Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Hand, Foot in Mouth
That's actually Hand, Foot AND Mouth as in the virus that plagues today's childcare centers. Lately E's been off. He's been crying during and after meals and generally being a Grumpy-Bunny. I got the call today from his school that he'd contracted Hand Foot and Mouth and I needed to pick him and get a doctor's note telling them that he's no longer contagious.

The irksome part of this is that the virus has been making the rounds at his school for a few days, and they didn't tell the parents. If I had known there was something like that going around, I would have been less worried about all of Eric's meal-time fussing Grrrr.. Arrgh.

Still cruising through my books. I just finished The Frog Prince by Jane Porter.

It's the story of Holly, a 25 year old woman who has moved to San Francisco from Fresno after a embarrassingly short marriage to a narcissistic Frenchman named Jean-Marc. Holly is minorly compelling and gets more so as the story goes on. She works on her broken heart and does so without the help of a particular male character. I commend the author for this. "Girl gets her act together sans leading man" is a genre lacking with chicklit in general.

The best parts of the book are the friendships she forges in spit of the fact that she feels worthless and crazy. The worst part of the book is that she never really overcomes her doormat tendencies. I am really frustrated by books that leave out the final confrontation. Have you ever read the Nanny Diaries? This is a perfect example of the crescendo that wasn't. The Frog Prince edges towards confrontations, but ultimately ignores them at the end. She never really confronts her ex-husband, her boss or her psychotic landlord, and these relationships are ripe for drama. But the drama is steadfastly avoided.

It's a decent read. The first half of the book the main character is completely immersed in her own depression and it's a bit like being bludgeoned with somebody's grief. It's definitely not my favorite book in the genre, but it's not the worst.

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