Walk to Work

This was my view on my way to work this morning. Our neighborhood looked so lovely with the new falling snow.

Interesting book...

I thought I'd just share this intersting tidbit I learned today.

I was commuting to work this morning and listening to my favorite podcast, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! from NPR on my new iPod Touch (man is this iPod cool) when I learned about this book:

This is the blurb from Harper Colliins:

In Sneaker Wars, journalist Barbara Smit reveals the dramatic, character-driven story of these two power-houses. Started in their mother's laundry room in Germany, Adi and Rudi Dassler's shoe business was an instant success, their spikes worn by Jesse Owens in the Berlin Olympics. But a vicious feud soon pulled them apart: by the end of World War II, the brothers split the company, dividing their family and hometown.

What a bizarre true story! Did any of you know this weird fact about Puma and Adidas? I am going to have to pick this book up.

Eugenie Grandet - Honore de Balzac

The last book I read in 2009 was a short novel by Honore de Balzac called Eugénie Grandet which was written in 1833. I needed a short novel to be my 100th book of 2009 and this Balzac novel is on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list, so I thought, why not.

Here's the story:

The story takes place in a small town in France where Eugenie is the heroine. Her father was a cooper who has become wealthy but miserly. Think of him as a French Scrooge but with a wife and daughter. Terrifyingly horrid thought.

One day, Eugenie's cousin, Charles Grandet from Paris comes to town. He is a dandy, foppish, and cute. Eugenie falls hard. However, bad news follows in Charles' footsteps. His father has gone bankrupt and has taken his life. Charles must leave to earn his own way and try to earn money to gain back his family's reputation. Poor Eugenie is left to pine for his return.

I'm going to leave it there. I don't want to spoil the ending or what happens to these two star-crossed lovers. I thought it was amazingly realistically portrayed. I was trying to think what stands out in Balzac's writing and I think the word is "humanism." Beware that this is no ordinary simple love story. Things don't always go as plan or turn out right. But I just really felt for Eugenie and her evolution as a character.

Honore de Balzac wrote a collection 95 finished pieces of work (essays, novels, etc) of interlinking novels for a collection he called La Comédie humaine or The Human Comedy. It is divided up into sections and Eugenie Grandet fits into the section called Scenes from a Provincial Life.

I am absolutely fascinated by this massive undertaking of Balzac's and how his novels and works really dig deep into humanity with realistic characters. I'll definitely be reading more of Honore de Balzac's works.

I read Eugenie Grandet online at Online Literature.


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Snowy Day - View from Office

This is a view from my office of the Waldorf Astoria towers. I've noticed that New Yorkers love to talk about the weather. I figure that everyone has at least one thing in common - we all have to deal with the weather.

Longitude - Dava Sobel

Let me just say right now that I love Dava Sobel. She is an amazing author. Back in 2008 I read her book Galileo's Daughter (my review) and just loved it. I have heard her other books are just as good so when I saw Longitude at the library I had to read it.

I love this book. I ended up buying this book so my husband could read it.

Longitude is actually subtitled: The True Story of the Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. This is non-fiction history at its best. It's a short book but it is thorough without being boring.

Here's the plot:

Throughout history, when people sailed the seas, they usually had to hug coasts to know where they were in the world. Then they figured out Latitude and people like Columbus could pretty much set a course based on Latitude and head on over to America. Or wherever they were going. But the problem was Longitude. No one at that time know how big the world was.

I don't want to give more away but the solution to the problem is fascinating. But I won't tell you who came up with the solution because that is the best part. I can't wait for my husband to read it so we can talk about it. This is one of those books you just want to discuss with someone.

Here's the cover of the version I bought:

I had no clue there's an illustrated version! My copy had some photos in the middle but I'm going to have to check this out too:

And there's a movie with Jeremy Irons!?! Oh the things you find when you Google search.
You can check out Dava Sobel's website for more information on Longitude and her other books.

Have you read anything by Dava Sobel?

Also Reviewed by:

Age 30+: A Lifetime of Books

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Oh what to say about Mrs. Dalloway....

Let me warn you first that I've been in a weird reading funk this year. This is also my first foray into the works of Virginia Woolf, and while I didn't like Mrs. Dalloway, that doesn't mean I won't try again with a different work.

Here it is:

Mrs. Dalloway is the central figure of this story. The whole book takes place in a single day and starts off with Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway heading out to get some flowers for a party she is throwing that night.

It follows Mrs. Dalloway out into the city and there skips around in narration. The central figures are Clarissa and Peter Walsh (an old flame) who comes back from India and stops to see Clarissa. Other characters are Sally (a past best friend), Elizabeth (Clarissa's daughter), Richard (Clarissa's husband), and a few random park people. The story ends with Mrs. Dalloway's party.

Honestly, I loved the writing. Once I got used the rhythm I really enjoyed it. I was a little confused at the beginning because I had no clue how old Mrs. Dalloway was supposed to be. A bit into the book we find out she's 52 years old. But I guess I was thrown by the spunk of her character and the cover of the novel.

But halfway into the book I got bored. I lost interest in Clarissa, Peter, Richard, and the whole bunch. I really didn't care. The most interesting characters were Elizabeth, which we didn't hear much of, two very side characters of a ex-military man and his Italian wife, and a snippet of Clarissa's past friendship with Sally. Actually, had this book only been about those people, I'd have enjoyed it. I really just couldn't stand Clarissa or Peter.

In all honesty, I would never have finished this book besides the fact that I had signed up over at Sarah's blog for Woolf in Winter. That and I knew I'd never pick this book back up again...well at least not in the next couple of decades. I wonder if I'd like it more when I'm closer to Clarissa's age. Or maybe not. I guess I just felt that Clarissa and Peter just seemed so childish.

If you've read this and like it, or didn't, let me know what you thought! I'm off to read some reviews.

Also Reviewed by:

BookBath
What we have here is a failure to communicate (and more)
A Striped Armchair
Regular Rumination
It's all about me (time)
Books, the Universe, and Everything
Book-a-rama
Rhinoa's Ramblings

Christmas Photos

I've been in a picture posting mood lately. Ok, a belated picture posting mood. So I thought I'd post our Christmas photos. Yeah. I'm not kidding. This what we did that day in our tiny New York City apartment. We cooked ourselves a feast. Ok. So that sounds really overindulgent of us. Believe me when I say we are STILL eating leftovers thawed from the freezer. And boy does it make for some great soups.

Ok. Here we go...

This is our little living room with our stockings and tree. I found some fun New York City Christmas ornaments at Duane Reade (and proceeded to break two of the four but that's ok). Forgive our wonky broken shades. We also used my husband's mechanical engineering drawings as wrapping paper. As he says, got to save those paper trees.

Here's a bigger version with our pups' stockings as well. And yes, we are recycling a tin can by putting a candle in it.
A Christmas tradition is to drink eggnog. I love eggnog and this is my favorite cup, made by the wonderful Brainella. Go check out her blog and Etsy shop for more fun stuff.
Of course we let the puppies open their stuff first. Here's Charlie with his new toy.I take more photos of Charlie because, well he's mine, and he's so photogenic. Look at those big brown eyes. Poor Anna. I think Robb is just taunting her with the toy.Finally she gets it:Charlie loves to sit or lay on my feet. I got a good picture of him giving me the crazy eyes look:
Then of course, like siblings do, they proceeded to fight over one of the toys while we finished opening up presents:Then it was on to the cooking. My goal was to make home-made cranberry sauce. I used the recipe I found over at She is Too Fond of Books. Absolutely delicious. I urge you to make this ASAP.

You take fresh cranberries: I had to take a close up:
Mix it with apples, pears, cinnamon stick, sugar, juice, etc: Boil it down and you get this yummy concoction. It was gone in about a day or two. Seriously yummy stuff.We also made green bean casserole. A must have for every holiday. In our fun little ethnic hood we couldn't find the traditional French's fried onions so Robb made home-made ones. For Christmas I treated myself to a set of mixing bowls I found at Urban Outfitters. Last time I cooked I had to use extra pots and pans as mixing bowls. So sad. But aren't the colors fun?Robb also made home-made stuffing. I know. We wanted to do it all home-made.Meanwhile I worked on the mashed potatoes (can you believe I'd never made them before?):And of course I made my favorite pie - apple. I make a mean apple pie: Go ahead, you can drool...We made ham AND turkey. I only managed to snap a picture of the ham. We thought, hey, while we are just cooking for us let's do it all so that if we mess up, it's won't be when we are entertaining friends and family. But they both turned out great! I love the turkey bag. That is a must.So this whole thing we managed in our tiny little kitchen. Seriously, when you open the fridge, it only misses the counter by a fraction of an inch. Here it is:Finally, dinner:

I hope you enjoyed our Christmas day pictures!