Great Blog Buddy!

I can't believe I forgot to post this...Veens named me a Great Blog Buddy!


Thanks, Veens! :)

The Dream King Challenge

After much thought (and encouragement from Laza), I decided to create a Neil Gaiman Reading Challenge. Here it is!

The Dream King Challenge will run from 1 January 2009 - 31 December 2009.

This is a partial list of Neil's works that I've compiled. Use it to help you choose your level of participation. There are four different levels:
Neophyte: Read one work and watch one movie
Acolyte: Read three works (from three different categories) and watch one movie
Devotee: Read six works (from six different categories) and watch one movie
Zealot: Read twelve works (from at least six different categories) and watch one movie

There will also be mini-challenges (with prizes!) and other fun activities during the year. If you'd like to join, leave a comment below or send an email to xjessideex [at] gmail [dot] com. There's even a challenge blog! It's really sad how excited I am about this, and I really hope other people sign up. :)

Diversity Rocks! Challenge

Click here for the main page.

Ali at worducopia came up with this challenge. The goal is to include more diversity in your reading. There are five levels of participation, and I'll be doing #2: The Overlapper. This means that I'm committing to include one author of color in each of my challenges (I could have picked 6, but I really like a challenge!). Visit the Diversity Rocks! Challenge Blog for more info.

2009 Blog Improvement Project

Click here for the main page.

Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness is hosting The 2009 Blog Improvement Project. From her blog:

The 2009 Blog Improvement Project is a year-long challenge that will consist of twice-monthly activities to improve your blog. Every first and third Monday of the month I’ll post an activity here at Sophisticated Dorkiness that will related in some way to making your blog better. Each participant should spend the next two weeks focusing on that aspect of their blog. Possible topics include goals setting, writing better content, building community with readers, getting more readers, and blog layout and design.

If you choose to participate in this project, there is no obligation to participate in every challenge, and you can customize each challenge so it makes sense for your particular blog and goals. Think of the design as similar to Weekly Geeks — participate when it makes sense for you. This is a group effort, because getting better is always easier when you have a support system, but the ultimate commitment remains with you — how do you want your blog to be better by the time we get to December 31, 2009?

The Sci-Fi Experience

Click here for the main page.

Over the next two months, I'll be participating in Carl's Sci-Fi Experience 2009. The Experience is not a challenge, it's just a time to read some great books! I'm planning on reading Neuromancer, Ender's Game, and a few short stories.

Read and Reviewed:
Fables #11: War and Pieces

Christmas

I hope everyone had a happy holiday. I spent yesterday with my mom and stepfather (my sister was at her in-laws'; we'll see her for lunch on Sunday). Our tradition is to have a small dinner and open presents on Christmas Eve. Even though Mom swears that I'm not getting anything else, Santa always finds something to put under the tree Christmas morning. :) Then we have a late lunch with turkey (tofurkey for me!), mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, etc. Then Mom and I go to a movie while my stepfather works around the house. This year we saw Valkyrie, which was really good!

Now for pictures:
This is the stuff I got from my parents. We agreed to not spend a lot of money this year; Mom wanted our gifts to be handmade. I got a tin of popcorn (yum!), a cookbook (yum!) with a hundred dollar bill stashed inside (yay!), and a reusable shopping bag full of yarn, crochet patterns, and some new, smaller hooks (this was the gift left by "Santa"). See that blue pillow? That's what my mom made for me, and it is awesome. She called it a "quillow." It's the biggest project she's finished since she started quilting, and I'm so excited that it was for me! It's a pillow, but instead of stuffing, it's filled with fabric.
The fabric can be unfolded from the pillow (but it's still attached to the pillow fabric), and it turns into a blanket!
The top part is a terrycloth-like material. Mom made it so that I can take it to the beach with me and use as a blanket there. She also added a strap, so that when it's folded up like a blanket, I can carry books, sunscreen, etc. in it like a bag. I love it!

I also got some cool stuff from my Secret Santa through the Friendly Book Nook's Christmas Book Swap. My Secret Santa was Leah, who posts at The Friendly Book Nook.
She sent me some yummy chocolate and mint candy (which probably won't last long!), a foot scrub (which I could really use - being a teacher, I'm on my feet all day), a notepad (which is now sitting next to my computer) and a copy of Donna VanLiere's The Christmas Promise (which is now sitting on top of Mt. TBR). Thanks, Leah! :)

One last gift: I actually got this one a few weeks ago. My best friend and I went to an art show and I fell in love with one of the paintings there. Actually, several of them were great, and I really need to write a post about the artists we saw. But, there was one in particular that I just couldn't stop staring at. The painting itself was over $1,000 - way too much for me to spend. Luckily, we noticed that the artist, Timothy Michael, also had some prints for sale. He had ONE LEFT of the painting that I was so enamored with. I kept picking it and up and putting it back down again. Then this other woman started eying it, which made me nervous. I really didn't have the money to buy it myself at the time, so my BFF bought it for me as a Christmas gift. Bask in the wonderfulness of my first real piece of art:
I have no idea why I find this particular painting so great - it just really speaks to me. The color isn't great in this photo; if you visit Michael's website you'll probably get a better idea of how it's supposed to look. This piece is off to get framed, so that it can hang on my wall and make my other pictures jealous.

So, how were your holidays? Did Santa bring you lots of books and toys? I hope everyone had a safe and fun time with their loved ones. :)

Review: Let it Snow

Title: Let it Snow: Three Holiday Romances
Authors: John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
Genre: YA, Romance
Published: October 2008
Pages: 352
Rating: 9 / 10
Challenges: N/A
Awards: none

Synopsis (from the back cover):

Sparkling white snowdrifts, beautiful presents wrapped in ribbons, and multicolored lights glittering in the night through the falling snow. A Christmas Eve snowstorm transforms one small town into a romantic haven, the kind you see only in movies. Well, kinda. After all, a cold and wet hike from a stranded train through the middle of nowhere would not normally end with a delicious kiss from a charming stranger. And no one would think that a trip to the Waffle House through four feet of snow would lead to love with an old friend. Or that the way back to true love begins with a painfully early morning shift at Starbucks.

My Review: This is such an amazing book. It's actually a collection of three books in one - "The Jubilee Express," by Maureen Johnson, "A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle," by John Green, and "The Patron Saint of Pigs," by Lauren Myracle - but all of the characters and stories overlap. It's a unique way to write a book, and I loved reading about how the events in one story affect the outcome of another. It's a holiday book, and a teen romance, so of course all of the stories have happy endings, but they're all great journeys. The characters themselves are all very real, and remind me of people I was either friends with in high school, or wanted to be friends with. There's also tons of humor - the Flobie Village collection reminded me of Radar's parents' Black Santa collection in Paper Towns, and the idea of cheerleaders snowed in at a Waffle House made me giggle. This is a great book, not just for Christmas time, but for anytime you need a warm-fuzzy pick-me-up. Out of the three authors, the only one I hadn't read before was Maureen Johnson, but I'll definitely be picking up a few of her books now. Any recommendations for ones to start with? I was thinking of either Suite Scarlett or 13 Little Blue Envelopes.

Other Reviews:
Alea
Fyrefly
Nymeth

If you have reviewed this book as well, leave me a message in the comments and I'll link to your review.

Booking Through Thursday: Wintery Books

Today's Booking Through Thursday question(s):

What I want to know today is … what are the most “wintery” books you can think of? The ones that almost embody Winter?

My new "wintery" book would definitely have to be Let It Snow, by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle (review coming soon!); it's actually three books in one, and they all revolve around a snowy night in a small mountain town. As Simple as Snow, by Gregory Galloway, also takes place partly during the winter, and it also has "snow" in the title. Another book that reminds me of winter, strange as it may seem, is Jane Austen's Emma. There's some pretty important scenes in the book that take place during and after a gathering in the wintertime. I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of them right now. :)

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

Review: The Year of Living Biblically

Title: The Year of Living Biblically
Author: A. J. Jacobs
Genre: Humor, Religion
Published: 2007
Pages: 388
Rating: 10 / 10
Challenges: N/A
Awards: none (yet!), but it has been optioned for a movie

Synopsis (from the back cover):

Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to dive in headfirst and attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love his neighbor. But also to obey the hundreds of less publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers; to play a ten-string harp; to stone adulterers.

The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal, and will make you see history's most influential book with new eyes. The Year of Living Biblically will charm readers both secular and religious. It is part CliffsNotes to the Bible, part memoir, and part look into worlds unimaginable. Thou shalt not be able to put it down.

My Review: This is one of my favorite books I've read this year. I read it fairly quickly, but due to time I'm just now getting around to reviewing it. Basically, the book is a series of stories about Jacob's year-long attempt to live according to the rules in the Bible. So many times while reading this, I laughed out loud. I also dog-eared quite a few pages, because there were so many quotes I wanted to repeat to other people or mention in this review. This could get long - and it's not even all the passages I marked!

On avoiding "unclean" women during their menstruation:

It's one thing to avoid handshakes during flu season. But to give up all physical contact with your wife for seven days a month? It's actually quite exhausting, painful, and lonely. You have to be constantly on guard - no sex, of course, but also no hand holding, no shoulder tapping, no hair tousling, no good-night kissing. When I give her the apartment keys, I drop them into her hand from a safe height of six inches.
"This is absurd," she tells me, as she unlocks the door. "It's like cookies from seventh grade. It's theological cooties."
I tell Julie that I can't pick and choose what I follow in the Bible. That'd negate the whole point of my experiment. If I'm trying to get into the mind-set of the ancient Israelites, I can't ignore even the most inconvenient or obscure rule. I also point out that I didn't send her to a red tent.
She's not amused. "I feel like a leper."
"Actually, leprosy in the Bible is a mistranslation. It's more likely a generic name for skin disease. Some even claim it's syphilis."
This is the wrong response. It's a vestigial reflex from my days as an encyclopedia-reading know-it-all: Whenever I run out of things to say, I crowbar random facts into the argument.

Coincidentally, this passage is the reason I put The Know-It-All on my wishlist.

On cheering up a friend who's been having a rough week:

Next time I'm at Esquire, I stop by his office with a bottle of Kendall-Jackson red wine.
"Here," I say, handing it to him over the desk.
"What's this?"
"It's because you're depressed. The Bible says to bring wine to the heavy of heart."
"The Bible says that?"
"Yes. It also says that you shouldn't sing to people with a heavy heart. That'd be like rubbing vinegar in the wound."
"So you're not going to sing to me?"
"No."
David seems grateful for the wine, and no doubt for the lack of singing as well. I love it when the Bible gives Emily Post-like tips that are both wise and easy to follow.

On stoning adulterers and Sabbath violators:

My plan had been to walk nonchalantly past the Sabbath violator and chuck the pebbles at the small of his back. But after a couple of failed passes, I realized it was a bad idea. A chucked pebble, no matter how small, does not go unnoticed.
My revised plan: I would pretend to be clumsy and drop the pebble on his shoe. So I did.
And in this way, I stoned. It was probably the most polite stoning in history - I said, "I'm sorry," and then leaned down to pick up the pebble. And he leaned down at the same time, and we almost butted heads, and then he apologized, then I apologized again.
Highly unsatisfying.
Today I get another chance. I am resting in a small public park on the Upper West Side, the kind where you see retirees eating tuna sandwiches on benches.
"Hey, you're dressed queer."
I look over. The speaker is an elderly man, mid-seventies, I'd guess. He is tall and thin and wearing one of those caps that cabbies wore in movies from the forties.
"You're dressed queer," he snarls. "Why you dressed so queer?"
I have on my usual tassels, and, for good measure, have worn some sandals and am carrying a knotty maple walking stick I'd bought on the internet for twenty-five dollars.
"I'm trying to live by the rules of the Bible. The Ten Commandments, stoning adulterers..."
"You're stoning adulterers?"
"Yeah, I'm stoning adulterers."
"I'm an adulterer."
"You're currently an adulterer?"
"Yeah. Tonight, tomorrow, yesterday, two weeks from now. You gonna stone me?"
"If I could, yes, that'd be great."
"I'll punch you in the face. I'll send you to the cemetery."
He is serious. This isn't a cutesy grumpy old man. This is an angry old man. This is a man with seven decades of hostility behind him.
I fish out my pebbles from my back pocket.
"I wouldn't stone you with big stones," I say. "Just these little guys."
I open my palm to show him the pebbles. He lunges at me, grabbing one out of my hand, then flinging it at my face. It whizzes by my cheek.
I am stunned for a second. I hadn't expected this grizzled old man to make the first move. But now there is nothing stopping me from retaliating. An eye for an eye.
I take one of the remaining pebbles and whip it at his chest. It bounces off.
"I'll punch you right in the kisser," he says.
"Well, you really shouldn't commit adultery," I say.
We stare at each other. My pulse has doubled.
Yes, he is a septuagenarian. Yes, he had just threatened me using corny Honeymooners dialogue. But you could tell: This man has a strong dark side.
Our glaring contest lasts ten seconds, then he walks away, brushing by me as he leaves.

Long passage, I know, but I can totally see that as a scene in the movie.

On forbidden foods:

"Do you know if the piecrust is made with lard?"
"I don't think so, but I'll check."
"Thanks. I can't eat lard."
"Allergies?"
"No, Leviticus."

On praying:

"I love saying prayers of thanksgiving," I say, "because it makes me more grateful for life. But I still have trouble with the prayers where you're glorifying God..."
"You're on thin ice there," [Yossi, Jacob's spiritual adviser] says.
He told me: Stop looking at the Bible as a self-help book. That is the way I view it a lot of the time. I ask myself, "How can religion make me more joyous? How can it give my life more meaning? How can it help me raise my son so he won't end up an embezzler or a racketeer?"
But religion is more that that. It's about serving God. Yossi tells me this story:
Two men do their daily prayers while at work. One spends twenty minutes in his office behind a closed door and afterward feels refreshed and uplifted, like he just had a therapy session. The other is so busy, he can squeeze in only a five-minute prayer session between phone calls. He recites his prayers superfast in a supply closet.
Who has done the better thing?
"The first," I say.
"No," says Yossi. "The second."
The second guy was doing it only for God. He was sacrificing his time. There was no benefit to himself.
I think: That's interesting. Prayers are a good way to teach me the concept of sacrificing my time for the higher good. I'll become a more selfless person. A better person.
And then I realize: I'm back to self-help again. I can't escape it.

Jacobs later realizes that praising God also acts as a way to keep egos in check: if He created the universe, what right do you have to boast about your own, meager-in-comparison, accomplishments?

There are tons of other stories I'd love to share. Jacobs visits a variety of sects to learn about their take on Christianity and Judaism, which (as a Religious Studies minor and roommate to a Jehovah's Witness) I found very interesting. He also takes on a "slave" (unpaid intern), something that was copacetic in Biblical times. The whole book is amazing, no matter your religious affiliation, and I highly recommend it.

Other Reviews:
The Hidden Side of a Leaf
Bookish Bent (A. also discusses the book here and here)

If you have reviewed this book as well, leave me a message in the comments and I'll link to your review.

Twas the night before Christmas Eve...

For some reason, the holiday spirit hit me in a big way yesterday. I spent the evening hours baking and making eggnog!


And, since I know how much everyone appreciates really easy cookie recipes, here you go:

Lemon (or Strawberry) Bites:

Ingredients:
1 box of cake mix (the lemon works best)
1 container of Cool Whip or other whipped dairy topping
1 egg
powdered sugar

Preheat your oven to 350. Mix the cake mix, Cool Whip, and egg in a large bowl. The batter will be very sticky! Using a spoon (or your hands, if you prefer), drop balls of batter into the powdered sugar and roll them around until they're covered. Place on a greased baking sheet about 1.5 - 2 inches apart, and bake for 10 - 12 minutes. The strawberry ones don't take as long to bake, for some reason, so keep an eye on them. They should be fluffy and brownish on the bottom. Let them cool on a baking rack, and enjoy!

Sesame-Ginger/Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies:

These cookies start out as the same batter!

Ingredients:
1 egg + 1 (extra) yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

In a small bowl, mix the egg + yolk, vanilla, and salt. Mix the butter and sugar in a food processor until smooth. Add the egg mixture, and pulse or mix on low speed until well blended. Add the flour and continue to pulse/mix until smooth. Divide the dough in half and place into two separate bowls.

For the Sesame-Ginger: Mix in 1/2 tsp. ground ginger and 3 Tbs. minced crystallized ginger. Form into a 9 inch long log, then roll in 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and place in freezer for 30 minutes.

For the Chocolate Hazelnut: Mix in 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips. Form into a 9 inch long log, then roll in 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and place in freezer for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Slice dough 1/4 inch thick, and place slices on the cookie sheets about 1/2 inches apart. Bake 12 - 14 minutes, or until golden brown. For even baking: about halfway through, rotate cookie sheets from top to bottom and from facing the front of the oven to facing the back. Cool on a baking rack, and enjoy!

My mom gave me this recipe; she says you can use other mix-ins and coatings. If anyone experiments, please leave me a comment so I can hear what combination you used. The Sesame-Ginger, as strange as it may sound, is actually really good!

As for the eggnog, I got that recipe from Susie Bright's Journal. She's currently guest-blogging on BoingBoing, one of my favorite blogs, but I found the recipe through Modern Cottage, which has tons of great recipes and crafts.

Happy Christmas, everyone! I have a few book reviews I'll be posting later, then I'm off to my parents' for traditional family stuff. Happy baking!