I never ...

"I never saw a cloud I didnt like" - William Stafford
"I never saw a machine I didnt want to run" - Ida M Tarbell
I never saw a book that I didnt want to crack open

Easy to use Blood pressure monitor

The device is easy to wrap around the wrist and the numbers show up in no time. I havent checked the smart function yet.

Scissors

I like books on writers. I read mostly non-fiction. But Scissors, even thouh a novel is still within the reach of a non-fiction reader.
It is also humorous. Wait till you find out who is scissors and what he does. The rate of poin of view changes i like a musical chair.

Glitter and Glue

 


I tried to like this book but couldnt connect to it. The title and the underlying dynamic is catchy. This book had travel in it. So I jumped in to read. The dialogues with the Tanner family make the whole scene vivid. Imagine a Marsupial Encyclopaedia and you know where you are. The author has an arsenal of writing skills but the bull's eye kept changing with the back and forth with mom and present. I enjoy reading essays about mothers and daughters. I have enjoyed memoirs like 'The Florist's Daughter' by Patricia Hampl. I was looking for that rich texture in the mother-daughter experience landscape which I found lacking in the book.

Poached

I thought Teddy was an animal to begin with. Having been a volunteer at the Phoenix Zoo for the koala exhibit, I was all set to read the book. Phew, the pre-teeners, what they try to pull off.
For science week/month this year, Chandler, AZ had a small display to solve a fictional crime with some evidence and lab experts all in one tent. This chase too to solve the mystery, keeps whats in the domain of our little solver - some sleuthing, guessing, elimination, the real brainy things accessible and the lab expert kind of stuff in the hands of characters out of scope. This chiaroscuro of keeping just the things needed to solve the problem in focus makes the young readers easily fall into the game of playing detective.

Duck in the Fridge

The ruckus in the house with so many animals reminded me of a story from high school where Rampal the tailor had a big family to deal with along with lots of pets and horses.
The illustrations in the book are adorable with the animals calling the place their own.
But if this is back filling the story of how Mother Goose stories are effective in helping anyoone fall asleep, I am not thrilled. It could have been some nondescript book but then the jokes of the stories wouldnt find place in the story.
My only qualm with the book is banking on the Mother Goose characters as I am left wondering how would it have been independent.

Walking Home

My friend sent me the 'Walking Home' book by Simon Armitage after hearing about this book on NPR.
These books were made for walking
She said it reminded her of me and my walks.

Tomato Land

Shruthi was going on a vacation. To TomatoLand. As a reporter.
She went to a raspberry farm and asked for a dozen (rainbows) raspberries.
The vendor asked if she had a truck.
She wondered why would she need a truck for what she could carry by hand.
She then asked to see a raspberry.
He took a plastic hive frame that looked like the shape of a giant raspberry, from the cabinet and showed it to her. "This is filled with our best tomatoes". One Raspberry can hold upto 50 tomatoes.
She held her fingers to show the size of raspberry she was expecting. The vendor said, oh those raspberries, we don make them, yo have to go the Land of Things, you are in the Land of shapes now.

Pile of fruits

Just when Shruthi was done in Tomato Land, she got a message from her editor that she had to be at the Alaska State Fair to cover the news about giant cabbages. And how about a reindeer as a pet story.

Moral Maths

If you break a sketch in one day, how many days will it take to break 4 sketches?
Ammu was puzzled to find this question in her book.
What happened to good old  "If an orange costs 20Rs a piece, how many do 7 oranges cost?"
She asked her friend Pammi if she had a question about sketches in her book, she replied
"No. Its about Ducks."
If a duck lays an egg a day, how many eggs will it lay in 20 days?

Throw Like a Girl

Throw Like a Girl
Mone Davis

Word play

She has two eyebrows
She too has eyebrows
She has to have eyebrows

Teaching With Heart

At a school, a teacher was pepping up the student lagging behind. He answered that he is walking.
I asked him what does she teach
"Everything"
How do some leave an everlasting impression. Whats their driving force? Some of the teachers here share the poems and what they find in them to move on forward with the tough job of teaching. I am familiar with some of the poets but none of the poems except for one which I heard in a poetry reading recording - Margaret Atwoods' "You Begin"
some of my favourites in the book are
Purple
Kindness
Famous
Edgar Degas and Philip Levine
The way it is 
What is your thread?
At the end of a book is a steb-by-step of how to start your own similar projects.
 Cant wait to use unseasonable. Another Lilacs in september.
The Real Work

The Back Chamber

I didnt enjoy this book as well as other Donald Hall books like 'Unpacking the boxes'.
'Apples peaches' poem is the authors reflection on the time left to him.
'What we did', 'Searching','The Gardener', 'The Offspring','Freezes and Junes' - all meditations on the authors wife, posthumous birthday celebration like.
'Rics progress' is a long poem with a movie story and follows the life of characters to the fag end of it.
'Envy'- author envies his pet's granted euthanasia.
'Maples'- leaves the reader with a strong image of the solitary landscape.

Classical Music

Listening to the classical music, I had to strain my mind to move from piano to what the instrument might be. after trying to recall similar aural situations, bugle I rested on. concentrating on the classical music, do we become the instrument that is being played?

The Age of Auden

The Age of Auden