"Head...Shoulders...Knees and...SOCKS!"

Busy busy busy.  Dealing with life issues.  I know I haven't written in a while, but what's the point when Google is your only visitor?  "But socks!" you say "if you wrote something, we'd have something to read!"  Fine, I hear you.

I hereby declare this summer to be "The Summer of Non-Fiction!"  (insert trumpet sounds and jazz hands here!)  Of course, I've always got me some good reality TV, but there are also these cool things we call books. 

I love to read books, as I like to read about books.  Always have.  So when the summer book preview lists came out this year, I poured through them and wrote down all the titles that sounded intriguing to me. And when I looked at my completed list, I realized that ALL of the books I wrote down - with the exception of 1 - were all non-fiction.  So here is my reading list (including those that I've already completed).  If you've read them, let me know what you thought. 

Finished:
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex - Mary Roach
Fun read.  I read her previous book "Stiff" (about cadavers - get your mind out of the gutter!) at the recommendation of a good friend R78 with somewhat similar taste in books.  Shiny and I both enjoyed the read.  There were moments that had me giggling out loud, and moments where I actually said "Wow!  I didn't know that!" 

 The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry - Kathleen Flynn
I like to read about food.  Reading cookbooks, cooking magazines, recipes, etc.  But most of all I enjoy reading about people's adventures in the kitchen.  Heat, Julie and Julia, Bourdain (see below), loved them all.  Ruth Reichl's memoirs are also fabulous (although she was a reviewer not a chef - but still great reads). 

 Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain 
Hi.  Bourdain.  Awesome.  Shiny and I also enjoyed the TV show based on this book, but it was short-lived.  We have it on DVD (cause we're dorks like that).  Big ups to all of his books - fiction included.
 
 The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company - David A. Price
As someone who has both studied animation and animation history (for real - college courses and everything) and who is a total fan of Pixar, I really enjoyed this book.  Read through it pretty quickly.  It was cool to read about all the goings on behind the scenes and about how the technology and the company was created.  Of course my kid just liked to look at the pictures...

 The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood - Mark Kurzem
Don't remember how I initially came across this book, but as soon as I heard about it, I had to read it.  The bulk of the book is about the author's search to assist his father to figure out his true identity.  A majority of the book takes place in the present (how he finds out about his father's past and it all starts to unravel into the present) and the toll this journey takes on the family.  This project started as a documentary (which I've also seen), but I found the book way more engaging.

To read:
Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World - David Maraniss
Recommended by both a good book review in the newspaper and by R78.  Every four years I get sucked into the drama and excitement of the Olympics, so how could I not read this?  Currently #16 on the waiting list.

The Anglo-Files: A Field Guide to the British - Sarah Lyall
Well this one just sounded like fun.  Being friends with some Brits and watcher of BBC and BBC America on occasion and all.

Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You - Sam Gosling
Intregued by the book review, and even more so after hearing the author being interviewed on the radio. Can't wait to learn what my stuff says about me (aside from the fact that it needs to be put away).  Currently #25 on the waiting list.

Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate a Capella Glory - Mickey Rapkin
As a collegiate singer and appreciator of a Capella music, this sounded like a fun one as well.  First on the library waiting list!

Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11 - Patrick Creed & Rick Newman
I'm waffling on this book.  Do I want to read it or not?  Being in DC, seeing this in person on 9/11, and being that I was sitting in traffic at the exact spot where this event took place just an hour before, and continue to comute past there every day, I'm just not sure.  I haven't seen the "Flight 93" movie.  However, I've read the opening excerpt of the book online and was totally sucked in.

Central Park in the Dark: More Mysteries of Urban Wildlife - Marie Winn
I thought it would be interesting to read about animals instead of people.  No giraffes in this one though.  At least not that I know of.

Books: A Memoir - Larry McMurtry
From the author of Lonesome Dove, which I've never read.  Another memoir - but this one is a book about a lover of books!  Excellent reviews.  Looking forward to it!

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible - A.J. Jacobs
R78 (there she is again) recommended him.  She is a huge fan of his work.  I read "The Know-It-All" and loved it.  Since Shiny and I are into the whole learning about religion thing, and after hearing interviews with Jacobs about the book, I went ahead and bought it.  Since I own this, of course I keep putting it aside for library books that have to go back after two weeks, and other projects.

I also need to catch up on my Laurie Notaro and her Idiot Girl adventures.  She cracks me up to no end, and it's touch when I'm laughing out loud about something crazy and inappropriate, and can't explain to my kid what's making me laugh.  I just saw at Borders today that she has a new book out, so I can't wait.

Other non-Fiction books read this year:
 Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life - Steve Martin
Always been a fan of Steve Martin.  This was a great read.

 The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food - Jennifer 8 Lee
Again with the food books... Reading this made me crave chinese food every day that I was reading this.  Facinating following her journey around the world.  Some of it even takes place in our own backyard. 

So maybe this is the year of non-Fiction?

Dear Sir:

You know who you are.  You spent all day working in my office.  And if you didn't notice - you reeked - REEKED - of your hand-rolled cigarettes.  ALL F-ING DAY!  You stunk so bad that a colleague couldn't spend more than two minutes at my desk before having to go out n the hallway to finish our conversation because she was so overwhelmed by your smell wafting through the room.  Someone else stopped by at the end of the day and didn't even set foot in the door, she just stood there making a slightly scrunchy face.  Did you notice that I wasn't there much today?  That's because it smelled like I was working in an overcrowded bar right before closing time.  It was so smelly, I couldn't concentrate.  I had to take a lap around the floor multiple times just to get some fresh air.  I had a pounding headache from the smell by lunchtime that didn't go away until 7pm.  Remember when you said you don't believe in deodorant because it is so unhealthy?  Well guess what.  The stench of your cigarettes masks any body odor.  I understand that you just returned from a trip that may not have gone the way you wanted.  But please, take a shower and put on fresh clothes prior to your arrival.  No smoker (or anyone for that matter) should smell that overwhelming at 9am.

Now, you want to go ahead and ruin your lungs with your bad habit - go right on ahead.  Keep on keeping on.  But just keep it out of my office please. 

Love,

socKs

According to the emergency plan flip chart handed out to everyone who works at my office, if we see a tornado we are to call our central security office immediately.  I'm sorry.  But given that I work in downtown Washington, DC, if I see a tornado out my office window, my ass is running.