survivalists

[threeplusfire]

The office is a-twitter with weather forecasts. It dropped below freezing last night, and there's a second cold front expected to push through tomorrow. We're also getting a chunk of damp, wet air and the forecasts call for possible sleet and ice. Maybe even snow flurries in the panhandle region. But ice means everything shuts down here. There's no way I am driving anywhere if it ices over. Mwuahahah. I just went to the grocery store yesterday, so I don't mind being frozen at home for a day or so.

Last night I finally started reading White Oleander about two years after Melynda bought me a copy. It's engaging, and unexpected. I can see why Melynda liked it so much, particularly the descriptive quality of the writing. Given my life now, it's even more interesting than it could have been to watch Astrid's foster care placements.

It's busy at work, because it seems like half the office called out sick. Maybe they were hoping the ice would come today. It's just frigid out there. Another half hour and I can go eat fettucine alfredo with spicy italian sausage. That thought has kept me going all day long.

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed White Oleander quite a bit, though it was horrifying to find out, via Janet Fitch's research interviews with former foster kids, that every foster home in the book was based on a real-life model. Shudder. Also interesting to find out that her first manuscript of the book described everything from the mother's POV, and it was rejected on the basis that the reader wouldn't want to get that closely acquainted with such a monstrous character--yes, that must explain why the Hannibal Lecter books did so poorly. People do react that much more strongly when it's a female monster.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. That's up there in my nightmares, abusive foster parents. Ugh.

I really, really, want to read that first manuscript now.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Me too. She said the mother was directly inspired by reading Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book and imagining transporting somebody from that hyper-aesthetic courtier's world, where poetry and art were everything and wearing clashing colors was as bad or worse than committing murder, to a crummy L.A. apartment and a crummy job and a kid to support that she never wanted. It could have been a hell of a story...

[nimlowyn.livejournal.com]

I read White Oleander a year ago, and couldn't put it down. It's gorgeous. I hope you enjoy it.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I am, and finding it hard to put down. (As evidenced by reading until I fell asleep and dropped the book on the floor)

[water-damage.livejournal.com]

I love that book - I still think about it

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I just finished last night. So so so strange and compelling.