songs from humpback whale

Let me tell you a little something about love. It's different everytime. It's nothing more than a chemical reaction, an arrow over an equation, but the elements change. The most fragile kind of love is that between a man and a woman. Chemistry, again: if you introduce a new element, you never know how stable the original bond is. You may wind up with a new union, with something left behind. I believe that you can fall in love many times with many different people. However I don't think that you can fall in love the same way twice. One type of relationship my be steady. Another may be fire and brimstone. Who is to say if one of these is better than the other? The deciding factor is how it all fits together. Your love, I mean, and your life.
The problem is that when you're old enough to really find a soulmate, you're already carrying around all this extra baggage. Like where you grew up, and how much money you make, and whether you like the city or the country. And sometimes, most of the time, you fall really hard for someone who you just can't squeeze into the limits of your life. The bottom line is: when your heart sets its sights on someone, it doesn't consult with your mind.

Not my favorite JP. It felt like the leftovers from too many other books that were smushed together and made a meal that lacked order and originality. It lacked that awkwardness that is necessary for the characters to feel real and the plot to seem plausible. It felt like it could have been her first book.
B-

perfect match

PROs
The central mother central mother character was one that was more flawed than usual. I liked that that the priest molestation stuff was written as an undertone rather than as some fictious expose. Good surprises, good characters, good flow, good story.

CONs
I have no idea what the book title means.

QUOTEs
There is no cosmic rule that grants you immunity from the details just because you have come face to face with a catastrophe. The garbage cans still overflow, the bills arrive in the mail, telemarketers interrupt dinner.
This sums up 2009.

[from an interview with JP in the back]
Crawiling into the minds of characters is actually one of the best parts of writing for me. After all, I'm never going to get to be a five-year-old boy, so it's a challenge to be able to pull it off. It's a little like trying on a costume--and getting to shrug it off my shoulders when I'm finished.
JP has a little theatre major in her too, which is just one of the many reasons we are BFF.

A

heart books

I was skeptical of this book because the word heart is in the title. I just read a JP about a motherless daughter, so that element didn't wow me either. But, overall, I loved the book. It reminded me of Lost Season 1 with the flashbacks and character unpeeling. I loved the main character and kept picturing her as Ellen Page.
A


Knowing a JP book is going to be about religion is like knowing an episode of Lost is going to be about Ben: cream of the crop hour is coming. The Gnostic Christianity element was awesome. This book incorporated a few of JP's trademarks that I have come to love: a New England setting, a legal drama, a story told from a variety of narrative viewpoints, and incorporating characters from her other books. Some of the chapters were too short, though, and I didn't resonate as well with these characters are with ones in her other books.
B

the numbers are bad

This is a classic case of so good or no good.

library card

I just read my first book from the York library. It seems a shame that I finally got a library card when the end of my York days is in sight. But whatever, I read:

It was on the New Books shelf and I didn't really feel like searching for a book. The description made it seem like Closer [movie/play, not TV show or something], but it was like the Jennifer Weiner version of Closer. I didn't dislike it while I was reading it, but, afterwards, it seemed to not be worth the time.
D

not a romance for the road

After 6 years of trying, I finally got to see Dar Williams. I went with Jenny to see her at the Strand in York a week or two ago. The songs I remember from her set list:

1. Are You Out There?: I used to have this song on a mix tape and I was used to hearing an RX Bandits song afterwards. This was one I have probably heard a thousand times, so I might have cried.
2. Calling the Moon: She played this early on and it gave me a good feeling for the rest of the set. This song reminds me of a weekend in Maine and it was great & pretty.
3. After All: Weird people sitting near us aggressively requested this, so she played it.
4. Road Buddy: The guy next to me requested it and that made me like it. This song reminds me of driving in New England with Gigl when she was a baby.
5. Fly Away: About becoming a parent. So pretty and sad and LONG. Jenny said it would be a pretty song for a baptism.
6. Mercy of the Fallen
7. The Babysitter's Here
8. Spring Street: I forgot how much I loved this song.
9. Beauty of the Rain
10. You're Aging Well: This is one of my all time and initial favorites, and I was excited for Jenny to hear it because it seems her flavor.
11. If I Wrote You: I cried.
12. What Do You Hear in These Sounds?: A song about therapy that isn't depressing or weird is a pretty baller feat

back to jodi

The premise of this book was a man on trial for killing his wife who was dying of cancer. I liked that idea because it seemed like it was going to get really muddy like the other conflicts in her books. But the the whole mercy killing issue didn't really go anywhere. The characters became more developed as the plotline complicated and I was more interested in that than anything. Not what I expected, but it worked.
B-


I realized I like the JP books that have chlildren written in the storylines. I think this is because (1) the kids are never given too much page time and (2) she has a very loving & insightful voice when writing about the parent/child relationship. The kid characters are never annoying because she writes as such a parent that sees the kids realistically but with the love goggles. Reminds me of this song:

The story was about a dad who kidnapped his daughter from an alchoholic mother and set up a new life as the perfect single father. Good stuff, but a little bit dry. Sometimes the story was too close-knit, character-wise. The book needed more characters to loop throughout. It needed more, in general. It felt like the bare bones of a book that would be good once the lines were colored in.
B-

HAIR

I finally got to see Hair. After watching it win the Best Revival Tony from my brother's couch in Colorado last June and failing to get a ticket on my birthday, this day has been a long time coming. The day arrived when it did because this cast is being sent to London and being replaced by a younger, unappealing group (Diana DiGarmo as Sheila says enough). So the performance I saw ended up being the original cast's last time on Broadway.


I don't know if it was that, the familiarity of the songs, or just being a popular show, but I have never been part of a more enthusiastic audience. The opening song, Aquarius, recieved a standing ovation. And that was one of four standing ovations given before the curtain call. After curtain call, they invited everyone onstage to dance. Obviously, this is not my style but it was pretty to see.


Also, Frank Langella was there.


I love Hair and I love Caissie Levy and want her to be a bridesmaid at my wedding and I love my mom for convincing me NYC is not as far as it feels.

borrowed books

My boss at the coffeeshop has my own good taste in books and lent me these. The first two were stories set in contemporary Afghanistan. The third was very Oprah's Book Club, in the best possible way.


B+


B


A

where the winter ducks go

So I took that movie Chapter 27 out of the library. $2 wasted. It was terrible; when a movie has you just wanting John Lennon to get shot already, something is very very wrong. Also why would you cast

to play

when there is


D

beginning of the end

Another season of Lost starts, another new job in York starts. Maybe this one will last longer than the training takes, unlike all the other excellent employment opportunities I have found in York. I am making coffee at Penn State York in a bistro next to the Pullo Center. I might be making coffee for the Dog Whisperer on Feb. 27. No lie, and I am sure Mr. Milan will be very interested in hearing about the Scariest Tiny Dog in York County.

like christmas eve

Since Lost:Christmas and Black Smoke:Santa, I have compiled a wish list:


The reason why I am taking cake decorating classes.


Truth on so many levels.


Because I dream someday of hosting the best Lost party ever. What this kit is missing: Hawaiian pizza (because bacon=boar and pineapple=mango).


Pug-sized replicas of my best friends.

picture perfect

This book felt more Jennifer Weiner than Picoult. I read a Jennifer Weiner book straight through on a flight from Alaska to Philly because it was engaging enough to hold my interest that long but not heavy enough to ever need to take a break to digest the story. History repeats, except this time I was in York wishing I was on an airplane to anywhere.
C

underdog medal

Rolling Stone had named Sam's Town the Most Underrated Album of the Decade. I had previously named it my Most Favorite Album of Ever, so the props are ok by me.

crash into me

The Crash in real time. Lost anything in real time is wacky and seems kind of wrong. Thank you, stranger who posted this on Mandi's FB.

Wake me up in ONE WEEK :) :)