Humanist fiction

I realize that humanism is viewed as passe, particularly in any sort of scholarly company. I swallowed enough of the post-structuralist, Foucauldian cool-aid in grad school to know that there are plenty of people who think that humanism is a dirty word when referring to serious literature. Maybe that's why I left grad school! And this is probably also the reason that I enjoy YA fiction which seems to hope for people to treat each other decently more often than its "adult" counterparts.

I admit that I often do enjoy fiction that isn't written from the humanist perspective; David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is one book that comes to mind. But sometimes one just needs a break from irony and anger and narratives that want to mess with your head. In short, sometimes I need to read fiction that is heartily humanist in its perspective.

I'm not sure what took me so long, but I finally got around to reading Anne Patchett's Run. I enjoyed Bel Canto which, despite the subject matter of hostages, terrorism and third world politics, is a startlingly humanist book. People who thought they had nothing in common turned out to find commonalities and connections, to respect and value each other despite their differences. Humanist doesn't mean happy-clappy--there's tragedy and pain, but the underlying sentiment is one that does not invoke despair, at least not in my cynical brain.

Run has a similar feel to it. The book has important things to say about family and love and it never makes them feel simple. If anything, love is treated as a complex and confusing force: respected, longed for, and at times scarily beautiful. I know that there were unbelievable bits: the girl, Kenya, is a bit too good to be true and the events (with the exception of one plot twist that I didn't see coming) are a little predictable. It was clear that Patchett was echoing (and at one time, directly quoting) James Joyce's "The Dead", (which I confess is his one work that has really moved me and made me understand the fuss) and maybe there were a few too many similarities for my taste. But these were really minor issues that didn't hamper my enjoyment.

Technically, the book fascinated me by the author's ability to shift the point of view without any apparent awkwardness or confusion. On one page I counted 8 shifts in point of view! It was lovely to get to hear all these voices, to have a scene rendered kaleidoscopically. I also appreciated the author's judicious use of lyrical language--she doesn't douse the whole book in it, but reserves it for emphasis so that when it is used to describe the beauty of a dead fish floating in a jar, or to describe a girl running, or to render the hallucinations of critical illness, the significance of these moments reaches the readers.

What do you cook when you come home?

For once, I did a smart thing and cleaned out the fridge before we went on vacation so we didn't come back to liquefied vegetables in the crisper drawers and containers of mystery foods that had sprouted hair.

But more significant than what wasn't in the fridge was what I wanted to be there. I don't know about you, but after a vacation where I accommodate lots of factors (picky kids, restaurant ignorance, lack of kitchen) and only occasionally get the food I want to eat, I have massive cravings for my kinda food. The In-n-Out Burgers were good, as were the fish tacos, but I rarely get enough vegetables when traveling. There was a reasonable quantity of salad, but I also want cooked vegetables and not just as a wee side dish next to a hunk of protein.

The first thing I made was Sarah's Hummus (recipe below). I thought I had blogged about it before, but can't find any record of it.
This is my favorite hearty hummus. It isn't the stuff we get at the Lebanese restaurant and have dubbed "white velvet" for its smoothness--this stuff is chunky and substantial. It has an extra dose of texture from the roasted sesame seeds and lots parsley that get whirred in at the end (I'm not sure why the green of the parsley isn't showing up in the photo above. I guess I over whirred...). And it makes a lot--enough for sharing, or in my case, enough for the lunch pictured above and plenty left over for dinner.

To go with the rest of the hummus for dinner tonight, I bought a jumbo quantity of spinach to make a recipe for spicy greens and bulgur featured on Warda's blog 64 sq ft Kitchen. (You should go see her beautiful photos, then you'll want to make it too.)

Since I'm overcompensating for a perceived vegetal lack, I also roasted some eggplant and some beets (separately) today to be made into (separate) salads. The eggplant will get a simple feta/lemon/olive oil/mint dressing. The beets will get an even simpler olive oil/red wine vinegar/orange zest/parsley dressing.

And after consuming all of the above this evening, I expect I'll feel a little more open to non-vegetable dishes. But, just in case of continuing cravings, I picked up some asparagus and Brussels sprouts that will get roasted on another day.

Sarah's Hummus
2 cans of chickpeas, rinsed and drained (about 4 cups)
1/2 C tahini sauce
1/3 C warm water
1/3 C olive oil
juice from 3 lemons
4 garlic cloves
1 1/2 t salt
2 t cumin
black pepper
3 T roasted sesame seeds
1/2 C packed Italian parsley leaves

Blend everything but the sesame seeds and parsley leaves in the food processor until smooth-ish. Then at the sesame seeds and parsley and pulse a few times just to mix and chop up a little.

Back

We're back, but I have to say, I could have got used to the place.

Finding wild hermit crabs

Rosemary hedges

Time for contemplation

Newborn seal pups (umbilical cord still visible!)

Fresh picked tangerines for breakfast

Lorikeets licking nectar

Finally understanding the following exchange:

Donny: Those are good burgers, Walter.
Walter Sobchak: Shut the fuck up, Donny.

Turning 6 with friends

Not how I planned to get my writing time...

I'm in sunny San Diego, home of fish tacos and tangerines growing outside the door! I thought I was being wildly optimistic when I printed out and brought along the manuscript of my novel, but I thought maybe I'd snatch a few moments to do a little writing on the plane or when the kids were poking their fingers into tide pools.

Yesterday we did plenty of the tide pool poking--it was an exquisite day and we went to the beach near the house of the friends we are staying with in Encinitas and then drove to Cabrillo National Monument and hiked and explored the amazing tide pools. The girl critter was out of her head happy to get to see and touch wild hermit crabs and critters like the Sunburst Anemone. We even saw some small sea stars with legs so long and delicate you couldn't believe that they routinely survived the bashing waves and tides.

Now the poor girl critter is simply out of her head. She slept in today and woke up hot and cranky, then after some juice and milk, threw up all over me.

So Brian and Ian cleared out of here and went off to Palomar Observatory for some good geeky fun. Mostly the girl is sleeping with the occasional bout of dry heaves, but other than a few requests for a cooling damp washcloth, prefers to be left alone.

I didn't plan on getting my writing time in this way, and I do hope that this is just a brief blip for the girl. But I am enjoying the quiet--the birds singing outside the window, the warm breezes and sunshine--as I work my way through my manuscript, editing and writing, adding and elaborating. Other than the sick girl in the next room, I imagine this is what a writer's retreat feels like.

Because they don't sell anatomy valentines in the grocery store...

The critters have Valentine's Day parties in their classes tomorrow. The small critter was content with some wild-life Valentines we found for $2.50 at Meijers, but unfortunately they don't seem to carry anatomy Valentines. What? No demand for a Valentine in the shape of a liver?

The internet to the rescue! Not a liver, but an anatomical heart card thanks to the generosity of Cheeky Magpie. The perfect Valentine in the eyes of my science-nerd son.
Not sure how they'll go down with his classmates, but I have done my crafty-mama duty by helping the kid cut out 30 of them.
Luckily I have discovered hulu.com and last night I did a whole lot of cutting while catching up on multiple episodes of 24. Nothing like endless "beep-da-da-beep-da-da" to keep the scissors snipping away.

The YA flood continues

The good YA reads just keep coming and coming! In the past few weeks I have been lucky to read two new YA books, both of which focus on distopian futures. Each has a strong main character who is shown struggling to conform to oppressive regimes and ultimately resisting them. If you like happy versions of the future, these might not be for you. But if you get inspired by the resilience of people who are faced with way worse situations than you have ever found yourself in, then you might want to pick up these two.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness grabbed me at the first page and didn't let go. Actually, it grabbed me at the first sentence: "The first thing you find out when your dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say." Of course, if you don't like excitable talking dogs, perhaps you won't be charmed as quickly as I was.

I don't want to summarize the book, because the world is revealed as the main character, Todd, learns what is real and what is propaganda and much of the narrative momentum comes through his perceptions with all of the limitations. His voice is distinct and grouchy and confused and beautiful. And then there is Noise. I don't want to wreck it for you, but I have to say that the author's rendering of Noise was fantastic.

This is a "chase" book and the pace is appropriately breathless. So it combines distopia/thriller with a poignant story about a boy coming of age. In plenty of hands this combo would be a royal mess, but Ness pulls it off.

The only negative comment I have is something that wasn't exactly unexpected. The subtitle of the book is "Chaos Walking: Book One" so from the get go I knew that the story wouldn't end at the end of the book. But did it have to be quite so cliff-hanger-y? I promise, I wanted to read book two even without the anxiety producing ending.


I wasn't the biggest fan of Allegra Goodman's most recent grown-up novel, Intuition, but I did really like two of her other novels: The Family Markowitz and Kaaterskill Falls. The Other Side of the Island is her first YA novel and it imagines the world after global warming has raised the sea level to such an extent that the only habitable land consists of former mountain tops, now islands. A repressive regime controls most of the islands and sees anyone who does not subscribe to their goals to enclose the islands under domes and submit to an extreme regulation of life as a threat. The main character's parents are non-conformists and one of the more compelling strands of the novel involves her conflicting feelings towards them and her understandable desire for the easy answer to be the right answer (which, of course, it rarely is).

It's a good read, not a book with the depth and intensity of Knife, but I enjoyed it and think that it would make a pre-teen/teen think a whole lot about conformity, the price that is paid for fitting in, and the meanings that lie under patriotic slogans.

Zipper advice

I've always been freaked out by putting a zipper on something I've knitted. Zippers don't stretch, sweaters do. I don't ever sew with jersey knits for the same reason.

So I "finished" my Urban Aran yesterday:
Before we get all giddy that a piece of very warm knit wear actually was completed in the season in which it can be worn, let's take a closer look at that collar.

Uh oh. Wonky collar-zipper shape.

So it isn't "finished" after all. I've got to re-do the neck since it is both too baggy and warped.

I'd like it to look more like this. Or this.

Here's what I think I need to do:
1. Get a different zipper. Plastic. The inside of the metal zipper scratches my chin when it is zipped all the way up. Ouch.
2. Rip out the collar. Re-knit it a bit smaller by picking up fewer stitches. And don't continue the cable pattern into the collar because it makes it flex funny, especially with the zipper.

I noticed that the other people who have made this have used 2-way zippers. I don't think I need to do this because I don't really plan to unzip from the bottom. And I'd have to mail order the zipper.

Any advice from experienced zipper installers before I embark on my knitting revisions? Is there anything else that I should change that I haven't thought of yet?

Not dead (yet)

When you start getting calls from friends far away and e-mails from folks across town wondering if the blog-silence means you are dead or in some serious crisis, then I guess it is a sign that you've been neglecting your blog.

So what happened to me? January. And February.

I was so crazed in January that I didn't notice it had become February. I only figured it out when the small critter, whose birthday is at the end of February, started her daily "how many days until my birthday" request and the number I would respond with indicated that, by golly, January must have ended a little while ago.

The good thing about all that chaotic energy that was expended is that I made it through one of my hardest months without really noticing it. Time really did zoom by while I scurried from one demand to another and I hardly noticed the hostility of the climate.

So hopefully, now that things have quieted down a bit, I'll have some posts coming--I read some great books in the past month, have been plugging away at the writing with mostly positive results and need some knitting advice from more experienced knitters (if there still are any out there who read this blog). Cooking? Eh, not so much. A crazed schedule did not lead to culinary marvels.

Resolution time

What with the 11 inches of snow that fell last week and half inch of ice that has formed on the inside of our weather-stripped, storm-proofed windows, you probably don't want to hear about virtuous New Year's resolutions. You probably would rather read Maggie's recipe for Candy Cane Cocoa that I'll get the critters to make today since it is too cold for school and I need a good bribe (ahem, "reward") for decent behavior for stir crazy kids. A mug of that delicious stuff would help you stay warm and comfort yourself from the hostility of the world.

So, sorry for the timing, but I have actually made a few modest food resolutions and dare I say, I think I might even be able to keep them.

1. My first resolution might comfort you if you are a certain type of person. I have some blood sugar and cholesterol issues so my first resolution is to eat a bowl of this every morning:
This is a bowl of virtue. Oatmeal, ground flax seeds, frozen wild blueberries, walnuts and a drizzle of maple syrup. All good for both cholesterol and/or blood sugar stabilization. Add a splash of milk and it turns into gray mush, but if I don't look too closely, it's fine. I'm more of a savory breakfast type so I need the resolution to nudge me to choose to eat this every morning instead of a bagel with cream cheese, cayenne pepper and raw onion. So far so good. I'm not ravenous for my second breakfast by 9:30 am and I'll get the cholesterol tested next month and see if it makes a whit of difference. And my kids don't flinch from the smell of my breath anymore! My plan is to switch to homemade granola come summer.

2. No seconds, except for salad. This resolution just requires a little self-control. And it really only applies when I make something so tasty (which, let's face it, is not a daily occurrence) that I am tempted to keep eating it even though I'm no longer hungry.

Favorite things of 2008

Time for a little looking back at my obsessions in 2008 before launching into 2009.

Books
In the books-intended-for- grown-ups department:
1. My favorite book of the year is one that I just finished last week: Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link. I give this book credit for keeping me in a good mood while the kids were out of school. (Well, at least in a better mood than I would have been without the book...can't be cheerful all the damn time.) Link's stories are strange and ominous and surreal. But this collection also had a touch of whimsy and optimism that I don't remember in her other collections, and which I appreciated very much. I loved "The Wizards of Perfil," "The Surfer," and "The Constable of Abal," particularly the last story which has permeated my dreams. Even better was the fact that each story began with a drawing by the immensely talented Shaun Tan (I love his book The Arrival). Putting Tan and Link together is a perfect match and I commend whatever editor or publisher had the vision. I have the book sitting here, ready to go back to the library, but I really don't want to let it go. I don't feel that kind of greediness very often.

2. Runner up: Monsters of Templeton (yes, another book with Monsters in the title...)

In the intended-for-children department:
The revelation of the year was the audio version of Tale of Desperaux. I'd read the book before, and enjoyed it, but the audio version is a whole different level of wonderful. It has become a part of our family lingo with lines like "Whoopsie" and "Cripes" resonating through our speech on a daily basis. In fact, we even named our new car "Whoopsie" (an explanation of the name will be in an upcoming post). And you couldn't pay me to go to the movie--every clip I've seen has rendered the story "cute" which is the opposite of the book.

Crafting
I didn't make a whole lot of progress on the knitting front in 2008, just a baby sweater and a lacy scarf. That's not too impressive. It does look like I will finish the Urban Aran before it is 90 degrees out though. So my two favorite crafting things from the past year were sewing related which is a bit of a surprise since I'm not a natural with a needle.

1. My most satisfying project were these super simple little bags which I use to hold my MP3 player and digital camera:

I made the first one following (loosely) the plans in Bend-the-Rules Sewing, and made the second one even more basic with fewer seams (and it is just as functional for something this small). They keep the crap off my electronics when they are bumping around in my purse next to my wallet and the bag of dried apricots I always carry for blood-sugar-level crises.

2. Runner up was pimping the dragon which made me feel like a competent parent for a change.

Recipes/Food
1. The recipe that I tried for the first time in the past year and will probably make more often than any other in the coming year is tahini lemon sauce. I have pretty consistently kept a container of this in the fridge at all times and it has provided countless "relief" meals when I haven't had a clue what to make for dinner. I dig through the fridge, find the tahini lemon sauce and then am able to improvise something pretty tasty and low effort: dollop it on roasted vegetables, toss it with some sauteed chicken, thin it with a little extra lemon and water and use as a salad dressing. Really useful stuff to have around.

2. Runner up: lamb/yogurt pasta stuff. This isn't the easiest recipe, nor the most challenging, but it has a flavor profile that I seem to crave often.

In the food someone-else-cooked-for-me department:
1. I am so happy to have a friend who makes the effort and invites us over to consume his wonderful smork.
2. Runner up: the three Lady Food Blogger events I've been to have made me feel nourished by my community (and by the terrific and widely varied cooking passions of the members).

Writing
1. My longhand editing project was my favorite writing experience of the year. It was particularly comforting to me since I had a year of rocky computer experiences (at this time, my computer is the only one in the house that is working so while the computer gods still are not smiling on our house, at least they've decided to spread the pain around among our family members.)

2. I don't really have a runner up in this obsession, except for the fact that I'm still having fun writing my novel.

Now onward to 2009!