Birch and Maple

It's Almost That Time Of The Year Again...

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Also, I'm still working on the other website, but will (hopefully) be posting over there full time come November 1.

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TheBeardedLady, my pic is of a member of the Ouled Nail, an Algerian tribal hillswoman who went to the big city to earn her dowry by bellydancing (some were what we would consider prostitutes as well).  They wore their dowry in the form of coin and jewelry, and unforunately, their time in the city wasn't the only danger, for many were murdered on their way back to their villages for the money they had earned. 

You can see more of Lehnert and Landrock's gorgeous photos here.

Oro out

Quickie from Work

So I'm ordering books related to infertility and such and have the feeling I'm forgetting some titles.  Here's what I've ordered so far:

Navigating the Land of If by Mel (duh!)

Two Is Enough: Guide for Couples Without Children

It Sucked & Then I Cried - Dooce (avail. in pb in March in USA)

So Close - Tertia

Didn't Pamela write a book, too?  I can't remember the title nor the name of her blog (because I am stupid, that's why)...

...who else am I missing?  What else would be good?

Oro - posting from work!

Babble

Interestingly, I've found myself rather more into the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing than the US version.  That's probably because the judges are more judge-y ("You dance like you've got both legs in one knicker hole"), and then, of course, there's Bruce Forsythe ("Nice to see you, to see you - nice!").  Ancient and awesome.

I am utterly into C4's Skins (series 1 soft trailer, hard trailer) - although I think series 3 (soft trailer - w/language and nudity) is a little more over the top than 1 & 2.  However, Ep 8 JJ - just fabulous.  I cried a little at the end.  Also, with eye candy like this, you know you'd be watching too if you could:

Back in the US of A, of course, there's GLEE, which people, if you aren't watching, you're missing a treat.  And there's a really interesting CRAZY (possible)INFERTILE LADY!!!11! storyline going on, too.  I have to confess it makes me a little...uneasy.  A little less amused.  Not because it's not funny, I guess I'm just...it's too thin, too close to the bone.  I'm not sure I'd watch it if I was having a rough day.  Here's the long promo (YT) featuring the premiere ep:

I'm also loving Community:

and Modern Family:

and oo, Dollhouse is back!  So is NCIS!  Woot!
~*~

I was totally going to do a book review tonight, but am now too tired,

Oro out

Posting From Work!

For the love of avocados, do not read Jodi Picoult's Handle With Care.

Seriously.

Don't do it.

Just...don't.

Oro, getting off the blog before the bosses come in to check the busted back door and display window - due to the wankers who have nothing better to do...bring on winter!

Recommended Reads

Sexism in America - wherein a  priveledged middle class white lady discovers that there's still -gasp - sexism everywhere!  I can't tell you how much this book pissed me off.  Seriously, did she grow up in a box?  If you want to talk about sexism and Feminism and Womanism, go read Shakesville or Feministe.  Ugh.

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathon Tropper - absolutely hilarious.  I loved it, but you might want to wait until it comes in paperback.

The Vegetarian Myth  by Lierre Keith - Wow.  A powerhouse of a book encapsulating the author's journey from Veganism to Omnivore.  Though not a vegetarian, I reached the same conclusion years ago after reading the Beyond Vegetarianism website. This author, however, does advocate not having children - even though she feels the clock ticking desperately.  She is torn, and I feel for her, though I would not make the same choice (obviously).

The Battle For America 2008 by Haynes Johnson - Fantastically readable book about the 2007-2008 election.  I'm only about halfway through it but I really don't want to put it down!

Listening to Stone by Dan Snow - local dry stonewall mason, Dan Snow, writes about how he builds his projects.  With lots of pictures and o how I wish I could afford him.

The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle - alas, an interesting plot (woman offers succor to a small child) is broken by terrible writing. 

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos - fun summer read with a bit of an unexpected twist (some parts of it just don't go where you expect).

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin - Begins with the horrible and graphic torture and death of a baby.  Needless to say, couldn't finish it, wish I hadn't started it. 

Next up:

Olive Kitteridge
The Girl Who Played With Fire

Sugar of the Crop: My Journey to Find the Children of Slaves

Oro out

Recommended Reads

Here are a few things that Ive mostly finished.  More or less.

Finding Nouf - excellent mystery based in Saudi Arabia.  Good for folks who don't care for violent scenes (Donna Leon is also good for that lack, I understand) or any gore.  And for the one star reviewer who apparently missed this part: the author married a Saudi and lived there for several years.

Dreamdark: Silksinger - very enjoyable so far and well written.  If you've got a teen or pre-teen who likes fantasy/faeries, this is the series for them.  Although they are standalones, the 1st book in the series is already available in trade paper.

If I Stay - devastating but wonderful book that I can't discuss the details of, but it's heartbreaking.  If you've recently had a death in the family, don't read it...or maybe do, it might be cathartic.  There is a child death, however.

Selected Works Of TS Spivet - I've just started reading this and it's excellent.  Priced as an adult hardcover at $27.99, though...which is a shame, because it deserves wide readership.

Not Becoming My Mother - a (very) brief little book about how little we know our parents, and how to accept the unwitting gifts they give us.  Interesting, but I'd wait for the paperback.

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities - fabulous!  And I don't just say that because one of the illustrator's is local.  Fascinating book that'll have you looking twice at your house plants, never mind the ones we have in our gardens.

Oro out.

Recs

The Small Carpet Of Flying Miracles
Hala Jaber
$24.95 June 2009 Penguin

Oy.  Hala Jaber, an infertile Lebanese journalist married to an Englishman and living in London, is sent to Iraq to find a 'good orphan'.  What she finds, instead, is the story of two girls, 3 years and 2 months, whose entire immediate family is killed in a rocket attack (shocked and awed real good).  This incredibly depressing book is the story of these girls, Hala's attempts to take care of them, death, mayhem, and war.  And infertility, too.  I won't spoil the ending, but the whole tale is heartbreaking, not only for Hala in her infertility, but for the girls and their grandmother and so many others. 

The Monsters of Templeton
Lauren Groff
$14.95 available now

I picked up this book because I loved the cover.  So sue me.  There is a theme of fertility running throughout the book, but this is perphaps not what it seems - or maybe it is.  Let's just say that if I had been in a more sensitive frame of mind, I don't think I could have read it past the first couple of pages...I do, however, recommend sticking with it.  All in all, I've been recommending this book for a good month now...and my mom liked it too, until she got sidetracked by the new PD James and Poirot videos.

Real Food for Mother and Baby: Fertility Diet, Eating for Two, and Baby's First Foods
Nina Planck
$17 available now

Buy this book.  RIGHT NOW.  Don't have a baby yet?  Doesn't matter.  Because you want to eat to support a fetus, right?  Of course you do.  The sperm need nutrients too.  Ye gods, people, if I could pack this book, along with Nourishing Traditions, into the bags of every single woman of child-bearing age, I would.  SO MUCH common sense...and damned good science behind it.  I of course mocked this book mercilessly until I flipped through a couple of pages, then fell in love with it and married it and now we're in the process of seeing a reproductive endocrinologist together because I want this book's babies.  Seriously, I keep coming to tears reading it, nodding my head and doing fist jabs in the air, for it talks about eveyrthing I believe and then backs it up with science stuff, which is totally awesome.  Keep in mind I work in a bookstore, I see a lot of crap advice (don't even get me started on vegan food for growing brains) where diet is concerned.  And psychology.  And philosophy.  Sometimes it's hard to put our eyes back in our heads.

Coming up:

The Homework Myth
The Soloist - not loving it so far
Love Walked In
People of The Book - loved it

Space Between Us - wow, depressing yet uplifting. Sorta.

Altars of Power and Grace

Three Cups Of Tea - halfway through and loving it

Eat, Pray, Love - enjoyed greatly, she could be too arch for older readers

Oro out

I Should Be Sleeping

But I've decided to post instead.  By bulleted list, because I really do need to sleep and it's going to be a good hour before then and I'm up early in the A to the M.

• a piece of my car fell off yesterday.  I think it might be part of the muffler...
• no, the lefty indie bookstore does not, and will never, carry any books by any member of FOX news.
• all the wheat I'm eating is making me bloated, my dandruff worse, my acne icky, my exhaustion more exhausty, and my stomach crampy.  Yay for poverty!*
• that new Peter Robinson book was extremely disappointing
• but I will be ordering Mel's new book for the store, 2x, one for me, one for the 'staff picks' shelf
• I have decided to get back to writing, although when I'm going to find the time, I do not know
• I need other viewing recommendations for tv/movie watching from the internet
• I am desperate to eat fruit, but cannot afford fresh and will not eat canned (damned BPA liners)
• yes, I must write, anyone interested in doing a community writing blog?  I'm thinking of maybe doing a forum instead of a blog...
• we haven't lost power yet at the house, yay!
• we have yet another  mouse, boo.  Seriously, #4 in less than 2 months?
• turkey makes me fart
• I hate stupid drivers.  If the speed limit is 50MPH, that does not mean you have to do 35MPH, braking before every corner or every time another car comes your way
• it was cool to move, with fellow drivers, the tree that had toppled into the main East-West highway after that wicked windstorm aka I love living in the boonies
• can you believe it's December already?
• i have a long rant about a coworker who's also my bff's bf, but that must await for another night
• have you watched The Dark Knight? Talk about bleak...
• ...Tropic Thunder was less funny than I thought it would be, but still amusing
• the new Dr Who isn't really for children, is it...and Torchwood, good grief.
• What new tv shows should I be watching, not including the Mentalist, which couldn't gain my interest?

Oro out

*please, we could so much more be worse off it's not even funny

The Mystery Box

Lately I've been spending a lot of time on TED.  Being up so early in the morning, sometimes I just can't use both hands on the laptop, and it' great to be able to listen and watch smart people present interesting stuff.  I highly recommend you check out even the stuff that doesn't take your fancy - it's always interesting!

With that in mind, here are two inspiring talks, the first featuring Dave Eggers (author of A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius, which ties Jonathon Lethem's Gun, With Occasional Music*, for best title ever) and a fabulous idea for tutoring children that's taking off across the country and, hopefully, the world.  It's 24 minutes long, but very well worth it (funny, too).  The second talk is by JJ Abrams (Lost, Alias, Regarding Henry, Felicity, Star Trek 11, etc).

Hope you enjoyed these talks, I certainly did.

Oro out.

* I loved GWOM, but also felt it failed at the very end.  Like Motherless Brooklyn, it had me giggling madly throughout.  Amnesia Moon, however, I just couldn't get through.

Why? and Book Review - to come

Why do they torment me so?  The catalogs arrive, filled with color and fragrance and promises of hedonistic pleasure, some of their pages are slick and shiny, others duller from choosing less glossy packaging materials.

Yes, today Mom and Mr Oro went and checked the mailbox, returning with two books, Cindy Margolis' Having A Baby...When the Old-Fashioned Way Isn't Working**, which I will be reviewing in the next couple of days courtesy of Megan from Penguin, and The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap, by Stephanie Coontz.  I was pretty excited about those two, but then, beyond the bills and the statements and the alumni notification were the catalogs.

Oh yes, the catalogs.

Damn them.

White Flower Farm - if you're in or around Connecticut, this is a fun place to visit.  Perhaps a bit on the pricey side, but good for window shopping of nothing else. 

Seeds of Change - heirloom and rare veggies and flowers, source for heirloom apples, too

Select Seeds - antique and heirloom plants

Seed Savers - even more heirloom veggies.  I meant to order from Seeds of Change, but did SS instead (did I mention I'd ordered stuff?  Leek, lettuce mix, garlic, corn, cabbage, brussel sprouts, carrot, broccoli, and Charentais Melon). 

Dutch Gardens - flower-o-rama.  All of the sale plants I bought from them bloomed last year with two exceptions, the iris bulbs and the astilbe (which might bloom this year or next).

Burpee - standard and GM seed stock, but good for common varieties of veggies and fruits\

Double damn them for sending the bloody things in December/January.  I mean, talk about garden porn, this is it!!!

I've got so much to learn, nevermind building my raised gardens before I can actually plant anything this year, so this spring is going to be a very steep learning curve on all counts.  On the other leaf, I figure, how hard can it possibly be?  Let's take a look at a few of the issues:

1) I haven't grown a vegetable from seed since, um, actually, I don't ever remember growing a vegetable from seed.  Why from seed?  Because I'm cheap, that's why.

2) da bear.  And other critters, like deer, birds*, chipmunks, and squirrels.  I know there are sprays for deer and rabbits, but bears?  Hmm.

3) the front yard, which gets a mix of straight, noonday sun with morning and afternoon shade, is going to be for flower

4) the back yard, which, though north-facing, gets sun pretty much all day long, will be for the vegetables and the fruit trees (apples, blueberries - have the two bushes I planted last year survived?  I doubt it)

5) the bamboo.  I'll need to hire someone who cut it down once a month from April to November.  For the next couple of years.  With any luck, I'll be able to eradicate the growth, and fingers crossed, the roots may die completely if starved of food.  Ditto for the goutweed, bittersweet, and that goddamned orange daylily that I thought was so pretty, but which turns out to be totally invasive.  bah.  Which brings me to...

6) how the hell do I grow perennials, especially the self-seeders, without unwittingly setting off an invasion??  Gah.

7) flowers, oh how I love thee.  Alas, the money is simply not there.  But if I did have lots of dosh to spend, I'd be buying roses, daffodils, tulips, lilies, foxgloves, lilacs, hollyhocks, iris, and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

I just had to get that off my more than ample chest.  I don't suppose I've passed on the obsession...?

Oro, the ill,  again, out

* oh, remember that hawk I saw two weeks ago?  Turns out there's a nesting pair living somewhere in town - how cool is that?!

** it's looking good so far.