[ c r a f t e d ] Owl Be Hanging Over Here

In the spirit of “making pretty things” I borrowed MICROCRAFTS Written by Margaret Mcguire, Alicia Kachmar and Katie Hatz. Since I felt that starting small means that it is doable for me.

I chose the to sew a micro-owl plushie, but the book has easier crafts to do. I just wanted to do something that involved sewing.

The book suggested to sew a loop of embroidery thread on the owl so that you can hang it as ornaments. I was deciding between a necklace or a keychain. But since the phone materials were well within reach than the necklace chain. I made it into a mobile phone charm…HUH? I am confused as well. But I am glad how it all turned out.

It was fairly easy to make this – it is small though so I had hand cramps while sewing. And because of its size it was really hard to stitch the beak and the eyes. I pricked myself a couple of times trying not to sew the front and back together.

I plan to make something new once a month (this should be easier to follow through right?).

 

[ b o o k ] The Housekeeper and the Professor

Title: The Housekeeper and the Professor

Author: Yoko Ogawa

Comments:

“My memory lasts only eighty minutes.”

This is the most promintent scrap of paper among those pinned to the professor’s suit by binder clips (Post-its were not the rage in those days). This novel explores the special relationship between a housekeeper, her 10-year old son nicknamed Root and the Math professor she works for. There are a lot of elements that I liked about this book.

1. THE MATH: Ogawa includes real Math problems in the novel. Concepts like prime numbers, amicable numbers, deficient and abundant numbers are mentioned in the novel. She also included Euler’s Formula, Artin’s Conjecture, and Fermat’s Last Theorem. It was very interesting how she incorporated Math with ease into the story without inducing sleep from me .

2. THE CHARACTERS: There are some plot-driven novels and there are stories where the characters are the only reason to keep turning the page. All of the major characters are well-developed. From the Math professor whose memory doesn’t go beyond 1975, the single mother Housekeeper who has gone through a lot and even her son. They are believeable characters. I liked how the Professor’s character was so developed. Like how he answers difficult Math problems from Math journals and winning the prize money for most of them. And his talents are awesome too, like how he can find the first sigh of the evening star in the afternoon or how he can instantly revers the syllables in a phrase and repeat them backward, how he devised the perfect phrase for Root’s homework, “I prefer Pi”.

3. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CHARACTERS: If this was a drama, they would call it chemistry, the way the characters grow closer to each other is so sweet, it’s in the mundane things, the ordinary ways that they form a bond, that even the loss of memory can’t break. How the Professor asks the Housekeeper every monrning her shoe size because he doesn’t remember her, and he talks about Math whenever he feels unsure on what to do. And how he connects seeming random numbers like the Housekeeper’s birthday and his watch. When the Housekeeper cooks for the Professor she tries to sneak in carrots or camouflage them so that the Professor will eat it. The time that she convinced the Professor to get a haircut. How both the Housekeeper and Root agreed not to upset the Professor by not saying anything about current events, respecting his memory loss. The most striking thing is the relationship between the aging Professor and Root – the Professor gave him the nickname Root because the flat top of his head resembles the square root. When Root comes to the Professor’s house he takes of his hat at the door and points to the note on the Professor’s suit where he drew the Housekeeper and “her son, Root ” and then the Professor will rub Root’s head.Their love for baseball especially the Hanshin Tigers. The time that Root cut his hand and the Professor hoisted him on his back and carried him all the way to the clinic despite his own apprehension at being out in public. The Professor helping Root with his homework while the Housekeeper cooks dinner. I like those rituals they had.

4. THE EVENTS THAT PUSHED THE STORY FORWARD: Eventhough the Professor hated crowds he still went with them to a baseball game, his crush on the girl selling food and drinks was just adorable. The way he protected Root from the ball, how he blabbed about Math and Baseball even though no one was really listening to him. The last time they were together when they celebrated the Professor taking first prize again for solving a math problem and Root’s eleventh birthday. The agony that the Housekeeper and Root went through to find the perfect Enatsu baseball card to add to the Professor’s collection. And the Professor remembering the date and giving Root a Little League certified baseball glove. How the Professor stood up for Root when his sister-in-law accused them of going after his money.

This is a heartwarming, beautiful story, the pace is just right and the characters are lovable. It shows us that family doesn’t really mean that you have to be related by blood, and also the power of human bonds despite of illness.

[ d r a m a ] North & South – Another Must Watch Period Drama

Look back. Look back at me.

There are many reasons why I stay away from period dramas especially of the English kind: (1) Their accent is tough for me to make out, (2) Their words are almost ancient it’s tough for me to make out and (3) I usually prefer to watch shows where I have to leave my brain at the door so it won’t be tough for me to make out…BUT

Hello Mr. John Thornton, looking so mighty fine brooding and angst-y, just how I like my period drama heroes (see Heathcliff and Darcy) Or in North and South‘s case, Thornton seems like an anti-hero. Recently, I have been  re-reading a lot of Austen and re-watching the BBC adaptations,  and that is how I discovered  North and South.

North and South is a four-part drama series produced by the BBC in 2004. It stars Daniela Denby-Ashe as the headstrong Southerner Margaret Hale who has to move to the North when her father resigns from being a member of the clergy.  She becomes sympathetic to the plight of the cotton mill workers while trying to subdue her attraction for the strict mill owner John Thornton (he of the  brooding eyes and sideburns) played by Richard Armitage.

A Daydreaming Margaret

There are some similarities to my all-time favorite Pride and Prejudice – brooding and seemingly emotionally shut-down male lead, check! Feisty and opinionated female lead, check! Misunderstandings due to miscommunication, check! and a rebuffed marriage proposal, CHECK!

So what pray tell is the difference? Nothing much I suppose except that at the end of the series each episode has an average of two deaths, it can be renamed Pride and Prejudice and More Dead Bodies. Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe are such good actors that one cannot help but be fully invested in the story. Each facial expression, each gesture can convey anger, shame, pity, pain and longing.

I think John Thornton is going to replace either Heathcliff or Darcy as the second fictional male character that I admire. Yes, Captain Frederick Wentworth still tops my list, despite these lines spoken by John Thornton:

“I knew I wasn’t good enough for her, but now I think I love her more than ever.”

“She does not care for me, and that is enough. The only thing you can do for me is to never say her name again. We will not talk about her again.”

and the killer,

“Look back. Look back at me.”

More than a love story, North and South also portrays the clash between different classes. The differing points of view  of the  genteel nobility, the powerful mill owners and the wage laborers were explored in different scenes throughout the series. I liked the stark contrast of the colorful South versus the industrial drab of the North. It was not just a love story about difference in class and resolving the issues that come along with it, but also a peek at working conditions (which were really inhumane) at that time.

What makes this a winner for me, is that like Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, even if it is a heavier drama North and South is the right combination of social commentary, tragedy and a beautiful love story of compromise and tolerance… plus it doesn’t hurt that Richard Armitage is easy on the eyes.

[ b o o k ] The Witch of Portobello

I was looking through some of my journals the other day, and I forgot to post quotes from the Witch of Portobello.

• No one sacrifices the most important thing she possesses – love. No one places here dreams in the hands of those who might destroy them.
• Believing that I was blinded by love, I doubted everything, but doubt, far from paralyzing me, pushed me in the direction of oceans whose very existence I couldn’t admit.
• If there is any possible consolation in the tragedy of losing someone we love very much, it’s the necessary hope that perhaps it was for the best.
• But, then, how many of us will be saved the pain of seeing the most important things in our lives disappearing from one moment to the next? I don’t just mean people, but our ideas and dreams too: we might survive a day, a week, a few years, but we’re all condemned to lose. Our body remains alive, yet sooner or later our soul will receive the mortal blow. The perfect crime – for we don’t know who murdered our joy, what their motives were, or where the guilty parties are to be found.
• You can judge people by the kind of music they listen to.
• Sometimes love carries us into the abyss, taking with us – to make matters worse – the people we love.
• But time, as well as healing all wounds, taught me something strange too, that it’s possible to love more than one person in a lifetime.

[ b o o k ] The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Set after World War II and written in epistolary format, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a wonderful delight to read. Few stories have felt so satisfying than this novel.

Juliet Ashton, is a journalist who feels that she needs something new after gaining fame writing as Izzy Bickerstaff during the war. One day, she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams who lives in the Channel Island of Guernsey. One of Juliet’s books came upon his hand and from this first letter everything else is set into motion. During World War II, the island of Guernsey came under German occupation. Cut off from the mainland, the inhabitants of this tiny island develop lasting friendships and a love for reading.

This story isn’t just about the love for reading, although there are a lot of good quotes from this book. I liked the deviation, instead of a normal narrative the book is written as a series of letters from Juliet and all the different, quirky, funny, heartwarming and the occasional irritating characters in the book. It has the perfect mix of drama, romance, friendship and the resilience of the human spirit, elements which have been delicately blended without being over the top.

I am a fan of historical fiction, from The Count of Monte Cristo to Little Women, plus you could always found me curled up on a rocking chair reading my Grandfather’s World War II journals and magazines learning about the sinking of USS Juneau or reading survivor’s accounts of being in concentration camps. War is an ugly, ugly thing, and although this book doesn’t include the depressing stuff, the reality and casualties of war were still portrayed.

Some quotes from the book:

That’s what I love about reading:one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It’s geometrically progressive-all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.

Men are more interesting in books than they are in real life.

Reading good books ruins you from enjoying bad books.

I don’t want to be married just to be married.  I can’t think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can’t talk to, or worse, someone I can’t be silent with. – probably my favourite quote ever!

I was turned off by the long and weird title but this book by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is a very good slice of life read, like Juliet I fell in love not just with the island of Guernsey but also with the people from the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, especially Isola Pribby, Elizabeth McKenna and of course Dawsey Adams – another reason why men in fiction are more interesting in real life.

[ b o o k ] Inside and Other Short Fiction

Title: Inside and Other Short Fiction

Authors: Tamaki Daido, Rio Shimamoto, Yuzuki Muroi, Shungiku Uchida, Chiya Fujino, Amy Yamada, Junko Hasegawa, Nobuko Takagi with a foreword by Ruth Ozeki.

Comments:

This is an eight short fiction book compiled by Cathy Layne. Stories which range from, “love, peversion, motherhood, divorce, and death”.  Ranging from the seemingly ordinary to the unbelievably surreal sometimes I find myself amazed or grossed out by the stories in this book. The eight stories are:

1. Milk – Tamaki Daido
2. Inside – Rio Shimamoto
3. Piss – Yuzuki Muroi
4. My Son’s Lips – Shungiku Uchida
5. Her Room – Chiya Fujino
6. Fiesta – Amy Yamada
7. The Unfertilized Egg – Junko Hasegawa
8. The Shadow of the Orchid – Nobuki Takagi

All of the stories included here have made an impact on me, whether graphically or thinking about the issues that women face in society. Something I realised while reading this book is that, across cultures, women still have the same concerns, fears and dreams. Societal expectations like getting married at a certain age, motherhood and how a woman should act at different stages in her life can be stressful.

The stories which have really touched a nerve for me is Inside, a teenager deals with her emerging sexuality while her family falls apart. And the Shadow of the Orchid, where a woman talks to her husband’s deceased patient who comes to her in the form of a dendrobium. How she deals with getting old, the empty-nest syndrome and her husband’s infidelity with his dying patient.

It is not light reading, even though the stories here are quite short. It made me think and really appreciate the way these women’s approach when they tell the stories.

[ b o o k ] Stargirl

Title: Stargirl

Author: Jerry Spinelli

Thoughts:

I loved this book when I read it in high school. As with other books I fell in love with, my sister recommended this to me . I had been feeling uninspired lately, so instead of  looking for books in my To Read list or reading crime novels, I went back to this YA favourite.

The pull for me was of course Stargirl’s personality, her individuality. She cheers for the rival team, she sings people happy birthdays, she’s a free person, without the worrying over societal expectations. But it takes great courage or ignorance not to be swayed into conformity.

I also liked the concept of a happy wagon, it quanitifes the state of happiness using twenty pebbles, isn’t that sweet?

This is the type of story that I can read over and over again to remind me things that I can forget as I’m growing older every year, to always follow my heart, even when I’m about to make an unpopular decision, to tune out distractions and learn a little more of my true self every single day.

Quotes:

☆ She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her.  In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin went merely through and away she flew.

☆ You’ll know her more by your questions than by her answers. Keep looking at her long enough. One day you might see someone you know.

☆ And the trouble with bad times is, you can’t sleep through them.

☆ I’m not my name. My name is something I wear, like a shirt. It gets worn, I outgrow it. I change it.

☆ The earth is speaking to us, but we can’t hear them because of all the racket our senses are making. Sometimes we need to erase them, erase our senses. Then – maybe – the earth will touch us. The universe will start to speak. The stars will whisper.

☆ I homed in on the beacon of her smile.

☆ She was bendable light: She shone around every corner of my day.

☆ And I think every once in a while someone comes along who is a little more primitive than the rest of us, a little closer to our beginnings, a little more in touch with the stuff we’re made of.

☆ When a Stargirl cries, she does not shed tears, but light.

☆ The echo of her laughter is the second sunrise I awaken to each day, and at night I feel it is more than stars looking down on me.

[ b o o k ] Love is A Mix Tape

 

 

It’s the same with people who say, ‘Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ Even people who say this must realize that the exact opposite is true. What doesn’t kill you maims you, cripples you, leaves you weak, makes you whiny and full of yourself at the same time. The more pain, the more pompous you get. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you incredibly annoying
- Rob Sheffield

I’ve been reading this lovely memoir by Rob Sheffield. I remember making mixtapes for my classmates when I was younger, like grade school? Mostly it was full of love songs and boy groups . I remember buying blank cassettes and recording songs. I loved the way I can create a story with the songs I put in, and designing the cover art. Although I loved to make mixtapes I realise that I only received two mixtapes, and these tapes were made by my young cousin. He made it as a parting gift for me after I spent three months living with them. He didn’t write the tracklist down, so the first time I listened to them I didn’t know what to expect.

I remember the day that I first listened to it so clearly. I was with my best-friend-since-we-were-in-diapers, and we went outside where my family’s car was parked. She sat on the driver’s seat while I sat next to her, my feet propped on the dashboard. Our windows were rolled down and my car door was open,  the afternoon air was crisp and cool. The whole neighborhood was quiet and then she popped the tape into the player. Ahh, the songs were so typical of the adolescent, hormonally charged me – sentimental, emo and most of all it’s about romance. He knows me so well!   I think we played both tapes three times before they finally called us in for supper.

Although I haven’t finished this book, I can safely say that I love it! It’s sad, sweet, funny and moving at all the right places. And most of all it’s about LOVE and MUSIC! A perfect combination I could always tell you what phase of my life I was in by the music I listened to. A lot of wonderful, magical and yes, even sad moments can be captured in a mixtape. Though I don’t use cassettes anymore I can still make mixes through my iTunes playlist… I once created a mix called Anthem of My Life . You should also check out Cassette from My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves.

Have you ever made or received a mixtape? When was the last time you made a mix for yourself? Or am I an ancient dinosaur because I still can recall the time of cassette tapes?

[ r e v i e w ] Hardboiled & Hard Luck

Title: Hardboiled & Hard Luck

Author: Banana Yoshimoto

[ r e v i e w ] Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Based on the true story of everyone…

Once in awhile I let myself get carried away by a movie, especially ones that are formulated to bring in a few tears, make your heart skip a beat with its good-looking leads and have quite predictable scenes. I do think that A Crazy Little Thing Called Love (First Love) has a lot of cliches in the bag but I’m not ashamed to say that this movie made me tear up (though I watched My Sister’s Keeper the day before and I was stoic) TWICE, and I’m modest when I said I “teared”  let’s just say there were two streams running down my face.

I guess because of the film’s relatability, as it said at the beginning, it is based on the true story of everyone. We all have been there before, like Nam (Pimchanok Luewisedpaiboon) – an ugly duckling who has harbored a crush for one of the cute seniors in her school, P’Shone (Mario Maurer), she goes through a transformation to become someone that he would at least notice. Ahh, the pains of unrequited love, and young love at that.

But the story just doesn’t revolve around Nam’s crush, actually I was more moved by her friendship with three girls (look at them below) and how loyal and supportive they were of her. This movie reminded me the importance of my friends, family and first love. How they have shaped me and made me who I am today.

It’s a movie that will make you laugh out loud, cringe because you share the same experience with the lead character, make you go, “aww” and sometimes I found myself shouting at the screen and saying, “Confess now! Confess now! What are you waiting for?”, and of course will make you cry, it’s a definitely all around feel-good movie for anyone who’s ever had that bittersweet taste of young love.

All of us have someone hidden in the bottom of our hearts. And when we think of him, we always feel a little pain inside…but we still want to keep him.