I forgot the "two"

And it's the most amazing part:

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters: The Classic Regency Romance "Now with Squishy, Slimy, Tentacled Menace!

A thing or two

I just read a post by Meg Cabot called How to Foster a Hatred For Reading that I thought I would share.  It brings up an interesting point about something I am sure everyone has an opinion on.  It also reminded me of Miri's post on her blog about the change in focus of children's shows and the cancellation of Reading Rainbow.  I was never a huge fan of that show, but I realize it's influence and effect.  And, like Meg Cabot, I hated The Scarlet Letter and Wuthering Heights (among others) simply because I was forced to read them.  It is taking all I have to try to make myself reread Wuthering Heights and that's kind of sad, right? 

Things...

Yay, thanks Lindsey!

This is going to be brief, but I just wanted to say that (as you may have noticed if you read my blog...) I have been reading a TON of books lately. A big part of this is that I've read a lot of children's/adolescent books, and we all know how fast those are to read. So, in the way of updating and also to give Lindsey some ideas of things that might be able to capture her interest, here is a list of my favorites/suggestions:

The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt

Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko

The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver (obviously not a kids' book--one of my absolute favorites)

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Wishful Drinking, by Carrie Fisher (funny, interesting and sometimes crude)

Digging to America, by Anne Tyler (my second favorite after The Accidental Tourist)

Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson

the Fablehaven books, by Brandon Mull

The Westing Game, by Ellen Rankin

Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow

The Ruby in the Smoke, by Philip Pullman

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card

Totally recommend them all, and especially the ones in bold. Let me know if you read any of them! 

Books and such

So, I have a lot of new books. Particularly the beautiful set I got for my birthday of classics (some I have read, some I haven't). I also ordered The Princess Academy and Book of a Thousand Days used on B&N because I like the covers and wanted to have my own hard back copies. I got them pretty cheap too at about $6 each including shipping. I should be getting a few more random used books from B&N (can't remember what they are at the mo') and The Actor and the Housewife (Shannon Hales' latest adult book) which I am especially excited about and will read as soon as I get it.

I'm in the middle of reading The Outsiders and Home, a memoir of Julie Andrews early years. The Outsiders is probably going to be pushed to the back burner for a bit since I'm just not in the mood for that book right now. Julie Andrews will get finished soon, though. Lauren read it while we were on vacation...mostly because I was an awesome sister and drove most of the way home. It's good so far though and I would recommend it. She has a crazy family. I am curious to find out if there is a memoir of her career though because this book stops at about age 20 just before Mary Poppins and all that. I also purchased The Book Thief and need to finish reading that since I never did last year. I'm also starting to get a hankering for some Narnia so I might jump into Prince Caspian and maybe Voyage of the Dawn Treader, both are quick reads.

Mostly I want to get back into reading. I've been hibernating and pretty much just stopped doing a lot of the things I love to do. Reading being one of them. Also, I finished I Capture the Castle back in January and haven't been able to find something that grabs my attention since then. I LOVED that book. Here's hoping this summer will bring plenty of days reading in the sunshine.

I should have posted this a while ago...

Here is a link to a very interesting article that Annie sent me. Thought I would share.

Thought I'd Share

I'm finally reading I Capture the Castle... just so you know.

The Glass Castle

I just finished The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls tonight. It was fabulous. It's a memoir, and I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it exceeded whatever expectations I did or didn't have.

The book starts with the writer looking out the window of a taxi on her way to a party on Park Ave. She sees a homeless woman digging through a dumpster and realizes that it's her mom, and she hides so that her mom doesn't see her and start talking to her. 

This sets up this incredible story about a family with an imaginative and brilliant dad who is also an alcoholic, an artistic, optimistic mother who doesn't really want the responsibility of motherhood. It was hard to keep tabs on how old the kids were because they were doing such insane things at such young ages (cooking hot dogs at 3 - not a good idea, as it turns out). 

Anyway, it's a story that could have been depressing, but was written in such a beautiful, non-self-pitying way that I just felt fascinated, even when it was horrifying or tragic. 

Read this book. It took me about 3 days (mostly at my breaks at work) and it was lovely. 

(I also just read The Accidental Tourist and Slaughterhouse-Five. Both were excellent. I just didn't want to write about them.)

The rest of the list

Here's a link to the rest of Ken Jennings book list categorized by state.

And here and here you will find his music list. Enjoy.

I read Ken Jennings blog

It's true, I do. Sometimes he says witty things about Alex Trebek. Mostly he fills my head with knowledge I probably will never use, but he also painted his daughter's room with AWESOME book characters and I LOVE IT.

But today he wrote a list that is worthy of this blog and I will post the second half after he provides it.

Also, I'll be posting some thoughts on I Capture the Castle...which I loved.

Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow

http://mirishorten.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html#2680637547000766930

Hark! What owl through yonder window breaks?

Has anyone heard anything about a new Georgia book? Will there be one (and if so, when?), or is Stop in the Name of Pants! the last one? I'm reading it right now and I assume there are probably clues at the end of the book, but that would mean I'd have to wait until the end of the book, and I want to know now. :)

P.S. I ask because the website does not appear to have been updated in a while, otherwise I would have just looked there.

P&P weekend

This weekend accidentally turned into a Pride & Prejudice marathon weekend. Megan and Torie and I watched the Keira Knightley version Saturday night then we watched the BBC version Sunday (while I lay dying of fluff lung on Megan's couch - it's nice to have friends who are willing to take care of you). Just to cap it all off, I give you this:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies



I also have a post planned for I Capture the Castle (which I loved) but I must get over the aforementioned fluff lung.

The Poisonwood Bible

Dear friends,
I am reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and it is so good that I wanted to tell you about it. I'm almost finished with it after working on it for several days, and let me tell you that I was very frustrated every time I had to put it down. It is a fantastic book and if you haven't read it, you should.

Also, in reference to the previous post about Anne Tyler: she is fantastic, and if you haven't read her, you should. I still haven't read Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant because it was always checked out when I looked, but in addition to The Accidental Tourist I read Breathing Lessons and Celestial Navigation, and all three were excellent (the way I've listed them is actually the order in which I liked them). Check them out.