Friday Finds {11-28-08}

Here is a list of all the books that have found their way onto my Wish List this week.

• I am Moran le Fay by Nancy Springer - found @ Nymeth's blog: things mean a lot

Short list this week. I didn't read all the blog posts I normally do. They're in my Read It Later though!

Mizb @ Should Be Reading hosts this weekly event.

Hyacinth Awards - Retroactive

Here is a list of the books that I am (retroactively) giving the Hyacinth Award to. They are in no particular order. To read more about my Hyacinth Award click here. I've also linked to the reviews.

• Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
• The Wednesday Sisters by Med Waite Clayton
• Dancing Above the Waves by Susan Wallerstein
• What Your Mother Never Told You by Richard M Dudum
• The Prometheus Project: Trapped and Captured by Douglas E Richards
• Little Miss Smarty-Pants by Suzanne Kopoulos
• Jaclyn's Ghost by Dorlana Vann
• Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
• A Widow for One Year by John Irving
• Hearts Never Lie by Patricia Pickett
• Vampire Apocalypse: World Torn Asunder by Derek Gunn
  

Remember to keep a look-out for these awards in the future. =)

Announcement! part 2

And one more announcement!

• I'd like to let you know about a new award. I've created the Hyacinth Award. I'll be using this to identify my bestest favorites. =) I got the idea from bethany's Happy Chicken Award. I toyed around with this idea when I had my old blog, but never got around to actually 'creating' one. So keep your eyes open for this award on future reviews. At some point this week I will be going through the reviews on my old blog and grace some of those with the Hyacinth Award.

Friday Finds {11-21-08}

mizb hosts this weekly event. Here are my latest Friday Finds.

• Sweetsmoke by David Fuller - found @ USA Today
• The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss - found @ USA Today (the same as above) - excerpt
• Odd Mom Out by Jane Porter - found @ Books by TJBaff
• The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner - found @ S. Krishna's Books
• The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie - found in this Simon & Schuster Newsletter - excerpt
• The Tenth Case by Joseph Teller - found @ she is too fond of books - just my kind of mystery/thriller
• The Shiksa Syndrome by Laurie Graff - found @ USA Today Book Round-up
• Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan - found @ Heather's blog Book Addiction
  

10 on Tuesday on Wednesday

This post on Florinda's blog, The 3R's inspired me. Here is my list of small things that I greatly appreciate. (the only 'order' here is the order that they popped into my head)

1. Gil Simmons, Sonia Baghdady, Desiree Fontaine and Darren Kramer - they are the morning team on my local ABC station during the week. They get me laughing most mornings which is good for the circulation. =)
2. The Connecticut Technical High School System - I won't mention which of the 19 schools she goes to, but my oldest is a student in one of them and is not only getting a good education, she will also be getting great training in her dream profession. Her dream is to someday move to Tokyo and design video games!
3. The Twinings and Stash people. Their Irish Breakfast and Chai (respectively) keep me awake and warm.
   
4. I'm thankful for trees. Without trees, we would not have all of the lovely books to read. We wouldn't have there cool, refreshing shade.
5. Dove Chocolate - most specifically the dark.
6. Training pants - we are attempting to potty train our little one and I remember doing it 12 years ago with my (almost) 15 year old in the pre-training pant days.
7. Michael Bublé -There are some days when I simply cannot make it without taking 3 1/2 minutes to listen to Everything. On the really bad days I need 7 minutes to listen to it twice.
8. Jason Mraz - Many of his songs are just so bouncy. If I ever get to see either of them live... *sigh*
9. Literacy. I cannot imagine my life without the ability and opportunity to read and write.
10. Everyone who reads here, whether a subscriber or a sometime visitor, and especially those of you who take the time to comment!

I stole the last two from Florinda, but they are just as true for me as they are for her.

Now, for your listening/viewing pleasure are the videos (courtesy of YouTube) for Everything by Michael Bublé and I'm Yours by Jason Mraz!

Teaser Tuesdays {11-18-08}

• Grab your current read
• Let the book fall open to a random page
• Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you're getting your "teaser" from ... that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
• Please avoid SPOILERS.

This week's teasers are from The Safety of Secrets by Delaune Michel.

A plastic bag with a bottle of shampoo for my mother that could only be bought at the beauty parlor was hanging from the handlebars of my bike and kept slapping my left leg everytime I pedaled. I suddenly wished that a lifetime of that bottle hitting my leg could be my punishment for getting this haircut instead of what I was going to fate when I got home.

mizb @ Should Be Reading hosts this weekly event. Visit this link to see other teasers for this week.

Musing Mondays {11-17-08}

mizb hosts this event every week.

WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW?

WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING, and WHAT DID YOU THINK OF IT?

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WILL READ NEXT?

WILL YOU READ ANY HOLIDAY-THEMED BOOKS SOON?

• Right now I am reading The Safety of Secrets and desperately hoping that it gets better. I am almost 1/2 through it. -- I am also reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to my 2 1/2 year old. On Friday night I read the first chapter to her before she went to sleep. I have been reading it to her a chapter at a time before naps and bedtime.
  
• I recently finished The Bell Jar. I wish I hadn't put off reading it for so long. - my review
• I'm pretty sure that I'll be reading A Wrinkle in Time next.
• I joined a challenge to read holiday books, but I just haven't gotten into holiday mode enough to read any. Maybe reading one will get me there? Any suggestions?
  

Review of: The Bell Jar

Author: Sylvia Plath
ISBN: 0060930187
Pages: 244
Genre(s): women's fiction, realistic fiction, coming of age, autobiographical fiction
Grade: A
Start Date: 11-11-08
End Date: 11-15-08
Challenge(s): genre - realistic


I put off reading The Bell Jar for over a year. I hadn't read it in high school and I thought that it was going to be filled with words and concepts that were over my head. I was wrong!

I will be looking at the SparkNotes and GradeSaver sites to delve deeper into the most (to me) obscure refferences and such, but I did get something out of reading The Bell Jar. One major thing that hit me towards the end of The Bell Jar is that women were considered 'mentally ill' if they were lesbians. The novel is semi-autobiographical.

There were times that I just felt so bad for Esther. There were other times that I just wanted to slap some sense into her. Overall though, I just got sucked in to Esther's world. I kept hoping that the narrative wasn't going to turn out to be similar to The Lovely Bones.

Extra tid-bits

• Is a movie
  
• The movie is being remade

Shared Reviews: If you've reviewed this book too, please send me an e-mail or leave a comment with the link to your review, and I will add a link to it at the bottom of my review. Please, for convenience, if you leave a comment, leave it in the review-post.

2009 - 100+ Reading Challenge

I wasn't going to join this challenge becasue I didn't think I could read so many books in one year. I've decided that it's okay to 'fail' the challenge. I want to give it a shot; the worst that can happen is I won't read 100 books. No one is going to hunt me down if I come up short. =)

Go here for full rules. All books count for this challenge. Challenge runs from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009. I will update this post as books are finished. I will link the titles to the reviews as they are written.

1. Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners by Laura Claridge
   
2. The Smart One by Ellen Meister [reviewed for IJustFinished]
3. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
4. Specials by Scott Westerfeld
5. A Day at the Beach with My Dad by Lance Waite
6. King's Fool by Margaret Campbell Barnes (ARC of re-release; review will post on Saturday March 28th)
7. Baron Thinks Dogs Are People Too! by Laurie Dean
8. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
9. Alanna (Song of the Lioness, Book 1) by Tamora Pierce
10. The Crimes of Paris by Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler
11. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L Baum
12. The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer
13. Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch
14. Wild Cherry Makes a Wish by Pippa le Quesne
15. Behold, Here's Poison by Georgette Heyer
    
16. Follow Me by Joanna Scott
17. Jasmine's Starry Night by Kay Woodward
18. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
19. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
20. Kushiel's Justice by Jacqueline Carey
21. Strange Angels by Lili St Crow
22. Poppy's Perfect Home by Cicely Mary Barker
    
23. Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey
24. Mating Rituals of the North American WASP by Lauren Lipton
25. LOST Ate My Life by Jon "DocArzt" Lachonis and Amy "hijinx" Johnston
26. Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
27. Kushiel's Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
28. Shimmer by Eric Barnes
    
29. Testimony: A Novel by Anita Shreve
30. I Love Chocolate by Davide Cali
31. Bradley McGogg, the Very Fine Frog by Tim Beiser
32. Four Wives by Wendy Walker
33. Blood Orange Brewing (A Tea Shop Mystery #7) by Laura Childs
34. Lord Peter : The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories by Dorothy Sayers
35. Magyk (Septimus Heap #1) by Angie Sage
36. Flyte (Septimus Heap #2) by Angie Sage
37. The Berry Best Friends' Picnic by Jackie Glassman
38. Strawberry Shortcake's Filly Friends by Megan E. Bryant
39. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
    
40. A Lion Among Men (The Wicked Years, Book 3) by Gregory Maguire
41. The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Epstein
42. Enter Three Witches by Caroline B. Cooney
43. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
44. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
45. Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney
46. Burning Up by Caroline B. Cooney
47. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
48. The Treasures of Venice by Loucinda McGary
49. The Awakening and The Struggle (The Vampire Diaries, #1-2) by LJ Smith
50. The Greatest Knight: The Unsung Story of the Queen's Champion by Elizabeth Chadwick
51. The Tudor Rose: A Novel of Elizabeth of York by Margaret Campbell Barnes
52. Tell Me Something True by Leila Cobo
53. DW's Lost Blankie by Marc Brown
54. Arthur's Birthday Surprise by Marc Brown
55. Arthur's Computer Disaster by Marc Brown
56. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
57. Clifford's Halloween by Norman Bridwell
58. The Very Noisy Night by Diana Hendry
    
59. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling (audio)
60. Bundle of Trouble by Diana Orgain
61. What Alvin Wanted by Holly Keller
62. Pumpkin Moon by Tim Preston
63. Safari Animals by Paul Hess
64. Smart Dog by Ralph Leemis
65. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson
66. The Penderwick's by Jeanne Birdsall
67. Looking for Alaska by John Green
68. Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
69. Cleopatra's Daughter by Michele Moran
70. My Screwdriver by Lyn Sandow
71. Maisy Goes to the Museum by Lucy Cousins
72. Arthur Writes a Story by Marc Brown
73. The Berry Big Storm by Meagan E Bryant
74. Please Say Please by Margery Cuyler
75. Row Row Row Your Boat by Penny Dann
    
76. My Drill by Lyn Sandow
77. The Sound of Sleighbells by Cindy Woodsmall
78. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
    

There are 4 missing books. I'll have to go through my lists to figure out which are missing. =(

Last Updated: November 20, 2009

Bookworm Award

Beth F @ Beth Fish Reads has given me this: Bookworm Award

Thanks so much Beth!

Here’s how it goes.

Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56.

Write out the fifth sentence, as well as two to five sentences following there.

Pass this on to five blogging friends.

The book closest to me is The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath since it's my current read and I have a habit of taking my current read with me all over the apartment (and when I leave the apartment, too).

page 56:
And he looked so proud of having thought of this that I just stared at his blond hair and his blue eyes and his white teeth - he had very long, strong white teeth - and said, "I guess so."
It was only in the middle of New York a whole year later that I finally though of an answer to that remark.
I spent a lot of time having imaginary conversations with Buddy Willard. He was a couple of years older than I was and very scientific, so he could always prove things. When I was with him I had to work to keep my head above water.

There are some fairly long sentences in this book.

I'll tag the following (I hope I don't tag someone for this that has been tagged for it already):
Florida @ The 3R's
Alyce @ At Home With Books
misscz @ Babbling Book Reviews
Jan @ Jottings from Jan
avisannschild @ she reads and reads

Here's my inner Dewey, what's yours?

Thank you to Marg for posting hers. This was fun. It give you 3 to choose from (if you give them your birth date). This is the one that I thought MOST suited me.

Kylee's Dewey Decimal Section:

015 Bibliographies of works from specific places

Kylee's birthday: 3/9/1976 = 39+1976 = 2015


Class:
000 Computer Science, Information & General Works


Contains:
Encyclopedias, magazines, journals and books with quotations.



What it says about you:
You are very informative and up to date. You're working on living in the here and now, not the past. You go through a lot of changes. When you make a decision you can be very sure of yourself, maybe even stubborn, but your friends appreciate your honesty and resolve.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Yes, I know I could have removed my birth date from the coding, but I chose not to.

Friday Finds {11-14-08}

mizb is the host site for this weekly event. Here are my Friday Finds in the past week:

• 33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women's History by Tonya Holden - found on Average Girl Reads (one of her Friday Finds for 11-7-08) - excerpt
  
• Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell - found through the "Coming Soon" section on Random House's website - excerpt
  
• The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir - found through Oct/Nov 2008 issue of Random House's Newsletter - I've read Philippa Gregory's The Virgin's Lover and didn't quite care for it. I can't pinpoint the reason. I'd love to give someone else's version of Elizabeth I's story a try. - excerpt
  
• Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner - found @ Alyce's At Home with Books (one of her Friday Finds from 11-7-08) - this sounds hilarious; I know it's for kids but I will be calling myself "Skippito Friskito" for days if not weeks!
• The House on Tradd Street by Karen White - found @ Savvy Verse & Wit - part ghost story, part romance, part mystery; three of my favorite genres rolled into one book.
• The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett - found @ Stuff as Dreams are Made on
• Die Before I Wake by Laurie Breton - found @ Lori's Reading Corner - sounds like a great mystery
• My Lady of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes - found @ S. Krishna's books

The Lady Elizabeth has also been reviewed by BethF.

New book for teens

From School Library Journal: Extra Helping

In Gay America: Struggle for Equality (Abrams/Amulet, 2008)—the first comprehensive history on this subject for teens—Linas Alsenas chronicles how gay men and women have lived, worked, and loved for the past 125 years. Using archival images, illustrations, and full-color photos, Alsenas, a U.S. citizen who lives in Sweden with his partner, takes us from Colonial times to the present debate over gay marriage.

Click the link at the top to read an interview regarding this book.

It's funny that this should be in the issue of SLJ:EH that arrived in my inbox this afternoon. Yesterday my 14yo daughter (I'll call her SV) told me that one of her friends at school was very excited by the ruling allowing same-sex couples to marry here in Connecticut. I jokingly asked her if her friend was gay (assuming the girl was happy because she was being raised by a same-sex couple and wanted her parents to be 'married'; not uncommon in a city this size). Well it turns out that her friend IS gay. And open about it at 14! How great is that? I'm proud of my daughter for not shunning her friend (I guess I've done some things right) and I'm so proud of my daughter's school that this girl can be open about her preferance without fear of repercussions.

Teaser Tuesdays {11-11-08}

• Grab your current read
• Let the book fall open to a random page
• Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you're getting your "teaser" from ... that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
• Please avoid SPOILERS.

Since I have just started this book, I am posting the FIRST two sentences. That make a pretty good teaser. =)

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York. I'm stupid about executions. -from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Review of: Uglies

Author: Scott Westerfeld
ISBN: 9780689865381
Pages: 425
Genre(s): fantasy, sci-fi, YA
Grade: B+
Start date: 11-7-08
End date: 11-10-08
Challenge(s): (1) genre - sci-fi



I originally became aware of this series (Uglies, Pretties, Specials & Extras) because of my daughter. She was 12 at the time and a little young for the books, I thought. Now that I have finally read the start of the series, I think that belief was unfounded. When I hear that a book is categorized as Young Adult I automatically think 14+.

SV, my 14 (almost 15) year old read the first three in the series this past summer. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Tally, Shay David, Croy and all the rest. Their world is our world... 300 or so years later. The "ruins" are our cities - crumbled, burned, destroyed. There is a definite message to us, now, in Uglies. We need to stop living like "What I do doesn't matter to anyone but me".

As far as the "operation" that everyone has when they turn 16 (everyone except those that have conviction enough to runaway) that scares me. There is already a belief in this country that it's okay to give your children plastic surgery for a high school graduation gift or even a 16th birthday present. I won't go on about how wrong I think this is.

There is a total cliffhanger ending to Uglies. I am finding it hard to NOT pick up Pretties which is now sitting in my bookcase since I thieved it from my 14 year old daughter's bookcase. =)

Shared Reviews: If you've reviewed this book too, please send me an e-mail or leave a comment with the link to your review, and I will add a link to it at the bottom of my review. Please, for convenience, if you leave a comment, leave it in the review-post.

Musing Mondays {11-10-08}

This week mizb asks:

If you keep your books, where do you keep them? And, if you give them away, who do you give them to? Do you participate in Bookcrossing, BookMooch, PaperbackSwap, or the like? Do you give your old books to family & friends, or donate them? Are any of your books in storage due to not having enough space for them all? Or, are you one of the lucky ones who has their own “library”? Feel free to share pictures, if you have them!

For the most part I keep my books in the bedroom. I have a bookcase in there (thank you, Matt) that is pretty full. I also have a plastic tote that has my PaperBackSwap books in it. I also swap books with my mom and my sil Jenn.



I have the same dream/fantasy as mizb. I'd love to have a room just FULL of books. Three walls of books; the 4th wall would be French Doors out onto a slate tiled balcony. *sigh*

From Kylee's 2009 Blog

I'm Buying Books for the Holidays!

I'm a reader of the blog My Friend Amy. She has challenged us with something great! Amy has suggested that we buy books the holidays this year. You can pop over to either of the links to read about what prompted Amy's challenge. Here is what stuck a chord with me most.

Have you been reading the book news lately? It's not pretty. I feel like everyday I'm hearing about plummeting profits, massive lay-offs, book stores and libraries (!!) closing. We are living in dark and difficult book times.

So there it is. For those people that I can afford to buy gifts for this year: BOOKS! And I promise to not cop-out and buy bookstore gift cards. ;)

Weekly Geeks #24 - Favorite Author Fun Facts

This week’s theme is: fun facts about authors.

How to:

1. Choose a writer you like.

2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author.

3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want.

4. Come sign the Mr Linky below with the url to your fun facts post.

5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in.

Elizabeth Haydon is the author of one of my favorite series. Rhapsody: Child of Blood was her debut novel (1999). She has been compared to Terry Goodkind, JRR Tolkein and Robert Jordan.

• She is an herbalist.
• Can play the harp.
• Knew she wanted to be a writter in the 4th grade.

I have read all of the Symphony of Ages series and Requiem for the Sun. She has such a terrific way of melding fantastic storytelling and music. They are just... awesome. =)

Some WG posts about authors I enjoy and some that I have been meaning to read:

1. Sherrie's post about James Patterson - I've only read one of his so far (Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas), but it won't be my last.
2. Maree's post about Gabriel Garcia Marquez - haven't read any, yet
3. Juliann's post about Alexander McCall Smith - highly recommended by my Aunt Gerry and cousin Molly.
4. Jill's post about Neil Gaiman - haven't read any, yet
5. Marina's post about Mercedes Lackey - I have read only one of her's so far, but I have 2/4 of her Halfblood Chronicles - you can read my review of Burning Water here.
6. Icedream's post about Fannie Flagg - I have not read any of her's yet (I have Welcome to the World Baby Girl in my TBR), I watch Match Game on GameShowNetwork a lot and I love when she's on, she's so funny! I've watched Fried Green Tomatoes a dozen times at least.
   

Review of: Third Girl

Author: Agatha Christie
ISBN: 0671805304
Pages: 248
Genre(s): mystery, cozy
Grade: B







Third Girl is a Hercule Poirot novel. Poirot is my favorite Christie detective to watch, but he's not a favorite to read. (I much prefer Miss Marple for reading.)

Three single girls share a London flat. The first works as a secretary; the second is an artist; the third, who comes to Poirot for help, disappears believing she is a murderer. There are rumours of revolvers, flick-knives and blood stains. But, without hard evidence, it will take all Poirot's tenacity to establish whether the third girl is guilty, innocent or insane.

I've enjoyed every Christie that I've ever read. I don't know what it is about her characters, her writing. And I can read them more than once. For me they are the literary equivalent to a sip of water (in the case of food judges); they cleanse my mental palette. This one was interesting. I had a feeling from the beginning that the girl, Norma, was being gas-lighted. I wasn't sure who was doing it (if anyone). There is a nice little trick at the end. I will definitely read this one again; see if I can spot any clues now that I know 'who dunnit'.

Shared Reviews: If you've reviewed this book too, please send me an e-mail or leave a comment with the link to your review, and I will add a link to it at the bottom of my review. Please, for convenience, if you leave a comment, leave it in the review-post.

Friday Finds {11-7-08}

Here are my Friday Finds for this week.

• The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson - found @ S. Krishna's Books
• Somebody Else's Daughter by Elizabeth Brundage - found @ S. Krishna's Books
• Exit Lines by Joan Barfoot - found @ Peeking Between the Pages
• Immortal Warrior by Lisa Hendrix - found @ The Book Czar
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler - recommended to me by s-i-l Jenn

More Friday Finds can be found here.

Booking Through Thursday {11/6/08}

What, if any, memorable or special book have you ever gotten as a present? Birthday or otherwise. What made it so notable? The person who gave it? The book itself? The “gift aura?”

I don't know if this particular book was a present, a just because, or what. The book that first came to mind when I read this question was The Fall of Freddie the Leaf. I actually dug it out last night because of another post. I hadn't even realized that the book is about loss. It's written by a PhD (Leo Buscaglia) and is meant to help children understand death. There is even a series of videos.

Anyway, I don't remember it making me feel sad. I always felt hopeful at the end of the book (which ends with The Beginning instead of the usual The End). Freddie learns lessons about life from one of the other leaves, named Daniel. Daniel teaches Freddie about Spring and Summer, the people that come to their park, that everyone and everything has a purpose in life. I ends with the first snowfall and Freddie letting go of his branch and falling to a snowbank and seeing 'the big picture' (aka the whole tree), feeling peaceful and going to sleep. The author then reminds us that Freddie will then breakdown with the snow as the winter turns to spring again and help nourish the tree for new leaves. It's a really great book. I read it for hours in our 3rd floor attic; I could see nothing but treetops out of one window. I always have a happy/light feeling when I come to The Beginning of The Fall of Freddie the Leaf.

USA Today's Top Selling Books - Meme-style

S. Krishna has converted USA Today's List into a meme!

I've decided to turn USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books of Last 15 Years into a meme. Why? Because I'm a total nerd and enjoy stuff like this!!

So here's the deal: bold what you've read, italicize what you own, star books on your TBR list!

Here is my list:

1 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
2 Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution - Robert C. Atkins
3 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
4 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
5 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
6 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
7 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
8 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
9 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
10 Who Moved My Cheese? - Spencer Johnson
11 The South Beach Diet - Arthur Agatston
12 Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom
13 Angels & Demons - Dan Brown
14 What to Expect When You’re Expecting - Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg, Sandee Hathaway
15 The Purpose-Driven Life - Rick Warren
16 The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
17 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey
18 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
19 Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus - John Gray
20 The Secret - Rhonda Byrne
21 Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter
22 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee*
23 Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff ... And It’s All Small Stuff - Richard Carlson
24 The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
25 Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert*
26 Twilight - Stephenie Meyer (technically, my oldest daughter ‘owns’ this one)
27 The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks
28 The Memory Keeper’s Daughter - Kim Edwards
29 The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger* (started this 3 times, never finished)
30 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden*
31 A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle
32 Oh, the Places You’ll Go! - Dr. Seuss
33 The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz
34 Angela’s Ashes - Frank McCourt
35 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
36 Body-for-Life - Bill Phillips, Michael D’Orso
37 New Moon - Stephenie Meyer*
38 Night - Elie Wiesel, translations by Marion Wiesel and Stella Rodway*
39 Chicken Soup for the Soul - Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen
40 The Greatest Generation - Tom Brokaw*
41 Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer*
42 The Celestine Prophecy - James Redfield
43 Wicked - Gregory Maguire
44 Good to Great - Jim Collins
45 Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer*
46 Eragon - Christopher Paolini*
47 Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood - Rebecca Wells
48 Your Best Life Now - Joel Osteen
49 In the Kitchen With Rosie - Rosie Daley*
50 Simple Abundance - Sarah Ban Breathnach
51 A Child Called It - Dave Pelzer*
52 A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
53 The Testament - John Grisham
54 Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul - Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Kimberly Kirberger
55 Deception Point - Dan Brown
56 The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho*
57 Marley & Me - John Grogan
58 Dr. Atkins’ New Carbohydrate Gram Counter - Robert C. Atkins
59 Life of Pi - Yann Martel*
60 The Brethren - John Grisham
61 The South Beach Diet Good Fats Good Carbs Guide - Arthur Agatston
62 The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town - John Grisham
63 For One More Day - Mitch Albom*
64 The Polar Express - Chris Van Allsburg*
65 The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
66 The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow*
67 What to Expect the First Year - Arlene Eisenberg, Heidi Murkoff, Sandee Hathaway
68 Love You Forever - Robert Munsch, art by Sheila McGraw
69 Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss*
70 A Painted House - John Grisham
71 The Rainmaker - John Grisham
72 Skipping Christmas - John Grisham
73 Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
74 The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
75 Life Strategies - Phillip C. McGraw
76 Seabiscuit: An American Legend - Laura Hillenbrand*
77 The Summons - John Grisham
78 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt*
79 The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
80 The Runaway Jury - John Grisham
81 Goodnight Moon Board Book - Margaret Wise Brown, art by Clement Hurd
82 The Perfect Storm - Sebastian Junger
83 Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson*
84 The Giver - Lois Lowry*
85 Embraced by the Light - Betty J. Eadie
86 The Chamber - John Grisham
87 You: On A Diet - Michael F. Roizen, Mehmet C. Oz
88 The Prayer of Jabez - Bruce Wilkinson
89 Holes - Louis Sachar
90 Digital Fortress - Dan Brown
91 The Shack - William P. Young
92 The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
93 Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
94 A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini*
95 The Seat of the Soul - Gary Zukav
96 Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul - Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Jennifer Read Hawthorne, Marci Shimoff
97 The Partner - John Grisham
98 Lord of the Flies - William Golding*
99 Eldest: Inheritance, Book II - Christopher Paolini*
100 The Broker - John Grisham
101 The Street Lawyer - John Grisham
102 A Series of Unfortunate Events No. 1: The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket*
103 The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver*
104 Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
105 The King of Torts - John Grisham
106 The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
107 The Horse Whisperer - Nicholas Evans
108 Hannibal - Thomas Harris
109 The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama*
110 Running With Scissors - Augusten Burroughs
111 The Glass Castle: A Memoir - Jeannette Walls*
112 My Sister’s Keeper - Jodi Picoult*
113 The Last Juror - John Grisham
114 The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
115 Left Behind - Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins
116 America (The Book) - Jon Stewart and The Writers of The Daily Show
117 The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
118 John Adams - David McCullough*
119 The Christmas Box - Richard Paul Evans
120 The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Ann Brashares
121 Sugar Busters! - H. Leighton Steward, Sam S. Andrews, Morrison C. Bethea, Luis A. Balart
122 Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
123 The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle
124 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life - Don Piper, Cecil Murphey
125 The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
126 1776 - David McCullough
127 The Bridges of Madison County - Robert James Waller
128 Where the Heart Is - Billie Letts*
129 The Ultimate Weight Solution - Phillip C. McGraw
130 Protein Power - Michael R. Eades, Mary Dan Eades
131 Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul - Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Jennifer Read Hawthorne, Marci Shimoff
132 Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
133 Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides*
134 Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
135 You: The Owner’s Manual - Michael F. Roizen, Mehmet C. Oz
136 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List - Patricia Schultz
137 Self Matters - Phillip C. McGraw
138 She’s Come Undone - Wally Lamb
139 1984 - George Orwell
140 The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis*
141 The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley, William D. Danko
142 The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
143 The Zone - Barry Sears, Bill Lawren
144 The Pilot’s Wife - Anita Shreve
145 The Lost World Michael Crichton
146 Atonement - Ian McEwan*
147 He’s Just Not That Into You - Greg Behrendt, Liz Tuccillo
148 Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
149 The World Is Flat - Thomas L. Friedman
150 Cross - James Patterson

I've read 42/150 .

Teaser Tuesdays {11-4-08}

• Grab your current read
• Let the book fall open to a random page
• Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you're getting your "teaser" from ... that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
• Please avoid SPOILERS.

Restarick's words came fast now. It was as though he was feeling a definite solace at being able to pour out his story to a sympathetic listener. It was a reaction that Poirot had often noticed before and he encouraged it.

This weeks Teaser comes from page 118 of Agatha Christie's "Third Girl"; a Poirot mystery.

What kind of reader are you?

Your Reading Personality: Serial Reader!

Start quiz You may read a lot or a little, but either way you're a publisher's dream, because once you discover a favorite writer you stick with him/her through thick and thin and eagerly await the next in the series; but even you need to discover some new blood from time to time! I found this quiz at: ~Red Lady's Reading Room~

Booking Through Thursday {10-30-08}

Conditioning

Mariel suggested this week’s question.

Are you a spine breaker? Or a dog-earer? Do you expect to keep your books in pristine condition even after you have read them? Does watching other readers bend the cover all the way round make you flinch or squeal in pain?

With new paperbacks, I do 'condition' the spine. I try hard NOT to break the spine, just loosen it up a bit. I don't dog-ear. It does make me cringe when I see others folding books back. The worst is when I see someone one doing this in a bookstore; most of the time I'll see them put the book back on the shelf with the broken spine and pick up an unbroken copy to buy! That makes me see red. I want to hurt those people... badly.

I don't expect my books to stay pristine (especially not with a 2 year old running around), but I do try to keep them looking nice. I'm more careful though if it is a borrowed book.

Review of: Burning Water

Author: Mercedes Lackey
ISBN: 9780765313171
Pages: 312
Genre(s): paranormal, urban fantasy, mystery
Grade: C






I wanted to like this book. I've heard good things about Lackey's Halfblood Chronicles. The friend who loaned it to me (aka my s-i-l Jenn) seemed to really like it. I just couldn't love it. I DID like Burning Water, but I definitely didn't love it. Something to do with the style or her writing; like she's more comfortable writing her Elvish tales than contemporary fiction (Burning Water was published in 1989).

From Ms Lackey's site: Something is stalking Dallas. First it attacked cattle, leaving bloody corpses. Now it is going after people. Detective Mark Valdez feels the evil surrounding the city and calls in a specialist, Diana Tregarde, a romance novelist and practicing witch. But will Diana be an avenging angel or a willing sacrifice?

Shared Reviews: If you've reviewed this book too, please send me an e-mail or leave a comment with the link to your review, and I will add a link to it at the bottom of my review. Please, for convenience, if you leave a comment, leave it in the review-post.