Books
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The Scarlet Letter
I’ve finished the first book of my reading challenge. One of my New Year’s resolutions a year or two ago was to go back and read some of the ‘classics’ that I missed in high school and college. One such book was The Scarlet Letter. Reading books written 150 years ago requires me to slow down, to concentrate. I liken it to reading a book in a second language; a language of which I am familiar & fluent, yet it is not my first language, so I have to stop and consider the meanings of the various words and phrases. The style of the writing is such that I could…
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Learning About Brain Fever
One great thing about having a child Maya’s age is showing her the books that I loved as a girl, and seeing if she enjoys them as much as I did, or not. Recently I went through my bookshelf and found a few she might enjoy: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. This book was HUGE when I was in the 5th and 6th grades. I think I got it from the bookmobile that used to come to our neighborhood. If you’re a man, or a woman who spent too much time living under rocks, so you don’t know this book, it’s about a girl named Margaret, who is…
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From the Stacks Winter Reading Challenge
Lotus Reads found a great reading challenge that might finally get some of those books on my sidebar out of the way, making room for some new ones. This sounds like a really good idea to me, so I’m in. Here’s the premise, from the woman with the great idea, Michelle at overdue books: “If you are anything like me your stack of purchased to-be-read books is teetering over. So for this challenge we would be reading 5 books that we have already purchased, have been meaning to get to, have been sitting on the nightstand and haven’t read before. No going out and buying new books. No getting sidetracked…
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One Reason Condo Living Sucks
Hello Melissa and Lotus recently posted pictures of how they manage their books. Lotus has a very asthetically pleasing solution. Melissa’s house looks pretty much under control, though I’m not so sure about her DH. They asked the following question: How do you keep your books organized? Always looking for a chance to humiliate myself, I thought, OK, I’m game, I’ll take some pics and show you all the disaster that is our book collection. We started out well, even having a custom bookshelf built to fit our little hallway, to make room for more books than store-bought shelves were going to afford. But, we live in a little condo,…
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Book Meme
I’ve been tagged by Lotus Reads for an interesting meme about books. The hard thing is that I tend to read a lot. Not nearly as much as I would like to, or as much as I used to, but a lot. At the same time, I have a pretty crappy memory, so I might answer these questions one way today, and if you asked me again in a year, or a week, you might get all different answers. 🙂 1. One book that changed your life? “The Blood of Others“, by Simone de Beauvoir. I read this my senior year in college, and I remember the feeling that I…
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Historical Fiction
Whilst in Portland, I read a short book titled “When the Emperor Was Divine“, by Julie Otsuka. At only 144 pages, it is difficult to believe that this novel can cover the subject of the Japanese Internment during WWII so well, so evocatively. I’ve never studied this chapter in American history, other than perhaps as a footnote to our study of WWII. Reading this book made me think of how effective a class would be that incorporated the dry facts of history with novels, which really open one’s eyes and imaginations to the experiences of those people who were alive at a particular time and place. What if, for example,…
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Happy (Belated) Birthday, Sesame Street
I have a couple of Portland related posts in mind…one is about the yummy and not-so-yummy restaurants we went to, one about books I read or bought there…one about the beautiful world of Forest Park. But I had to stop and do this, because Issa and Mom-101 did it several days ago, and it will soon be too late to jump on the bandwagon. Stupid vacation. So, this started on Mrs. Davis’s blog, where she talked about popular culture influences you had as a child, due to the new season of Sesame Street starting on August 14th. She gave out a bunch of linky love on the 14th, but I…
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Thinking about books…
I just finished this book….and I have to say, it was pretty amazing. I am not a HUGE fan of the short story, though of course there are those certain authors that can make me eat those words. Alice Munro, for one, can suck you in and make you feel like you’ve just finished a novel in just a few pages. Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles sucked me in and drew me from one weird world to another in a short period of time. But overall, I kind of like the continuation of a full length novel. The feeling as I’m putting the book down, and the characters will still be…
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Movie Update
We watched “To Kill a Mockingbird” the other night…it was pretty true to the book, very good, very sad. Too bad they took out the part about Scout and Dill being ‘engaged’…I always thought that was sweet and funny, but they only had 2 hours, so I guess it was best to stick to the main points as much as possible. Also no sight of the rich white man with the black family. Missed him too. I do understand, however, the difficulty involved with taking a book and all of the nuances involved in that medium, and putting it into a coherant narative for people to view and understand on…
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Reading Lists…
I had a fabulous weekend, but for some reason, not so much in the mood for talking about it today. Maybe tomorrow. So, what else is on this mind o’ mine? I kind of wish I had saved the ‘Almighty Cleanse’ bit or the very cool lunchbox link for today, because I don’t have much. Oh well. I didn’t, and now it’s too late. Well, I was just thinking of going to the library to pick up this book, which is on hold for me, and then I thought I would also pick up Jane-Emily, which was suggested by L on her blog. And that got me to thinking of…
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Go Ask Alice?
I was talking to my niece recently, who is just finishing up her freshman year of High School. She was reading “Go Ask Alice“. Did any of you read these fake annonymous books back in the day? Remember the horror with which you followed her decent from a ‘good girl’ to a ‘druggie’, remember how quickly it seemed to all go wrong? I never read “My Name is Davy, and I’m an Alcoholic“, but I’m assuming it’s pretty similar in that way, as was the anorexia horror, “Goodbye, Paper Doll“. What is it about teenagers that makes them so fascinated with reading about others who are dealing with tragedy? Books…
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Why I Should Not Be Allowed To Work From Home
Because I was sitting here, peacefully trying to figure out how to write up specs for EFT transfers for U.S. Savings Bonds via our Software Interface Payroll Software, and a knock came on the door….and this book was sitting there, smiling up at me, wanting me to play. Really, I don’t even UNDERSTAND the issues behind the specs I’m supposed to be writing, so how am I supposed to be concentrating on that when Clinton and Stacy are sitting there, trying to show me how to look my best? Really, people, come on. I’m only human.
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Post 200? I think so…
OK, another Meme. Got this one from Wendy. I’ve gotta cut back on these things, and I swear I will. I’ll also stop drinking wine on school nights, staying up too late reading, watching crap TV, and letting the clothes-to-be-ironed pile up to the rafters. Yeah, right. The rules are: List three CDs, books, movies, and people you would take if you were stranded on a deserted island. For the people, you cannot choose your spouse or relatives. CD’s: Californication, by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Way too much fun. The White Album, by the Beatles. Wendy chose this one, too, so we’d be OK if for some reason we…
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I’ve got a bad feeling about this…
I’m at the point in my book where they are in the trial, and the woman has taken the stand against her supposed attacker…and as I was drifting off to sleep last night, the thought occurred to me…I’ll bet he’s innocent…I’ll bet they’re going to find him innocent…and he’ll get strung up just the same. Damn it. I may be wrong, and I hope I am, but the whole thing about killing a mockingbird being a sin, because they’re innocent? I think I just got it. Don’t tell me if I’m right or wrong. And I gotta say, this book is WAY more interesting than American Idol. 😉 Best quote…
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Violence Begins at Home…
I was walking the dog yesterday, listening to my beloved iPod, and this week’s (last week’s, really) This American Life is about crime, and the allure of it. There are several segments in each episode of TAL. The first was Julia Sweeney (Pat, from Saturday Night Live), talking about how she fleeced an old employer for 10K – 15K way back in her youth. Interesting. Perhaps even cute, because, you know, she’s Pat. Maybe we should all write about the crimes WE’VE committed, and that might be pretty interesting…make sure the statute of limitations is past, however. Anyway, the second segment was about a bank robber, Joe Loya, who enjoyed…