Book one: Half Blood Blues and Foreign Bodies

So here's the list. I also have it on my last post as well. I'm posting it here again because I'm going to mark off the books as I've read them, about to read them or reading right now. When I went through the list the other day I was pleasantly surprised to see that Half Blood Blues could be marked off as read.

I finished the book a few months ago and it's one of those books that takes you in. Set during Nazi occupied France as well as in Germany and modern day. For some reason (possibly the referrals from my good friend who just happened to be obsessed with literature set during WW2) a lot of my most memorable reads over the course of the last six months have WW2 settings. Half Blood Blues tells the story of a group of black jazz musicians who escape to Paris. It hops back and forth between modern day when two of the characters are heading to a film festival celebrating the youngest member of the group and the events leading up to that member's capture by German soldiers in Paris. It's a book whose characters still hop into my mind here and there, as I go about my days; which to me, is a pretty good indication of it's booky goodness.

Yesterday I said I was starting off with On the Floor but that changed when the Husband brought home my library holds and Foreign Bodies was cracked open first. I'm enjoying it. I don't really like any of the characters (my vote is still out on the main character) but then I'm also enjoying not really liking them. The concept of the story is very interesting. Cynthia Ozick has taken the Henry James's The Ambassadors  and rewritten it, giving it new meaning. This is at least what it says on the book flap. As I said I'm not too keen on some of the characters but not because I'm not relating to them.  I expect to have the shading on Foreign Bodies at bright orange by early in the coming week if not by the end of the weekend. What are you reading now?

• Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg 
• On the Floor by Aifric Campbell - On deck
• The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen
• The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue 
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan - Finished
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
• The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki 
• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon 
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding 
• Gillespie and I by Jane Harris 
• The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay
• The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy 
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick - half way through
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• There but for the by Ali Smith
• The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard
• Tides of War by Stella Tillyard
• The Submission by Amy Waldman

Reading Reading Reading

Last year about this time a good friend tossed out the idea of reading as many of the Orange Prize long list books as possible before the Long list became a short list. So what's the Orange Prize you ask? It's a literary prize that was launched in 1996 which celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world. The books I read from last year ranged from about four or five that were so fantastic that I'm still thinking about them; considering the themes, the characters the ideas; to very good reads that I wouldn't have picked up otherwise, to one that I just couldn't get into.

When the long list for 2012 came out yesterday I was poised at my computer with my local library's site open on search so that I could place holds on any and all of the titles that are on the shelves there. I was fortunate that most of the titles are either at my library or on the Vancouver Public Library 's list. Now I'm waiting for the first titles on my list to come available so I can dive right in.

if you're interested in joining me here's the list:

• Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg (Quercus) - Swedish; 1st Novel
• On the Floor by Aifric Campbell (Serpent's Tail) - Irish; 3rd Novel
• The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen (The Clerkenwell Press) - American; 4th Novel
• The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue (Picador) - Irish; 7th Novel
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Serpent's Tail) - Canadian; 2nd Novel
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape) - Irish; 5th Novel
• The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki (Headline Review) - British; 5th Novel
• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (Quercus) - American; 4th Novel
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding (Bloomsbury) - British; 3rd Novel
• Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (Faber & Faber) - British; 2nd Novel
• The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - British; 2nd Novel
• The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy (Jonathan Cape) - British; 6th Novel
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Harvill Secker) - American; 1st Novel
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury) - American; 1st Novel
• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (Atlantic Books) - American; 7th Novel
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (Bloomsbury) - American; 6th Novel
• There but for the by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton) - British; 5th Novel
• The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard (Alma Books) - British; 2nd Novel
• Tides of War by Stella Tillyard (Chatto & Windus) - British; 1st Novel
• The Submission by Amy Waldman (William Heinemann) - American; 1st Novel

First up on my holds list is The Flying Man. I haven't read any synopse of any of the books. I won't until I pick up the book to start it. Once I've started I'll post here about how it's going. 

Any good books on your reading list?

A Thousand Words: Morning Coffe and Bean's Breakfast Edition

Trying Something New

A Painting the Peanut & I did together

can be daunting. Especially when you go from working in a medium that you have become so comfortable working in, that the process is mostly a focus on bringing about your vision instead of learning the aspects of that medium and how to work within the medium to get the finished product that is in your minds eye.

For example changing your drawing medium from pen and ink to brush and ink. With pen and ink you draw using lines, crosshatching or scribbles for building up your shadows. After a certain amount of time you don't really think about where your pen tip is going how your marks are being made you just look at your subject and draw, or int he case of drawing from your head you just draw. If one day you decide to try something different and pull out a bamboo brush and a jar of india ink the process of drawing becomes a little more about using that medium instead of the medium as a means to an end. With ink and brush you start with light washes, working from light to dark, it's a slower process, the ink dries in a specific way and the look of the sketch is softer. if you are working wet into wet you get unexpected blends and unexpected hard lines where the wet areas have dried. The process becomes focused on the medium and you start to look at your subject differently. When that happens there's growth in your art.

Snapshot from my phone

Of course one of the daunting aspects is that what you're making isn't going to be perfect, that there are going to be less than ideal and unpredictable outcomes. The trick is to use the newness of the medium to let go of the finished project. Make the process the goal instead of the final piece; at least until you've gotten to really really know the medium. Of course that's not as easy as it sounds when you put it down in words. Creating something be it a drawing, a photograph, painting or sculpting is a personal thing. Becoming invested in what you are creating is inevitable. there's the time invested, the money that goes into buying the materials, the imagination and the effort. All those things put together make it almost impossible to give up control, to relinquish the desire to put what is being worked on up on a pedestal. A good friend just posted about this very thing on her blog. She put is so perfectly that I felt I had to address the same subject here.

Why? well because I made a decision at the end of last year that I was going to reintroduce myself to the basics of creating. You know, in between dealing with a busy Bean and a precocious Peanut. It's not always easy but to motivate me I've started following the Sketchbook Challenge and I've started photographing on a daily basis with an iphone. (getting past the camera has to be a camera mindset helps a little. My camera snobbery was holding me back, especially when I was worried about braining the Bean with my heavy SLR when she'd need to be picked up.) I'm more prolific with the camera right now but that's not what's important. What is important is that I'm making time to create and the process is more important than the final outcome.

Doodles from my sketchbook a la
The Sketchbook Challenge

Giving myself permission to make mistakes, push past them and go too far, to reign it back in and push too far again to go so far that there's no turning back, no fixing it. To let go. It seems like taking advantage of that permission is the greatest challenge. So what about you? do you sometimes find that you are holding on too tightly to what you're creating that you aren't letting it grow? I remember a drawing class where after a set amount of time we stood up moved to the next space and continued on the drawing that our neighbor had just left... I still cringe at the thought of letting go of my ownership of that piece of paper...

Looking Ahead

Another calendar page for next year. I liked how the crane shape was mirrored in the street light. I personally like to have a glimpse of what came before and what's coming so I've included teeny calendarettes with last and next months dates for easy reference. Another great feature of the My Memories Calendar option? That I can make changes to colour, size and all manner of options on one page and have all the calendars be the same with the click of a mouse. What are your favourite options for a wall calendar? Do you like to know when the moon is going to be full? When the next Stat holiday is? Please share in the comments.

And The Winner

for the My Memories Giveaway is Kelly Nash!

You should check out Kelly's blog where she lists fun giveaways. Congratulations Kelly I know you're going to have a blast with the software.

If you're still interested in the software it is very reasonably priced at $39.97USD and you can get it for $29.97 USD if you use the special Promocode listed under the graphic below. I'm in the midst of collecting photographs of some of our families favourite dinners so that I can put them all together into a recipe book similar to the one my Second Mom made for me a few years back

Use code STMMMS25295 to save $10

In other news my Grand-nephew is out of the hospital and doing well. He and his parents have got months and months more to go, but for now he's showing himself to be a super fighter. Thank you for all your kind thoughts and prayers for the little guy.

A Thousand Words

Dress Up Games