Sunday, June 28, 2009

Stumped......


There are weeks when I just sail through the Sunday puzzles - not so today. I really struggled with the NYT puzzle from last week (we're a week behind here in Maine). It featured the last words of many celebs and historical figures (Pancho Villa said, "Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something."). Grrrr. The Boston Globe puzzle didn't come to me any easier, either. The theme for that one was "Double Portions." For example, malnourished became "mallnourished" (fed at the food court). Not that that one was all that hard, but "millicurries" did me in (tiny Thai portions). Maybe the problem was that it's another dreary rainy day. My mind is beginning to suffer from serious mildew and rot. Rain, it seems, is all we've had all month. I'm sure when this month is done, it'll go into the record books as one one the lousiest Junes on record. (Yesterday was a great day - thank goodness since it was South Berwick's Strawberry Festival and my great niece's graduation party! But, it rained in the morning and again at night!)

By the way, we now only get The Globe on Sunday. When they ran into financial trouble they upped our weekly rate from $9 to $15.75. I was stunned. So, a quick call to cancel was made. While I miss the sports section, the puzzles, the comics, book reviews, and much more, it simply isn't worth that kind of a jump. I wonder how many other people said enough is enough.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

A reading life.....

So many books, so little time. What to do???!!! Just keep at it, I guess. I am such a slow reader that it's very frustrating to see my list of "to be read" grow exponentially.

This weekend I've finished Julie and Julia by Julie Powell which is about the year that she spent cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I read this because I'm excited about the movie coming out in August that stars Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Having read the book, I think this is going to be one of those rare cases where the movie will be better than the book.

Then there's The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I've waited nearly a year for the English version of this book to come out. I tried to wade through the Spanish version, but it was a bit much for my rusty Spanish. However, I am proud to say that what I did read corresponds well with the translation. Also, I have to say that the original Spanish editon flows a lot better than the English translation. The translator opted for shorter sentences which seems to take away from the book. It's a great read just the same. This is a "prequel" to Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind, a book that totally captured my fancy. It was a wonderful read - full of imagination, suspensful, well-plotted, historic, and romantic. It had a superb tonal quality to it as well. Angel's Game is well on its way to matching that experience.

I've also made some progress this weekend with Prep, Human Smoke and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. A few pages at a time will eventually get me somewhere....... Okay, back to the books........

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Once again......


When it comes to Red Sox-Yankees games, I hope I get to post this image a lot this summer. Eight in a row now!