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*










12 comments:

  1. That first photo is so beautiful! Have an amazing snorkeling adventure, too!

    I really enjoyed 7 Second Delay by Tom Easton. I liked We Were Liars, but the ending needed to be 10 pages shorter I think for maximum impact...

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    1. Thanks! I'll have to check out 7 Second Delay. Thanks for the recommend!

      Hope you have a great week!

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  2. I'm still not sure what I thought of WE WERE LIARS, but it certainly did make me think!

    Hope you have a great week! :)

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    1. I've heard that a lot about We Were Liars. It piqued my interest enough to pick it up. We'll see. :)

      Hope you have an amazing week too Emma!

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  3. I read We Were Liars last week. She definitely breaks some rules with the writing but I really liked it. The only thing I didn't like was the fairy tales she tells throughout the book. I found them unnecessary and almost like page fillers. I get why they're there, but I didn't like them so much.
    Have a great week!

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    1. Hmmm...interesting. Now I want to read it instead of getting work done. *sits on hands*

      Hope you have a great week too!

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  4. Sweet guitar! It looks like rainbows are emanating out of it! Haha, I love it.

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    1. That's what it sounds like. Rainbows and unicorns with distortion. Unicorns love distortion. *grin* It's so pretty, it makes me wish I could actually play worth a damn.

      Hope you have a great week Jessie! :)

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  5. Love the lines you shared from your WiP! Very thought-provoking and beautiful. :-) That's so great that you have a bamboo patch growing at your place. The picture you took of it is lovely. I can see it being very, very useful too. Oh, the pretty! That guitar is so shiny! I love that you guys have a guitar limit. I probably need to limit myself on certain things too. Hope you're having a wonderful week, Kris! :D

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  6. Ooo, enjoy WE WERE LIARS! It's so good.

    I love the lines you shared - such gorgeous writing.

    Enjoy your new guitar and snorkeling!

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  7. Sweetness is beautiful! You can never have too many guitars. I don't play. I just like how they look. :) We have ummm... I think four or five guitars now? Hubby and youngest daughter play, though, so at least they aren't just for looking at!

    I love the lines you shared! Makes me want to read more. Have fun snorkeling. I hope you have some video to share next week!

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  8. I have bamboo wind chimes and I love the sound they make.

    WE WERE LIARS keeps staring at me every time I go in the library, but I'm trying to wait until I have a free weekend before I sit down to read it because I have a feeling it might be a read-in-one-sitting.

    Yay for new guitars!

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