{"id":542,"date":"2007-03-10T17:06:48","date_gmt":"2007-03-10T23:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=542"},"modified":"2007-03-16T12:06:33","modified_gmt":"2007-03-16T18:06:33","slug":"come-and-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=542","title":{"rendered":"Come and Play"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jules: <\/strong>I have an idea for a new series of sorts on this, our impish blog (if you haven\u2019t noticed, the nickname we\u2019ve been granted, which has stuck, is 7-Imp). I\u2019m reading this brilliant, little-known book called The Book Thief<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. Have you heard of it? Yes, I\u2019m just a bit slow in getting to it. Anyway, I was just emailing my Four Favorite Readers in All the World about a passage in it that is just so beautiful, and it gave me this new 7-Imp weekend-series idea. I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d have time for blogging this weekend, but I\u2019m just all inspired now. <\/p>\n

So, at the risk of sounding like Oprah, the idea is that every weekend we can cyber-gather and discuss what Beautiful and\/or Kick-Ass Things Happened to You or That You Read or That You Noticed This Week (yes, I need a better name for the series. Any ideas?). If you\u2019re a Patty Griffin<\/strong><\/a> fan, as Eisha and I are, you may have heard or read her discuss in several interviews that, since the world is just scary \u2013 what with wars and suffering and environmental destruction and many other innumerable dreadful things — it\u2019s nice to take moments to notice the good (a recurring theme in her music as well). Sure, she\u2019s not the first person to say this, but, hey, it\u2019s on my mind, as I just read an interview with her. <\/p>\n

I shall begin:<\/p>\n

1> The aforesaid moment in The Book Thief<\/em> (spoiler coming up): When Liesel finds Rosa \u2013- after Hans has left for the war — sitting with his accordion strapped to her and her fingers hovering over the keys in the middle of the night. \u201cThere was . . . an acknowledgement that there was great beauty in what she was currently witnessing, and she chose not to disturb it.\u201d Even better is the fact that Zusak brings relief to this heart-shattering, soul-shaking poignancy (can you tell I liked that part?) by having Rosa snore again and having Liesel think, \u201c{w}ho needs bellows . . . when you\u2019ve got a pair of lungs like that?\u201d;<\/p>\n

2> The lyrics to and one-word chorus (\u201csun\u201d) of \u201cBurgundy Shoes\u201d; the piano in \u201cSomeone Else\u2019s Tomorrow\u201d; and the guitar feedback in \u201cGetting Ready\u201d on the new Patty Griffin CD<\/strong><\/a>;<\/p>\n

3> The fact that we have three great interviews coming up, one of them being with M.T. Anderson<\/strong><\/a>, who visited Eisha at her library this week just to get a photo for the interview and in which they\u2019re holding my disembodied head. Confused? The interview will be posted soon, so you\u2019ll just have to wait; <\/p>\n

4> My daughter turns three on Monday and may actually have a pony at her party (her part-time pony that lives at her grandfather\u2019s). A pony at a child\u2019s birthday party \u2013 it\u2019s terrifically clich\u00e9, huh? Now we just need to add a clown. Best of all, she\u2019ll be getting good books for her birthday, including the new Polo<\/em> adventure<\/strong><\/a>; Punk Farm<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, which she really wants to own yet somehow hasn\u2019t \u2018til now; and Steve Jenkins’ and Robin Page’s I See a Kookaburra<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, which she seemingly can\u2019t live without. I also love the imagination of a three-year old. I\u2019ve been reading The Higher Power of Lucky<\/a><\/strong><\/em> this week (did you all know that the word \u201cscrotum\u201d is on the first page?), and she picks it up, pretends to be reading it by making up a stream of nonsense words, and has named it The Lost and Found Girl Who is Good<\/em>. As far as I can tell thus far (I’m about half-way through the book), that would actually suffice as an alternate title for the book, no? <\/p>\n

eisha: <\/strong>I love Jules’s idea, and I’m totally game. Here goes:<\/p>\n

1> Well, you already mentioned that M.T. Anderson<\/strong><\/a> showed up at my library to have his picture taken with me, along with his charming girlfriend, and we just talked books and Nashville and blogs and awards and stuff, and I had such a great time. Why don’t excellent authors just drop by my little library branch and hang out with me all the time, I wonder? Sure, I might not get a lot of work done, but still…<\/p>\n

Feathers 2> I just finished Jacqueline Woodson’s<\/strong><\/a> new middle-grade novel, Feathers<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, this morning. I immediately turned back to the beginning and started it over. Yes, even with the huge pile of TBRs I’ve got sitting around. It’s that good. I’m going to write more about it, of course, but I’m hoping I’ll get to see her Monday night at a reading<\/strong><\/a> (if I can figure out how to get from my library to that one in less than 30 minutes), so I’ll probably wait until after that so I can include that experience in the review.<\/p>\n

3> Last night I tried White Sangria for the first time. It’s really good!<\/p>\n

Jules: <\/strong>Anyone else? What do you think of this series idea? Will you play weekly? What would you call it? Is it just a bad idea?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jules: I have an idea for a new series of sorts on this, our impish blog (if you haven\u2019t noticed, the nickname we\u2019ve been granted, which has stuck, is 7-Imp). I\u2019m reading this brilliant, little-known book called The Book Thief. Have you heard of it? Yes, I\u2019m just a bit slow in getting to it. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}