What's Up Wednesday- July 23rd

 Snorkeling, Sweetness & Curious Constructions of Bamboo, 

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up.  Should you wish to join, check out Jaime's or Erin's lovely blogs and sign up with the link widget at the bottom of the post.

WHAT I'M READING

I reread Arundhati Roy's THE CHECKBOOK AND THE CRUISE MISSILE. It is one of her works of non-fiction based on interviews she did with Alternative Radio. Her novel THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS, may be my favorite book of all time. And in the Checkbook she jokes about how she was charged by the Supreme Court for "corrupting public morality" for this work. I can't imagine doing jail time for one of my books. Her courage is astounding and her honesty is breathtaking. 

I also downloaded WHEN WE WERE LIARS- I've heard tremendous things about this one. Some of the reviews have been mixed, but overall everyone said this book made them think. 

I do imagine after these last two titles that I will be in the mood for something lighter and perhaps a little more frivolous. (Say, a good fantasy or Sci Fi.) Open to recommends for lighter Summer fare for next week. 

WHAT I'M WRITING

I've been working on LOVE AND OTHER CURIOSITIES in the early morning hours. Here's what I wrote about 10 minutes ago:

"What denotes the magic of a place. From whence does it derive it's power. And how does that power take hold, rule our senses completely. That we are rendered infants again.

That we fall on our knees. That we feel the ground in its motion. That we give ourselves to the passage of time that is at once instantaneous and recorded by dusty fossils and by the trees in rings and resin."

It's a bit rambling, but I kind of like it. Who knows, I might hate it tomorrow and hit "delete".

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO/ WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

• I get to go snorkeling tomorrow at Lover's Key. It's actually to help out with a seagrass survey, but hey, snorkeling is snorkeling. *grin* And I'm going to drag along the underwater video camera in case we see something really cool. 
• I've been building curious and improbable constructions out of bamboo. The photo above is of our bamboo patch in the evening sun. I love our bamboo patch. It's not native, but we use it and the hummingbirds use it to nest in so we have rationalized keeping it.
• We bought a new house guitar. Isn't she lovely?! Boy Chris has nicknamed her "Sweetness". She plays like a dream. I played Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah on her because the sound is perfect. (However, we are not allowed to have more than 10 guitars, so if we get another one, someone has to go. Hold us to that. We are running out of space for guitar cases.)

"Sweetness" *pets the precious*