It's Monday (4/13/15)

It's Monday! is sponsored by Sheila at Book Journey.

 

 

Last week (and this morning) I finished two books, Bill O'Reilly's Killing Jesus and George Eliot's Middlemarch. While I learned a great deal from Killing Jesus, my heat is broken for having to leave Middlemarch. It's catapulted into my top three favorite reads. George Eliot is the genius of emotional intelligence.

 

 

I'm still working on Good Poems: American Places. This might be Garrison Keillor's best collection yet. Or maybe I'm just really, really in the mood for poetry.

 

When I finished Killing Jesus, I picked up the long-awaited Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin. Her style is so familiar, and I'm really enjoying the book. I'll likely finish it tomorrow, and then the wait for her next book will begin!

 

 

 

 

What's next? This one, I think:

 What are you reading this week?

Friday Finds (4/10/15)

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

 

This week I've added a book a book that I tried reading before, My Life in Middlemarch. Nearly the completion of Middlemarch, I am not ready for it to end, and I'm going to try this "companion" book again. I have a feeling the reason it did little to excite my interest the first time was that I hadn't read Middlemarch and had no investment in the story or the characters.

 

Another book based on a book this week is Alexander McCall Smith's Emma: A Modern Retelling. I've meant to read something by this author, though I'm probably cheating by not reading one of his mysteries.

 

I've been reading a ton of poetry this month. (It is National Poetry Month, after all.) I'm trying to get through over 900 poems I've set aside for a favorite poems volume, hopefully narrowing selections to 100 or 200 poems for my personal enjoyment. While re-reading, I ran across some Ellen Bass poems that made me want to read more by her, so I've added her most recent book, Like a Beggar, to my TBR.

 

Reading Nothing to Envy was likely enough information for me about North Korea for quite some time, but I might consider reading The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot if it gets rave reviews.

 

What's new to your list this week?

The April Fools Trick I Played on My Husband

Around our house, my husband and I play tricks on each other frequently. We also leave love notes. We also thank each other for things a lot. Those three things make our home and marriage a lot of fun.

I spent all day Wednesday thinking of a good trick to play on him; I even Googled "best April Fools pranks" but only came up with stupid or mean ones. (I'm never going to put blue food coloring on his toothbrush, for instance.) And then it occurred to me that a pretty good joke would be to empty one room in our house completely. The best candidate for this was the bathroom. Ours is very small, but it still took three boxes to remove everything. (And when I say "everything" I'm talking everything but the light bulbs.)

Brian came home to this:

 

Actually, the joke was too good. He thought I was going a thorough cleaning (we were having guests for Easter, after all), but after looking around it did seem a bit too thorough. Knowing I'd blow it if I was around when he discovered the room, I had to wait awhile to come up behind him and say, "April Fools!"

 

Then he asked me for a towel.

 

When he got over the shock, he said it was the best prank I've ever done.

 

The joke was on me, however. Not only did I have to empty the room, I had to put everything back!

 

 

Play any April Fools Day pranks this year? Tell me about them!

It's Monday! (4/6/15)

It's Monday! is sponsored by Sheila at Book Journey.

 

Happy Monday. Hope you all had a nice Easter. My husband and I hosted my mother, brother, and his new girlfriend and two of her children after church. We had roast chicken and my mother's famous chocolate cake. It was a very nice day.

 

And now we're back at it.

 

 

Last week I finished Little House in the Big Woods, the first in the Little House series. I've been assured the subsequent books are more interesting, so I probably won't stop reading them, but I might not pick up the next one for awhile.

 

I also finished Bill Bryson's At Home last week. It was kind of a slog, but mostly because I didn't allow myself to get into it until well over the halfway point. I think I resented that it wasn't what I expected and fought it. What an odd phenomenon.

 

After finishing At Home, I picked up Bill O'Reilly's Killing Jesus, just in time for Easter.

 

 

And I'm continuing with Good Poems: American Places and my audio of Middlemarch, which I'm nearing the end of.

 

After Killing Jesus, I'll likely pick up the long-awaited Better Than Before. April's going to be a great month!

 

 

 

What are you reading this week?

 

Friday Finds (4/3/15)

 

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

 

Happy April, everyone! Hope you're enjoying spring and Easter plans and reading. This is the time of year when I want to read everything and explore new genres and ideas. My April reading list is long, but I'm looking forward to every title on it. Maybe May will have room for some of these.

 

I don't have children (though I do have adult stepchildren my age--long story), and this childless/childfree status is not one I talk about much. Mostly because no one asks. This is one topic women just don't seem to broach with each other. I'm interested to hear what others in my circumstance have to say, so I'm excited to read Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed.

 

The Folded Clock is a diary kept sort of in response to Heidi Julavits finding her girlhood diaries. (Or something like that.) I have a weakness for quiet, reflective books, which is what I anticipate this one to be.

 

I didn't discover Sherlock Holmes until late in college. And I was enthralled. I've enjoyed the old movies as well (Basil Rathbone is the only Holmes in my book, though), so I'm interested to read The Great Detective: The Amazing Rise and Immortal Life of Sherlock Holmes.

 

I stumbled upon The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate which won the Newbery Honor in 2010. It's about 11-year-old Calpurnia (Callie) who becomes a junior naturalist and describes life in 1899.

 

I hesitate to even include Toddlers Are A**holes. I thoroughly enjoyed Bunmi Laditan's The Honest Toddler (originally a blog). It. Is. Hilarious. But the title of her self-published follow-up book really turns me off. The title might keep me from reading it. But if you have ever raised or known a toddler, you should check out The Honest Toddler. It perfectly captures the irrational nature and various moods of the little. It pushes the envelope with wry humor, but I don't remember it including bad language.

What have you discovered this week?

April Reading List

 

And here we are. April. A literal breath of fresh air.

 

I've been doing well this year with choosing a month's worth of books to read and then actually reading them. Not that I've ever had a lot of trouble with choosing my next book, but I've found that I enjoy the roadmap of a month-long reading list. I try to choose a variety of genres and topics, and this month in addition to my favorite, nonfiction, I have a re-read, audio fiction, poetry, and children's fiction.  

I'm reading three books going into April. Both At Home and Good Poems: American Places are books from my April reading list that I began in March because the book I'd planned to read (Life from Scratch) didn't really appeal to me (guess you could say I "scratched" it). Middlemarch is the super-long audio book I've been working on for weeks.

 

 

I have three March and April releases on my list. I've been anticipating Gretchen Rubin's Better Than Before for months. I've heard great things about Nina MacLaughlin's Hammer Head, and I think Mary Norris's Between You & Me sounds like something I'll really enjoy.

 

 

I'd planned to read Bill O'Reilly's Killing Lincoln this year, but since it's the Easter season, I think I'll tackle Killing Jesus next. I've had The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up for a few weeks now, and I seem to be the last of all the bloggers to read it. I love decluttering books. Which should tell you something about my personality, though I'm unsure what. And for a children's book, I've chosen The Penderwicks, a book that for some inexplicable reason I've become a bit obsessed with reading.

 

And for this month's re-read, I've chosen Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love. I read it when it came out and have since become a Gilbert devotee. I know some folks detest the book, and I'm eager to re-read it and see if it holds the same magic for me as it did originally.

 

And when I'm done with my audio of Middlemarch, I think I might listen to The Grapes of Wrath. I read the book in high school and loved it, and I've been wanting to revisit it. I'd originally planned to listen to Jane Eyre, but I'm thinking after Victorian Middlemarch, I might rather have something more modern.

 

And that's my list. I won't be able to finish a second audio book this month, so that's ten titles. I don't know that it's possible, since I don't anticipate any vacation days this month. But most of the books are short (under 300 pages), so I might zip through them pretty quickly. And I love a challenge.

What do you plan to read this month?

March 2015 Recap

 

March was full of great books for me. I'm telling you, this is my best year yet for reading great books that I really enjoy.

Fun

Inspiring

Enjoyable

 

Riveting

 

Gritty

Historic

 

Simple

 

Going into April, I'm reading:

 

 

I hope to finish At Home by the weekend and then move onto a lighter (or at least shorter) read. I'll be finishing Middlemarch in April, sniff sniff. And in honor of Poetry Month, I'll be reading Good Poems: American Places, Garrison Keillor's third Good Poems collection.

 

I'll be posting my April reading list soon. It's deliciously ambitious. Stay tuned.