Blurred Line

In the tradition of slacker university students everywhere, I pulled another all-nighter last night, working on an essay on The Faerie Queene. Not a great essay, but hey, I'm just going for a pass. Also managed to squeeze in an extra day at the office, and a party where my Snakes and Ladders drinking game (a Christmas present from last year) was finally taken out of the box and put to good use. Apparently, I'm not particularly good at Snakes and Ladders.

I also had the pleasure of reading an absolutely terrific book, Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex. I absolutely love family sagas, and this is one hell of an interesting family. The book, narrated by Cal Stephanides, kicks off with Cal's grandparents, two Greeks living in Turkey, who are forced to emigrate to the States due to war. From there, we have the story of their lives in Detroit, and that of Cal's parents - from rum-running in the Prohibition era, to war in the Pacific at the close of WWII, to the city's race riots in 1967. In fact, as much as the story is a stirring family saga, it's also a fantastic portrayal of the evolution of a country. But, of course, all of these stories are only apocryphal. Because this novel is about Cal, born Calliope, who is raised as a girl until the age of fourteen. Cal is, in fact, a hermaphrodite, and eventually chooses to live as a man (don't worry, I'm not wrecking anything - that's established in the first few pages). So, you have a family saga, a coming-of-age story, and a fascinating examination of prejudice (whether by race and gender). It's just a fabulous book. Go read it.

And, for those of you whining and complaining about why there's no ultra-hip Moonbase yet (isn't that what kids talk about these days?), your prayers have been answered. NASA has plans to have a permanent staffed outpost on the Moon by 2024.


Profile Editor. Writer. 9-5er. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Apodis Publishing Fusion Fragment cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Goodbye, Darwin Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format The Short Stuff "Learning Magic From Mint" - published May 2007 in Atomjack "Between Eternities" - published October 2005 at Speculative.ca "Smoke and Mirrors" - published June 2005 in Byzarium Submissions Log Total Subs: 25 Acceptances: 3 Rejections: 17 Withdrawals: 3 Subs Out: 2 Quality Blogs Scalzi's Whatever Dave's Blogography Bookslut The Struggling Writer SF Signal the0phrastus Paperback Writer Scribe's Writing Desk Nathan Bransford Lyons Literary LLC The World in the Satin Bag Book In The Oven The Word Perhaps We Learned Something... Words, etc. Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 Et Cetera Cavan @ Last.fm Cavan @ LibraryThing Feeds Atom Feed RSS Feed	Monday, December 04, 2006 - Another Week in Review In the tradition of slacker university students everywhere, I pulled another all-nighter last night, working on an essay on The Faerie Queene. Not a great essay, but hey, I'm just going for a pass. Also managed to squeeze in an extra day at the office, and a party where my Snakes and Ladders drinking game (a Christmas present from last year) was finally taken out of the box and put to good use. Apparently, I'm not particularly good at Snakes and Ladders. I also had the pleasure of reading an absolutely terrific book, Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex. I absolutely love family sagas, and this is one hell of an interesting family. The book, narrated by Cal Stephanides, kicks off with Cal's grandparents, two Greeks living in Turkey, who are forced to emigrate to the States due to war. From there, we have the story of their lives in Detroit, and that of Cal's parents - from rum-running in the Prohibition era, to war in the Pacific at the close of WWII, to the city's race riots in 1967. In fact, as much as the story is a stirring family saga, it's also a fantastic portrayal of the evolution of a country. But, of course, all of these stories are only apocryphal. Because this novel is about Cal, born Calliope, who is raised as a girl until the age of fourteen. Cal is, in fact, a hermaphrodite, and eventually chooses to live as a man (don't worry, I'm not wrecking anything - that's established in the first few pages). So, you have a family saga, a coming-of-age story, and a fascinating examination of prejudice (whether by race and gender). It's just a fabulous book. Go read it. And, for those of you whining and complaining about why there's no ultra-hip Moonbase yet (isn't that what kids talk about these days?), your prayers have been answered. NASA has plans to have a permanent staffed outpost on the Moon by 2024. Cavan blogged at 9:24 PM \| 0 comments	Progress Zilch! 0/0 Listening A.J. Croce - "Maybe I'm Amazed" My Music Reading Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney My Library Watching Black Book: B Sweet and Lowdown: C Breakfast on Pluto: B Wishlist Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart