Book report and kids at work
Apr. 12th, 2006 07:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksThe book report for the weekend includes The Thief, a YA book by Megan Whalen Turner that I loved. Thanks to Avid Reader for mentioning this book. It is set in an ancient-Greece-like country, and is the adventure of Gen, a bold, braggart thief who is released from prison in order to steal for the king. There's more to it than that, of course. I'm working on a longer review, but really just needed to gush about the book.
Next book read: The Admiral's Bride by Suzanne Brockmann. This is a reissue and a reread for me. I bought it way back when it was originally issued by Silhouette, and kept it for a while. As part of my last move, I sold a bunch of books at half.com, including this one, because it just wasn't a keeper for me. I liked the hero, I liked the heroine, the adventure was well-plotted, and if I had to give a grade, it would probably be a B+ or A-...but I had no desire to keep the book long term. On Saturday, I picked up a copy at the library. Now that I've reread it, I realize why it wasn't a keeper. The age difference wasn't a problem for me, nor was the fact that Jake saved Zoe's father's life. The thing that made me uncomfortable was the fact that under the adult feelings was Zoe's hero worship. At one point in the book, she thinks about how Jake had been the object of her teen fantasies. Uh, ick. I'm not sure if I can verbalize exactly why this strikes me as wrong, though. Maybe it is about coming to the relationship-table as equals. Can you do that with someone you dreamed of as a teenager? Or maybe I'm just personalizing it too much, because the idea of actually hooking up long term with anyone I fantasized about as a teenager doesn't work for me today.
Kids at work. A colleague has brought her grandchildren to work with her every day this week and will do so for the next two days as well. She is so busy watching them that she's not getting any work done, and her workstation is a disaster of juice boxes and snacks. I understand that daycare issues pop up, but that's not exactly the case here. It is Spring Break for the local schools: her daughter didn't have any vacation, so she's taking care of the kids and bringing them in to work since our office policy is more tolerant that her daughter's. Uh, okay. Why not stay home with them, especially if you aren't getting any work done at the office? [I wonder this mainly because I know that this person has a significant amount of Use-or-Lose leave accrued.] I remember going to work with my mom as a kid, and sitting in the office reading or doing homework, or walking to the library and spending the day there. But thundering up and down the halls, playing games and yelling at each other? Nope. Food fight in the kitchen? Absolutely not.
Next book read: The Admiral's Bride by Suzanne Brockmann. This is a reissue and a reread for me. I bought it way back when it was originally issued by Silhouette, and kept it for a while. As part of my last move, I sold a bunch of books at half.com, including this one, because it just wasn't a keeper for me. I liked the hero, I liked the heroine, the adventure was well-plotted, and if I had to give a grade, it would probably be a B+ or A-...but I had no desire to keep the book long term. On Saturday, I picked up a copy at the library. Now that I've reread it, I realize why it wasn't a keeper. The age difference wasn't a problem for me, nor was the fact that Jake saved Zoe's father's life. The thing that made me uncomfortable was the fact that under the adult feelings was Zoe's hero worship. At one point in the book, she thinks about how Jake had been the object of her teen fantasies. Uh, ick. I'm not sure if I can verbalize exactly why this strikes me as wrong, though. Maybe it is about coming to the relationship-table as equals. Can you do that with someone you dreamed of as a teenager? Or maybe I'm just personalizing it too much, because the idea of actually hooking up long term with anyone I fantasized about as a teenager doesn't work for me today.
Kids at work. A colleague has brought her grandchildren to work with her every day this week and will do so for the next two days as well. She is so busy watching them that she's not getting any work done, and her workstation is a disaster of juice boxes and snacks. I understand that daycare issues pop up, but that's not exactly the case here. It is Spring Break for the local schools: her daughter didn't have any vacation, so she's taking care of the kids and bringing them in to work since our office policy is more tolerant that her daughter's. Uh, okay. Why not stay home with them, especially if you aren't getting any work done at the office? [I wonder this mainly because I know that this person has a significant amount of Use-or-Lose leave accrued.] I remember going to work with my mom as a kid, and sitting in the office reading or doing homework, or walking to the library and spending the day there. But thundering up and down the halls, playing games and yelling at each other? Nope. Food fight in the kitchen? Absolutely not.
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Date: 2006-04-12 12:48 pm (UTC)Megan Whalen Turner
Date: 2006-04-13 01:55 am (UTC)Btw, Megan Whalen Turner has a fan forum on Live Journal under the name of Sounis.
Re: Megan Whalen Turner
Date: 2006-04-13 11:32 am (UTC)