Last month, I saw some more movies (gotta get ready for the Oscars, right?) - the new Sherlock Holmes (possibly even better than the first one), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (really, really, really good), and the latest Mission Impossible (entertaining, despite Tom Cruise).
I went to the annual Renegade Holiday craft fair in Chicago and hung out with an old friend afterward. This year, I actually made it home for Christmas...so far I've still only seen a dusting of snow for the winter...definitely a change from the 2010/2011 winter. I also made some more crafts to complete my goal of completing 1/4 of the Iron Craft Challenges. I had two left at the beginning of the month to meet my goal (as well as finishing up some Christmas gifts). I chose the last two challenges. The Mulligan challenge was taking one of the previous challenges and doing it, I chose to do the one where I make a gift for a friend again. I customized a sign a friend made during her work day a few months prior to Christmas:
 | |
| Hopefully her new job will help her avoid such events. |
 |
| Shiny and bulky! |
This month I got a few books as gifts and bought a couple: One for the Money by Janet Evanovich, Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling, The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, Book 1) and The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus, Book 2) by Rick Riordan, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, 11/22/63 by Stephen King, and Girl in the Kitchen: How a Top Chef Cooks, Thinks, Shops, Eats and Drinks by Stephanie Izard...thank you to friends, Santa, and the sales at Target.
The books I read this month: The Magician King by Lev Grossman, The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1) by Rick Riordan, A Life in Stitches: Knitting My Way Through Love, Loss, and Laughter by Rachel Herron, Is Everyone Hanging Out with Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling, Talking to Girls about Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut by Rob Sheffield, One for the Money by Janet Evanovich, The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen, and Room by Emma Donoghue.
The Magician King was a good follow up to The Magicians. I'm glad I read them back-to-back like that. Quentin's friends show up in mid-air at the end of the first book and ask for Quentin to come back to Fillory with them. This second book is about all of their adventures since he returned to Fillory as a Magician King. I think it was even better than the first book, but I definitely needed to know the characters and the history to enjoy it as much as I did. Last I heard, The Magicians was going to become a show on TV at some point. I can see how it would be fun to watch. It's much darker than the Harry Potter books...even more so than the last of that series, but it would be interesting to see how they created the land of Fillory.
The Red Pyramid is the first of the Kane Chronicles. The first series of Rick Riordan books I read (see The books of January 2011) were about Greek mythology. The books I got by him for Christmas are about Roman mythology. The Kane Chronicles are about Egyptian mythology. A brother and sister team have lost both of their parents before I'd read even a third of the book. Turns out their family is in a long line of protectors of magic and on one side, blood descendants of the original pharoh-gods.Their adventure takes them all over the world and they deal with different gods and different magic as they have on-the-go crash lessons about their family throughout the ages. Egyptian mythology was one of my first interests when I was a little kid, so this book was very fun for me to read.
A Life in Stitches was collection of stories of the author's life. How she used knitting to get through good and bad times; how she used knitting to express her emotions; and how she used knitting to help others (friends, family, and strangers). Some of it made me cry and some of it made me laugh out loud. You don't have to know how to knit to read it, which is nice, but it definitely made me want to knit things when I was done.
Mindy Kaling is "Kelly Kapoor" on the American version of The Office. She also writes and produces for the show. Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? was so hilarious, I have to wonder why anyone would ever NOT want to hang out with her! It's a quick read and when you're done, you really want to be her new BFF. I laughed so hard a few times while I was reading this, that my parents (I was visiting for Christmas) came upstairs and asked what was so funny. This book is an excellent way to pass some time.
I read Rob Sheffield's previous book, Love Is a Mix Tape, about his wife and being widowed at a young age. Sheffield is a music writer and this book was really good...especially if you tie your life and memories to the music you listened to at any given time (that's also why I like High Fidelity by Nick Hornby). Talking to Girls About Duran Duran is more about his life before all of that when he lived at home in a house full of sisters. There was a lot of good musical memories (again), but not nearly enough Duran Duran for me ;) He ties learning about new music and loving it to growing up and learning about dating and living. Another good read.
One for the Money is the first of Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. It's going to be a movie later this month. Plum is a fun character who's down on her luck, with a family we can all relate to (driving her crazy most of the time). She gets a job as a bail bondsman for her cousin's company and ends up having to bring in the guy who was her first crush and more. It should translate to the screen really well...it's got action, romance, comic relief, and suspense. A quick and fun book to read and the best part is, there's already at least eighteen of these so whenever I need to read more about her life, I can go to the library and pick one up with little hassle.
The Opposite of Me has sat on my nightstand for a while. Twin sisters who don't really look alike, living very different lives. One has a breakdown after being fired from her job and returns back home and back to being jealous of her sister who is beautiful and seems to have a charmed life. Of course, nothing is as it seems on the surface. The sisters have traumas and change and become friends. It ends really happy, which was nice. Luckily both characters are sympathetic enough and you enjoy reading about them changing their lives for the better and learning their lessons. I'll be reading more of Pekkanen's books.
Last, I read Room (I actually cheated a little and finished it this morning). People raved about this book and from what I'd read, I thought it sounded interesting. It was not. I really did not like it. A woman was kidnapped and repeatedly raped over a period of years while living in a shed "Room". She gives birth to a little boy and she names him Jack. They end up escaping and I guess it's supposed to be a story of heroics and renewal of life but mostly I was irritated as crap by how the story was told through the 5-year-old Jack. I guess that was what was supposed to be so interesting, but I didn't care for it. I finished it because I was determined to do so, not because I was so engrossed in the story that I couldn't put it down. Guess I'll be thinking twice before falling for the hype again.
Mostly good choices this month. I'm guessing that I'll keep doing this as part of my 2012 resolutions. I like chronicling what I've read...mostly because it's a nice exercise in memory and hopefully gives others some good ideas of some books to read. I don't know what my other resolutions will be...I'll think about that this week. I want to do another modified challenge for crafts...Iron Craft is going to a challenge every two weeks this year, but since I don't always like the challenges, I don't want to say I'll do all of them. Still contemplating, I guess. I'd love to travel some more, but that's dependent on a lot of factors. As the Euro drops, my hopes go up though. I hope everyone has a great 2012!
No comments:
Post a Comment