a few in the queue

I always have a few lists going of books I want to read. My family and many of my friends are prolific readers, and I try to jot down the titles of suggested reads as they appear on email, facebook, conversations, etc.  Lately my go-to list has been on a big sheet of legal paper under my desk calendar where I jot entries. Every once in a while I spend a couple minutes on the library website (love) to update my holds, see what’s new, and add/delete tiles from my big list. Here’s how it looks right now

Confusing! Perplexing! Messy! Awesome.

I’ve been meaning to clean it up and have finally reached the point where all of my borrowed books have been read. I posted a “what are you reading” update on facebook last week in the hopes of getting some new recommendations, and promised to share the mac-daddy updated recommended reading list for whomever expressed interest. By reading this blog post, you are hereby considered interested  by default.

 Before I submit my summer lifelong reading list , I need to get a few things off my chest. First, Defending Jacob.  I think there will not be a spoiler alert, but I make no promises. I had this book on my list a long time ago, and once when I had the occasion to drive back and forth to LaLa land in a day, I looked for titles from my list that were available as audiobooks.  I was pleased to find Defending Jacob, and listened to it going back and forth that day, and then for a few additional hours one other day when I was doing a project in my son’s room.  It was good, I was intrigued. I don’t know if I put the book on hold right away, but for some reason it took ages until it become available for my kindle.  When I finally received the notification that I could have it, of course I had no less than 3 other books going including one other ebook loan. There’s only one thing to do at a time like this. Download all of the books then turn off your wifi so they can’t be taken back before you’re done. I’m sorry. Sorry I’m not sorry.

I read “Buddha in the Attic” first, which I wanted to hate because it was so oddly composed, but could not. Lovely, strange, poignant. Recommend.

Then it was on to Jacob. I started over, having no earthly idea where I’d left off and getting the story confused with “The Good Father” in my tiny, addled mind.  I just finished it last night, and although I highly recommend that you read this, I’m so annoyed that my theory about what really happened was not correct. It was a good theory, it would have made for a really interesting twist. Did you read it? Did you share my theory? I can’t stop thinking about it, which is my highest praise for recommending a book. I don’t always have to love the characters or even the writing, for me it’s the story. If it gets me, if I’m immersed, I count it as a good book.  I am not a book snob. I like what I like and yes I CAN give 5 stars to both Twilight and 11/22/63.

Anyway.

Without further ado, here’s the current list. I even looked up all the authors to be all legit and stuff. Current holds are noted:

A Good, Hard Look, Ann Napolitano

Arcadia, Lauren Groff

Bad Monkey, Carl Hiaasen

Bit Literacy I went to look up the author and realized that I so do not want to read this. sorry to whoever recommended it. 

Blood of Flowers, Anita Amrrezvani (#1 in queue for book)

Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese

Divergent, Veronica Roth

Freud's Mistress, Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman

Ghana Must Go, Taiye Selasi

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet, Ford

Joyland, Stephen King

Left Neglected, Lisa Genova

Life After Life, Kate Atkinson (#85in queue  for book)

Lost Memory of Skin, Russel Banks

May We Be Forgiven, A.M.Homes

Me before You, Jojo Moyes

Remember Ben Clayton, Stephen Harrigan

Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward

Still Alice, Lisa Genova

Still Anthony, Lisa Genova

Swamplandia!, Kevin Russell

Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Carol Rifka Brunt (#39 in queue for book, #44 for ebook)

The 13^th Tale, Setterfield

The Accused, Mark Gimenez

The Burgess Boys, Elizabeth Strout

The Burning Air, Erin Kelly (#2 in queue for book)

The Color of Law, Mark Giminez

The Dinner, Herman Koch

The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson

The Fault in our Stars, John Green

The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton

The Great Night, Chris Adrian

The Invisible Bridge, Julie Orringer (#2 in queue for ebook)

The Irresistable Henry House, Lisa Grenwald

The Island, Vidtoria Hislop

The Light in the Ruins, Chris Bohjalian

The Lonely Polygamist, Brady Udall

The Pale King, David Foster Wallace

The Paris Wife, Paula Mclain (#33in queue for ebook)

The Round House, Louise Eldich (#3 in queue for book)

The Silver Star, Jeannette Walls

The Summer Kitchen, Karen Weinreb

The Tao of Martha, by Jen Lancaster

The Wednesday Sisters, Meg Waite Clayton

The Weird Sisters, Eleanor Brown

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls,  Anton DiSclafani

To be Sung Underwater, Tom McNeal

Train Dreams, Denis Johnson

TransAtlantic, by Colum McCann

Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple (#40 in queue for book)

Wild, Cheryl Strayed

Wingshooters, Nina Revoyr

Got any to add? 

Hire me, I'm a blogger!

Bloggers are apparently assholes. Or at best really clueless. And the men seem to be bigger offenders than the women. (Pardon the slight, Jacquie and Ellie, although of course, you are not men.)

I just posted a job listing on Craigslist yesterday. It is for a part-time copy editing job, either on-site or remotely. The duties of the position are clearly listed:

Duties:
* Reviewing and copy editing professional-level medical manuscripts for grammar, style, spelling, and awkward phrasing.
* Maintaining corporate writing style by adhering to in-house style guidelines as well as the American Medical Association (AMA) and Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) guides.
* Maintaining careful database records to track all stages of content preparation.
* Quarterly testing of website.
* Exploring new opportunities to add value to the existing service/product.

Yes, it looks quite boring, doesn't it? That last bullet point, the only one that looks at all promising, is just in there for good measure. I'm not even entirely sure what it means, other than if we make changes to the product that add value, you need to assist. Still, yawn. Medical copy editing is no thrill-a-minute. It is not a creative job. It is not even copy editing creative work. It is simply manuscript after manuscript after manuscript of medical review articles. Except when we get to test the website. Party time, right? Oh, and you get to add and look things up in a database!

So, when I get cover letters and resumes that do not even refer to the work at hand, I am surprised, am perplexed, put them immediately in the "No" folder.

Blake says, "I am a fine writer and feel like I would make a great asset to your fantastic publication."  And he includes links to blog posts and other written material.

William says, "My relevant experience includes managing content for several blogs on Wordpress and Blogger. This work involved implementing basic SEO techniques and utilizing social media connections." 

And then he includes the link to his food blog.

What the f*#k is relevant about that experience, I ask you?

Patty has written her own book, and her "objective," the very first line of her resume, says this:

 Objective: To obtain an Administrative Assistant position within stable and reputable company.

At least she is not a blogger, just an author of a book, lol. (And who said we were anything close to stable??)

Andrew says he does have experience working within the health and wellness industry. (Good!) But here's where he loses me:

You can look forward to increasing your online exposure, driving more traffic to your website, and converting that site traffic to loyal, paying customers. Magnetize your ideal clients!

How, pray tell, can a copy editor do all that?! Magnetize our ideal clients?! That is one powerful semicolon, dude!

But the very best part of his submission, the proverbial cherry on the top, is this goodie:

I ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, so I know I can run with your business. 

!! A bull-running blogger. Just what we were hoping for!!

Robb let us know that he is "a freelance content writer/manager with literally thousands of blogs, articles and web pages to my credit. Please see the link to my website and the urls from some of my work"

 I don't want to read your blog posts, Robby boy.

Jack writes that his areas of writing experience include:

--a range of fiction and fact-based novellas
-- judicial function grant
-- health program grants
--a range of columns and newspaper feature stories
--a small hometown, online newspaper
--California state driver guide, white papers on advertising, and new learning methods
--daily blogging assignments

Um, novellas and blogs, cool, but what about the copy editing, Jack?

I'm sure that Blake, William, Patty , Andrew, Robb & Jack could all do the copy editing job. They all seem well versed in English, and it's not hard once you get a hang of the medical jargon. But they are not applying for a copy editing job. Clearly, they are all applying for a writing job, well, except for Patty, the author who wants an admin job -- all of which the copy editing job clearly is NOT.

I can hardly wait to see how many more bloggers apply for the position in this next 24 hours! 

Stuff and Junk

When you have an estate sale, you get to sell your stuff.

And your junk.

And your Mumsie, if you're lucky.

(Just kidding, Mumsie.)

You -- meaning you-Mumsie, not you-you  --

-- you have the peeps in . . .

. . . you beg the peeps to come in . . .

. . . and you sell them your stuff-and-junk . . .

. . . and you hope they buy the ancillary stuff-and-junk while they're at it.

Yeah, I know. They never buy enough of the stuff-and-junk, and you're left with all the leftover stuff-and-junk.

But amidst all that ubiquitous stuff-and-junk . . .

Sometimes you find treasures.

sorta kinda sums it up