A family from Laos lives in a basement apartment where cardboard covers the windows. The mother leaves one day but life goes on and the kids attend school. The father doesn't read so he is more dependent on the 10 and 8 year old than you'd like. A science project breaks his heart when he doesn't win it. The kids already understand their new world better than he does.
I hope you are having weather like we are. Day after day of 68 degrees and sunny. I don't remember such a stretch before.
I saw two good movies FJORD and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. Jane Austen never lets you down although the Ang Lee on of the nineties was better. This has such a dark palette.
Reading AETNA, about a bomb sniffing dog trying to get home after the war. I could not get through the Russo book-UNDER THE FALL.
Still trying to improve my balance at PT but I am beginning to think it's hopeless.
TV-MAIGRET, SMALL PROPHETS, Finished SLOW HORSES, which was terrific.
Kevin worked his butt off, got all As and is transferring to U of M in January. Wisconsin was fine, but his friends are at Michigan schools. Now he just has to decide on a major. Plus being an instate student will save money.
What's new with you?
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I was in a bookstore on the Upper West Side in Manhattan when a friend pulled A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMAN off the shelf. Many years later I have still not finished it but the stories are great. This one concerns a middle school student who is expelled and as punishment has to help her grandfather in his dental practice all summer. His abiding interest is in making false teeth so she helps him make a set for himself by pulling all his teeth after he passes out from the pain. Or passes out from the drink. She uses teabags to stop the bleeding. They are a perfect replica of his teeth.
Six elderly men are on the Harleys taking the ashes of a friend to the place he wanted to be scattered. Barry gives us great detail about the day, the road, the lunch they have, their ailments, their brief encounter with surfers at the spot. When one man suggests selling his bike, no one wants to hear it. Loved it.
