Five Question Friday

1. What album/cd/download are you embarrassed to admit you have?
Oh, wow. Maybe ABBA Gold - Greatest Hits? Or the five Spice Girls songs I have in my "'90's" folder. Or that "James Bond Theme Songs" album, although, in my defense, that's actually my husband's.

2. What's the one thing your spouse does better than you?
I think the only thing I do better than he does is hold two thoughts in my head at once. He's very singular of focus.

Other than that, he's great at pretty much everything. But want to know something nice? He would say that about me. We're pretty big fans of each other, we complement each other, and our relationship is not a contest to see who does what better. [/soapbox]

3. When do you start buying Halloween Candy?
At the last minute possible or we would eat it. This year we're not doing the "Trick or Treat" thing, since Halloween is on a Wednesday. We'll have an alternative activity for our kids at our church. For that I'll have to have candy in by the Sunday before.

The best time to buy candy: after Halloween. Just remember that I call dibs on the  Almond Joy / Mounds bags.

4. Family closets - Yay or nay?
I actually love the idea. The house we live in now is far to small for such a set up. We've gotten pretty good at figuring out storage in an old house that doesn't have closets handy. I think I might try the family closet concept if we ever move.

5. Which home/cleaning chore do you hate the most? Why?
Well, hate is kind of a strong word. I'm not fond of folding & putting away laundry. And I wouldn't say I enjoy cleaning, under usual circumstances. But I love having a {reasonably} clean house. And I love to sit down at night with {relatively} all the toys & clutter put away again.

That said, I would never have an exchange like one I saw on FB the other day:

New Wife & Homemaker: I hate laundry!

Other friends: Me too!

Older Sister: Doesn't bother me!!!

That's when I'd tell that older sister to get over herself and also that I'd be dropping my laundry by for her to do, since it doesn't bother her. "Take it easy on the starch."

Come on people, if someone wants to vent about her laundry pile, that's A-OK. That's why FB is there, as far as I can tell. (Although, I admit, I wanted to say, "Hey, you think you have a lot of laundry with just the two of you? Come to my house. You'll see what a laundry pile really means.")

How about you? Got a least favorite chore? And please, do tell: what embarrassing album will you admit to?
This post is linked to Five Question Friday at My Little Life.

Theme Thursday - Kid

Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event that will be open from one Thursday to the next. Anyone can participate in it. The rules are simple:

• A theme will be posted each week (on Thursday)
• Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
• Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post
• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)

The theme for this week is

KID , child, baby, toddler, boy, girl etc

My selection for this week:
"I looked after children, I babysat, I helped on the farm, I did my own washing," she says. "We did as much as we could and were always doing things with the children. But the landlady would insist on bringing us a cup of tea in the morning. One day she suddenly said: 'I shan't be here next week, my aunt will be coming to look after you. Actually, I'm having a baby.' We felt so awful that we had let her wait on us and we had no idea. She just laughed and said: 'You know, you're not the only ones who can keep a secret.'"

This is from the book The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: The Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay, which is, as expected, excellent.

This post is linked to Theme Thursday at Reading Between Pages.
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Books of 2012 - September

Question for you: are there many things on earth nicer than curling up with a good book under a cozy blanket while the rain pours outside?

I submit that there are not. And now to the "books finished in September" list:

1. Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir that Inspired "Upstairs, Downstairs" and Downton Abbey. Non-fiction by Margaret Powell. Two things surprised me about this book: how mean spirited it was at times and how exactly it could have inspired "Downton" since the experiences of Margaret Powell are post-Great War and therefore quite different. The world changed from 1914-1919, as did the expectations of those who served in great houses.

2. Friendship for Grownups: What I Missed and Learned Along the Way. Non-fiction by Lisa Whelchel. I was interested in this one because I'm the first to admit that I'm not great at the "Friend" thing. That's partly because of my introversion and partly for some other reasons that I will not get into here. But anyway, I wanted some inspiration from someone else who had to learn to make friends as an adult and I've enjoyed a few of Whelchel's other books because she has an easy, accessible style despite her relative fame. When I finished the book (which isn't long, by the way) I told Philip, "It was OK but I have one question: where was her husband?"

See, here's the thing: my husband is my best friend. When something happens to me, when I'm hurt, when I'm happy, when I'm trying to figure something out: he's the one I want to talk to most. He's the one who helps me the most. I'm not saying I don't need other friends, I'm just saying that none of them can possibly know me, understand me, and encourage me the way he does. That's basically what marriage vows are: promising before God and human witnesses that we will be one flesh, best friends, and we will "know" each other in every sense of the word.

I didn't think a lot more about it until I read about a week ago that Whelchel and her husband recently divorced. I will not tell you that I saw that coming, I'm just saying I saw evidence in this book that indicated something was off. Your mileage may vary, of course.

3. The Creativity Cure: A Do-It-Yourself Prescription for Happiness. Non-fiction by Carrie & Alton Barron. Psychoanalysis a la Freud and "go take a walk" so you'll feel better. Not what I was expecting.

4. The Forgotten Affairs of Youth. Fiction by Alexander McCall Smith. These books about the philosopher Isabel Dalhousie who lives in Edinburgh have surprising depths.

5. Eve. Fiction by Anna Carey. Dystopian future America with a teenage female protagonist. Interesting premise, slightly obnoxious heroine, glaring failures of logic.

6. The Importance of Being Seven. Fiction by Alexander McCall Smith. Yet another series by Smith. Bertie is a fabulous character and I'm glad he (spoiler alert!) finally gets a little relief from his ridiculous mother and his over-scheduled, over-controlled life. I'm not sure how McCall Smith keeps turning out all these different books in such different series (Ladies' No 1 Detective Agency, 44 Scotland Street, Corduroy Mansions, Sunday Philosophy Club).

7. The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany 1944-1945. Non-fiction by Ian Kershaw. Kershaw's research is top notch. This one was a slog at times, but worth it to anyone studying or interested in scholarly works on the Second World War.

8. Heretic Queen: Queen Elizabeth I and the Wars of Religion.Non-fiction by Susan Ronald. Fascinating stuff here. Queen Elizabeth I remains one of the most interesting people, not to mention monarchs, who helped shape the Western world. Highly recommend this one.

9. Once: An Eve Novel. Fiction by Anna Carey. 2nd book in the series (see #5 above). Same strengths and problems as before plus another downfall: the secondary characters are not as interesting in this one.I'll still read the final book when it comes out. These are not difficult to read and I do want to know how the author winds it up.

10. Mr. Churchill's Secretary. Fiction by Susan Elia MacNeal. This author has obviously done her homework and research. And, considering the subject matter, I wanted this to be better than I ultimately felt it was. Here are some problems I had:

• writing a fiction book that features real, historical people is really, really tough. Even if you use words that we know that person (in this case, Churchill) used, it's hard to suspend disbelief and accept that he or she is saying those words to your newly invented characters
• The nominally American heroine (who happens to be a British citizen, how convenient) is a know it all. She is always, always right. She is also quite self-righteous about this. 
• The main characters discuss and approve of "alternative" lifestyles in a way that is not period accurate.
• A faked-out death cheapens some of the actual deaths later in the story.
• The coincidences stack up: the heroine's knowledge of Bletchley Park, the circumstances of her father's disappearance, the conspiracy...I could go on. Coincidence happens (or seems to happen) in real life but it's a hard sell in a book.
• Here's my main beef: the POV jumps all over the place. If you're going to be omniscient and know what every character is thinking, then be omniscient. Otherwise it's just sloppy third.

The positive: this book inspired me to get back to work on my own WW2 novel. I told Philip, "I think I can do better than this."

What he said: "I think you can, too. So get to it."

So I did.

And yes, I think I'll give this author another chance in the future. After all, she's writing about my favorite time period and my favorite setting. She may grow as a writer, improve some of those technical problems, and anyway, first novels are notoriously difficult.

Totals for September:
Fiction: 5
Non-fiction:5

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Action taken with these links could result in compensation for me. Opinions are my own.