http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2011/06/2011_online_sum.html
Wow – someone put together a crazy long list of some crazy long summer reading lists! How fun!!!!
I can’t even dream of finishing one, but I like to share the envy with all!
Off to read…
Image by ruminatrix via Flickr
Tomorrow is the LAST DAY OF SPRING! Thus, this is the end of my SPRING READING THING posts. I feel great about what I accomplished this spring, and with the most current list of books, I will leave it. Thanks for the challenge, Katrina at Callapidder Days!
Off to read!
Image by jnyemb via Flickr
Katrina over at Callapidder Days is hosting the Spring Thing Reading Challenge, 2011, and I’ve been participating. It’s hard to believe that it will be done with the first day of summer (YAHOO) next week, but how exciting is that? It was a pretty loosely defined challenge – challenge yourself to read books during the three months of spring. You could add to the list, take away from the list, whatever you needed to do to challenge yourself.
My list has expanded greatly since my first post and one book that was on my initial list remains unread – so far. I still have time. It is in my possession from the library reserve. It’s hard to say there was a favorite that stuck out in my spring reading, because there were quite a few books that I loved. Or really liked, at any rate. The Harry Potter series is so fun to listen to. Jane Eyre was a great listen and I’m thankful for that experience. I’m reading my second Maeve Binchy book of the spring and they just are so comfortable and lovely that they just feel good to read. I really enjoyed The Carrie Diaries, meeting Carrie Bradshaw pre-NYC. The Twenties Girl was fun fluff. Major Pettigrew was a nice read. Both Saving CeeCee Honeycutt and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet were sweet and not as heavy as I’d feared.
If I had to choose, I’d probably say I’m so glad I found a few Binchy books that I haven’t read. They are reliably wonderful, in my book.
And when I’m done with Minding Frankie, I’ll start Fly Away Home. I’ll also finish listening to book 6 in the Harry Potter series, on the list for book 7 from the library. I’m sure that will conclude my Spring Thing Reading Challenge.
I signed up for a goodreads challenge, to read A Visit from the Goon Squad, which I have on audio, so I’ll listen to that after book 6 of HP, too.
INITIAL LIST:
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
CURRENT LIST:
Well, off to read!
Image by Smaku via Flickr
MizB at Should Be Reading has posed the question: What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?
I think the most recent book I had a hard time putting down was Christopher Cleave’s, “Little Bee.” I just had to see what was going to become of the people in that book so stayed up waaay past my bedtime to finish the book. Great book.
I also remember staying up until 4AM to finish John Grisham‘s, “The Firm,” way back in 1993 or 1994. That felt different, though. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep because my heart was racing and I was filled with suspense.
Ah, good times.
Well, off to read!
It’s Audiobook Week, hosted by Devourer of Books (http://www.devourerofbooks.com/) and I couldn’t let the week go by without writing about my love of audiobooks! (Although I’m SUPER-DUPER frustrated right now because for some reason WordPress is saving my document as BLANK! Third time is the charm??? I’m learning and actually typing this into a word document so that I can save it and see if I can eventually publish it! Yikes and Ugh! Has this ever happened to anyone???)
As I say over and over again, I am currently listening to the Harry Potter series on audio and enjoying every minute of it (when I’m done I’ll have to figure out exactly how many minutes I spent listening!). I cheated and didn’t listen to book 1, as I forgot what was book 1 and what was book 2 and so I started with book 2. I’m currently on book 6 and really looking forward to book 7! It has been some years, but I read all of the books before and some of them I remember more than others. Listening has just brought them to a whole new level. Jim Dale is an incredible narrator, providing voices for all the characters that are recognizable and not at all distracting. What an incredible series.
I have been a commuter for 18 years, driving at least 30 miles one-way each day. I have never minded commuting because I choose good stuff to listen to in my car. I am totally unaware of top-40 music, but I am well-read! I frequented the small-town library where I lived, and they had an extensive number of audiobooks so I read every book that I wanted to, and even some that I didn’t know I wanted to read. I have listened to memoirs, thrillers, non-fiction, children and YA literature, and fiction. When I bought my car in 2005 it only had a CD player, so I had a cassette player installed so that I could continue my habit! Fortunately, books are now on CDs (and they were in 2005, too… just not as many!) and with the purchase of my iPod I also checked out digital audiobooks from the library system. I live in a bigger city now and the library audiobook section is overwhelmingly large, so I often reserve a book I want to listen to rather than browse the many shelves.
Some of my favorite audiobooks include:
The thing I love best about audiobooks is that it fulfills my wish to be immersed in a story at all times. I can listen while cooking dinner, doing the dishes, mowing the lawn and vacuuming, exercising, and driving. Someone complained to me recently that they dreaded the tedious drive down Broadway, but getting into the car is something I rarely dread. Thankfully my commute never entails rush hour traffic, but I think with a good audiobook I could even abide stop-and-go traffic.
I remember things differently when I listen to them rather than read the print version. When I listen to a book I remember fewer details – like names and dates – but I remember more about the visuals drawn by the author’s words and the feelings that are evoked by the story. So listening to a book I’ve read or reading a book that I’ve listened to is never a bad thing. Each provides a different experience.
What are your favorite audiobooks? What’s the longest audiobook you’ve ever listened to? Do you find you remember things differently by listening?
Well, off to read!
Rhubarb muffins. Some for breakfast and some for the freezer for summer entertaining.
Although I didn’t go to Lanesboro, MN‘s Rhubarb Festival this weekend, I did make two rhubarb dishes this weekend! Yesterday I made a Rhubarb Crumble for a beautiful summer evening “dinner on the deck” and this morning I made another batch of Rhubarb Muffins. I love these muffins. I made a batch on Tuesday to bring to work to share, so these are for me and my freezer. I have more buttermilk and more rhubarb in the freezer so maybe I’ll look for another recipe to try!
Do you have a favorite rhubarb recipe or way to eat rhubarb? Where do you get your rhubarb? From the farmer’s market, your own patch, or from the kindness of friends?
The weather was beautiful this weekend – absolutely perfect – so I accomplished a little reading outside. I finally finished April’s O Magazine and started May’s. I gotta catch up. I also have been reading on the iPad a library book. It’ll expire Friday so I’ll have to get busy! It’s a little difficult to read outdoors on the iPad. Any hints for that? I will need to look into accessories to see if there is anything that will help other than changing the settings.
Any hints on the iPad2 and reading outside?
Well, off to read! But I’ll share my muffin recipe first!
Yummy Rhubarb Muffins
Mix together: 1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar; 1/2 cup oil; 1 egg; 2 tsp vanilla; 1 cup buttermilk. Beat well.
Add: 2 1/2 cups flour; 1 tsp soda; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp baking powder.
Stir in 1 1/2 cups finely cut rhubarb and fill muffin tins. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture (1/3 cup:1tsp) before baking.
Bake 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
*I usually use two cups frozen rhubarb and add a little baking time.
Ah, the power of a microphone! Image by Rusty Sheriff via Flickr
Found this blog post in the drafts! Never got published! Written on May 13… oops! Better late than never, right? Or totally out of context and boring? Oh well…
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Just home and winding down from our “Over the Back Fence” radio show premiere! Take Note!, our singing group, performed three songs, and the whole thing was such a blast! We sounded great at sound-check and in the little room we practiced in and during the singalongs and during our songs. And there were many laughs at the expense of Norwegians everywhere! Tonight’s show paid tribute to both Cinco de Mayo and Syttende Mai. What a great little show. I must try to get there again – and for sure try to listen more faithfully. I naively thought it would be broadcast live but it is simply recorded live – played later. It was a great night leading into a great week of music ahead!
On the other hand, I haven’t been getting as much reading done! Book reading, anyway. I’m so far behind in my magazine reading but I’m feeling better about that, so I started reading “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” this week. I finally made some headway today. I am really liking it! I thought it would be all heavy and sad and ominous, but it isn’t. It’s about children. So I imagine there will be sadness and heartbreak ahead, but it doesn’t seem like it will tear my heart out, so that’s a good thing.
Well, as I said, a music-filled week ahead! Our big spring concert (with my solo!) coming up on Wednesday, Thursday a performance for a church family night, and Saturday we are performing at Minnesota City days! It’s been such a great spring with the choir. Can’t wait for the next adventure!
Well, off to read! Happy weekend all!
Ah, one more May blog. 🙂 
It was a good holiday weekend full of hard work! Not a lot more reading done, unfortunately, but I did finish “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” and it was enjoyable. As I said on Goodreads, I was hesitant to read it, thinking it would be sad and heavy, but it really wasn’t! It was sweet and told mostly from the perspective of a 12 year old boy and the 50 year old man he becomes. It was nice.
I started listening to “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” today, and it starts out hard to listen to! It starts out with the Prime Minister being visited by the Ministry of Magic and then Snape meeting with Bellatrix and then a lot of newspaper headlines. I don’t think we see Harry until chapter four (maybe three), so it just feels different than the other books. Thankfully it’s shorter than the last few, so I should be able to rip through it!
I also downloaded my second library e-book! A Diane Mott Davidson book, just for fun. I’ll have to see if I can get the last few books on my Spring Reading Thing list from the library. Not many left! Yay!
Well, not many days of work left, that’s for sure. It’s amazing how much better I feel after time away. I am dreading the next three days – well, maybe dreading is too strong, but I’m really hoping for strength to get through them. I have a LOT to do!
But now, I’m off to read! Blogs before bed!
Image via Wikipedia
And the days go by… and the blogging doesn’t happen! Well, maybe 22 days isn’t too bad of a lag, but I think it is. Mid-May was a very busy time, as “Take Note!”, the choir I am in, had a lot of rehearsals and performances over an 8 day span, with busy weekends and weeknights before. It was a great time. The third time I sang “Please, Mr. Postman” I really nailed it. I should have front-loaded that work rather than being in panic mode. But panic mode usually works for me, so c’est la vie! I’ve had quite a bit of time off (for me) and haven’t been cranking through the books too much but have read a few.
I got official and final word Tuesday night / Wednesday that my position at work is being cut due to budget reasons, so the last five or six weeks I have been in crisis mode mentally. I’m so “in my head,” as I call it. Introverted. Immersing myself in meaningless tasks. Choosing audiobooks or podcasts over live conversations. These last few days at work will be difficult – it’s hard to say goodbye over and over again – so I am looking forward to it being behind me. June 7 can’t get here fast enough. And all of this brings to point something I learned about myself after the flood – I really can only do one big thing at a time. I couldn’t look for a new house until I sold my old house and had actually signed the papers. Likewise, I can’t focus as much as I should on looking for a new job until this job is wrapped up. So although I am going to pretend that I will do some serious job searching and applying tomorrow, most likely I will find some putzy jobs to do and then learn more about my rights through the union. Hopefully soon I’ll be ‘normal’ again. Ha.
But I have finished a few books since I last wrote. I am half done with “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” and really liking it. It’s quite easy to read, which is unexpected. I thought it would be heavier, but maybe I’m just not there yet. I hopefully will finish that soon. I finished listening to “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (see above comments about immersing myself in audiobooks) and was amazed at how much I don’t remember from reading the book! But it was nine years ago that the book came out, so that’s a long time. I’m sure I’ll remember less about book six and I already know that I remember very little about book seven (it was the last book I read before my house flooded and something changed in my brain that day and that book disappeared – along with a little sanity!). I am pretty sure I’ll reach the goal of reading the books before July 19 so that is exciting!
And I also finished my very first e-book loaned from the library! I checked out one book, just any old book I could get, as most had a waiting list, and I didn’t like it. I couldn’t tell if it was the book I didn’t like or the e-book that I didn’t like. So I waited and finally got one I wanted to read (“Twenties Girl” by Sophie Kinsella) – a light and fun romp – and I ripped right through it! It was easy to read and a good, fun book. The 14 day loan period from the library is a little pressure, so hopefully the others will come spaced out good enough for me to not panic! I read the book in less than three days, but I had to stop reading “Hotel…” which I didn’t like to do.
And so I ramble. I must blog more so that I don’t have quite so much to say! Yikes! I’ll just update my “Spring Thing Reading List” below and be off to read!
Spring Thing Reading List:
??? Image via Wikipedia
Wow. I was blogging pretty regularly for a while and then I stopped! I’ll tell you what happened. A few things, actually.
Reason #1- I got an iPad 2 from work. Less need to sit at the laptop or desk top and less convenient to blog on the iPad. I now read all my blogs, read tweets, search the library website, check email and facebook, and play Words with Friends all on the iPad! Tonight I downloaded my first library book to the iPad! Who has time to blog! 🙂
Reason #2 is that I received some news that kinda rocked my world a few weeks ago – they are looking at cutting my position at work for next year. It’s been an emotional roller coaster. Tons of sadness, a little anger, and growing excitement at what may be. Every day at work is emotional because it is hard to talk about it with coworkers. Hard to think about not working with them and the district families anymore – after 18 years of being there. But I’m thankful for the support I am feeling from coworkers and parents so my new coping strategy is an attitude of gratitude. I hope it helps me sleep at night. 🙂
Reason #3 is that Easter happened! Monday night (5/2) when I crawled into bed, I realized that it was the third night I’d slept there since April 20. I went to Mom and Dad’s for quite a few days during my break from work and then we left last Thursday for a trip to Denver for a wedding! It’s a lot easier to blog when I’m home and alone.
So with all of this going on, my house is suffering. Tonight I dealt with the piling up of clothes and tomorrow I’ll have to tackle the mail and dust. As I said, I also tackled downloading an e-book from the library tonight. That was quite a task.
So about the iPad. It’ll have to go back if/when I leave my job but I really think that I will need to get my own. I have the nook, kindle, and iBooks apps on there. Overkill or what? And then to download library e-books, I had to download Overdrive and Adobe. They don’t work together? I’ve been wondering about just getting a nook or other e-reader, but I might just need the whole iPad she-bang.
Thoughts?
And now about books (and maybe a movie) – My Spring Thing reading list is below – and there is progress! How fun is that? I just finished “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand” and it was good. Not super good, but good. I liked the characters, was confused about the inclusion of some of the characters, but would like to meet Major Pettigrew. Or just travel to England. 🙂 Before that I read “The Hundred Foot Journey.” Can’t remember if I blogged about that, but I liked that book, too. Again, not life-changing, but good. I really need to get some good Indian recipes in my repertoire.
On Easter Sunday Marissa and I went to see “Water for Elephants.” It was good, but not nearly as good as the book (of course). You just don’t get the emotions and tensions that you get in the book. The characters were pretty well cast, although I didn’t picture the main guy to be as cute as Pattinson. 🙂 But it was true to the story.
Spring Thing Reading List:
Well, off to read! On the iPad!
Walkie Talkie Book Club 