Olga Vannucci's Blog: Travels With George, page 2

Unfinished knitting

I worked feverishly knitting my sister a scarf, and a few days before Christmas I realized I would not finish it in time for it. So I decided to present it to her on the needle, partly finished, and to tell her that she gets to choose the length.

Then I found in a book of knitting essays the same occurrence, from Michael Collier: I unwrapped the sweater but I was taken aback to find the present unfinished, bright knitting needles hanging from it.

Try, try, try

I came across the same exact concept and almost the same exact quote in two different books: Felicia Day says, "You can attempt anything," a variation on You can do anything, which is not as true if you think about it, and Anne Bartlett says, "Try anything. Some of the tries will work."

I love when I come across the same thing in close proximity, and this is an especially good come-across.

8 great books about China

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, by Peter Hessler--one of my earliest China reads, and possibly the earliest



The Porcelain Thief: Searching the Middle Kingdom for Buried China, by Huan Hsu--China's history through his family history

The Emperor Far Away: Travels at the Edge of China, by David Eimer--about China's many minorities in the four corners of the country

Home is a Roof Over a Pig: An American Family's Journey in China, by Aminta Arrington



Meet Me in Venice: A Chinese Immigrant's Journey from the Far East to the Faraway West, by Suzanne Ma--about Chinese migration to Italy



Beijing Bastard: Into the Wilds of a Changing China, by Val Wang

And more on the irreverent funny side:

Lost on Planet China: Or How I Learned to Love Live Squid, by J. Maarten Troost



Apologies to My Censor: The High and Low Adventures of a Foreigner in China, by Mitch Moxley

Gorge or George

I read a book called Gorge and I kept seeing the title as George.

Formula 1

My favorite times of day are mornings when I drink my coffee and evenings when I read in bed.

Extra special are those Sunday mornings when I can watch Formula 1 while I drink my coffee.

Talkative librarian

There's a small library in town with the chattiest of librarians--sort of the opposite of what you expect of a librarian.

Huck Finn

My son is reading Huck Finn as summer reading for school. As he's been reading I've come across references to it. Will Boast says, in his book Epilogue, that he's read it four times. And I read in the New Yorker that Charles Ray made a sculpture of Huck and Jim--somewhat controversial and therefore appropriate. I read the book in high school too and I had it on my little shelf of classics.

Book pressure

When I bring a pile of books home from the library, I usually stack them with the biggest at the bottom of the pile and the smallest at the top. Then I start reading from the top, smallest first. And then when I have only a little time left before I have to return them, I am left with the thick tome and only a few days to read it all.

8 great books about growing up differently than I grew up

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, by Alexandra Fuller

Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of My Appetites, by Kate Christensen--I was excited to read that she lived in Jerome, AZ, a place I've been that I generally feel no one else has.

How To Catch a Frog and other stories of family, love, dysfunction, survival, and DIY, by Heather Ross



The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls--a well-told difficult childhood

A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me: A Memoir, by Jason Schmidt--engagingly crazy

A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir, by Daisy Hernandez



Will not attend: Lively Stories of Detachment and Isolation, by Adam Resnick

Ordinary Light: A Memoir, by Tracy K. Smith

Birthday wishes

My son wished a girl happy birthday on Facebook. He told me, "She liked it."