book fair

Every year in March I go back to my kid's old Elementary School and work the Book Fair for the School Librarian Tana, whom I've become friends with over the years.

Several (and I do mean several, like about 12) years ago it was my daughter Courtney's last year at Eastgate. I think I had volunteered to work the Book Fair every year since she was in First grade. Tana, the Librarian told me that she didn't know who she would be able to count on the next year since I would no longer have a child at the school any more. I told her that I would do it the next year anyway.

She was so happy and relieved. And I have done the Book Fair for her every year since.

The demographics of Eastgate have changed considerably since my oldest children Donald and Heidi started there over 27 years ago. Most of the kids these days, come from poor families and the biggest percentage of them are Hispanic. That basically equals zero parental involvement.

So my coming back every year to work the Book Fair is a BIG DEAL to my friend Tana.

Plus, I love to do it.

My favorite part each year (well for the last 5 or so) is when Lisa brings the girls to see me and to buy books.

It's so fun to have them come and to be able to show off my darling little granddaughters. Plus, I love watching how excited Lex and Lori get over all of the Books.

This year Lorelai actually came up and whispered to me that she wanted to buy a specially packaged three pack book set for Alexandra with her very own money.

Oh be still my heart.

Is there anything more rewarding than seeing the love that your little granddaughters have for each other?

Well, I guess that about sums up my Book Fair experience. Lisa took lots of pictures so I'll just shut up and let them speak for themselves.


Lex and I share a few laughs.

Elisabeth decided that taking off her socks was a good way to pass the time.

Oooh. Pencils. Of course the girls never really want for pencils, but DANG, these are Eastgate Book Fair pencils.

I share a happy "Hi to Grandma" moment with my precious little Elisabeth.

Those pencils just wouldn't stop screaming their names.

Happy, happy times.

See ya next year Tana!

American Idol-One Over Ripe Banana

As I have stated before, I am an American Idol fan.

However. . . .

I am NOT a fan of all the stupid ways they come up with to stuff the show.

Stuff it beyond recognition, that is.

I don't give a flying fig about the contestant's families. I couldn't care less about hearing all of their "heartwarming" back stories. I don't want to meet the parents. Or the spouses. Or the children.

I don't give a rip if they came from such a small town that it only has one stop light, one gas station and the closest drive through is twenty miles south.

And I absolutely DO NOT CARE if they have overcome hard times, grown up in poverty, or overcome childhood illness. I really don't need to hear how they came to this country at the age of ten and their (oh so brave) family had to start from scratch.

BIG FLIPPIN' DEAL!!!!!!

If I want to watch that mushy gushy crap,
if I want my heart (and mind) manipulated (which, trust me, I don't) I'll watch Lifetime or the Hallmark Channel.

I just want to see and hear people sing.

Is that really asking so much?

It is a singing contest isn't it?

It really steams my vegetables that they have to keep the songs so short that it seems they just barely get a good momentum worked up and POOF the song is over.

Last night was a TWO HOUR LONG SHOW!

Twelve contestants.

That means six per hour.

Even taking into consideration commercials and of course the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, from the judges, there should have been at least three and a half minutes for each singer to do justice to their song of the week.

Instead, we are treated to. . . . . Even more

boring,

cloying,

gee don'tcha just feel the love,

mind numbing,

Family background drivel on EACH and EVERY one of the contestants.

Why do we put up with it?

Or more importantly, why am I putting up with it?

I realized last night that out of the twelve performances there were only maybe three of them that I actually enjoyed.

Then I realized that I can watch those same performances on You Tube, almost immediately afterwards.

I don't have to watch that nasty, can't keep his big fat hands to himself, egomaniac, Mike Lynche.

I don't have to suffer through another pathetic song by "How the hell did she end up there in the first place" Katie Stevens.
Ditto that for Tim Urban, Didi Benami and Lacy Brown.

And sorry Andrew Garcia, you really did bring the house down with your super cool audition rendition of Paula's "Straight Up", but it appears that you are the closest thing to a One Hit Wonder that American Idol has ever produced.

I've decided that it's just not worth my time to sit through roughly 50 minutes of WINDBAGGERY for a fleeting few minutes of way too short, Payoff.

Crystal Bowersox, you are amazing.

I hope you come out ahead. I hope you put out a CD, and I hope that "said CD" has your incredible version of "Long As I Can See The Light" on it.

And I hope,

for your sake,

I really, truly,

hope,

you don't win.

I think you are way better than that.

It would absolutely break my heart to hear you sing some asinine song about rainbows and taking chances that Kara Diogaurdi, will no doubt write and force the winner to sing.

Come to think of it maybe it would be fitting for someone awful like "Big Mike Lynche" to win and be forced to start his pathetic career with another horrible American Idol "Winners" song.

And of course I'm sure that there will be another "Idol Gives Back" episode this year that I will need to avoid at all costs.

Yeah.

As if THAT'S not one of the most painful 2 to 3 hours of bloated, gosh-isn't-this-just-the-most-generous-forced-feel-good-TV-event, ever, thought up by TV execs.

I really do hate to give up a show that I thought I was a fan of.

I just can't take any more of the pointless, mindless, blathering and idiotic, time wasting filler just so Fox can make the most of their advertising dollars each week.

If,

and I know that this is one big

IF,

but if,

things change,
and
the show decides that it really is a singing show after all
and
decides to get rid of all of the fluffy "how well do you REALLY know this years contestants" filler claptrap, crap.

Well, give me a shout and I'll come back and become an American Idol fan once again.

Of course, I do realize that if this really, truly, is, Simon's last year, that there most likely won't be enough of the show left to amount to anything next year anyway. In which case i would just be delaying the inevitable.

And I try to never do that.

So good bye American Idol.

You are a textbook example of how Hollywood can NEVER, EVER, leave anything good alone.

I can only assume that 150 years from now you will be a nice little footnote in a chapter, on the Demise of "American Pop Culture at the turn of the Twenty First Century" in some first year Anthropology student's textbook.

Oh to be a fly on the wall of that classroom.

I (don't) like Mike

I have become a pretty big fan of American Idol the last three-four years or so.

I never used to watch the opening rounds with all of the really bad auditions. It seemed to me like if you've seen one person butcher Mariah Carey or Michael Jackson you've seen them all.

I'm not sure why or even when I changed my mind but I do know that for last season, as well as this one, I've been there for the show from the very beginning.

I know that the season is far enough along now that people already have started to pick out their favorites.

I like to think that I pick my favorites strictly on sheer talent. I try to avoid becoming emotionally attached to any of them. I don't let a good back-story or cute personality sway me too much unless they have the talent to back it up with.

I think that the Sanjaya debacle of a few years ago bears me out here.

The contestants I have the most interest in right now are

A. Crystal Bowersox

B. Lilly Scott

C. Siobhan Magnus

D. Paige Miles

and as for the guys

A. Lee Dewyze

B. Casey James

I like a few of the others but I won't get into them because that's NOT what this post is about.

The one contestant that I do NOT like is

Mike Lynche.

I refuse to call him "Big Mike" or give into any of those "cutesy" other names the producers of American Idol have come up with while trying their hardest to push him in people's faces. However for the purposes of this post I will sink to it for a little while.

And do you know why I don't like him?

Because he is a flat out

BULLY!

I HATE bully's.

I first noticed it during the auditions and Hollywood week. He seemed to think he had earned his place as America's favorite because he was there auditioning and doing American idol while the little wife was at home giving birth to their first child.

I swear.

Could he have possibly been more manipulative?

He shoves his face in the camera no matter who it's focused on. And it made me so mad the inordinate amount of time the producers spent on him and his "oh, so, melodramatic," waiting for his wife to give birth.

Sorry contestants.

I don't buy it for a minute when you give us your bogus "heartbreaking" renditions of how you are

"Here for my son". or "I'm doing this for my daughter, so we can have a better life".

Uh huh.

Because, as we all know, the only way to give a child a happy, well rounded life, one filled with opportunity and love, is for mommy or daddy to become a. . . . a,

big

fat

famous

Singing Star.

Oh yes.

Why haven't the child rearing experts hit on this one before now?

I mean, just look at little Sean Preston and Jayden James "Spears".

How could the experts be so blind as to not see that the best chance for childhood happiness is for one's parent to be shoved into the national spotlight as the newest . . . .

American Idol.

So, sorry, "Big Mike".

I don't buy the whole, "look how much I'm giving up for my child and wife" schtick. As far as I'm concerned you are nothing more than an everyday, run of the mill, "Me First" selfish jerk, that cares more about himself than anything else on God's Green earth.

This is just one of the reasons why I'm not ever going to be a part of the "Gosh, but don't ya just have ta love him" Big Mike publicity machine.

Of course my big, BIG, reason for my strong dislike of him is for the reason I stated earlier,

He is a Bully.

I noticed it when he kept picking people up and SQUEEZING them.

Every single time he did it he was asked to NOT do it again. Did that stop him?

Of course not.

Instead, in typical bully fashion, he laughed it off and turns it on to the person "complaining" as if they are being the problem. I noticed the first week of "Real" competition, you know where America finally gets it turned over to them, so they can "vote for their favorites".

If you paid attention to his reaction to the judges, the first thing they did was to tell him that he had hurt them by picking them up. Ellen and Randy both told him that in no uncertain terms.

Did he apologize?

Hardly.

He did what bullies have done since time immemorial. He first of all tried to laugh it off. Then he acted as if he didn't even hear them. He tried to make them look and sound foolish for giving him any grief about anything.

"Oh come ON?!?!" "You all KNOW that I'm just a BIG Ole Lovable Teddy Bear?!?!?!"

And,

AND. . . when Simon finally made serious, and gave "Big Mike" his trade marked, no holds barred, judgement, of not only his performance but also his behavior, did Lynche finally show a little humility and own up to the fact that he's not as ALL THAT as he obviously likes to think he is?

Of course not.

The big jerk instead, basically said; "Hey Simon" while showing his bulging flexed bicep.

Yeah.

Oh Boy.

What a cuddly teddy bear of a guy.

The thing that I can't believe is that America seems to be buying into the whole "Big Mike" thing.

Can't they see what a jerk he is.

Can't they see that he forces himself into just about every shot of whatever contestant is having a bit of screen time?

If you don't believe me, go back and watch it for yourself. It's always with a "aw shucks, I'm just so darn likable, you know they all want me sharing their big moment with them" smile and mugging for the camera.

I hope America catches on pretty soon. Cuz, I just can't wait for the blessed "results" show when I will get to see my fellow Countrymen finally show

Big Mike

THE

DOOR!

Three Books. . . Three Reviews

I think that most of my long time blog friends know that I love to read. In 2008 I even kept a reading log for the entire year because I had read an article on how few books the average person reads in a year and I knew that I was well above average in those statistics.

Turns out that I was right.

I read 35 books that year. If you want to read the post I did, listing each book I read along with remarks on each book you can go here.

I started to keep a log at the beginning of 2009 but for some weird reason I just couldn't get into reading much of anything last year.

I started quite a few books and just couldn't get interested enough in them to keep reading. This probably doesn't sound like a big deal to the rest of you but I consider it a problem. There are so many books I want to read, and being 52 I realize that I could be on limited time.

Geez, I sure hope not though.

I decided to get with the program this year. I've read three books that I can think of so far. It seems like I might be leaving one out but I guess if I have read a book in the last two months and can't even remember it, I must not have been too impressed.

Oh, did I make it clear that I'm going to give a few thoughts on each of the three books?

Well, I am. Here goes.

Handle With Care- Jodi Picoult

I know that a lot of women are huge Jodi Picoult fans. I was too.

At one time.

The first book of hers that I read was My Sister's Keeper. I really enjoyed it. I read a few other of her books after that first one, and unfortunately with each book I lost a bit more respect for her as an author.

I think that she's kind of a lazy writer.

Not that she doesn't do tons of research for each book. She does. I just think that she relies too heavily on textbook examples of the problems she writes about. And, because of that, she tends to write books that are too predictable, as well as way too contrived.
I also think that she uses the same literary devices over and over. If you read enough of her stuff, you will start to know how each book will go, simply because she did the same thing two books ago.

I'm not sure why i decided to read Handle With Care, feeling the way I do about her.

But I did. Sadly, I wasn't impressed this time either.

First off, I thought that the story fell together a little too conveniently. I won't give away too much, other than to say that almost the entire story hinges on an early event that in itself is utterly inconceivable.

The family goes on a vacation to Disney World.

They have a letter from a doctor explaining that their young daughter has a condition causing her bones to be extremely brittle and fragile. Obviously with a child so afflicted a letter of explanation would be extremely important to have with you at all times.

So what does the mother do, she tells her older daughter to be sure and grab the "ever so important" document to bring with them.
Why on earth doesn't the mother get it herself? Well, after all, they are in a hurry.

Uh huh.

Right.

Something that important. Something that could mean the difference between life and death. And the idiot mom leaves it to her pre-teen daughter to procure and bring it along.

Please.

Oh yeah. It gets even more far-fetched.

The dad is a cop.

Now of course Willow's parents, through an absolutely unbelievable chain of events, find themselves accused of child abuse, and have their children taken from them and put in protective custody. Now do the Florida cops do what you know they would do for a fellow officer of the law, no matter where he is from.

Nope.

Not in Jodi Picoult-land.

They treat this fellow cop as badly as they would the worst pedophile. Even, EVEN, after contacting his superior and being told that the daughter does indeed have the condition that the parents claim she has.

I also don't like how often Picoult likes to take good, healthy relationships and screw them up. I wouldn't mind if she had more realistic reasons for doing it, but she seems to do it just for the sake of ease of story telling. I don't believe for a minute that a woman could turn on one of her dearest and closest friends just because some lawyer mentions the possibility of being awarded a lot of money.

I also didn't like the way she told the story.

She had each character talking to the catalyst of the story, six year old Willow.
I found it a little disturbing that Willow's parents, as well as the other characters, would go into details of their sex lives and other messy little adult details while speaking to a child.
I also thought it made it obvious from the very start that Willow is not going to make it out of the story alive.

Another Picoult device by the way.

Picoult seems to really like including "The Forgotten Middle Type Child" in her books. Handle With Care is no exception. The older sister (I can't remember her name) was a typical Picoult "screwed up" sibling.

I won't say that I hated this book. Because I didn't. I just didn't find it the profound, earth-shaking, important book that I think she wanted it to be.

Next book:

Plainsong - Kent Haruf

I really don't get it.

This one comes with such high praise.

Go to Barnes and Noble, uh, dot-com that is.

look this one up,

read the praise heaped on it.

You would think that this book was another coming of such high literature as, say, To Kill A Mocking Bird.

Not EVEN close!

It was crude.

It was pointless.

It was endlessly wading through too many bad deeds, stupidity and just plain nastiness in exchange for way too small and brief of any kind of payoff.
I was halfway through this thing before anything even remotely good happened.
The sad thing is that the good parts, the human redemption, while way too small a part of the story, were really quite nice. The problem with this book though is that Haruf simply seems a lot more comfortable wallowing in the mud with his trashy, uncouth barely literate characters, than letting you spend quality time with the ones who are good and decent. I don't mind reading books that have unhappy themes. In fact ironically, the next book I will write about had plenty of those and I still really liked it.

I just think that if Haruf had spent more time showing the decent and rewarding side of his story and much less of the nasty, course, white trash elements, this book would have been much better and much more interesting.
For me, this book didn't come close to the ridiculous, EMPTY praise heaped on it.

Last but not least.

In fact the best of the three.

Shanghai Girls- Lisa See

I liked this one a lot.

It's funny because this one seems to me to be the book that "Plainsong" wanted to be. How interesting that through nothing more than sheer coincidence I happened to read them back to back.

The story does take a good long while to get to the happy parts.

The difference between it and the much lesser Plainsong, is that even the sad, unhappy and just plain frustrating parts of this book are so well written that you won't feel at all deprived.
The story concerns the life of two sisters. They are born into relative privilege in the Shang Hai area of China. The story follows them through their early years to mid life. They have many ups and downs, as well as several reversals of fortunes. Through it all, they not only endure but more often than not, thrive.

Like I said it is very well written.

The characters are quite complex and See does an excellent job of not only bringing them to life, but making you believe in them. Characters that you aren't at first meant to like, and for good reason, grow and change and develop into people that you come to understand and actually care about.

There is a lot of historical information folded into the story.

Not ever in a preachy or lecturey way either. It left me wanting to learn more about many aspects of, not only our own country, but that of China as well.
The only thing that I wasn't happy about is that the story is left hanging. I don't mind that too much, of course. I wish though that she would have given at least a hint that she plans to pick up the story at a later time.

I have decided to assume that she will. That will give me something to look forward to.

I hope.

Well, that is it for the three books I have read so far this year. I have a lot more that I plan to get to as soon as possible. I'll probably even write more reviews as I go along.

How about YOU?

Read anything GOOD lately?