a remarkably bad book

I really, really wanted to like My Name is Memory.  Mostly because it was written by Ann Brashares, who wrote the Traveling Pants series, which I loved, despite being at least ten years too old for it.  I read her first adult novel, The Last Summer (of You and Me) and thought it was fairly good, particularly in the setup, although the last third was anticlimactic.  I was excited to see My Name is Memory shelved in the Science Fiction category, where I assumed it was languishing because despite its fantastical premise (a character who can remember all his past lives) it's mostly a coming of age and a romance novel.

I had really high hopes, and at first they seemed warranted.  The the man who remembers his past lives is well-drawn, and I enjoyed his narration of his very long story.  The nominal main character, Lucy, with whom he has been in love for fifteen hundred years (I'm not giving anything away here) is far less interesting.  And as the novel wears on - it's 324 pages and doesn't feel one word shorter - her uninterestingness becomes more of an issue.  Sometimes I found myself indignant on her behalf; it wasn't her fault she was boring; the problem was the that author clearly just didn't care about her.

The last third of the novel was where it really fell apart.  As in so many romantic movies, the premise of the story is that these two people belong together, but the two characters spend so little time together that there's no reason for us, or even them, to really believe that.  In a romantic comedy, where the only thing a stake is another, more-annoying, guy or who to kiss at midnight, that's forgivable, but in such a serious novel with such weighty pretensions, you're left with two kids who have a crush, plus some mumbo-jumbo about an unfulfilled crush a hundred lifetimes ago. As they start to make serious, life-or-death decisions based on their grand, centuries-spanning, nonexistent love affair - and as their total unfamiliarity to each other aside from annoying gender stereotypes becomes grindingly obvious - it becomes hard, as a reader, to get on board with the frantic gyrations of the tail end of the plot.

Finally and bizarrely, the novel ends just as it starts to get really interesting.  Throughout the book there are hints at other things going on in the world of the novel, things about reincarnation even the narrator doesn't understand.  There are two characters who remember their past lives, but differently; there are a few characters who recur between lives.  At the end of the book, it seems like the characters might be moving into a space where some of this cool stuff would be elucidated - but then, of course, the book ends, and nothing more interesting happens than <SPOILER ALERT> an unanticipated yet totally welcome pregnancy, and a promising young woman throwing away her life to wait around endlessly for a man.  I feel like I could have found that same not-actually-happy ending, with a lot less of the pretension to depth, two aisles over in the bodice-ripper section of the library.

New holiday: Thankful Things Thursday

A blogger (whom I do not know, but who writes posts about running and 16 Handles and who has debunked the myth of dark chocolate being more satisfying than chocolate in brownie form, so she must be cool) has a weekly Thankful Things Thursday post.  She didn't give me permission to borrow her idea, but I'm going to anyway.  It's been kind of a crummy week - work is crazy, and with only a week and a half before the marathon I've come down with some kind of plague - so I could use some thankfulness.  So, without further ado:

1. The most important thing I am thankful for is the good health of almost everyone I care about.  A very close friend was recently in a serious accident, but she's going to be okay, and I'm thankful for that.  My family is all healthy.  And I don't really have the plague; I have a cold, and stress, and a bit of taper madness.  As long as everyone's skull is intact - or a least on the way - things can't be that bad.
2. I saw a very good play yesterday, Other Desert Cities.  I'm thankful that I live in a city where I can see good theater regularly, and that there are ways to see them affordably.
3. On the way home from work, I stopped by Fairway, which I do quite frequently.  I bought some food for dinner - of the convenience-and-comfort variety - and dental floss and a couple other things, and it cost about $18.  I'm thankful I don't have to sweat $18.  Also, I'm thankful my job provides all the food I eat the rest of the day, or else I'd have to keep proper groceries.
4. I'm thankful it's candy corn season.  I had some candy corn the other day.  Also, I'm thankful candy corn season is short.
5. It's almost Christmas!  Or, anyway, almost the Christmas season.  Definitely thankful for that.
6. I was given two free granola bars today, although with little cards about G-d.  I kept the granola bars, for when I'm having a low blood sugar moment and there's no food around, or to give to panhandlers on the subway.
7. Work may be stressful sometimes, but the people I work with are great.
8. It's Thursday, which means I'm watching Big Bang Theory and planning an exciting evening of Grey's Anatomy (while I work).  Is it bad to be grateful for TV?
9. Tomorrow is Friday.  After that comes the weekend.  VERY thankful for the weekend.

I will get more exciting in a couple weeks, I promise.

It's hard to convince myself to blog when my blog is this boring, because (a) it's kind of supposed to be boring, and (b) my life is pretty boring these days.  As it turns out, "resting up between incredibly long run and even-longer marathon" is not a super-exciting thing to write about.

This Saturday, however, I only had to run ten miles, so I had time for some excitement later in the weekend.  The first part of this excitement was hosting my super for a game of what's-wrong-with-the-electricity-?.  I have no electricity in parts of the apartment, which include a few outlets, the refrigerator, and the stove.  So all of my food is in the auxiliary fridge, which turns out to be plenty big enough for the food of a person who never cooks.  However I am going to need my stove back before the marathon so that I can make pasta.  Other super-thrilling parts of the weekend included why-don't-they-have-the-lotion-I-want-at-Bed-Bath-and-Beyond-? (never fear, I ordered it on Amazon; by "subscribing" to get it every six months, which I can change or cancel anytime, I got a 15% discount on the cheaper-than-NYC-stores price and free shipping, plus I got to buy it with an existing gift certificate, so this was a win), and doing a puzzle of the periodic table, which was fun and educational and, I assure you, only about four times as geeky as it sounds.  

Also I ate two meals in restaurants, of course.  I had an early dinner Saturday at Bocca, in Union Square.  This is a fussy Italian place with a somewhat unusual menu - everything had some kind of twist.  The gnocchi I ordered were lighter and creamier than most gnocchi - ricotta instead of potato - and were served with clams wrapped in some kind of Canadian bacon.  My dining companion had pasta with largish chunks of what I think was lamb, which I've never seen before.  It was a good meal, but the portions were small - obviously we were meant to order appetizers and dessert and so forth.

I also had a late brunch at Spoon, which is in the Chelsea mold of let's-pretend-this-is-a-rustic-farmyard-retreat-instead-of-a-trendy-fifth-avenue-eatery.  Again, everything on the menu was a twist.  I had the bacon, egg and cheddar "panini", and everything in it was really good - great bread, decent cheese, excellent bacon - but it was missing whatever it is that usually ties these sandwiches together (grease?).  Also - this is my pet peeve for brunch spots - the coffee was served in wide, shallow cups, which meant you didn't get much at a time and it got cold fast.  Seems like they should serve coffee in larger portions since refills are always free the server's time is probably more valuable than a tiny bit of wasted joe.

I had two good restaurant experiences that I forgot to blog about.  One was at a restaurant on Columbus Avenue around 72nd (Columbus Tavern, I think).  I was going for drinks with a friend, and we ended up sitting in the semi-enclosed porch in front, which the weather was perfect for.  They had a full menu, but we just had wine, of which they had a fairly good selection (although no vino verde), and the waiter didn't pester us to order more.  Also, I had a quick brunch a couple weeks ago at a nameless diner near Herald Square; the inside of the diner was depressing and gross and the outside was on a loud street, and I was determined to hate it, but the coffee was good (and hot and refilled quickly by the not-hipsterish waitress) and the pancakes were the best I've had in ages.

No, Reader(s), I have not entirely abandoned this blog (yet).  Just, you know, mostly.

Here's what I've been doing for the past month:

1) Running.  A lot, and yet not a lot.  As of today I'm in the taper portion of my training, which means since my last post I've done two very long runs of twenty and twenty-two miles, respectively.  I've also done a number of short runs.  And I've spent a lot of time resting, because it turns out a twenty-mile run takes quite a lot out of me; I definitely haven't been adhering to my schedule of speedwork and mid-distance runs.  They say it's better to be undertrained than overtrained; let's hope that's true.  Also, I've acquired some running accessories, including compression socks (very sexy) and an object called "The Stick" which is basically a skinny plastic version of the famed foam roller.  Both are helpful in recovery, although I'm not sure they actually improve my performance during runs.  My thoughts about running are split three ways right now: (a) "why didn't I train better  / harder / more diligently?  I could have done so much better"; (b) planning for the marathon itself; (c) post-marathon plans, which are to focus on the half-marathon for the foreseeable future.  I like having a goal, and being in training is so much more fun than aimlessly going to the gym a few times a week, but the marathon is just. so. huge., particularly for someone of my limited running abilities.  I think I'll enjoy myself more, see more improvement, and have less negative impact on the rest of my life if I focus on a distance that isn't quite so ginormous.

2) Eating.  A lot.  Obviously, because of the running.  But also I have eaten in some interesting places, including:

a) Tartinery, in Nolita.  This place is fairly awesome, from the atmosphere to the menu.  I ate a Cobb Salad (I'm not a big tartine person, for some reason) and it was one of the better ones I've had, ever; of course not much cheffery is involved, but the ingredients were all high-quality and fresh.

b) Jones Wood Foundry, on the Upper East Side.  I've had two meals here; the food is very high-quality and well-prepared, but you have to actually like British food, which most people don't.  The dining room is attractive and quiet, and you can eat a full meal at the very pleasant bar - the bartender this afternoon was a dead ringer for Seth Rogen.

c) Fatty Crab.  This place is supposed to be great, and maybe the one in Soho *is* great, but I went to the one on the Upper West Side, and I was not impressed.  The atmosphere is midway between pub and beach shack - my dining companion called it "one step up from Chili's".  The food is good (again, if you like that sort of food - it's Malaysian, which to my palate hits midway between Indian and Korean, neither of which I much like) but the portions are tiny and the prices are a bit steep.  It was an interesting meal, but I left the restaurant ready to hit 16 Handles (*never* a disappointment) for dessert.

d) Shake Shack, the original (Madison Square Park).  I think I had something at the UWS location once, but never a full meal.  This was a surprisingly pleasant experience - there are picnic tables in the park, and although the line to order is long, the food is ready pretty quickly and there are plenty of seats.  Very much a fan of the "concrete", and also any restaurant that has a dessert in its title.

3) Apple-picking!  I went to an orchard upstate and picked a bunch of apples of several varieties, most of which I hadn't ever heard of.  Then I came home and mostly didn't eat the apples, because they have much nicer apples at my office.  But I also got to go for a nice hike.  And, on a separate-but-still-out-of-the-city occasion, I went to Orchard Beach, which is in Pelham Bay Park, which is in the Bronx but certainly feels like it could be on a different planet than Manhattan.

4) Shows - I think I must have been to a couple, but the only one I can remember just now is Sons of the Prophet, which I saw during its preview week and which was very, very good - definitely one of the best shows of the season.  It's at Roundabout, home of a wide variety of consistently excellent shows and specializing in this sort of black humor.

5) Going to bed early, when I can manage it, for the sake of my running.  Which is what I am going to do right now.