ahhh the 80s

Watching Dynasty and reading Sidney Sheldon is so revealing about the 80s. Both Dallas and Dynasty had storylines about mothers taking jobs (Pam and Fallon) and their husbands having trouble with it. And all the 80s trashy novels that I loved so much--they're ALL about feminism and capitalism.

Every book is about a young man or woman, often an immigrant, who rises from total poverty to become the head of a huge super-rich conglomerate, all because of their own genius and hard work and often some need to get revenge or "show someone". That's the history-rich backstory that starts in chapter 2.

The rest of the book focuses on the daughter of this genius, and how she inherits the empire, and has to fend off all sorts of baddies.

There's still a lot of romance, or focus on the importance of having a relationship; but owning, running, and ruling a massive empire is a key part of the identity of all the heroines. And pretty much ALL these books are about business empires, like Dallas and Dynasty--money money money was obviously on our minds in les 80s.

And sex of course. As Scottie in the Star Trek movie would say: "It's excitin'!"

the joys of a good old fashioned thriller

I didn't bring enough with me to Swissgirl's. I do have a graphic novel I could read, but I'm not really in the mood for that. I knew I'd finish today the Sidney Sheldon I brought on the bus coming home... so I... I bought another Sheldon book today at work. Even though I have hundreds of unread books at home. I couldn't help it!! It's not my fault!! (Breaks down sobbing.)

I devoured 3 Sheldon books in high school, but haven't read him since. I can visually remember sitting in bed, out of school cause I was recovering from wisdom tooth removal, reading Master of the Game. Oooh I lurved it. And I can picture myself standing in the school hall reading a thrilling courtroom scene in Rage of Angels. (Below are the covers my books had.)


The book I just read was Bloodline--I picked it up second hand somewhere, and check out the great 70s cover. The thriller aspect of the book held up, but it was comically dated in some ways. Every time we're introduced to a character, we're given a detailed description of their home decor. This is in part why the book was such a quick read... there were some very clear spots where I could skim!

Halfway through the book a great detective character shows up--he's a sort of an ugly Poirot, who speaks many foreign languages but with incomprehensible accents, and he's so good at using computers to research that he's described as having little gossips with them. Sheldon writes out conversations between him and the computers. I love this character, I wish he'd written a bunch of books featuring him! But I guess, like Caleb Carr, he didn't know a good detective when he invented one. Le sigh.


Here's the one I just bought.

My Day - boots and bugs

Ahh no. I've turned into someone who goes to bed at 2 AM! I've been sleepy for hours, but fighting it. Can't... fight... no... more...

Even though a show on eating insects is one. Well luckily I saw most of it earlier in the evening. Here's a funny scene: A guy's crop of water bugs has all died off, because someone sprayed insecticide nearby. A key to running a good bug-growing-crop: No insecticide!

Today's weather was insane, but at least I got to wear my new wellies. I showed them off to everyone.

My kobo came in today! But I can't use it til Friday... hapoos.

Check out these photos: These are gigantic swarms of flies (midges) that gather on Lake Victoria to breed, then fly to the coast and die. Some people catch them and make patties out of them--very high in protein.

bookies

A coworker picked up this from a Random House summer preview for me. It's by a Chinese-Canadian first time author.


A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It's a bit uneven, but (a) conscious emphasis on strong female characters, and the frustrations of women in the Victorian period -- in a non-clichéd way; (b) the heroine is half-Chinese. In the end that made for a different sort of read, which was interesting.

View all my reviews >>

My Day

Last night I couldn't fall asleep at midnight. But I got back to bed by 2, so not bad. It was a beautiful day to be out and about, up on the mountain where the Victoria hospital is located.

My doctor wasn't sure whether to phlebotomize me or not because my ferritin level wasn't alarmingly high. She decided not to when she checked my blood pressure, which was quite low. That reminded me to tell her that I'm on a new daily drug for my headaches, and it's a beta blocker which lowers your blood pressure. She said there's a good chance I'll actually pass out this time, and she didn't want to put me through that for not-too-high levels. So... we'll see in another six months.

Maybe she just knew I didn't have my kobo yet.

Oh, I thought of another reason for my kobo--reading while standing on the bus/metro. Hard to keep a book open with one hand. Yippy! My kobo! It wiiill be miiiine by the end of this week!

Anyway. Now I'm sittin' around, deciding whether to watch a documentary on the My Lai massacre, or Dynasty.

***
Look at this cute picture I found of how a phlebotomy decreases your iron level.

Okay now it's 2 AM, time to attempt the bed again.

wish me luck

I'm online to figure out my bus for tomorrow... 8:30 AM blood-drawing appointment. Disgusting. But I'm feeling kind of sleepy so I'm going to attempt the rarely attempted Midnight Bedtime.

gasp!!

[crowd buzzes with excitement and worry]

Let me add that my new Kobo eReader won't be out until the end of this week, so I won't have it for my appointment. Pooey! I want something that's easy to hold when laying prostrate, having the lifeblood sucked from my unresponsive vein. Me-nowz.

Universal in for youtube?

Hey--another record company must have come to terms with youtube. I'm pretty sure this video I posted was banned very soon after I posted it, and now it's back up. (Only noticed because someone commented on it.) I'm not gonna listen to it though... it's soooo depressing.