xeryfyn's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Engrossed in pop culture Well it's been two weeks and I have slowly begun to adjust to the idea of having two kids, of being a constant multi-tasker, of having one ear out for my toddler and the other for my infant. I have begun to master the art of snuggling with Julia while nursing Elena, begun to figure out how best to out the many limbs that are now a part of my life. I have found the cozy place on the couch that is most conducive to this arrangement and have plowed through more children's DVDs than I care to think about while sorting this all out. And yet, my mind today isnt on these tasks that seem to have taken over my life, as it were. Instead, it waffles between the heat wave that envelopes us and the pop-culture things that I have found the time to absorb in the last little while. Movies (grown-up ones!) -------- "Bad-er Santa"-What a gong show of a movie! It's one of those, close your eyes and laugh kind of things. Not exactly intellectually stimulating stuff but at this point, sometimes a mindless laugh is a nice break. "Mystic River"-What a 360 this is from the previous movie. Very intense, very dark, quite disturbing on some levels. I can see why it would garner awards but it isnt something that I would ever own. The ending just rubbed me the wrong way. "Cold Mountain"-another drama which was quite intense. But very well-acted and extremely well directed. I enjoyed this one more than Mystic River. Books ------- I've read some fluff lately. Actually the fact that I've read anything at all is impressive enough given that I had a baby two weeks ago. "Humans"-by Robert J. Sawyer-OK this one's not reaslly fluff, and I dont know what possessed me to read the second book of this trilogy without having read the first one. But since I LOVED the book "Calculating God" by the same author, I thought I would give it a shot anyway. I wasnt disappointed, per se, but I wasnt really impressed either. Once again, full of religious overtones and scientific theory but lacking in the witty writing style I liked so much in his other book, this author still manages to make me think about life as it is in a different light and ponder the "what ifs". I will have to hunt up the rest of this trilogy. "Girlfriend's Guide to Toddlers"-by Vicki Iovine-Not that informative, not as funny a read as her other book "Girlfriend's Guide to the First Year" which was good enough to buy. I read this one pretty quick, but didnt feel like I was missing out on anything. "The Thief Lord"-by Cornelia Funk-highly touted and prominently displayed as a best seller, but I was disappointed in the thinness of the story, the unimpressive writing style and general lack of enthusiasm throughout the book. I wasnt totally engrossed in the details, I didnt feel empathy with the characters, I wasnt enamoured with the plot.
"Coraline"-by Neil Gaiman-a bit Alice in Wonderland-esque but with a dark streak that was quite enjoyable. I found that I had to go back over parts of it to get the full impact of his unusual writing style but I think that is something I just have to work on with time. I read it at night, as most of my "free" time is really just time taken from sleeping (like blogging right now) and was a bit distracted from sleep, or at least restful sleep anyway. Still, this is one more YA book that I shall eventually have to add to my collection. "Tangerine"-by Edward Bloor-This is one crazy, messed up book. One of the YA Survivor challengers in the EPL suumer reading program, it has a weird premise and takes a bit to get around to the point. Still, when it does, it'll make you shake your head and wonder if people are really as messed up as all of that. And when you realize that they are, it makes you shake your head again. "Hanging on to Max"-by Margaret Bechard-Now this book kind of annoyed me. It's premise is that of a teenage single father raising his son and struggling. (Of course he is struggling, even married middle age fathers struggle with raising kids. So this didnt really wash with me very well) In any case, it tells the story about how the mother of the baby tried to do the mother thing and lasted a week before giving the baby up for adoption (to the father of the baby-who steps up to take responsibility). Somehow (sorry spoiler up ahead) he is totally devoted and willing to do everything for Max until the last ten pages (the baby is 11 months old when this all happens)when he turns around and puts him up for adpotion. WTF? There is a line about how he will otherwise never ba able to get married and have other kids if he is a single father. I was left distinctly irate and put out by the insinuation that single parents are always destined to be single and that they dont do as good a job raising thier kids as an adoptive family might. I guess the reason that this really made me upset was because this book is geared towards young teenagers who might find themselves pregnant and single and it presents the notion that being young and pregnant is a bad place to be. now I agree that it is a bad place to be, but let's face it, once they are there, they need a model that will show them empowered to deal with that situation. If it was going to be a "pro-adoption" kind of book (which would be a good viable kind of option when you are young and pregnant) then why spend 80% of the book talking about the joys of raising a child? I dunno, maybe it's the raging hormones with a babe in arms while reading this one, but it set me off something fierce. OK there are more, but I think I ought to wrap it up here and go to bed. I am setting myself up for a day of insanity tomorrow. In a heat wave, no less. 6:49 p.m. - 2004-08-12 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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