Sunday, June 29, 2008

Birthdays #969532

10th Dad took me to Canterbury Public Library - the old brick one - looked up Cobbs, Seattle
20th Homemade Baileys made by Pip in pub on corner of George St and London St; research done to find the name of it -- Albert Arms
30th Macaroni Grill in Miami, Jackie with us, just newly pregnant with Anneke
40th Wainuiomata Library; family party day before with all the cousins

Friday, June 27, 2008

quotes #934918 Liars & Lovers. A Travel Memoir

On my second-to-last night, Percy and Sarah put on a dinner party for us and some other friends. Their house as I remember it was somewhat chaotic, and perhaps this was why I related so well to them. They were magpies like me, with books and papers and clothes strewn everywhere. It was just the kind of house I aspired to. A house where people lived and loved and made room for everything. p235

"Inshallah," he said again.
"What does that mean?"
"God willing." p208
quotes #458950 Liars & Lovers. A Travel Memoir

About ten years later I discovered that I never know what I want to write about until I actually start doing it. Like a sculptor, I have to chip away at the surface until I find the essential form underneath. And usually something in my own life sets off the process. p169

I was also blessed or cursed with good old pragmatism. A particularly New Zealand trait? p106

I think that contrary to common perception, people become more curious as they get older. Maybe it has something to do with too many hormones whizzing round the brain in one's teens and early twenties. p62

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

quotes #238222

Some quotes from Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing:
During chemo, you're more tired than you've ever been. It's like a cloud passing over the sun, and suddenly you're out. You don't know how you'll answer the door when your groceries are delivered.
But you also find that you're stronger than you've ever been. You're clear. Your mortality is at optimal distance, not up so close that it obscures everything else, but close enough to give you depth perception. Previously, it has taken you weeks, months, or years to discover the meaning of an experience. Now, it's instanteous. p221

The only way for a woman, as for a man, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own. -- Betty Friedan p76

"When I asked how my job was, I said, "Okay."
"Really?" he said."
"No," I said. I told him that I wasn't sure I belonged in publishing. "I'm getting worse instead of better."
"You keep talking about whether you're good at this or not," he said. "The real question is, do you enjoy it?"
"I might hate it," I said.He reminded me that I loved books.
"I don't read books," I said. "I read manuscripts that aren't good enough to become books."
"What do you think you'd like to do instead?" he asked.
I said that I'd been thinking about writing a series of pamphlets called "The Loser's Guide." .... p174

Monday, June 23, 2008

list #372102

"dearly departed. everything you want to know about the afterlife," by georgina walker, c. 2008 wcl
"the english doctors dilemma," by lucy clark, c. 2004 bc6244429
"the business arrangement," by natasha oakley, c.2005 bc6244431
"the pursuit of happyness," by chris gardner, c. 2006 lcl
"six for heaven," by lucy walker, c.1952 bc5520243

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Next on my list:

Liars & Lovers, by Diane Brown, c. 2004 wcl 928.21
Webmage, by Kelly McCullough, c. 2006 wcl
The Princes Love-Child, by Sharon Kendrick, c.2004 bc622-9537

Saturday, June 07, 2008

note to myself ... current read "so much for my happy ending," bipolar

next books on my list ...

"Vows," by Denis Edwards, c. 1997 -- lcl request
"the speed of light," by elizabeth rosner, c. 2001 -- ecl request
"the times of our lives," by louise hay and friends, c. 2007 -- wcl
"the girls guide to hunting and fishing," by melissa bank, c. 1999 -- bc6194555