Sunday Salon 15 March 2009: New York, New York!

Good morning, fellow Saloners! I come to you this morning with a plea for help. My friend Casey and I are planning a trip to NYC in June, and we need suggestions!

One thing that we're definitely seeing is the Coraline Broadway show - it was the whole reason for the trip in the first place. I've been to New York a few times, so I've seen the majorly touristy things. Casey, however, has never been on a plane, let alone to NY, so I want to make sure she doesn't miss anything. We're going for a little over a week, and I want to cram as much in as possible.

Other things we have tentatively planned on:
Shakespeare in the Park - Twelfth Night starring Anne Hathaway
Yankees game - possibly vs. the Mets
Central Park - including the zoo, Strawberry Fields, and Alice in Wonderland
Empire State Building
Times Square
China Town
Greenwich Village
Harlem
Daily Show/Colbert Report taping - if we can get in
92Y Tribeca

My question to y'all is: If you've been to NYC before, what sights would you recommend? Do you know of any hidden gems that could be fun? And, just to make this book-related, what NYC-set books would you recommend reading before the trip?

Sunday Salon 01 March 2009: Challenge Updates

For this week's Sunday Salon, I decided to update the various challenges that I'm working on. It seemed like a nice way to wrap up February.

1. The 1% Well-Read Challenge ended yesterday. I read 5 out of 10 books (and 1/2 of The Last Temptation of Christ) and posted 4 reviews. I wanted to do better with this one, but time got away from me. Michelle's hosting (Another) 1% Well-Read Challenge, but I don't think I'm going to sign up, just because I have so many other challenges for the year that I'm already behind on.

2. Book Awards II Challenge ends June 1. So far, I've read 5 out of 10 books and posted 3 reviews.

3. 100 Shots of Short is a perpetual challenge, but I set a personal goal to finish by the end of the year. So far, I've read 8 stories and posted 2 reviews.

4. The Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge ends March 31. So far, I've read 0 out of 3 books. Eep!

5. The YA Book Challenge ends December 31. I've read 14 out of 12 books (yay!) and posted 0 reviews (boo!).

6. The A-Z Reading Challenge ends December 31. I've read a bunch of books, but haven't updated my reading table for this challenge.

7. The Dewey's Books Reading Challenge ends December 31. I haven't read any of the books, but I have been participating in the mini-challenges.

8. The Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge ends December 31. I have read one book for this challenge and posted 0 reviews.

9. The World Citizen Challenge ends December 31. I'm currently reading one book for this challenge.

10. The Graphic Novels Challenge ends December 31. I have read 2 books for this challenge and posted 1 review.

11. The Winter Reading Challenge ends March 20. I've read way more books during this time period than I planned to, but I haven't reviewed them all.

12. The Science Book Challenge ends December 31. I'm currently reading 1 book for this challenge.

13. The Diversity Rocks! Challenge ends whenever I finish my other challenges. So far, none of my books have been very diverse. :(

14. The Dream King Challenge ends December 31. My own challenge, and I've barely done anything for it! I did see a movie (Coraline) but have yet to review it. Sigh...

I'm also working on the Blog Improvement Project, but don't get me started on how far behind I am on it. And as for Carl's Sci-Fi Experience, well, let's just say that these have not been the best of months for me to be doing non-school-related reading. But y'all just wait til this summer, when I'll have no papers to grade or lessons to plan - full-on read-fest, here I come! In about 3 months...

The Sunday Salon - 22 February 2009: Playing catch-up

Good morning, fellow Saloners! Things I've done over the past two weeks that have kept me from blogging regularly:

* Finished a shawl I was crocheting for my mom's birthday next month.

* Finished reading Rock Bottom, read The Tenth Circle, and started reading Matrimony.

* Received two books in the mail: Cassandra and Jane (thanks to J. Kaye for the giveaway!) and I Put a Spell on You (by my high school friend and amazing YA writer Adam Selzer). I can't wait to read these two.

* Taught my students about poetry. Some of them enjoyed it, some didn't. I had arranged for a rapper to come talk to them about rhythm, assonance, consonance, etc, but we had a few tornadoes coming through the area the night before and he couldn't make it.

* Remember that Austenland giveaway I had several weeks back? Well, I only had two people enter, so I decided to give both of them a book. Congrats to Chayenne and liane66!

* I also had an opportunity to watch the amazing Pierre Bensusan perform Friday night. He was voted the world's greatest guitarist last year, and after watching him, I can understand why:



Now I'm off to do some more reading and writing. Have a great Sunday, everyone!

Sunday Salon 01 February 2009: Mini-Review and a giveaway

Happy February, Sunday Saloners! Hope everyone has had a great week. I'm just excited because the reviews I set to auto-post while I was at school actually worked! I really liked being able to post that way, because it saves me time during the week. I also liked the doing the mini-reviews rather than full ones. I think I'll start doing mini-reviews for all the books I read, and save full reviews for challenge reviews. Maybe.

Here's a mini-review I didn't get to this week: Austenland, by Shannon Hale
I'm not familiar with Hale's other books (The Princess Academy series and other YA fiction); I picked this up because I lurve Jane Austen and I had read some good reviews of it. Austenland is about a young woman named Jane who is obsessed with Pride and Prejudice, and with Mr. Darcy specifically. An older relative (great-grandmother, great-aunt, something like that) finds out about this obsession and bequeaths her a trip to a P&P-style amusement park, with costumes, balls, and accents instead of roller coasters.

I think I liked the idea of this book more than the actual execution of it. Who wouldn't want to completely immerse themselves in Austen's world, even for just a few days? It'd be like living in the 1900 House. But, you know, a century earlier. Anyway, I had a few minor quibbles with this book. First of all, why does a woman in her 30s treat her copy of the BBC P&P DVD like porn? There's no need to hide it in a plant - plenty of people read (and watch) Austen and they don't feel ashamed of it. And secondly, I don't think Jane is actually obsessed with Austen. She's obsessed with Darcy, and that's a big difference. That being said, though, this isn't a bad book. It's short and fluffy. There's even a big twist in the end that really surprised me. Darcy fanatics will love it; Austenites will probably deem it "cute" and move along.

Here's the giveaway part. I somehow ended up with two copies. I've loaned one out to friends, and the other I'm going to give to one of you! If you'd like to be entered in the drawing, leave a comment answering the following question: If you could be magically transported into any book in the world (a la Inkheart or Thursday Next), which would it be and why? I'll have a drawing next Sunday and announce the winner then. Good luck!

Sunday Salon 25 January 2009

Good morning, fellow Saloners! This hasn't been a really productive reading week for me (although I did finish The Last Days of Dogtown and Jane Austen in Scarsdale). I did, however, clean my apartment. I've also been working on my 101 Things list, I started a new diet - and I've already lost a few pounds! The new diet means my next few Recipe Tuesday posts will probably be kinda boring for everyone else, but I've really enjoyed the recipes I've found and the foods I've been eating. After I finish updating and making the blog rounds, I'll be reading The Willoughbys, which I won a month or two ago from Chris. It's a pretty slim book, so I hope I'll be able to get pretty far into it today. I still have several books to review from last year, so I'll be taking a lesson from some other blogs I've been reading a posting mini-reviews throughout the week.

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This week's Booking Through Thursday question(s):

Since “Inspiration” is (or should) the theme this week … what is your reading inspired by?

My reading is mostly inspired by authors I enjoy already (Gaiman, Fforde, Austen, Palahniuk, Chabon) and by recommendations from friends and fellow book bloggers. When I was younger, my reading was inspired by my dad - he was a big sci-fi geek (he's the one who named me after a character in Dune), which made me want to read the books he had enjoyed. I just wish he had been around to discuss them with...but reading his favorite books helped me feel closer to him.

But you don't have to take my word for it. Check out btt for more opinions.

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This week's Weekly Geeks challenge deals with classic literature. I'm going to talk about question #1:

How do you feel about classic literature? Are you intimidated by it? Love it? Not sure because you never actually tried it? Don't get why anyone reads anything else? Which classics, if any, have you truly loved? Which would you recommend for someone who has very little experience reading older books? Go all out, sell us on it!

Being an English major, I adore the classics. My favorite classic lit author is definitely Jane Austen. I love the wit and social commentary in her novels, not to mention the romance and happy endings. I also really relate to her and her characters, especially Emma Woodhouse.

One of the best things I did during my undergrad was taking a "Spirit of Place in British Literature" class during the summer. We read a bunch of classic novels set in England, Scotland, and Wales, and then spent two weeks traveling around the country, finding the places mentioned in the books. I loved walking on the Cobb in Lyme Regis (the same place Louisa Musgrove fell in Persuasion!) and climbing Arthur's Seat (where the narrator or Confessions of a Justified Sinner sees God); having read about them beforehand made the experience even better. So my love of classic literature is kind of wrapped up in that trip as well.

Other authors I really like: Dickens (especially A Tale of Two Cities), Thomas Hardy, the Romantic and Lake poets (Byron, Keats, Shelly, Wordsworth, Coleridge), and, of course, Shakespeare.

What about you? How do you feel about classic literature?

Sunday Salon 18 January 2009 - Catching Up

Good morning afternoon, fellow Saloners! This week's post will be a little longer than normal, as I'm trying to cram a whole bunch of stuff into one post. I'm also participating in Carl's Out of This World Mini-Challenge, and will need to spend a little time today reading some sci-fi short stories. I already have a few picked out...

First up, I got an award! Laza has given me the Premios Dardo Award!

This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his or her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values every day.

The rules to follow are

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

This is a big honor, and I'm really excited about it. The fifteen that I'm passing it on to are:

1. Ali from worducopia
2. Veens from Giving Reading a Chance
3. Susan from Plays With Needles
4. Eva from A Striped Armchair
5. Nymeth from things mean a lot
6. Care from Care's Online Book Club
7. Andi from Tripping Toward Lucidity
8. Alex from Daemonwolf Books
9. Florinda from The 3 R's
10. Vasilly from 1330V
11. Bethany from B&b ex libris
12. Chris from Book Notes
13. Joanne from Book Zombie
14. Jill from Fizzy Thoughts
15. J. Kaye from J. Kaye's Book Blog

If I missed you, I'm really, really sorry. There are dozens of blogs that I read and love (I just updated my blogroll - check out some of the new arrivals!) but I didn't have enough room to list them all here. Next time, I promise! :)

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Next, I'm going to take a page from Florinda and start combining my weekly posts. This means that TSS, BTT, and WG will all be in one post, published on Sunday. Hooray for time-saving! This week's Booking Through Thursday question is:

* What songs … either specific songs, or songs in general by a specific group or writer … have words that you love?
* Why?
* And … do the tunes that go with the fantastic lyrics live up to them?

My absolute favorite singer/songwriter is Jennifer Nettles. Her song "Casual Dread" (which you can listen to on her website) was the inspiration for this blog's name. I've been a fan of hers for almost 10 years now (!), and although I prefer her older, folky-acoustic rock to her newer alt-country style, her lyrics have always been great. A lot of her songs focus on love and spirituality, and they're all great for rolling down your windows and singing along really loudly.
I also really like the lyrics (and music) of Indigo Girls. (Just so you know, I do listen to more than just Georgia-grown female alterna-folk-rock artists.) They have a bunch of great song lyrics, including "Closer to Fine" ("I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper / And I was free."), "It's Alright" ("It seems easier to push than to let go and trust but it's alright."), "Leeds" ("I crave inertia every move made so I can stop / Whatever this madness is in me spinning like a top on a bed of anxiety / over a deep dark drop down into nothingness into withoutyouness."), I could go on and on. And the music that goes along with the lyrics is just amazing.

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This week's Weekly Geeks challenge is a few questions:

For those who have been with the group, either from the start or joined within recent months, what does being a member mean to you? What do you enjoy about the group? What are some of your more memorable Weekly Geeks that we might could do again? What could be improved as we continue the legacy that Dewey gave us?

For those just joining us, why did you sign up for Weekly Geeks? What would you like to see here?

The best thing I get out of Weekly Geeks (beside all the great reading suggestions) is the community and sense of camaraderie. I love the tasks that have us going to new blogs and making new friends. I can't really think of a way that Weekly Geeks could be improved - I'm just glad that's it's still around! My favorite past WG tasks and the ones I would like to do again are: #17 (I want a chance to actually complete this one!), #23, #24 (I liked reading interesting facts about lesser-known authors), and #26.


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Finally, I'm going to leave you with a few fun links and one hilarious video:
* Can you name the Weasleys in two minutes? Silly question, I know...
* Free e-books: The Ruins of Gorlan and Coraline
* Obama-ize yourself
* KNiiTTiiNG!!, Wii-style


Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

The Sunday Salon - 4 January 2009

Good morning, fellow Saloners! 2009 has gotten off to a great start. I'm slowly working my way through all of my challenges, and I've begun my 101 things to do in 1001 days as well. Today is my last day of vacation before school starts up again on Tuesday (we have a teacher work day tomorrow, so my second semester officially starts then), and I plan on spending it curled up with a good book. Several, in fact. I'm just about done with The Last Days of Dogtown - it's such an intense novel, I keep having to put it down and read lighter, happier fare - and I'm also re-reading a few books from the Taffy Sinclair series (by Betsy Haynes) which I found at a used book store and thought would be great for the YA Reading Challenge. I've also been reading What Would Audrey Do? (very sporadically - a chapter a day or so), which is a combination biography of Audrey Hepburn and guide to living with style. I don't feel like I've learned much about style (I think I'm pretty much a hopeless case on that score), but I have learned quite a few tidbits about Ms. Hepburn that I'll be sharing in my review. Whenever I get to it, that is...

One of my goals for this break was to write several reviews. I didn't get to them (yet), but I still want to. So in the next month or so, look for me to post about The Mating Season, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Sick Puppy, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Graphic Novel, Austenland, The Little Prince, and An Abundance of Katherines. Whew! The sad part is, none of these count toward my 2009 challenges. Oh, well...

One last (fun) thing: the "What Kind of a Reader are You?" Quiz

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader   You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Literate Good Citizen
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I got this from Beth F. Good times.

Happy reading! :)

The Sunday Salon - 21 December 2008

This has been the most relaxing weekend I've had in about five months. Why? Because we started our Christmas break on Friday! Two weeks of blissful freedom from moody teenagers, essays written in chat-speak, and that one annoying coworker who doesn't have an indoor voice. I celebrated Friday night by going to Athens to party with my friend/coworker Seth. We tried to hit up the Terrapin Brewery Tour but got lost (it's a nondescript white warehouse with little outside lighting and NO SIGN) and ended up getting there too late. Maybe next week. To compensate, I bought a refurbished PS2 (Seth also works at a GameStop part time and used his discount) and Kingdom Hearts. I just started last night and I'm already to Deep Jungle, my second-favorite world (after Halloween Town). I'm trying not to use a strat guide until I get to Oogie Boogie's house, because that's the only place I can remember in the game that you can't get back to later.

"But what about BOOKS?" you say? Well, I'll tell you. This is a picture of my current Mt. TBR:


These are the books that I'll be trying to get through in the next two weeks, in addition to the Kingdom Hearts-playing, prepping for next semester, and reviewing the books that I've already read and haven't gotten around to yet:


Not quite as large a stack, and there are a few books (checked out from the library) that aren't pictured.

So, my goals for this break are:
1. Read some books. I'm not attaching a numerical value to this goal; I just want to decrease the size of that first pile before I go back to school.
2. Review some books. I'm shooting for 10 reviews - that's one every day during the week. We'll see how that goes.
3. Play some Kingdom Hearts. I'm not going to beat it in two weeks, and I'm not going to try. I just want to enjoy it and relish the awesomeness of the game itself.
4. Finish up my 101 things to do in 1001 days list. I'm currently on 18. Eep!

Hope everyone has a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc, and a happy New Year! :)

The Sunday Salon - 7 December 2008

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last TSS post. Today I decided to post about my challenges. The year is coming to an end, and it's time to reflect on what I did in 2008 and set goals for 2009.

The challenges that I joined this year are:
* The 1% Well-Read Challenge - I've read 5 books, reviewed 4, and have 5 left to read. Yay!
* The Book Awards II Challenge - I've read and reviewed 1 book, and have 9 left to read. Yikes!
* A Midsummer Night's Challenge - I read and reviewed both books for this challenge. Yay!
* The July Book Blowout Challenge - I met (and exceeded!) my goal of reading 10 books during the month of July. Yay!
* Life Books Challenge - I have not read the three books I chose for this challenge. Yikes! I'd still like to complete it, even though the challenge is long gone. The books sound interesting, and I love the challenge concept.

The challenges I have signed up for in 2009:
* 100 Shots of Short - no time limit, no required books, just reading 100 short stories
* The Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge - read three books dealing with food, travel, or culture
* The YA Book Challenge - read 12 YA books
* The Year of Readers - donating money to a literary charity

Wish me luck! :)

The Sunday Salon - 2 November 2008

Good morning, fellow Saloners! For those of you in the U.S., did you enjoy your extra hour of sleep this morning? I know I did! :)

I got quite a few books read this week. I finally finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, among others. Here's the list:
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, E. Lockhart
Paper Towns, John Green
The Dashwood Sisters' Secrets of Love, Rosie Rushton
Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling (yes, again)
Reviews coming soon!

Book links:
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab has created some new scents based on The Graveyard Book. Yum!
House made out of books!

I still have reviews to catch up on from the 24-hour Read-a-Thon, but right now I'm off to write my NaNoWriMo novel. Happy Sunday, everyone!

The Sunday Salon - 26 October 2008

Good morning, fellow Saloners! I'm still in recovery from last week's 24-Hour Read-a-thon. I have five reviews that I'm working on (two for the Book Awards II Challenge, which I am woefully behind on) and a few books that I'm still trying to finish. I've done a few other house-keeping-type things around the ol' blog, though. I updated my links list and added quite a few new blogs that I discovered as a result of the 'thon. I've also created a template for my reviews, which makes it easier for me when I upload them. And I'm getting ready for NaNoWriMo - my goal is to actually finish a novel this year!

So, short post from me today - I've got too much reading and writing to do! I will leave you with these two links, though:
A purse made out of books
30 second Tales of Terror

Happy Sunday! :)

Sunday Salon: The Other Boleyn Girl

Hello, fellow Saloners! There's less than a week until the 24-Hour Read-a-Thon, and I am so excited!

This week, I read quite a bit. I'm still working through The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The Once and Future King, and The Last Temptation of Christ. I started rereading The Blind Assassin and I finished The Other Boleyn Girl. I have no idea why I read so many books at once, but so far I haven't gotten them mixed up and I'm still interested in finishing all of them, so I guess that's something.

Review: The Other Boleyn Girl

The Other Boleyn Girl is the first historical romance novel I've ever read. I've read reviews about how great it was and had several friends tell me how much they enjoyed it, but I never really had a desire to read it (or see the movie, but that's more of a Scarlett Johansson anathema on my part). Last week, one of my fellow teachers checked it out from the library and read it in a few days. She loved it, and convinced me to give it a try. Checking it out from the library was the best incentive to finish it, because I knew I only had it for a limited time.

First of all, this book is long. It's interesting, especially for someone (like me) who is not overly-familiar with the history of Henry VIII. I liked the characters; Anne was by far my favorite, just because she was so complex and almost evil.

HOWEVER...

I found this book incredibly difficult to read. I'm not a stickler for grammar (artistic license and all that), but lord, did this book need some semicolons. I counted four or five that were actually used, and one of those was used incorrectly! There were so many run-on sentences, I had to fight the urge to get out my Big Red Pen every page and go English Teacher on the book. Did the Tudors not use semicolons or coordinating conjunctions? It really shouldn't have been that big a deal, but it was distracting and jarred me out of the story every time. Does this kind of thing bother anyone else?

On the whole, The Other Boleyn Girl wasn't bad. I probably won't read any of the other books, though. The lack of punctuation notwithstanding, it just wasn't for me. If you've reviewed this book and would like me to link to your post, leave a comment.

The Sunday Salon - 28 September 2008

Hello, fellow Saloners! This hasn't been the most productive week for me, reading-wise, and I'm pretty sure today won't be much different. I'm terribly far behind in my grading, and my goal for the day is to get caught up with all my school stuff. I have to give my principal an updated list of my failing students, which means I have to go through a mountainous pile of tests, quizzes, short stories, and daily work that has been patiently waiting for my attention for the past two weeks. Yikes. After I finish grading, I may get some pleasure reading done - we'll see.

I do have some updates from my last Weekly Geeks post, though (I'm not participating in this week's theme, because I haven't really read any books from 2008, sadly). First, my TBR/Currently Reading pile:
Sadly, some of these books have been sitting by my bed for months. I plan on really digging in during the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon, which I am FINALLY able to participate in.

Next, my "Free Books!" box that I will be dropping off at Curves tomorrow evening:
All of these books are registered on BookCrossing and a lot of them are also part of the 2008 Movie/TV Books Release Challenge.

And now, my newest Ravelry project:
In case you can't tell, it's a star-shaped afghan. I started it as a gift for a coworker, but she's already gone on maternity leave and it's nowhere near finished, so who knows who will actually get it. It's my first time using this pattern, so it's not exactly perfect, but I think it's cute.

Lastly: this isn't actually a project of mine, but I thought it was interesting - Book-spines turned into stories (found on BoingBoing).

Have a great Sunday, and Happy Reading!

The Sunday Salon/1% Well-Read Challenge: Breakfast at Tiffany's

Good morning, fellow Saloners! This is the first time in a LONG time that I've actually been able to sit down, write a TSS post, and get some reading done on a Sunday. Right now, I'm working my way through The Once and Future King (I read it at school, during the required 20-minute "Sustained Silent Reading" period), The Last Temptation of Christ, by Nikolas Kazantzakis, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz (both of those are for challenges I'm woefully behind on).

I've managed to read a TON of books; unfortunately, they're mostly YA drivel (Fear Street, I'm looking in your direction). At last count, I've read over 100 books this year, but the majority of them really only count as half a book because they're so short and don't require much thought.

1% Well-Read Challenge: Breakfast at Tiffany's

Title: Breakfast at Tiffany's
Author: Truman Capote
Genre: Fiction
Published: 1958
Pages: 192
Rating: 9 / 10

This week, I read (in addition to a plethora of the aforementioned Fear Street) Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote for the 1% Well-Read Challenge. This novella is amazing! It wasn't originally on my list, but Play's With Needles' wonderful review piqued my interest, and then I found a copy for TWENTY-FIVE CENTS at the library book sale, so it seemed like someone was telling me to read it. Plus, I LOVE the movie - I was obsessed with Audrey growing up.

You probably know the story: the narrator (called "Fred" by Holly, because he reminds her of her brother) moves to NYC and becomes enamored of his neighbor, Holly Golightly. She is an intriguing character: selfish and irresponsible, yet you can't help but love her. You would think her naivete and stream-of-conscious ramblings would be grating, but I found her completely charming. The fact that I was picturing her as Audrey Hepburn (although in the book, she's a blonde) probably added to this.

It's a very short, very fast read (which was good for me, as I'm behind in my challenges and needed a quick way to catch up). There were two passages that I particularly liked, because I thought they really highlighted Holly's independence:

She was still hugging the cat. "Poor slob," she said, tickling his head, "poor slob without a name. It's a little inconvenient, his not having a name. But I haven't got any right to give him one: he'll have to wait until he belongs to somebody. We just sort of took up by the river one day, we don't belong to each other: he's an independent, and so am I. I don't want to own anything until I know I've found the place where me and things belong together. I'm not quite sure where that is just yet."

The tragedy is, (*spoiler alert*) she gets rid of the cat when she leaves New York, and then realizes that she really does care about it and wants to keep it around. By then, of course, the cat has disappeared.
My other favorite passage:

"Never love a wild thing, Mr. Bell," Holly advised him. "That was Doc's mistake. He was always lugging home wild things. A hawk with a hurt wing. One time it was a full-grown bobcat with a broken leg. But you can't give your heart to a wild thing; the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they're strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That's how you'll end up, Mr. Bell. If you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky."

She's talking about herself, too, here; "Doc" is her older husband, the one she abandoned when she left for L.A. and then New York. I like this passage for personal reasons, I'll admit. My dad wrote an editorial about me using the "wild animal" metaphor once, so seeing it here really spoke to me.

All in all, it's a wonderful little book. If anything, I wish it were longer. And now I really want to dig out my copy of the movie...

Up next: The Last Temptation of Christ

Other reviews: Plays With Needles

If you've reviewed it as well, leave a comment and I'll link to it.

The Sunday Salon - 24 August 2008

Hello, fellow Saloners! School started two weeks ago, and I've been busily planning lessons, grading papers, and trying to keep my sanity - hence, the lack of posting recently. Teaching is great; I love my students, but I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing. And all the drama is crazy, too. It's a big change, and I'm starting to feel (*gasp*) like an adult with a real career, which is an amazing feeling.

Moving on...I have managed to do a bunch of reading, in-between all the teacher-related stuff. At school, we have a required 20 minute reading period, so during that time I'm reading The Once and Future King, by T.H. White. I haven't gotten very far into it, but I love it! We have to do a King Arthur/mythology unit at some point, and I'd like to incorporate it in that.

I also got my first ARC in the mail, which was incredibly exciting! It's Superpowers, by David J. Schwartz. It was actually released in June, but I hadn't heard of it until it showed up in my mailbox. I read it in three days, which is impressive considering the lack of free time I have right now. The book is about five college students who have a party with homemade beer and wake up the next morning with various superpowers. There's a flyer, a telepath, a speedster, a superstrong girl, and an invisible girl. The book is set in the months leading up to September 11, 2001, so I realized pretty early on that was going to factor into the story, but just not in the way that I thought it would. I really liked it; it purports to be a true story, and I think it's a pretty realistic look at what would happen if people really had these kinds of abilities. As realistic as it can be, I suppose.

The other books I've been reading are ones that my sister left at my apartment - mostly Fear Street, and a few other YA series. I'm terribly behind on my challenge books, but I'll make more of an effort with those after I get my lesson plans straightened out. I like having the cheesy YA books on hand, because I can speed through them and not worry about really paying attention to plot, characterization, etc. They're great for when I'm trying to sleep at night or want to take a break from grading.

And now I'm off to do more teacher stuff. Happy reading!

The Sunday Salon - 10 August 2008

School starts tomorrow, and I think it's pretty safe to say I'm nervous. We had pre-planning all this week, and I've vacillated between excitedly hopeful and panicky nervousness. I feel completely unprepared for the first day, and it's driving my crazy. The veterans have all told me not to worry; the first day is usually a breeze, because you have to spend so much time with introductions, passing out books, and going over the handbook/syllabus that there's not time for anything else. That, and the students are all so tired after their two month vacation they tend to just zombie out on you. So, we'll see how it goes.

I did manage to get some reading done this week, which was nice:

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, by Ally Carter - When I did my student teaching at the middle school last year, one of my 7th graders LOVED this book. It's about a girl named Cammie who goes to school at the Gallagher Academy, which looks like a typical private school, but is actually an elite superspy training facility. The ending was surprisingly harsh, but in a good way - it was nice to have a unpredictable, anti-fairy-tale conclusion. I can't wait to pick up the sequel, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy.

Side note: what's up with Powell's search feature? I couldn't find either of those books by title, author, or publisher - I had to go to Amazon, get the ISBN, and search for them that way. Weird.

Anyway, I also read ttyl, by Lauren Myracle (which is also impossible to find on the Powell's site, which is making me regret linking the books at all). The neat thing about this series is that it's written entirely in chatspeak. It's a series of IM conversations between three best friends. The best part (for me) is that it takes place in Atlanta, so anytime they mentioned a street or business (Junkman's Daughter, Churchill Grounds), I got excited and knew exactly what they were talking about. There is a downside to this, though. One of the subplots involves a bunch of teen drivers protesting the speed limit on I-285. According to the book, it's 65 mph. I wish! It's actually 55 mph, which makes it even more ridiculous. But that was my only major quibble with the book. I don't know if I'll read the others in the series, because the IM style and constant (true to life) errors gave me a headache, but it was pretty good and definitely different.

I'm currently reading:

Peeps, by Scott Westerfield - because Breaking Dawn just wasn't teen-vampire-angsty enough for me.

The Last Temptation of Christ, by Nikos Kazantzakis - for the 1% Well-Read Challenge.

The Hours, by Michael Cunningham - for the Book Award Winners II Challenge.

Some fun book links:

Locus Online and Tor both have coverage of the Hugo Award winners - YAY for Neil Gaiman, Michael Chabon, and Dr. Who!

Kafka apparently collected a bunch of porn. Not exactly what we learned about him when I was in school, but okay.

Livejournal user absinthetic has created this amazing Wonderland expedition kit for his girlfriend. I have no words.

Happy reading!

Sunday Salon: Book-to-TV series

Greetings, Saloners! I got a lot of reading done this week:

The Baby-Sitters Club Mystery #1: Stacey and the Missing RIng, Ann M. Martin
Chloe Does Yale, Natalie Krinsky
Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best Friend Must Do in Europe, Jane Harrington
The Killing Joke, Alan Moore (graphic novel)
The Princess Diaries Volume II: Princess in the Spotlight, Meg Cabot
Ever, Gail Carson Levine
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle (audiobook)

I'm still reading Less Than Zero - it's pretty depressing reading, hence all the young adult novels. I have to keep mixing it up to stay happy.

One thing that makes me happy is (some) silly, fun chick lit. I read Zoe Dean's How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls earlier this year and really enjoyed it. So imagine my surprise and delight when I came across this ad for the new show Privileged on the CW:



The book was pretty good (if a bit predictable), but I'm not entirely sure how well it'll translate into a TV series. Gossip Girl is great, but the show has strayed significantly from the series. Plus, it's a series of books, so there are more stories to draw from. How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls has a definite beginning, middle, and end - how can you make a mult-season series out of that? Still, I'm pretty interested to see how they do it.

In other news, I love The Classic Tales podcast. I subscribed recently through iTunes (hence the Sherlock Holmes audiobook) and it's great! Much better than some of the other literature podcasts I've tried. Also, please visit my Weekly Geeks post and help me review some books. I've gotten a few questions so far, and I'll be posting my responses later this week. Lucky for me, Dewey's moving and has given us an extra week. :)

Happy reading!

The Sunday Salon - The Jane Austen Book Club

Thanks for last week's reading suggestions. I've definitely got a few ideas to talk over with my department chair during pre-planning next week. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to read Little Brother - I'm finishing up my house-sitting gig today, and this past week I was getting my things together to take back to my apartment. I've been house-sitting for about a month, so I've accumulated quite a few things here (mostly books and yarn) that need to be transferred to my apartment. Little Brother was apparently placed in the "books going back to the apartment" pile, rather than the "books staying here so that I can read them" pile. Oh, well. I did finish The Yiddish Policemen's Union, but that book has also been mis-piled, so I can't write a review of it (yet). I also finished some more BSC books and read a bit more in Less Than Zero.

Last week, I put The Jane Austen Book Club on my Book Mooch wishlist. There was only one copy available in the US, and I wrote to the owner to ask if she would send it to me. She replied that she would, but it would be a few weeks before she could get around to it. I didn't mind the wait - my TBR pile is full enough without adding to it - but then I received an e-mail from BM saying that my mooch had been cancelled because her account had been deleted. I was a little disappointed, but figured it was just one of those things and didn't think too much about it. I went by the apartment to check the mail on Friday, and guess what was in my mailbox? My mooched copy of The Jane Austen Book Club! I wasn't going to read it, but I ended up getting stuck somewhere waiting and it was the only book I had on me. I got so sucked into the story that I finished it in two days. There are a bunch of passage that I really enjoyed and wanted to share (I felt a bit like Prudie, marking places in the book to comment on later with my friends).

I loved Grigg's take on Northanger Abbey:

"I just love how it's all about reading novels. Who's a heroine, what's an adventure? Austen poses these questions very directly. There's something very pomo going on there."
The rest of us weren't intimate enough with postmodernism to give it a nickname. We'd heard the word used in sentences, but its definition seemed to change with its context. We weren't troubled by this. Over at the university, people were paid to worry about such things; they'd soon have it well in hand. (138)

I was also happy to read someone else referring to postmodernism as "pomo." I do that without realizing it, and it never occurred to me that my listeners might not know what I'm talking about. Oops.

I also enjoyed Allegra's interpretation of Charlotte Lucas:

"What I was thinking was that Charlotte Lucas might be gay. Remember when she says she's not romantic like Lizzie? Maybe that's what she means. Maybe that's why there's no point in holding out for a better offer." Allegra rolled onto her back and propped her wineglass onto her face so as to get the last drops. Sylvia could see her nose through the curved glass. Even this, on Allegra, was a flattering look.
"Are you saying Austen meant her to be gay?" Sylvia asked. "Or that she's gay and Austen doesn't know it?"
Sylvia preferred the latter. There was something appealing in thinking of a character with a secret life that her author knew nothing about. Slipping off while the author's back was turned, to find love in her own way. Showing up just in time to deliver the next bit of dialogue with an innocent face. (171)

Like Sylvia, I like the idea of characters having a secret life outside the written pages on their book. It's very similar to what Jasper Fforde does in his Thursday Next series, and that's probably one reason I enjoy those books so much. The idea of a character being gay and the author not knowing it (or maybe, knowing it but not acknowledging it) is also intriguing. I get the feeling that's why fanfiction was invented. :)

After (SPOILER ALERT!) Allegra's rock-climbing accident:

"When I was driving to the hospital," Sylvia said, "I thought if Allegra was all right I would be the happiest woman in the world. And she was, and I was. But today the sink is backed up and there are roaches in the garage and I don't have the time to deal with any of it. The newspaper is filled with misery and war. Already I have to remind myself to be happy. And you know, if it were the other way, if something had happened to Allegra, I wouldn't have to remind myself to be unhappy. I'd be unhappy for the rest of my life. Why should unhappiness be so much more powerful that happiness?" (227 - 228)

IS unhappiness more powerful than happiness? I'm not really sure. Last year, I wrote about going to visit my dying friend Karen. That visit started out incredibly sad - my sister and I spent the first twenty minutes or so of our visit crying and holding Karen's hand. And then a funny thing happened: one of her daughters started telling anecdotes about when we were younger. Before you knew it, we were all laughing and sharing memories. By the time we left, I was still sad about Karen. But I was happy, because I got a chance to say goodbye - something not everyone is lucky enough to get - and because I have 27 years worth of happy memories to look back on, rather than one really sad day. I think it's all a matter of perspective. I don't necessarily choose to always look on the bright side of life (Lord knows, I can be the world's best worrier when I want to be), but more often than not, happy (or at least content) is my default mood setting.

This book gave me quite a lot to think about! I have to confess that I saw the movie first, but the book is just different enough that I can enjoy both without comparing them to each other. The third-person limited omniscient narration was unusual; it was always "our" book club and "we" thought this, but never "I," which took some getting used to. I loved the characters, and they way they all had bits of Austen in their lives - Prudie-as-Mrs. Elton was my favorite - because it seemed very organic and believable. The idea of everyone having a private Austen is interesting; mine's a cross between Jocelyn's unmarried romantic and Bernadette's comic genius.

I actually didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did because a) I'm very protective of Miss Austen (I think I embarrassed my BFF at a Becoming Jane sneak preview after talking loudly about how WRONG the movie was) and b) I read another of Karen Joy Fowler's books - The Sweetheart Season - several years ago, and didn't remember liking it much. The Jane Austen Book Club was a pleasant surprise, and I highly recommend it, even if you're unfamiliar with Austen's novels. In all likelihood, reading this will make you want to read them.

If you've reviewed this book on your blog, leave a link in the comments and I'll post it here. I'm eager to hear other thoughts.

The Sunday Salon - High School Novel Unit

The new school year will be starting up soon, and I'm getting my lesson plans ready. One unit I'm really struggling with is my novel unit. I have a list of suggested reading for my 10th grade English students (the majority of whom will be remedial or inclusion), and I have to say, none of them interest me that much - Rebecca sounds boring, and my 7th graders read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, so no. I have SOME leeway with my lessons and reading choices; I'm getting a technology grant, which gives me a little more freedom, and my principal is really encouraging and open to new ideas. One book I've been thinking about for the unit is Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. I just picked up a copy today, and will probably be putting everything else aside to read it. It sounds promising enough - a high school hacker gets in trouble with the Department of Homeland Security and has to fight the man to save the world - so I'm looking forward to it. I'm really just trying to find a book that my students will enjoy and actually WANT to read.

Those of you who have read this/know someone who has - what do you think? Do you have any suggestions for other books jaded, bibliophobic 16-year-olds might like?

In other news...today was my last day at the grocery store, which means from now on I'll actually have my weekends free to read! And crochet, scrapbook, knit, cook foods I would actually eat, clean my apartment...

This week, I read:
The Baby-sitter's Club #55: Jessi's Gold Medal, Ann M. Martin
The Baby-sitter's Club Super Special #5: California Girls!, Ann M. Martin
The Baby-sitter's Club Super Special #6: New York, New York!, Ann M. Martin
Y: The Last Man #10: Whys and Wherefores, Brian K. Vaughn

Notice a pattern? I blame Bryce.

I'm currently reading:
Less Than Zero, Brett Easton Ellis - for the 1% Well-Read Challenge. This may also explain all the BSC books - I need something light and fluffy to counteract the nihilism. Whew.
Stitch 'N Bitch, Debbie Stoller - I'm learning how to knit! It's slow going (I've restarted the same scarf four times - I'm ready to call it a potholder and move on to something else), but a lot of fun!
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon - my goal is to finish it this week.

TBR:
Too many to list, but Little Brother is at the top.

The Sunday Salon - 29 June 2008

Last week, Jill at The Magic Lasso posted about the EW list of new classics. I didn't realize how many of these I'd actually read myself! Here's the list, with books that I've read in red and books on my to-be-read list in blue:

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984) - I've read a few of her short stories, and they're wonderful!
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996) - How have I not read this before?!
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

Still a long way to go, though...

This week, I finished reading: Lords and Ladies (for the A Midsummer Night's Challenge). Reviews coming soon!

I reviewed: Nothing yet. See above. :)

I'm currently reading: The Yiddish Policemen's Union (still, but I made some more progress this week) and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (for the 1% Well-Read Challenge - I'm hoping to have this one finished tomorrow, so it'll still count for June)

Still to-be-read: Rant and a big ol' stack o' books I picked up at the Friends of the Library sale

Happy reading!