The 3 R's Blog // Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness

Sunday Salon 11-8: Bookkeeping, Challenging, etc.

2009-11-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

I just looked at the calendar, and there are not quite eight weeks left in 2009 (!). Soon I'll be putting together my Books of the Year picks and my Year in Review posts. It may be a little more challenging this year. I've read more books than the 35 I managed last year (yay!), and I'm pretty sure I'll knock out a few more before the end of December. But I've also read quite a few books that I rated at least a 4 out of 5 this year (also yay, for good books!), so choosing my very favorites will be harder (not so yay). I think I'm up to the task, though.

I'm also thinking about planning my reading for 2010 - the first few months, anyway - and that's still not something I'm entirely used to. I'm kind of torn, to be honest. I have about 20 books tagged as "review copy" in my "To Read" collection on LibraryThing (some of which have had that tag since last year, which is really getting embarrassing!), and I really want to make those go away. I've cut way back on the number of review books I'm taking in, so that should help. I'm getting fewer pitches lately, and still decline some of those; I submit the occasional publisher request through Shelf Awareness ads and LT's Early Reviewers program, but those don't always yield books; and I'm a sometime tour host for TLC Book Tours. I'm fine with limiting my sources of new review copies to those for the foreseeable future, and focusing on getting through the ones I already have.

I've done pretty well leaving the review books aside for the Read Your Own Books Challenge this year, though, and I think I may sign up for that one again in 2010 - it's useful. I'm doing two other reading challenges that will run into next year as well - one will end in April, and the other lasts almost all year. I'm excited about both of them, and one of them will cross over with the RYOB Challenge, which makes it efficient.

However, I know I get restless with too much routine, and having my reading dictated by challenges and review obligations will get to me. When can I read just what I feel like reading? There will be times I'll rebel and pull something off the shelf that doesn't fit into any of those categories - and I'll try not to feel too guilty about it. The change of pace will probably be good for me.

But having said all that, I'm thinking about a pattern: review book, challenge book, discretionary book, review book... Something like that might work.

I'd love to know: Have you started thinking about your year-end book picks yet? And how do you approach obligatory vs. discretionary reading?

BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report

Book reviews posted this week:
Love the One You're With, by Emily Giffin
The Hunger Games/Catching Fire (dual review), by Suzanne Collins

Next reviews scheduled:
The Longest Trip Home, by John Grogan (TLC Book Tour stop scheduled for November 9)

New to my LibraryThing "To Read" collection:
In which I make up for not adding any new books last week...
For review:
When She Flew by Jennie Shortridge (for TLC Book Tours)

For the Shelf Discovery Challenge:
Forever... by Judy Blume*

For me, for no particular reason:
The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón^*1
Beat the Reaper: A Novel, by Josh Bazell^*1
Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street, by Michael Davis^*2
My Life in France, by Julia Child*
Wishful Drinking, by Carrie Fisher*

¹Book bloggers are totally to be thanked/blamed for this acquisition!
²Discovered via excerpt from DearReader.com E-mail Book Club
^*Books bought yesterday in celebration of National Bookstore Day (and a "Buy One, Get One 50% Off" coupon)

New additions to the Wishlist*:
A Friend of the Family, by Lauren Grodstein
Sunflowers, by Sheramy Bundrick

Challenge Statistics:
Read Your Own Books Challenge (RYOB 2009), January-December 2009: pledged 20 books (no list required) - 19 read/reviewed to date
Clear off Your Shelves Challenge, October-November 2009: pledged 25% of books read (no list required) -57% of books read/reviewed to date (since October 1, with 3 weeks to go)
Shelf Discovery Challenge, October 2009-April 2010: required 6 books, list posted; none read/reviewed to date
Women Unbound Challenge, November 2009-November 2010: pledged 5 books, list posted; none read/reviewed to date

BOOKMARKS: Reading-related Reading

The next 24-Hour Readathon has been scheduled for April 10, 2010, so mark your calendar NOW! And if you'd be interested in helping out behind the scenes, you're needed.

What is it about reading, anyway?

Whether you're just getting started or trying to stay on track, the "how and why" of writing book reviews is always important to consider (link via Heather J.). Also worth considering: what's your dream for your blog? Does it involve taking it back to basics?

It's the spoof we've been waiting for: Nightlight. (Read it instead of seeing New Moon) Semi-related: proposing that Twilight is not anti-feminist

Buying books for the somewhat-reluctant reader; who says book bloggers don't buy books?

Going through with a negative review, at the author's request (really!)

A discussion of the "mean girl," in (YA) fiction and reality

Book bloggers are curious folks. Natasha wants to know about your reading habits (how active? how long?), while Jessica C. wonders how you feel about word-usage corrections (the giving and the getting).

Have a great week - hope it includes some great reading!

Week-End Review, 11-6 - Friday On My Mind

2009-11-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

New Arrivals in my Google Reader

Lit and Life
Steele on Entertainment
Average Girl Reads
Meg's Idle Chatter
Shona's Bookshelves
Gen Xtinct (this is for my fellow lost children of the '70's and '80's!)
My Sandwich Generation (for my fellow children whose parents may be in their 70's and 80's)

The end of the year is rushing toward us, accompanied by THE HOLIDAYS! Book bloggers have their own way to celebrate: The Book Blogger Holiday Swap!

What the heck is that? It's a Secret Santa gift exchange open to book bloggers all over the world, now in its third year. The FAQ tells you all you need to know!

Now, does that sound like fun? Want to get in on it? Sign up before the deadline of November 12!

And as you're looking for the perfect gift for that book blogger - or for ANYONE on your list, really - remember that the Buy Books For the Holidays campaign is back on for 2009! (It was mentioned in the Shelf Awareness e-newsletter this week, too!)

Celebrate the holiday season virtually, with your blogging buddies, during the week of December 7-11 - sign up to participate in the Progressive Dinner Party! (Virtual food and drink has no calories!) Share your favorite holiday recipes and decorating and entertainment ideas - more details are on the way.

***Tomorrow, Saturday, November 7, is National Bookstore Day - and there's only ONE way to celebrate that!***

Dispatches: Links of the Week

50 things you should know if you start a blog today (and wouldn't hurt even if you've been doing this for a while) (via @PaulaatAME on Twitter); a link about the value of proper linking (via a link from Cathy at Kittling: Books); starting a conversation about commenting practices

School standards that don't make sense

Remember the children...because you can't remember anything else! Also: a mother rebels against the reading log; kids learn responsibility by being responsibile

It seems I'm guilty of stereotyping in assuming that Alaskans cocoon at home during their very long, very cold winters - check out 29 winter activities in and around Anchorage

A time capsule of slang (Far out, man! Dig it! Groovy!)

Trick or treat! I DEMAND particular candy!

Yeah, it's not my favorite holiday either - let's rename New Year's Eve

Has the computer ruined your handwriting, too? It certainly hasn't been good for mine!

Yes, It Actually IS Your Job, via Not Always Right

Call Center | Tennessee, USA

(I was helping a user in one of our accounting firm’s remote offices.)

Caller: “My email isn’t working!”

Me: “Okay, what seems to be the problem?”

Caller: “I already said, my email isn’t working!”

Me: “Okay, so is it not sending email, or is it not opening?”

Caller: “It’s not sending email. This is pathetic! I don’t have
time for this!”

Me: “I am here to help you. Does it say ‘connected’ at the lower right hand of the screen?”

Caller: “I don’t know, this isn’t my job! It’s yours, so fix it!”

Me: “I am trying to, sir, but I will need your help with fixing this issue remotely.”

Caller: “No, that’s not what I get paid to do. I am an accountant! I’m not supposed to know how to use a computer!”

Sometimes I'm embarrassed for my profession, and this was one of them.

Happy Friday, y'all!

NaNoWriMo? Why, no! Why not?

2009-11-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

Quite a few of my blogging buddies are taking a shot at writing fiction this month - and why not? November has been National Novel Writing Month - NaNoWriMo for short - for the past ten years, and thousands of people (over 100,000 this year alone!) have set themselves the goal of producing a 50,000-word novel by the end of the month. It's great to have a support group for an effort like this. It's ambitious, it's admirable...and it's not for me. Never say never, but for now, I'm just saying NO to NaNoWriMo.

There are a couple of things y'all know about me: I love to read, and I love to write. Also, I love to write about what I read, otherwise this blog would never have been born. I think there are some truths about life and humanity and why we are the way we are that are best explored through fiction. I think that fiction can help us identify themes in our own lives. I enjoy vicariously experiencing lives that are different from my own, and finding things that make them feel not so different. I respect the creativity and imagination that can invent characters and storylines and situations that capture my mind and my emotions.

One reason that I respect it is that I'm pretty sure I don't have it.

I love the novel, and I think it deserves to be considered at the peak of creative endeavors, but my own creative impulses just don't go in that direction. Some people manage to be both writers and storytellers, while some lean one way or the other. I've read a few books by storytellers whose strength wasn't in the writing; I'm writing without having much of a story to tell.

I've learned over the last couple of years that the kind of writing I most enjoy doing - and that I seem to be pretty competent at - is the sort of thing I do here. It's personal essays and news reports. It's the occasional topical op-ed piece, and the frequent cultural discussions (that would be the book and movie reviews). Despite my tendency toward long-windedness at times, it's short-form writing. It allows for creative expression, but it's rooted in my everyday life. It gives me enough maneuvering room to satisfy me, and I think it'll keep satisfying me for a while longer. While I love reading fiction, I just don't feel a yearning to produce it; nonfiction writing feels like my niche.

With that realization, I can put the goal of writing the Next So-So American Novel to rest...for now. Like I said, never say never, so I'll have to check back on it next November. But are you participating in NaNoWriMo? I'd love to know how it's going, if you are - and if you're having fun! (And if you'd like a reader, just ask - I'm pretty good at that!)

Book Talk times two: "The Hunger Games/Catching Fire," by Suzanne Collins

2009-11-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

Disclosures: I purchased these books for my personal library. *The purchasing link at the end of the review goes through my Amazon Affiliates account.

The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Press (2008), Hardcover (ISBN 0439023483 / 9780439023481)
Fiction (fantasy/sci-fi/YA), 384 pages

Catching Fire

Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Press (2009), Hardcover (ISBN 0439023491 / 9780439023498)
Fiction (fantasy/sci-fi/YA), 384 pages

Opening lines:
"When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping."
- The Hunger Games

"I clasp the flask between my hands even though the warmth from the tea has long since leached into the frozen air. My muscles are clenched tight against the cold. If a pack of wild dogs were to appear at this moment, the odds of scaling a tree before they attacked are not in my favor."
- Catching Fire

Book descriptions (from the publisher's website):
The Hunger Games

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capital surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capital is harsh and cruel and keeps the other districts in line by forcing them to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight-to-the death on live TV. One boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and sixteen are selected by lottery to play. The winner brings riches and favor to his or her district. But that is nothing compared to what the Capital wins: one more year of fearful compliance with its rules.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her impoverished district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before – and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Catching Fire

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty.

But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.

Comments: I resisted the Hunger Games juggernaut for quite awhile, in the face of near-universal acclaim among my book-blogging cohorts. But I caved in shortly after the second book in the trilogy, Catching Fire, was published, although it wasn't without anxiety - were they really that good? Even so, based on what I'd heard about the series, it sounded like they'd be ideal reading material for October's 24-Hour Readathon (whether I ended up liking them or not), so I decided to read them back-to-back then. For that reason, it makes sense to me to discuss them both in a single review.

They're not perfect books, but they were perfect for the Readathon - and while it's possible that hundreds of book bloggers could indeed be wrong, in this case they're not. Suzanne Collins has created a world that intrigues, a plot that immediately grabs your attention and keeps you on the edge of your seat, and an appealing protagonist who propels the whole thing forward.

In a dystopian setting in an indeterminate time, North America has become the country of Panem, where twelve Districts are ruled from a prosperous, decadent central Capitol. Each District is organized around a primary industry (fishing, agriculture, mining, etc.), and its citizens don't know much about the inhabitants of other districts. Life is difficult and tightly controlled.

Over seventy years ago, the Capitol crushed a civil war, and continues to assert its domination over the Districts with its Peacekeeping force and control of the food supply. Food is part of the grand prize in the annual Hunger Games, in which each District sends two youth to the Capitol as "tributes" to compete in survival trials. The winner secures prosperity for his or her family and generous rations for the home District until the next year's Games, and needs strategy, cleverness, and a true killer instinct.

The premise of the Hunger Games themselves fascinated me. It's the ultimate high-stakes reality-TV show, literally. They're broadcast around the clock throughout the country, and the tributes become overnight celebrities who gain sponsors and renown as their numbers dwindle. The contestants may form alliances or mark each other as immediate targets. Some of them are playing out a storyline that may or may not have been fully revealed to them, and they're all being manipulated and orchestrated by the Gamemakers who oversee everything. It's Survivor + Big Brother with some Lord of the Flies - and, in Catching Fire, a touch of Lost - mixed in, and I couldn't pull myself away from it.

Katniss Everdeen, the sixteen-year-old primary caretaker of her family since her father's death in a mining accident five years earlier, volunteers to go to the 74th annual Games as a replacement for the original girl selected as District 12's tribute - her little sister Prim. She's a resourceful girl with a talent for hunting and skill with a bow and arrow, and despite the fact her District hasn't fared well in previous Games, she's determined to make it through and provide for her mother and sister, whom she leaves under the protection of her best friend and hunting partner Gale Hawthorne. She isn't thrilled about her fellow District tribute, baker's son Peeta Mellark - and is even less so when she learns that there are plans to present the two of them to the country as star-crossed young lovers. However, as the Games progress, she realizes that if she can't win them herself, having Peeta win would be almost as good for her family and their District, and seeing that he remains alive gives her additional motivation.

(Since there is a second book - and a third one on the way - I'm not treating Katniss' victory in the Hunger Games as a spoiler; reading about how she gets there offers plenty of suspense and excitement.)

Just a year later, Katniss returns to the Games again in the Quarter Quell, an "all-star" edition held every 25 years and played by previous winners; other than that, the rules aren't any different. But the stakes are a bit higher this time. Katniss' actions in the first Games have made her famous and inspiring to the citizens of Panem - and potentially dangerous to the Capitol. Her motivations are a little different this time as well - she's still focused on protecting her family, but she's also trying to sort out her feelings for Peeta and Gale, each of whom has a lot in his favor.

Both books are told from Katniss' point of view, and I found her a very engaging and convincing character - strong, driven, complicated, emotional, confused and not always fully aware of her situation at times, yet impressively clever at other times. I just had to root for her all the way through, even when I didn't necessarily agree with what she was doing. Even though the books are more plot- than character-driven, some of that drive is weakened if the characters don't resonate - and in this series, they certainly do.

I've passed both of these books on to my 15-year-old stepdaughter* to read next - Katniss Everdeen is a character she needs to know. But I want her father to read them too; the story is just that good. It's one I'll read again, and I'm now part of the crowd eagerly awaiting Book Three. *UPDATE: Katie tore through the first book and stayed up late last night starting on the second - she's loving it, and I'm so glad!

Rating (for both books): 4.25/5

Reading Challenges Qualified: Books #17 and #18 for the RYOB 2009 Challenge; Clear Off Your Shelves Challenge

Buy The Hunger Games at Amazon.com
Buy Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) at Amazon.com

Use the Book Blogs Search Engine to find more of the many other reviews of these two books!

Bitten by the challenge bug AGAIN - and now UNBOUND!

2009-11-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

It's a reading challenge that was born on Twitter, in a comment Eva made after finishing a book last week: someone should start a "women's studies" reading challenge. As tends to happen, book bloggers jumped in and out of the discussion, and within a few hours, a name, a hashtag, and a challenge blog were launched: Women Unbound!

Full disclosure, as mentioned in the "Community Credit" item on the blog's sidebar - I was part of the original Twitter conversation:

While Aarti, Care, and Eva are your three co-hosts, this whole challenge has been a real group creation. Thanks to all of the following bloggers who joined in the brainstorming session: Beth F (who also gave us our marvelous name), S. Krishna, Florinda, Chris of Book-a-Rama, Nymeth, Heidenkind, Vasilly, and Dawn.

I've been invested in this one from the beginning, even if I'm a little late in signing up!

What does a "women's studies" reading challenge mean, exactly? Again, from the challenge blog:

Participants are encouraged to read nonfiction and fiction books related to the rather broad idea of ‘women’s studies.’ The definition according to Merriam-Webster:

the multidisciplinary study of the social status and societal contributions of women and the relationship between power and gender.

For nonfiction, this would include books on feminism, history books focused on women, biographies of women, memoirs (or travelogues) by women, essays by women and cultural books focused on women (body image, motherhood, etc.). The topics listed aren’t mean to be exhaustive; if you come across a nonfiction book whose subject is female-related, it counts! Of course, if you’re not sure you can always ask about it in a comment.

It’s trickier to say what is applicable as fiction. Obviously, any classic fiction written by a feminist is applicable. But where do we go from there? To speak generally, if the book takes a thoughtful look at the place of women in society, it will probably count. At the end of the day, it’s up to you to explain in your review why you chose this for the challenge and its connection to women’s studies.

There's a "Reading Lists" page on the challenge blog where you can find plenty of book suggestions.

The challenge runs from November 1, 2009-November 30, 2010 (slightly more than a year, which should be plenty of time), and readers can join in any time. Participants do not have to be bloggers. There are three levels of participation, and you can count books for other reading challenges as well:

Philogynist: read at least two books, including at least one nonfiction one.
Bluestocking: read at least five books, including at least two nonfiction ones.
Suffragette: read at least eight books, including at least three nonfiction ones.

I'm signing on as a Bluestocking. The challenge doesn't require committing to a specific reading list - just a number of books - but I've made some preliminary selections from my "To Read" collection that fit the challenge parameters:

Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild, by Deborah Siegel

I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman, by Nora Ephron

Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran, by Azadeh Moaveni

Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation, by Cokie Roberts

Mother on Fire: A True Motherf%#$@ Story About Parenting!, by Sandra Tsing Loh

The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding, by Ranya Idilby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner

Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress, by Susan Jane Gilman

Olive Kitteridge: Fiction, by Elizabeth Strout

American Wife: A Novel, by Curtis Sittenfeld

Losing Kei: A Novel, by Suzanne Kamata

I realize this tentative listing is more than enough to complete the Suffragette level, but I don't want to over-commit, and I may drop a few from the list over the course of the challenge year.

Challenge co-host Aarti has posted a short, optional Start of Challenge Meme for participants to answer:

1. What does feminism mean to you? Does it have to do with the work sphere? The social sphere? How you dress? How you act?

To me, feminism is about how you act, but even more, it's about how you think, and how consistent your actions are with your beliefs. It's supporting the efforts and development of women, and speaking out in favor of equal rights, responsibilities, protections, and privileges for them within society.

What feminism is NOT is equally important, though. It's not about women undermining one another. It's not about exalting one way of life over another. And tempting though it is at times, it's not about bashing men.

2. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?

Oh, yes. My awareness was formed in the 1970's, the peak of second-wave feminism and efforts to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, although I was too young to participate in those activities then...and by the time I was old enough, "feminist," like "liberal," had become a bad word. But I still believe in the ideals I learned about in those formative years, and I still try to act with them in mind.

3. What do you consider the biggest obstacle women face in the world today? Has that obstacle changed over time, or does it basically remain the same?

I can't narrow it down to one single thing, and I think it varies based on where in the world women live and their socioeconomic circumstances, but if I had to sum it up, it probably comes down to "respect" - or more accurately, the lack of it. Women are held back by not being respected and valued - by their employers, their families, their governments, and sometimes by one another (and themselves). Unless that changes, not much else can either.

Are you on board for Women Unbound?

Book talk: "Love the One You're With," by Emily Giffin

2009-11-02T05:00:00.001-08:00

Disclosures: I bought this book for my personal library. *The purchasing link at the end of the review goes through my Amazon Affiliates account.

Love the One You're With
Emily Giffin
St. Martin's Griffin (2009), Paperback (ISBN 0312348673 / 9780312348670)
Fiction, 368 pages

Opening Lines: "It happened exactly one hundred days after I married Andy, almost to the minute of our half-past-three-o'clock ceremony. I know this fact not so much because I was an overeager newlywed keen on observing trivial relationship landmarks, but because I have a mild case of OCD that compels me to keep track of things."

Book description: Ellen and Andy's marriage doesn't just seem perfect, it is perfect. There is no question how deep their devotion is, and how naturally they bring out the best in each other. But one fateful afternoon, Ellen runs into Leo for the first time in eight years. Leo, the one who brought out the worst in her. Leo, the one who left her heartbroken with no explanation. Leo, the one she could never quite forget. When his reappearance ignites long-dormant emotions, Ellen begins to question whether the life she’s living is the one she's meant to live.

Comments: I'm on the picky side when it comes to the often-maligned "chick-lit" genre, but Emily Giffin is one author who always makes the cut. Her books have many of the chick-lit trappings - designer labels, glamorous careers, fancy restaurants - but they're overlaid to stories and characters with some depth and substance. Love the One You're With is her fourth novel; I've read them all, and this may be my favorite one yet.

It took Ellen Dempsey a couple of years to sort herself out again after the abrupt end of her intense post-college relationship with Leo, the journalist she met during a stint at jury duty. But when she was ready, there was already someone waiting - Andy Graham, her best friend's brother. Their relationship may lack some of that intensity, but it's compatible and comfortable, and Ellen's genuinely happy with it...until she unexpectedly runs into Leo on a New York City street, and the encounter makes her start asking herself a lot of questions. Meanwhile, Andy's asking questions of his own, but his involve leaving their New York life behind and moving back to his hometown, Atlanta. His family is there, along with a position in his father's law practice - but aside from that, what does the upscale suburb of Buckhead hold for Ellen and her photography career?

I liked most of the characters in this novel, which is narrated in the first person by Ellen - and I really liked Ellen. The character has a lot of self-awareness, even as she does things that she realizes are probably not in her best interests and could very well backfire on her. She has a tendency to idealize her husband's family and their background, but I think it's understandable to anyone who's ever felt their own upbringing to be lacking somehow; for her, much of that sense of lack is the result of the early death of her mother, and it colors many of her relationships. The most important women in her life are her best friend/sister-in-law Margot and her older sister Suzanne, but mother loss plays a role in how she relates to men as well; it's part of the intensity and insecurity in her relationship with Leo, and a factor in the comfort of her marriage to Andy - the same comfort that makes her wonder if she's somehow "settling."

Emily Giffin does a fine job of drawing believable, human characters who have to make choices that aren't always black and white, and that rarely turn out to be final or perfect. I related to Ellen a lot, and I think other readers will too - most of us have had reason to wonder about our relationships and who we are in their context, at one time or another, haven't we? Giffin's brand of chick-lit is lower on the fluff and melodrama than some examples of the genre, and I'm sure that's part of its appeal for me. Love the One You're With is a smart, character-driven novel, and its author remains on my must-read list.

Rating: 3.75/5

Reading Challenges Qualified: #16 of 20 for the RYOB 2009 Challenge; Clear off Your Shelves Challenge

Buy Love the One You're With at Amazon.com

Other book bloggers' reviews:
DearAuthor.com (includes very detailed plot recap)
A Novel Menagerie
Nomad Reader
Me, My Book, and the Couch
Kristina's Book Blog
S. Krishna's Books

Find more reviews via the Book Blogs Search Engine

If you've read and reviewed this book, please leave your link in comments or e-mail me at 3.rsblog AT GMail DOT com, and I'll edit this review to include it!

Sunday Salon 11/1 - "Did you change your clocks?" edition

2009-11-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

The Salon is on the short side this week - I think I've been in Readathon Recovery mode for most of it!

BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report

Book reviews posted this week:
The Possibility of Everything, by Hope Edelman

Next reviews scheduled:
Love the One You're With, by Emily Giffin
The Hunger Games/Catching Fire (dual review), by Suzanne Collins

Currently reading:
The Longest Trip Home, by John Grogan (TLC Book Tour stop scheduled for November 9)
Heaven to Betsy/Betsy in Spite of Herself, by Maud Hart Lovelace
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (on Kindle)

I rarely read polygamously, but it seems easier when one of them is an e-book. This is an almost ideal combination - one nonfiction, one fiction re-read, and one new fiction on Kindle

New to my LibraryThing "To Read" collection:
Nothing! (Yes, that does happen some weeks...and it's always a little disappointing when it does, to tell you the truth)

New additions to the Wishlist*:
The Cradle, by Patrick Somerville

BOOKMARKS: Reading-related Reading

Are price wars and review programs ways of controlling access to books - not unlike banning them?

The after-effects of a good...librarian

100 Best Book Blogs for Book Reviews and 101 Book Blogs You Need to Read: There's some overlap between these lists, so those book blogs must be twice as good! Seriously, there are many excellent blogs mentioned - some may be new to you, so give 'em a try! (And what do I need to do to get on a list like that?) (via @mawbooks on Twitter)

Can a writer succeed on multiple fronts, and become the Meryl Streep of fiction?

Isn't it just a little early to select the Top 10 Books of 2009? (Or are we sure none of them will be published in the next couple of months?)

I think my resistance to reading challenges must be breaking down at last - I'll be posting about another one I'm joining later this week. The theme is one that appeals to me and already motivates a lot of my reading choices - and it may appeal to some of you who aren't normally book bloggers as well, so I hope once you find out more about it, you'll think about joining in. It's a year-long one, so there's no time crunch. I think that I can take a "clean off your shelves" approach to it, so I probably won't have to add more than a couple of books to the TBR in order to complete it (which, to be honest, is a mixed blessing.) And I was part of the Twitter conversation that led to its creation, so I feel a little invested in it already!

In a couple of days, you can find out all about the Women Unbound Challenge! (Or you can go to the challenge blog right now, and check it out for yourself!)

What reading plans do you have for the week ahead?

Week-End Review - filling you in on two weeks' worth of linkage!

2009-10-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my sister Teresa, who has neither a blog nor a Twitter account - but she is spending her birthday at Disneyland!

I've changed the format of this post a bit - the links are at the end, so hopefully you won't leave before you read the rest of it!

New Arrivals in my Google Reader

Lynne's Letters
Booklust

Aiming Low

Finding My America

BlogHer.com has announced the Call for Ideas for sessions at next summer's BlogHer'10 Conference! Do you have any to suggest? I'm mulling some over...they can be submitted until November 15!

Friday Fill-ins #148

1. It was a dark and stormy night, so I curled up on the couch and hoped the power wouldn't go out.

2. I just don't get why some people don't enjoy reading, so I offered to take the books myself.

3. Rushing out, I'm almost guaranteed to forget something!

4. The coyotes must be out tonight...I think I heard a howl! (We live near an open-space reserve, where our neighbors include coyotes - who occasionally roam around the neighborhood.)

5. Shhhh... I think I hear some trick-or-treaters coming!

6. I'm starving, so please give me something good to eat!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a workout and a quiet evening at home, tomorrow my plans include setting the clocks back and enjoying my extra hour of sleep and Sunday, I want to remember to bring the gift when I take my sister out for a birthday lunch!

Dispatches: Links of the Week(s) - two weeks' collection for the price of one!

Friends answer the call, no matter when it comes

Is dysfunctionality in the eye of the beholder, or does everyone want to be on reality TV these days?
Speaking of dysfunctional: public schools really have MUCH bigger problems this this (but that still doesn't exempt students from following their rules)
Speaking of schools: school-bus safety and cell phones don't mix!
Speaking of buses: this would be one memorable ride

Manners are manners: 21st-century "mobile etiquette" isn't all that new and different

The pay's very good, but the working conditions...?

Grease and the dynamics of "Girl World"

This probably isn't the last word regarding the FTC guidelines and review disclosures, but it does help clarify a lot; perhaps this will too

Customer-service horror story of the week; swine flu doesn't have to be a horror story, says a pediatrician

My kid got them in first grade from his friend's baseball cap - have the lice come home with your kid yet? Regarding more appealing animals: now here's a catfight! Regarding kids and animals: why dogs really aren't "practice" children

Destined to be classics: quotes from actual college-level essays - yes, this is what becomes of those public-school problems! Already classics: 11 favorite Monty Python routines

Does the Halloween Fairy visit your house, leaving toys in exchange for candy?

A working digital camera made from Legos? I think a couple of boys in my family just found one more thing for their Christmas lists!

The thing I did NOT need to learn this week (and you probably don't need to either, but I had to share anyway!)

Happy Friday, and Happy Halloween!

Tools of the (Blogging) Trade (Weekly Geeks 2009-40)

2009-10-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

I didn't get the opportunity to post my response to last week's Weekly Geeks query, but since there wasn't a new one for this week - WG took the week off to observe Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon this past Saturday - I'm squeezing it in before the next theme goes up this coming weekend!

Last week, Ruth asked about Tools of the Trade:

Book blogging, as a concept, is essentially pretty simple: If you have Internet access and an opinion about a book, you can be a book blogger. However, actually maintaining a book blog is much more complicated -- our blogs are labors of love that require a lot of time, energy and devotion. For this edition of Weekly Geeks, I want to focus on the little things that make your blogging and/or reading life a bit easier. Do you use sites like GoodReads, LibraryThing or Shelfari to organize your books? Do you swear by Book Darts? Couldn't live without your Book Buddy? Love connecting with other bloggers on sites such as Twitter? Tell us about what makes your blog tick. Is there something specific that keeps you organized or inspired?

I'd never been successful at keeping manual records of my books or journaling my reading - and oddly enough, despite the fact that I'm an accountant and work with spreadsheets all the time, it had never occurred to me to use them in connection with my reading habits! Starting a blog turned out to be a great version of a "reading journal" for me, but it didn't really help much with keeping track of the books themselves.

One of the advantages of my Amazon Kindle e-book reader is that it essentially provides built-in cataloging for the items I read on it, and those items are starting to change my reading habits. The Kindle has already led me to purchase newly published "must-read" books without waiting the months until they're released in paperback, and I don't think I'll ever travel without it. But it's never going to break me from buying trade paperbacks, unless it actually forces them out of production...and for those "traditional" books, I still swear by Levenger's Book Bungees, which keep my place without any danger of falling out of the book.

I also swear by LibraryThing for keeping track of those "hard copy" books, and I visit the site almost daily to update my tags, edit my books, and add new titles to my "To Read" or "Wishlist" collections. Book bloggers are usually the original source for those additions these days, so I think it's totally appropriate to consider LibraryThing a "blogging tool" as well as "reading" tool. (GoodReads seems to be better for social networking, but if your interest is primarily in cataloging your books online, I think LibraryThing is the better choice.)

My blog has a custom domain hosted on Blogger; the domain registration costs me $10 a year (and I make slightly more than that in ad revenue from BlogHerAds, so it's worth it), and I really haven't had many complaints about Blogger itself. However, I find it a lot easier to compose my posts outside of it and just paste them in when they're ready, and I love Google Documents for that; I draft almost everything except for short, spur-of-the-moment posts there first. It's even easy to work with images in Google Docs; I've recently started using the online photo-editing app Picnik to play with the pictures I post, and even create buttons and banners. Once my posts are done, I can schedule when I want Blogger to publish them, and I'm usually able to have posts ready at least a few days ahead (assuming I can make the time to write them - does anyone know a tool or trick to help with that?)

A few other Geeks mentioned Google Reader as a blogging tool, and I absolutely agree! So much of my blogging inspiration comes from what I read on other blogs, and having their feeds come into GReader is so much more convenient than visiting bookmarked sites all the time. My feeds are organized into folders, and I'll skim the contents of each folder in "list view." I'll be honest; I don't necessarily open all the posts and read them in full, but if the title and snippet grab me, or it's a post from a favorite blog (yes, we all have them!), I'll expand it to read the whole thing. One thing that helps with this is the Better GReader extension for Firefox; using the "Colorful List View" option makes scanning much easier on my eyes.

I've had an account on Twitter for a year and a half, and it's helped new readers find my blog. It's also helped me connect with other bloggers outside the comments section, and I've joined in on some very interesting discussions there (and watched even more without jumping in). I like using Twitter for interaction more than broadcasting, but it takes up a lot more time that way, which is the main reason I'm not a very consistent presence over there. I like it too much to give it up, though.

Do you have any other suggestions for things - software, apps, even habits - that can make blogging and reading just a little easier and more fun? I'm always open to trying out something new!

Just Sick About It! (Weekend Assignment #290)

2009-10-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Because real life tends to get in the way sometimes, Karen's bad head cold has inspired this Weekend Assignment:

Weekend Assignment #290: Are you one of those lucky people who hardly ever get sick, or do you tend to catch every cold or flu or virus that comes along? And when you do get some infectious disease, do you stay home, or try to keep going?

Extra Credit: Are you getting a flu shot this year?

It seems to me that I got sick more when I was younger. I remember missing school for a week at a time a few times a year, but rarely for anything extremely serious - just a combination of symptoms that made staying home a lot more comfortable. The worst illness I can recall during high school, which probably was some form of the flu - I remember fainting a couple of times, and serious intestinal distress a few days later - hit during Christmas break. It's still true, even once your school years are over: being sick during vacation time is the worst. While my ex-husband was in grad school, we both were hit with a bad case of the seasonal flu one year. Then there was the time our friends came to visit for Commencement weekend and brought a miserable stomach virus with them, but we lucked out in a way with that one - it was somehow adult-specific. Neither their son (14 months old) or ours (almost 5 at the time) caught it, so we weren't trying to care for miserable children in our own weakened conditions.

At this point, I rarely take more than two or three sick days off from work a year - as a result, I have about six weeks of sick time accrued, which will be good if something major actually does happen to my health. This is partly because I really don't seem to get sick very often any more. I have sniffles and sneezes pretty often, but that could also be due to minor allergies. I get headaches when I'm overtired or there's a change in the weather looming; I have sinuses that seem to sense impending pressure changes or something. I may catch colds a few times a year, but they're usually minor - and yes, I am one of those annoying people who takes a cold to work with them. I'll only stay home if I truly don't feel up to working; otherwise, I'll get myself through the day and then crash early when I get home in the evening.

I think that when I was younger, part of the appeal of staying home sick was having someone taking care of me - that's less likely as we grow up, but in the last few years, I've grown more and more inclined to "tough it out" when I get a relatively minor illness. Becoming a parent myself probably influenced that, although I was tremendously lucky in having a child who was rarely ill himself. Living on my own after my divorce probably steered me that way even more, though, since I had to take care of myself, the dog, the house, and whatever else came up, no matter how I was feeling at the time. I still tend to think that way, even though I'm not by myself any more.

When I'm getting a cold, I usually know it first by a sore throat and an itchy feeling on the roof of my mouth, and then I start self-medicating. My preferred treatments are Ricola cough drops (honey lemon or green tea, both with echinacea), chicken-noodle soup, and Zicam. (The nasal-spray version of Zicam has been identified as potentially harmful to the sense of smell, but I've used it for years, and as the person who usually picks up after the dog, I can confirm that my sense of smell works quite well.) If I'm feeling particularly worn out or weak, I may stay home for a day, but otherwise I tend to just keep going.

I don't usually get flu shots. I got one a couple of years ago because I had a regular checkup scheduled during flu season and my doctor's office offered me the shot while I was there; if that happens again this year, I'll probably take them up on it, but otherwise I probably won't bother with it. My husband and stepchildren have already gotten theirs, though (the kids got the seasonal-flu shot; they may be going back for H1N1).

Has "cold and flu season" started up for you and your family? Will you stay home and convalesce, or tough it out?

Book Talk: "The Possibility of Everything," by Hope Edelman

2009-10-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

Disclosures: This is a review of an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) requested and received directly from the publisher. The book became available in stores at the end of September 2009. *The purchasing link at the end of the review goes through my Amazon Affiliates account.

The Possibility of Everything: A Memoir

by Hope Edelman (blog)

Ballantine Books, 2009 (Hardcover) (ISBN 0345506502 / 9780345506504)

Memoir, 352 pages

First sentence: "A ragged, mostly dirt road twists through six miles of rainforest in western Belize, linking the villages of Cristo Bay and San Antonio."

Teaser: "'How's Maya doing?' Michele asks. She's been getting the blow-by-blow about Dodo for the past month, but we haven't spoken for a few days." (page 55, ARC)

Book description: Rather than quoting and linking to the publisher's summary as I usually do in this section of a review, I'm going to let the author tell you herself, in this excerpt from a recent blog post:

"(O)ur daughter...had series of 'friends' at (the age of two). This alone was not a problem. I had an imaginary companion as a child; my sister did, too. Ours came and went freely, and appeared completely benign. My daughter, on the other hand, talked about one of her 'friends' constantly, in a manner more articulate and detailed than one might expect a two-year-old could manage. She described with utter conviction the island where he lived, a whole world she claimed she could see. As the months progressed, my husband and I became more than a little concerned.

Creativity or delusion? We couldn’t tell.

'It’s a normal developmental phase,' the pediatrician assured us. 'She’ll grow out of it,' the therapist with whom we consulted said. When my daughter's behavior became mildly aggressive and she attributed her actions to her 'friend,' we were told this, too, was within the normal range. But we were the ones who’d witnessed our daughter’s development every day since her birth. We felt that something else was going on, that the rote explanations we were given somehow weren't adding up.

Our quest to help our daughter eventually brought us to Maya healers in the Central American country of Belize. The trip yielded inexplicable yet effective results--a wholly unexpected outcome for a self-professed cynic like me.

To say some readers have disagreed with the parenting choices I made puts it mildly. Some have labeled me over-reactive and overprotective. The more blunt ones have called me a total nutcase.

What can I say? I also questioned my judgment, my motives, and my sanity nine years ago, and again as I wrote the story down. What kind of mother, I wondered, allows her imagination to tumble into such extreme and dramatic territory? Why couldn’t I sit back and let the 'friend' disappear on its own?"

Comments: I first encountered Hope Edelman ten years ago, when I sought out her book Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss shortly after my own mother died. I was intrigued when I learned she'd written a new memoir from a mother's perspective, and I was quickly drawn into her story.

Edelman discovered that her young daughter had a new imaginary friend when she was bitten on the leg by the child, who blamed it on "Dodo." Imaginary friends can be disruptive, but the changes in Maya's personality and behavior since he turned up are particularly unsettling to her mother. Maya becomes increasingly challenging, and Hope's concerns are escalated by a history of mental illness in her family. She is also frustrated by a perceived lack of support; her husband is working incredibly long hours with a start-up, and she still feels isolated and out of place from their recent move to Southern California. Professional advice doesn't seem to help; the only thing that briefly improved the situation was a ritual performed by the family's Nicaraguan nanny, who believes "Dodo" is a malignant spirit. For that reason, and despite her own deep skepticism, Hope and her husband Uzi arrange to bring Maya to visit a shaman when the family takes a winter vacation to Belize. Uzi is open to "the possibility of everything;" Hope isn't really, but she's disturbed enough by their situation that she's willing to try something unconventional.

Domestic drama frames this story, but its heart lies in the family's experiences with a hospitable innkeeping family, their explorations of the rainforest and the ancient ruins of pre-Columbian Central America, and their visits with two healers. Edelman's writing is conversational and full of detail, and her style is open and intimate; I found her voice appealing. I've never been especially curious about visiting Central America, but her descriptions of the sacred Mayan ruins made me think I'd like to see them. She brought me along on a journey with her family, and I never felt like an intruder. She revealed her self-awareness and shared her doubts and failings frankly; I was able to understand and empathize with them, even though I don't think I would have addressed things the same way. (Honestly, I do think she may have been a bit over-reactive to the imaginary friend.)

Openness to possibility and ambiguity is a quality I try to cultivate in myself, and I appreciated reading about someone else's struggles with it. While my own marriage and parenting experiences are quite different from Hope Edelman's, many of the challenges and self-questionings are similar. The Possibility of Everything was a satisfying read, and yet it left me with more questions to think about. I think it has potential to provide some excellent book-group discussion.

Rating: 3.75/5

Buy The Possibility of Everything: A Memoir at Amazon.com

Other bloggers' reviews:
The House of the Seven Tails
Julie's Jewels

If you have read and reviewed this, please leave your link in comments or e-mail me at 3.rsblog AT Gmail DOT com, and I'll edit this review to add it!

The (reading) challenge of (Shelf) Discovery, and the Readathon Event Survey

2009-10-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to understand how book bloggers get pulled into these reading challenges, although I've held out against them pretty well. I've only signed up for two so far, and they've both been targeted at trying to thin the TBR herd.

But here comes another that will not only add to the stacks - it's going to add books that I've already read! Granted, I last read them over 25 years ago, but it will be the first time I'll have to get books specifically for a reading challenge. I'm not sure exactly what I'm thinking here...except that I can't resist this one! I suspect the seeds were already planted, and the challenge is just giving me an excuse to work in the garden (not the best analogy, but it will have to do for now).

Julie of Booking Mama is hosting her first reading challenge: The Shelf Discovery Challenge! This six-month challenge starts on November 1, and is inspired by Lizzie Skurnick's "reading memoir" of young-adult literary classics, which I reviewed in September and truly enjoyed. It reminded me about so many old favorites, and mentioned quite a few books that I somehow managed to miss, too - and so, as I said, the seeds were planted for revisiting the YA of my day. Julie's challenge is providing the Miracle-Gro. (I have a black thumb and therefore don't garden in real life, so once again, another lame analogy.) Once I link this post at her announcement post, I'll be officially signed up! (If you don't have a blog, you don't have to miss out; just leave a comment on that post to let Julie know you're in!)

Here's what the challenge requires:

Grab the challenge button at the top of (the announcement post) page and write a post detailing what six Shelf Discovery books you are going to read within the next six months (you always have the option to change your original list).

On November 1st, 2009, Julie will place a Shelf Discovery Challenge button in the upper right hand corner of her blog. When you click on this button, you will see a post where all the participants are listed as well as the links to their Shelf Discovery updates and "book reports." So, every time you have a post relating to the Shelf Discovery Challenge (with the exception of your first sign-up post) you should leave a comment there with a link to your post.

It's very tempting - and very easy, to be honest - to make all six of my picks re-reads, but I feel like I should choose a couple of books that I missed during my own YA years. The list may change, since changes are allowed, but here's what I'm starting out with (new-to-me books are *'d):

A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle (I still have a copy of this!)
The Arm of the Starfish, Madeleine L'Engle
The Moon by Night, Madeleine L'Engle
Forever, Judy Blume
Jacob I Have Loved, by Katherine Paterson*
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell* (to be borrowed from my sister)

Yes, I know it's a bit heavy on Madeleine L'Engle, but given that she's an all-time favorite author of mine, I can't pass up the chance to re-visit Meg, Polly, and Vicky, L'Engle's "holy trinity" of teen heroines. And I'm really curious to see what my adult perspective brings to re-reading Forever...

It's not too late to make some "shelf discoveries" of your own - sign up for Julie's challenge!

=====================================

End of Event Survey for the 24-hour Readathon

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?

Hours 9 and 10 were a bit difficult, as I hit a mid-afternoon lull, but some coffee and The Hunger Games kept me in the game. I hit the wall ten hours later, though - despite desperately wanting to finish Catching Fire, I couldn't keep my eyes open any more, and bailed at the beginning of Hour 21 (1 AM Pacific time).

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?

The two I just mentioned are ideal Readathon material, actually, but so many people have already read them by now. Hopefully by this time next year, the last book in the trilogy will be out too!

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Not really. I know a few things I'd do differently for myself, but I think that it was really well organized and run.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?

The cheerleaders did a fantastic job!

5. How many books did you read?

I finished two books (I was already 60 pages into my first one) and got about 3/4 of the way through a third.

6. What were the names of the books you read?

Love the One You're With, by Emily Giffin

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins

7. Which book did you enjoy most?

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

8. Which did you enjoy least?

I liked them all!

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?

N/A

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

I'm not sure at this point. I got a lot of reading done, which I loved, but didn't do so much on the blogging/commenting side, which is probably why I totally forgot about the mini-challenges! I think I might be an official cheerleader for a couple of hours the next time, and an "unofficial" reader, but I'm not making any decisions yet.

Sunday Salon #4: Wrapping Up the Read-a-thon, and other Bookkeeping stuff

2009-10-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

See below for my final Read-a-thon Update!

BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report

Book reviews posted this week:
Still Alice by Lisa Genova (this post includes a guest review from my sister)

Next reviews scheduled:
The Possibility of Everything by Hope Edelman (ARC from the publisher)

New to my LibraryThing "To Read" collection:
for me, from the "biography and memoir" section:
Notes from the Underwire: Adventures from My Awkward and Lovely Life, by Quinn Cummings
Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son, by Michael Chabon

For the "To Read Again" collection:

Betsy and the Great World/Betsy's Wedding, by Maud Hart Lovelace (reissue)

New additions to the Wishlist*:
The Life You Longed For, by Maribeth Fischer
The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City, by David Lebovitz
Trouble: A Novel, by Kate Christensen

BOOKMARKS: Reading-related Reading

This probably isn't the last word regarding the FTC guidelines and review disclosures, but it does help clarify a lot of the questions book bloggers have raised recently

If you find weeding out your bookcases a challenge, try weeding out an entire library

For a town not really known as a literary hot spot, it's exciting that four Los Angeles bookstores are among the "10 Most Popular Bookstores on Twitter"! (And I need to add three of them to my "follow" list...)

Read-a-thon Wrap-up!

This is my fourth and final update.

Quitting time: 1:00 AM PST (No, I didn't make it all the way, but I'm only mildly disappointed about that.)

Estimated total time spent reading since 5 AM: 14 hours (reading only - I didn't count Twitter/blog update/commenting time toward my Read-a-thon total. If that's added, the total is probably somewhere between 16 and 17 hours.)

Total Pages read: 952 (2 books finished, 1 75% completed)

Books completed: Love the One You're With, by Emily Giffin
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Book almost finished, but couldn't stay awake (to be finished later today):
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins

What's next?

Finish Catching Fire and make notes for review!
Write reviews of three books read during Read-a-thon and schedule for posting over the next couple of weeks
Return visits to commenters/cheerleaders and respond to blog comments here. Thanks so much to everyone who dropped by to cheer, both here and on Twitter, where my updates were more frequent.

Read-a-thon Reflections:

I am seriously impressed by those who were able to make the rounds of participants as Cheerleaders and still get some reading of their own done! I was pretty sure I couldn't manage both, so I chose to focus on the reading...and that leaves me feeling that I missed out a bit on some of the social/community fun of Read-a-thon. I did pop in on Twitter pretty regularly, but I decided to limit my blog time to updating and visiting between books, and since I only finished two of them, I just didn't get so much of that done!

I completely blew off the mini-challenges and didn't do a single one. I didn't even think about checking in to see what they were, to be honest - I kind of forgot about them! I definitely missed a community opportunity there.

Having said that, I have few regrets about how I did spend my Read-a-thon time! I really liked blocking out a day to read, with minimal computer activity (by my standards), and I'm pleased with the reading I accomplished. I wish I'd finished Catching Fire and made it to at least one more book, but I'm not losing sleep over it (pun intended, since I didn't last the entire 24 hours!)

I'm really glad to have experienced my first Read-a-thon, and I'm thinking about scheduling "reading days" for myself on occasional weekends going forward...but at this point, I'm not sure I'll participate in the next Read-a-thon itself. It did disrupt my family's weekend, and that's about the only thing I do regret about it - and I hope they know that I truly appreciate their going along with the plan!

How was your Read-a-thon experience?

Readathon Update #3: The Games are ON!

2009-10-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

Current local time: 6:30 PM PST

Estimated total time spent reading since 5 AM: 9.5 hours.

Total Pages read: 652 (2 books)

I don't usually track that, but it seems appropriate to the occasion.

Books completed: Love the One You're With, by Emily Giffin
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

What now?

Return visits from cheerleaders and visit a few other Read-a-thon participants at their blogs
Make notes for review of The Hunger Games
Walk the dog
See about something to eat for dinner
Get back to reading again in about an hour!

What to read next?
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

What's after that? It depends on whether I can make it through one more book, to be honest!

Intermittent Twitter updates
Final update to be posted as part of Sunday Salon
If I can last long enough and am not beaten by Catching Fire, I'll move on to very short stories: ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes Year 2, by Susan Helene Gottfried

I feel like I've missed out a bit on the social aspects of the Readathon, but I chose to get into it for the reading this time. I don't know how some folks are managing both reading and cheerleading!

Read-a-thon Update #2: One book finished!

2009-10-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

Current local time: 11:15 AM PST

Estimated time spent reading since 5 AM: 4 hours.
I was away from reading for over an hour starting around 6:30 AM (showered. got dressed, walked the dog), and have taken shorter breaks (5-10 minutes at a time) throughout the morning, including checking in on Twitter.

Pages read: 282
I don't usually track that, but it seems appropriate to the occasion.

Book completed: Love the One You're With, by Emily Giffin (I started it on Wednesday and was on page 60 at the time the Read-a-thon kicked off)

What now?

Return visits from cheerleaders and visit a few other Read-a-thon participants at their blogs
Make notes for review of Love the One You're With
Get back to reading again within the hour!

What to read next?
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

What's after that?

Another update post in a few hours
Possible change of reading venue (taking my book to Starbucks)
Hoping my husband and the kids are enjoying their day out and about in LA (they went to Universal CityWalk, and may go out to Santa Monica later - it's a beautiful day, and I'm in the house reading!)

How's YOUR Read-a-thon going?

And so it begins: Readathon Update #1

2009-10-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

According to the clock on my computer, it's 4:50 AM as I write this - T minus 10 minutes to Read-a-thon blast-off!

I plan to start off a bit slowly - read for 60 to 90 minutes, then take a shower/dog-walking break. I'll read through breakfast, of course (which may be accompanied by a little extra coffee).

The first book I'll be reading is one already in progress - I'm on page 60 of Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin.

I'll be checking in here and on Twitter every so often, but trying not to get too sucked in, since the priority for the day (and night, however long that goes) is READING!

Good luck, Read-a-thoners!

We interrupt our regular schedule for a Read-a-thon Preview!

2009-10-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

There's a 24 Hour Read-a-thon going on tomorrow, starting at 5 AM Pacific time. (On Saturday?! Oh, what the heck, I get up at 4:30 most mornings anyway.) I have the day off from work today to get some chores and errands out of the way before the event gets started, and another vacation day on Monday for additional recovery time!

I posted my prospective reading list in my Sunday Salon post earlier this week. I've thrown a couple of other books into the mix since then (partly because I finished the book I reviewed yesterday and pulled another out of the Read-a-thon pile to start reading next):

Betsy and the Great World/Betsy's Wedding, by Maud Hart Lovelace
The Spellman Files, by Lisa Lutz

There's no way I'm going to last the whole 24 hours, despite the "encouragement" of my husband, who tweeted this in response to my saying that I'd consider it a "raging success" if I manage 12-14 hours of reading:

RamsesTMagnum: @florinda_3rs WHAT?! I can't believe you are considering going "Sarah Palin" on this. My motto is "Read 'till your eyes bleed!"

WHAT? "Sarah Palin"?!? Is he suggesting that I may be a quitter? It's on the record: I'm no quitter! I am, however, a realist. But seriously, he does intend to facilitate my activities by getting out of the house with the kids for most of the day. Thanks, honey! And maybe I'll shoot for 16-18 hours of reading...

In this as in so many other things, the tricky part will be dividing time between the books and the blogging. At this point, I'm planning to post updates every few (4-6) hours both here and on Twitter (with the #readathon hashtag); they may be more frequent on Twitter, but they'll be a bit longer here. I'll post a final wrap-up in the Sunday Salon. Given the extra posting activity during the weekend - and all that time spent reading instead of writing! - next week's posting schedule may be a little out of whack.

I'm not sure how much I'll be getting around to visit other Read-a-thon participants, considering that there are over 275 of them...but if your blog is in my Google Reader subscriptions and you're posting updates, I'll try to come by to see you - and leave an encouraging comment - at least once during the festivities! And for those of you who are nice enough to comment on my own updates, my apologies in advance if I'm not as faithful about replying to those comments as I usually am - thanks for understanding!

I do intend to write reviews of every book I get through during the Read-a-thon, so some of my "reading break" time will be spend making notes for those. I won't draft a complete review after I finish each book, but if I don't get some impressions down, I'm sure they'll all blend together before too long...and the whole reason I started book-blogging in the first place was to get away from that!

I'm excited about my first Read-a-thon, however long I make it last! Good luck to everyone who's participating, whether you're a newbie like me or a seasoned pro.

As far as my usual Friday content goes, I'll be posting two weeks' worth of Weekend Review links and such next week, so brace yourself for that!

Book talk: "Still Alice," by Lisa Genova

2009-10-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

Disclosures: I bought this book for my personal library, and I intend to keep it indefinitely. *The purchasing link at the end of the review goes through my Amazon Associates account.

Still Alice
Lisa Genova (blog)
Pocket Books, 2009 (paperback) (ISBN 1439102813 / 9781439102817)
Fiction, 320 pages

First sentence: "Alice sat at her desk in their bedroom, distracted by the sounds of John racing through each of the rooms on the first floor."

Random clip: "Sitting on the bed, she read page after page of her daughter's dreams and confessions. She read about blocks and breakthroughs in acting classes, fears and hopes surrounding auditions, disappointments and joys over castings." (page 164)

Book description: Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she's a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she begins to grow disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life -- and her relationship with her family and the world -- forever.

Comments: For personal reasons, I have held off on reading this book for months, despite all the good things I'd heard about it. I have to thank Lisa at Books on the Brain for the review, and subsequent e-mail conversation, that gave me the nudge to dig it out of TBR and make a plan to read it in October, when I would be participating in the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk with my family. We participate in this annual 5K walk to raise funds for the Alzheimer's Association and its work in raising awareness, supporting research, and providing resources for Alzheimer's patients and their families. We're involved with it because my mother, who passed away ten years ago after seven years in a nursing home, may have had early-onset Alzheimer's.

I say "may" because we don't officially know, but it's the most common of a few possibilities, so that's what we go by. There are other forms of dementia that present in similar ways, and are more likely to be found in younger people; my mom's symptoms began to show when she was in her early fifties. However, because she had a lifelong fear of doctors, we were unable to get her to seek medical attention for the changes she was going through while she still could have talked about them and been tested. Even so, a brain biopsy is still the only way to confirm a diagnosis of Alzheimer's, and it's performed after death; although we asked him to, my father didn't make the necessary arrangements for that to be done, so we're lacking some very important information. The fact that early-onset Alzheimer's usually has a strong genetic connection makes not having a definite diagnosis especially problematic; I don't know of anyone else in my mother's family who had it (although some relatives did develop the more common elderly version), but what does it mean for my sister and me?

Whether or not EOA actually was the cause of my mother's dementia, what I remember about the onset and progress of her condition is a lot like what Alice Howland, the title character of Lisa Genova's novel Still Alice, is going through. Alice is 50 years old, the mother of three grown children and a prominent professor of psychology and linguistics at Harvard, when she finds herself lost and disoriented while out running one day. She's been forgetful lately too, but she's been attributing her mental lapses and other slip-ups to menopause and"normal" aging; now she wonders if it's something else. After she sees a neurologist, she learns that it is indeed something else; her tests come back indicating a probable diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's, and a genetic screening confirms that she does have the accompanying mutation. Drugs are prescribed that may help slow the progression, but Alzheimer's is incurable and unstoppable, and Alice's life will never be the same. Little by little, and all too soon, she will lose nearly everything that has made her who she is.

Lisa Genova, a neuroscientist by training who originally self-published this novel, has done a remarkable job of truly getting inside the mind and emotions of an Alzheimer's patient. She includes a lot of real information about the disease and its effects in ways that don't distract from the story, and she effectively captures its disruption and alteration of family, career, and daily life, but the fact that it's all told from Alice's perspective makes it unique and unforgettable. The reactions of Alice's family and colleagues to her condition rang true, but Genova makes the reader grasp Alice's own reactions too. The instances where the author "loops" an episode by repeating its opening paragraphs at the end, and when she frames Alice's behavior with someone else's response to it, do an especially good job of illustrating what's happening and making the reader connect with it.

I could feel Alice's fear and frustration over the changes she was experiencing most specifically as she was losing communication and reading comprehension; those are two things I particularly remember about my mother's condition. In addition to the mental illness - technically, that's what Alzheimer's is - my mother had low vision for her entire life and was nearly blind during her last years. I knew she hadn't been reading for a while before she entered nursing-home care, but I'd thought it was because of her eyesight; now I realize the dementia may have been part of it as well. (If you know me through this blog, I'm sure you can imagine how unsettling this is.)

I had postponed reading Still Alice because I was pretty sure it would be a difficult book for me, emotionally - and it was, but not quite in the way I expected it to be. It got under my skin, and it's stayed on my mind. It made me sad, although it didn't make me cry; but more than that, it scared the hell out of me. I was engrossed and moved by Alice's story, and I feel that it gave me a lot of insight into Alzheimer's that I didn't have before - but knowing more has made me more afraid of experiencing this than I was before, too. I'm just five years younger than Alice, and not much younger than my mom was when she began to slip away - and I DO NOT WANT THIS to happen to me.

I'll be keeping this book, and recommending it to everyone, whether or not their lives have been touched by Alzheimer's - it's frightening, but it's also enlightening, and it's a tremendously worthwhile read.

Rating: 4/5

Reading Challenge Commitments: #15 of 20 pledged for the Read Your Own Books 2009 Challenge; #1 for the Clear Off Your Shelves Challenge (25% of books read in October and November 2009)

Buy Still Alice at Amazon.com

Related: a need for greater understanding of the physical impact of Alzheimer's and other varieties of dementia - it isn't just "mental" illness with little effect on the body

When I mentioned here on the blog that I was planning to read this book during the week of our local Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk, I asked if anyone would be interested in reading it with me. Wendy of Musings of a Bookish Kitty took me up on it, and shared her impressions earlier this week. If you've read Still Alice recently too, please leave a link to your review in comments! These bloggers did:

The Book Chick

My sister Teresa doesn't have a blog of her own, but she also read the book, and gave me her review to post here:

When my sister asked me to review the novel, STiLL ALiCE by Lisa Genova, I was hesitant. I said to my husband, “This may be difficult.” In truth, parts of the book were hard to read, but not because of Lisa Genova’s writing – because of novel’s content. Alice, the main character in the book suffers from early on-set Alzheimer’s disease. She is only 50 years old and an acclaimed linguistics professor at Harvard. The novel is told from her perspective. It is an interesting, thought provoking approach to view the progression of the disease. It is ironic that Ms. Genova decided to have Alice specialize in linguistics, for language and communication are so greatly impacted by Alzheimer’s.

My mother was a victim of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Honestly, I wish I had a book such as this to read 17 years ago when she could no longer communicate well and could not take care of herself any longer. This was a really quick read for me. Despite its content, I felt compelled to keep picking it up – each time getting closer to the painful, inevitable conclusion. The story is broken down by months showing the progression of Alice’s disease and her response (along with her spouse’s and children’s responses) to it. Lisa Genova is very adept at presenting both intellectual and emotional responses from and for the character. While I personally had an emotional connection to the subject matter, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to someone who has not. Awareness of this disease (particularly early-onset Alzheimer’s) is not that high in comparison to awareness of other diseases. It’s time for that to change.

Encore: The Anniversary Waltz

2009-10-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Today is the third anniversary of my second marriage! I celebrated the first one here with two posts of wedding randomata, but that was a couple of years ago. Readership was in the lower double digits back then, so I thought I'd revisit the event today with a (somewhat) condensed version of the original posts - after all, if you didn't read it the first time around, it's new to you :-). I hope you'll enjoy sharing this very happy day with me one more time. (We'll be going out for an anniversary dinner tonight...without you.)

When you're over 40 and are marrying for the second time, you may feel more free to plan a wedding that's less bound by tradition and convention than a younger couple might. When Tall Paul and I started planning ours - and we were planning it, make no mistake; this was not "the bride and the guy along for the ride" - we wanted an event that was both formal and fun.

One thing we agreed on quickly was that this wasn't just a couple uniting, it was a family - and our children would be part of the event. The nondenominational minister we selected to officiate our ceremony encouraged us to customize and personalize it, and as we reviewed our options (she had five different ceremonies, and we were free to pick and choose what we wanted to include in ours from any of them, plus additions of our own), we decided we wanted to include a variation on the Blending of the Sands ceremony that would include all five of us.

Our kids has more conventional roles as well. My son, a college senior at the time, escorted me to the ceremony platform (we had an outdoor ceremony, and the site didn't have a center aisle, just a sidewalk down one side) - but he did not "give away" his mother. Tall Paul's children helped give out programs, and escorted the grandparents to their seats as the ceremony began.

Since we felt so strongly that our wedding was about family, we did something unusual during the "grand entrance" at our reception. First our kids were introduced, and then our best man made his entrance accompanied by his wife and sons; our matron of honor was also escorted by her husband and sons. We didn't have a head table, so the wedding party members sat with their families, and Tall Paul and I were together at a "sweetheart table" in the middle.

We had a brief moment of insanity when we considered writing our own vows - I bought a couple of books for help and inspiration - but our minister helped us get over it. She spent enough time meeting and corresponding with us to craft a ceremony that contained what we wanted to express to each other and our guests, and her opening remarks reflected the time she spent getting to know us. (We're not regular churchgoers, but we wanted a minister to marry us.) And the vows that she composed for us did not include the word "obey" for either of us.

Both of us have pretty strong opinions and preferences in music, so we decided that rather than hire a band or DJ, we'd create our own soundtracks for the ceremony and reception in iTunes, and we asked a close friend to operate the iPod/speaker set-up and act as MC. We set up the playlists so that they'd be easy to follow - numbered in the order they were to be used, with the songs in alpha order within them so they could be selected quickly as needed. We had about forty minutes of upbeat vocal selections to play before the ceremony began, but the processionals were instrumentals - a selection by Enya for the parents' seating and matron of honor, and the theme from my favorite movie, The Princess Bride, for my entrance. We didn't have any music during the ceremony itself. Our recessional was our only major musical snafu - the ceremony was held outdoors, and we forgot extra batteries for the speaker setup, so I'm not sure anyone really heard "Happy Together" by the Turtles as we walked out. Once the music setup was relocated to the reception room, it was hooked into the sound system there, so it was loud and clear for the rest of the festivities.

Aside from the processional/recessional choices, the musical moment that mattered most to me was the first dance, and that was the one that made Tall Paul the most anxious. We decided to address that anxiety by taking some dance lessons, and went through the Intro to Ballroom Dance class offered by the local Parks & Rec - twice. We didn't tell anybody we were taking the class, just in case we still sucked, but as it turned out we made a reasonably good showing with our foxtrot to Clint Black's "When I Said I Do." (I thought so, anyway. However, Tall Paul still says that may be the last time he ever dances in public...)

As I said earlier, we wanted a wedding that was both formal and fun. For the guys, "formal" meant tuxedos, of course, with waistcoats (dark red for Tall Paul - our wedding colors were deep red and purple, suitable for autumn - and black for the rest). But my husband hasn't owned a pair of traditional dress shoes since he was 15, and soon after our engagement he went on the lookout for just the right pair of cowboy boots to accompany formal wear. He found them in July - black cherry leather, nicely hand-tooled - which gave him some time to break them in. My boot-wearing groom inspired me to go in a similar footwear direction; not Western-style, but a pair of mid-heel, ankle-height, lace-up bridal boots proved a comfortable choice for a day that would involve a lot of time on my feet. And I was not going to wear a veil; my hair ornament was a decorated comb that I found in the wedding-decor section at Michael's.

While we did have aspects of our wedding that we splurged on - most notably the venue and the photography - there were others, like the music, where we went the DIY route. If organization via spreadsheet played to my talents, a lot of the "real" paperwork of the wedding - invitations, programs, place cards - was right in the field of expertise of my soon-to-be husband, a graphic designer. While we both worked on text, he did all the actual design, paper selection, layout, and printing of our invitations, envelopes, and programs. When we decided that we would "name" our reception tables for TV and movie couples instead of using boring numbers, he came up with the list, found all the pictures, and created and printed the signs.

Tall Paul also created a logo of sorts for our favors. On one of the wedding websites that I frequented during my engagement, I stumbled across a link for Fancy Fortune Cookies, which bakes fortune cookies in about a dozen different flavors and lets you customize them by including up to five different enclosures. We didn't write "fortunes" for ours, exactly; we selected a few short quotes about love and marriage to go in our cookies, and we packaged them - along with a few Jordan almonds, for tradition's sake - in miniature Chinese-takeout-style boxes (also from Michael's), to which we applied a decal that Tall Paul designed. The favors ended up being relatively inexpensive, unusual, and consumable.

Our wedding didn't have a theme, but Tall Paul likes to say that if it had, it would have been "When Nerds Unite." The best example of that comes via two of our favorite wedding props, both cake-related. One day on his lunch hour, Tall Paul called me from the mall to say "The knife store is having a going-out-of-business sale. What would you think of a replica of Sting (not the singer - Frodo's sword from The Lord of the Rings) as a cake cutter?" After I stopped laughing, I said he should go ahead and get it. While that was a serendipitous find, our search for an appealing cake topper was getting more and more discouraging until we finally decided to give in to what we really wanted, and ordered a Simpsons cake topper on eBay.

The cake cutter and topper still occupy places of honor on our living-room mantelpiece. (We did clean them both off first, of course.)

If you're on Twitter today, send an "@" message to RamsesTMagnum and tell him his wife said you should wish him a happy anniversary, too!

Quitting time - times 5! (Weekend Assignment #289)

2009-10-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Weekend Assignment #289: Sooner or later, we all quit something that was once important to us: a job, school, a club, an addiction, a relationship, and probably other things I haven't thought of. Tell us about something you quit, and why you did so.

Extra Credit: Did you ever regret your decision?

Don't call me a quitter; I don't call myself one. Having said that, I've done my share of quitting at one thing or another.

There have been times when bailing on something was the right decision - sometimes you just have to cut your losses and move on, but sometimes it's felt good and sometimes it hasn't. There have also been times when I didn't do that soon enough - I hung on longer than I should have, trying to fix something broken, only to give up the effort much further down the line. And regrets? Oh, I've certainly had more than a few...

I quit my first job out of college after three years, and should have done it at least a year earlier - that's a case where I regret holding out more than I do leaving. But it's hard for me to let go of things sometimes, and I felt the need to undo a lot of mistakes. Most of them probably didn't matter in the long run, and I did learn from the experience; it certainly contributed to some growing up that I needed to do. But if going to work makes you feel frightened and physically sick on an almost daily basis, you and your job - the work environment, if not the work itself - are probably not well-matched.

I am well aware that by some people's standards, I ultimately quit my first marriage...and to be honest, part of me agrees with them. But another part of me knows that they weren't there, and they don't know everything from the inside. There are things I would do differently if I were back there now, but for the most part, I doubt that the person I was then could have tried much harder than I did...and I think that applies to my ex-husband as well. Part of me will always regret that we couldn't reconcile things. However, a larger part of me doesn't regret the necessary learning experiences during my single years after the divorce - and without them, I wouldn't be the person I am now, and in a second marriage where we're much better matched for one another! (And neither would my ex-husband, who re-married before I did.)

Ending my first marriage did lead to the decision to quit a city that still feels like home, and that required me to quit the best job I've ever had. I wish both of those things hadn't been necessary, and I still miss them. Still, seven years later, I remain certain that literally moving on - eighteen hundred miles west - was essential for my future growth, and I don't regret that at all.

In another Weekend Assignment a few weeks ago, I talked about quitting Weight Watchers meetings. I still don't really regret that in itself, but I certainly do regret the consequences! But I'm slowly making progress in improving my eating and exercise habits, and getting my body back to a place where I like it better.

I haven't decided on this for certain, but I'm considering quitting coloring my hair. I wouldn't mind saving both the money and time involved, but I have an appointment with my stylist today, and I'll talk to her about it. Chances are that I might regret that decision a lot...or not. Sometimes it's clear right away that quitting something is a good move, and sometimes it's hard to know for certain until after you see how it turns out.

Something major, something minor, something smart, something dumb - what's something that you've quit, and how do you feel about it?

OK, I'm making this up...

2009-10-19T05:00:00.001-07:00

I used to find them rather amusing. No matter how casually they were dressed - even in running shorts and T-shirts - every day these Southern ladies greeted the world with fully made-up faces and perfectly styled hair. The Memphis humidity made this an even more impressive achievement.

Aside from the fact I wasn't a native Memphian, I wasn't one of those women, and didn't think it likely that I would become one. There were aspects of my life that just didn't encourage it, including a pretty casual workplace - literally, it was a zoo - and a husband who made no secret of his preference for a makeup-free face, to the extent of seeming disappointed when I did wear it (even if he otherwise complimented my appearance).

I no longer live in Memphis (or with a makeup-averse spouse). And it occurred to me not long ago, as I was applying eyeliner and mascara and putting on some lip stain, that I have become one of "those women" who almost never leaves the house without putting on makeup. Heck, some days I put it on even if I'm not leaving the house. How did this happen?

...The answer to that question can be found in the rest of this post on the Los Angeles Moms Blog.

Sunday Salon #3 (10/18): The Read-a-Thon Awaits!

2009-10-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report

Book reviews posted this week:
Goldengrove, by Francine Prose

Next reviews scheduled:
The Possibility of Everything by Hope Edelman (ARC from the publisher)
Still Alice, by Lisa Genova (RYOB Challenge, Clear Off Your Shelves Challenge) - still reading this weekend to coincide with the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk that my family and I did yesterday, but I plan to finish and review it before the end of this week

New to my LibraryThing "To Read" collection:
For review:
The Longest Trip Home: A Memoir, by John Grogan (for TLC Book Tours)

The publisher surprised me with two other books in the same package:
Now & Then, by Jacqueline Sheehan
The Hidden: A Novel, by Tobias Hill
Since both of these were unsolicited, I don't feel obligated to read and review them, but at this point I let them hang out in TBR Purgatory for awhile - they both seem to have possibilities (despite their ratings on LibraryThing not being terribly impressive). They could end up as giveaway fodder at some point, though...

New additions to the Wishlist*:
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
The Confessions of Edward Day, by Valerie Martin

BOOKMARKS: Reading-related Reading

10 things bookstores should do to help themselves - would they help get you in the door and make you stick around? Also: what defines an "independent" bookstore?

Book bloggers have made a difference - how will the new FTC disclosure guides make things different for them?

The Book Case is compiling a new blogroll of "Book Blogs We Love" - check out their first highlights, and share your suggestions!

Is "common reading interests" one of your couple-compatibility tests? Also, the quest to create a reader...may actually be succeeding, even if it doesn't quite look that way

Dawn enjoyed The Lost Symbol, and I enjoyed her review of it!

Books that won't make your TBR list, because they don't actually exist

Book Events: Read-a-Thon Prep!

As I mentioned last week, I've signed up for the Fall edition of Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-thon - this will be my first one!

I have no illusions that I'll actually make it through 24 hours of reading, although my husband is considering going off with the kids for part of the day to leave me with my books. Still, there will probably be a few things to do that can't be put off, and I won't skip sleeping entirely. There may also be periods of stir-craziness that won't be satisfied by writing a progress update; I may need to step away from both the books and the computer now and then. Still, like many other Read-a-thon participants, I'm going through my shelves and putting aside some selections for next Saturday, looking for books that are not too long and could theoretically be fast reads. Here are my "possibles" ("(R)" signifies a book received for review):

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (these two are my "priority" reading for the weekend)
Nothing but Ghosts, by Beth Kephart
Best Friends Forever: A Novel, by Jennifer Weiner
In the Woods, by Tana French
Crossed Wires, by Rosy Thornton (R)
Love the One You're With, by Emily Giffin
Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster
The Longest Trip Home, by John Grogan (for the upcoming tour mentioned above) (R)
Heaven to Betsy/Betsy in Spite of Herself and Betsy Was a Junior/Betsy and Joe, by Maud Hart Lovelace (I've read them all before, but not for over thirty years)

After I took the photo, I went through my "2009 Book Acquisitions" list and found a couple more to add to the stacks, since I'm rather short on nonfiction:

Up for Renewal, by Cathy Alter

The Package Deal, by Izzy Rose (R)

And the thing sitting on top of the stack is my Kindle. I may start a new book on there too - most likely either The Help by Kathryn Stockett or This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper.

Most of the books I've picked qualify for at least one of the two reading challenges I'm working on.

Now I see why people get so excited about participating in the Read-a-thon - I can't believe how much I'm looking forward to digging in to those piles of books!

Are you participating in the Read-a-Thon too? Tell me about your reading plans!

What are you reading right now, and how are you enjoying it?

Week-End Review, 10/16: Travels across the Blogiverse this week

2009-10-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, my family and I will be walking a few miles to raise awareness and funds for the Alzheimer's Association at the 2009 Memory Walk in Thousand Oaks, California. We do this every year in remembrance of my mother, who passed away ten years ago this month. I've had a donation widget in my sidebar for a few weeks, and I'd like to say a big, public THANK YOU to everyone who has supported our team! (It's still not too late, by the way...)

====================================================================

Announcing the winners of the 1000-Post Celebration Giveaways, who were selected using Random.org's List Randomizer:

ARC Fiction Package: Amy of The House of the Seven Tails

"A Life Well Read" Organizer: Amy of Melniczenko Musings

LibraryThing Lifetime Membership: Cara of Ooh...Books

All of the winners have been notified by e-mail.

Thanks to everyone who entered! 64 individuals participated in all, but some got extra entries for spreading the word.

I had hoped that hosting this giveaway would be an opportunity to get to know a little more about who my readers are, which was why I asked the questions - thanks for humoring me and answering them. (I never would have imagined that I had so many readers in Portugal!) It was great to see that some of you have been hanging out here for a long time...but as it happens, all three winners are fairly recent subscribers/followers of The 3 R's. I hope this encourages them to stick around for awhile!

Dispatches: Links of the Week

Women undermining other women, or why no one will ever win the Mommy Wars - and why they're being fought over the wrong questions anyway

Faces of the health-care-reform discussion; Disney World is magical for food allergies

Is the FTC getting interested because blogging and product reviewing just aren't a good combination? (Personal opinion: in some cases, they aren't - or not good enough to be something I want to read, at least.)

There's no clapping in yoga, and other cautionary comments about the workout

Vocabulary begins at home (and sometimes grammar and punctuation do too)

More inappropriate Halloween costumes: characters your kids shouldn't even know about

The Amazing Race is my favorite "reality-TV" show, and recaps from the early "indie" days of Television Without Pity got me hooked on it: the former TWoPper formerly known as "Miss Alli" recaps this week's episode in classic TWoP style, all for a good cause

New Arrivals in my Google Reader

Advance Booking
The Written World
from the mixed-up files
House of the Seven Tails
The Book Case
Bookwormom

From the E-mail Inbox this week

Would you have signed up for the job if you'd known all this beforehand?

POSITION TITLE - PARENT:
Alternate titles:

Mom, Mommy, Mama, Ma, Mother
Dad, Daddy, Dada, Pa, Pop, Father

JOB DESCRIPTION:
Long term, team players needed, for challenging, permanent work in an often chaotic environment.

Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call.
Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities! (Travel expenses not reimbursed)
Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs $5.
Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly.
Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf.
Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers.
Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate production of multiple homework projects.
Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks.
Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next.
Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices.
Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product.
Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.

POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION:
None.
Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you.

EXPERIENCE/CREDENTIALS:
No education or licensing required (unfortunately)
On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION:

Get this: You pay them, offering frequent raises and bonuses!

A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them
become financially independent.
When you die, you give them whatever is left.
The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS:
While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered, this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth, unconditional love, and free hugs and kisses for life if you play your cards right.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What big weekend plans do you have?

Book talk: "Goldengrove," by Francine Prose - TLC Book Tour

2009-10-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Disclosures: I was provided with a paperback copy of this novel for review by the publisher, via TLC Book Tours. *The purchasing link at the end of the review goes through my Amazon Affiliates account.

Goldengrove: A Novel
Francine Prose
Harper Perennial, 2009 (Paperback) (ISBN 0060560029 / 9780060560027)
Fiction, 288 pages

First sentence: "We lived on the shore of Mirror Lake, and for many years our lives were as calm and transparent as its waters. Our old house followed the curve of the bank, in segments, like a train, each room and screened porch added on, one by one, decade by decade."

Book description: At the center of Francine Prose's profoundly moving new novel is a young girl facing the consequences of sudden loss after the death of her sister. As her parents drift toward their own risky consolations, thirteen-year-old Nico is left alone to grope toward understanding and clarity, falling into a seductive, dangerous relationship with her sister's enigmatic boyfriend.

Over one haunted summer, Nico must face that life-changing moment when children realize their parents can no longer help them. She learns about the power of art, of time and place, the mystery of loss and recovery. But for all the darkness at the novel's heart, the narrative itself is radiant with the lightness of summer and charged by the restless sexual tension of teenage life.

Comments: 13-year-old Nico was literally the last person to see her older sister Margaret alive. Margaret was a gifted singer and actress about to graduate from high school, and the girls were spending a lazy Sunday afternoon out on the lake in their family's rowboat. Margaret decided to dive from the boat into the lake and swim to shore, but she never came back up.

The shock of Margaret's sudden loss pushes the remaining members of the family in separate directions, rather than pulling them closer together. While her mother seeks to escape with prescription drugs and her father retreats to his bookstore, Goldengrove, and the book he's been writing for years, Nico seeks to connect with her sister's spirit; that leads her to the company of Margaret's artist boyfriend Aaron, who may be even more haunted than Nico is.

Francine Prose writes Goldengrove in Nico's voice, which keeps the focus squarely on her, and I thought that was a particularly appropriate narrative choice. Nico is 13, a particularly self-focused age; parents start to recede in importance, peers matter more, and everything is filtered through self-reference. The parental characters in Goldengrove seemed underdeveloped to me, but that also seemed correct; they've both pulled back in response to their elder child's death, while at the same time, Nico has reached an age where she's naturally beginning to grow in her own direction, and her own development matters more to her than anyone else's. I don't mean that to sound negative; it's a normal part of adolescence, and the crisis that Nico and her family are experiencing just makes it more pronounced. There is growth and development over the course of the summer and the story - for both Nico and her parents - and while I thought the ending was perhaps a little too neat, it was credible. Sometimes "moving on" happens so gradually that we don't realize we've done it until some time later, but sometimes it takes a conscious decision.

While reading Goldengrove, I kept returning to a recent discussion of YA literature. While this has been published and marketed as an adult novel, I think one could make a convincing case for it as young-adult literature. It's thoughtful and beautifully written, and while its themes of grief, loss and developing maturity are serious ones, they're not inappropriate for older high-school students. But if the distinguishing characteristic of YA is "a teenage protagonist," both its narrator and its perspective would seem to make this novel fit within that genre.

Rating: 3.75/5

Buy Goldengrove: A Novel at Amazon.com*

This is the final stop on the TLC Book Tour for Goldengrove. Previous stops were:

Tuesday, September 22nd: Book Magic

Wednesday, September 23rd: Eclectic Book Lover

Thursday, September 24th: The Bluestocking Society

Tuesday, September 29th: Dolce Bellezza

Thursday, October 1st: A Sea of Books

Monday, October 5th: A High and Hidden Place

Tuesday, October 6th: Books on the Brain

Wednesday, October 7th: S. Krishna’s Books

Thursday, October 8th : Book Chatter and Other Stuff

Tuesday, October 13th: Caribousmom

Wednesday, October 14th: Literate Housewife

Awards and ABC's

2009-10-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

I have been seriously negligent in acknowledging a few awards that have been generously bestowed on this blog, so I'd like to atone for that right now! I have already updated the "Awards Shelf" link at the top of my blog header to include them.

Rather than pass these along at this late date, I invite you to visit the wonderful bloggers who shared these awards with me, and get to know them if you don't already!

The Heartfelt Award came from Mari at Bookworm with a View.

Do you reach for a cup of cocoa or tea when you're relaxing, seeking comfort, sharing a plate of cookies with family and friends? You know the feeling you get when you drink a yummy cup of cocoa, tea, or a hot toddy? That is what the Heartfelt Award is all about, feeling warm inside.

Thank you to Amy of Amy Reads Good Books for the Kreativ Blogger Award!

This one asks the recipient to name seven favorite things:

My husband's laugh
My dog's tail
Reading in bed
Eating pasta
Long walks on mild weekend mornings
Reading over coffee at Starbucks
Days off from work

Sheri at A Novel Menagerie made me one of 5 winners at BINGO! (The I is for "Informative.") The “B-I-N-G-O” BEAUTIFUL BLOG AWARD was started by Bookin With BINGO.

Thanks to Kristen at BookNAround for awarding the lovely Splash Award to The 3 R's for a second time!

I'd also like to thank a few of my favorite bloggers who gave shout-outs to The 3 R's as one of their favorite book blogs during Day 1 of Book Blogger Appreciation Week:

Julie of Booking Mama

Kathy of Bermudaonion

Dawn of She Is Too Fond of Books

Rebecca of The Book Lady's Blog

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You've probably seen The ABC Meme making the rounds, but since I haven't done it before, it's new here!

Available or single? Available for what? No, seriously, neither. After nearly 20 years with my son's father (18 of them married), I was single for four years, and have been happily married to my second husband for almost three years.

Best Friend? I've always had just a few very close friends, but not necessarily one "best friend." In fact, I have two answers for this one: my husband and my sister.

Cake or Pie? Cake! Especially if it's chocolate.

Drink of choice? I mostly drink water, to be honest. I also like lemonade, on its own or mixed with iced tea, and I must have coffee in the morning!

Essential item for every day use? Sunscreen. I live in Southern California.

Favorite color? Deep red.

Google? I am its slave. Without Gmail and Google Docs, let alone Search and Maps, my life would totally fall apart!

Hometown? Currently Simi Valley, California - but the place that still feels like home is Memphis, Tennessee. I didn't grow up there, but my son did.

Indulgences? Books, shoes, clothes, good food, the Internet

January or February? There's a difference?

Kids and their names? Christopher, 25 (and yes, I was very young when he was born!); I'm also stepmother to 15-year-old Caitlin and (almost) 10-year-old Spencer

Life is incomplete without…? Laughter

Marriage date? For the current (and it better be the last!) one: October 21, 2006

Number of siblings? One: my sister Teresa, who has been an occasional guest blogger here and who also contributes to the Los Angeles Moms Blog

Oranges or apples? Probably oranges, specifically satsumas or clementines - but I'd really rather have strawberries than either

Phobias and fears? Heights, crowds, making phone calls

Quote for the day? "Be who you are and say how you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -- Dr. Seuss

Reason to smile? My forties have been pretty good to me.

Season? They tend to blend together around here, but I've always liked spring best, because that's when my birthday is!

Tag 3 people: No, thanks. If you haven't done this one yet, feel free to steal it!

Unknown fact about me? If I told you, then you'd know, wouldn't you? Wait, here's one: I've never had a cavity.

Vegetable you hate? Brussels sprouts, and I'm not a big fan of cabbage either

Worst habit? Whichever one is annoying the most people at any given time. Wiggling out of answering questions. Procrastination.

X-rays you’ve had? Lungs

Your fave food? Just about any kind of pasta you can think of; really good bread; cheesecake brownies...Unfortunately for my weight, I do love the carbs!

Zodiac sign? Aries in the conventional zodiac (March 29), Dragon in the Chinese

Feel free to play along with this one, if you haven't already!