Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Tuesday Books

Tuesday is library day, so it's time to talk about what I've been reading lately.

First of all, I wasted 50 cents at the library sale today. They've got a cart of books without dustjackets, 50 cents each, and I found one called First Time Mom. Flipped through it briefly, since I had El Burrito along and the stroller can cause traffic issues, and it looked like it might be interesting. After I read the chapter on working outside the home over lunch, I realized that the author is a man, with some pretty old-fashioned ideas about women working at all.

On the other hand, I got The Celery Stalks at Midnight and two Jane Yolen books for El Burrito's future enjoyment, so it wasn't all bad.

I also caught up on a bit of library reading last week, since the books were a little overdue. (Let me say, if our library charged late fees, I'd be in trouble.)

I read the second and third books of the Olympians series (I read the first one a while ago). This is a pretty good series, although it's aimed at young teens or thereabouts. Book 1 is The Lightning Thief, which sets up the scenario, and the series continues in The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, and The Battle of the Labyrinth, which isn't out until May. Basically, the set-up is that Percy Jackson (age 12) discovers that he's a demi-god, son of Poseidon and a human woman. The Olympian gods and goddesses are still around and active, which is why Percy's pre-algebra teacher tries to attack him. Percy spends the summers at Half-Blood Camp with other demi-gods, and goes on adventures to prove that his father didn't steal Zeus' lightning bolt (and other mysteries).

I like this series. Sure, it's written for kids, but it's got a little of the satirical tone that I enjoyed so much with Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. Poseidon dresses a bit like a Jimmy Buffett fan, Mount Olympus floats above Manhattan, Apollo drives a Maserati. Plus, all those Classical Civilization courses I took in college mean that I get a lot of the references (and figured out early on who Percy's father was). It's fun to read.

On the non-fiction side, I read Letters From Eden: A Year at Home, in the Woods, by Julie Zickefoose. Her illustrations were lovely, and the writing made me want to move even more. Living in a condo means that container gardening is my only option; even a bird feeder isn't really feasible right now. I really, really want to be able to plant flowers, or have a garden, or put up half a dozen bird feeders.

There were more, but I can't recall them right now. So I'm off to do some more Googling about steaming apples. We've got a nice Black & Decker steamer, but we just use it for rice. El Burrito loves applesauce, but doesn't have enough teeth yet to eat a raw apple, so I'm going to take a shot at steaming them. (It's very bizarre - you can find canned sliced pears, peaches, and most any other fruit, but the only way to buy canned apples is as applesauce or sugar-heavy pie filling. Oh, or the little jars of Gerber apple chunks that are the equivalent of $10/pound or more. Not happening, sorry. Steaming the $1.19/pound raw apples will be just fine, if I can figure it out.)

1 comment:

Julie Zickefoose said...

Dear Christi,

Thanks for the shout-out! The first year a book comes out is like a big, never-ending party. The second year, crickets chirping. Glad to know some people are just getting around to Letters from Eden. And if it gives you inspiration to move, or even get a few portable planters and fill them with patio tomatoes and nasturtiums, well, I've done my job. I love that you call your son El Burrito.