By Its Cover- The Wasp Eater

By Its Cover is my completely independent book review column. Selections are made based entirely on the book's cover. I'm testing the old saying in my quest to find new authors.




Title: The Wasp Eater
Author: William Lychack

I chose a smaller book this time, simul-reading this with The Godfather, not sure I'd be able to finish both in the loan time.

The story tracks that of a young boy and his parents after his mother finds out his father cheated on her. She throws him out the house. The remainder of the book has the boy feeling torn between the adults, wanting them back together, wanting to be with one or the other and feeling guilty.

For as simply told as The Godfather was, this was far more lyrical. It seems to skip along like a rock on a pond, dipping into feelings and the scenery of the moment before sailing off again. In those contact points it was brilliant. The cover said it 'is at one time lucid and dream-like'. But it's confusing, how it would jump between thought sequences, the future and reality...which was really happening?

The father as the best drawn character. I felt sorry for him, rough and tumble guy who appeared to momentarily lose his way. I really wanted him to get his family back. I wanted his wife to forgive him.

There also felt like there were things left unsaid in hopes that the reader would infer them. It didn't really work. There was just too much missing...or it was too short, too conflicted to feel real.

ThisNext- The English Language

Originally, I saw this on etsypal, Neawear's blog, Creativadoration. I thought it was cool...and true. The English language is kinda bland in terms of different characters. Makes me want to learn Cyrillic.

By Michael Ciancio
It's on sale, now (via Michael Ciancio)

Zephyr- The Closet

Adding things to the Closet. I had been neglecting it, I must say. I'm back now with a pretty big box of bits to photograph and list.

Enjoy!

Weekend Blurble- Config

i had been
in a near panic trying
to figure out how to package these

i bought some clear boxes but
they were far too big
the search for smaller ones
yielded one set
of 288!

these sold and had to be sent so
i wrapped them up
with a bit of yarn
from knittydirtygirl

i like it.

Bits and Pieces and Code

[bit1]
Got my hair cut. It looks the same it did when I was 18. I didn't really like it then. I'm swearing off haircuts for a while. Can't seem to get one I like...or the one I want.

[piece1]
An addendum to [bit1]...I'm partially to blame for this, though. I cut my own hair, in a fit of passive-aggressive rebellion. Messed it up. So this was a 'rescue' cut.

[bit2]
I ran out of the 'vintage' splatter paint stationery that was my aunt's, that I wrote notes on to include with packages. Started looking for new paper, ideally a notepad that I could have customized to include my URL and the color bar part of my logo. So far, I've only found place that require 10 pad purchase= $100s. Except Vistaprint, but I've had conflicting reviews from them.

[piece2]
I love Life. Yep, yep.

[code and Post Picture:] I've started DIY-ing a website for myself. Coding it, because WYSIWYGs intimidate me. The picture is a mockup I did in Photoshop. What I actually have so far is a bit different...it's really different when I test it in IE.

See, I have no formal knowledge of XHTML or CSS. I'm reading and implementing as I go along. It's a mentally stimulating, but it's also frustrating and exhausting. I should probably hand off this project, I have oodles of others that I'm neglecting to try to get this done. But I want to do it myself. Maybe I can figure out some half-and-half...you code the template, I'll add the info kinda thing. I'd be up for that.