Back to books

Two weeks after moving into our new home, we are mostly done with the initial phase of unpacking—literally, the unpacking of boxes—and are more focused now on actually setting up rooms. It's tempting to jump around from project to project, so I scribbled down a To Do list to focus on one task at a time, which has been so helpful. Between the progress on that little list with the process of setting up a cozy reading nook last week, I realized I haven't sat down to read a book in our new house yet!

Now it's time to get back to my books. Over the weekend I reserved and downloaded a figurative pile of library books for my Kindle:

Per recommendations:
Ella Enchanted (Gail Carson Levine)
Attachments (Rainbow Rowell)
Looking for Alaska (John Green)
Unbroken (Laura Hillenbrand)

Stumbled across while browsing:
Behind the Beautiful Forevers (Katherine Boo)
The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams (Ben Bradlee, Jr.)
Upstairs at the White House: My Life With the First Ladies (J.B. West)

And two more for good measure:
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee), because I haven't read it in ages
The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein), because Josh and I listened to part of it as an audiobook and didn't finish, for no good reason

It's not likely that my name will reach the top of the reservation lists all at once, so I really hope I get to read them all. (And you know I love to hear recommendations based on what you're reading. Share, if you'd like!)

The latest things

Lest the title confuse you, this post is not at all about new-to-the-world trends. It's just a regular old Miles and Laurel update on my latest...

Book: I am reading Bill Bryson's One Summer: America, 1927 and am fascinated by it. It details all of the factors and storylines at play that make 1927 a pivotal year in American history. I'm not even halfway through yet, and I've already learned a lot about aviation, baseball, Prohibition and the rise of the automobile. I also learned that Calvin Coolidge had a beloved pet raccoon named Rebecca.

Team sport: I have joined a softball team. Our first game was scheduled for this week but the rain thwarted those plans. I haven't actually played on a softball team since eighth grade (my grandma laughed and laughed when I told her this update) and am a little bit nervous. Mostly, though, I am excited because it will be one set evening each week where I'll be outside with friends who I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Wall update: Our household recently purchased a Minnesota Historical Society membership, and a recent mailing caught my eye. I liked the travel map so much that I wanted to add it to our gallery wall, which features some of our favorite places. On one rainy day this week, I shuffled some frames around, then shuffled some more, and then Josh and I set up the new nails (including some very high ones) to make room for a new vertical piece. See it?



The two biggest images, the Minnesota map and the old Twin Cities Marathon poster toward the left edge of the wall, both incorporate that pretty, vibrant red color. I like how they play off each other.

Salad discovery: I have a couple of friends who are so good at whipping up beautiful salads. I do not have this skill yet. But recently I did discover a game-changing recipe for healthy green goddess dressing from A Couple Cooks via Em for Marvelous. (I just made the dressing for the second time and realized I completely accidentally omitted the olive oil the first time around, so it's good with or without it.)

Craft: I'm finishing up a little makeshift cover for my Kindle. One of the earliest steps, courtesy of some leftover scraps of quilting batting:

May project: This week I attended the first meeting of the year for our community garden group, and despite this week's gray skies and rain clouds, it's time to start brainstorming about this year's garden plan.

What projects are coming up this month for you?

Snoopy's doghouse

One of the highlights of Saturday's run (besides seeing frozen Minnehaha Falls) was seeing my new favorite Snoopy doghouse, part of St. Paul's extensive collection of "Peanuts" statues. (The comic strip's author, Charles Schulz, grew up in St. Paul, and "Peanuts" debuted in the local papers here.)

This one, in front of Half Price Books in Highland Park, is called "It was a dark and stormy night."

Besides being really striking (and featuring clouds), I loved it because the walls are designed to look built from books, and each author's name on the book spine has been reworked to be dog-themed.

That means: Bark Twain, F. Scott Spitzgerald, St. Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woof, JK Growling and John Steinbark, among others.

I've likely driven by this little doghouse dozens of times, but it's really intended to be fully appreciated by pedestrians. I stopped midrun and must have stood there for two minutes laughing at the reworked names.

Marvelous Monday: Week 49

It was a chilly weekend with at least a few more months days left in this cold snap. Brr! Here are some more marvelous tidbits about the weekend and upcoming week:

1) I have obtained a Minnesota-shaped cookie cutter and am very excited about it. I botched a batch of sugar cookies this weekend so I missed an opportunity already, but I am going to try it out sometime this month. More cookie-making is on tap for tomorrow night, too.

2) I finished my sort-of-holiday table runner over the weekend! Here it is on top of a red tablecloth, just to show you the fabric (I did not stencil this one):

3) It's officially grapefruit time at my house. I had the first grapefruit of the season (possibly of 2014) this morning for breakfast and it was wonderful.

4) I spent a few minutes today wandering aimlessly around the library after picking up my reserved copy of Eleanor & Park. (Thanks to Steph for this recommendation!)

5) I had a great yoga class tonight. We spent a few minutes at the start of class practicing deep breaths, because the teacher reminded us that we all tend to hold our breath in cold weather (not to mention the shoulder-hunching that goes on), which does no one any favors. It's so true! Take a deep breath, right now!

What's marvelous about the start of your week? Do you love or hate grapefruit? Do you have holiday decorations up? And what are you reading?

Marvelous Monday: Week 48

There are four more Mondays in 2013. Can you believe it?

This week's big news is that two of our friends will be welcoming a baby into the world sometime very soon, and Josh and I are so excited for them!

Here are five other nice tidbits to begin the week:

1) The weekend included a Tennessee football victory! There was some incredible college football on Saturday (Iron Bowl! A&M at Mizzou!), including a Tennessee win against Kentucky in UT's last game of the season. There will be no bowl game for the Volunteers this year, but the future is bright - and the SEC football storylines this year have been exciting, to say the least.

2) I took a class through Minneapolis Community Ed tonight with Sara on the art of Yule log-making! The Yule log (or Buche de Noel) is a French holiday dessert that's a layer of spongy cake covered in pastry cream and then rolled up and topped with ganache. We learned how to make the Buche de Noel but also picked up a bunch of other really helpful cooking tips from our teacher, who was great. He had lots of knowledge as well as a genuine and wonderful joy for cooking and teaching. I can't wait to try more cooking classes. (He teaches one on homemade puff pastry!)

3) Big, fluffy snowflakes fell from the sky today.

4) Over the weekend, I read in a magazine about a book on American house architecture that sounded great. The trouble was, later I couldn't remember which magazine and couldn't remember enough key words about the book to be very helpful. I googled "book about houses Real Simple magazine" and "book about houses Martha Stewart Living" before finding success with "book about houses Entertainment Weekly." It's A Field Guide to American Houses and I'm in line at the library for the first copy.

5) I'm having a good time thinking about what holiday decorations I'll try around the house this year. I have a hankering to revisit 2011's snowflake window!

What's sweet about the start of your week? Have you made a Yule log dessert before? Did you watch the Iron Bowl? And have you already decorated for the holidays, and if so, what's your favorite decoration?

Marvelous Monday: Week 31

1) I finished Gone With the Wind on Sunday, and my reading experience certainly added oomph to my quest to read more classic novels that I missed reading via school assignments. I loved working my way through it over nearly three weeks and thinking of the main characters during that time - it truly was a reading experience because it wasn't the kind of book one could churn through in a long evening and then set aside.

When I checked out the book along with Pride and Prejudice, I mused that I was thrilled to read this epic novel as a traditional hard copy instead of the Kindle version, but wow, 1,024 pages makes for a hefty book, especially when your copy has a fragile binding. I might have preferred a Kindle version. Also, I'm not sure what I was thinking, checking out Gone With the Wind and Pride and Prejudice in the same three-week borrowing period. I finished the former with three days to spare. (And yes - I can't wait to watch the film adaptation.)

2) It's dear Ellie's birthday today! Here we are, at Nat's wedding. (Her nickname is Fence.)

I cannot wait to see her next month.

3) It's August and our wedding is next month! The date felt so very far away for so many of the months of planning, and all of a sudden it seems a lot closer, and we are so excited.

4) I grilled corn tonight for grilled corn and potato chowder, which I chose to use up the red potatoes and chives from this week's CSA (the sweet corn in the box got used up in sweet corn and quinoa over the weekend). Anyway, I was excited for grilling the corn because 1) I had never grilled corn and 2) this is a big reason why I wanted to learn how to grill: not just for main meat entrees, but also for components of other dishes. (I made the soup more fun by topping it with bacon and cheese, but I would give it a thumbs up either way.)

5) Yesterday I got to see Wish notice a squirrel way up in the treetops and then try to leap up the tree trunk, as if just this once, he might get enough momentum to catch the squirrel.

Your turn, Reader! What's marvelous in your world this week? Have you grilled lately? Have you read or watched Gone With the Wind?

A book report

For whatever reason, I read more books in 2012 than usual. Was it because I A) finally let some of my magazine subscriptions lapse, B) gave up on staying current with my magazine pile, C) had some reading-related goals on my 101 list or D) just remembered how much I like books?

I don't know. But I do know that 2012 was a year full of remembering how many magnificent books there are being written today and how many magnificent books I haven't even discovered yet. I loved using this blog as a resource for gathering book recommendations from you all, so I thought I'd share this year's book list.

I share this list not to overshare (if you are thinking "Who cares what books she read?!") but because I would love if my friends all compiled a similar list, because I love perusing lists to get ideas for future reading. I suppose if this idea could ever get off the ground that I have to start by sharing my own list, right?

Here we go (with no italicized titles, just for easier reading in list form):

The Descendants (Kaui Hart Hemmings)
What is the What (Dave Eggers)
Friday Night Lights (H.G. Bissinger)
Gossip Girl (Cecily von Ziegesar)
This Beautiful Life (Helen Schulman)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon)
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America (Bill Bryson)
The Art of Fielding (Chad Harbach)
The Marriage Plot (Jeffrey Eugenides)
How I Live Now (Meg Rosoff)
Salvage the Bones (Jessmyn Ward)
The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
Gold (Chris Cleave)
Just My Type: A Book About Fonts (Simon Garfield)
The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
I Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith)
Running the Rift (Naomi Benaron)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)
Through No Fault of My Own: A Girl’s Diary of Life on Summit Avenue in the Jazz Age (Coco Irvine, edited by Peg Meier)
The Latehomecomers (Kao Kalia Yang)
The Newlyweds (Nell Freudenberger)
In the Garden of Beasts (Erik Larson)
Gone Girl (Amy Gillian)
Swamplandia! (Karen Russell)
The Tiger’s Wife ( Téa Obreht)
Wild (Cheryl Strayed)
Blue Nights (Joan Didion)
The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls)
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (David Wroblewski)
1Q84 (Haruki Murakami)
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (Aimee Bender)
The Master Butchers’ Singing Club (Louise Erdrich)
The End of Your Life Book Club (Will Schwalbe)

And my very favorites, the ones that have stayed with me for a long time and will continue to stay with me? My top five: Running the Rift, The Latehomecomers, The End of Your Life Book Club, The Book Thief, and What is the What. Oh, man, now I want to stay up all night re-reading them all at once.

Please, you must share! What are your top five books of 2012 - or if you can pick just one, your favorite?

Marvelous Monday: Week 34

It is the oh-my-I'm-going-on-a-canoe-trip-this-week edition of Marvelous Monday! Let's go!

1. I finished I Capture the Castle (thanks to M&L readers Steph and Nat for nudging me toward it after my young adult fiction post!) and got a bunch of new reading options, thanks to dawdling on the public library's Kindle database before my long run on Saturday. (I love my long runs, don't get me wrong, but I am able to come up with so many activities to which I must attend before starting a long run.) New books!

2. Sometimes a Google search can lead you astray, and sometimes it's spot on. This weekend, people stumbled across Miles and Laurel by googling "haggard impatiens flowers" and "breakfast grapefruit run miles." I think some combination of those words turn up in, like, 95 percent of my posts. That's pretty good! P.S. Whoever is organizing a grapefruit breakfast run, I'm in!

3. A few Miles and Laurel readers will laugh me out of town for this because I am, like, seven years late to the party in the dorm room where they watched this like crazy, but Josh and I started watching Arrested Development on Hulu last night and that show is funny! We were loving it.

Wish? Not so much.

Bo-ring.

4. A certain brother of mine is celebrating a birthday this week!  Luckily, I will be back in time for the celebratory festivities later in the week.

5. My family got together over the weekend to watch my sister perform with her drum corps. It was great.

After the show, we stormed the field went to visit her. This was my favorite photo of her. "Please pretend you are drumming!"

srsly, big sister?

No, really, this is my favorite photo from the night. Proud parents with their talented girl:

This wraps up another Marvelous Monday. My posting may be - gasp! - sporadic this week, as I am venturing into the wilderness. But maybe you will have some surprises in the form of scheduled posts! Wait and see!

The best young adult fiction

Have you heard the news, Reader? Thanks to my Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Facebook feed - where would I be without that? - I learned this week that National Public Radio is cultivating a list of the Top 100 Best Young Adult Fiction Reads.

FUN! Right?! It's no secret over at Miles and Laurel that yours truly loves young adult (YA) fiction.

Basically, awhile back, NPR put out a call for nominations. From those responses, staffers whittled the list down to 235 finalists. (Can you imagine that project?!) You can review the finalists here - or if you'd like to vote for your own top 10, visit this link instead.

First things first. I cast votes for the following titles:

1. The Book Thief, one of the best books I've read in a long time. I didn't even know it was technically classified as YA until after I finished it, which is part of the fascinating conversation of what constitutes YA.) 
2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, which like The Book Thief I also read earlier this year.
3. Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (I laugh out loud just thinking of those books!) 
4. The Giver, which is labelled a series. I only read one! It's really a series?!
5. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (All of them! My sister and I adore these books. I think we read them when she was actually the target age bracket and I was already past it.)
6. Stargirl, which I wrote about in March when I went to Arizona because the saguaros reminded me of it. I know at least one of you is a Stargirl fan already. It is a beautiful book!
7. To Kill a Mockingbird (I need to re-read this one. I know I believe it belongs on this list, but I need to re-read to provide more elegant commentary.)

Huh. I didn't see any Sweet Valley High or Sweet Valley University books on the list. There must've been another page I missed.

And then there are confessions! Most of the nominations were new to me and reminded me that there is great YA fiction - old and new - out there to discover. These in particular are now on my library list:

1. The Outsiders (Can you believe this?)
2. House on Mango Street (I actually have a copy of this one but just need to read it.)
3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Some people in the comment section called this one of the best they've ever read. I need to investigate.)

Also: I don't mean to be totally square, and I know there are some fans of this series among my readers, but I hate that the Twilight series is on this list!

And now, for a few words I've never strung together before: I loved reading the online comment section for this project. The poll's comment section is completely ablaze with passionate arguments. I think this is a marvelous and pointed illustration of how truly formative YA fiction can be - the books you read over and over and still love to revisit as an adult. There are comments cheering for favorite titles on the list, lamenting omitted titles, and discussing what constitutes YA fiction. I appreciated one reader who suggested grouping titles into classic and contemporary categories. (Maybe I could accept Twilight in the latter category. But seeing it on the same list as Anne of Green Gables feels very strange.)

And what about the omissions?

1. One of the main problems in the comments was the omission of A Wrinkle in Time and the Narnia books.
2. Someone mentioned Hatchet, and I said quietly to myself , "Yes, Hatchet!" And then someone further down the thread wrote, "NO GARY PAULSEN BOOKS!!! Are you insane!?" (I told you I loved the comments!) and I have to say that I agree that Hatchet should be on the list.
3. Holes by Louis Sachar came up in the comments and it was one of my ideas, too (not to mention the Wayside School series, which I read many more times than Holes).
4. I feel most strongly perhaps about not seeing more Lois Lowry on the list, particularly Number the Stars, which may have been omitted because of its Newbery status. (I also re-read A Summer to Die many times.)

Okay, now it's your turn. What would you vote for, Reader? What do you think got left off the list? Do you think lists like these are weird, impossible ideas or fun starting points for discussion? (Obviously I see this last in the latter category.) And what do you love to see on the list, and does anything make you cringe? I can't wait to hear what you guys think!

Reading wishlist

Aren't we overdue for a post about books around here?

You might remember that I chirped last week that I was hitting a fab stride via my reserved titles in the local public library system. In short, I've gotten better about filing my request for a good book (or a popular new release) as soon as I hear about it.

This is a refreshing contrast to my usual style. It is a terrible feeling to be presented with a library catalog and have every intriguing title you heard about in the past month be hidden just on the tip of your tongue. Does that ever happen to you? Now it's just marvelous to get an email that says a great book is waiting at the library with your name (well, barcode) on it. And if it's a Kindle version, all the better: no risk of late fines. It's almost as fun as getting Scholastic book orders in elementary school. (No? Just me?)

Just after I wrote about my summer reading, I concluded that my list is careening mildly out of control ("mildly" only because I don't think it's possible for a library list to careen wildly or severely). But that's still not a bad thing to me. Actually, it only gives me more motivation to grab little blocks of time with whatever title I'm currently reading. (If you've read M&L anytime lately, you probably know it's Gold by Chris Cleave.) I still enjoy the book, but I know there's a wealth of other exciting books waiting for me.

Here is a secret peek into my current hold list:

Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

My favorite hold is Gone Girl. Picture a line that's 167 people long, each with three weeks to leisurely read their copy, and I'm at the end of it. Will the snow be flying by the time I get my hands on that book?

And this evening - the whole reason for this post - I was perusing Underground New York Public Library (great site!) and saw this picture, featuring a woman reading Just My Type: A Book About Fonts. I hightailed it straight to the online database and got in line for my copy. Add another to the list!

So tell me, Reader: do you have a reading wishlist? What are you reading right now? Do you have anything you are really looking forward to reading?

(My reading list, I should clarify, is never too long for me to field recommendations.)

Marvelous Monday: Week 22

It's Marvelous Monday!  We just got back from Wish's first obedience class.  I am really happy with how it went. And so is Wish, even though he was totally tuckered out by the car ride home:

So, before we all fall asleep, I bring you Marvelous Monday!

1. We took our pup on his longest walk with us yet this morning! He is acclimating to the walkers, runners, and cyclists in our neighborhood and we've been able to start working stretches of busier sidewalks into our routes lately. There's work to be done for sure - and more homework now with obedience class! - but it's great to see progress.

2. With the clock ticking down on my Kindle library loan, I finished The Book Thief earlier in the weekend. It's an incredible, moving, captivating piece of writing. I really may have to buy a hard copy of this one for my own library. I dream of someday being able to write young adult fiction that's a fraction as well-done as this book. (Thanks to Steph for this recommendation, by the way, which came out of an M&L inquiry for book recommendations!)

Next up: either Salvage the Bones (my book club's choice for next month, which is waiting for me on my Kindle) or The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang.

3. My fledgling garden projects have been enjoying the recent downpours. I keep meaning to do a comparison photo to see how much my herbs have grown since I transplanted them to new pots. One day last week, I noticed a new little bud about to bloom on my impatiens plants in the window box. I said out loud, "You really are alive!"

4. This season's temperatures mean I finish a run craving cold drinks instead of coffee and oatmeal.  It's smoothie season! By fall every year, I forget how satisfying smoothies are after a hot run, so it feels like a fun new discovery every time warm weather rolls around again. Today's concoction: milk, vanilla protein powder, and strawberries. I like to add frozen fruit instead of ice, but today I had fresh strawberries, so the consistency meant no spoon was needed.  Really, there's no wrong way to go about making a smoothie.  That's downright marvelous.

5. There's a lot to look forward to in the next couple of weeks, including (but not limited to) my dear grandma's birthday, time with my extended family and a visit from Josh's family!

Here's to you, Reader, and to the loved ones in your heart Memorial Day and every day.

Read Across America Day

March 2 is the National Education Association's Read Across America Day!

I love reading.  (Yeah, this is going to be a fairly wholesome post. But I don't think anyone come to Miles and Laurel for torrid scandals, do they?)

My parents instilled this love at an early age, and I am eternally, exceptionally grateful to them for that. We closed every day with a book (or several) at bedtime. We liked Little Critter and the Very Hungry Caterpillar and Clifford and all of those gems. As I got older, I became a voracious little reader on my own, but my parents were still part of the process. I remember a fantastic stretch of late elementary school when my dad read chapters of Animal Farm and 1984 to me before bedtime. My mom and I squabbled when she would go to the library on her own and come back with serious young adult fiction for me instead of the Sweet Valley High for which I begged.  It was (and is) tremendous fun for me to get pulled into a book completely, to stay up past bedtime and then wake up early to keep plowing through a story.

Then I went to college, and my friends and I read material for classes until our eyes practically fell out. For a year or three after I graduated, I very slowly reintroduced myself to the idea of reading strictly for fun. (this is when my love for magazine subscriptions came into play.) 

Around that time, I spent time reading with a fifth-grader at a local elementary school once a week. She had immigrated from East Africa and was making incredible strides in language and reading - the way young kids can do - but needed just a little extra help. 

I really wanted her to feel that lightbulb moment of how captivating and fun reading can be. Once that happens, it makes reading of all kinds so much easier and so much less of a chore. I thought back to my own childhood, when I was practically despondent after finishing the final book in the Little House series, so my reading buddy and I tried reading Little House in the Big Woods. 

Let me tell you: this was a huge flop. For a kid growing up in an urban area today, especially one who spent half of her life outside the United States, this book may as well have been in Mandarin. The old vocabulary was so strange that even I had a hard time explaining some of the references and terms.  To say she was not captivated is the understatement of the century.  We quit!  (Sorry, Laura. I still love you and your family.)

Then we regrouped and tried the American Girl books - specifically Kit, the girl who grew up during the Great Depression. (Kit is part of the newer group, so I wasn't familiar with her saga. I grew up with the original ones: Molly, Samantha, Felicity, and Kirsten.) Kit was the golden ticket for my reading buddy. We started reading those books each week and talking about the stories and the era. One day she referenced something that didn't happen until later in the book, and I stopped and asked her what she was talking about. It turned out that she had found the book during free time in class and read ahead on her own. I tried to play it cool but obviously nearly burst into tears I was so excited.

To be clear: I emphatically don't mean to take any credit in this little triumph. The point is that you can't force someone into becoming a reader - each kid has to find it on her own and do it herself. My reading buddy moved away the next year, and I don't know whether she continued growing into an avid reader. But that moment - the lightbulb moment - is so darn exciting.  It inspired and reenergized my own interest in the power of a good story.

And so today I'm celebrating books.  Are you a reader, Reader?  (Besides M&L!  Ha!)  If so, do you remember your own lightbulb moments about reading?  And what were your favorites growing up?

My first cookbook

The other day, I walked by a bakery in my neighborhoood.  On the door, there was a beautiful photo of a sole pristine piece of bread with perfect little pat of butter on it.

"That bread looks like it needs some food coloring on it," I thought to myself.

What!?

I thought hard about where that idea had come from and finally remembered the source. 

Monster Toast!

Reader, get ready to meet "Kinder-Krunchies"!

This book is especially dear to me because it's inscribed "To Becky, your first cookbook, from Grandma and Grandpa - March 11, 1989."  This is even better because my grandma has since proclaimed that she doesn't even really like to cook!

"Kinder-Krunchies" was published in 1982 by Karen Jenkins and I think it's geared toward a progressive audience.  (I'm basing this assumption almost entirely on the fact that there's something about adding carob powder to an ice cream recipe, okay?)  I would be curious to see a later edition or a similar cookbook published more recently to see how it incorporates this national conversation going on about where our food comes from.  Regardless, I will save it forever because it opens the door to those questions, and it really is a cool introduction to food and nutrition and cooking for kids.  Each spread has a recipe on the left page and a series of "food for thought" (ha!) questions on the right page. 

It's black and white, but obviously, I took it upon myself at an early age to convert the pages to full color.

Some recipes are definitely more complicated than others.  Some require help from adults.  Some are recipes that use the oven that I would actually still like to cook now!  (That's a future post, I suppose.)

Others are more simple.

My favorite parts are the questions for kids to consider. Some are about health and portion control and how to approach treats.

Something must have gone wrong in how I processed this lesson, because I would quite like to eat large quantities of Kindness Cookies every day!

This last one is my absolute favorite.  Read #5.  Oh my!  Remind me to get some Vitamin C, pronto.

Simply put, this cookbook rules.  Now, excuse me - I have Monster Toast to make.

Marvelous Monday: 2012, Volume 3

Reader!  Golly!  I'm on the couch, nearly zonked out for the day, taking in some Gossip Girl very serious television programs, and I realized I haven't even celebrated Marvelous Monday yet!

1. I got to spend part of the morning running with my friend Molly.  I guess we have officially started training for our next race!  We'll both be toeing the start line of the Get Lucky Half Marathon around St. Patrick's Day.  With that event in mind, we cranked out a few intervals together and enjoyed the sunshine.
2. During my cooldown, I saw a Little Library in person for the first time!  If you perused the Miles and Laurel comment section last week, you may remember that I wrote about visiting the library for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and my post prompted Sara to mention the Little Free Library project.  The first Little Library was started in Hudson, Wis., and they've since spread all over the country: all community efforts, all run by volunteers.  Sara's note was the first I've heard I've heard of this project, and I loved seeing a Little Library in person!
3. Later, I caught up with another friend at a restaurant that specializes in margherita pizzas - or, more accurately, I specialize in consuming their margherita pizzas.  Yum.
4. This week's Kindle read is "The Art of Fielding" by Chad Harbach.  I heard the author doing the rounds on my various podcasts this month - it's kind of about a baseball team at a small liberal arts college in the Midwest - and I decided to check it out.  It's grabbing my attention, I'm most of the way through and I'm hoping things turn around for Schwartz and Henry before the end of the book.
5. This!

More on that yellow stuff tomorrow.  All I can say now is that I am going to sleep soundly tonight.


What's marvelous about your Monday today?

Shopping day

Today, the Major Plan - after pancakes at my parents' house - was holiday shopping. 

Much of the expedition was spent at a local bookstore.  This bookstore is great and has an enormous collection, and much of it is sorted by author.  This makes it much fun to browse but much less fun when you have a title you're dying to find but can't remember who wrote it (e.g. my eternal quandry).

Anyway, some parts of the store are grouped by subject.  Like this one.  My favorite.

Let me know if you need anything from the Pirates/Mutinies section, and yours truly will be happy to point you in the right direction, okay?

I hope Sunday evening is treating you well, Reader.  I am on the couch, watching Broncos football and alternately enjoying guacamole (made by Dad!) and a bag of white-popcorn-drizzled-with-white-chocolate concoction that my mom shoved into my hands on our way out this morning.  I think I know why she wanted to get it out of her home so badly.  It is treacherous stuff!

In honor of yoga tonight

Reader, do you love Babar like I do?

And make no mistake about it - that's in present tense for good reason.  Babar and his brood of elephants were a beloved cast of characters in my childhood.  He, obviously, was the king of the elephants.  He had a wife, Celeste, and three children: Pom, Flora and Alexander.  They got into various adventures over the course of a series of children's books.  My dad has made Babar replicas out of both snow and ground beef.  (Truth.)  A quick wikipedia search reveals that some critics assert that Babar's stories are politically charged and loaded with justification for colonialism.  If that is true, it totally went over my head as a youth.  I just loved Babar, his little green suit and his little elephant family.  That's all.

So it makes perfect sense, you understand, when this book landed in my basket during an expedition to a bookstore over the weekend:

Now you get a sense of why my bookcase is crammed full, right?  Because I buy books like this and love them all...although I kind of want to give this one prime real estate on my coffee table.  There is a great line introducing one of the poses, for example, by noting that it was designed primarily for elephants and that humans should not feel frustrated if they can't do it.

Or this gem:

"The life of a modern-day elephant is stressful and complicated. Yoga turned out to be exactly what we in Celesteville needed, offering calm and control in days that were busy and demanding."

Per Amazon, this book is "perfect for anyone who loves yoga or elephants."  I wholeheartedly agree.

Currently

A short report of what I've been up to, in handy list form! The categories are in groups of three, which I heard once is the most memorable number for writing and speaking. So, go forth and memorize!

Eating

1) I've officially been tinkering with a Cooking Light recipe for baked ziti with summer vegetables. I made it just before we left for Washington, and it turned into a very nice little casserole.  But midway through the preparation steps, it smelled so good that I wanted to stop the process and eat dinner then and there.  Last night, I tried just that, and it turned into a good mix of pasta, vegetables (summer squash, zucchini, onions, and tomatoes) with basil and garlic and oregano, minus the baking and ricotta-adding.  I guess I learned that both "Baked ziti and summer veggies" and its friend "Ziti and summer veggies" are great dinners. As an added bonus, I was on the phone with my mom while I was cooking and thus gleefully eyeballed all of the herbs and spices, and it still turned out edible.

2) I got a big bag of green beans from the CSA box late last week and just love them. It reminds me of the long rows of green and purple beans that we used to pick in the garden at home, except this time I don't have to pick them and chop the ends off--I just get to eat them!  If summer had a taste, it would be a real battle between green beans and watermelon.

3) Popcorn.  Its inclusion here could be misleading because I haven't actually had popcorn in the last month, but some friends recently were talking about being on major make-your-own-seasoning kicks, using different combinations of herbs, butter, cheese, etc.  I vow to get on a similar kick. Suggestions welcomed.

Reading

1) Sisterhood Everlasting, the latest book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants saga. I am not part of the Harry Potter craze, but I guess you could call this my equivalent, if only I were actually a young adult when I started reading these books. (I have a hunch that I was firmly in "adult" range.) My sister and I love them fiercely (even though, yes, our ages add up to 48) and we were practically breathless--her in Germany, me in St. Paul--when the book was released in June. I was able to wait until our flight to Washington, read 93 percent of the book on the plane (thanks, Kindle), and finished it while we were waiting in line for a ferry.  Then I regaled Josh with the summary and I think he was thrilled.

2) Maine was next on my vacation fiction list. It tells the stories of three generations of women in a family that makes annual summer trips to a beach house on the Maine coast. I enjoyed the book a lot, but even more importantly, I would really like to summer on the Maine coast. (And yes, summer as a verb, too.)

3) Next up: Little Bee, recommended to me ages ago from my friend Meghan.

Watching

1) I saw "Bridesmaids" over the weekend, and since I'm not really one to compile lists of things that I hate, you can probably deduce by this point in the post that I loved it. Kristen Wiig cracks me up. I was that weirdo in the theatre who laughs longer than everyone else.

2) "Next Food Network Star" is my current guilty pleasure on TV. Josh and I love it but we can't seem to find anyone else in the United States who also watches it.

3) It's Tour de France time! I've followed this magnificent race in varying degrees of detail for the last 10 years, but lagged this year because of our trip's timing. I turned on the television yesterday and got sucked into a very exciting stage. Today's a rest day for the cyclists, but tomorrow I'm back in. It's an enormous spectacle, a beautiful race, and dare I say, one of the most incredible athletic achievements on earth. It's great.

Doing

1) Running club session #2!  I did my long run on Saturday with the group and got to explore trails on the other side of the city that I rarely encounter on my own. It was muggy, muggy, but I felt pretty good and loved my new fuel belt that I got last week. So comfortable.

2) Dinner with family on Friday night: the first time all five of us have been in the same place since January!  Welcome back, Sis.

3) Trying to stay cool: It's really summer here in St. Paul, with temps in the upper 80s and low 90s and humidity and dew point charging to keep up. Last night, a big thunderstorm rumbled through and broke some of the humidity. Before that, Josh and I went for a walk around our neighborhood and made a sharp turn to cut our route short because we were melting. Hence, all of the TV and movie references earlier in the post!

Instead of saying goodbye, a friend of mine signs off from a conversation with, "Happy days."  So, happy days.

Balloons and other tidbits

A few items to report as I settle back into life in St. Paul after a week away:

1) For my readers who have been on the edge of their seats ever since I revealed tentative plans last month to finally join a running club: I did it!  I went to my first ClubRun workout last night, the first meeting for the group's fall marathon training session.  The group meets near Lake of the Isles three times per week for workouts and long runs.  I got there a little bit early and ran through part of the Kenwood neighborhood that I had never seen before, and it was a very fun way to stretch out some of the vacation running excitement I felt on the routes I covered in Washington. Part of my motivation for joining the club, besides the obvious social and training aspects, is to mix up my routes, which currently tilt too heavily toward Summit Avenue and the river road. These workouts will definitely accomplish that--it seems like I'll be doing lots of miles around the lakes and also Theodore Wirth trails. It's a great location.

Yesterday's run was a series of pickups around Lake Calhoun, and the group covered Lake of the Isles for the warmup and cooldown on either side of three miles' worth of alternating two minutes of pick-up (roughly at half-marathon race pace) and one minute of recovery jog.  By the end of the repeats on the other side of the lake, I was feeling it. A side benefit to the evening workouts, I suspect, is that my aptitude for running in hotter temperatures (last night, in the low 80s) will improve. But judging from my red, red, sweaty, sweaty face after the run, there's work to be done in that area. Anyway, I had a blast meeting some new people and chatting with them on the run, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the training sessions.

2) My sister is home!  She spent the semester studying abroad in Rwanda and just followed up her program with a month of traveling around Germany. My family is thrilled to have her back in Minnesota, and I can't wait to hear more stories from her about her time abroad.  She flew in last Friday and came home to her bedroom filled with balloons by my mother. (I suppose that's a story for later.) Over the weekend, my kooky sister strung all of the balloons together and decorated the yard with them.

I wasn't even there to witness it first-hand, but I loved the pictures my mom sent me. I thought it was simply because of the aesthetic appeal and the whimsy of the whole scene, but today I realized it sort of reminded me of another beloved children's book about what would happen if everyone threw Earth a birthday party.  I think such a party would definitely involve a long string of balloons.

I googled and googled but couldn't find or remember the title of that book.  Along my search, using phrases like "birthday party for the world," I did come across Happy Birthday, Rotten Ralph, which cracks me up. Ralph is such a punk. Along the way, Amazon also thought I might be interested in How to Plan a Kick-ass Funeral. (I didn't click on that link.) Something in the algorithm got busted, I think.

My new collection

I love children's books.

I could go on and on.  I love young adult fiction, too--in fact, a little dream percolates about writing it someday--but there's a soft spot in my heart for the really young adult fiction: the Cliffords and Madelines and Berenstain Bears.  My own collection is still with my parents: the tattered, dog-eared, mangled pages.  I got my first copy of a favorite childhood book last week, and then struck gold over the weekend, in a separate incident.

The book I bought last week was A Chair For My Mother, which is about a family who regroup after their apartment burns.  (Typing this out makes it sound like a surprisingly mature theme.)  The mother works very hard to rebuild financially, and she and her daughter save their spare change in a big old jar to someday buy a comfy chair for the mother to sit in after her long shifts.  Anyway, I've preserved the image of the chair that they eventually buy (see, a happy end!) as one of the most truly beautiful pieces of furniture I could ever see in my life.  Is it?  Looking at the picture of the chair now, I'll spare you the truth.  But part of my love for these books is because my interpretation of those stories and characters were completely frozen back in the late '80s, so I get a little peek at how I saw the world at that age. As an aside, after I bought that book, Amazon suggested Miss Rumphius, another major childhood classic in my home, so I should probably let them know that something in their recommender algorithm is working real well.

So I added A Chair For My Mother to my bookshelf just days before Sunday, when a gigantic garage sale set up shop in our neighborhood--and what's even kookier, it was advertised as free, free, free.  (I guess that just skips straight to the point that somebody's junk is usually still, well, junk even if it gets a new home, right?) Obviously, it called for investigation. 

The usual assortment of weird stuff was present (I later learned that my brother claimed the prize of a new doorknob) but right in the middle were cardboard boxes full of children's books.  Oh, it was wonderful!  I knelt down to check out the scene, and mixed with fabulously outdated sports and cultural tomes were some of my old favorites: a Clifford, a Little Critter gem called Just Me and My Little Brother and James and the Giant Peach.  The best one, though, is a book known in our family as "Mr. Plumbean" (after the main character) but actually called The Big Orange Splot.  This book, upon modern review, was written in 1977, presumably by a total hippie.  It's about this guy who teaches his neighborhood to appreciate diversity and individuality when he chooses to paint his house totally wacky colors, and his neighbors eventually follow suit with their own zany paint jobs.  My family loves this one.  Daniel Manus Pinkwater, if you stumble across Miles and Laurel in your own leisure reading: two major thumbs up.

I also went home with this gift, a piece of literature that seems decidedly not for children based on the preview I read on the inside cover:

What's that sound? Oh, it's just "Freshman Scandal"
sidling past actually good books in my summer queue.

Later, I moved on to admiring Stacey McGill's fashion sense and Elizabeth Wakefield's journalism skills, wondering if my life in high school would be like theirs.  (In a word: no.) But for lots of nights of bedtime reading, I just admired Mr. Plumbean's neighborhood in The Big Orange Splot: "Then all the people would say, 'Our street is us, and we are it. Our street is where we like to be, and it looks like all our dreams.'"