New Books (and New Post)

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

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

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

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!!

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

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

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!

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

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

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.