Tag Archives: Books

Jul 22 2011

Reading Too Much, Parenting Too Little

My daughter and her best friend have finally cracked her best friend’s family’s resistance and they are furiously plotting a sleepover at our house for tomorrow night.

Which is fine, because I need incentive to clean the house, after spending the past four weeks reading obsessively (4,228 total pages) and finally completing the five books in the series.  Rabbit has wandered through the house, spent time alone in the yard, watched far too much television and made her own breakfast several mornings, all while PC and I have been reading.

I hesitate to say this, but I think in this case it is true:  I have been reading too much.

So tomorrow I will clean house and do laundry and sweep and mop and scrub the bathroom. PC will mow the yard and rent a movie for the girls.  I will bake and make pizza crusts and shop for some ingredients for their cooking experiments.

They are planning a campout (in the house) and toward that end, Rabbit spent all evening cutting out stars from paper and taping them to the walls of her bedroom.  Hopefully she won’t ask for a campfire.

Jul 17 2011

My Summer Obsessive Reading Binge

It is hotter than hot outside:  even at 7:20 p.m. the heat index is over 100 degrees.  It is too hot to do anything but turn on the fan, sit in a chair, and continue reading.

I am about 20% through A Dance With Dragons, which is book five of the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin.

The first book in the series, Game of Thrones, was made into an HBO series and I read the book feverishly, and have been devouring the subsequent ones.

I got PC started on Game of Thrones and now he’s on book two, A Clash of Kings.  Nothing is getting done in the house because all we do is read.

Seriously, last week, Rabbit loaded the dishwasher one night because we couldn’t be moved from our chairs or put down our Kindles.

This genre, sort of a medieval surreal fantasy story, is something I avoid like scabies, but I was encouraged by a few people to read and have been consumed by the characters, the story and the brilliant writing.

The books are not for the faint of heart – the stories are violent and often profane, but utterly engrossing.  After I finished the first book, I watched all ten episodes of the HBO series (the first season covered the first book) in less than two days.

I don’t know how I’m going to return to “regular” books after finishing this one.  It’ll be like watching a black and white documentary after seeing five epic movies in color.

Jul 7 2011

Lazy Update on Books, TV and Movies

Not much to write about here today; I have been doing laundry, working on phone calls for clients, and immersing myself in reading “Game of Thrones” and the subsequent books in the series.  I’ve finished two of them and am starting on the third.

I would never have chosen to read these books but for the urging of my nephew, and friends who had been watching the series on HBO adapted from the first book.  I canNOT stop reading.  They’re bloodthirsty, violent, shocking and compelling stories of knights and kings and intrigue and all the things that make me roll my eyes when others talk about loving such books.  And I’m hooked.

But hey…at least it’s not Danielle Steel.

In television news, I’m anxious for the beginning of the new season of “Damages,” a show I became hooked on last year.  It’s only on DirecTV, and starts in a week.

The new Jane Eyre movie, released in March or April, apparently bypassed our city completely and I will have to rent it on DVD when it’s released in August.  I’m also looking forward to the new Harry Potter movie this month, and “The Help,” which is set to be released in August.

Last month, PC and I watched “True Grit” on DVD and loved it.  I love Jeff Bridges anyway, but he was exceptionally good in this movie.

I have dozens and dozens of books in my queue from NetGalley that I haven’t started on yet, and have read several new ones, plus added many to my “to read” list.  The summer is getting away from me, but I’ll get to most of them, I believe.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m in the middle of what I suspect is a hot flash and I’m going to walk that off and then curl up with my Kindle and read.

May 29 2011

What I’m Looking Forward To

I don’t have a big budget for books – the majority of what I’ve been reading lately have been advance reader copies from publishers, and for that I’m extremely grateful.  I’ve also read a lot of books I would not have necessarily chosen to purchase, and expanding my horizons has been a real joy.

However, I did pre-order a couple of books, and am anxious for when they are released:
Your Camera Loves You (Now Learn to Love it Back!) by Khara Plicanic.  I want this book for two reasons:  I have a digital SLR camera and I want to learn all its ins and outs to improve my photography without it being too technical.  AND, the author is a friend of mine whom I’ve admired for years.  She’s sassy and energetic and positive and a BRILLIANT photographer.  (Release date: August 31, 2011)

Pirate King: A Novel of Suspense Featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes by Laurie E. King.  I have not missed a single book in this series and really love this character.  The first book in the series, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, introduces the prodigy Mary Russell who befriends Sherlock Holmes and he finally is matched in ingenuity and intellect.  King shows a side of the Sherlock Holmes character after his retirement from Baker Street that has been embraced by many die-hard Sherlockians, where other authors’ attempts at resurrecting him have failed.  If you haven’t read the books, start at the beginning.  It is worth it.

MOVIE ADAPTATIONS

I’m an unapologetic Harry Potter fan.  I cannot wait for the release of the final installment of the screen adaptations of the books, which will be in theaters in July.

And this Christmas, the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is expected in theaters.  I’ve read all three books by Stieg Larsson and watched all three of the Swedish movie adaptations.  With David Fincher directing, it should be a wild ride and the casting looks to be every bit as good as the Swedish version.

AND FINALLY!

This fall, at long last, library lending services for e-books will be available in Kindle format.  The Kindle was conspicuously absent from the lists of supported devices and formats for electronic lending from libraries, while the Nook has been boasting their compatibility as an edge over the Kindle.  I’m also tired of Nook users gloating about it.  Yay! More free reading!

 

Cross posted on The Eleventh Reader

May 21 2011

This, That and the Other

It’s been a while since I posted here, and things have been…oh, routine as usual.

Over the past several months, I had developed the hairdo equivalent of “Mom Jeans.”  Greying roots, scraped back into a ponytail or twisted up in a clip, only blow dried and styled about once every 7-10 days…some hairdo for almost three years.  I had been unable to afford a trip to my magical beautician, Annette and had been touching up my roots with L’Oreal.

Yesterday, I went in and told her I needed a change.  She fixed the color, added mahogany lowlights and very light highlights with the brown base color, and took about 2 inches off the total length before cutting in lots of layers.  It is the best haircut I think I’ve ever had, and the best coloring.  WAY cheaper than therapy, and WAY better.  I still feel wonderful.

I got the clothesline put up and I LOVE IT.

Write down the name of this book:  ”Before I Go To Sleep.” Better yet,  Go to Amazon.com and pre-order it.  It comes out on June 14th.  I just read an advance reader copy from the publisher and it is one of the best, trippiest and most brilliantly crafted novels I’ve read in a long time.  My prediction is that it will be a bestseller and definitely turned into a movie.  My husband interrupted me while I was reading the last chapter and I jumped and screamed, I was that startled and absorbed in the book.

Last night I went to the movie “Bridesmaids” with some friends and it was one of the raunchiest movies I’ve seen in a long time.  And one of the funniest!  Someone mentioned that when they watched it, they did the “ugly laugh,” – like the ugly cry, it’s the laugh you blare out when nobody is there to see you, when you bray like a donkey and double over [for me, that's almost any laugh]. But this movie will make you ugly laugh.   The bridal shop dress fitting scene will probably kill you.

May 11 2011

An Almost-Rant About Books

Have you ever stood in a book store for more than ten minutes, reading descriptions on dust jackets or the back covers of paperbacks, thinking to yourself: “Who publishes this crap?”

Everyone’s had that experience, flipping through a stack of books and thinking I could never read this, or What the hell were they thinking??

Imagine the slush pile at a publishing house, the manuscripts that never make it to the book store.  God bless them, those writers who finish a book.  But man….I can’t imagine having to read through to find something worth publishing.

In my recent foray into electronic reading, I’ve been fortunate enough to be allowed access to pre-publication review galleys of books that are to be released in one to six months.  Going through the catalog of books, with their brief descriptions of plot, genre and other information, I am able to choose which sound promising, request a review copy, and then download it.

After I finish, I write a review and post it, then post a link and the text to the publisher so they will know my opinion.

Some–actually most–of these books have been very good.  A couple of them have been extraordinary.  One or two were mediocre and at least two have been so cringe-worthy that they almost deserve their own hall of fame.  I couldn’t even finish them.

But the true entertainment for me has been reading through the descriptions of the books that just sound so atrocious I don’t even request a copy to review. Here is a list of some of the greatest offenders.

1.  Supernatural or sci-fi romances.  There’s either love or robots in a book, but for God’s sake, don’t include both.

2.  Anything with robots.  See above, and then subtract robots.  Just….no.

3.  Books with buxom Vikings on the cover.  Male or female.  “She went to a new land looking for love.  He held her captive to enrage her father and then, against all odds, they fell in love…”  These books need to come with a sick bag.

4.  Christian thrillers.  Y’all probably know I’m a fan of Jesus and so on, but when I see the word “Christian” in the genre list, and it’s a work of fiction, I just cannot go there. Especially one I recently saw in the catalog that described its plot in ALL CAPS:  (paraphrased) Satan makes a bet with God that Jesus can’t become divine in the modern age, and God accepts the wager.  YAWN.

5.  Wholesome morality novels.  No, I don’t want to read anything in your “Quilt of Valor” series (I made that up, but it’s not far from the ones out there) or read an uplifting story of Martha the Amish farm widow’s struggle to bring in this year’s sorghum crop with the help of her extended community.

6.  Any novel that revolves around computer technology.  If I wanted to read a publication that would feel outdated and obsolete after only a few years, I’d read my computer manual.  I remember reading a Dick Francis novel written in the 1980s about a computer genius that writes a computer program to pick racehorse winners – and the program was copied onto a cassette tape.  Anyone remember when you used to be able to record computer programs onto cassettes?  Anyone remember cassettes?  Anyone remember the 1980s?  I rest my case.

7.  Effing zombies, effing vampires.  And worst of all, combining old classics or historical figures with either zombies or vampires.  Please, no.  NO NO NONONONONONONOOOOO!!!  I still haven’t fully recovered my rage after reading The Historian and finding out that Count Dracula’s main quest in his undead hunt for victims was to find someone to catalog his vast library.

8.  ”She’s determined to find out what her family is hiding, but uncovers a shocking secret that could tear them apart.” I know this is the central premise of about 20% of the books out there, but for the love of Jesus, publishers, find a new sentence or focus on a different aspect of the book.  I swear, I’ve read that description on half the books I’ve looked at in the last six months.

9.  Anything set more than 50 years in the future.  And I know I have been a huge fan of the Hunger Games trilogy, but that was not presented as a book about the future, it was about the games.  And even at that, I was resistant to reading them.  But any book that starts with “In the post-apocalyptic world…” has lost me.

10.  Any book with the following words in the title:  Unbidden, Forbidden, Valor, Patriot, Knitting, Baking, Cupcake, Bible [unless it is the actual Bible], Torment, Unbridled, Bridesmaid or Whore.  And yes, there was a book that had the word “Whore” in the title.

Apr 13 2011

Parade of Plagues

Life’s been a regular parade of joy and hope around here, what with the computer hard drive crashing, the IT guys assuring me all my data was backed up, the discovery that it wasn’t, and spending the past six days driving across town repeatedly to pick up my computer, take it back, pick it up, take it back, and on and on.

Add to that the recurring plague of head lice on my lovely eight-year-old daughter, the ensuing tonnage of laundry, and the fact that my house reeks of the tea tree oil I’ve been applying to her scalp (think turpentine mixed with eucalyptus leaves) and you begin to get a sense of the absolute utopia in which I live.

The main reason I haven’t punched some random stranger right in the teeth is that it is spring, glorious spring!!!! in Lincoln, Nebraska and that means flowering trees, forsythia bushes bursting into yellow laughter on every corner, daffodils, redbuds, Bradford pear blossoms, and tiny leaves appearing on trees to create a green mist across the treeline of the city.

Even the ugliness that has been our back yard for the past several months has started to look better.  PC and I have been raking oak leaves out of the car port, the patio, the deck, behind the garage and from underneath the hedges.  We’ve filled ten or twelve bags with leaves, and there are more leaves piled at the back of our lot.  The hostas are sprouting, the daylily plants are thriving, and the peonies are pushing up out of the ground.

I’ve been planning for a garden this year, and will blog about that as I go.  I found a book about sheet composting and how you can layer things to make a raised gardening bed that doesn’t require you to till up your soil.  It’s called “Lasagna Gardening” and I’m kind of excited to try it out.  You start with a layer of either wet newspapers or cardboard, then peat moss (or an alternative material), then mulch (dried leaves/grass clippings), then more newspaper, moss, compost, mulch, etc. until it’s about 18 inches high.  Then you can plant.

It sounds awfully easy in the book, which means it is going to be a royal pain in my butt.  However, I’d like to give it a try and do a better job of gardening this year.  Granted, last summer I had a good excuse to have put off planting and growing, with my dad’s illness and passing.  But he was an avid gardener and would scoff at me not trying this year.

I’m staying busy with work, and still reading constantly.  I have 23 book reviews posted on my other blog already – that’s a review for each book I’ve read since January 1st.  Posting those reviews so quickly wasn’t difficult, just so you know.  I have been keeping up with my Goodreads account (www.goodreads.com) and they have a feature where you can have your review can go straight to your blog.

I went through and posted each one to the other blog (The Eleventh Reader) and then made the publication date on each book review coincide with the date I indicated finishing the book on Goodreads.  I just finished reading a hilarious book called “Home to Woefield,” so you’ll have to skip over and read the review.  Then get the book.

There’s plenty more going on, but if I write about it all in this post, I’ll have nothing to talk about over the next week.  (Like that ever stopped me).

Apr 11 2011

A New Page For My Book Reviews

http://theeleventhreader.wordpress.com/

Because I plan to read a crapload of books this year and to review all of them, even if it’s just a sentence or two, I created this page that links directly from my Goodreads account.

I signed up for a NetGalley account that entitles me to free advance copies of books prior to publication, provided I write a review and post it online.  I now have a (virtual) stack of books on my Kindle that will take me months to get through.  I’m so excited!

The layout for now is the three column front page, with the most recent post on the far left. Each individual review can be clicked on to be on its own page.  Keep reading for more book reviews!