Seven months gone. Seems way too fast, doesn't it? I saw the last Harry Potter and it was awesome! I also liked Captain America - it was a lot of fun.
Book buying will be more scarce throughout the year with Borders going out of business :( I loved my time working there and I loved shopping there. It's not gone yet, but I'm really going to miss it. I bought the following books this month: Un Amico Italiano: Eat, Pray, Love in Rome by Luca Spaghetti, Overbite by Meg Cabot, and The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure.
I did make a few trips to the local library...something I guess I'll be doing more of without Borders. So, this month I read: The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate, Passion by Lauren Kate, The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig, Orange In the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman, The Department of Lost and Found by Alison Winn Scotch, Time of My Life by Alison Winn Scotch, The Washingtonienne by Jessica Cutler, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater by Frank Bruni, Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag by Michael Tonello, and A Hollywood Ending by Robyn Sisman.
The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove was an okay teen book. The main character has little conscious and really, having read the whole book, I can't say that I felt se had earned any sort of redemption. She came from nothing, turned her back on her roots, and lived it up as a spoiled brat. More than anything, this was just an unfortunate tragedy where no one seemed to grow or learn things until it was too late and then you didn't really care about them. Also, I like my teen books a smidge more chaste than this one was. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I really don't like to think of teens that way...even if they are.
Passion was the third in the series of the Fallen novels. This one explains more of the history of the angels and the fall and their fighting to gain control of Luce and her soul. Apparently there's another book to come in the series. I like these books...begrudginly. I didn't mean to like them. They are written about as well as the Twilight series...mostly, there's something about the storyline and the loyalties of the characters that's very intriguing. It's another series that could be seen on the big screen, but probably not as lucrative overall...no sparkley vampires or cool werewolf-like packs...just beautiful, beautiful angels with wings!
Lauren Willig is an author I found by accident. A few years ago, I read a few books by her about a graduate student who went to England to research a spy network working against the French. The books are highly entertaining and take you back to the era using dispatches, letters, and notebooks that the grad student is studying. It helps that her boyfriend is a distant relative of one in the spy network and that his aunt (she owns the archive) was clearly involved as well. The Mischief of the Mistletoe is a short Christmas story made from two characters who are in the books, but never the main characters. Here they get their chance to solve their own spy problem. It's a charming tale, full of comical little intrigues that bring the two together and compel them to stay together throughout the ordeal. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily was another introduction of main characters, these moving the Hellfire Club's intrigue to India through a bad marriage of one of the main characters and the introduction of a few more of the spy ring. The plot is well-written and the twists and turns are fun to follow because while you can tell where the path is going, you occasionally make a wrong turn in your thoughts, much like you're the grad student trying to figure it out as you go. The student in modern times may never finish her dissertation, but her research is certainly entertaining. I've got another of these from the library to read and I hope the author keeps writing them.
Orange Is the New Black was a departure from things I would usually read. I saw it on one of Jen Lancaster's book lists from last year. Piper did some really, really stupid things earlier in her life and ten years later, it all caught up to her. While she'd made a life for herself, she realized that she needed to pay for what she'd done, so she served her time and chronicled it for the rest of us. The women she met in prison were, and this is weird because I didn't expect it, very inspirational. They propped her up when she was down; they took care of each other. It wasn't a good place to be but they made it home (as much as possible) by recreating their sense of family. Together they got through a lot of horrible things. This book portrays something I hope not to experience, but something that I'm glad I took the time to read.
Originally, I was looking for The One That I Want by Alison Winn Scotch...and I still am since it's been checked out every time I've gone to the library. So in the meantime, I read The Department of Lost and Found and Time of My Life. Both were very well-written books that I had trouble putting down. In The Department, Natalie is the main character. She's a work-a-holic for a senator and she develops cancer. Around the time of that little announcement, her boyfriend walks out on her. After some wallowing, she slowly regains her footing in life to find that maybe it was time for some changes anyway. She lost some things and some people, but she found herself and started to take better care of herself. It was really good. In Time of My Life, Jill had a perfect life with a good husband, an adorable little girl, and a crap-ton of issues she's shoved into a tightly closed bag. The bag comes open and one morning she wakes up in her old life, with everything to do over however she pleases. It takes her returning to the past and doing things differently to realize things about herself and her life. Again, this was an entertaining page turner.
The Washingtonienne was just, well, smarmy. The main character cheats on her boyfriend and moves to DC from New York to start over. She lives a life of partying - drinking, drugs, and sex. She takes a job on the Hill and starts a blog to keep her friends apprised of her comings and goings. She juggles men, finds a decent one, and manages to completely mess up her life again. It's possible that she learned something at the end, but it's hard to tell if she really means it. I was pretty much appalled at this girl and felt a little dirty when I was done reading it. She didn't even like herself or what she was doing and yet she wrote it all down for everyone to read. Ugh.
I turned quickly to some non-fiction to cleanse my reading palette. Frank Bruni's Born Round is about his life with food and family. Bruni shares his problems with food, going all the way back to his childhood. His struggles to eat and to be happy are something anyone who has ever yo-yo dieted or made excuses for meals has felt. The increasing pant sizes; the binges; the misery...it's all there. As well as the food. I love how he tells his story. Sometimes, his descriptions of food were too accurate and I would find myself wandering to the kitchen for a snack while I read. He talks about being in Italy and still managing to stay on track...as well as finding happiness while maintaining a decent relationship with food and exercise and family. This book is pretty inspirational without being preachy. Read it when you need a boost.
Bringing Home the Birkin was highly entertaining. I kept laughing and wanting to read it when I should have been doing things like sleeping. Tonello's travels to retrieve the elusive handbags are near insane. At the end of like every chapter I'm thinking, "Hello! It's a freaking BAG" and he's dropping thousands and thousands of dollars on them. It's completely nuts and I loved it. It has some downer moments...and some scary ones, but his descriptions are quite lovely and make you want to experience these places and things yourself...maybe minus the price tags.
Last on the list was A Hollywood Ending. A cute book about an actress who takes off to London to try her hand at Shakespeare in the theater. All of her problems seem light-hearted to us readers and the way out of awkward situations pretty simple. It was a fast read, easy to follow, and generally just a nice way to spend a few hours in the air-conditioning on an extremely hot day. Plus, you can just hear the accents if you ficus hard enough :)
I've got another stack from the library and some books that are calling to me from the night stand. I need to start working on a lot of craft projects too. Let's just hope the weather starts to cool off...I am totally over this whole heat index and sweating thing. Later!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
The books of June 2011
Another month down and we're halfway through the year. It's insane how fast it goes! So far summer is ok (although today in particular was ridiculously hot...and still is, but with the air conditioning running, it's not so bad inside)...I've been hanging out with friends, seeing movies, doing crafts...you know, the usual.
I did two more Iron Craft challenges this month: You Are Here and Scan This! I think that brings my total done so far this year to 5. I was hoping to hit 13 by the end of the year since that's a quarter of the challenges.
I made several cross-stitch gifts...some were QR codes (like the one for the Iron Craft above) and others were fun sayings, like this:
I also knit myself a pair of wrist warmers and am currently working on finishing up a matching scarf. I realize that it's now July as I write this, but some places, like the movie theater, are always chilly inside.
I did two more Iron Craft challenges this month: You Are Here and Scan This! I think that brings my total done so far this year to 5. I was hoping to hit 13 by the end of the year since that's a quarter of the challenges.
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| We're all Snooki to you |
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| I'm feeling like everyone needs a biscuit...right now! |
I didn't buy too many books this month. I got The Host by Stephanie Meyer (out of the bargain bin...score!), The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate, Passion by Lauren Kate (third of the Fallen books), Makoto's Cross-Stitch Super Collection by Makoto Oozu, and Cowl Girls: The Neck's Best Thing to Knit by Cathy Carron.
I was feeling the need for books, but not feeling the need for giving up money, so I went to the library in addition to raiding my own shelves and night stand. Overall, in June I read: Under the Blood Red Moon by Mina Hepsen, Linger by Maggie Stiefvater, Tattoos and Tequila: To Hell and Back with One of Rock's Most Notorious Frontmen by Vince Neil and Mike Sager, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson, and in preparation of the July 15th final movie release, I re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling.
I grabbed the Hepsen book from the library. It was a fluffy, little vampire tale with some twists into Victorian London...and some odd tie-ins to history. It was fast read...something I was able to put down, but still, fairly well done and interesting enough to keep me reading through the whole book.
Linger was just as good as Shiver. For some reason, I don't get into Stiefvater as quickly as some of the other teen series books that I've read. Which makes no sense. Werewolves are something I read about on a fairly regular basis at this point <cough>nerd alert</endcough> but these books move slowly for me. They don't take a lot of time to read, but it's not the first thing I want to do as soon as I get home. But I do know the characters now and am invested enough that I want to read more. The ending for the second book is a sad twist in the tale and I wonder where she's taking the story...huh. Looks like I was intrigued by it...more than I thought. Although maybe the reason I don't think I'm as intrigued is because there's no Jacob whipping his shirt off every other scene :)
Every summer, I like to read a blond celebrity bimbo book. The Cybill Shepherd biography stands out as a pretty good one. I'm sure I'll read more than one, but this month, I took the focus off of the ladies and read the Vince Neil biography. Everything I knew about Motley Crue at this point, I learned from The Dirt (an AWESOME book about the band). I remember reading it a long time ago and thinking that it was weird that the frontman didn't feature prominently in that book. Later I read Tommyland (an AWFUL book on Tommy Lee) and learned pretty much that Tommy likes himself...a lot. I have not read the Nikki Sixx bio. After reading the Vince Neil bio, I gotta say, I am totally rooting for the guy! He has had so many huge ups and downs and still manages to be alive and trying to get through things. He's clearly got a lot of problems, but it seems like he's trying to put the past behind him and I really hope he succeeds. This book was great fun and I'm kind of sad that I got it from the library and had to return it. It's a good conversation piece (be careful how you carry and place the book on the table...he's being a little "cheeky" on the back cover and I had to explain myself /reading choice several times)...and it made me listen to "Dr. Feelgood" for like three days straight once I was done with it.
I finally finished the new Erik Larson. I read it while I was reading these other books. It's a heavy one that feels better if it's broken up by other tales. Hitler...man...that guy was seriously uncool. Reading about his rise to power in the year leading up to WWII was very interesting and disturbing. Like a couple of other Larson books, it's slow reading, possibly because you do know the topic and it is a heavy, complex, sad topic. You wanted the ambassador to do more, but you felt sympathy for him being in this impossible situation and really, what more could he have done before someone decided he and his family were just unnecessary? I did like this book, but it wasn't something I'll talk about a lot because it's just depressing. I do not think it's as good as Devil in the White City, but it's still well done.
Sigh. I so do not want Harry Potter to end. In a bad, bad way. And yet, I'm so excited to see the movie that I took the whole day off from work so that I can see it the day it releases. No, I'm not doing the midnight show...I enjoy sleeping too much for that...but I will see it early the first day...and possibly more than once. My roommate realized she hadn't seen the first half of the movie, so we watched it last Saturday night. That prompted me to re-read the Deathly Hallows last Sunday. I just sat and read. And reminded myself of the story and tried to gauge my crying/sobbing tendencies because I'm sure it'll be much worse watching it on the screen...it always is. Also, I'd completely forgotten about (blocked from memory on purpose) the spiders joining the fight. SHUDDER! I was hoping maybe it would be one of the things they would cut from the movie, but no-o-o-o-o. I watched the preview and there they were, crawling in the background on their creepy, ginormous legs. Ugh! It won't keep me from the theater, but it will keep me form looking at the screen during a crucial part or two :\
It's time to continue cleaning and start cooking. Hope everyone has a great July 4th!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The books of May 2011
This month seems to have gone way too quickly...which is fine, but I feel like I haven't really done anything. Oh well. I did manage to see the movie Bridesmaids in the theater and it was hilarious! Also, a Memorial Day weekend marathon of Pawn Stars filled my brain with lots of crazy stuff.
With Lent safely in the past, I was able to purchase some of the fine, fine books that came out this month: If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster, Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris, Linger by Maggie Stiefvater, Cooking Light's 200-Calorie Eat Smart Guide, Incendiary by Chris Cleave, How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood by William J. Mann, Hungry Girl: 300 Under 300 by Lisa Lillien (a mom purchase), In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, Fa La La La Felt by Amanda Carestio (another mom purchase), and at some point, but I can't honestly say it was this month...it may have been sitting on the nightstand for a while, but I only read it this month, What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell.
This month I had a little blip. Because of the Harris book and seeing the promo for season 4 of True Blood before we got rid of HBO, I kind of wanted to re-read a lot of the Sookie Stackhouse books...so I apologize in advance to anyone who was expecting some sort of substance to appear in this post. In May, I read: What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell, Cooking Light's 200-Calorie Eat Smart Guide, If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster, Dead to the World, Dead as a Doornail, Definitely Dead, All Together Dead, From Dead to Worse, Dead and Gone, Dead in the Family, and Dead Reckoning all by Charlaine Harris.
What the Dog Saw is a collection of Gladwell's essays. I've read another one by him and I really like collections like this. He covers lots of interesting ground from Ron Popeil's empire, ketchup, and hair dye to plagiarism, the Challenger tragedy, and the dog whisperer. It was nice to actually learn something while otherwise miring myself in vampire land.
The Cooking Light book is a great cookbook! I read through most all of the recipes and then began by making the chicken salad with asparagus and radishes. It was extremely tasty and I plan to make many more items from this book!
In case you weren't sure, I heart all Jen Lancaster books. Would she and I see eye-to-eye in a political debate? No. Would we agree that having five animals share your house is a great idea? No. But, I fully believe we could sit and drink some wine and chillax talking about the 80s for hours and hours. If You Were Here is Lancaster's first foray into fiction. Loyal readers will see many of her friends in the book as fictional characters and even heavy doses of herself and her husband as the main characters in search of their dream home. Can any of you make the same instant connection I did? And if so, did you squeal a little out loud when you realized what it was? If You Were Here is the lovely Thompson Twins' song that plays at the end of Sixteen Candles when Jake Ryan gives Samantha a birthday cake, her undies (lent to a dork to help him win a bet), and a kiss. I love that movie...and like most women my age, I still love Jake Ryan...the boy knew how to work a sweater vest. Anyway, this book (I don't want to give away any more than I already kind of have) is great! It made me super nostalgic for all the John Hughes movies (which were watched immediately after reading) and it made me laugh out loud...many, many times. If you like the 80s movies and you like laughter, you should totally read this book.
And now we come to the vampire portion of this post. I like the Sookie Stackhouse books. They are completely enjoyable fluff. I like the HBO series True Blood. It is completely enjoyable fluff and filth with pretty, pretty people (<cough>Eric, Sam</endcough>) to look at and not a bad take on the books. I know a lot of people complain, but I started with the visuals and trust me, reading those books with those particular people playing out the parts in your imagination is super hot...I mean, quality literature ;) I read the most recent one, Dead Reckoning as soon as I bought it. It's as fluffy as the other ones, and left me hanging on pins and needles, wanting another one RIGHT NOW! The story picks up where it leaves off with vampires, werewolves, fairies, shifters, and the crazy world of supernatural politics and fighting...all the things I like about reading these. They totally take you away from the here and now. Then I saw the preview for season 4. Oh. My. Goodness. It's my favorite book in the series, Dead to the World. Because of the different turns the TV show has taken from the books, I didn't think they'd ever use this one. I am ecstatic that they are! In this book, it's a departure from super-couple Sookie and Bill (Billkie?)...which has gotten old very quickly...and the forming of the new and improved super-couple Sookie and Eric (Sooric?). It starts with her finding Eric wandering alone at night, half-dressed, and suffering from amnesia (a spell put on him by a witch). It's not hilarity that ensues, it's pure fantastic reading. I can not wait until I can see the season...I think iTunes will be carrying the episodes.
And in other news, Jen Lancaster used some of her free time this weekend to post the first part of her summer reading list. Hurrah! I have read several of her selections before and she's got great reading tastes. Make sure to check it out...I'm pretty sure The Wilder Life is going to make my nightstand as soon as I get another Borders reward!
With Lent safely in the past, I was able to purchase some of the fine, fine books that came out this month: If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster, Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris, Linger by Maggie Stiefvater, Cooking Light's 200-Calorie Eat Smart Guide, Incendiary by Chris Cleave, How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood by William J. Mann, Hungry Girl: 300 Under 300 by Lisa Lillien (a mom purchase), In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, Fa La La La Felt by Amanda Carestio (another mom purchase), and at some point, but I can't honestly say it was this month...it may have been sitting on the nightstand for a while, but I only read it this month, What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell.
This month I had a little blip. Because of the Harris book and seeing the promo for season 4 of True Blood before we got rid of HBO, I kind of wanted to re-read a lot of the Sookie Stackhouse books...so I apologize in advance to anyone who was expecting some sort of substance to appear in this post. In May, I read: What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell, Cooking Light's 200-Calorie Eat Smart Guide, If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster, Dead to the World, Dead as a Doornail, Definitely Dead, All Together Dead, From Dead to Worse, Dead and Gone, Dead in the Family, and Dead Reckoning all by Charlaine Harris.
What the Dog Saw is a collection of Gladwell's essays. I've read another one by him and I really like collections like this. He covers lots of interesting ground from Ron Popeil's empire, ketchup, and hair dye to plagiarism, the Challenger tragedy, and the dog whisperer. It was nice to actually learn something while otherwise miring myself in vampire land.
The Cooking Light book is a great cookbook! I read through most all of the recipes and then began by making the chicken salad with asparagus and radishes. It was extremely tasty and I plan to make many more items from this book!
In case you weren't sure, I heart all Jen Lancaster books. Would she and I see eye-to-eye in a political debate? No. Would we agree that having five animals share your house is a great idea? No. But, I fully believe we could sit and drink some wine and chillax talking about the 80s for hours and hours. If You Were Here is Lancaster's first foray into fiction. Loyal readers will see many of her friends in the book as fictional characters and even heavy doses of herself and her husband as the main characters in search of their dream home. Can any of you make the same instant connection I did? And if so, did you squeal a little out loud when you realized what it was? If You Were Here is the lovely Thompson Twins' song that plays at the end of Sixteen Candles when Jake Ryan gives Samantha a birthday cake, her undies (lent to a dork to help him win a bet), and a kiss. I love that movie...and like most women my age, I still love Jake Ryan...the boy knew how to work a sweater vest. Anyway, this book (I don't want to give away any more than I already kind of have) is great! It made me super nostalgic for all the John Hughes movies (which were watched immediately after reading) and it made me laugh out loud...many, many times. If you like the 80s movies and you like laughter, you should totally read this book.
And now we come to the vampire portion of this post. I like the Sookie Stackhouse books. They are completely enjoyable fluff. I like the HBO series True Blood. It is completely enjoyable fluff and filth with pretty, pretty people (<cough>Eric, Sam</endcough>) to look at and not a bad take on the books. I know a lot of people complain, but I started with the visuals and trust me, reading those books with those particular people playing out the parts in your imagination is super hot...I mean, quality literature ;) I read the most recent one, Dead Reckoning as soon as I bought it. It's as fluffy as the other ones, and left me hanging on pins and needles, wanting another one RIGHT NOW! The story picks up where it leaves off with vampires, werewolves, fairies, shifters, and the crazy world of supernatural politics and fighting...all the things I like about reading these. They totally take you away from the here and now. Then I saw the preview for season 4. Oh. My. Goodness. It's my favorite book in the series, Dead to the World. Because of the different turns the TV show has taken from the books, I didn't think they'd ever use this one. I am ecstatic that they are! In this book, it's a departure from super-couple Sookie and Bill (Billkie?)...which has gotten old very quickly...and the forming of the new and improved super-couple Sookie and Eric (Sooric?). It starts with her finding Eric wandering alone at night, half-dressed, and suffering from amnesia (a spell put on him by a witch). It's not hilarity that ensues, it's pure fantastic reading. I can not wait until I can see the season...I think iTunes will be carrying the episodes.
And in other news, Jen Lancaster used some of her free time this weekend to post the first part of her summer reading list. Hurrah! I have read several of her selections before and she's got great reading tastes. Make sure to check it out...I'm pretty sure The Wilder Life is going to make my nightstand as soon as I get another Borders reward!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
The books of April 2011
This has been an unexpectedly full month. At the beginning of the month, I saw Source Code with my roommate (very entertaining), went to lunch (and hung out forever) with a couple of friends I don't get to see that often, went to the abCU event (see last month), hung out with friends, went to a bachelorette evening out, had Easter lunch with a friend and her family (always tasty!), took some time off, watched the Royal Wedding, and read. But as usual, my month had ups and downs.
Down: I said bye to a friend who moved to Chicago to start a new job. I made her a parting gift:
Neutral: I worked on a new Iron Craft challenge that will end up being my mom's Mothers' Day gift:
With Lent still in effect most of the month, I couldn't buy books until after Easter. I bought two: Candace Bushnell's Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel and Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later. Luckily, there's a library in town, so I did read some items that weren't waiting for me on the nightstand.
This month, I read some very good books. I finished The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan that I had started at the end of last month. I also read This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper, The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy by Rachel Cask, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, Marcus of Umbria: What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl About Love by Justine van der Leun, Between a Heart and a Rock Place by Pat Benetar with Patsi Bale Cox, Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible! by Jonathan Goldstein, A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel by Candace Bushnell, and just under the wire, finishing it up late last night, Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal.
This Is Where I Leave You was a book I'd been eyeing at the store for a while, but ended up borrowing from a friend. It was about one extremely dysfunctional family and how the main character deals with them and his own unraveled life in his small hometown after his father's death. Apparently death does funny things to people and this book ended up being something that made me laugh out loud over and over. I don't want to spoil anything, so just read it.
I did not finish The Last Supper. Mainly because at about a third of the way into the book, I found that I didn't care about any of the people, but I also wasn't pulled in by the writing. I thought it would be about food and Italy and it's more about history in small towns in Italy...which is normally something I enjoy, but I don't know. This one just didn't work for me and I took it back to the library.
On the other hand, The Help was amazing! Kathryn Stockett built on her own experiences and created a fictional world in the south in the 1960s. The African-Americans who waited on the wealthier white people have a very complex story to be told in this book and Stockett does an amazing job with it. Each character has secrets and vulnerabilities...even the bullies that you want to see fail. She takes a turbulent time and writes a story that you can't put down despite your horror at some of the things she tells you. All of these women, whether they are the employers or the employees, are people you want to read more about. I was very sorry to see it end, but glad to hear it's being made into a movie.
I checked out Marcus of Umbria because I saw it on a reading list and I liked the synopsis. Girl goes to Italy; girl falls for boy; girl goes home; girl returns to Italy to be with boy she barely knows; girl finds dog/true love; girl names dog Marcus and then discovers Marcus is female; girl leaves boy but keeps dog; girl goes back home with dog. This dog. I totally wanted this dog while I read the book. She has loads of energy and you just know she had way more little adventures than are described to us in this book. Leun's love for the dog and the dog's love for Leun is a constant from the moment they meet. It never waivers. No talking, no arguing, no grumpiness...just a friend who'll never give up on you. Leun thought she went to Italy for love, but really, she ended up finding a completely different relationship that ended up lasting much, much longer.
The Pat Benetar book has been on my list for a while. I've always liked her music and I knew that she was one of the forerunners for women in the rock industry today. What I didn't know was how normal she is. If you want a crazy, rock'n'roll, madcap, drugged-out adventure book, this is not the one for you (may I recommend Motley Crue's Dirt for that?). She's been married to her music partner for around 30 years now I believe. She's pretty amazing, but nothing in the book was shocking. I guess the parts where women were treated badly in the industry simply for being women is bad, but it's not a shock...that still happens every day, at any job, all over the world.
Eating the Dinosaur is a collection of Klosterman's essays. I always enjoy his books, laughing out loud and rereading the funnier bits to friends. I'd forgotten this one was on the nightstand and I squealed a little from happiness when I saw it there. He covers music, sports, and everything else. It's always nice to read collected essays by him because the topics jump around and it's something you can read while reading other things as well...although, I'm generally entertained enough to plow through the whole thing without changing books. He's someone you'd definitely want at a dinner table...the conversation would never be boring!
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible! was an impulse buy a while ago. It takes some of the most well known stories (Adam and Eve, Noah, Jonah, etc.) and turns them into more modern day fables that have funny dialogue. It was a short read, but I will admit it felt a little strange to read reinterpretations of these Bible stories so close to Easter.
A Reliable Wife is another one I've had for a while. It looked interesting and it was getting good reviews, so I bought it. And then a couple of friends read it and didn't like it. I've started it several times, but never stuck with it until this week. It wasn't what I expected at all. Whether it was good or bad, I've not decided. Once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. It switched your expectations more than once during the story, trying to guide you away from the real story that you didn't finally get until about halfway through...and even then, not really until the last chapter do you get each characters' viewpoints and knowledge of the situations around them. I don't know if I would read another one by him, but this definitely kept my interest. I think I like the real-life mysteries better...like Devil in the White City.
Yesterday morning, I finished some fluff, the latest of the Carrie Diaries from Candace Bushnell. This is the second diary...the first one took place during her last year of high school and included no one we knew but Carrie until the very end when she left for New York. This second book picks up right where it left off...Carrie meets Samantha (she's a cousin of a girl she knows from high school) and several others that are mentioned in the grown-up series: Miranda, Capote Duncan (a bit player in the adult TV series, he's a major character in this book that takes place the summer between high school and freshman year of college), and at the end of the book, she also meets Charlotte, bringing the core group together when she's only 18 years old. A lot of people don't like these pre-packaged prequel-type books, but I enjoy them. I already know the characters and it's fun to imagine what they were like before we knew them. Should teens be introduced to this particular group of women? Possibly not, but as a grown-up, I want to read the books too, so clearly there's a market.
Due to a glitch with the blogging system, I couldn't post yesterday after working on this thing for over an hour. So, I decided to start...and finish...the Sweet Valley High book. I read a few when I was young...and saw a few of the tv episodes, but I never totally got into this particular series. I knew enough about it to justify the purchase and I was curious to see what had happened to the twins. I enjoyed the book...the way I enjoy a book like a Harlequin. It was a fast read; I didn't really feel invested in the characters (mainly because of my lack of teen knowledge of them); and in the end, it was just a decent way to pass time between sneezing and coughing and napping.
Hope everyone had a happy April! We've definitely had enough showers to have LOADS of May flowers.
Down: I said bye to a friend who moved to Chicago to start a new job. I made her a parting gift:
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| Aren't they always? |
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| Proportionally, I think the bee will crush the teeny flower. |
Ups: My BFF and I went to see a couple of great bands, The Delta Kings and The Whiskey Daredevils. Those of you who know me understand that I'm no gardener. Heck, I killed a cactus one time simply because I forgot I had it. My BFF bought some pansies (a lot of pansies) in a frenzied flower spree on the only nice day earlier this month. She was kind enough to give me a few, knowing that I would eventually kill it. I did really well and managed to keep it alive for a couple of weeks.
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| It was so pretty while it survived. It will be missed. |
This month, I read some very good books. I finished The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan that I had started at the end of last month. I also read This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper, The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy by Rachel Cask, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, Marcus of Umbria: What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl About Love by Justine van der Leun, Between a Heart and a Rock Place by Pat Benetar with Patsi Bale Cox, Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible! by Jonathan Goldstein, A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel by Candace Bushnell, and just under the wire, finishing it up late last night, Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a teen novel...part one of three so far. The beginning of the story follows the heroine as she watches her mother die, her dreams fall apart, he brother abandon her, and then things got worse. The town is surrounded by fences that are under constant watch by the town's guardians. The sisters (church women) are the holders of all the town's history and knowledge. At some point in the history of the planet, a disease swept through turning those outside of the town's fences into zombie-vampire things that live only to eat and kill and make others of their kind and then die. One night, a stranger appears at the church...fueling the heroine's beliefs that there's more than what they've been taught...that there are other towns with other people, trapped by the monsters outside their own fences. The stranger is promptly given to the monsters and the heroine's journey begins. A very small team of people make it out of the town with her when the final attack destroys everything and everyone. Following the secret gate to other towns' secret gates, the heroine and small team make their way to safety...and more disaster. The survival rate is extremely small and to keep traveling in search of a dream is basically a death wish. I haven't started the second book, but based on the chapter or so at the end of this book as a teaser, it looks to be the next generation doing their own dreaming.
This Is Where I Leave You was a book I'd been eyeing at the store for a while, but ended up borrowing from a friend. It was about one extremely dysfunctional family and how the main character deals with them and his own unraveled life in his small hometown after his father's death. Apparently death does funny things to people and this book ended up being something that made me laugh out loud over and over. I don't want to spoil anything, so just read it.
I did not finish The Last Supper. Mainly because at about a third of the way into the book, I found that I didn't care about any of the people, but I also wasn't pulled in by the writing. I thought it would be about food and Italy and it's more about history in small towns in Italy...which is normally something I enjoy, but I don't know. This one just didn't work for me and I took it back to the library.
On the other hand, The Help was amazing! Kathryn Stockett built on her own experiences and created a fictional world in the south in the 1960s. The African-Americans who waited on the wealthier white people have a very complex story to be told in this book and Stockett does an amazing job with it. Each character has secrets and vulnerabilities...even the bullies that you want to see fail. She takes a turbulent time and writes a story that you can't put down despite your horror at some of the things she tells you. All of these women, whether they are the employers or the employees, are people you want to read more about. I was very sorry to see it end, but glad to hear it's being made into a movie.
I checked out Marcus of Umbria because I saw it on a reading list and I liked the synopsis. Girl goes to Italy; girl falls for boy; girl goes home; girl returns to Italy to be with boy she barely knows; girl finds dog/true love; girl names dog Marcus and then discovers Marcus is female; girl leaves boy but keeps dog; girl goes back home with dog. This dog. I totally wanted this dog while I read the book. She has loads of energy and you just know she had way more little adventures than are described to us in this book. Leun's love for the dog and the dog's love for Leun is a constant from the moment they meet. It never waivers. No talking, no arguing, no grumpiness...just a friend who'll never give up on you. Leun thought she went to Italy for love, but really, she ended up finding a completely different relationship that ended up lasting much, much longer.
The Pat Benetar book has been on my list for a while. I've always liked her music and I knew that she was one of the forerunners for women in the rock industry today. What I didn't know was how normal she is. If you want a crazy, rock'n'roll, madcap, drugged-out adventure book, this is not the one for you (may I recommend Motley Crue's Dirt for that?). She's been married to her music partner for around 30 years now I believe. She's pretty amazing, but nothing in the book was shocking. I guess the parts where women were treated badly in the industry simply for being women is bad, but it's not a shock...that still happens every day, at any job, all over the world.
Eating the Dinosaur is a collection of Klosterman's essays. I always enjoy his books, laughing out loud and rereading the funnier bits to friends. I'd forgotten this one was on the nightstand and I squealed a little from happiness when I saw it there. He covers music, sports, and everything else. It's always nice to read collected essays by him because the topics jump around and it's something you can read while reading other things as well...although, I'm generally entertained enough to plow through the whole thing without changing books. He's someone you'd definitely want at a dinner table...the conversation would never be boring!
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible! was an impulse buy a while ago. It takes some of the most well known stories (Adam and Eve, Noah, Jonah, etc.) and turns them into more modern day fables that have funny dialogue. It was a short read, but I will admit it felt a little strange to read reinterpretations of these Bible stories so close to Easter.
A Reliable Wife is another one I've had for a while. It looked interesting and it was getting good reviews, so I bought it. And then a couple of friends read it and didn't like it. I've started it several times, but never stuck with it until this week. It wasn't what I expected at all. Whether it was good or bad, I've not decided. Once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. It switched your expectations more than once during the story, trying to guide you away from the real story that you didn't finally get until about halfway through...and even then, not really until the last chapter do you get each characters' viewpoints and knowledge of the situations around them. I don't know if I would read another one by him, but this definitely kept my interest. I think I like the real-life mysteries better...like Devil in the White City.
Yesterday morning, I finished some fluff, the latest of the Carrie Diaries from Candace Bushnell. This is the second diary...the first one took place during her last year of high school and included no one we knew but Carrie until the very end when she left for New York. This second book picks up right where it left off...Carrie meets Samantha (she's a cousin of a girl she knows from high school) and several others that are mentioned in the grown-up series: Miranda, Capote Duncan (a bit player in the adult TV series, he's a major character in this book that takes place the summer between high school and freshman year of college), and at the end of the book, she also meets Charlotte, bringing the core group together when she's only 18 years old. A lot of people don't like these pre-packaged prequel-type books, but I enjoy them. I already know the characters and it's fun to imagine what they were like before we knew them. Should teens be introduced to this particular group of women? Possibly not, but as a grown-up, I want to read the books too, so clearly there's a market.
Due to a glitch with the blogging system, I couldn't post yesterday after working on this thing for over an hour. So, I decided to start...and finish...the Sweet Valley High book. I read a few when I was young...and saw a few of the tv episodes, but I never totally got into this particular series. I knew enough about it to justify the purchase and I was curious to see what had happened to the twins. I enjoyed the book...the way I enjoy a book like a Harlequin. It was a fast read; I didn't really feel invested in the characters (mainly because of my lack of teen knowledge of them); and in the end, it was just a decent way to pass time between sneezing and coughing and napping.
Hope everyone had a happy April! We've definitely had enough showers to have LOADS of May flowers.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
The books of March 2011
This month has completely flown by! I think my reading list is fairly decent. But in case anyone out there thinks I should be reading more, I did some other stuff (and watched a lot of TV). It had been a while, but I made it back to the movie theater...not once, but twice! Woohoo! I went to see Red Riding Hood. I understand that this has gotten horrible reviews and I do not care. It was some mindless fun and just what I needed to see. I was exhausted and couldn't focus on anything but the pretty faces. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon. Last weekend I went to see Sucker Punch. My friends' reactions were fairly universal. About a quarter of them liked it...that means 3/4 did not. Which I think is unfortunate. It was fun, explodey, violent, and completely void of critical thinking skills. The perfect remedy for a really long horrible week.
I also did another Iron Craft challenge, this time for the Easy Bein' Green week. I had PLENTY of green fabric...most of it fleece.
I volunteered to participate in our local design organization's annual event. With a typography theme, there was plenty to choose from, but I waffled a little too long before I finally asked the organizer some questions and signed up...I got the caret (^). Here's what I made:
For yet another month, I didn't buy many books. I gave up buying books for Lent (no, I'm not Catholic, I just feel like it's not a bad practice to give something up for a while once a year...and it proves something to yourself...and it also proves that I should never be in public if I ever think about giving up coffee again), so I squeezed in a few purchases the weekend before Lent: The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (sequel to the one I bought last month...and started reading last night) and The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner.
As stated previously, this month I read a decent amount of books. I finished up Italy, A Love Story: Women Write about the Italian Experience edited by Camille Cusumano, Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano, The New York Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir by Elna Baker, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated by Alison Arngrim, Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway by Cherie Currie, and When I Grow Up by Juliana Hatfield. Like I said above, I started reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan last night, but as I truly enjoy sleeping, I did not get close to finishing it.
After going through the rest of the essays in Italy, A Love Story, my favorite is still the one about the girl who fell more in love with the guy's grandfather than the guy himself. The rest of it was enjoyable, but not overly memorable.
Gomorrah is a title I noted from Time Out Rome Shortlist 2011. It's about one man's experience growing up in Naples and around it and all the mob ties to fashion, drugs, and everything else in the surrounding area. I had no idea things were as bad as he wrote...I mean, I enjoy watching mob movies, but this was more personal and gruesome. But really well-written...and interesting.
The New York Mormon book...what can I say? I was so upset after reading the "biography" about Cleopatra, that I knew I had to get back on the reading horse or lose my favorite genre forever (totally not an option). This book was great! Elna Baker told her story so well that I feel like I know her...I could hang out with her and it would be like hanging out with an old friend I've not seen in a while, but never forgot about. She's witty, charming, and fun. I really hope she writes another book about her adventures.
Shiver is a different take on the werewolf teen angst drama (not to be confused with Teen Wolf...Michael J Fox might be a little old for this particular role, despite his boyish charm). It starts with a little girl being attacked by wolves...except for one...one wolf protects her and gets the others to stop biting her. Then she's a teen, being attacked by hormones in high school. She always watches the woods behind her house for that one wolf that protected her and she's sure she knows him from the others. A boy from her school gets attacked by wolves and killed. She tries to stop people from hunting the wolves, but she's too late. She hears the shot...and finds a handsome boy bleeding on her back doorstep. The story of the wolves and this girl and others at her high school is really engrossing. The chapters are the names of the characters and their current temperatures as that plays into this particular werewolf lore.I will buy the next book, Linger, as soon as it's out in paperback...or after Lent if it comes out before then.
I've wanted to read Confessions of a Prairie Bitch since I saw it on the table at Borders. I was very stoked when I saw it on the shelf at the library. Nellie was an awful little girl on the show, but it turns out that character was the best thing that could've happened to Alison Arngrim. I didn't know anything about her other than she played Nellie...and I was quite the Little House fan...books and TV show. I still love the books and occasionally reread them. Anyway, Alison's life was far from perfect...which really seems to be the way with most child actors. Her mom was the voice of several beloved cartoon characters and very well known. Her dad was an agent...and also a gay man (her mom was in on it from the beginning, so there was never really a huge problem there)...and her brother, also an actor, well, clearly he was a disturbed super-jerk who should never have been left alone with her. That aside, her real life and her TV life mesh together well in this book. I loved learning about all of it because she peppered everything with what was going on in her TV life too. Highly enjoyable.
Not too long ago, a couple of friends came over and we watched The Runaways - the movie with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning playing Joan Jett and Cherie Currie respectively. The movie was good and made me want to read the book. The book is different. It's less focused on their friendship and more focused on Cherie Currie...most likely because it's her biography and she wrote it. I like some of their music and I like a lot of Joan Jett songs, but really knew nothing beyond what I'd seen in that movie, so this was eye-opening. She went through so much, self-inflicted and otherwise, that I'm actually surprised that she's turned it around and was able to write anything. And apparently, now she does sculpture with chainsaws! She is still very rock'n'roll cool.
Lastly, Juliana Hatfield's When I Grow Up. I have to admit something. I'm not really a huge fan of Juliana Hatfield. Even though I really like that one song. Even though I thought I knew some stuff about her. Even though a friend of mine got her autograph for me. I know, right? She seems like someone I would really like, but her stuff just never stuck with me beyond Spin the Bottle on the Reality Bites soundtrack. What did I learn? I like that song because it's a different kind of melody and have a different timing (in addition to the fun lyrics); she didn't really date Evan Dando from the Lemonheads; she did not have a good time playing at the Bottleneck in Lawrence, Kansas (I've generally always had a good time there...I guess if fans invaded my space it would be a different story...); she fought anorexia and won; she found that taking a break from music made the music so much better when she came back to it; and that I would probably never make it on a bus tour...sounds horrible. So, I don't know that I like her music any better because I've not listened to anything else as I only just finished it. But, I have a respect for her and her work ethic and stellar perseverance.
This morning, I read Amanda Palmer's latest blog post. If you don't know her, she's pretty fabulous. But if, like me, you love Duran Duran...and have for years...and don't plan to quit anytime soon...and aren't offended by cursing, please read her post. Thanks to my friend for sending it to me! It makes you mad, and then, MAGIC! She gets an experience that most of us have dreamed of for over 20 years! Yes, everyone else was horrid, but true fans know what to do. She's a true fan. I also know that John Taylor retweeted her post which made both her...and me...super excited :) Duran Duran RULES!
And just so you know, as I've typed this, I watched the Queen Latifah movie Just Wright. It was very cute. Now Clueless is on...and I totally turned the channel...AS IF! Not only am I watching it, but I seem to be quoting it verbatim along with my roommate. I'm audi!
I also did another Iron Craft challenge, this time for the Easy Bein' Green week. I had PLENTY of green fabric...most of it fleece.
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| It's easy being green when you're so darn cute and huggable. |
 | |
| Get it? Peas and carets? Get it? Oh well. At least I crack myself up! |
As stated previously, this month I read a decent amount of books. I finished up Italy, A Love Story: Women Write about the Italian Experience edited by Camille Cusumano, Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano, The New York Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir by Elna Baker, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated by Alison Arngrim, Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway by Cherie Currie, and When I Grow Up by Juliana Hatfield. Like I said above, I started reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan last night, but as I truly enjoy sleeping, I did not get close to finishing it.
After going through the rest of the essays in Italy, A Love Story, my favorite is still the one about the girl who fell more in love with the guy's grandfather than the guy himself. The rest of it was enjoyable, but not overly memorable.
Gomorrah is a title I noted from Time Out Rome Shortlist 2011. It's about one man's experience growing up in Naples and around it and all the mob ties to fashion, drugs, and everything else in the surrounding area. I had no idea things were as bad as he wrote...I mean, I enjoy watching mob movies, but this was more personal and gruesome. But really well-written...and interesting.
The New York Mormon book...what can I say? I was so upset after reading the "biography" about Cleopatra, that I knew I had to get back on the reading horse or lose my favorite genre forever (totally not an option). This book was great! Elna Baker told her story so well that I feel like I know her...I could hang out with her and it would be like hanging out with an old friend I've not seen in a while, but never forgot about. She's witty, charming, and fun. I really hope she writes another book about her adventures.
Shiver is a different take on the werewolf teen angst drama (not to be confused with Teen Wolf...Michael J Fox might be a little old for this particular role, despite his boyish charm). It starts with a little girl being attacked by wolves...except for one...one wolf protects her and gets the others to stop biting her. Then she's a teen, being attacked by hormones in high school. She always watches the woods behind her house for that one wolf that protected her and she's sure she knows him from the others. A boy from her school gets attacked by wolves and killed. She tries to stop people from hunting the wolves, but she's too late. She hears the shot...and finds a handsome boy bleeding on her back doorstep. The story of the wolves and this girl and others at her high school is really engrossing. The chapters are the names of the characters and their current temperatures as that plays into this particular werewolf lore.I will buy the next book, Linger, as soon as it's out in paperback...or after Lent if it comes out before then.
I've wanted to read Confessions of a Prairie Bitch since I saw it on the table at Borders. I was very stoked when I saw it on the shelf at the library. Nellie was an awful little girl on the show, but it turns out that character was the best thing that could've happened to Alison Arngrim. I didn't know anything about her other than she played Nellie...and I was quite the Little House fan...books and TV show. I still love the books and occasionally reread them. Anyway, Alison's life was far from perfect...which really seems to be the way with most child actors. Her mom was the voice of several beloved cartoon characters and very well known. Her dad was an agent...and also a gay man (her mom was in on it from the beginning, so there was never really a huge problem there)...and her brother, also an actor, well, clearly he was a disturbed super-jerk who should never have been left alone with her. That aside, her real life and her TV life mesh together well in this book. I loved learning about all of it because she peppered everything with what was going on in her TV life too. Highly enjoyable.
Not too long ago, a couple of friends came over and we watched The Runaways - the movie with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning playing Joan Jett and Cherie Currie respectively. The movie was good and made me want to read the book. The book is different. It's less focused on their friendship and more focused on Cherie Currie...most likely because it's her biography and she wrote it. I like some of their music and I like a lot of Joan Jett songs, but really knew nothing beyond what I'd seen in that movie, so this was eye-opening. She went through so much, self-inflicted and otherwise, that I'm actually surprised that she's turned it around and was able to write anything. And apparently, now she does sculpture with chainsaws! She is still very rock'n'roll cool.
Lastly, Juliana Hatfield's When I Grow Up. I have to admit something. I'm not really a huge fan of Juliana Hatfield. Even though I really like that one song. Even though I thought I knew some stuff about her. Even though a friend of mine got her autograph for me. I know, right? She seems like someone I would really like, but her stuff just never stuck with me beyond Spin the Bottle on the Reality Bites soundtrack. What did I learn? I like that song because it's a different kind of melody and have a different timing (in addition to the fun lyrics); she didn't really date Evan Dando from the Lemonheads; she did not have a good time playing at the Bottleneck in Lawrence, Kansas (I've generally always had a good time there...I guess if fans invaded my space it would be a different story...); she fought anorexia and won; she found that taking a break from music made the music so much better when she came back to it; and that I would probably never make it on a bus tour...sounds horrible. So, I don't know that I like her music any better because I've not listened to anything else as I only just finished it. But, I have a respect for her and her work ethic and stellar perseverance.
This morning, I read Amanda Palmer's latest blog post. If you don't know her, she's pretty fabulous. But if, like me, you love Duran Duran...and have for years...and don't plan to quit anytime soon...and aren't offended by cursing, please read her post. Thanks to my friend for sending it to me! It makes you mad, and then, MAGIC! She gets an experience that most of us have dreamed of for over 20 years! Yes, everyone else was horrid, but true fans know what to do. She's a true fan. I also know that John Taylor retweeted her post which made both her...and me...super excited :) Duran Duran RULES!
And just so you know, as I've typed this, I watched the Queen Latifah movie Just Wright. It was very cute. Now Clueless is on...and I totally turned the channel...AS IF! Not only am I watching it, but I seem to be quoting it verbatim along with my roommate. I'm audi!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
"Fall back" time has almost passed
This coming weekend is when we set the clocks forward ("spring forward"). Allow me a moment to express my disgust at this: GIMME MY HOUR! I WANNA KEEP MY HOUR! It's not like I already feel short of time everyday. Frown.
In the last post, I noted that one way I spent time not reading was knitting. Here's one of the scarves I made while logging many hours of the Real Housewives of Many Cities (many of whom aren't married and are as far removed from real as I can imagine):
One thing I wanted to do this year was join in the fun on Iron Craft. You'll notice that it is March and I stated that like I've not participated. Well, yes, we're three months in and the thing I thought I would do every week? Nope. My BFF's mom has entered a lot of them, my BFF a couple of them I think, and me, none. Zip. Zilch. This week though, I got motivated and made something Sunday evening while watching the new season of the OC Housewives. This week's challenge was what they're calling a "materials challenge" and we had to make something from a fat quarter in honor of it being Fat Tuesday. I started with a fat quarter and cut out pieces I needed to make an octopus. Turns out that was too hard...so I used about a quarter of the fat quarter to make an owl instead...an owl that looks like a cat...because you could only use the fat quarter and no other fabrics.
Tonight I was happy there was a new episode of Glee...some of it good, some of it so far over the shark they're about to be back to the jumping point again. I did like a lot of the music this time though. And, as much as it pains me to type it (seriously, I'm sitting weird and one of my arms is starting to fall asleep), Gwyneth is really good on this show! I want her on there more...I think...
Now I'm watching The Last Legion. I've seen it before, but I like it, so I'm watching it again. It's not the best film on the topic, but I enjoy how they weave ancient Britain's mythology into a tale of Roman legions. And they do it way better than The Eagle. Or maybe I'd just prefer Colin Firth and John Hannah any day over Channing Tatum and Donald Sutherland...probably isn't a big mystery.
I'm going to finish this movie, do a little reading, and go to bed for the night. Later!
In the last post, I noted that one way I spent time not reading was knitting. Here's one of the scarves I made while logging many hours of the Real Housewives of Many Cities (many of whom aren't married and are as far removed from real as I can imagine):
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| I hope you wanted a green scarf cause that's what you're gettin'. |
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| Who did a bad job with her fat quarter and her picture-takin' skillz? This girl! |
Now I'm watching The Last Legion. I've seen it before, but I like it, so I'm watching it again. It's not the best film on the topic, but I enjoy how they weave ancient Britain's mythology into a tale of Roman legions. And they do it way better than The Eagle. Or maybe I'd just prefer Colin Firth and John Hannah any day over Channing Tatum and Donald Sutherland...probably isn't a big mystery.
I'm going to finish this movie, do a little reading, and go to bed for the night. Later!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
The books of February 2011
Since the Oscars are tomorrow and I know that I'll be more concerned with them than posting, I thought I should do this now. I still have one more movie to watch (The Kids Are Alright) to have seen 8/10 of the best pic noms...I'm going to try and see it tonight. I did finally watch The Social Network and was pretty mad that I liked it so much. Darn you, Sorkin! <shakes fist ineffectually at sky>
This month I didn't buy too many books. However, a theme will emerge as you read, that will eventually take this blog into a different spin later this year. Most are still on my to-be-read list: The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker, At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream: Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life by Wade Rouse, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen, Time Out Rome Shortlist 2011 by Time Out Guides, Frommer's Naples & the Amalfi Coast: Day by Day by Nicky Swallow, and Hide This Italian Phrase Book by Nadja Rizutti.
The books I read this month constitutes a small list. As I stated last month, I had started reading Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff. It took me all month as I read other items to break it up into more bite sized pieces: Every Boy's Got One by Meg Cabot, Time Out Rome Shortlist 2011, Venice Is A Fish: A Sensual Tale by Tiziano Scurpa, and I'm wrapping up the month reading Italy, A Love Story: Women Write about the Italian Experience edited by Camille Cusumano.
Venice Is A Fish is an interesting little book I picked up at the library. The author uses different things to describe Venice and how Venice matches the meaning of those items...like when Venice is a face (or is it mask?), it represents how people mask themselves with their different faces (happy, sad, busy, etc.) even though the place is so small that everyone knows everyone else's business so the masks don't matter. It doesn't stand out to me as something I would normally read, but it wasn't a bad filler item.
The Rome Shortlist 2011 was VERY informative...and kind of overwhelming. I will have to go back through it and take some notes for planning, but mostly, the brief descriptions did help narrow some things down for me, but left me with the feeling that I just want to see it all (impossible in a few days). As far as travel guides go, I did like how this was broken into known sections of the city and included tips on whether or not places took cash or credit and things like that. The pictures, though small, were very pretty.
I own most of the Meg Cabot older-than-teen books. When my friends and I started talking more seriously about travel in Italy, I went and grabbed Every Boy's Got One off my shelf and re-read it...and then gave it to my friends to read as well. The main character in the book is the maid of honor for her best friend who is eloping to Italy to marry the love of her life. If you haven't read any of Cabot's books like this, you should. Her style for a series of slightly related books is to use current technologies as the recording devices of the characters' stories. In this particular book, they are using Blackberries for email and texts, journals and PDAs, and occasionally, just hand-written notes. Given the way most of us live today, it gives the story a feeling of truth...of something you would do yourself. Anyway, bride, groom, maid of honor, best man, and some local Italians comes together for a hilarious, fluffy tale about a wedding that almost wasn't. At the end of the book, there's an author section where Cabot talks about the inspiration for the story: her own elopement to Italy! It is a very fun and entertaining read.
Cleopatra, however, was not a fun and entertaining read. I know that history is spotty at best when it comes to Cleopatra. We tend to take what we've seen in movies, or the HBO series Rome, to be truth rather than fiction. So I was really excited to read a biography about a very strong woman at a time when in most parts of the world, women were pretty much there to breed and take care of the men. And the beginning of the book pointed that out. Cleopatra and the women in her family were indeed, very strong willed, highly educated, politically savvy, and prone to violence and revenge in order to stay alive long enough to make a difference in Egyptian history. I was hooked for a couple of chapters and then I found that I could care less about it...even when I tried to imagine the people who played these historic figures as the actors who portrayed them in HBO's Rome. I figured I would never be bored with those people in my head. I was wrong. I know there's not a lot of actual historical information available about her rule beyond the Latin writings of the era and later, but seriously, if I buy a biography about someone who was real, I would expect more fact than conjecture. I felt like the whole book simply revisited all possible rumors about her and her relationships. Only the fighting was real and documented. Although, thinking about it, maybe that's the point (or should be) of having political leaders...showing a capability to rule and strength in intelligence and battle are good things...knowing about their affairs isn't the point. I don't know...something to think about. It's not like hooking up with Caesar or Marc Antony were bad ideas from a political standpoint...it was actually kind of genius. Overall, I guess I'm glad I read it, but it took me longer than expected and I didn't really care for it.
Hopefully by Monday night, I'll be finished with the book of short essays about Italy written by women I got from the library. I'm on the 5th or 6th one now. All of the stories are different, but so far, my favorite is the girl who went to Milan to meet her summer fling for a week. They stayed with his grandmother. She ended up falling in love with the grandmother and her lifestyle and not really liking the boy at all! Her descriptions of his lame attempts to be like a boyfriend and her comparisons of what she'd rather be doing when they were out (going with him to a fancy restaurant vs eating grandmother's fabulous cooking and watching the Simpsons dubbed in Italian) are hysterical.
Another reason I didn't read that many books this month? I finished a couple of scarves to give away later this year as gifts. Clearly it was a lot easier to knit when the TV was on than it was to read.
Tomorrow night is the Oscars. There should be quite a few friends here to watch it with me. I will probably write some more then...maybe...or I might just sit back and enjoy :)
This month I didn't buy too many books. However, a theme will emerge as you read, that will eventually take this blog into a different spin later this year. Most are still on my to-be-read list: The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker, At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream: Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life by Wade Rouse, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen, Time Out Rome Shortlist 2011 by Time Out Guides, Frommer's Naples & the Amalfi Coast: Day by Day by Nicky Swallow, and Hide This Italian Phrase Book by Nadja Rizutti.
The books I read this month constitutes a small list. As I stated last month, I had started reading Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff. It took me all month as I read other items to break it up into more bite sized pieces: Every Boy's Got One by Meg Cabot, Time Out Rome Shortlist 2011, Venice Is A Fish: A Sensual Tale by Tiziano Scurpa, and I'm wrapping up the month reading Italy, A Love Story: Women Write about the Italian Experience edited by Camille Cusumano.
Venice Is A Fish is an interesting little book I picked up at the library. The author uses different things to describe Venice and how Venice matches the meaning of those items...like when Venice is a face (or is it mask?), it represents how people mask themselves with their different faces (happy, sad, busy, etc.) even though the place is so small that everyone knows everyone else's business so the masks don't matter. It doesn't stand out to me as something I would normally read, but it wasn't a bad filler item.
The Rome Shortlist 2011 was VERY informative...and kind of overwhelming. I will have to go back through it and take some notes for planning, but mostly, the brief descriptions did help narrow some things down for me, but left me with the feeling that I just want to see it all (impossible in a few days). As far as travel guides go, I did like how this was broken into known sections of the city and included tips on whether or not places took cash or credit and things like that. The pictures, though small, were very pretty.
I own most of the Meg Cabot older-than-teen books. When my friends and I started talking more seriously about travel in Italy, I went and grabbed Every Boy's Got One off my shelf and re-read it...and then gave it to my friends to read as well. The main character in the book is the maid of honor for her best friend who is eloping to Italy to marry the love of her life. If you haven't read any of Cabot's books like this, you should. Her style for a series of slightly related books is to use current technologies as the recording devices of the characters' stories. In this particular book, they are using Blackberries for email and texts, journals and PDAs, and occasionally, just hand-written notes. Given the way most of us live today, it gives the story a feeling of truth...of something you would do yourself. Anyway, bride, groom, maid of honor, best man, and some local Italians comes together for a hilarious, fluffy tale about a wedding that almost wasn't. At the end of the book, there's an author section where Cabot talks about the inspiration for the story: her own elopement to Italy! It is a very fun and entertaining read.
Cleopatra, however, was not a fun and entertaining read. I know that history is spotty at best when it comes to Cleopatra. We tend to take what we've seen in movies, or the HBO series Rome, to be truth rather than fiction. So I was really excited to read a biography about a very strong woman at a time when in most parts of the world, women were pretty much there to breed and take care of the men. And the beginning of the book pointed that out. Cleopatra and the women in her family were indeed, very strong willed, highly educated, politically savvy, and prone to violence and revenge in order to stay alive long enough to make a difference in Egyptian history. I was hooked for a couple of chapters and then I found that I could care less about it...even when I tried to imagine the people who played these historic figures as the actors who portrayed them in HBO's Rome. I figured I would never be bored with those people in my head. I was wrong. I know there's not a lot of actual historical information available about her rule beyond the Latin writings of the era and later, but seriously, if I buy a biography about someone who was real, I would expect more fact than conjecture. I felt like the whole book simply revisited all possible rumors about her and her relationships. Only the fighting was real and documented. Although, thinking about it, maybe that's the point (or should be) of having political leaders...showing a capability to rule and strength in intelligence and battle are good things...knowing about their affairs isn't the point. I don't know...something to think about. It's not like hooking up with Caesar or Marc Antony were bad ideas from a political standpoint...it was actually kind of genius. Overall, I guess I'm glad I read it, but it took me longer than expected and I didn't really care for it.
Hopefully by Monday night, I'll be finished with the book of short essays about Italy written by women I got from the library. I'm on the 5th or 6th one now. All of the stories are different, but so far, my favorite is the girl who went to Milan to meet her summer fling for a week. They stayed with his grandmother. She ended up falling in love with the grandmother and her lifestyle and not really liking the boy at all! Her descriptions of his lame attempts to be like a boyfriend and her comparisons of what she'd rather be doing when they were out (going with him to a fancy restaurant vs eating grandmother's fabulous cooking and watching the Simpsons dubbed in Italian) are hysterical.
Another reason I didn't read that many books this month? I finished a couple of scarves to give away later this year as gifts. Clearly it was a lot easier to knit when the TV was on than it was to read.
Tomorrow night is the Oscars. There should be quite a few friends here to watch it with me. I will probably write some more then...maybe...or I might just sit back and enjoy :)
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