Magritte at the SFMOMA Sept 2018

Magritte at the SFMOMA Sept 2018

LOL!

Magritte was one of the first artists that I studied in college.  Such an eye opening experience about art being clever.  I even bought some coffee table books.  So when SFMOMA has an exhibit I had to go!

Asparagus fortress!

Saw a bunch of pictures that were new to me, love that.  The curation is great-grouped items not just chronologically but by type.  Like a whole room of frame in frame items.  The sunset is my fave.

Really liked getting to see them close-up.

Classic surrealism-I wouldn't want to live in this world all the time, but nice to visit.

Part of a large mural, again they were able to put a number of the parts into the same room to really get a feel for how it looked in situ.

He painted a number of wine bottles-so pretty.  Who knew?!

Different versions of the same scene all in the same space.

One of the best parts of this exhibit comes at the end.  It's an interactive area!  You get to put yourself into Magritte's paintings.

We are all bowler hat man.

I really love this one, not sure why!

Thanks to you all for going to the museum with me-big fun-and taking great photos :)

Books and SFMOMA July-Sept 2018

Books and SFMOMA July-Sept 2018

The SFMOMA recently reopened after a years long renovation-holds some great stuff!  All photo credits to Amazing Amy-thank you thank you!  This is the well known center column thingy.

-by Janet Evanovich

Dangerous Minds: super fluffy mystery.  The love story is annoying but I was okay with the other characters and the background mystery.

-by Roxanne Gay

Ayaiti:  I've been meaning to read her for some time now and this was in the airport bookstore.  Stories of life in Haiti, so little peeks into how others live.  Not surprisingly like Edwidge Danticat.

Hunger:  This is an open wound of a book.  It is all of her thoughts about unhappiness with her body.  Yikes-hard to read except in small spurts. And yet so good-glad to have read it.

You can walk across this art piece at the top of the column.

-by Florence Williams

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative:  The scientific studies behind what you likely already knew-it is good to spend some time outside, the more green the better.  Actionable info-from a Finnish study you should spend at least 5-10 hrs per month outside, even just walking in a suburban area.

Banana Cream Pie Murder:  ugg, trying on some cozy mysteries and picked this up for free.  And then it was not worth my time to finish it.  The titular recipe uses Jello pudding and cool whip (really?  would an actual bakery sell this pie?) and the mystery is further in the background than I like.  The love story is super annoying, so I know this series is just not for me!

Actually a little scary to look down.

-by Celeste Ng
Little Fires Everywhere: Fantastic! The collision of two families of very different living styles.  You get practically everyone's point of view through time.

-by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Ring trilogy:  I've been listening to the audio book for the last couple months whenever I have a long drive.  It has been at least a decade since I read it and oh it is so good.  The songs are not my favorite part, but the story is just so solid.  Since I also love the movies it is great to see how the screenwriters used the best lines though sometimes moved around.

-by Gillian Flynn
Sharp Objects:  Not for everyone, a bit of a mystery but really about one totally messed up family.  Just in time for the tv show, which I will not watch because it would be too gory for me.


-by Roger Lowenstein
Buffet The Making of an American Capitalist:  A very old biography, but I wanted to cover all the basics.  Only for the super fan.

They have a whole section of Calder's work, which I love.

-by Tim Feriss
The 4 Hour Work Week:  Ugg.  I hate this guy.  If you don't know the 80/20 rule, go check out the Pareto principle in Wikipedia.  If you don't know the difference between urgent and important, go read Stephen Covey.  Everything else is fluff.  I hate that he basically gives people a blueprint to sell crap like nutraceuticals to a vulnerable population, but I am biased on that.

-by Earl Stanley Gardner writing as A. A. Fair
Turn on the Heat: One of the early hard crime novels.  Totally outdated so I don't need to read anymore, but glad I checked it out.  I think Richard Stark is better.

-by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah:  Won a number of awards a couple of years ago.  Again I am late to the party but so glad late than never.  Love the rich inner lives that we follow-especially the woman, who is very capable and likeable.  I didn't love the ending even though you know from the beginning it will end up there.  Great view of how integration into a new culture is hard.

Current material highlights how he worked to make these at large scale-includes video of putting one together for the Montreal world fair and this small version of what is outside.

-by Roberto Bolano
2666:  Meh.  I didn't even finish the sample.  I know it is pretty literary and usually I like that.  But here the descriptions felt so shallow compared to what I've been recently reading and then it is long on top of that.

-by Thomas Berger
Meeting Evil:  Another hard crime story, still not as good as Stark but good enough that I felt tense the whole time.  A bit unbelievable but that may also be due to it being a bit old.

Whole group of work titled spiders-this one is creepy as anything.

-by Joshua Hammer
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu:  I love a good history set in context.  The story of how librarians in Timbuktu saved literally thousands of important manuscripts.

-by Daniel Pink
Drive: Excellent book on motivation-people want autonomy, mastery, and purpose.  Clear, concise and useful application section at the end.

Whereas I actually like these guys.

-by Kelly McClymer
The Salem Witch Tryouts trilogy:  YA about a young witch and issues.  Light and fluffy and totally fun.  I was totally sucked in by the covers.

-by Tom Hanks
Uncommon Type:  Short stories tied together by the theme of typewriters-well written, especially considering this is not even his day job!

-by Kevin Kwan
Crazy Rich Asians then China Rich Girlfriend then Rich People Problems:  Late to the book but just in time to see the movie (they are both good, I prefer book first then movie)!  Fantastic airplane reads-kept me totally interested even though the plot is a bit nutso and there is a lot of name dropping of fashion stuff that I just have no idea/interest.  But having spent some time in Singapore I did appreciate that I sort of knew the places he was talking about.

Books and towel animals April-June 2018

Books and towel animals  April-June 2018

You know towel animals?  The ones that they put on your bed during a cruise?  These are from our Montreal to Boston trip.  They were all new to me and Super Cute :)

-by Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Now:  Gave this on a try because it is a pretty big influence on a bunch of folks I know.  I understand him to be saying-don't waste time thinking about the past or the future in ways that don't help.  Be present for what is right in front of you.  Fits in well with some meditation ideas.  But it can be a hard read-repetitive and not straightforward.  If you understand him, you will love it, if you read a page and can't explain it you might just hate this book a lot.

-by Antoine de Saint-Exuprey
The Little Prince:  It had just been too long since the last read.

-by Gretchen Rubin
The Four Tendencies:  OMG  This book has been a revelation.   It addresses a single aspect of your personality-How do you get stuff done based on internal and external expectations?  I kind of knew I had my tendency, but now I see how it affects more of my life than I thought.  Even better, I know know why some stuff doesn't get done and what to change/tools to use.  I'm putting it into practice now.

-by Brene Brown
The Gifts of Imperfection:  Picked this one up on a whim because I like her message.  A little redundant if you have read her other stuff.  Best feature is the list which allows me to focus on an area.  I feel like this and the Power of Now guy are working towards the same goal, just from opposite poles.

-by Jack London
The Iron Heel:  I will read anything that Chris H. recommends, which is how this unlikely book made it to my hands.  It turns out to be politically timely and therefore sad.  Only quibble is how every group has bright lines around it-pure good vs. evil.  Turns out that is currently less interesting to me, but a worthy read.

-by Anne Lamott
Blue Shoe:  Good antidote to the Jack London book.  This is all about messiness and people you can imagine being friends with.  Super timely after having read Being Mortal.  I picked this up off the sale rack because I remember liking her writing-big success, will do again.

Small Victories: Non-fiction snipets.  Some bits repeat from her fiction writing, might as well just read the fiction.

-Welcome to Night Vale: A rarity-a book I quit a quarter of the way through. I started reading the book because it was kind of a big deal a bit ago.  But it felt just too gimicky and like the pay off wasn't going to be worth it.  I have so many books on my list to read why bother.

-Edited by Laurie King and Leslie Klinger
Echos of Sherlock Holmes:  Short stories somehow inspired by Holmes.  Love these, especially the ones that are adjacent, like by being set modern day.

-by Tiffany Dufu
Drop the Ball:  A recommendation from Gretchin Rubin.  Great book/website for women who expect perfection from themselves-must do all the things and they WILL be perfect.  I got over most of that a while ago but still found some helpful tips here.

-by P.L. Travers
Mary Poppins:  Have you read the book?  This is NOT the Mary of the movies (note to self, watch Saving Mr. Banks).  Sure, the kids get all of the magical Mary but she is not really nurturing or kind.  In fact she is vain.  Not sure I need to read all the follow on books since I did that once back in the day.

-by Ellen Raskin
The Westing Game:  On a bit of a nostalgia kick-was reminded of this by the neighbor boy.  Luckily I had forgotten most of it so I got to solve it fresh.

-by Charles Portis
True Grit:  Before the Cohen brothers film was the John Wayne film and before that was the book-fancy that!  I loved the Cohen film and probably the reason it is so good is that it sticks to the book.  Mattie is the best.

-by Christopher Golden
Runaways:  A novel, associated with the tv show, based on the comics.  I loved season 1 of the tv show and so when I saw this at Target just had to give it a try.  Big fun! The book is ahead of the tv show-definite spoilers.  Would read another.

-by Amanda Lovelace
the witch doesn't burn in this one:  I am not too much into poetry, but I found this at Target and it was just so interesting looking.  I wasn't wrong, it has pretty adult #metoo content.  I like the unusual formatting and it kept me engaged.

-by Kathy Oppegard
Fool Willing; The Secret Power of Play to Engage Communities in Your Green Organization:  Spot on for a very specific audience-you have an environmental non-profit and want to get a wider community involved.  Great reading for that purpose, but I took away generally the idea to put more play into life.  It is good for you, for your relationships and for the world.  Plus an old high school friend wrote it :)