Sunday dinners are really great. We eat the food, and then the plate.

Instead of just sharing book reviews and failing projects, I thought I would tell a funny story.

A little family that I recently met invited me to Sunday dinner at their house. They have 3 kids, 10, 6, and 3 years old. The three year old is a beautiful little girl with bright blue eyes and curly red hair.

She also has a very strong personality.

She did not want to sit at the kids' table. She protested very loudly. Then when her parents insisted, she went into the kitchen and dragged a chair from the kids' table into the dining room.

At this point, her parents worked for a compromise, and brought a small child size table into the foyer, so she could feel like she was at the grown ups' table. She sat down with her bowl of spaghetti and happily started eating. Every couple of minutes she would look over, say something to us, and then go back to her food.

The adults got involved in a conversation and then she suddenly screamed. She jumped off the little bench, and sprayed her spaghetti across the foyer.

I was closest and her parents weren't in the room, so I went over and picked her up and asked if she was ok.

In her three-year-old voice, she kept saying, "Spider. Spider. Spi-der!"

I looked where she was pointing and didn't see anything (other than spilled spaghetti), so I said, "I don't see anything."

"Spi-der!"

At this point her dad came in a started cleaning up the mess. I decided to walk away and let him handle it.

For some insight into why I thought this little scene was hilarious, go look here and here.

It was just like Sunday dinner with my family!

Good news, everybody, we're extending arts and crafts time by four hours today.

It's time for another project post. With this one, I really need some feedback. I am working on crocheting a baby blanket for Shaquifa. (If you are missing the Shaquifa joke, maybe this post will help slightly with the reference).

I'm not thrilled with how this pattern is turning out. The pattern is really really long, and it is becoming really big. With how thin the yarn is the blanket gets kind of stretched out.

So again here are what I am thinking are the options:

1. Keep going and wind up with a really huge blanket that I don't really like.

2. Undo it all and start over by modifying the pattern I am using.

3. Undo it all and start over with a new pattern.

With this next picture I put a normal throw pillow, just so you can actually tell how large the blanket is.

And here is a closer shot of the pattern, so you can properly weigh in on whether to keep the current pattern.

Joey... Why is there a book in the freezer?

Carla made this comment on my last blog post: "you make me feel bad for only being able to say i've read A (singular) book in the last 2 months... i need to work on that."

So I feel like it is necessary to point out a few things.

1. It is summer and I am only teaching one class. This means that I work a grand total of about 16 hours a week. (It might be 20 if I have a super crazy long meeting to go to, like I did last week).

2. I live alone and only have to take care of myself. This means that it is perfectly acceptable to eat 4 crackers, a can of tuna fish, a bowl of frozen peas, and a peach for dinner. And it is also perfectly acceptable to leave the "dishes" from said "meal" on the counter. (As long as they don't smell or sprout fruit flies. That is unacceptable).

3. I am mostly reading books for my American Lit class. This means that reading books is my job. It just happens to be a pretty cushy job.

Ok, so I hope that now everyone has realized that I am mostly a slacker with tons of free time and has moved past feeling bad about themselves.

Sway: The Irrisistable Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Rom Brafman

The premise: This is non-fiction. So what happened was Ori and Rom Brafman started noticing how often people make completely irrational decisions. They saw evidence of this from everyone, every profession, all different kinds of people and all different kinds of situations. So their book is an exploration of the different "sways" or ways we are pulled into behaving irrationally.

The review: This was fascinating. The Brafmans have a great conversational and friendly tone, so it is not at all dry or boring. They also provide a ton of examples, everything from Michael Jordan to the Vietnam and Iraq wars, to an airplane crash. The examples were almost always things that I knew about (so nothing ridiculously obscure) but they gave a bunch of examples for each sway, which helped explain, but also helps the reader remember.

My grandparents first recommended this to me last summer. They said that ever since they read it they walk around and see people to something and think, "Sway!" And I can totally see myself doing that too.

and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted - if I could hit 'em; but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird.

I started this book a couple days ago, got about fifty pages in. Then I started reading it yesterday afternoon and completely finished it last night.

That should tell you that it's good.

If you have not read To Kill a Mockingbird in a while, go reread it. If you've never read it, go read it. It is a beautiful book.

Beautiful is a word that I have probably not used in my reviews before, but it really does apply to this novel.

And just for fun, a scene from the trial:

It's a common theme in self-help books. I read twenty-two today.

My last post probably came off a little bitter. Rather than trying to apologize or explain, let's just talk about something I am good at.

Reading.

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

This novel tells two stories side-by-side. One story follows Anna, a German girl -- well, around 18 -- when World War II starts through to it's end. The second story follows Trudy, Anna's daughter, an American college professor in the "present" = 1997. Anna has to deal with the war and it's impacts on her life and family, and Trudy has to deal with her life, the war, her past, and her mother's past.

The review: The story here is very interesting and a different point of view. Generally World War II stories just focus on the Jews and the Holocaust, and (as Trudy the history professor points out) the German citizens are incomprehensible because we just wonder how could they let that happen? How could they stand by and watch?

So the novel has a lot of potential. But I didn't like it, despite the fact that I really wanted to. And there are a couple of reasons for that. The first is it was very graphic. I understand what Blum was doing, but that doesn't interest me. The second reason is that the characters weren't very likable. Without trying to give a major spoiler, Anna does some things during the war that seem heroic or very laudable, but her motives are selfish. Then as the war continues her actions stop being heroic and so she becomes even less likable. In the "present," we are given Trudy as an adult, and because of a lifetime of baggage -- her own and her mother's -- she is a social outcast who doesn't have good relationships with anyone. So I was left not liking her either. And the final reason is the conclusion of the story brought all these different pieces together in a pretty unbelievable way.

Ok, and the final word on the review is it would be a perfectly fine light read kind of book, except the subject matter is so heavy.

That's the smell of failure, and it's stinking up my office.

As you know, summer for me is a time for projects. At the start of the summer I write my lists, I plan and prepare. Despite how the planning stage sounds, I don't often take into account how much time I have, but I am usually just happy with what I can get done.

Today, I must show you the progress of one of my projects: The Garden.

I have a small patio. Each summer I have lived here, I have planted small containers and tried to grow tomatoes and other things. The first summer I think I harvested 3 green tomatoes after the first frost. The second summer I think I got some basil leaves.

Now it is the third summer.

And here is my first success:

Four red cherry tomatoes. They taste good.

And here is my failure:

Failure #1: A container without sufficient drainage. I know half of the country is in a terrible drought right now, but June was a very wet month for us. A condition that continues to be seen in the daily flood alerts I get, even though it hasn't rained in over a week. At any rate, my cucumber and zucchini plants that I put in this container drowned.

Failure #2: Critters.

Something -- that I have not yet seen -- comes onto my patio late late at night. It has an affinity for tomato leaves. This baby starter plant was the first to go.

Followed by this.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but the plant in the front, right-hand corner has been chewed all up.

This box is also suffering the effects of too much June rain. The other things in there are a cucumber/zucchini (not sure which) and a green bell pepper. Today the pepper plant is completely dead, as is the tomato.

This one was next. You can see the first round of attack here.

Today when I went out to water, all those lovely leaves on top have been razored off.

And last night, they started on this one -- the producer of my little cherry tomatoes.

I honestly feel that gardening is going to be tossed in the same category as sewing. A lovely thought, but not a project I am capable of carrying out.

And so I ask, next May will you please remind me of this? I don't want gardening or sewing projects showing up on that hopeful, potential projects list. They end badly.

I've thought of an ending for my book - "And he lived happily ever after... to the end of his days."

A few more book reviews.

Ok, secretly I was going to try and post these one at a time. But then I got busy reading three books at once. So here are all my reviews at once.

What are you reading?

***

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Gowda tells the story of two families, one poverty-striken in India and the other is an American couple, both doctors, who can't have children. The Indian mother takes her baby girl to an orphanage and the girl is adopted by the Americans. The novel flips back and forth between the two families, so you get a feel for what life is like for the Indian family and the difficulties of growing up different.

The review: Loved it. It was a good, complex story that kept me involved emotionally with the families as they all went through their various struggles. I worried for them and cheered when they overcame.

Favorite scene: When the now-adult girl meet a young man, he says "Do you know what your name means?" and she says "no" even though she does. It made me laugh and reminded me of how Mom tells the story of Carla meeting Cary (which is probably a story for another day).

My one criticism of this book is that it was written in an odd verb-tense. It was set up so that it created some distance from the action with the choice of verbs, and I felt like it wasn't really consistent. -- I realize that sounds very English-teacher-y of me, but it was enough that it kept throwing me out of the action.

***

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

This one was for my upcoming American Lit class.

It is the story of the Compton family and their many, diverse, and deep problems. It is told through the perspective of 4 narrators, who each get their own section (although the final narration is pretty shaky in its perspective).

The review: My students are going to hate me for this.

Click HERE to see how I feel about that.

Ok, the reason I say they will hate me and this book is because it is incredible difficult to get into and nothing is explained clearly. The book actually starts with the section narrated by the youngest son Benjy -- who is mentally retarded. He can't talk, can't care for himself, and basically is just followed around by the black servants who keep him from harming himself. His thoughts -- which are what we read -- are a huge mess of craziness, jumping back and forth between at least four different times and what he is doing in the present.

And that's just the beginning.

***

Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose

Band of Brothers is the story of E Company and their involvement in World War II. Ambrose starts with their training, follows the men to England and their jump to Normandy then all the other battles, until their grand finale at Hilter's "palace" Eagle's Nest.

This was for book club, so I'm going to save most of my thoughts on the book for that.

The review: This was an excellent book. It's nonfiction, but it was easy to get into and a fairly quick read. Ambrose does a good job of getting you involved in the significant parts of the story. That said, it is a little difficult for someone like me, with absolutely no military knowledge at all, to really get some of the technical military terms and jargon. Not a reason to not read the book though.

***

Deep Down True by Juliette Fay

Fay writes the story of Dana a forty-something whose husband has just divorced her and left her to raise her 12 year old daughter and 7 year old son. The novel follows them for a year as they go through their ups and downs -- mostly downs, the addition of the 16 year old niece, the 12 year old's battle with bulimia, lost jobs, etc, etc. And then it turns into a romance.

The review: A good beach read. This was light and not at all serious (which made it perfect for me after The Sound and the Fury), the developing love story was cute, and I finished it in an afternoon.

I was frustrated with the beginning because it was all so realistic and downer, and I was reading and thinking, geez, I don't really feel like getting all involved in someone else's totally normal and realistic problems. It's just too happens all the time. But then it got a little more quirky (with the addition of the niece and relationship with the sister) which made me more interested.