Consumerisms in World History by Peter N. Stearns

This book started out a bit vague and I was wondering if I should continue pursuing it, but I'm so glad I did. Get 15 pages in and this book becomes excessively interesting.

Here are some tidbits of what I've learned so far: It was only in the early 18th century that people began to be thought of as consumers. Before that there really wasn't access to goods and almost everyone was living hand to mouth. The first consumer goods were salt and sugar. Salt actually had the practical attribute of preserving meat, but sugar was the first actual luxury item. No one needed it to survive, but everyone craved it.

During the French Revolution Parisian workers insisted that they be provided with "goods of prime necessity", by which they meant sugar, soap, candles and coffee. A hundred years earlier and candles would have been the only thing on the list that wasn't considered a luxury. But in that time period novelties became necessities.

Pre-1770 the English didn't mind getting wet. They just walked out in the rain. The French nobles had started mimicking the Chinese by using umbrellas about a hundred years early. This filtered down to the middle class and by 1770 made it's way over to England. But many of the English didn't like umbrellas calling them foreign and effete. The essayist Horace Walpole criticized the French for "walking about the streets in the rain with umbrellas to avoid putting on their hats." A decade later and everyone in England was using an umbrella. In fact, the umbrella began to be considered very English.

Okay, I'm only on page 25 of this book and obviously really enjoying it. More later.

Remedy for a Song Stuck in Your Head

Okay, I had a song really wedged up in my head for severals days and it was quite an annoying song so I was a bit desperate to get rid of it. My usual remedy, humming The Girl from Ipanema, wasn't working. So, I had to turn to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Check out this fab video for: A Taste of Honey It also must be said that this is one of my favorite album covers of all time:

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Heartbreaker is Hilarious

Gird your bits for subtitles, but it's worth it. Heartbreaker is hilarious.

It's a French screwball comedy in the 1930s sense of the term, but really well written and well cast. If you have Netflix you can download it immediately. An hour and 44 minutes well spent. As a side note to the movie, the female romantic lead has this big gap between her front teeth. Love it! She's very pretty, but with this delightful flaw. Any American actress would have had that erased immediately and much to her detriment. Nicholas Cage used to have such a distinctive gap back in the 80s when he did Valley Girl, but now sadly it's gone. Listen up Hollywood, pretty with a flaw becomes intriguing / interesting / memorable. Put watching Heartbreaker at the top of your to do list. You can thank me later.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

It took me a while to warm up to this book but I'm glad I stuck with it. Engaging story, interesting characters with real problems and an unusual structure, but not to the point of distracting. I have to confess that I'm having trouble organizing my thoughts on this compelling book. (Hectic week) So I'm going to cheat.

Here's what Booklist had to say:

High-school senior Vera never expects her ex-best friend, Charlie, to haunt her after he dies and beg her to clear his name of a horrible accusation surrounding his death. But does Vera want to help him after what he did to her? Charlie’s risky, compulsive behavior and brand-new bad-news pals proved to be his undoing, while Vera’s mantra was always Please Ignore Vera Dietz, as she strives, with Charlie’s help, to maintain a low profile and keep her family life private. But after Charlie betrayed her, it became impossible to fend off her classmates’ cruel attacks or isolate herself any longer. Vera’s struggle to put Charlie and his besmirched name behind her are at the crux of this witty, thought-provoking novel, but most memorable is the gorgeous unfurling of Vera’s relationship with her father. Chapters titled A Brief Word from Ken Dietz (Vera’s Dad) are surprising, heartfelt, and tragic; it’s through Ken that readers see how quickly alcohol and compromised decision making are destroying Vera’s carefully constructed existence. Father and daughter wade gingerly through long-concealed emotions about Vera’s mother’s leaving the family, creating the most powerful redemption story of the many found in King’s arresting tale. Although King’s characters turn into the people they’ve long fought to avoid becoming, they ultimately rise above their challenges, reflect, and move on. A worthy, well-crafted addition to any YA collection.

My one disappointment with the story was I didn't feel like I got enough out of the ending. I craved another page or two. But I had to be satisfied with the story that the author wanted to tell.

Eternal Life

Whether you want to or not, you will live forever.

Well, maybe not your entire being, but a portion of yourself will be present on the planet for decades after you kick the bucket. The portion of your being that receives mail.

That's right, I'm referring to junk mail. Yesterday, a relative that has been departed from this planet for thirty years, received a piece of junk mail. It's was from a charity looking for donations and here is how the letter began:

"Dear XX,

How are you? We have not heard from you in awhile and hope that all is well in your life..."

Then the letter went on to ask for money, etc...

I about laughed myself silly. Uhm... perhaps the thirty year absence should have indicated that something was wrong.

I find the whole thing disturbing and annoying, but also in a weird way comforting. In the future, my great, great grand whatevers can say, "Hey look. The Wall Street Journal wants Adrianne to subscribe."

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Look out Neal Shusterman. You still are the focus of my literary crush, but Paulo Bacigalupi has the goods to give you a run for your money.

Ship Breaker is fanstastic! It really deserves the bazillion awards it has garnered. Fast paced, fresh set-up, well-rounded characters, even a hint of romance which male authors are usually clumsy about pulling off. Highly readable and enjoyable.

I was reading reviews of the book on amazon. Of the few people who only gave this book one star (we're talking 2 out of a hundred) one person's complaint was there was too much bad language. Really? I may be jaded from too much YA reading, but I confess that I can't remember any. The other guy complained that this was another dystopian YA novel on an oil rig and it didn't deserve all the awards. A comment on the review asked which dystopian YA novel set on an oil rig the guy prefered. (Good stuff. ) My suspicion is that negative review was spawned from the pride of a failed writer. It was a little too bitter to not have some personal motivation,

Anyway, if you're searching around for that next compelling book, Ship Breaker is the one to get.

p.s. - Just had my request for The Windup Girl come in from the library. Let's see how it goes.

Husky

I was reading a book that described someone's voice as husky - actually it read "husky English accent" which was confusing to me, but anyway - I began thinking about the word.

If someone has a husky voice, that's usually a good thing. (Unless they are suffering from Bogart Bacall Syndrome)

If someone has a husky body, that's usually bad. (And no one wants to admit to wearing Husky jeans)

If someone has a husky dog, then a lot depends on whether the person has bothered to train the dog. (But they do have pretty eyes and I'm always interested in the Iditerod.)

The different meanings / nuances of a word is fascinating to me.

I have a mini-gig naming makeup and I was trying to come up with a catchy word for a specific blush. I was focusing on blushing, love's first blush, flush, full flush...

And then I looked at Flush from a different angle and decided maybe it wound't be something a lady would want to put on her face...