Frigid Spring Friday

"And have you a pale blue dress on?"

"And have you a pale blue dress on?"Image via Wikipedia

Well, not too frigid and beautifully sunny, but cold for spring!

I finished listening to “Jane Eyre” this week – and wrapped up the Jane Eyre challenge on Goodreads!  Kind of a silly little challenge, but fun.  I had to pick my favorite quote, and there were pages and pages to choose from!  I didn’t read beyond the first page of choices and really liked the third quote down.  Lazy or not, it grabbed me.  I’ll even add it to my book quotes page :).  It was: “I would always rather be happy than dignified.”  It’s always good to choose happiness.  As I said on my goodreads review, I really love the language in these old books.  I love when they say the door was “unclosed” rather than plain old “open.”  I love it when they take paragraphs to set a scene or describe someone’s character.  I’m very glad I read it.  I’m sure I’ll see the movie and I’m looking forward to that, too. The only frustration I had with the audiobook was the quality of the CDs.  Many had scratches and the last CD seemed especially bad.  So the climax when I should be learning about what happened to Mr. Rochester was frustrating to listen to.  I miss my iPod for downloading audiobooks.

Another book on my Spring Thing list that I finished this week was “Mockingbird.”  It was a YA book about a girl with Asperger’s Syndrome and told from her perspective.  At first I was frustrated with the fact that it was another book about a person with ASD who was dealing with tragedy.  But I got a little hooked by her voice and the way it was written so that I could really hear her voice.  I had a little tear at the end, although I was racing to finish the little thing so I could return it to the library on time.  It’s worth reading.  It is a lot less cryptic than “The Serious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime,” in that you know almost immediately what is going on.  But it is a YA novel, so not too surprising.

So last night I started a Maeve Binchy book called “Heart and Soul.”  I haven’t read a Binchy book in ages and it just feels like coming home!  I even turned on the light early this morning so that I could read a little before I started my day!  And I”m going to read a little now before heading out for the evening!  Woot Woot!  I’ll have to look at the list of all her books and see if I have missed many.  Don’t think it’s possible!

Heading out tonight to a late movie!  Hope I can stay awake!  I’m looking forward to seeing “Cedar Rapids.”  It’s gotta be a LOT better than the last one I saw in the theatre – “Take Me Home Tonight.”  Wow.  That music video advertising that movie got me inside, but it wasn’t really worth it.  Oh well.  Any night at the movies is a good night!  The most recent netflix movies I’ve seen are:  “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” and “Life as You Know It.”  Yesterday “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” came in the mail.  I think it’s a Woody Allen flick.

Gotta love movies and books!
And now… off to read!

It’s a Spring Thing!

Spring Thing Logo

Image by Zeptonn via Flickr

If I spent as much time reading books as I did reading blogs, I’d have put away quite a few more books in 2011!  But I do enjoy reading what others are reading, how they read, what kinds of things they like to read, and how they write about what they read!  Over on http://callapidderdays.com a “Spring Reading Thing” started!  I’m going to participate because it’s a simple event.

Simply create a list (can be ever-changing) of books that you want to read this spring – March 20 – June 20!  Write about it.  Link to her site.  Write about it at its completion.  Sounds simple enough!  And so, with the help of my stack of books from the library and my goodreads account, here is a start on my list of books TBR this spring!

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy
the next book from the library… will have to look it up as it’s downstairs.  It was a new release that grabbed me.
The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

I think that’s a good list to start with.  I will finish Jane Eyre this week probably, and am looking forward to finding out what happens.  Then I will listen to Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand.

So, do you have a list of books you want to read this spring?

Off to read!

Book Club Blabbering

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre Image by Stephen Cummings via Flickr

Time is sure flying by!  Last week the FC book club met at Joanie’s house and discussed “Plain Truth” by Jodi Picoult.  For the second time this year, I didn’t have the book finished by book club night!  Yikes.  Just so many books – and I’m just such a slow reader.  So I quickly read the last page – the trademark Picoult shocker – so that they wouldn’t have to worry about spoilers.  The discussion questions included in the book bag were mostly intellectual but we had a good discussion about the Amish and our belief in ghosts.  It was a good discussion with good food and good company.  Now what’s next to read?  We didn’t decide… but will get something picked soon!

I’m listening to “Jane Eyre” on audio and loving it!  I’m on disc 8 out of 18 and finding it easy to listen to and an interesting story.  I haven’t read anything by either of the Bronte sisters nor seen the movies about their books.  I signed up for the goodreads “Jane Eyre” challenge, because I saw the movie trailer and thought it looked good.  It comes out next week, I believe, but we’ll see if it comes to the theatre near me that soon or not.

After I finished “Plain Truth” on Thursday, I picked up “Juliet, Naked” by Nick Hornby.  It’s about a couple who live in England and the guy is obsessed with a band.  They traveled to US to visit the urinal he visited when he decided to quit being a musician, stand outside the woman’s house who caused him to quit being a musician, etc.  It will be interesting.

Next on my TBR list is “Mockingbird,” a YA novel about a kid with autism and on audio it is “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand.”  Lots of reading to do!

Any suggestions for my FC book club?  I think we have about exhausted the choices at the Rochester Public Library for their book clubs in a bag.  Everything is either checked out and reserved through 2011 or we’ve read it or we’re not interested… so we’re looking for ideas of things readily available in the library or cheaply available.  Ideas?

So many books…

Cover of "Traveling with Pomegranates: A ...

Cover via Amazon

So little time!

I finished the audio book of “Traveling with Pomegranates,” by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor.  It is fun to have it read by the authors, a mother-daughter duo, from South Carolina.  Sue wrote “The Secret Life of Bees,” and this book was written about the time before she wrote this novel.  She had written “The Dissident Woman” (I think… maybe Mother? Daughter? “The Dissident Daughter” sounds more like it) and had explored spirituality within feminism and this book continues that adventure of discovery.  It was a good listen.

So now… “Jane Eyre” via audio.  18 discs.  I have the print copy on my night stand, but I would rather listen to it.  It seems like a big undertaking, but the goodreads challenge inspired me.  It will be interesting!  I have a little driving happening this week so I’ll get a start on it!

I’m half done with “Plain Truth,” which is our book club pick for Tuesday.  Hopefully I’ll get it done by then!  It will take a little work – why do I have to be such a slow reader??  I enjoy words and savor them when sometimes I should just gobble them up.

My TBR list includes (in order of my hopes of completion): 1) Juliet Naked by Nick Hornby 2) Mockingbird.  That’s all I have in my house but my list is much longer than that!

How about you?  What are you reading?  What have you recently finished?  What will you read next?

Well, off to read!