Raehink: I could go...

...on a tear with this assignment! I was having a hard time sleeping last night and began to think of favorite books I read as a teen. Wow. I think I will just head over to the library tomorrow and pull a whole bunch off the shelf. They shouldn't take near as long to read now, right? I may even read some Nancy Drew!

I heartily approve of Eric joining us. I have been in two book groups that included men. They didn't always read what we ladies read, but when they did, their perspective was fresh and interesting. The Good Earth and Follow the River are two titles that come to mind. We needed the male perspective on those reads.

I have FINISHED all the books needed for my teen immigrant experience project. Now to write the paper! Then. I. Am. Done. Finis. Complete.

Then on to Statistics...three more classes and a capstone, ladies.

Happy reading!

Abby: February reading assignment

Rae, I love the idea for our February reading choice. I was immediately able to think of a book that would meet the assignment and I'm excited. The longer it takes me to choose a book, the less likely I am to pick one for the month.

When I read Eric the assignment, he said he wants to be part of our book club. :) Isn't it funny that we haven't had any of the guys contribute? Have we ever discussed that? He's mulling over what he would re-read from his teen years.

I will be reading Tamora Pierce's series about a girl named Alanna, beginning with Alanna: The First Adventure. There are four books and I don't know how many I'll get to, but I'm really curious to see what I'll think of them now. I loved them as a teen.

Raehink: February assignment

Chela and I have just joined a Relief Society book group. Our February assignment for that group is ROMANCE. I thought about making it easy next month and assigning us the same topic, but that would be too easy.

I have just finished the book Shelf Discovery by Lizzie Skurnick. You can learn more about it on the GoodReads site, if you like. I wasn't bowled over by the book, but it did make me mentally reminisce about the books I read and loved as a teen. Then I heard about JD Salinger dying this past week. I've never been a fan of his, and especially disliked Catcher in the Rye. But his death gave me the idea for our February read.

Find a book (not necessarily a classic, but one geared toward teens) that you read and loved as a teen and see if you can duplicate the experience. I bet we will find that these books are quite different when read as adults. I think I will reread Harriet the Spy and The Long Secret, two books that I lived and breathed as a tween. Have fun with your choices. Report back. And, as always,

Happy reading!

Lynness: 2 recent books

I finished North and South and enjoyed it very much.  I think I'll buy it with my Barnes and Noble gift card I got for Christmas from Ben.  (As much as I love books- so much so that Nathan and I got engaged at a Barnes and Noble in Orem- I rarely buy them except at thrift stores.  I guess I'm just too stingy to buy something purely for pleasure, especially when I can probably eventually get it at the library or borrow from someone.  And I won't buy a book I've never read- I might not like it!  Anyway, I liked this one enough to re-read it at some point AND I have a gift card, so....).  The movie is moderately different from the book toward the end, but only in HOW things happen- just simplifying the logistics and making it flow better.  The feel is true to the book.

I also read The Water is Wide, by Pat Conroy, about his teaching experiences on Daufuskie Island (near Hilton Head, SC, Gullah population) in the 60's.  It was full of profanity, but intriguing.  It makes me want to find out what's happened to the kids in the story and to the island and education there in general since then.

On a literary note, PBS is now showing the BBC's (I think) latest version of Emma.  It's 3 2-hour episodes, of which only the first has played.  Imagine Dumbledore as Mr. Woodhouse!!  I don't really think he fits the part, but everyone else is fine.  I don't think I would've figured out who he was unless I hadn't just been reading North and South, but the guy who plays Frederick in the movie version of North and South is Frank Churchill in this version of Emma.  They have added to the story, but it does help to explain some of the parts of the original a little more clearly.

Lynness- January read PS

I guess I should say, "So far the MOVIE is very true to the BOOK,"
instead of the other way around, huh?

Lynness - January read

I know the assignment was to find a book that I've been meaning to read (which I did, Redwall), but I've been wanting to read North and South (not the John Jakes Civil War one- this is set in England) and our library system doesn't have it.  (Though they have another novel- Cranford- by the author, Elizabeth Gaskell, which I find tedious and can't get into).  I thought about buying it, since I liked the movie so much, but then realized that it was written in 1855 and was probably in the public domain.  Project Gutenberg had the text, and although it's definitely not my favorite way to read, I am enjoying it and have lain Redwall aside for now.  If you like Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte, you'll like this.  If you have trouble getting into this type of book, start with the movie: 4 hour-long episodes on 2 DVDs produced by the BBC.  Although I hear the ending is altered a little, so far the book is very true to the movie.  Each chapter starts with a verse, and I just LOVED the image that I have put in bold in this one prior to chapter 6.

'Unwatch'd the garden bough shall sway,
The tender blossom flutter down,
Unloved that beech will gather brown,
The maple burn itself away;

Unloved, the sun-flower, shining fair,
Ray round with flames her disk of seed,
And many a rose-carnation feed
With summer spice the humming air;

*    *    *    *    *    *

Till from the garden and the wild
A fresh association blow,
And year by year the landscape grow
Familiar to the stranger's child;

As year by year the labourer tills
His wonted glebe, or lops the glades;
And year by year our memory fades
From all the circle of the hills.'
TENNYSON

Abby: April of 2007?!

Wow, Rae (Lulu)! I hadn't realized that. Amazing. I feel like I've fallen off the "reporting" end of my reading, but I'm still reading. Still reading books and still reading here about the books everyone else is reading. :)

I recently read The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. It was a fun, light, read, but overall I was annoyed at the writing style. Has anyone else ever read something where the main characters are a little too stupid? Where it takes them ages to realize what you can see very early on? I suppose that has happened to me before but previous stories have managed to be detailed and captivating enough that I never minded. Anyway, just an observation...

I'm re-reading The Small Rain by Madeleine L'Engle (a Christmas present). I love this book. So much. It's the first in a two book set about a concert pianist.

I'm trying to decide what to read next. Something new. Something that will draw me in. Haven't settled on anything yet. I sure wish the third book of the Hunger Games series was out! That was awesome.

But I also have these books waiting on my shelf: Food, Inc., Finding Flow, Nurtured by Love (Shinichi Suzuki), and Ability Development from Age Zero (Shinichi Suzuki).

Lulu: Also--

--do all of you realize this blog has been up and running since April of 2007? Almost 3 years! I think that's awesome!

Lulu: My dalliance with Dallas

(As in author Sandra Dallas, and "dalliance" as in its first definition: a trifling away of time; dawdling....a trifling away of time is hilariously accurate, as I spent a good 4 hours reading her books today.)

Abby first recommended The Persian Pickle Club to me, and that was the first Sandra Dallas book I read. I loved it. Her books are always full of really great historical details (historical fiction? but with suspense and almost always a bit of a mystery), vivid characters, and at the heart, a great plot. There is always some unexpected twist! I usually consider myself a pretty good predictive reader, but every book of hers has surprised me in at least some small way.

So for this month, I have finally gotten to those other Dallas books I have been wanting to read! Abby recommended The Chili Queen (which I thoroughly enjoyed), and then I read Alice's Tulips and have started on The Diary of Mattie Spenser.

The Chili Queen involved [SPOILER ALERT...ish] some skilled con artists and some Wild West-type characters, and the rich background stories for each character could have spawned a few more novels.
Alice's Tulips made me cry and laugh--a lot of both. Alice's husband is a Union soldier in the Civil War, and during the two years that he is gone, Alice goes through some horrible things, and some less horrible things, but comes out of it with so much growth and refinement...I really loved the story.
The Diary of Mattie Spenser is about a girl who married a man she hardly knew (quite common then, really) and went out west to Colorado with him to start an entirely new life.
Tallgrass, which I plan to read after Mattie, is about the Japanese internment camps in the U.S. during WWII.
And lastly: Buster Midnight's Cafe is about a forties-era Hollywood star (her rise and fall, I guess).

I'm also reading Nightlight, a ridiculous and hilarious parody of Twilight. (Maddie sent it to me) I was laughing so hard it hurt and had tears (of laughter) running down my cheeks by page 5.

Raehink: Redwall

Lynness, I read three of the Redwall series (including that first one) with William several years ago. I thought they were delightful. Beccy's boys also enjoy them. But then I like animal stories. I loved Wind in the Willows, Watership Down, Rabbit Hill, Stuart Little, and of course, just about every Marguerite Henry horse book ever published! I like the Redwall books because the stories appealed to my adult tastes even though the main characters were animals. I hope you like them, but if not, there are plenty of other good books out there for you to find :)

I am working feverishly to finish up my Adult Lit class. It has taken far too long. I'm now reading a whole bunch of teen immigration experience novels. They are all good so far but are also running all together in my mind. I will be glad to get my paper written and move on to Statistics. Never thought I would say that!

It will be nice to read what I want for a change. We have started a book group in our Relief Society. It's still in its infancy and we are still working out the kinks as far as running it, but there seems to be a fair amount of excitement regarding it. I love being involved in the groups and am always amazed at what other people find to read that I have never heard of...

Happy reading!

Lynness: January Reading

Ok, I finished Freakonomics, got about halfway through Midnight's Children before I had to return it.  (I checked out about 5 books at once and read that one last.  Turns out I should've read it first b/c I couldn't renew it b/c someone else had a hold on it after me.  I have put it on hold again to finish it.)  I also read The Zookeepers Wife, about the Warsaw Zoo and its directors in German-occupied Poland.  It's interesting, but doesn't seem well organized.  Some of the sentences and paragraphs seem almost like they were pasted in the wrong place by accident.  I read some of Jorge Luis Borges' short stories (kind of trippy...) and the book I am reading for the actual assignment is Redwall.  My sister gave it to me a couple of years ago and I haven't read it yet.  So far I'm having trouble getting into it, but I am going to keep on until I'm a little further in, at least.  Has anyone tried that one?  I have to tell you, I have absolutely no patience for The Wind and the Willows.  Maybe it's the fact that this is all animals, too.

Raehink: January Reading

A most happy 2010 to each of you. The assignment for January is to find a book, any book, that you've been meaning to get to forever and just haven't yet. You know, the one on your shelf that just sits there waiting...waiting...waiting! Put it out of its misery by READING it.

Happy reading in a brand new year!