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Ferragosto

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I created an Italian holiday for myself last week and the weather wasn’t too cooperative!  Very very sultry and a little stormy, so I spent a lot of time inside the cabin with books and movies!  Not a bad way to spend time!  So I read a few books early in the week.  I finished “Water for Elephants,” which I really enjoyed; I read “The Next Thing on My List,” and “Away.” The movies I watched were “Days and Clouds,” “Il Postino,” “The Night of the Shooting Stars,” and “Under the Tuscan Sun.”  The first three were Italian and the first two I’d seen before!  I love “Il Postino.”  And “Under the Tuscan Sun.”  I can watch that over and over again.

I really liked “The Next Thing on my List.”  It was a book I’d picked up several times but couldn’t bring myself to read, because the premise is that a girl named Marissa dies in a car accident.  Too creepy.  Anyway, she has a list of 20 things to do before her 25th birthday – so the girl who was driving the car decides that she needs to complete the items on the list.  It wasn’t a great book, but I like lists so enjoyed it.  I also had the book “Flip-Flopped” by the same author and realized after 50 pages that I’d read it before.  “Away” was a book about an immigrant who learns that her daughter may still be alive so she attempts to get back to Russia via Alaska.  I also have a book of short stories by that author and have read a few throughout the week.

Now I’m reading “Beatrice & Virgil” by Yann Martel (author of the Life of Pi).  It’s weird.  No chapters.  It’s about Henry who is a writer and Henry who is writing a play.  And a donkey named Beatrice and howler monkey named Virgil.  And taxidermy.  And the Holocaust?  I’ll let you know if I figure it out when I’m done.  I’m halfway through it.  And then who knows what will be next.  I still have quite a pile at home and a few more from the library.  So many books.

Nicole Baart is doing an online book discussion about Donald Miller’s “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years,” and I’d like to join!  Maybe I’ll run to B&N tomorrow and see about it.  I read part of a Donald Miller book and had bought a few but they went down with the flood.  Interesting author.

Well, off to read!

When the Lights Go Out

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First Advent and first candle is lit

If there were a power outage, I would gather candles, my journals, a great book, and a glass of wine and I would spend quiet moments with words! I might write about things that are going on in my life, or I might write a few haikus on "the dark," or I might just read. If it was daytime, I might play piano and if it was later in the night I'd probably sleep. But since I am not one who flounders in silence or who needs to fill silence with noise, I would be ok.

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I went to work with my mom…

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Before I worked in restaurants, I used to go to work with my mom. She worked in an office and I would answer phones and help prepare mailings. Put on labels, sort by zip code, etc. I worked in the summers and on holiday breaks, as the office was 20 miles from our home. I probably did this when I was 14-15 and started waitressing at 16. I'm sure I made minimum wage at that job – probably $3.15 or something an hour. When I started waitressing I made $2.85 an hour plus tips.

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Next!

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I finished another book this morning.  This summer I have found myself staying in bed for HOURS in the morning to read.  I stay up way too late, watching movies or whatever, and fall asleep reading pretty quickly, so in the morning I’ll read for literally two hours before getting out of bed.  It’s a little ridiculous and indulgent, but I love it.

This morning I finished “Everything She Thought She Wanted.”  I’d read (or listened to) another book by this author and it was ok.  I liked this one better.  I liked the characters in the book and I was interested in what was going to happen.  If anything, I would have liked a little more insight into what was going to happen and the thoughts that went into the final decisions, but overall I would recommend the book.  It was one of those bargain books from B&N.  Gotta love a bargain!

So now I have a pile of books that I’m bringing with me for the week because I can’t decide what’s next.  It’s either “Water for Elephants” (most likely), “The Virgin of Small Plains” (a free book I got a couple of years ago) or “South of Broad” (the free book I got this year).  Or maybe it’ll be “The Sleeping Beauty Proposal,” which mom got free at work.  She said it was laugh out loud funny.  That sounds fun.  I also have to finish August’s O Magazine – maybe before September’s comes!  🙂

My goal for August is to write something everyday.  It might be a letter or a journal or a haiku or a blog.  So I signed up for Plinky, which is word prompts and kinda fun.  I set them up to post to this blog, so if you see random weirdness (whoever you are!) now you’ll know why.

Well, off to read!  Wonder what it’ll be…

The Movie That Moved Me

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You Can Count on Me (2000) starring Mark Ruffalo and Laura Linney was a moving movie that everyone should see! Ok, maybe not everyone, but people who like movies about relationships.

It was a moving portrayal of a brother and sister, and not the most functional brother and sister. She appears to have it all together – or to want to have it all together – and he appears every now and then, when he needs something. When he arrives this time, he needs even more than he realizes and ends up staying for a while.

I love the performances. I laughed with them. I cried with them. I wished them the best of everything.

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The American “Dragon Tattoo” movie

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-27/dragon-tattoo-movies-new-female-lead/

I haven’t been following this, but here it is.  Popped up in a Twitter or something.  So now I know.  Who won’t be Lisbeth and who will be Mikael.  Will I see these movies? Not sure.  Will I watch the second Swedish movie when it comes to the Wehrenberg?  I think so.

How about you?

Off to read!

Magazines

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I’m about half done with August’s Oprah magazine!  I haven’t been this caught up in the ten years I’ve been a subscriber!  Crazy.

I am faithful to the O Magazine.  As I said, I’ve been a subscriber for ten years and my current subscription will run out in February of 2012.  I read it cover to cover and use book marks, take notes of things to look up (books, music, websites) and keep them all on a shelf.  I love almost all the columnists – especially Lisa Kogen and Martha Beck.

I just started reading Eating Well and enjoy it a LOT but it doesn’t take a lot to sit down and read it – and then it ends up being kind of a reference in the recipe book cupboard.  I discovered it when I received vouchers for lots of free magazine subscriptions for my Northwest Airlines points.  So I get Wine Enthusiast (which costs almost $80 a year????), Travel & Leisure (who has the money for those trips?), W (a waste of paper) and Eating Well.  I renewed Eating Well and will continue to enjoy it.  I just put out many issues of the other magazines in the recycling this morning.  I know I should have donated them somewhere, but for the sake of getting them out of the house they are now recycled.

Once I subscribed to the New Yorker.  I thought it would be fun to get a literary magazine, but I found that I didn’t read it that often.  The O Magazine is one that I’ve stuck with – and now have a rule that I won’t subscribe to any others because I don’t have time for any others.  Now that the subscriptions to those crazy magazines are starting to expire my paper clutter will also diminish a bit, right?

I used to love reading Cricket when I was younger – about 12.  I still like to go and look at them in our elementary library and I always encourage kids to check them out.  They are “literary,” too, so not interesting to many.  Just story geeks.

Are there magazines that you are a faithful reader of?  How do you read them – cover to cover or by looking at the table of contents for what interests you?  What do you do with them when you’re done?  What’s the craziest magazine subscription you’ve had?  Or one that you wish you were brave enough to get?

Well, off to read!


Summer Reads

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I’ve been bad at this blogging this summer!  But I guess from what I read on the blogs I follow, it isn’t too unusual to take a blog vacation.  I just haven’t been blogging that long to take a vacation from it!  Oops.  Oh well.  Here we go!

I had to check out my goodreads list to see which books I’ve read since I last blogged.  It’s been quite a few:  “Firefly Lane” (Kristin Hannah), “The Beach House” (Jane Green), “Love Walked In” and “Belong to Me” (Marissa de los Santos), “The Other Woman” (Jane Green), “The Girl Who Played with Fire” (Stieg Larsson), “Best Friends Forever” (Jennifer Weiner), and “The Stormchasers” (Jenna Blum).  I just started “Other People’s Weddings” yesterday.

So.  I liked “Firefly Lane” better than “Best Friends Forever,” and for some reason they felt similar to me.  Best friends.  Different family backgrounds.  Estrangement.  Kids to grown-ups.  I also thought that the “mystery” feel in “BFF” was very hokey, especially after reading Millennium #2.

I liked “Love Walked In” better than “Belong To Me,” although I loved them both.  I loved the character and the writing style.  I was glad that there was another book about the main character in “Love Walked In” because I wanted to keep getting to know her.  They were great reads.

I liked “The Beach House” better than “The Other Woman.”  They were very different books by Jane Green – one about an eccentric woman who takes in boarders to help maintain her life on Cape Cod and the other about the contentious relationship a woman has with her mother-in-law.  I thought the daughter-in-law was pretty uptight and ridiculous a lot of the time, although I did have some empathy for her.  I wouldn’t want to deal with a MIL like that, but it was a little crazy.

I really liked “The Stormchasers,” and can’t wait to discuss it in book club with others who have read it!  I don’t want to give any spoilers so am not going to talk about it much here.  Read on!

After I read “Other People’s Weddings” I hope I can pick up that Pat Conroy book I got in the mail – “South of Broad.”  Seems like a summer read, so I’ll hopefully dive into that.  Still  have quite a pile TBR by the bed!  I bought “Eats Shoots and Leaves” at a used book sale and can’t wait to pick that up, either.

So what about you???  What have you been reading and what are your thoughts about the books you’ve been reading this summer?

Can’t wait to hear!

And now, off to read before company comes!

July 1

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Just barely.  It is almost July 2 already!  Time just keeps flying…

Last night, June 30, we met to discuss “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”  I haven’t started the second book yet, but Jess was more than 2/3 done and feeling like she didn’t want to put it down!  It’s definitely going to get read this weekend.  I can’t wait.  But I think we had a good discussion last night, even though the page numbers in the questions didn’t correlate with the paperback copies of the book, so we had to guess sometimes what they were asking.  The movie comes out on DVD next week so maybe we’ll meet again and watch the movie after we’ve read all the books.  Our goal is to discuss the second book by the end of July.

So since I read that first book I’ve read a few Oprah magazines (I’m so ahead of the game!) and some lighter books – which I thoroughly enjoyed!  I was ripping through them quickly for a while!  But then i did more magazine reading (and baseball watching) and didn’t get as much reading done.  Now today I started a Jane Green book from the library (curse you, library, for your temptations!) and I’m half done.  I would like to re-read the 7th Harry Potter book before the movie comes out in November – I have no memory of the plot of that book.  It was the last book I read before the flood and my brain changed for a while (maybe forever?) and it is just gone.  So I’ll re-do.  Gladly.  I loved those books.

So my pile of books to read next include:  “The Girl Who Played with Fire,” “Best Friends Forever,” “The Stormchasers,” “South of Broad,” “Everything She Thought She Wanted,” and now, “Other People’s Weddings.”  Hard to choose where to start.  So I chose Jane Green.  “The Other Woman,” about a woman’s mother-in-law from hell.

I must say, I like blogging.  It’s probably boring for those who read (if anyone reads – wink wink) but I missed writing these last few weeks.  No excuses… just busy with kiddo stuff.  Gracie and Rees were here one Monday and last Monday I was feeling a little punky.  I think it was allergies, as the meds seem to be helping.

And now I’m so excited about heading to the lake – I’m bringing three books along and if I read them all (unlikely) there is a walmart close and I can find something else!  As I remember about our trip to FL in March, it’s hard to read a lot when your eyes are closed and you are worshiping the sun.  So we’ll see what I get read.

I haven’t finished packing yet, but I’m going to get up early.  So… off to read!

What happened to Monday???

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I guess I was hanging out with the Littles!  Forgot about the Monday meanderings or musings.  So.  Here we are.

I finished “Firefly Lane,” with tears, and haven’t started another book yet.  My box of books arrived from B&N but I finished my June Oprah magazine and even started July’s!  It’s all about summer book reading, so I’m sure I’ll get plenty of book ideas from there!

But I am going to start Jane Green’s “The Beach House” tonight.  I’ve read many of J Green’s books and enjoyed them all mightily.  I am sure I won’t be disappointed!  I’m waiting patiently for everyone to finish ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” so that we can meet and discuss it fully.  I can’t wait.

Then what’s next?  “Best Friends Forever”?  “Belong to Me”?  Although I read that it is the second book about the same characters so I probably want to look for the first book before I read “Belong to Me.” “The Stormchasers”?  So many choices… Hopefully it’ll be easy to choose!

Well, off to read!  Happy Tuesday!