Can I Borrow Your Book?

The Alphabet Challenge

2011-04-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

Rules:

1. 26 books!

runs January 1st 2011 –December 31, 2011. For each letter, read a book that has a main character or key supporting character (not some random minor character mentioned twice!) whose name starts with that letter. It doesn’t have to be the title of the book, just the name. Ex: Alice (in wonderland), Bella (twilight), Cathy (Wuthering Heights), Dracula (Dracula) Estella (Great Expectations), etc.

2. only one letter per book!

3. Crossovers are fine

4. audio, e-book, bound book, someone reading it out loud to you, reading a book to your little brother or sister, it all counts.

5. any length—short stories, books of the Bible, etc. they all count for this one.

Levels:
Level 1: 10 Letters
Level 2: 20 Letters
Level 3: Completes all 26 letters (yes, that means X and Z and Q. I’m sure you can find something.)

Hosted by The Life (and lies) of an Inanimate Flying Object

My List

A
B
C: Catherine--The Sculptor (February)
D
E
F
G: Gettler--The Poisoner's Handbook (March)
H: Henrietta--The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (April)
I
J: Jo--Little Women (February)
K: Katherine--Tinkers (April)
L: Lisbeth--The Girl Who Played with Fire (January)
M
N
O: Osceola--Swamplandia (March)
P
Q: Qussim--The City and The City (March)
R
S
T
U
V: Vanessa: The Informationist (March)
W
X
Y
Z

Swamplandia!

2011-04-03T13:28:00.001-07:00

Author: Karen Russell

Pages: 336

Personal Rating: 3/5

From the back cover:

From the celebrated twenty-nine-year-old author of the everywhere-heralded short-story collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (“How I wish these were my own words, instead of the breakneck demon writer Karen Russell’s . . . Run for your life. This girl is on fire”—Los Angeles Times Book Review) comes a blazingly original debut novel that takes us back to the swamps of the Florida Everglades, and introduces us to Ava Bigtree, an unforgettable young heroine.

The Bigtree alligator-wrestling dynasty is in decline, and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator-wrestling theme park, formerly #1 in the region, is swiftly being encroached upon by a fearsome and sophisticated competitor called the World of Darkness. Ava’s mother, the park’s indomitable headliner, has just died; her sister, Ossie, has fallen in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, who may or may not be an actual ghost; and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, who dreams of becoming a scholar, has just defected to the World of Darkness in a last-ditch effort to keep their family business from going under. Ava’s father, affectionately known as Chief Bigtree, is AWOL; and that leaves Ava, a resourceful but terrified thirteen, to manage ninety-eight gators and the vast, inscrutable landscape of her own grief.

Against a backdrop of hauntingly fecund plant life animated by ancient lizards and lawless hungers, Karen Russell has written an utterly singular novel about a family’s struggle to stay afloat in a world that is inexorably sinking. An arrestingly beautiful and inventive work from a vibrant new voice in fiction

I'm not exactly sure how I feeling about Swamplandia. Each time I try to put down what I liked or didn't like about this book it keeps getting tangled together.

In general I would say this is a good book and I would recommend it. That being said, I would also say it reads more slowly than it should. This may have been because of my own personal expectations. I expected more of the book to be set in the park and deal with the alligator wrestling itself and it didn't. This didn't make it bad, just different. It's hard to talk about what happens in this story without giving away spoilers so I'll just make a few comment.

The characters were phenomenal. Ava, Osceola and Kiwi are the three children who live at Swamplandia!. Each of them is different from each other, strange and still completely relatable.

Russell's descriptions of the swamp were vivid. I felt like I was in the swamp with Ava. I swear I could feel mosquitoes crawling on me at some points while reading. I could feel mud drying on me and making my skin shrink. She also did a great job at conveying the "obnoxiousness???" you can observe if you head out to any amusement park or large public gathering these days.

Possible, though unlikely SPOILER (i just tell if i like the end, not what happened)--

I felt the ending was too neat and tidy. Improbable. It was too nice. Do people need a "nice" ending to enjoy a book? Can an unhappy ending still make an enjoyable, good read?

If you are undecided I would grab the book and give it a go!

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

2011-04-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

Hosted by Historical Tapestry

Some of the "nuts and bolts"

• Any kind of historical fiction is accepted (HF fantasy, HF young adult,...)
• You can overlap this challenge with others kind of challenges
• During these following 12 months you can choose one of the different reading levels:

1. Severe Bookaholism: 20 books
2. Undoubtedly Obsessed: 15 books
3. Struggling the Addiction: 10 books
4. Daring & Curious: 5 books
5. Out of My Comfort Zone: 2 books

The challenge will run from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011

I've been checking out other participants blogs and I see many interesting picks being read for this challenge. So I think I'm going to to sign up for

Daring and Curious: 5 books
1. Captain Alatriste: Arturo Perez-Reverte
2. The Reincarnationist: M. J. Rose
3. The Serpent's Tale: Ariana Franklin
4.
5.

Now I just need to decide which books I actually want to read!

Booking Through Thursday

2011-03-31T16:36:00.000-07:00

If you’re like me, you grew up reading everything under the sun, like the cereal boxes while you ate your breakfast, the newspapers held by strangers on the subway, the tabloid headlines at the grocery store.

What’s the oddest thing you’ve ever read? (You know, something NOT a book, magazine, short story, poem or article.) Booking Through Thursday

This was a tough question! What finally came to mind was a series of signs I came across while visiting China. They were meant to "educate" people on safe behaviors. Some examples...don't poke others while biking in traffic, try not to trample people while fleeing, using a mop won't help you put out a building fire. Now, I'm not sure if this is what they actually said since they are in Chinese, but just LOOK at them!

Sunday Salon

2011-03-27T14:25:00.001-07:00

This is my first salon in almost two years! I stopped blogging after my broken foot started to heal. Its taken me awhile to get back to blogging but I'm looking forward to it. I think the key for me will be to keep it simple to start. So, what have I been up to???

1. I decided on the Kindle. I really think it is a matter of personal preference. For me the deciding factors were

"e ink" and no back lighting. My husband has some eye problems and I wanted to cut down on eye fatigue

color screen didn't matter, nor did a touch screen since I already have an iphone

it was lighter

I found it visually more appealing.

I love it!!!! It is one of the best purchases I've made. For the first time since I was nine I went on vacation without physically carrying a book with me. This from the girl who took a 1000+ page hardback on the plane to China bcs I couldn't wait to read it. The convenience can't be beat. One issue I would like to see improved is the page numbering. My issue is that there isn't any. When you read there is a scroll bar across the bottom that tells you that you are "5% complete". You just don't know if that is 5% of 100 pages or 5% of 800 pages. I would somehow like to see real page numbers incorporated. I know this might be difficult to compare electronic page to actual page to electronic pages but I'm sure they could make it work somehow.

2. I'm trying to read more. Aren't we all? The Kindle makes it easier to read more and read more often. I read more in Febuarary than I did in January. I'll probably read as much in March as I did in Febuary. Some books just read easier than others.

The City & the City by China Melville ate up a lot of my reading time. While others books I was able to fly right through. I'm hoping to start adding reviews to my blog as I have time.

I'm currently reading Swamplandia! by Karen Russell and I have 28% complete. It started off very well. Right now it is starting to flag and flounder. I hope it picks back up.

My upcoming reading is: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

For Earth Hour

2011-03-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

What's in a Name 4 Challenge

2011-03-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

Between January 1 and December 31, 2011, read one book in each of the following categories:

A book with a number in the title: First to Die, Seven Up, Thirteen Reasons Why
A book with jewelry or a gem in the title: Diamond Ruby, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Opal Deception
A book with a size in the title: Wide Sargasso Sea, Small Wars, Little Bee
A book with travel or movement in the title: Dead Witch Walking, Crawling with Zombies, Time Traveler's Wife
A book with evil in the title: Bad Marie, Fallen, Wicked Lovely
A book with a life stage in the title: No Country for Old Men, Brideshead Revisited, Bog Child

The book titles are just suggestions, you can read whatever book you want to fit the category.

Other Things to Know

Books may be any form (audio, print, e-book).
Books may overlap other challenges.
Books may not overlap categories; you need a different book for each category.
Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed but encouraged.

You do not have to make a list of books before hand.
You do not have to read through the categories in any particular order

My tentative book list:

1. Number:
2. Jewelry/Gem:
3. Size: A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)
4. Travel/Movement: Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson)
5. Evil:
6. Life Stage:

Books Awards Reading Challenge V

2011-03-25T02:23:00.000-07:00

hosted by Michelle at 1Morechapter

Rules:

1.Read 5 books from 5 different awards during Feb 1, 2011 through Dec 1, 2011.
2.Overlaps with other challenges are permitted.
3.Choices don't have to be posted right away, and lists may be changed at any time.
4.'Award winners' is loosely defined; make the challenge fit your needs.

This had always been one of my favorite challenges in the pasts. I've decided to go back through my old challenges and list what never got read and pick from those reads. If I have time I'll try to add some new ones too.

Holes: Louis Sachar (Newbery)
Shiloh: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Newbery)
Half of a Yellow Sun: Adichie (Orange Prize)
We Need to Talk About Kevin: Shriver (Orange Prize)
Guns, Germs and Steel: Jared Diamond
Anil's Ghost:Michael Ondaatje
The Shipping News: E. Annie Proulx
Snow Falling on Cedars: David Guterson
Life of Pi: Yann Martel
The Throat: Peter Straub
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
Plague’s Progress by Arno Karlen
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Spring Reading Thing 2011 Challenge

2011-03-24T15:35:00.001-07:00

March 20th - June 20th hosted by Katrina at Callapidder days

Make a list of books you want to read (or finish reading) this spring. Your list can be as long or as short as you’d like. (Also, feel free to modify your list during the challenge if it’s not working for you.) Write a blog post containing your list and submit it to this post using the Mr. Linky below. Get reading! The challenge goes from today, March 20th, through June 20th. Check out other participants’ lists and add to your own to-read-someday pile! Write a post about your challenge experience in June, telling us all about whether you reached your goals and how Spring Reading Thing went for you. But remember: this is a low-pressure challenge that should be fun. As long as you do some reading this spring (and enjoy it!), that’s good enough for me.

My first challenge in 2011. Acutally, my first challenge is two years.

My Reading List:

~~The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Rebecca Skloot~~ 4.10.11
The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers: Thomas Mullen
The Clan of the Cave Bear: Jean M. Auel
Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest: Stieg Larsson

Additional Books:

~~Swamplandia!: Karen Russell~~ (4.2.11)

Blogging Again???

2011-03-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

I think I feel like blogging again. The past few days I've found myself cruising around my blog, reading old posts and comments, checking out old challenges. I was in a reading funk for a long time. I simply didn't feel like reading and really didn't feel like writing about. I'm ready to pick it back up...I think.

I redesigned my background. I removed a few of the old challenges that were taking up space along the sides. I guess now I just need to join a few challenges and write a few reviews. Time will tell how it goes.

What's in a Name Challenge 2

2009-01-02T17:14:00.000-08:00

*Dates: January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009

*The Challenge: Choose one book from each of the following categories.

1. A book with a "profession" in its title. Examples might include: The Book Thief, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Historian

2. A book with a "time of day" in its title. Examples might include: Twilight, Four Past Midnight, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

3. A book with a "relative" in its title. Examples might include: Eight Cousins, My Father's Dragon, The Daughter of Time

4. A book with a "body part" in its title. Examples might include: The Bluest Eye, Bag of Bones, The Heart of Darkness

5. A book with a "building" in its title. Examples might include: Uncle Tom's Cabin, Little House on the Prairie, The Looming Tower

6. A book with a "medical condition" in its title. Examples might include: Insomnia, Coma, The Plague

*You may overlap books with other challenges, but please don't use the same book for more than one category.

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My Tentative List

Profession

Time of Day

Relative

The Alchemist's Daughter
The Bonesetter's Daughter: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

Body Part

Building

The Wasp Factory: Iain Banks

Medical Condition

Fourth Annual NaJuReMoNoMo

2009-01-01T20:56:00.000-08:00

National Just Read More Novels Month

Only Novels Count. This means no non-fiction books, memoirs, short stories, essay collections, or books based on internet memes like LOLcats. The judge is out on graphic novels. It's your call.

Memoirs Don’t Count. Even if they are fictional. And especially if they are fake memoirs about the Holocaust.

It Can’t Be A Novel You Have Already Read. Expand your horizons. Try some new authors.

You Must Start At The Beginning. If the book is on your nightstand, you have to start over. We are looking at January 1 to January 31. That is 31 days. We are on a deadline.
Have Fun.

This a lark. You wouldn't be reading if you didn't enjoy it.

And of course we have our valuable prizes. You get to brag about your literacy ability by posting our "Winner" badges on your site. Any book qualifies for the Blue Winner badge. Now a lot of people read more than one. Three books qualifies for the Green Badge. Five gets the Silver Badge and ten is the Gold level.
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OK, I can SO do this one. I can finish at least one novel even if I stay in my reading rut! There are prizers at stake here. Must get badge...

Challenges I Did NOT Finish in 2008

2009-01-01T19:01:00.000-08:00

Time to clean up the blog and get the challenges I did not finish off my sidebars. Some of the challenges I did not finish I came very close to making it...some I did not. Signing up for challenges makes me search through my books and read genres I normally may not pick up for myself. Even though there were a lot of challenges I did not finish there were many in 2008 that I did complete!

SERIES CHALLENGE and CARDATHON: 3/6

I get to work on this one still since there is a Series Challenge 3!

CLASSICS CHALLENGE: 2/6

I thought I would do better on this one. Once I decided I wanted to focus more on fulfilling my A~Z Challenge it was harder to find readings to fit this challenge that I was still interested in.

NON-FICTION FIVE: 4/5

So close! I just ran out of time.

DECADES CHALLENGE: 6/8

Once the end of the year kept getting closer and closer I just gave up on trying to fit in the two decades I needed.

19th CENTURY WOMEN WRITERS CHALLENGE: 1/4

I thougth that by signing up for this challenge I would be motivated into an area where I do not have a lot of interest. It didn't work very well.

Books Read 2008

2009-01-01T17:03:00.000-08:00

December

60. The Phantom Tollbooth: Norton Juster
59. The Zookeeper's Wife-A War Story: Diane Ackerman

November

58. Fire Study: Maria Snyder
57. A Prayer for Owen Meany: John Irving

October

56. Sushi for One: Cami Tang
55. The Ottoman Cage: Barabara Nadel

September

54. The Devil's Arithmetic: Jane Yolen
53. Veronica Decides to Die: Paulo Coelho
52. American Gods: Neil Gaiman

August

51. Like Water for Chocolate: Laura Esquivel
50. The Joy Luck Club: Amy Tan
49. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: Mark Haddon
48. The Rasputin Relic: William Valtos
47. Fieldwork: Mischa Berlinski

July

46. The Sixteen Pleasures: Robert Hellenga
45. a long way gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier: Ishmael Beah
44. The Secret Garden: Frances Hodgson Burnett
43. The Thieves of Heaven: Richard Doetsch
42. Pig Island: Mo Hayder
41. Murder on the Orient Express: Agatha Christie
40. Ella Minnow Pea: Mark Dunn
39. Decipher: Stel Pavlou

June

38. A Piece of Cake: Cupcake Brown
37. The Shadow of the Wind: Carlos Zafon
36. Number the Stars: Lois Lowry
Ozma of Oz: L. Frank Baum (audio book)
35. The $64 Tomato: William Alexander
34. The Awakening: Kate Chopin
33. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone: J. K. Rowling
32. Parasite Rex: Carl Zimmer
31. The Things They Carried: Tim O'Brien

May

30. When We Were Gods a Novel of Cleopatra: Colin Falconer
29. I, Mona Lisa: Jeanne Kalogridis
28. Magic Study: Maria Snyder
27. Uglies: Scott Westerfeld
The Marvelous Land of Oz: L. Frank Baum (audio book)
26. The Blind Assassin: Margaret Atwood
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: L. Frank Baum (audio book)

April

25. Bel Canto: Ann Patchett
24. The House of the Spirts: Isabel Allende
Dracula: Bram Stoker (audio book)
23. Prentice Alvin: Orson Scott Card
22. Messenger: Lois Lowry
21. Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil: Deborah Rodriquez
20. The God of Small Things: Arundhati Roy

March

19. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Betty Smith
18. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: John Boyne
17. Rosemary's Baby: Ira Levin
16. Cruel & Unusual: Patricial Cornwell
15. The Burn Journals: Brent Runyon
14. Red Prophet: Orson Scott Card
13. Flowers for Algernon: Daniel Keyes
12. The Silver Rose: Susan Carroll

February

11. Gathering Blue: Lois Lowry
10. White Oleander: Janet Fitch
9. Lost Name: Richard E. Kim
8. Veil of Roses: Laura Fitzgerald
7. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal: Christopher Moore
6. The Glass Castle: Jeannette Walls

January

5. The Reckoning (The Blood of the Lamb): Thomas Monteleone
4. The Giver: Lois Lowry
3. Middlesex: Jeffrey Eugenides
2. Seventh Son: Tales of the Alvin Maker: Orson Scott Card
1. The Girls: Lori Lansens

A ~ Z Challenge 2009

2008-12-31T20:25:00.000-08:00

I've decided to go with Option A--reading one book for each letter using the author's last name. I tried to do author and titles for 2008 and fell short. I also felt restricted with fitting books into the appropriate letters. Only doing authors will give me more freedom. I'll probably just join more challenges though!

A ~ Z Challenge List from 2008

2008-12-31T19:56:00.000-08:00

Ended up a few short but that is OK! I got into a reading funk in September or I definitely would have made it.

AUTHORS

A--The Blind Assassin (Margaret Atwood)5.12.08
B--The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (John Boyne) 3.20.08
C--The Silver Rose (Susan Carroll) 3.5.08
D--The Theives of Heaven (Richard Doetsch)7.15.08
E--Like Water for Chocolate (Laura Esquivel) 8.28.08
F--When We Were Gods (Colin Falconer) 5.28.08
G--American Gods (Neil Gaiman) 9.5.08
H--Pig Island (Mo Hayder) 7.15.08
I--A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
J--The Phantom Tollboth (Norton Juster)
K--Lost Names (Richard Kim) 2.16.08
L--The Giver (Lois Lowry) 1.27.08
M--The Reckoning (Thomas Monteleone) 2.2.08
N--The Ottoman Cage (Barbara Nadel)
O--The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brien) 6.6.08
P--Bel Canto (Anne Patchett) 4.30.08
Q--
R--The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy) 4.2.08
S--Magic Study (Maria Snyder) 5.18.08
T--Sushi For One (Cami Tang)
U--
V--The Rasputin Relic (William Valtos) 8.13.08
W--The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls) 2.3.08
X--
Y--The Devil's Arithmetic (Jane Yolen)
Z--The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon) 6.22.08

TITLES

A--The Awakening (Kate Chopin) 6.10.08
B--The Burn Journals (Brent Runyon) 3.12.08
C--Cruel and Unusual (Patricia Cornwell) 3.16.08
D--Decipher (Stel Pavlou) 7.7.08
E--Ella Minnow Pea (Mark Dunn) 7.9.08
F--Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes) 3.8.08
G--The Girls (Lori Lansens) 1.5.08
H--The House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende) 4.26.08
I--I, Mona Lisa (Jeanne Kalogridis) 5.26.08
J--The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan)8.20.08
K--Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil (Deborah Rodriquez) 4.5.08
L--Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal (Christopher Moore) 2.8.08
M--Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenide) 1.26.08
N--Number the Stars (Lois Lowry) 6.19.08
O--
P--Parasite Rex (Carl Zimmer) 6.7.08
Q--
R--Rosemary's Baby (Ira Levin) 3.17.08
S--Seventh Son: Tales of the Alvin Maker (Orson Scot Card) 1.11.08
T--A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) 3.23.08
U--Uglies (Scott Westerfeld) 5.14.08
V--Veil of Roses (Laura Fitzgerald) 2.12.08
W--White Oleander (Janet Fitch) 2.24.28
X--
Y--
Z--The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story (Diane Ackerman) 12.7.08

Books I Got for Christmas

2008-12-26T10:21:00.000-08:00

The End of the Alphabet: CS Richardson
The Last Lecutre: Randy Pausch
Then We Came to the End: Joshua Ferris
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: David Wroblewski
Christine Falls: Benjamin Black

I also have several Barnes and Noble gift cards to use up!

Back from Vacation

2008-08-13T20:08:00.000-07:00

I'm finally back from a fantastic vacation to Boulder CO and Rocky Mt. National Park. It was awesome! Time now to catch up on my blog which has been pushed to the back burner. I start back teaching next week though so it will probably take awhile to get caught up on my reviews.

A Piece of Cake is being given to...

2008-07-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

Lisa!

Please email me at pandabear 102205 at gmail dot com so I can get you mailing information.

Thanks to everyone who commented.

Sunday Salon # 9

2008-07-06T11:12:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! I've missed some weeks so it seems like I have a lot of catching up to do. Since my last Salon I've finished the following books

A Piece of Cake: Cupcake Brown (Review)
The Shadow of the Wind: Carlos Zafon (Review)
Number the Stars: Lois Lowry
Ozma of Oz: L. Frank Baum (audio book)
The $64 Tomato: William Alexander (Review)
The Awakening: Kate Chopin
Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone: J. K. Rowling (Review)

I enjoyed A Piece of Cake so much I'm giving it away to one lucky person. Just visit my review and leave a comment. I'm picking the person to mail it to tomorrow or Tuesday. Shadow of the Wind was another great read as well. I was disappointed in the $64 Tomato and really did not like The Awakening at all.

CURRENTLY READING:

Decipher: Stel Pavlou. For a book that looked very exciting so far it has been bogged down in unnecessary detail making it slow and tedious to read. Basically the city of Atlantis has been discovered and has been sending us warnings for 12,000 years about the destruction of the world. We have one week left to figure out what it is trying to tell us. Should be a nail biter. Right now I'm using it to keep my coffee table from getting water marks. I'm about 150 in and I think the idea has such potential that I'm going to keep going.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

The Cinema Murder by E. Phillips Oppenheim. I literally just download this from Librivox so I just wanted to mentioned that I will be starting this soon. I am still slowing working my way through the Innocence of Father Brown. I think I have a small crush on the narrator. His voice puts me to sleep in seconds.

WHAT I BOUGHT THIS WEEK (what showed up from PaperBack Swap and can you tell I hit up Goodwill?)

Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War byJudith Miller
The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes
The Judas Strain (Sigma Force Novels) by James Rollins
Black Order: A Sigma Novel by James Rollins
The Uncrowned Queen: A Novel by Posie Graeme-Evans
the name of the rose by Umberto Eco
Tangerine by Edward Bloor
Intrepreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel
Mortal Love: A Novel by Elizabeth Hand
Mapping Fate: A Memoir of Family, Risk, and Genetic Research

CHALLENGE UPDATE:

I joined the New Classics Challenge, Summer Reading Thing 2008, and A Daring Book Challenge. Directly below this post is a list of all the books I need to finish before the year is over. It is pretty long but I'm looking forward to the challenge. I also have no problem substituting new books as I find them and I'm also OK with not finishing a challenge (although I do try my best to finish each one). Sometimes I just come across a really good book I want to read and it doesn't fit into any of my challenges. If that means a challenge doesn't get completed...for me that is fine.

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For me it is now back to stripping the wood work in my kitchen. For my next break I'll be visiting other Salons. Happy Sunday!

What Do I Need To Read Before The Year Is Over?

2008-07-04T20:06:00.000-07:00

This could be scary!

The Accidental Tourist (A-Z)
~~A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Notable & In Their Shoes)~~
All Creatures Great and Small (Decades)
Alvin Journeyman (Cardathon & Series)
~~American Gods (A-Z)~~
Beneath a Marble Sky (Historical)*
The Crystal City (Cardathon & Series)
~~The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (A-Z)~~
~~Decipher (A-Z)~~
The Devil's Arithmetic (A - Z and Orbis Terrarum)*
~~Ella Minnow Pea (A-Z)~~
The Family That Couldn't Sleep (Non Fiction 5)
~~Fieldwork (Notable)~~
Forcing Amaryllis (A-Z)
Harem (Historical)*
Heartfire (Cardathon & Series)
The Inheritance (19th Century Women)
Jane Eyre (Classics & 19th Century Women)
~~The Joy Luck Club (A-Z)~~
~~Like Water for Chocolate (A-Z)~~
Lucky (In Their Shoes)*
A Million Little Pieces (In Their Shoes)*
~~Murder on the Orient Express (Decades)~~
Of Earth and Sky (A-Z)
The Phantom Tollbooth (A-Z)
~~Pig Island (What's In a Name)~~
Queen Bees and Wannabees (A-Z)
~~The Rasputin Relic (A-Z)~~
The Republican War on Science (Non Fiction 5)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (Classics)
~~The Secret Garden (Classics)~~
Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood (Non Fiction 5 & In Their Shoes)
The Sixteen Pleasures (Historical)*
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Classics)
Soul Mountain (A-Z)
Snow Falling on Cedars (Herding Cats)
Stargirl (Herding Cats)
~~The Thieves of Heaven (A-Z)~~
The Time Traveler's Wife (A-Z)
Q--? (A-Z)
Whose Body? (Decades)
A Widow for One Year (A-Z)
Wuthering Heights (19th Century Womens)
X--? (A-Z)
Y--? (A-Z)
The Zookeeper's Wife (A-Z)

one more books for the classics challenge

two books for suspense and thriller

* = do not NEED to finish, I have enought alternates to cover the challenge but it was on my original list

I need to find some cross overs. I'll never finish and didn't include challenges that ended in January or Febuary. Funny, this won't stop me from joining challenges though. Most of the fun is in seeing how far along I can get and seeing how many books I can get to cross over.

Happy Fourth of July

2008-07-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

New Classics Challenge

2008-07-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

Joann from Lost in a Good Story is hosting the New Classics Challenge. She writes...

Deb from the A Novel Challenge yahoo group posted a link to this list of Entertainment Weekly's list of new classics, what they call the best reads from 1983 to 2008. I loved the list - many of my recent favorites are on it so I'm intrigued
to see what some of the ones I haven't read yet will be like.

So the challenge rules are:

1) Copy the list (which I have pasted here, just in case that link ever disappears) and bold the titles that you have already read.

2) Choose at least 6 other books from the list , read and review them between 1 August 2008 and 31 January 2009.

2) Come back here and post links to your reviews.

3) In January 2009, cast your vote for which one of the 100 books on the list is your favorite (and write a post on why). The winning book will be sent to a lucky winner chosen by the scientific method favored here in the blogosphere, i.e. names in a hat. Other contests are very probable too, I have some ideas, but they need planning.

4) Have fun! :-)

THE LIST
1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

SIX BOOKS TO READ

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)

Book Review: A Piece of Cake

2008-06-30T17:13:00.001-07:00

Author: Cupcake Brown

Pages: 470

Genre: Non-Fiction/Autobiography

Personal Rating: 5/5

From the back cover:

There are shelves of memoirs about overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, gangbanging, near-death injuries, drug dealing, prostitution, or homelessness.

Cupcake Brown survived all these things before she’d even turned twenty.

And that’s when things got interesting….

You have in your hands the strange, heart-wrenching, and exhilarating tale of a woman named Cupcake. It begins as the story of a girl orphaned twice over, once by the death of her mother and then again by a child welfare system that separated her from her stepfather and put her into the hands of an epically sadistic foster parent. But there comes a point in her preteen years—maybe it’s the night she first tries to run away and is exposed to drugs, alcohol, and sex all at once—when Cupcake’s story shifts from a tear-jerking tragedy to a dark comic blues opera. As Cupcake’s troubles grow, so do her voice and spirit. Her gut-punch sense of humor and eye for the absurd, along with her outsized will, carry her through a fateful series of events that could easily have left her dead.

Young Cupcake learned to survive by turning tricks, downing hard liquor, partying like a rock star, and ingesting every drug she could find while hitchhiking up and down the California coast. She stumbled into gangbanging, drug dealing, hustling, prostitution, theft, and, eventually, the best scam of all: a series of 9-to-5 jobs. But Cupcake’s unlikely tour through the cubicle world was paralleled by a quickening descent into the nightmare of crack cocaine use, till she eventually found herself living behind a Dumpster.

Astonishingly, she turned it around. With the help of a cobbled together family of eccentric fellow addicts and “angels”—a series of friends and strangers who came to her aid at pivotal moments—she slowly transformed her life from the inside out.

A Piece of Cake is unlike any memoir you’ll ever read. Moving and almost transgressive in its frankness, it is a relentlessly gripping tale of a resilient spirit who took on the worst of contemporary urban life and survived it with a furious wit and unyielding determination. Cupcake Brown is a dynamic and utterly original storyteller who will guide you on the most satisfying, startlingly funny, and genuinely affecting tour through hell you’ll ever take.

I couldn't believe this was a true story by the time it I was finished. It was simply too horrific at times to have actually happened. This girl should be dead, she should be imprisoned...but she isn't...she is a lawyer and a functional member of society!

This is one eye opening look into our failing foster care system and how easy it for children and simply people in general to fall between the cracks. At the same time however, it is also a story about "making it" and picking yourself up and being somebody.

This book gave me perspective and what it really means to have hard times and be down. It also refocused me on what CAN be accomplished with hard work, dedication and determination.

I have never done this before but I am going to contact Cupcake Brown and just let her know what an impact her book had on me.

Sometimes I (we) think we have it bad, and sometimes we do. Usually we don't. This book really allowed me to set my priorities straight and appreciate how good I really do have it, even with the problems I do have.

I believe that this is such a good book that I would like to give it to someone. If you are interested in this book please leave me a note in the comments. I'll randomly pick someone in one week to mail it to.

Summer ReadingThing 2008

2008-06-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

Summer Reading Thing 2008

Who: The Summer Reading Thing 2008 (or SRT 08) is for anyone who’s up for a reading challenge. All age groups are welcome.

What: A summer reading challenge for everyone. Set your goals and track your progress. No goal is too small; no ambition too great. Feeling overwhelmed? Make your list small or use the same list from any other reading challenge (like this one).

Make changes to your list as needed as desired. Finish early? Add more books (or
not). Change your mind on a title? Drop it. No pressure, no minimums.

Post a short review on your blog of at least one of the books you read during the challenge. If you like to do reviews, you can post one for each of the books you read. Please keep the reviews family friendly. I'll set up a Mr. Linky where you can link to your reviews. (Don't have a blog? Keep reading.)

When: Friday, June 2oth through Sunday, September 21st, 2008.

Where: The blogosphere. Join up using this Mr. Linky. Post your summer reading list on your blog and backlink here. If you don't have a blog, you can use the one I created last year for this very purpose. Simply e-mail your list and reviews to her and she'll post and link you up, making you eligible for prizes.

Why: To promote literacy around the world. Yeh, right. Because we need a reason not to feel guilty when we choose to read instead of mop the floor.

How: Make your list and post it on your blog. Then link to your post using the sign-up Mr. Linky. As you read your books, post a review on your blog and link to the review post using the review Mr. Linky. At the end of the challenge, post a wrap-up and link to the wrap-up Mr. Linky (coming in September).

Prizes: Prizes will be books (new or gently read) or book related items. (If you're an author or publisher and you want to provide a prize, send me an e-mail.) I'll give away one prize each week. To be eligible for prizes, you must have signed up on the Mr. Linky here. Beginning July 20th, you must also have posted one review using the Mr. Linky here. Due to shipping costs, you must live in the U.S. or Canada to win a prize. (Sorry.)

Spread the word: Let your blog readers know about SRT 08 so they can join the fun with you! Grab the button and use it on your blog. The larger image (top of post) is 400 px. The smaller image (below) is 220 px and will fit the standard Blogger sidebar. The image in my sidebar is 185px, for smaller sidebars, like mine. Please link your button back to this post.

Note: You can join Summer Reading Thing 2008 at any time.

My Reading List

1. ~~Decipher: Stel Pavlou~~ 7.7.08

2. ~~Ella Minnow Pea: Mark Dunn~~ 7.9.08

3. Alvin Journeyman: Orson Scott Card

4. Harry Potter II: J. K. Rowling

5. Stargirl: Jerry Spinelli

6. ~~A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier: Ishmael Beah~~ 7.22.08

7. ~~The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: Mark Haddon~~ 8.14.08

8. ~~The Thieves of Heaven: Richard Doetsch~~7/08

9. The Phantom Tollbooth: Norton Juster

10. ~~Pig Island: Mo Hayder~~ 7.15.08

11. The Republican War on Science: Chris Mooney

12. ~~Murder on the Orient Express: Agatha Christie~~ 7.12.08

Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind

2008-06-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Pages: 487

Genre: Fiction

Personal Rating: 5/5

From the back cover:

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets—an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

This book was awesome! I had been wanting to read it for awhile now, and finally got around to it. It was worth the wait. Not only is it well written, but the story is engrossing. I stayed up until four one morning to finish it. I got hooked and couldn't bear to not know what happened. The main character Daniel is lovable, though he does has his faults and he is surrounded by many people all with very different personalities. They mesh together wonderfully. The action starts immediately and keeps moving until the very last page.

You can't help but to like this book. I will defintely be adding more books by Zafon to my reading list

Also Reviewed By:

Katherine: A Girl Walks Into A Bookstore

Book Review: The $64 Tomato

2008-06-12T17:59:00.000-07:00

Author: William Alexander

Pages: 265

Genre: Non Fiction/Memoir

Personal Rating: 3/5

From the back cover:

Bill Alexander had no idea that his simple dream of having a vegetable garden and small orchard in his backyard would lead him into life-and-death battles with groundhogs, webworms, weeds, and weather; midnight expeditions in the dead of winter to dig up fresh thyme; and skirmishes with neighbors who feed the vermin (i.e., deer). Not to mention the vacations that had to be planned around the harvest, the near electrocution of the tree man, the limitations of his own middle-aged body, and the pity of his wife and kids.

When Alexander runs (just for fun!) a cost-benefit analysis, adding up everything from the live animal trap to the Velcro tomato wraps and then amortizing it over the life of his garden, it comes as quite a shock to learn that it cost him a staggering $64 to grow each one of his beloved Brandywine tomatoes. But as any gardener will tell you, you can't put a price on the unparalleled pleasures of providing fresh food for your family.

I waited a long time for this book. I had it on my wishlist at paperback swap. I was number 1 (finally) and then somehow accidentally moved it to my reminder list and got shifted to spot 24. So I waited some more. Perhaps that explains my disappointment with this book. Or maybe reading about someone gardening just isn't is funny as or as entertaining as I thought it would be. The book had its moments and it was decent overall, I was just expecting something far greater. I'd heard raves about this book. It came recommended from so many different people online...it had to be good. It was fair. It was a decent book. That's it. Just OK, not bad, not great, just OK. The best part of the book to me is still the review on the front cover from the New York Times Book Review "Gardening as Extreme Sport." I will also say the the section of Superchuck the groundhog is pretty funny. This book just didn't do it for me, it may do it for you. I wouldn't say stay away from it, it just wasn't all I was hoping it would be.

Clubbing (BTT)

2008-06-12T17:07:00.000-07:00

A combo of two suggestions by: Heidi and by litlove

Have you ever been a member of a book club? How did your group choose (ot, if you haven’t been, what do you think is the best way to choose) the next book and who would lead discussion?
Do you feel more or less likely to appreciate books if you are obliged to read them for book groups rather than choosing them of your own free will? Does knowing they are going to be read as part of a group affect the reading experience?

Yes, I've been a member of a book club. Our motto..."It's all about the food." That should probably tell you about how in depth we go into discussing our books. It didn't start out that way. I promise. No matter how good our intentions were, it always came back to the food (having a lot of it--and it being sooo good!). We all teach together so naturally this was also a time for us to socialize since we didn't have time at work. So our book club morphed into eat and socialize together. Whoever is hosting the next book club gets to pick the book and we basically talk about if we liked it or not. Nothing major or in depth. Very casual. It works for us. I like having other people pick books as it gives me a chance to read books I normally wouldn't pick up for myself. We meet every 3 months or so. This also relieves the pressure of having to finish up a certain book by a certain date. One of us might buy it and pass it around or it gives us time to get it from the library.

I've often wondered what a more "formal" book club would be like. I'm looking forward to reading some other posts.

Book Review: Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone

2008-06-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

Author: J. K. Rowling

Pages: 309

Genre: Fiction/YA/Children

Personal Rating: 4/5

Awards: Winner of the National Book Award (UK), Winner of the Gold Medal Smarties Prize (UK), Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998, School Library Journal Best Book of 1998, Parenting Book of the Year Award 1998, New York Public Library Best Book of the Year 1998, An ALA Notable Book, FCBG (Federation of Children's Books Group) Children's Book Award 1997, Birmingham Cable Children's Book Award 1997, Young Telegraph Paperback of the Year, British Book Awards' Children's Book of the Year, Sheffield Children's Book Award, Anne Spencer Lindbergh Prize, Sorcieres Prix 1998, Premio Cento per la Letteratura Infantile 1998, Booklist Best Book of the Year 1998, Booklist Editor's Choice 1998, Whitaker's Platinum Book Award 2001

From the back cover:

Harry Potter has never played a sport while flying on a broomstick. He's never worn a cloak of invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon. All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed. There he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him...if Harry can survive the encounter.

What an absolutely fun read. I can see why kids love this series. If I was a kid I would be reading it over and over again. I'm a little embarrassed to admit I'm looking forward to picking up book II (Chamber of Secrets). Rowling has a wonderful imagination. I was constantly amazed at what she thought of and was always looking forward to what she would think of next. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series just to see how creative she gets. To have such an imagination must be amazing! I'll admit I was a little apprehensive about picking up Harry Potter. Worried it wouldn't live up to all the "hub bub". Needless worry. It was a fast, fun, delightful read.

The basics of book 1 is that Harry doesn't know he is a wizard. He is stuck living with his aunt, uncle and cousin, who are referred to as Muggles (people who can't do magic). On his 11th birthday Harry learns he is a wizard, how his parents died and he is sent of to the Hogwarts school to learn how to be a wizard. At Hogwarts Harry gets his first owl and learns to fly his broomstick. He is the seeker on the Quidditch team (a combination of soccer and basketball played with many different sized balls on broomstick) and takes classes called herbology, history of magic, charms, transfigurations and defense against the dark arts. He makes friends makes, some enemies and learns of a plan to steal the sorcerer's stone. All through the story there are these wonderful little snippets that are just wonderful. For example, in pictures, the people don't stay put, they move around. So you can look at a picture and the people might not be in it, or they may be moving around.

If you've been avoiding this series or unsure about it give it a try. I was unsure and I'm glad I gave it chance. I'm looking forward to finishing off the series over time.

If you have reviewed this book and would like me to link to your review please let me know in the comments!

What Book Am I?

2008-06-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

You're Lolita!

by Vladimir Nabokov

Considered by most to be depraved and immoral, you are obsessed with sex. What really tantalizes you is that which deviates from societal standards in every way, though you admit that this probably isn't the best and you're not sure what causes this desire. Nonetheless, you've done some pretty nefarious things in your life, and probably gotten caught for them. The names have been changed, but the problems are real.
Please stay away from children.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Really??? How interesting.

A Daring Book Challenge

2008-06-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

Callista is hosting a challenge which uses books found in The Daring Book for Girls.

A Daring Book Challenge

June 15 2008 - June 15 2009

Options:

Read one book from each category from June 15/08 to February 15/09 (6 books in 8 months)

Read any 9 books from the list from June 15/08 to June 15/09 (9 books in 12 months)

Read one whole series from this list starting June 15/08. If it contains up to 10 books, by June 15/09, if 20-30 books, by June 15/11 and for the Trixie Belden series and Nancy Drew series by June 15/12.

PLUS----Want to work on reading them all? It's an ongoing challenge so take all the time you need. You can do this and still do one of the above.

A few more general guidelines for the challenge:

Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.

Audiobooks are allowed.

For the ongoing challenge, books you've read in the past count, you don't have to re-read them.

For the first 3 tracts, all books read must be read AFTER June 15/08. I'm choosing option 2--any 9 books in 12 months.

I'm doing option 2--choose any 9 books to read over 1 year

My List

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (series of 7 books)--I just read book I, so I'm planning on reading a few more

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (series of 7 books)--I just read book I, so I'm planning on reading a few more

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Sunday Salon # 8 Monday Morning Style

2008-06-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

I finished teaching on Thursday. One thing I've noticed is that when you don't need to go to work your days tend to blend together. So last night as I was falling asleep I realized "ahh! It is Sunday. I need to write my Sunday Salon. But I was nearly asleep so decided it could wait until this morning. I love summer vacation. I get a lot of reading done, I relax, I spend time outside. I do all those things I don't seem to have time for when I'm teaching.

I finally finished up Parasite Rex. Overall I enjoyed it. I decided it is a book you should read in small chunks over a long period of time. (review here). I also read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Excellent! Highly recommend this book to everyone. I'm not really into "war" stories, this book is different. (review here). The last book I read was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I figured I couldn't call myself much of a reader if I didn't give this series a whirl. I hadn't been avoiding it, I just hadn't gotten around to it. It was a fun read. I'll review it soon.

I figured out why I haven't written my review for Bel Canto yet. I'm worried I won't be able to convey how good the book was. It was one of the best I've read. Maybe ever. I know I'm not a strong enough writer to convey that so I just keep putting off the review.

CURRENTLY READING:

The Awakening: by Kate Chopin. I have to admit. I'm not very excited to be picking up this book. I'm doing it for a challenge and I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised. I've only read 12 pages so far, I literally just started it and so far it is well written. I'm not far enough along yet to tell if I like the plot. Any word of encouragement would be appreciated. I know there are a lot of fans so hopefully I'll end up liking it too.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

Ozma of Oz, the third book in the Oz series. Ozma is a little girl who ends up being the heir to the throne of Oz. She took back the throne in book 2. Right now Dorothy, the scarecrow, tinman, lion, Ozma and a few new characters, Tiktok (a windup copperman) and Billia (a hen) are getting reading to rescue the queen of Ev and her ten children from the Nome King.

WHAT I BOUGHT THIS WEEK (what showed up from PaperBack Swap)

Shantaram: Gregory Roberts
Genesis Alpha: Rune Michaels
Those Who Save Us: Jenna Blum

CHALLENGE UPDATE:

A-Z Reading Challenge (28/52)
Series Challenge (3/6)
Cardathon Challenge (3/6)
Spring Reading Thing 2008 (8/9 but with 6 alternates completed)
1% Well Read Challenge (2/10)
Historical Reading Challenge (1/6 but with 3 alternates completed)
Whats in A Name Challenge (4/6)
Orbis Terrarum (6/9 but with 2 alternates completed)
Themed Reading Challenged (3/4)
Non Fiction Five (1/5)
342,745, Ways to Herd Cats Challenge (0/3)
Young Adult Challenge (11/12)
Decades Challenge (5/8)
Notable Book Challenge (1/3 but with 1 alternate completed)
19th Century Women Writers Challenge (0/4)
In Their Shoes (1/6 but with 2 alternates completed)
Suspense and Thriller Challenge (3/12)
Orange Prize Project--Completed
Chunkster--Completed
Book Binge--Completed
Eponymous--Completed
Spring Reading Challenge--Completed
Banned Book Challenge--Completed
Book Awards Reading Challenge--Completed

Book Review: Parasite Rex

2008-06-07T13:48:00.001-07:00

Author: Carl Zimmer

Pages: 245

Genre: Non Fiction/Science

Personal Rating: 3/5

From the back cover:

IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE parasites control the minds of their hosts, sending them to their destruction.

IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE parasites are masters of chemical warfare and camouflage, able to cloak themselves with their hosts' own molecules.

IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE parasites steer the course of evolution, where the majority of species are parasites.

WELCOME TO EARTH.

For centuries, parasites have lived in nightmares, horror stories, and in the darkest shadows of science. Yet these creatures are among the world's most successful and sophisticated organisms. In Parasite Rex, Carl Zimmer deftly balances the scientific and the disgusting as he takes readers on a fantastic voyage. Traveling from the steamy jungles of Costa Rica to the fetid parasite haven of southern Sudan, Zimmer graphically brings to life how parasites can change DNA, rewire the brain, make men more distrustful and women more outgoing, and turn hosts into the living dead.

This thorough, gracefully written book brings parasites out into the open and uncovers what they can teach us about the most fundamental survival tactics in the universe.

I'm torn with how to write the review for this book. One one hand I really loved it, on the other hand sometimes it bored me to tears. The book was incredibly fascinating, in small doses. Zimmer has a knack for writing so that you can easily understand what he is saying. BUT, I have a background in science. I teach biology. I am naturally interested in his subject matter and have prior knowledge on a lot of what he was writing about (especially details about how the immune system works). I'm not sure how much someone without a science background would would struggle to enjoy the book having to first understand all the science in it. I think that as long as you realize that you may need to do a little work to understand this book go ahead and pick it up. Plan to read it in short segments over a long period of time. There are only so many parasitic infections you can take at one time. If you are easily grossed out, squeamish, don't like worms, or enjoy science leave this book for someone else.

If you have reviewed this book and would like me to link to your review please let me know in the comments!

Book Review: When We Were Gods

2008-06-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

Author: Colin Falconer

Pages: 494

Genre: Fiction

Personal Rating: 3/5

From the back cover:

Arrestingly beautiful and fiercely intelligent, Cleopatra VII of Egypt was barely more than a teenager when she inherited the richest empire in the world--one that stretched from the scorching deserts of lower Egypt to the shining Mediterranean metropolis of Alexandria, with its famed libraries, storehouses, and treasuries. Imperiled at every turn by court conspiracies and Roman treachery, the young queen was forced to flee Alexandria and live in exile while a foreign army overran her city and her own siblings plotted her downfall. With nothing to lose, Cleopatra brazenly sought a partnership with the only man who could secure Egypt's safety: Julius Caesar, a wily politician and battle-hardened general with a weakness for women. The result was a passionate love affair that scandalized Rome and thrust Cleopatra into the glittering but deadly world of imperial intrigue and warfare-- a world that she would mesmerize and manipulate even after Caesar was gone.

At the height of her power and fame, Cleopatra fell in love with Caesar's protégé and successor, Marc Antony, a handsome general known as much for his drunken hedonism as for his victories in battle. Brash, irresistible, and fatally unreliable, Antony's once-strong hold on the Roman Empire was slipping fast, and with it slipped Cleopatra's fortunes. When the tide had finally, irrevocably turned against her, the proud queen plotted a last, spectacular maneuver that was to save her children, her empire, and her place in the pantheon of gods.

Colin Falconer's bold, sensuous prose takes the reader inside the walls of Alexandria's great palaces and into Cleopatra's very heart, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman who thrived and triumphed in a world ruled by men. This is the story of a legendary woman's most glorious time, a story that blazes through thousands of years of history to capture the imagination of readers today.

This novel was OK. It was well written and interesting. I did not know much about the history of Cleopatra so I did find it informative (realizing that the autor I'm sure took liberties to make the story more exciting). After awhile it just became very repetitive, which maybe her story was. Cleopatra gets it trouble, she gets out of it, barely...only to find herself in trouble again. Until finally she found herself in trouble she could not get out of. The end.

The book did give excellent glimspse into life of the royal court of Egypt. To have such wealth at your fingertips...unimaginable. It also portrayed Cleopatra as a very intelligent woman, she spoke 9 languages and stay up late into the night running the country often outwitting the "smartest" men in country or in the world.

Decent read, just not as good as I was expecting. Perhaps because I had just came off some awesome reads (Uglies, Blind Assassin, Bel Canto). If you enjoy historical fiction, Egypt or Cleopatra I'd say give it a whirl.

If you have reviewed this book and would like me to link to your review please let me know in the comments!

Book Review: The Things They Carried

2008-06-06T19:35:00.001-07:00

Author: Tim O'Brien

Pages: 246

Genre: Fiction

Personal Rating: 5/5

From the back cover:

They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, each other. And, if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. Since it was first published, The Things They Carried has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of American literature and a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul.

I read this book in one sitting. It was that good. I started this afternoon and finished this evening. It is fiction, but it makes you wonder how much of it is actually true. I haven't researched O'Brien or read any of his other works so I don't know if he actually served in Vietnam. I was enthralled by this book, by the stories he told. For a few hours I had a small glimpse into what it may have been like at some points in time, for some men in Vietnam. The capacity for horror, love and coping that O'Brien is able to convey is amazing. I'm considering picking up some of his other books to see if they are as good as this one.

O'Brien writes about how he considered fleeing to Canada to avoid the draft. Here is a paragraph that I really liked

My hometown was a conservative little spot on the prairie, a place where tradition counted, and it was easy to imagine people sitting around a table down at the old Gobbler Cafe on Main Street, coffee cups poised, the conversation slowly zeroing in on the young O'Brien kid, how the damned sissy had taken off for Canada. At night, when I couldn't sleep, I'd sometimes carry on fierce arguments with those people. I'd be screaming at them, telling them how much I detested their blind, thoughtless, automatic acquiescence to it all, their simpleminded patriotism, their prideful ignorance, their love-it-or-leave-it platitudes, how they were sending me off to fight a war they didn't understand and didn't want to understand. I held them responsible. By God, yes, I did. All of them--I held them personally and individually responsible--the polyestered Kiwanis boys, the merchants and farmers, the pious churchgoers, the chatty housewives, the PTA, and the Lions club and the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the fine upstanding gentry out at the country club. They didn't know the Bao Dai from the man in the moon. They didn't know history. They didn't know the first thing about Diem's tyranny, or the nature of Vietnamese nationalism, or the long colonialism or the French--this was all too damned complicated, it required some reading--but no matter, it was a war to stop the Communists, plain and simple, which was how they liked things, and you were a treasonous pussy if you had second thoughts about killing or dying for plain and simple reasons.

Wow.

If you have reviewed this book and would like me to link to your review please let me know in the comments!

Book Binge is Over

2008-06-06T19:03:00.001-07:00

Well, it actually was over May 31st. I'm a little late posting my wrap up.

The Blind Assassin: Margaret Atwood
Uglies: Scott Westerfeld
Magic Study: Maria Snyder
I, Mona Lisa: Jeanne Kalogridis
When We Were Gods a Novel of Cleopatra: Colin Falconer (review coming soon)
Parasite Rex (171/245--been slowly reading throughout May, didn't quite get it finished)

My favorite from these was Uglies. I'm happy to say I enjoyed them all and there are none that I would list as not liking.

Friday Fill In

2008-06-06T13:16:00.000-07:00

1. Idle hands are probably earning a much needed rest.

2. I love turning on the cold water on a hot day in the shower.

3. My favorite time of the day is when you slip right under the covers and your head first touches the pillow and your body just relaxes.

4. The last tea I drank was hot?

5. I like to travel in the Summer.

6. My mother always said that if I kept making that face it was going to freeze that way.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to hiding from the humidity, tomorrow my plans include finally starting my garden and Sunday, I want to visit my friend!

Sunday Salon # 7

2008-06-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

Going back to teaching (finally) and a broken laptop meant less blogging and reading for me the past few weeks. I still managed to read a few books and post a few reviews. School is out in four days and then I'm free until August!!! I finished reading Magic Study by Maria Snyder, I Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis and When We Were Gods: A Novel of Cleopatra by Colin Falconer. I was able to review Magic Study and I, Mona Lisa.

Notice I still need to write my reviews for Bel Canto and both Oz books. I'll get to it eventually.

CURRENTLY READING:

Parasite Rex: Carl Zimmer. On page 171/245. I still find this pretty interesting but I need to change my recommendation for everyone else. Even I am getting pretty sick of reading about parasites. There is only so much you can take. This book should probably be read in small chunks and not all in one dose. It is also more scientifically detailed than I originally thought. I think a layperson may find themselves lost after a few pages. I'm not sure though. To me everything seems very clear. I'm familiar with it. To someone who isn't one on one with biology all the time it may be a little more difficult to read. In small chunks and with some determination I think most people who pick up this book will find it fascinating. just note it won't be a walk in the park to get to the end.

The Things They Carried: Tim O'Brien. I'll be cracking this open after I finish this post.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

I blogged about this in my last Sunday Salon. Still enjoying it. Is it bad that I use this guys voice to help lull me to sleep?

I also started Ozma of Oz, the third book in the Oz series.

WHAT I BOUGHT THIS WEEK (what showed up from PaperBack Swap)

The Perfect Royal Mistress by Diane Haeger
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
The Ottoman Cage by Barbara Nadel

CHALLENGE UPDATE:

Magic Study gave me a check mark for

"S" author for A - Z Reading Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2008

When We Were Gods gave me a check for

"F" author for A - Z Reading Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2008
Book Around the World Challenge
Orbis Terrarum
Historical Reading Challenge

I, Mona Lisa gave me a check for

"I" Title for A - Z Reading Challenge
Book Around the World Challenge
Orbis Terrarum
Spring Reading Thing 2008
Historical Reading Challenge

Book Binge finished the end of May. Here are my completed books.

The Blind Assassin: Margaret Atwood
Uglies: Scott Westerfeld
Magic Study: Maria Snyder
I, Mona Lisa: Jeanne Kalogridis
When We Were Gods a Novel of Cleopatra: Colin Falconer
Parasite Rex (171/245)

I joined the Book Awards Reading Challenged II and the Classics Challenge.

Book Review: Magic Study

2008-05-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

Author: Maria Snyder

Pages: 425

Genre: Fiction

Personal Rating 3.5/5

From the back cover:

Yelena is a survivor. Kidnapped as a child, held prisoner as a teen, then released to act as a poison taster, she is now a student of magic. But these magic skills place her in imminent danger, and with an execution order on her head, she has no choice but to escape to Sitia, the land of her birth.

But nothing in Sitia is familiar. As she struggles to understand where she belongs and how to control her powers, a rogue magician emerges--and Yelena catches his eye. Suddenly she is embroiled in a situation not of her making. And once again her magical abilities will either save her life...or be her downfall.

Magic, romance, adventure, empowered women, mystery, suspense...there is a little of everything I enjoy all wrapped up in one nice book. This is the second book out of three. The first book Poison Study I really liked as well and I will be reading the third book Fire Study Soon.

This book is a nice quick read. It is interesting enough to keep you interested and not heavy at all. I had been reading some "heavier" book lately and needed a break.

Yelena has been forced to leave the North since there is an execution order on her head. She is taken south to Sitia, her homeland where was was kidnapped as a child. Here she will meet her family and learn to control her magic. Of course it does not go easily or smoothly.

Her brother hates her, thinks she is a spy and turns her over to Cahil, a supposed remaining heir to the North who wants the support of the south in mounting an army to take back what is his. Yelena is taken to the Citadel where it is determined she is not a spy and she will be allowed to be taught how to control her magic. Yelena is stubbon, does not trust anyone and doens't follow rules. She is a difficult pupil and always seems to be getting into trouble.

As the story unfolds it is determined that there is a magician loose who is stealing souls to make himself as powerful as possible. He has developed a group of followers as well. Yelena seems to the only one capable of stopping him but it means not following rules, trusing people and risking being kicked out of the Citadel and never learning to master her magic. It also means risking her soul to this magician which would make him the most powerful magician EVER and leave both the North and South lands in great danger.

You'll enjoy this story if you're looking for a interesting, fast read and like magic and romance. Though is isn't icky flowery romance (that stuff I can't stand).

If you have reviewed this book and would like me to link to your review please let me know in the comments!

Book Awards Reading Challenge II

2008-05-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

BOOK AWARD READING CHALLENGE II

Rules:

Read 10 award winners from August 1, 2008 through June 1, 2009.
You must have at least FIVE different awards in your ten titles.
Overlaps with other challenges are permitted.

Here are some award winners I have sitting on my shelf now. I'll narrow it down soon. I wanted to sign up before I forgot.

Koko by Peter Straub
Sophie's Choice by William Styron
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
Plague’s Progress by Arno Karlen
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lamb
Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
Holes by Louis Sachar
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Throat by Peter Straub
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Book Review: I, Mona Lisa

2008-05-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

Author: Jeanne Kalogridis

Pages: 515

Genre: Fiction/Historical

Personal Rating 4/5

From the back cover:

"My name is Lisa di Antonio Gherardini, though to acquaintance, I am known simply as Madonna Lisa. My story begins not with my birth but a murder, committed the year before I was born."

Florence, April 1478: The handsome Giuliano de' Medici is brutally assassinated in Florence's magnificent Duomo. The shock of the murder ripples throughout the great city, from the most renowned artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, to a wealthy wool merchant and his extraordinarily beautiful daughter, Madonna Lisa.

More than a decade later, Florence falls under the dark spell of the preacher Savonarola, a fanatic who burns paintings and books as easily as he sends men to their deaths. Lisa, now grown into an alluring woman, captures the heart of Giuliano's nephew and namesake. But when Guiliano, her love, meets a tragic end, Lisa must gather all her courage and cunning to untangle a sinister web of illicit love, treachery, and dangerous secrets that threatens her life.

Set against the drama of 15th Century Florence, I, Mona Lisa is painted in many layers of fact and fiction, with each intricately drawn twist told through the captivating voice of Mona Lisa herself.

What I enjoyed about this story is how Kalogridis is able to blend common figures from history (daVinci for example), common works of art and architecture and weave them into a story. This is probably why I enjoy historical fiction overall. Kalogridis has taken the figure the painting the Mona Lisa and has created a story around her. It was fantastic. I was able to imagine living in that time period and wearing the clothes, venturing out to the market or fearing the plague. It was a little long and wandered at times or it would have earned a higher rating.

If you enjoy historical fiction you will enjoy this story. If you enjoy "mysteries" you'll enjoy this one as well.

This review will be continued but I'm out of town and giving this book to my grandmother so I wanted to get a little something down before I handed it over.

If you have reviewed this book and would like me to link to your review please let me know in the comments!

Books Vs. Movies (BTT)

2008-05-22T17:50:00.000-07:00

Suggested by: Superfastreader:

Books and films both tell stories, but what we want from a book can be different from what we want from a movie. Is this true for you? If so, what’s the difference between a book and a movie?

The first word that came to my mind was escape. I often find myself escaping in books. I don't find that to be true with movies. They are both entertaining but there is just something about a book that I can escape with. I guess with a book you run your own show, you can stop and start when you want, think over things, go back and reread. With a movie, it is meant to be watched in one sitting. No going back, stopping and thinking. You're forced to experience it as it was set forth by the producer/director etc. With a book you have more room to move in your mind. Your imagination can run wild.

I'm curious to hear what others have to say.

WRAP UP: Book Awards Reading Challenge

2008-05-20T03:34:00.000-07:00

I actually finished up with a little time to spare so hopefully I'll be able to add a few extras to the list. Unfortunately, I did not consider keeping my original list completely intact so some of my first intentions have disappeared. Others have not!

Booker Prize
1. ~~1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy~~ 4.2.08 REVIEW
2. ~~2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood~~ 5.12.08 REVIEW

Gold Dagger Award
3. ~~1993 Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell~~ 3.16.08 REVIEW

National Book Award
1990 Sophie's Choice by William Styron
4. ~~2003 Three Junes by Julia Glass~~ 8.5.07
5. ~~2006 The Echo Maker by Richard Powers~~ 11. 26.07 REVIEW

Pulitzer Prize
6. ~~2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides~~ 1.26.08 REVIEW

PEN/Faulkner Award
7. ~~2002 Bel Canto by Patchett~~ 4.30.08 REVIEW

PEN/Hemingway
1988 The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton

Newbery Award
8. ~~1994 The Giver by Lois Lowry~~ completed REVIEW

Bram Stoker Award
9. ~~1992 The Blood of the Lamb by Thomas F. Monteleone~~ 2.2.08 REVIEW

World Fantasy Award
1989 Koko by Peter Straub

British Children's Book of the Year
10. ~~2007 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (John Boyne)~~ 3.20.08 REVIEW

3 Irish Book Awards: the Novel of the Year, the People's Choice Book of the Year, and the Children's Book of the Year. It won 2 awards

Nebula Award
11. ~~1966 Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)~~ 3.8.08 REVIEW

Panorama Literario Award: Chile
12. ~~1983 The House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende)~~ 4.26.08 REVIEW

Best Novel of the Year, Chile 1983

Alternates on my Bookshelf(those that I have picked for other challanges--i colored reddish)

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Plague’s Progress by Arno Karlen

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lamb

Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

Holes by Louis Sachar

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Throat by Peter Straub

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

There were three books I originally set out to read and did not. There was Sophie's Choice, which I will still be reading for The Decades Challenge. Koko is the second. I'm still interested in reading it. It is VERY long but still looks very good. I went to pick up the Book of Ruth the other night and after reading the back and some reviews I decided i would rather stick sharp objects in my eyes than read this book. It sounds so depressing and miserable. I have no idea what motivated me to add it to my list the fist time. Probably the fact the I owned it.

My Favorite Books from this Challenge? This is tough there were some really good one. I would have to pick

Bel Canto
The Giver

With the Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Flowers for Algernon coming in close behind.

Those I didn't like so much from this Challenge?

House of the Spirits--I hated it.

I was also disappointed in Middlesex but not nearly the way I hated House of the Spirits.

BOOK AWARDS READING CHALLENGE

The Classics Challenge

2008-05-19T01:30:00.000-07:00

I've finally grown some balls and decided to join The 2008 Classics Challenge It is being hosted by Trish from Trish's Reading Nook. She writes...

Welcome to the Classics Challenge 2008

Classics: We love them, we hate them, now we are going to challenge ourselves to reading more of them. Because there are so many different types of classics, different genres are acceptable and encouraged--for example, novels, short story collections, non-fiction, poetry, essays--I'm open for other suggestions!RULES (keep reading for the bonus):
OPTION 1: Read FIVE classics.
OPTION 2: Read FIVE classics from at least THREE different countries
OPTION 3: Read FIVE classics with any combination of at least THREE different countries and TWO different genres (see above for genres).
Cross-posting with other challenges is allowed (and encouraged!); Audiobooks are fine; books must be finished after July 1st to count for the challenge although re-reads are acceptable.
Lists don't have to be set in stone; you can change your selections at any time.
Have Fun. Oh ya...there will be a drawing for a prize or two. To be entered you must complete any one of the above options. You do NOT need a blog to participate.

Am I going to define what a classic is? Nope! There are lots of definitions offered on the Internet, but essentially we all have different opinions so don't stress too much--and see the bonus below.

BONUS!!

As you can see, I'm requiring FIVE classics for six months. For the sixth book, I would like the participants to offer suggestions for books that may not be considered classics but that you think should be or books that you think will be a classic one day. Leave your suggestions in the comments below. I'll compile a list of the suggestions and you choose a book from the list and make that your sixth read. I realize this means you may have to wait to make your list if you choose to participate in the bonus round, but I'm hoping this is a modern twist on the old classics challenge.

For example, I am going to suggest The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and The Remains of the Day by Kazou Ishiguro.

SIGN UPS...COMING SOON

Alright, let's do it this way... At the beginning of June I will put up the official Mr. Linky. By then, hopefully there will be a decent sized "should be/will be" classics list for participants to choose their sixth book. I hope I hope I hope at the beginning of June there aren't just the suggestions of The Handmaid's Tale and Remains of the Day. Won't I feel silly? ;) If you don't want to do the bonus (shame on you!!), please check back at the beginning of June to officially join. Feel free to leave a comment below, though, if you are interested!

Thanks to everyone for your interest! I've been an avid challenge participant for almost a year and I'm thrilled to finally have the guts to host my own. Thank you to everyone who has given me support and suggestions along the way!

Finally: Happy Reading!

I saw I site that divided the classics into three groups and I've decided to use the same idea to make it a little easier for me to conquer my fear of some of the classics. It seems so much easier to manage now. Of course I'll try to use cross over with other challenges when possible.

Classic Literature For Adults

The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)

Classic Literature For Young Teens

The Scarlet Pimpernel (Baroness Emma Orczy)

Classic Literature For Children

The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)

This is just my start for now. I need to read your posts and get some recommendations. I also need to think about my recommendation for the sixth book.

Sunday Salon # 6

2008-05-18T17:02:00.000-07:00

This has been a much more productive reading week for me. I finished The Blind Assassin and Uglies AND wrote reviews for both of them! I also finished listening to the Marvelous Land of Oz. I also started two new books and I'm decently through both of them.

I still need to write my review for Bel Canto and both Oz books.

Blind Assassin Review
Uglies Review

CURRENTLY READING:

Magic Study: Maria Snyder. On page 236/416. This books is # 2 in the series. I loved #1 Poison Study (here is my review). The only problem is once I get finished this one I know I'm going to want to jump right into book #3 and ignore all of my beautiful lists and challenges and school work, chores and obligations! Magic, romance, adventure, empowered women, mystery, suspense...there is a little of everything I enjoy all wrapped up in one nice book.

Parasite Rex: Carl Zimmer. On page 41/245 (but I did read the prologue and it is an additional 14 pages). I said to my hubby "you know you're married to a geek, I'm about to start a book about parasites and I'm so excited about it" his response... "uh huh" and the typical husband look when I'm being geeky...like when I stopped on the Great Wall of China to crawl around taking pictures of frogs. What can I say, I'm a biology teacher and I find parasites fascinating. Zimmer is a fantastic writer, I guess a "scientific journalist." When he writes you don't even realize he is talking science. Now I am biased about this stuff but I think must people would find this fascinating in a gross, disgusting type of way.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) is the first of five collections of mystery stories by G. K. Chesterton. Each collection is then broken down into many short and I think independent stories. Even though I've been listening to it for days I'm only on story # 2. I keep falling asleep. Whoever is narrating it has such a soothing voice and I do listen to it at night. I may need to abandon this book. It is not for lack of interest. The stories are very long and I keep falling asleep. I need something broken into smaller chapters so I can keep track of where I am.

Here is the link to my intro post if you want to check it out.

WHAT I BOUGHT THIS WEEK (what showed up from PaperBack Swap)

The Exiled: Posie Graeme-Evans

CHALLENGE UPDATE:

The Blind Assassin gave me a check mark for

"A" author for A - Z Reading Challenge
Book Around the World Challenge
Book Awards Reading Challenge
Orbis Terrarum
Spring Reading Thing 2008

Uglies gave me a check for

"W" author for A - Z Reading Challenge
Spring Reading Thing 2008
Young Adult Reading challenge

I completed the Book Awards Reading Challenge 12/12. I'll be posting a wrap up soon.

I joined the 1% Well Read Challenge and I'm continuing the Series Challenge with Season 2!

Book Review: Uglies

2008-05-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Pages: 425

Genre: Fiction/ YA

Personal Rating 4.5/5

From the back cover:

"Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?"

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good this book really was. The back of the book summary only covers the first quarter of the book. The majority of the book deals with the decision that Tally makes and the consequences that follow. In many ways it reminds me of Lois Lowry. If you enjoy her books you'll like Uglies.

Tally lives in a "future civilization" because ours has somehow messed up (of course). Our generation is referred to as "Rusties" for how much metal we used. They have advanced technology, and have learned from us . They don't make the same mistakes we do. The don't cut down trees and burn up fossil fuels. There is no war. Since everyone eventually gets to be pretty there is no more racism, jealousy, anger, hate etc. but we learn that it does come at a cost, thought very few know it.

From reading the back cover it appears that this story is going to be superficial. An ugly girl whining that she doesn't get to be pretty. It is so much more. People choosing freedom of their minds over the apparent freedom that beauty offers. I realize that my review is somewhat lacking in details but I don't want to spoil the outcome of the story for people who want to read it.

This is the first of three in the series. I think I just read there may be a fourth. I need to go out and buy Pretties, the second in the series right now. I really can't wait to read it. If you do not want to read the entire series I would not pick up Uglies because you will want to keep going!

If you have reviewed this book and would like me to link to your review please let me know in the comments!

Also Reviewed By:
Bloggin' 'bout Books

Friday Fill in

2008-05-16T09:07:00.000-07:00

1. There is absolutely NO way you can get me to to go anywhere near a needle unless I am in some type of drug induced haze!

2. The fact that there are only 19 days until i have no students reminds me that summer is almost here!

3. I cannot live without my my husband or chapstick (it was a tie).

4. Learning a foreign langueage and do some type of relief work in Africa are two things I'd like to try.

5. When life hands you lemons use them to fill a vase, or wash your hands with them or anything but that saying. I've never liked it.

6. Winning the high school softball championship and finishing second in the state is my favorite childhood memory. (Is that too old???)

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to running around like an idioit (don't we all have nights like those), tomorrow my plans include a garage sale and another baby shower and Sunday, I want to watch the Pens finish the Flyers!!!!

Click here to see more Friday Fill Ins!

Manual Labor Redux (BTT)

2008-05-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

Following up last week’s question about reading writing/grammar guides, this week, we’re expanding the question….

Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?

Do you ever read manuals?

How-to books?

Self-help guides?

Anything at all?

I'll admit it...I read the manual. I've just seen my sister and husband break too many things or goof them up by simply not reading the directions. Its so simple. It tells you how to do it. You just start at the beginning and go step by step. That is why they are included. It just seems easier to follow them to then to guess at how to do it or do it wrong.

Have any of you ever put together furniture from IKEA? Now THAT is an adventure!!!!! Those little funny Swedish (I think) cartoon people and no words! That is the best.

How-to books & Self-help guides? I think we have probably all purchased a few with good intentions, myself included. I've never really seemed to get into them though and they sit on my shelf and then end up getting posted on paperbackswap. Boy do I envy the person who said her problems were simple enough that peanut M&M's could solve them. I wish my problems were so simple that M&Ms could solve them! Maybe I'm not buying the right books. lol ; )

I'm not sure why but lately I've found it annoying when companys don't include their manuals and tell you to "go online" to download it. I know it saves paper and storage space but it really is a hassle for me. It seems more difficult than actually having it in your hand for some reason. I think I have a harder time finding the actual sections that I want. They almost seem to be organized differently than the paper manuals.

1% Well Read Challenge

2008-05-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

Michelle from 1 More Chapter is hosting the 1% Well-Read Challenge

The goal of this challenge is to read 10 books in 10 months from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. For you non-math people, 10 out of 1001 is approximately 1%, hence the title. The challenge will run from May 1, 2008 through February 28, 2009. You may change your list at any time and cross-posting to other challenges is permitted. The only requirement is that your ten book choices must be on the 1001 List.

Here is my list:

~~The Blind Assassin: Margaret Atwood~~ (completed 5.12.08)

Like Water for Chocolate: Laura Esquivel

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime: Mark Haddon

The Things They Carried: Tim O'Brien

Veronika Decides to Die: Paulo Coelho

The Awakening: Kate Chopin

The Wasp Factory: Iain Banks

Sula:Toni Morrison

LibraryThings “most often marked unread” books meme

2008-05-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you’ve read, I'm going to italicize the ones I have sitting around waiting to be read.

Somehow I'm one book short! Oh well, I found this at Tammy's Book Nook and decided to play.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

Weekly Geeks # 3

2008-05-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

This weeks challenge is to write about our favorite childhood books.

I wish I had a better memory. I don't remember any specific books from when I was very little. I can remember a book with a train on the cover. I do remember I had a very tiny rocking chair with a little blue chair cover on it. I would love to grab books and sit in it to read, even though I couldn't really read yet. To me I thought I looked so grown up. I must have been 4 or 5 at this point.

My dad is a huge reader and my mom doesn't touch books. I take after my dad. So I started carrying books with my into the bathroom when I was a little kid to be like my dad (he would kill me if he knew I wrote that)

I can remember reading

Charlotte's Web
The Bridge to Teribithia
A Light in the Attic
The Secret Garden
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Island of the Blue Dolphin
Little Women

over and over again. This was probably 3rd or 4th grade ish? I can also remember reading every Judy Blume and Beverely Cleary book too. I can remember in school this little booklet would come and you could pick books out of it to order. What was that called?

I remember in 5th grade I read my first Stephen King book and I steadily read all of his book through high school and continue to read them now. That also started my fascination with horror and murder mystery/thrillers. I would wander the library and randomly pick books from that section to take home and read. I wonder what my parents would have thought about me reading that stuff in sixth grade? I also recall (how horrifying) LOVING the Sweet Valley High Series. Those two blonde twins, Jessica and Elizabeth. What wonderful lives they lived! So different from mine. I was also fascinating by the Flowers in the Attic series.

I'm going to need to think a little more about me early childhood and see what else comes to me. I'll cruise some other posts and see if my memory gets jogged. This was a fun post to write!

My Next Choice For An Audio Book

2008-05-14T03:02:00.001-07:00

The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) is the first of five collections of mystery stories by G. K. Chesterton starring an unimposing but surprisingly capable Roman Catholic priest. Father Brown’s ability to uncover the truth behind the mystery continually surpasses that of the “experts” around him, who are fooled into underestimation by the priest’s unimpressive outward appearance and, often, by their own prejudices about Christianity. Combining captivating stories and insightful commentary, The Innocence of Father Brown is a delightful read. (Summary by Brian Roberg)

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)

~~The Blue Cross (The Storyteller, September 1910)~~
~~The Secret Garden (The Storyteller, October 1910)~~
~~The Queer Feet (The Storyteller, November 1910)~~
~~The Flying Stars~~
The Invisible Man
The Honour of Israel Gow
The Wrong Shape
The Sins of Prince Saradine
The Hammer of God
The Eye of Apollo
The Sign of the Broken Sword
The Three Tools of Death

Series Challenge Season 2

2008-05-14T01:56:00.000-07:00

Kathrin is hosting the 2nd Season of the Series Challenge. I was counting on this! When I signed up for Season 1 she said she would probably have an extension. I knew I would never read all 6 of my Orson Scott Card books in the allotted time period. I just had too many other challenges going on. So I jumped in, crossed my fingers and hoped she would extend the challenge so I could finish on time!

Here is officially the 2nd Season!!!

Again, the challenge will be for 6 months, from June 1st, 2008 until November 30th, 2008.

And the rules are:

1. There is no set number of books you have to read, you just have to read the books so that you are all up-to-date with the series.

2. Post your review of the books on your blog, no matter how long.

3. Post a link to your reviews with the Mr Linky that I will set up as soon as this challenge starts.

4. Always remember this is for fun!

Here are the books I'm reading (they cross over with the Cardathon Challenge)

TALES OF THE ALVIN MAKER--Orson Scott Card

~~1. Seventh Son (Alvin Maker)~~ completed 1.11.08
~~2. Red Prophet~~ completed 3.11.08
~~3. Prentice Alvin~~ completed 4.12.08
4. Alvin Journeyman
5. Heartfire
6. The Crystal City

Book Review: The Blind Assassin

2008-05-13T20:46:00.000-07:00

Author: Margaret Atwood

Pages: 521

Genre: Fiction

Personal Rating 4/5

Awards: Booker Prize

From the back cover:

The Booker Prize -winning sensation from the incomparable Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin combines gothic drama, romantic suspense and science fiction yarn in an entrancing novel of uncommon intricacy and grace.

The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist

What makes this novel Margaret Atwood's strongest and most profoundly entertaining is the way in which the three wonderfully rich stories weave together, gradually revealing through their interplay the secrets surrounding the entire Chase family--and most particularly the fascinating and tangled lives of the two sisters. The Blind Assassin is a brilliant and enthralling book by a writer at the top of her form.

I think to truly appreciate this book it needs to be read more than once. However, I enjoyed it immensely. The reason I say it needs to be read more than once is that the Blind Assassin involves three different stories, that all interweave. The novel jumps back in forth in time from the main characters present to the past. It is written in a very clever fashion. It kept me guessing right up until the very end what had actually happened. I kept thinking I had figured it out, but then I would get a tidbit of information that would make me change me mind. I think Atwood did a fantastic job with the writing.

Knowing now what actually happens I think I would pick up a lot of new information with a reread that I missed the first time through. We all know that there are a lot of books to read out there so I won't be rereading The Blind Assassin just to see what I missed.

It was a little difficult to keep track sometimes of who was actually narrating the story. I wondered sometimes though if that was Atwood's intent. If it was supposed to be confusing and unclear...I'm not sure.

Even though everyone might not like this story I think most people will appreciate that The Blind Assassin is well written. How the three separate, and sometimes confusing, stories end up coming together was impressive and satisfying. The only reason I didn't rate it higher is that I don't want to have to reread novels to "fully understand them" and I think it started slowly.

Do I recommend picking it up? Definitely!

ALSO REVIEWED BY:
Rhinoa at Rhinoa's Ramblings
Tammy at Tammy's Book Nook

If you have reviewed this book and would like me to link to your review please let me know in the comments!

Sunday Salon # 5

2008-05-11T20:12:00.000-07:00

Funny how sometimes this thing called life gets in your way and keeps you from reading as much as you would like too. As much as I am enjoying my current book and my audiobook I just haven't been able to give them as much time as I would like. I hope to finish The Blind Assassin tonight or tomorrow. I'm almost finished with my audio book as well.

I managed to cross off one of my three reviews. It was the negative review for The House of the Spirits. You can read it here if you would like.

I did spend some time working/lurking on Weekly Geeks this weeks even though I didn't really post a lot about it. The challenge was to link to anyone who has written a review for a book that you have reviewed as well. I went off hunting and considering how many books get read around here I found very few people and I shared books we had reviewed. I think only one person has contacted me about linking up. It felt like a wild goose chase with very little reward. Hopefully people will read the little note I'm putting on the bottom of all future reviews and will contact me if they have reviewed the book.

Hopefully I can get a little more reading done in the upcoming week.

CURRENTLY READING:

The Blind Assassin: Margaret Atwood. Still. I'm really enjoying it, I just don't seem to have time to sit down and read. I'm on page 355 of 521. I should cut myself some slack. It is a pretty long book. The plot has thickened so to speak and I'm more interested in the characters and what is going on. I'm trying to "guess" to see if I've figured it out, but then I get a piece of info here and there that makes me change my mind. To me this guessing makes a good story.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum. This is a continuation of the Oz series that features the Scarecrow and the Tinman. I had not read the book so this is my first go around with this story. I feel like a kid listening to this story. I have it on my iPod and often catch myself just sitting and grinning as I'm listening to it. Good thing I only listen to it when I'm alone. I probably look very silly.

WHAT I BOUGHT THIS WEEK (what showed up from PaperBack Swap)

mr. muos' traveling couch by Dai Sigie
Sushi for One? by Camy Tang
The Reincarnationsit by M. J. Rose

CHALLENGE UPDATE: no books finished = nothing to update.

WHAT SHOULD I READ NEXT?

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton
Uglies by Scott Westerfield
or none and pull something not on my challenge list that just showed up in the mail or I bought randomly the last few times I was in the store

Weekly Geeks # 2

2008-05-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late getting around to the challenge this week but that is OK. This weeks idea is borrowed from Darla at Books and Other Thoughts

I'm going to offer to link to any book reviews that you and I have both reviewed! Just leave the link in the comment of that post and I'll add it to the post.

So check out my side bar for books I've finished this year. I have them crossed out under my challenges. I've reveiwed most of them. Have you reviewed any of them???? you can email me pandabear 102205 at gmail dot com and I'll link them for you! I've been working on another blog called Running Book List where it lists all my books with my reviews but it is far from complete. (yet)

Dewey wrote that she liked this idea for three reasons (and I agree)

1. As a blog reader, I like that I can have my review linked in someone else’s blog.

2. As a blog reader, I like that if I’m interested in a book Darla writes about, there will be other reviews linked at the bottom of the page, so I can get other viewpoints.

3. As a blog writer, when I review a book, I often remember that I read someone else’s review at some point, but whose? And when? With Darla’s method, people tell her about their reviews, and she can see what they had to say about a book that is still fresh in her mind.

So feel free to commment in any of my old reviews and in any of my future ones and I'll add the link to your review!

Friday Fill in

2008-05-09T07:40:00.000-07:00

1. The sandwiches at Chic Filet had an extra secret ingredient; it was some type of drug I'm sure....they are SO good.!

2. You can see right through my window. (because we still haven't hung curtains since we moved in September)

3. Right now, I need to take a shower.

4. Babies R Us is where I went Thursday night; it was scary...seriously, have your every really "looked" around there?

5. Why does betrayal hurt so much?

6. All I can think of is the way a massage would feel right now.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching the Pens and Flyers game, tomorrow my plans include a baby shower and Sunday, I want to spend time with my husband!

Manual Labor (BTT)

2008-05-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

Nope. Should I? Probably. I actually do NOT enjoy writing. It never came very easily for me. I tend to avoid things I am not naturally good at. My blog is actually somewhat of a personal challenge for me to just write. The only way to get better at something is to practice. I get intimidated a lot reading some of your posts. Those of you who are GOOD writers make me feel like I'm in fifth grade blundering around trying to write. I get my point across though, and for me that is OK most of the time.

I still have a grammar book from my high school AP English class. Geez, that thing is 15 years old! Do those rules still apply??

I enjoy writing in my blog even if everything is not perfect. I do try to get everything "right" as often as I can.

Book Review: The House of the Spirits

2008-05-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

Author: Isabel Allende

Pages: 433

Genre: Fiction

Personal Rating 1/5

Awards: Panorama Literario Award: Chile (1983), Best Novel of the Year: Chile (1983)

From the back cover:

Here, in an astonishing debut by a gifted storyteller, is the magnificent saga of proud and passionate men and women and the turbulent times through which they suffer and triumph. They are the Truebas. And theirs is a world you will not want to leave, and one you will not forget.

Esteban -- The patriarch, a volatile and proud man whose lust for land is legendary and who is haunted by his tyrannical passion for the wife he can never completely possess.

Clara -- The matriarch, elusive and mysterious, who foretells family tragedy and shapes the fortunes of the house of the Truebas.

Blanca -- Their daughter, soft-spoken yet rebellious, whose shocking love for the son of her father's foreman fuels Esteban's everlasting contempt... even as it produces the grandchild he adores.

Alba -- The fruit of Blanca's forbidden love, a luminous beauty, a fiery and willful woman... the family's break with the past and link to the future.

I hate to write bad reviews but sometimes it must be done. This book was awful. I hated it. What was so horrible about it? I'm not sure. It is difficult to put my finger on it. I know it was easy to just put the book down and forget about it. I didn't care about anyone in the story. I preferred to do household chores than read (now THAT should tell you something). I took me weeks to finish this book. I finished it through sheer will power and determination. It covered 8 challenges for me so there was no way I was going back once I started. I also figured since it had won a few awards it must be decent. This is horrible to say but one of the challenges i read this book for was the Banned Book Challenge...the only thing this book should be banned for is being boring.

It should have been a good story. It went on long enough. It "spanned" generations. So many different story lines evolved, started, stopped. There was love, death, murder, kidnapping, mutilation, war, riots, revolt, marriage, a head in a box, a car crash, magic, green hair...there was so much. This family was an absolute train wreck. It should have been interesting in the "I can't look away car crash type of way". But it wasn't. It was boring. It was difficult to keep track of who was who (that could have been from me putting the book down for days at a time).

Save your time. If you want to try Allende try something besides The House of the Spirits

If you have reviewed this book and would like me to link to your review please let me know in the comments!

Want to Win Some Books?

2008-05-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

Lori at Lori's Reading Corner is giving away 5 brand new books! I'm not sure if you get all 5 or if five different people each get one. But, hey...they are free!!!! It is call the Pay It Forward Book Exchange.

Here are the books up for grabs:

Back on Blossom Street (The Knitting Books #3) by Debbie Macomber
Belong to Me: A Novel by Marisa De los Santos
What Looks Like Crazy by Charlotte Hughes
Dying Breath by Wendy Corsi Staub
The Third Victim by Lisa Gardner

If you'd like to win these books, here is what you must do:

1. On your blog, write a post about this giveaway, using my "Pay it Foward" button, and then link back to my post. I am sure your readers would appreciate learning about the chance to win a book. You must complete this step to be put in the drawing, unless of course you don't have a blog ;)

2. Sign the Mr Linky (the Mr Linky is that list of name at the end of this post - just type your name in the box) with your name and specific URL of your Pay it Foward post. Note, if you are not a blogger, you may still enter to win. Just sign your name on the Mr. Linky without a URL and then email me (lori @ frandanbolt dot com) your contact information. Please note on your email that it is for the Pay It Forward Book Giveaway.

3. If you’re the lucky winner of the book giveaway and you have your own blog I ask that you, in turn, host a drawing to give that book away for free to one of your readers, after you’ve had a chance to read it (let’s say, within a month after you’ve received the book). If you mail the book out using the media/book rate that the post office offers it’s pretty inexpensive. If you're a non-blogger who has won the book, please consider donating the book to your local library or shelter after you're done with it.

4. If you’re really motivated and want to host your own “Pay It Forward” giveaway at any time this month, feel free to grab the button above to use on your own blog. Just let me know so I can publish a post on my blog plugging your giveaway and directing my readers your way!

Book Binge

2008-05-04T21:26:00.000-07:00

Hooray...a new challenge: Book Binge. It is being host by Mary at It's Not All Mary Poppins.

Some of you have asked about last year’s Book Binge, and wondered if I were hosting it again. And I said to myself, “What a great idea! I think I shall host a Book Binge again!”

Here’s how it goes: For the month of May, participants keep track of each and every book you read. At the end of the month, everyone will blog their list of books. Simple, no?

For simplicity’s sake, and to allow people time to hear about it and sign up if they want, we’ll start on Monday, May 5th. We will all publish our lists on June 1.

Other rules:

- You can include books you re-read, so long as you re-read them in between May 5 and 31.
- You may also include books you start but don’t finish, just note the page at which you gave it up. Something like, “Quit, page 47 of 322″.
- You may only include books you read aloud to your children if they are at least 125 pages long.
- Students may include textbooks (if they’re at least 100 pages long).

Sunday Salon # 4

2008-05-04T19:36:00.001-07:00

This was a fairly uneventful reading week. I did finish Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. What an awesome book. When I review it, it will be getting a 5/5. I can't even begin to describe how much I enjoyed this book. It was one of those that you found yourself thinking about at various times during the day. Wondering what would happen next instead of focusing on what you should be doing.

I've been procrastinating on my reviews. I still need to write a review for The House of the Spirits. I don't like writing negative reviews so I've been putting this one off. I also "won't" write the review for Bel Canto until I'm done with the review for The House of the Spirits.

CURRENTLY READING:

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. This is only my second Atwood book. I've also read The Handmaid's Tale, which I really enjoyed. So far I'm only 63 pages into The Blind Assassin and I'm not sure what to think. The back cover said there are several stories in one. It is also over 500 pages so it may take a little while to get going

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. I'm still enjoying it as much as last week. I'm currently at the point where the wizard accidentally flies away leaving Dorothy stranded in Oz. Here is a difference between the movie and the book. In the book Dorothy head South to find Glinda to see if she can tell her how to get to Kansas.

WHAT I BOUGHT THIS WEEK

Nothing!!! And nothing showed up from PaperbackSwap either.

CHALLENGE UPDATE: by finishing Bel Canto I was able to add a "check off" to...

A ~ Z Reading Challenge (P Author)
Spring Reading Thing
Orbis Terrarum Challenge (South America)
Book Awards Reading Challenge (Orange Prize)
Book Around the World

Personal Update:

To those of you following my never ending foot saga. My MRI revealed a SECOND "new" break on my foot that resulted from my fall at work one month after my original fall. : (

I can't go back to teaching until May 22nd. IF I get the OK from the doctor that is. He better give the go ahead ! No wonder I was having so much pain at physical therapy and when I tried to return to teaching. I had a newly broken bone! Yikes...

Camera Critters

2008-05-04T11:04:00.000-07:00

What can I say...this bear LOVED his garbage can! Pic taken Central Park Zoo, New York City (2005)

Weekly Geeks

2008-05-02T13:45:00.000-07:00

This week is Discover New Blogs Week!

These were our instructions:

1. Look through the list of blogs on the Mr Linky below and see if you can find five that are new to you. If you can’t, find as many new blogs as possible and then some you don’t read super regularly.

2. Visit those new blogs. A comment would be nice; people like comments.

3. When you’re ready, at some point by Friday if you want to be included in the blurbs next week, write a post in your blog featuring those new blogs you visited.

4. Don’t forget to come back here and leave a link to your post, so that I can get it into the blurbs!

Here are the blogs I visisted:

BLOG # 1

Mary at This Book Is For You. I picked her because she was right above me on the list and I had to start somewhere. I stayed because of her blog description "Dear Reader, life is too short for crap books." A good laugh is a good start. A lot of good stuff going on at her blog. She likes YA as much as I do!

BLOG # 2

Chartroose at Bloody Hell, It's a Book Barrage. This one got my attention by the spelling of Chartroose and then I was expecting that to be the title of the blog. I started laughing, again, when I saw "Bloody Hell". This may show my ignorance but Chartroose's blog introduced me to the Kindle and the controversy it is apparently causing. Looks pretty cool to me!

BLOG # 3

Mog at Mog's Book Blog. Mog's taste is books is very different than mine. I hope that when I go back and read some reviews I can get some motiviation and inspiration to pick up a books for the Nineteenth Century Women Writers Challenge. I had a nice visit.

BLOG # 4

John Mutford at The Book Mine Set. He's the host of The Canadian Book Challenge. I have a lot of exploring to do here!

BLOG # 5

Em at Em's Bookshelf. I picked her from the list because my cat is named Emmy. Silly...I know. Her blog is filled with nice reviews, mostly teen stuff.

Friday Fill in

2008-05-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

1. Two of my favorite ingredients in a drink are ice & lemon!

2. How much my animals love me often amazes me.

3. You can keep doing that forever, the dog is on the look out for squirrels.

4. Me, hubbby, a dog and two cats mix it all together and voila! You have our small family.

5. If I had a yard with a garden, I would love to grow tomatoes and basil to make bruschetta. I will be growing those this year!

6. The face is best au naturel.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to cleaning our bedroom and reading (with my foot--not so simple), tomorrow my plans include starting some simple gardening around our house and Sunday, I want to watch the Pens finish off the Rangers!

Mayday! (BTT)

2008-05-01T20:02:00.000-07:00

Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do??

And, no, you did NOT have time to grab your bookbag, or the book next to your bed. You were . . . grocery shopping when you got the call and have nothing with you but your wallet and your passport (which you fortuitously brought with you in case they asked for ID in the ethnic food aisle). This is hypothetical, remember….

I'm going to assume that I find out that nothing is seriously wrong and now I can relax at the airport and kill time. If not, I would probably sit and worry. I am a worrier. But now, with a little freedom....

Trash...I would buy trash. Some fashion magazine I would normally never buy myself and some junk food. Probably candy. I would act like I was 17 again and just browse through the magazine and eat junk. Then I would probably try to swap my magazine with someone else who is done with theirs.

Then I would probably buy a paperback. Something mainstream I had been keeping my eye on but putting off for one reason or another. Something light. I would be excited because I love buying books, but then probably annoyed since I had to buy one.

Did I have my iPod in my purse? It didn't say. But if I did I would probably listen to my audiobook and play solitaire as long as my battery lasted.

Happy Thursday.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-04-30T12:19:00.001-07:00

Weekly Geeks: A Blogging Challenge

2008-04-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

Dewey at The Hidden Side of a Leaf has come up with a blogging challenge called Weekly Geeks that sounds like a lot of fun. I've signed up already. The first "theme" started yesterday. Go here to check it out.

Here are the basics from his site.

The basics:

1. Every week there’ll be a different theme. One week might be “catch up on your library books” week and the next might be “redecorate your blog week” or “organize your challenges” week or “catch up on your reviews” week. It’ll be fairly bookblogcentric, but not exclusively.

2. Everyone who joins agrees that they will try to check each week to see what the theme is, although they DO NOT have to participate each week, only when they feel like it.

3. Everyone who joins is welcome (encouraged, begged!) to send me ideas for weekly themes via email, comments, whatever. The more ideas, the better.

4. I will post the weekly theme each Saturday, but you can check in any time it’s convenient to find out what the theme is.

5. If you post about your progress with that week’s theme in your blog (whether you were wildly successful or didn’t get around to any of it) then you can come back and leave a link to that post in the comments for that theme.

6. The next week, when I announce the new theme, I will also post a mini-carnival-like blurb, with links to everyone’s progress posts. Either way, you’ll have a link to your blog every week you participate, which will hopefully help other participants find their way to your posts.

7. In order to motivate participants to spread the word, anyone who posts promoting this challenge is guaranteed to be able to choose the theme for one of the weeks this year (their choice of week, first come first served). No need to pick a week now; just let me know when you have a theme idea and you can pick your week then. In addition, each participant who writes a promotional post by the end of April will have their name entered in a drawing for this chocolate monkey. If any of your readers sign up and leave a comment saying they heard about it from you, you get two entries for the chocolate monkey. You may never again have the chance to say to your friends and family, “Yeah, the internet gave me this chocolate monkey.”

Sunday Salon # 3

2008-04-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

Well I FINALLY finished The House of the Spirits by sheer determination and will power. It was awful. I normally put down books I do not enjoy but I was being stubborn with this one. I was reading it for 8 challenges so I didn't want to abandon it. (I am the cross over challenge queen)Plus so many people had spoken well of it I kept thinking it must get better soon. My "glowing" review will be up tomorrow at some point.

I finished listening to Dracula, my first audio book. I loved it! My review is here. I highly recommend listening or reading it if you have not already. I was pleasantly surprised.

CURRENTLY READING

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett: It is awesome. I am flying through it. Thank you to everyone who suggested I pick it up next.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. I'm having so much fun. It is different from the version you see on TV. I'm at the part where Dorothy falls asleep in the poppies. BUT the Wicked Witch has not made an appearance yet!!!!! I've made a little challenge to myself to listen to the entire series of Oz stories.

WHAT I BOUGHT THIS WEEK

Thorn by Vena Cork

Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read

Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter by Joe Maguire

The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hays

CHALLENGE UPDATE: by finishing The House of the Spirits I was able to add a "check off" to...

A ~ Z Reading Challenge (H Title)

Spring Reading Thing

Historical Reading Challenge

Banned Book Challenge

Orbis Terrarum Challenge

Book Awards Reading Challenge

Decades Challenge (1980)

Book Around the World

Personal note: my injured foot is still not healing well. I did return to work and taught Monday - Thursday. I called the doctor Thursday morning. He called back Thursday at 3:30 and wanted me in his office Friday morning at 8. By Friday at 11:30 a.m. I was having MRIs done of my foot. I go back tomorrow at 10 to have them read. Hopefully we'll be able to figure out what is going on! The original injury was March 4th. It has been a LONG time.

Thursday Thirteen

2008-04-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

This week Thursday Thirteen has a theme: vacations. List and write about 13 places you have vacationed. For now, a list will have to do!

China (Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao)

Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples)

Toronto

San Francisco

Phoenix

Las Vegas

Grand Canyon

Geneva on the Lake (Ohio)

New York City

Ohiopyle (PA)

Okracoke

Presque Isle (Erie, PA)

Playa Del Carmen (Mexico)

Springing (BTT)

2008-04-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well, here where I live, Spring is sprung–weeks early, even. Our lilac bush looks like it will have flowers by this time next week instead of in the middle May as usual. The dogwood trees, the magnolia trees–all the flowering trees are flowering. The daffodils and crocuses are, if anything, starting to fade. It may only be April 24th but it is very definitely Spring and, allergies notwithstanding, I’m happy to welcome the change of season. What I want to know, is:

Do your reading habits change in the Spring? Do you read gardening books? Even if you don’t have a garden? More light fiction than during the Winter? Less? Travel books? Light paperbacks you can stick in a knapsack?

Or do you pretty much read the same kinds of things in the Spring as you do the rest of the year?

I must admit, I did just buy a gardening book. BUT, I won't be sitting down to read it from cover to cover. It is more reference material then anything else. Now that we own a house I decided I better learn what that heck to do with everything outside it.

As soon as the weather gets nice my reading time goes down as my hubby and I do "outdoor" things. We get such "cabin fever" from being cooped up all winter that if we can be outside we get out. I do enjoy reading outside so a lot of my outside time IS reading time.

I don't change what I read or what format it is in. I pick what I'm in the mood for or what is up on one of my challenges. I am logical about it though. I don't take the 700 page hardback on the plane with me, I take a paperback.

This post is making me look at House of the Spirits and how long it is taking me to read it. I think instead of blogging I'm going to read some of it now.

Happy Thursday!

Wordless Wednesday

2008-04-23T17:02:00.001-07:00

Book Review: Dracula

2008-04-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

Author: Bram Stoker

Audio Book: from LibriVox

Rating: 4.5/5

This is my first review for an audio book. You wouldn't think it would be different than writing a review for a regular novel but it is! I just realized I've never seen the characters names written!

I must admit that I am impressed! Not by the fact that this was an audio book but by how well written the novel was. The story just seemed to "flow" so smoothly and Stoker was descriptive without being too wordy. Everyone "knows" about vampires but I had never read the book before. I had no idea how the original vampire stories began. I thoroughly enjoyed just sitting and listening to Stoker describe the events as they unfolded. The novel is told through the journal entries of the main characters. Originally I did not think I would enjoy this format but it ended up giving you insight to what each character was thinking and feeling in a way that is different from most novels.

If you haven't read (or listened) to Dracula I would highly recommend picking it up. I was very different from what I was expecting. Even if you think it might "not be your style" it may be worth giving it a try!

I was surprised by how long it took me to actually listen to the book. I kept falling asleep. Not because it was boring, just because I was tired.

Want to read it online? Go here. I found this online version from Literature.org

OTIS WON!

2008-04-21T18:42:00.001-07:00

It was close and it was a comeback but Otis won!

Thanks to my students, family, friends and camera critter buddies who all stopped by to vote for Otis. Thanks to Karen as well for hosting an awesome contest!

You should join her next one!

Camera Critters

2008-04-20T06:38:00.000-07:00

Hello Camera Critter Friends!

This week my picture is the one I used for the entry in a Spring Theme photocontest. This is best picture I've taken of Otis in A LONG TIME. He is smiling and is filled with such joy at finally being able to run around outside in the nice weather that I just had to use it again for everyone to see again today.

If you would like to vote for Otis (PRETTY PLEASE) you can go here to vote. The voting is open until tomorrow. We keep losing to a field of bluebonnet flowers. ;) I though my friends at CAMERA CRITTERS might help me out with some voting since every one there (here) loves animals!!!!

Sunday Salon #2

2008-04-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

Well my second Sunday Salon is no where near as exciting as the first. I'm still working on House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. I'm on page 164 of 433. It started VERY slowly and I almost re- shelved it. Bookgal left me a post encouraging me to keep reading and that it got better. It is better but still not the best novel I've read. If it wasn't covering several challenges for me I would probably return it to the shelf.

I'm also getting ready to return to teaching. I've been off since March 5th after breaking my foot so much more of my time has been devoted to preparing material for class and grading papers. the weather has also improved so I've been outside more and not stuck in bed.

I'm on the last chapter of my audio book Dracula. It has been phenomenal. I didn't realize how well written Dracula was. The narration leaves a little to be desire but since I downloaded it free from Librivox I can't complain. When I finish Dracula I'm moving onto some of the books from the L. Frank Baum Oz Series.

WHAT AM I READING NEXT?
I can't decide. Either...

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett or
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

WHAT I'M LISTENING TO

Dracula by Bram Stoker

WHAT I BOUGHT THIS WEEK

The Frantic Woman's Guide to Life (Rulnick & Schneider)
The Lost Painting (Jonathan Harr)
Anna and the King of Siam (Margaret Landon)
Gardening Success
Beneath It All (Versel Lewis)
The Immortal (Angela Hunt)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist--for my husband

Saturday's Photo Scavenger Hunt

2008-04-19T01:16:00.001-07:00

This weeks theme is thirteen.

Thirteen beautiful blooming tulips. I wish they were in my yard. I pulled over to take the picture. I started counting things in pictures looking for 13 and found this one. Very "spring-like" too!

Entry for Spring Theme Photo Contest

2008-04-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

Ta Da!!!! My final decision for the contest...

Why did I pick this picture for the contest? Otis just so looked so happy in this picture. It was actually taken today (Friday 4/18). With my broken foot I haven't had a chance to take him outside too much but today was so beautiful we went out for a little bit. Springtime for us is finally getting to go back outside for walks. I can read his mind too.

I get to sit in this bed of daffodils AND mom is throwing me cashews??? THIS is the life!!! I love springtime!

If you like my picture and Otis please go vote for me (shameless plug). I would appreciate it! You can vote here.

This next picture is not an entry but here he is thinking "Where in the heck is my next cashew?"

These were my runner up options!

Friday Fill in

2008-04-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

1. The last time I lost my temper I hit the door with my crutches and yelled a lot !

2. Guess! My broken foot and my crutches are what I'm fed up with!

3. The next book I'd like to read is ooh, oooh I guess Bel Canto.

4. Summer vacation is what I'm looking forward to.

5. If you can't get rid of the skeleton[s] in your closet, hide them!

6. The best thing I got in the mail recently was my new mail box and house numbers.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to my parents house (they are playing nurse), tomorrow my plans include helping my mom make an album of her vacation pictures and Sunday, I want to not dread going back to work for the first time in over six weeks, but I know I'll dread it!

Book Review: Prentice Alvin

2008-04-18T05:14:00.000-07:00

Author: Orson Scott Card

Pages: 342

Genre: Fiction/Sci Fi/

Personal Rating 3.5/5

From the back cover:

Alvin's mortal enemy, the Unmaker, has found hearts and hands willing to do its bidding, while Alvin and the Prophet's people were making their last stand. Just across the Hio River from the town of Hatrack River was the first of the slave-holding territories - and they ran south all the way to the sea.

Both the United States and Appalachee have abolished slavery, while the Crown Colonies still deal in human flesh. But the slaves know that their hope of freedom lies just beyond the river; and the daring - or desperate - have often come within the range of Hatrack River's torch. Little Peggy is now sixteen, and has seen more of the world's evil than anybody rightly should - and when she "sees" a young girl and her infant son she isn't surprised by the cruelty the slave is running from. Peggy's father takes the risk of bringing the two back to the guest house, and in doing so creates the one path in all of Peggy's possible futures that may lead to happiness for both her and Alvin.

And so when Alvin arrives in Hatrack River to take up his apprenticeship with Makepeace Smith and learn to be a blacksmith, he finds that nothing is as he expected it to be. The would-be Maker is on his own, and the works of the Unmaker are close at hand.

Orson Scott Card's Tales of Alvin Maker have created a moving fantasy world from the dream of America and the simple magics of the people who settled her. Here is a world where folk magic is as much a part of life as hard work and religion, and where the red man and the white still have hope for living in peace with the land and each other. It is a fantasy unique to literature, yet as inevitable as breathing. It is a work that will live forever in your
heart..

Thanks goodness book three was better than book two. I was worried I had signed up using Tales of Alvin Maker for the Series Challenge after reading book two but book three turned around and in my opinion headed in the right direction.

This part of the saga focused on three main characters; Alvin, Peggy and Arthur Stuart. Peggy was the torch girl who pulled the caul from Alvin's face when he was born. They are destined to marry but Peggy can "see" they Alvin is going to marry her from duty and obligation and will resent their marriage. On the day Alvin arrives in Hatrack River Peggy runs away and "opens up" new paths into the future for everyone. Ones that may even include happiness in marriage for Peggy and Alvin.

Arthur Stuart is the little mix up boy. He is the baby of the black slave girl who ran away from her white slave owner who raped her. She used black magic and gave up her life so she could literally fly far enough away that the slave hunters couldn't find her. Alvin and Arthur Stuart become very close. By the end of the story, Alvin, Arthur & Peggy's futures paths are all crossed and dependent on each other.

This story or series will not appeal to everyone. You need to enjoy Card's style and a little bit of fantasy and magic. I am enjoying the setting which is an alternative frontier America. For example there is a large river named the Hio the represents the Ohio.

Excellent first sentence: Let me start my history of Alvin's apprenticeship where things first began to go wrong.

Thursday Thirteen

2008-04-17T04:11:00.002-07:00

13 Vegetables That Were Much Better to Throw Across the Table at My Sister Than Acutally Eat!

Lima Beans (excellent flicking potential)
Brussel Sprouts
Green Beans
Baby Carrots
Beets
Mushrooms
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Mixed vegetables (by the spoonful)
Eggplant
radishes if they were in my salad
Onions if they were in anything else
I would have thrown spinach if it wouldn't have been so squishy (so i just hid it in my pocket instead)

Can you tell I wasn't a big fan of vegetables?

Vocabulary (BTT)

2008-04-17T03:45:00.001-07:00

Suggested by Nithin:

I’ve always wondered what other people do when they come across a word/phrase that they’ve never heard before. I mean, do they jot it down on paper so they can look it up later, or do they stop reading to look it up on the dictionary/google it or do they just continue reading and forget about the word?

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I usually just blow right by it. I usually can figure it out based on context clues from the sentence or the sentences that came before or after but I'm just a little too "unmotivated" to actually go hunting for it. The exception would be a "cool" sounding word. Wish I had an example of one of those right now but I don't. Not very teacher like of me. Of course the exception is when I am reading something for teaching when it would be pretty bad if I had no idea what Iwas talking about. I always look everything up then.

My "favorite" is when a kid plagiarizes a paper and uses words I've never heard of before. I'll tell them that I have a Masters and I've been teaching for 10 years and have never heard of word X before and I'd love it if they could explain it to me and how they understood it enough to use it in their paper. This is usually where tears starts and I get the confession. Our kids seem to think "cutting and pasting" from Google is OK. (OK--i'm getting off topic)

Happy Thursday

House of the Spirits: Isabel Allende

2008-04-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

It is dragging for me. Someone that has read it...convince me to keep going. Does it get better? I'm sure I've heard good things about it or I wouldn't have it on my pile to read. I keep looking at it and then going to do other things, like laundry. Sick...I know!

Opinions please.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-04-15T23:52:00.000-07:00

Honeymoon--2005 (Riviera Maya) Used for our Christmas Card Photo that year. Huge hit!

Ten On Tuesday

2008-04-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

10 Favorite Movie Comedies

In no particular order

Little Miss Sunshine
Austin Powers
Christmas Vacation
Napoleon Dynamite
Sixteen Candles
The Wedding Singer
The Christmas Story
Death at a Funeral
Superbad
Hot Fuzz

More Books

2008-04-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

The Frantic Woman's Guide to Life (Rulnick & Schneider)
The Lost Painting (Jonathan Harr)
Anna and the King of Siam (Margaret Landon)
Gardening Success
Beneath It All (Versel Lewis)
The Immortal (Angela Hunt)

Camera Critters

2008-04-13T21:36:00.001-07:00

"Well, what else were we supposed to do after Mommy comes home with her broken foot? We surrounded her with love of course!"

From left to right: Emmy, Max & Otis.

This was taken by my hubby right after I got back from the orthopedic surgeon after he gave me the boot and the Vicodin. Aren't animals wonderful?!?!

Sunday Salon

2008-04-13T02:05:00.000-07:00

This is my first Sunday Salon! I wasn't really sure how to "do it" so I figured I'd just roll along and if it was wrong some kind blogger would come along and tell me!

WHAT GOT READ THIS WEEK!

Just last night in bed I finished Prentice Alvin by Orson Scott Card. I liked it so much better than book II, which I didn't like at all. I really enjoy this one, even more than book one. I have a busy day today but the review should be up soon. I'm reading Card for the Cardathon Challenge and the Series Challenge.

Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez--awesome. I gave it a 5/5. My Review is Here.

Messenger by Lois Lowry--decent. I gave it a 3.5/5. My Review is Here. I'm reading books by Lowry for the Themed Reading Challenge. Lowry is my theme

WHAT I BOUGHT THIS WEEK!--This is always so fun

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Book of Splendor by Frances Sherwood
Chasing Shakespeares by Sarah Smith
The Other Side of Silence by Andre Brink (gave away)
Kingston by Starlight by Christopher John Farley (gave away)
The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud (gave away)
Immortal by Traci L. Slatton
The Curse of the Romanov's by Staton Rabin

WHAT AM I READING NEXT?

House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. I'm reading this novel for several challenges: The Banned Booked Challenge, A ~ Z Reading Challenge, Spring Reading Thing 2008, Orbis Terrarum, Decades Challenge, and Book Around the World. I'm a quadruple dipper for challenges!

WHAT I GAVE AWAY--I finally saw my friends and was able to give them their books for "Buy a Friend a Book Week" (and I didn't even read them even though I wanted too!)

The Other Side of Silence by Andre Brink

The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud

Kingston by Starlight by Christopher John Farley

UPDATE ON CHALLENGES

A~Z Reading Challenge: 19 / 52
Banned Book Challenge: 3 / 5
Book Around the World: ongoing, but I've read 13 books from 9 countries
Book Awards Reading Challenge: 9 / 12
Cardathon Challenge: 3 / 6
Chunkster Challenge: COMPLETED 5 / 4
Decades Challenge: 4 / 8
Eponymous Challenge: COMPLETED 4 /4
Historical Reading: Challenge 0 / 6
In Their Shoes Challenge: 3 / 6
Just4thehelluvit Challenge: 2
Nineteenth Century Women Writers Challenge: 0 / 4
Non-Fiction Five Challenge: 0 / 5 (challenge not started yet)
Notable Books Challenge: 1 / 3
Orange Prize Project: 0 / 2
Orbis Terrarum Challenge: 2 / 9
Series Challenge: 3 / 6
Spring Reading Challenge: COMPLETED 11 / 11
Spring Reading Thing: 6 / 9
Suspense & Thriller Reading Challenge: 3 / 12 (but only need 6 for 2008)
Themed Reading Challenge: 3 / 4
What's In A Name Challenge: 4 / 6
Young Adult Challenge: 8 / 12

Books read in 2008 = 23
Pages read in 2008 = 7,723

Saturday's Photo Scavenger Hunt

2008-04-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

This weeks theme: twist(ed)

Ok...I've got several related pictures where the word "twist" is twisted. The first is the back of my corseted wedding gown. The laces are twisted to lace it up. Second, if you have ever tried to get into a corset you know there is a lot of "twisting" involved.

My sister and friend were ruthless getting me into that thing! Here is me twisting into my gown and my sister twisting me up!

342,745 Ways to Herd Cats OR tl;dr1 CHALLENGE

2008-04-11T12:08:00.001-07:00

May 1st - November 30th

This challenge reminded me of the "Something About Me Challenge" where participants made a list and then you picked books from their list to read. I couldn't pass this one up, but really????? can I pass up any challenge?

I just like the phrase herding cats.

How to play:

1. Make a list of ten books you love. That's the only qualification; you had to love (or at least like it) the books on the list. Ten books, a list full of ♥

Go HERE for the rest of the requirements

General disclaimer: yes I know about Something About Me and yes I asked the host permission and yes our challenges our similar but that one is totally more personal and inclusive? although that's the wrong word. It's like a nice version of The Unicorn Club while this challenge is more about chaos and cat macros and ♥'s and SPREADING ♥'s and cat macros everywhere. SUPER!6 Six doesn't exist either. SHUT UP GUYS. This video had to be linked!

MY LIST OF 10 BOOKS I LOVE

Non-Fiction

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez (my review)
Burn Journals by Brent Runyon (my review)

Young Adult

The Giver by Lois Lowry (my review)
Island of the Blue Dolphin by Scott O'Dell

Horror

The Stand by Stephen King

Historical Fiction

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The Gilded Chamber: A Novel of Queen Ester by Rebecca Kohn
Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood by Richard Kim (my review)

General Fiction

Poison Study by Maria Snydre (my review)
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore (my review)

THE BOOKS I'LL BE READING

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

New Books Bought

2008-04-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

Friday Fill In

2008-04-11T00:48:00.000-07:00

1. I love springtime in the winter, waiting for it to get here!

2. Cereal, poptarts, cakes and cookies are foods I love to eat for breakfast.

3. It seems I'm always searching for my husbands lost keys, wallet, cell phone, and unmatched socks

4. Reading a book is a great way to end the day.

5. I think I sleep too much but laugh a lot!

6. Junk food and books is is what I've been craving lately.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting my hair cut, colored and highlighted, tomorrow my plans include doing a little shopping with my friend and then hitting a house sale of her mother in law. Supposedly we'll get "the best deals" since she's "family"...we'll see! and Sunday, I want to spend my time hanging out with my girl friends at book club. We just gave up on reading books since all we do is BS and eat anyway.

Writing Challenge (BTT)

2008-04-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

Pick up the nearest book. (I’m sure you must have one nearby.) Modern Biology--Teacher Edition

Turn to page 123.

What is the first sentence on the page? Figure 6-11 above illustrates how the light reactions in the thylakoid and the Calvin cycle in the stroma actually work together as one continuous cycle--photosynthesis.

The last sentence on the page? But the Calvin Cycle usually proceeds during daytime, when the light reactions are producing the materials that the Calvin cycle uses t0 fix carbon into organic compounds.

Now . . . connect them together….(And no, you may not transcribe the entire page of the book–that’s cheating!)

Figure 6-11 above illustrates how the light reactions in the thylakoid and the Calvin cycle in the stroma actually work together as one continuous cycle--photosynthesis. Through a series of complicated reactions occuring in the chloroplast carbon dioxide and water utilize the energy in sunlight to produce glucose giving off oxygen as a waste product. But the Calvin Cycle usually proceeds during daytime, when the light reactions are producing the materials that the Calvin cycle uses to fix carbon into organic compounds.

***************

Not my fault my biology book is sitting out and I'm planning lessons while I'm out with my stupid broken foot! :) Did anyone actually read that?

Thursday Thirteen # 2

2008-04-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

In honor of the 0-4 butt whooping over the Ottawa Senators last night...

13 Pittsburgh Penguin Hockey Players I Would Invite Over For Dinner

Sidney Crosy (duh!)

Evgeni Malkin and Sergie Gonchar (Malkin doesn't speak English so Gonchar can come for free--a 2 for 1!)

Jarkko Ruutu (master agitator)

Maxime Talbot (cool cat)

Jordan Staal (plays hard, longest arms I've ever seen)

Ryan Malone (he's just cute)

Gary Roberts (The "Ottawa Killer")

George Laraque (Ass kicker and does ass kicking volunteer work)

Marina Hossa (new dude, pretty good)

Marc-Andre Fleury (can't forget the goalie)

Ty Conklin (back up goalie--was in a long time when Fleury was hurt)

Petr Sykora (scored goal #2 against Ottawa last night)

Ryan Whitney (coach bitched him out publicly earlier in the year and he came back with an excellent game)

Photo Contest

2008-04-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

Not that I'm a great photographer, not even close, but I found a contest I'm going to enter and I though some of you may want to as well! I've seen some great pics out there!

Hello! What is this photo contest you’ve been reading about? Well, I’ll tell ya!

Six times a year - February, April, June, August, October and December - I’ll hold a photo contest based on a specific theme. Participants simply select a photo from their personal stash, post it to their blogs and then leave me a link so others can vote! That’s it! Sound easy? It is! Read on …

Photo Contest Rules

1. Post ONE photo on your blog that best represents the current theme beginning midnight U.S. central time April 11th to 4:00 p.m. central U.S. time April 18th Theme: Spring Time!
2. Include a little something about why you picked that photo.
3. It doesn’t need to be a recent photo but it has to be one taken by you (no “borrowing” photos from other sources, please. Violators will be disqualified).
4, Add your link to the Mr. Linky that will appear in the sticky note on the home page April 11th (A direct link to your photo entry only, please).
5. Vote for your favorite photo. Voting begins at 5:00 p.m. U.S. central time April 18th and will end 8:00 p.m. U.S. central time April 21st.
6. Send your readers over to vote for you. A poll will appear on the entry when it’s time to vote. 7. The winner will be announced shortly after 8:00 p.m. U.S. central time April 21st and will win:

One $25.00 gift certificate to any of the following (winner’s choice!)
Old Navy
JcPenney
Kohl’s
iTunes - (I’m not sure they offer e-certificates, so will probably need winner’s address)
Target
Land’s
End
Amazon.com
Busy Bodies
Life is Good

The winner will also receive the below button to display on his/her blog (if he/she chooses - it’s not a requirement )
Here is the link to her site: Write From Karen

Even if I don't win it will be fun to play. Only two days to find a good picture!

Book Review: Kabul Beauty School

2008-04-09T01:39:00.000-07:00

Author: Deborah Rodriguez

Pages: 270

Genre: Non-Fiction

Personal Rating 5

From the back cover:

Soon after the fall of the Taliban, in 2001, Deborah Rodriguez went to Afghanistan as part of a group offering humanitarian aid to this war-torn nation. Surrounded by men and women whose skills–as doctors, nurses, and therapists–seemed eminently more practical than her own, Rodriguez, a hairdresser and mother of two from Michigan, despaired of being of any real use. Yet she soon found she had a gift for befriending Afghans, and once her profession became known she was eagerly sought out by Westerners desperate for a good haircut and by Afghan women, who have a long and proud tradition of running their own beauty salons. Thus an idea was born.

With the help of corporate and international sponsors, the Kabul Beauty School welcomed its first class in 2003. Well meaning but sometimes brazen, Rodriguez stumbled through language barriers, overstepped cultural customs, and constantly juggled the challenges of a postwar nation even as she learned how to empower her students to become their families’ breadwinners by learning the fundamentals of coloring techniques, haircutting, and makeup.

Yet within the small haven of the beauty school, the line between teacher and student quickly blurred as these vibrant women shared with Rodriguez their stories and their hearts: the newlywed who faked her virginity on her wedding night, the twelve-year-old bride sold into marriage to pay her family’s debts, the Taliban member’s wife who pursued her training despite her husband’s constant beatings. Through these and other stories, Rodriguez found the strength to leave her own unhealthy marriage and allow herself to love again, Afghan style.

With warmth and humor,Rodriguez details the lushness of a seemingly desolate region and reveals the magnificence behind the burqa. Kabul Beauty School is a remarkable tale of an extraordinary community of women who come together and learn the arts of perms, friendship, and freedom.

Yep, a fiver! You know when a book has you scavenging the Internet for places to volunteer overseas that it has made an impact on you. I loved this book for two main reasons. Or I guess i should say for the two glimpses it gives you. The first is the glimpse it gives you into the life of Afghan women and the second is the glimpse it gives you into the life of the woman Debbie Rodriguez. Her dedication of the book tells you a lot about her "style"but leaves a lot of her "style"to be discovered

"This book is dedicated to my father, Junior Turner, who passed away June 5, 2002, while I was on my first trip to Afghanistan. Dad, I never got a chance to tell you about Afghanistan and the school. You left me too soon. I know you would love Sam, my husband--he is just like you, but Afghan style. I know you would be worried, but also very happy that I am following my dream. I miss you."

Debbie Rodriguez is an spirited, tough, inspirational woman who just doesn't quit. She ends up in Afghanistan as part of a group of humanitarian workers and feels very out of place with the doctors, nurses, teachers, and engineers. She feels like she has no place there. She is just a lowly hair dresser. But when she is introduced with her group for the evening her job title brings down the house and she is instantly surrounded by women (& men) who just want a little pampering! She is needed just as much as the doctors, just in a different way.

Rodriguez comes to learn that her skills are actually very valuable because men cannot enter beauty salons (since women take off their veils and their hair can be seen). If she can teach women how to run their own salons they would ultimately be in control of their own money. Their husbands would never see how much they were actually making since they couldn't enter the salons. The women would for once have some small control over their own lives. They of course would have to turn their money over to their husbands but since he wouldn't know how much they were actually making...

So the book follows Debbie from the beginning of her quest for free donations and her joining of forces with Vogue and Clairol who had already begun to start a Kabul Beauty School, to her marriage to Sam (an Afghan) up until 2006 when her salon and the beauty school are locked up and Kabul is locked down due to political unrest.

I just kept reading and reading this book. I found it very inspirational and moving. I think anyone would enjoy this even if you do not normally enjoy non-fiction. It is just so eye opening to show us how another culture lives.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-04-09T01:08:00.001-07:00

A Challenge to Consider...

2008-04-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

I Heard It Through the Grapevine Challenge

This challenge is being hosted by Lynne at Lynne's Little Corner of the World.

I'm always looking for new books and new authors. I've gotten quite a few titles from Amazon.com. They always seem to have recommendations for me. I've also found some from other bloggers.

Where do you find new books to read? Do you get recommendations from friends? From the library? From the person next to you on the plane or train or bus? From other book blogs?

The goal of this challenge is to read 3 new-to-you books between June 1 and November 30 that have been recommended to you. Any type of book is OK. It can even be a book by an author you've read before. Cross-overs with other challenges are fine, and you can change books at any time. And there will be a prize at the end of the challenge. You will need to sign up before June 1.Sign up with Mr. Linky with a link to your post listing the books and how they were recommended to you.

When the time gets closer I'll need to see how I'm doing on my other challenges!

I Heard It Through The Grapevine Challenge

Book Review: Messenger

2008-04-08T18:20:00.000-07:00

Author: Lois Lowry

Pages: 169

Genre: Fiction/Young Adult

Personal Rating 3.5

From the back cover:

For the past six years, Matty has lived in Village and flourished under the guidance of Seer, a blind man known for his special sight. Once, Village was a place that welcomed newcomers and offered hope and homes to people fleeing poverty and cruelty. But something sinister has seeped into Village, and the people have voted to close it to outsiders. All along, Matty has been invaluable as a messenger between Village and other communities. He hopes someday to earn the name of Messenger. Now he must make one last journey through the increasingly treacherous forest to spread the message of Village’s closing and convince Kira, Seer’s daughter, to return with him. Matty’s only weapon against his dangerous surroundings is a secret power he unexpectedly discovers within himself. He wants to heal the people who have nourished his body and spirit and is willing to offer the greatest gift and pay the ultimate price.

I read Messenger as my third book in the Themed Reading Challenge. My theme is books by the the author Lois Lowry. I've already read The Giver and Gathering Blue. My last book will be Number the Stars.

Messenger is listed as "A companion to the Newbery Award Winner The Giver and to Gathering Blue" and it does incorporate the two together, drawing on characters and experiences from both books. If you haven't read the prior two books I would wait to read Messenger.

I enjoyed Messenger but not nearly as much as The Giver or Gathering Blue. This book was similar to the first two in that the main character Matty exists in a world "similar yet different from ours". It actually seems to be happening simultaneously with the worlds of The Giver and Gathering Blue. While those worlds are (still) existing. When you read The Giver and Gathering Blue it seems that they are there own distinct worlds but you learn in Messenger that they are not.

I guess Lowry has lost a little of her shine for me. Her first two books were so different and surprising. I "sort of" knew what style to expect with Messenger and sure enough I was able to figure out what would be happening. It was still a good book, just not as good as the first two.

Heads or Tails

2008-04-08T00:45:00.000-07:00

Here's how to play:

Every week you make a post using that week's theme as your guide. You don't have to use the specific word and can use any form of the word that you choose. (Example: If the word is "chart" you could also use "charting", "charter", etc.) After you make your post, sign in using Mr. Linky.What to do if it's:

HEADS : On these weeks you can have your post be anything you want. Some ideas might include photos, poetry, jokes, videos, recollections, lists.

HEADS *OR* TAILS: The same as HEADS but you have two options to choose from. You can even do both!

TAILS: On these weeks you do what is stated. I may ask for a list or another specific type of post.

This week's theme/prompt is: HEADS - Express. (Remember, you don't have to use the exact word. You can use ANY form of it.)

When I saw that word EXPRESS the first thing I thought of was that I have some great pictures of our dog (Otis) expressing himself in the snow!

Do you think he had fun expressing himself? We had a great time. Plus we are both teachers and school was canceled that day! We just got back from stuffing ourselves at breakfast and he just went nuts!