Considering that I've only read 25 books this year, it wasn't difficult to narrow it down to a top ten. Looking back on my list, I realize I've somehow lucked out with incredible books landing in my lap this year.

10. Maus by Art Spiegelman

In 10th grade English class we broke into groups and each read a different book. While I was reading a book by someone named Banana, some of the more ambitious boys tackled this Holocaust graphic novel. I remember thinking it looked interesting when they presented it, but only finally pursued it a couple months ago in anticipation of seeing Art Spiegelman speak here in Seattle. Of course I never made it to the event, but the book was amazing--even if I did cry. Oh, and whenever I read this in public I felt really embarrassed about the huge Swastika on the cover and would always try to hide it. The book is roughly based on the author's parents' experience of the Holocaust (in this book the Jews are drawn as mice, the Nazis as cats, etc.).

9. The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure

I won a free galley (uncorrected review copy) of this book, and was really excited/surprised to get it in the mail last spring. First of all, the cover is AMAZING. Huge points right there (superficial, yes). The author's writing style really bugged me at first. It's like she's trying to be too casual. Rather like how I'm writing right now. Conversational. But once I got into this book, it really made me want to reread the little house books. McClure writes about finally fulfilling a long-held dream to visit the various homesteads of the Wilder family. She does a great job of mixing history, literature, humor, and poignancy. I knew a bit about Laura before this book, but McClure's is vast and she shares it with us. Yeah, I cried at this one too. Realizing maybe that's how I judge how good a book is.

8. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

Erik Larson is freaking brilliant and I've loved everything I've read by him. He spends years researching so you can be assured that every single thing he writes, from the description of a character's bedroom to the weather on a certain day will be footnoted. Granted, In the Garden of Beasts is not as spine-tinglingly wonderful as Thunderstruck or Devil in the White City, but his portrayal of pre-WWII Berlin is eye-opening to say the least. What really stands out in my mind is the feeling I was left with: what happened there could happen again anywhere at any time. Definitely chilling.

7. Flapper by Joshua Zeitz

Flappers...those carefree girls who wore short dresses and carried cigarette holders and drank gin in basement speakeasies. We tend to think of them as the original feminists. "Yeah! They were breaking the rules and having fun instead of having babies! Girl power!" After reading this book I've come to the conclusion that this may not be entirely correct. It turns out most of them were spoiled sluts with major daddy issues. Ick. In fact, they were looked down on by the suffragette mothers for backpedaling their cause. BUT! This book was really incredible in its scope -- a great look back and what lead up to the roaring twenties from a historical, financial, economic, and social standpoint. I randomly plucked this off the shelf at the library. Hidden gold.

6. The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

This author also brought you Men Who Stare at Goats -- made into a George Clooney movie. I was intrigued in this book after hearing about it on the radio and it did not disappoint. Ronson explores how we define psychopath (or sociopath -- same thing) as he interviews serial murderers and CEOs. This book is really scary, mostly due to the fact that it forces you to think about all the undiagnosed psychopaths out there who are walking among us -- many of them at the top (one trait on the psychopath checklist is an inflated ego). They don't feel sadness, regret, or empathy, but watch and train themselves to mimic "normal" reactions in order to manipulate. There was a time when I thought that not showing your emotions, or even better yet, not feeling those emotions in the first place, was what we were supposed to aspire to. This book left me deeply grateful to be sensitive.

5. My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock

The first few chapters of this book read like something the Sex and the City writers hacked out over lunch. I was unimpressed, but it not only grew on me seemingly overnight -- it also turned out to be incredibly inspiring. Author Noelle Hancock is turning 29 when she gets fired from her job as a pop culture tabloid writer. Having a bit of a one-third-life crisis, she reads a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt "Do one thing every day that scares you" and decided this will be her motto for the year. It doesn't have to be a big thing (on days she realizes she hasn't done her thing for the day, she begins stripping and running down her apartment hallway), but along the way she conquers her fear of heights, sharks, small planes, and even commitment. This experience, interesting history about Eleanor Roosevelt, and sessions with Noelle's therapist are nicely paced throughout the book. It inspired me to think about doing something like this. I said "think."

4. Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

Journalist Joshua Foer (Jonathan's younger brother) was writing a story about a memory championship when he got pulled into competing himself. Lots of good explanations of how the brain's memory works and techniques here. I used one just yesterday when I was trying to remember some things to do before leaving town:

I had to put the auto-response on my work e-mail.

I had to remember to grab lunch for work that day.

I had to return an e-mail about an author event at a garden.

I had also didn't want to forget to pack soap, my toothbrush, my glasses and my contacts.

Using an imagery technique from the book, I combined this into a visual of a car (auto for auto-response) whose "teeth" (toothbrush -- it was an anthropomorphic car, okay?) were being washed (soap) in a garden (the event) while a man an woman sat at a table eating (lunch) -- one wearing glasses and one contacts. It works!

3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

People had been telling me to read this book for years, and I thought I would like it, but hadn't gotten around to it until now. Some complain that books like this are rambling, but I enjoy being able to spread out the reading over six months, picking up the book every once in a while. Makes it more epic. I began last December, and regretfully finished months later. Granted, Tolstoy does wax on about 19th century Russian agriculture (hey, it's okay to skim those parts...), and there is way too much adultery for my taste, but what I love is how well he gets under his characters' skins. When you come across a passing bit of text in a book that makes you say, "yeah, I do that too; I'd never thought about it before," it's a sign of a perceptive author. And when that book is written well over a hundred years ago, it's just astounding.

2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Emily will give me hell for saying this ("omg, Haley, stop being such a hipster"), but I rarely gravitate toward the books near the top of the best-seller lists. If anything, it seems like a sign that they're overrated, dumbed-down, or catering toward ditzy soccer mom types. I read The Help for book club this year (would definitely never have touched that one with a 39.5 foot pole) and was pleasantly surprised. I also happened to begin The Night Circus on a whim, and was drawn into its world. I wasn't crazy about Morgenstern's prose style, but the story changed the way I thought about a few things in my own life. After the first few chapters, the book jumps around in time -- describing a young man and woman who as children are marked as competitors against their wills by her magician father and a mysterious magician who adopts the boy. We discover what their task is along with them (although to be honest I'm not sure if I ever really understood what it is they're supposed to do). It's as difficult for me to describe this book as it is for the attendees to describe the night circus -- with its black and white striped tents filled with exhibits that seem a little too incredible to be made without real magic.

1. At Home by Bill Bryson

This might be the only history book you'll ever have to own. Bryson launches into "a history of private life" by looking at his own home. For instance, the kitchen chapter becomes a history of how kitchens came to be, food across the ages, cooks through the years, etc. It's absolutely fascinating. I saw him speak at the Seattle stop for this book's tour last year, and he said this book began when he was staring at the salt and pepper shakers on his table and wondered why salt and pepper on the table? Why not salt and sugar? Or cinnamon? If you've ever wondered something similar, this is the book for you.

I remember watching this on TV! I was five, and for some reason this boy-falls-in-love-with-a-girl-on-the-Haunted-Mansion story stuck with me, but I never knew what it was from until now. It's strange to re-watch something as an adult. I couldn't believe how corny this was!

A Good Way to Get Yourself De-Friended on Facebook

"You may think it is a conspiracy, possibly a coincidence, or maybe a little scary. I know the 'natural' disasters to be an outcry from a JUST God who is calling for attention from those who have TRIED to deny his exsistence."

Sorry, lady, as much fun as my sister and I have laughing about your constant status updates about couponing, I can't remove you from my Facebook friends fast enough after this little tidbit this morning. It's beyond offensive to the people who are actually being displaced by the hurricane.

Besides, if this was true, I would have been struck by lightning years ago.

iLife

Last night I looked for what seemed like hours for this watch commercial from the 80s. I wanted to post the video, but since I have no way of finding it, I'll just describe it:

Business man and business woman start their days at different points, the camera trades time between the two of them as they make their way through a crowded city street, coming from opposite directions. They pass within inches of each other. Rewind to that morning, new scenario. Here we see the man put on one of the watches they're trying to sell. It's so accurate, so precise, that when we watch them walking down the street again, he's a second ahead and bumps into the woman. We are to assume that this is his soulmate and he never would have met her if his watch had been slower. (Side note, this concept terrified me when I first saw the commercial and kept coming back to haunt me in the years that followed. Doesn't it often feel like you've got your timing all wrong?)

I wish I had film-making skills, because yesterday I started thinking about how I want to remake this commercial for the digital age. Instead of the watch thing, he doesn't see her because he constantly has his face in his damn iPhone. He doesn't see anything. The tag line would be something like Life: you're missing it.

Yesterday I went for an evening walk around Greenlake and was thinking that I complain about Seattle a lot, but I really do think it's an incredible city. Inspired by Emily's post (but I was totally thinking of it first, so whatever), here are my top favorite things about Seattle -- in the order I think of them.

1. The pace of life.

Despite a culture chock-full of gourmet coffee shops, artisan roasts, fair trade beans, and espresso-tastings, Seattle is incredibly laid back. People saunter down the street with their dogs, stopping to chat with neighbors; sit around bonfires at Golden Gardens; hang out for hours watching the Seahawks game at local pubs.

2. Pets.

People love their pets here, and I get to benefit from it without having to own one myself. Co-workers bring their dogs to work, you can't walk a block without a neighborhood cat coming to beg for a pet (before I sat down just now, I met a fat tabby outside my apartment I called Gregory. He would not let me go, but kept rubbing back and forth against my legs. When I finally went inside the glass front door, he sat outside looking in confusedly). It's really relaxing and comforting to have friendly animals around. Plus, just go to the Ballard Farmers Market any Sunday to see the cutest dogs you have ever seen in your life -- waddling French Bulldog puppies, shy-looking Akitas, stout strutting Corgis...

3. Seasons.

Those cheeky souvenir postcards would have you believe that the four seasons in Seattle are gloomy, gloomy, gloomy, and gloomy. But it's still better than Southern California. I spent my first fall in a state of shock over all the colorful trees. Winter actually feels like Christmas time in the movies (sans tons of snow). My first spring was also spent oohing and ahhing over all the gorgeous trees that just explode into so many blossoms that I want to just pat them all like a fat baby's cheeks (I get weird around flowers -- keep hydrangeas and dahlias away from me because I have to touch them. They're so poofy!). Summer, when it finally comes, is astounding -- all the colors are brighter, everything practically sparkles, and those perfect sunset hours last until 9pm.

Emily: Harry Potter would be 31 today :)

Me: Whaaaa... so he's supposed to be younger than that in the epilogue? Or does that take place in THE FUTURE? So confusing.

Emily: No, the epilogue is like 2015 or something.

Me: So why did his son have Justin Bieber hair? Don't tell me that's still going to be a thing four years from now.

So sweet. Oh Happy Day blog is giving away a week-long trip to Paris. Pour gagner il faut que je afficher le link ici. I would love to go back someday.

July 2007, the view from our hostel--home of (in my memory) the 2nd best continental breakfast I have ever had! In the morning, I would go down a curving stone staircase into their basement where they had orange juice, hot chocolate, rolls, jam, butter, coffee, and so many croissants that they set dozens of the extras on a chair in the lobby after breakfast had ended (which we loaded into our bags for afternoon snacks!).

A Tale of Two Kitties

Housesitting for two cats, Princess Fluff and Little Woe (but that's just what I call them. Their real names aren't as good). PF eats everything in sight and pushes LW out of the way to eat her food too. Little Woe gives the best forehead butts and kneads my lap. "Woe?" she says, "woe?"

Lilacs: In the Style of William Carlos Williams

Believe me when I say
I've only stolen something once:
A silk pin
When I was six.

But when I passed your
Lilac bushes
Sticky sweet
with blossoms,

I had to
take one with me
to fill my house
with spring.

Zoo Tales

I like the Woodland Park Zoo penguins...as you can see by the fact that I have two photos with them in the span of a couple weeks.

Last weekend, my former boss had her wedding reception at the zoo, which goes a little something like, "turn right at the penguins and go past the dinosaurs. When you see the jaguars you've gone too far."

Before that, my cousin Adriane and I used up some Groupons I'd had that were expiring. I got to feed the budgies, which was a lot more exciting than you'd think.I've always been so jealous about a program my parents got to do in the 70s at Sea World. My dad had a season pass and would go so often that the dolphins knew him and would come swimming over to say hi. I love the image of a bunch of tourists crowded around the dolphin pool with those little red and white checkered french fry trays filled with the anchovies you can buy to entice the dolphins. They're frantically trying to keep the seagulls away as they try in vain to get a dolphin to come within petting distance, slapping the water and throwing fish that the seagulls swoop down to grab. Then my dad strides up and puts his hand in the water and the dolphins come over to him like friendly dogs wanting to be petted.

Eventually he befriended an oceanographer who asked if he and my mom would like to help out with the new penguin exhibit. They had just gone down to Antarctica and kidnapped some penguins to bring back to breed in captivity (!). They needed volunteers to help care for the first generation of baby chicks. For a few months, my parents came in to blend fish, feed the little grey puff balls, and weigh them

The poor little guys were sweltering in the San Diego heat, and would lie on their stomaches so they could let off heat through their feet.

That One Really Good Book...What is It Called...?

This book is amazing and you have to read it. I am convinced I will be able to increase my memory at least 50% when I'm through with it.
Joshua Foer might even be more of a genius than his brother. He's also the one who founded Atlas Obscura. Moonwalking with Einstein is a book about the memory and how it works, strung together by Foer's experience as a journalist who gets roped into a memory championship as part of a story he's researching.

Six Good Eggs

I have half a dozen beautiful organic brown eggs in my refrigerator from Nettie, the Head of Pedagogy at the school where I've been working in the afternoons. I'm going to miss working there now that Sas has offered me a full-time job.

Nettie went home to feed her four "chicks" and came back with a split dozen eggs for me and our office manager. I can't say I've ever had an egg that didn't come from the grocery store (especially considering that I've only come to eat eggs about three years ago), so I'm interested to try a "homegrown" egg. Nettie said store-bought eggs taste fishy because the chickens are fed fish food, but hers only eat organic grain, grass, and worms. Fancy an omelette?

Would you climb a hill, wear a daffodil...

Can I show you guys something cool? I always buy bunches of the $1.29 daffodils at Trader Joe's this time of year. The cheerful yellow and wonderful smell is especially crucial here now when every day seems colder and greyer than the last. The last batch I bought seemed normal at first... Then I realized one blossom was a lot...poofier than the others. You know the usual way daffodils look: six petals with a cup in the middle and stamens and a pistil inside that? Upon examination, it turned out this particular one had formed small petals and cups around each stamen. It's really interesting.

Normal daffodil:

Deformed daffodil:

Last March I started writing down all the books I read. A year later, with a few pages squeezed in here and there on noisy bus rides and late nights in bed, I've finished 32 books and read a total of about 8,000 pages (thanks, Goodreads statistics!).

Some of my favorites:

At Home: A Short History of Private Life, Bill Bryson
The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World, Shelley Emling
Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
Thunderstruck, Erik Larson
East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Speaking of favorites, today I just started The Gardner Heist for book club, and it is fast shaping up to be an amazing book. I've already learned (among many other things) that there is a painting that makes people vomit just by looking at it. I'm tempted to look it up online, but I hate throwing up.

My little canunda is in Rome; living with a young family and their bidet!

http://flitterinfar.blogspot.com/

The Wilder Life

Last night I was lost and cursing in SoDo, trying to find the UPS warehouse in the pouring rain. When I finally picked up this mystery package, it turned out to be a galley of The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure (who I just found out is the author of the amazing Laura Ingalls Wilder twitter account I've been "following" and admiring for a while, even though I'm never on there). I'd forgotten that I entered a contest from Penguin to win a limited number of advanced reading copies (ARCs!). Definitely worth the trip to the wasteland that is the UPS customer service outlet.


I eagerly started reading the first chapter last night. At first the author's uber-casual writing style bugged me. It reminds me a little of a less-inflated Sarah Vowell, who no one in my book club liked when we read The Wordy Shipmates one month. But by page 6 I was laughing out loud (in her list of things from the Little House books that she wanted to do): "Have a man's hands span my corseted waist, which at the time didn't seem creepy at all" and by page 17 there were some genuine tears. Not sad tears, but nostalgic tears of the futility to hold on to the past.


If you loved the Little House books, definitely check it out The Wilder Life when it hits stores next month! I'm inspired to re-read the series now. Plus, look how delicious this cover is (designed by Meighan Cavanaugh):

Yay

Just saw about 30 chicken feet tied to a noose and nailed to a telephone pole on 65th. It's times like this I miss my old camera phone.

Missing...

Carlsbad Flower Fields

www.edgeparkcs.com and Carlsbad Flower Field March 2007-DSC_3575 a photo by akaporn on Flickr.

Things I've been loving lately

1. "Freaks and Geeks" makes me so happy. I'm trying not to watch them all too fast, but I'm already over halfway through the 18 episodes. THIS is the one of the best tv show moments ever. I sweat from awkwardness and laugh until my eyes are brimming with tears. "You're my lady" is still echoing through my head as I type this, as it has been ever since I watched this episode. Thank you, Jason Segel.

2. Born This Way Blog - LGBT adults submit photos of themselves as kids along with their stories about finding their identity. Super adorable, but I often find myself tearing up as I look at these sweet little faces and read about how lonely and unhappy many of their childhoods were.

3. I guess I don't really have anything for #3, except to say, have a very happy President's Day.

This afternoon at Trader Joe's it was face painting day! I knew the girls doing the face painting and they insisted I be their guinea pig. I looked over their choices, "How about that lightning bolt on my forehead, Harry Potter style?"

Results:

When I interned at Chronicle, I worked on a "green beauty" book that spoke at length about the toxins contained in everyday cosmetics. At the time, I did a lot of research about the products I was using, then forgot about it until recently.

I have very very sensitive skin, and it's rare to find something that doesn't make my face look like a strawberry or the skin peel off my armpits (sorry, gross but true). So when I find a product I can live with, I don't want to find out that they test on animals or that it contains something that will give me cancer. Nevertheless, I've been glued to Skin Deep (a great site that ranks ingredients from 0-10 based on the level of toxicity), my eyes widening in horror at all the sick things I put on my skin every day.

I'm pretty low maintenance. I only really use moisturizer, deodorant, and some concealer, but let's see how they shape up:

The biggest disappointment, the lotion that I put on my face in the morning and at night, Eucerin Everyday Protection Face Lotion For Sensitive Skin, gets a rating of 5 from Skin Deep --"Moderately Hazardous" -- but contains DMDM Hydantoin (a 7, "highly hazardous." It's a "known human immune system toxicant" that's restricted in Japan.)

Let's see what they say about it: "DMDM hydantoin is an antimicrobial formaldehyde releaser preservative. People exposed to such formaldehyde-releasing ingredients may develop a formaldehyde allergy or an allergy to the ingredient itself and its decomposition products. In the U.S., approximately 20% of cosmetics and personal care products contain a formaldehyde-releaser and the frequency of contact allergy to these ingredients is much higher among Americans compared to studies in Europe." ICK!

Guess what else contains DMDM Hydantoin? My "clinically proven" moisturizer from Suave. It "delivers age-defying moisture." Maybe it's the fromaldehyde?

I have no less than six deodorants in my cupboard. One would work for a bit, then I'd start to develop an allergy to it, then I'd buy something natural like Tom's of Maine, which wouldn't work or the smell would start bothering me. I want to smell like clean laundry, not patchouli or lavender or sage. Finally I discovered Arm & Hammer Essentials, that calls itself a "natural" deodorant" with "natural protection." They make it sound like something you could stumble upon out on a walk in the woods. Mother nature's bounty!

The ingredients aren't horrible, but getting down to the bottom of the list is Triclosan (rated 7 - "highly hazardous"). This one's prohibited in Japan and Canada and is known to cause endocrine disruption even in small doses. Oh yeah, and it's also a known irritant and has been shown to cause cancer. Just that.

To end this post on a happy note, I have discovered the wonders of cocoa butter! It's not the perfect face moisturizer, but I can't complain when I smell like chocolate!

Ghost of an Earthworm

Today I applied to be in a music video for these guys:



I LOVE Loch Lomond, but I had forgotten all about them since my KCPR days. Today I saw an ad on Craigslist that they were looking for an actress for a music video. I was excited for about two seconds, until I saw it was also advertised on the Theatre Puget Sound site where all the real actresses, models, and pretty girls can see it. That would have been fun.

At least I have rekindled my Loch Lomand love. I remember listening to the two songs of theirs I had -- this one and this one -- on my mp3 player as I rode the 31 bus to George's after my internship...past Alamo Square Park and over the hills so steep that riders practically slid into each others' laps and swayed from the metal bars keeping them on their feet.