So Many Books, So Little Time...

That's really how I feel - and how all of my book loving friends feel, too. A few of your commented about how many books I read each month. I will say - that is one perk of being single! Instead of the 'good night' phone calls, I pull out a book to keep me company. I keep my reading light on for as long as my heart desires and no one will complain about this cutting into their sleeping hours.

Here's what's on deck for the month of July!

I read Stieg Larsson's first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last summer. Murder/mystery books are not my preferred genre so I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed the book. Being the easy sell that I am, I bought the 2nd book at the prompting of the Barnes & Noble cashier. But then I never got around to reading it - until now! I started it last night and am enjoying it thus far. According to Emily, it's better than the first so I think I am in for a great read!

Speaking of Emily... Our July Blogger Book Club book is The Secret Garden. I am sort of embarrassed that I never read this classic Children's book - but better late than never, right? I saw the movie as a young child and remember loving it, so I am sure I will love the book. Are you looking for a light summer read? Then read along! Emily posts questions and an occasional guest post throughout the month to keep us all engaged.

I do not know how "I Capture the Castle" got on my reading list. It's one of those books that I have picked up and almost bought at Barnes and Nobles and then talked myself out of buying (shockingly enough, sometimes I can talk myself out of buying a book). This strikes me as a great summer read. It was the first novel published in 1948 by the author of 101 Dalmatians. It's set in a castle in England so should provide a great virtual escape!

"The Last War" is the next book that I will be reviewing for TLC Book Tours. It tells the story of a photojournalist, Flash, and her war correspondent husband. She receives a mysterious letter and finds out that her husband has been unfaithful. After learning of his infidelity, she begins to look back on her marriage and asks herself if she was ever really happy. I'll be reviewing it on Wednesday, July 28th!

What are you reading these days? Have you read any great books this summer?

The Music of Your Life

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday, readers! I am interrupting my usual "10 on Tuesdays" post to participate in the Blogger Book Club "Music of Your Life" post. My 10 on Tuesday will become 10 on Thursday this week. Look at how flexible I am! Ha (side note - I am sort of not a very flexible person when it comes to schedules)

Music has always been a big part of my life. I started taking piano lessons at age 6 - although at that point my older brother had already started to sort of teach me. He also taught me how to read. And drive. Maybe he can teach me write html code? He's a computer genius, I am a computer moron. But that's a topic for a whole other post.

Do you remember my "Song Remembers When" post? As I said in that post, hearing a song from my past really triggers memories and brings me back to a certain phase of my life - be it high school, college, a relationship, or a friendship. In Firefly Lane, each section of the book was titled with a popular song in Tully & Kate's life.

If I were to make a "Music of My Life" CD, here is what would be included:

Elementary/Junior High Years:
1. I think We're Alone Now by Tiffany

2. To Be With You by Mr. Big

3. Straight Up by Paula Abdul

* These 3 songs remind me of afternoons spent sitting on the floor of my grade school best friend's bedroom, listening to songs we had recorded on tapes off of the radio. I also remember awkwardly slow dancing to To Be With You at a 4H dance with a boy that I had a crush on from 1st grade through senior year. Yes, I was in 4H.

High School Years:
4. All My Life by K-C and Jo Jo - Prom song, junior year

5. A Long December by Counting Crows

6. Black Balloon by Goo Goo Dolls

7. Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis - my High School boyfriend got up on stage and played the keyboard part of this song the night of our junior prom. There is a great keyboard solo in that song & Brian ROCKED it. He was and still is a very talented musician!

College Years:
8. Like a Prayer by Madonna - This is a Delta Gamma theme song!

9. #41 by Dave Matthew Band

10. Murder on the Dance Floor by Sophie Ellis Bextor - this song was HUGE in Australia when I studied abroad. Never really seemed to take off in the US.

Post-Collegiate Years:
11. Shoot the Moon by Norah Jones - I remember listening to this song while waiting for my plane in the Santiago, DR airport with tears rolling down my face, knowing I was going to be breaking up with my 6-cubicles-away ex-boyfriend (who will now be referred to as The Charioteer) in the next week. 10 days away from him had given me clarity. We broke up 3 days later.

12. Resolution by Nick Lachey - I ran many, many laps around Lake Harriet listening to this song (and the entire album) when I was trying to get over The Charioteer. Nick wrote this post-Jessica so it might be the most depressing music. Ever. Perfect for wallowing. Did you know you can wallow AND run at the same time?

13. Careful by Guster - 2-floors-above-me ex-boyfriend (who will now be referred to as Deux) loved this band. I think Guster was playing every time he came to pick me up for a date. He also could play this song on this guitar.

14. The Luckiest by Ben Folds - I adore this song. If I ever get married, I would possibly have this as my first dance with my husband. You know, if he didn't hate it. But how could you? It's lovely.




I could go on and on, but I'll stop with 14. What songs would you include on the soundtrack of your life?

Book Review: Firefly Lane

The April book club selection for the blogger book club was Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. I read this book back in October so my memory of the book is a bit foggy. I will sometimes re-read a book if a book I've read gets chosen for a book club, but this book just did not warrant a re-read. I have to really like a book to re-read it, or the story line needs to be complex enough that a re-read will help me understand the story a little better. That was not the case for this book. It was a light, easy read, but not a book I would highly recommend. I think I am kind of in the minority on that. Many people had raved about the book and some of you noticed it on the side bar of my blog and commented that you really loved this book. It fell a bit flat for me.

In Firefly Lane we meet two best friend - Kate and Tully. Kate comes from a loving middle class family, Tully was raised by a mother who was a bit of a train wreck so sort of becomes an extension of Kate's family. The book follows their friendship as the two women grow and mature. The two women choose completely different paths in like; Kate chooses love over her career and Tully chooses her career over love.

I tend to love books that examine the friendship between women, but parts of this book just annoyed me and to be quite honest - pissed me off. I hated how Tully swept onto the scene and drove a wedge between Kate and her teenage daughter by being the 'cool aunt'. If Tully was truly Kate's best friend, she wouldn't have caused even more problems during the tenuous teenage years. I know that none of my best friends would undermine my parenting choices and rules.

If you'd like to hear another person's perspective on this book, click over to Emily's blog. She'll also be posting her review today! Additionally, tomorrow we'll both be posting about the "Music of Your Life". Each section of Firefly Lane was named after a song that Tully & Kate were loving at that time. So tomorrow I'll be sharing a selection of songs that bring me back to certain phases of my life.

Have you read this book? If so, did you like it more than I did? What are you all reading these days?

Book Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson, was the January selection for our blogger book club. I had already read it this fall so it gave me the month off... which was kind of nice because I haven't been getting as much reading done lately as I usually do! So I don't have a very succinct book review to do since the details are a bit foggy, but I will tell you that I did really enjoy this book. It kind of surprised me because I am not really into the whole murder/mystery genre. This book grabbed me though. I am especially impressed by the fact that it was translated from Swedish. I am always impressed by translations that are done well. I mean, some words just don't translate. To go off on a bit of a tangent - years ago I went to a seminar about how there are no words for some concepts in certain languages. The linguist talked specifically about how the Czech language doesn't have words for ideas such as leadership due to their oppressed past. Pretty interesting stuff. I wish I could remember more details from that talk as it was so interesting, but that was, oh, 6 years ago and I just can't remember all the details!

Anyways, back to the book - it is worth checking out, especially if you like murder/mysteries. The Barnes & Noble guy talked me into buying the 2nd book when I bought this one last fall. I am such a sucker for an up sell like that. Granted, I haven't gotten around to reading the 2nd book, which was probably a mistake as I am not going to remember the story line, but oh well. I will get to it and I am sure I will eventually put the pieces back together and figure it all out!

So the February selection is "The Reader". For the 2nd month is a row, it's a book I've already read. Which I am actually kind of happy about because I have a couple of books on hold at the library, one of which is not renewable, so I need to get those read this month! Here is my book review - maybe this will wet your appetite and convince you to read this gem of a book. I will say it is a bit dark, but I thought it was beautifully written. Confession: I tried watching the movie and I had to turn it off. It weirded me out to see the May-December romance (in reverse, older woman, younger man) play out on the screen! But I am a bit of a prude! It's a great book, though, so check it out and let me know what you think!

Random Act of Kindness

Happy Friday y'all! What a week it has been. I am really looking forward to a plan-free weekend. It's great to have fun things planned, but sometimes I need a weekend where I have nothing going on so I can just be a bit of a hermit. I plan on running, reading, knitting, and watching the first 2 discs of Season 1 of Arrested Development. Everyone who watches it raves about it so I am hoping I love it, too. I have a huge crush on Michael Cera so I am sure I'll love it! I just love how awkward Michael Cera is - makes him even more endearing in my opinion!

Oh, and do you want to put in your two cents on the next Blogger Book Club Book? If so, go here and make a suggestion! We'll vote towards the end of the month! Is anyone reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? I read it this fall & really enjoyed it so it's definitely worth checking out!

Anyways, I was all set to share my Potato Soup recipe today, but that will have to wait until Monday (I'm sure my old co-worker Pat is happy to read that. He hates my recipes posts. Do you?).

Instead I have a little story to share with you.

Yesterday, we had this lovely freezing drizzle. I mean, who doesn't love freezing rain? I don't love snow, but I will say I would prefer that to freezing rain.

It had been a long day at work and I was really not looking forward to scraping the windows of my car. The bus dropped me off at the parking lot where I park and I saw the layer of ice gleaming from other people's cars, but when I saw my car from afar, it didn't look like it had that lovely layer of ice. Hmm, very puzzling.

Well, folks, that is because it didn't.

Someone scraped my windows for me. And they didn't do a half-arse job, either. They scraped the entire windshield and both the front & back driver- & passenger-side windows. They actually did a better job than I would have.

I have NO idea who did this. Even though I have rode the bus for nearly 3 years, I have not made any friends. I get on the bus around 6:45 in the am and I am just not in a chit chat kind of mood. I get back on the bus at 5:50 pm and, once again, am really not in the chit chat mood. So it's not like I have a bus buddy who decided to do me a favor.

And I highly doubt I have a secret admirer!

So I can only assume it was a random act of kindness! Maybe someone else is working on a 30 by 30 or 101 in 1001 list or something and wanted to check "perform random act of kindness" off their list!

Let me just say - it made my day. Totally.

So tell me - have you ever been on the receiving end of a random act of kindness? Have you ever performed a random act of kindness for a stranger? If so, do tell!

Books & miscellany

The December blogger book club book was "The Awakening." I have totally procrastinated on writing this review... You know that old adage, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all? Well, I really don't have anything nice to say about this book. I didn't like it. At all. In fact, I was reading it at the cabin over Christmas and told my sister-in-law that I was contemplating throwing it in the fireplace. That's how much I did not care for this book!


I couldn't relate to the character and I thought she was rather whiny. I understand that women during her time period had very few options and were kind of 'stuck' with the domestic life, but that doesn't mean that infidelity is ok. I thought there were a lot of parallels between this book and "Anna Karenina" - and I also did not feel a lot of pity for Anna's character either.

So I will just stop there because it's not fun to hear someone go on and on about how much they don't like something. If you read this book and liked it - please tell me why! I'd love to know what I missed while reading it!

*******************************

Moving on. The January book for our blogger book club is "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. I read it this fall & liked it so much, I bought the 2nd book (it's part of a 3 book series). I haven't had a chance to read the 2nd book yet ("The Girl who Played with Fire") but hopefully I will get to it this spring!

Just a reminder - the book club is open to anyone and everyone who is interested! Just stop by The Many Thoughts of a Reader. She will post questions throughout the month.

*******************************

Now for the miscellany part of the post.

Remember the football pool thing I told you about last month? I WON! Granted, it was an 8 way tie, but I still win about $38. Can't complain about that! I promised my co-worker Pat that I would read and review a sports-related book if I won the pool. So stayed tuned for that... I don't really 'do sports' so reading a sports-related book is going to be interesting.

Book Review: Pride & Prejudice

November marked the second month of our blogger book club, hosted by The Many Thoughts of a Reader. This month we decided to read a classic - Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". I had actually read this before, but it was probably 5 years ago, so I figured it was worth re-reading it. I had attempted to read P&P when I was in high school but just couldn't get into it - I was actually inspired to read it when it was referenced in "You've Got Mail" (can you tell this is a favorite movie of mine!). When I attempted it 5 years ago, I had a much harder time compared to this time around. I would not say that it is an easy read - you have to really want to read it - but don't let yourself get intimidated by Austen. I've found that the end notes are worth reading as they give a lot of incite into things Austen mentions in passing, like rules of inheritance.

I am guessing that most of you have probably seen the movie, so I don't have to dance around what happens in this book. In the event that you haven't read it or seen the movie, read no further if you don't want the ending spoiled.

The book is basically about the relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. If you read my guest post that I wrote earlier this month, you know that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy did not get off to a good start. Elizabeth overheard Mr. Darcy insulting her - she didn't have a great impression of him in the first place, so this didn't help and her impression of him was forever tarnished. Her impression of him got even worse after she spoke to a former friend of Mr. Darcy who had nothing but terrible things to say about him - which happened to be lies.

Throughout the book, Elizabeth realizes that Mr. Darcy is not the creep she thought he was. If she had listened to her level-headed sister, Jane, she would have figured this out sooner. But then Austen wouldn't have been able to go on and on about her misconceptions, like she did. This is Elizabeth's reflection after figuring out that she misjudged Mr. Darcy:

"Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away where either were concerned. Till this moment I never knew myself." (p. 205)

So what can we learn from Elizabeth Bennet? In my opinion, we should learn to not make rash judgment and don't believe everything you hear - especially if you barely know the source of your information.

I also think we can learn that love is not always linear. What do I mean by this? I think some of us have this fairy tale idea of love and think that if it's meant to be, there shouldn't be set-backs or miscommunications. But that's not always the case. Sometimes you misunderstand one another or sometimes you didn't have the best first impression - but that doesn't mean that a relationship isn't meant to be! I kind of struggle with this - part of me wants to give people the benefit of the doubt, but a bigger part of me buys into the "once someone shows you who they are, believe them" school of thought and wants to protect my heart. But it's good to read books like this that remind me that I don't have to pass judgment so quickly.

Click here to see what Pinkflipflops, author of The Many Thoughts of a Reader has to say!

And you should definitely join in next month! Anyone and everyone is welcome! The December book is The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Pinkflipflops is the host of this reading group - add her blog to your reader and watch for the book group related posts that go up throughout the month!

Happy reading!!