Category: Ruminations

Friday Face-Off: School Days, School Days…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations2 Comments

FFO.jpg

It’s time again for the Friday Face-Off meme, created by Books by Proxy, with weekly topics hosted by Lynn’s Book Blog.  The idea is to put up different covers for one book, and select a favorite.

This week’s theme is ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’ –A cover featuring a school

The first books I thought of that centered around a school were Gordon Korman’s MacDonald Hall series, a hilarious collection of Juvenile books.  When I was a kid/pre-teen, Gordon Korman was my favorite funny author, the Terry Pratchett of that period in my life, and I still enjoy him very much.  MacDonald Hall are among his best books.  I thought I’d look at covers for the first one, This Can’t Be Happening at MacDonald Hall!  He wrote it in seventh grade, which continues to amaze me.

I like this cover pretty well–it puts the focus squarely on the two friends, Bruno and Boots, with Mr. Sturgeon (the Fish) the Headmaster threatening in the background.  It’s just too bad that the hairstyles really date it… 😉 Continue reading “Friday Face-Off: School Days, School Days…” →

Book and Movie Review: Heartburn by Nora Ephron

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations1 Comment

In one of the more circuitous ways I’ve found a book, I recently read a nonfiction book by Julia Cameron, where she talks about Nora Ephron’s career, and mentions an audiobook of Heartburn, read by Meryl Streep.  I put down the book to search my library’s catalog and—yes, they had it!  Requested on the spot.  And when I listened to it, it was surprisingly funny and Streep was as good as I expected.  The movie, when I gave that a try, was, on the other hand, much less satisfying.

I’ve been reading more love stories this year, and Heartburn the book is something of an anti-love story.  Instead of being about a couple falling in love, it’s about a couple falling apart.  Rachel learns that her husband is having an affair while she’s seven months pregnant.  In a circuitous narrative, Rachel tells us about what led them to here and about the aftermath, punctuated by occasional recipes—because she’s a food writer who tells family stories.

I know this doesn’t sound funny.  But there’s a dry wit and self-deprecating charm to Rachel’s voice that made tragic events surprisingly funny—while still being tragic.  But it becomes a story about the absurd tragic comedy of life, which is quite different from a story about the tragedy of life.  If you see what I mean.  And along with a comedic edge given to the tragedy, some incidents are just genuinely funny.

Continue reading “Book and Movie Review: Heartburn by Nora Ephron” →

Blog Hop: Revisiting to Resume

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop1 Comment

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: When reading a series, do you re-read the previous book/s before reading the newly released book?

Sometimes yes.  It depends on how much I like a series and how recently I’ve read the earlier books.  Often if I don’t reread earlier books before reading the newly released one, I end up realizing that I’ve forgotten great swathes of things (like, say, the main character’s best friend.  Or the twist ending of the last book revealing the villain is actually a good guy.  It’s happened.)  So in general I probably should reread the previous book(s) before reading a new one, but it really only happens if I enjoyed the previous book enough to want to read it again.

For a while I was doing an annual reread of at least some of Catherynne Valente’s Fairyland series, each autumn when a new one came out.  Because those are amazing.  I reread all the previous four when the fifth one came out and it was awesome.  I should reread those, come to think of it…

When I reread series, I pretty much always read the entire series.  So some, like Anne of Green Gables (eight books!) become a rather lengthy process.  But it just feels incomplete to only read part, and very strange to just jump to the middle somewhere.  Although I can think of a few series (the Oz books, the Bloody Jack series) where the quality is uneven, and I may only reread my favorites next time I revisit.  It would be a shift in habits, though!

What do you do when a new book in a series comes out?  Rereading, or just diving into the new part of the story?

Blog Hop: Walking in a Character’s Shoes…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop1 Comment

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: If you could take the place of any fictional character, who would it be and why?

This is a rather intriguing question…I assume this would be for a brief visit, and I assume I’m still me but occupying the role of a fictional character, with the other characters not seeing anything strange.  So!  With those parameters in mind…

The first one to come to mind is Dr. Watson.  I don’t think I could be Sherlock Holmes, and besides, I’d want to meet Holmes, so it would be better to have Watson’s role.  As long as medical knowledge wasn’t called for to help solve the case, I think I could be a decent Watson–even though I’m more squeamish than he is!

I definitely couldn’t be Anne of Green Gables, but it would be nice to try being her friend Diana Barry for a bit.  Or it might actually be more fun to be Ilse, friend of Emily of New Moon.  I like Emily a lot, and Ilse can get away with wild statements and flights of passion that, while not really me, might be fun for a change!

Continue reading “Blog Hop: Walking in a Character’s Shoes…” →

Stonehenge Story Starts: The Elevator (Results)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations1 Comment

Over on my writing group blog, we’ve been doing a weekly writing prompt. We got some very fun results (including one from me) to last week’s prompt.

cherylmahoney's avatarStonehenge Circle Writers

We hope you’ve had a good week of writing!  It’s time to see what our writers came up with for this week’s prompt.

The prompt this week was: Two strangers are trapped in a stuck elevator.  Try to write in a specific genre.

Three of our writers came up with stories this week, mostly slanting towards the urban fantasy/horror direction…

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Kelly Haworth:

I checked my watch. Yeah, it had been thirty minutes now, and I was still stuck in a damn elevator. My involuntary companion, a man with long dark hair and a black coat, leaned against the wall across from me staring at his phone.  After pressing the elevator’s help button and calling the front desk of this New York skyscraper, he hadn’t said a word and just stood there.

It really annoyed me.

I tried, yet again, to engage in conversation with him. “You’d think they’d have…

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