Thanks,
Kim, for starting us off! I was so tempted to do it on 12/30 when I was online, but knew that wasn't fair...unfortunately, I haven't had time to post while home during break. So much clean-up and sleeping to catch up on after we got home from my parents!
I'll try my best to respond to as many as I can, but there's a lot of posting for so early in the month--
not that I'm complaining! I'm
SO glad to have our little reading corner here!
I get such wonderful ideas from you all!
Kim, I hear you on books with teeth! I love a book named
Ex-Libris (the MLA is changing to italics instead of underlining, so I'm practicing!), but it's by Anne Fadiman. It's a bunch of short biographical essays about being a book lover. I really respect your plans for devotionals--wish I could carve out more time in the day for that in my life. It's so important to me, but every day somehow goes by without my managing it. I've been trying to fit in meditation time, too, and that hasn't happened yet, either, unless you count meditating to sleep while cuddling the dog...
Cyndi, it sounds like you've made some really good changes in your life in terms of exercise, but it's a shame to lose reading time. Can you listen to books on tape while you exercise? I love listening to podcasts on my iPod. If I were less cheap, I'd buy some audio books to do that with, too! My library actually has a way of "renting" mp3 audio books, but it doesn't work with iPods.
Yay for light reading! I did a bunch of it recently and it's been so much fun and really cleared my mind for other things.
Jenski, I'm so glad you liked
Prospect Street! I got it at a used book sale, but I'm definitely going to be looking out for more books by the author. It was such an engaging book--so hard to put down! I loved the story and now I'm dying to go check out that area of WADC!
I'm sure it doesn't hurt that I'm fascinated by restoration of old houses. Oh, and history and genealogy, too.
Murphy, how did your surgery go? Hope you're okay!
I've heard most adults say that they could finish the entire
Twilight series in a couple days. A couple of my adult friends loved it, but most just said it was okay. It's great to know what your kids/students are into by experiencing it yourself, though.
Lightfello, you picked two great books to read! I bet you'll like
The Secret Life of Bees even
more than
Keeper, though both are wonderful. I love anything Picoult writes even though some of them are bigger favorites than others.
Frannie, what did you think about
The Lucky One? I've enjoyed many of Sparks' books, but some of the latest ones haven't been as good, IMHO. I really like
The Lucky One, though I felt like scoffing at some of it. Maybe I'm getting too cynical?
I consider it worth reading, though...it's got great suspense, lots of wonderful dog scenes, an excellent villian (though the ending wasn't as good as it could have been in terms of him), and a sweet love story. Oh, and I just loved the character of Nana. She was hilarious!
Cottage, I predict that you will LOVE
Prospect Street...I think you'll really admire and be inspired by the main character.
Jessie! It's so fun to "see" you again here!
How's motherhood? I absolutely ADORE Vicki Iovine's
Girlfriend's Guides. I've read the wedding one (which may be out of print now) and the one for pregnancy. I hope one day I'm in need of reading the one you're on now. What was
Confessions from an Honest Wife by Sarah Zacharias Davis like? I'd also love to hear what you thought of
Second Glance. I haven't read that one yet. How do you keep track of your reading? I'd really like to do that somehow. I'm using two programs on Facebook to track my reading, but a friend there recommended an online site called Library Thing. Does anyone use that or something like it?
Ruth, I adore Binchy.
What was
Treasures about? I don't think I've done that one... I wonder if it's one of the older ones that have been renamed and republished? I just can't get into Patterson. Maybe I've read the wrong books? We read
Honeymoon for my book club and it was just so graphic that it made me sick.
I had awful nightmares, too. I read a couple of his more mundane books (like the
Letters one) and didn't really get much out of them. Does he write any thrillers that aren't graphic? I know so many people who adore his books... Which Picoult books did you read? I really loved
Keeping Faith but
Plain Truth is my absolute favorite. It's a little bit like
Agnes of God (I've only seen the movie), but set in a Amish family. So fascinating!
Sophie, I'm interested in
Omnivore's Dilemma too, but I'm worried it'll be too dry to get through. Wonder if I can get it on tape? Do you think
The Friday Night Knitting Club would be interesting to someone who doesn't knit?
Me: I read a ton over the break but I only received one book for Christmas. I got a big stack of 'em at the library before heading to my parents for the holidays. Here's the rundown:
- Zanna's Gift: A tiny Christmas book that was compared to The Christmas Box but was nowhere near as good. In my opinion, it was pretty much a waste of time--it would have made a good short story if most of it were cut and a new ending was added...
- Diamond in the Ruff and Gone to the Dogs by Emily Carmichael: These are the two next books in the series that starts with Finding Mr. Right, which I read sometime in the last couple years. I got a copy of the latter one from Paperbackswap and realized I didn't have the one in the middle, so I got it from the library. In the first book Lydia Keane is killed by a burgler while out on a date with her best friend's husband, with whom she is having an affair. Lydia has been a very, very bad girl in her life, so she's given the task of finding another husband for her best friend--only she has to do it reincarnated as a pudgy corgi dog (not fun for a woman who was stunning and skinny in her former life...). Mysteries and lots of suspense feature in these romances and, though they are light reading, they are a lot of fun, especially for dog lovers. We used to have a corgi mix, so I really enjoyed Lydia's antics as Piggy, the corpulent corgi. In the last book, she introduces several woman with pets who are all members of an animal therapy group (they go to hospitals and nursing homes to comfort the patients). She has a couple of books out that feature these women and their own romances. If you're a cat lover, she also has books that parallel Piggy's experiences, only with a reincarnated cat (well, if the formula works, why fix it? ). I think the first one of those is A Ghost for Maggie.
- Mortal Curiosity by by Ann Granger: The second in her series of Lizzie Martin mysteries, this book was fantastic!!! It was on the new shelf at my library and I can't wait to read the first book, even though a couple of hints about it were given out in this one. This series takes place in England in the 1860s and the author has done painstaking research to make sure every detail is accurate. The characters nearly stand up out of the book--they are so well drawn that they truly seem alive. I could hardly put this down. She has written a ton of other mysteries--one series features a man/woman team but I think they take place in the England of today.
- The Bisexual's Guide to the Universe: While entertaining, much of it is really fluff. A good laugh but not much information.
- It's a Dog's Life...but It's Your Carpet: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Your Four-Legged Friend by Justine Lee, DVM: This was incredibly well-written and absolutely hilarious. I finished it on our flight out to my parents and enjoyed it immensely. Like a Why Do Men Have Nipples? book about dogs, this explains, in a wacky Q & A format, why dogs do the things they do. The vet who wrote the book says that most of the questions are the ones she's asked over and over. I definitely learned a lot about our dog!
- I reviewed The Lucky One above.
As for now, I'm currently reading the Daily Show with Jon Stewart's
America: Democracy Inaction. It's styled on a textbook and is absolutely hilarious while being suprisingly informative. For instance, I had no idea that Madison contributed so much to our nation!
I have a big TBR pile waiting for me at home: a stack of Junie B. Jones books to catch up on (I just love those books!!!),
Deceptively Delicious (cookbook), two books on training dogs, a couple of Ellis Haskell mysteries, and I have
The Companion (the first Lizzie Martin book) waiting for me at the library. I better get to it! :read:
