Book Club Book Review: Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums

Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums is a sad story about a sad little boy. That's my one-sentence summary. It had some really lovely moments retelling his love of language and how his mother taught him the importance of being who he truly is, but the book suffered, ironically enough, from poor editing. I don't mean the grammatical/syntactial kind, I mean the content kind of editing that would have culled down some of the chapters into smaller, tighter, better written and more readable segments.

Sessums grows up in Mississippi, the son of a coach and "could have been" professional athlete. His father dies when he is 7 and his mother when he is 8. Most of the book is spent detailing his relationships with both and how they did and did not affect his being gay. Later in life, Sessums' mentor, Frank Haines, is murdered. I have to admit that this is the section I skimmed through because I thought it was entirely too long and detailed.

Overall I give them book 3/5 stars. Recommended if you like to read memoirs (which I don't and could be part of my resistance here).

DONEDONEDONEDONEDONE!!!!!

I have been working diligently all week long. I finished up Chapter 3 of my dissertation yesterday and Chapter 1 today. In the three chapters that make up my dissertation proposal, I have written 86 pages. And I think they are all pretty good. I'm very proud of my work and hope that the next phase progresses as smoothly as possible.

Just so you know. I will review Chs. 1&3 on Monday and make sure I still think they are good (sometimes a couple of days give a whole new perspective on things) and then I will make what revisions I think are necessary and send them to my dissertation advisor.

She will have 2 weeks to review, we will meet and I will get her suggested revisions (so far that has been very simply stuff...hopefully it will continue to be so) and then once I make those revisions I will pass the proposal out to my committee members and schedule my proposal defense. I should have all of this done by the end of April.

In the meantime I have to keep myself busy with something, and I have no idea what that might be! ugh! :)

Steppin' Out Boogie by Eugenie Rocherolle

I love the walking bass in this one. It's fast and fun and I hope you dance like my page turner did (too bad it didn't show up in the video). Btw, I don't know why the video block is show up all black, but if you click play it will work. enjoy!

Week 4

Rough week this week. Stress combined with hormones and several weeks of an extremely low-fat diet resulted in some serious binges on both of our parts (plus we went out to eat 3 times which we never do any more). I gained 3 pounds, David 1.5. Ouch.

Book Review: Light on Snow by Anita Shreve

Light on Snow by Anita Shreve follows the lives of Nicky and her father, Rob, Dillon. Nicky's mother and baby sister were killed in a traumatic car accident just days before Christmas two years before the story begins. Rob is still in the woes of depression over the accident and Nicky is trying to navigate the complex world of moving on with her life and remembering and treasuring the past.

Then one day as they take their afternoon walk, Nicky and her father stumble upon an abandoned baby who they save. Their lives are thrown into further turmoil a few days later when the baby's mother shows up.

Light on Snow is a beautifully written novel about love and forgiveness and acceptance. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and hope you do too.

Highly recommended.

Dissertation Progress

I have actually completed chapter 2 of my dissertation. It's the literature review and was a monster undertaking. I have sent my draft to my advisor and will hope for a favorable review next week.

Oh, and I think I finally decided what to do with the quilt bee quilt--I've been fussing and fuming for long enough, don't ya think!?!

Book Review: Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks

Bread Alone is about a woman, Wynter, who is going through a divorce from her executive advertising husband. Their marriage started out as one of mutual support and understanding and turned into one where she was erased in his glamorous career. When he tells her that they need to separate for a time, she honestly believes that he is simply going through a difficult time and waits for him to make the decision to take her back, despite all evidence that he is having an affair with a co-worker. The journey that Wynter must go through to discover her true passion (baking bread) makes up the plot of the novel and allows the reader to discover her own self and passions through Wynter’s struggles.

I liked the book quite a bit. I thought it was very well written and presented the reader with an interesting take of the tolls of divorce and the processes that one must go through to redefine herself after essentially being erased in a marriage that is about supporting the husband. Only through discovering her art was Wynter able to have something for herself worth standing up for and avoid making a similar mistake with a different man.

Recommended for all readers.

WW Update, Week 3

I lost 2.5 pounds this week. David stayed even. That takes me to 8 pounds total and him at 7.5. yay us!!!

Brown and Blue Tencel and Rayon Scarf

Very silky to the touch, very pretty to the eyes. AND it will keep the wind off of your neck. This is a lovely scarf, one of my favorites. It's made with tencel (wood pulp fiber long touted as the poor man's silk because it has the luster and feel of silk at a much cheaper price) and blue variegated rayon. Fringe is twisted. The scarf measures 7x70. It sells for $50.

Just two short months ago...

...I put up pictures of our earliest snowfall ever. Here we are today.

Book Review: A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

I started reading this book over a month ago. I thought maybe I wasn't getting into it because I was instead getting into my new video game...which kept me from wanting to read for weeks. How unlike me. Seriously. I don't have issues turning off my video game at night, and while I was really enjoying this one, I don't think it's the reason that I was not getting back to A Gate at the Stairs every single night.

I was avoiding it.

I decided to wean myself off of my video game, convinced that I'd become addicted, so I was going to read it 5% at a time (it's on Kindle, so no pages and can't really see the chapter ends, the thing that most annoys me about it despite all its other wonderful conveniences). I persevered, kept at it, for two days. I'd finally made it to 20% (having been dogged the first night and read two 5% sections in one evening). However, last night, I said to David as we were sitting down to read..."If this book hasn't grabbed my be 25% I'm going to move on."

Guess what, I made it to 21%. I just couldn't read one more word of this spoiled little college student who thinks she's just so much smarter and better than her family go on and on about her passive experience of the morose condition of the world. I imagine that the book does get better but since I'm on Kindle I can't easily flip forward and find out...so guess what? I'm quitting. Besides, the writing is so overdone that it takes paragraphs to make one statement about the lack of snow or ability to go ice fishing at Christmas time. I kept thinking in my head, "bla, bla, bla, cold stinks anyway."

I started reading Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks last night. I'm not addicted to my video game, I was just in the malaise of reading a bad book and doing a very good job of avoiding it. I am really enjoying my new book and expect to have a review up in just a few days.

Week 2

I lost .5 pounds and David lost 2.5. Cumulative: Me: 5.5. him 7.

Down Home Boogie by Eugenie Rocherolle

Who knew:

Diet and exercise works. I lost 5 pounds, David 4.5.

Napkins and Towels

These napkins and towels are 100% cotton, made for my friend Tony for his new apartment. Hope he loves them!

Back to Weight Watchers Today

An embarrassing confession: We quit weight watchers because it was just wearing us down. I've gained all the weight I lost plus some...so now it's back to it. Hopefully for good this time. I don't know how to get over that desperate hump.

Good news: I've been exercising almost daily since the beginning of the year. I hope to actually start seeing some weight loss now that I'll also be watching what I eat.

Reminder to self: Take everything one day at a time...one doesn't move mountains in a day. Sometimes it's just a spoonful towards the goals, but that's a spoonful that wasn't there the day before.

New Computer...

...it isn't quite a love affair, but it's close. This new computer is great. It's so quiet I don't even know I have it on...who knew the other's constant grumbling was getting on my nerves.

It's fast. I can open web-pages without having to wait (and I thought it was our connection! ha!)

It's got all the new updates, and while I fight them in the beginning they are more efficient, thus convenient.

Plus my new monitor dresses everything up in a crisp new picture.

So, I concede. New eras are sometimes good things. You just have to get used to them.

Merry LATE Christmas to My Mama

These placemats are a Christmas gift for my mother. Four of them are from Alyssa and Elizabeth and the other 2 are early mother's day gifts from me. They are 100% cotton in gold, lavendar and a creamy yellow. The pattern is called an "M&W".

Book Review: The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kilogradis

The Borgia Bride follows the life of Sancha of Aragon, princess of Naples during the end of the 1400s. She is a strong willed fearless young woman who is prey to the poltical machinations of her family. Married against her will to an 11 year old, who happens to be the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander, she falls into a world of incest, political intrigue, and murder.

The book pretty much is a whole bunch of horrible accounts of the pope's household and how Sancha has to maneuver her way through it the best she can in the hopes that she'll be able to save herself and her brother. She fails at the latter, but does manage to save her brother's son and escape from the madness that was Rome in 1500.

I liked the book ok. It wasn't great, but it was well-written and did suck the reader into it. I got a little weary of all the horrible accounts...it felt rather repitious towards the end, and I was glad to be done with it.

Recommended.

The End of an Era (sort of)

The computer I've been using for the past four years is on its last legs. It grunts and groans every time I turn it on...it's slow to move around sometimes...it locks up...sometimes it just won't go.

So, it's being replaced, but I'm going to miss it. I don't want to move to a new Windows operating system. I like XP...why did they change it? At least I'm not going to Vista, but I just don't understand why they can't leave a good thing alone.

And I really don't like doing this in the midst of dissertation writing. I mean, so many things can distract me from my mission...and a new computer is certainly one of them.

But change must happen, and so it will. Sometime this weekend all files that I need will be transferred, and the new computer will be operational. The old one will be backed up and then put down (poor thing).