It's been a week with no visit to The Poisoned Pen, but Denis and I have had other things with which to occupy ourselves. For one, yesterday morning saw us heading to a nearby theater to see an excellent cast headed by Helen Mirren in "The Hundred-Foot Journey." What I'd like to know is... why do I enjoy movies about the joy and passion of cooking when I hate to cook? I think it has a lot to do with one of the lines in this particular film. Marguerite looks at Hassan and says, "Food is memories." Food is indeed memories. As I sit and allow my brain to partake of a banquet of cinematography, soundtrack, and dialogue, my heart fills with so many memories of my mother and grandmother in their kitchens. The smells, the tastes... the love they infused in the food they prepared. Half the time when watching a film like this, I'm sitting in a dark theater with tears welling up in my eyes and a huge lump in my throat.
After the water had gone down quite a bit... |
But this week hasn't all been cinematic roses. A good portion of it has been a quagmire. Literally. Thanks and a hug to those of you who emailed me to ask if Denis and I were all right. We are. I can't say the same for the property, however. Many of you have seen Phoenix, Arizona, in the news this week. The remnants of Hurricane Norbert decided to wreck havoc with portions of California, Nevada and Arizona. In our case, Norbert dumped three inches of rain in a couple of hours. Go ahead and scoff if you like. If I were still living in central Illinois, I would laugh at a mere three inches of rain in two hours. But let's put it into perspective. This is the desert, with ground so sun-baked that torrential downpours will not-- and cannot-- soak in. This is the desert, where three inches of rain equals almost half our annual rainfall. In two hours. In one storm.
Our yard was completely flooded. Water made its way onto the floor in my craft room. The pool is a bog of mud and debris. But it could have been a lot worse. Many other Phoenix area residents were much harder hit. Denis and I have lived through this before, so we know the drill. It's just tiresome, and I'm an extra layer of miffed because I'm fairly certain Norbert stole the last bit of pool reading season from me, the bugger.
Now, my friends, let us move from the bog to those links. I've had them rounded up for you, now it's time to move 'em out on the page!
Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits
- The New York Times has decided to revamp its bestsellers lists.
- Publishers gave away almost 125 million books during World War II.
- I absolutely loved this Dr. Who clip in which the intrepid doctor takes Vincent van Gogh to a modern museum.
- Has the internet created yet more reading insecurity?
- How Stephen King teaches writing.
- Fans (like me) have decided not to let television series Longmire go gently into that good night. In fact #LongLiveLongmire created a Twitter stampede Monday night.
- How to tell you're reading a gothic novel-- in pictures.
- A plea for linguistic tolerance.
- Margaret Atwood intends to lock her new book in a time capsule.
- Why today's most exciting crime novelists are women.
- Our use of little words can reveal hidden interests.
- German collector needed to be soothed by Monet during a hospital stay.
- A Ghanaian mystery writer says it's easy to get murdered in Accra.
- Has Jack the Ripper finally been identified?
- In hyping their latest catalog, IKEA has made a convincing case for books.
Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones
- Archaeologists have made another incredible discovery at Stonehenge.
- Archaeologists have uncovered a 7,000-year-old Stone Age city in Croatia.
- Yet another new species of massive dinosaur has been discovered. This time in Africa.
- A teenager in China stumbled on a 3,000-year-old bronze sword in a river. (How come I'm never clumsy like that?)
- Archaeologists are becoming downright giddy at that huge ancient tomb in Greece, this time finding stunning statues and a mosaic floor.
- A 3,900-year-old bone armor suit has been unearthed in Siberia.
- How about the grisly tale a 3,000-year-old golden bowl is hiding?
- A Copper Age settlement has been discovered in central Spain.
- A Viking fortress has been discovered in Denmark, and-- speaking of those Viking warriors-- did you know that half of them were women?
- Vikings are the hot topic this week, with a 1,000-year-old Viking Parliament being discovered in Scotland.
- A rebuilt 18th-century ship is busily testing French waters.
- 1,900-year-old Roman jewelry has been found.
- A UK dig in Peterborough has uncovered 70 human skeletons.
I ♥ Lists
- Famous writers on the creative benefits of keeping a diary.
- 15 awards contenders (films) to see before the end of the year.
- 10 must-read tales of survival.
- I can remember when I used to enjoy flying. 7 ways the airlines are pitting us against each other.
Book (& a Bit of Puppy) Candy
- These have to be about the cutest dog houses I've ever seen.
- Sunday sweets for book lovers. (How could you bear to cut into one?)
- The bookish art of Jordan Buschur.
- *drool* 30 classic home library designs.
That's all for now! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll have a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure. Have a great weekend!
Cathy - So good to hear you and Denis are all right. Scary!!!! Sorry to hear about the flooding though. That can be really serious stuff! I hope things start to get back to normal for you soon... In the meantime, I do appreciate the links.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, Denis and I are old hands with this stuff. I think the only way to escape it completely is to live on a mountaintop. Then there'd undoubtedly be some other weather phenomenon we'd have to deal with!
DeleteGlad too that you are both OK. Sorry about the floor in your craft room. Hopefully not much damage, I would hate to have water in my sewing room. Much stuff is on the floor. Maybe I should think about revamping?? We have family in the Phoenix area and they too are all OK. But had a rain day, no school and such. Our daughter in law drives from Avondale to Tempe everyday for classes at ASU. She is not a traditional student, she is over 40, but taking writing classes, sign language and such. She hopes to someday publish a novel!
ReplyDeleteI had urgent messages from other crafting friends who'd all panicked because they had stuff piled on their floors. This isn't the first time water has gotten into that room, so I stack things on the floor. You try to save yourself heartache wherever you can!
DeleteThat's a long drive for your daughter-in-law, and I'm sure she probably avoided it while the interstates were underwater. Yikes! My mother was also a non-traditional student. Being a single mother, she waited until I was old enough to stay home alone before she began taking night classes. We wound up going to college together where-- with my prematurely grey hair-- everyone thought I was the older sister! LOL
I really love that scene from Doctor Who. Poor Amy was so hopeful that Van Gogh would be inspired to do so much more art, and so disappointed that he killed himself anyway.
ReplyDeleteI texted about the flooding, but it might not have gotten there. Glad you guys are all right!
Too many good mystery shows disappear too soon. Dad says it's because they're aimed at smart people and not at the masses. I really hated that Nero Wolfe only had two seasons (the series with the ensemble cast. Loved the way they did that!)
With me being out of the pool and not needing a timekeeping device, my cell phone's been off for days, so I just now got your text.
DeleteI think your Dad is right about mystery series on TV, and that van Gogh clip made me cry.
I managed to kill my phone today, and had to get another. I'll have to text and send you my new number, just for those rare cases of needing to contact you.
DeleteOh man-- now I gotta turn on my phone! *wink*
DeleteWhen checking your "links", the article "Why today's most exciting crime novelists are women" caught my eye. It's subtitled "The hard boiled detective tradition is getting tired". Not true, as I think of the great books I've read by Nesbo, Rankin, Lawton, and Billingham. I quickly scribbled a list of my own top ten crime novelists and in addition to the four above I added Harry Bingham, Deon Meyer, Gillian Flynn, Asa Larsson, Aline Templeton and perhaps the best of the whole lot, Tana French. Not a bad list. I would have added J.K. Rowling except for the somewhat disappointing "Silkworm".And no, I am not suggesting that men won 6-4. Authors' gender is not a contest. There are plenty of good writers on both sides of the gender line. It has reached the point where I expect relatively few readers are picking a book based on the writer's gender. So what's the point here? I don't know - it seems to me that there are enough significant and genuine male v. female issues out there without having to create a pointless and rather ridiculous competition.
ReplyDeleteKen, McLean VA
I think you're right, Ken. Yes, it was an issue years ago, but it's really become a non-issue now, thank heavens. We need to move on!
DeleteToo bad about the flooding problem. I had no idea that rain and storms could be such a hassle, but since you explain that the ground doesn't absorb the water, I get it.
ReplyDeleteBut sorry that you and Denis have had such hassles with this. Especially about your pool, no nice place outside to read.
I do think there is still a problem about women writers not getting enough recognition. VIDA does graphs about women and male authors who are reviewed in major publications and also the gender of the reviewers. Still very unbalanced.
And sometimes book prize nominations are still very weighted to male writers, aggravating many women readers and bloggers.
But, I'll say that you may get me to read Wortham, but I'm about to cry because of my TBR list, and another series, well, hmmm. But it sure sounds good.
I can't read the links yet, too much to do, but I'll come back and enjoy them.
Wortham certainly is worth the read, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you'll be able to give his books a try.
DeleteI've been feeling decidedly off kilter with my choice of reading venue being ripped from me. When I sit down in the house to read all I want to do is sleep. Perhaps I should fire myself up with a jolt of caffeine first?
Caffeine will do it.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I often can't sleep and I think caffeine is a contributing factor.
I wish a book would put me to sleep. Last night I tried different books with different paces, but none helped. No Safe House by Linwood Barclay got me wired all over again while I was trying to sleep. I should know better than to read a Barclay before bed: Wired was I!
What's frustrating the stuffing out of me is that I'm reading very good books and I still fall asleep. I haven't slept well for a long time, and I think my body is trying to make up for it by these irritating cat naps. Dammit Jim, I'm a reader, not a cat!!!
DeleteMaybe you're just exhausted. It sounds like the stress with having to deal with the flooding outside and inside, and everything related is wearing you out.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend of a certain age who conks out early and takes naps to get through her days. I wish I could do that.
Flooding has much less to do with my stress levels than two other ongoing messes-- both of which are almost entirely out of my hands so I can't really do anything about them. But I did spend two hours on the phone this afternoon letting several people know how severely enraged I am with their ineptitude. I've still got a headache from that. I don't like or enjoy getting angry, and I don't understand why so many businesses won't do what they're supposed to do unless you do lose your cool.
Delete