It's been a four states in four days week. A rather unglamorous lineup, South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, and Michigan.
We got back from Michigan on 8 Feb, from there it was two nights with Tom's parents, one night at sister Abby's, one night with Tom's parents, two nights with my parents, one night with Tom's parents, one night apart while I was with Mother at Abby's, five nights with Tom's parents, four nights at brother Mick's in South Dakota to meet Tara and Jeremys' baby, two nights with my parents, one night with Tom's parents. It's understandable if you skimmed that sentence, but that's our life at the moment. And now we're back in Michigan.
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One afternoon over tea at my dear Leah's house, she said I should blog what books we're reading. Yesterday I finished The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. Two years ago, I got on a Booker books kick, and this one won the 2006 Booker prize. I found it for $1 in an antique shop last time we were in Michigan, which made it easy go when I forgot it in the plane pocket after finishing it yesterday on the flight back.
It is set in Sikkim, India, a place Abby and I visited together, but around a mid-eighties Gurkha uprising. The protagonist is a teenage Indian girl raised by her miserable grandfather, a retired judge, and his cook. She lives in comfort, and all her friends, comfortable old Indians, share her life and lifestyle. She falls in love with her tutor, a Nepalese boy. Everyone's life falls apart around the time he joins the Gurkha resistance.
The culture portrayed was somewhat familiar to me, but the book was instructive on class/caste system in cultures much older than our own. I like a good George Clooney movie, but he can be so preachy. Desai is artful and nuanced as she examines assumptions and privileges. All of the sudden I would have an epiphany through a simple turn of phrase.
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Tom outed me to his mom when he told her my excuse for not cooking at her house was that I didn't want to take away her job, being retired and having generally an open schedule as she does. She laughed and told me I can cook anytime. Thus far I've been too lazy to learn someone else's kitchen.
I did cook at my parents' house, making zucchini-crusted pizza, from Moosewood. It went over quite well.
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My dad said he was once at McDonald's with John Stott, and that he remembered what JS ordered. I asked him what. "A hamburger and hot chocolate." I like my dad.
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With my cutie nephew, one month old
last week in South Dakota
We got back from Michigan on 8 Feb, from there it was two nights with Tom's parents, one night at sister Abby's, one night with Tom's parents, two nights with my parents, one night with Tom's parents, one night apart while I was with Mother at Abby's, five nights with Tom's parents, four nights at brother Mick's in South Dakota to meet Tara and Jeremys' baby, two nights with my parents, one night with Tom's parents. It's understandable if you skimmed that sentence, but that's our life at the moment. And now we're back in Michigan.
###
One afternoon over tea at my dear Leah's house, she said I should blog what books we're reading. Yesterday I finished The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. Two years ago, I got on a Booker books kick, and this one won the 2006 Booker prize. I found it for $1 in an antique shop last time we were in Michigan, which made it easy go when I forgot it in the plane pocket after finishing it yesterday on the flight back.
It is set in Sikkim, India, a place Abby and I visited together, but around a mid-eighties Gurkha uprising. The protagonist is a teenage Indian girl raised by her miserable grandfather, a retired judge, and his cook. She lives in comfort, and all her friends, comfortable old Indians, share her life and lifestyle. She falls in love with her tutor, a Nepalese boy. Everyone's life falls apart around the time he joins the Gurkha resistance.
The culture portrayed was somewhat familiar to me, but the book was instructive on class/caste system in cultures much older than our own. I like a good George Clooney movie, but he can be so preachy. Desai is artful and nuanced as she examines assumptions and privileges. All of the sudden I would have an epiphany through a simple turn of phrase.
###
Tom outed me to his mom when he told her my excuse for not cooking at her house was that I didn't want to take away her job, being retired and having generally an open schedule as she does. She laughed and told me I can cook anytime. Thus far I've been too lazy to learn someone else's kitchen.
I did cook at my parents' house, making zucchini-crusted pizza, from Moosewood. It went over quite well.
###
My dad said he was once at McDonald's with John Stott, and that he remembered what JS ordered. I asked him what. "A hamburger and hot chocolate." I like my dad.
###
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