Category General Book Talk

Spring Reads – April

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Garden with some tulips and narcissus

Spring! Can't wait! Image via Wikipedia

Yay for good books!  As I said, I loved “Heart and Soul,” and “Saving CeeCee Honeycutt” is a sweet book that I can’t wait to discuss at book club.  I’m almost done listening to HP book 3 and picked up book 4 today!  I’m intrigued by “The Hundred Foot Journey,” as I just started it this morning.  Any book about food is fun to read!  It starts in India and moves to London and beyond.  India is so fascinating to me.  But the descriptions of the filth and poverty will deter me from making it a high priority on my visit list.

I’m also saying “yay” about the iPad2 I am using for work!  After I finish with my pile of books, I will hopefully share nook books with friends!

So, although my Spring Reads list is LONG (and getting longer!) I am making progress!

  • Mockingbird
  • The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
  • Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
  • Heart and Soul
  • The Hundred-Foot Journey
  • Fly Away Home
  • Winter’s Garden
  • Harry Potter (2)
  • Harry Potter (3)
  • Harry Potter (4)
  • Harry Potter (5)
  • Harry Potter (6)
  • Harry Potter (7)
  • Jane Eyre
  • Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

And now to celebrate Poetry month, a poem from “Reflections on a Gift…”  – one of my favorites!

APRIL by Marcia Masters
It’s lemonade, it’s lemonade, it’s daisy.
It’s a roller-skating, scissor-grinding day;
It’s gingham-waisted, chocolate flavored, lazy,
With the children flower-scattered at their play.

It’s the sun like watermelon,
And the sidewalks overlaid
With a glaze of yellow yellow
Like a jar of marmalade.

It’s the mower gently mowing,
And the stars like startled glass,
While the mower keeps on going
Through a waterfall of grass.

Then the rich magenta evening
Like a sauce upon the walk,
And the porches softly swinging
With a hammockful of talk.

It’s the hobo at the corner
With his lilac-sniffing gait,
And the shy departing thunder
Of the fast departing skate.

It’s lemonade, it’s lemonade, it’s April!
A water sprinkler, puddle winking time,
When a boy who peddles slowly, with a smile remote and holy,
Sells you April chocolate flavored for a dime.

Poetry Month

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magnetic poetry

Thankfully mine isn't in a pile like this. Image by surrealmuse via Flickr

I have always loved poetry!  When I was young, my aunt gave me the book, “Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle (Put Up One Summer by Felicity)” and there was hardly a poem in there I didn’t love.  Somewhere along the line I lost the book – but the miracle of the internet and online shopping put it back in my hands a few years ago.  I still love the poems in there – some even more now.  The poems are mostly light and humorous, but there were some heavy and meaningful ones, as well.

I still have the book, “Now We Are Six” by A. A. Milne, which was given to me when I was six (by the same aunt) – and those poems are precious and fun as well.  It is a favorite gift for any six-year old in my life.  Such fun poetic stories about King John or The Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Thief.  And of course, Pooh.

I also still have the “Poetry Books” we created in 9th and 10th grades, probably for National Poetry Month.  They are construction paper covers with pictures cut-out from magazines and greeting cards taped on the typing paper.  No clip-art or fancy graphics available to me in 1985.  But the poems I included were from “Now We Are Six” and “Reflection on a Gift…”, as well as from teen magazines – those sappy love or friendship poems found at the back of the issue!  I wrote a few as well, including a few limericks.

Lately, the most interesting things I’ve written are a few haikus.  They are a lot of fun.  I have great memory of sitting outside on my deck on a hot Memorial Day weekend with my cousin (that aunt’s daughter) reading and writing haikus.  I think many of them are lost, but I still have the book that was the inspiration. I also still have several versions of magnetic poetry around – I just love words!

I lost a lot of books in the flood, but I am thankful for these favorites that were on a shelf high enough to be saved!

Here is a favorite from “Reflections..”  I hopefully will post more favorites in the month of April.  I just love poetry.  🙂

Well, off to read!

Advice to Travelers

    by Walker Gibson

A burro once, sent by express,
His shipping ticket on his bridle,
Ate up his name and his address,
And in some warehouse, standing idle,
He waited till he like to died.
The moral hardly needs the showing:
Don’t keep things locked up deep inside —
Say who you are and where you’re going.

April Fool!

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alarm clock, bought from IKEA

What is your preferred reading time?

About ten days into spring – and I’m moving along on my Spring Thing List!  I’m almost done with “Heart and Soul” by Binchy and then I’ll start “Saving CeeCee Honeycutt.”  I’m going to attempt all the Harry Potter’s on audio this spring, so that’s an addition to my list!  So far, watched one movie (I only cheated because I forgot which book came first and ordered the wrong one from the library!), listened to book 2 and starting book 3.  Maybe I will get them all read by the time part 2 comes out!  A girl can dream…

I’ve been enjoying setting my alarm clock for about 30 minutes before I need to get up and reading in bed in the morning.  Lately, I am not a great night-time reader – probably all of the blog reading I’m doing at night and the getting up early to read in the morning!  Gotta trim time somewhere!  So I am enjoying reading and have only procrastinated a little too long one morning!  Can’t wait for tomorrow… no alarm!

Things that made me smile this week:

  • Finally admitted that I can’t grow anything in my dark downstairs so moved the herbs to my bedroom.  I don’t know if there’s hope, but we’ll see.
  • Improv Everywhere – a little Friday night fun.
  • Laughing at my crabbiness on Tuesday
  • Marissa’s April Fool’s joke!
  • Reading in bed
  • Next week’s plans – Mexican food and Cosmo Girls!
  • Tomorrow night’s plans – the Minnesota RollerGirls!
  • Fake Baking.  Just a little light therapy.

And now, books on my list:(I’ve added to the list… it’s still a work in progress!  And we’ll see… it’s getting more and more ambitious!)

  • Mockingbird
  • The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
  • Heart and Soul
  • The Hundred-Foot Journey
  • Fly Away Home
  • Winter’s Garden
  • Harry Potter (2-8)
  • Jane Eyre
  • Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

How are you doing on your spring reading?  What is your preferred time of day to read?  And what made you smile this last week?

Well, off to read!

 

Frigid Spring Friday

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"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!

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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

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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…

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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!

A library run…

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Library Pengo

Library Image via Wikipedia

I went to the library and the item on hold for me was the print copy of “Jane Eyre,” not the audiobook.  Hmmm.  I was looking forward to listening to that book as my pile of books TBR is getting bigger and bigger and a few have deadlines.  I’m not the speediest reader around and I find so many distractions – like reading blogs!

I finished my Trigiani audiobook today on my way home and I needed something to listen to and so I ventured into the nonfiction audiobooks upstairs!  I grabbed a David Sedaris book, as well as “Traveling with Pomegranates” by Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter.  Deadra just finished it and loved it, so I will listen and we’ll discuss!  🙂

Monday meandering…

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Decorative header displayed before Chapter I f...

Decorative header displayed before chapter 1 from Jane Eyre Image via Wikipedia

I’m so looking forward to crawling into bed in a few minutes and reading some more in “One Day” before bed.  We drove to Des Moines this weekend and I got to sit in the backseat and read… something I haven’t done in a LONG time!  I’m usually the driver, so being driven and being able to read in the car (thankfully that hasn’t changed) is a blessing!  I’m really liking the book, and I’m about half done.  I’m also almost done withe “Brava, Valentine” on audio – put in the last CD before I got out of the car on Friday – and then I’m going to try “Jane Eyre” on audio!  I’ve never read it and I signed up for the goodreads challenge to read it before the movie comes out mid-March.  My second goodreads challenge, for the record!

I skimmed through my blog reading and came across a list of contemporary books (1983-2008) that may become classics.  It was a list created by Entertainment Weekly, so not too high brow, maybe.  I’ll post it and welcome your thoughts on it.  I skimmed the list (lots of skimming tonight) and think I’ve read less than 20 of the 100. I love lists.  🙂

It’s Marissa’s birthday today.  Hard to believe that she could be 23 years old.  We had a great weekend celebrating together and since she’s moving home I’m looking forward to a whole bunch more quality time with her.  Technically she’s moving into mom and dad’s home, but it will still be close and nice to have her around.  I think I’ll starting thinking of the ‘guest room’ at my house as Marissa’s room.  That’s exciting.

So, what are you reading?  What have you finished reading?  Have you ever read “Jane Eyre”?  What do you think of these ‘contemporary classics’?  Any that you will put on your TBR list?

Well, off to read!

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars’ Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World’s Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators’ Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)