Monday Book Club

I got the pleasure of going on two long road trips this summer.  I was so happy to take a break from life and celebrate with good friends!  I also got the opportunity to listen to 4 audio books!  WOWZA, that was a lot of time in the car!  Props to my husband who drove 12 hours straight on one of those legs.

"Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns)"

First of all, I am a fan of Mindy Kaling's work.  I thought The Office was hilarious and now I enjoy the Mindy Project.  What I loved  most about Mindy's book was that there was no agenda.  I just got the feeling that Mindy enjoys writing, so naturally a book would be in her future.  I love that she didn't seem to create drama in her own history.  She recalls a really great upbringing and how that has influenced her life.  I enjoyed this book immensely.

"Me Talk Pretty One Day"

I listen to a lot of "This American Life" so David Sedaris has worked his way into my vocabulary.  I thought that I might like this book.  To be honest, it's just not my thing.  I laughed at certain parts, absolutely.  When I think about his segments on "This American Life"  they're never my favorite parts of the show.  He wasn't relatable enough for me.

"Freakonomics:  A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything"

I listen to the "Freakonomics" podcast and have even read "Gang Leader for a Day"  so naturally it was time that I read/listened to freakonomics.  It didn't have that production quality that I've come to love about the podcast, but it was all VERY fascinating.  I recommend this to any curious reader.

"Outliers:  The Story of Success"

We've all heard of the 10,000 rule by now.  It was time for me to check out the book.  It is definitely in the same vain of "Freakonomics."  The conclusion that I came to is that it's not just about the 10,000 hours.  It's more about being in the right place and the right time.  It just made this world seem more God ordained to me.  It's still fairly interesting.

Now I'm listening to "Super Freakonomics"  that's taking much longer to get through now that I'm no longer crossing the country!  So far it's already better than "Freakonomics" so that's promising.

Monday Book Club

The Maze Runner
by James Dashner

I saw this book on a few lists that compared it to The Hunger Games, only it's for boys.  I was curious and thought I would give it a try.  Finding similar lists is the reason I read Divergent, so why not try another.

I know Divergent wasn't written especially well, but I think the Maze Runner is a little worse.  I also realize these are children's books so I shouldn't be shocked that I felt smarter than the protagonist.  I was often frustrated that the main character, Thomas, couldn't put two and two together and figure out what was going to happen next quick enough.

Over all, I enjoyed the plot and the idea of the book.  I'm looking forward to the next one, which I can finally pick up from the library tomorrow!

I am a critical reader but my ratings on books for goodreads.com are usually based upon how much I enjoyed the journey of reading the book.  I gave The Maze Runner  4 stars.

Vintage Children's Books

Brian and I have always had an interest in children's books.  It may have stemmed from this store.  Brian and I have found this really cheap book sale at an old school house that we like to go to.  We even had some engagement shots taken there.

This is where we bought a lot of our old books.  Aren't the illustrations fun?

I love the inside flaps of vintage books.

 

The illustrations are so bright.

HP Love

A few lovely years ago I woke up around 6 am with my sister and went to some grocery store I've never heard of and bought their first Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Books in Estes Park, CO.   And now Part 1 is in theaters in an hour.  I can't wait until I get to see it after work tomorrow.  So...Excited...

Motivation

The wedding is too near.  I can't keep up with my blog at this time.  It's too much pressure.  Most days I wake up at 8.  Go to work.  Go to Brian's.  Work on wedding stuff.  Come home at 12am.  Blogging just doesn't wiggle it's way into my schedule right now.

But I've been listening to an audio book while I work on wedding stuff.  I get excited to listen to the audio book, so I end up working on wedding stuff more often.

I'm listening to "The Golden Compass."  I read it in the traditional way the first time around.  I love book two of the series, His Dark Materials.  So really I want to get to that one.  The reader is really good, it is the author Phillip Pullman of "The Golden Compass."  The story is much better than I remembered.  Usually I can't stand to listen or to reread books.  Very few I can reread with any vigor.

So over all I'd like to listen to all three books before the wedding.  Maybe...  I don't know it's right around the corner.

Finished my Listening Library

I just finished listening to Count Karlstein by Phillip Pullman.  The audiobook had a full cast, as well as, sound effects and music to go with it.  It was a well produced and entertaining audiobook.  I would recommend that you listen to it over read it.
In reality the story was good.  It had an intriguingly dark plot but it does get all wrapped up with a pretty bow in the end.  It would be ideal to listen to with your kids right before bed.  I should warn you though some parts are rather scary.   It was over all a very British story and I believed that I enjoyed it so much because I loved the thrill of the well produced audiobook.

Enchanted Glass a Good Read

Here is what I'm reading now.

Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones

I belong to this social networking site, www.goodreads.com.  It's all about books of course.  You can go on there read reviews on books and see what your friends are reading.  What I like about it is some authors are on it as well.  You can see what your favorite authors are reading.  Really, its probably all publicity, where authors have to be paid by publishers to give other books good reviews.  I don't know what goes on, but I bought it.  I am "friends" with Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite living authors and he had this book, Enchanted Glass, on his read list.  I of course requested it from the library and am now reading it.  I'm not sure if I like the book yet or not.  I'm half way done with it and it's cute...I'm just not sure what the plot is.  Where is the great mystery?  Really, I often feel that way about Neil's books too.  It is very cute and magical so far.  We will see what journey Diana decides to take me on.

So basically join goodreads.com if you haven't already and become my friend so we can compare books.

Ecclesiastes 1:5-7

"The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to his place where he arose.  The wind goes toward the south, and turns about to the north; it whirls about continually, and the wind returns again according to his circuits.  All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; to the place from where the rivers come, thither they return again."

I was browsing books and I found THIS awesome book for my dad for father's day.  It is a compilation of short stories of terror hand picked by Mr. Alfred Hitchcock himself.  And then I also picked up The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.  I had never read Hemingway and felt intimidated, but also ready.  I was intrigued by the script on the back cover..."wild nightlife of 1920s Paris...bull-fighting rings of Spain...bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions."

So I read it.  It is now one of my favorite books.  I liked thinking of it in context.  How was Hemingway regarded in his era?  Did people think his writing style was revolutionary, or too plain and simple?  Did people think his subject matter a bit scandalous?  Where there people who related to these characters and felt exposed?

I've never read a story with so much emptiness.  It felt like the characters had big cannonball sized holes in their gut.  How did they drink all that wine with no stomachs to keep it in?  I think these characters closely reflected Hemingway's life; how sad.

It was also thrilling for a girl trying to figure out where to honeymoon!  Paris, San Sebastian, Bayonne, Pamplona, Burguete, Madrid it seems like quite a trip!  Yes, I really tried to talk Brian into San Sebastian for a few days.

It has inspired me to try some more classics that I have previously been intimidated by...

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitsgerald

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee WIlliams

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Reason why I love Florissant #41

Last weekend Brian's family had a surprise party for his mom's 50th birthday. Brian's dad rented out Old St. Ferdinand Shrine. ( The party was in the school house.) Brian and I were there for an hour in between setting up and party time guarding equipment and such. There were signs all over for a book sale on the second floor of the school house. I looked around and found that they have a book sale every Saturday morning and all proceeds go to keeping up the shrine. I went up there and found 8 awesome books. The total cost was $2.00. I left the crisp bills on a desk up there. Hope they found it.

A few of the books I thought would be awesome journals or novel novels.
Some of the amazing journal titles I bought were.
All the Dark Places by J. Allan Bosworth (1968)
Teen-age Mystery Classics: Haunted Airways by Burtis (1930)
Atlantis The Biography of a Legend by Marjorie Braymer (1983)
Jungle Laboratory: The Story of Ray Carpenter and the Howling Monkeys by Nancy K. Robinson (1973)


Some of them were honestly just great finds that I'll keep and read.
Better Known as Johnny Appleseed by Mabel Leigh Hunt (1950)
I'm most excited about is The Arabian Nights by Grosset and Dunlap (1946) Beautiful

The last two I got are reference books...
From the Bookshelf for Boys and Girls: Things to Make and Things to Do Volume 5 (1963)
-The inside cover alone makes me drool. I am seriously considering doing the activities in this book and blogging about them. It's just that cool.


Science in our World by Herman and Nina Schneider Book 5 (1961)
-I want to do these experiments and read this book! Part of me thinks it's interesting and wonders what has changed and yet another part of me knows that I can't remember anything from this book anyway. I would just benefit from reading this. I hope I can differentiate any old out of date information from stuff that is still true.

I LOVE FLORISSANT. It is cute and quaint. It has a Native American day this weekend. In some ways it feels like a smaller town than Cape Girardeau, but has all the perks of being 20 minutes away from the city. I miss you Florissant.

A new day

So every now and then I go to the library and pick up all of the easy to read books about a craft.
This is how I learned to crochet and knit. Over Christmas I got books about origami and used odd bits of wrapping paper to make animals and put them in the Christmas tree.
So on Saturday I went to the library yet again and got a bunch of books on embroidery. (and a couple of children's chapter books on tape for the drive back to school--guilty pleasures)

Anyways so I went to the basement and found some left over fabric from some curtains and went to town.

monogram

snail!

It all matches my bedspread too. AWESOME.
Can you tell that I'm just a little pleased with myself. I can't wait to improve.

Research

I'm moving into a house with 4 of my most attractive girl friends. We are doing this in August and I have nothing to contribute to this house. I don't even have any furniture...well as of a week ago I had nothing. I've been telling everyone I know that I own nothing and would gladly take hand me downs and junk. My sister is gifting me a twin bed. A co-worker is gifting me a dining room table and 6 chairs!!!! Now that's a good co-worker!

I'm a silly girl who thought it was silly to measure the layout of the rooms before I left school and went home. I am regretting it now more than ever! I've been getting all of these books from the library about decorating and room makeovers done for cheap. I also splurged on the nice books that cater to the people with out boundaries and apparently have the most amazing, architecturally unique homes. Hmm... lucky them.

So I've been sketching out what I think I remember the house looking like and what I think I could do with the spaces. And dang-it, I'm excited. I hope to have some future blogs about how awesome my house is.

Soon I'll have to go goodwill savaging. Do you think it is bad to go to goodwill early in the morning to pick up what people left for them over night? Is that stealing? It's not exactly trash... I'll ask my dad, he'll tell me what's wrong and right.