A ~ Z Challenge List from 2008

45 / 52

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

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

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...

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

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.

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

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?

This could be scary!

1. The Accidental Tourist (A-Z)
2. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Notable & In Their Shoes)
3. All Creatures Great and Small (Decades)
4. Alvin Journeyman (Cardathon & Series)
5. American Gods (A-Z)
6. Beneath a Marble Sky (Historical)*
7. The Crystal City (Cardathon & Series)
8. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (A-Z)
9. Decipher (A-Z)
10. The Devil's Arithmetic (A - Z and Orbis Terrarum)*
11. Ella Minnow Pea (A-Z)
12. The Family That Couldn't Sleep (Non Fiction 5)
13. Fieldwork (Notable)
14. Forcing Amaryllis (A-Z)
15. Harem (Historical)*
16. Heartfire (Cardathon & Series)
17. The Inheritance (19th Century Women)
18. Jane Eyre (Classics & 19th Century Women)
19. The Joy Luck Club (A-Z)
20. Like Water for Chocolate (A-Z)
21. Lucky (In Their Shoes)*
22. A Million Little Pieces (In Their Shoes)*
23. Murder on the Orient Express (Decades)
24. Of Earth and Sky (A-Z)
25. The Phantom Tollbooth (A-Z)
26. Pig Island (What's In a Name)
27. Queen Bees and Wannabees (A-Z)
28. The Rasputin Relic (A-Z)
29. The Republican War on Science (Non Fiction 5)
30. The Scarlet Pimpernel (Classics)
31. The Secret Garden (Classics)
32. Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood (Non Fiction 5 & In Their Shoes)
33. The Sixteen Pleasures (Historical)*
34. Something Wicked This Way Comes (Classics)
35. Soul Mountain (A-Z)
36. Snow Falling on Cedars (Herding Cats)
37. Stargirl (Herding Cats)
38. The Thieves of Heaven (A-Z)
39. The Time Traveler's Wife (A-Z)
40. Q--? (A-Z)
41. Whose Body? (Decades)
42. A Widow for One Year (A-Z)
43. Wuthering Heights (19th Century Womens)
44. X--? (A-Z)
45. Y--? (A-Z)
46. 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

New Classics Challenge

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

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

Book Review: A Piece of Cake

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

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 Doetsch7/08

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

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

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)

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

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?

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.


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