111 in '11 Challenge

Choosing to participate in this challenge was a no-brainer for me -- plus what a pretty little icon the host has created!  I'm considering making the challenge for myself to read *only* 111 books in 2011, but who are we kidding?  :)  And there's prizes!

1.  Secrets of the Black Box by Amanda Wolfe
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5.

Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge 2011

I've been thinking that I'd like to re-read my Agatha Christie collection and I'd also like to read more Dorothy L. Sayers (I think I've really only read some of her essays, never her novels.)  So I thought this challenge, reading mysteries written before 1960, would fit well with those desires.  The challenge is hosted by Bev over at My Reader's Block.

I'm aiming for the  Take 'Em to Trial level -- 16+ books.

2011 Futuristic/SciFi Reading Challenge -- my sign-up post

Tasha over at Book Obsessed says:
The goal of this challenge is to read novels that take place in the future or on an alternate planet. Your books can be of any format (ie. paperback, ebook, audiobook, etc.). No short stories. Re-reads and crossovers from other reading challenges are fine. You can list your books in advance or list them as you read them. 

I'm going to aim for the "dweller" level -- 12 futuristic/sci fi novels by the end of 2011.  In some ways, I feel like this is a genre I read frequently and yet I also feel like 12 might be a stretch for me.  This challenge will give me a chance to see how often I really do read books that fall into this genre.

1. the first in the Ender's Game series (which I also hope to count for the 1st in a series challenge)
2.
3.
4.

1st in a Series Challenge 2011 -- my sign-up post

This challenge is hosted by Katy over at A Few More Pages.

I think I'm going to for for the Series Fanatic Level, which means I am supposed to read 20 books that are the first in any series.  Any genre counts.

The challenge runs from January 1 through December 31, 2011 and can join anytime.

Some of my preliminary ideas:
1.  Whatever the first Sookie Stackhouse is called -- my friend Cathy is after me to give them a try.
2. a re-read of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
3. Whichever is the first 32 Clues book, because it seems like I should at least have a basic idea of what they are about.
4.Whatever the first Ender's game book is -- I'm thinking Ender's Game?  :)  One of my oldest friends loves Orson Scott Card and I really should give him a try
5.Secrets of the Black Box (The Silver Lining Trilogy)by Amanda Wolfe (I know I'll read this one as it was sent to me to review.)
6. ?

It seems like I should have a more complete list than that, but I'm pretty confident that I'll read at least 20 firsts in 2011.

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Image via Wikipedia

I'm not even sure how to start this blog post.  I'm in a really, really low place in my life.  I feel alone, I feel aching sadness, I feel deep grief, and I feel raging anger.  I feel abandoned and unwanted, I can't imagine how to make this new life work and I'm scared to death of the future.

At the same time, I feel so supported, so cared for, so lucky, and so blessed.  I can't begin to make a complete list of the people and things I'm thankful for.  People who have known me for years, new friends, and a few I've not even met, from very close by, from across the country, and in a few other countries, are the only reason I'm still keeping my head above water.  I know I keep saying that but it just really is the essence of my life right now.  I'm so sad and I'm so scared, but if I try just a little I remember that there are some people out there who love me and think I have some redeeming qualities.

I know I'm gonna need to figure out how to make it and I know there is a lot for me learn.  I know there are going to be some more amazingly hard things thrown at me.  But sometimes I think that maybe some good things will come as well -- it's just harder to imagine what those things are. As I said a few months ago, I'm pretty sure that the tears of the recent past have brought me a few more lines on my face, but I'm trying to have faith that the world has more laugh lines in store for me as well.  I'm thankful for hope.

I'm thankful for running water and the cat who is currently between me and the back of my chair.
I'm thankful for friends who open their hearts & homes to me.
I'm thankful for my daughter who is healthy, kind, and strong.
I'm thankful for phone calls, e-mails, letters, and care packages.
I'm thankful for those who give me the benefit of the doubt.
I'm thankful that life is both so short and so long and I hope I can remember both of those aspects.
I'm just so thankful, so gol-durned thankful for love.

Image via Wikipedia

I'm thankful for people who believe there is goodness out there for me and tell me so -- and for those who believe there is goodness in me and tell me so.
I'm thankful for people who get that I know it could all be so much worse -- and yet get that it still all sort of sucks at this moment in time.
I'm thankful for really cozy blankets and deep bathtubs.
I 'm thankful for hand-me-down jeans that feel good on my body and for crafty projects to work on and for the crafty friends who help me learn new skills.
I'm thankful for pretty peaceful snow falling from the sky.
I'm thankful for sleep and for chapstick.
I'm thankful for lotion and safe neighborhoods.
I'm thankful for bills that are slowly being paid off and customer service people who are kind to me on the phone.
I'm thankful for people who are kind to my daughter and who are walking alongside her in this time of change.
I'm thankful for clean mirrors and fun socks.
I'm thankful for you if you are reading this and feeling compassionate.
I'm thankful for ridiculous songs I can sing along to and I'm thankful for new possibilities, even if I can't envision them right now.
I'm thankful for my grandparents and the presence they were in my life. 
I'm thankful that I'm here today, able to live and love and try and fail and try again and be thankful.

Quote of the Day -- Creativity lives in the unknown

Transition and change bring us into the unknown -- where creativity lives -- and from this unknown, we can create in our lives that which did not exist before.  We can initiate and respond to life-changing events or internal uneasiness with creativity and resourcefulness and create a life of meaning and purpose.  So instead of fighting the currents in our river, instead of longing for the stability of the shore, we can flow with the river, finding our own unique way to make the journey.

~page 6, Becoming a Life Change Artist: Seven Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life by Fred Mandell, Ph.D. & Kathleen Jordan, Ph.D.

Friday 56: The Summer of the Great-Grandmother

From Storytime with Tonja and Friends

Rules:

* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

It was not just a bad headache; it was a cerebral hemorrhage, and Liz was dead before morning.  Liz died on the twenty-sixth of November.  The funeral was on the twenty-ninth:  my birthday. 

~The Summer of the Great-Grandmother by Madeleine L'Engle

Cover of The Summer of the Great-Grandmother

I had this book sitting by the computer waiting to be reviewed -- with lots of little strips of paper sticking out where I found phrases or paragraphs I especially liked.  It's a work of non-fiction about the summer L'Engle's mother died.

My world is not the world of L'Engle's family -- children eating dinner separately, trips to the Continent, summer houses, hanging out with the Empress of France or General Custer, owning a house with a marble privy designed by Thomas Jefferson -- but nonetheless I can identify with some of her thoughts and experiences. 

L'Engle came to my college when I was a student there.  I attended her lecture, but remember very little -- mostly an image of a scarf -- so I guess it was winter -- but I don't know if it was her scarf, mine, or my friend Steve's.  I've read more of her writing in my last 15 years than I did in my first 20 and wish I had the opportunity to hear that lecture all over again -- I think it would mean something different to me now.

Some more snippets I wanted to share...

I realize, with a pang, how privileged we are to be able to keep my mother with us.  This is how it should be, but what would I do if we lived in a tiny home and did not have the girls and Clara to help?   . . .  And even though we have room, and the girls to help us, there are still those who think that my mother should be put away.  Put away.  Everything in me revolts at the idea.  But my belief that we are supposed to share all of life with each other, dying and decay as well as feasting and fun, is being put to the test. (p 28)

. . . I do not think that a house can be a happy house if no one has cried in it, if no one has died in it.  If this seems contradictory, I can't help it.  I rebel against death, yet I know that it is how I respond to death's inevitability that is going to make me less or more fully alive. (p 23-9)

I'm much more use to family and friends when I'm not physically and spiritually depleted than when I spend my energies as though they were unlimited.  They are not. (p 46-7)

The mother of my childhood and adolescence and very young womanhood existed for me solely as mother, and I suppose it is inescapable that for a long time we know our parents only as parents, that their separate identity as full persons in their own right unfolds only gradually, if at all. (p 88)

If I have to conform to provable literalism I not only rebel, I propose immediate revolution.  How do I make more than a fumbling attempt to explain that faith is not legislated, that it is not a small box which works twenty-four hours a day?  If I "believe"for two minutes once every month or so, I'm doing well. (p 142)

I prayed very badly in church yesterday.  I often pray badly when I try to say my prayers at home.  But if I stop going to church, no matter how mad church makes me, if I stop praying at home, no matter how futile it sometimes seems, then "real" prayer is never going to come.  (p 144)

 

WWW Wednesday -- September 1, 2010

To play along, just answer the following three questions……

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you will read next?

Currently reading:

• We the Children by Andrew Clements 
• Claim to Fame by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Cover via Amazon

Recently finished:

• The Roar by Emma Clayton
• Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris by R.L. Travers
• Miss or Mrs?, The Haunted Hotel, The Guilty River by Wilkie Collins
• The Firefly Letters by Margarita Engle 

Up Next:

• Faith, Hope, and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Steering the Craft:  Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew by Ursula K. Le Guin
  

Wrapping up Tattooed Books' YALSA Challenge

You can read Tattooed Books' original post about the challenge here.  And mine is here.

There are 3 different levels to the challenge.

Solo:  1-8 books

Duet:  9-17 books

Three-Part Harmony: 18-26 books

My original plan:

Cover via Amazon

I've already read:

Cashore, Kristin. Fire

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire

Fisher, Catherine. Incarceron

Fitzpatrick, Becca. hush, hush

Stiefvater, Maggie. Shiver

Westerfeld, Scott. Leviathan 
Red -- don't read.  Purple -- must read.  Black -- hard to say.

I think I'd like to read:

Cover of Heist Society

Carter, Ally. Heist Society
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Wintergirls
Dessen, Sarah. Along for the Ride
Forman, Gayle. If I Stay
Clayton, Emma. The Roar
Tanigawa, Nagaru. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya    



I started reading The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya yesterday and just didn't care a single bit about the story.  After which I didn't even try Along for the Ride.  I'm sure my bad attitude was at least somewhat related to the fact that I'd just finished The Roar, which also didn't captivate me -- I wanted to be reading something that didn't feel like a waste of the precious hours of my life.  :)

Other than those two books, though, I've definitely enjoyed this challenge and am glad I took part.  I'm also glad I still completed the duet level!

Book Beginnings -- The Roar by Emma Clayton

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

Cover of Roar

I read The Roar by Emma Clayton for Tattooed Books' YALSA Challenge.   First sentence:

The sun was setting over the Atlantic, and as it ran like molten gold into the waves a girl in a Pod Fighter ripped through the scene like graffiti sprayed across a landscape painting.

I just didn't love this book.  It's 481 pages and I found myself plodding through it.    I don't even think I'll pick up the next one in the series, assuming there is one -- and that is rare for me, to not continue with a series. Have others read this and had a different experience? 

Teaser Tuesday -- Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading and asks you to :
1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3 . Share 2 "teaser" sentences also citing the title of the book and the author and in that way people can have great recommendations if they like the "teaser".
4. Please avoid spoilers!

Nobody here is Cassie.   I'm safe. 

~ p. 92, Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Brutal, harsh, and relentless.  Laurie Halse Anderson (author of Speak) has crafted a very intense YA novel about Lia, an eighteen-year-old who is anorexic.  Lia's once best friend (the aforementioned Cassie) dies and Lia struggles to remain in "control" while deeply desiring positive connections with her mother, father, stepmother and stepsister. 

I would be curious to hear what someone who has struggled with an eating disorder (or those close to them) would have to say about the story.  The way that different people chose to respond to Lia and to her anorexia and cutting reminded me of Still Alice -- in that I'm fascinated by the variety of possible responses to a given crisis and how incredibly difficult it is to know which response is most helpful or effective in the long term. 

The Elijah character ever so slightly didn't work for me -- but it may be that Anderson just made him so real and three-dimensional that I was sad and disappointed -- You know, just like real-life with real-life people. 

I would certainly recommend this book -- Anderson really gets inside Lia's mind and helps make sense of anorexia for those who have never been there.

Teaser Tuesday -- Heist Society by Ally Carter

 Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Cover of Heist Society

 "I'm going to miss our little chats, Katarina.  You should know that it's out of respect for your mother's family that I have tried to do this in the most honorable way possible." 

~p. 149,  Heist Society by Ally Carter

This was a read for Tattooed Books' YALSA Challenge.  It was a lot of fun to read -- just what I needed right now.  Katarina Bishop wants to leave the only world she's ever known -- thievery and con games with her family -- to lead a normal life -- after one last con, getting herself into a high profile boarding school.  Once in, though, she learns that her father has been accused of a crime he didn't commit.  She finds herself assembling a team to save her father's life and re-steal some extremely valuable paintings.

I love all the names she and her friends have for the various cons -- Mary Poppins, Five O'Clock Shadow, Smokey the Bear, etc., and the one line comments about them.  The whole book reminded me of Oceans Eleven but with a much younger cast -- just as much fun and just as much not like my life.  :)

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Read this for the YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) challenge over at Tattooed Books.  It's pretty short (196 pages).  Seventeen-year-old Mia is in a car accident -- her mother, father, and younger brother are all killed and she is in a coma, but can watch what is happening. She has to decide if she wants to stay with all the goodness that is still in her life (grandparents, boyfriend & best friend, a love for music) or let herself die because of how hard she knows it will be to go on without her family.

I have a feeling that the story line requires too much (un)willing suspension of disbelief for some readers, but I was up for it and liked it.  Who else has read this one?

Book stack for the 48 hour reading challenge -- also a note to more regular readers

I'm starting with a stack of ten options to choose from throughout the 48 hours.  I leave open the possibility that I may pull from a different pile at some point, but these are the starter books, the books that I've specifically set aside for the challenge.

Nine library books, one that I own (and that will be a re-read).  Two juvenile novels, two YA, four non-fiction.  A good mix of goodness.  I may still get a title that is being sponsored and if so, that book will most likely become priority number one to read. 

I haven't made nearly as much concrete plans for food as I did for the 24 hour read-a-thon a few months ago.  Hopefully that will all work itself out on its own -- maybe with some extra produce if my husband and daughter go to the farmers' market on Saturday.  Finances also feel even sketchier now than they did then but I do have home-made pizza dough in the freezer, so that may happen at some point during the weekend. 

I have an appointment in the morning, so I won't be starting as early as I might have liked.  I also will not have the computer during most of the day, so won't be posting much til evening.  I expect to start sometime after noon and before 2:00 p.m. on Friday. 



I also wanted to let those of you who are more regular readers know that I've changed the requirements for posting comments-- you no longer need to have (or use) a google account to comments!  So comment away.  :)

Challenge from Tattooed Books -- YALSA nominees

Over at Tattooed Books there is a very tempting challenge --

Every year, YALSA (the Young Adult Library Services Association) polls 15 book clubs around the country about what books they think should make the list of the best teen books published in the last year. This year there are 26 nominees that teens (12-18) can vote on between August 23rd and September 17th. The Teen's Top Ten choices are announced during Teen Read Week in October. This year's theme for Teen Read Week is "Books with Beat."If you want more information on any of these events, please visit the YALSA website.  

There are 3 different levels to the challenge.

Solo:  1-8 books

Duet:  9-17 books

Three-Part Harmony: 18-26 books

I've already read:

Cashore, Kristin. Fire

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire

Fisher, Catherine. Incarceron

Fitzpatrick, Becca. hush, hush

Stiefvater, Maggie. Shiver

Westerfeld, Scott. Leviathan 
Red -- don't read.  Purple -- must read.  Black -- hard to say.


I think I'd like to read:
Carter, Ally. Heist Society
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Wintergirls
Dessen, Sarah. Along for the Ride
Forman, Gayle. If I Stay
Clayton, Emma. The Roar
Tanigawa, Nagaru. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya      

 So I guess that means I'm aiming for the Duet level!  Sadly, my library account is currently full of holds so I'll have to wait to start getting this list on hold til Tuesday when I go and pick up the holds that are waiting for me!

What to Eat, Halcyon Crane, and an overabundance of memes

I've finished my book for Tome's 500 page book challenge -- What to Eat by Marion Nestle.  It's not my favorite food-related non-fiction book I've ever read.  Nestle, a nutrition professor at NYU, certainly knows whereof she speaks, but apparently that wasn't enough to make me fall in love with this book.  I think it's a great book if you want to learn more about the politics of the food industry, labeling, product placement, etc., this is a great resource.  (As, I assume, would be Nestle's earlier book,  Food Politics.) 

I took this book along with me to various places while I was reading it.  When someone asked me about it, my response usually started with "The author is a nutrition prof at NYU and it's a very balanced book".  As funny as it is to admit, I think that very balanced approach is part, perhaps, of what turned me off.  Nestle acknowledges that there are very few hard and fast rules when it comes to food and maybe I like to have those hard and fast rules.  :)  I think I'd like to pick up Nina Planck's Real Food and Brian Wansink's Mindless Eating again and see if that helps me clarify what wasn't a draw for me in What to Eat.  I think this book would be a great pick for someone who hasn't thought much about basic nutrition, what influences food choices, why supermarkets are arranged the way they are, etc.

1. Grab the book nearest you right now. 

2. Turn to page 56.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like).  

5. Post a link with your post to Storytime with Tonya and Friends.

She looked nothing like the Jackie Kennedy mother I had imagined.  It was not quite my own face but very close to it.  Madlyn Crane had long wavy auburn hair like mine, which in this photograph was blowing in an unseen breeze.

~From The Tale of Halcyon Crane, by Wendy Webb

If I didn't have a doctor's appointment this morning, I just might have stayed up late to finish this one!

Hosted by My Little Life

This week's questions are:

1. Do you have an iPhone and, if so, how do you get apps and what are your favorites?

I don't have an iPhone.  If I did, I think I'd mostly just love the camera and being able to check my e-mail on it.  But owning one is definitely not on the top of my wishlist.

2. What is your fondest memory of K-3rd grade?

Hmmm....  I remember walking down the sloped, red-carpeted hallway to the library in Madison Elementary and singing "come-ah, come-ah, come-ah chameleon" and thinking I was pretty cool to "know" the words to that song.

3. What makes you cringe at the thought of touching?

I don't think I cringe very easily.  Probably anything that might bite me if the bite would have serious repercussions -- something poisonous, not just anything with teeth.

4. If you could have any celebrity show up on your doorstep who would it be and why?

Well, the first one that comes to mind is Pierce Brosnan.  I really don't have very many celebrity crushes at all, but I liked watching Remington Steele when I was little.  In addition to that, I really do think he's good people from everything I've read and heard.

5. What would you say is your best physical feature?

 I'm gonna go with my hair and fingernails, though I have no idea what others would say.

To Play:

Answer my question, go post your own question
on your blog, then go link up at An Island Life and visit the other
players and answer their questions.

My questions is: What are you looking forward to in June?

And my own (overly long) answer: 

 

June is going to be a great month around here. My daughter's last day of school is the 4th and my husband should be finished with all of his grading by then as well.   I'm participating in MotherReader's 48 hour book challenge the 4th-7th.  

On the 13th my daughter will have her first Theater Explorers class of the summer at the Arvada Center -- she took the same class last year and decided to use her birthday money to take it again this year.  She is looking forward to starting and my husband and I usually use the hour each Sunday afternoon to walk in the art gallery, talk together, align our schedules, and simply talk together. 

The 18th-20th we are going camping with a group from my attachment parenting discussion board.  This will be the fourth summer we've done this and it is always a good time.   It will be our first time at Rocky Mountain National Park and I'm glad we will get the chance to explore a little bit more of Colorado.

June 23rd will be one year since I was hit by a car.  I am thinking it would be nice to have a giant everyone invited party/potluck at our apartment to mark the occasion.  Then my in-laws arrive on the 26th for a week long visit and I'm definitely looking forward to that!

I'll close for now.  Snozz, if you are still reading, I'm impressed.  :)