Lynness: I am such a nerd

I think this blog has contracted the RSL plague.  (Relief Society Leadership)  Rae became a RS pres.  Now I am, and Becky's in a RS presidency.  So yes, I've been busy and haven't been reading as much, but I reserved some books today (too many, probably) and saw a bit of a pattern...

"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" (about the woman whose cells were taken- illegally- and cultured for research and opened the age of modern medicine)
"Blackout"- part one of the latest story by Connie Willis- most of whose books I have thoroughly enjoyed, especially "Passage", which I re-read recently for at least the 4th time
"The 4 Percent Universe" (about dark matter, etc)
"101 Theory Drive" (how memory works, supposedly)
"The Art of Immersion" (how electronic media is changing storytelling, from the movies to advertising)
"Promised Land" (another Connie Willis to try out)

All science fiction or science (hard and soft) non-fiction.  And the two books I got from the library before this?  Both about chemistry- one "The Disappearing Spoon" about the elements and the periodic table, and the other, "Napoleon's Buttons", about molecules (such as sugar, silk, pepper and rubber) have influenced the course of history.
Definitely nerdy.

Finally a Book In Hand

Well I have had the past 2 weeks out of school, and the first thing I did was pick up a book! I started and completed 'B is for Burglar' by Sue Grafton. I enjoy her character Kinsey Millhone, and the slight murder mystery. I also like that fact that they are easy reads which help me get back into the swing of reading the way I truly desire to read!
I started 'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert, which so far I am really enjoying! I am reading this by Audio and I am really enjoying the narration! I know that there has been huge hype over the book, and the movie, but I just thought it would be interesting.
This one might sound crazy but I also read '101 Fat-Burning Workouts & Diet Strategies' Its published by Muscle & Fitness and it is geared toward men, but they have workouts for all stages of athleticism. I found it at the library and was very interested.

I have some other books lined up to read:
The Good Earth
Alice In Wonderland
and the one I am most excited to read at this point is 'Cooking in Other Women's Kitchens, domestic workers in the south, 1865-1960' by Rebecca Sharpless

Lynness: What's everyone enjoying right now?

I feel like I haven't read anything since Christmas- I've been doing the
Box Tops program at Isaiah's school, going to bed very soon after the
kids (but at least I'm past needing naps during the day! We find out on
the 24th if it's a boy or girl), and doing lots of projects, like
transferring cassette tapes to digital, sewing for baby showers, and
teaching joy school and piano.
Anyway, our Box Tops contest is almost over, I have more energy, and I
need a good read. Anyone read anything wonderful lately?

EARTH TO QAIT!

I wrote this for my blog but thought I'd share since I've been neglecting this book blog. :) But this blog is in my thoughts fairly often! I've only recently let myself dive into books in a big way again...

Michael was trying to talk to me while I read my book, and when I finally realized it, I had to remind him that he has to call my name first or I'll miss at least the first half of what he says. 

Then, after our little conversation, I went back to my book. 

Back into its world, completely immersed.

So much so that when I talked to Michael later, he grinned and asked if I'd heard his little speech...and I hadn't! 

He said he tried a little experiment when I went back to reading. He spoke in a dull voice, like a bored horse-race announcer, and said "Kathryn Faith Wahlquist...I have spoken your name, yet you do not react..." (something like that, going on and on until he finished) "...this has been a message from Michael Wahlquist." 

I missed it! 

It made us laugh a lot, though, when he told me about it later. 

By the way? The book that had me completely bound is called "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner. He's a Mormon author, not that it shows. And his style of writing is borderline for Deseret Book--they won't carry his sequel. But not for the same reasons they wouldn't carry the rest of the Twilight books. It's perhaps a bit graphic...well, yes, it is. It's very heavy material on the whole. The subject matter is comparable to Lord of the Flies at first, since it's a group of boys with no adult leader...but beyond that, it stands alone as a very original plot. Kind of post-apocalyptic, sci-fi in a very thought-provoking way. I loved it. 

Lynness- Oliver Sacks

Just finished reading Oliver Sacks latest- The Mind's Eye.  It is shorter and more personal than some of his other books: one whole chapter is entirely about his own experience with losing vision in one eye.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm a nerd.  Makes me want to write to him and ask about my own head.  Maybe the fact that I don't visualize much of what I read is that my reading is so visual instead of oral?  By that I mean that I concentrate on the look of the words on the page rather than speaking them to myself as I read.  I do not have a photographic memory, but- without consciously trying to commit this to memory-  I remembered a word's approximate location on the page and the shape of the word when I later decided to go back to find the word and look it up.  (If my memory were photographic, I could scan my page in memory to find the word I wanted to look up!)  I can't hold an image in memory for very long, and I can't focus in on it- I can recognize people in my "mind's eye", but if I try to examine them more closely or look for more detail my image kind of 'falls apart', even with people I know very well, like my family.  I can draw, but I have to have an object to draw in front of me.  I cannot hold a realistic image in my mind and draw from it.  Sign language is a visual language and to describe location and spatial relationships with sign language, you have to have a visual image of them yourself, which I rarely do.  If I were describing my own living room I imagine I would have a general image, but interpreting for others requires one to place people and object in various places in your signing space so that you can refer to them, and I have a harder time keeping straight where they are, because I have no actual visual construct....

ANYWAY, Oliver Sacks books always make me think about thinking.  Won't it be amazing when we have all the answers about how our minds work?!

Lynness- Recent reads

I just finished the complete Sherlock Holmes, over 1000 pages.  It wasn't taxing, though- because all but 4 are short stories, so I'd read a few every night, etc. over several weeks.   Most books I speed through because I want to find out what happens. With this, you get that every few pages, so you can stretch it out over a longer period, but still get the satisfaction of resolution and answers.  Many of the stories do tend to be similar: more of a feel though, than actual details of cases.  Two of the stories, however, had THE EXACT SAME conversation in the opening scene....oops.
I also read Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol.
Wondering what to read next...any assignment or really good reads lately?

Lynness: reading for Aug-Sept

I posted about the bios I read in August, but while searching for bios to read, I came across Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time.  I didn't get around to reading it for August and I almost returned it, but decided to renew it and maybe I'd give it a whirl.  I was just starting it last week when I decided to look for some books that would fit the bill for this month.  I clicked around a bit and found Powell Book's Puddly Awards list.  What was the non-fiction winner?  This book.  Turns out it's won a fair number of other awards as well (pasted from the Wikipedia article on the book):

• Kiriyama Prize
• Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year
• Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association – Nonfiction Award
• Montana Honor Book Award
• Borders Bookstore Original Voices Selection
• Banff Mountain Festival Book Award Finalist
• Dayton Literary Prize Nonfiction Award – runner up
• People Magazine – Critics Choice
• Publisher’s Weekly – Starred Review
• Mom's Choice Award 2009 ^[14]
• 2009 Italy: Premio Gambrinus “Giuseppe Mazzotti” ^[15]
• Powell Book's Puddly Award (nonfiction), Portland ^[16]
• 2010 The Christopher Award: "To affirm the highest values of the human spirit" ^[17]
• 2010 The Mason Award - Extraordinary contribution in literature (George Mason University DC)^[18]

I finished it and requested the next.  It's the kind of book that makes you want to do good and change the world too.  I highly recommend it.

I also read the Hunger Games trilogy.  I liked the first book, but each successive book left me a little more dissatisfied than the one before.  I'm not sure why.  I don't know if it was the plot or the writing or the characters or what.  I wanted to finish the books because I wanted to see how it all turned out, but not because the reading compelled me like it did in the first one.
I know one thing: if they ever make this into a movie, I will not see it.  Waaaayyy too graphic.  I don't want to see what I read about.  (Good thing I don't visualize what I read about unless I make an specific effort.)  I agree with Rae- not for kids.