Tag: Books

Books

RA Guy’s Book Club: “How To Be Sick”

Book 4 of 2012:

In case you haven’t seen it, there’s a discussion over at

RA Guy’s Book Club on the book: “How To Be Sick” by Toni Bernhard.

How to Be Sick

Through the magic of Kindle I went from the panic of ACK!  I need to go to the bookstore!  to  AHHHH…. book in hand.  I do so love my Kindle.  I’ve read the first couple chapters already, keep tissues close by if you are easily emotional, as I am lately.  I’ve gone over and answered the discussion questions already as well, but you’ll have to go over there to read my answers.  🙂

(And I know some of you may flinch at “A Buddhist-inspired Guide” but I’ve found Buddhist inspired guides to be some of the least offensive things in the universe and usually some of the most helpful.  So I’m going with it.)

Books

Books, 2012

I don’t think I’ll be able to beat my reading record from last year, but here’s what I’ve been reading the last two weeks.  🙂

Books I’ve read/am reading:

  1. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (David and I are reading this series together – I really liked this one)
  2. Point of Honor by Madeleine Robins (I’m reading this in the car and am only 21 pages in)
  3. The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan (Just started it – there’s not a lot of time for reading lately)
Books, Crafts

Kindle cover

I don’t think I posted about this, but I got a 2nd generation Kindle for my birthday, slightly used, but in great condition (and very inexpensive, as well).  I’m so excited about it!  I had books downloaded and was reading (and fending off children who wanted to borrow it) within an hour of getting it.

The only problem with it?  No cover.  Just the Kindle and the cord came in the mail.  With three kids and my propensity to just shove things in my bag and move on, the poor Kindle doesn’t stand much of a chance in it’s nakedness.

The answer?  Well, I made a cover.  I started with a little bag a friend had made me years ago that just happened to be nearly the right size for the Kindle.  I also had a couple flat pieces of styrofoam from one of David’s gifts, a piece of super-soft cashmere fleece leftover from baby blanket making(it was $20/yard, long story there), a bit of velcro leftover from another project, a lost button, and some ribbon off a gift.  Total cost: $0  My favorite kind of project. Smile

So after a bit of time with my handy-dandy scissors and some liquid stitch, here it is:

The inside:

DSCN2196

The outside:

DSCN2194

All laced up and ready to go:

DSCN2193

I do have a “real” case on order from ebay…the kind that makes the Kindle feel like a book with a booklight attached.  I’m sure it’ll be nice, but it won’t arrive for a week or more and this case is just sooo soft.  Smile

Books

Books 2011

Books 1-5 posted about here.

There were a couple other books I read before the Kage Baker ones, but it’s been so long that a) I can’t remember and b) I’ve already returned that batch to Steph.  Smile  That’s the way it goes sometimes.

6.

The Sons of Heaven (The Company): The Last Book.  Oh how I cried.  I was really sad to be finished with this series and it seemed to end so quickly in this book, all the pieces coming together beautifully.

7.

Not Less Than Gods (The Company Series): I actually read this one last, as that was where it was in the pile.  It was a good book, but my heart wasn’t in it at that point.

8.

The Anvil of the World: Kage Baker writes fantasy!  Who knew!?  I’ve had this book in my pile for ages, never realizing it was Kage Baker until Steph mentioned she had the rest of those books.  I was a bit confused at first because I really thought for a while that they were in space, not on land, but once I got over that I really enjoyed the characters and storylines in this book, although I did think it felt a bit more like a long line of short stories than one whole novel.

9.

The House of the Stag: I really think this one should have been first in the series, though I did not enjoy it as much as Anvil.  It was harder to get into, with a lot more anguish and suffering than I usually enjoy in books, although I did come to enjoy the backstory of the world.

10.

The Bird of the River: this book follows different characters than the two before it, but we get a few cameos and overall I liked it better than the first couple books.

11-17.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians :
I read all five of the first series of Olympian books, plus the Demigod Files and the Ultimate Guide books all in one fail swoop, mainly because my eldest child was checking them out from the school library.  I read the first one ahead of him to make sure it was okay, then raced to keep up.  It was the first series we read at the same time together and we really enjoyed being able to share it.  I enjoyed what the author did with bringing the gods & goddesses up to modern day.  I think in some ways it would be much better to read the guide books first, though, so you know more about what the characters and creatures are first (and pronunciation guides for the kiddos, too, as David was mispronouncing things left and right.)

18. Mr. Chatworth (I think) – some weird book about a giant dog.  It looked interesting from the description, but once I found out that this menacing guy everyone was so scared of was a giant dog, I couldn’t read any further.

19-21.

The Callahan Chronicals: I really enjoyed the first couple books in the Callahan series, but petered out after the second one.  Since I have the omnibus, I feel compelled to read the third one just for completions sake, but I’ll wait until I hit another book lull for that.  That being said, I did enjoy the first couple books.  I love the idea of Callahan’s Bar and it’s helpful band of sometimes-not-so-merry drinkers.

22.

The Time Travelers (The Gideon Trilogy): I really enjoyed this first book.  The story was interesting, the kids were realistic (which becomes drastically more important once you have kids), and I loved all the historic detail.

23.

The Time Thief (The Gideon Trilogy): also a very enjoyable book, but there were a few problems with head-jumping pov’s.  I didn’t feel like there was quite the same level of historical detail in this one, either.  Still very interesting series and I love that the author pulls no punches with the characters.
Uncategorized

Read this year

I thought I hadn’t read much this year so far, but apparently I’m wrong:

7. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword & Sorceress XXI
6. Adele: Jane Eyre’s Hidden Story by Emma Tenant
     Wretched.  Terrible.  Please don’t read this if you cared for Jane Eyre at all.  She took the characters and made them different people and changed around things that we know to be true from the original novel (like oh, say, when something happened.).  I understand the idea of playing around with the behind-the-scenes of a famous novel, but this is just not the way to go.

5. Jane Eyre
     Lovely, as ever.  This time around I noticed more of the God talk in there that I don’t think I ever really paid attention to before.

4.  Wide Sargasso Sea
    This time around I noticed a few little places where things didn’t quite line up to Jane Eyre, but for the most part this is a really good prequel.

3.  Drink Down the Moon by Charles de Lint
2. Jack the Giant Killer by Charles de Lint
     I read these two back-to-back, so I don’t remember a lot of detail from one to another.  They were really good though, and I will re-read them again in the future (which says a lot, because I don’t spend a lot of time rereading unless it’s a favorite classic)

1. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
     This wasn’t what I was expecting, a little book of daily poems about living in the dust bowl, but it was so very good.

Also currently reading: Midnight Girl by Will Shetterly, Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, and Our Hearts Were Young and Gay by Cornelia Otis Skinner (depending on my mood).

Books, Computers and Internet, Lifelong learning, Writing

Thoughts in 140 characters

  1. Happy Binary Palindrome Day!! (01-11-10) 7:54 AM Jan 11th from web
  2. Typing up my weekend writing progress. dododo 9:05 AM Jan 11th from web
  3. Have moved all books off of three (1 big, 2 small) kids shelves, moved tall shelf into kids room. Now to put all the books back on shelves. 12:58 PM Jan 11th from web
  4. Umm…someone from Tuscaloosa, AL just sent us a baby picture. Would someone like to claim this cute, cute baby picture? 🙂 8:03 PM Jan 11th from web

     

—————-
Now playing: Kim Richey – Without You
via FoxyTunes

Books, Lifelong learning, Writing

Thoughts in 140 characters

  • Kids, when you have chocolate-mint breath & brown bits in your teeth & you’re saying you’re not eating my candy cane, I KNOW that you were. 11:39 AM Jan 8th from web
  • It figures: I wait patiently all day for the writing assignment, then it’s sent out just as it’s time to pick up kids from school. *sigh* 3:35 PM Jan 8th from web
  • Looking at http://curiouspages.blogspot.com/ about bad kids books. Read most of them as a child. So funny tears are running down my face. 9:44 PM Jan 8th from web
Around the House, Books, Computers and Internet, Television & Film

Hmmm…

…apparently my new twitter cross-poster is not cross-posting. How sad. I think most of you follow me on Twitter or Facebook though, so I guess it’s not much of a loss.

This week I’ve been obsessing about writing. Update at http://awamiba.dreamwidth.org/

Other than that, there’s been a lot of cleaning/organizing/tidying and kid silliness and playing the Wii (I’m into Super Mario Wii and D&B are into Lego Indiana Jones Wii and Greg is doing Ni Hao Kai Lan Wii game). I read one book last weekend, but the one I’m reading now — some travel memoir — I keep misplacing. I downloaded a bunch of stuff for free for the Kindle iPhone app, so I’ll start reading on that while I wait during pick-up time next week.

I’ve finished watching the first two seasons of Big Bang Theory and loved it. Sadly, I can’t get the first half of the current season anywhere legal, so I’m starting that mid-season when it comes back on. Also watched “Cranford” and “Little Dorrit” on Masterpiece Classic on PBS once again. Wondering why MC can’t be on PBS regularly instead of just at the first of the year.

Finally convinced David to read something not Star Wars related for school reading time for the first time in 3 years. He’s reading 13 Ways to Sink a Sub by Jamie Gilson, which I loved as a child. Not sure why I loved it. Not a clue, but it’s cute. He has to read aloud to us for 20 minutes each night, so I’m lining up my favorite exciting childhood stories for that. Nick reads the kids some Hardy Boys each weekend night & I read all the shorter books the rest of the week. Greg gets his own story time during the day as well. He picked out a book called My Book Box at the store today & we’ve read it four times since 2pm. 🙂

And now it’s time to go pay attention to my husband….

Books, My Own Personal Weirdness

Not Dead, Year in Review, ETC.

No, I’m not dead. I just don’t feel like blogging any more lately. At all. But, for my own curiosity, here are my book reading stats from last year:

By category:
Short Story Anthologies: 5
Science Fiction: 16
Fantasy: 15
Nonfiction: 12
Young Adult: 9
Mystery: 5
Generic Fiction: 9
Most read author: Lois McMaster Bujold
2nd Place: Agatha Christie
Books I read on my iPhone: 3
Most enjoyed book this year: one of the Vorkosigan Saga. Any one of them, really.
Least enjoyed book this year: there were many & I decided that life was too short, so I didn’t finish them & they aren’t on this list.

Cut for book list length