Category: Writing

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Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters

Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters
author: Mallory Ortberg
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2014/12/20
date added: 2014/12/29
shelves: humor, non-fiction
review:
I wanted to like this so much more than I actually did. Maybe it’s better read a couple at a time over the course of a few months. (Like a website, even.) Maybe I just don’t know some of the text she’s parodying well enough. (Altho I’ve read no Descartes and that one made me laugh most of all!) It was funny, and some of it was LOL/giggly funny. But some of it fell really flat, not that I hated it, but that it didn’t hit for me.

(But really, what I want is a gorgeous coffeetable book of Women in Western Art pieces.)

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Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters

Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters
author: Mallory Ortberg
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2014/12/20
date added: 2014/12/29
shelves: humor, non-fiction
review:
I wanted to like this so much more than I actually did. Maybe it’s better read a couple at a time over the course of a few months. (Like a website, even.) Maybe I just don’t know some of the text she’s parodying well enough. (Altho I’ve read no Descartes and that one made me laugh most of all!) It was funny, and some of it was LOL/giggly funny. But some of it fell really flat, not that I hated it, but that it didn’t hit for me.

(But really, what I want is a gorgeous coffeetable book of Women in Western Art pieces.)

Posted on

Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters

Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters
author: Mallory Ortberg
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2014/12/20
date added: 2014/12/29
shelves: humor, non-fiction
review:
I wanted to like this so much more than I actually did. Maybe it’s better read a couple at a time over the course of a few months. (Like a website, even.) Maybe I just don’t know some of the text she’s parodying well enough. (Altho I’ve read no Descartes and that one made me laugh most of all!) It was funny, and some of it was LOL/giggly funny. But some of it fell really flat, not that I hated it, but that it didn’t hit for me.

(But really, what I want is a gorgeous coffeetable book of Women in Western Art pieces.)

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Illustration School: Let’s Draw Cute Animals

Illustration School: Let's Draw Cute Animals
author: Sachiko Umoto
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2014/10/19
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves: art, kid-lit, non-fiction, wishlist
review:
Incredibly adorable art instruction. Step-by-step techniques for drawing cute critters.

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Illustration School: Let’s Draw Cute Animals

Illustration School: Let's Draw Cute Animals
author: Sachiko Umoto
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2014/10/19
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves: art, kid-lit, non-fiction, wishlist
review:
Incredibly adorable art instruction. Step-by-step techniques for drawing cute critters.

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Illustration School: Let’s Draw Cute Animals

Illustration School: Let's Draw Cute Animals
author: Sachiko Umoto
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2014/10/19
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves: art, kid-lit, non-fiction, wishlist
review:
Incredibly adorable art instruction. Step-by-step techniques for drawing cute critters.

Posted on

Illustration School: Let’s Draw Cute Animals

Illustration School: Let's Draw Cute Animals
author: Sachiko Umoto
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2014/10/19
date added: 2014/10/20
shelves: art, kid-lit, non-fiction, wishlist
review:
Incredibly adorable art instruction. Step-by-step techniques for drawing cute critters.

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Elemental

Prompted by http://www.writingprompts.us/water-magic/

Lauren tied the friendship bracelet onto Amy’s wrist. A little spark of static electricity jumped between the girls. Amy bit back a yelp.

“Try it now,” said Lauren.

Amy crouched down and held her hands under the running water, cupped, like Lauren had showed her. Like Lauren had done it before and had tried to teach her.

A drop of water hovered in between Amy’s hands. Not falling. The drop gathered up other drops, became a sphere of water. When the cool glassy surface touched her palms, she jerked away. The ball of water floated in place for a moment. Just a moment, then it collapsed and splashed over Amy’s leggings.

She shrieked. Lauren leaned towards her.

“I’m okay,” Amy said. “I’m fine. It’s okay.”

Amy took a deep breath and tried again, ignoring her wet legs. This time, when the ball of water touched her hands, she held fast. It filled her hands, with the excess running off the edges. She bit her lip. 

“Now let it go,” Lauren said.

Amy opened her hands, first one finger at a time, then letting her palms drift away from the shimmering ball. This time, instead of exploding, it stayed in place: a moment, then another. She stood, keeping her gaze on the water ball. It floated up with her.

“Now!” said Lauren.

“Eyes or hands?”

“Hands…?”

Amy pointed at the shed, keeping her eyes fixed on the ball, which remained right where it was.

“So eyes, I guess…or maybe both? I don’t know!”

With her hands and eyes coordinated, Amy threw the ball of water. It hit the shed wall, bursting like a water balloon. The girls beamed at each other.

Amy twisted the loose ends of the friendship bracelet in her fingers.

“So, fire….?” she asked.

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Another poem

Let us pretend a little longer
That it is still summer
I will wear my sleeveless dress
And you can don your sunglasses
We will go to the beach
Where the waning afternoon light
Reflects off of the bright rocks
We will be warm in the sun
Just a little longer
We will forget for a moment
That the rain is coming.

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Poem

Walking up from the beach

Last of an early fall afternoon
Sharp shards of light and soft hollows of dark
Obscure and illuminate the steep uphill

Scrambling through the bony root-toes
Of firs and cedars less old than they look
Stepping between the slick knuckles
Finding soft purchase in the decomposing forest

Teenage boys louder than the few chattering birds
Echo into a general clatter of callowness
Like the distant barking of a dog, the roar of a car’s engine.