Books
-
Pimpin’ my Peeps
Oh crap, I’m so excited today, I might pee myself. You see, one of my favorite blogs over there on my sidebar, Riley’s Ramblings, belongs to Jess Riley, whose first novel is being released TODAY! And I’ve been there for a bit of her journey, as her editor changed publishing houses, nearly putting the kibosh on the whole project; the name was changed from “Driving with Larry Resnick” to “Driving Sideways”…which is better, actually, because I am a supremo dork, and got Larry Resnick mixed up in my mind with John Rzeznik from the Goo Goo Dolls, which may have been an interesting novel, but surely not the one Ms.…
-
The Amber Spyglass
Into this wilde Abyss, The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave, Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mixt Confus’dly, and which thus must ever fight, Unless th’ Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more Worlds, Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend Stood on the brink of Hell and look’d a while, Pondering his Voyage; for no narrow frith He had to cross. ~Milton’s Paradise Lost The Amber Spyglass is the third book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. It continues the story of Lyra and Will, two young adolescents with extraordinary powers. Lyra’s power…
-
Herding Cats Challenge
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8[/youtube] I read about the Herding Cats reading challenge over at Dewey’s blog, The Hidden Side of a Leaf, and I had to join up, because not only do I love to read, I also used to work for EDS, when the ad above aired. So I thought, yeah, I’m on board. Here are the rules. 1. List 10 books you have read and love. LOVE. OK, at least really really like. 2. Pick 3 books you haven’t read before from the ‘favorite books lists’ of other challenge participants. Don’t worry, they’ve put together a wonderful master list, making it much easier than going through list after list after list.…
-
Running Out of Time
Running Out of Time is a novel written for young adults, by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Maya has been asking me to read this book for quite awhile now, and as I just finished Pictures of Hollis Woods, and was in the mood for another YA/quick read, I said yes, I would like to read it. Besides, the letter ‘R’ was coming up in my month of letters, so I had yet another impetus. I’m glad that she talked me into reading it, because I really enjoyed the book. The suspense was engrossing, and the characters very likable. Running Out of Time is the story of a young girl, Jessie, who…
-
Pictures of Hollis Woods
Pictures of Hollis Woods is the story of Hollis, a 12-year-old girl stuck in the foster care system, wishing for a way out. She finds herself misbehaving, skipping school, doing whatever it takes, to get out of house after house, searching for more…searching for a family. She finds what might be a family for her in the Regans, a couple and their 13-year-old son, Steven. She lives with them for a summer, and starts to allow herself to open up her heart, to trust and to believe that she might be worth loving, that she might be worth more than a “mountain of trouble”, as one of her foster families…
-
Non-Fiction Five
Yay! The Non Fiction Five Challenge, hosted by Joy, is almost here. I’ve been looking forward to joining this challenge for awhile now, thought my reading seems to have stalled a bit lately, so I’m not sure how I’ll do. I’m a fiction reader by preference, and the number of non-fiction books that actually make it onto any reading list of mine are few and far between. What better way than a challenge to get me motivated and reading, right? Here are her rules, which are pretty basic: 1. Read 5 non-fiction books during the months of May – September, 2008 2. Read at least one non-fiction book that is…
-
Middlesex
Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides (author of The Virgin Suicides), is first and foremost the story of Calliope, a young Greek girl growing up in the suburbs of Michigan, and how at puberty, she becomes Cal, a young Greek boy. The story spans three generations, starting with Desdemona and Lefty, a brother and sister fleeing Greece during the war with Turkey in 1922. Unfortunately, Desdemona and Lefty are in love with each other, and the anonymity of fleeing their homeland for America gives them the opportunity to start over, as husband and wife. Their story is a sad one, because as Desdemona discovers the dangers of birth defects involved if they…
-
Meme Monday
Just when you’re not sure what the heck you’re going to write about, along comes a pal like Theresa and tags you for a meme. WHEW! 1) What book are you reading right now? I just started Middlesex. Like, I’m only a few pages in. So far, I’m enjoying it. 2) What was the last book you read on a plane? Usually I save plane trips for my guilty pleasure, People Magazine. But flying from Anchorage to Oakland is a long flight, with a long layover in Seattle, so People doesn’t really cut it. So I read People first (with Tori Spelling on the front cover…I’m a sucker for any…
-
Salmon in Potato Case
Did anyone else catch this wonderful series when it was on PBS, Jacques and Julia, Cooking at Home? I saw several episodes, and I must have contributed to our local station, because I have the beautiful cookbook. One recipe I especially enjoy making is Jacques’ recipe for Salmon in Potato Case. It’s basically a piece of salmon, seasoned with salt, pepper, and dill, between two layers of crispy fried potato slices. Mmmm. Salmon may well be my favorite fish, though I love good tuna as well. And potatoes, fried in butter and olive oil, with a touch of dill to set them off? What’s not to love about that? Yummy.…
-
Pyongyang
Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, by Guy Delisle is a graphic novel that tells the story of the author’s trip to the capital of North Korea in 2001. Delisle is a French cartoonist, and was in Pyongyang working with Korean cartoonists at the time. Delisle does a wonderful job of capturing the bizarreness of life in a totalitarian country, one that lives almost outside of the world, shut off from the west, and especially its sworn enemy, the United States. He describes a bleak, strangled society where the people live in such poverty that up to 1/3 of the population receive food from foreign aid, the average person works…
-
Book Shopping
Ted and I went in to Berkeley on Saturday afternoon, and stopped off at Cody’s books on 4th street. Cody’s is constantly changing, trying to stay in business in this world of Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. They closed their flagship store on Telegraph Ave a few years ago, which saddened me a great deal. I was born in Berkeley, and though we left before I was old enough to remember living there, all of our visits during my childhood seemed to make a stop at Cody’s. Then I became an adult, and again, most visits to Berkeley included a stop at Cody’s, one of the best bookstores around. But…
-
American Born Chinese
Though I finished my Graphic Novels Reading Challenge, I’ve been sucked in enough by the genre that I decided I would try a few more. From other reviews I’ve read on the Challenge’s blog, I decided to try American Born Chinese. It is a tale of learning to accept oneself, ignoring the disparaging attitudes of those around us. Although American Born Chinese deals with the slings and arrows of racism, I would argue that the themes of acceptance and self-awareness translate well to all of us, and that anyone who has ever felt self-hatred in the face of society and its harsh criticisms can find something to identify with in…
-
Plainsong
Plainsong, by Kent Haruf, is the kind of book that you read feeling like you kind of know what’s coming…there are no great surprises in plot, no great mysteries. Yet the telling of the story is so beautifully done, the characters so real and true and honest, that you don’t mind that you’ve pretty much figured out how things will turn out. Plainsong is a story told from many different angles and edges. There is the schoolteacher, Maggie Jones, who is a kind and giving woman, who turns out to be the fabric that binds the other narratives together. There is Guthrie, the father of two young boys, also a…
-
The Book Thief
The Book Thief is a tale of World War II told from a different point of view than any other book I’ve read on the subject…and at the same time, it’s just like the other World War II books I’ve read. I’ve read the Diary of Anne Frank, Number the Stars, The Snow Goose, and at least several others. I’ve seen many WWII movies, including The Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan. All of these books and films are told from the point of view of the allies, or that of people fleeing the tyranny and death camps of the Nazis. The Book Thief is the story of a…
-
Atonement
I thought I would publish this book review, which I wrote over a week ago but was waiting until after the weekend to post, and then things changed in my world and I forgot about it. But it’s been sitting there, waiting patiently, and it gets the pity party off of the top of my page. Can’t spend too much time feeling sorry for myself, can I? No. So, here’s a book review from last week. I’m writing this review a bit differently than I have in the past, in that I’m not quite half-way through the book, and I’ve got a lot of thoughts swimming around in my head…