Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Hittin' the Books

I appreciate all the notes of concern and/or encouragement re: my last post -- you guys are sweet and say all the right things. Thank you.

Onto my current indulgence: books. (and Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, but maybe that's for another blog...) Now that my boys are almost FIVE (how did this happen?), I sometimes actually have time to read again. And not just children's books and the occasional magazine article. Sometimes I find myself reading entire chapters of books before I hear my boys fighting over whose turn it is to do whatever. It's amazing.

So I thought I'd share two book recommendations:

I just finished reading "Mamarama: A Memoir of Sex, Kids and Rock 'n' Roll" by Evelyn McDonnell. She's a riot grrl rock critic turned mama in Miami. I actually found much of the book difficult to get through partially because of her ego and partially because of mine...as in, I wish I could say I had been the music editor at the Village Voice and that I'd hung out with Throwing Muses back in the day. Still, it's a decent momoir (is that what they call those?) in the end.

The thing I hadn't expected is that she actually married a guy with two kids, thus becoming a stepmom to teenagers -- difficult teenagers, too. She doesn't spend a ton of the book on that particular subject, but I still found her perspective interesting - especially this paragraph, in which she's talking about one of her stepdaughters when she was failing out of high school:

"I wish I could have reached her when she was in that dark place. I wish I hadn't said and done things that probably deepened the chasm between us. I think there are some things a parent can't fix; all you can do is stay on the ride and hope you come through the tunnel and out the other side." Let's all breathe a little sigh of relief for that.

I am now reading Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential." I know it's old, but I just finally got around to it after Tivoing his show forever. I LOVE it! I don't want to do anything but read it! In fact, I'm going to end this blog soon so that I can go back to reading it. It's great.

And thus concludes Reading Time with the mama/reality-TV-addict/wanna-be-chef. Who knows what I might read next?

5 comments:

Lady Evelyn said...

Thanks for writing about Mamarama! Sorry about my ego, but I think I've needed it to survive two decades as a rock critic. Sounds like we're on similar paths; hang on for the ride, eh?

Curyusgrg said...

I read Kitchen Confidential when i was still running a kitchen and I have often wondered if my unabashed and overwhelming love for it was just based in that "brotherhood" connection. Good to know a big pro like you enjoys it as well.

KK said...

Evelyn,
You are fully entitled to your ego. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Butch Roy said...

you have to have a certain amount of ego to think your life story should be listened to in the first place, only difference between a blog and a book is better marketing and maybe a little more ego.

so i don't know that "ego" denotes such a negative thing as people think and more of us should have more of it.

Lady Evelyn said...

It definitely takes some ego to write a memoir. Then putting your "baby" out there in the world to be taken apart, on the other hand, is a very humbling experience!

And as a blogger, KK is obviously doing better than I am, judging by the health of these comments here. My blog response pales in comparison -- though you might like my post today on FUPAs and MILFs: http://www.moli.com/p/moliview/0_201476/article.