Comin' atcha

Anyone else experiencing a touch of the winter blues? I miss going outside without putting on five layers of outerwear first. I miss open windows and fresh air. In winter I am sleepy more often than not, and it takes a lot to convince myself to do anything that isn't work or other impossible-to-avoid responsibilities. I eat too much. Generally winter blues. Nothing serious, I am just taking a moment to be a downer and also trying to get it out of my system.

All this is to say that I am still only halfway through Cleopatra. I am actually loving it, but I am usually a much faster reader than this, even with nonfiction. I am getting antsy to finish it, not only because I want to see what happens, but also because I miss fiction. (I particularly miss YA, which I blame on the many talented YA authors I follow on twitter, and how fun their lives seem.)

I used to love history in high school, but for whatever reason, I never could get into ancient history as much as more recent events. And then in university my interest waned, due partly to a horrible history professor (I don't like to disparage professors, but some of them are terrible, and this one really, really was) and partly to general university-era upheaval that turned me briefly into a less nerdy (and less interesting) person, one much less likely to spend time learning things outside of classroom hours. Anyway, prior to starting Cleopatra, I could remember snippets of Egyptian history but nothing truly useful. My knowledge of Cleopatra was basically composed of our collective pop culture history (Elizabeth Taylor! Seduction!) combined with a dim recollection of the boating-down-the-Nile scene from Antony and Cleopatra (also arguably pop-culture history). So I was both interested and a little worried about this book. What if the history went over my head? I didn't want the book to talk down to me or anything, but I also didn't want to be lost the whole time.

I had nothing to worry about. So far (again, only halfway through), Schiff has been a wonderful storyteller, balancing history with drama with a present-day caution. The caution is because we actually know very little indisputable fact about Cleopatra. Papyrus was not a terribly sturdy medium, and so almost all accounts of her were written after her death, by people who never knew her and were either poets, writing with an eye to drama, or historians with a decided bias for or against (more often against). And so the beautiful seductress Cleopatra was born, in order to explain away a woman's unprecedented success in politics. Schiff sorts through the different accounts and gives a reasonable and engrossing account of what we can assume was her life.

This book is interesting both for how it debunks a lot of popular myths about Cleopatra (obviously the biggest being that she slept her way to the top; though it is clear she had sex with Caesar and Antony because she bore their children, her other conquests appear to be solely political) and for how it makes history fun! (OK, I'm really sorry for that, but it DOES!) I've been a slow reader because I am reading it pretty much exclusively on my commute, but I am excited to see how the rest of her life turns out. I'm betting on dramatic and tragic! Also luxurious.

You would think that since we've made Cleopatra into a beautiful, glamorous and sexy woman in pop culture, the real thing couldn't possibly be better, but she really is. I'm not surprised; a powerful woman is always interesting, and Cleopatra was the most powerful woman of her time.

[Images: Scholars' representation of Cleopatra, c/o Image Foundry Studios, Ltd., Liz Taylor in the 20th Century Fox production of Cleopatra, and Cleopatra from MTV's Clone High, respectively.)

Weekend Roundup

What did you do this weekend? It is pretty much too cold to function here in Toronto, yet for some of this weekend I actually managed to leave my condo and do things.

On Friday I saw The King's Speech, which was fantastic. Colin Firth definitely deserved that Best Actor Golden Globe—at times I had phantom throat pain watching his character struggle with words. A touching story, wonderfully acted. Plus there is the fun bonus of getting to see all your favourite British actors in one place. It was like a Harry Potter reunion in there.

Then yesterday I went to a board games party at the lovely home of Vicki Essex, our neighbourhood favourite romance novelist (look for Her Son's Hero in July!). A board games party, you say? What a bunch of nerds. Well, obviously. If you're not interested in settling the grand nation of Catan, then I am not interested in you. It was kind of exhausting, though. Pic courtesy of this lady.

Today I stayed in and did absolutely nothing. I have to make some concessions to the cold, you see. Tonight I plan to work on some writing. Happy weekend!

90-second Newberys

I recently became aware of this great contest challenging kids to recreate their favourite Newbery-award-winning books in 90-second videos. The deadline isn't until September, so it might be a while before we see the winner, but for now here's one video to make you laugh.

"A Wrinkle In Time" In 90 Seconds from James Kennedy on Vimeo.

Pretty great, right? For more info go here.

Room by Emma Donoghue

Room was a very buzzed-about book in the fall of 2010. It is the story of a young boy born in captivity and his unique view of the world. His mother was kidnapped at the age of nineteen and has been repeatedly raped by her captor, resulting in the birth of Jack. The room her captor has fashioned for her is the only place Jack has ever known, and to make things easier his mother has told him that Room is the real world and everything they see on TV is Outer Space, not real.

I have read a few books written from the point of view of a child, and it takes extraordinary talent to do it well. Donogue manages to not only write convincingly as Jack, but to do it at a fast pace and in present tense. That's like a writing hat trick! If I had been able to slow down long enough to formulate thoughts beyond "Wow, this is good, what happens next?!" then I would have been envious. (I have had plenty of time to be envious since then, and believe me, I am.) I started this book on my commute into work one morning, and finished it before going to bed that night. It is heart-wrenching, dark and uplifting at the same time. Should you read it? Absolutely.

[This book is part of the Bestsellers 2000-2010 category of book club.]

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

[Avid readers may remember that I had planned to read ten books in ten months, with one book per category per month. There has been a small change of plans: I still plan to read a book from each category, but I've decided I can do them in whatever order I want, since I am the boss of me, na na nanana, etc.]

White Teeth by Zadie Smith (category: first novel)

So, I'm fudging the rules a bit with this one, since technically I started reading it in December 2010. But because I read the majority of the book in January, I'm going to go ahead and count it.

I loved this book. I actually bought it a long time ago but somehow never got around to reading it until this month, and I am really happy I did. A multigenerational tale of immigration, assimilation, and identity, this book transitions flawlessly from sharp, insightful humour to touching drama. Samad, a Bengali man with a flair for language but, unfortunately, the wrong-colour skin for 1975 London, struggles to find glory in his ho-hum job as a waiter in his cousin's Indian restaurant. His only friend, Archie, starts the book off with a suicide attempt that is, darkly, hilarious, and almost immediately regains his zeal for life via the cure-all of a willing, attractive, younger sexual partner. The book follows the men as they marry much younger women, have children, and spend their days reminiscing about the past and, in Samad's case, actively fighting the future.

I won't say too much more, but I highly recommend this book. It is unbelievable that this is Smith's first novel; her talent is remarkable.

One down, nine to go!

Happy Late New Year, I Guess

So, it's now 2011, guys? And people were all listing it up about the best things of 2010 a few weeks ago but I missed that? And I rang in the new year by getting a terrible cold? Auld Lang Syne?

2010 was definitely an up-and-down year for me. In the end I was pretty happy to see it go, if only because I needed things to settle down a bit. No more moving! Not so much travelling! (Although I am going out of town this weekend, so that is not exactly meshing with the 2011 plan, but it's for a wedding, so I am happy about it.) I hope to one day not be afflicted with the soul-crushing, breath-stealing common cold virus that is currently keeping me down! (Fingers crossed!) And let's hear it for fewer people dying! (Seriously, I know that is a downer, but that was the main problem I had with 2010. Too many funerals.)

I know everyone makes resolutions in January and it is somewhat lame, not to mention discouraging for those who keep resolving unsuccessfully to do the same things every year. But I do think that resolution-making can be a positive experience, as it is always good to sit down and think about what you want out of life every once in a while. And actually, doing it on a year-by-year basis is a pretty decent short-term goal system.

So what do I want to accomplish in 2011? Well, to stay on topic, I'd like to read more. I've mentioned before that reading for a living sometimes hinders my reading for pleasure, and I've also mentioned that I plan to combat that with this year's 10 in 10 book club. I came across a friend's list on Facebook the other day wherein he listed all the books he had read in 2010, and I wished I had a list like that. So I'm going to make one. Pretty simple. I think just writing down what books I read and freeing myself from any obligation to write actual blog posts about them will help. I'll write about them if inspired, but if not, expect to see short posts that are basically for my own tracking purposes. Starting with this month's pick, Marching As to War by Pierre Berton, which I plan to start as soon as I've finished my current fiction pick, White Teeth by Zadie Smith. (I can read multiple books at once, but I avoid it if possible. I always risk abandoning one because I prefer another.)

I also want to write more. As in, not just spur-of-the-moment writing that I put up here (sorry), but an actual planned writing project. This is something I've always wanted to do, but I never seem to get started. I think because I am a pretty harsh critic and I would want whatever I wrote to be perfect. So I'm going to do my best to discard that attitude and acknowledge that whatever I write is going to be terrible at first, and just write it anyway. I'm thinking about looking up some writing exercises to help out with this, because it is a bit of a daunting task.

And finally, I will conform to the expected and cop to my last resolution as being the old fitness one. All I've seen this week on social media is complaints from gym-goers about the January resolutioners crowding the gym, and I sympathize, but still. I need to exercise more, so screw them. I'll go to the gym if I want to. I am going to set up a schedule for myself in the hope that structure with this will lead to structure with writing, reading, etc. and soon I'll be like those normal people with routines!

Oh, one last thing: I plan to gradually create an actual online presence. I am bizarrely skittish about this, even though I never say anything all that personal either on here or on twitter or on Facebook. Anyway, eventually I want to link all three of these things. I've started that already by linking my twitter account to this blog. Hopefully you all aren't too bored by it.

That's all for today. See you when I've finished the next book!