Wednesday 3 Feb

Wednesday 2/3

It's been raining all day, a "female rain" the Navajo would say, no thunder or lightning, just a good soaker. It was a good day for doing nothing (except feeding the cats) and my knee has repaid the rest by going back to normal. Yah!

I've just finished reading "Madame Bovary's Ovaries: a Darwinian Look at Literature," by Barash & Barash, 2005. Quite enjoyable. Though it didn't necessarily expand my knowledge of Darwin, it did a good job of showing how literature through the ages has explicated his theories. Beyond the introductory and epilogue material, the chapter titles are quite informative:

Othello and other angry fellows (male sexual jealousy)
The key to Jane Austen's heart (what women want and why)
How to make Rhett give a damn (what men want and why)
Madame Bovary's ovaries (biology of adultery)
Wisdom from "The Godfather" (kin selection, being family)
The Cinderella syndrome (stepchildren struggles)
On the complaints of Portnoy, Caulfield, and others (parent-offspring conflict)
Of "Musketeers" and "Mice and Men" and "Wrath" (reciprocity and friendship)

Now it goes in the Books Read bin and eventually will get traded or sold.

There are three books on my "bedside table" in various states of being read, usually according to mood:

Snake Agent: a Detective Inspecor Chen novel; by Liz Williams (2005; on p.69). Set in a future cloned Singapore. The ghost of a murdered girl fails to arrive in Heaven as expected. The demon from Hell's police force is assigned to drag her to hell while Insp. Chen is set to get her to Heaven. Conflict ensues. Conspiracies are uncovered. Lots of fun. Witty, too.

How to Wash a Cat, by Rebecca M. Hale (2008). Mystery, first in a new series. I'm not sure I'm going to like this. I read the first chapter one night and put it down. I'm going to give it another try. Deb read it while we were in Tucson and liked it a lot until the end.

Confessions of a Demon, by S.L. Wright (2009; on p.21). Our heroine is a human-demon amalgam, the only one. Her food is human emotion and her name is Allay (ironic, no?). The writing is decent so far and we'll see how the plot works out. Seems to me that this author has written something else but it's not mentioned.