Tennessee

Clearly, I have not posted in a long time, and I have some catching up to do. I think I am now caught up on books, but life...not so much.

The weekend of the 15th, we went to Tennessee for a wedding, with a stop in the small town of Dyersburg to visit my husband's relatives. It was a wonderful, but exhausting trip; we went non-stop pretty much the whole time. Chris has been very into the genealogy thing, and had some cemeteries he wanted to explore and see if he could find ancestors. We found quite a few; it was really neat. We also got a digital voice recorder and he recorded 5 or 6 hours of various relatives telling stories.

And everyone was so nice, and they fed us extremely well...maybe too well. Barbecue everywhere we turned, and Aunt Hester made Chris' favorite strawberry cake. We did get separated by gender at dinner that night, which was disconcerting at first, but turned out okay...I connected with the female relatives while Chris got the men talking history.

We also got see two of our really good friends from Atlanta, who are married. We just don't laugh as much with anyone else in the world. Such fun. The wedding itself, not so much fun. It was on the river in an unenclosed tent and under normal circumstances would have been gorgeous. Sadly, it was unusually cold, maybe in the 40s. I never took of my coat, my scarf, etc., and I'm really glad I bought a pair of gardening gloves in a drugstore to keep my fingers warm. They weren't pretty, but I attribute my withstanding the night to them.

The Dark Wind, by Tony Hillerman

This one's been kicking around the house for a while; I think I got it at the charity shop for a quarter. Standard Hillerman police procedural crossed with Native American myths and cultural stuff. Good one.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman

What an amazing piece of non-fiction. I don't read a ton of non-fiction, and I am not ashamed to admit why: most of it is very boring. Fadiman knows how to tell a story, even if it's not made up. She alternated between stories of the family of the sick child, the history of the Hmong people, and the medical and political communities involved. She doesn't assign blame so much as point out where things might have made a difference, and her cultural sensitivity extends to both the Hmong family and the medical community. A wonderful book.

Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh

I got this book because it was featured in another book: Rereadings, Anne Fadiman's collection of essays by authors revisiting favorite, or significant books and examining the process of re-reading. I was really excited to get Rereadings, but when I picked it up at the library, I realized I had not read very many of the books the writers were writing about. So I copied down a list, and I'm working my way through them.

This is the first, and I enjoyed it very much. Sort of dense and ponderous, but not in a bad way, it follows one family's history through the device of a friend of the son. The dialogue is wonderful and quick.

Absolute Friends, by John LeCarre

I love LeCarre, but I can only read him every now and then. The books are so dense with detail, it's a little exhausting to keep track of it all. This one is no exception. He did a nice job of connecting the whole Cold War thing with contemporary politics, and he did it with wonderful, complex characters.

The Hard Way, by Lee Child

Utterly implausible, ridiculous characters, overwhelmingly interconnected stories. And yet, so fun. A basic thriller with a tough guy protagonist and lots of conspiracies. Nothing is as it seems, etc., etc. I've enjoyed Lee Child's other books, too.

The Patron Saint of Liars, by Ann Patchett

Now this Patchett book I really liked. All of the characters were relatable for me, and I enjoyed her use of three different narrators at different times in the book. The themes of truth and how we do and don't tell it to different people in our lives (including ourselves) were interesting and well-explored.

Taft, by Ann Patchett

It's kind of refreshing to read a book with a black male narrator written by an unapologetic white woman. I've never understood that attitude, that you have to share your narrator's voice.

I enjoyed this book a little, but it kind of hung together awkwardly for me, if that makes any sense. A couple of themes, scenes, etc., seemed kind of shoe-horned in, and oddly enough, one of the female characters didn't ring true for me. I guess that proves my point.

The Children of Men, by PD James

We saw the movie a few weeks ago and really liked it (minus a few flaws, of course) and I was really eager to read it. It was a wonderful book, and they did an excellent job of achieving the tone of it in the movie. Some of the plot points and character conflations I wish had been handled differently. The fact that Theo (in the book) killed his own child accidentally, for instance, goes so far to explaining how morose he is. Anyway, very dark and creepy and it does make you think.

Walking In Circles Before Lying Down, by Merrill Markoe

Oh, I nearly stopped reading this one, but I really hardly ever do that. I have a weird optimism that it HAS to get better. This one was pretty weak...talking dogs, neurotic owner, requisite cast of wacky characters. Now none of that is essentially bad, but I didn't care about any of it. Nada. Boring. Quick, at least.

April News

In local events....Center Studio is officially kaput. I figured it would happen soon, but it's done. None of the trainers have been paid in three weeks. For me, that means I'm out about $300. Significantly less than some of the other girls, not to mention to teacher trainees, who paid $3000. The owner of Pilates Sports Center called me today to offer her help to anyone who needs it, which I was expecting. They're great over there. I'm so happy to have gotten hooked up with them.

I had a sad conversation with my one regular client from Center (whose husband is a lawyer, conveniently) who just bought a package. I might try to find a closer place that would consider a rental deal for her, but since I have been pulling away from Center since they closed the PT dept. in October, it's no great loss (though I really liked that client).

Other than that, things chug along. The only recent dark news is that my uncle has prostate cancer, but they caught it early, the prognosis is good, etc., etc. Still very challenging for the family.