Slacking

Kent says my blog has been slacking.  We've been up to plenty, but no pictures, and I don't blog without pictures.

I have been on a reading frenzy, so here are my latest reads (sorry Kent I know you hate book posts).

I read The Giver years ago and was completely perplexed by the ending.  I was surprised to find out this year that it is actually a quartet!  So I read #2 Gathering Blue, and #3 the Messenger and am currently on #4 Son.  I love these books, and they are shorter than others on my list so they are quick to finish.  I am so glad to finally get closure on that boy on the sled in the first book...I know what happens to him now :)

I also read these YA fiction novels which I LOVE, and sent me into my book depression while I'm waiting for book #3 to come out in January and finally get resolution!  There'd better be happy resolution.

Oh ya, I also read Hearts in Hiding by Betsy Brannon Green.  She's an LDS author.  Her books were very cute, but the characters were LDS so there were home teachers and visiting teachers.  Luckily, it didn't ruin the book....I'm not big on LDS fiction obviously, but I really liked this book.  It was a cute, entertaining read.  

Book

Another YA fiction, The Mortal Instruments series, book one.  There is a movie coming out this summer so I decided to read the book.  Much better than Beautiful Creatures.  The story line moved along well.  I'm not pleased with the Game of Thrones/Star Wars plot development, but I cheated and know that it turns itself around in the next few books.  Still...blech.
I really liked it and have withheld buying the next novel until after the move. 

Last books of 2012

The last books for 2012...

 

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag

Book #2 in the Flavia de Luce series (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is #1 in the series).  She is a delightful and precocious young chemist/mystery solver.  A young "arsenic and old lace" type gal. 
I haven't read many mysteries, but I love these ones.  I can't wait to read #3. 

Good read.

And...

 

Beautiful Creatures

 

Another YA fantasy fiction.  Mortal boy, magical girl.  I saw the trailer for the movie and thought the movie looked good so I wanted to read the book first.  There are three more in the series to go!  I need to read the next novel before I can decide if I like it or not.  Hmmm.

books

Just finished a trilogy by Ally Condie (a Utah gal).  It's a love triangle + dystopian society book.  I enjoyed reading them (even when book 3 dragged on  trying to get to the point).  Good entertainment though.

Book

What do you do when your power is out for a week?

Finally finish a book.

Last week on our post-storm trip to the library I just grabbed something off the display shelf that looked good-ish.  I was happily surprised that it actually was good.  You never can tell if a Pride and Prejudice follow up will be silly and cheesy.  Luckily the setting was Pemberley, but there was actually a decent storyline, just filled with familiar characters.  It's a murder mystery.  I enjoyed it, but I am also a Jane Austen fanatic, so I'm not sure if that influenced me.

Today after Josh's nap we are headed out to stock up on more groceries and another trip to the library to stock up on more books.  The Noreaster should be here on Wednesday afternoon.  What are the chances we won't lose power? 

Not good.

Book

I just finished reading The Penderwicks this week.  I almost picked it up last Easter for McKinley, but as I didn't really know if it was something she would enjoy I passed.  Earlier this year our library had it on the sale rack for $3!  So I snatched it.

It is a charming story about 4 sisters and their summer vacation in Massachusetts.

It reminded me of Little Women blended with Jem and Scout.  I wish it would fast forward a little, like Little Women, so I could find out how they all end up as adults (and if a certain little boy makes a reappearance years down the road).

Books

I just finished a series this week by Amanda Hocking: Switched, Torn, Ascend.  It's the Trylle series, and it's found in the teen fiction section...and that's definitely what it is.  Teenagers, mythical creatures, love triangles, PG affection.  Pretty standard teen fiction stuff.  I really liked them though. 

This mythical twist is that the girl finds out she's a troll princess.   Not the shrek-like trolls luckily.  Just people with magical powers-trolls.  I had a fun time reading them, but was once again exasperated by the overlooked or underdeveloped resolution of the love triangle.  And the epilogue (is that the after chaper? or is that a prologue?) was extremely cheesy.

A lot of fun to read this summer though!

Books

I think the rest of the world may have already read these books, but books are slower coming to my knowledge way out here!  They are Divergent (book 1) and Insurgent (book 2). 
These were entertaining books that left my children somewhat abandoned and me a little tired from staying up late to get in just one more chapter at night. 

The premise is that society is divided into factions based on character traits.  When you turn 16 you get tested on which faction you should belong to.  Then you have to decide to stay with your faction or leave your family forever. 
These books are written to the teen audience, but in my head the characters are at least late 20's, because they don't act like kids...at all.  So to me it's a YA fiction since I matured my characters in my head considerably.  16 year olds?  Come on!
Anywho...they're a very entertaining trilogy with 2 of the 3 books already published.  There is some violence though (disclaimer for my mom who doesn't like violence, and really didn't like Hunger Games violence). 
Highly recommended reading.

Books

Each year for Easter we get a book.  I wasn't sure what to get Kent or me, then I remembered The Maze Runner by James Dashner that we read a few years ago.  Books 2 and 3 came out in the meantime, so that's what we got.  I liked them.  Although I'm a little bugged by the way one relationship was handled.  It was too abrupt and underdeveloped in it's explanation.  It is a trilogy so it felt good to know I had finished off a storyline...until Amazon notified me of the prequel coming out in August, grr.

Books

My baby will be 6 months old on Friday, and I finally read a book. Two actually!

The first one was a book club selection, "Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey". And while I didn't go to the book club, I love watching Downton Abbey on PBS so the book really appealed to me.
It's non-fiction, and reads like one. These are obviously harder for me to get through than fiction, but it was good. I was very interested in the role that Highclere played in WWI and the discovery of King Tut! There were so many parallels between the Highclere Castle and Downton Abbey, including the characters.
If you like Downton Abbey, no, if you LOVE Downton Abbey then you'll enjoy this book.



Next I read this book by Amy Julia Becker, "A good and perfect gift: faith, expectations, and a little girl named Penny." The family welcomes their first baby into their family, and are confronted with the information that she has Down Syndrome. A true account by the mother of Penny.
There's a lot of good in this book. I learned. I fell in love with Penny.
Like Amy Julia who learned to not compare her child or base how she felt about Penny on her accomplishments, or her delays, I feel recommited to love my children for who they are.

Brown paper packages tied up with string

One of my favorite things! I love getting packages!

I had ordered a couple casual dresses online from Modcloth for Christmas. When I tried them on after Christmas, they barely covered my bum! So, back they went. I had store credit just lying around, so after perusing the site for a long time I kind of fell in love with the books. I had to narrow it down to fit my store credit, and now they have arrived!



I got the Coralie edition classics Oliver Twist and Little Women to add to my Jane Eyre. I wasn't a fan of Oliver Twist when I was younger, but I'm hoping my old age has matured my taste and it's more enjoyable. I've never read Little Women, now I don't have to worry about reading it before the library limit runs out. There's just something about a beautiful book.




I've heard of Miette, the pastry shop in San Francisco, so I thought this recipe book would be fun. And the cake on the front completely won me over. The dessert portions at the shop (and in this book) are much smaller than usual portions. I think that's a good idea for me :)

I was a little giddy when I discovered all the pages are scalloped. I'm kind of a nerd like that.

This art book is called Let's Make Some Great Art by Marion Deuchars. It is filled with art projects, ideas, and techniques geared toward children. I've only looked through it so far but it has me sooo excited to start trying some out with the kids. I think the boys will especially like this Jackson Pollack project where they drop a marble covered with paint and roll it around on the paper to create art. Can't wait!

So many inspiring things. I love looking at them on my bookshelf. I can't imagine a Kindle replacing it all! I want walls of bookshelves filled with books in my forever home.

The Ghost Map

by Steven Johnson This is a book club pick. It is all about the Cholera outbreak in one of London's areas in th 1850's and how that incident came to change the modern world.

I am grateful for book club books that extend my usual literary reach. This book reminded me of reading another interesting book I read in college for my independent study group (yes they really have those, and it was at least 1.0 credit): "The Coming Plague". It brought back a lot of memories of my brief notion to become an epidemiologist...which still sounds cool to me.



This is obviously an intellectual read, and not a novel.



Next month's book club book is The Koran. Wish me luck.

2 books

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

I remember siblings reading this in Elementary, however, since I wasn't big on reading back then I missed out. It's another Newberry Medal winner. It's about a teenage girl's arrival and new found life in Connecticut! See why I chose it. It tells a little about colonial life, puritanism, Quakers, witches, the beginnings of Revolutionary thinking, and some romance. So it was good for me :) And quite honestly on my intellectual reading level.

Next up...

Sarah's Key

This is a good book club book as there is much to discuss in it. A modern day American journalist living in France and married to a Frenchman is assigned to write a piece about the Vel d'Hiv roundups that took place in 1942. Having never heard of it she starts researching and unearths it's horrors and also discovers a link between it and her French husband's family. It tells of a 10 year-old Jewish girl (see where this is going?) born in France during the Vel d'Hiv roundups of 1942 that were carried out by their own French Police. They were sent to camps in France and then on trains to Auschwitz.

Much to think about...like there always is when the Holocaust is concerned. It always astounds me to hear about the hate, the traitorous neighbors, the atrocities, the ignorance, the evil. I also feel hope when I read about the people who put their lives at risk to help strangers, the love of mankind. And that's what I hope to instill in my children, the absolute love of mankind regardless of faith, color, race, or socioeconomic status. I guess that's what I hope for myself too.

Resolution

One of my goals was to read a book of poetry, so I picked up a collection that sounded promising, "The Best Poems of the English Language".

Apparently I am not a poetry person.

I am more of a short inspirational quotes person.

I am marking this resolution as done. Because I am done with poetry for a while.

Now I know better.

The Scarlet Pimpernel

On one of the many snow days I checked out the movie "The Scarlet Pimpernel" from the library. It took me a couple viewings to appreciate it for what it's worth. It was my first exposure to the Pimpernel and it would have been nice to have been forewarned that he acts like a fop. He kind of drove me crazy the first time. Also, it was made in the 80's so it's a little cheesy, but once you get past that and understand the characters better it was cute and I liked it. So I decided to try the book. The book is a thousand times better! The story line is very different than the movie. I guess the movie was based on two separate books that Baroness Orczy wrote of the Scarlet Pimpernel saga melded into one movie.
I always thought this book sounded boring...like Tess of the D'Urbervilles (hate that book) or Wuthering Heights (not my favorite). This was full of intrigue! They should put disclaimers on these AP English books. Some are "classics" and some are "good classics". This is a "good classic". I can't believe I haven't read this before! I wonder if the other novels are any good.

book with a dumb title

My Brother Sam is Dead

I picked this book up because it is about the war in Redding/Ridgefield, which is near my house here. There is a tavern (now a museum) about 2 miles away that still has a revolutionary war canon ball (british) lodged in a post. I'll be visiting there to see that...in the spring. So I read this book to learn more about the goings on around here in the past.
This book started with one huge strike against it---the title. Dumbest title I've read yet. It got a Newberry honor of some sort. Not completely sure why. It was a slow book. I guess in the end the moral of the story--war is crap no matter which side you're on--was what won the award. And yes, Sam is dead.

Well, I've done my local historical duty and read it. It wasn't horrible, but certainly not one I want to own. If we stay here for a long time I'll make my kids do their duty and read it too :)

P.E.I.

Hard to believe, but I've never read all the Anne of Green Gables books. In fact, I read them for the first time just a few years ago. I stopped after reading 4 because it was a slower book (and there was as severe lack of Gilbert). I finally read 5 and 6 this month and loved them almost the best!

I'm not going to leave my review. Most people either love them or can't stand them. You have to "belong to the race that knows Joseph" to love these books I think. I'm not sure I would have appreciated them when I was younger. So here's one of my favorite quotes from book 6:

"Mothers were the same all through the centuries...a great sisterhood of love and service...the remembered and the unremembered alike."

I like to think about the unremembered.

And don't tell Kent but I'm planning a trip for next year to good ole Prince Edward Island. Poor guy.

3 books

It looks like I won't make it to my 32 books for the year (the goal I set last year). I'm going to blame it on the move :) I'll have to try again next year!
Anywho, here are the last 3 books I've read.

The Grimm Legacy

by Polly Shulman

About teens who work in a special library where there's a "Grimm" section with magical fairy tale items. Of course antics ensue. It was alright. I'm sure it goes with the Percy Jackson genre, but a little less interesting to me. I would recommend it to pre-tweens and tweens.

Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry

The story of a little girl and her Jewish friend in WWII Denmark. Another interesting perspective on the war. Denmark had a very successful safe people smuggling rate. I know we are in an economic downturn, but it is nothing compared to what they went through some 50 years ago. I can't even imagine rationing food, shoes, and electricity. We really don't have it that bad after all.

Year of Wonders
by Geraldine Brooks

Based on a true Plague town that quarantined itself to prevent the spread of the disease. This is the fictionalized story of what it may have been like. I liked reading about the plague and how it might have been like for those poor people. The heroine of the story Anna, starts out as a mindless waif and turns out to be a modern minded strong woman. I felt it may have been a bit out of context for the days and just bent to form to modern times idea of what a woman should be and what she should want for herself. Maybe there were truly people like her, but it felt very modernized and I wished it would have been truer to the period in that regard. I was also discombobulated when someone who was kind and good throughout was vilified in the last 20 pages and left for naught. It was disappointing. In all a good story about the Plague life and the way it changed life as they knew it.

Mockingjay

by Suzanne Collins

Summary: If you don't know this is the third book in the Hunger Games, then stop what you're doing right now and read the first two books in the series....loved them!

My thoughts: I won't give out any spoilers because all my sister's are waiting for my book copy to read it, so...although I have heard from a few that they were "disappointed", I was not. I liked it. I just wish the ending was more explanatory. There were a couple things I would have liked to understand how they were resolved.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

by Alan Bradley




Summary: the story of a precocious 11 year-old English girl, Flavia, who finds a dead body in her garden and declares: "I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn't. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life." A mystery ensues.



My thoughts: What a delightful story. I couldn't read this book without feeling a little British. This was a really cute and fun mystery. I definitely wouldn't call myself a mystery connoisseur, but I enjoyed every page of this one. It is the first in what sounds to be a series starring the infamous Flavia de Luce.