What I Am Doing On New Year's Eve

I am watching old movies,

Eating vast quantities of toast, drinking gallons of orange juice,

and fighting a head cold with Nyquil and Moose Tracks frozen yogurt.

Happy New Year....

Cold Case Files

The Murder Room by Michael Capuzzo

I'm actually listening to the audio version of this book read by Adam Grupper.

It's a fascinating look into the minds of some of the great criminalists but written in a manner that makes it difficult - at least for me, while listening - to tell the discern when he's talking about the murderers or the backstories of the detectives.

Still, paying close attention and concentrating, I am enjoying the stories of long cold cases being resolved. As a latent psychological profiler myself, I find the process stimulating.

It's one of those "if I had my life to live over" and "if I knew then what I know now" kind of things. If only I could



And a fitting New Year's Eve video...

Decluttering and Recording

If I make any New Years Resolutions in 2011, they are going to be:

1. Declutter

2. Keep a notebook, write something down at least once a day. Anything. The price of ground beef. The temperature. What birds did I see today.

Toward Goal #1, I am bookmarking 365 Less Things, all about decluttering and organizing in small, incremental steps: The Kaizen approach, if you will.

2. Toward Goal #2: I've always wanted an excuse to buy one of these beautiful notebooks.

Writing will be a pleasure if I can pull out my Molkeskine every day. So to speak.

I'll keep things updated on my sidebar: Things I Threw Out Today. Starting January 1. Stay tuned - it could get interesting.

Man in the Woods by Scott Spencer

Man in the Woods by Scott Spencer.

Note: not THE Man in the Woods.

There's a lot to like in this book. Great characters and a tense story line, wonderful language (notice I do not use the word "luminous").

Paul Phillips is the main character, someone who has been if not a drifter then a free spirit, who works in wood on an almost spiritual level. He meets Kate, a recovered alcoholic, a single mother with a young daughter, Ruby. Kate is a new-agey Christian writer whose book has become a mega- Opra-esque bestseller. They live in a trendy New York town which is rapidly becomine a yuppie enclave, much to the regret of those who have made it their home for many years.

But Paul has a chance encounter that leads him to do something unspeakable, although not entirely his fault: no good deed goes unpunished, right? The book leads us through Paul's, and ultimately Kate's, struggle with this secret and how it transforms the three main characters over the course of a year.

Essentially Paul is a good person, as is Kate, and carrying something so profound inside them, something that is so against their natures, takes its toll on both of them, and on Ruby.

This was the essence of the book for me. Backing up from the point at which the universe shifts for Paul, you see a series of events and how they lead up to that point that I found fascinating. The book's message was subtle but deeply moving. I thought the ending was perfect.

A worthwhile read.

Reviews:
Washington Post
Cleveland Plain Dealer

Jewish Literature Challenge

I've joined Maggie's Jewish Literature Challenge. I'm going to start with Philip Roth and hopefully finally finish As A Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg.

Other books in this series can be found here.

A Beautiful Winter Scene

From Althouse