Philothea
Life in the JVC

New books at the library

July 28, 2003
I just made 180 chocolate chip cookies! It was a quintuple recipe. Reagan needed them to feed the entire marching band. My feet hurt so much now. Its funny, I never feel tired when I'm making cookies, but then as soon as I sit down I realize that my dogs are barking.

I called Amy the other day. She was eating an old candy cane. You know when they get stale and so there's a gummy level before you reach the hard candy? We love that. And when chewing gum is old so it's all hard and broken up. I also like it when a pack of gum goes through the washer and dryer. If you haven't tried it, man, it is out of this world. I love stale candy.

Oh! And this isn't candy, but I was eating pistachios in the shell today, and I love it and hate it when my lips and tongue get all swollen from licking the salt off the shells.

The reason I haven't updated in a while is that I went to the library to return Emerald's books. I wanted to take out the "Brideshead Revisted" miniseries. I didn't realize until last year that it wasn't a sequel. I always thought it strange they had it and not "Brideshead". I read the book a few weeks ago, and it was great. So I was only going to get the videos and no books, because I have enough books of my own that I want to read. But no books turned into five books. It was the "new books" shelf! I can't resist. And they turned out to have all the miniseries except the final tape, so I didn't want to watch it.

Here are some new books I read this summer from the library that I would recommend:

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
The true story of a middle-aged man and his recovering alcoholic friend who decide to walk the Appalachian Trail. Bryson is hilarious.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman
I've heard a lot about this in fantasy circles, and it's nominated for the Hugo, but I read Good Omens and didn't like it that much, and assumed it must be Gaiman's fault, since Terry Pratchett is awesome. But this book is great. It's dark and creepy, and you'll never look at buttons the same way again. This is obviously going to be a children's classic.

Ruled Brittania by Harry Turtledove
I'm reading this right now. It's an alternate history where the Spanish Armada conquered England, Elizabeth is locked up in the tower, and Shakespeare is involved in a conspiracy involving a play based on Tacitus.

Miss Manners' Basic Training: The Right Thing to Say
I love Miss Manners, and this is shorter than most of her books providing a basic guide to etiquette, and why "brutal honesty" doesn't excuse rudeness.
Well, that's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'm going back to my books now.

Oh, I also saw Seabiscuit this weekend. The book was written by Laura Hillenbrand, a former Kenyon student. I liked the movie a lot, but you have to be a bit sappy to enjoy it.

3:10 p.m.
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