I’m reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, and probably I should have put it back on the shelf as soon as I realized it was an Oprah’s Book Club choice: those are INEVITABLY depressing and full of traumatizing events from beginning to end. But now I’m more than 250 pages into it and feel like if there IS some ray of happiness anywhere in the story, I MUST find it: I’m too invested in the characters to leave them stranded in an Oprah book.
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You know what color we’re painting our room? White. You heard me.
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Links:
From the Milk and Cookies blog: green Etsy earrings, which is not an overly specific thing to write about.
From the baby name blog: The father likes the names Branch and Jimmy; the mother likes the names Henry and Corbin.
At Whoopee, I recommend I Would Hate to Go Out With Me. My favorite part is the portrait of the overwhelmed father. I think she should totally sell custom versions of that: people could submit an order with their own Custom Stressy Things and Custom Male Hair Patterns. Or perhaps you would like to read A Cautionary Horse Story, in which the Dalai Lama stops some poo-kicking horses.
Ahh, but WHICH white?
PS Verification word is “itchin.”
Bail on the damned dog book now! There is no goodness coming. I can’t get back the hours I invested in the book, but you can.
Of course! White! Why didn’t we all think of that! ;)
My personal favorite white is called White Chocolate. I recommend it.
And honestly it will look beautiful. And will be so versatile. And will make your quilt stand out all the more. It really is a great choice.
We might need the story of how you ended up with white. Right now I’m picturing you and Paul surrounded by a million different yellow samples, having an incredibly lengthy discussion on the right shade that ends with one of you storming out screaming “Screw this, it’s gonna be WHITE!!!!”
Oh thank God. I love yellow. My kitchen is yellow. My dining room is yellow. But those were…YELLOW.
White is good.
PS Drop that book right now, Missy. Amy is right.
White???
Seriously???!!!
RUN FAR FAR AWAY FROM THAT BOOK. I wish I could get the hours of my life back that I wasted on it. I cannot understand how that author got a publishing deal. I really can’t.
If you really must finish it, at least write a scathing blog post making fun of it because I would enjoy that. Thank you.
It’s Behr Sea Salt—the same one I felt the clerk was insufficiently enthusiastic about when I bought it for the dining room.
White! We are actually getting ready to paint our bedroom white — but with a twist. We are painting our ceiling a lovely sea blue – the kind that makes you want to jump on the first plane to somewhere tropical. I saw it recently in a magazine and it looks amazing!
definitely drop the book… there is no ray of happiness and you’ll hate yourself much more wasting all the rest of the zillion pages rather than just calling quits after 250.
I’ll be honest and tell you that I really liked that book. BUT, it is HAMLET. Edgar is Hamlet and you know what happens in the play…..
While I don’t normally encourage people to give up on a book, in light of what you’ve written more recently about not liking the end of some books, I think you should bail. There is no happy ending with all the loose ends tied up. I wouldn’t have finished it, but it was a bookclub pick. And yes, most of Oprah’s picks are depressing and this one is no exception.
While I don’t normally encourage people to give up on a book, in light of what you’ve written more recently about not liking the end of some books, I think you should bail. There is no happy ending with all the loose ends tied up. I wouldn’t have finished it, but it was a bookclub pick. And yes, most of Oprah’s picks are depressing and this one is no exception.
Wait, wait, wait! I really loved Edgar Sawtelle! Yes, it’s a downer (hello, based on Hamlet, spoiler alert!) but so beautifully written and so interesting to see how the author incorporates themes and plotlines from Hamlet. I usually don’t like books that don’t give me a light at the end of the tunnel, but maybe going into it knowing what to expect helped, because I loved this book.
Abandon hope, ye who enter Edgar Sawtelle! I HATED that book. With the fire of ten thousand suns. There is no hope, no ray of sunshine, and in fact, it’s even worse than that – the author makes you think there is hope, then brutally snatches it away.