Somusing

I picked up this memoir several years ago at a used bookstore, not knowing if I would ever get around to reading it. I thought it would probably be pretentious and pompous, which is kind of how Sting strikes me, even though I'm a long-time fan of much of his music. Jon brought it up from our library a couple of weeks ago, because I was revisiting some of his albums after seeing The Last Ship in New York in October, and I thought I'd better give it a try so I could decide if we should keep it. It starts with a religious hallucinogenic drug experience that Sting and his wife Trudie had in Brazil, which might be off-putting to some, but it leads into his memories of his childhood and family in Wallsend, England, where he grew up. I loved this part. His childhood was more like something my grandparents would recognize than what my parents experienced, even though he's a few years younger than my parents. Lighting fires in the early morning, delivering milk with his dad in...

My friend Stephanie recommended this book to me. It's written by Braden Hepner, who taught a Creative Writing class she took at BYU-Idaho. The writing is vivid and evocative but not too wordy. The story is sad, funny, tragic, hopeful, and reminded me of a T.C. Boyle novel, which I think is a compliment.

I found a used copy of this at a library book sale and, feeling the need for some entertaining fiction, I picked it up and read it almost immediately and within a few days. The suspense starts up right away, with the husband's description of his wife that includes talk of her skull and what might be in her mind and brains. Entertaining it was, though it took a long time to end. It's sort of a mystery, but from the points of the view of the victim and the main suspect. Warning: contains plenty of language (by which I mean bad language, of course) and some sex. And violence. And creepiness.

I can't say much about this novel , except that it's bizarre and creepy and brilliantly written. I don't want to give anything away, and it's better to read it without knowing too much, so don't Google it if you think you'd like to read it, but it begins with a woman driving around in the Highlands of Scotland, creepily picking up male hitchhikers, but only the ones with great bodies. After that, it just gets weirder. Also riveting. Maybe don't read it unless you have someone to discuss it with afterwards. Warning: contains language, violence, creepiness, and not as much sex as you might think from the beginning.

I am in Savannah, Georgia for a day and a half visiting my brother Charlie and his wife Deanna and their kids. My dad and mom are also here, visiting longer and staying over Thanksgiving. Saturday, Charlie and I had a good time walking around the old downtown of Savannah, by the river, and riding on the old tram (now just used by tourists like me): We also toured the Owens-Thomas House which was very interesting. We stopped in to visit the Catholic church for a while: And a few streets over there was this unusual storefront display: Today after church Charlie, Deanna, and I went to the cemetery and spent a lot of time in the Jewish and Greek sections: This couple's gravestones had a verse from the Song of Solomon, split over them so they're both needed together to read it, which I think is a romantic way to show it: On the Greek headstone on the right, the name Savannah is transliterated in Greek as ΣΑΒΑΝΝΑ, though GA. is left in Roman scr...

I've dipped my toe in the pool of vampire popularity with the Twilight series (liked the first one and it was downhill from there), Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel (loved them), The Vampire Diaries (gave up in season 2 or 3; too soap opera-y), and just a couple of episodes of Being Human (both UK and American versions; too graphic for me), plus The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (pretty good). I thought I'd try the book that sort of started the vampire craze anew , recognizing that vampire lore has been around for hundreds of years and is nothing new. Maybe I should say that Interview with the Vampire started the sexy/moral vampire as part of pop culture. I expected it to be gripping and suspenseful and maybe more graphic and sexy than I'm used to. Not at all. I struggled to finish it. The story wasn't bad, but I really disliked the way it was narrated. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to find that it's actually written as an interview, one t...

The song “Those Were the Days” is an English version of the Russian song Дорогой длинною (By the Long Road). I like both versions a lot. The English one by Mark Hopkin from 1968 is very popular: A bit of related history is stranger than fiction: On Christmas 1975, the President of Equatorial Guinea, Francisco Macías Nguema, had 150 alleged coup plotters executed in the national stadium while Mary Hopkins’ cover of “Those Were the Days” was played over the PA system. That was reported in the Wikipedia article on the song. The first Russian recordings of the song go back to the 1920s and 1930s. This video anthologizes excerpts from some of them, giving a feel for the range of adaptations: I find the Russian lyrics and English translation are more interesting than the later English version.