Books of 2010…so far

So far, I’ve read 6 books this year. A few of these are kid books or young adult books, but there is nothing wrong with that. I’m still counting them in my goal of reading 52 books this year.

Thanks to goodreads for helping me keep track of the books I’ve read!

1. The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks – it was an alright book, but I don’t think I’ll be recommending it to anyone.

2. Dewey: The Small Town Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron – It was a cute story about a library cat named Dewey. As you might expect, it was rather sad and touching at the end so I shed a tear or two.

3.  A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris – Enjoyed the short stories though one of them happens after a book I haven’t read yet! Soon – I will finish that series soon, I hope.
4. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle – I read this book a long time ago and decided to re-read it as the next book’s main character is obsessed with the book. I enjoyed  the book, though I think I enjoyed it more as a kid. I got the entire series as a gift for Christmas this past year so hopefully, I’ll read the others soon.
5. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead – I’m not sure I’m going to recommend it for people to rush out to read, but I did enjoy it. It was a cute story. I did find it helpful that I re-read A Wrinkle in Time.
6. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich – Nice fluff read featuring Stephanie Plum.  Spoiler Alert comment below…
7. By The Time You Read This by Lola Jaye – This book I’m reading now. It’s about a girl who gets “The Manual” written by her dead father before he passed. She is to read each section on her birthday. So far, it’s a bit dull. I’m 119 pages into it.

I’ve also got 3 books from the library that I need to somehow read in 3 weeks. 1 of them is rather short, so that will help.

1. The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo – I’ve been waiting to read this one for a while and it finally became available at the library.
2. City of Bones by Cassanda Clare – My sister-in-law had read this series and said it was good, so I thought I would give it a try.
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins  – I’ve been waiting on this one for a while too.

Spoiler Alert Comment for #6 – I have to admit to being a little bummed that nothing happened between Ranger and Stephanie in this one though I am glad she may be back with Morrelli.

Books of 2009…continued

First 19 books of the year are on this post.

20. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd- I enjoyed this book. Good story about female relationships. The movie was alright.

21. Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella – It was a fun read. A good read when you just want a nice fluff read. That’s what Sophie Kinsella/Madeleine Wickham books are good for.

22. The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld – It was alright. I honestly can’t remember too much of this book right now to say more than that. perhaps I should write about them just after I read them like I used to.

23. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster – Sure, it’s a children’s book, but nothing wrong with reading it. I had never read it before and decided to join an online book club that was reading this book. I enjoyed the message it gave – well, there many – but one that I can think of is that there is so much to see in this world that we should enjoy it. Life is anything but boring.

24. The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs – It was an interesting book. I learned quite a bit about the Bible – there are some good rules in there (love thy neighbor) and some rather wacky ones (mixing certain types of clothing fibers is bad).  There was so much more I wanted to say about this book, but it’s been a while since I read it and of course, I didn’t keep notes on what I wanted to say.

25. Julie & Julia by Julie Powell – It was an alright book. I certainly could not have done what she did for numerous reasons – One, I could not have eaten some of the things she did. Two, I hate to cook. Third, I just don’t have that kind of time or patience (though, she didn’t have a lot of patience either sometimes).

26. What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen – Incredible story. I don’t know how she didn’t know she was pregnant – I will never be able to figure that out with many stories I hear along these lines (though after watching a show called I didn’t know I was pregnant – I now get it with some women). I’m just glad that the little baby is o.k. and that her mom grew to love her new child. In some ways, I can understand her fear of having the child especially after what had happened in those first few months of pregnancy and what the doctors kept telling her, but I guess it is hard for me to quite understand almost having an abortion when near the last trimester or even considering adoption when her fiance/husband wanted the child.

27. The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell – I expected this book to be more humourous than it was. The last book I had read of hers was funny. This one was at times, but not as much as the other one. However, it was a good read. I certainly learned more about this country’s history that I didn’t know. This is why I usually likes these kind of books – they tell me history in a humourous way. Though I love reading about history without the humor too.

28. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein – LOVED this book. I just loved reading about Enzo and his story. I plan to give this book away as gifts this year to a couple different people. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did. It is a story told from the viewpoint of a dog named Enzo.

29. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – I really liked this book. It is a story narrated by Death about a girl who comes to live with her foster parents during Nazi Germany.

30. Currently reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer – This is the next book club selection in my book club. So far, I’m only 52 pages into it, but I think I can finish it before the end of the year despite having a few days off before the end of the year (I usually read in my vanpool to and from work). Unfortunately, I won’t be able to go to the next book club meeting.

I really hope I can finish 52 books next year. One of these years I will finish 52 books in one year. Hopefully, 2010 is my year.

“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.