LOVE it.
Love, love, love it.
**************
*Don Williams
6 comments:
As usual, I find myself reaching for a notepad to make note of your recommendations. Bummer 'bout the babysitter, babe. (Sorry, I apparently have a "b" thing going on tonight.)
I can explain the Haunted (Shirley Jackson) to you any day. But this, Miracle, um, WHATT??
and unlike Velma, I am not alliterative today.
xo,
SL
Uh, that story was ... yeah. I dunno. It reminded me of The Boy on the Bus, which I didn't get, either.
I kept thinking of Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child while I read it. If you figure it out, please explain it to me! At first I thought the father was crazy, then that the baby was crazy (when it got suddenly heavy it reminded me of The Fifth Child) and then that the mother was crazy...or maybe all 3.
I'm rarely sucked into New Yorker stories (it's my least favorite part of the magazine) or short stories in general, but this one had me hooked.
I'm halfway through Love Walked In and am loving it so far.
Yeah, Judy Budnitz is wonderful in that creepy kind of way. I'm teaching that story this fall in my Spec Fiction graduate course--should be interesting. Another story in her collection, "Where We Come From" is about an unusual baby. Her collection is the kind of thing that actually inspires me to try new things in my own writing, which is probably why I liked it.
Glad you're liking The Condition. JH keeps writing like she's going to keel over any minute--I'm so envious of her ability to crank them out!
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