Mama's Got A Brand New Bag

... except the bag is actually a textbook which is much less fun.  (But more useful, let's be honest)

Sorry 'bout the glare, I am bad at Photo Booth.
So.  Actually starting this path towards the degree in Landscape Horticulture and Design, and the first step is MATH.  Which is in capitals because it is intimidating, like another class I have to take called CHEMISTRY. (dun-dun-dunnnnnnnnn).  What were my worst two subjects in high school?  You know, math and science.  Strangely I am enjoying math this time around, and figuring out I am not "bad at math" just "super lazy and unmotivated".  I also am thanking the baby Jesus for YouTube, because there are awesome tutorials on there for everything I'm getting stuck on.  Also super thankful that I work at a university and walked over to meet with a prof. in the Math department and told her I was studying ahead of my math class in the fall, and she straight up just handed me a $100 textbook to borrow for the summer, complete with a tutorial DVD.  And French Post Doc, aside from being annoying because he speaks French and I don't, is a math genius and happens to sit right in my crosshairs hallway, and will be SUPER happy to help.  Won't you, FPD??

When I'm not studying and finally wrapping my brain around prime numbers (oh, OHHHHHHHH) I'm reading the most beautiful and simply inspiring book I've read in a long time, Seeing Trees, by Robert Llewellyn and Nancy R. Hugo.  I randomly grabbed this off the new arrivals shelf at the library and could not put it down.  It's so simple - genetic traits and characteristics of everyday trees - maple, oak, sweet gum, beech, gingko, pine - photographed and described in vivid, simplistic terms.  She (Hugo) describes the fertilization process of these trees, bark characteristics, budding stages, root maturation processes, etc.  You will never be able to walk or take a run again without noticing these things you take for granted, whether Osage orange balls or dropped willow whips.  In fact, several early-morning runs have been delayed because I find horse chestnut buds or early sweet gum balls and have to stop and study them.  And sometimes this happens -

... where I am staring intently up at a bud on a branch, trying to determine if it is white oak or red oak (it was red), after a 4 mile run and do not see the slight rise in the sidewalk and trip and fall and bruise myself.  Read at your own risk, you guys.

Book Review - The Daily Coyote by Shreve Stockton

Love, love, loved this book.  
It's the true story of Shreve Stockton falling in love with Wyoming and a man; and said man bringing her home a baby coyote rescued out of a den after it's mother and siblings are killed.   She ends up raising "Charlie" in her little cabin, with a cat named Eli.  The pictures are gorgeous, of the animals and the landscape ... reading it made me realize the furthest west I've ever been is PA, and I've been dreaming ever since about a road trip with the Mister.  Le sigh ... maybe after the anklebiters are grown and don't need/want us anymore.

Shreve's website is here, and is updated daily with pictures : http://www.dailycoyote.net/

Book Review - The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

I love, love, love Barbara Kingsolver.  If you've never read Prodigal Summer, get up and go to the library and get it NOW.  Poisonwood Bible will break your heart, High Tide In Tucson, Animal Dreams .. this woman has an incredible talent.  

This book follows the life of Harrison Shepherd, starting with his childhood in Mexico where his mother has moved with her lover.  The book opens with Harrison and his mother huddling in bed listening to the howler monkeys, which they fear are bloodthirsty demons.  His mother whispers "write everything down, so when they find only our bones they know what happened to us."

And so starts his life as a writer.  He writes through his tumultuous relationship with his mother, meeting and apprenticing himself to Diego Rivera (and subsequently befriending Frida Kahlo), and working for Leon Trotsky.  The book is written mainly as a collection of letters, journal entries, and articles on Harrison himself and his friends. 

After moving to the US as an adult and getting his first book published, Harrison finds himself a target of scrutiny for his ties to the Communist party.  How he reacts to this witch hunt (pardon the term) is extraordinary.  

It was so easy, reading this, to pity this man.  I think Kingsolver demonstrates beautifully how the trials of our lives ready us for what lies ahead.  You are ready to just sympathize with Harrison throughout, and at the end, he amazes you.

The lacuna refers to a portal Harrison finds as a boy while swimming - he notices an underwater tunnel, the only way of which to enter is by holding your breath and swimming as fast as you can.  The tunnel leads to an oasis for a young curious boy.   You hope all the way to end of this book that he reaches the other side.

And I give it:
(Out of 5)