Potatoes in the Mist

So...I just finished reading Nothing Like You , a trashy yet intelligent YA novel that I greatly enjoyed. Before that, I read Perfume, a bizarre but interesting fable about scent. I started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I don't know if I like it in a 600-page way. Maybe I should hang in a little longer. Or not. Outside my window, the rain falls...

Hello, poor neglected blog. What to say? Well, I finished reading Her Fearful Symmetry and loved it, though the ending gave me pause. Then I figured it out (I think). Before I had my epiphany, I read the reviews at Amazon to see what other people thought of the ending. No one really talked about it. They either loved the writing (like me) or said the story was "twee" and the characters "amoral." Hmm. Well, I liked it. I saw an exceptionally hairy man at the pool today. Back, shoulders, chest...all covered. However, he did not have the "eagle tufts" of D's cousin. And E has a new word: giraffe.

So I bought 2 books today - The Gates by John Connolly and Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. The cover of The Gates says: "The gates of hell are about to open - want to peek?" It's different from anything I've read before, though it reminds me a bit of Rosemary's Baby. The author is kind of dry and witty and Irish. Her Fearful Symmetry also looks good. It didn't grab me the first time I saw it at the bookstore, but I read a bit of it on Amazon and it started to pull me in. I like how one of the characters is named Elspeth. And finally, the toddler room is having a Halloween party. I'm psyched. But I have to figure out what costume to get for E.

I've become a terrible blogger, I know. So I'll tell you a bit about the toddler room. It's not in my building, but it's in one of the buildings in my complex. I've met another mother and her child there. I am intrigued by her because she is, well, a Rebel Mom. I described her to D as a "rule breaker." She: has been kicked out of the exercise room for bringing her kid there campaigned for a trash can in the toddler room, which resulted in her being kicked off the committee (I know, that's a little extreme) leaves her kid's shoes on in the toddler room brings snacks into the toddler room, and if crumbs are spilled, says, "I hope that guy comes and cleans up this crap tomorrow" has her kid drinking out of a bottle instead of a sippy cup If you say "Rules are there for a reason," you are right (especially about the crumbs). Yet in this age of helicopter parenting, she makes me relax. I like that she uses a bottle instead of a sippy...