Margy in Cornwall

Spilt Milk (Chico Buarque)

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 08:32:18 -0500

Who knew that my favorite Brazilian folksinger from the 1960s wrote novels? John did, and gave me the latest in both English and Portuguese. I decided to read the translation first, despite the wrapper it arrived in, which said “For Emergency Use Only.” Well-reviewed by the NY Times and a literature teacher’s dream, it’s a stream-of-consciousness autobiography that is also the history of Brazil. Sad and confusing, but you love the old guy. Now I’ll see what I can make of it in Portuguese. (1/4/2013)

The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern)

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 17:20:53 -0500

I read this for my reading group, but Jordan read it first. He absolutely loved it, and I did too. (Maybe not as much.) It uses something like magical realism to tell the story of a wizard’s duel in which two young magicians battle in a circus created to be their arena — but, of course, they fall in love.

The House of Bread from Night Fires

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 19:04:34 -0500

The House of Bread from Night Fires

Night Fires 2012

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 19:00:34 -0500

Night Fires 2012

Zac’s dorm room

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 14:54:31 -0400

Zac’s dorm room

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 15:57:14 -0400

I started reading this for my book group, but I didn’t like any of the characters or the writing. I don’t enjoy books where the plot is all about people refusing to be honest with each other, so I decided not to finish it. Meg picked up at the beach, so she can tell me what happens.

Daemon and Freedom TM, by Daniel Suarez

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:36:40 -0400

Jordan loved these two novels, which tell the story of a game designer who creates an Internet virus that transforms society — whether for good or ill depends or your politics. He does a great job of creating good and evil characters in both camps.

Fifty Shades of Grey and Fifty Shades Darker

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 09:44:41 -0400

I knew I had to read at least one of this trilogy when a high school student friend said that the girls in her class were passing it around. It’s raising awareness of BDSM and I’m likely to hear about it the next time we teach Our Whole Lives.

It’s Harlequin-style, formulaic, idealized beach reading, so I read it on a business trip. Fun but dopey, and I lost interest partway through the second book.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:00:17 -0400

The main narrator of this novel is a quirky nine-year-old, making this book reminiscent of “The Dog that Barked in the Night.” The story ties 9-11, the Holocaust, and the bombing of Dresden during WWII. Very original if not entirely satisfying.

Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, by Jane McGonigal

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:45:27 -0400

Fascinating book about why games are so attractive to such a large number of people. She talks about what elements are deliberately engineered into games, and how we can think about doing the same thing with reality - or designing games to include more of “real life.”

Chicken tractor on Route 7 in Vermont. Our chickens would fly...

Thu, 10 May 2012 15:31:17 -0400

Chicken tractor on Route 7 in Vermont. Our chickens would fly right out of this.

The Hungry Tide (Amitav Ghosh)

Thu, 10 May 2012 12:37:54 -0400

This is a fascinating portrait of life in the Ganges delta, on the eastern edge of India. I didn’t find the story compelling, though.

I'm Starved for You (Margaret Atwood)

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:41:04 -0400

This novela (a Kindle Single) is another of Atwood’s dytopias, based on the premise that economic issues could be solved by employing everyone as prison guards, with the guards taking turns as prisoners. She’s a wonderful writer, so even though the premise is thin, it was a fun read.

Exploring Religious Community Online: We Are One in the Network (Heidi Campbell)

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:15:13 -0400

This is a scholarly study of online Christian communities done from about 1998-2004, so it’s a bit dated (for example, there’s no mention of Facebook). But she does a nice history of the Internet, of online community, and of the emrgence of online religious communities, and then she studies three of them — three Christian email mailing lists with thriving, close-knit communities.

Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:39:46 -0400

I always finish books. I really do. But this is just too long. I though Dickens had a lot to say about life, the universe, and everything, but Hugo leaves him in the dust. I’m probably hyper-focusing on the story, plot, characters, that kind of thing, but when he inserted a 30-page play-by-play description of the Battle of Waterloo, completely peripheral to the story, I was done. Of course, I would have realized that this was a 1400-page book earlier if I hadn’t been reading it on a Kindle app.

Let’s hear it for the plot synopsis on Wikipedia!

The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins)

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:40:54 -0400

Like everyone else with a Kindle (or a Kindle app), I downloaded a few free books to read just in case I ran out of current books. This Victorian classic thriller includes all the basic elements — the wronged heir, hopeless love, the secret marriage, and most importantly, characters who value Honor (sorry, Honour) above all else. It’s fun, with lots of plot turns.

The evil Count Fosco is the only three-dimensional character in the book, and he is wonderful: tall, enormously fat yet nimble and graceful, eloquent, and with a perchant for training white mice to do tricks.

Waiting in line for the next cup of chili at the Middlebury...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:15:52 -0500

Waiting in line for the next cup of chili at the Middlebury Chili Festival

Rachel the bat mitzvah girl!

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:15:11 -0500

Rachel the bat mitzvah girl!

The Tiger's Wife (Tea Obrecht)

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:12:24 -0500

A bit of magical realism and lot of Balkan history make this a particular interesting novel. It’s a bit confusing — lots of characters with backstories — but the author wanted to leave things open to interpretation.

On Children - Sweet Honey In The Rock Maybe Maiden Vermont will...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 21:12:00 -0500

On Children - Sweet Honey In The Rock

Maybe Maiden Vermont will sing this, even though it’s not women’s barbershop