2010 Sun Valley Writers' Conference

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to be asked to volunteer at the Sun Valley Writers' Conference again, and when I wasn't needed at my assigned post, I was able to sit in on a few of the events.  I'm a lucky girl.  Here's what I saw this year:

W.S. Merwin, U.S. Poet Laureate.  I can't believe I have had the good fortune to meet/listen to two Poet Laureates in my life.  Pretty neat opportunity.

Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island).  Chatty, self-deprecating.  I had read both Mystic River and Shutter Island, which I thought were fine, but I wasn't especially driven to read more of his nooks.  However, his talk was engaging enough that I searched for the first of  his Kenzie/Gennaro crime series and also The Given Day, which sounds great.

Arthur Phillips (Prague, The Egyptologist).  Charming, handsome, gorgeous wife.  He has a new novel coming out which (I think) is called The Tragedy of Arthur, which is about this (fictional) lost Shakespeare play on King Arthur.  Basically Phillips wrote a whole play in the manner of Shakespeare, and also wrote the novel around this play.  Phillips is kind of insanely smart and all over the board.  He actually won Jeopardy five times.

John Lithgow (actor) performed "Stories By Heart," a one-man show.  His performances are stories told to him by his father.  He acts out the stories, verbatim, from their texts.  Like a monologue. (Here's a better description of what I'm trying to say.)  I saw him do Ring Lardner's "Haircut," and it was impressive. 

Finally, I caught an inspiring performance by the Hobart Shakespeareans.  O. M. G.  These tiny kids from a public school in New York just slayed me.  They performed Shakepearean monologues mixed with pop/rock songs that sort of coordinated with the scene they were doing.   A little guy whose feet don't even touch the ground when he's sitting in a chair just rocked his guitar solor, a tall skinny girl stood up and wailed out a Neil Young harmonica bit, another small boy's glasses glinted as he shouted and guffawed and acted his heart out through his bit...  it was just great. I mean, I cried. I don't even know why, because it's so cool that these kids are working so hard and just excelling at it, but I cried.   They were so, so good.

All in all a pretty interesting weekend.  We're lucky to have such amazing opportunities come to us in such a small mountain town.

Etsy Find of the Week

I think I can let this item speak for itself.

Beard Beanie by Tara Duff.

Taraduff Etsy Shop

Book Challenge Update

I'm three quarters of the way through the year, and on track to finish my 50 books by December 31.  I thought I should reflect.

I enjoy reading, so I don't find it difficult to read fifty books in one year. Especially when my summer was filled with young adult books.  I mean, the books I read weren't short books - most were around 250-300 pages -- but they were not especially difficult to get through.  So I guess I don't find this 50 Books project to necessarily be a "challenge". 

Keeping track on this blog is sometimes a challenge, though.  I feel like I need to be thoughtful, and write an interesting review instead of just making a list.  I don't know why.  It's not like Draggletail has a huge audience full of critics and authors and people waiting to judge me.  I'm not pretending to be anything I'm not.  I'm just reading.  But still, I feel compelled to be thoughtful and... smart.

The blogging also sort of inhibits my reading choices.  I think I am a lot more embarrassed about all those YA books I read because I feel like I have to tell the truth and follow my own rules here, report back.  I have to blog that I read them, instead of just reading them secretly on my Kindle or something with no one ever the wiser.  So there is a bit of pressure in that sense.  Obviously it didn't truly inhibit me - I still chose to read those books (and enjoyed some of them!) and wrote what I thought and didn't pretend I never read them - but it was a little bug on my shoulder now and then.

Who am I trying to impress, though?  That's what I wonder.  I know who looks at this blog.  I am not that worried about impressing y'all.  But still.  I've made these insecure ruminations before.  Maybe that's just it: Insecurity.  Unnecessary insecurity.

Cracked Up To Be and Some Girls Are, by Courtney Summers

Whoa.

With these two books (#34 and #35) I definitely took a look at the dark side of teenage girls.  But - I am so sheltered.  Do girls really push each other down flights of stairs?  Or lock a girl into a utility closet with the guy who had previously attempted to rape her?  Like, as a lark?

The beginning of Cracked Up to Be starts:

Four years, two suicides, one death, one rape, two pregnancies (one abortion), three overdoses, countless drunken antics, pantsings, spilled food, theft, fights, broken limbs, turf wars -- every day, a turf war -- six months until graduation and no one gets a medal when they get out.  But everything you do here counts.

Sounds... almost like it might be a fun book?  Not so fun, really.  In both books, we have a popular girl who faces a horrific event (friend goes missing, attempted rape...) and who pays the price by losing her status with the In Crowd, enduring pretty awful treatment thereafter.  That's a pretty simplistic plot summary, but I don't want to ruin the stories.   It's not "Mean Girls" camp, either.  It's physical violence, overdosing, psychiatric evaluations, emotionally absent parents.

I thought both of these books were really good.  Protagonists generally well-formed, complex situations where nothing is black and white.  Definitely worth reading.  I know they're not non-fiction works, but I felt they were probably realistic.  Sure put my own (comparatively pain-free) high school experience into perspective.

Etsy Find of the Week: Teardrop Trailers

I love teardrop trailers.  All summer long I have wanted to buy one, but (a) we can't really justify the expense right now, and (b) our cars are probably too small to drag one anyway.   So I am attempting to content myself with looking at trailer-themed goods on Etsy.    Happy Labor Day Weekend!

heatherfuture Etsy Shop

rpfeikgraphics Etsy Shop

Leah Giberson Etsy Shop

Vitamini Etsy Shop

Etsy Find of the Week: Mean Birds

This clever artist did a whole series of prints centered around birds who have attacked her. 

Swans are bastards, I agree.

Amy Ruppel Etsy Shop

Amy Ruppel's Web Site

halls made of willows

Across from the post office in town, there is this three-room building made entirely out of willow branches.  It wasn't built with any nails, staples, or rope... only willows.   It's pretty neat.

The little building is the work of a N.C. artist named Patrick Dougherty.  It was built in July as an exhibition for the Sun Valley Center for the Arts.  Judging by his calendar, it looks like he does one of these every month or so.  (I note in his portfolio that he even created a set for a Duke play, so I guess he does all kinds of things with sticks.)  Below are photos from his web site of a couple of his past installations from Phoenix, RDU (airport art!) and the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden.  Cool.

Etsy Find of the Week: Bee Houses

I really like these bee/insect houses by Wudwerx.  I come from a farming family, and these would be so great pinned to a tree somewhere among the orchards...  It's important to keep bees around so the trees can be pollinated and fruitful (we grow lemons and avocados - flowering trees), so this seems like a no-brainer.  However, my dad and my brother - the people who do the actual farming on the farm - are both deathly allergic to bees.  So this is probably not the optimal purchase for our family.   They're neat, though!

Wudwerx Etsy Shop

The Boyfriend List

Latest Y.A. read was The Boyfriend List, by E. Lockhart.  Since I loved The Disreputable History so much I decided to go for another by this author.  I am not going to summarize it here -- that's boring for all of us -- but I will submit to you this small excerpt which rang true for me, even as an adult:

... I never felt the same after that.  Not really.  Look back and reread what Jackson actually said when he told me about his afternoon with Heidi.  True, he said he wanted me, had never felt like this before.  But he also said that Heidi was superbeautiful and fun, and that they'd played tennis for old times' sake, because they were so well matched, blah blah blah.

Now, if your entire focus was on making your new girlfriend feel better about your feelings for your old girlfriend, would you mix your declaration of love in with nostalgia about tennis games and the superbeauty of the old girlfriend?

No.

You would only do that if you were still thinking about the beauty and the tennis. ...

Believe me, I know the actual truth is that these are all nice girls.  Some of them even used to be my friends.  And I firmly believe that women should not get all cruel and petty with each other over men, because how on earth will we run companies and countries if we're preoccupied with someone else's big boobs in a pink sweater set? ... 

My problem is that I can think whatever I think -- girl power, solidarity, Gloria Steinem rah rah rah -- but I still feel the way I feel. 

Which is jealous.  And pissy about little things.

Amen, sister.

a nice weekend of walks and (double!) rainbows

Double rainbow!!! All the way! Whoooooa!!

Pretty Little Liars!

Books 31 and 32 in my challenge were Books 1 and 2 of the Pretty Little Liars series, by Sara Shepard.

I picked these up because I have been obsessed with the ABC Family show Pretty Little Liars.  It's so good!  Did you see the finale the other night?  OMG.

I'm not even kidding. Anyway, weeks ago, about three episodes in to the season, I (belatedly) discovered that the show is based on a series of books for teens.  Somehow this escaped me before then.  I couldn't wait to see what happened next in the show, so I went to the library and got the first three books in the series so I could get ahead and find out!   Unfortunately, the timeline is not the same in the books, and the intertwined stories were different enough that it didn't really help me and my plan was a bust.  The books were not bad, and the plan might have panned out if I stuck with it, but I decided I am already invested in the TV version, so I only read the first two books and did not bother with the third.  Back to the library they went.

So pretty!  What liars!

Etsy Find of the Week: Paintings that remind me of my childhood...

My family is from southern California, and Sharon Schock's paintings capture my memories of "home" almost perfectly.  I love her combo of bright and muted colors, the trees and the hills... and, of course, the avocados.

Sharon Schock Etsy Shop

Sharon Schock Web Site

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Oh, I just loved this book!  (The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, Book No. 30, by E. Lockhart) It's another Y.A. book, and I KNOW I'm too old for this (more self-analysis at a later date on why I keep picking up Y.A. books the past year or so - I have been thinking about it) but it had a fun plot, great characters, funny parts, sad parts.

I came across a mention of the book on this blog (which I randomly came across while looking for dress sewing patterns, of all things) and the blogger's enthusiasm plus the fact that the book was nominated for a National Book Award made me feel like it might be worth reading.  I finished it all in one lovely, hot, lazy weekend day (to the detriment of the piles of laundry waiting to be laundered and the kitchen waiting to be cleaned and the dog waiting to be walked). 

Frankie is a teenage girl recently blossomed into someone that boys and girls alike are beginning to notice.  She's smart, good-looking, and does not like being told what to do.  She becomes obsessed with her school's boys-only secret society, a group which claims as its members her father and current and ex-boyfriends alike.  She manages to infiltrate the group via email, talks them into a number of genius school pranks...  and I don't want to give away the ending.

But it's interesting.  It's about girl power, and also about the lessons Frankie learns when she doesn't play by the Old Boy rules.  Double standards are alive and well.  When her pranks are discovered, she has to ask, "Why is it psychotic if I did it it, and brilliant if Alpha [a male student] did it?"   It makes her think, and hopefully it will make Ms. Lockhart's female readers think.  It's a funny, smart book, and while it doesn't necessarily have a Happy Ending, the conclusion is solid and rings true. 

Of course the book has many ingredients I love: Teenagers good and bad, boarding school, successful teenage girls, secret societies, crushes, language games, literary references.  Some minor points jarred slightly - does a sophomore girl really read P.G. Wodehouse for fun?  But then I decided maybe Frankie does.  She seems like she might, so I took it at face value.

Loved it.  I ran out and picked up two more by Lockhart.  (I can't stop with the teen books!)  Info to follow.

Book No. 29: Fly Away Home

My latest book was Fly Away Home, by Jennifer Weiner.

I love Jennifer Weiner's books.  I love them, and I think I would love Jennifer herself if only she would move to Idaho so we could be friends... 

Okay, just kidding.  I am (pretty much) not a stalker.  So anyway, Fly Away Home.   I liked it a lot.   The main story is about what happens when a famous husband cheats, and the repercussions it has on his wife and daughters.  The pain, the recovery, the decisions the women must make.  What is the "right" or "best" thing to do when your husband has cheated?  What if that husband is a famous politician? 

The book also tells the stories of the daughters' own lives -- one, a successful doctor, is having an affair, and the other, a recovering addict, finds she is accidentally pregnant.  I really enjoyed how complex these characters all were.  No one situation was cut and dried. 

Since I recently read Emily Giffin's Heart of the Matter, which also told a story of a complicated infidelity, I couldn't help but compare the two.  Fly Away Home hit the mark better (for me, anyway) -- I did care about these characters and what choices they would make, whereas I just did not find the characters in Giffin's novel to be appealing.

 

So it was a good one.  I'll read anything Jennifer Weiner writes.

Here's a nice interview with the author regarding the book (Elle.com, June 2010).

Etsy Find of the Week: Cool Clay Tiles

I love these tiles from Element Clay Studio.  They make them in all kinds of different organic forms and are so intricate and lovely.  Wish list.

Element Clay Studio Etsy Shop

"Chick Lit" debate

There's sort of an interesting discussion over on Jezebel of the merits (or lack thereof) of the genre called "chick lit".   The Guardian has the original discussion.

Family Affair, by Caprice Crane (Book No. 28)

I read Caprice Crane's most recent book, Family Affair.  I have enjoyed Ms. Crane's books in the past, and so I figured it would be a good bet for an enjoyable read.  It was. 

The basic premise that moves the plot along is that a young couple is splitting up, and the wife, having lost her family (for the most part) and having become very attached to her husband's family, wants "custody" of them in the divorce.  Things happen, the story goes on.

In retrospect, overall, I feel like I didn't love it but I did like it.   The author's humor great --  quirky and odd (I just read someone's review on Amazon and she said she "laughed until she cried".  Really?  REALLY?  I can't imagine, but okay.) and the book had some touching family moments.  I think I preferred Stupid and Contagious, but this was a pretty fun, easy read.  I would definitely try her again.

Bonus linkage:  Here's a related Huffington Post article by Ms. Crane from last fall...

Sweden

I feel like I have had so much of SWEDEN in my life lately:  The Stieg Larsson books, then I saw the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movie, and then I just saw Let the Right One In (kind of spooky, and which confirmed for me that Sweden is cold and people smoke a lot)... and then of course there's Eric Northman.

Now this video has come to my attention, which for some reason make me laugh.



Sweden is fun! 

(I know, it's part of an art installation, and not a real policeman. Still cute.) 

Etsy Find of the Week: Black Apple Paper Dolls

I really enjoyed paper dolls when I was young.  I wonder if girls still do?  These little lovelies from The Black Apple are so cute.  Would it be weird if I wanted them for myself? 

The Black Apple Etsy Shop

The Black Apple Blog

Etsy Find of the Week

I'm not gonna lie:  My dog and I both make it a little bit hard for this proverb to come true sometimes.

But those who bear with us are lucky, lucky people! :)

Letterpress art print by Tag Team Tompkins.

Tag Team Tompkins Etsy Shop