47

... Just 47 more days.... and I still have 14 books to go... Im starting to have my doubts!

On the other hand.. the plusses I have going on are:

I finished getting the xmas tree up at work.. 5 additional strings of lights to a pre-lit tree can make a world of difference.

I am ready to take on turkey day! woohoo! cookie making here I come!

I think I have gotten rid of all the spiders taking up residence on the storefront window! Now that it's super cold I doubt they will come back.

... 47 days left... where did this year go?

been a while

Its been a while... a year, ... So what, doesn't mean that I haven't read anything good, or enjoyed anything, or hated anything, just means I've been too busy to share my life.

vacation.. vacation... vacation..

ok... i went on a vacation from blogging.. not sure why, maybe it was because i had so much fun reading, that i forgot how much blogging could be.

Crunch....

Today is October 30th. I have read 25 books this year, and have 10 more that I have begun, and have yet to finish. my goal for this year was 40 same as last year.. I am very proud to say that I am doing much better this year then last, but not by much. So many distractions... I almost wish that "Sandy" had taken out my job, or made it difficult to get to work just so that I could stay home and read!

why

wondering why , when it comes to a certain time of the year, I just kind of loose ambition for reading. I gaze at the bookcases, and visit the library, but I have little need or want to start something new. In fact I am struggling to finish what i have already started. I'm halfway through a sookie stackhouse book.. and up to this point they have all been hard to put down. but now i can't seem to want to pick it up. its not that I don't care.. i just have no feeling.

outside the weather is constantly changing. I don't know if i should dress for summer.. or for rain and gloom. why is this, I wonder?

midway

yea! this week is half over. it is a gloriously gloomy day, the perfect kind of day that convinces you that you really just want to stay home and wrap yourself in a blanket, and sleep and read for the whole day. OK so that's what I want to do today. Either way, I would prefer not to go to work! our system has been down for 2 days... which makes everything we do nearly impossible. but we are getting by.

I'm halfway done with a lot of stuff.. and nothing is catching me to make me want to finish it. i think i should refer to this is a bit of a slump. I find that my mind wanders more then i want, and then i have to reread parts all over again.

oh well, i suppose i should trudge off to work... see what kinds of insanity wait for me there!

not so good

I'm finding that I'm not so good at this blogging thing. months and months go by, and it never occurs to me that i should write down a word or two about what I'm thinking... Ahh not that its consequential to anyone really what I'm thinking or doing. I do not promise to do better at this, or any such thing. I can do nothing more then plod away at my life, and on occasion when the mood fits say something about it.

That said. "I've got a headache" so I'm going to bed.

good night

im back

i went away, but then after realizing that my new blog was not as easy to use i came back.. but shhhh its a secret. my dear sweet bf is the owner of the site where i had my new blog. He has lost his ambition, and his ideals are way to high.. and i just can't deal with that blog anymore. i do love him just the same though!.. maybe even more for his attempt.

lets see.... not a whole lot has happened in my absence.. im even more in debt, i put on a few pounds(just a few, but unwanted just the same) new job(that i hate, though i have amazing coworkers) and ive read a bunch of books.

books books books.. im up to 24 for the year. i think if i keep a steady pace i will reach my goal of 30. i did it last year, im sure i can do it again.

a book by its cover

Today was a nutso crazy day! i had all my sisters and their kids over for a picnic.. What was i thinking?? anyway, my sister was investigating my "library" and she picked up my copy of Iris Murdoch's A severed head. it was an older copy... but she loved the cover.. she said she needed it.. so i let her have it.. but if she finds another copy she has to get it and replace the one she "stole"! I just think its funny that someone could pick out a book just because they like the cover. strange!

ch ch cha changes

i made some changes on the list of books i am going to read this year.. mostly because i barrowed some books and have to give them back.. it works!

google the monkey

HA... is that just about the funniest thing you have ever heard?.. and its not even supposed to be funny.. so you with your sick minds had better think of something else fast!.. The reality is, that I, your fav blogger gets to be clifford the big red dog in the great NY state fair.. woohoo.. and this year i get to have buddies to walk with me.. big bird and courious george are doing the deed with me.. how cool is that??????

snow falling on cedars is still going very slowly...

and after being told i wouldn't have to work tomorrow, guess what? i get to work tomorrow.. so life is looking more down then up today!

book in a day!

I never said i would be good at this blogging stuff.. sorry!

so anyway.. i read the coolest little book today.. it was called "the short and mysterious death of amy zoe mason" by kristine and joyce atkinson. It was a little artsy book, with a bit of a mystery and an overall very cool look. I can think of a handful of people that would just love it.

The other day i finished reading the secret life of bees.. and you know what? i didn't like it much.. there were good parts.. don't get me wrong. I thought it covered several issues pretty well..but there was other elements that just sucked!.. I just could not connect with this book, and if i had not been reading it with a friend, i would not have finished it at all!..

up next is david gutersons book snow falling on cedars. Ive started it, im on chapter 2.. and im not sure really if anything has happened yet... it is very very very slow going. Im hoping for the best. I picked up a second book to read when i just can't do snow falling. my alternative is "the old maid" by edith wharton. this one is going very fast, even though not much is happening in this one either.

oh well, life is good...

The Wednesday sisters

I was a little alarmed when looking at the cover of this book. The book claimed to be better then the yaya sisterhood... and it made me quite a skeptic. It didn't take long to realize that this book was as different from the yaya's as you could get. The one single thing that made them even remotely the same was that they are both about women that greatly care about each other. I read this book in 4 nights... and i loved it to bits.

The Wednesday Sisters takes place in the late 1960's and early 1970's and it is a book about 5 women who are new to the sunny state of CA due to their successful husbands new jobs. The five women, Frankie, Kath, Linda, Ally and Brett are all intelligent and young, with dreams for the future. The women meet at a playground, and talk about books, and writing, and life, and it it here that they learn about real friendship that has no boundaries except honesty, and true love.

This book covers topics like interracial marriage, unsuccessful pregnancies, cancer, infidelity, guilt, civil rights, women's lib, moon walks, .. you name it, its in here.. Even Johnny Carson. I cant think of a reason that I don't like the book, except that perhaps it could have gone on a little longer, but what would be even better would be a sequel... with perhaps the children of the Wednesday sisters?.. sounds good to me.

updated list

8 of 2008 challenge
old dead guys
1. sir walter scott- Ivanhoe
2. john Steinbeck- Cannery Row
3. Bram Stoker-Dracula
4. Ernest Hemmingway- a farewell to arms
5. D. H. Laurence- lady Chatterley’s lover
6. charles dickens- a tale of two cities
7. mark twain- a yankee in king Arthur’s court
8. James Joyce- Ulysses

Crazy dead ladies
1. L. M. Montgomery- Anne of green Gables
2. edith Wharton- the old maid
3. Iris Murdoch- Under the net
4. Jane austen- Mansfield park
5. edna Ferber- giant
6. pearl s. buck- pavilion of woman
7. irène Némirovsky-suite francaise
8. george elliot- Middlemarch

Mystery Mystery
1. Arturo perez reverte the Flanders panel
2. Agatha christie- and then there were none
3. janet evanovich- four to score
4. sue graffton- h is for homicide
5. laura lipman- the last place
6. kate mosse- the labyrinth
7. janet evanovitch-High Five
8. Jasper fforde- Thursday next

The books that take up shelf room
1. J. D salenger- Fanney and Zooey
2. Zadie smith- The autograph man
3. John Barth- The Floating Opera
4 Kristine and joyce Atkinson- The short life and mysterious death of amy zoe mason
5. sue monk kidd- the secret life of bees
6 mark Helprin- Freddy and Fredericka
7. Kent haruf- eventide
8. Tim o’brien- The things they carried

Books I waited all of 2007 to read
1. John Kennedy o’toole Confederacy of dunces
2. banana Yoshimoto- kitchen
3. Mark Helprin- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
4. CArlos Ruiz Zafón- Shadow of the wind
5. Rohinton Mistry- A fine balance
6. rebecca wells- the ya-yas in bloom
7. joanne harris-coastliners
8. Geraldine brooks- March

Sci fi/ Fantasy
1. Gregory Maguire- son of a witch
2. Robert A. Heinlein- Stranger in a strange land
3. J. k. Rowling- Harry Potter
4. J.rr Tolkien- lord of the rings(the fellowship)
5. ray Bradbury- Fahrenheit 451
6. Audrey Niffinegger- the time travelers wife
7. phillp Pullman- the golden compass
8 gregory Maguire- wicked

Books to movies
1. Anne prolux- The Shipping News
2. Boris Pasternak- Dr. Zhivago,
3. David Guterson-Snow Falling on cedars
4. Toni Morison- Beloved
5. Charles Frazer- cold Mountain
6. Richard Russo- Empire Falls
7. Sebastien Japrisot- A very long engagement
8. Tom Perrotta-Little Children

ARC and book club
1Stephen King- Duma Key
2 Nicole krauss- history of love
3 l.j. sellers- the sex club
4 Candice bushnell- lipstick jungle
5 Elizabeth Noble- Things I want my daughters to know
6 Meg Waite Clayton-The Wednesday sisters
7 Lori Handeland -Any given Doomsday
8, Katherine Neville- The Fire

king of horror

ok.. so im almost 30 years old.. and im just now reading my very first stephen king book.. and its not even one of his "classics".. its the new one Duma Key.. and i like it(Haha). What did i think when my friend picked it as one of our "together faraway" books?.. i thought"groan groan groan.. because my other option was the kite runner and i have no interest in that what so ever.

back to duma key... im 442 pages into it.. never felt like throwing it away, putting it down never to pick up again, or afraid to keep going.... the plot is fun, its full of symbolism, its very modern.. perhaps it may even have a bit of king's personal anguish after he had his own accident back in "99". Anyway, there is a lot of freaky stuff in there.

People have told me that kings older stuff is better.. better how? they can't say,... but they say i should try it. Someone told me that the Stand was his all time best but can't give me a reason why. perhaps next year ill give it a try.

Other stuff im reading... i finished Flanders Panel. i was disappointed because i thought it was going to be more enlightening,.. but it kind of ended up being an average murder mystery... a sort of easy one at that, because i was half right about the who donnit... i was only wrong about the accomplice.

I finished reading Kitchen. For me it was a major bomb... good thing it was short or i may have given up on it and never gone back.. the only thing that was even remotely redeeming was the last part, it was a separate entity... and it was lovely.

I have also picked up the 4th stephanie plum mystery.. FUNNY! I think that is ok that the mysteries in these books are not so thought provoking and worthy of so much contemplation because lets be serious for a moment, how many books do you have an armature getting into all kinds of scrapes.. and having a cross dresser and a no games ex prostitute as sidekicks.. and lets not forget grandma here.. haha.. love it

that's about it.. what next?.. not sure yet. lets play it one at a time.

Bad blogger!!!!!!

ok.. so im not so good at this blogging thing.. i have a hard time keeping up.. finding time ,.. and thinking of things to say...i still think its a fun way to carry on about all the good and bad things i read .. and so i will continue.

for starters, this year i have decided that im not going to do a weird personal challenge like reading only books that were written by women.. i spent some time before the new year started and i found a really good, and hard challenge.. its 8 of 08.. ie, 8 books in each of 8 category's, in the year 2008.. very cool... i found it here on this site

http://triple8challenge.blogspot.com/

here is what i picked, to read.. the pink ones are done...and im having a blast doing it!!!

8 of 2008 challenge

old dead guys
1. sir walter scott- Ivanhoe
2. john Steinbeck- Cannery Row
3. F. Scott Fitzgerald- Tender is the night
4. Ernest Hemmingway- a farewell to arms
5. D. H. Laurence- lady Chatterley’s lover
6. charles dickens- a tale of two cities
7. mark twain- a yankee in king Arthur’s court
8. James Joyce- Ulysses

Crazy dead ladies
1. Virginia Wolffe- Mrs Dollaway
2. edith Wharton- the old maid
3. Iris Murdoch- Under the net
4. Jane austen- Mansfield park
5. edna Ferber- giant
6. pearl s. buck- pavilion of woman
7. irène Némirovsky-suite francaise
8. george elliot- Middlemarch

Mystery Mystery
1. Sir Arthur conan Doyle- Sherlock Holmes
2. Agatha christie- and then there were none
3. janet evanovich- four to score
4. sue graffton- h is for homicide
5. laura lipman- the last place
6. kate mosse- the labyrinth
. kate atkenson- one good turn
8. l.j. sellers- the sex club

The books that take up shelf room
1. J. D salenger- Fanney and Zooey
2. Zadie smith- The autograph man
3. John Barth- The Floating Opera
4 wally lamb- shes come undone
5. sue monk kidd- the secret life of bees
6 Rohinton Mistry- A fine balance
7. Kent haruf- eventide
8. Tim o’brien- The things they carried

Something new
1. Elizabeth Noble- Things I want my daughters to know
2. Jasper fforde- Thursday next
3. mark Helprin- Freddy and Fredericka
4. rebecca wells- the ya-yas in bloom
5. Mark Helprin- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
6. Gregory Maguire- son of a witch
7. Geraldine brooks- March
8. CArlos Ruiz Zafón- Shadow of the wind

Books I waited all of 2006 to read
1. John Kennedy o’toole Confederacy of dunces
2. banana Yoshimoto- kitchen
3. umberto echo- the name of the rose
4. jonathan saffron foer- everything is illuminated
5. Nicole krauss- history of love
6. Christopher moore- the stupidest angel
7. joanne harris-coastliners
8. Arturo perez reverte the Flanders panel

Sci fi/ Fantasy
1. Stephen King- Duma Key
2. Robert A. Heinlein- Stranger in a strange land
3. J. k. Rowling- Harry Potter
4. J.rr Tolkien- lord of the rings(the fellowship)
5. ray Bradbury- Fahrenheit 451
6. Audrey Niffinegger- the time travelers wife
7. phillp Pullman- the golden compass
8 gregory Maguire- wicked

Books to movies
1. Anne prolux- The Shipping News
2. Boris Pasternak- Dr. Zhivago,
3. mona simpson- anywhere but here
4. Toni Morison- Beloved
5. Charles Frazer- cold Mountain
6. Richard Russo- Empire Falls
7. Candice bushnell- lipstick jungle
8. chuck Palahniuk-fight club

vamps live, and jim crow must die!!!!!

ok,.. i know im late at writing.. but i have good reasons!

1. I turned old!!!! i celebrated turning 29 on 10/23... and thanks to my very good friend kelly... it wasn't as awful as i thought it would be.. but darn it i just keep thinking that i would so much like to be 24 again!

2. I lost and then started a new job! Never thought id be back in full retail again but here i am .. slaving away in a huge clothing store(i won't name names).

3. we began stage 2 of our house demolish/rebuild project.. not fun at all.. we hope to be done and everything pretty again by xmas.. my fingers are crossed!!!

4. i was too busy to write because i received 2 really awesome ARC's from algonquin publishing!!!

Book 1 was called Every last cukoo! and it was by a very nice lady named Kate maloy.. I know she has to be nice because not only did my contact with algonquin say she was.. but mrs. maloy took the time out of her busy life to send me a card thanking me for enjoying and reviewing her book... it was a blast for me.. so i think i got the better part of it all around. Her book was a lot about family vailues, and accepting change.. because it happens no matter what.. you can't always expect it.. but you do have to deal with it!

My next book was absolutely amazing.. called mudbound... and it was by a young lady named Hillary Jordan.. and boy did this book make me feel a million things all at once!!! it made me feel dirty, it made me feel so much anger, it made me feel pride, it made me blush, itmade me sad.. but most of all it made me cry.. this book is being championed by barbara kingsolver.. and for many good reasons too. this book will be out next march(2008) make sure you look for it.. it will amaze you too!!!!

ok.. so back to historian.. it was a pretty good book. i don't know how or why it got bashed like it did.. so there were a few parts that were a bit confusing.. but it was a hell of a tail.. and i couldn't wait to get to the end. some cool facts: the narator dosn't have a name, history repeats its self.. and boy is it good to get scared sometimes!! The last 100 pages or so was the best part of the story.. i would read the sequal if there was ever one to be wretten!!!

ok.. so thats that,.. time to head off to bed. ive got a pile of books im trying to trudge though.. but house stuff comes first!ick!

good night

Afraid of vamps

umm its never a good thing to read freaky books before bed! I have known that for years, but what i didn't know was that its not good to read books about vampires, eat cheesecake brownies and be stressed out before going to bed... Very bad combo!!!

so far im liking The Historian. We have been having lots of rainy dreary weather around here so it definately helps with the mood. im at page 90 and while there have been bits and pieces of action, there really dosn't seem to have been much going on. its not as bad as the whitney otto book though... ehh we will see

pink dosn't stink....

OK. .. i finished the secret history of the pink carnation last night. It didn't stink. it had a lot of good things in it. it kept my attention.. and so what if there was a bit too much romance thrown in.. that's what makes a good book a good book for some people.. not me though. I liked the little twist at the end. I'm not going to give anything away if that's what you are reading this blog to find out. you are just going to have to read the book for yourself.

OK. so its October now. its supposed to be a scary month full of ghouls and bumps in the night so i figure why not read a scary book too. I've already read the typical Dracula and Frankenstein.. so I'm getting a bit crazy this year. This year I'm taking on Elizabeth Kosteva's The historian. I didn't think i would ever crack this book.. mostly because of all the negative things i heard about it.. mostly that it was slow going and a bit boring.. but i am willing to at least try it. My friend Jen is going to read it along with me. we figure if we don't like it by page 100 then it will be time to give up on it. so far at page 18 it doesn't feel so bad yet.

pink pink you stink

Ha!

im reading the secret history of the pink carnation. I have mixed feelings on it. Im about half way done, still don't know the secret of the pink carnation.. which is what is keeping me reading. The stinky part of this book is that its got way too much romance in it. I could care less if the good guy spy is feeling up the hero chick or whatever.. i don't want to read about a kiss for three stinking pages.. it just doesn't do it for me. im sure that when i get to the end of the book ill have lots to say. but for now im just happy that i know that romance like this does not happen in real life, and for those who think it does and are expecting it.... well its not ever going to be that way so stop waiting!!!