Under the Wire

In college I worked for the newspaper. My feature "Long Necks and Longer Hours" raised a few eyebrows at my conservative Catholic campus. But I did get to cover more serious subjects and even interview a few notables. Well, one notable. My senior year, I also interned at a local television station. Upon hearing my boss say something along the lines of "sell the sizzle, not the bacon," I decided TV news wasn't for me.

Despite getting most of my news via NPR these days, I'm still fascinated by the newspaper newsroom. "The Room" as it is called in a novel by Lorraine Adams has my attention this week. The Room and The Chair is presented in short scenes - jumping from a military plane crash to a news desk to a dinner party of Washington intelligentsia. The story ventures further afield to Iran and Dubai and back again to the American intelligence agent masterminding it all.

Part thriller, part social commentary, part The Way Things Work, it has a little something for everyone.

Ah, the thrill of just making the deadline.

Fresh Out of Library Books

The ice storms have me feeling lazy. I'm also out of library books. Time to make more requests. Here's a list I'll be using.

In the meantime, I'll be reading this blog I stumbled across while trying to find out more about this book.

"Glued to Your Sun-Lounger"

Sometimes you are in the mood for HBO. Sometimes, it has to be Lifetime. So, having finished Nicole Krauss' Great House, I was ready for something a little more Emily Giffin.

As I was headed for the "G" section of the library, I was sidetracked by a book by Lisa Jewell. I had read several of her books a few years ago, but I found one from 2007 called Roomates Wanted. Set in London, it stars Toby Dobbs who lives in a ramshackle Victorian with strays he's picked up over the years. Singer-songwriters, quick-change artists, and air-hostesses all share quarters, but don't know much about each other's lives. When Toby's oldest tenant dies, he meets the girl-next...well across-the-road. She inspires him to start making some changes. What results is not only a remodel of his house, but of his heart.

Can't you just hear the voice-over now?

How To Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu

I finished this book two weeks ago and still haven't made up my mind about it. Parts of it gave me a headache. Parts made me nod knowingly. Parts reminded me of students I've had in my classes. Parts forced me to close it and go for a walk. Which part relates to the title, I'm still wondering.

Stamp of Approval

Flavia's passion is poison. Most days she's hunkered down in her chemistry lab recreating experiments she studies in old chemistry texts. With her mother dead and her father wrapped up in his stamp collection, she's left to her own amusements - aggravating her older sisters, avoiding the housekeeper's custard pie, and solving murders.

Following a trail of clues that includes a snipe, a penny stamp, and a schoolboy prank, Flavia doggedly stays on the case to vindicate her father and satisfy her own curiosity. She is, after all, eleven.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is just one of the books I found out about here. I'm eager to read the others. On a related note, I'm also salivating over a new set of postage stamps. Although it's highly unlikely I will ever be a chemist like Flavia, maybe I'll turn out to be a philatelist like her father.

Awkward, At Its Best

It's when you put your coat on inside out on a first date. And run two stoplights. And babble on about "The Rules" while saying goodbye at your front door instead of letting him kiss you. It's when you give a giggly wave instead of a smoldering glance.

It's Gilbert dipping Anne-with-an- e's pigtails in ink. It's Darcy scorning an indignant Elizabeth. It's Inman garnering an introduction to Ada.

Despite the dark violence, Cold Mountain is a love story at its best. Perhaps because, in much of the novel, the two are apart. Inman is trying to make his way home from the war without permission. Ada is an educated woman who doesn't know the first thing about managing a farm. Moments other authors might romanticize, Frazier leaves as is. Goodbyes are honest instead of heartfelt. Letters are left crumpled on the floor, unsent. And a much anticipated reunion is clever in its clumsiness.

Oh, and the end might make you may cry even if it's the fourth time you've read it.

So trip rather than swoon. Tango across the room...badly. You'll have a funny, even romantic, story to tell your grandkids.

Humble Pi

My grandmother was a math teacher. My college roommates were math majors. My kindergartner loves the “dot game” at school. Although I am not a Mathlete like my husband, I did enjoy The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa.

The professor in the story is a renowned mathematician who can’t remember anything after 1975 for more than 80 minutes. He dons a suit each morning with tiny notes pinned all over it to remind him where his medicine is, who he needs to thank for the cake, and that he has a new housekeeper who has a son.

The professor greets the housekeeper each morning with an inquiry about her birthday or shoe size. He then informs her of the significance of whatever number is the answer. Throughout her employment, he teaches her and her son about everything from factors to triangular numbers to Euler’s formula. When he’s not lecturing, he’s solving the latest puzzler from his math journals or enjoying the baseball broadcast with the young boy.

As the housekeeper begins seeing the beauty in the numbers surrounding her, you will appreciate Ogawa’s work for its elegant balance of sweet plus intriguing. And then you will send this book to your grandmother.