The First Twenty-Two

Below are the books I've read since November of last year.  I need to shorten the list on the sidebar, so I'm archiving these ones.  While I'm at it, I may as well put a tidbit in there about them.  And because it makes me feel powerful, I am giong to rate the books with stars.  The ratings are purely based on how much I enjoyed them.  Not on literary excellence.  One indicates that I did not enjoy the book at all; five means I did a wild happy dance every time I cracked it open.  Or something similar to a happy dance.

Before I do that though, I wanted to state that the 23rd book on my list is going to be The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.  I wanted to say that I know it is only a childrens short story and that it's not even Christmastime, but I am including it on the list anyway because I think that literature for children is so important.  If ever I were to attempt to write a book, it might just be a children's book and I therefore need to be familiar with a whole spectrum of them.  This book is exceptionally well written from a child's perspective, and I love it!  I wanted to read it in December but couldn't find it anywhere.  Such a shame!

Okay, here we go.

#1 - The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall.  I had seen the movie before I read this book, and they are quite different.  When I began reading this, I had no idea that it was a self-help, motivational speaker type of book, but I have to say that we can all use reminders from time to time of the things that are truly important, and it may as well be done in an entertaining way that makes you think at the same time.  Good, quick read.  3 stars.

#2 - Love Is Eternal by Irving Stone.  I think this book was written in the fifties, if my memory is correct.  I had such a time getting through this book!  I found it simultaneously very slow and riveting.  I think it's a great book though.  Mary Todd Lincoln was quite a woman! 3 and 1/2 stars.

#3 - Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella.  I needed something easy after that last one, and Kinsella came through.  Her shopaholic books give me anxiety attacks, but this one was fun.  4 stars.

#4 - Cheaper By the Dozen - by two Gilbreths.  Excellent book.  Fun to read, good anecdotes and family values.  5 stars.

#5 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling.  Rowling is an artist.  She is a gifted writer who might become one of few who will have succeeded in keeping my boys' interest down the road.  We'll see.  I hope she comes out with something new sometime soon.  Children's authors are so very, very important.  5 stars.

#6 - The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella.  Another fun read just to treat myself to relaxation after the kids had gone to bed.  I think this is the one I borrowed from my sister and she had used a white out pen to eliminate all the swear words.  It made me laugh, because the result of her efforts was that I sat and wondered which vulgarity was hiding underneath the pure white concealment.  That's just me though.  3 and 1/2 stars.

#7 - Fat Girl - A True Story by Judith Miller.  This one was just kind of depressing.  People need to learn to love themselves no matter what.  1 star.

#8 - The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck.  Admittedly, I had no idea what this book was about before I started reading it.  Excellent imagery.  I need to pick another Steinbeck soon, I enjoyed this one so much.  5 stars.

#9 - Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.  I think this book is a fun read.  It hovers in the young adult genre, yet still deals with issues of sensuality, so I'm not sure how I feel about young people, (like the fourth grader I saw with her nose stuck in it while she walked home from school one day) reading it before they should be exposed to that kind of thing.  Good, fast read - terrible movies.  I'm undecided on my feelings on Stephanie Meyer's merits as an author.  4 stars.

#10 - The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand.  This one was a book that was just so-so.  It's about a group of friends dealing with the aftermath of the death of one of the couples in their circle.  I found myself wishing it would hurry up and end.  2 stars.

#11 - The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright.   Another children's book.  This one was written in the forties, I believe.  It's part of a series, and I think this is the first.  I'll have to read the others.  This one was about four siblings who decide to form a club between themselves wherein they give all their allowance to one of their group on a Saturday, and who's ever turn it is will use that money to go do something memorable that they have always wanted to do.  It's a great concept and written well.  4 stars.

#12 - Belles On Their Toes - by those Gilbreths again.  This book dealt with life after the death of their father.  I liked the first book better, but this was good, too.  3 and 1/2 stars.

#13 - The Victory Club by Robin Lee Hatcher.   This book was written by a Christian author, and those tend to have a different flavor sometimes.  This one wasn't too bad in that regard.  It's about a group of women who deal with the emotional and social trials of life on the home front during WWII.  It was okay, not my fave.  2 stars.

#14 - Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella.  Probably my least favorite of the three Kinsella books I read this year.  2 and 1/2 stars.

#15 - Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt.  I really enjoyed this one more than I thought I would.  It's about a governess who takes a job at an ominous mansion in England and finds herself in the middle of a romantically tangled mystery.  Compares with Jane Eyre, I suppose, but this reads easier.  The plots of these kinds of books tend to fall flat in their resolution, for me anyway, but this one was good.  I got quite caught up in it.  4 stars.

#16 - Dear John by Nicholas Sparks.  I have decided that I just don't like Nicholas Sparks books.  Such a downer all the time.  This book, in particular I had trouble with.  So little dialogue, too much internal monologue of a character I found a bit shallow.  I liked this the first time I read it, though, so I'm not sure what changed.  Maybe I was just bored knowing what was going to happen.  1 star.

#17 - The Best Little Girl in the World by Steven Levenkron.  This was an interesting look at anorexia.  Interesting, but not compelling.  2 and 1/2 stars.

#18 - Life Laughs by Jenny McCarthy.  I've already expressed my strong dislike of this book.  Not at all what it appeared to be when I read the back cover.  I've heard that Belly Laughs by the same author is good though.  Big fat ZERO stars.

#19 - Anne Frank - Diary of a Young Girl.  By Anne Frank, obviously.  If you don't know what this one is about, you need to crawl out from under your rock.  This book is very poignant, and I will always love it for it's honesty and truth.  I saw in it just how normal Anne was, even in such an extreme setting.  It does get tiresome at times, but everyone should read this once.  4 stars.

#20 - J.K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter by Marc Shapiro.  I didn't notice that this was an unauthorized biography until I was into it, and it was rather poor.  1 star.

#21 - Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis.  I am not much of a fan of sci-fi or fantasy, so this one was just ok.  Lewis is a good author, but this isn't my favorite genre.  So there.  3 1/2 stars.

#22 - The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner.  I really, really loved this movie, so I was anxious to read the book.  You know how much of the book deals with what was in the movie?  About a fifth of it.  The beginning was good, his childhood was wow, but his young adulthood was smut and pathetic.  And the worst part is that even after he is successful, he doesn't stop being a man-whore and he doesn't ever learn to be otherwise.  I wish I'd not read it so I could still be amazed by his life that I saw in the movie.  Now I just get to remember how sleazy his life is when it comes to women.  Yey.  2 and 1/2 stars.

Now on to the next book!

Number Fifteen And A Long Way To Go

Taking a break from vomit patrol to say that I just finished another book and I am enjoying my little adventure tremendously!

I will say that I don't think I have a prayer of making 60 books by the end of the year, as was my original goal, but I'm okay with that, because the attempt is bringing me many a literary delight. And who knows? Maybe with several hours of plane travel in April and May I'll be able to get a little ahead?

My dear little sister has reminded me twice that the books I'm reading are all rather short. Well, yes, they are, because I knew better than to think that I could read books the likes of Moby Dick all year and even make the half-way mark. However, all of the books I have read, with the exception of the works by Sophie Kinsella, oh, and Twilight, (all of which are just mindless entertainment), have made me use my brain or imagination in ways that I don't often get to in my rather mundane world. So it isn't about the length or difficulty of the book, but the quality. And hey, at least I didn't count Roxaboxen or Big Pumpkin or any other book I read to the kids, right??

Also, I am still loving the variety of the books I am choosing via the random shelf pull method. (I know that's weird, but I like it.) And, I've started to wander to the "employee recommendations" shelf and choose one from there each time I visit the library. Gives you an idea of whether or not your librarian is a whack-job.

I am fresh out of books to read, unless you count Dear John, which I have read once before and am a third of the way through re-reading, but I'm finding it difficult to push myself through it again, because it's painfully slow, and I know the ending is mildly depressing. Nicholas Sparks needs to be on Prozac, just for one book. So, without a book to read, I am off to empty the dishwasher and recite some Dr. Seuss to the kiddos. Providing Drew doesn't throw-up again anytime soon. I think we're on the tenth or eleventh time today. And he actually got most of it in the bucket. Once...

End of the year, and only one behind... Must catch up.

I am only one book behind on my goal of a book a week through 2010. It's tougher than I thought it would be, and I find myself looking for skinny books that I have a chance of finishing in a week, but that's not to say that I'm picking easy reads.

Admittedly, The Undomestic Godess was easy and fun, but you have to have that every now and again.

Fat Girl was...horrid. Every page full of the author's descriptive self loathing. Sad and depressing. Must be exactly what the author was trying to make her readers feel. She succeeded.

The Winter of Our Discontent - fantastic. I love how Steinbeck can write with imagery that makes me feel like I am right there, walking beside the characters, smelling the same fresh ocean air, seeing the dust particles fly through the air in an amber afternoon's light... So good. I will read more from him.

Also, I love the random pull. Walking into the library and grabbing something off the shelf that I have never heard of is so exciting. Already I have read things that I never would have chosen on purpose, and my mind is getting a work out from it. Not that the books are full of words that I have to look up or anything, but they are presenting topics and emotions that have left me pondering for weeks afterward. Love, love, love it. I need to go to the library again.

More evidence that I get nothing done during the day.

I had a request that I "review" the books that I've been reading. They are all listed on the sidebar under "60 Books By 12/31/10".

In answer to one of the questions, I don't really have a way of choosing a book that I read. I walk into the library and wander from shelf to shelf, and when I see a book that strikes my fancy, I check it out. Weird? Maybe. Also, of course, there's the book club, and there was one book on the list that I tried because I knew I liked the author. But, I still think that random selections are the best. Otherwise I might just stick to things I am comfortable with. There are a few books that I haven't read in at least a decade that I would like to return to, such as The Diary of Anne Frank and Catcher in the Rye. I'm kind of excited, okay, very excited, to see where this book journey will lead me. I've already enjoyed myself tremendously!

I won't review The Ultimate Gift, since I already did on Fight The Mush!, but I will say that the movie was very different than the book, and my kids watched it twice. Once last night, and again this morning when we were all playing hookie.

Love Is Eternal has me torn. I found the book very intriguing, and it inspired me to do some minor research on the Lincoln family when I was done with the book. I found Mary Todd to be a fascinating woman. I didn't know much about her prior to reading this book. The writing itself was pretty good, I couldn't put it down some of the time. But in spite of all that, I was amazed at how slow the story went! There was a time or two when I wanted to throw the book as far as I could chuck it and yell, "I quit!". But thinking back on it now, I think that maybe the point of the drudgery was to help the reader feel the same sort of frustration that the Lincoln's did. If that was, in fact, Irving Stone's hope, then he succeeded marvelously. I think I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical novels, or would like to try one.

Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella was pure fun. I read some of the Shopaholic books a year or two ago, but the timing in my life was poor. Reading them gave me some pretty intense anxiety attacks. Pathetic, huh? But I liked the writing style of Ms. Kinsella, and so I am glad that I tried a different variety of her stories. It's a fast read and very enjoyable.

Cheaper By The Dozen made me want to spend the rest of my life saying, "By jingo!" It was a charming book. I am so glad that the Gilbreth kids wrote bits of their lives down. I have always believed that there are people who are born to have gobs of children, and I tip my hat to them. I don't know how they do it, and I know for sure that I was never intended to exceed my four. This was also a fun read, and I really enjoyed the era that it took place in. Simple times...

Harry Potter, of course, most of us have already read. I included it because a book a week is a very tough thing to do if you don't count what you read on the toilet or in the tub on the occasions that you forgot to bring your other book into the bathroom with you. I will say that J. K. Rowling is a genius. And I hate fantasy books with all the stupid names that sound the same and unicorns and wizards and magical stones and quests...blah! But these books are not like that at all.

So there you have it. My list so far. I am anxious to get back to the library and find some more treasures!

Why wait?

I see no point in waiting for the new year to set goals for myself when there are so many huge things that I need to change and so many things I want to do. So I'm going to start setting goals now. The first one is going to be an easy and enjoyable one. I'm going to read 60 books by the end of next year. That's approximately a book a week. Feeding my mind has been pretty low on the totem pole for a while now and it's time to correct that. I'm going to try things from a variety of genres so that I end up a well rounded kind of person. And to keep track of what I've read, I'm going to add a list of the books I have completed to my sidebar. I've gotten this week's book done thanks to Fight The Mush!, so today I am going to dive into Love Is Eternal a novel about Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln by Irving Stone. Should be interesting.

I may go back and read books that I haven't read for years, I might read short or long books, I might read books that I have to quit halfway through, but I'm only counting the ones that I finish! So here goes!

Hey all you book clubers!

The month is winding down, and it's time to head over to FightTheMush.blogspot.com and type up your reviews of I Have Lived A Thousand Years and Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. Soon as you've finished reading them, of course.

Anyone who let me know that they wanted to play along with us is an administrator on the blog and can write posts, etc. Call me or email me if you have any problems or questions.

Up next for November is Ben choosing a book for the kids and Natalie for the adults. I have Heidi in the queue for the adult book choice in December. I'd like to let another family in on the fun for the kids, so if there's anyone with kids , (or without!), who hasn't joined up and would like to, let me know. Otherwise it's back to my kids for December.

We're going to give it a try!

Rather than host a book club on my blog and feel like it's just "my" thing, I created a new blog which will be owned and authored by anyone who wants to be a part of the club. So head on over and check it out! I'm really tired, so I hope I did it all correctly! Please leave a comment on that blog, or on this one, or send me an e-mail if you want to participate so I can add you to the rotation list and add your name to the list of authors. Invite friends if you'd like - the more the merrier! Thanks everyone!

http://fightthemush.blogspot.com/

A Little Nonsense Now and Then

The boys and I finished reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" a while back, and are now half way through "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator". I have to say that I am not enjoying the sequel as much as the first. Since the boys have some time off from school, we've decided that today would be the perfect day for a Willy Wonka marathon. We already own "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", (on something called a VHS tape, which is similar to a DVD, but is a small rectangular box that contains a long tape on two reels), so we are going to rent "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", and then watch both back to back and decide which one we like best.

And how can you possibly watch those movies without at least a little candy? It would be criminal not to. So we are stopping on the way home to grab some Nerds, a little licorice and some chocolate. Why has no one ever manufactured a Scrumdiddlyumptious Bar?


BRING ON THE BATTLE OF THE WONKAS!


(Right after the kids are done watching "Alien vs. Predator", of course.)

On a more serious note...

Of late, I have been sharply disappointed in myself for having not read any books worthy of being called 'great' since high school, and that I can't remember what most of those were even about. So yesterday I finished reading "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou. The book is a beautiful, shockingly honest account of Maya's growing up years in the South, her experiences with her parents, and most especially of how she came to be who she is. It was one of those books that I couldn't get my mind off of. When I was doing other things, I wished I was reading it. I was fascinated.

I found myself of two different minds throughout the book. There were parts of the book that we all may be able to relate to. Everything from feeling like you don't belong in your own skin to desperately trying not to laugh at the crazy people in church. I was amazed that she found such important life lessons in the seemingly ordinary events of some of her days. Often, I found myself putting the book down in my lap to think about the things I had just read, and I constantly re-evaluated some of the things that I have been through, finding meaning in them when before, there was none.

And then there were the very extraordinary happenings in her young life. Rape, worry over a brother who had witnessed a dead man being pulled from a pond, and visits to her neighborhood from the KKK. Here is where I had some deep thinking to do.

I have long thought that black people ought to stop moaning about having things so rough. I tire of hearing about "the first black man to do this" and "the first black woman to do that". I see the accomplishment for what it is, not for whether they did it with white skin or black skin or any other color. I see the BET awards on TV and a look comes across my face to match the one I get when I smell a dirty diaper because I can't help but think, "Black people have heroically fought for equality, and here they are, patting themselves on the back for starring in a really good movie, while having black skin." If we had a White Entertainment Television show, can you imagine the uproar that would cause?

I am not a racist person. I believe every person of every race, gender, creed or orientation is a loved child of our Creator, and that no person is more valuable than another. But in a day where a black man is sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office, I think that all excuses go out the window. If Obama can land himself there, then there ought to be no one saying that their crummy position in life was thrust upon them by the color of their skin and that they never had a chance.

Black fathers should be responsible role models and stay in their homes, being good husbands to the mothers of their children. White men should do the same.

White boys should spend less time with their pants hanging below their butts, put their basketballs and iPods and video games away and go study, read books and make something of themselves. Black boys should do the same.

Girls of every color should start respecting themselves. Dress and act like you care more about yourself than which male prospect will validate your existence this weekend.

Not every black person is raised in a slum with a cracked out mother who didn't care if they came home at night or not.

Not every white person is born into affluence and judges people by the bottom line of their bank account.

I believe that every person's quality of life is determined by their attitude, the effort they put into making it what they want it to be, their motives for success, and their appreciation for what they have and what others contribute.

These are some of the thoughts that I had while reading "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". I also had other thoughts. I believe that segregation now only exists in the sense of perception. If you believe that you are less than or more than another person because of their heritage, then racism is given a place to thrive.

Maybe Black Entertainment Television and the awards that they give are celebrations of a culture, and not an exclusive club. Maybe President Obama was elected by our people because he embodied their same beliefs, and not just because a majority of America was thrilled at the thought of being able to assist in delivering a monumental event in history.

Sometimes I pass a black man on the street that is dressed as what I would call a "thug", so I make a point to make eye contact with him and smile to show that I do not consider him a threat, but the same as any other individual walking down the street. But, I guess the fact that I feel I need to do that says that I might actually believe him to be a potentially threatening thug. Maybe tolerance is never perfected, but should always be worked on. Consciously banishing the thoughts that subconsciously enter our minds, until they are no longer present in the foreground or the background.

I certainly cannot relate to every experience that Maya Angelou went through as a child and young adult, but after reading her book, I am appreciative of her sharing them. I better understand the feelings that come along with being discriminated against. I have an emotional picture of what it was like to grow up in the Deep South, with their customs and cultural differences, and I appreciate how hard it must have been to be planted in a place where it is expected that you will become nothing, and then turn your life into a gift to yourself and others.

I have not given voice here to every thought and opinion that I possess. As with all my blog posts, I wrote this without re-reading, wondering if people would be offended, censoring myself or fussing over the grammatical elements. I just let it out as I was prompted to by my feelings on Angelou's book. I may have opened a nasty can of worms, but I'm glad I read the book, and I can't help but tell what I felt about it. Now - on to Dickens and "A Tale of Two Cities".

Kids get the best stories.

Yesterday, I was shocked to find that a neighbor of mine, who has a six-year-old, has never heard of the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books by Betty Macdonald. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle was a literary staple in my childhood, and the discussion with my neighbor got me to thinking about the billions of books in the world, and how we all must have been shaped by different books in our youth. I was in love with many books as a child; The Boxcar Children, The Babysitter's Club, Heckedy Peg, The Witches, and many others joined Mrs. Piggle Wiggle in feeding my imagination. So I wondered what all of you remember reading when you were young?

Nothing Like a Good Book

Libraries are awesome. I love going in by myself or with the kids to find something that sparks my interest. I love that the kids have favorite authors and I love that they enjoy non-fiction. Libraries are a fantastic resource, a wonderful place to be alone and think and can also be fun and inspiring. Tomorrow I am going in to pull a random book from a random shelf and read it, no matter what it is. I hope it isn't boring! This week I am grateful for my library!
This is one of the kids' favorites! Love Roald Dahl.