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40 Things (28) – I am so unoriginal in these titles!

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Cover of "Persepolis: The Story of a Chil...

Cover of Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Following along with Boof’s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday

28) A book I loved but nobody else did

I often try to get my book club out of their comfort zone a bit, and one of those stretches was a graphic novel, “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi.  I loved this book, but others just kind of squinched their eyes at me.  I don’t know if it was the story or the graphic novel aspect, but I loved it.  (Summary from Goodreads below…)

#28 on my list was:  Get a new passport.

FAIL!  Yikes.  I really need to do this.  I’m not sure what the hold-up is, and I even picked up all the paperwork once, but I just need to do it.  I got my first passport in college and used it twice (England and South Korea) and unfortunately it has been more than 10 years since that first passport was issued.  *Sigh*

Goodreads Summary of Persepolis:  Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. 

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love. 

Off to read!

40 Things (27)

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In western painting, Helen's journey to Troy i...

Image via Wikipedia "Helen of Pasadena" is about archeologists, not Helen of Troy, but lots of references! Good stuff...

Following along with Boof’s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday, day 27!

27) A book I love that deserves to be better known

I have been following The Satellite Sisters for more than ten years now – through their weekly radio show turned daily radio show, turned daily podcast, turned weekly podcast; through their articles in O Magazine and through their blogs, and most recently through one of them publishing a novel.  Ten years ago for Christmas I got their book ‘The Satellite Sisters: Uncommon Senses’ which was (and still is) such a great book.  It’s the lessons they learned growing up in a large family (8 kids) on the east coast.  The lessons were many and still hold true today.  I believe they are possibly re-releasing the book or some incarnation of it and if they do, it will be a gift I will give to friends.  One of the sisters, Lian, published her novel “Helen of Pasadena,” last December and it is a really great book, too!  I drove to Edina on a cold cold evening in December to hear her speak and get some books signed for gifts.  What fun to meet a “sister” in person.  I feel like they are all friends of mine!

#27 on my list was:  Finish a NYT crossword without looking at the answers!  I have been able to successfully complete this several times – at the Monday level.  The New York Time’s Crossword Puzzles get harder as the week goes on, leading up to the nearly impossible (to me) Sunday puzzle.  I have a book filled with Monday puzzles and can rip through one pretty easily.  I should go get a Tuesday book and keep moving forward. Maybe in my 43rd year.  🙂

Off to read!

40 Things (26)

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Following along with Boof’s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday, day 26:

26) A favourite science-fiction book

Goodness.  Once again, I had to look to Goodreads to find a list of science fiction books to see if I’ve read any!  It’s not my thing, I guess, but a few came up that I have read.  I loved “A Wrinkle in Time” as a youngster and tried to re-read it as an adult but found it weird.  I read “The Giver,” and didn’t care for it – too spooky.  I enjoyed “Her Fearful Symmetry” lots more than “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” and are they considered science fiction?  “Her Fearful Symmetry” is a ghost story – certainly not realistic fiction – and would be my pick as favorite.

# 26 on my list was to Play the accordion.  I’ve watched some great foreign films with memorable accordion music (“Amelie,”  “Bread & Tulips”) and would love to learn how to play French or Italian accordion.  So this was on my list, but it was the night of my 40th birthday that I finally had a chance!  I went to Whistle Binkies and it was Oktoberfest and a small German polka band was playing, so after some begging and pleading, the accordionist allowed me to hold and play and be photographed playing his accordion!  Mission accomplished.  Since that time I have purchased an accordion and have worked at it a little!  I certainly am not up to the beautiful French melodies I’m after, but there are two songs I can play pretty well!  It’s so HARD!! But fun. 🙂

Getting some lessons from Barb (Oct 2010)

Off to read!

40 Things (25)!

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chick lit books $2

Do Chick Lit books have to be pink?

Following along with Boof’s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday, today’s topic is:

25) A favourite chicklit book

I do love me some chicklit!  To answer this question I first looked up a definition of chicklit.

  • Novels written for and by young women
  • Literature appealing to women, usually with a romantic or sentimental theme
  • A genre of fiction concentrating on young working women and their emotional lives
And then I looked at my Goodreads books, especially those rated five stars, and the following authors had more than one rated five stars for me:
I have followed Jennifer Weiner’s blog and twitter for ages and know that she is pretty sensitive about the title “chicklit,” because it diminishes the importance of the book and its content in some people’s eyes.  “Chicklit” isn’t given column space in prominent book review publications.  Interesting to think about…
I can’t pick one book, so I’ll leave it at that. 🙂

#25 on my list of things to do was to Go to the Trempeleau Hotel for an outdoor concert.  The Trempeleau Hotel is in the small town of Trempeleau along the Mississippi River.  There is a lawn where they hold outdoor concerts in the summer and Beth and I were able to take in a concert there.  I think it was the summer of 2008, but for the life of me I can’t remember who we saw!  It’ll come to me (or Beth will remember).  We brought our own lawn chairs and had yummy food and drink in the late summer evening.  It was a great time.

Off to read!

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40 Things (24)

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Cover of "The Firm"

Cover of The Firm

Following along with Boof’s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday, the next topic is –

24) An “unputdownable” book

I am a pretty slow reader, as a rule.  I think a big reason why it takes time for me to get through a book is that I am a) distracted by other things to read, and b) enjoying every word in a book.  I can’t skim or speed read.  I immerse myself in words.

I remember reading “The Firm” by Grisham in my early 20s.  I had just started my first job out of college and still loved to stay up late and dreaded early mornings.  I read that book in one weekend day, staying up until 4:30 am to finish it, because I knew that if I didn’t devour it it would leak into my week and cause sleeplessness.

I always look forward to reading but it isn’t every book that I read that causes that feeling of happy anticipation at the thought of crawling into bed and reading THAT BOOK.  If you look at my Goodreads list, I believe that every book I rated five stars gave me that feeling.  It stuck with me all day, making chores easier to bear, bringing a smile.  Recently, “Attachments” made me feel that way.  Last summer I devoured “The Girl Who…” books.

It’s such a great feeling…

#24 on my list of 40 things was: Have a memorable New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve is one of those “coupley” holidays that I sometimes dread.  There’s also that great expectation that it’s going to be a spectacular and memorable evening!  I’ve hosted some NYE parties that were a blast and some that were ok.  I’ve gone to movies alone, returning home just in time for the Rockin’ New Year’s Eve shows.  I’ve rented movies and stayed home.  I’ve gone to parties and had a good time.  I’ve gone to see “Dueling Pianos” and drank Jaegermeister from the bottle.

So I’ve had memorable New Year’s Eves before and I will again.  This challenge was to create the intention to make every NYE intentionally memorable.  On the last NYE before my 40th birthday, I realized I’d better do something, so I invited my friends Beth and Doug over (to my mom and dad’s, since that is where I was living at the time) and we ate good food and played Guitar Hero and singing games all night long.  We created a funny band name and had big laughs.  Again, the intention was there so the evening will be remembered.  It would be fun to have some kind of traditional NYE celebration in our family, but every year is different and usually planned at the last minute.  A good thing to look forward to. 🙂

Off to read!

40 Things (22)

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A gift wrapped in yellow and green paper.

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Following along with Boof’s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday, day 22’s topic is:

22) A book I hope I get for my birthday

Well, I know that Boof is doing this leading up to her 40th birthday, and one of the reasons I decided to participate was because I am going to have a birthday soon, too!  Mine is a few days before hers, and I was just putting items on my Amazon wish list for an out-of-the-country friend who wants to purchase me a gift.  I actually didn’t put many books on the list (the beauty of Amazon – they have earrings!), but when I was looking for books, I was looking for comedic books rather than novels.  I was looking at books by Amy Sedaris or thinking about Jon Stewart‘s book.  I own a lot of books already so I couldn’t think of one that I wanted.  I am planning to buy the Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest if it ever comes out in paperback… I have the first two in paperback and want to complete the trilogy.  🙂

So any of those will work for me.  🙂

#22 on my list of 40 things was: Enter another contest.  Yesterday I wrote about entering a photo contest, which was a lot of fun, so I decided to enter other contests.  I have entered a few since that time – no-talent-needed contests, as well as writing contests and other photo contests.  I’ve won some books from Goodreads and even a book club set of books from Random House.  I never expect to win anything so getting a freebie is always a blessing!

Off to read!

Books: Catching up with myself!

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Cover of "Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, w...

Cover via Amazon

I’ve been busy blogging about Boof’s list and my list and meanwhile books are being finished!  That’s a good thing.  I’m definitely going to make my Goodreads goal (and surpass it!) of 55 books by year end.  Good times.  Love Goodreads.

So far in September I have finished the following:

“A Lover’s Dictionary” by David Levithan – My Goodreads review:  A quick, satisfying read. David Levithan tells a love story through word definitions (and you know I love the dictionary!). Sometimes silly words, often powerful words. It tells a story fully in short, packed definitions. Good stuff.

“Attachments” by Rainbow Rowell – My Goodreads review: What a fun and unique book! Told through emails that get caught in a filter and the IT guy who reads them. It was amazing how much you learn about people from reading their emails and all characters were very likeable. I was cheering for them to be happy and really unsure how it was going to turn out until the very end. How satisfying! * I already posted this info but it’s worth posting twice!  It is going to be a favorite of 2011 I think!

“The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake” by Aimee Bender (audiobook) – My Goodreads review: I tried to read this once and it didn’t grab me. It remained on my TBR list so I got it on audio from the library, and I’m sorry to say it didn’t grab me again! It got better as it went on, but I wouldn’t have finished listening to it if I hadn’t had some miles to put on the car this week. The author read the book and it sounded like it would sound if I read the book – nothing special. Just being read to.   That said, there were a few moments I will remember for a while – the story (parable) that Rose tells about her classmate that couldn’t read and then found out that he couldn’t see was quite powerful.

Sorry for being unoriginal and simply posting my Goodreads reviews about these books.  Don’t have many more thoughts than I’ve already written!  🙂

I’m currently reading (and loving!) “Lunch in Paris – a Love Story with Recipes” by Elizabeth Bard.  How fun!  I think it’s going to have to go on my wishlist to own and go on my cookbook shelf right next to “A Homemade Life”!  They are similar in that there are recipes relating to each chapter but Bard’s book is filled with yummy sounding French recipes.  Ooh la la!

And on the books into movies front, I purchased the new “Jane Eyre”  movie and I am patiently waiting for friend Cindy to find time to watch it with me!  In the meantime I found a 1983 British miniseries of Jane Eyre on instant Netflix so I’m refreshing my memory on the story – in 11 episodes it is probably not too abridged!

A few Italian movies I reserved during Ferragosto have come to me from the library so I have another to watch tonight.  There are a few in the theatres I’d like to go see but we’ll see how it goes!

Off to read!

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40 Things (21)

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Cover of "The Sleeping Beauty Proposal"

Cover of The Sleeping Beauty Proposal

Following along with Boof‘s 40 Day Challenge leading up to her 40th birthday, her next topic is:

21) A book I am embarrassed to say I like

I read a lot of pretty embarrassing books.  I mean “The Cinderella Deal”?  “The Sleeping Beauty Proposal”? Both given four stars by me on Goodreads.  They’re good for the time – summer at the cabin.  So I am not embarrassed by liking the books I like.  I know that I am missing out on a great book by reading a fluffy good one, but sometimes a fluffy good one is what is called for.  Often, lately, a fluffy good one is what is called for.  I may grow out of it?  I may not.

#21 on my list of 40 things was: Enter a photo contest.  How silly and random, eh?  But I did enter a contest of travel pictures and was made a finalist!  I didn’t win, but it was a lot of fun to get credit for a photo I took.  The photo was of human grape vines at the San Diego Zoo.  They were amazing to look at and the photo turned out pretty good.

Off to read!

 

40 Things…

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My Year in Lists

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Boof at the Book Whisperer turns the big 4-0 this year and is counting down to her birthday in October (shortly after mine!) with a 40 Day Book Challenge!  I think I’ll play along (when I can) and also will write about my own list of “40 things to do before I turn 40” from a few years ago!

Her first question was:  1) A favourite book of 2011 (so far)
When I looked through my Goodreads “read” shelf, the books that had five stars include all the Harry Potter books, which I listened to on audio this year, two Maeve Binchy books, and “The Girl Who Fell From the Sky”.  So I’m going to say my favorite of the year is “Finding Frankie” by Binchy.  I’ve expounded on my love of all things Binchy before, so I’ll just leave it at that.

My friend Deadra and I were both looking at turning 40 in 2008 and wanting to commemorate it in some way.  We love lists so decided to each write our own list of 40 things to do before turning 40.  We wrote the lists in late 2006, giving us plenty of time to accomplish them.  Looking at my own list of 40 Things Before 40, my #1 started out simple –
1)  Re-read “Pride and Prejudice.”
And I did.  To me, Austen is a great book to laze away the summer with, absorbing each word, paragraph and page.  It’s relaxing and a lovely way to spend time.

My list of Things was a lot of fun to write and accomplish, even though they were pretty small feats, for the most part.  Some of them were more about a way of thinking than doing.  It’ll be fun to relive it a little here…

Off to read!

 

Books: Catching Up

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I am simply dThe Housekeeper and the Professoroing a copy/paste job from goodreads.  Much faster way to keep updated on the books I’m reading.
Saw “The Help” movie tonight and it was awesome.  I’ll try to write more about it later.  Good stuff.

Another sweet, quick read! A Japanese book about a housekeeper and her son who take care of a Professor who has an 80 minute memory of anything beyond 1975. He pins notes to his suit to help him remember things and teaches the Housekeeper about the beauty of numbers. Beautiful.

Wild Designs

I can’t believe this is the fifth book by this author I have read this summer. Either she is growing on me or I am choosing better books. I liked this almost as much as the last one of hers I read. Good light reads perfect for summer.

Wedding Season

Wedding Season

by Katie Fforde

Well the sixth book I’ve read by Katie Fforde this summer! Not great. Not bad. Three women get involved in different aspects of planning weddings – dress making, cake making, hair and makeup and general organization. Predictable. Sarah pointed out that there is a lot of dialogue in these books and this one felt very cumbersome in repeating details. Not the best I’ve read.

The Happiness Project

The Happiness Project

I didn’t finish this book (shame on me) but I wasn’t enamored with it. There’s something about doing a project with the intention of writing about it in the end that just rubs me wrong. She certainly put a lot of thought into her project – writing her commandments, doing lots of research on happiness – and I will look at her blog and hopefully pick up the book again sometime and finish it (I stopped in July – money is a sticky subject right now).

Moving on…

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