Monthly Archives: November 2007

Nerves…

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What to do, what to do!   I managed to get an interview with one of my absolute, most, very favorite authors for January’s Estella’s Revenge and I am SO excited and SO nervous I can’t think of what I want to ask!  I don’t think I was this nervous when I interviewed Markus Zusak!  I hope I can calm down my star-struckedness and focus!

I’m still slogging through Kristin Lavransdatter.  I was really enjoying the story up to book 2.  Now it’s become very religious, almost zealously so.  And, while I am a Christian, I’m finding it hard going.  It doesn’t help that I don’t agree with some of the religious points Undset is trying to make.  I’m going to try to keep going; I’ve gone to far to put it down now!

To counter act the heaviness of KL, I’ve picked up the latest from Rick Riordan.  I really enjoyed the first two books in his Percy Jackson series, so I expect this to be a quick, fun read. 

I’ve also been peeking at Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  I think this may be my heavy book for after Kristin Lavransdatter.  (Or instead of it, she whispers) The writing seems to be very lush and sensual. 

I admit it.  I’ve already started Great Expectations for the My Year of Reading Dangerously challenge for next year.  So sue me.  I have tried 3 times already to get through that book.  The furthest I made it was halfway, 10 years ago in high school!  I will succeed this time!!!  Please consider joining us!  I need all the cheerleaders I can get to make it through these books!

Thanks?

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What a deliciously horrible holiday!

Delicious, because I had not one, but two delicious Thanksgiving dinners.

Horrible because I was sick for all of it.  And Wesley for part.  He’s all better.  I am still coughing.  And my stupid ear is stopped up and I can’t hear a blessed thing!  Grr!   I am probably one of the few who ate 2 Thanksgiving dinners and actually LOST weight!  Woot!  I’m down 8 pounds now!

Luckily, it kept me home and out of the Black Friday crowds, which I hate with a passion.  So I finished Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I looooved the Italy section, as I’ve already said.  The India section was…okay.  And it was back to love with the Bali section.  What a cast of characters there were in that section!  I will definitely have to read her new book, which comes out in 2009.  I hope I can remember! 

My New BFF

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eatpray.jpgYes, I have made a new best friend.  No, I’ve never met her and I doubt I ever will, but reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s eat, pray, love has made me feel like I have met her and that she is, in fact, my new bestest best friend.  Forever!  Oh my goodness but this is such a great book.  I’ve only read through the Italy section, which was delicious, and am into the India section now. 

The Italy section left me totally wanting to go to Italy and eat.  Eat, eat, eat, and eat some more!  I love Gilbert’s writing style.  She seems very down-to-earth and, well, best friend-ishly.  I can’t put it down!  And thank goodness, I have another book of hers on my shelf that I haven’t read – Stern Men.  I’ll have to pick up The Last American Man too, it sounds like an interesting read as well. 

Must get back to India now and do some meditating!

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters

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by Gordon Dahlquist
Rated 7.5/10
760 pages
Bantam

Reading this book – and it is a page-turner – you become immersed, befogged, as if you had been looking at one of the glass books… a rollicking ride, as stupendous as it is stupefying… – The Guardian

Wilkie Collins on acid… – New Statesman

Bodice-ripping… – Elle

This was supposed to be for the RIP challenge.  Obviously, it took me way to long to read it.  But it was 760 pages!  But, as I posted before, this one sucked me right in.  When I did manage to pick it up, it was hard to put down.  And it moves very fast.  This is one of those books that in the very early pages, grabs you by the hair and refuses to let go. By the time you finish the first chapter you are left wondering just what the heck is going on…and you keep on reading. 

I love the comment that it is like Wilkie Collins on acid… because I had the thought while reading it that it reminded me of Wilkie Collins.  I did not have the thought that it was like Collins on acid, but the description is pretty accurate.  This book is one hell of a wild ride. 

There are three main good “guys” – Miss Temple – our virginal, rejected fiancée. Cardinal Chang – so named for his bright red coat and scarred eyes that slant, looking to avenge the loss of his love Angelique. Doctor Svenson – our good and noble German doctor, determined to recover his lost Prince.  Each has convened upon the ominous Harshmort House looking for answers, never knowing that their lives are about to threatened and inexplicably changed forever by the many, many villains there. Favorite one? Contessa di Lacquer-Sforza.  Hands down one of the most evil women ever created.  Worth the price of the book alone!

Ashleigh has a great review here. Check out the book’s website here. One great, thrilled read.  Recommended.

5 down, many to go!

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Well, after 19 days on this Weight Watcher’s thing, I have lost a grand total of 5 and half pounds!!  Woot! 

It’s been really easy so far.  I’m still eating what I like, just less of it.  And thank the Lord, it’s coming off of the belly!!  Now if only it would come off the hips, thighs and buttocks! 🙂

Things in our household have been…interesting…this week.  Ellie has a cold.  Wesley got his first shots Monday, so he’s been a little ill-pill.  And poor Ellie; on top of it all she’s going to get a flu shot today.  Poor thing!! 

Is anyone else positively terrified that Christmas is barely a month away?  I just can’t believe it.  Where did the month go?  I started my Christmas shopping last week by buying something for my aunt.  I have no idea what to get for the kids though.  Wesley will only be 3-months-old and Ellie just wants more horses.  She only owns about 300 of the things!!

And of course, the most important thing – making the list of books I want for Christmas!!

Two Months Old!

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My how time is flying.  He goes for his two month check up tomorrow.  He’ll get his first shots and oh how I am dreading it!!!  I remember Ellie felt terrible for days after her first shots. 

I am about 100 pages away from finishing Glass Books of the Dream Eaters.  It has been quite a journey.  I’ll be glad to finally find out just what the heck is going on with it.  And to finally start something new!  Yay!

Where does the time go?

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I have so much I need to write about; Wesley-the-sweet-pea’s first Halloween and my little ballerina-princess’s excitement about dressing up (not about getting candy! No!  She did not want the candy!), the hubby’s 30th birthday, my first week back in hel…uh, I mean work… I just haven’t had the time to sit down and write!  I’ve been out like a light by 8 every night; this working stuff is for the birds.  I’ve been SO tired!  Thank goodness for break and lunch time – I am getting to read a little bit more! 

More soon!  I hope!

My Year of Reading Dangerously – Challenge

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dangerous3.jpgI’m such a dork.  I’m already contemplating what I’m going to be reading next year.  Thank goodness for our new challenge over at Estella’s Revenge!

There are many authors I have been too…afraid might be the right word…to try.  Some contemporary, some not.  So I’ve decided I’m going with challenge the second.  I’m going to read along with some of our “Dangerous” novels and select a few others for myself. 

Here is my list of possibilities:

January – Great Expectations (I read part of it in high school and liked what I read but could never quite talk myself into reading all of it.)

February – The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien (The LotR trilogy is so huge, it scares me!)

March – Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood (Atwood is just so intimidating!)

April – Transformations by Anne Sexton (Cause I’ve never even heard of it!)

May – Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (It’s so BIG!)

June – Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Always seemed like one of those no-no books.)

July – Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (I love the musical and I love Hugo –  Hunchback totally rocks! -, but this lengthy tome has always intimidated the hell outta me!)

August – Maus I and II, by Art Spiegelman (a reread really, but I really want to reread them)

September – The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy (cause Andi picked it)

October – The Human Stain by Philip Roth (Roth is the female Atwood for me)

November – Assorted Short Stories

December – The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Tried and failed miserably once already)

All in all it should make it a “challenging” year!  We’re really excited about this challenge over at Estella, I hope you will consider joining us!