We write to taste life twice

"Riches, prestige, everything can be lost. But the happiness in your own heart can only be dimmed; it will always be there, as long as you live, to make you happy again." - Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

I'm in the process of re-reading Anne Frank's diary, prompted by the recent death of Miep Gies. The last time I read it was probably when I was 12 or so. I can't remember specifically. But it was the heavily edited edition. When her diary was first published, there was a lot left out - her thoughts about her mother (which were mostly mean), her musings on sex and puberty (which can be somewhat graphic at times - last night, I read her very detailed description of girly bits).

I have the definitive edition now, which includes all the things previously edited out. It's amazing. There is a whole different dimension to Anne Frank that I didn't know about before. If you read this, knowing nothing about her, you would conclude that she is much older than the 13-15 years of age that she was when she wrote this. It amazes me.

I treasure this book. I mean, I REALLY treasure it. I always thought The Diary of a Young Girl was one of the most important books ever to be published, but I feel so even more strongly now.

Brrrrrrr...it's cold out right now, but I'm leaving in about half an hour for the light rail station. I'll take light rail, get off at the Columbia City Station, meet up with Lisa, and we'll walk to Tutta Bella (Neapolitan pizza) for lunch. Then BOOKFEST!

Glorious Bookfest! An afternoon of BOOKS!

The Friends of Seattle Public Library will be there, trading and selling books, so I'm bringing a couple of paperbacks to swap. I don't really know what to expect today, but I know I'm going to have fun!

Then I'll come home to dinner in the slow cooker (brown sugar chicken). And then I have to work on my design project. I'm on page 3, so it's coming along. I just want a complete rough draft by Tuesday night and then I'll finish the tweaking on Wednesday and submit it. The most time-consuming part of the whole thing is taking screenshots and editing them so they fit into my document (which is booklet sized). I don't expect it to be the best project of the class, but hopefully it won't be the worst. Either way, I'll pass the class as long as I do all the assignments.

Lance had errands to run this evening, and asked me to tag along. One of his errands included picking up a computer programming book at Barnes & Noble. But since it was next door to Office Depot and he also needed a printer cartridge, he went to Office Depot first. I skipped it entirely and made a beeline for the bargain books.

Finds:
Becoming Jane Austen - Jon Spence
Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners: Compliments, Charades & Horrible Blunders - Josephine Ross

The second book is cute.

Lance found me at one point, bearing one other book he found for me... 88 Money-Making Writing Jobs - Robert Bly. So I added that to the pile. I checked on the book when we got home and it has a 5 star rating from amazon, so hopefully it was worth the purchase. If nothing else, I can write it off as a business expense.

All in all, not a bad day, though I could do without the heat-induced headache.

And this post reminds me that I haven't read anything since we got back from Ohio. I just haven't been in the mood to read. I'm working on a book by William Zinsser that I have to review, so I should probably try to read some more of that tonight.

It's also ridiculous how many unread books I have sitting in my bookshelf right now. And I'm running out of room for them. Good thing I don't make it to B&N very often.

So...I have a dog that chews up books.

Not ideal for a bookaholic, but her chewing up my books bothers me much less than her chewing up a friend's books. And she chewed up the cover of a beautiful children's book that belongs to Kathy's son. I was mortified.

MORTIFIED.

Kathy says it's ok. But I'm replacing it. The book is too beautiful not to replace it. See how beautiful this book is?

http://www.alisonmcghee.com/someday.html

So I ordered a replacement from amazon.com today. And that totally justifies me buying another book for myself so I can get the free shipping. So I bought myself the hardcover "definitive edition" of Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl. Because I think that is quite possibly my most life-changing book, and I haven't owned a copy of it in years. And I need a good copy that will last for a long time.

I know I said I would cut back on frivolous expenses, but I don't think it's frivolous to buy an extra item in order to avoid having to pay shipping. With shipping prices being what they are, it just makes good sense.

Just finished Sandra Gulland's Josephine B trilogy today.

Magnifique!

If you're a fan of historical fiction, do go out and get it.

Surprisingly enough, I never really studied the Napoleonic era in my history classes, or especially in French class (we spent a lot of time on the French Revolution). What a fascinating time. What a fascinating woman!

My next 2 books are selections sent to me by my editor at curledup.com. They are October releases. One is an art mystery. The other is historical fiction.

At some point, I really need to update Good Reads. I haven't been on that website in ages.

What started out as an icky day turned into a very pretty one, so I need to take Reece out for a walk here after I finish with dinner.

I'm just excited, because a belated birthday present arrived today from a very dear friend. She ordered off amazon.com, and even though I have a wish list, she picked out some books that were still so very much on the mark in terms of what I like. I'm very appreciative and excited to read them.

And it shows just how well she knows me. :)

So...any Sandra Gulland fans out there? I got the Josephine B. Trilogy.

Now...I seriously need more book shelves. I'm running out of places to put my books, and I don't want to thin my already diminished collection (I had to get rid of a lot of books before we left Germany).

I still need to write a review of Puppy Chow is Better Than Prozac which is an autobiography about how a black lab puppy saved a bipolar man from killing himself. I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it. I didn't care for the writing style, but it's also hard to critique what someone has written about their personal life.

And I have Doris Lessing's The Good Terrorist to read for review still. Then on to the fun leisure stuff. Aside from my Josephine Bonaparte trilogy, I still have Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, which I picked up on a whim at Borders in Rochester.

Oh Barnes & Noble, how I both love and loathe your bargain books section.

*sigh*

Lance and I went there after dinner tonight. No reason really, except it was there and I haven't stepped foot in a bookstore for some time.

Dinner was good by the way. I do miss the Italian restaurants in Europe. They are so much more authentic, whereas here, they just throw together a bunch of Italian ingredients to make "Italian" dishes, and I don't think they really resemble anything you would actually eat in Italy. Exceptions to this are lasagna, fettuccine alfredo, and spaghetti with meat sauce.

I had Marsala Chicken Ravioli. Tasty. It was ravioli stuffed with grilled chicken, smothered in a marsala wine sauce, and dressed with crumbled cooked proscuitto, asparagus, and parmesan cheese.

While we were eating, Lance talked about going back to Italy. He wants to see Venice again. I am done with Venice. I told him I would rather do Rome or Florence. We basically planned out our next trip to Europe...where we would go...but it won't be for a long long time. We know that we're definitely going back to England though. And almost certainly Sweden.

Anyway, back to Barnes & Noble. The store there is two stories, so I wanted to check it out, having never been in a 2-story Barnes & Noble store before. There's nothing particularly special about this one, as it doesn't really have more selection just because it has 2 floors. But just try and keep me out of a bookstore anyway.

And so I caved and got 2 bargain books. Couldn't resist them.

First there was Hunger's Brides by Paul Anderson. The sheer size of this book and the cover caught my eye simultaneously. It's a 1400 page, absolutely massive hardback...very heavy and could probably be used as a lethal weapon. Reading the summary on the inside of the cover, I was incredibly intrigued. And for $7...well, damn.

But of course, I didn't stop there. I spotted The Memoirs of Helen of Troy by Amanda Elyot, and having just read her novel about Mary Robinson, I had to get it. For $5, how could I not? The Pre-Raphaelite painting on the cover was hard not to notice.

Lance rolled his eyes and then we headed up the escalator to the humor section. But he didn't get himself anything, even though I told him he would want something to read for his long journey to Oklahoma City tomorrow.

Speaking of long journeys...I-5 Southbound on the North end of Seattle was INSANE on the way home. Bumper to bumper. On a Saturday evening. What was that about? Surely it wasn't a Sonics game.

Oh, right now for curledup.com, I am reading a novel about the French Revolution. On the one hand, the plot makes for interesting reading. On the other, I find the dialogue to be irritating. Some of it doesn't seem to ring true at all.

Happy Halloween to all!! Lance and I have a party to go to tonight, so hopefully our jetlag won't be too bad. I was in bed (or air mattress, I should say) around 9:15 last night, and I fell asleep almost instantly. And I actually slept through the night, except for when I got up once to use the bathroom. How weird. Usually my jetlag has me up wandering the house in the wee hours of the morning. But I was asleep until our alarm went off at 7.

So now we're waiting for Schinnen to come with some loaner furniture. They are scheduled to come anywhere between 8 AM and 5 PM. We are not pleased about this.

But I've used this opportunity to tidy up the house a bit, and because the spiders are getting out of control outside the front door, I went out with a can of Raid and a broom. I killed at least 6 of them that had built webs around the front door.

Oh, and I heard from my brother...Eva is scheduled to be born on November 9th by c-section, provided she doesn't get herself into the proper birthing position by then. My brother and his wife wisely decided not to let the doctor turn Eva over, because it would cause Cristine considerable pain and there are risks to the baby. And there is only a 65% chance of it actually working anyway. So they'll keep their fingers crossed and hope that she gets out of breach position so that Cristine can give birth naturally, or they'll do the c-section a week from Friday. Wow...it's all happening so fast! It doesn't seem like all that long ago that I found out they were expecting!

Anyway...I have things I've wanted to post about for awhile and haven't had the chance to...

First off, I already found a cute table for the kitchen at our new house. The McChord base exchange is selling it for $199.99. I just have to hope they still have it in stock when I want to buy it...or that they can at least order it, in which case, I would have to wait 6-8 weeks for it to arrive.

And Lance found similar looking bar chairs for the breakfast bar at Home Depot. So it won't be an exactly matched set, but it will be coordinated, which is just fine.

Now...books!

I read The Other Boleyn Girl almost in its entirety during the flight to Seattle. It's about 750 pages and I read at least 600. Excellent book! Obviously a page-turner. On the way back here to Germany, I read Water for Elephants...another fabulous book. That's our book club selection for November and I honestly hadn't expected to like it since it's so far removed from what I normally read. But it was really really outstanding.

YAY! Schinnen is here! Furniture!!

Which means that I will be back later with pictures! We need a coffee table so we can get my computer set up. Lance's laptop is not the best place for me to upload photos, since he doesn't have Photoshop.

Anyway, I have missed you all and I haven't been able to keep up with you for almost 2 weeks now. Please direct me to any recent news in comments.

Just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Wow...just wow.

I am too stunned to put together a coherent thought on this book.

It's been a long time since I finished a book that just so completely and utterly took my breath away.

...and because I love books and travel and I love to make lists...

I'm currently making a list of books about places or books in which a place is important.

For example, when I was in Paris, I read A Moveable Feast by Hemingway, because it was about Paris. I like reading books that feature places I have been, although I would rather read them when I'm actually visiting that place.

So there's The Historian, which features a lot of places I've been: Amsterdam, Istanbul, Venice...etc. etc.

So...help me make this list. What books can you think of that are about places, or at least a place that figures prominently in the book? They don't necessarily have to be fiction. I have Under the Tuscan Sun and A Year in Provence on the list. I also have A Tale of Two Cities, Girl With A Pearl Earring, The Da Vinci Code...etc. etc.

I'm curious to see what you come up with.