What have you been up to?

Oh, nothing. Just making a little jelly. And the best pie ever. I would have taken a picture of that because I was pretty proud that it turned out, but we inhaled it too quickly. Just spending some time picking sour cherries from my neighbor's tree. You know, your basic domesticity stalling tactics when you have a few major deadlines and you don't particularly want to deal with them. Fruit doesn't wait, people! When it's ripe, you have to do something delicious with it.

What should I be doing (at this very second, in fact)? Finishing up a major contract at work, and planning and packing for our vacation, which takes place in less than a week. Instead I have been canning, cleaning, painting our basement stairs, reading, and now blogging.  I'm halfway through Jennifer Weiner's Little Earthquakes. Like all of her books, I alternately love and hate it, but I keep on reading. She would be so much better if she would just let us, the kind readers, figure out the motivations of her characters, instead of beating us over the head with it from the first page on. Mommy issues! Fat issues! Every single character is defined from the beginning in no uncertain terms, and then predictably, has to figure out how to make peace with herself.

Why do I read them? I think Weiner has an engaging style, they are often funny, and she nails so many details of what it's like to be a woman. Also, this one is all about pregnancy, and giving birth and babies, and I could read that stuff all day. Sometimes she writes a real gem, like In Her Shoes, which I loved. I don't know if this one will be up to that standard, but it is perfectly distracting and exactly what I need right now. Have you read anything by her? What do you think?

Comments

[jen]

I've read one of hers, other than In Her Shoes, which was decent. The other one, I can't even remember the title but it was one where this woman was over weight and she had a baby and she walked all her weight off because the baby was in the NICU or something. I really did not like it. It was simply to cliched and predictable.

The jelly looks delish. One of my most favorite teachers in high school gave me some really good advice. She said to do everything you could before starting a project like writing. Clean your room, the car, run errands, etc. because then once you start on what you actually need to do, you won't come up with some silly little thing to do to distract yourself. It's worked well for me because I am a champion procrastinator. So I think you are just doing what you need to do to be able to focus.

[Kristin]

You know--that's so true. I have a hard time working if something isn't right, like if the room I'm in is really disorganized or messy. I have to fix it before I can get the stuff done. I also feel like it's kind of a reward in reverse...I do the fun stuff first and then work.

You read Good in Bed, which I also did not like. I thought it was cliched and quite weird. The whole thing about her going into early labor because the new girlfriend pushed her in the bathroom, and then she could never forgive them despite sincere apologies...such weird anger.

[Kerry]

Her books are cliched to death, and not as good as they should be considering her awesome pro-woman writers stance, but I like them too. I really liked her second last book Fly Away Home and I loved Good Night Nobody.

[Bellezza]

I'm trying to remember which Jennifer Weiner book I read...could it be Good in Bed? I remember something light and funny and generally entertaining. Which is good for hot August days. Your jam looks divine!