Caturday and LOLcats

I've discovered something called LOLcats at I Can Has Cheezburger.  I've never met this little kitty who likes Caturdays.  Because she cheers for Caturdays, I like her, but I have a complaint about the other pictures.  Why, oh why, do you humans misspell words to represent cat talk?  Don't make us sound ignorant just because YOU can't properly translate meow or miao.  That simply shows YOUR ignorance.  I, on the other hand, understand several languages:  cat talk, dog talk, most bird languages, and human speak.  It's true I am unable to pronounce words the way people do, but that's because my larynx isn't shaped like yours.  That does not mean I'm stupid, and I certainly do NOT spell the as "teh" or kitty as "kitteh."  I want you to know that some of us are erudite cats.  Please give us a little credit.  I am disappointed in Bonnie, who posted a LOLcat picture last Sunday that misspelled words as though the poor cat in the photo were half-witted.  Yes, I realize Bonnie didn't write those words, but still.  It's unconscionable!



I beg you, please understand that some of us cats are quite intelligent!

Kiki Cat, signing off

The Lacuna ~ book beginning (and teaser)

I'm back to this book, which I put aside for a couple of books due back at the library in seven days.  I'm enjoying this book, and this evening I realized I haven't thought to use it for either Book Beginnings on Friday or a Teaser post.  I'll rectify that oversight now.

"In the beginning were the howlers.  They always commenced their bellowing in the first hour of dawn, just as the hem of the sky began to whiten.  It would start with just one:  his forced, rhythmic groaning like a saw blade.  That aroused others near him, nudging them to bawl along with his monstrous tone.  Soon the maroon-throated howls would echo back from other trees, farther down the beach, until the hole jungle filled with roaring trees.  As it was in the beginning, so it is every morning of the world" (p. 1 of The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, 2009).

This is beautiful writing, but it doesn't really entice me to continue.  In the next sentence, we learn a boy and his mother believe these howlers are devils screaming because they want to consume human flesh.  That still doesn't make me want to continue.  I must say the opening doesn't really appeal to me, but because I'm reading it with my online Book Buddies, I continued -- and it does become more interesting.  I have read 309 pages of this 509-page book.


Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Katy F. at A Few More Pages.  Click this link to read other book beginnings.

Library Loot ~ a meme

Never apologize for getting a book from the library! What a great thing for an author to say.  I found this video at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader, where Marg co-hosts the weekly Library Loot meme.  Thanks, Marg!

Hmm, I could do that myself.  Wednesday, I came home with four library books, and I've already dipped into the first of them, the one about Baba Segi.  I like Shoneyin's writing style.  I mentioned on Sunday that I wanted these two books, so I won't say any more about them.  Click on the titles if you want to read more.

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives ~ by Lola Shoneyin, 2010
Running in the Family ~ by Michael Ondaatje, 1982

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East ~ by Sandy Tolan, 2006

"In the summer of 1967, not long after the Six-Day War, three young Arab men ventured into the town of Ramla, in what is now Jewish Israel.  They were cousins, on a pilgrimage to see their childhood homes; their families had been driven out of Palestine nearly twenty years earlier.  One cousin had a door slammed in his face, and another found his old house had been converted into a school.  But the third, Bashir, was met at the door by a young woman named Dalia, who invited him in." -- from the dust jacket

Interpreter of Maladies: Stories ~ by Jhumpa Lahiri, 1999

"Winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, this stunning debut collection unerringly charts the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations. ... 'Ms. Lahiri expertly captures the out-of-context lives of immigrants, expatriates, and first-generation Americans' (Wall Street Journal)." -- from the back cover

I've been meaning to read this national bestseller for years, and I finally have a copy of the book in my hands.  Now the question becomes, Will I find time to read it now?  I'm busy teaching two writing classes, but maybe I can manage to read a few of the stories.  I really like her writing, and it was her 2003 novel The Namesake that I chose to write about in my very first blog post.  Click this link if you want to travel back to January 2007 to see what I said about the book.  And if you are willing, maybe you'll answer one or two of my questions, starting with "How did you get your name?"

Barefoot in Baghdad ~ by Manal M. Omar, 2010

Baghdad, 2003

While reading Barefoot in Baghdad, I wondered how Manal Omar could be so naive about the dangers when she first determined to go to war-torn Iraq and yet remain so determined to help Iraqi women, even after people she knew were killed.  I was visualizing the horrors of war, while she was in the middle of it all, making friends and working hard to set up centers for Iraqi women.  Although Omar is an American, she shows clearly that some of what Americans did was harmful, even when they were trying to be helpful.  I had to keep reminding myself that she lived to write this memoir and, therefore, wouldn't be killed in the next chapter.

I wrote about the beautiful cover last Friday, when I checked this book out of the library.  At that time I had read only the first paragraph.  The book didn't go in the direction I expected, though it held my attention and kept pulling me from page to page.  I came away from my reading feeling pessimistic about the future of Iraq.

Watch a video from USIP (United States Institute of Peace), taped July 17, 2009, in which Manal Omar discusses the state of security in Iraq following the drawdown of U.S. forces and how the country has changed since 2003.  She was in Baghdad from 2003 to 2005.

Helen gave the book a 4.5 of 5 in her review on Helen's Book Blog.  Go read what she wrote.  I rate the book 8 of 10, a very good book, even though I haven't given any details.

Cornel West opens WVU's Festival of Ideas

Cornel West spoke at the Festival of Ideas at West Virginia University in 2009.  I used this short video (2:33 minutes) in my classes on Monday to show how someone used examples effectively.  Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living."  That, at any rate, is what Plato tells us in his Dialogues.  Have you examined your life lately?

All's right with the world ~ now

Scene of the crime

Kiki came hurrying down the hall to where I was on the computer, meowing loudly all the way.  It was a plaintive cry of distress.  Something was terribly wrong in her world, and she wanted me to know.  It was not her usual scratching-on-the-baseboard way of telling me it's time to eat.  It was distress, plain and simple.

I knew in a flash (to quote a certain Christmas poem) exactly what the problem was.  While Kiki had napped away a Sunday afternoon, someone -- some dastardly person -- had stolen not only the food she had left in the bowl for later, but also the blue-and-white bowl itself, her water dish (um, well, it isn't exactly a dish), and even the blue mat under her dishes.  Clearly a problem of the first order!  And I was the culprit.  I talked to Kiki as we hurried to the kitchen to survey the terrible scene, where I had taken up all her things to clean them.  The mat was drying over by the sink.

Kiki

Look quickly at the fresh food in her dishes, wet food, dry food, water. Now you see it; soon you won't.  Here's Kiki snarfing it down before it disappears again.  Yes, that's a people-style "glass" for her water.  A cat can sit regally before it and sip daintily without even needing to lower her head.  The tall "bowl" is too narrow for a cat's head to dip into, so I have to be sure the water is topped off.

After my friend Donna and I closed our bookstore, we lived in an apartment together with our two cats as we paid off our business debts.  Her cat is Sammy, female like Kiki.  Having always been "only" cats, the two didn't really like each other, but they watched and learned things the other cat knew.  Sammy became more vocal, like Kiki, and now regularly talks to Donna.  And Kiki learned this neat way of drinking water from Sammy.

Sammy

One day Donna was watching TV with water or tea or cola in that very pink plastic "glass" set on the ledge that ran beneath our picture window next to her chair.  When she turned to reach for her drink, Sammy was sitting there, pretty as you please, lapping away at it.  She began to do it so often that Donna had to protect her drinks and keep an eye out for cats.  Finally, she gave them what they wanted.  The cats thought it was marvelous to have their own pink water dish like the humans used.  Donna happened to have two of those pink glasses among her rainbow-colored plastic dishes, so when we moved into our own places again a couple of years ago, she kindly gave one to Kiki.  And today it went missing, just when Kiki was ready for a leisurely bite to eat -- and maybe a sip or two.  Reason enough to meow pitifully and complain to me.

I've written before about Kiki's talkativeness.  She is quite good at lying for a good cause, but sometimes we had to laugh at her.  Occasionally when Donna would get home from work, Kiki would tell her she hadn’t had her afternoon treats yet -- and Sammy would come running to jump up on the piano and watch the action, hoping Kiki could convince the human that they were poor, pitiful, starving kitties who never got their treats on time.  The only trouble with their scheme was that I was usually right there in the room.

Donna would glance at me and say to Kiki, "But you already HAD your treats."

Kiki meowed plaintively, "Maiow, mew, mew."

Donna would say, "Yes, you did."

Kiki replied, "Meow miahow mew!"

Donna would say again, "Yes, you did."

Kiki got more assertive, saying, "Meow miaow MEOW."

The cats never seemed to notice that humans communicate with each other as well as with them.  Finally, Kiki would give up and plop on the floor with her back to Donna, and Sammy would sigh.

Cats have such a difficult life, trying to keep their humans in line.

TBR dream list

Eva posted a Sunday Salon today that is full of book titles that sound great!  It's all her fault I have added these five books to my TBR list (that means To Be Read, if you didn't already know that).

The Book of Night Women ~ by Marlon James, is a 2009 historical novel about a strong slave woman on a Jamaican plantation.  I placed a hold on this one at my library.  Synopsis:

It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they—and she—will come to both revere and fear. The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age and reveals the extent of her power, they see her as the key to their plans. But when she begins to understand her own feelings and desires and identity, Lilith starts to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman in Jamaica, and risks becoming the conspiracy's weak link.

Dream Homes: From Cairo to Katrina, an Exile's Journey ~ by Joyce Zonana, a 2008 memoir.  (Eva:  "When Zonana was a baby, her parents immigrated to the US from Egypt. ... As a child, she never feels quite Jewish since her Sephardic heritage is at odds in a neighbourhood of Ashkenazic Jews.")  This one is not in my library, but looks interesting enough that I may have to buy it.  Synopsis:

A memoir of traditions lost and found, a flooded city, and the healing power of food.  Mark Knoblauch said in a Booklist review:  "Leaving Cairo’s familiar, if chaotic, streets in 1951 for the uncharted territories of America, Zonana finds herself a distinct minority. Even her fellow Brooklyn Jews know nothing about the traditions of Egyptian Jews, a community nearly obliterated in the aftermath of 1948’s Arab-Israeli conflict. Zonana grows up speaking French and English and doting on foods found only in Arab-owned stores. Her father prays daily, but the family neither keeps a kosher home nor observes the Sabbath. A parade of relatives passes through their Brooklyn home, including a grandmother devoted to Arab music unintelligible to the rest of the family. Zonana visits another beloved grandmother in Brazil, a journey that leaves her with indelible memories of the continent and a sense of a large and far-flung family. Eventually, Zonana’s academic gifts yield a professorship in New Orleans in time to endure the rigors of Katrina’s devastations. Zonana makes every human encounter lively."

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives ~ by Lola Shoneyin, a 2010 novel about modern polygamy, Nigeria.  This one is also on hold for me.  Synopsis:

A plump, vain, and prosperous middle-aged man of robust appetites, Baba Segi is the patriarch of a large household that includes a quartet of wives and seven children. But his desire to possess more just might be his undoing. Babi Segi's fourth and youngest wife, an educated woman who inspires jealousy in her fellow wives, harbors a secret that will expose shocking truths about them all.

Running in the Family ~ by Michael Ondaatje is his 1982 memoir about Sri Lanka.  (Eva:  "I loved the way that Ondaatje told the stories themselves while also looking at how they can shape us and our identities.")  I put this one on hold at my library.

In the late 1970s Ondaatje returned to his native island of Sri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat and intoxicating fragrances of that "pendant off the ear of India, " Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family.

Mosquito ~ by Roma Tearne is her 2008 novel set in Sri Lanka.  This one is not in my library, so I'll have to decide if I want it enough to buy it.  Synopsis:

Set adrift by the recent death of his wife, Theo Samarajeeva abandons his comfortable writer's life in London and returns to Sri Lanka, his war- torn homeland. There he meets Nulani, a talented and enigmatic young artist. An unorthodox and tenuous love blossoms between this unlikely pair. Nulani finally feels love, and Theo sees hope in his future. But when the insurgency explodes, their precarious world is torn apart. Theo is held captive and stripped of everything he once held dear. Nulani is forced into exile. As the years pass, and the poison of war spreads across this paradise, will their love be lost forever?

As I look over this list, it occurs to me this sounds like Dewey's lists from reviews she would read every Sunday.  Someone remind me what she called those posts.  (It has been two years this month since she left us so suddenly.  Dewey, I still miss you terribly.)