books, parties

I've just returned from a nice long weekend to visit my parents in Indiana. My grandma threw a big party in the Senior Center, which, truthfully, I thought would be awful, but we had a really good time. She hired an old-timey band and invited all of her old-timey friends and they danced all night. I did a Virginia Reel with my grandma, and something called The Butterfly, and had a generally great time. Although someone in the parking lot had an anti-abortion bumber sticker on their car, and I was vaguelly haunted by the fact that I could have been dancing with an anti-abortionist. (I tore off a little chunk of the sticker.)





I've been reading some great books recently - right now I'm finishing up Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?, which was recommended to me by my friend LIz years ago, and I've only gotten around to reading now. It's terrific. And I read Kiffe, Kiffe Tomorrow, which apparently is all the rage in Paris. It's about a muslim girl who lives in those slums outside the city. Very interesting. Funny. Also I read The Bright Forever, which was not great... really rather dirivitive of The Lovely Bones, but he did capture Indiana summers very well. I tried to read A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, but I have to admit I found it very boring, and I ended up skimming until the end, which was disappointing. Yes, yes, before you remind me that I might have missed the subtle denouement, I do understand that boredom was a part of the theme.

In other news, my good friend Kathy got us all hooked on Apples to Apples, which I entend to summarily hook my Chicago crew on.