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A Nod from Nancy: The Hearts of Horses
Ann Patchett wrote something in The Wall Street Journal which resonated with me. She said people walk into a bookstore and “feel utterly lost in the face of all those titles, and so they walk out empty-handed.” She combats this problem by recommending books she likes to anyone who listens. I’ve decided to do the same.
I can’t promise a review of the books I recommend since that takes a lot of time and thought. However, when I read a book I like–of any genre–I will tell you what it is and try to pique your interest in some way. Since I’m a big fan of alliteration I’ve decided to title my picks “A Nod from Nancy”. Catchy, eh?
Here’s my first “nod”:
The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss
I like horses but plenty of folks I know who aren’t particularly taken the the four-legged beasts have enjoyed this novel. It’s set in Oregon in 1917. The main character is a young woman who travels around various ranches and farms, gentling their horses. She’s a cross between a bronco-buster and a horse-whisperer. The story is about people though, as she gets drawn into the lives of the horses’ owners. There’s love, death, and plenty of other drama, yet the book has a wonderfully calm rhythm which reminded me of riding a horse.
If anyone else has read this book, I’d love to hear what you thought.
The Unseen Hand
It’s a term my favorite hockey announcer Doc Emrick uses to explain the invisible force that seems to help you in weird ways. This is my "unseen hand" story:
Brodie frolicking with his buddy Trace
Yesterday I had to drive Brodie the Devil Dog to Rover Ranch and Spa. (Rover Ranch is a giant playroom for dogs where Brodie can get his ya-yas out by running around and bothering all the other dogs.) I loaded Brodie into the back of my SUV, turned on the ignition and saw the dreaded "tire pressure warning" light (which looks nothing like a tire so I always have to look it up in the manual to see what it means). I got back out of the car and discovered that my tire wasn’t just low, it was dead flat. This ticked me off because I had just had the car serviced the day before, and it seemed a little too coincidental that it would go flat overnight unless the car dealer had an "unseen hand" in it.
So I unloaded Brodie and reloaded him in my daughter’s car which providentially she had left home from college for the winter. As I was driving west along Bloomfield Avenue, I saw policemen setting up red cones. I continued along my way, dropped the dog, and came back. Approaching the red cones, I discovered the police were checking everyone’s car inspection stickers. I glanced at my daughter’s, saw with relief that it was current, and was waved through the checkpoint without incident.
When I got home, just out curiosity, I check MY car’s inspection sticker. Guess what? It expired in March of 2008. Whew! The unseen hand had saved me.
Note: it cost me $42.00 to have a local repair shop blow my tire back up, and it was indeed the car dealer’s fault that it had gone flat. However, I’m not complaining this time because they saved me a ticket.
I’m a “face” now
Well, I’ m on Facebook anyway. My Darling Daughter is horrified and made me swear never to attempt to “friend” her. At the time, I didn’t know what that meant so I had no problem making the promise. Of course, now I’m curious to see what’s in her profile. But I’m resisting.
At any rate, I joined the Facebook crowd because a local writers’ group moved their communications on to it so I had to if I wanted to keep up. Since then, I’ve wasted immense amounts of pleasurable time updating my profile (who doesn’t like to list their favorite music and movies?) and writing on my friends’ walls.
The most fun has been reconnecting with folks from college whom I haven’t heard from in decades. Hearing about their families and work has been fascinating.
I even “poked” someone although I still don’t get the point of it. However, the little caption that said “Poke Gordon” was irresistible and I figured Gordon wouldn’t mind. He says he counter-poked me but it never showed up on my page. A glitch in the sofware perhaps…or perhaps it’s that Gordon and I are the wrong age to use the “poking” mechanism.
I feel very au courant and hip now which probably goes to show how unhip I truly am. (In fact, I think anyone who uses the word “hip” probably isn’t.)
I’m dreaming of a White Christmas
For a magical evening, our holiday decorations were enhanced by a blanket of snow. It may be gone by Christmas Day, but the sight of snow on our wreaths swept me back to my childhood when it always seemd to be white on the night Santa arrived.
Happy Holidays to all my readers! May your days be merry and bright!
Holiday Gift #4: For your divorced friends
I found this in a catalogue of Victoriana but it seems totally modern and potentially quite useful to me:
Lover’s Quarrel Frame
Photography was once reserved only for the affluent. Given the exorbitant costs of portrait photography in the late 1800s, it was unthinkable to discard a valuable photograph due to a broken relationship. Rather, the undesirable subject would simply be folded back or scissored off. The slender frame which found the height of its popularity after 1910, later came to be known as a ‘Dear John Frame’, thus accommodating the lonely heart beautifully. $16.95
While it pains my romance writer’s heart to say so, I can think of several friends who might find it very appealing.
Top Ten Reasons to Believe
1o. He sees you when you’re sleeping.
9. He hates fruitcake too.
8. Never gives you socks or underwear.
7. You don’t need to write a thank you note. (My children would put this in the Number 1 position!)
6. “Better not pout” just makes sense.
5. He doesn’t mind if you play with the boxes.
4. He is the single largest employer of elves.
3. He has an unlimited line of credit.
2. Reindeer don’t make a mess on your roof.
1. Three little words…LUMP OF COAL!
Bizarre Holiday Gift #3
A Mustache for Every Day.
“Dapper self-adhesive ‘stache! Set of 7 includes The Hero, The Sheriff, The Hollywood, and more. $7.98”
They actually tell you what day to wear them on, just in case you weren’t sure. I may order two, one to give and one to keep for myself.
Brodie finds a friend
Okay, so his friend looks like the Hound of the Baskervilles but he’s really just a two-year-old German Shepherd named Trace who belongs to my friend Lynn.
The first time the two of them met, they ran around my backyard in circles and figure 8s for twenty minutes straight. Then Brodie collapsed in a panting heap. Trace has more stamina and kept pestering Brodie to start running again. Finally, Brodie crawled under my lawn chair for protection from his annoying new acquaintance. It was a banner day! Brodie was too tired to get into trouble!
Of course, I’ve invited Trace to come back twice a day for the next six months.
Beyond Bizarre Holiday Gift No. 2
There’s a really bad pun in the title of this post. Sorry!
This gift idea truly baffles me. It’s a 2009 Dog Doo Calendar which “features 12 beautiful full-color photos of majestic mountains, field of flowers, rushing rivers and glorious oceanside settings along with dog droppings so realistic you can almost smell them. It’s the perfect gift when you want to show that you give a cr*p.” For a mere $12.99.
Notice how proud they are of the realism of the dog droppings.
You can add a companion gift from the previous page, the photo of which I refuse to put on my blog because it’s truly gross: Doggy Doo Ornaments. “This tidy faux doggy doo ornament ($6.98) is glittering with a sprinkling of ‘snow’ and tied up nicely with a holiday ribbon. Great for the pet lover who has everything.”
Call me crazy, but it seems to me that a donation to the local animal shelter would be a better gift for the pet lover who has everything.
Brodie update
Here’s Brodie in our backyard, happily chewing on his favorite stick. He looks pretty settled in, doesn’t he?
Well, let’s see. He separated my favorite tree from its roots about six inches above the soil and then ran around the yard with its corpse in his mouth, taunting me. He bit a chunk of plaster out of the wall beside our powder room because I had the nerve to close the door when he wanted to follow me in there. He mangled my husband’s reading glasses. He stripped the cover off the out-of-print script for Sunday in the Park with George that my sister-in-law had loaned me with the admonition to treat it like gold.
If Marley and Me hadn’t already been written, I could easily do so.
Do I love Brodie anyway? You betcha! He’s the best dog in the world!
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