ten.10.ten

MML

2010-10-19T22:52:00.003-05:00

I'm thinking of making Elegance of the Hedgehog part of the MML...in the hopes that doing so will make me finish reading it. Thoughts?

The other book I wanted in there is Franny and Zooey (which I'm in the middle of right now).

MML

2010-09-24T09:59:00.000-05:00

My second submission to the MML category: The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky. Lots of highly mature themes, but just so amazing. The main character is absolutely wonderful. (It's short, too--Mike read it in one night, and I read it in two days at work.) I hope you love it as much as I do!

Easily Distracted

2010-09-04T14:05:00.002-05:00

I feel like maybe I won't make it to 100...but I will definitely make it over 50 easy. I just keep getting distracted by things like Doctor Who and Veronica Mars and beach trips and getting a job (eeek!).

Also, The Hunger Games was added to my list months ago (recommended by my friend, Rebecca) and I found it on sale at Wal-mart last month so I bought it. Then I noticed everyone getting all excited about Mockingjay and thought, "Huh. Guess I could start reading The Hunger Games now." So I did. Like four days ago. And I just finished Catching Fire. And now I'm waiting (rather impatiently) for Rebecca to bring me Mockingjay so I can finish that and avoid more precious sleep. I didn't expect to get so sucked in, but am thoroughly enjoying the read. I love it when I do get sucked into books and I'm happy I've came across so many this year where that has happened.

The problem with getting sucked in is that the next book I read always seems to fall a little short and then I see something shiny and forget all about reading and it takes a month and a half to read 100 pages. Still, I'm doing better than I thought I would so that's something, right?

thirty-eight

2010-07-29T12:39:00.002-05:00

I slacked off during the month of July because I spent two weeks watching Doctor Who. I don't feel bad about that, but that's the reason all the same.

So, since my last update, I've read the following:

Stardust (Neil Gaiman - great, but loved the movie more)
A Little Bit Wicked (Kristin Chenoweth - LOVED it, especially since it was audio and she was reading it.)
Georgia Nicolson #10 (Funny, as always, loved the ending)
Little Children (meh. not worth it)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (recommendation actually, funny and quick)
Me Talk Pretty One Day (Good one, again, probably liked it more since it was audio and read by David Sedaris)
Peter and the Shadow Thieves (liked the first one better, but this one is still good.)

That covers June and July. Considering I read 20 books in April and May (man, I was on a roll!) I really did slack off. But whatever. I have a pile of books to finish for August and I'm sure I'll add to it - including Franny and Zooey, which is one of the books I picked for our joint category. Also, maybe The Simeon Solution which might be another choice from me for that category.

Aw, Crap.

2010-07-23T14:56:00.001-05:00

I just discovered that what I thought was the last book in a series I'm reading is, in fact, not. There are two more coming out in the next two years, which means that I won't be able to finish the series for my 10/10/10 challenge. Boo.

Progress! ...Sort Of.

2010-07-23T10:52:00.007-05:00

books I own but haven't read
1984--George Orwell

[Main Street--Sinclair Lewis]
[The Three Musketeers--Alexander Dumas]
[Villette--Charlotte Bronte]
[Jude the Obscure or The Return of the Native--Thomas Hardy]
[Billy Budd, Sailor--Herman Melville]
[The Bonesetter's Daughter--Amy Tan]
[Jane Eyre--Charlotte Bronte]

recommended by others
Abarat--Clive Barker (Joseph)
Running with the Demon--Terry Brooks (Mike)
The Alchemyst--Michael Scott (Nathalie)
Wicked--Gregory Maguire (Talia)

[Same Kind of Different as Me--Ron Hall and Denver Moore] (Lori)
[Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close--Jonathan Safran Foer] (Megan)
[A Thousand Splendid Suns--Khaled Hosseini] (Meredith)
[Mistborn--Brandon Sanderson] (Mike)
[The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake--Aimee Bender] (Lori)

adult fiction
The Gathering Storm--Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson
The Lacuna--Barbara Kingsolver
Prodigal Summer--Barbara Kingsolver
City of Dragons--Kelli Stanley
Shanghai Girls--Lisa See

[Bel Canto--Ann Patchett]
[The Elegance of the Hedgehog--Muriel Barbery]

books adapted to movies
(this category is allowed to overlap other categories)
[V for Vendetta--Alan Moore]
[Jane Eyre--Charlotte Bronte]

foreign
Say You're One of Them--Uwem Akpan
Pandora in the Congo--Albert Sanchez Pinol

[Rooftops of Tehran--Mahbod Seraji]
[Absurdistan--Gary Shteyngart]
[Mendelssohn is on the Roof--Jiri Weil]

authors I've never read
The Road--Cormac McCarthy
The Handmaid's Tale--Margaret Atwood
Mrs. Dalloway--Virginia Woolf

[The Naked and the Dead--Norman Mailer]
[The Catcher in the Rye--J.D. Salinger]
[After Dark--Haruki Murakami

award-winners
March--Geraldine Brooks
The Good Earth--Pearl S. Buck
The Bridge of San Luis Rey--Thornton Wilder

[Interpreter of Maladies--Jhumpa Lahiri]
[The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay--Michael Chabon]

Megan/Lindsey/Miri
The Enchantress of Florence--Salman Rushdie
The Book Borrower--Alice Mattison (Miri)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower--Stephen Chbosky (Miri)

[Franny and Zooey--J.D. Salinger] (Lindsey)

nonfiction
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle--Barbara Kingsolver
NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children--Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
Dreams from My Father--Barack Obama
Going Rogue--Sarah Palin
Fast Food Nation--Eric Schlosser
Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Ranch Culture--Ariel Levy
The Omnivore's Dilemma--Michael Pollan

[Lies My Teacher Told Me--James W. Loewen]
[Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions--Gloria Steinem]

miscellaneous
Mockingjay--Suzanne Collins
Inferior--Peadar O Guilin

As you can see, I still have quite a ways to go. I've been getting a teensy bit carried away with "extras"... as in, I've read 70 books so far this year and only 22 of them were for the challenge. Yeah... It's time to buckle down.

I'm in the middle of three books right now, one that will finish up the Michael Scott series, one Nonfiction, and one for the Recommended section. Once I finish one of these three I'll be picking up The Road, and then I think I'll get started on the Books as Movies category with The Mists of Avalon... which is, of course, really long. Hoo boy.

Okay, also, one more thing. Any more thoughts about the MML category? So far I've picked one... That leaves three for Lindsey and Megan to choose, and two for me. Plus we have to actually read them. :) Let's find some good ones to pick!

Three More

2010-06-05T00:14:00.002-05:00

I finished The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Lovely Bones and The Actor and The Housewife. Go me!

The point of this post, though, is mostly to talk about The Lovely Bones. I held out reading it because I knew it was about the rape and murder of a teenage girl and I felt like I had to read it at the right time. Considering my stress levels this week, I don't know what possessed me to read it now, but I did and I loved it. It's a new top ten favorite. I love the characters and the story and the writing and everything. It could have gone to weird places, but it didn't really. There were a few overly supernatural parts, but I actually liked having them there because it tied up loose ends I desperately wanted to be tied up and thought would be left undone. It was heartbreaking and beautiful and even though I've been reading a lot of emotionally heavy books lately (The Book Thief, The Wednesday Letters, even The Glass Castle and, surprisingly, The Actor and The Housewife), this one just seemed to speak to me more than the others. I love the Salmon family and how broken they are. I guess the best word for it is that it's honest. It's a terrible story to tell, but everyone reacts the way real people do.

The strangest part about the book, though, was definitely the fact that the two sisters are named Susie and Lindsey, both names that belong to me. Haha. It just took a little bit more work to look past.

Keep on Keeping on

2010-05-13T20:10:00.003-05:00

So, I'm pretty sure Miri is so far ahead of me, but that's okay. I read 28 books in Jan-Apr! I'm pretty impressed with myself actually. haha.

So, to add to my list, here's what I've read since my last update:

All You Need to Be Impossibly French
Percy Jackson 1-5
Dead and Gone (A Sookie Stackhouse novel. Don't judge. haha)
The Book Thief
The Wednesday Letters
Nine Stories
Jane Eyre
The Glass Castle
The Outsiders

So I bawled during The Book Thief and The Wednesday Letters - probably didn't help that I read them together. J.D. Salinger's short stories were kind of heavy, but that was expected. Jane Eyre was actually not terrible. I listened to it mostly driving to and from Indiana and I was very happy with the ending. When I started it, I had a hard time getting Wuthering Heights out of my head. I kept expecting the worst, but then was pleasantly surprised when things would turn out okay. The Glass Castle was also kind of heavy, but a great book and The Outsiders made me cry as well. I didn't bawl like with Book Thief and Wed. Letters, but it had it's moments.

So I don't know what to read next. Probably The Elegance of the Hedgehog, maybe A Lion Among Men (3rd in the Wicked series). I may have to look around and try to find something a little more light hearted.

You Couldn’t Ignore Me if You Tried

2010-04-07T19:27:00.002-05:00

I just finished reading You Couldn't Ignore Me if You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes and Their Impact on a Generation. I read it because Pioneer Woman read it and because I love all of those movies.

I loved getting some of the background info about the movies and the actors and about John Hughes. There were a lot of interesting little pieces of information that I was fine not knowing, but love that I know it now. It talked about the music of the movies (which I love just as much) and the impact of the name "The Brat Pack" on the careers of the actors who were unlucky enough to have it hoisted upon them.

Anyway, I really liked it and now I have to go make a John Hughes inspired iTunes playlist and maybe also have a movie marathon.

Miri's Update

2010-04-01T12:55:00.004-05:00

Finished so far:

nonfiction
Going Rogue--Sarah Palin
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle--Barbara Kingsolver
NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children--Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
Dreams from My Father--Barack Obama

recommended
Running with the Demon--Terry Brooks
The Alchemyst--Michael Scott
Abarat--Clive Barker

foreign
Say You're One of Them--Uwem Akpan

award-winners
March-- Geraldine Brooks

adult fiction
Prodigal Summer--Barbara Kingsolver
The Lacuna--Barbara Kingsolver
The Gathering Storm--Robert Jordan

MML
The Enchantress of Florence--Salman Rushdie
The Book Borrower--Alice Mattison

series
The Chronicles of Narnia--C.S. Lewis

self-improvement
Forced to be Family--Cheryl Dellasega

15 from my 1o/10/10 challenge, plus 15 extras (17 with the two that I'm reading now)

Some of them have taken a long time (AVM, Sarah Palin) but hopefully I'll be able to pick up the pace a bit now. I'm starting to question that self-improvement category, by the way... It's a good one and I probably should make myself do it, but I'm envisioning a November/December cram to fit them all in because I neglected them the whole year because they're boring... So we'll see. :)

On a roll...

2010-03-28T21:54:00.002-05:00

I finished six more books! Go me! It helps that four of them are technically children's books, but they were all at least 200 pages so that's got to count for something. They were:

Duty and Desire
These Three Remain
Coraline
The Book of Three
The Black Cauldron
The Castle of Llyr

The first two went with An Assembly Such as This to finish up the Fitzwilliam Darcy novels. They were actually pretty good. Duty and Desire was my least favorite since it's mostly made up, new stuff filling in the time when Darcy isn't around in Pride and Prejudice. It's not terrible, I enjoyed it, just not my favorite of the three books.

Coraline is a great little book that scared the dickens out of me even though I have already seen the movie and knew the whole story. Something about the way Neil Gaiman writes just gets to you. I had freaky dreams while reading this book, and my dreams are rarely effected by things I read or watch. I loved the book, though. Coraline is a great character and I want to name something after her. A child or a puppy or a kitten or something. And now I am going to watch the movie again so I can get the full effect. We'll see if the creepy dreams come back.

The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron and The Castle of Llyr (all by Lloyd Alexander) were all good, I enjoyed them each for different reasons. I am looking forward to watching The Black Cauldron even though I hear it's crap. I've never seen it, and I want to see how they butcher a good book. That has always interested me. haha. I really love the characters in the books. They are simple and sweet and heroic and brave for all kinds of different reasons. All three books are quick and easy to read, they capture your attention and hold on to it, and they each offer a great little adventure that could stand individually.

And now I'm up to 15 or 16 books, I think. Still so far behind, but doing much better than I thought I would be. I'm about to start on Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thieves, then I'm on to a biography about the Brat Pack that I'm reading because The Pioneer Woman read it and because I love the Brat Pack.

As of today...

2010-03-07T22:43:00.003-06:00

Okay. Here's a list of what I have finished as of today.

The Enchantress of Florence
Through the Wardrobe
The Magician's Nephew
The Silver Chair
Forest Born
Stop in the Name of Pants
Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea
Julie and Julia
An Assembly Such As This
Inkheart
Ender's Game

That's 11 books in January and February.

I'm half way through Duty and Desire (book two in the Fitzwilliam Darcy novels) and I've started several others (Coraline, The Actor and the Housewife, The Book Thief and The Outsiders). I'm pretty happy with my pace, but hoping to get the ones I've started already finished this month.

Inkheart was great, although I don't know if I could have read the whole thing for this challenge. I'm glad I found it on audio.

I LOVED Ender's Game. I shouldn't be surprised by this since I'm pretty sure I know a lot of people who at least really liked it. It was another audio book, but I think that enhanced it a lot for me. I found myself sitting in my car after arriving to where ever I was going and listening. I loved the narrator's voice for Ender and I loved that they used several different narrators for which ever character's point of view was being read. I got a little frustrated toward the end, but still loved the book.

Finished:

2010-03-01T15:55:00.002-06:00

Say You're One of Them, in my foreign category.

http://mirishorten.blogspot.com/2010/03/say-youre-one-of-them-by-uwem-akpan.html

Supsense and Sensibility

2010-02-28T15:23:00.003-06:00

So... I'm not really a fan of the classic literature fanfic stuff--Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte--that kind of thing. It doesn't appeal to me.

However, I was at the Allen library and on a shelf across from me, I saw this, and it made me laugh:
Apparently it's the sequel to Pride and Prescience, and since they were both there on the shelf, I grabbed them. I'm sure they'll be ridiculous, but I can't help wanting to check them out. I don't know if I'm going to include them in a 10/10 category or if they'll just be extra, but either way I wanted to share. :)

March

2010-02-22T19:25:00.004-06:00

Finished March, by Geraldine Brooks, in my Award-Winners category (it won the Pultizer in 2006). In other news, I think this book was given to me by Sam and Jennie for my birthday one year while we still lived at Glenwood.
But I digress. It was a pretty intense book, and I would have liked it a lot if the protagonist hadn't been the father from Little Women. I had very mixed feelings about him and ended up not liking him all that much, which was a little sad because of how I love Little Women. But judging it independently, it's an amazing, heartbreaking book; one of those horrible war books that just makes you wonder how anyone can ever live through such a thing.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

2010-02-15T09:42:00.000-06:00

So in idea form, this book is hilarious. It's even funny for the first 100 pages or so. But then I got stuck - for 5 months.

The problem is that the zombie parts just aren't written that well and aren't incorporated well either. I know that they made a big deal about it being 85% Jane Austen, but maybe it shouldn't have been. What it mostly did was remind me how good Jane Austen was and how not good this other guy is. While it was funny to have the final confrontation between Elizabeth and Lady Catherine be an actual fight, and while it was funny to have Charlotte's reason for marrying Mr. Collins be that she had been infected by zombies, overall it wasn't well-crafted enough to really pull it off. I've read better spoofs and better serious zombie books. (Serious zombie books - does that work? Either way, World War Z put all of the zombie action in this to shame.)
It was also disappointing because I'd read some really good reviews and knew some people who really liked it. I was sad to come away being so unimpressed. It honestly wasn't any kind of self-righteous indignation about the desecration of Jane Austen either. It was just a big meh for me.
So yeah. A for effort, C for execution.

On the bright side, it wasn't Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, which I saw in the book store the other day and which made me throw up a little in my mouth.

One Series Down

2010-02-14T19:23:00.004-06:00

Yay for finishing books! I finished my first series, the Narnia books (started over and read books The Magician's Nephew through The Horse and His Boy so I could say I'd read them all in 2010), and now I'm in the middle of a Nonfiction, an Adult Fiction, and an Award-Winner. It's taking me longer than it should to read them, but I'm really enjoying them all so it's okay.

And Two More!

2010-02-14T17:15:00.002-06:00

I think I'm at three more. I am losing track, which is bad when I'm only at the beginning, right?

I finished Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, #9 in the Georgia Nicholson series (which I loved loved loved) and Julie and Julia. I am just over half through with Inkheart (which is a 15 hour audio book) and half through An Assembly Such As This, which is going in my recommended books category along with the other two books in that trilogy.

I also decided to add the Book of Mormon to my reading. I know it's something I should be reading in addition to this challenge, but I just don't read it as regularly as I should and I want to try to take this time to change that. So I'm adding it to my list, not sure where. haha. Non-fiction?

Two more

2010-02-12T18:10:00.002-06:00

I just finished These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner. It was lovely and romantic and sad and funny - and also a very quick read. I recommend it.

I also read The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon, which was, in fact, a Buffy comic book. So . . . yes.

The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver

2010-02-02T18:42:00.005-06:00

Just finished The Lacuna for my Adult Fiction category. It is amazing. If your "recommended" categories aren't filled yet, feel free to add this one on there as a recommendation from me! I think you will love it.

Two!

2010-02-01T08:54:00.000-06:00

I finished Julie and Julia for my recommended category. Even though I was sometimes highly annoyed by Julie's whining, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I think one of the things I liked most about it was that at its core, it's about two women who are drowning and find a way to save themselves by finding something worthwhile and difficult to do. Plus, you know, the Buffy stuff. :)

Thanks for the recommendation, Miri!

Category Update

2010-01-28T17:50:00.002-06:00

I'm thinking we should say the end of January is the cutoff for changing categories or else this could go on forever and ever. haha.

I changed my last category to fit miscellaneous books I come across. Maybe that goes against "the rules" but I like being a rebel.

Mostly, as I look for the books I have decided to read or as I read the books on my list, I come across others that look good. Some of them fit into a category and some of them probably won't. Since J.D. Salinger didn't write 10 books, I'm combining the last category. It's basically books I want to read that won't or can't fit in a category. The Narnia books will be in that category since they are books I've read several times before but I just wanted to read some of them again.

Also, J.D. Salinger died. That is sad. I love Franny and Zooey and Catcher in the Rye (Franny and Zooey first) but I didn't read them till I was in the middle of college so maybe that made a difference. I have been wanting to read his other stuff since I finished Franny and Zooey but I just haven't gotten to it. No better time than the present I guess.

I wrote this in a comment, but I'm thinking maybe Franny and Zooey as a MML book? Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?

Miri's Final Categories

2010-01-28T16:34:00.003-06:00

I finally figured it out! My tenth and final category is going to be Series(...es). That is how the Narnia books will fit into the challenge; I'm just going to go back and read the first three now, so I can say I did them all in 2010 (I was going to do The Magician's Nephew now anyway since I haven't read that in a while), and then it will be counted. Plus, this fixes the problem in which I was concerned about there not being enough books in the challenge. So, my final categories are:

Award-Winners
Recommended
Adult Fiction
Foreign
Self-Improvement
Authors I've never read
Megan/Miri/Lindsey
Nonfiction
Books I Own/Unfinished Business
Series

That said, I would like to mention how much I love The Chronicles of Narnia. I first read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in second grade, and while I don't remember my first time reading the other books, I do remember reading the whole series over and over, countless times in my childhood. C.S. Lewis has such a beautiful way of writing, and--I know this is silly but it's a big thing for me--I just love the font in the versions I've been reading, and overall it was just a wonderful pleasure reading them again.

A Small Detour...

2010-01-27T16:10:00.002-06:00

I may have accidentally interrupted my 10/10/10 reading to reread the Narnia books. I started with Prince Caspian, since I have read the first three books more times than I can count, and the last four not nearly so many; I am now in the middle of The Silver Chair and will probably go ahead and finish the last book before I get back to The Lacuna (which I am enjoying, but is easy for me to get distracted from).

Anna Karenina

2010-01-27T13:40:00.000-06:00

I FINALLY FINISHED!!!

And it was good. I have some mixed feelings about the secondary characters, because a lot of times it seemed like Tolstoy was just using them to put forth his political or religious agenda for pages and pages. On the other hand, it was nice to see some semi-functional but still imperfect people to contrast the despair and craziness of the main characters - it just got in the way of story flow sometimes and then I would hate the Levins and their peasants.

Anyway. It was good, and I feel very accomplished. Now I can hurry through some shorter and half-finished ones to catch up. :)

Three!!!

2010-01-25T20:19:00.002-06:00

My count is up to three (almost four) completed books!

The Enchantress of Florence (Salman Rushdie)
Through the Wardrobe (an interesting collection of essays about The Chronicles of Narnia)
The Magician's Nephew (C.S. Lewis)

I have one CD left on The Silver Chair so that will soon be finished as well.

Another thing I started doing is keeping a journal dedicated to this year of reading. There was a paragraph in Enchantress that stuck out to me enough that I typed a note on my cell phone with the page number. I figured if I would do that, why not keep track of things like that so as to actually retain something from each book, whether I like the book or not. I also had some thoughts with the essays I read, some of which pertained to the religious symbols and whatnot in the Narnia books and a note about why I read (listened) to The Magician's Nephew again and what I thought of it this go round.

I also started my own rating system (1-10) so as I get more into books and genres I don't actually read as much, I can look back and quickly see what I thought of things in case I want to go with something similar or something completely different.

Progress Report

2010-01-20T12:33:00.003-06:00

Finished: Adult Fiction, The Gathering Storm; Recommended, The Alchemyst, Abarat; Self-Improvement, Forced to be Family; MML, The Enchantress of Florence

In the works: Adult Fiction, The Lacuna

Up next: Award-Winners, Interpreter of Maladies, March

New categories:

Award-Winners
Recommended
Adult Fiction
Foreign
Self-Improvement
Authors I've never read
Megan/Miri/Lindsey
Nonfiction
Books I own/Unfinished Business
_________

I am pretty sure picking the categories is going to end up being the most difficult part of this challenge for me. I just cannot come up with ten I like!

Current Progress

2010-01-20T10:14:00.002-06:00

I was planning on this post mostly just to make myself feel better. Then Megan posted hers and I feel like I'm way behind. haha. Here we are anyway.

I'm 3/4 of the way through Through the Wardrobe (which is a collection of essays about The Chronicles of Narnia). Unfortunately, it's mostly making me want to just re-read Chronicles. We'll see about that.

I started reading Alice in Wonderland out loud to my nephew and figure I'll just go through that one over the course of the year with him for the most part. It will be slow going, but why not introduce him to reading bigger books out loud? It should certainly help his vocabulary and he seems to be enjoying it so far.

Forest Born. I read one page. It's the next one I'll get to when I'm finished with Through the Wardrobe.

I'm about 1/4 of the way through The Actor and The Housewife. Hopefully I will finish it up after Forest Born.

I'm jumping on the comic bandwagon and will be reading the Buffy season 8 comic as well as the Dr. Horrible comic. Not sure what category they will fit into.

I'm heading down to visit my parents this weekend and plan on renewing my library card and trying to get a bunch of books to last me through till Valentines day (the next time I'll get down to MD to return them). Or, you know, one or two books since I'm already so far behind.

Still Going!

2010-01-19T19:35:00.000-06:00

I just want to post so you know I'm working on this even though I haven't checked anything off yet. Here's where I am right now:

200 pages from the end of Anna Karenina. I have about a week and a half to finish it in time for book club, and if I get a few low key days this weekend I should be golden.
65 pages into Julie and Julia and enjoying it.
About halfway through Enchantress of Florence (haha - remember how I picked this book? Yeah. Distractions.)
Almost through with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It's fun, but the novelty wears off after awhile. I think I have 50 pages or fewer at this point.

I've also decided that something in the "genres I don't normally read" category is going to be a Buffy comic book or the Dr. Horrible comic book or both. (And by the way, I think the Dr. Horrible comic book could be a great one for the combined effort if we can get our hands on it. Thoughts?)

Reading List: Updated

2010-01-15T16:43:00.005-06:00

Okay. First of all, technically one of the rules of this challenge is that you are allowed to overlap between categories (I think the rule was up to 9 books may overlap, which for our purposes would be adapted to 10). I mention this because some of the books I own but haven't read also fit into the books I can't believe I've never read category; in the interest of making this challenge actually a challenge, I'm not going to let myself do any overlaps (if you'll remember, one of my original concerns about this was that the total number of books comes to 100, which is fewer than I read this year). All right. End of disclaimer, on to lists.

Books I own but haven't read:

Villette, Charlotte Bronte
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf
The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
The Winds of War, Herman Wouk
Main Street, Sinclair Lewis
Howard's End, E.M. Forster

Adult fiction:

*The Gathering Storm, Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson
possibly one of the Dresden files, by Jim Butcher
The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury
Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
The Alchemist, Paolo Coelho
Serena, Ron Rash
The Postmistress, Sarah Blake

Recommended

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer (Megan)
Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson (Mike)
*Abarat, Clive Barker (Joseph)
*The Alchemyst, Michael Scott (Nathalie)
The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown (Dan)

I can't believe I've never read this...

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred C. Taylor
The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
A Separate Peace, John Knowles

Unfinished Business

The Glass Castle, Jeanette Wells
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Rise of Silas Lapham, William Dean Howells

Authors I've never read

Neil Gaiman
Norman Mailer
Cormac McCarthy
Ken Follett
John Milton

Award Winners

The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
March, Geraldine Brooks
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
Ironweed, William Kennedy
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole

Foreign

The Bonesetter's Daughter, Amy Tan
Pandora in the Congo, Albert Sanchez Pinol
Arrow of God, Chinua Achebe
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

Self-Improvement

*Forced to be Family, Cheryl Dellasega
Feelings Buried Alive Never Die, Karol Truman
The Four Agreements Companion, Miquel Ruiz

Finished:

2010-01-14T16:56:00.001-06:00

Forced to be Family, by Cheryl Dellasega, in my Self-Improvement category. It wasn't very good.

5 - 5 - 10

2010-01-14T11:40:00.003-06:00

Having two small children, I know that there's no way I would get 100 books read in a year. Not without some serious neglect, which would lead to even more serious mommy guilt. But I think this is an awesome idea. So upon mulling it over I've decided that I'm going to try for 5 books in 5 categories in 2010. I'm pretty sure this is a goal I can reach without feeding my kids cold cereal for weeks or letting them repeatedly watch Thomas for hours at a time. If I do reach my goal, I might go for 5 books in 10 categories. We shall see.

So here's my list of categories:
1. Authors I've never read before
* Heat Wave (done)
2. Books I should have read, but haven't
3. Young Adult
I'm sure I'll come up with a list soon - there are a bunch I want to read
4. Comic Books (maybe this one is cheating, but I really want to read these!)
* Rapunzel's Revenge
* Calamity Jack
* Dr. Horrible
5. Books suggested by other people (since comic books is kinda cheating)
6. Books I've been wanting to read but haven't made the time
* The Host
* How to train your puppy

Obviously this needs some work because 7 is obviously not 5, but some of the books on the list could fall into multiple categories. And the "Books I should have read, but haven't" will probably be more difficult to read and will take more time, so a catch all category is probably a good thing. Anybody else want to try the "slimmed down" version of the 10-10-10?

Take one down, pass it around...

2010-01-11T10:18:00.003-06:00

99 left to go!
One down for me too. I finished The Gathering Storm, the twelfth Wheel of Time book, which went in my adult fiction category. (Megan, you should read this, by the way--it was sooo good.)

One down...

2010-01-09T20:14:00.002-06:00

I just finished The Enchantress of Florence so I get to cross one off my list! I won't say much yet, but the ending kind of comes out of nowhere. I still haven't decided how I feel about the ending but I really liked the book overall. Rushdie's writing is beautiful.

Some math.

2010-01-08T12:31:00.000-06:00

Has anyone realized that this is like a book every 3.6 days? And than I'm still in the middle of Anna Karenina? I'm going to need some short books in there to catch up. Yikes.

More potentials

2010-01-06T00:29:00.002-06:00

I'm going to organize these later when I've decided for sure what my categories are going to be, but for now I need to get them down so I don't forget.

Additions to my reading list based on a conversation I just had with Elise Crane:

Dante's Inferno - it's just inexcusable that I've never read this.
Erasmus, "Praise of Folly," translated by Robert M. Adams.

I'll also finally finish Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and one of my nonfictions (or one of the things that has been on my shelf forever) has to be Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain. Which kind of makes me want to do 10 WWI-related books - Jacob's Room, Goodbye to All That, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom Tender is the Night, All Quiet on the Western Front . . . it has a lot of potential to be awesome.

Animal Farm - I enjoyed my first Orwell, and this one is much shorter.

For nonfiction (which I am really excited about) I want to try something by Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bryson's African Diary, I'm a Stranger Here Myself. There's also an Erik Larson I've been meaning to read called Isaac's Storm. (I almost have my nonfiction section filled out already. If I throw in one of the Shakespeare books on my shelf I'll be golden!) There are a few NPR writers I kind of want to check out as well, namely AJ Jacobs and David Sedaris. I'll be looking into some of their books to see what I want to read.

I have Crime and Punishment on Audiobook, so that's probably how I'll finally finish that one. I also have a great audiobook of A Clockwork Orange, which will either go in my "things I don't normally read" or "recommended" category, because I'm probably not going to watch the movie. The clips on AFI freak me out. (Audiobooks aren't cheating, right? Because I think that's how I'm going to make it work with some of the longer ones. I have 1776 and Atlas Shrugged (abridged - there is no way I will ever care enough to get all the way through that book) as well.)

Also for recommended: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (or whatever Stegner Katherine was just reading) and Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen. I'll be raiding Ann's shelf for sure.

It occurs to me that I run a book club, so if books don't fit into any of the categories, I may have to form a book club category. Hmm.

I just noticed that Miri has Norman Mailer on her list - I have The Castle in the Forest on my shelf and am excited to read it (I think it's about a Nazi?) so that might go into one of my categories. I also want to read Middlemarch, but we'll see how many big long books I get through after the Tolstoy.

I'll be adding to this post I'm sure, but I had to get down the right translation of Erasmus from Elise before it got lost in my facebook inbox.

Lin: Reading List

2010-01-05T12:05:00.000-06:00

Here's what I have as possibilities so far:

Books I own but haven't read
Through the Wardrobe (A collection of writings from different authors about the Chronicles of Narnia)
The Wednesday Letters
The Glass Castle
Mansfield Park
Sense and Sensibility
Pride & Prejudice & Zombies
Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters
Madame Bovary
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Cranford

The above list is mostly coming from the set of beautiful Penguin classics I got last year for my birthday. I hadn't read most of them (hence the reason for buying them) so now I'm going to do it. This list may change, although it's the most set in stone due to the nature of the category.

Books with movie adaptations
The Road
Stardust
The Black Cauldron
The Outsiders Jane Eyre The Lovely Bones
Derby Girl
The Princess Bride
The Thin Man
The Iron Giant

That's what I've tentatively settled on for the movie/book category. I took most of these from lists found over at the A.V. Club, although the three in bold are on there because I also already own them. The Black Cauldron is the one I'm most excited about because I always thought that movie was so strange and the A.V. Club tells me the source material is much better than the movie. The Princess Bride is on there because I have never read it and I somehow feel like less of a girl for not having done so before this point.

10-10-10

2010-01-05T00:58:00.000-06:00

Okay, I guess it's my turn to post my category list. I think I'm also going to include a few books that I've already listed in those categories so that I can remember them, and then I'll refer back or add things.

My tentative categories are as follows:

-Books I own but haven't read.
-Books I'm embarrassed that I haven't read or that I started and haven't finished.
This includes a couple of Jane Austens, Crime and Punishment, Les Miserables, Heart of Darkness, Invisible Man, Brave New World and a few others.
-Books written by authors who aren't British or American.
Yes, I'll be counting Anna Karenina.
-Nonfiction (including biographies and memoirs)
Includes the Wilberforce biography I just got, Endurance, possibly a biography of Victoria and Albert, something by David McCullough, and The Year of Magical Thinking.
-genres I don't usually read
This will give me an excuse to read Interview with a Vampire.
-Megan/Lindsey/Miri category
-Recommended books
This will include These is My Words, which at least 3 different people have drooled about to me.
-Books adapted to movies
I want to read The Painted Veil and could always through those Jane Austens in there. Plus I always have the option of throwing in some Agatha Christies if I run out of time at the end.
-Authors I've never read
-Either award winners or something in a category like postmodern or modernist books.

I reserve the right to change these or juggle things into other categories at any time to serve my own nefarious purposes. I also reserve the right to pad things with short stories if I come up short at the end, but I'm hoping Tolstoy won't put me behind enough for that to be an issue.

10/10/10 Challenge

2010-01-04T19:34:00.000-06:00

For my New Year's "resolution" I decided to complete the 10/10/10 challenge--ten books in ten different genres in 2010--and I am really excited to do it. Megan and Lindsey read my post and have expressed an interest in it as well, and we've been discussing possible categories with each other. For right now, here is my tentative list.

--books I own but haven't read yet
--recommended by others
--adult fiction
--nonfiction
--self-improvement
--foreign
--authors I've never read (this is one that I just remembered was on that list online)
--genres I don't usually read
--Megan/Lindsey/Miri category (a predetermined list of ten books that all three of us will read)
--award-winners (?)
or, books adapted to movies?

I am deciding between the last two categories, since one of them will take me over ten. I like the idea of books that have been adapted to movies (which came from Lindsey) because it adds the extra element of watching those movies and comparing them with the books, and I'm sure that would be interesting; however, that also means I have to find the movies, and that isn't always easy.

Lindsey's Challenge Categories

2010-01-04T19:09:00.001-06:00

When Miri mentioned doing this on her own blog and then later asked Megan for category suggestions, it got me interested. Granted, it doesn't take much to get me interested in anything these days. Also, I hardly read any books in 2009 - in fact, I think the grand total is like 15 or something. I haven't read that little since I was in college. Mostly I was all depressed and retreated into a world of TV and movies, which wasn't bad, but I'm ready for my brain to get some more exercise.

So here we go. 100 books. 10 categories. The categories I have chosen are as follows:

Books I own but haven't read
Recommended by others
Young Adult/Children's Lit
Adult Fiction
Biographies
Authors I have never read
Megan/Lindsey/Miri (a predetermined list of 10 book we will all read)
Books with movie adaptations
Books for the blogject (self-improvement)
10 things written by J.D. Salinger

That last one is a little bit of a cheat because I will probably count his Nine Stories as 9 actual books...mostly, it's been on my list of things I would like to read and I think this is a good way to finally cross that one off. Also, I'd like to re-read Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey. But it's all in the spirit of accomplishment and I'm sure there will be other things that will balance it all out.

The first book that I will finish will fall under the Megan/Lindsey/Miri category as we have all been reading The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie since this summer. I've got 30 pages left and will be moving on to read Forest Born by Shannon Hale which will either count as a YA book or a book I own but haven't read.

I really hope I can stick to this and get it done. I'm excited about branching out and also getting through the books I already own but haven't had the time or patience to read.

Changes

2010-01-04T17:45:00.000-06:00

Changes have quite obviously been made. I am going to use this blog for our 10.10.10 challenge.

Megan and Miri and I are going to be reading 10 books in 10 categories (of our choosing) in 2010. This is mostly for us to keep track of everything.

I forgot the "two"

2009-08-30T18:33:00.000-05:00

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

2009-08-30T17:49:00.000-05:00

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...

2009-05-26T11:13:00.001-05:00

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

2009-05-26T09:02:00.000-05:00

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...

2009-03-27T19:06:00.001-05:00

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

Thought I'd Share

2009-02-25T12:39:00.000-06:00

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

The Glass Castle

2009-02-19T20:39:00.000-06:00

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

2009-02-12T10:49:00.000-06:00

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

2009-02-09T14:43:00.001-06:00

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

2009-02-08T15:16:00.001-06:00

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

Hark! What owl through yonder window breaks?

2009-02-05T12:49:00.000-06:00

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

2009-01-26T15:52:00.000-06:00

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

2009-01-13T10:39:00.000-06:00

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.

New Books (and New Post)

2008-11-13T19:16:00.000-06:00

I just finished The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (for the first time) and Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns (not for the first time) and I thought I would tell you all that they're both fantastic. Cold Sassy Tree has been on my favorites list since the first time I read it, but whenever anyone asked me why I liked it I couldn't remember, so this time I paid attention. :) It turns out I like it for a lot of reasons, including the relationship between the progtagonist, Will Tweedy, and his grandfather, which is pretty central to the story. Also, it's disguised pretty well behind the way he speaks (since Olive Ann Burns writes their Southern accent out the way you'd hear it), but that grandfather has some really insightful ideas on the nature of God and Jesus and what they meant when they said some of the things in the scriptures.

The Accidental Tourist is about a very bizarre man named Macon Leary who is a travel writer and hates travel. He writes for businessmen, and his job is to help them go through their entire business trips without feeling like they've ever left home. Anyway this results in some very interesting things in his life and I highly recommend the book to everyone on this blog. I will be looking for something else by Anne Tyler quite soon.

umm...just in case

2008-10-09T13:53:00.000-05:00

well, my plans have changed quite a bit. i don't know that i'll get around to reading the book this month. perhaps we shall try again next month? (sheepish grin)*

*i don't know how to emoticon a sheepish grin and it would annoy me to try and figure it out so you get the whole phrase.

Book Club - October

2008-09-15T09:03:00.000-05:00

There's still one more day to vote, but I'm just going to call a winner here.

Newes from the Dead.

How does October 21st sound for everyone? That's a Tuesday. That gives us some time to get a new book choice for November.

Comment and let me know.

from miri

2008-09-09T17:17:00.001-05:00

http://www.halfpricebooks.com/vote2008.html

can you guess who I voted for?

**I had to add this, mostly because one of his dislikes is "pants"**
The Grinch
Home: Just north of Whoville
Education: Home-schooled
Occupation: Thief
Likes: Dogs, Ideas, Stealing
Dislikes: Everyone, Pants
Marital Status: Single and proud of it!
Advisor: Max
Possible Running Mate: Little Cindy Lou Who

Background:
Despite his criminal record of breaking and entering charges, the Grinch is a changed man since his heart grew 3 times after learning that Christmas doesn't come from a store.

Platform:
- In favor of alternative sources of energy
- Supports legislation to regulate and reduce carbon emissions
- In favor of more economic stimulus checks
- Opposes excess Federal holidays
- Member of the SPCA and supporter of animal rights
- Opposes wearing pants because of child labor in China

Literary Background:
The Grinch is a popular character created by Dr. Seuss. He first appeared in the 1957 children's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. This was followed in 1966 by a popular television special, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's MGM Animation/Visual Arts studio, and directed by Chuck Jones. In 1977, Seuss responded to the fan request for more Grinch tales by writing "Halloween Is Grinch Night", a Halloween special that aired on CBS. Like its predecessor, the sequel was recognized at the Emmy awards. In 1982, ABC aired "The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat", which was also produced by Dr. Seuss, under his real name, Ted Geisel. This third special garnered two Emmy awards.

New post - now with more polling!!

2008-09-09T12:38:00.000-05:00

For those who may use Google Reader only - check out the new poll!

Here is the list of books I came up with for October. The poll gives you a chance the first time around to help choose the book. I tried to stay with an October-y type of book and I linked to all of the books as listed at B&N or Borders. You can check each of them out to get a better idea of what you might want to read.

I found most of these through reviews (and with a little help from Megan). I wanted something thrilling/interesting/different/maybe a little creepy for this time of year. I rarely read such things, but it's fun every once in a while. I tried to get a nice array of books. Please comment and please vote!

The one with the most votes will be what we read so vote well and vote often!!

Newes from the Dead
**review from Young Adult blog** (the review makes it sound interesting - plus it's YA so I was hoping it would be a little lighter fare)

Sherlock Holmes (well, just because)

To Kill a Mockingbird (mostly I have been wanting to re-read this)

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America (I think some of this is based on truth which makes it interesting to me)

The Brief History of the Dead (also, just because)

one more day

2008-09-08T18:29:00.000-05:00

one more day to vote on your availability!!

think of it this way, all these polls will get us very ready for November.

Inaugural Post

2008-09-08T17:44:00.000-05:00

Aaaaaand smash the wine bottle on the hull of this post, this ship is off to the sea of blogdom! Hi. My name is Mike Shorten, married to a Mrs Michael Nathan Shorten (aka Miri Shorten ha ha sorry sweetie) and I am the newest member of this blog. And enough about me, onto the books.
I have read several books lately and thought I would put them on here.

1-A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'engel
2-A Wind In The Door by " " " "
3-A Swiftly Tilting Planet by " " " " " " " " "
4-The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (Not Yet Finished or NYF)
5-Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (NYF)
6-World War Z by Max Brooks
7-The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (NYF)
8-In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

I bid you a good day sir or madam

New poll up now - book poll coming soon!

2008-09-03T13:53:00.000-05:00

I'm going to compile a short list of options for an inaugural book club "meeting" for OCTOBER. It will be season/holiday appropriate. There will be a poll open for TWO (2) days!! I'm making it short so we can all go about obtaining the book and start our reading. I will announce the "meeting" date once we get past choosing a book to read.

I suggest the following rules and guidelines:

1. The person who chooses the book (or in this case, organizes the voting of choosing the book) will be the host.

2. The host is in charge of the following things:
a. choosing the book
b. choosing the date of the discussion/meeting
c. getting the discussion going with the first post on the chosen date - this means you should choose a date where you can post in the morning (or late the evening before) so as to give everyone time to get in comments and/or follow-up posts.

3. The discussion on the book will stay "open" and going for 24 hours. This should account for our different schedules and time zones.

4. The discussion will be in the form of comments responding to the original post and/or follow up posts. I will make sure to invite everyone participating to the blog so you have permission to post.

5. This pretty much goes without saying since we all basically read the same books, but I feel the need to include a rule of giving a general "rating" of the book you choose and perhaps a link or summary of the description of the book so people can decide whether or not they want to participate that month. This could just be a link to the book on the B&N website - but it's nice to know a little about what we will be reading.

Okay. That's what I've thought of. Thoughts, input, changes? Anything to add? Look for that poll sometime next week!! :)

photo links

2008-08-28T12:16:00.000-05:00

i added photos of us on the sidebar for the time being. they still need to be more bookie, but wanted to get a feel of how it would look. it's also nice because if you click on the photo it will open up our individual blogs.

i will add lauren and mike (and anyone else who formally would like to participate - let me know via comment!) when i can get a good picture of each of them. mike doesn't keep normal pics of himself on facebook apparently...in fact, if you go solely by the photos he chooses to use to portray himself he looks like this:

anyway. let me know what you think.

Facelift

2008-08-26T13:38:00.000-05:00

I agree with Miri. We got distracted this summer from sharing our happy reading times. In an effort to revitalize our efforts I have finally picked a layout for the blog. I really think this one is it. I may mess with the colors, but the widgets and the ability to quickly post something new are back again and I am a happy camper - give me your input via poll answer.

I will also be adding stuff on the side bar again - book lists, more author blogs (pass them along in the comments if you have the links!), photos, etc. I thought it might be fun to add photos of ourselves doing something bookish (ie: reading) to put with our names and individual blogs. So, I will be bugging you about this...send me a photo! I'll take one soon to get things started.

In the meantime, if you take one, email it to me at lilifin.dilifsi (at) gmail (dot) com and I will add it quick like a bunny.

I think we need to pick a book and a date to discuss. We can make it in a month (end of September) or in two months - depending on everyone's schedule with school and work. I'm totally flexible. OR we can finish reading whatever we are working on at the moment and each discuss them individually but at the same time (if that makes sense). Maybe Sunday afternoon/evenings? Maybe Tuesday nights? Obviously we will have to work around schedules again, but we can all blog or even instant message our discussions.

If we want to get really into things (now that Megan has a Mac) those of us with cameras can video chat (I think skype and msn have free services) a discussion. Miri, do you have a camera/mic on your computer? If not, then we'll obviously think of something else.

Anyway, these are my ideas. I'm currently reading The Book Thief, which I know Megan and Miri have both read.

Oh, my other idea is to get someone new invited - but we can try for that after our first trial run.

Alright, give me some input.

2008-08-24T11:52:00.000-05:00

I submit that we do not post on here enough.

Liz, Mike's sister, started a book club here that I've really enjoyed going to. It was a little awkward at first because basically we'd go in a circle, everyone would tell about their book, and then we'd be done; but now we all talk about our books and other books that we're interested in, and it's really fun. I've always wanted to be part of a group like that, but I like it even more when it's this particular group because I know you girls so much better.

So... can we try and make this blog more involved/post more often? It would help us keep in contact even better and I would really like it. Love you :)

The Dark Side of Camelot

2008-07-21T13:37:00.000-05:00

I've been reading this for the last couple weeks alongside my other book. I found it randomly at Borders and picked it up because it looked interesting, and then I went and got it at the Orem library so I could keep reading it. It's a book about the Kennedy family and essentially how they were all terrible people, which I never knew. Anyway it's good, you should check it out.

feedback please

2008-07-09T21:10:00.001-05:00

I'm testing new layouts thanks to Miri and Megan but I didn't want to use my regular blog to do it. So this is where our little book blog gets to be a guinea pig.

What do you guys think? Miri, how do you deal with not having the "new post" and "customize" options in the upper right hand corner of the blog? I think that's the only thing I don't like. That and it got rid of my widgets. I'll have to organize that with new stuff soon.

The Wheel of Time

2008-06-21T02:07:00.000-05:00

So you might remember when I read The Eye of the World a while ago. I was mildly surprised at my response to it; not love, but definitely not hate. I liked it, and thought I probably wanted to read the second one, but I found myself dragging my feet and decided I wouldn't force myself. Eventually, though, I did read The Great Hunt, and as I was reading that one I discovered that I was really growing to like the series. I'm now on book four, The Shadow Rising, which follows The Dragon Reborn, and I am really into the series. So if you're interested, I think I'd recommend them. However, a couple things to consider before you start.
1) There are eleven books, with the twelfth (allegedly) on the way. These are not small books. The Shadow Rising is the biggest one so far, and it's over 1000 pages, but all the others are at least 500. I made no commitments to the entire series when I started, and I'm still not entirely sure I can summon the courage for the remaining seven, but thus far I have been unable to stop myself in the middle of it. This is probably due to my weird perfectionism that won't allow me to leave something in the middle even if I want to. I do like the books, though, so that's a part of it too. I'm into the story. I'm just not excited about those ones in the middle of the series that have such a reputation for hundreds of pages where nothing happens. Ugh.
2) Robert Jordan is a really annoying writer, for more than one reason. First is that he doesn't appear to understand/care about the rules of letter sounds in the English language. He makes up names all the time that don't sound anything like what they look like they should sound like (there's a pronunciation guide in the back), and it's frustrating to me. Second is that he writes really irritating characters. The girls start off okay, but as the series goes on they start pining after some of the male characters and it just gets dumb. Also the male characters are SO annoying in that they will never accept anything that's happening. Also Robert Jordan's use of slangy-type language is soooo silly, and even four books into the series I still cringe every time.
However. That said, I am still reading the series, and liking it a lot. Every now and then I have to rant to Mike about the latest thing that's annoying the crap out of me, but thus far the books are interesting enough to keep me reading. If you're looking for something fun and frivolous to occupy your time (and if you have a lot of time that you would like occupied), go ahead. They're fun.

Author Websites - YA Lit

2008-05-30T08:43:00.000-05:00

Meg Cabot - She even has YouTube clips that are random and funny.

Shannon Hale - Love her books. Love her blog.

The YA YA YAs - because no one blogs like YA librarians.

Stephenie Meyer - how can we forget good ol' Steph? we can't. why can't we? because she gave us Edward Cullen and we'll be eternally grateful...no matter how frustrating Bella gets.

The Truth about Forever

2008-05-09T13:33:00.000-05:00

Sarah Dessen is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. Yes, the main characters suffer from what Lauren finds to be quite annoying - the inability and/or unwillingness to TALK to the people closest to them, but Dessen writes this out in a much more realistic way. This isn't a teenage girl who doesn't want to talk to her father about her teenage vampire boyfriend or the blood-thirsty monsters that are currently tracking her down - this is a girl who watched her father die and subsequently shut down emotionally and focused on anything that didn't remind her of her dad. Of course you would have trouble talking out those things. So it's not nearly as frustrating - it's "tragical" (which just happens to be one of my new favorite words thanks to this book). You can relate to the main character, Macy, because everyone has lost someone or something in their life and almost everyone has gone through a period of not talking about how that made them feel. It's hard and it's terrible and dealing with it is almost as bad as actually experiencing it.

Dessen let's Macy work through all of her grief in a very normal and realistic way - nothing unbelievable or extraordinary happens. It's summer, Macy's boyfriend leaves and she is stuck at a boring job with people she hates. She happens to find another job with nicer people who don't know about her situation and loves being anonymous and untroubled by what happened. Then they find out and end up being amazing people, supportive and loving.

My favorite of all is Wes (of course this is the guy she falls in love with because there is always a guy to fall in love with in books). He's quiet and sweet and artistic...I'm a sucker for those artistic types. He is the first one to really just let Macy say what she needs to say and the first one Macy will say those things to. He's one of the most perfect male characters I have read...flawed but better for it, attractive but unaware, kind and caring but protective and not overbearing.

I was surprised at how much I liked "Just Listen" and happy to find that I liked "The Truth about Forever" even more. I will definitely be reading the rest of her books in the near future.

The Book Theif (again)

2008-04-15T12:54:00.000-05:00

I just finished this book and it is MARVELOUS. I absolutley adored it. It's sad but sometimes funny and terribly hopeful and wonderful. The main characters are so amazing, and the way that it's written is really kind of unique very powerful. Highly recommended.
Next up for me: The Road (finally). So far it's good.

The Book Thief

2008-04-01T07:37:00.000-05:00

It sounds like we are all trying to read The Book Thief - I've been stalking a copy at the library as well. I will try to come up with a list for us to choose from.

Books I've Finished Since the Last Time I Posted on Here...

2008-03-31T14:20:00.001-05:00

The Golden Compass, the Subtle Knife, and the Amber Spyglass.

Fantastic books. I won't say much about them except that I really liked them, and I would absolutely recommend them to anyone.

Austenland.

Kinda cheesy. The genre for last month's book club was romance and this is what Nathalie, Mike's mom, read. I told her I'd been thinking about reading it, so she gave it to me and told me I should. I wasn't ever very interested in reading it, but I figured I might as well, so I did, and it was not amazing, but not the worst either. It was definitely what I'd call "mindless froth," so at least my expectations were right in that. :)

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

So good! I just finished it this morning. I read it because I was kind of in a rut--ever since I finished His Dark Materials I haven't been able to really get into anything else, and I've just been reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves to pass the time. I picked up From the Mixed-Up Files a few days ago just for kicks, because I got it from Megan's book order a long time ago and hadn't read it yet. Really fun to read, I love the way it's written. Good times.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

This is a really good book. I started reading Amy Tan a couple years ago and I've really gotten into Asian lit since then. Lisa See writes in a different style, or at least in this book she does. It's a lot more... realistic, I guess--not that Amy Tan isn't, but this book focuses a lot on all the foot binding, the actual day to day experiences, things like that. I've tried several times and I really can't explain what the appeal of this kind of literature is to me, but I just know I really like it.

Next on my list are a couple books I haven't been able to get a hold of: My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Piccoult, and The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak. I'm trying to put a check on my money-spending, so I've been looking for them at the library. I can't find them at any of the libraries around here, though--all the copies they have have been checked out every time I look for them. Megan just got a copy of The Book Thief for Easter, so I'll probably borrow it from her when she finishes reading it.

And for now... I don't know. Maybe Missing, which is the other adolescent book I got from the book order a while ago. It's not really jumping out to me, but my experience has been that adolescent books are good for getting out of ruts because they're so fast and easy to get through.

Character Flaw

2008-03-30T14:29:00.000-05:00

Since Baby Bear was born, I've had a lot more time to read. Thanks to Lin and the library, I've found some great books... Libba Bray's series, Austenland, Goose Girl, Enna Burning. Most of which are young adult books, which isn't a big deal to me. They are easy to read, clean and enjoyable. But I'm noticing a common character flaw that is beginning to really annoy me.

In most of these books the main character is supposed to be an independent, strong-minded female - which is great. So why is it that they all come to a point where they are presented with a problem and spend a good part of the book avoiding friends and family or lying about issue? Is this the only way to introduce conflict in YA literature? Do we really want our teenage girls to think that this is the only way to handle a problem? And why does being independent mean you can't trust the people who love you? I don't get it...

Are we all in a reading rut?

2008-03-24T14:06:00.000-05:00

The answer for me would be "no," but I AM in a posting slump. I am reading - I finished two books in the last week, in fact, and am starting a new one today - I just don't have much to say. Which is strange for me, right? haha.

So I thought I'd at least put that out there. Maybe this summer we can organize a virtual book club meeting of sorts? Actually no maybe - let's do it! Comment with suggestions of books for us to choose from and we can pick one, read it at the same time, then blog away. We basically read the same books as it is anyway, right? What sayest thou?

Why does everything turn into a statement about the environment?

2008-02-22T09:26:00.000-06:00

I finished Specials this week, the third book in the Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. So here are my thoughts on all of them.

Uglies. I liked it okay. It was a quick read and a very interesting idea. Westerfeld creates a fairly believable far distant future of the world based on our current trends/social foibles, although some of it bugged me, but that's bound to happen when you are dealing with a completely fictional state based off of reality - everyone has their own view and interpretation. The main character, Tally, was likable in this book, less so by Specials. I don't want to get into the whole story line because a lot of stuff happens - but I was hooked by the end of the story. I previously mentioned that the book ends in a cliff hanger (which annoys me so very much), but I owned the next two books so I just picked up Pretties and moved on with the story.

Pretties. Tally turns from an Ugly to a Pretty. Pretties are "bubbleheads" who basically spend their time partying...well, not basically, that's all they do. But Tally is different and her ugly past comes back to help her escape the life of a pretty. I like the new love interest, Zane, but Shay becomes more and more annoying. I think Tally's priorities start to change in this book, but I like the idea that Tally changes herself and doesn't need a "cure" to overcome what's ailing her. She is confident and determined and those are good qualities for the main, female character in a teen fiction novel to have. On the other hand, she's far too involved with/concerned about her boyfriends. And now for a tangent.

I think authors (especially in teen fiction) get caught up in trying to always have some sort of love interest for their main character. This is mostly annoying with the female leads as the way they associate with the boy they "love" often counters their previously established characteristics. A prime (and recent) example of this would be Bella in the Twilight series. We are told that she is mature, independent and strong-willed. When she is with Edward, though, none of these traits really shine through. The same can be said for Tally (possibly to a lesser degree) and also for several other teen heroines. Am I the only one who sees this or is bothered by it? Perhaps this is just human nature and all girls can be this way at times (ie. change themselves to make someone else happy), but I'd like to think that in a book, where everything is being created from scratch, that maybe the heroine could truly stick to her character/morals/beliefs and still keep her boyfriend, best friend, etc. happy. Maybe I'm crazy.

Finally, we have Specials. The pace was slower and Tally was annoying. Also, Shay was MORE annoying. Shay redeemed herself in the end, which was good. Tally never really truly "fixed" herself in this one though. She just leveled out everyone else. Plus other things happened that I was not happy with but that I don't want to write here and spoil for those of you who haven't read it yet. Then, to top it all off, the ending! The entire series is turned into a politically charged environmental statement and a poorly worded one at that. I am to believe that in the space of one year, Tally has gone from ugly to pretty to special, has brought down a corrupt government, alienated most of her friends, lost two boyfriends, AND then chooses to become a super secret environmental crusader?! Is it sad that I was fine with everything I listed before "chooses to become a super secret environmental crusader"? The ended just made it cheesy and annoying for me. It felt like an afterthought. Like Westerfeld needed to make a statement so he picked one, scattered a few convenient lines throughout the last book to corroborate the ending and viola!, that's it? Meh.

I think there is actually a fourth book in this "trilogy" but I am unsure about whether or not I want to read it? It's called Extras. Has anyone read it? Let me know.

Overall, I would probably recommend these books if you wanted something quick and light to read. I guess they would be a B- all together (I really enjoyed the first book, but was disappointed by the last).

Frustration!

2008-02-20T14:09:00.000-06:00

Can someone please tell me why book 8 is not in paperback yet?? It came out at the very beginning of July of last year. This was eight months ago! And until now I had heard nothing about its paperback release, although I just found something on a website that said the beginning of July 2008--which I will trust, since I have nothing else to go on, and which also makes me very sad. Why do you suppose this book will require a full year before its paperback release? None of the others took that long. Grr.

Uglies, Pretties, etc.

2008-01-30T09:54:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Great book, intriguing idea...but HOW could anyone have started reading these without being able to move directly to the next book? If I didn't already own the first three out of four when I started reading Uglies, I would have been very annoyed by the end of it. It just stops right before a big event...technically right in the middle of a big event. This isn't like Twilight or Harry Potter where each book has a subplot to further the major overall plot of the series - it's like a "to be continued" storyline on TV and those are never fun.

Anyone feel the same way about Uglies?

More to come...

P.S. from Miri

2008-01-29T14:56:00.000-06:00

Miri has just read the trilogy mentioned in my previous post and made a post about it on her blog - just thought I would reiterate it here since it was interesting and well timed.

The Sweet Far Thing, etc.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

2008-01-22T10:04:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading this book which was part of the Book Extravaganza of Christmas 2007 (ie: given to me by Krissie). Here's the synopsis:

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

When I started the book I thought it would be as silly as the synopsis made it sound, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was a quick read, and silly at times, but I found myself getting pretty involved with the mystery of the story. It's relatively easy to relate to the "evil" things girls will do to one another, emotionally and socially as well as to the bond that is eventually formed within a somewhat mis-matched foursome. It also helped that I watched Phantom of the Opera (similar time periods - completely different settings, but it still set a mood) while I was in the middle of the book. The mix of the setting and subject was fun as well - there's a good juxtaposition on the girl's trials in preparing themselves for Society (dealing with suitors, facing their different societal roles, being proper) and their desire to break free from the rules (which results in the use of magic).

There were parts that were slow - things that could have gotten resolved much faster but were drawn out for purposes unknown to me, but overall I liked the main character, Gemma, and the story. Of course, now the sequels are added to my list of things to read. I can't read the first in a series and not follow up. Here's hoping they match up to the first installment.

And I have to add that I kind of love the cover art. It doesn't tell you anything really about the stories - other than it's probably set in the 1800s-ish time period - but it's simple and pretty and I like that. Although I think I like the last one (to the right) the best.

Updates!

2008-01-08T03:41:00.000-06:00

1. I was at Borders tonight, and I gave in and bought Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I'm so excited!

2. I figured out what that Indian book was! There's nothing about butterflies on it, so I'm not sure where that came from, but I can't believe I actually found it just by walking around and looking at the shelves hoping to see something familiar. It's called The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

I restrained myself and only bought one, but I'm going to have to buy the second one soon. Probably after I finish reading this one. So there you go.

Stuff

2008-01-07T00:10:00.000-06:00

I am very excited for/jealous of everyone's new books, and Lindsey, you got an amazing haul this Christmas! That is so fantastic. My unplanned-for splurging is usually books, but just before Christmas I had a rare clothes splurge, so now I can't buy any books for a while. But there are definitely several that are on my list.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
The Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Water for Elephants

There's also one that I saw at Borders a while ago and I can't remember the name of it but I know I really wanted to read it. It was by an Indian writer and I've read enough to know that I want to read the rest of it now. I'll let you know if I figure it out, and also if you have any thoughts on what it might be, please let me know!

There are also a few books on my bookshelf that I've been meaning to read for quite a while. These are the top of that list.

March
The Accidental Tourist

Right now, however, I am reading a book that I borrowed from Curt called You Don't Know Me. It took me a long time to start it but the style of writing is really interesting and I got into it pretty fast once I started. I'm also getting out Through the Looking-Glass again, because I didn't finish it when I read Alice in Wonderland, and I'm reading a book my parents gave me for Christmas called You Can Heal Your Life. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like, and it is a fabulous book. I don't even have to finish it to tell you that you could all benefit from reading it yourselves.

Along some previous lines, The Great Hunt is being put on hold... indefinitely. I'll get around to it, but not now. Something else I would like to get is The Sweet Far Thing, which I've been waiting for for a long time. I'll have to check it out from the library, cause I can't buy it until it's out in paperback.

2008-01-06T01:46:00.000-06:00

I just finished The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It's been sitting on my shelf for several months now (I found it at Costco for about $7, which is amazing) and I finally decided to dive in because I want to see the movie. And friends, it was AMAZING. I absolutely loved it even though it was very sad in lots of places. Or maybe because it was. I don't know. But it was a really fabulous book, and I'm now very much looking forward to seeing the movie ASAP.
Also, I'm sorry that my posts aren't really very exciting here... I don't know why they aren't, but...oh well. Yay books!

One Resolution

2008-01-03T11:14:00.000-06:00

I don't usually make New Years Resolutions, mostly because I break them in a day - I tend to spread out resolutions and make them as the need or desire arises in my life. This one just happens to coincide with the new year because my book club chose this book for the month of January. The book is the Book of Mormon.

I haven't set a time limit (except perhaps before the next new year) because I never reach that goal and frankly, I would rather take my time reading the Book of Mormon this go round. I've read through the whole thing before, straight through, in order, in a timed fashion several times, but my goal this time is to really learn from it every time I read while still going in order. That means no jumping around, but also not speed reading to finish three chapters before being tested on the "subject matter" in a religion class and this means cover to cover in a traditional triple combination (Book of Mormon, D&C, and Pearl of Great Price). I'm going to go at my own pace and see what happens. I'm hoping I will be disciplined enough to actually accomplish this the way I would like to accomplish it (if that makes sense).

I know when I read my scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon) things seem to calm down in my life. I don't get as stressed over little things, I'm not as critical of myself and other people, and I am generally happier. Even through the war chapters. haha. You are getting a constant reminder of how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love YOU for who YOU are. How can that not make you happy and not make you want to treat everyone around you better?

I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm going to read every day because that will give me more time and make life easier because that's just not the case for me - when I try to do that I end up missing five days in a row and then getting discouraged because I am so far behind. Hence this new approach for the discipline-impaired.

So there you have it. The Book of Mormon will remain on my list of books I am reading until I finish reading it. That may mean it will be there until 2009, but as long as I am making the effort it's better than not reading it at all. So wish me luck!

For those of you who may happen upon this site and are not familiar with the Book of Mormon or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, feel free to visit www.lds.org or www.mormon.org to learn more.

Books, books and more books!

2007-12-26T17:34:00.001-06:00

That's what I got this Christmas, thanks to my lovely friends and sister. Well, to be specific, I got gift cards to Barnes and Noble which I went out and spent (along with a little of my own money) on tons o' wonderful books.

I got lots of teen fiction (also thanks to Krissie who bought me four awesome books) and The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll. I am especially excited about that one because I have been wanting to read Through the Looking Glass again.

So...here's the list.

From Krissie:
Specials by Scott Westerfeld
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Loser by Jerry Spinelli

From my gift cards:
The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede (the complete box set, she co-wrote Sorcery and Cecilia and I really liked the cover art so I thought I'd give it a try)
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Just because they were on sale for less than $5:
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems
The Dictionary of Disagreeable English: A Curmudgeon's Compendium of Excruciatingly Correct Grammar by Robert Hartwell Fiske (it was $1.99 and I like reading about grammar misusage)
The Musee D'Orsay (which was 50% off and has beautiful pictures of the works of art from this museum in Paris, which was one of my favorites when we visited in the spring)

Okay, so I think that covers it. Actually I know I bought a couple more I just can't remember them at the moment. All in all, though, I am very pleased with my Christmas presents and tried to buy books that would last a long time and remind me of the people who made the buying of them possible. Hence the box set and the Works of Lewis Carroll. I am excited to start reading!!

Atonement by Ian McEwan

2007-12-24T07:00:00.000-06:00

So, I finished this book last night. First and foremost, I LOVED it. It was a good read full of love and war and tragedy and lies. It had a "real" ending. Not the story-book ending I was furvently hoping for while reading the book, but a real life ending making the characters and events seem that much more plausible. For all we know, this is a true story. It isn't, but it could be. McEwan didn't compromise in this area and I like that a lot.

Secondly. I kind of fell in love with Robbie Turner. He's written so well. He makes mistakes - goofy, blind-in-love mistakes that every person has made, but the consequences of those mistakes are far more serious and disastrous than called for. Still, he never loses his faith in or his love for Cecilia. James McAvoy plays Robbie in the film and he said this about the role,

"I do really care about that character. I get angry about what happens to them in the way you would with a true story based on real events, y'know, and I have to remind myself it's made up and it actually didn't happen."

That pretty much sums it up for me. As I read, I knew what would happen (it's not a secret that Robbie Turner is falsely accused of rape) and I dreaded every moment leading up to it and the ease with which it was carried through. Then I was angry reading about the events following. They seemed like real things happening to real people. That's why McEwan is amazing.

Like I said, the romantic in me wanted the book to end differently, but I know it would have ruined the whole thing if it had. So overall, it was fantastic.

updates

2007-12-20T14:43:00.001-06:00

I'll probably be messing with the organization of this blog and its layout. now that i have my laptop, i have the time to do so and it has been bugging me.

In book news, I've been reading Atonement and my earlier doubts have been erased. It is amazing so far and I cannot wait to finish it.

So Talk About Expanding Your Horizons...

2007-12-07T12:19:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan--the first book in the Wheel of Time series. Not something I thought I'd ever read, let's be honest. But the story is that Mike had just finished a book and needed something else to read, so I gave him The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, and when I did he thought hey! I'll give you a book to read too! He gave me two, actually, the other one Eragon by Christopher Paolini. I'm sure I'll get around to that one sometime but it's not really on my top list right now. So anyway, The Eye of the World. Surprisingly good. Granted, I did have to learn to ignore a lot of little things that normally annoy the crap out of me, and just keep an open mind about different styles of writing and all that. And there were a couple things that never quite stopped irritating me (like they way they use the word "light," for example, as both an expletive and a prayer). But the book was actually really good, and I like it enough that I'm starting the second one now, The Great Hunt. I'm excited because both Megan and Mike say they remember this one being amazing, and hey, amazing is always good. I told Mike from the beginning that I am making no commitments past the first three, because--well, really. The series is eleven GINORMOUS books long and the writer died without writing the twelfth and final book, so I actually picked quite a lame time to get into the series. I like them, though, so I'm afraid that I'll read the first three and want to keep going. I guess we'll see how that turns out. I may be setting myself up for a looooot of reading and reading with no fulfillment at the end. Meh. What're you gonna do?

In other news, I am finally reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. I was at Borders with Mike and saw a display with some really cool looking books, and this one was one of them. I've been meaning to read Lewis Carroll for a long time now, actually, and these were such a unique series that I figured it was a sign that it was about time for me to get the book and start reading. I already finished Alice in Wonderland in like a day--it's very quick reading, and only 102 pages long--and now I'm starting into the second one. Good times, and also Lewis Carroll was a very interesting man. :)

Holiday Reading

2007-11-28T08:18:00.000-06:00

Although I am sad that my friend, Sheryl, will not be here during the month of December, I am looking forward to catching up on my reading.

Right now I am finishing up the Goose Girl "series" by Shannon Hale. The book is called River Secrets and so far it is great. It's interesting to see how she writes a main MALE character and to see how much more I like him (Razo) now that he is the main character and is gaining some dimension.

By the way, Enna Burning (the second book in the lineup) was fantastic. Enna is so different from Isi. It's a great read.

Megan's unfailing faith in Ian McEwan's Atonement has renewed my desire to finish it and I'm hoping I will have the time to discover just what Megan loves about it. Don't get me wrong, the writing is fantastic, it's just a little slow moving at times and my patience level is never really all that high.

I still also have The Lovely Bones, I Capture the Castle, and tons of other books I haven't even purchased yet to get through. I am hoping and wishing for a Barnes and Noble gift card for Christmas so I can add to my lovely bookshelf.

2007-11-27T17:27:00.000-06:00

I finished Atonement, and it was amazing. Definitely worth pushing through to the end. I also read The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine - very cute. I'm currently reading Enter Three Witches by Caroline B. Cooney - lots of fun, a play on Macbeth. That is all I feel like posting at the mo.

2007-11-19T10:03:00.000-06:00

nataliedee.com

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

2007-10-31T10:40:00.000-05:00

This book has been mentioned on this blog now several times. Well, I finished it last night...mostly because I want my life to be difficult and thought finishing this book would be worth only getting four hours of sleep. I was wrong.

Now, it wasn't a bad book. It was well written and it was keeping me happy far past the point of no return (ie: that ominous chapter just past the middle of a book where if you reach it you HAVE to finish reading no matter how you actually feel about the book. Sometimes reaching this point is worth your while, other times it leads to you feeling hollow and frustrated). However, once I surpassed the point of no return things went down hill from my perspective. Here are some of my questions/concerns:

1. WHY was it okay for Stargirl to become Susan? I know she changed back but not for the right reason; not because Leo wanted her to.

2. WHY didn't Leo ever SAY ANYTHING?! If he really loved her or even just liked her and if he was happy hanging out with her WHY did he not only allow, but encourage her to be Susan? WHY didn't he take her to the ball? I know he was only 16, but frankly, he's a coward and I really liked him before all that. I kept expecting him to turn around and stand up for Stargirl; stand up for himself even! Especially after the oratorical contest. She was SO excited and had a right to be and he was SO proud of her UNTIL they arrived home. I kept thinking "do something, Leo!" "say something, LEO!". Maybe this just isn't that type of book.

I loved the character of Stargirl with her pet rat and sunflower bag - even when she was trying to be "normal" she was great. The idea that such a person could exist is uplifting - even if she only exists in the world of fiction. So, overall I liked this book...not LOVED, just liked. I wanted Leo to be a better person, but such is life. The book is worth it, though, if only for the part when Leo realizes he loves Stargirl. It's sweet and real and funny.

just a thought...

2007-10-30T14:54:00.000-05:00

as I was renewing my train wreck of a social life last night I came upon a strange realization and I am wondering if I am the only one who feels this way.

let me elaborate. this summer I worked a lot. it's pretty much all i did. i was in a social rut, among other things, and didn't really have anyone around to get me out of it. so i read books. lots of them. HP7, Eclipse, Just Listen, Hitchhikers Guide..., etc. i went home at night and i read. there was nothing on TV to distract me and most of the time i needed the quiet and relaxation reading affords. now, as i find that my times for reading are fewer and farther between, when i am out doing things i think i MISS my books. i am reading three great books right now (with three more on the back burner and an ever growing list of "must reads") but can't seem to find the time to lay back and finish one.

does anyone else find that they miss the characters they are being introduced to when they are away from a book?

do you go out with a tinge of lingering regret because you REALLY want to know what happens next?

do you get home, too tired to even go through your pre-bedtime rituals, and still find yourself considering a late-night rendezvous with some fictional characters?

well, that is what is happening to me. hopefully my upcoming trip to Utah will get me over this hump and I will be able to finish at least one of the books I am currently reading. wish me luck!

And One More Thing

2007-10-30T11:07:00.001-05:00

I've bought a few books lately that I'm kind of excited about, and here's why: I never buy books on sight. This has changed recently, but the way I used to be, I'd go to Barnes and Noble like five or six times and look at a book before I'd buy it. Then I'd go home and look it up online, to find out if I'd like it. This, I think, goes back to when I was little, and my parents wouldn't buy me books because they said I finished them too fast. So I went to the library all the time and became paranoid about spending money on a book if I wasn't sure I'd like it. This is no longer the case. This book, called Plain Language, was just sitting in the bargain books section of the bookstore. It was three dollars, I thought it looked interesting-- so I bought it. End of story.
But the book I'm the most excited about is called A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass. I was first attracted to it by the cover, so I picked it up and read the first chapter. I had to buy it. It's about a girl who sees things like numbers, letters, and sounds in color, and so far that's all I really know. I'm excited to read the rest of it, and look at that cover! Doesn't it just make you want to read it? Also snuggle a cat. An orange cat. Which is deceiving, since the cat in the book is actually gray. But he has orange eyes, and an orange aura to Mia (the main character). Also, more points for the book-- recommended by both Meg Cabot and Judy Blume.
I use the word also a lot. Have you noticed this? I don't think I made clear in that last post HOW MUCH I love The Truth About Forever. It's so good. I'm almost finished with it and I'm sad but can't put it down either. I'm going to have to read more Sarah Dessen after this to get my fix, although I'm a little sad because according to Megan the rest of the books won't be QUITE this amazing. But I'll find something else, right? I mean, that's why we love reading so much. No matter how much we read, there's always something else.
Okay that's all. I love all of you. The end.

Things, Things, and More Things

2007-10-29T17:17:00.000-05:00

Preliminaries
1. Lindsey, you are hilarious. I love sharing a blog with you because you say things like "get thee to a library. Seriously." Vair vair amusant.
2. I think, being the blog creator, you're the only one who can do the currently reading list the way you have it. We (or at least I) have only posting privileges, which do not extend to editing the format of the blog, and I don't know if you have the power to give us said formatting privileges. Probably the best we can do is post our lists, and if you wanted to you could get them that way and put them on the blog yourself. But they probably change so often that it would be more a pain in the butt than anything.

Meatloaf
Here's the adolescent lit scoop. I read Loser by Jerry Spinelli and I loved it. I also read Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen. I loved this one. I am now reading The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, and I think I like it even more than Just Listen. I LOVED Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Loved it. I also read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, and Holes by Louis Sachar. Stargirl was great, very happy hugging-bunnies kind of feeling. Holes wasn't as amazing a story, but I really liked the way it was written. It goes back and forth between Stanley, the main character, and his "dirty, rotten pig-stealing great-grandfather," and at first the stories seem kind of random but then as the book goes on you start to see the connections and eventually they come together at the end. Really cool.

I was going to write about some other things I've been reading but it turns out I have to leave the SWKT now (where I've obviously been working hard) so I will probably leave it here. Moral of the story: adolescent lit is way cooler than homework. The end.

changes (UPDATED)

2007-10-29T13:42:00.000-05:00

in an attempt to get this blog looking like i want it to look, i have again changed the right side lists.

you'll see no more book shelf as i am too lazy to sign into shelfari to change what i am reading. it is much easier and nicer looking just to keep the short list via blogger. feel free to add your "currently reading" list as well.

**actually I will keep a general "currently reading" list on the right. if i notice or if you tell me you are currently reading something new, I will change it. this list probably won't change too often as i tend to read several books at a time, some faster than others, but at least there will be an easier short list to look at if you want something new to read as opposed to browsing through the genre lists.

you'll also notice i started making genre lists. they are small and random as i was just putting things on there to see how i liked the look of the blog as a whole. please also feel free to add to these lists via new posts (since Miri informed me of contributor privileges) and i will put them in the corresponding genre. i will do my best to label books correctly, but please don't hate me should i get something wrong. just let me know and i'll fix it in a jiff.

i'm not altogether sold on keeping the lists and links and such on the right side of the page...it seems kind of squished. i might be changing templates soon. what do you all think?

remember, i'm just trying to get an idea of what works best so things will probably change around for a little while till i hit on whatever is best. :)

Children's Book Friday - now with more Tuesday!

2007-10-23T12:34:00.000-05:00

This week's (or last week's rather) book is The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. An oldie, but a goodie. I was addicted to Dr. Seuss as a child. I did a report on Theodore Geisel in elementary school. I also created a shadow box based on The Lorax. It got me a spot on a local public access show where the girl who spoke before me licked the mic, making me extremely aware of germs and therefore reluctant to hold the mic anywhere near my mouth when it was my turn. But really, what's better than a rhyming book full of silly things that also teaches you about the dangers of technology, taking care of the planet and appreciating the world around us? Nothing. Well, maybe chocolate.

So, if it's been a while, pick it up. It's still entertaining, I promise.

Shannon Hale

2007-10-23T11:43:00.000-05:00

If you haven't read a book by Shannon Hale, get thee to a library. Seriously.

The first book I read by her was Austenland (thanks to Megs). It's about a woman who immerses herself in the world of Jane Austen in order to break away from her addiction to Mr. Darcy. It's a quick, fun read. Not really something I would call a classic, but entertaining nonetheless.

Then it was onto Goose Girl and The Princess Academy. These two books were amazing. Books I want my little girls to grow up reading and fall in love with. They are sort of fairy tales I suppose. But they are both written so well. Also, the main character in Princess Academy is named Miri which gives that book 10 extra points.

Now I am reading Enna Burning. This isn't exactly a sequel to Goose Girl more than it is another story about a character introduced in the first book, Enna. I got in bed last night and said, "I'll just read the first chapter." Five chapters later, I had to force the book closed and get some sleep.

There are two more books (Megan mentioned one in the previous post), River Secrets and Book of a Thousand Days. I can't wait to read these two. I know they will both be great.

So there's a newish author for you. Amy, I am sure you would love these books especially.

books I want to read after my trip to the bookstore today . . .

2007-10-18T19:25:00.001-05:00

If you read my post on my blog today, you'll know there were several books I wanted to buy at the BYU bookstore today. I thought I would post them here so we can all think about how awesome they are.
First, the one I bought:

I'm super excited about this book. Annie Dillard has the most amazing prose - it makes me want to be more awesome.
Next, the books I didn't buy, but wanted to:

Since I'm still in the middle of Atonement and I'm trying to read Dracula for the Papercuts, I couldn't quite bring myself to buy anything new besides the essay book (and I was being good) but these all look so exciting to me!