Half woodcraft guide, half novel about a couple of boys who get to spend the summer playing Indian in the woods. I’m re-reading it for my diss.

I circle back to Vonnegut a couple of times a year, and I couldn’t really remember how this one went, so I’m going through it again.

Actually, I’m re-reading. I’ve been on something of a Vonnegut kick again—seems like every couple of years I start going back through his novels. In part, because they’re shortish and easy to read but still smart and powerful, and broken up into small chunks. In the midst of a semester, it’s hard to focus on the kind of tomes I often might read. Besides, he’s on my list of all-time favorites & it’s always nice to go back to his novels.

Just started this one (for the second time, having abortively begun it a few years ago), and it’s pretty cool—the story of one year trying to keep a small farm raising Sun Crest peaches in operation. “Sun Crest,” according to Masumoto, “tastes like a peach is supposed to. As with many of the older varieties, the flesh is so juicy that it oozes down your chin. The nectar explodes in your mouth and the fragrance enchants your nose.” But Sun Crests have problems: they’re “amber gold” rather than “lipstick red,” the color we’ve been trained to expect from peaches, amd they don’t last as long in storage as the varieties you get at Publix. Will he manage to create a niche market for his peaches? Will he save his family farm? And what does all this mean for the ways in which we work the land and consume our food?

Alice didn’t really grab Ella, so we’re trying this “chapter book.” I’ve never read it, just seen the movie, and I’m enjoying it thus far (we’re two chapters in now).

I’ve loved Martin’s “Shouts & Murmurs” pieces in the NYer, and I read positive reviews when this one came out, so I’ve got high expectations…

And they weren’t quite met, frankly. It’s an interesting book, though not much of a novel. More like a series of analyses of a few characters. The analyses are interesting and smart, the characters are cool, but it’s still not much of a novel.

Gonna teach Love Medicine next semester, and this one’s been near the top of the stack on teh bedside table for quite a while, so I started it over the holiday. Erdrich is just so damn good.

Want to teach this one in a passing class.

Hadn’t read it in a lot of years, and I wanted to laugh, so I picked up my old, dog-eared copy. It holds up quite well, really: still hilarious, even if mostly harmless.

Bought this classic at Border’s today to read with Ella—a nice diversion from Oz. We read the first chapter tonight, and at the end I asked her some questions about what had happened and she could answer them all, so she’s following the plot. I asked her how she thought Alice could reach the key up on the table now that she’s so small—looking forward to chpt. 2—and she said, “I don’t know, maybe she could drink her milk so she’ll grow up to be big and strong, then she could reach it.” What a smart girl.

Taught it in the spring. Will teach it again next spring, probably.