Hello, September
Sep. 1st, 2017 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nightdog_barksOh my god I am still so tired. I am getting better, but this is going to take a while. Anyway, I read some books ...
1) Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977 - 2002, by David Sedaris. I loved this, but then I am a David Sedaris fan. There are times I can take or leave his essays and I know he can be an acquired taste, as it were, but if you like him then you should like this. What a cast of (real) characters! What an ear for dialogue! This is funny and sad and weird, and I hope his next volume of diaries comes out soon.
2) News of the World, by Paulette Jiles. I enjoyed this a whole lot more than I thought I would. It's 1870, and grizzled old Captain Kidd has been hired to take ten-year-old former Kiowa Indian captive Johanna from the Oklahoma border to her aunt and uncle outside San Antonio, Texas. Along the way there are bandits, unfriendly townspeople, and a near-constant threat of continued Indian raids. I thought Johanna's voice was a mite too precious at times, but this is a terrific story. If you liked True Grit and/or Lonesome Dove, you'll probably like this. Two thumbs up.
3) Alligator Candy: A Memoir, by David Kushner. This is a true crime story, and it's a heartbreaker. The author's older brother was abducted and murdered in 1973. The author was four years old, his brother was eleven, and this book is Kushner's attempt to come to terms with it all. It's a tough read at times, but I recommend it.
And now I'm reading an anthology -- Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury. So far I've read the first five stories, and I've liked Neil Gaiman's "The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury" and Sam Weller's "The Girl in the Funeral Parlor" best, although the others were pretty good too.
Otherwise ... it is still warm here, but you can tell the weather has changed. Layla is also much happier. And I'm terribly behind on comments. Sigh.
1) Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977 - 2002, by David Sedaris. I loved this, but then I am a David Sedaris fan. There are times I can take or leave his essays and I know he can be an acquired taste, as it were, but if you like him then you should like this. What a cast of (real) characters! What an ear for dialogue! This is funny and sad and weird, and I hope his next volume of diaries comes out soon.
2) News of the World, by Paulette Jiles. I enjoyed this a whole lot more than I thought I would. It's 1870, and grizzled old Captain Kidd has been hired to take ten-year-old former Kiowa Indian captive Johanna from the Oklahoma border to her aunt and uncle outside San Antonio, Texas. Along the way there are bandits, unfriendly townspeople, and a near-constant threat of continued Indian raids. I thought Johanna's voice was a mite too precious at times, but this is a terrific story. If you liked True Grit and/or Lonesome Dove, you'll probably like this. Two thumbs up.
3) Alligator Candy: A Memoir, by David Kushner. This is a true crime story, and it's a heartbreaker. The author's older brother was abducted and murdered in 1973. The author was four years old, his brother was eleven, and this book is Kushner's attempt to come to terms with it all. It's a tough read at times, but I recommend it.
And now I'm reading an anthology -- Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury. So far I've read the first five stories, and I've liked Neil Gaiman's "The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury" and Sam Weller's "The Girl in the Funeral Parlor" best, although the others were pretty good too.
Otherwise ... it is still warm here, but you can tell the weather has changed. Layla is also much happier. And I'm terribly behind on comments. Sigh.
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Date: 2017-09-02 04:54 am (UTC)IDEK. I don't have "recovering from major surgery" as a reason, but blah.
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Date: 2017-09-02 05:04 am (UTC)Goes.
Away.
And omg it wears you down and it's exhausting, and it makes your mind fuzzy and you fall behind on everything.
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Date: 2017-09-02 05:15 am (UTC)But yes. I'm exhausted by it. I got up the gumption to call my senators about one of the endless items on the Please Don't Let the GOP Pull This Shit list, and thank them for their efforts. And that's more gumption than I've had in a couple weeks now.
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Date: 2017-09-02 05:21 am (UTC)Because I'm convinced we can do that. If nothing else, we can do that. He'll be gone, and we'll still be here.
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Date: 2017-09-02 05:37 am (UTC)The silence about it all, and the length of time it's taking (ohgod it feels like foreeeeveeerrrr) are doubtless both very good things, but sometimes I feel like I'm just barely holding onto sanity while it all drags out and the Repub Congress lets the nation burn in hopes they'll get their rich-donor tax breaks rammed through before he quits or is impeached.
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Date: 2017-09-02 05:44 am (UTC)BUT. I mean. I have been thinking about fic, too. *g*