Keris Stainton's Blog, page 89

When Harry grows up…

… can you tell what he wants to be?

David reported that Harry said he wanted to be a "judgerer" on Strictly Come Dancing, but he was doing him a disservice – it's a "judge" he wants to be. His favourite's Bruno. Or sometimes Alesha.

He's slightly concerned that he'd have to be a dancer first – he'd rather go straight to judging – but he doesn't see this as insurmountable (he's a great dancer).

If you're interested, his favourites this season have been Ann and Anton (*shudder*), but he now wants Kara and Artem to win. He's not confident they will though. Like me, he thinks Pamela and James may pip them to the mirrorball trophy.

Twelve (ish) books of Christmas: Day One

Lovely book blogger Carly Bennett has come up with a 12 Days of Christmas book idea I just had to pinch (with her permission, of course). Carly's picked her twelve favourite books of 2010 in her first post, but I'm doing something a bit different – writing about my favourite books/authors of 2010 (in no particular order) over the next twelve days. First up? Curtis Sittenfeld.

I took against Curtis Sittenfeld the very first time I heard of her, thanks to this review, which she wrote in 2005. The opening lines ("To suggest that another woman's ostensibly literary novel is chick lit feels catty, not unlike calling another woman a slut — doesn't the term basically bring down all of us? And yet, with The Wonder Spot, it's hard to resist.") kicked off a furore and made me dislike Sittenfeld intensely.

But then I read rave reviews of Sittenfeld's latest novel, American Wife, and decided to get over myself and read it. And I absolutely loved it. It's loosely based on the life of Laura Bush and it's just fascinating. Gripping, emotional, beautifully written.

So then I read Prep too. And I loved it. Doh. The most amazing thing to me was how much of it sounded like me. I'm 39, I know that many of the fears and insecurities you have as a teenager aren't, as you think at the time, exclusive to you, but SO MUCH of it sounded like me that it actually freaked me out a bit. I felt like Sittenfeld had been spying on me. In fact I thought, "This sounds so much like me. How did she know… Wait. Does EVERYONE feel like this?!" Again. Doh. The other thing I loved about it was that it all seemed completely real. I didn't feel like I was reading a book, I felt like I was spying on Lee's life.

I hesitate to call Sittenfeld one of my favourite authors – I haven't entirely forgiven her and I also haven't read her second, chick lit-sounding book, The Man of My Dreams – but I can't argue with the fact that two of the best books I read in 2010 were written by her.

If you need cheering up…

You may have already seen this – almost 35 million people have – but I hadn't and it made me so happy.

The very first time Harry laughed out loud was at me ripping paper. Ripping open a pay slip, in fact. Those were the days…

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(I was alerted to this video by Martha Beck on Twitter, who prefaced it with the words "If you lived like this all the time, everything you did would succeed.")

Is this the prettiest bag ever?

I love Lulu Guinness. I love Rob Ryan. I love sparkly things.

How beautiful is this one-of-a-kind bag they collaborated on?

[Just so you know: I've got a new computer. I'm home from hospital. But my dad's ill so I'm heading home to visit him today.]

I *heart* Niles Crane

For years, I've had a vague memory of an episode of Frasier with three separate plots: one for Niles, one for Frasier and one for Martin. I couldn't remember anything about it, except that I thought it was hilarious and there may have been an ironing board involved (but I wasn't entirely sure that I hadn't just been ironing when I saw it).

Finally – and I don't know why it took me so long – I thought to Google it. And I found it. It was called Three Valentines and the first bit, Niles's bit, made me happy.

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Round the world with kids

No, not us, unfortunately. I can't remember how I discovered Victoria Wallop, but I've been following her on Twitter and reading her blog for a while now. For as long as I've been reading her, she'd been planning a round the world trip with her partner and three young children and, last month, they headed off.

I can't tell you how envious I was. And am. Not least because they're currently in Hawaii and it's hot. But I just love the idea of heading off on an adventure with the boys. I want them to experience new cultures, meet new people, learn about the world. And it would be such a wonderful experience to look back on in the future.

I have talked to Harry about doing a US trip, similar to the one me and David did in 2001 (but with more money) and he loves the idea, but said, sensibly, "Maybe when Joe's a bit older." So that's what I'm hoping. Maybe in three or four years we can do it and in the meantime I'll just continue to envy – and be inspired by – Victoria's trip.

{Photo used with Victoria's kind permission}

Just because you've got a Kindle…

I've heard a lot of people say that they could never have an e-reader because they love books too much. And I answer that when they deliver your Kindle, they don't take away your "real" books – you can not only keep the ones you have, you can also buy more. If you're anything like me, you won't be able to stop yourself. So I thought I'd share my post-Kindle book behaviour.

So far, I have bought a grand total of four books on the Kindle. My own (natch), Talli Roland's The Hating Game, Nora Ephron's I Feel Bad About My Neck and a weightloss book with an embarrassing title, so I'm not telling you what it is. I've also downloaded Pride & Prejudice and What Katy Did, both for free. I've also downloaded around forty samples (the samples are my favourite thing about the Kindle so far. I LOVE them.) Oh and I read an ARC of Lauren Oliver's Delirium via NetGalley.

During the same time period, I've bought Nora Ephron's I Remember Nothing and Armistead Maupin's Mary Ann in Autumn (I'm going into hospital for a couple of days at the end of this week, so I treated myself to those two to take with). I also bought a book by Sonya Sones (can't remember which one, too lazy to get up and check) and Forever by Judy Blume, which I haven't read since I was a teenager and really must read again. Both of those were from the charity shop. And I bought Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon from GreenMetropolis and read The DUFF by Kody Keplinger, which I was sent as part of an ARC tour.

From the library I got Diana Athill's Somewhere Towards the End, The Bolter by Frances Osborne, Celebrity by Marina Hyde, Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan, Encore Valentine by Adriana Trigiani, This Duchess of Mine by Eloisa James and ROOM by Emma Donoghue.

Yes, I've actually managed to get more off-Kindle books than on-Kindle books. I don't imagine that changing (although I'm looking forward to the day I can get e-books from the library).

How about you? Have you got a Kindle? Are you still buying "real" books?

What's behind your door?

I remember when I first got a chocolate advent calendar, I thought it was the best invention since that little Dairy Milk dispenser I never got for Christmas. But now that the boys have a chocolate advent calendar, I think they're, well, completely crap.

Yes, you get chocolate, which is not to be sniffed at. About five times a day (so far) Joe points at the advent calendar hanging on the wall and shouts, "Clok-clak!" and I have to tell him he's not allowed another one until tomorrow.

But that's not the problem. The problem is that there's no picture. No magical Christmas picture. Not behind the chocolate and not on the back of the door. The chocolates are supposedly Christmassy shapes, but they're rather unclear and that's hardly the same since the chocolates get, you know, eaten.

When I was little, we loved seeing what was behind each door. A little robin on a branch. An angel. A sprig of holly. I miss it. In fact, I miss it so much that I bought myself a chocolate-free advent calendar. It's not all that Chrismassy either so far, but it is cute and sparkly so it'll have to do.

And now that I think of it, I may well buy myself – I mean, the boys – one of those Dairy Milk dispensers too.

{Picture from the completely glorious little doodles}

My NaNoWriMo

I haven't actually finished NaNoWriMo yet this year. I've got about 2000 words left to write. And the book – sigh – the book is a galloping mess. Honestly, I seem to have spent almost all of the 50,000 words introducing character and setting and have completely forgotten the plot. But… I'm so glad I did it (and even more glad it's over).

But I wanted to highlight something from Dave Eggers' NaNoWriMo Pep Talk (the pep talks have been particularly wonderful this year, I think) – it applies to ALL writing, not just NaNoWriMo:

"… you better do it now because you know how to write, and you have fingers, and you have this one life, and during this one life, you should put your words down, and make your voice heard, and then let others hear your voice. And the only way any of that's going to happen is if you actually do it. People can't read the thoughts in your head. They can only read the thoughts you put down, carefully and with great love, on the page. So you have to do it, goddamnit. You have to do it, and you can step back and be happy. You can step back and relax. You can step back and feel something like pride."

Don't you love that? I'd like it painted on my office wall.

Dirty Dancing With the Stars

I've absolutely loved this season of Dancing With the Stars and I really loved Jennifer Grey's freestyle. Yes, she was a bit of a diva and cried and complained a lot, but a) she did have lots of physical issues and b) she's 50 and she outdanced everyone else on the show. I'd like to say "If I could look like that at 50…" but I didn't look like that at 15, so I've no chance.

Mainly I just love that she carried a melon