Today’s the last day of Bloggiesta, and I haven’t done much. I put in 1.5 hours yesterday, and I wrote a review and did Mother Reader’s Comment Challenge. I commented on 5 kidlit blogs new to me. Quite fun!
One thing I found about doing the comments: It’s a PERFECT way to get my mind off divorce negotiations with my husband. He’s been e-mailing a lot this week, and I should probably say no more. I think with any future e-mails, I will make a rule to post 5 kidlit blog comments before I even think about trying to answer him! That should calm me down. I think it’s also good to be thinking about what I love to do.
Today I had church and the inevitable Sunday afternoon nap. Then my internet didn’t work, so I did my weekly ironing. Then, hooray, turning the router on and off brought it back, so now I can spend the evening blogging.
I have already attempted to make it easier to comment. I changed the settings so you don’t have to be registered. I hope that helps! I had trouble commenting on blogs that required a Google ID, but finally remembered what password I had used. So I understood when my friend said she’d tried to comment, but hadn’t been able to. I hope I fixed it!
Now I need to get busy and write some more reviews. I believe I have 32 more to go before I finish the books I read in 2009. I should just give up and not review them, but I want to catch up. My plan is to crank out the reviews and not post them to the main site until I have finished. I will then announce my Stand-outs for the year. Or, actually, I plan to announce my Stand-outs next weekend before the Newbery winners are announced. I don’t want my choices to be influenced!
Mother Reader has posted a Comment Challenge. From January 8 to January 28, the challenge is to comment on 5 kidlitosphere blogs per day, for a total of 100. Since I already missed the first day, I’ll take the day of grace to be January 8.
Of course, I was meaning to madly write reviews of all the books I read in 2009 and post my list of stand-outs. I want to list my stand-outs before the Newbery winners are announced next week, because I don’t want to be influenced!
But I’ve also been meaning to do more reading kidlit blogs and commenting, ever since I went to the Kidlitosphere Conference last October. Five doesn’t seem unreasonable.
Then, while I’m at it, there’s a Bloggiesta going on at Maw Books Blog, a weekend to work on your blog.
Well, I’m starting super late — just found out about it. But I was planning to get as many reviews as possible written this weekend, so why not?
So, I’m signing up for Bloggiesta at 10:15 pm on Saturday night. I’ll do half a weekend, anyway!
The first mini-challenge is to comment on 10 blogs new to you. So I’ll start with Maw Books!
It’s New Year’s Day, and time for me to post Sonderbooks Stand-outs 2010, my list of my favorite books that I read in 2009.
However, I just came back from a quick trip to California for Christmas. On that trip I didn’t get any reviews written, but I got six more books read, bringing my total of books that I’ve read and want to review somewhere in the forties.
The longest part of the process of posting a review isn’t writing the review, but posting the webpage complete with updated links. So, my plan for the next week or two will be to see how fast I can write reviews on this blog. When I have gotten all caught up, then I’ll post the list of Stand-outs and make the pages for all of those reviews.
And first, I’ll upgrade my blogs to WordPress 2.9.
So, we’ll see if it works! I definitely want to post my Stand-outs before the Newbery winners are announced, because I don’t want to be influenced by that. So that gives me two weeks. Let’s see if I can do it!
Europa Editions, New York, 2008. 325 pages.
Original title: L’elegance du herisson, published in France in 2006.
Starred Review Sonderbooks Stand-out 2010: #3 Fiction
Two people live at number 7, rue de Grenelle, who are far more than what they seem. The building holds eight luxury apartments and their amenities. Paloma, on the fifth floor, is planning to burn theirs down and commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday.
Why should a child with so many advantages and so much intelligence decide to end her life? Paloma explains:
“All our family acquaintances have followed the same path: their youth spent trying to make the most of their intelligence, squeezing their studies like a lemon to make sure they’d secure a spot among the elite, then the rest of their lives wondering with a flabbergasted look on their faces why all that hopefulness has led to such a vain existence. People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. I wonder if it wouldn’t be simpler just to teach children right from the start that life is absurd. That might deprive you of a few good moments in your childhood but it would save you a considerable amount of time as an adult — not to mention the fact that you’d be spared at least one traumatic experience, i. e. the goldfish bowl….
“But one thing is sure — there’s no way I’m going to end up in the goldfish bowl. I’ve thought it through quite carefully. Even for someone like me who is super-smart and gifted in her studies and different from everyone else, in fact superior to the vast majority — even for me life is already all plotted out and so dismal you could cry: no one seems to have thought of the fact that if life is absurd, being a brilliant success has no greater value than being a failure. It’s just more comfortable. And even then: I think lucidity gives your success a bitter taste, whereas mediocrity still leaves hope for something.”
Meanwhile, the other surprising person in the building is Madame Michel, the humble concierge, who is determined never to give away to anyone in the building how brilliant she is.
“I conform so very well to what social prejudice has collectively construed to be a typical French concierge that I am one of the multiple cogs that make the great universal illusion turn, the illusion according to which life has a meaning that can be easily deciphered.”
Since the image of the concierge is someone who lazily sits around and watches popular television shows, until her husband’s death, Madame Michel let him preserve that part of her image.
“With the advent of videocassettes and, subsequently, the DVD divinity, things changed radically, much to the enrichment of my happy hours. As it is not terribly common to come across a concierge waxing ecstatic over Death in Venice or to hear strains of Mahler wafting from her loge, I delved into my hard-earned conjugal savings and bought a second television set that I could operate in my hideaway. Thus, the television in the front room, guardian of my clandestine activities, could bleat away and I was no longer forced to listen to inane nonsense fit for the brain of a clam — I was in the back room, perfectly euphoric, my eyes filling with tears, in the miraculous presence of Art.”
Paloma and Madame Michel share the beginning of the book in parallel, still in complete ignorance of each other. Paloma is trying to record some Profound Thoughts before she leaves the world, but also decides to write a journal alongside that records “masterpieces of matter.” She’s looking for “Something incarnate, tangible. But beautiful and aesthetic at the same time.” The examples she comes up with are quite wonderful, and incidentally will make the reader look at some common things very differently than ever before.
The book gets off to a slow start as the two philosophize, and criticize the rich supposed intellectuals around them, living in their building. This book was probably not the best to choose to read in a doctor’s waiting room, which was where I started it. It was, however, a fabulous choice to curl up with in bed on a lazy afternoon with snow gently falling outside, which was where I finished it.
Then one of the residents dies, his apartment is sold, and a Japanese filmmaker moves in. This man, Monsieur Ozu, immediately detects the two particularly brilliant souls among his neighbors, despite their clever disguises. Paloma says about him:
“So here is my profound thought for the day: this is the first time I have met someone who seeks out people and who sees beyond. That may seem trivial but I think it is profound all the same. We never look beyond our assumptions and, what’s worse, we have given up trying to meet others; we just meet ourselves. We don’t recognize people because other people have become our permanent mirrors. If we actually realized this, if we were to become aware of the fact that we are only ever looking at ourselves in the other person, that we are alone in the wilderness, we would go crazy. When my mother offers macaroons from Chez Laduree to Madame de Broglie, she is telling herself her own life story and just nibbling at her own flavor; when Papa drinks his coffee and reads his paper, he is contemplating his own reflection in the mirror, as if practicing the Coue method or something; when Colombe talks about Marian’s lectures, she is ranting about her own reflection; and when people walk by the concierge, all they see is a void, because she is not from their world.
“As for me, I implore fate to give me the chance to see beyond myself and truly meet someone.”
Monsieur Ozu is the one who tips these two extraordinary individuals off to each other. As Paloma begins to suspect Madame Michel, we discover where the title of the book came from:
“As for Madame Michel . . . how can we tell? She radiates intelligence. And yet she really makes an effort, like, you can tell she is doing everything she possibly can to act like a concierge and come across as stupid. But I’ve been watching her, when she would talk with Jean Arthens or when she talks to Neptune when Diane has her back turned, or when she looks at the ladies in the building who walk right by her without saying hello. Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside, she’s covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary — and terribly elegant.”
As Madame Michel’s cover begins to come down with Paloma and with their amazing new neighbor, things begin to change.
Here is a beautiful book, definitely for reading when you are in a philosophical state of mind. I can see why it has been popular with book clubs. I will say up front that I don’t like the ending, but it still didn’t ruin the book for me. The philosophy is not exactly cheery, but I did like all the meditations about beauty, and the things to love, in the end, about life.
This book makes me wish I could read French well enough to try it in the original language. The translation job must have been tricky, as Madame Michel’s appreciation for language, and her keen eye toward the way supposedly educated people misuse it, show us more of her brilliance. For example, Alison Anderson managed to translate a note with a misplaced comma into English. I wonder what the original was like, and if she was able to translate directly.
A book that will leave you thinking about it for a long time.
This weekend, the six-week online class I took from ALSC, the Association for Library Service to Children, finished up. The class was called The Newbery Medal: Past, Present, and Future. I thoroughly enjoyed the class, and highly recommend it to anyone like me, fascinated with the Newbery Medal.
The Newbery Medal has been given since 1922 to the “most distinguished” contribution to American children’s literature. In the class, we each read a book from each decade the award has been given, as well as some Honor Books. Our instructor has been a past Newbery Medal Committee Chairperson, and we had guest speakers of other Newbery committee members and a Newbery winning author and publisher and other such guests.
One thing I learned is that Newbery books make good reading. No, I wasn’t as enthralled with some of the older books, but they all had something good about them. A past committee member said that she was comforted when her year’s chairperson told them that they were going to choose one of the best books of the year. Yes, they try for the most distinguished, but of course that is an elusive goal. The nature of the word assures that no committee will ever be able to please everyone. However, in their attempt, they will surely come up with one of the best books of the year.
I was reassured by stories of how hard the committee works and how seriously they take their charge. I was pleased to learn that no one can be on a committee more than once in five years, so if one year there is a prejudice against certain types of books, the next year different people will be selecting.
I learned that the committee is not supposed to take an author’s previous work into account. They are simply supposed to compare with the other books published that year.
I learned that the award is for books that appeal to “children,” which can include up to age 14. The choices tend to skew toward the older end of the spectrum, despite what elementary school teachers may wish. Newbery Medal winners are most often works of middle-grade fiction, but there are notable exceptions, and that is not a requirement.
All of us in class have certain Medal winners that we read as children that still resonate with us today. A side effect of choosing the most distinguished children’s book of the year is that over the years the committees have chosen a list of books that, for the most part, stand the test of time.
I will be looking forward to next January’s announcement more avidly than ever.
I wore my Prime Factorization Sweater to KidlitCon09, and it shows up in all my pictures, so I think it’s time for me to explain it.
This is the sweater that proves that I am a Certified Math Nut.
Okay, here’s how it works. You have to start in the bottom lefthand corner, because the mathematician in me couldn’t bear to start anywhere except where the origin would be on Cartesian coordinates. Naturally, the numbers go from left to right and from low to high.
I’ll post a picture of the front of the sweater:
Okay, look at the bottom row. It looks like there is a blank space on the left. That represents 1, because 1 is the background color, because 1 is a factor of every number.
Next is a blue square, which represents 2.
Next is a red square, for 3.
Then comes 4. 4 = 2 x 2. So 4 is represented by two blue rectangles.
Then comes 5. 5 is prime, so 5 gets a new color, yellow.
Next is 6. 6 = 2 x 3. So 6 is represented by a blue rectangle and a red rectangle.
7 gets a new color, purple.
8 comes next. 8 = 2 x 2 x 2. So 8 is in a square with three blue rectangles.
Then comes 9. 9 = 3 x 3. Two red rectangles.
Last on the bottom row is 10. 10 = 2 x 5, so we have blue and yellow.
The second row starts with 11, which is given the color pink.
12 has three factors, since 12 = 2 x 2 x 3, so two blues and a red.
Get the idea? This sweater presents a chart giving the color-coded prime factorization of every number from 2 to 100.
The patterns are wonderful and fascinating. You’ll quickly notice that the yellows and the blues line up, because 5 and 2 are factors of 10. You also might notice that all perfect squares are symmetrical. Multiples of 11 go in a lovely pink diagonal across the sweater. There are hundreds more patterns. It would be a lovely visual aid for teaching number theory. Fun to quietly wear to Math competitions, too!
What’s more, you can use this as a quick conversion table to convert to Octal (Base 8), because on the back I did the same thing with rows of 8:
The fun thing about rows of 8 is that the patterns are all different! Notice how the last column is full of blue squares because every number there is a multiple of 8 and has at least three factors of 2. And now 9 (two reds) acts like 11, going diagonally up the sweater, as does 7 (purple) in the opposite direction.
On the sleeves, I did rows of 2 and rows of 3. The rows of 3 is the only one where the blues do not line up, because 2 and 3 are relatively prime.
Isn’t it just the coolest thing in the world?!!!
Okay, I warned you: This is the item that proves I am a Certified Math Nut. I can get hugely excited and animated talking about this sweater.
I have already done a library program called “Puzzles and Patterns” showing kids how they can make simple codes using the ideas from this sweater. There’s definitely a children’s book in there, but I haven’t gotten around to writing it yet. I definitely plan to some day!
One of the cool things about this sweater is that it works in any language and on any planet!!! You see, even if an alien race had only four fingers on each hand, they could look at the back of the sweater and all their numbers would work. For that matter, a number system with a base of 7 or some other strange base would still work, even though it might not be in neat rows for that base. The chart is entirely independent of the symbols used to represent a number, and based only on color.
So we had a family joke that if an alien ever came to our door, we’d run and get the sweater to prove that we are intelligent life.
I only hope the aliens are not color blind!
Of course I also like to tell the story that when I was knitting this sweater, I brought it along to visit my family and friends one Christmas. Most of my family are Math Geeks, too, so they were impressed. But one friend had a young son who listened to my explanation and responded, “That’s just weird!”
What can I say? He does have a point. Call me weird, but I still think it’s one of the coolest things in the world!
Edited to add: Here’s a link to my CafePress store, where you can order t-shirts using this idea, showing the color-coded prime factorization of the numbers from 2 to 100, with the number also printed below the color-coded square.
I did something a little crazy. I signed up for a six-week online class. The class is The Newbery Medal: Past, Present, and Future. I wasn’t going to sign up, because I can’t afford a class and don’t have time for a class.
However, two things persuaded me. At the National Book Festival, a co-worker I ran into reminded me that the Library’s Employee Association offers grants for things like that, to help with the cost. Then, I was following School Library Journal’s Heavy Medal blog, and actually found myself looking through all 79 pages of the Newbery Committee Guidelines that were posted. Yes, I am fascinated with the Newbery Medal. One of the reasons I am thrilled to be a librarian is that now I’m one of the people who sponsors the Newbery Medal! What’s more, the instructor was the chair of the Newbery Committee the year that I got to go to the Award Banquet, and she also wrote the textbook we used in my Library Services to Children class.
So — My reading habits are going to have to change. Mind you, I still have a persistent backlog of about 20 books I’ve read and plan to review, so the change in my habits may take awhile to hit the blog. Though I may get far further behind because of not having time to write reviews.
I’m going to be reading at least one Newbery winner from each decade the award’s been giving. One nice part of that assignment is that I’ve already discovered that almost every decade has a book that I’d long been meaning to read (and own) but haven’t got around to reading yet. Now I will!
Mind you, Kidlitcon 09 is only two weeks away! I’ve already begun reading a book by one of the authors I’m going to meet there, and I’m planning to read another. But once that is done, maybe I can settle in to some classics.
Of course, the clincher in deciding to take the course is that it is not graded. — If I don’t get the books read, it’s not like I’ll fail the course. But even as I say that I know that I will want to read even more than what’s required, not less. However, I just thought of an even better point in the classes favor: No papers! Yes, we have to post on the forums three times a week, but that part is fun. A class where I get to read lots of children’s books, but don’t have to write any research papers. What’s not to like? I’m excited!
But you may not hear as much from me for about six weeks….
Today I attended the National Book Festival in Washington, DC, and had an awesome time!
I learned a bit from last year’s trip, which was something of a fiasco. I didn’t waste a lot of time standing in long lines for autographs, but focused on the one author whom I really really wanted to talk to and get books signed by — Shannon Hale. And then I spent most of my time enjoying the author presentations — which turned out to be FABULOUS!
Next year, I’ll add a step of ordering any books I want signed ahead of time. Both years, on impulse I’ve bought lots of books at the Festival, have waited in a huge crowd to purchase them, and then end up not waiting in enough lines to get them signed. I did buy books by a couple authors I didn’t even see, but at least they are good books I’d been meaning to read anyway.
I saw three different fellow employees from Fairfax County Public Library who were also lucky enough to have the day off. In fact, I cheated a little bit and stepped into the book sales line to join Gena, the Woodrow Wilson Library Children’s Assistant. (She was almost at the back of the line anyway.) We talked and talked the whole time we were waiting to pay for our books, which made that a fun part of the Festival, too.
Shannon Hale is one of my favorite living authors, along with Robin McKinley, whom she acknowledges as her inspiration. Back in 2004, I named The Goose Girl the best book I read in 2003, the #1 Sonderbooks Stand-out 2003. I e-mailed Shannon about it, and she answered, and we corresponded for awhile.
When I told Shannon who I was when I was getting my books signed, she gave me a hug! And asked how I am doing and if I’d finished my MLS. Such a nice person besides being such a wonderful writer!
Besides that, her fabulous and funny talk was about her path to becoming a published author. She brought in a laminated roll of past rejection slips, which she has also posted on her blog recently. Somehow to know that such an exceptional writer was rejected for reasons that seem ridiculous to me — well, it gives me hope for my own writing.
Shannon with old rejection letters
She talked about a principle she learned in a pottery class about throwing away your first 100 tries. I’m so very glad she persisted, found an editor who loved her work, and now has so many avid fans. I do love telling library patrons about her books, and I know of many, many other people who love her writing.
So — the Shannon Hale part of my day was a tremendous success! Inspiring and thrilling! I felt so honored that she remembered me! Some day, some day, some day, I hope to be at an event as a fellow author — but that won’t happen unless I am as persistent as she was — both in submitting and especially in working on my craft.
Here’s what she wrote in my book!
After that, I spent the afternoon in the Children’s tent. I had hoped to get Mo Willems’ autograph, but his line was just way too long (at least if I wanted to make it to Shannon’s talk). And I did forgo trying to get Kate DiCamillo’s autograph in order to get to Mo Willems’ talk. Then, since I was a fan of all the authors left on the program, I just stayed in that tent the rest of the afternoon. They were incredible! Tremendously entertaining and interesting and inspiring, every single one.
I should mention that in the morning, I got in on the first segment of The Exquisite Corpse Adventure, which should now be posted on read.gov. This is a tale put together by several different authors — and Jon Scieszka started it off with all kinds of challenges of things that would be in it — like a rollerskating baby, real ninjas and fake vampires, a talking pig, and of course a ticking clock. Watching the authors present teasers was great fun.
Jon Scieszka, Megan McDonald, Steven Kellogg, and Shannon Hale listening to Kate DiCamillo give her Exquisite Corpse teaser
First were Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, talking about the upcoming last volume of The Spiderwick Chronicles. I didn’t have great seats for their talk or Mo’s, but at least I had a seat. They talked about how they got ideas — cool stuff about bestiaries and folklore. Tony did some drawings, which unfortunately I couldn’t see.
Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black telling about folklore and a house said to be visited by fairies.
Then was Mo Willems, whom I consider an absolute genius. He did nothing to alter that impression. He read Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed,Today I Will Fly (with other helpers), and his new Elephant and Piggie book, Pigs Make Me Sneeze.
I also bought the new book, and when I read it to my teenage son, he pointed out that it teaches that correlation does not imply causation. So right! Almost makes me wish I still taught Statistics so that I could bring that book in to read to the class. Incidentally, my son wishes that Mo would write a book about Doctor Cat, a new character introduced in Pigs Make Me Sneeze.
When it was time for questions, I loved how Mo answered the one about where he gets his inspiration: He’s lucky enough to get it in the mail every month. In the form of a mortgage bill! He said that writers get inspired when they need to get inspired. That’s their job.
Another child asked why the pigeon appears in all his books. He said the pigeon is stinker and gets jealous when Mo writes a book that isn’t about him. So when he writes another book, the pigeon sneaks into the drawings when Mo is sleeping.
Here's Mo!
After Mo spoke, lots of better seats became available! So I settled in for the rest of the programs. Steven Kellogg was the illustrator of one of my oldest son’s favorite picture books, The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash. His smile was so genuine and warm, and he was a dynamo in his talk, illustrating the stories he told while telling them with enthusiasm and expression. It was delightful to watch.
Steven Kellogg's enthusiastic talk
Then came Jerry Pinkney, talking about his new book, The Lion and the Mouse. I recently “read” this book at a storytime. It is a wordless book with sound effects, but even without me reading a story, the children were mesmerized by the glorious pictures, and it was fun getting them to tell me what was going on.
In his talk, Jerry told about the things in his life and in his childhood that inspired him to become an artist and gave him a love for animals. This talk was maybe not as entertaining, but it was enthralling and inspiring.
Jerry Pinkney with his latest book
Finally, the last show was the two-man comedy act of Jon Scieszka and David Shannon, who have written a book together called Robot Zot. I definitely need to get my hands on a copy of that book!
I can’t adequately express what it’s like to listen to those two men interact with an audience together. Did I say men? Perhaps they’d be better described as mature little boys. Not in a bad way, at all. Hmm. Recently I’ve been listening to a CD about accessing your inner archetype of the Playful Child. Let’s just say that these two have got that down pat. Two Playful Children entertaining a roomful of people.
They talked about the collaboration process (and how the illustrator doesn’t listen to the author!) and read their new book, and then David Shannon drew a robot villain inspired by audience suggestions. But along the way, lots and lots of fun was had by all.
Jon Scieszka and David Shannon obviously plotting somethingJon Scieszka reading Robot ZotDavid Shannon and his audience-inspired robot villain
Ever since I participated in Mother Reader’s 48-Hour Reading Challenge, I’ve been meaning to do more blogging on this blog, and not only post reviews. However, I’ve got this consistent stack of 20-21 books that I’ve read that are just waiting to be reviewed. I’m shooting for a review a day, and my theory is that if I hit that goal eventually I will catch up. But then I get slowed down by one thing or another. Getting sick with a cold or headache is worst, since I tend to step up my reading at the same time that I am writing less reviews.
Anyway, today I got an e-mail from Mother Reader, who is organizing the Kidlitosphere Conference (for Kidlit bloggers), and she says I can post the KidLitCon badge you can see at the top of this post. So of course if I post the badge, it’s best to explain it, right?
Okay, I guess I’m prattling on. I tend to do most of my blogging about life on my other blog, www.sonderbooks.com/sonderjourneys including things about my spiritual journey. But when it comes to blogging about life as a reader and a librarian and a writer and a blogger, this seems like a good place.
I’m excited about going to KidLitCon 09. It’s October 17, and it’s in Washington DC, so I can do it cheaply and won’t even need a hotel or plane fare. I’m only just becoming aware of the community of Kidlit bloggers. I feel like a little kid on the playground and I want to play, too!
I began Sonderbooks back in 2000, before I had even heard of blogs. I started it as an e-mail newsletter about all the good books I’d read lately, and eventually decided to turn it into a website. For a long time, I kept it as “issues,” where I posted reviews of about ten books at a time, and e-mailed my subscriber list with all the reviews. It took me some time to figure out this really fit the blog format, so after I got my library degree and moved back to America, I switched it to a blog, though I still like the way the website organizes the reviews, so I’m keeping that as well.
Anyway, I never really read other book blogs, because I have plenty of books to keep up with just with what passes by at the library. However, I’m finding it’s fun to read what other people think, too… So now I’ll get to meet some of those people, and I think it’s going to be fun! Do you think they’ll let me into the club?
What’s more, this week is the National Book Festival in Washington DC. I went last year and it was something of a fiasco for me. We got rained on. I spent lots of money and waited in long lines buying people’s books, but then my son wasn’t happy to wait in more long lines to get them signed. And they were out of the books I most wanted.
This year, I’m going to try for one author signing: Shannon Hale. I will bring my own copy of Forest Born, though I’ll also try to snag a couple copies for gifts. Other than that, I will focus on hearing the authors speak, particularly Jon Scieszka (who was a riot last year) and Mo Willems and Kate DiCamillo and Sharon Creech and Judy Blume and David Shannon and… Get the idea? Okay, I probably won’t be able to resist buying a few more books while I’m there and trying for a few more signings. But we’ll see. I am going to try to make hearing authors speak my priority.
I also plan to arrive early and drive myself and hope that gets me a parking spot. And keeps me from starting the day carsick from the Metro.
And I’m excited about it all! Books and Blogging and Writing and Good Stuff! Since my husband left me, in so many ways I’m forced to redefine myself and figure out who I am and what I’m all about. I became a librarian and I’m a writer and a book lover and a book reviewer and blogger. And all those things tie together, and they are represented by these conferences. Woo-hoo! I’m excited!
Mind you, the Math part of me is alive and well. I’m sure of that because I find myself just delighted when my son asks me questions about his Trig homework. I find myself wishing it were ethical to do it for him, just because it would be so much fun. Needless to say, he finds that highly annoying.
Maybe I’ll find someone who’s written a book about Math.
The Marriage Bureau for Rich People is one I will be recommending to many, many library patrons as a pleasant, light-hearted read that will lift your spirits. It also gives you a taste of life in India.
Mr. Ali needs something to do after retirement. His wife tells him,
“After retiring, you’ve been like an unemployed barber who shaves his cat for want of anything better to do. Let’s hope that from today you will be a bit busier and I get some peace.”
Mr. Ali has decided to open a Marriage Bureau for Rich People. And in fact, he gets so much business he can’t handle it all himself. He deals with Muslims, Hindus, and Christians, and people of different castes. Sometimes parents, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles seek his services for their relatives, and sometimes the prospective matches come themselves. He learns much about human nature and has many insights on what leads to happiness.
Mrs. Ali finds her husband an assistant, Aruna, to help with the work load. Aruna has her own sad story, since her father’s recent illness strapped the family finances and destroyed her marriage prospects.
The book tells stories of some of the people they successfully match up, and some with whom they are not so lucky. Through it all, we hear about the Alis’ conflicts with their own son, who is involved in political protests, as well as Aruna’s difficulties. Fortunately, events take a happy turn.
This book introduces you to delightful people, tells interesting stories about them, and gives you a taste of India. Thinking about it still makes me smile. In some ways, this reminded me of The Number One Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith — the same pleasant tone, and the same basic idea: friendly main characters interacting with a wide variety of people, with insights on human nature given along the way. Both give a taste of the country where they are set, with The Marriage Bureau for Rich People in India, instead of Botswana.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
The Marriage Bureau for Rich People