Lint in Literature: Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy's Daughter by Sara Mansfield Taber

I just finished reading Born Under an Assumed Name:  The Memoir of a Cold War Spy's Daughter by Sara Mansfield Taber. This was a very good book and it contains lint, to boot!

Near the end of the book, she describes the teachers at the Canadian Academy in Kobe, Japan where she attended high school:

"My French teacher was a fastidious man with impeccable clothing from which he brushed off invisible bits of lint with his manicured fingernails."

Lint in Literature: The Girl Giant by Kristen den Hartog

I just started reading The Girl Giant by Kristen den Hartog last night and could tell right away that it was a winner. This small book--both in size (it measures about 5 X 7 inches) and page length (just 219 pages)--is compact but tells a big story.

Here's where the lint comes in (on page 26), when Ruth is describing going to her first day of kindergarten with her mother:

"On my first day, I was creeping up on five feet, heads taller than my peers, who stared at me as I made my way down the speckled hall to my classroom, sweaty hand gripping Elspeth's sleeve. Clip-clop went Elspeth's shoes, and her dark dress without a speck of lint swished against her nylons, like people whispering."

The writing is so good and the story wonderful.

Lint in Literature: The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler

I finished reading Anne Tyler's latest novel last night. The Beginner's Goodbye was a wonderfully simple story and too short. I always enjoy Anne Tyler's characters and the quirky situations she puts them in.

In The Beginner's Goodbye, Aaron is married to Dorothy, but actually when the book begins, Dorothy has already died and Aaron, a thirty-something year old who works at his family's vanity press, has started  having visits from Dorothy. Yes, back from the dead.

In one of the last pages of the book, this little gem of lint in literature showed up during a conversation about walking on freshly refinished wood floors:

Gary straightened and laid his brush across the top of his can. "Now, don't go walking on this, you hear?" he said. "Not for twenty-four hours. And then, the next few days or so, keep your shoes on. You wouldn't believe how many folks think they're doing a floor a favor to take their shoes off and walk in their stocking feet. But that's the worst thing."

"Worst thing in the world," the other man agreed.

"Heat of your body . . ." Gary said.

"Linty old socks . . ."

"Bottoms of your feet mashing flat against the wood . . ."

Nice! Linty old socks! (I've provided a link [the sock shown above] in case you have linty old socks and are need of some new ones. Just in case.)

The New Republic by Lionel Shriver

I'm a big fan of Lionel Shriver's writing. I haven't read all of her books, but several. I'm currently reading The New Republic. It's about terrorism and she wrote it a few years before 2001. It didn't get published then and immediately after 9/11, it couldn't get published, so 11 years later, it's okay again to have a book about terrorism. That is, a humorous book about terrorism.

So far, so good. She is such an excellent writer:  smart, funny, way over my head at least half the time but down to earth enough that when I get it, it's good and I don't feel dumb, just ignorant of her references. I'm not a worldly type person. She is obviously. And that's okay.

So, last night I read these paragraphs, which, you guessed it, one of them contains lint. So here goes:

Edgar could only intuit vaguely that they had money troubles.

"Barrington understood," she added sadly. "But Barrington collected meaning like lint. Like that Peanuts character:  it followed him in a cloud."


If you've never read any of Lionel Shriver's books, do yourself a favor. Do. I wouldn't recommend starting with We Need to Talk About Kevin though. It's her deepest, darkest and very good but so scary in the subject matter. Most of her others are more tongue in cheek and a delight.

Lint in Literature: The Bride's House

I'm reading The Bride's House by Sandra Dallas and came across a passage with lint in it last night:

Peter smiled, then fiddled with the air force cap that he'd set on the table, straightening it, brushing off a piece of lint.

A friend gave me this book or I wouldn't be reading it. I've only ever read one other novel by Sandra Dallas, Tallgrass. It was good. This one is not as good, but I'm almost finished with it, so will plug along. It's just not my type of novel, but I'm sure lots of people love her work. I lived in Colorado for more than 20 years so reading about parts of it is interesting!

Named One of the Four Weirdest

Squidoo is a Web site where I write articles. They offer quests (sort of like assignments, where, instead of a grade, you get extra points) on certain topics. One of the recent quests was called "Be Weird." We were tasked to write about "an offbeat hobby, strange occupation, unusual habit or any other eccentricity they might have." 

Well, I was stumped since I'm so weird, but a friend suggested I write about lint. So, I did. My article is What To Do with Dryer Lint. I submitted it a few days ago but woke up today with this headline in my dashboard:  "Four Weird Lenses and Counting." 

In the news from Squidoo HQ, they shared four of the weirdest articles submitted to the Be Weird quest so far. Yep, I made the list. 

Thank you. Thank you.

Lint in Literature: 11/22/63

I've been reading Stephen King's latest book 11/22/63 for a week or so now. It's long, but it's very good. Last night while reading along, I found the first bit of lint in it! Since the book is 849 pages, it would be fairly disappointing if lint didn't show up at least once!

Here it is:

"That evening at six, Sadie inspected me, reknotted my tie, and then brushed some lint, real or imagined, from the shoulders of my sport coat."

I don't think I gave anything away with that snippet, in case you haven't read this book. But seriously, it is so good. Basically, a guy from 2009 (I think it is) goes through a portal that takes him to 1958. He has the opportunity to change history by keeping JFK alive. Of course that can't happen but if anyone can convince you of wormholes and alternate realities, it's Stephen King.