all that's past is prologue...

I've never done this before, but since all the cool kids have drawings on their blogs, I figured I should give it a try! These are three books I have reviewed through Blogging for Books, that I enjoyed well enough (solid 3 stars) but feel no need to keep in my collection. (The Sunlight Pilgrims, The Mapmaker's Children, Avenue of Spies). To enter the drawing, comment below and tell me: 1)  What you are reading right now, and 2)  Which of these three books you would like (check out previous blog entries or my Goodreads page for reviews). I'll draw the winners on Thursday night, and you can pick up if you come to the pool party!

I'm a sucker for apocalyptic novels. Can't get enough of them. And living on Minnesota, winter is always heavy on my mind, so The Sunlight Pilgrims seemed right up my alley. Enough so that I did not honestly pay a lot of attention to the details before I picked it up. First of all, this is not set in the far-future. It's set in the winter of 2020 — which is, for all intents and purposes, is right around the corner. To be honest, I'm not sure that I want to contemplate an apocalypse that is quite that close. Especially a wintry one. I also missed that it was a YA novel — though truth be told, the jury is out as to whether is actually a YA novel, or just written by a young author. That was actually a nice surprise, since the coming-of-age story of Stella (formerly Cael) was the strongest part of the book to me. It's a beautiful book and a poetic book; but it's also a book that moves as slowly as the glacier that plays a featured part on the storyline. As...

Those of you who have stuck with this blog for awhile will remember that I used to do a lot more theatre reviews and restaurant reviews. I've lost steam on them lately for  number of reasons (like lack of babysitters). But I am happy to say that I caught up with both a little, thanks to buy birthday and the Fringe. On Friday, for my birthday lunch, we headed to Red River Kitchen . Saint Paul has not known what to do with that site for a long time; I have seen a lot of proposals come and go. But apparently what needed to be done with it was simply to spend a few thousand cleaning it up, then let a permanent food truck do the foo service. The atmosphere is fresh and lovely, and the food great! There is a wide variety of kinds of food. That said, it adds up fast, which I find happens at most similar places (think Sea Salt and Dockside). Lunch for 3 of us, including beers for Patrick and myself, was $51.20. That said, Patrick had a more expensive item (the crab noodle bowl), a...

My fascination with  WWII history began at an early age. My mother was very interested in it, and I remember reading (and watching) The Holocaust in fourth grade and being told by a teacher's aide to put it aside for later. Since then, I've devoured as much about it as I could. I was initially disappointed in Avenue of Spies . A quick skim through the book showed a rather dry past tense writing that is just not my preferred style. I came close to just putting it aside. It clearly had a lot of research and information in it, but I was just not sure it would captivate me. But I had it with me for a weekend away, so I sat down by the lake to read it and was soon taken in. The true story, of an American doctor married to a French woman and practicing in Occupied Paris, was really captivating, as was their involvement in the Resistance. The French WWII story is so often overlooked, and is extremely complex. The more I read, the more I got involved with the story, and the more...

I thought this would be a sophisticated summer. After all, we started with a week in Paris. I thought it would be The Summer of Fizz, with gin fizz drinks a-plenty. Some theatre, concerts, maybe jazz. Music in the park. Classic films. Champagne brunches. Long novels. Croquet. Instead, it's kind of been the opposite of that. We've gone up to the cabin twice, gone to girl scout horse camp, gone camping with Beatrix's troop. We've canoed, and gone on picnics. We've gone to farms, fed the animals, cuddled kittens, collected eggs. Instead of gin drinks, we have had A LOT of s'mores. It's been more about DQ than gourmet ice cream. We've adopted a scruffy new dog and taken him on walks. Beatrix's favorite two camps have been the Warner Nature Center and DayCroix. She is tan, and a little scabby and bug-bitten. And that's exactly how summer should be.

Our Paris trip earlier this summer is quickly fading into memory, and I didn't even write about it all that much. I did not tell you about the joys of walking to the same patisserie each morning for a pan au chocolat and hot, strong coffee, and being recognized by the counter girls. I did not tell you about making a new friend and walking the rainy cobbles of Montmartre. I did not tell you about the sun setting oh-so-late, so you stop at a sidewalk cafe bustling with people long after dark for wine and chocolate mousse and revel in all being up late. I did not tell you about champagne with Rosy in a square with fountains in the middle. I did not tell you about the light on Notre Dame. I did not tell you about the wonder in Patrick and Beatrix's eyes when they first saw Saint Chapelle, and the Orangerie. I did not tell you about the mix of the old and the new with new art installations placed into Versailles. Or the Pont des Arts. I did not tell you about a Seine...

It's been a long time since I've spent much time drawing. Patrick has gotten into it recently, in a Sketchnote manner. But I've just put to off. SO I was supper excited to check out The Drawing Lesson . I'm not a big graphic novel fan, so I had my doubts that this would work, but wanted to give it a try. And the truth is, I liked it. It was clear on drawing concepts and the reasons behind them. Did it inspire great creativity? No. But did it give me the motivation to pick up a pencil and paper again? Yes, to some extent. I'm excited to see what I might draw next. I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my review, but all opinions are my own.