Funny and Not Funny Books

This week's Booking Through Thursday asks, "What is the funniest book you've read recently?" While I haven't been reading much at all recently, this is a great way to finish telling you about my 15 sticky books.

I'm one of those people who adores romantic comedy movies. I've seen quite a few and have a high tolerance for the bad ones (unless they star Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, in which case, I run the other way). I also like romantic comedy books. It's sometimes hard to find romance and humor in the same book, so I find it to be a treat when I do.

I'd mentioned previously my fondest for Elizabeth Peters. Many prefer her Amelia books, but give me the ones featuring Jacqueline Kirby any day. I also mentioned that Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun is delightful.

Therefore, when I stumbled across Jennifer Crusie's Crazy for You several years ago, I felt like I'd hit the jackpot. A new-to-me writer who's novels made me laugh -Yea! And from Crusie, I somehow found Rachel Gibson, another goldmine of funny books.

Shortly before I found Crusie, though, I'd also rediscovered a fondness of mine - travel memoirs. I think I've said before that I don't read much non-fiction, at least, not unless I have to. Reading on my own time is for pleasure and escape. Most of the time, that means fiction, but travel memoirs also fit the bill. The first such book I read in my new "era" was Under the Tuscan Sun. It is also a funny book, but I appreciated it for taking me to Italy. Also, we were in the starting phases of renovating our 100 year old rowhouse, and her descriptions of working with contractors and trying to accomplish repairs resonated deeply with me.

That leaves me with the last book from my list of 15 - the exact opposite of funny. I read 1,000 Acres my first year in graduate school. A close friend of mine recommended it. It was completely depressing and awful. Well-written, but awful. It's a book that I truly wish that I could forget that I read, but I'm afraid will stick with me. I've since learned that my friend prefers novels that deal with issues and social ills and have stopped taking recommendations from her. If her book club has read it, I tend to steer clear of it.

I can't leave you on that depressing note, so I'll mention one of my favorite sad-funny children's books. While dealing with a serious time in our history and some awful events, the family dynamics in this book will have your sides in stitches. I highly recommend The Watsons Go to Birminham - 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis.

Weeknight Minestrone

This is essentially my take on vegetable soup with sausage. I never make it quite like this, as I adjust it to throw in whatever vegetables I might have on hand, especially the ones that aren't the freshest from the back of the fridge. The trick, though, is to add cabbage or broccoli to give the soup some body.

2 spicy Italian sausage links
1/2 a medium onion, diced
a box of low-fat, low-sodium chicken broth
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
2 cans mixed vegetables, drained and well-rinsed *
1 cup of shredded cabbage or broccoli **
Italian spices
1 cup macaroni (elbows or shells or something that size)
1 can kidney beans, drained and well-rinsed

Cut the sausage into bite sized pieces. Saute in a large soup pot for 5 minutes. Add the chopped onion and continue cooking until the meat is cooked through and the onion is translucent. Add the broth, tomatoes, vegetables, cabbage, and spices. Add enough water to cover, if needed. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, then add the pasta, and simmer until the cabbage and pasta are cooked. Add the kidney beans and cook for 5 more minutes, or until the beans are heated through.

* I usually use one can of vegetables and a cup or two of fresh, diced vegetables.
** I use a large handful of pre-shredded cole slaw or broccoli slaw.

Preferences

Ok, so this is last week's question, but I find it more interesting than this week's question.

Which do you prefer? (Quick answers–we’ll do more detail at some later date)

Reading something frivolous? Or something serious? Frivolous
Paperbacks? Or hardcovers? Paperbacks
Fiction? Or Nonfiction? Fiction
Poetry? Or Prose? Prose
Biographies? Or Autobiographies? Autobiographies, preferably Travel Memoirs
History? Or Historical Fiction? Historical Fiction, if we have to do history at all (I know - sad for an archivist, huh?)
Series? Or Stand-alones? Either
Classics? Or best-sellers? Best-sellers
Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose? Not fruity
Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness? Plots
Long books? Or Short? Both have their place; well-written and well-editted are more important
Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated? Illustrated non-fiction; non-illustrated fiction
Borrowed? Or Owned? Owned (You never know if you'll be able to find it again if you don't own it.)
New? Or Used? Not beat up.

Update

It's hard to believe it's been 20 days since I last posted, but it's been a crazy month. Since June 22 and my not-a-vacation post, we've been down with illness. DH's bronchitis developed into pneumonia, DDA acquired a virus, I caught the virus, and then DDL caught it. DDL's then developed into pneumonia. We had 5 doctor's visits in 8 days with DDL, who took the last of her antibiotics this morning and is doing much better. Last week was the first week we've had since early June with the girls in daycare for the full week - it seems like a small miracle.

So, I've not been doing much besides tending to sick folk. I haven't been reading -- books or blogs -- much; there's been no soup (although DH made a fabulous Shepherd's Pie with leftover BBQ beef one night); and I've missed a fair amount of work.

I have done a small amount of stitching. I learned that I can work on small, simple pieces while holding a sleeping baby on my chest. I finished the stitching on my Swirlygig for Anna's contest. It still needs some embellishments and to be finished, but neither should take me long. I need to see if I can find one item to complete the embellishing (I have the rest of what I need), and then I just need to break out my sewing machine. I knew when I saw the pattern exactly what I wanted to do to complete this. Unfortunately, I can't show you pictures until after the contest is over.

Back to Books: College

I mentioned at the end of my last post on this topic that I had gone abroad as an exchange student. In fact, I went to Brazil and lived in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. When I came back for my senior year in high school, one of my big factors in considering colleges was whether the college offered Portuguese classes. When you're facing a large moving box full of college brochures, using Portuguese as a weeding criteria is actually very effective. I also wanted to go more than 100 miles from home.

In all three of the Portuguese literature classes I took in college, we were required to read Gabriela, Cravo e Canela by Jorge Amado. Amado is a prolific and varied writer. He's sort of a combination of Mark Twain, Louis L'Amour, and John Steinbeck. Gabriela is considered his seminal work, although I enjoyed The Violent Land more.

Another notable book from college was Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. This is the first book I ever purposefully did not finish. I just couldn't do it. I think I forced my way through until I was less than 50 pages from the end, and then I just gave up, sort of. Somewhere in storage, I still have the book, with the bookmark still in it. Maybe now that some time has past, when I retrieve it from storage, I'll re-read it and either finish it or give it 50 pp. and let it go. I've gotten better about the latter now that I'm older.

College also meant meeting people who shared my taste in reading. Several of my friends suggested books to me. It was like opening up whole new worlds, and I loved it. The challenge was not getting too distracted from my school work. Robin McKinley and Barbara Michaels (Elizabeth Peters) are two of the new authors I met through friends.

Summertime Soup

It's been a strange month. Unlike last year's and many previous June's, this month's weather has been mostly moderate with a lot of rain. Usually it's just hot, humid, and miserable. We got a taste of normal June weather mid-week last week, which put me in the mood for some of my summer recipes. I made a batch of fresh-squeezed limeade (which is easy if you have the proper lime-squeezing tool). I also made my first bruscetta of the season.

For this week's soup, I made gazpacho. Some day, I'll have to tell you the story of how and where I had my first, perfect bowl of gazpacho. I've yet to recreate something similar, and probably won't ever do so, but it doesn't stop me from trying. I found this recipe last week. Here's my variation.

Ingredients

4 cups low-sodium V8 juice
6 ripe tomatoes, seeded
1 purple onion
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded
1 sweet yellow bell pepper, seeded
2 stalks celery
1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 small can of tomato paste (to thicken)
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
2 teaspoons sugar
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Hot sauce to taste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Decide how pureed or chopped you want each of the ingredients. Put the veggies you want completely pulverized in the processor first, adding the rest in descending order.

So this is what I did, emptying each batch into a large glass bowl as I finished it, since my processor isn't big enough to hold a gallon of soup.

Batch 1: onion, celery, chives, parsley, 1 cup of the V8 juice
Batch 2: bell pepper, oil, vinegar, garlic
Batch 3: cucumber, tomatoes, 1 cup of the V8 juice
Batch 4: tomato paste, 1 cup of the V8 juice

Add the last cup of V8 and the rest of the seasonings and stir well. Use a spoon with large slots to pull out any large chunks of veggies and pop them back into the processor, if needed.

Store and chill overnight. Serve cold.

Serves 8.

Fantasy and Science Fiction Writer's Day

Last week's Booking through Thursday question was: Sharon Lee has declared June 23rd Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Day. What might you do on the 23rd to celebrate? Do you even read fantasy/sci-fi? Why? Why not?

I *love* to read fantasy novels. This is my "go-to" genre when I'm looking for something to read. I think it started with a love of fairy tales. I read some science fiction, but not the really hard core stuff. It's all about the quest for me: quest for identity, quest for knowledge, quest for gold, quest for true love.

Since the day is a celebration of writers, here's a list of some of my favorites. They're listed in alphabetical order by last name.

Lois McMaster Bujold
David Eddings
Madeleine L'Engle
Ann McCaffrey
Robin McKinley
Elizabeth Moon
Robert Silverberg

I couldn't decide whether to include C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, and J.K. Rowling to the list. I'm too new to Pullman and Rowling to know if I'll love their books over time, but I suspect I will. I haven't read the Narnia novels over and over again the way I have the works of the other authors listed.

An honorable mention needs to go to Sharyn McCrumb for writing one of the funniest books I've ever read - a murder mystery set at a sci-fi convention. If you've ever been part of Fandom and haven't read Bimbos of the Death Sun, go now and find a copy.

Sadly, this post will probably be the extent of my celebration of the day.