Book Corner 2024.47

The Brief Wondrous Life of Osca Wao

by Junot Diaz

The first section is about Oscar as a young boy – Dominican immigrant, nerdy, overweight, cannot attract a girlfriend. This is the story that grabbed me.

The second section is about his sister Lola – tough, raped at the age of eight and nobody cared, steely, strong, mother hates her, they fight, she rebels. Now I was REALLY into it.

The third section is about the mother’s backstory in the Dominican Republic. It’s all about how the mother has big tits. She has an affair with a general. I couldn’t wait for this section to end, and was starting to feel bait-and-switched. The footnotes were growing thicker and harder to read.

Thankfully, we do come back to Oscar, from the perspective of his erstwhile college roommate and erstwhile boyfriend of Lola. I really liked this character. From here, we bounced around the various characters until the big climax that led to Oscar’s life being so brief.

There was a great deal of violence. I hated how men treated women and how women treated themselves. It did not end up being the book I signed up for and I would not recommend it.

I took my beading off the loom and decided to join the ends; no clasp or anything. I’m incredibly sloppy at the ‘finishing’ stage of most things, and this is no exception. I’m confident I’ll get it looking neat.

Book Corner 2024.45

Meditations for Mortals

by Oliver Burkeman

I subscribe to Burkeman’s email list, so I had kind of already read a lot of these.

I can’t believe he gave a shout-out to someone who advocates the mantra, “I choose to live in Easy World, where everything is easy.” I get the spirit of what he was trying to say; but I went to that woman’s website, and talk about woo-woo out the wazoo.

One of my favorite topics, arguing with myself about how bad a person I am, is covered (on Day 17). “Does anyone imagine that Vladmir Putin lies awake at night, worrying if he’s really as caring and thoughtful a person as he’d like to believe?” See? You’re better than Vladmir Putin. Reducto at Putinum.

Goat Love

Today after a normal feeding time, Columbia walked outside and just stood in the pasture, staring at the road, as you see here.

Zowie (foreground, turning to look at me) followed shortly thereafter. She stood a ways back and stopped, just looking at her mom from a short distance. Just keeping an eye. Just making sure she was OK. Because it was kind of unusual. And Zowie would surely rather be eating hay or drinking water or licking salt or grazing a bit, rather than doing nothing, but mom was acting strange, so maybe best to just keep an eye in case she needed anything.

They love each other so much.

I hope Columbia’s OK and was just enjoying the rare sunshine on her back.