“Conversations with the Fat Girl” by Liza Palmer

A book about an overweight woman who tries to find herself and to believe in herself.

I just wanted to write a quick little thought about this book – the main character has a friend she’s had since high school who turns out to be rather rude as her new slim self and lets down the main character time after time.  I have a couple friends like this – or maybe I should say had as I haven’t spoken to them in a while – who always would say they would do something and then back out. It hurt me a lot and still hurts me a little to think that they don’t seem to want to be friends anymore.  I guess, as the main character, realizes, you shouldn’t base your happiness on the rudeness of others. You should just let it go and move on. I’m trying.

“Unless” by Carol Shields

Finished this book over the weekend.

This is a book about a writer whose eldest daughter decides to live on the streets of Toronto with a sign over her saying “Goodness”.

It was a good book – the writer in the story tries to figure out what happened. What happened to cause her daughter to just end her life the way it was and start begging for money on the streets and live in a homeless shelter.

There is one quote in the book that I really liked – it’s on p.89 “A trick of pereption may have fooled Norah into believing that life is too full to be embraced and too beautiful to bear.” I felt like I could understand that. There is just too much to see and do and there is so much good that can be done, but you feel entirely helpless to accomplish all of it so why bother do any of it at all. There were certainly times I’ve felt that way. Not so much anymore. A lot of us strive to do good in our lives and so I hope that I’m at least doing a little bit of good – and raising my children to want to do good too.

I decided to give it 4 stars out of 5.  It is a very quick read.

Books of 2009…so far

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here, so I thought I’d put another post up – about the topic I posted with a lot before – the books I’ve read.

Here are the books I’ve read so far this year…

1. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Enjoyed this book. It’s the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series the show True Blood is based off of. The series is just one nice fun read.

2. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris

Again – enjoy the series.

3. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

4. Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris

5. Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

6. Waiting for Daisy by Peggy Orenstein

This was a really interesting book about a couple trying to have a child.

7. Confessions of a Slacker Wife by Muffy Mead-Ferro

Sometimes funny, sometimes not.

8. Confessions of a Slacker Mom by Muffy Mead-Ferro

Ditto to 7.

9. Down Came the Rain by Brooke Shields

A really good book for those who want to understand what it is like to have post-partum depression.

10. Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich

Nice fluffy book.

11.The Other Mother by Gwendolen Gross

Eh.

12.It Sucked and Then I Cried by Heather Armstrong

Hilarious while at the same time sometimes serious book.

13.American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

I was annoyed when she skipped over a big part (at least to me) on how it was decided he would run for governor, then president.

14.Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

Love some Sookie!

15. Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange

Blech.

16. Guilty Pleasures by Laurell Hamilton

A fun read and I think I’ll have to read others in the series at some point. Though at first, I thought I might like these better than Sookie, I like Sookie better – though they are different types of books even if they both involve vampires.

17. Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Excellent book about a woman who has early-onset Alzheimer’s.

18. Conversations with the Fat Girl by Liza Palmer

It was alright. A book about a supposedly overweight woman who learns to love herself.

19 and current book. Unless by Carol Shields (book club selection for a book club I might join)

Almost done with this book. I’ll have more to say on this one later.

Next up – 20. Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (book club selection for book club I started)

Then I have 3 library books out right now and 1 more on hold for me at the library and another one on the way. Seriously. Why do they come all at once? I’m not going to be able to read all of them with book club books to read and only 3 weeks to read the library books.

They are:

Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

The Philosophical Baby byAlison Gopnik

Wonder Woman by Jodi Picoult

Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

Anyone have these books that I could just borrow from them at a later time?

B-bye 2008

I was on such a roll with reading books this past year that I thought I would be able to read 52 books in one year, but then I just slowed down and eventually stopped reading. So I ended up reading 37 books in 2008 – that’s better than 2007! I’m wondering if my goal for 2009 should be just to beat the number I read in 2009,  so I’ll try that. I am starting to get back into reading. I’m currently reading Book 1 of the Sookie Stackhouse series.  Jon and I just finished watching all of the episodes of True Blood (series based on the books).  I enjoyed the series and everytime I hear the theme song, it makes me want to sing Chris Isaak’s “Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing”. I actually thought at first that Chris Isaak was singing the theme song to True Blood.

After trying to get pregnant for about 5 years and having to do IVF in order to get pregnant in the first place, it was a surprise to find out my body actually knew how to get pregnant.  We’re sure Ben & Ella did some repair work while in the womb because it is not because we just relaxed!

Jon and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in 2008.

In 2008, Ben & Ella turned 1 year old.  They are almost 19 months old as I write this. They are typical toddlers and get into everything and make a mess in our house. They fight with each other over all sorts of things, including books and toys and pieces of paper. They also will share too.  I hope that they won’t be too jealous when baby #3 arrives.(Funny, I was just reading a post that I wrote 1 year ago today and in one of my comments, I said that Benjamin is a big fan of the letter B – he says so many words that start with the letter B – ball, baby, boo – I think some others. The post was about Benjamin saying mommy – both children definitely say mommy now).

I also went to Las Vegas for the first time in my life. It was extremely hot there at the time since Kelly and I went during the summer, but I had an enjoyable time. I missed my children a lot though. I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere in quite some time – except to Spokane to visit my family!

2008 also brought us an exciting election in which a woman was running for President and a black man won. 

That’s all I can think of. Welcome 2009! I know one thing that will happen this year – the birth of my third child. I’m excited and nervous about it all at the same time. Read more on my other blog.

Book #37

Book #37 was “How I Became Stupid” by Martin Page. It started out interesting, but it didn’t end up that way. I can’t say I liked it too much. The ending seemed stupid and abrupt – was that how the person ended up becoming stupid? Anyway, I wouldn’t recommend though it is supposedly an international bestseller, so there must be some that liked it.

Lately, I haven’t been reading much. Just not feeling into it,but hopefully, I can finish the year strong.

Election & Initiatives, Props, Referendums, etc.

There are several initiatives or referendums or propositions, etc. that voters are voting on today across the country that I’m anxious to see how they turn out. There are a couple that pretty much deal with the issue of abortion (CO and SD), there’s the one in CA about same sex marriages, and, then there’s the one in WA on assisted suicide. There’s also one in MI that would allow people to donate embryos left over from fertility treatments to research.

Then there’s the presidential election – my pick is Obama. And the governor’s race in WA is probably going to be another close one – hopefully not close enough that Seattle (though really King County) will be blamed for “stealing” the election. Notice how steal is underlined. I voted for Gregoire this time (maybe last time too though I know I came close to voting for Rossi).

I look forward to watching the results tonight. It seems like an exciting day and I am so glad it’s finally here (for many different reasons).

Book #36 of 2008

Finished book #36 last week – it was called “I was Told there’d be cake” by Sloane Crosley.  It was a funny book. That’s about all I have to say. Not much of a review really.

Next up, I chose this book simply because it was short and I’m trying to get as close to 52 books this year as possible. The book is called “How I Became Stupid” by Martin Page.

Book #34 and #35 of 2008

Yes, there is no way I’m completing 52 books this year. Too bad because I was on track for that in the beginning.

Anyway, book #34 was Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris – it was an alright book.
Book #35 was Sleeping Arrangements by Madeleine Wickham (aka Sophie Kinsella of the Shopaholic books) – it was eh.

Currently, I’m reading When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. So far, I’ve liked his other book I read better (Naked), but it’s still alright. I have another book waiting for me at the library called I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley. Sounds like it could be funny. After that, I must try to read really, really short books to attempt to make it to #52.

Book #33 – “Fearless Fourteen” by Janet Evanovich

Finished book #33 last night – I always enjoy a Stephanie Plum novel.

Book #34 is “Then We Came to the End” by Joshua Ferris.

Election 2008

I was watching the Republican convention last night – listening to Romney, Huckabee, Guiliani and VP nominee Palin. Just a few quick observations – I really should take notes of the things I want to say, but that is hard when you have toddlers to watch at the same time. I’ll just write about what stands out at the moment.

First, can Guiliani go one speech without mentioning 9/11 or will he just explode if it isn’t mentioned? And they had the background of NYC skyline behind him the whole time. I suppose that was to remind us about it as well. I used to think he was o.k. – he has some viewpoints that are similar to my own particularly on social issues – but the guy just bugs me now. I just think he’s an ass – who tells their wife they want a divorce in a press conference? There’s more to it than that, but we’ll save that for another time (maybe I’ll get around to writing it).

Second, Palin was a good speaker. She knows how to deliver her speeches. However, she could be just mean with her little “jokes”. Both Guiliani and Palin attack Barack and other community organizers. What the hell? How stupid was that really? There are a lot of community organizers throughout history that had responsibility – that made tough decisions – that made a difference, and they put them down? Is that supposed to attract voters? In a comment to one article I was reading, someone said that it made it seem as though they think elected officials are the only ones of any value.

Then, one of the speakers, can’t remember who, said at least she has experience at the executive level so they didn’t have the final decision on something (there is no “present” button) – Obama and Biden can’t say that. Well, guess what, neither can McCain. So are they attacking him too? So that really isn’t much of an argument in my opinion. If the past (nearly) 8 years has taught me anything – executive experience doesn’t have anything to do with having a competent administration. So let’s just take away the experience argument on both sides.

I read an interesting op-ed piece from Gloria Steinem about Sarah Palin that seems like a good read.

Oh, and Huckabee saying that Palin got more votes in her run as mayor in her hometown than Biden got at all in his run for President. What a lie.

Some more lies.