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).