Pethricks

Creationists: Selected Essays | E.L. Doctorow

Found this as a book on CD at the library and decided to give it a listen while a captive of I-95, really enjoyed it. Doctorow examines the notion of literary and scientific creation, considering how creators shape, and are shaped by, the culture that surrounds them.

The works he features include: The Bible, Poe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Moby Dick, and Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn to name a few. Perhaps my favorite essay was the one focusing on Franz Kafka’s first novel “Amerika,” a book written about a country by an author who’d never been there. My mind couldn’t but help but think of work, the similarities between Kafka and how a good many products are developed amidst the fluorescent glow of a corporate HQ somewhere, rather than where the product will be used.

An American Girl (well two actually)

We headed into NYC, braving the rain and pre-Christmas crowds, with gift-cards in hand to the American Girl store where our girls picked out Julie and Kit. I’ll still reserve my opinions on spending that much on a doll but props must go to the American Girl people for the experience that they have created for kids (and Grandmothers!).

J-Pod | Douglas Coupland

I like a good Coupland read, having enjoyed “Miss Wyoming” and “All Families Are Psychotic” as well as the obligatory “Generation X” in the the past. “J-Pod” had been on my To Read list for some time and while it was one that I have and will recommend to others, it’s not a must read.

The workplace references made me laugh and cringe at the same time, being all a little close to home at times. Coupland was perhaps just a little too self-indulgent featuring himself in his own novel and devoting a good chunk of the book to the almost predictable page fillers of spam, brand names, prime numbers etc. Math junkies should buy the book for the 41 pages devoted to decimals of pi – as for me, I’m glad I borrowed it from the library!