Happyreader's comments (member since Mar 23, 2008)

Happyreader's comments from the Constant Reader group.

Early warning during this busy election/Thanksgiving month that the discussion for The Habit of Being Letters of Flannery O'Connor begins on December 1.

In the spirit of today's NYC marathon, pace yourself as it's 624 pages.

The discussion is still there if you go to http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2728... but our topic link on the book page is gone.

Not to ruin any surprises but someone took away our ladder. Spooky.

What happened to the book discussion link? If you click on the link that Yulia left above, you can get into the discussion but if you go to the book itself, the topic is missing. Is something sinister afoot?

Cynthia, if you haven't read anything about Alice Waters' school program, one source is Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet. It's described in one of the early chapters.

This is really a book I need to finish. I read the early chapters, including a great chapter on healthy food programs for the poor in Brazil. Frances Moore Lappe is someone I really admire since she's focused on providing healthy, environmentally-friendly food for as wide a population as possible. I've heard her speak and she struck me as very insightful and genuine.

I'll agree that Murakami is different and perhaps bizarre. For anyone hesitant to try bizarre, this isn't disturbing David Lynch American Gothic bizarre; it's more Japanese ethereal alternative mindset bizarre.

This is my first Murakami novel. I nominated the book because I've really enjoyed his New Yorker stories and wanted to try something more substantial. To me, as odd and as melancholy as his storylines may be, there's something oddly soothing and dreamlike about his prose.

Mind you, I may be jarred once I get further into the book. We'll see.

I'm sure we'll have some great discussions come 9/15. I'm also sure Yulia has some great Murakami insights and perspectives for us all.

Wilhelmina, I agree with you completely. Most of my patients are unemployed and living on very limited means. Getting any food at all is an issue. While I agree that local and organic food is best, it's not something I usually discuss with my patients. What I focus on instead is what food is available and affordable in their neighborhoods or local food depositories and what their best choices are within what they have available. And I don't turn my nose up at Lean Cuisines either. Not only are they easy to store and prepare when people can't or don't have time to make a full meal, they're frequently deeply discounted and offer good examples of proper portion sizes for my weight-challenged patients.

Sometimes the food books and articles can sound somewhat snobby, inducing guilt in people who can't afford to participate in the latest food trends. While I agree that farmers should be adequately paid for their efforts, I also support anything that makes food affordable.

In keeping with that message, a great charity to support is Second Harvest http://www.secondharvest.org/ which funds a number of food depositories around the country, including in communities affected by Gustav (and all those storms that are lined up behind him).

This Labor Day weekend is a great time to begin reading our next book, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. Discussion will begin September 15 with Yulia providing some sure to be insightful introductory commentary. Be warned -- the book is a hefty 607 pages.

Oh my goodness!!!! Thank heavens you're OK. I imagine that it was quite the shock when it happened. How lucky that your computer location saved you from harm and that no one was hurt.

If you substitute pine for maple and windstorm for rainstorm, the exact same thing happened to my mom on Good Friday. Fortunately, after some heavy-duty repairs, all covered by her insurance, the house is good as new and nothing valuable was lost. I hope the same will be true of your home. Let's hope your books and other valuables were well-sheltered from the storm.

Good luck with the repairs. May they finish ahead of schedule.

Barbara, thanks for the story link (I’m so behind in my New Yorkers) and, Sylvia, thanks for the blog link. I was so surprised that the blog author thought no one but a die-hard Munro fan would enjoy the story. Mind you, I just assume that anyone who reads a Munro story becomes a fan so perhaps it’s really an inclusive observation.

Ruth is right on when she says it’s classic Munro with minimal narrative ornamentation and that anything extra would probably detract. One of the blog commenters referenced the itching article in the same issue (which is fascinating, by the way) http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/... That article talked about how our brains are programmed to fill in the gaps. Munro gives you just enough so that you can fill in the gaps.

I think the great mystery of the story is why Peter and Savanna grow up to be functioning adults. Kent is no mystery. His “stone” geologist father is a narcissistic ass. His kids are merely the inconvenient consequence of sex. He approves of his wife not warning the boys to be careful. I agree with Sherry about his competitive ownership of his wife’s breast. Not only does he feel threatened by his sons’ comments, he also resents his six-month old daughter taking nourishment from them, can’t bear to look at her unlatching from the breast, and is insistent of the baby being weaned.

The one surprise is that Alex even went into the deep-hole to rescue his son. Since it’s hyphenated, deep-hole is obviously an adjective and I’m going to guess it’s meant to describe the gaping void of genuine love in this family.

Kent is left trying to fill his deep-hole through a flimsy pseudo-spiritual lifestyle. He bonds as best he can with others as deeply wounded as himself. He avoids relationships since he’s never had one that fulfilled him. He hasn’t transcended anything, as evidenced by his terse interaction with his mother.

Besides why she stayed with Alex, the mystery with Sally is her fascination with unknown islands and her shock when she found her island on the Internet. Is it that she needs a secret sanctuary to be herself?

SPOILER for the Itch article – the woman was able to scratch down to her brain because her incessant scratching caused her skin to breakdown and become infected, with the infection eventually breaking down the bone tissue. As morbidly fascinating as that fact is, the real reason to read that article is the description of mirror therapy for unexplained pain.

Cliff, sorry. I just caught your comment after posting. Great to know you have such a good forum for New Yorker story discussion. The son's disappearance didn't bother me since why would he want to stay so present in such a painful environment. I give you that Sally is observant. In fact, I think she's more a watcher than a participant. She keeps herself detached.

Since it's now July 1 in Europe and beyond, discussion for The Enchanted April is now officially open. Click here to join in http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show_book...

To continue with my trend of being early, Happy Canada Day!!!

Yes, actual discussion begins tomorrow. Fortunately, it's easy to avoid the discussions until you're ready since the discussion doesn't take place in this thread but in the discussion section of the actual book.

So beginning tomorrow, check out the discussion by scrolling down on the Constant Reader home page to the Currently Reading section and clicking on the cover of Enchanted April.

See you all there tomorrow.

No, sorry, the markets are not organic. Just ethnic grocers with good produce selections at cheap prices.

Candy Minx, you may want to check out http://www.chicagolocavores.com. You have to join but the membership is free. It lists a lot of the farmer's markets (really the best way to go local this time of year). The City of Chicago web site also lists the market sites: http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webpo...

I'll admit that Whole Foods does sell some items cheaper, like the Wallaby yogurt, and is great for some bulk items like, oddly, popcorn but I generally go to the ethnic markets or farmer's markets (I'd rather pay Whole Food prices directly to the farmer). Currently, I'm going through an okra phase. My two favorite markets are Fresh Farms (my okra source), 2626 W Devon Ave, and Harvest Time, 2632 W Lawrence Ave. I'm also a big fan of H Mart, the Korean Super-Supermarket, 801 Civic Center Drive, Niles, IL.

A great food resource for Chicago food shopping, dining, etc is http://lthforum.com/bb/index.php.

Ricki, thank you! I made the mistake of just wandering into stores and checking out Amazon and Half.com. $1.00 a book (especially since our dollar is worth mere pence) is really a bargain.

Speaking of cheap used books, the Chicago Public Library doesn't have our next book The Blindfold: A Novel. But I got a nice used copy from Amazon for $0.01 plus shipping. Not bad.

Although I grew up on a farm with cats, I'm cat-free since I'm allergic. I loved my mom's cat Benjamin pictured here http://veggiepalooza.blogspot.com/2008/0... but sadly he had to be put to sleep suddenly last month because of sudden distress due to congestive heart failure. So sad. Fortunately, mom recently visited the local shelter and fell in love with and adopted a new kitty named Gina. Not that she doesn't still miss Benjamin.

Anyways, I'm posting because a San Fran cat-loving friend of mine just sent me a posting on a Chicago Kitty Kegger on July 13th and I wanted to pass along the news to Chicago cat lovers such as Candy Minx. More details here: http://www.felinesinc.org/

Candy Minx, I've been away and neglectful of my blog and just saw your comment today. Thanks for the kind comment. Unfortunately, I think Blogger is having some problems because my heading layout is suddenly wonky. No idea what's going on there. Usually, it's a much more orderly site with much more frequent veggie postings. Despite the beginning of farmer's market season, I've been very disappointed and uninspired by produce lately. Perhaps the tomato fiasco has cursed all the veggies. Hopefully that situation will soon improve.

Poor Josie's resume is rather slim after Enchanted April but hopefully by choice.

For those of you who have not seen the movie and are willing to take an eBay risk, someone is offering a region-free DVD version in English AND Polish. Bonus.

http://dvd.shop.ebay.com/items/DVD-HD-DV...

Yulia, perhaps you should risk the $16.95 total. The movie really is worth owning. I own the VHS and will be watching it again once I finish the book.

Kristine, welcome to CR! This is so your type of group. And work just gets in the way of so much fun stuff.

Beej, too funny. The literature map was calling to us both.

That's a good question. I was wondering the same thing. At http://www.gnooks.com/ you can click on Gnod's Suggestions and it asks you your favorite authors. One author that is a favorite of mine and is missing from the map is Fanny Burney. I listed her along with Virginia Woolf and George Eliot. Then it asked me I liked, disliked or didn't know some random other authors.

If you ever see Fanny Burney listed (not yet) with Ovid, Plutarch, and Charles Darwin, this section is one way the results are generated. At the end, the site asks for suggestions and I suggested a neutral option. I don't like or dislike Darwin (I haven't read him, only about him) but I couldn't click don't know him either.

Elizabeth von Arnim is probably more popular in the UK than here.

In Chicago, I've checked a number of used bookstores and nothing. Plus, the Chicago Public Library only has a couple of copies and the one they put aside for me is ancient with the page edges flaking away from acid aging.

Still, the book is lovely so far. I'm just having a difficult time shaking the movie version from my head as I read it. I keep picturing Miranda Richardson, Polly Walker, Joan Plowright and the actress I don't know who played the lovely Mrs. Wilkins.

The last thing any of us midwesterners want these days is a man to send rain clouds. Then again, this story may be a mental antecdote to all the rain, flooding, and tornadoes. It's so sparse and dry that it left me feeling parched and thirsty. It's more prose poem than story.