Things I Love, Things I Hate, Things in Between (A New Series?)

Liz here.  So Gianna's computer is on the fritz (What can I say?  She bought a Mac....and....cue the hate mail!) and she can't send me the blog post she was supposed to send me a week ago.  She's sorry.  Really.  And it's Monday, and a government holiday, and I'm in a bit of a mood.  My head's a bit all over the place.  I thought I could wrap my brain around my brain by trying to categorize the random thoughts floating around in there.

We love Allison Janney. 

Thing I Love
Allison Janney.  Why?  I thought of her because the movie adaptation of The Hours is on TV right now and she was one of the subtle reasons I was able to tolerate this movie even though I loved the book too much.  And then I started thinking that AJ was also in the movie adaptation of The Help, and The Ice Storm in which she hosted the key party.  Also, she was C.J. Cregg on The West Wing, and she's tall.  What I'm saying is that I wouldn't protest if Allison Janney played me in the made-for-TV version of Liz and Gianna's Adventures in Book Land.  Gianna would play herself, of course, and since I think she has a massive crush on Janney, the TV version of our blog might be steamier than the real life one.

Thing I Hate
Insurance companies of all forms.  Back in August, my air conditioner broke on a Saturday and in the space of two hours my house temperature rose to 90 degrees inside.  I couldn't move Zorro away from the fan.  I called an air conditioning repair service and they fixed the broken motor.  This morning, when I finally got around to calling the home warranty company with whom I have a policy since I just bought my house in May, they refused to reimburse my $700 because I didn't call them first.  Go to hell, American Home Shield.  And yes, this is why I was in a bad mood today.

Thing I Hate
Doorbells ringing unexpectedly when I'm in the bathroom, unless...

Thing I Love
...the guy ringing the doorbell is an incredibly good looking man registering voters on behalf of the Democratic Party.  If all things between the parties were equal (and they certainly aren't), I'd vote Democrat based on the beauty of this guy.  I needed to update my registration anyway, so I gave my address and phone number to Mr. Beautiful.  If he "forgets" to turn in my form and then decides to swing by later to personally apologize with a backpack full of books on his shoulder, a tub of ice cream in one hand and a case of Diet Coke in the other, I will open the door again.  Why isn't E.L. James writing this fan fiction?  I am going to imagine that Mr. Beautiful is a grad student majoring in library science too.

Thing in Between
I'm currently reading a book called Dora: A Headcase by Lidia Yuknavitch.  It's a novel that takes Freud's classic Dora case study and turns it on its head, turning Dora into the master observer/analyst/subverter of norms by making her a teenage girl intent on messing with the mind of her therapist.  I loved Yuknavitch's memoir of her train wreck life, The Chronology of Water, and I think her writing is seductive.  And normally I can't get enough of mental illness as a theme in literature, but I haven't decided what I think of this book.  The Dora character is a fascinating and sometimes hilarious mess, but she's maybe too much of a teenager for me to tolerate.  When did I become this person?  I think I missed my teenage rebellion stage in reading, and diving into books like The Catcher in the Rye after a certain age makes them seem...trite? Whiny? Mean-spirited?  But Yuknavitch is an incredible writer and I am sucked into her story in spite of my ambivalence to the character.

Thing I Love
An unreliable narrator.  Dora, she certainly can't be trusted, particularly regarding her impressions of Sig, her analyst.  And I read The Talented Mr. Ripley last week and there's a book I can get behind.  Ripley is a most compelling sociopath.  Did you know that Ripley writer Patricia Highsmith was born in Fort Worth?

Thing in Between
Keira Knightley.  The actress has become the queen of the literary adaptation to screen, including this year's adaptation of Anna Karenina, which I will watch because Tom Stoppard (the guy who wrote the play Arcadia and the screenplays for Shakespeare in Love and Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead and Enigma (if you've never seen this smart thriller starring Kate Winslet, you've missed a gem) and Empire of the Sun (Christian Bale's first film)) wrote the screenplay.  But I'm talking about Keira here.  In the last ten years, Knightley has starred in adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Silk, The Duchess, Never Let Me Go, A Dangerous Method, and now Anna Karenina.  My problem, though, is that while some of these were good movies, Knightley is never the thing about them that stands out as remarkable for me.  Take Atonement.  I very much liked it, but I remember thinking that the little girl in it was incredible, and the cinematography would win an Oscar, and that I love a Phillip Glass score. Oh yeah, and Keira Knightley was in it.  Oh well.  I don't loathe her with the ire I generate for Kirsten Dunst, but I'm not seeking out her name in the credits.

The latest bookshelves
at my house are pipes.

Thing I Hate
I never have enough bookshelves.  I am reaching hoarder status with the books.  I think I have a problem.  I perform Google image searches of bookshelves and then drool.  Gianna's planning an intervention, and I just hope that Mr. Beautiful the voter registration canvasser comes along to convince me that I have a problem.

Thing I Love

More pipe bookshelves
at Lizzy's house.

The first real cold front swept through over the weekend and for a few blessed days, at least, the temperature is down in the 50's at night.  I love love love a cold tile tub filled with steaming hot water, a book in hand, and a long, long soak.  I'm often asked my opinion on the e-book revolution in the publishing industry, and my biggest problem with e-readers is that they aren't conducive to bathtub reading and I refuse to give up my baths.  So if you follow my reading on Goodreads and wonder how I can read multiple books at once, here's the deal.  I have the audiobook I'm listening to in the car.  I have the manuscript I'm reading on an e-reader for work.  And then I have the book I'm reading in the tub. I love my tub.

Nothing beats a bath and a book.

Thing I Hate
Recently a statistic was released that stated something to the effect that 55% of adults read young adult or children's books.  When I was a kid, I couldn't wait to read adult books, so I really don't get this trend.  I'm not saying that young adult fiction is bad; I'm saying that there are thousands upon thousands of books published every year that are age appropriate for a thirty-five year-old and I don't see what s/he gets out of reading books intended for fifteen year-olds.

Thing I Love
Baseball playoffs.  Go Orioles!  Go Giants!