Monthly Archives: June 2012

Summer Reading So Far

Posted by Jackie in authors, book reviews, writing and tagged with , ,
19/366 The Night Circus

19/366 The Night Circus (Photo credit: clogsilk)

Want to hear about some books I’ve read?

  • Solar, by Ian McEwan: I found this book on the used-for-sale shelf at our local library and decided to chance a quarter on a writer I’ve had good luck with before. This didn’t measure up to Saturday or Atonement, the other two McEwan books I’ve read, but then, that’s setting a pretty high bar. Essentially, this book combines many strands: meditations on masculinity and aging, satire, and reflecting on moral dilemmas like whether our actions define us, or what terrible things would we do if we knew we wouldn’t get caught. It was a good poolside read, and unlike other reviewers, apparently, I was not offended by the satire on climate change (I’m not generally offended by satire).
  • The Marriage Plot: A Novel: This is a book I’ve wanted to read for months, after the storm of reviews and accompanying articles on the real life drama that may or may not have inspired the book and certain characters in it. However, I am very glad that I read it after the furor had died down, because while I enjoyed all the tidbits of literary gossip, I’m not sure I would have been able to separate the novel from the gossip, and that would have been a shame. I really enjoyed The Marriage Plot, which takes place primarily at Brown University in the 1980s and particularly in the first explosion of semiotics in the academy. As someone with a graduate degree in cultural studies, I really enjoyed this aspect of the book, and the half-mocking, half-respectful tone towards French literary theory and everything that comes with it. I also enjoyed the book for being a straight-ahead novel–not an experiment with the form or a metafictional “romp” or anything else, but a lovely and interesting novel that made me tear up and laugh. But in doing so, it also managed to make me think more deeply about themes like romantic love, marriage, friendship and spirituality, just as a good novel can (and should).
  • The Night Circus: I am definitely the kind of person who tells you to read the book before you see the movie, the kind of person who gets irrationally upset when filmmakers change aspects of beloved books, but even for a curmudgeon like me, there are some books that just seem destined for the big screen, and this is one of them. Erin Morgenstern‘s first novel is full of vivid and gorgeous imagery just begging to be realized, and I’m looking forward to seeing the circus come to life. The night circus travels the world and only opens at night, and while there are acrobats and animals, the black-and-white striped tents also hold dreamlike visions and otherworldly experiences. There are some great parts for men and women alike in the story of two magicians battling with each other through their students, who happen to fall in love along the way. A lot of the reviews of this book connected it to Harry Potter, but apart from the presence of magic, I don’t see much of a link at all. That doesn’t detract from The Night Circus for me, but it is kind of puzzling. This was a great read, and I can see why it probably has made a great book club choice, especially if you got really into the spirit of decorating, costumes and food featured in the book.
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Summer, In Three Acts

Posted by Jackie in writing

A few weeks before the summer begins:

“I’m going to get so much done this summer! I’m going to paint the vestibule and the porch steps and I’m going to clean out the overstuffed kitchen cabinets; I’m going to clean out the messy linen closet and the storage room! I’m going to try so many new recipes, and I’m going to revamp all those assignments that need tweaking, and I’m going to read for that new class, plus those books on pedagogy, plus some novels that have been on my wishlist forever!”

 

The first week of summer:

“Poolside. Sun feels so good on my skin. Summertime and the living is easy. Cloudy?  Then it must be time to watch some Harry Potter movies. Baseball game, then go see some friends, then go see whatever kids’ movie is out in theaters. I’ll start tackling those projects in July. Yeah, July.”

 

A few weeks into summer:

“Wait, June is almost over? How have I not gotten anything done yet? Why is it so hot outside? I need to go lie down with a cool cloth on my face. “

Ballet Shoes and Big Goals

Posted by Jackie in family life and tagged with , , , ,
English: Classic ballet-dancer Español: Bailar...

Classic ballet-dancer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My daughter Lucy had her first ballet recital recently, and yes, I cried a little and sat through the whole recital with an enormous smile on my face. This was Lucy’s first time on stage (as opposed to her sister, who recently announced that she was born for the stage), and I was so proud of her for persevering past the anxiety I knew she felt about being up there in front of all those people. Her little group practiced for months, and when the time came, she took a deep breath and took the stage, looking beautiful, graceful, and all at once so tiny and yet so grown-up.

Apart from getting to gush over my girl, it made me think about the goals we are setting for our girls, and the lessons we are trying to teach them. Do I think Lucy will become a classical ballerina? Odds are against it, but you never know. Do I think Sophie will become a competitive rock-climber or a concert-hall pianist? Again, I wouldn’t bet large amounts of money on it, but you never know. However, we have paid for years of piano lessons, and hundreds of dollars towards ballet, rock-climbing, voice lessons, art classes, a season of softball and several summers of tennis lessons. I expect before they are adults, we will have spent thousands.

Some of these classes my children chose, others were thrust upon them, but I strongly believe that in each, the importance of commitment, of perseverance was central. Every time they worked towards a show or recital or game, I hope they were learning small steps towards reaching big goals, whether or not they ever pick up a tennis racket again. Every time they saw their skills increase after hours of practice, or bonded with the other kids working towards that same goal, I hope they got a glimpse of the value of these concepts, values that will carry over into any pursuit they decide is worthwhile of their talents and fires their passion.

As we hover in this summer between one school and the next, I also hope that one major value they will gain in their new school is the opportunity to have a multitude of female role models, whether it’s one grade ahead or five, setting high goals for themselves and meeting them. The students they will see in the years ahead will be chess champions, artists, poets, engineers, dancers, athletes, chemists, actors, and scholars, but they will also all be female. To me, that’s worth a major investment in their future.

 

Game Review: Sleeping Queens

Posted by Jackie in all about me, family life, games and tagged with , , , ,

After our great experience with Dweebies, Wendy recommended Sleeping Queens, one of the games I had noticed on the Gamewright website. Today the girls and I went to Shananigans, our favorite local toy and game shop to spend the last of their birthday money. While they shopped for stuffed animals, charm bracelets, and a piggie lunchbox, I picked up Sleeping Queens and The Scrambled States of America (review coming soon).

What a fun game! Once again, this is a card game, and perfect for three players. The cards are beautifully illustrated and the twelve queens are funny and lovely, including the Pancake, Peacock, Ladybug and Rainbow Queens. The queen cards are “sleeping” face down in the middle of the playing surface, and your goal is to be the first player to collect five queens and win the game. The regular gameplay also involves interaction between players, as players can steal queens from each other (knight card) or put another player’s queens back to sleep (sleeping potion), as well as block either of these actions with a wand or dragon. My girls (just turned ten) caught on quickly and played two rounds back-to-back. Another nice aspect of this game is that children could easily play together, but also, adults have no natural advantage, as is sometimes true in spelling or trivia games. There’s some simple addition involved in the gameplay, which means children should be able to add single digit numbers to play well, and which makes the game a nice one for siblings to play together, I bet (I think this was Lone Star Ma’s experience from the comments too, right?).

In short, another successful game purchase for us!

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Game Review: Dweebies

Posted by Jackie in family life and tagged with , , ,

If we’re going to be a geeky gaming family, why not do some game reviews, right?

My girls got Dweebies as a birthday present, and this weekend, we opened it up and played for the first time. It’s a fun card game, designed for 2-6 players, though we’ve only played with 2-3 so far. The object of the game is to collect Dweebies, and you collect Dweebies by laying down matching Dweebies at both ends of a line of Dweebies. The rules are online, if you want more info on those.

The game comes in a nice metal carrying box, and the Dweebies themselves are very cute, with bright colors, manic grins and blobby shapes. Each Dweebie has a “passion,” so you get Baker Dweebie, Surfer Dweebie, and many more. There’s no reading involved in the game, but there’s enough strategy that I can see why the game is recommended for ages 8 and above.  You need a fairly good-sized flat surface (floor or tabletop), so it wouldn’t be a good car game, but I would definitely take it along on a trip to play once you get there. We picked up the rules and got the hang of it quickly, and it’s a fresh take on a card game that your family and friends probably haven’t seen before. Game play moves quickly, so you could have a tournament without spending hours, and could easily play a few rounds and then move onto a longer-play game.

It looks like Gamewright, the company that makes Dweebies, has lots of short-play games for kids; I think we might try Horse Show or Sleeping Queens in the future. The Scrambled States of America also looks fun, as one of our summer goals is for the girls to know all the states and capitals before the school year starts again.

In short, I would recommend Dweebies for any gaming family with young kids, and anyone looking for a fun summer card game!

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High Fidelity: The Playlist

Posted by Jackie in book reviews, media mentions, writing and tagged with , ,

Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity holds a certain place in my heart for complicated reasons (let’s just say I dated Rob and identified with Rob at one point in my life and leave it at that) but more importantly, the book is full of references to fantastic music. For years, I’ve wished I could have a soundtrack to the book–not to the great American film version High Fidelity (although I do own the High Fidelity Soundtrack), but to the book.

Well my friends, that day has come.

(If the box appears empty, please copy and paste the following link into your browser http://open.spotify.com/user/patchworkjackie/playlist/2cWjOURAJuGh9sjlDPAIIY )

This playlist features, in order, all the songs mentioned by title in the novel, High Fidelity. If a song was mentioned twice, I only included it once, and tried to get the original artist/version mentioned in the book. There are plenty of albums mentioned also, but I only stuck with songs, to avoid the playlist getting too unwieldy.

Enjoy!

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Tabletop, Geeks, Games and Me

Posted by Jackie in all about me, family life, media mentions, technology and tagged with , , , ,
Tsuro

Tsuro (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I realized recently that I may have been wrong about myself, and where I fall on the geek spectrum.

See, I don’t feel like I have many of the biggest markers of true geekdom. I have never been a comic book fan, and I’ve never been to a convention. I’ve never played a RPG or LARP, but I know what the initials mean (I think) and I certainly have gamer friends. I’ve never managed to finish the entire LOTR series of books, and even the movies leave me a little cold. I’ve never dismantled a computer (but I know people who have), and my coding knowledge stops at basic HTML. I find video games fairly boring.

But–I did read the entire Shannara series, by Terry Brooks, in fifth and sixth grades, not to mention the Harry Potter series as an adult. I did play on my high school quiz team, my high school sweetheart was a Mathlete, and I did score a perfect score on my (verbal) SAT. I did teach myself HTML back in 1998 to put up my first webpage, and I remember the sheer thrill of figuring out how to make images become links. I’ve been blogging for about nine years, and I remember playing video games that were all text (“You go into a room. In the room, you find an Orc”). I’m obsessed with Game of Thrones and have read the first four books of the Song of Fire and Ice series.

My husband is a little easier to peg, I think. He played Dungeons and Dragons in his youth, treasures his battered copies of the Dragonlance novels, and can tell you more than you want to know about X-Men and the Avengers (before the movies came out, of course). He can also tell you lots about techno music and the impending zombie apocalypse, introduced me to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and enjoys Chemistry Cat a little too much. As a result, my girls already have opinions about their favorite superheroes and are waiting to be old enough to love Buffy.

So Are we geeks, or are we nerds? Does even posing the question also provide the answer?

I don’t remember the first time I read Wil Wheaton’s blog, but it’s been a regular read for me for at least the past year, and slowly but surely, I’ve become intrigued with gaming. Wil’s new webseries Tabletop got me hooked; I’ve seen every episode, but the real kicker came when my girls caught me watching an episode and wanted to see what was making me laugh. It was the Ticket to Ride episode, and they were instantly hooked! They have seen every episode now, and their favorite is the episode featuring casual games. So for their birthday, I bought Tsuro, and we have really enjoyed playing it! Lucy even likes to say, “Stop getting up in my dragon grill,” because one of the Tabletop guys said while they were playing. I think sometime this summer, we will end up owning both Zombie Dice and Get Bit, and then we’ll decide on a bigger game to purchase that we’ve seen on Tabletop, probably Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride, once we feel ready.

Are we raising geeky/nerdy children? I can only hope so, as one of the great accomplishments of my adulthood has been embracing the idea of being a geek or a nerd: a highly intelligent and passionate person who dives deep in each enthusiasm and is inherently curious and engaged in the world, someone who wants to share those passions with anyone who might be interested, and someone who always has a new fact or opinion to bring to every conversation. What’s not to like about that?

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