A Cerebral Accumulation ...

Yay! Football!

2011-09-18T18:13:00.003-05:00

I missed writing a post last Sunday so I’ll have to update two weeks’ worth of news in this post.

Nora has had her first two Preschool Days and has had a lot of fun with her friends. I am so grateful she has the opportunity to spend these couple of hours with other kids doing activities. It’s like a playgroup except one mom takes all five kids and does craft and a series of learning activities. This week is my turn and I am pretty lucky I have three older helpers to make things easier for me. (we’ll see)

Friday a week ago I took my 1hr. glucose test and didn’t pass, but the OB said it wasn’t bad enough to do anything about except for telling me to eat better. I was also low on my blood count so I have to take Iron (nothing new) and was told again to eat better. I’ll talk about what I’m doing to change things in my next letter.

Lily has begun rehearsals for the Nutcracker Ballet. She is having a little bit of a struggle because she was the only girl in her level that was given an angel part, matching her to smaller and also younger girls. She feels left out of her group and sad about being small for the first time. I’ve talked to her about the importance of conformity in some aspects of ballet. I think she understands why she was put where she is but it’s hard sometimes. She is still having a lot of fun doing the Party Scene with many more of the kids.

I had my monthly book group meeting at my house last Saturday. We discussed a book about a boy dealing with the loss of his father on 9/11, so it was well timed. Most of us really liked the book and felt it had a good message, despite it’s being extremely weird and incredibly strange.

Riis started his soccer season and has the same color (turquoise) and name as last time(Sharks), but completely different boys and coach. Their first game was Saturday and they did really great. It was a tie but they kept the ball in the other team’s half most of the game.

I did some extra cleaning work this week in addition to school. Before book group last week I’d worked really hard cleaning the house. (I always use people coming over as a motivator to get extra cleaning done!) I had the kids help and they washed floors and scrubbed the cupboards in the kitchen, plus other things. Sunday my body hurt and I had to recover. That day the kids got out paper and crafts and then left a huge mess. I was getting really upset telling them to take care of things but no one was taking accountability for the messes and things only got worse. I said on Thursday morning we’d take an hour out of our schedule to do extra straightening. When that hour was up and things were still a disaster I went into Commando Parenting mode. I was so disheartened by their messes and my inability to train them, as well as keep up with all of it that I decided to act on one of my favorite threats. I have in the past put many of the kids toys in the garage. I constantly comb through and get rid of old things we don’t need, but this time I took every single toy out of the girls’ room and put them in the garage. I felt bad doing it, but after the day was over and I had picked up a half a trash bag full of trash out of their room and still had to constantly ask them to put shoes away, pick up towels and blankets, etc. I didn’t feel bad anymore. Riis didn’t get any toys taken away because he always takes care of his toys and keeps his bed made and room straightened. I will just have to keep the girls out of his room now! The girls have very little hope of getting their toys back in their current state.

This past weekend it also rained a lot which was wonderful! It was almost amazing to see the rain and Casey said he was distracted by all of the rain washing away down gutters and into storm drains, wishing it could’ve been saved somehow. Unfortunately it’s going to take a lot more rain to recover from this drought!

On Saturday Casey ran a two-fifths marathon, which equals out to about 10.5 miles. He finished with a time of 1:25 which is about 8:11 a mile. He ended up getting really bad reflux during the race but felt good otherwise. He also got first for his age division. It is great to see how happy he gets when he runs races.

After an incredibly busy Saturday I went out with my sisters. Aslinn planned the fun as part of her birthday present. First we ate dinner at a place called Simply Fondue. We had the cheese fondue appetizer and chocolate dessert fondue. It was delicious! Then we went to see a comedy improve group called Four Day Weekend. They were hilarious! They talk to people in the audience and have funny conversations with them and then act out skits about the people as part of their show. Marina got chosen out of the audience to go down on stage and be part of a skit. She was supposed to be going on a police “ride-along” for “citizens on patrol.” The officer/comedian sat next to her and asked her name and then said, “Marina? I once knew a girl named Marina. I asked her out in Jr. High but she wouldn’t go out with me.” Then he continued and said, “Your maiden name wouldn’t be Washburn, would it?” AT this point we were floored. Marina was laughing and nodding, but she didn’t know who he was. He said, “Are you from Farmington, NM?” (nod) “You went to Hermosa Jr. High?” (nodding and laughing) And it continued this way while he remembered things and asked her more questions. The comedian (Josh) was so funny and he and the rest of the group continued to bring up their “acquaintance” for the rest of the evening. Luckily Marina finally remembered who he was. She said he was really funny as a kid so I guess he picked the right career!

Well, that about covers the past two weeks. School is going great. We’ve finished 7 weeks of school and done 192 hours total, averaging 28 hours a week. We’ve also averaged over 10 hours a week of extracurricular activities, not including driving time, trips to the library, errands, etc. I track weeks, but I calculate days of school completed based on hours done so we’ve done 32 days of school so far this year. I hope I can keep it up as I’m now in my 3rd trimester of pregnancy!

Thanks for reading!

More About the Kids

2011-09-04T21:11:00.002-05:00

The best news here is that a cold front will relieve us of our 100* degree temperatures this week for the first time since early May! I am so excited to feel what an 80* day feels like, and hopefully our electric bill won’t be quite as shocking next month! I plan to take the kids to the zoo to celebrate! We haven’t been to our zoo here since Leonora was about 18 mo. old!

Lily got her parts for the Nutcracker Ballet this week. She is going to be a Party Girl and an Angel. The rehearsals call for her to be at ballet for three hours every Saturday until the performance in November! This year there will also be 3 performances! This will keep Lily very busy and she is so excited!

Nothing else out of the ordinary happened this week. We had some playdates, various lessons, and Casey got to take the kids to the park.

More about the kids:
Lily is very motivated in doing her science and works through all of her lessons and experiments with very little help from me. She is also having a better time at math this year since moving out of the workbook phase of Saxon Math and into the Text Book phase. Lily has been reading at her usual pace and so far this school year has read The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, The Five Little Peppers Midway, The Big Wave, A Single Shard, and The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus (which by itself is over 600 pages). She also reads every story book and history book I bring home from the library (average 30 per week), and even many of the simple readers I check out for Riis and Evelyn. She tends to like most everything she reads and only occasionally will say she didn’t like a certain book.

Evelyn is trying to find her place in our little school. It is surprising to me sometimes that it would be her that is stubborn and also competitive. She is doing much better in reading and is reading more books in her free time which is really great to see. She has taken up drawing and lately we’ve been practicing drawing birds. She likes to trace and color birds out of books, but I checked out drawing books from the library so we’re working on drawing freehand as well. Evelyn has also begun to speak up more when she knows an answer to something which she hasn’t done very much of in the past.

I hate to label Riis, but I’m beginning to see in him a bit of all-or-nothing mentality. He swings on either end of a broad spectrum of emotions and motivation. He works really hard and focused at his work, usually, but sometimes he decides he’s overwhelmed and it takes encouragement to get over his mental hurdle. A messy room for him is very overwhelming so I think he is much happier when it stays neat and clean and no one plays with his toys! In general if he stays fed and gets regular breaks, he is so great to be around. He also loves gymnastics and talks about the skills he learns and how important it is for him to be strong.

Leonora has been a “super-colorer” and a massive producer. Unfortunately I think it’s gotten old for her. Instead of darkly coloring in page after page and staying in the lines, she has moved on to scribble. She loves to use pencils and trace lines and also use scissors. I think she is growing up in so many ways, and she’s moved out of the cute baby phase in her siblings minds, and on to the annoying little sister phase. During our school day she gets out her own activities to do (shapes, play doh, lite brite, puzzles, coloring, etc.) and puts them all away when she’s done.

We haven't started French lessons yet and hope to do so by next week. I used to save French for the last thing of the day on the schedule. It's not recommended to do that since subjects that require more concentration are supposed to be done first in the day. But I never had time to do the French at the end of the day anyway. So I made the kids all their own 3 ring binder with French lessons in it. I keep the binders in the car and we do French in the car as we're driving to our various activities. They can follow along in their notebooks or just listen. This gives them the opportunity to hear French in short bursts of time, but it adds up to about 3 hours during a school week. (And that's not even our total driving time!) It's actually a huge sacrifice for me to do this. I really would prefer to listen to adults talking on the radio and not kid stuff. I have the French Power Glide junior, Lyrical Language French songs, and Baron's French cds. I have another song tape we listen to in the kitchen occassionally, story books, flash cards, etc.

Weekly Update!

2011-08-28T23:11:00.004-05:00

This week we had a lot going on, and I hit a little bit of a wall and fizzled out on Friday. We still totaled 27 hours of school with almost 14 hours of instruction/activities so I am still calling this week a success!

Aside from the usual, the more happy events began on Tuesday with the return of Evelyn and I’s violin teacher. She had been on her honeymoon to Hawaii, followed by a working tour in Australia for a few weeks. Her name is Oksana , she was raised in Latvia, and grew up going to a music school under the communist regime. (We love her Russian accent and when she calls Evelyn "darling.") She moved to the US about ten years ago and received multiple music degrees at TCU. She plays with the Dallas Symphony, which is a huge accomplishment because she has to compete against violinists who are able to devote their entire days to practicing (and often have violins worth hundreds of thousands) while Oksana also teaches at TCU and maintains 40-50 students! She is married to a violinist who is professor at TCU and a soloist. We feel so blessed to have such an amazing instructor.

We were able to go to Marina and Abin’s house one night this week for dinner and so the kids could swim. Aslinn also came for another visit this week. It’s so good to be able to spend time with my sisters and it helps keep me sane! I am so grateful for my sisters! The kids also got to play with their cousins on Saturday, and thanks to Uncle Abin they all got to color big pictures and create sculptures of clay. Evelyn was especially ambitious, making about six different animals. Lily made a little black gecko which she is still hiding all around the house and carrying with her sometimes.

Lily had a very happy week because her close friend who she’s played with just about every week for years came home from a summer vacation in California, and they were able to have some fun playtime. Lily also had her audition for the Nutcracker ballet. It is a yearly performance put on by the Ballet Frontier of Texas, a professional ballet company. Every child gets at least one part and has to attend 10 weeks of rehearsals on Saturday until the performance on November 19th. If any of you are able to come I highly recommend it. It is a ballet performance put on by paid professional ballet dancers as well as some students.

On Friday night we got to socialize with some friends at a BBQ. It was still way too hot to be outdoors and we were laughing that this and Brian’s birthday BBQ have been our only BBQs this summer. Maybe I should also count one time Uncle Abin grilled for us!

Because we studied a little about the history of Australia and New Zealand this week, I decided to show the kids Whale Rider for family movie night. I had to preview the movie because it is PG13. I ended up having to skip only one small part, but I was still concerned that the movie would be too grown up for the kids. Riis ended up asking “Why is this movie so long?” but the girls loved it. I think Lily in particular was sympathetic towards the young girl who wasn’t accepted because she was a girl. Lily has begun asking me gender identity types of questions, such as why girls were restricted from doing certain things, etc. We’ve had some good talks about it and this movie was a good reinforcement for some of her ideas.

Casey was on call this week and also worked at his overnight jobs several nights. A couple of nights he was kept up by patients “in trouble.” This has left Casey terribly exhausted, but he still found the time to go buy new faucets and hoses and change them for us. We really tried to overwater our lawn this weekend before mandatory water restrictions begin tomorrow. We knew it would happen eventually due to the severe drought we are experiencing. Now we are only allowed to water 2 times a week during the morning and evening. I did hear that the dozens of wells digging for natural gas in the city will continue drilling. They use about 20,000 gallons of water a day!

Today we rested and tried to get rejuvenated for the upcoming week. Casey pulled out the paint supplies and he and the kids produced massive amounts of works of art, as well as a massive mess! It was all done for Grandma Judi’s birthday, so he could send pictures to her. Leonora topped everyone in productivity, of course, and I’m glad Judi gets most of them because we don’t have room for even a quarter of them! Happy Birthday Grandma Judi!

I hope this coming week is as great as the past several weeks have been. Sometimes the thought hits me that I really have to keep doing this week after week, and even year after year. I feel stretched so much, and when I think that I can't just quit and take a nice long break makes me feel like some kind of laborer or pioneer. Unlike laborers, my days are varied nicely so I can't really complain, but I feel like it's a life of endless toil in a way. Tomorrow there will still be laundry and meals to cook and all of the endless other hectic things. I suppose I should remember what the prophet Heber J. Grant liked to say, "That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased." If you want to know one of my main reasons for having a lot of kids and doing homeschool, that would be it: so that I am able to do more and love more. It's so I can change (and hopefully others in my family along with me!) and not in a selfish/self-absorbed way.

Weekly Update!

2011-08-21T22:37:00.003-05:00

Public school kids begin school tomorrow, or some of them have already begun in different parts of the country, but we started school here at home on August 1st. It had been my intention to school straight through the summer, but like every year past, that never happens. This year I was sick from about May through early July due to pregnancy. It was the longest I've been sick in any pregnancy and the heat around here didn't help. The forecast for this week is for high temps from 104-106* every day, just to give you an example of what our entire summer has been like. We have enjoyed going to my sister Marina's house to swim several times a week, but we haven't known much of any other outdoor play this summer.

School pretty much rules our lives around here. It has gotten quite a bit more demanding than ever due to Riis beginning a full schedule (last year he only did a half day), adding activities, and Leonora being of a mind to be fully involved as well. We have averaged 32 hours of school a week in the last three weeks with an additional ten hours of outside activities/instruction. Lily takes 2 ballet classes and piano plus Activity Day Girls at our church twice a month, Riis takes cello and gymnastics, Evelyn violin and tap class. Every week they also have play dates and time with their cousins swimming and trips to the library. The first two weeks of this schedule was overwhelming but I am really glad I began when I did because with the start of the public school year comes even more: Leonora is going to a co-op preschool one morning a week while we go to "Park Day" with a local Homeschool group, Evelyn adds violin group class to her regular lesson time, soccer practice/games begin for Riis, Lily will have Nutcracker practice on Saturdays, we will start doing French club again with their French teacher, and our playdates will become more interesting with more kids being involved.

I suppose I should say (though it's cliche) I'm living the life I always dreamed of. I find that I can be successful doing all of this if I get up early the same time every day. I don't really struggle with motivation if I get past that! Some days are hard and I even cry a little feeling a bit burdened, but I truly feel fulfillment from all of it. With the pregnancy I have the usual discomforts and some pain, but I try to take my breaks and count on Casey to do those dishes for me at night! Sometimes all those pots and pans can be like the straw that broke the camel's back! I couldn't do it all without Casey and I being a great team.

Casey has begun his last year of fellowship and can already see the benefits of being the chief fellow because he gets to make the schedule! This allows him to work more moonlighting hours and still obey the law. He is very driven to pay back our loans and I am so proud of him for being willing to work so hard going the extra mile! He does have to work overnight many nights of the month, but it seems to be working well for our family. Most nights he doesn't go in until 9:30pm and then he gets to sleep there.

We have also begun the job search. This has created a lot of turmoil and stress for us as we view our next place as more permanent. We are trying to have the same attitudes of faith that we've had when faced with other moves, and I'm very confident we'll go to where the Lord wants us to be and will be right for our family, but it's also hard to please everyone! We are looking for opportunities in Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Oregon. It is a very limited search area but Casey, especially, has felt that living close to mountains is our destiny. :) There aren't mountains in Texas but we had to stay open to the possibility of staying here since it's a great place to live and we've been so happy here. So far we have pursued two job opportunities and have been invited to one interview in a place I'm really excited about! Durango, Co may also be a possibility for us but we don't have an interview there yet.

Other things that went on this past week:
~Casey got out in the 100* heat (of course, because that's all there is) and got up on the roof to trim the trees. Not quite like my brother Mark who set up a logging operation in his backyard, but still impressive and time consuming.
~In celebration of the beginning of school for the cousins, we had Miriam, James, and Rachel over to spend the night for a big slumber party. In our family we don't "encourage" sleepovers but this is something that Miriam and Lily had been begging for for a couple of months. It was quite a party with the kids staying up past midnight and building forts, watching Shaun the Sheep, and eating choc chip cookies.
~Marina and Abin celebrated their tenth anniversary and Mark and Daciana celebrated their fifth anniversary this last week also. Congratulations to them!
~My sister Aslinn came over and we tried to do a yoga session together but I could barely move on the floor and the kids were way too distracting! Oh well. We'll try again later?
~The kids got to swim a couple of times and one of those times Uncle Abin bought about 40lbs of dry ice (again) for the pool.
~Evelyn had another eye check up with no changes (but at least she'll get to pick out new glasses) and Riis had an exam and was found to have great vision! Yay!
~ Leonora's 3rd birthday was last Sunday and we celebrated with presents and cake, but no party because I was all partied out after Evelyn and Lily's parties. I hope for her sake I don't burn out every year.
~Nora is also successfully potty trained. I have to say that she was fully ready almost a year ago but I was not willing & ready myself. I put it off and now I wonder why I did because it is so nice having a potty trained child. So for the first time in NINE years our home is diaper free. (temporarily)

Busy is how I like it and I hope every week is just as crazy!

What I Learned This Week

2011-05-31T23:45:00.003-05:00

I blame it on the iPhone. You see, I can't blog from the phone! At least, I have yet to find an easy way to do it. My laptop is pretty much dead and takes roughly 20min. to start so I completely stopped using my computer. Right now Casey is out of town and he left me his computer. I realize I need to write a post while I have the chance.

First off in news is my Mom's mission call to Cebu Philippines. She is really excited and we are excited for her. She gets to work in the Employment Office which is right up her alley as she is a social worker. My cousin Danny also went to that same mission. It seems to be common that people I'm related to get called to the same missions as others of their relatives and siblings, especially if I include the Bushman family. She departs in September, which seems forever away, but I hear she has a lot to keep her busy until she leaves. Next week she'll be here to stay for a month. She's bringing the rest of her belongings to store at our houses and she will be here for the birth of Braslinn's baby "Russell" who is due July 10!

In our family news there is a lot to tell also.

Casey is finishing up year one of his Rheum fellowship and has begun the job hunt. He has hoped for a long time to get a job in CO but so far he's coming up empty. He is in the Denver area right now. His cousin was married on Sunday in Salida and he got to attend that and then he and his sister Lacie and his mom ran the bolderBoulder together. It was not a first time for his mom and sis but a first for him and he loved it. He wants us all to go do it as a family next year. Now he is taking a couple of days to look for possible employment.

Casey is doing well in his fellowship. He was asked to be the Chief Fellow for next year which will give our family a bonus and his resume a great bonus as well. Recently Casey had a Rheum conference in Destin, FL and we all went with him for a family vacation before and after the conference. We were gone for 12 days. I would love to post pics but I don't download pics on Casey's computer! I'll have to fix that later.

The conference was only 4 days long and didn't take up his whole day, so we had many days to enjoy the white beaches and play. Unfortunately we were beset with misfortunes from the beginning of our trip. Lily got stitches on her forehead and was supposed to stay out of the water and we had to put a waterproof patch on her every time she wanted to swim, which was every day. Then she got a very deep scrape on her foot from a kayak that caused her a lot of pain. She also spilled hot soup on her chest and got scalded. The whole experience of getting hurt so frequently was hard for her. On top of that one day at the beach she didn't get sunscreen on in time and got a really nasty burn. We had to buy her a swim shirt and shorts so she could still go out and play. Leonora and Evelyn got very sick on the trip with terrible coughing at night, keeping them and us awake. They continued the coughing until about a week after we returned home. Riis also got sunburned on his back one day and I got a terrible sunburn just on my shoulders and upper thighs. I was mostly tanned already everywhere else but my shoulder was so bad I blistered. To top that off I was really sick with some other health issues. I even had to stay at the hotel and miss out on at least one of the fun days. It was a really trying experience and not the best vacation, even though we were in one of the best vacation spots in the US. We said we'd definitely go back, maybe even next year?

The same week we returned home, with Evelyn still really sick and not having practiced like we should, Evelyn had a violin recital. She played Minuet 1 by Bach and messed up quite a bit, but of all the kids (most older than her) she played the loudest. She was also very happy having played, even knowing she messed up. When I hear her play it's always reassuring to me that I put her in the right activity. She didn't want to do dance and soccer is fun for a couple of months out of the year, but in violin I think she can really be happy.

Casey finished putting in a fence for our dog run. We're working on repairing the damage done to our yard but it's a slow process. I supppose that's all the news I can share for now!

What I Learned This Week

2011-04-10T21:38:00.003-05:00

I am still doing some learning with the new iPhone this week. I learned that I could listen to General Conference live while cheering on my son's soccer game. It was a bit less effective but I got something out of it. I also listened to Conference while driving to pick up my husband from the airport. I learned that I might not be as dedicated to taking the kids to the church building to watch Conference like we usually do when my husband is out of town and I have the handy iPhone.

Sorry about the iPhone comments, but I learned that it's really hard to keep those things clean. I have mine in an Otter Box and it collects so much fuzz and crumbs it was gross, and I never can seem to keep that screen smudge free.

I learned that my saying "Everyone get in the car, please" more than five times before church may send certain people over the edge. Even if it's a polite request, and important, don't nag.

My mom moved a Uhaul load from her house in ABQ into Marina's house this week. She has added to her family two grand pianos, an electric piano, and a huge organ. My mom bequeathed upon me her cello and many more violins, including an electric one. I'm hoping to trade the violins for a cello for Riis. My mom is going on a Mission soon and doesn't want to put these things in storage. Can't blame her and I'm just glad we only have room for violins and not pianos and organs! I asked to keep family history items to copy while she's away. My mom "gave" me copies on disc of all my Grandpa's slides. I hope to reconfigure those so they are viewable on DVD and labeled. Also a small little book with writing and original photographs of my Grandmother. I plan to make enlarged copies. (I wish I had more.)

When I was a kid the Gardners in Star Valley used to hold huge family reunions. Back in 1978 at one of these reunions ALL of the living family members were preseted with a copy of family history information and given a book full of copied old photographs. This was quite a big deal because it was a big family. My Grandfather Wallace Gardner had ten kids in his family. Even though I was only about 3 1/2, there was a copy for me and my two siblings and my brother who wasn't even born yet. Well, my mom just barely gave me those copies this week. Which just goes to show that if they hadn't done all that work then, I and my siblings and cousins would've likely never been in possession of copies of those pictures and information. I am so grateful to them.

Oh, and Evelyn is getting good at soccer and still loves it.

What I Learned This Week

2011-03-08T16:43:00.003-06:00

Most of my week wasn't filled with SuperLearning. The girls & I were reading a book about Celts today and it talked about Bards & how when they would go to sleep they would hope to be visited by "the Learning Fairy". We got a good laugh out of that but I suppose since we're Christian and not pagans we'll place our hopes elsewhere.

Riis hit his head on one of the kid desks and cut his head open. It was only about a cm wide but pretty deep, and you probably know head injuries really bleed. In this case he bled all through the house before he found me. It was fun calming him down and trying to explain his eyebrow wasn't missing! While I took care of Riis the girls were putting wet rags on all the blood spots. It took us over two hours of scrubbing to clean the carpet.

Riis and Evelyn had soccer practice right after that & Riis went even though his head hurt. They are on the same team this season because of the 5/6 age division. Riis gets to learn a position this year. He is getting better with the ball but I am concerned about him being made to stand in one place because he loses focus so easily. There are too many hawks to watch, and there was even a dead bunny on the field, too! That's distracting.

Did I mention last time about the fence Casey is building? Because of my way sweet & cute dog's destructive tendencies she can't be a house dog. Now she can't even be a yard dog. She will be in a dog run 60' long and 9' wide that borders the neighbors with the scary big dogs. I am so happy! On Saturday Casey came home from work & cut down trees, dug post holes, & cemented them in place.

Casey is so awesome that if he wants something (e.g. iPhone 4) I don't say no. Well, at first I didn't say yes, but he got what he wanted & got me one, too! It shut down while I was using it and I learned how to restart it. I've learned that I can talk on the phone and play SpiderSolitaire and listen to the radio. I have also learned that it is a major distraction! I haven't gotten my (extra) book read for book group this week! But it is really great learning all of the wonderful things I can do with this phone! I am not Tech hungry (mostly because of the distraction factor) but once I have it, I am not going to give it up.

This post is really late because I haven't had time to add pics. I'm going to go ahead and post it and move on. Sorry!

What I Learned This Week:

2011-02-28T19:35:00.006-06:00

I learned what happens when a big man passes out on the treadmill at the gym. I've never seen that before and it was memorable! (He didn't die so relax.)

The Cowtown Races were this past weekend.
How is a person supposed to run in all of this? Race? Are you kidding?

Lily can run a 5k and loves it.
Here's Lily enjoying her first Runner's High

Casey can race and do well in a 10k, of course, but now his knees hurt him. Not good. I also learned that Casey weighs the same as he did when we got married. No surprise there.

I decided I don't like our dog anymore. She's still really sweet but there's not enough room for more crap in my life.

Nora keeps calling her toy teapot her "peepot." There's only so many times a day I can handle hearing her say, "where's my peepot?" It only adds to my dismay when she walks around with it full of water. "I spilled my peepot, Mom!"

Riis thinks I don't like him. In fact, every time he gets disappointed about the littlest thing he tells me (sometimes way too loudly) it's because I don't like him. When Riis talks about himself he also likes to do it in third person. "Riis likes to have fun, Mom!" Riis also found another great spot to sleep. I have quite a collection of these now.

It cost over $300 to get rid of the squeaky sound our van was making, but it was worth it. The $8 car wash? Total waste.

Some of you may have read my posts (over at Coan Cluster) about my crazy neighbors next door. I got to go over and have a tour of the renovated place. They completely tiled the living areas and recarpeted bedrooms, but with built-in shelves and desks plus wood panelling it still looks like a crappy/creepy place. I learned from the new owner/landlord that the previous owners painted all of the bedrooms black, put mirrors on the ceilings, and sexual paraphernalia was everywhere. (He kept saying "everywhere" over and over again.) I also discovered that their kitchen window looks directly into my backyard (and the swing set where my kids play). He also showed me the biggest safe I've ever seen in my life. A 500 lb. man could live inside it. He then showed me a family picture of Lisa (the crazy drugged out lady with missing teeth) and her son (now a drop-out teen) plus the deceased husband and another daughter I've never seen. The picture was freaky because they look like such a nice family. Lisa didn't have her hair dyed black. She had all her teeth. Justin was cute and smiling. They looked nice. It's amazing what drugs (and porn and money, in their case) will do to people!

The End of Empire: Attila the Hun & the Fall of Rome

2011-02-28T18:32:00.004-06:00

by Christopher Kelly
Nonfiction, 333pp.

I finished reading this book over two weeks ago and the initial reactions I had have mostly gone out of my brain. I also didn't take enough time writing this review but I loved this book and recommend it to everyone. Who wouldn't love hearing about the real Attila the Hun? What made this book truly great in my eyes is the correlation between Attila on the Roman Empire and its demise. The cause and effect relationship he describes makes this a valuable historical work, not one describing only the facts, but showing the relationships and consequences of actions. He draws conclusions in this book that differ from the opinions of other historians and he is good enough to tell us what others have said and why he disagrees or has come to certain understandings. His deductions are interesting and intelligent. This never seems like a dry historical read.

First the author, Kelly, points out the difficulties facing the Roman Empire: its scope and the enemies it faces on different sides, plus the communication difficulties. Then come the Tervingi & Greithungi (Goths) crossing the Danube. They are trying to escape the Huns who are moving onto the Hungarian Plain from who knows where! Allowing those Goths to move across the Danube will have its consequences for the empire! Valens ceases the war in Persia because of the threat. The Battle of Andrionope takes place, being the greatest defeat ever to the Romans in 700 years! 20-30,000 Romans are killed including Emperor Valens (by these Goths).

Marcellinus (Roman writer) has this terrible description of the Huns. They are savage, dirty, eat raw meat, don't bathe, live on their horses and in wagons, and more (everything you'd imagine barbarians to be). But what it means to be Roman is having a certain worldview. Those outside the domain of this worldview were all barbarians. It was a Classical prejudice. Marcellinus's writings were likely influenced by Herodotus's 5th BC fantastical views of groups of barbarians which had helped Romans with their feelings of superiority. Tacitus, 100 AD, is the first to pose questions about their true nature and attempt an ethnological study.

Eugéne Delacroix (1798-1863), Atilla suivi de ses hordes, foule aux pieds libéralisme, Marxisme, et pacifisme, Bibliothèque, Palais Bourbon, Paris, 1843-47

Huns are described. It's everything we imagine but with greater detail.

Goths below the Danube are used as a buffer zone between the Romans and Hun attacks. Alaric (we've all heard of him?) united with the Romans to fight the Huns! Then after the Huns are pushed back in 398 the Goths start fighting the Romans and the Romans hire Huns to fight the Goths. The Vandals and the Alans are in France and Britain and then the Goths keep coming until finally Alaric is sacking Rome in 410 because the stupid Romans won't come to a treaty with them. The unrest of all of these borders and the pressure on the Goths is caused by the Huns influx from 370 on.

So the Huns are occupying the middle Danube area from 410-465, including the time when Attila was in charge. Why they didn't last is discussed, such as how leadership is determined and how they were a parasitic people, not like the Romans who enforced a change on the people they conquered. The Hun way of life depended on the people they conquered maintaining their original occupations, etc.

The book talks about what is going on on the Persian side and a war started around 420 lasting only 2 years because of the Hun threat. There is also Geiseric, the Vandal leader of the time, taking parts of Africa away that particularly the Western Roman Empire needs. The Romans make a treaty with the Huns and pull out the go fight Geiseric, but the minute they sail the Huns attack. Nothing is ever accomplished by the armada sailing to Africa either. Geiseric is so not cool, and in his sphere is just as bad as Attila. Why he isn't as famous is a mystery. He was a very effective conqueror.

Boniface and Aetius are the generals of the WRE and one is a supporter of Valentinian III and Galla Placidia and the other (Aetius) is a supporter of John the Bureaucrat. Valentinian becomes the emperor but Aetius is so powerful he is kept on, despite him hiring the Huns to come down and destroy them all. Aetius eventually kills Boniface, cheating in hand to hand combat. Aetius later throws a major opportunity to wipe out the Hun army. He stays clear out of the way while Attila comes right down into Italy and does his plundering there, using the excuse that he's coming to marry the sister of Valentinian who promised herself to him supposedly, and he now wants to claim her and his half of the kingdom by right of her inheritance. Finally Valentinian kills Aetius which completely kills his power ending the Roman empire in the West.

Obviously I've left out everything, but it's all really compelling stuff. Attila was incredibly savage in his campaigns into the Eastern Roman empire and later into France where he was nearly defeated but for Aetius and his double dealing.

There's a lot more to tell but we mostly want to read about Priscus and his famous account of having dinner with Attila. That is good stuff. Conspiracy, eunuchs, loyalty, disillusionment, and insults.

I'm not going to tell how Attila died or what happened to the Huns afterward. It's actually quite anticlimactic, but you might be interested so I won't talk about it. If you're ever interested in the Huns in Europe I hope you'll choose this book to read.

A History of the English Church and People

2011-02-28T17:13:00.005-06:00

by Bede (Venerable Baeda)
Nonfiction, 338pp.

Bede was born in AD 673 a Northumbrian and died May 25 AD 735. He served his life as a Historian Monk writing numerous pamphlets and books on scriptural subjects as well as history of the early Catholic Church in England. He is thought to be an accurate historian by the historians who study his and other writings of the time. While it is obvious that the miracles he describes are from hearsay or popular belief, he does his best to accurately tell of these miracles and the stories surrounding them. It is a time when people believed in the hand of God in their everyday lives and his writings reflect those attitudes.

The translation I read was very readable and enjoyable. I dove right in with great interest and it only began to be monotonous for me towards the end. There were so many kings who seemed to be following the same patterns throughout the book and keeping them and their ancestral lines straight became a little tedious, mostly because it didn't hold a lot of meaning for me personally. If one is studying the period then it's a great historical read, but it's not exactly a book to recommend for reading pleasure.

This book is divided into 5 books or periods of history.
1. A Geographical survey drawn from other writers and the Roman Occupation until the death of Gregory the Great.
2. From the death of Gregory the Great until the death of King Edwin; overthrow of Northumbria by pagan chieftan Penda.
3. Church's struggle against heathenism in the North; church going to Mercians & East Saxons.
4. The appointment of Theodore the Greek to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, his reform and reorganization of the church; lives of Cuthbert and Wilfrid and church progress in the SE provinces.
5. From Bishop John of Beverley until the book was finished in AD 731.

~ Understanding who the initial groups of people on the island of Britain was the first thing I gained from reading this book. The tribes and peoples inhabiting Britain would only unite into larger groups much later in history, and only because of the unifying force of Christianity, claims Bede. I had never heard before the difference between the groups, their origins and why there are Scotch-Irish and also Scottish peoples. I'd never known who the Picts were.

~ Roman leadership and occupation of parts of Britain and their bringing of Christianity to the isles is laid out as well as the end of Roman occupation in Britain.

~Pope Gregory's role in bringing Christianity to Britain and his sending Augustine to be the first Archbishop of Canterbury. (I had heard the story of his seeing the Angle slaves in the market and remarking of their fairness and also wanting to know if they've received Christianity. He vowed to himself that he would bring them Christianity and later did so when he became Pope.) Pope Gregory the Great was really remarkable to me and I loved reading his letters in the book.

~ Some of the kings that were remarkable to me were King Ethelbert of Kent in 597 AD, King Ethelfrid of the Northumbrians in 603 AD, King Edwin of the Northumbrians in 625 AD, King Oswald The Christian in 635 AD.

~ There is a recurring theme of kings and queens, or their near relations, leaving their kingdoms and stations to live out pious lives of monks or sisters in monasteries. (This wasn't just happening in England, of course, but was a tool of protection and a motivation for many Emperor of Rome's relations and other important people in the empire.)

~ Monastic life is given highest admiration and people who adopt the monastic life of extreme discipline, enact penances on themselves, fast often, or live as hermits or in exhile on lonely islands are highly praised. People could expect miracles to take place around the bones of these most pious individuals. (even today) I think it's describing how cathedrals and churches first started to collect relics and why people started taking pilgrimages.

~ How Christianity came to the Picts, Mercians, and Scots is described as well as the initial kings who adopted Christianity of the Saxons, Angles, English, Mercians, and Northumbrians. Some kings adopted Christianity only to have their successors return to paganism and then repent and adopt Christianity again when paganism didn't do them any good.

~ There is a recurring debate over the worship of Easter. Scots and Picts are described as not being in accordance with the Church because they do not worship Easter at the correct date. This is talked about again and again, arguments are reported, and full description of why the church worships Easter as it does is given. (over and over)

~ In general, I learned that during this time period the Northumbrians were initially the greatest kingdom, the Britons were wimpy and mild, the Angles were strong and good looking but not loyal allies, the Mercians were bloodthirsty and slaughtered a ton of people, particularly the Britons and Northumbrians. After the Romans eventually crushed Boadicea and her people, the Celts weren't talked about. I still don't understand what happened to the Celts or I've forgotten.

~ The miracles in this book are numerous, though not as numerous as the kings. I grappled with my belief in their reality until I imagined how Christ works according to people's faith. Though there was clearly some idol worship and ignorance, the people had tremendous faith in God's power, particularly His ability to heal. I cannot doubt that God loved these poor people and healed them, likely in many of the accounts that Bede talked of.

~ There were some awesome names in this book: Swidhelm of Sexbald; Ethelberga, daughter of Ethelbert; Eadbald, Sabert, Sigburt, and Earpwald; Wynfrid and Sexwulf.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

2011-02-28T15:28:00.006-06:00

By Rebecca Skloot
Nonfiction, 337pp.

Presenting numerous ethical topics about ownership of one's own tissues and cells, Skloot tells a compelling and personal story of the Lacks family and their relationship to the famous HeLa cells. Henrietta Lacks was the "donor" of a sample of cancerous cells that have gone on to live for over 60 years and have multiplied by the billions and have been the foundations for the fields of virology, genetics and countless other medical discoveries of the 20th and 21st century. It is truly miraculous how a sample taken from one patient could have had and still has such a tremendous impact on science and medicine and been so beneficial to mankind.

Henrietta Lacks was unknown as a person through most of this time her cells were being studied, except in the small memories of her remaining family. She also left behind children who have a painful story to tell. Their loss is deeply felt as they discover who their lost mother was and as they discover the truth about her still living cells. The family holds to deep beliefs that Henrietta's spirit lives on in those cells and that because of the person she is certain things have happened pertaining to the examination of them.

This book follows closely the path science has traveled in its years of taking from patients for the good of science (and the ill of patients) and also for the purposes of capitalism. Skloot has made this book one of thorough research with accurate telling of the scientific story but also of a personal journey she took with the family in making her discoveries. It becomes engrossing because of the humanistic aspect but also because of the amazing science and ethical questions it raises.

Questions (I wrote) for our Book Group Discussion: (contains spoilers)
1. Learning about what the HeLa cells have done for society is exciting and amazing. Does it make any difference to you knowing who the person was who donated those cells and what sort of person she was? (Endearing, perhaps, but does it matter?) Does it affect your perspective of the nature of the cells knowing she was a "good" person and would it change if you found out she wasn't; if she was a criminal, for example?

2. When Mary saw the toenail polish on Henrietta's corpse, she realized for the first time that the cells she had been working on had come from a "real" person. Do you think that lab scientists are lacking in a proper view of the specimens they are working on? Should they view the tissues and cells in a more personal manner or is it for the benefit of their study that there is a separation or distinction.

3. In Chapter 17 the issue of informed consent is examined. Obviously in history people have been experimented on, with or without their knowledge, for the so-called benefit of science and mankind. In this specific case of cancer research, would you compare it to what the Nazi doctors had done just as those young jewish doctors and others did?

4. In Chapter 18 the creation of mouse-HeLa hybrids are discussed. Do you believe that creating hybrids or clones are "an assault on life" as the British press reported. Do you think that scientists can really cross the line to become as the "mad scientists" depicted by such reports?

5. McKusick, a famous geneticist, has a well-meaning, but disrespectful assistant named Hsu. When she goes to draw blood from the Lacks family she adds to their problems and misunderstandings but is only intending to do good. Do you think this is the problem with science research and dealing with the public and individuals? Can there be a bridge between the two: their scientific intentions versus their respect for the human individual?

6. What do you think of Moore's case (Moore v. Golde & UCLA, 1984) and his spleen being sold for profit without his permission? Is this a legitimate legal concern for people since our cell lines could (though rare) be patented and sold without our knowledge or "permission"? Do you agree that once a tissue has left your body it is no longer your possession and you relinquish all rights to it to those obtaining that specimen?

7. Is there a distinction for you as pertaining to your rights in the size of the specimen taken? Would you ever question where your skin sample, blood, mole is being taken, if is being stored or used for research? I can easily imagine people wanting to know what will become of a removed member or organ, but is there any difference between those and a small sample because they all contain your genetic information?

8.Skloot uses the personal conversations and words of the Lacks family throughout the book to tell this story. Do you think that this method adds or takes away from Henrietta's story? Do you feel manipulated to care or form opinions about the family or is it a distraction from the important science and story of Henrietta? How is her family part of the legacy she has left behind? Is this more a story of Deborah than Henrietta?

9. Deborah never got to hear how all of her conversations with Rebecca would sound as written in the book. Some of her words and behavior sound crazy, incoherent, and could be an embarrassment to her or her family. Deborah supposedly said, "If you pretty up how people spoke and change the things they said, that's dishonest." Do you think that Skloot put that quote in to excuse what she reveals? Do you feel Skloot took advantage of their ignorance or was she right to tell their story this way?

10. Do you believe we have a moral responsibility to allow ourselves, or at least small parts of ourselves, to be studied? Is complete informed consent always necessary, citing the argument by Korn about the soldier with Spanish flu from 1918 versus the Andrews argument comparing money with our bodies and that regardless of what good the money could do for society, we have a right to say where it goes (after we die). pp320-321.

Eat to Live

2011-02-23T14:44:00.006-06:00

I lost 10 pounds in the last 7 weeks. I was only semi-strict on the diet for about 4-5 weeks. I've exercised about 1 and a half of those weeks. I'm completely unqualified to talk about weight loss. After I lose everything I want to maybe you'll be more likely to want to read this, so I'll let you know when that happens and you can come back to this post!

1. When I work out I focus on burning calories. In December I was working hard (I thought) doing at least 5k every day. I was burning less than 400 cal (est.) in an hour workout and even though I told myself I would do two workouts a day, I never had the energy to go back and tackle another one later in the day. Everyone I've talked to that's lost weight has done a cardio and some other workout every day because they weren't in great shape to begin with. So now I go to the gymn in the morning for two hours. I do an interval workout on the elliptical for an hour (like 550-600 cal, though some people can burn more if they do more resistance) and then go right into a high intensity cardio class or zumba. By the time I leave my pedometer says (usually) 13,000 steps and I've burned over 1,000 calories. I was exhausted at first but it's getting a little better.

A lot of people like using P90x. My brother used it to help with his weight loss. He lost 100lbs. in a year. But he didn't start doing P90x at first. P90x likely works depending on your fitness level. Most people aren't going to burn 1000 calories in an hour when they start doing P90x because they don't have enough muscle built up yet and it takes time to do that. The more muscle you have the more easily you can burn 1000 calories, especially in under an hour. If I did P90x I'd have to do something else, too in order to lose weight faster.

2. The diet matters huge. I read several blogs who talked about Eat to Live and then I read the book. It talks about nutrition to calorie ratios. (And also why people die because of the crap they eat.) Why eat stuff that has a lot of calories and low nutrition? I eat quinoa (w/ teeny bit of milk and teeny sugar) and fruit for breakfast, a salad or spinach shake for lunch, and steamed veggies, soup, or salad for dinner. (But I tend to like eating similar foods daily; I don't need big variation. This diet would be harder if you felt you had to try a new recipe to please you and your family every day.) I do the diet about 80-90% because, like today, I stopped and got a junior frozen yogurt cone at Braums!

Here's some keys:
~No meat and very rarely potatoes (sorry). No dairy, sugar, oils, or salts. (if you can do that, great. I don't feel that desperate so I just partake of as little as possible of those. I've had plenty of "mess up" times/weeks.)

~If you want a treat, keep it under 100 cal and eat it outside your home. Pudding, frozen yogurt, fudgsicle, and my fav is herbal tea with honey!

~Cheese is of the devil. So is most bread. (if you like bread do whole wheat pita or fat free wheat tortilla)

~If you drink juice, especially apple, you might as well be drinking kool aid. And your body will react to fake sweeteners just like real sweeteners. It will add to your cravings!

~Any fat you eat (including olive oil) has no nutrition and goes straight to the hips and tummy! (I do use salad dressing with oil because I'm not going to eat a salad without it! I love Jason's Deli balsalmic viniagrette dressing. Hooked.)

~You get healthy fats your body needs from seeds/nuts and avacado, but limited and in salads.

I lost 10lbs. in 7 weeks mostly because of the diet because I wasn't working out until about ten days ago! It would be nearly impossible for me to lose weight fast if I just exercised especialy if I were heavier and could barely exercise. I didn't lose a single pound working out until I started the diet!

This is the blog where I originally heard about the diet: Groundhog Day with Celia Fae has posts linked on her sidebar about her experience

This is a blog that talks only about being on the diet and also links to other sites:
Lean Toward the Sun

I get discouraged every time I step on the scale because I can't lose weight fast enough. The other day when my husband saw me on the scale he said, "you're not going to lose weight stepping on and off that thing!" This is my first true attempt in life to diet and exercise regularly (for more than a few months) and it's only strengthened my belief in how hard it is to lose weight! That doesn't sound very encouraging, I guess, but I know that now I've gotten to a point in my life where I finally want to lose weight badly and the wanting makes me a little crazy!

Any Questions?

Finally 5!

2011-02-15T04:21:00.007-06:00

Riis's birthday was on Groundhog Day, but because we had a huge ice storm here this year we had to postpone his party until over a week later. During that time Riis was insisting he wasn't five yet because
"No Presents and Friends, No Birthday!" That sounds like good logic for a kid.

Riis is definitely dressed for some action! Because we invited so many kids to his party we decided to go to our neighborhood park for the fun and games part. This would also avoid any games where 20 kids would have to wait their turn! And noise. And mess. I could go on.

They did relay races, line tag (their favorite), tennis ball bowling, musical circles, and wiffle ball. Luckily we had plenty of moms stay and help out!

What does he think he's doing?

Success! I guess he's five now and can handle more than I think!

The best part of the day!

The cake and ice cream portion of the party was pretty much a blur.

It seems like eating really settled them all down. I'm pretty sure it's temporary!

Present time! I think a few presents got "accidentally" unwrapped before the party even began, so great was the anticipation! Fortunately he was thrilled at the final results. He was given Lego sets, a big car case, motorcycles and trucks, and a spiderman case!

This castle was the Best Present Ever from the Grandparents. I bought the action figures (knights and dragons) on ebay.
How often is there a toy were four children can play happily together? Now Riis is eager to have his sisters come play with him!

We're so happy Riis is growing up! He has always been a laughing happy boy who has a lot of emotions. He is a favorite of all of his uncles. He was laughing at a month old as a reaction to everything: being fed, changed, held. Now he is a lot like the Firetruck on the movie Cars! (Only Riis can talk, too.)
Riis has to take a lot from his sisters and it's not easy for him being sandwiched between so many girls, especially bossy ones. He loves to play with friends and help out and he is my best eater of fruits and vegetables. He is reading Dr. Seuss books and working on first grade math and beginning writing. He has a little bit of trouble making his bed because he wants things perfect and his room is either completely a wreck and he is overwhelmed by cleaning it, or he has everything in it's particular perfect place.
Riis is eager to start learning cello this year, but for now he is in soccer and this year he wants to take more swimming lessons.
I am so happy to have a son who is sweet and lovable and tries so hard to do his work every day!

Welcome to Your Friendly Neighborhood Costco

2011-02-09T18:32:00.016-06:00

In this post I might sound like I'm ranting, but I'm not: I learn valuable lessons about myself when I visit the Costco Store.

1. When I take all of the kids to the store (often) and push a full cart around the store I start to get worn down. I finally make it through ~~over~~paying for all of my goods and see the door to freedom only to be halted by the receipt-checker-person. I get it. They have to check to make sure every customer isn't a thief. But why do you have to hold up the line drawing that stupid smiley face on my receipt? Don't make me stand there while you darken in the eyes, or add your own personal extra flourish, and then show it to each child in turn as if your drawing will make our day. Can't you do stickers if you want to be gimmicky? It's like a slap in the face. They're checking to see if you stole something and they they want to give you a smiley face to take away some of the insult. (just kidding, Costco lawyers)

How is it that I can make it through my shopping experience, time after time, in relative calm and happiness but that person at the door just sends me into a dark mood. I am fighting back the urge to tell the person not to draw that happy face. How stupid would that be?! I try not to glare. I usually don't smile at them. Then I wonder to myself what my problem is? They're wondering that, too. ~~~Most importantly I'm wondering why I would let something so trivial irritate me and upset my day?

Check out the blog where I found this photo!To think there are people out there encouraging this sort of behavior!

2. A few weeks ago at Costco some old crusty guy called me a "d*mn **tch." He sort of said it under his breath as he passed me so the kids didn't hear it. It was one of those busy Saturdays where there are way too many people, especially in the check out area. The lines always stretch out clear to the food aisles so that people can't get past easily. But there was this gap. Myself and the four kids and the loaded cart went for that gap at the same time as this crusty guy, but he was coming the opposite direction. Well we both were in that gap at the same time, next to one another, and it became apparent that we both weren't going to fit. The kids were hanging onto the side of mine and I had to tell them to get behind or in front so they wouldn't get smashed. Both me and the guy stopped while they moved and then we both went on (it was a squeeze, but we made it!), with him doing some name calling.

It was kind of shocking to me because this was Costco! Surely I might hear swearing at the local fleamarket, but Costco? I'd never been sworn at in a store before, nor in the last, I don't know, forever? (that I know of!) But I didn't feel bad about my actions. I felt justified to be a little rude. Bad, right? Normally if I unintentionally inconvenience another shopper I mutter a sorry as we pass, but this time I didn't feel like it. His words didn't hurt my feelings and after awhile I was laughing to myself about it. I felt "okay" with being called a name. Admittedly it was partly his appearance that made me okay with it. If it'd been a well dressed man and not some crusty old guy with whiskers and beer in his cart, I'd be hurt. ~~~ Most importantly it made me wonder about how often people are upset at me for my actions but I don't realize it because they aren't the name calling type? How often do I know my actions might upset someone else but I just don't care?

3. The last time I went to Costco I had all of the kids with me again. It was later at night and not particularly busy. I had finished my shopping and was headed toward the check out line. I was going to be the next person. I see this other guy leaving another line and making a beeline for "my" line. We've all been there, right? I was going slower and he looked like he was going to cut me off. So I was slowing down to sort of see what this guy would do. He looks at me and says with a smile, "It looks like you have a few more things in your cart than me." I smile at him and say, "Go right ahead."

I cannot tell you the level of my disgust towards this guy. And then I just had to marvel at myself and my reaction. Here I was doing a nice thing, and previously not upset about anything, and here this guy comes and now I'm fighting not to ~~call names~~ show my irritation! ~~~I'm still wondering why I got so irritated, but I'm thinking it goes back to some selfishness on my part and not being sincere in my "niceness."

Now can you imagine what I was thinking when I got to that receipt-checker with her smiley-face a few minutes later?

I don't have a therapist, but if I did, these are the sorts of things I would talk about in my session. I want to be nicer and I'm sure some people think I'm a nice person but after these experiences I just have to question. Do other people wonder about these sorts of things when they go to Costco or are you nicer than me?

"The Rescuers"

2011-02-06T18:31:00.004-06:00

Words of inspiration or counsel + literature or art reference = perfect personal meaningfulness, especially when the painting referenced is by my favorite artist!

life-boat and manby apparatus going off to a stranded vessel
J.M.W. Turner, 1831
This painting was referenced today in a talk by President Monson. He titled it "The Rescuers."

I've long had the personal opinion that it's wrong to "rescue" people. I feel like I am often the recipient of rescuing when I haven't done what I'm supposed to be doing. My husband is my hero, coming to my rescue when I need him. If I have a bad day he listens to me and helps me work things out, or throws in a load of laundry if that's what is needed. I don't even have to ask. He does it because he loves me! So my opinions about recuing make me hypocritical!

I feel like any time a person isn't doing what they're supposed to be doing and that person has consequences to deal with because of it, it's wrong to step in and take away that person's opportunity to learn from their mistakes by removing those consequences.

But what does it really mean to rescue? I'm not paraphrasing President Monson here, because he didn't issue a printed talk and I didn't record the broadcast. Today I am reminded that rescuing means coming to people and removing burdens that may stand in their way. It means standing by someone and sometimes even leading them by the hand to take better actions that will lead to better consequences in their lives. It means loving people

In my life I've been rescued. I've been stuck out in dark and stormy seas, feeling lost and lonely. Maybe I've prayed for help, or perhaps others have prayed for me, but I can say that people have stretched themselves, sacrificed themselves, to come and lead me back to shore, so to speak. I wish I never needed (still need) rescuing. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one needing rescuing and I am embarrassed. I also feel in those moments that I know better so I don't deserve it. I am so blessed that my Father in Heaven has compassion on me and so do other people.

How can I deny that compassion to others? I may reason to myself that they shouldn't have gotten themselves into that mess. How dare they enter the stormy seas of life? Perhaps it's even a repetitive mess that affects me personally? Maybe they need to be humbled so they can crawl back to church and stop making the same stupid mistakes, but now I realize it's not the attitude I need to have.

I felt especially humbled today because I've been expressing opinions about rescuing lately. I'll try not to have such a hard heart. When people I love, or need to love better, need rescuing, I want to be there. I won't hover and I won't swoop down in a helicopter rushing people to safety, but I'll work on being there, even if it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

"We Go to Cows and Ponies!"

2011-02-05T03:09:00.006-06:00

One of our kids' teachers owns a couple of nice horses. The week after Christmas we drove out to her house and the kids rode on the horses.

Evelyn was the most "Cowgirled Up."

She even wore her cowgirl shirt.

Lily was disappointed that we didn't get her a pony for Christmas.

There's kind of a bad zoom on Riis.

This is my favorite picture. It'd be nice to have
photoshop and time to work on this picture.

Nora decided to laugh the entire ride and got all of us laughing, too!

"I love My Pony!"

Curriculum Reading List 2011

2011-02-03T19:59:00.004-06:00

For our studies we follow a Classical Education Plan.
We study the History of the World on a rotating basis in four year blocks.

In 2011 we are studying from The Fall of Rome to the Renaissance.
This is my personal reading list for the year's studies followed by a list of books for Young Adults and other ideas for books to read on the subject.

~~End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome ~ Christopher Kelly~~
Wars of Justinian ~ Procopius
~~A History of the English Church and People ~ Bede~~
Stories from the One Thousand and One Nights ~ Lane
The Arabian Nights: ~ Burton, Richard Francis
Beowulf ~ Seamus Heaney translation, illustrated
The Song of Roland
The Tale of Genji ~ Murasaki Shikibu
Ivanhoe~ Sir Walter Scott
The Lais of Marie de France
Aquinas 101
The Life of St. Francis of Assisi ~ Bonaventure
Travels of Marco Polo ~ Marco Polo
The Divine Comedy ~ Dante
Decameron ~ Boccaccio
Sir Gawain and critical essays (The Gawain-poet)
Julian of Norwish, Revelations on Divine Lore
Morte d'Arthur ~ Malory
Margery Kempe
Erasmus, Tyndale and more
Don Quixote
The Fairie Queen
Shakespeare

TBR list for 2011

2011-02-03T18:03:00.004-06:00

Fiction

~~The Elephant's Journey ~ Jose Saramago~~
(another title) ~ Jose Saramago
~~Cold Comfort Farm ~ Stella Gibbons~~
(next two in series) ~ Patrick O'Brian
Never Let Me Go ~ Ishiguro
Oryx and Crake ~ Margaret Atwood
~~The Constant Princess ~ Philippa Gregory~~
(something) ~ James Herriott
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian ~ Sherman Alexie
The Book Thief
Cry, The Beloved Country
Cloud Atlas ~ David Mitchell
The Way of Kings ~ Branden Sanderson
My Sister's Keeper ~ Jodi Picoult
Unaccustomed Earth ~ Jhampa Lahiri
Where the Heart Is ~ Billie Letts
Revolutionary Road ~ Richard Yates
World Without End ~ Ken Follett
Bel Canto ~ Anne Patchett
American Pastoral ~ Philip Roth
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ~ Junot Diaz
The Joy Luck Club ~ Amy Tan
The House of Sand and Fog ~ Dubus
Drowning Ruth ~ Dubus
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time ~
The Red Tent ~ Anita Diamont
The Milagro Beanfield War
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Dive from Clausen's Pier ~ Ann Packer
The Virgin Suicides ~ Eugenides
Girl, Interrupted ~ Kaysen
Cutting for Stone ~ Verghese
Gap Creek ~ Robert Morgan
True Grit ~ Charles Portis
(something) ~ Sharon Kay Penman
The Golden Notebook ~ Doris Lessing

Non-fiction and Biography

Terra Incognita ~ Sara Wheeler
The River of Doubt ~ Candace Millard
Story of a Soul
Winner ~ Malcolm Gladwell
The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love ~ Kristen Kimball
The Disappearing Spoon ~ Sam Kean
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ~ Rebecca Skloot
Marie Antoinette: The Journey ~ Antonia Fraser
Glenn Beck's Common Sense
The Reagan Diaries ~
No Apology: The Case for American Greatness ~ Mitt Romney
Unbroken: A WWII Story of... ~ Laura Hillenbrand
Children are from Heaven ~ John Gray
Eat to Live ~ Fuhrman

Read Aloud

Hans Christian Anderson tales
The Arabian Nights
The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter
The Hobbit
Aesop's Fables

Young Adult and Children's List

3 Wizard of Oz books
~~Misty of Chincoteague~~
~~Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West~~
Twenty-One Balloons
Pony Riders
Rover Boys
Tom Swift
Five Little Peppers
Adventures of Pinocchio
Swiss Family Robinson
Uncle Remus
Heidi
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass
Do and Dare
hans brinker and the Silver Skates
A Christmas Carol
The Adventures of Robin Hood

The Courage of Sarah Noble
Sign of the Beaver
Toby Tyler
Pollyanna
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Trumpet of the Swan

Anne of Green Gables
Castle of Llyr
Taran Wanderer
The High King
Ursula Le Guin (more)
Holes
Rewall series
Fablehaven
Because of Winn-dixie
The Princess and the Goblin
Secret Garden
Little Men, Jo's Boys
The Girl of the Limberlost
The Black Arrow
Strawberry Girl
Red Sails to Capri
The House on Mango Street
Out of the Dust
Speaker for the Dead
The Unfinished Angel
Sharon Creech
Shannon Hale?

2011-02-03T17:24:00.005-06:00

Nora says, "Look there's two of ME!"

The Rory Gilmore Reading List

2011-02-03T02:10:00.003-06:00

~~•1984 (George Orwell)~~
•A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole)
•A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Dave Eggers)
•Mencken Chrestomathy (H.L. Mencken)
•A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister (Julie Mars)
•A Passage to India (E.M. Forster)
•A Quiet Storm: A Novel (Rachel Howzell Hall)
•A Room of One’s Own (Virginia Woolf)
•A Separate Peace (John Knowles)
•A Tree Grows in Brooklyn [Betty Smith]
•American Tragedy (Theodore Dreiser)
~~•Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)~~
~~•Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)~~
~~•Atonement: A Novel (Ian McEwan)~~
•Autobiography of a Face (Lucy Grealy)
~~•Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: A Novel (Dai Sijie)~~
•Bee Season: A Novel (Myla Goldberg)
•Bel Canto (Ann Patchett)
•Beloved (Toni Morrison)
~~•Beowulf~~
•Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
•Brick Lane (Monica Ali)
•Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
•The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (Eudora Welty)
•Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems (Edgar Allan Poe)
•Cousin Bette (Honoré de Balzac)
~~•Crime and Punimensht (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)~~
•Daisy Miller (Henry James)
•David Copperfield (Charles Dickens)
•Dead Souls (Nikolai Gogol)
•Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller)
•Demons (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
•Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson)
•Eleanor Roosevelt (Blanche Wiesen Cook)
•Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable (Mark Dunn)
•Emma (Jane Austen)
•Empire Falls (Richard Russo)
•Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton)
•Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Back Door 2007: The Travel Skills Handbook (Rick Steves)
•Extravagance: A Novel (Gary Krist)
~~•Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)~~
•Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World (Greg Critser)
~~•Flowers for Algernon~~
•Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
•Franny and Zooey (J.D. Salinger)
•Galapagos (Kurt Vonnegut)
~~•Hamlet (William Shakespeare)~~
~~•Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)~~
•Holidays on Ice: Stories (David Sedaris)
•How the Light Gets in (M. J. Hyland)
•How to Breathe Underwater (Julie Orringer)
•Howl (Allen Ginsberg)
•Inherit the Wind (Jerome Lawrence)
~~•Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)~~
•Just a Couple of Days (Tony Vigorito)
•Leaves of Grass (Walt Witman)
•Letters to a Young Poet (Rainer Maria Rilke)
~~•Life of Pi (Yann Martel)~~
•Little Dorrit (Charles Dickens)
~~•Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)~~
•Living History (Hillary Rodham Clinton)
~~•Lord of the Flies William Golding)~~
•Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert)
•Me Talk Pretty One Day (David Sedaris)
•Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (Simone de Beauvoir)
•Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides)
•Moby-Dick (Herman Melville)
•Monsieur Proust (Celeste Albaret)
~~•Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)~~
•My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermath (Seymour M. Hersh)
•My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru (Tim Guest)
•My Sister’s Keeper (Jodi Picoult)
•Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature (Jan Lars Jensen)
•New Poems of Emily Dickinson (Emily Dickinson)
•Night (Elie Wiesel)
•Dawn Powell: Novels 1930-1942 (Dawn Powell)
~~•Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)~~
•Old School (Tobias Wolff)
•Oliver Twist (Oliver Twist)
•On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
•One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey)
•Oracle Night (Paul Auster)
•Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood)
•Othello (William Shakespeare)
•Out of Africa (Isak Dinesen)
•Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (Legs McNeil)
•Property (Valerie Martin)
•Pushkin: A Biography (T.J. Binyon)
•Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw)
•Quattrocento (James Mckean)
•Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (Azar Nafisi)
•Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad (Virginia Holman)
•Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare)
•Rosemary’s Baby (Ira Levin)
•Sacred Time (Ursula Hegi)
•Sanctuary (William Faulkner)
•Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay (Nancy Milford)
~~•Seabiscuit: An American Legend (Laura Hillenbrand)~~
~~•Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen)~~
•Siddhartha (Hermann Hesse)
~~•Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)~~
•Small Island (Andrea Levy)
•The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (Ernest Hemingway)
•Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos (Julia de Burgos)
•Songbook (Nick Hornby)
•Speak, Memory (Vladimir Nabokov)
•Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (Mary Roach)
•Swann’s Way (Marcel Proust)
•Swimming With Giants: My Encounters With Whales, Dolphins, and Seals (Anne Collett)
•Sybil (Flora Rheta Schreiber)
•A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
•Tender Is the Night (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
•Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
•The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Michael Chabon)
•The Art of War (Sun Tzu)
~~•The Awakening (Kate Chopin)~~
•Th Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
•The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews (Peter Duffy)
•The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
•The Code of the Woosters (P.G. Wodehouse)
~~•The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexander Dumas)~~
•The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon)
•The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America (Erik Larson)
•The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (Tom Wolfe)
•The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom)
•The Fortress of Solitude (Jonathan Lethem)
•The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
•The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy)
~~•The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)~~
•The Group (Mary McCarthy)
~~•The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)~~
•The Holy Barbarians (lawrence lipton)
•The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Victor Hugo)
•The Jungle (Upton Sinclair)
•The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar (Robert Alexander)
~~•The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)~~
•The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 (Gore Vidal)
~~•The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)~~
•The Little Locksmith: A Memoir (Katharine Butler Hathaway)
•The Lottery: And Other Stories (Shirley Jackson)
~~•The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)~~
•The Manticore (Robertson Davies)
•The Master and Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov)
•The Meaning of Consuelo (Judith Ortiz Cofer)
•The Metamorphosis (Ovid)
•The Naked and the Dead (Norman Mailer)
•The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco)
•The Namesake (Jhumpa Lahiri)
•The Nanny Diaries (Emma McLaughlin)
•The Opposite of Fate (Amy Tan)
•The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
•The Polysyllabic Spree (Nick Hornby)
•The Portable Dorothy Parker (Dorothy Parker)
•The Portable Nietzsche
•The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill (Ron Suskind)
•The Razor’s Edge (W. Somerset Maugham)
•The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
•The Rough Guide to Europe 2006 (Various Authors)
•The Scarecrow of Oz (L. Frank Baum)
•The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
•The Second Sex (Simone De Beauvoir)
~~•The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Kidd)~~
•The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
•The Song of Names (Norman Lebrecht)
•The Song Reader (Lisa Tucker)
•The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner)
•The Story of My Life (Helen Keller)
•The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway)
~~•The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)~~
•The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters (Elisabeth Robinson)
•Unabridged Journals (Sylvia Plath)
•The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion)
•Time and Again (Jack Finney)
~~•To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)~~
•Truth & Beauty: A Friendship (Ann Patchett)
•Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe)
•Unless (Carol Shields)
•Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray)
•War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)
•When the Emperor Was Divine (Julie Otsuka)
•Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Edward Albee)
•Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Gregory Maguire)
•Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (Rebecca Wells)

Books Read in 2010

2011-01-22T18:32:00.000-06:00

The Christmas List ~ Evans
Little Town on the Prairie ~ Wilder (incomplete)
Farmer Boy ~ Wilder (read aloud)
The Long Winter ~ Wilder (read aloud)
By the Shores of Sliver Lake ~ Wilder (read aloud)
On the Banks of Plum Creek ~ Wilder (read aloud)
Little House on the Prairie ~ Wilder (read aloud)
Little House in the Big Woods ~ L.I. Wilder (read aloud)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin ~ (currently)
In Defense of Food ~ Michael Pollan (audio)
The Black Cauldron ~ Lloyd Alexander (audio)
The Book of Three ~ Lloyd Alexander (audio)
Towers of Midnight ~ Robert Jordan
A Wizard of Earthsea ~ Ursula Le Guin
Warbreaker ~ Brandon Sanderson
Mockingjay ~ Suzanne Collins
The Day of the Triffids ~ John Wyndham
I Capture the Castle ~ Dodie Smith
Lives of the Monster Dogs ~ Kristen
The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society ~
Bless the Beasts and Children ~ Glendon Swarthout
The Woman in White ~ Wilkie Collins
Desert Queen ~ Janet Wallach
Mockingjay ~ Suzanne Collings (YA)
The Tipping Point ~ Malcolm Gladwell
Terra Incognita ~ Sara Wheeler (incomplete)
Ishi In Two Worlds ~ Theodora Kroeber
God Wants a Powerful People ~ Sheri Dew (currently)
Birds of America ~ Lorrie Moore
The Happiness Project ~ Gretchen Rubin
Undaunted ~ Gerald Lund
All is Well ~ Gerald Lund
So Great a Cause ~ Gerald Lund
No Unhallowed Hand ~ Gerald Lund
Praise to the Man ~ Gerald Lund
The Gathering Storm ~ Robert Jordan
A Season of Joy ~ Gerald Lund
Thy Gold to Refine ~ Gerald Lund
The Teacher's Funeral ~ Richard Peck (YA)
Truth will Prevail ~ Gerald Lund
Like a Fire is Burning ~ Gerald Lund
Pillar of Light ~ Gerald Lund
The Hero of Ages ~ Brandon Sanderson
Eating Animals ~ Jonathan Safran Foer
Well of Ascension ~ Brandon Sanderson
Catching Fire ~ Suzanne Collins (YA)
Talking to Dragons ~ Patricia Wrede (YA)
Desolation Island ~ Patrick O'Brian
The Hunger Games ~ Suzanne Collins (YA)
Little Women ~ Louisa May Alcott (YA)

Read (so far) in 2011

2011-01-16T13:59:00.011-06:00

Misty of Chincoteague ~ Marguerite Henry (CF)
The Elephant's Journey ~ Jose Saramago (F)
The Constant Princess ~ Phillipa Gregory (HF)
Cold Comfort Farm ~ Stella Gibbons (F)
Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West ~ Marguerite Henry (CF)
The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome ~ Christopher Kelly (NF)
A History of the English Church and People ~ Bede (NF)
Eat to Live ~ Fuhrman (NF, SH)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ~ Rebecca Skloot (NF)
The Double ~ Jose Saramago (F)
The Fortune of War ~ Patrick O'Brian (F)
Unkbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption ~ Laura Hillenbrand (NF)

Currently Reading:
The Twenty-One Balloons ~ Dubois (CF)
The Wars of Justinian ~ Procopius (NF)
Children are from Heaven ~ John Gray (NF, SH)
The Arabian Nights: Tales from A Thousand and One Nights (haven't picked a version yet but probably Hussain not Burton or Lane)(F)

Labels:
CF ~ Children's Fiction or Young Adult
F ~ Fiction
HF ~ Historical Fiction
NF ~ Nonfiction
SH ~ Self-help
T ~ Teen
B ~ Biography
AU ~ Audio

Riis Read in 2011

2011-01-16T13:55:00.000-06:00

Evelyn Read in 2011

2011-01-16T13:52:00.000-06:00

Lily Read in 2011

2011-01-16T13:43:00.003-06:00

The Twenty-one Balloons ~ William Pene duBois
Bridge to Terabithia ~ Katherine Paterson
The Trumpet of the Swan ~ E.B. White
Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West ~ Marguerite Henry
Ruth Feilding at Red Mill ~ Alice B. Emerson
Strawberry Girl ~ Lois Lenski
The Rover Boys on the Great Lakes ~ Arthur M. Winfield
The Light at Tern Rock ~ Julia Sauer
Otto of the Silver Hand ~ Howard Pyle

Currently Reading:
The Rover Boys

I hope you ENJOY THIS

2010-03-10T14:16:00.002-06:00

Crazy video

Books Lily has Read during 2010

2010-01-18T15:56:00.008-06:00

This list is in progress during 2010.
It does not include the unknown uncountable number of picture books she reads. These are also books she is reading mostly for pleasure and not school required books. If I include things she reads for school I will put an asterisk next to it.

These are the books I remember that she has read so far this year:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ~ C.S. Lewis
James and the Giant Peach ~ Roald Dahl
The Mouse and the Motorcycle ~ Beverly Cleary
Runaway Ralph ~ Beverly Cleary
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ~ Lewis Carroll
Incredible Animal Adventures ~ Jean Craighead George
No Dogs Allowed ~ Bill Wallace
The Cricket in Times Square ~ George Selden
Ramona the Pest ~ Beverly Cleary
Also several other Ramona books but not sure which ones!
Otis Spofford ~ Beverly Cleary
The Bobbsey Twins and the Mystery Cave ~
The Bobbsey Twins Camping Out ~
The Bobbsey Twins at Snow Lodge ~
The Bobbsey Twins Adventures at School ~
The Indian in the Cupboard ~
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz~
Miss Hickory ~
Prince Caspian ~ C.S. Lewis
The Black Stallion ~ Farley
The Adventures of Pippie Longstocking (3 books)
The Black Stallion Returns ~ Farley
The Marvelous Land of Oz ~ Baum
Ozma of Oz ~ Baum
The Young People's Bible ~ from 1800s
Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz ~ Baum
The Emerald City of Oz ~ Baum
Stone Fox
Skylark
Black Beauty ~ Anna Sewell
Misty of Chincoteague ~ Marguerite Henry

Reading List 2009

2010-01-05T20:11:00.004-06:00

Calling on Dragons ~ Patricia Wrede
The Princess Bride (good parts version) ~ William Goldman (hated)
The Time Traveler's Wife ~ Audrey Niffenegger (okay)
Searching for Dragons ~ Patricia Wrede (such a cute series)
Dealing with Dragons ~ Patricia Wrede
The Graveyard Book ~ Neil Gaiman (liked it for originality)
The Mauritius Command ~ Patrick O'Brian (my fave author)
Mistborn ~ Brandon Sanderson (good series)
H.M.S. Surprise ~ Patrick O'Brian (again, love him)
Dune Messiah ~ Frank Herbert (too much weird philosophy)
How to Give Your Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge ~ Glenn Doman
How to Teach Your Baby to Read ~ Glenn Doman
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress ~ Sijie (loved it)
Post Captain ~ Patrick O'Brian (love love love)
The Princess Academy ~ Shannon Hale (very cute)
The Goose Girl ~ Shannon Hale (good)
The Book of a Thousand Days ~ Shannon Hale
Marley & Me ~ John Grogan (loved)
Commitment ~ V.J. Featherstone
The Mothers of the Prophets (very interesting)
Master and Commander ~ Patrick O'Brian (yay!)
We Were the Mulvaneys ~ Joyce Carol Oates (moving and almost too depressing)
Perfect Health ~ Deepak Chopra (I wish)
Persuasion ~ Jane Austen (liked it)
a rumor of war ~ Philip Caputo (good good good)
The Tale of Despereaux ~ Kate DiCamillo (liked)
Sense and Sensibility ~ Jane Austen (reread, of course, and my fave of her books)
The Lovely Bones ~ Alice Sebold (yuck!)
The Chronicles of Narnia ~ C.S. Lewis (very enjoyable but not my fave)
The Road ~ Cormac McCarthy (dark)
Just So Stories ~ Rudyard Kipling (reread and enjoyable)
Love in the Time of Cholera ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez (hated! my least favorite!)
The Secret Life of Bees ~ Sue K Monk (didn't empathize with it. one thumb down)
Nickel and Dimed ~ Barbara E (interesting, but probably not all true)

That's 38 books, but 14 of those were young adult/children's books.
I did start several that I dropped because they were awful and a couple that I started that I am still reading.
I read a few other large books to my kids but I can't remember them so they weren't added.

I rated the books I had an opinion about but that doesn't mean that the books I didn't rate were necessarily bad, although I'd have to say the majority of the books I read last year I wouldn't recommend to friends. Most of the books I just didn't have a strong enough opinion about to rate them. Obviously the Patrick O'Brian books comes in as my favorites, but I doubt that most people would like them as I have. I like books with technical language about boats and long drawn out descriptions. I really did not like Love in the Time of Cholera AT ALL and I didn't like The Lovely Bones either. I thought they were wretched. The Road was wretched but I found it less reprehensible, perhaps because it was shorter. You can also count me in the group of people NOT a fan of The Time Traveler's Wife. Like We Were the Mulvaneys, it was just a story, nothing special to me about it and often depressing.

Next year I have a goal to read more uplifting books. I do have a list, perhaps for another post.

Changed

2009-08-27T21:20:00.004-05:00

I can see now that my life is forever changed. Last year I had a baby to take care of while homeschooling, but believe it or not, it was way easier. Lily was a pretty good student, just needing me to give her a little push or nudge her along every once in awhile and having a baby who was immobile was a snap. Now that I have two students plus a very mobile VERY loud and shrieking one year old plus THAT puppy, I am swamped.

We have completed our fourth day of school and it's going pretty well. Evelyn has struggled with the five year old wiggles, particularly right during reading and violin practice, and I have struggled with the mid-morning attack of sleepiness. Other than that I'm surviving.

I've assembled Evelyn's newly arrived desk, unclogged a very clogged sink with the help of my sister and one and 1/4 bottle of drano, attacked tons of paperwork, made it to Walmart for a science experiment supply run in 110 degree heat, taken the kids swimming, gone to pack meeting for cub scouts, collapsed 20 boxes, whose contents I had recently emptied and organized into plastic bins, and still managed to get everything done with school.

This week's school related hands-on activities include an experiment with hard boiled eggs and vinegar, which we completed, an activity in the yard where we make it look like a nomadic village and act out a nomadic scene (the kids also want to make cave paintings) and then we transform the yard into a farming village and act it out. Then they want to have a mock archaeological dig. Tomorrow we are also going to have a "science" scavenger hunt for the kids.

So, I'm keeping busy. In other news I called the police today when I saw a car I didn't recognize parked between our two houses. It turned out the owner was there (oops) but she actually likes it when we call the police. I think it gives her some peace of mind that the house is being watched a little. She said that she was "clearing a path" in the house so a buyer could come look at it, one of those people who fix up houses to sell. That should be interesting. I saw it as a tremendous blessing!

A little while later the guy she was with came by and asked if I recognized him from when he used the Escalade to trap burglars in their truck between our two houses a year ago. I think he had some mental troubles and knowing he was an ex con made me quite nervous, but it turned out okay for now. HE insinuated that I should try to get something from Lisa (owner) who was so rich and could afford to give us stuff. I said we didn't want any stuff. I said I wanted our fence that was wrecked by those burglars repaired. Well he said, Okay, and went back and fixed our fence right then! Not quite good as new but hardly noticeable now. Yay!!!!

Really what I want to express most is what this all does to me mentally...and other ways, too. I don't have time. No time to talk to you on the phone (if I was in the habit of doing so before), no time for TV or movies, no time for reading (but I wasn't anyway) and no time for a lot of other things I feel like doing sometimes. It has made me lonely in a new way and suddenly I am needy of my husband and was hurt when he didn't call or text for a whole day, nevermind that he'd had seven admissions and he explains that it's sort of awkward to be taking a call when he's in the room during a code. He has a job where he gets NO breaks, not even meal breaks or bathroom breaks. It's true. All of his meals are taken during meetings and lectures and some days he comes home and goes to the bathroom for the first time all day. How can we compare lives or me expect to be first in his life? It's sad, I know. It makes me feel lonely when I don't have other means of coping. Thank heavens for my sister!

I also have this huge urge to read fiction. I know I just want escape, but what I need is sleep.
Time for bed. I'm out.

Disaster

2009-08-25T11:34:00.005-05:00

The word "disaster" just about sums up how I feel about the kids' first day of school. It makes me just about cry to look at other people's photos of their kids going to school on the first day. I should probably do things like that. Throw them a back to school party, buy them new clothes, feed them a special meal, ...something. But I am so overwhelmed that anything requiring extra work at this point is out of the question. They had a super fun summer and that has to be good enough. I did give the kids a couple of stickers and the girls got a little necklace and bracelet set that has proven to be a great distraction today. Kicking myself for that.

After viewing about a hundred blogs showcasing photos of their home school rooms I felt utterly depressed and inspired at the same time. OUr office is a battle zone here. Casey is constantly coming in with loads of papers and stuff and I just never know what the desk is going to look like in the morning. I am just as messy. After spending hours making all of the copies I could at kinkos, with my husband just saying we should buy a nicer printer even though we really can't afford it right now, I brought it all home and went straight to the grocery store and left the office a mess of papers. On Sunday I managed to organize one binder. That was all. (Well, maybe two, but the second one I only had to put two pages in it.)

That left things a great mess on Monday morning. I don't know if that's why we had a "less than perfect" school day, but it definitely contributed. I was so overjoyed to see Lily take up her work right where she had left off and complain very minimally. Evelyn's attention wandered so much, she wouldn't look at me when I talked to her, and she was extremely wiggly and resistent to answering any questions that I realized going back to teaching a 5 year old was going to be hard. I got really frustrated about four times and yelled at them once. I wanted to cry at that moment because I had ruined our first day of school. Why did I have to be so strict and controlling? Well, I sort of know why, but I didn't feel good in that moment when I lost it.

We had to plow through our day to get our work done, BUT I couldn't even stay on schedule because at about 10am I crashed on the couch. I was so tired and trying to push through it and then suddenly I was giving instructions in my sleep. I woke up to realize we had to skip some important things and move on.

We finished school at 2pm and went straight to Leonora's 12 mo. well check where she got shots and then straight to ballet where we spend 2 hours on Monday evening. I wish I could just drop off the girls and go but the timing of the lessons makes it impossible. Lily's class is first and 30 minutes later Ev's starts. I can't just drop off Lily only to come back 30 min later for Ev, and I have to stay during Evelyn's class because if they are under 6 a parent must escort them to the bathroom "if" they have to go. Lily's gets out and she has to wait 15 or 20 minutes until her tap class begins. Evelyn's gets out and Lily goes in. Then I can leave during her 45 min tap class, and last night I did because Leonora was screaming at the top of her lungs. I bet they are so glad to see us out of there when we go.

The kids slept in the hot car so I drove around until picking up Lily. Then it was home where I got dinner made by 7:30. WE finished with FHE by 9, I read to the kids until 9:30 and I went straight to bed.

Up again today at 5:30a. I seriously considered not getting up, but I did. IF my poor husband stayed up until 3am and could still get up and work his job all day then I was going to make myself get up!

It's afternoon on the second day and I'm wondering what the heck I'm doing. I have pictured sending Evelyn off to Kindergarten more than a few times but I just have to remember that I was inspired to do this and it'll have blessings for my family if I just do the best I can. Lily is fine. She has been broken in and does her work okay. As long as she gets a supply of snacks and breaks she does well.

The kids are eating lunch and I just realized I didn't prepare everything I needed for their science lesson so I'll go do that now and we'll have to continue school after Evelyn's violin lesson. I hate dealing with the kids sometimes. I can't stand the whining and the tattling and my one year old shrieking while I'm trying to explain a lesson. The list of things that make me angry is too long. I will probably die from high blood pressure brought on by all of this tension someday. I'm not a person one should look to for an example of how to homeschool surely.

I am so ready for fall break.

Preparation and Persistence

2009-08-22T18:31:00.003-05:00

I don't think I want to post all of my narcissitic thoughts about homeschool and other subjects on my family and kids blog so I guess I'll write it here and avoid spreading myself out on any more blogs than these two. I don't know if the subject fits with what i had in mind for this blog, but oh well. Here I am.

I will probably be long winded and overly expressive when it would do me good to practice some minimalism in blogging.

I have been working feverishly for a few weeks to prepare for the school year. This year I thought I would try harder to have everything prepared because I read a book called Commitment by Vaughn J Featherstone and in it he tells a story about a farmer who can't get anything done because he gets distracted by everything he needs to do. He starts by wanting to mow the grass but on his way to the mower he sees something that needs to be fixed, stops to fix it but needs tools and goes to find them, and so on all day long without getting anything done at all. SO the moral being that commitment is preparation with persistence. I have to be prepared in every way I can first and then persistently plow through, not being distracted and being prepared for what there is to do at hand.

So I have all of my books. I have all of the schedules and reading lists. I have a room to have the kids study in and all of their school materials. I have to go make photo copies of all of the papers they will do this year and then file them into notebooks. Then I will have pretty much all of the time sucking work done so far as I can do now. I went to the public library downtown a little while ago. WE did some reorganization in the office where the girls will do their focused work. Tonight I'll work on the copies, book printing, and buy groceries.

It's overwhelming knowing what I have in store for me, but the advice to stay in the moment will help me. The past and the future are imagination. Why let them affect my present physiology or mental well being? All I can do in this moment is make a choice about this blog, or not to blog and do something else. And I know where I'm going. I know what my goals are. I'm not "lost" in the moment, just fully experiencing the moment.

Now I'll go make dinner for my family (I have no idea what, because I do meal planning tomorrow) and then do the rest of the work I have for today, and though it is late, I will be getting a lot more done before I go to sleep. I may be in the moment, but that sense of urgency is there.

The Idea of Perfection

2009-07-04T23:28:00.003-05:00

Who has ever thought about being perfect? People are quick to admit, "no one is perfect," but what if our thoughts turned to a love of perfection and not a distancing of the idea in our thinking.

One can only love perfection by doing it. Until then it is not perfection but the idea of it. Some are attracted to the idea of it because of the pain and discomfort involved in the becomming. Only One is and has been perfect and although He was always perfect He also went through stages of becomming. "And Jesus increased in wisdom and sature, and in favour with God and man." Luke 2:52

People on earth are not intended to be perfect in the way that Jesus was perfect, but in a way dependent on Him to reach that perfection. Still, there are ways of being perfect and things that can be done with perfection. Every good and righteous act brings us closer to perfection.

What are the good and righteous acts to pursue in order to reach perfection? One can have the idea of perfection in their minds. This idea of perfection, understanding what kind of perfection is possible for us, comes through experience and this we also call hope. Having hope is essential in order to obey commandments and have charity, doing charitable works. Hope also means that we have an understanding of what that perfection means or looks like and also what we have to do to get it, knowing that through Christ it is possible and will happen.

Perfection, or the attainment of it is a matter of trust and faith and also a matter of stubborn application. Without going through the steps of repentence perfection cannot be reached. Going through repentence means that we are on a path towards greater acts of goodness and obedience. Christ cannot bestow upon us perfection through the atonement if we are unable to live perfection. Repentence is practice in living perfection. What good would it do us to be permitted into a heaven or an eternal life where the laws that govern that existence we are not able to live? If one cannot practice in one's life a choice of following the laws one cannot ever be expected to.

Self-mastery is a choice in the moment based on an outlook towards perfection. If one cannot make a choice delaying gratification that will further subdue desires for instant gratification then one cannot reach the endpoint of perfection. Having the ideal in mind must precede and give reason to the moment. Experienced athletes are often told to live in the moment. The choice in the moment matters and also shapes future desires. If one does not have desires for perfection it is because there is a weakness in making choices.

We are taught of heaven and hell, of the Atonement and repentence so that we will have the basis of the Plan of Salvation in our minds when we envision our futures. Our futures need to be pefection and our perfection depends on the current moment first.

Note: This Essay was not Pefected

2008 Contractor Awards

2009-05-22T16:43:00.004-05:00

And the winner is....

a rumor of war ~ Philip Caputo

2009-05-08T23:17:00.004-05:00

Well, I thought this book was a good read. It wasn't great but it was very interesting. Having little knowledge of the workings of military I felt a little lost with some of the terms he freely uses without explanation. I was able to figure things out as I went along but this book can't claim to make anyone understand the military. I would say the point was to share his personal experience of being an officer on the line and a staff officer in the beginnings of Vietnam.

This autobiography was a small expose on the realities of warfare in the "splendid little war." The minds of the soldiers and the attitudes and position of the military body was discussed. The politics of the war was deemed irrelevant. The argument was made that lives lost in the Vietnam war were wasted lives because of the pure futility and senselessness of this war. And also that the very nature of the war brought a change in the individual man that brought unintended results while producing intended results. Confusing? It wasn't really. (That's just me.)

First Officer Caputo covers what led him into the military and his excitement for war service along with the tedium involved in the training. After a short time as an officer his battalion in the Marines is the first to be sent to Danang South Vietnam to protect American installations. There is an eagerness among the men to fight but he details the amount of waiting and inactivity there was involved in getting there and then the misery of the work involved once they did arrive. He tells of his own observations of the US military becomming engaged in full war with the VC.

HE was on the lines in C Company at the start. He talked about what the fighting was like, how it began, how the "war" (that wasn't really a war at this point) was fought and how miserable it was. (He really wanted to drive home to the reader the MISERY). Then he gives account of the gradual disillusionment that comes to the soldiers who are experienced; in essence, what the war "does to them" psychologically. It's not even that the war is making the changes happen but it's the way the military goes about doing certain things that enacts certain feelings and results that are contradictory. (Um. I don't know if I'm making sense.

Caputo has to spend dreaded "down" time as an "officer of the dead" counting casualties and bodies in headquarters. Body counts are how the military tracks success. Then he goes back on the lines again and deals with death and fear of mines which leads to rage and hatred and their training leads to actions and finally he is court marshalled but we can guess what happens there, right?

I recommend this book not because I have a knowledge of books about Vietnam and can compare, I really don't know anything about the war, but because I trust the professor at my college who recommended this book to me. Ten years later I am finally reading it and I'm glad I did. It gives me some better understanding of what the soldiers fighting in the Desert nations might feel a bit of, without all of the jungle and mosquitoes and torrential rains and impetigo, immersion foot, and all night sniping, and so on....but still.

I give it a four stars.

Sense and Sesibility: Book vs. BBC

2009-04-29T14:20:00.003-05:00

I haven't book blogged in FOREVER but there have been a few books I've read I want to mention. First was Sense and Sensiblity. I have read it before but this time I wanted to read it after viewing the new BBC adaptation on PBS. I read the book wanting to see where the two differed. On the whole I was amazed at how close and accurate this film verson was to the book. I loved the actors chosen and the settings.

In BBC there was a bond illustrated/or a friendship between Meg and Edward which never presented itself in book. REally his character was so distant and reserved that even open friendliness to a child might have been reaching. I liked that they added it, because besides being completely steady and good, the Edward in the book lacked likability factor. Edward chopping wood in the rain was a nice add in as well.

There were a few minor discrepancies that needn't be detailed. Marianne's fall occurred a bit differently. Conversations were a bit altered. Marianne was truly disgusted by Colonel Brandon's severe old age. She felt he was in declining health due to old age.

There are other incidents with Robert Ferrars that were left out, such as when he buys a toothpick case in a shop where Elinore is and his conceited behavior is noted.

When all came out about Edward's unfortunate engagement, neither he or his mother were present. Elinore also told Marianne about the engagement herself, rather than her hearing about it in town.

Overall I thought it a close adaptation and very well done. I think overall it's a greater novel than Pride and Prejudice. Even without a character like Elizabeth's mother, Mrs. Bennet, S&S is more satirical, more poignant, and shows greater depth in behaviors, feelings, and manners. It's style is similar to her later work of Mansfield Park. The injustices seem severe on the heroines. It's difficult to say who might be a stronger character, Fanny or Elinore. Both are so strong and have many similarities in nature. Emond and Edward are very similar as well and it's difficult to say if either of them are better, though Emond's lapse in good judgement being more recent in the timeline of the story puts him second in my mind.

It is easy to see some similarities in all of her stories. Of course there is the young poor girls finding rich husbands and marrying well, but she also uses characters with similar personalities and there is a libertine in every book. There are very clear examples of poor character in women and parents also.

S&S remains my favorite of her books so far. Next of hers I'll read Persuasion.

Weekly Geeks 2009-06

2009-02-15T19:55:00.008-06:00

What's In a Name?

For this week's edition of Weekly Geeks, we're going to take a closer look at character names. What are some of your favorite character names?

Go to Google or a baby name site like this one or this one, and look up a favorite character's name. What does their name mean? Do you think the meaning fits the character? Why or why not?

If you'd like, look up your own name as well and share the meaning.

When I search out a name for my children I try to find names that have a meaning they can aspire to, even if it doesn't exactly describe them. For example, I named my little boy after a famous photographer and writer, Jacob Riis: an immigrant who was once poor, who used his talents to make others aware of the impoverished living conditions of tenement housing in NYC. I felt inspired by that story and chose that name for my son.

I was reading A Room with a View by E.M. Forster and loved the name Leonora when I first heard it. That is what I named my youngest daughter. Leonora is Lucy's alter-ego; a story within the story. Where Lucy is repressed, Leonora is free to act out on her passions. But that isn't why I chose the name. IT means light and compassion. Mostly I just loved the name.

As far as character's names that I've loved I have to give notice to a fantasy writer who I have enjoyed. In the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan there is a vast number of characters whose names he creatively made up. Some are names of obscure historical figures but not most. I have never seen a collection of books with so many names I've never heard before. People who are great fans of these books have been known to name their children after the characters (but I'm not one of those people). Here is a list of names of his characters. You may not be familiar with this series or these names but see if there are any you like.

My favorites are Siuan, Alviarin, and Chesmal.

Bring On the Change!

2009-02-15T19:28:00.001-06:00

This photo was taken at the Mall in D.C. after Obama was inaugurated as new President of the U.S.

Just So Stories ~ Rudyard Kipling

2009-02-15T19:08:00.003-06:00

I recently read this collection of twelve short stories to my children. It was originally published in 1902 and I read a copy that included his original drawings and references. My children and I enjoyed this book very much. It is a creative look at the formation of certain characteristics in the animal kingdom, e.g. "How the Camel Got His Humps." Most people are familiar with the story "The Elephant's Child" and the story "How the Leopard Got His Spots." These stories have a quality of creativity and silliness that makes them particularly fun for kids. I appreciated the level of vocabulary and that my kids could follow easily what was going on. (My children are ages 4 and 6.)

Weekly Geeks 2009-05

2009-02-11T23:06:00.020-06:00

Judge a Book By Its Cover!

This week it's all about judging books by their covers! Pick a book--any book, really--and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)...Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best 'captures' what the book is about?

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1962)
I didn't do a very good job of researching this one out and it's 11:30 pm on Wednesday night and I told myself I just have to get this done even if it's not a super job so I appologize if everything isn't as accurate and as detailed as possible. I could really say a lot about these covers (and this book) but I'm going to keep it brief!
My favorite copy is the yellow bordered copy of the 1987 publication because it was the cover I had as a child and identify with the book. It's the cover I looked at as I read the book the first time. I have a different copy in my house now but hardly think of it at all.

A Wrinkle in Time hardcover, 1960s (same cover as first edition except for addition of the Newbery Medal)
Author Madeleine L'Engle
Cover artist Ellen Raskin (1960s editions),
Country United States
Language English
Series Time Quartet
Genre(s) Young Adult, Science fiction novel
Publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Publication date 1962
Media type Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages 230 pp

This is the cover art from the 1979 publication. I unfortunately didn't find an illustrator for this one.

I'm just guessing that this is the 1987 publication cover art.

This cover was in a 1991 boxed set publication as well as the cover used for a later audio publication.

This copy was published in 1994.

Published 1997

Hardcover art by Leo and Diane Dillon, showing the Mrs W's published 2005.

This is the current cover art released in 2007 by Taeeun Yoo, showing the Mrs W's (at the left) and the children at the Central Intelligence building (at the right).

I think all of the covers are beautiful except the first. If I were to see just the covers to make a choice of which book to read I would choose the cover by Leo and Diane Dillon from 2005. It captures the fantasy of the book without looking too simple, like my 1987 cover does as though looking through rose colored glasses, nor does it appear too sinister or confusing. The depiction of the centaur in several of them serves to pique one's curiousity if you've never heard about the story. I wish the Dillon cover had the centaur as well, but how to do that without looking overdone and confusing? The most current cover has too many things on it and appears confusing. (Nor do I appreciate that particular style of drawing.)

sources www.isfdb.org, www.wikipedia.org

Mad-men Era Female Icon Quiz: Are you a Marilyn?

2009-02-03T00:50:00.001-06:00

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are an Ingrid!

You are an Ingrid -- "I am unique"

Ingrids have sensitive feelings and are warm and perceptive.

How to Get Along with Me

* Give me plenty of compliments. They mean a lot to me.

* Be a supportive friend or partner. Help me to learn to love and value myself.

* Respect me for my special gifts of intuition and vision.

* Though I don't always want to be cheered up when I'm feeling melancholy, I sometimes like to have someone lighten me up a little.

* Don't tell me I'm too sensitive or that I'm overreacting!

What I Like About Being an Ingrid

* my ability to find meaning in life and to experience feeling at a deep level

* my ability to establish warm connections with people

* admiring what is noble, truthful, and beautiful in life

* my creativity, intuition, and sense of humor

* being unique and being seen as unique by others

* having aesthetic sensibilities

* being able to easily pick up the feelings of people around me

What's Hard About Being an Ingrid

* experiencing dark moods of emptiness and despair

* feelings of self-hatred and shame; believing I don't deserve to be loved

* feeling guilty when I disappoint people

* feeling hurt or attacked when someone misundertands me

* expecting too much from myself and life

* fearing being abandoned

* obsessing over resentments

* longing for what I don't have

Ingrids as Children Often

* have active imaginations: play creatively alone or organize playmates in original games

* are very sensitive

* feel that they don't fit in

* believe they are missing something that other people have

* attach themselves to idealized teachers, heroes, artists, etc.

* become antiauthoritarian or rebellious when criticized or not understood

* feel lonely or abandoned (perhaps as a result of a death or their parents' divorce)

Ingrids as Parents

* help their children become who they really are

* support their children's creativity and originality

* are good at helping their children get in touch with their feelings

* are sometimes overly critical or overly protective

* are usually very good with children if not too self-absorbed

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

The Pulitzer Prizes: Another List, People!

2009-02-02T10:01:00.002-06:00

2010
2009
2008 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books)
2007 ~~The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Alfred A. Knopf)~~
2006 March by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)2005 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar)
2004 The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad/ HarperCollins)
2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar)
2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Alfred A. Knopf)
2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Random House)
2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin)
1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin)
1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (Crown)
1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford (Alfred A. Knopf)
1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Viking)
1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Charles Scribner's Sons)
1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (Henry Holt)
1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (Alfred A. Knopf)
1991 Rabbit At Rest by John Updike (Alfred A. Knopf)
1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (Farrar)
1989 Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf)
1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison (Alfred A. Knopf)
1987 A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (Alfred A. Knopf)
1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Simon & Schuster)
1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie (Random House)
1984 Ironweed by William Kennedy (Viking)
1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Harcourt Brace)
1982 Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (Knopf)
1981 A Confederacy of Dunces by the late John Kennedy Toole (a posthumous publication)(Louisiana State U. Press)
1980 The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (Little)
1979 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (Knopf)
1978 Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (Atlantic Monthly Press)
1977 (No Award)
1976 Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow (Viking)
1975 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (McKay)
1974 (No Award)
1973 The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (Random)
1972 Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (Doubleday)
1971 (No Award)
1970 Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Farrar)
1969 House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (Harper)
1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (Random)
1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (Farrar)
1966 Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Harcourt)
1965 The Keepers Of The House by Shirley Ann Grau (Random)
1964(No Award)
1963 The Reivers by William Faulkner (Random)
1962 The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor (Little)
1961 ~~To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Lippincott)~~
1960 Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (Doubleday)
1959 The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (Doubleday)
1958 ~~A Death In The Family by the late James Agee (McDowell, Obolensky)~~
1957 (No Award)
1956 Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor (World)
1955 A Fable by William Faulkner (Random)
1954 (No Award)
1953 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner)
1952 The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk (Doubleday)
1951 The Town by Conrad Richter (Knopf)
1950 The Way West by A. B. Guthrie (Sloane)
1949 Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (Harcourt)
1948 Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener (Macmillan)
1947 All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (Harvest)
1946 (No Award)
1945 A Bell For Adano by John Hersey1944 Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin1943 Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair
1942 In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow
1941 (No Award)
~~1940 The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck~~
~~1939 The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings~~
1938 The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand
1937 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1936 Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis
1935 Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson
1934 Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller
1933 The Store by T. S. Stribling
1932 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1931 Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes
1930 Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge
1929 Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin
1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
1927 Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield
1926 Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis
1925 So Big by Edna Ferber
1924 The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson
1923 One of Ours by Willa Cather
1922 Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
1920 (No Award)
1919 The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
1918 His Family by Ernest Poole
1917 (No Award)

Love in the Time of Cholera ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2009-02-02T07:27:00.000-06:00

I'll spoil this book for you if we're not careful!

Aging and "death, that S.O.B." were heavily felt in a book about love that lasts (maybe waits?) a lifetime...supposedly. If Mr.Marquez had left the love out of it I might have been satisfied.

Florentino Arizo is a young Colombian who is a hopeless, obsessive romantic fixated on acquiring the love of one person for the duration of his entire life. Whilst he
"waits" he experiences 622 affairs hoping for his object of fixation's husband to die. "Unfaithful but not disloyal!" is how he rationalizes his acts of infidelity to her.
Aside from being so sexual and obsessed, his fear of aging and chronic lifelong constipation are the most notable traits of this incredibly depraved character that in no way could I feel sympathy for no matter how well written his plight of aging may be. His life's experiences lead to extensive meditations and written letters on aging gracefully and acceptance of what has been, for him, a lifelong losing battle and turn to acceptance of the conclusion. To cope with being an anxious, selfish person he uses sexuality as a comfort and names it "loving". He makes very little, if any, sacrifice in his life for the benefit of others but views his attempts to stave off old age as being for the sake of his intended love. He is unctuous with lotions and slimy with deceipt to everyone. He is aptly described as a shadow of a person which is a perfect description of a man lacking substance; he simply had no moral character and no one knows him and of what he is capable.

AS he slept his way through 622 affairs with married women, women he raped and fathered children with but then didn't care for, he recorded them in volumes of books. He reflects that he cared for some of them and felt some close ties to some but what is most disgusting and appalling to me is how the tone of the writing makes his actions seem perfectly understandable, even acceptable by not making the vices noteworthy. There was simply no moral repudiation to his actions in the story! Ahhh! The descriptions of his "making love" disgusted me. And I don't mean the actions, I mean the perceptions and attitudes of what is love. Is it love to sleep with married women? He was openly preying on women he knew would want him and wanted sex, particularly widows and even the young, poor and vulnerable.

When the movie was made THIS is the man they chose to play the part of Florentino Ariza...But I was picturing him looking like this one....

I hung on until the end needing to know how it all worked out for this very unique individual.

His great love interest was Fermina Daza who rejected him after years of writing love letters. She had the opportunity to become only slightly liberated during her teen years of secret love letter writing. Then she finally came face to face with him (Florentino Ariza) and in one moment cast him off and married someone else not understanding her motives and going on to lead a most interesting and often troubled married life, also not realizing that Florentino was going to trail her forever. She was a lost person with a lost identity, apathetic and yet fiery. She was filled with rage and emptiness. She was a walking dichotomy. She experienced freedoms and yet was never truly free in her life. She ghosted through much of her life unable to put her finger on what would make her truly happy. She lived to serve and manage and make appearances but she desperately needed an awakening! One of the most interesting things about her was that she had a hoarding disorder. I think that towards the end as her material things began to be put to the fire she experiences self-discovery through the lightening of burdens she carried through her entire life.

On a whole this book had a lot of potentially interesting ideas wrapped in a sentimental love story but the metaphor in the title was a little too much. Love = cholera. Love in this book is a real sickness that possibly only gets a little better as aging and death creeps up and rears its smelly old head.

I could have really enjoyed this book, but like I said in the description of Florentino Arizo, why read a book where the main character is so deplorable? What lesson did all of his creepiness serve? For me, it was too UUUcky. I can only rate this book at THREE out of ten. I agreed with critic Michael Wood in the New York Review of Books who wrote that

"love is a disease in this book, and this is a romantic novel; but the disease is one of the self-deluding, stubborn will, a fruit of mythology and obstinacy rather than any fate beyond ourselves." He goes on to say that the novel, "like García Márquez's other novels, is an exploration of destiny but of this kind of destiny: the kind we invent and displace and fear and desperately live up to or die for."

A Violinist in the Metro

2009-02-01T19:35:00.000-06:00

The story below is true – It's posted on Snopes

From The Effective Club

A man stood at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three m inutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theatre in Boston and the seats average $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people.
The outlines were: in a commonpl ace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Weekly Geeks: 2009-04

2009-02-01T11:17:00.007-06:00

Passions
#1. What are you passionate about besides reading and blogging? For example, are you crafty (knitting, woodworking, scrapbooking, model building)? Do you cook? Into gaming (computer or board)? Sports (player or spectator)? Photography? Maybe you like geocaching, rock climbing? Or love attending events like renaissance fairs, concerts? Music? Dancing? You get the idea.

Tell us why you're passionate about it. Post photos of what you've made or of yourself doing whatever it is you love doing.

I am interested in a great many things. I have a large variety of hobbies and interests. I love to hike, travel, paint, play piano & violin, sew. I love art and music, just to name a few. I hardly spend any time to get truly accomplished at hobbies and interests because of the demands placed on me by what I'm truly passionate about. I incorporate my interests into my life and my children's in every way I can, though I don't spend a lot of ME time getting immersed in my own projects or activities.

AT the risk of sounding cliche or like a stereotypical SAHM I have to say that I love my children. We have four very young children and they are more to me than I'd ever imagined possible. I put my other interests on hold to some degree not because it's a painful sacrifice (even though it is a great sacrifice) but because sometimes diapers have to be changed, etc. and I know great things are ahead of us. What I do with my children that is my passion is home education.
Here's the three older kids doing a hands-on learning activity. Ha!
I think this must have been a legacy passed on from my grandparents who placed such a high emphasis on education. They were both highly educated as was my mother, in music, sciences, language. This example has ingrained in me what I want most for myself and my kids: an education that cannot be compared to what is considered normal. So far that is a lofty goal but the key for us is to go slow and steady and use the right materials. I work hard to care for a baby and toddler and teach two young school children. I can only do it because I am PASSIONATE about it!

Those of you who have already experienced your years as a parent to young ones may reflect and commiserate with my current position. I love to create things and have adventures and this is my time of life to experience this. I look forward to future times when I'll have more time to read and explore other interests and hopefully that will also be a time when I can see how my hard work and preparation has led to happy lives for more than just myself.

#2. Get us involved. Link to tutorials, recipes, Youtube videos, websites, fan sites, etc, anything that will help us learn more about your interest or how to do your hobby. Maybe you'd like to link to another hobbyist whose work you admire or tell us about a book or magazine related to your interest.

Because there is such an overabundance of CRAP out there for home educators I had to sift through a lot before I found just what I was looking for and I don't do a whole lot of time wasting looking around anymore. I don't do co-ops or support groups but I do blog about it a little. I've hunted around for the BEST book lists and don't use any one method unless you call HARD WORK a method. I like the Robinson Curriculum and especially The Well Trained Mind . I also use The Story of the World. I place high emphasis on math and playing games. I love MindWare and ThinkFun!

#3. Visit other Weekly Geeks. Link in your post to other Geeks who've peaked your interest in their passion. Or maybe you might find a fellow afincionado among us, link to them.

I noticed that there seems to be a quite a bit of crocheting and knitting going on! When I tried my hand at that I involuntarily scrunch my hands and get cramps, so not very relaxing for me! I most enjoyed the food links left by Melanie at The Indextrious Reader. I like that her blog made me have to look up what "indextrious" means! I can relate to L in Lous_Pages in her love of travel. I just love the photos and Egyptology is a fav subject of mine as well. It was so nice, though not surprising, to see so many interests among book lovers!

Presidential Limos

2009-01-25T17:27:00.003-06:00

President Truman in the Lincoln made for President Roosevelt

President Eisenhower in the 1953 Eldorado

1950 Lincoln with first bubble top ~ President Eisenhower's idea

1961 Continental X100 ~ President Kennedy was shot in this vehicle.

1972 Lincoln ~ Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan

1983 Cadillac ~ President Reagan

1989 Lincoln ~ President George H.W. Bush

1993 Cadillac ~ President Clinton

2001 Cadillac DTS ~ President George W. Bush

Guess Who?

Weekly Geeks 2009-03: Classics

2009-01-25T15:40:00.002-06:00

In the third Weekly Geeks of 2009, let's have fun with the classics. For our purposes, I'm defining a classic as anything written over 100 years ago and still in print

.
3) Let's say you're vacationing with your dear cousin Myrtle, and she forgot to bring a book. The two of you venture into the hip independent bookstore around the corner, where she primly announces that she only reads classic literature. If you don't find her a book, she'll never let you get any reading done! What contemporary books with classic appeal would you pull off the shelf for her?

This is so great! Ironically my relative with whom I regularly chat books and movies with just came into town last week. What does she do when she's in town? She Reads! (I think she read several books in the few days she was here.) She brought a nice stack of books to share with me and I felt so bad that I only had two measly little paperbacks to pass on to her!

One book that I did tell her to read was Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. I wrote my review previously here. I know. I know. I'm new at writing reviews and I kinda suck so go easy, k!

Here is one book with beautiful writing based on the story of Hamlet by Shakespeare.(and probably several others.) I was a little concerned about my relative not being a dog lover, but when I posed this doubt to her she said, "Well, what kind of a Dog Book is it? Because while I may not love dogs I love the IDEA of dogs." I understood what she meant because this book is really more about the IDEA of dogs and doesn't require one to sit down and cuddle with one on your lap. And the Idea presented in this book about the consciousness of the dogs and their connection to the mute human tragic hero of the story is so satisfying.

I wouldn't say it's a fav like Oprah did, but I have to admit she has picked some good ones and this one is good.

A GINORMOUS List!

2009-01-24T22:14:00.002-06:00

I had to post this list for my own personal reference. I don't read enough so I'm sure I'll die before I read even half of these! I'd better get busy. So many of these I've never even heard of!

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" by ukaunz

2000s
Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
Saturday – Ian McEwan
On Beauty – Zadie Smith
Slow Man – J.M. Coetzee
Adjunct: An Undigest – Peter Manson
The Sea – John Banville
The Red Queen – Margaret Drabble
The Plot Against America – Philip Roth
The Master – Colm Tóibín
Vanishing Point – David Markson
The Lambs of London – Peter Ackroyd
Dining on Stones – Iain Sinclair
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
Drop City – T. Coraghessan Boyle
The Colour – Rose Tremain
Thursbitch – Alan Garner
The Light of Day – Graham Swift
What I Loved – Siri Hustvedt
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
Islands – Dan Sleigh
Elizabeth Costello – J.M. Coetzee
London Orbital – Iain Sinclair
Family Matters – Rohinton Mistry
Fingersmith – Sarah Waters
The Double – José Saramago
Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer
Unless – Carol Shields
Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami
The Story of Lucy Gault – William Trevor
That They May Face the Rising Sun – John McGahern
In the Forest – Edna O’Brien
Shroud – John Banville
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
Youth – J.M. Coetzee
Dead Air – Iain Banks
Nowhere Man – Aleksandar Hemon
The Book of Illusions – Paul Auster
Gabriel’s Gift – Hanif Kureishi
Austerlitz – W.G. Sebald
Platform – Michael Houellebecq
Schooling – Heather McGowan
~~Atonement – Ian McEwan~~
The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen
Don’t Move – Margaret Mazzantini
The Body Artist – Don DeLillo
Fury – Salman Rushdie
At Swim, Two Boys – Jamie O’Neill
Choke – Chuck Palahniuk
~~Life of Pi – Yann Martel~~
The Feast of the Goat – Mario Vargos Llosa
An Obedient Father – Akhil Sharma
The Devil and Miss Prym – Paulo Coelho
Spring Flowers, Spring Frost – Ismail Kadare
White Teeth – Zadie Smith
The Heart of Redness – Zakes Mda
Under the Skin – Michel Faber
Ignorance – Milan Kundera
Nineteen Seventy Seven – David Peace
Celestial Harmonies – Péter Esterházy
City of God – E.L. Doctorow
How the Dead Live – Will Self
The Human Stain – Philip Roth
~~The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood~~
After the Quake – Haruki Murakami
Small Remedies – Shashi Deshpande
Super-Cannes – J.G. Ballard
House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski
Blonde – Joyce Carol Oates
Pastoralia – George Saunders

1900s
Timbuktu – Paul Auster
The Romantics – Pankaj Mishra
Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson
As If I Am Not There – Slavenka Drakuli?
Everything You Need – A.L. Kennedy
Fear and Trembling – Amélie Nothomb
The Ground Beneath Her Feet – Salman Rushdie
Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee
Sputnik Sweetheart – Haruki Murakami
Elementary Particles – Michel Houellebecq
Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi
Amsterdam – Ian McEwan
Cloudsplitter – Russell Banks
All Souls Day – Cees Nooteboom
The Talk of the Town – Ardal O’Hanlon
Tipping the Velvet – Sarah Waters
~~The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver~~
Glamorama – Bret Easton Ellis
Another World – Pat Barker
The Hours – Michael Cunningham
Veronika Decides to Die – Paulo Coelho
Mason & Dixon – Thomas Pynchon
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Great Apes – Will Self
Enduring Love – Ian McEwan
Underworld – Don DeLillo
Jack Maggs – Peter Carey
The Life of Insects – Victor Pelevin
American Pastoral – Philip Roth
The Untouchable – John Banville
Silk – Alessandro Baricco
Cocaine Nights – J.G. Ballard
Hallucinating Foucault – Patricia Duncker
Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels
The Ghost Road – Pat Barker
Forever a Stranger – Hella Haasse
Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace
The Clay Machine-Gun – Victor Pelevin
Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood
The Unconsoled – Kazuo Ishiguro
Morvern Callar – Alan Warner
The Information – Martin Amis
The Moor’s Last Sigh – Salman Rushdie
Sabbath’s Theater – Philip Roth
The Rings of Saturn – W.G. Sebald
The Reader – Bernhard Schlink
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
Love’s Work – Gillian Rose
The End of the Story – Lydia Davis
Mr. Vertigo – Paul Auster
The Folding Star – Alan Hollinghurst
Whatever – Michel Houellebecq
Land – Park Kyong-ni
The Master of Petersburg – J.M. Coetzee
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
Pereira Declares: A Testimony – Antonio Tabucchi
City Sister Silver – Jàchym Topol
How Late It Was, How Late – James Kelman
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres
Felicia’s Journey – William Trevor
Disappearance – David Dabydeen
The Invention of Curried Sausage – Uwe Timm
The Shipping News – E. Annie Proulx
Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh
Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
Looking for the Possible Dance – A.L. Kennedy
Operation Shylock – Philip Roth
Complicity – Iain Banks
On Love – Alain de Botton
What a Carve Up! – Jonathan Coe
A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields
The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides
The House of Doctor Dee – Peter Ackroyd
The Robber Bride – Margaret Atwood
The Emigrants – W.G. Sebald
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
Life is a Caravanserai – Emine Özdamar
The Discovery of Heaven – Harry Mulisch
A Heart So White – Javier Marias
Possessing the Secret of Joy – Alice Walker
Indigo – Marina Warner
The Crow Road – Iain Banks
Written on the Body – Jeanette Winterson
Jazz – Toni Morrison
~~The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje~~
Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Høeg
The Butcher Boy – Patrick McCabe
Black Water – Joyce Carol Oates
The Heather Blazing – Colm Tóibín
Asphodel – H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
Black Dogs – Ian McEwan
Hideous Kinky – Esther Freud
Arcadia – Jim Crace
Wild Swans – Jung Chang
American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
Time’s Arrow – Martin Amis
Mao II – Don DeLillo
Typical – Padgett Powell
Regeneration – Pat Barker
Downriver – Iain Sinclair
Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord – Louis de Bernieres
Wise Children – Angela Carter
Get Shorty – Elmore Leonard
Amongst Women – John McGahern
Vineland – Thomas Pynchon
Vertigo – W.G. Sebald
Stone Junction – Jim Dodge
The Music of Chance – Paul Auster
The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
A Home at the End of the World – Michael Cunningham
Like Life – Lorrie Moore
Possession – A.S. Byatt
The Buddha of Suburbia – Hanif Kureishi
The Midnight Examiner – William Kotzwinkle
A Disaffection – James Kelman
Sexing the Cherry – Jeanette Winterson
Moon Palace – Paul Auster
Billy Bathgate – E.L. Doctorow
Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
The Melancholy of Resistance – László Krasznahorkai
The Temple of My Familiar – Alice Walker
The Trick is to Keep Breathing – Janice Galloway
The History of the Siege of Lisbon – José Saramago
Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
London Fields – Martin Amis
The Book of Evidence – John Banville
Cat’s Eye – Margaret Atwood
Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco
The Beautiful Room is Empty – Edmund White
Wittgenstein’s Mistress – David Markson
The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie
The Swimming-Pool Library – Alan Hollinghurst
Oscar and Lucinda – Peter Carey
Libra – Don DeLillo
The Player of Games – Iain M. Banks
Nervous Conditions – Tsitsi Dangarembga
The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul – Douglas Adams
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams
The Radiant Way – Margaret Drabble
The Afternoon of a Writer – Peter Handke
The Black Dahlia – James Ellroy
The Passion – Jeanette Winterson
The Pigeon – Patrick Süskind
The Child in Time – Ian McEwan
Cigarettes – Harry Mathews
The Bonfire of the Vanities – Tom Wolfe
The New York Trilogy – Paul Auster
World’s End – T. Coraghessan Boyle
Enigma of Arrival – V.S. Naipaul
The Taebek Mountains – Jo Jung-rae
Beloved – Toni Morrison
Anagrams – Lorrie Moore
Matigari – Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
Marya – Joyce Carol Oates
Watchmen – Alan Moore & David Gibbons
The Old Devils – Kingsley Amis
Lost Language of Cranes – David Leavitt
An Artist of the Floating World – Kazuo Ishiguro
Extinction – Thomas Bernhard
Foe – J.M. Coetzee
The Drowned and the Saved – Primo Levi
Reasons to Live – Amy Hempel
The Parable of the Blind – Gert Hofmann
Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
The Cider House Rules – John Irving
A Maggot – John Fowles
Less Than Zero – Bret Easton Ellis
Contact – Carl Sagan
~~The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood~~
Perfume – Patrick Süskind
Old Masters – Thomas Bernhard
White Noise – Don DeLillo
Queer – William Burroughs
Hawksmoor – Peter Ackroyd
Legend – David Gemmell
Dictionary of the Khazars – Milorad Pavi?
The Bus Conductor Hines – James Kelman
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis – José Saramago
The Lover – Marguerite Duras
Empire of the Sun – J.G. Ballard
The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Nights at the Circus – Angela Carter
The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
Blood and Guts in High School – Kathy Acker
Neuromancer – William Gibson
Flaubert’s Parrot – Julian Barnes
Money: A Suicide Note – Martin Amis
Shame – Salman Rushdie
Worstward Ho – Samuel Beckett
Fools of Fortune – William Trevor
La Brava – Elmore Leonard
Waterland – Graham Swift
The Life and Times of Michael K – J.M. Coetzee
The Diary of Jane Somers – Doris Lessing
The Piano Teacher – Elfriede Jelinek
The Sorrow of Belgium – Hugo Claus
If Not Now, When? – Primo Levi
A Boy’s Own Story – Edmund White
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
Wittgenstein’s Nephew – Thomas Bernhard
A Pale View of Hills – Kazuo Ishiguro
Schindler’s Ark – Thomas Keneally
The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende
The Newton Letter – John Banville
On the Black Hill – Bruce Chatwin
Concrete – Thomas Bernhard
The Names – Don DeLillo
Rabbit is Rich – John Updike
Lanark: A Life in Four Books – Alasdair Gray
The Comfort of Strangers – Ian McEwan
July’s People – Nadine Gordimer
Summer in Baden-Baden – Leonid Tsypkin
Broken April – Ismail Kadare
Waiting for the Barbarians – J.M. Coetzee
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Rites of Passage – William Golding
Rituals – Cees Nooteboom
Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
City Primeval – Elmore Leonard
The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting – Milan Kundera
Smiley’s People – John Le Carré
Shikasta – Doris Lessing
A Bend in the River – V.S. Naipaul
Burger’s Daughter - Nadine Gordimer
The Safety Net – Heinrich Böll
If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler – Italo Calvino
~~The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams~~
The Cement Garden – Ian McEwan
The World According to Garp – John Irving
Life: A User’s Manual – Georges Perec
The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch
The Singapore Grip – J.G. Farrell
Yes – Thomas Bernhard
The Virgin in the Garden – A.S. Byatt
In the Heart of the Country – J.M. Coetzee
The Passion of New Eve – Angela Carter
Delta of Venus – Anaïs Nin
The Shining – Stephen King
Dispatches – Michael Herr
Petals of Blood – Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison
The Hour of the Star – Clarice Lispector
The Left-Handed Woman – Peter Handke
Ratner’s Star – Don DeLillo
The Public Burning – Robert Coover
Interview With the Vampire – Anne Rice
Cutter and Bone – Newton Thornburg
Amateurs – Donald Barthelme
Patterns of Childhood – Christa Wolf
Autumn of the Patriarch – Gabriel García Márquez
W, or the Memory of Childhood – Georges Perec
A Dance to the Music of Time – Anthony Powell
Grimus – Salman Rushdie
The Dead Father – Donald Barthelme
Fateless – Imre Kertész
Willard and His Bowling Trophies – Richard Brautigan
High Rise – J.G. Ballard
Humboldt’s Gift – Saul Bellow
Dead Babies – Martin Amis
Correction – Thomas Bernhard
Ragtime – E.L. Doctorow
The Fan Man – William Kotzwinkle
Dusklands – J.M. Coetzee
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum – Heinrich Böll
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John Le Carré
Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Fear of Flying – Erica Jong
A Question of Power – Bessie Head
The Siege of Krishnapur – J.G. Farrell
The Castle of Crossed Destinies – Italo Calvino
Crash – J.G. Ballard
The Honorary Consul – Graham Greene
Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon
The Black Prince – Iris Murdoch
Sula – Toni Morrison
Invisible Cities – Italo Calvino
The Breast – Philip Roth
The Summer Book – Tove Jansson
G – John Berger
Surfacing – Margaret Atwood
House Mother Normal – B.S. Johnson
In A Free State – V.S. Naipaul
The Book of Daniel – E.L. Doctorow
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson
Group Portrait With Lady – Heinrich Böll
The Wild Boys – William Burroughs
Rabbit Redux – John Updike
The Sea of Fertility – Yukio Mishima
The Driver’s Seat – Muriel Spark
The Ogre – Michael Tournier
The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick – Peter Handke
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
Mercier et Camier – Samuel Beckett
Troubles – J.G. Farrell
Jahrestage – Uwe Johnson
The Atrocity Exhibition – J.G. Ballard
Tent of Miracles – Jorge Amado
Pricksongs and Descants – Robert Coover
Blind Man With a Pistol – Chester Hines
~~Slaughterhouse-five – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.~~
The French Lieutenant’s Woman – John Fowles
The Green Man – Kingsley Amis
Portnoy’s Complaint – Philip Roth
The Godfather – Mario Puzo
Ada – Vladimir Nabokov
Them – Joyce Carol Oates
A Void/Avoid – Georges Perec
Eva Trout – Elizabeth Bowen
Myra Breckinridge – Gore Vidal
The Nice and the Good – Iris Murdoch
Belle du Seigneur – Albert Cohen
Cancer Ward – Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
The First Circle – Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
Dark as the Grave Wherein My Friend is Laid – Malcolm Lowry
The German Lesson – Siegfried Lenz
In Watermelon Sugar – Richard Brautigan
A Kestrel for a Knave – Barry Hines
The Quest for Christa T. – Christa Wolf
Chocky – John Wyndham
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test – Tom Wolfe
The Cubs and Other Stories – Mario Vargas Llosa
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov
Pilgrimage – Dorothy Richardson
The Joke – Milan Kundera
No Laughing Matter – Angus Wilson
The Third Policeman – Flann O’Brien
A Man Asleep – Georges Perec
The Birds Fall Down – Rebecca West
Trawl – B.S. Johnson
In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
The Magus – John Fowles
The Vice-Consul – Marguerite Duras
~~Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys~~
Giles Goat-Boy – John Barth
The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon
Things – Georges Perec
The River Between – Ngugi wa Thiong’o
August is a Wicked Month – Edna O’Brien
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater – Kurt Vonnegut
Everything That Rises Must Converge – Flannery O’Connor
The Passion According to G.H. – Clarice Lispector
Sometimes a Great Notion – Ken Kesey
Come Back, Dr. Caligari – Donald Bartholme
Albert Angelo – B.S. Johnson
Arrow of God – Chinua Achebe
The Ravishing of Lol V. Stein – Marguerite Duras
Herzog – Saul Bellow
V. – Thomas Pynchon
Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
The Graduate – Charles Webb
Manon des Sources – Marcel Pagnol
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John Le Carré
The Girls of Slender Means – Muriel Spark
Inside Mr. Enderby – Anthony Burgess
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
The Collector – John Fowles
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
The Drowned World – J.G. Ballard
The Golden Notebook – Doris Lessing
Labyrinths – Jorg Luis Borges
Girl With Green Eyes – Edna O’Brien
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis – Giorgio Bassani
Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
Franny and Zooey – J.D. Salinger
A Severed Head – Iris Murdoch
Faces in the Water – Janet Frame
Solaris – Stanislaw Lem
Cat and Mouse – Günter Grass
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
The Violent Bear it Away – Flannery O’Connor
How It Is – Samuel Beckett
Our Ancestors – Italo Calvino
The Country Girls – Edna O’Brien
~~To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee~~
Rabbit, Run – John Updike
Promise at Dawn – Romain Gary
Cider With Rosie – Laurie Lee
Billy Liar – Keith Waterhouse
Naked Lunch – William Burroughs
The Tin Drum – Günter Grass
Absolute Beginners – Colin MacInnes
Henderson the Rain King – Saul Bellow
Memento Mori – Muriel Spark
Billiards at Half-Past Nine – Heinrich Böll
Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
The Leopard – Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Pluck the Bud and Destroy the Offspring – Kenzaburo Oe
A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
The Bitter Glass – Eilís Dillon
~~Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe~~
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – Alan Sillitoe
Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris – Paul Gallico
Borstal Boy – Brendan Behan
The End of the Road – John Barth
The Once and Future King – T.H. White
The Bell – Iris Murdoch
Jealousy – Alain Robbe-Grillet
Voss – Patrick White
The Midwich Cuckoos – John Wyndham
Blue Noon – Georges Bataille
Homo Faber – Max Frisch
On the Road – Jack Kerouac
Pnin – Vladimir Nabokov
Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak
The Wonderful “O” – James Thurber
Justine – Lawrence Durrell
Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin
The Lonely Londoners – Sam Selvon
The Roots of Heaven – Romain Gary
Seize the Day – Saul Bellow
The Floating Opera – John Barth
~~The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien~~
The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
A World of Love – Elizabeth Bowen
The Trusting and the Maimed – James Plunkett
The Quiet American – Graham Greene
The Last Temptation of Christ – Nikos Kazantzákis
The Recognitions – William Gaddis
The Ragazzi – Pier Paulo Pasolini
Bonjour Tristesse – Françoise Sagan
I’m Not Stiller – Max Frisch
Self Condemned – Wyndham Lewis
The Story of O – Pauline Réage
A Ghost at Noon – Alberto Moravia
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Under the Net – Iris Murdoch
The Go-Between – L.P. Hartley
The Long Goodbye – Raymond Chandler
The Unnamable – Samuel Beckett
Watt – Samuel Beckett
Lucky Jim – Kingsley Amis
Junkie – William Burroughs
The Adventures of Augie March – Saul Bellow
Go Tell It on the Mountain – James Baldwin
Casino Royale – Ian Fleming
The Judge and His Hangman – Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
Wise Blood – Flannery O’Connor
The Killer Inside Me – Jim Thompson
Memoirs of Hadrian – Marguerite Yourcenar
Malone Dies – Samuel Beckett
Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
Foundation – Isaac Asimov
The Opposing Shore – Julien Gracq
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
The Rebel – Albert Camus
Molloy – Samuel Beckett
The End of the Affair – Graham Greene
The Abbot C – Georges Bataille
The Labyrinth of Solitude – Octavio Paz
The Third Man – Graham Greene
The 13 Clocks – James Thurber
Gormenghast – Mervyn Peake
The Grass is Singing – Doris Lessing
I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
The Moon and the Bonfires – Cesare Pavese
The Garden Where the Brass Band Played – Simon Vestdijk
Love in a Cold Climate – Nancy Mitford
The Case of Comrade Tulayev – Victor Serge
The Heat of the Day – Elizabeth Bowen
Kingdom of This World – Alejo Carpentier
The Man With the Golden Arm – Nelson Algren
~~Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell~~
All About H. Hatterr – G.V. Desani
Disobedience – Alberto Moravia
Death Sentence – Maurice Blanchot
The Heart of the Matter – Graham Greene
Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton
Doctor Faustus – Thomas Mann
The Victim – Saul Bellow
Exercises in Style – Raymond Queneau
If This Is a Man – Primo Levi
Under the Volcano – Malcolm Lowry
The Path to the Nest of Spiders – Italo Calvino
The Plague – Albert Camus
Back – Henry Green
Titus Groan – Mervyn Peake
The Bridge on the Drina – Ivo Andri?
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
Animal Farm – George Orwell
Cannery Row – John Steinbeck
The Pursuit of Love – Nancy Mitford
Loving – Henry Green
Arcanum 17 – André Breton
Christ Stopped at Eboli – Carlo Levi
The Razor’s Edge – William Somerset Maugham
Transit – Anna Seghers
Ficciones – Jorge Luis Borges
Dangling Man – Saul Bellow
The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Caught – Henry Green
The Glass Bead Game – Herman Hesse
Embers – Sandor Marai
Go Down, Moses – William Faulkner
The Outsider – Albert Camus
In Sicily – Elio Vittorini
The Poor Mouth – Flann O’Brien
The Living and the Dead – Patrick White
Hangover Square – Patrick Hamilton
Between the Acts – Virginia Woolf
The Hamlet – William Faulkner
Farewell My Lovely – Raymond Chandler
For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
Native Son – Richard Wright
The Power and the Glory – Graham Greene
The Tartar Steppe – Dino Buzzati
Party Going – Henry Green
~~The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck~~
Finnegans Wake – James Joyce
At Swim-Two-Birds – Flann O’Brien
Coming Up for Air – George Orwell
Goodbye to Berlin – Christopher Isherwood
Tropic of Capricorn – Henry Miller
Good Morning, Midnight – Jean Rhys
The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
After the Death of Don Juan – Sylvie Townsend Warner
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – Winifred Watson
Nausea – Jean-Paul Sartre
Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
Cause for Alarm – Eric Ambler
Brighton Rock – Graham Greene
U.S.A. – John Dos Passos
Murphy – Samuel Beckett
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
~~The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien~~
The Years – Virginia Woolf
In Parenthesis – David Jones
The Revenge for Love – Wyndham Lewis
Out of Africa – Isak Dineson (Karen Blixen)
To Have and Have Not – Ernest Hemingway
Summer Will Show – Sylvia Townsend Warner
Eyeless in Gaza – Aldous Huxley
The Thinking Reed – Rebecca West
Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
Keep the Aspidistra Flying – George Orwell
Wild Harbour – Ian MacPherson
Absalom, Absalom! – William Faulkner
At the Mountains of Madness – H.P. Lovecraft
Nightwood – Djuna Barnes
Independent People – Halldór Laxness
Auto-da-Fé – Elias Canetti
The Last of Mr. Norris – Christopher Isherwood
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? – Horace McCoy
The House in Paris – Elizabeth Bowen
England Made Me – Graham Greene
Burmese Days – George Orwell
The Nine Tailors – Dorothy L. Sayers
Threepenny Novel – Bertolt Brecht
Novel With Cocaine – M. Ageyev
The Postman Always Rings Twice – James M. Cain
Tropic of Cancer – Henry Miller
A Handful of Dust – Evelyn Waugh
Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Thank You, Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse
Call it Sleep – Henry Roth
Miss Lonelyhearts – Nathanael West
Murder Must Advertise – Dorothy L. Sayers
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas – Gertrude Stein
Testament of Youth – Vera Brittain
A Day Off – Storm Jameson
The Man Without Qualities – Robert Musil
A Scots Quair (Sunset Song) – Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Journey to the End of the Night – Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
To the North – Elizabeth Bowen
The Thin Man – Dashiell Hammett
The Radetzky March – Joseph Roth
The Waves – Virginia Woolf
The Glass Key – Dashiell Hammett
Cakes and Ale – W. Somerset Maugham
The Apes of God – Wyndham Lewis
Her Privates We – Frederic Manning
Vile Bodies – Evelyn Waugh
The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett
Hebdomeros – Giorgio de Chirico
Passing – Nella Larsen
A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
Red Harvest – Dashiell Hammett
Living – Henry Green
The Time of Indifference – Alberto Moravia
All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
Berlin Alexanderplatz – Alfred Döblin
The Last September – Elizabeth Bowen
Harriet Hume – Rebecca West
The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
Les Enfants Terribles – Jean Cocteau
Look Homeward, Angel – Thomas Wolfe
Story of the Eye – Georges Bataille
Orlando – Virginia Woolf
Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D.H. Lawrence
The Well of Loneliness – Radclyffe Hall
The Childermass – Wyndham Lewis
Quartet – Jean Rhys
Decline and Fall – Evelyn Waugh
Quicksand – Nella Larsen
Parade’s End – Ford Madox Ford
Nadja – André Breton
Steppenwolf – Herman Hesse
Remembrance of Things Past – Marcel Proust
To The Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
Tarka the Otter – Henry Williamson
Amerika – Franz Kafka
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
Blindness – Henry Green
The Castle – Franz Kafka
The Good Soldier Švejk – Jaroslav Hašek
The Plumed Serpent – D.H. Lawrence
One, None and a Hundred Thousand – Luigi Pirandello
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie
The Making of Americans – Gertrude Stein
Manhattan Transfer – John Dos Passos
~~Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf~~
~~The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald~~
The Counterfeiters – André Gide
The Trial – Franz Kafka
The Artamonov Business – Maxim Gorky
~~The Professor’s House – Willa Cather~~
Billy Budd, Foretopman – Herman Melville
The Green Hat – Michael Arlen
The Magic Mountain – Thomas Mann
We – Yevgeny Zamyatin
A Passage to India – E.M. Forster
The Devil in the Flesh – Raymond Radiguet
Zeno’s Conscience – Italo Svevo
Cane – Jean Toomer
Antic Hay – Aldous Huxley
Amok – Stefan Zweig
The Garden Party – Katherine Mansfield
The Enormous Room – E.E. Cummings
Jacob’s Room – Virginia Woolf
Siddhartha – Herman Hesse
The Glimpses of the Moon – Edith Wharton
Life and Death of Harriett Frean – May Sinclair
The Last Days of Humanity – Karl Kraus
Aaron’s Rod – D.H. Lawrence
Babbitt – Sinclair Lewis
Ulysses – James Joyce
The Fox – D.H. Lawrence
Crome Yellow – Aldous Huxley
The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
Main Street – Sinclair Lewis
Women in Love – D.H. Lawrence
Night and Day – Virginia Woolf
Tarr – Wyndham Lewis
The Return of the Soldier – Rebecca West
The Shadow Line – Joseph Conrad
Summer – Edith Wharton
Growth of the Soil – Knut Hamsen
Bunner Sisters – Edith Wharton
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce
Under Fire – Henri Barbusse
Rashomon – Akutagawa Ryunosuke
The Good Soldier – Ford Madox Ford
The Voyage Out – Virginia Woolf
Of Human Bondage – William Somerset Maugham
The Rainbow – D.H. Lawrence
The Thirty-Nine Steps – John Buchan
Kokoro – Natsume Soseki
Locus Solus – Raymond Roussel
Rosshalde – Herman Hesse
Tarzan of the Apes – Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists – Robert Tressell
Sons and Lovers – D.H. Lawrence
Death in Venice – Thomas Mann
The Charwoman’s Daughter – James Stephens
Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton
Fantômas – Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre
Howards End – E.M. Forster
Impressions of Africa – Raymond Roussel
Three Lives – Gertrude Stein
Martin Eden – Jack London
Strait is the Gate – André Gide
Tono-Bungay – H.G. Wells
The Inferno – Henri Barbusse
A Room With a View – E.M. Forster
The Iron Heel – Jack London
The Old Wives’ Tale – Arnold Bennett
The House on the Borderland – William Hope Hodgson
Mother – Maxim Gorky
The Secret Agent – Joseph Conrad
The Jungle – Upton Sinclair
Young Törless – Robert Musil
The Forsyte Sage – John Galsworthy
The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton
Professor Unrat – Heinrich Mann
Where Angels Fear to Tread – E.M. Forster
Nostromo – Joseph Conrad
Hadrian the Seventh – Frederick Rolfe
The Golden Bowl – Henry James
The Ambassadors – Henry James
The Riddle of the Sands – Erskine Childers
The Immoralist – André Gide
The Wings of the Dove – Henry James
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Buddenbrooks – Thomas Mann
Kim – Rudyard Kipling
Sister Carrie – Theodore Dreiser
Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad

1800s
Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. – Somerville and Ross
The Stechlin – Theodore Fontane
~~The Awakening – Kate Chopin~~
The Turn of the Screw – Henry James
The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells
The Invisible Man – H.G. Wells
What Maisie Knew – Henry James
Fruits of the Earth – André Gide
Dracula – Bram Stoker
Quo Vadis – Henryk Sienkiewicz
The Island of Dr. Moreau – H.G. Wells
The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
Effi Briest – Theodore Fontane
Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
The Real Charlotte – Somerville and Ross
The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Born in Exile – George Gissing
Diary of a Nobody – George & Weedon Grossmith
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
News from Nowhere – William Morris
New Grub Street – George Gissing
Gösta Berling’s Saga – Selma Lagerlöf
~~Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy~~
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
The Kreutzer Sonata – Leo Tolstoy
La Bête Humaine – Émile Zola
By the Open Sea – August Strindberg
Hunger – Knut Hamsun
The Master of Ballantrae – Robert Louis Stevenson
Pierre and Jean – Guy de Maupassant
Fortunata and Jacinta – Benito Pérez Galdés
The People of Hemsö – August Strindberg
The Woodlanders – Thomas Hardy
She – H. Rider Haggard
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy
Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson
King Solomon’s Mines – H. Rider Haggard
Germinal – Émile Zola
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Bel-Ami – Guy de Maupassant
Marius the Epicurean – Walter Pater
Against the Grain – Joris-Karl Huysmans
The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Leo Tolstoy
A Woman’s Life – Guy de Maupassant
Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
The House by the Medlar Tree – Giovanni Verga
The Portrait of a Lady – Henry James
Bouvard and Pécuchet – Gustave Flaubert
Ben-Hur – Lew Wallace
Nana – Émile Zola
The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Red Room – August Strindberg
Return of the Native – Thomas Hardy
~~Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy~~
Drunkard – Émile Zola
Virgin Soil – Ivan Turgenev
Daniel Deronda – George Eliot
The Hand of Ethelberta – Thomas Hardy
The Temptation of Saint Anthony – Gustave Flaubert
Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
The Enchanted Wanderer – Nicolai Leskov
Around the World in Eighty Days – Jules Verne
In a Glass Darkly – Sheridan Le Fanu
The Devils – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Erewhon – Samuel Butler
Spring Torrents – Ivan Turgenev
Middlemarch – George Eliot
Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There – Lewis Carroll
King Lear of the Steppes – Ivan Turgenev
He Knew He Was Right – Anthony Trollope
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
Sentimental Education – Gustave Flaubert
Phineas Finn – Anthony Trollope
Maldoror – Comte de Lautréaumont
The Idiot – Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Thérèse Raquin – Émile Zola
The Last Chronicle of Barset – Anthony Trollope
Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Jules Verne
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens
Uncle Silas – Sheridan Le Fanu
Notes from the Underground – Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Water-Babies – Charles Kingsley
Les Misérables – Victor Hugo
Fathers and Sons – Ivan Turgenev
Silas Marner – George Eliot
~~Great Expectations – Charles Dickens~~
On the Eve – Ivan Turgenev
Castle Richmond – Anthony Trollope
The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
The Marble Faun – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Max Havelaar – Multatuli
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Oblomovka – Ivan Goncharov
Adam Bede – George Eliot
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell
~~Hard Times – Charles Dickens~~
Walden – Henry David Thoreau
Bleak House – Charles Dickens
~~Villette – Charlotte Brontë~~
Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell
Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lonely – Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Blithedale Romance – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The House of the Seven Gables – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Moby-Dick – Herman Melville
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
Shirley – Charlotte Brontë
Mary Barton – Elizabeth Gaskell
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Brontë
~~Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë~~
Agnes Grey – Anne Brontë
~~Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë~~
Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
~~The Count of Monte-Cristo – Alexandre Dumas~~
La Reine Margot – Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
The Purloined Letter – Edgar Allan Poe
Martin Chuzzlewit – Charles Dickens
~~The Pit and the Pendulum – Edgar Allan Poe~~
Lost Illusions – Honoré de Balzac
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Dead Souls – Nikolay Gogol
The Charterhouse of Parma – Stendhal
The Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby – Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
The Nose – Nikolay Gogol
Le Père Goriot – Honoré de Balzac
Eugénie Grandet – Honoré de Balzac
The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo
The Red and the Black – Stendhal
The Betrothed – Alessandro Manzoni
Last of the Mohicans – James Fenimore Cooper
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner – James Hogg
The Albigenses – Charles Robert Maturin
Melmoth the Wanderer – Charles Robert Maturin
The Monastery – Sir Walter Scott
Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott
Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
Persuasion – Jane Austen
Ormond – Maria Edgeworth
Rob Roy – Sir Walter Scott
Emma – Jane Austen
~~Mansfield Park – Jane Austen~~
~~Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen~~
The Absentee – Maria Edgeworth
~~Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen~~
Elective Affinities – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Castle Rackrent – Maria Edgeworth

1700s
Hyperion – Friedrich Hölderlin
The Nun – Denis Diderot
Camilla – Fanny Burney
The Monk – M.G. Lewis
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Mysteries of Udolpho – Ann Radcliffe
The Interesting Narrative – Olaudah Equiano
The Adventures of Caleb Williams – William Godwin
Justine – Marquis de Sade
Vathek – William Beckford
The 120 Days of Sodom – Marquis de Sade
Cecilia – Fanny Burney
Confessions – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Dangerous Liaisons – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Reveries of a Solitary Walker – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Evelina – Fanny Burney
The Sorrows of Young Werther – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Humphrey Clinker – Tobias George Smollett
The Man of Feeling – Henry Mackenzie
A Sentimental Journey – Laurence Sterne
Tristram Shandy – Laurence Sterne
The Vicar of Wakefield – Oliver Goldsmith
The Castle of Otranto – Horace Walpole
Émile; or, On Education – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rameau’s Nephew – Denis Diderot
Julie; or, the New Eloise – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rasselas – Samuel Johnson
Candide – Voltaire
The Female Quixote – Charlotte Lennox
Amelia – Henry Fielding
Peregrine Pickle – Tobias George Smollett
Fanny Hill – John Cleland
Tom Jones – Henry Fielding
Roderick Random – Tobias George Smollett
Clarissa – Samuel Richardson
Pamela – Samuel Richardson
Jacques the Fatalist – Denis Diderot
Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus – J. Arbuthnot, J. Gay, T. Parnell, A. Pope, J. Swift
Joseph Andrews – Henry Fielding
A Modest Proposal – Jonathan Swift
Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
Roxana – Daniel Defoe
Moll Flanders – Daniel Defoe
Love in Excess – Eliza Haywood
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
A Tale of a Tub – Jonathan Swift

Pre-1700
Oroonoko – Aphra Behn
The Princess of Clèves – Marie-Madelaine Pioche de Lavergne, Comtesse de La Fayette
The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan
Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The Unfortunate Traveller – Thomas Nashe
Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit – John Lyly
Gargantua and Pantagruel – Françoise Rabelais
The Thousand and One Nights – Anonymous
The Golden Ass – Lucius Apuleius
Aithiopika – Heliodorus
Chaireas and Kallirhoe – Chariton
Metamorphoses – Ovid
Aesop’s Fables – Aesopus

EW's The New Classics List

2009-01-24T20:08:00.010-06:00

1. ~~The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)~~
2. ~~Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)~~
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. ~~The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)~~
17. ~~Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)~~
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. ~~The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)~~
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. ~~Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)~~
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. ~~Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)~~
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials (series), Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. ~~The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)~~
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. ~~The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)~~
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. ~~Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)~~
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. ~~The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)~~
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. ~~The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)~~
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. ~~The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)~~
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. ~~Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)~~
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. ~~The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)~~
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

YA Reading Challenge

2009-01-24T16:14:00.010-06:00

This challenge hosted by J. Kaye is to read 12 Young Adult novels between January 1 and December 31st, 2009. (I am overlapping these selections with other challenges.)

1.Eragon ~ Christopher Paolini
2.Anne of Green Gables ~ Montgomery
3.Redwall ~ Jacques
4.~~The Magician's Nephew ~ Lewis~~
5.The Golden Compass ~ Pullman
6.Something from a Star Wars Series
7.Howl's Moving Castle ~ Jones
8.~~The Princess Bride ~ Goldman~~
9.The Case of the Missing Marquess ~ Springer
10.
11.
12.

A to Z Challenge

2009-01-24T14:09:00.019-06:00

I choose Option B: Read books with titles A to Z from January 1st to December 31st, 2009.

A.Assassin's Apprentice ~ Robin Hobb
B.(A) Brief History of Time ~ Stephen Hawking
C.
D.
E.Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation ~ Lynne Truss
F.Frankenstein ~ Mary Shelley
G.(The) Golden Compass ~ Philip Pullman
H.Howl's Moving Castle ~ Dianna Wynne Jones
I.
J.Jude the Obscure ~ Thomas Hardy
K.
L.~~(The)Lovely Bones ~ Alice Sebold~~
M.~~(The) Magician's Nephew ~ C.S. Lewis~~
N. ~~Nickel and Dimed ~ Barbara Ehrenreich~~
O.
P.~~(The) Princess Bride ~ William Goldman~~
Q.
R.
S.~~(The)Secret Life of Bees ~ Sue Monk Kidd~~
T.(A) Tale of Two Cities ~ Charles Dickens
U.
V.
W.
X.(A) Wizard of Earthsea ~ Ursula Le Guin
Y.(A) Year in the Life of William Shakespeare ~ James Shapiro
Z.

First in a Series Challenge

2009-01-24T13:37:00.010-06:00

Rules are to read 12 books that are the first in any series. The Challenge runs from Jan 1st 2009 to Dec 31st 2009.
Part of the challenge for me will be finding books in a series I want to read. I can think of two fantasy series I want to finish reading but I've already read the first in the series. I'll put those down but I'll likely change them later? We'll see.
All blogger's reviews found HERE.

MY TWELVE:
1. A Game of Thrones (Song of Fire and Ice) ~ Martin
2. Dune ~ Herbert
3. Eragon ~ Paolini
4. Redwall ~ Jacques
5. ~~The Magician's Nephew ~ Lewis~~
6. Anne of Green Gables ~ Montgomery
7. The Golden Compass ~ Pullman
8. a Star Wars series book
9. A Study in Scarlet ~ Doyle
10. The Assassin's Apprentice ~ Hobb
11. A Wizard of Earthsea ~ LeGuin
12. The Case of the Missing Marquess ~ Springer

RYOB Challenge

2009-01-24T12:59:00.010-06:00

This challenge hosted by runs from January 1st, 2009 to December 31st 2009.
The challenge is to read books I already own and I get to set the number of books I want to read. I can use these books for other challenges as well. Once I put them on my list here I suppose I am supposed to read them, but I'm just going to try to read at least ten of them for sure.

1. Frankenstein ~ Mary Shelley
2. Jesus the Christ ~ James E. Talmage
3. Persuasion ~ Jane Austen
4. ~~Love in the Time of Cholera ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez~~
5. Lord of Chaos ~ Robert Jordan (a reread)
6. A Crown of Swords ~ Robert Jordan (a reread)
7. The Last of the Mohicans ~ James Fenimore Cooper
8. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare ~ James Shapiro
9. one from my Shakespeare collection
10. ~~The Lovely Bones ~ Alice Sebold~~
11.
12.
13. ~~A Rumor of War ~ Philip Caputo~~
14. A Brief History of Time: from the big bang to black holes ~ Stephen Hawking
15. ~~The Road ~ Cormac McCarthy~~
16. A Tale of Two Cities ~ Charles Dickens
17. Jude the Obscure ~ Thomas Hardy

The Secret Life of Bees

2009-01-11T23:34:00.004-06:00

Oh Why did I read this book? What a waste of time!

It had been on a few booklists and I've thought about reading it but didn't commit to it until I picked up a nice copy used for about a buck.

I will try to stay as real in writing my response as when I told my husband my initial reaction.

I did enjoy reading it. The writing style was enjoyable. The story, on the other hand, left a little to be desired. Enjoyable writing style plus not a good story equals a decent read and a let down feeling afterwards. SPOILERS AHEAD!!

The story was about a teenager who'd supposedly shot her mom when she was four. How tragic is that? But what was mostly tragic was that the girl was obsessed with her mom expressing neediness to the point of super tragicness. I get that that can happen to people but I didn't think the book made it worthwhile to read about it.

So to top it off for our young psuedo-heroine Lily she has a super abusive neglectful father. Not all that uncommon, but wait! It gets deeper! All of this is taking place during the civil rights movement in the South! So when her black nanny goes to register to vote and angers some whites who want to kill her, Lily jumps into action.

Lily and her nanny run off in search of Lily's mother's past and it leads them straightaway with not suprising for this book straight as an arrow accuracy to the very place she needs to be to learn about her mom since all her relatives are dead and only these people she finds knew her.

So she takes up with these bee-keeping people who happen to be black. No, they don't just happen to be black but it's meant to give the story depth since it's during the civil rights movement. The people are bee keepers and that's the only part of the story I found interesting. (Yes, I find the Civil Rights Movement deeply engaging, just not in this book.)

What I found most uninteresting was how these people are MAJOR worshippers of a wooden carving of OUR LADY who they worship and pray to. IT's a little bit overmuch. They have celebrations in her honor and it gets a bit too creepy with the "touch the red heart" stuff, oh and did I mention that Lily faints during one of their little religious parties? I'm not Catholic, can you tell? But it doesn't matter if I am Catholic or not. Praying to icons and Mary is one thing but these people made up their own religion praying to a statue because they needed hope during slavery times and it got passed down from mother to daughter. They kind of turned it into something I consider weird.

Sorry, I'm going on and on but it's late and I don't really know what I want to say about this book because I didn't think it was worth thinking about.

Someone gets put in jail and someone kills themself and Lily is thinking, come ON! When can it be about me? And so she finally gets some stuff that had belonged to her mom and she puts it on a shelf and worships it. "OOOOooooh. Her old brush has a hair on it!" Okay. I know I'm being insensitive to Lily and I'm sure the author did a good job expressing feelings that others may feel when losing a parent at a young age. It wasn't her feelings that bothered me or the way she was dealing with them (although she was a little bit too calm about some things, I think)> IT was her feelings trapped in a sily plotline. So there's barely a climax, she's barely caught and happy ending THE END.

Watch the movie if you're curious or let some bored teenager read it if they're bored. Please tell me what YOU think. I know lots of people loved it. Did YOU?

On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd put it at a 3 and a half.

Nickel and Dimed

2009-01-06T20:52:00.002-06:00

If you want a book to make you more socially aware (i.e. about the poor in America) then this might be a good read for you, especially if you want it nice and quick.

Barbara the author becomes Barb the low wage worker in America for three months in three different locations and tried to survive the work and pay rent on what she is paid at her one or more jobs. This isn't a book about the plight of middle class Americans having to pay stupid fees that are hidden in every bill we recieve and how the government rips us off and misuses the money stolen by way of unneccessary taxes (that would almost by oxymoronish in the right crowd, wouldn't it), which is what I stupidly thought the book was about when I picked it up.

It reads a little like a journal and ends with a pithy analysis and some interesting data. Don't we all love to hear data about the poor?

I know I'm way behind on this one and in fact it is terribly outdated, like a decade, but I did pick it up at thrift and it did still have merit for increasing my overall awareness of "how the other half lives." (which is the title of that very famous and aged book by Jacob Riis for who my little one was named)(whom?)

Here's an exerpt, jus cuz...

"Guilt, you may be thinking warily. Isn't that what we're supposed to feel? But guilt doesn't go anywhere near far enough; the appropriate emotion is shame- shame at our own dependency, in this case, on the underpaid labor of others. When someone works for less pay than she can live on- when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently- then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abiliites, her health, and her life. The "working poor," as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They necglect their own children so that the chilren of others will be cared for; they live in substatndard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect.....To Be a member of the working poor is to be anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else. As Gail, one of my restaurant coworkers put it, "you give and you give."

Hmmm hmmmm. Well. It is also an interesting look into some of the jobs that earn the low wages, namely maid service, waitressing (serving), health care, and Wal-mart! Give me a "W!"

What I Read in 2008

2009-01-03T23:37:00.003-06:00

I know I know I know. It's not a long list. And it isn't even long on quality. Sad, but HELLO I did have a baby in 2008 and I now have FOUR children. I have lost my ability to read well into the night without reaping dire consequences for the family. I also didn't make a list for last year about what to read. Whenever I make a list I start with stuff like Herodotus and move through the ages and realize I'm both stupid and ambitious so I decide to try to read a few classics but more or less just read whatever comes my way. All of the Robert Jordan books were rereads.

This list doesn't include the short and long books read to the kids such as The Jungle Book, Gentle Ben and several others. I suppose on average I've read a book every two weeks though some weren't as intellectually challenging as I would have liked them to have been.

Seabiscuit: An American Legend ~ Hillenbrand (loved)
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle ~ Wroblewski (it was good)
Stargirl ~ Spinelli (cute YA)
The Screaming Skull ~ various (not 2 scary but enjoyed it)
Grimm's Grimmest ~ Grimm (very weird)
The Twilight Saga ~ Meyer (just about the worst books I couldn't put down)
The Great Gatsby ~ Fitzgerald (a sad interesting read)
Villette ~ Bronte (wooah. it was heavy)
The Glass Castle ~ Walls (it was good)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ~ Foer (definitely a fav)
Atonement ~ McEwan (loved)
Water for Elephants ~ Gruen (so disappointing)
Daughter of Fortune ~ Allende (good writing, I wasn't into it)
Classic Short Stories (various authors) (love, love, love)
Mormon Enigma ~ Newell & Avery (best biography after one I read about Lincoln)
The Blind Assassin ~ Atwood (I admit it, I liked it but mostly in retrospect)
The Fires of Heaven ~ Jordan (duh, of course love)
The Shadow Rising ~ Jordan (duh again. love)
The Dragon Reborn ~ Jordan (favorite fantasy series)
The Great Hunt ~ Jordan (can you tell?)
The Eye of the World ~ Jordan (I need to read Dune series and compare)
Mansfield Park ~ Austen (so stupid. disappointment and too long for such a dumb story)

Two Books

2009-01-03T22:50:00.005-06:00

Halfway through this recommendation from a gal at church I heard that this was Oprah's fav book and I almost abandoned it. I was intrigued, so for better or for worse I kept on. For me, it dragged at some points and was very interesting and even mesmerizing at others. I finished it and my dog died the very next day. Yes. My dog died the day after I finished it.

What perfect irony is that? I knew this book was a tragedy; I didn't realize it would be my personal tragedy. The book, though we knew how it would end, did finish in a marvelously unexpected way without epilogue or even resolution. I didn't want one and we knew we wouldn't get one anyway. We have to just live with what happened and the way it all happened. But it wasn't a dark book, despite the tragedy of it.

Oh, if you haven't heard I'd better tell you. It's a book about a boy who is mute living in Wisconsin in the first half of the 20th century. His family breeds and trains a fictional breed of dog that are amazingly...perceptive. He's no dutch prince but it is a modern Shakespeare remade. IT was fairly brilliant but I've had so many doubts about its worth to me personally. It filled me with wonder about the lives of those dogs but left me with too many questions about the why's of all of their choices. The idea of choices and freedom and fighting for the meaning behind the importance of the dogs plus a coming of age story in the Midwest using beautiful descriptive language is a sure sell. And at the end of it the most I have to wonder about are the pieces left behind. What will the mom be thinking? Will that man ever know that he has $1500 dogs and what that means? Does it matter? Did Edgar go on that whole journey so he could see the dogs make a choice and he could make a choice as well even though he knew it was the wrong one? And oh, the symbolism.

I wish I could say I enjoyed this book. I appreciate how significant it is. I think it is a piece of good contemporary classic literature. (I'm not saying that because it's a modern classic retold. That's not what I mean.) The fact that my dog was dying while I was reading it made it a little more meaningful to me, but not much. I'd have to say read it. Jump on the bandwagon and read it.

Then...I read a biography of a horse. SEABISCUIT

I loved Loved LOVED it. Couldn't put it down. I was hooked in the introduction and for me there was never a dull moment. Took me a couple of months to read Sawtelle and a week to read Seabiscuit. I could have and would have loved to read it cover to cover in one sitting. IT was fascinating. I cried. I got swept up in the excitement and felt stress for those involved. I was amazed and I recommend this one to anyone. I love true stories and good writing.

Creative Names

2008-11-29T11:18:00.002-06:00

case in point:
'Le-a'

I FIGURED ALL THE TEACHERS OUT THERE CAN RELATE TO THIS (AS WELL AS MOST FOLKS)…

How would you pronounce this child's name: 'Le-a' ???

Leah?? NO

Lee - A?? NOPE

Lay - a?? NO

Lei?? Guess Again.
Come on...you can do it.

It's pronounced 'Ledasha' Oh yes...you read it right.

This child attends a school in Livingston Parish, LA. Her mother is irate because everyone is getting her name wrong. When the mother was asked about the pronunciation of the name, she said, 'the dash don't be silent.'

Bella

2008-11-16T19:37:00.004-06:00

Something has happened to Jose that has tragically altered his life forever. As he traverses this unexpected road he meets Nina whose life is being altered forever in the moment she is in. Jose shares his pain and also his blessings with Nina and gives her a way to choose a path that will allow them redemption and future joy. IT is a painful and joyful journey, patiently unfolding and full of emotion and atmosphere. (I know this is a terrible review. I look back on it and gag!)

I give this movie a 9 out of 10 stars.

What Your Taste in Art Says About You

2008-11-07T20:00:00.000-06:00

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Balanced, Secure, and Realistic.

Impressionism is a movement in French painting, sometimes called optical realism because of its almost scientific interest in the actual visual experience and effect of light and movement on appearance of objects. Impressionist paintings are balanced, use colored shadows, use pure color, broken brushstrokes, thick paint, and scenes from everyday life or nature.

People that like Impressionist paintings may not alway be what is deemed socially acceptable. They tend to move on their own path without always worrying that it may be offensive to others. They value friendships but because they also value honesty tend to have a few really good friends. They do not, however, like people that are rude and do not appreciate the ideas of others. They are secure enough in themselves that they can listen to the ideas of other people without it affecting their own final decisions. The world for them is not black and white but more in shades of grey and muted colors. They like things to be aestically pleasing, not stark and sharp. There are many ways to view things, and the impresssionist personality views the world from many different aspects. They enjoy life and try to keep a realistic viewpoint of things, but are not very open to new experiences. If they are content in their live they will be more than likely pleased to keep things just the way they are.

Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy

I have to add my commentary to this: I also enjoy Renaissance, Baroque, Islamic and Abstract art. I enjoy Cassat, Toulouse-Loutrec, Renoir, Dali, Rousseau, Turner, and my Fav is Rembrandt. Such perfection.

When I went to the Met Museum as a kid I can honestly say that the only painting that blew me away was a Rembrandt. I recognized several artists I knew but I had never studied him. I looked at his paintings up close and I couldn't fathom the skill he had to produce such art. I guess I admire perfection more than the muted tones of Impressionist work.

The Screaming Skull and Other Great American Ghost Stories

2008-11-03T15:48:00.000-06:00

When I decided to participate in R.I.P III I knew I wanted to read classic horror or gothic. I'm not completely adverse to reading horror but I prefer to not stumble upon material too disturbing and graphic (or stupid, as in the book The Terror). Not having heard of any great reads for this genre lately that interested me, I chose this subgenre.

This collection of short stories was a perfect choice for me because, while not graphic and overtly disturbing, they were entertaining, creepy, and somewhat suspensful. Several of them were humorous which is just as appropriate for celebrating this holiday, I think. This read is appropriate for teens in my house and I was lucky enough to find it at my local library.

"The Screaming Skull" by F. Marion Crawford was my favorite story; a tale of a man haunted by the remains of a friend's possibly murdered wife' remains, i.e. her skull. It was pretty creepy and a bit suspenseful. It was written as if we are hearing a one-sided conversation between the haunted and his houseguest. And it ends just...(like I'd tell you!)

Edgar Allen Poe, Nathanial Hawthorne, Willa Cather, and Mark Twain are only a few of the authors contained in this satisfying collection.

I give it an 8 out of 10 stars!

What Jane Austen Character Are You?

2008-10-16T21:55:00.003-05:00

Take the Quiz here!

You are Marianne Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are impulsive, romantic, impatient, and perhaps a bit too brutally honest. You enjoy romantic poetry and novels, and play the pianoforte beautifully. To boot, your singing voice is captivating. You feel deeply, and love passionately.

Hmmmph. I was thinking of myself as more of a Fanny Price. Why? I like to write and I like to feel sorry for myself. I don't love my cousin, but it would be just like me to pine after someone of good character. I don't play pianoforte and I don't sing. Well, not for a hobby anyway. Captivating? HA! Oh. And no Romantic Poetry either. Poe was close to the time of the Romantics but that's as near as I go. Those are the "to boot" parts and I'm not going to disagree with the rest...so there you go! I'm a Marianne!

I'm Blushing At My Mess

2008-10-12T14:36:00.010-05:00

I'm babysitting some kids at my house this week so I'm going to have to pick up a little. I thought I'd shoot some befores and afters of my apartment just for fun!

Here's the view into my living room. It's been a little more difficult since the baby was born to keep things organized. Any suggestions?

This is my favorite spot in the house where I sit and relax and blog or chat to all of you in cyberworld just like any normal person. My table just seems to be a collector for stuff. Do any of you have that problem, too?

Look me in the eyes and tell me what you think? Oh, well maybe not my eyes. But you can comment. I like making these butt-mountains. They remind me of my Uncle Pete's, but he used a ginormous ashtray. I usually do but I haven't seen mine lately.

I might have to move my whole computer somewhere, or at least the keyboard to keep the kiddies off. I don't want them ruining it.

Oh well. Maybe I'll just leave this area alone. I need an upgrade anyway. Maybe if one of the kids ruin it, I can get their mom to pay for a new one for me?

I love that couch. It serves so many purposes without losing its overall comfort rating. Someday it will probably wear out and I'll be so sad. The only thing that's a little bummer is the couch cushions tend to collect things under them.

I admit I don't treat it the best. I like how comfortable it is. Once you're sitting in it you just never want to get up. Those kids had better not jump on my couches! I won't stand for that! I was brought up taught that jumping on furniture is very rude. Don't you think?

(I have a fire extinguisher somewhere. Oh, there it is! See it? On the table?)

I know this is probably not a good habit, but the couch has flame retardent in it. No biggie. Besides, I'll probably find my ash tray when I straighten up the place today.

Here's my bedroom! I don't usually show people my room; it's too private. But this is special, doing these before and afters. I just love my bed where I sleep with my pet cats. It's nice and cozy. I don't believe in making beds, though. I hope you won't judge me for that.

Oh, there's my broom! I've been looking for that. I might need that later.

I don't think I'm going to have to clean my room since the kids won't be playing in here. But I might. We'll see how I feel later. I'm not as motivated anymore as I was when I started.

Oh, I can see my TV needs a little dusting. I'll at least do that much in here if nothing else.

My kitchen: a little small for my needs but I don't cook much so it works okay. My sister says she is amazed I even own a broom since my floor in here is so small. I usually leave my iron and board out even though I know I shouldn't. It's such a hazard! But I believe in looking presentable so I iron everything I wear. It's just too much of a hassle putting it away and setting it up every day! Do you know what I mean? I guess if I'm leaving this out, though, the next thing I know I'll be leaving my laundry in here, too. That'd be just wrong.

There's my Febreeze on the counter. I just love how that stuff keeps things sweet smelling!

Here's the bathroom. I guess I'll have to clean this area for kids coming but I know they'll just mess it up again after I clean it. Plus, I'm a little ashamed. My apartment has a little bit of a pest problem and I'm afraid someone might see a bug! How embarrassing would that be!?

Of course I've spoken to the manager about it, but nothing has been done. I'm getting so fed up with people's negligence!

Well, what can a person expect, I guess. I do what I can but right now it's a little messy. I'm getting tired of doing this post. I need a break.

They say a person's bathroom says a lot about a person. What does my bathroom say about me? (Say only positive things please!)

No Judgements right?

(in all seriousness this is obviously some person's house. could it be some person you know? Click here to comment and see more photos...if you dare!)

Stargirl

2008-10-12T13:54:00.006-05:00

by Jerry Spinelli

"She's better than bones."..."When a Stargirl cried, she does not shed tears, but light." On other days in other years, he had called her "the rabiit in the hat" and "the universal solvent" and "the recycler of our garbage."

I enjoyed this quiet afternoon read which was recommended to me. This book for the middle grades is a look at a young girl new to the public school system and is completely individualistic as well as selflessly giving (the girl, I mean). We experience her impact on a completely unprepared and baffled public high school through the eyes of a fellow student who comes to admire what he may never fully understand in this girl who named herself "Stargirl." It's a sweet and simple story so if you need a lighthearted read I recommend this. The behaviors of the main characters are above reproach (one scene involves a kiss) so I would recommend this book for young teens as well.

Angry that the recent Congressional bail-out would not apply to them, Lehman investment bankers barricaded the south entrance to Camp David.

2008-10-12T13:51:00.002-05:00

Dear Tech Support

2008-10-07T20:54:00.002-05:00

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance -- particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0, and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,
Desperate

Dear Desperate,

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System. Please enter the command: 'I Thought You Loved Me.exe' and try to download Tears 6.2 and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.

If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

But remember, over use of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1. Caution, Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources).

Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Food 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck,
Tech Support

I recently read this posted on this blog. Since it apparently originated in an email, I have no problem "reproducing" it and posting it here. :)

Have You Heard the Story about the Runner-Up for the Nobel Peace Prize?

2008-10-05T23:30:00.000-05:00

Irena Sendlerowa
1910-2008

May 12 marked the death of a 98-year-old lady named Irena.

During WWII, Irena received permission from the Nazis to work in the Warsaw ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist.

She had an ulterior motive...

Being German, she knew the Nazis' plans for the Jews and smuggled infants out in the bottom of the large tool box she carried. Larger children were placed in a burlap sack in the back of her truck. Also in the back was a dog that she had trained to bark each time the Nazi guards allowed her out of the ghetto and back in.

The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the d og, and its barking covered any noise made by the infants and small children. Irena managed to smuggle out approximately 2,500 children before she was finally caught. When she was captured, the Nazis beat her severely, breaking both her arms and her legs.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the children she smuggled out of that Warsaw ghetto and kept them in a glass jar buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents who may have survived so she might reunite the child with its family. Most, of course, did not survive the Holocaust, and the vast majority of the surviving children were placed in foster homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but she lost to Al Gore, who won the award for presenting a slide show on Global Warming.

I can't stand Global Warming enthusiasts. Take this Global Warming Quiz and test your knowledge. How informed are you?

Lars and the Real Girl

2008-10-05T22:26:00.002-05:00

I recommend this movie because it is the most real movie I've watched in a long time. Its sincerity is touching and the unique story is refreshing. The humor is just enough to be satisfying and it is weird enough to provoke some thought, if not some emotion. You might just ask yourself, "is this movie for real?" It's so nice that you can take this movie just a little bit seriously...but definitely not too much. I just know you'll like Bianca like I did.

Country Charm

2008-10-05T21:16:00.000-05:00

Why Hunters Use Guns

2008-10-05T21:08:00.001-05:00

Actual Letter from someone who writes, and farms:

I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it.

The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope.

The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it.

After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up -- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me.

I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation.

I took a step towards it...it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and then received an education.

The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope.

That deer EXPLODED.

The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity.

A deer-- no chance.

That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined.

The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.

A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope.

I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere.

At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual.

Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute.

I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.

Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist.

Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head --almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts.

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective.

It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds.

I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now) tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the bejesus out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose. That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day.

Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp.

I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -- like a horse --strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.

This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run.

The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice a s strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.

Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head.

I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away.

So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope so that they can be somewhat equal to the Prey.

Just Sharing a Smile

2008-10-02T23:39:00.004-05:00

A Michigan woman and her family were vacationing in a small New England town where Paul Newman and his family often visited.

One Sunday morning, the woman got up early to take a long walk. After a brisk five-mile hike, she decided to treat herself to a double-dip chocolate ice cream cone.

She hopped in the car, drove to the center of the village and went straight to the combination bakery/ice cream parlor.

There was only one other patron in the store:
Paul Newman, sitting at the counter having a doughnut and coffee.

The woman's heart skipped a beat as her eyes made contact with those famous baby-blue eyes.

The actor nodded graciously and the star struck woman smiled demurely.

Pull yourself together! She chides herself You're a happily married woman with three children, you're forty-five years old, not a teenager!

The clerk filled her order and she took the double-dip chocolate ice cream cone in one hand and her change in the other. Then she went out the door, avoiding even a glance in Paul Newman's direction.

When she reached her car, she realized that she had a handful of change but her other hand was empty.
Where's my ice cream cone? Did I leave it in the store? Back into the shop she went, expecting to see the cone still in the clerk's hand or in a holder on the counter or something. No ice cream cone was in sight.

With that, she happened to look over at Paul Newman.
His face broke into his familiar, warm, friendly grin and he said to the woman,

'You put it in your purse.'

Celebrity ME?

2008-09-24T15:14:00.000-05:00

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Vintage pics - Free family tree

What Pasta Dish Are You?

2008-09-21T14:04:00.002-05:00

You Are Spaghetti Bolognese

Compared to most people, you are well grounded and down to earth.

You have old fashioned values. Your taste tends to favor what's tried and true.

You love comfort food. Familiar situations put you at ease.

You think that the best cooking comes from your family's kitchen!

What Pasta Dish Are You?

(down to earth? prefer food from my own kitchen? funny)

Country Funeral Story

2008-09-20T13:30:00.000-05:00

As a young minister in Kentucky , I was asked by a funeral director to hold a grave-side service for a homeless man, who had no family or friends. The funeral was to be held at a new cemetery way back in the country, and this man would be the first to be buried there.

I was not familiar with the backwoods area, and I soon became lost.

Being a typical man, I did not stop to ask for directions. I finally arrived an hour late.

I saw the backhoe and the open grave, but the hearse was nowhere in sight. The digging crew was eating lunch. I apologized to the workers for my tardiness, and I stepped to the side of the open grave. There I saw the vault lid already in place. I assured the workers I would not hold them up for l ong, as I told them that this was the proper thing to do.

The workers gathered around the grave and stood silently, as I began to pour out my heart and soul. As I preached about 'looking forward to a brighter tomorrow' and 'the glory that is to come,' the workers began to say 'Amen,' and 'Glory!' The fervor of these men truly inspired me. So, I preached and I preached like I had never preached before, all the way from Genesis to Revelations.

I finally closed the lengthy service with a prayer, thanked the men, and walked to my car. As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I heard one of the workers say to another, 'I ain't NEVER seen nothin' like that before, and I've been puttin' in septic tanks for thirty years!'

Robot Alive!

2008-09-20T13:25:00.000-05:00

Wow! This technology is awesome! I wonder what it can do for the military that they aren't showing us?

Watch the entire video. You'll be amazed!

Horseback Riding

2008-09-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

A blond decides to try horseback riding, even though she has had no lessons, nor prior experience. She mounts the horse unassisted, and the horse immediately springs into motion.

It gallops along at a steady and rhythmic pace, but the blond begins to slide from the saddle. In terror, she grabs for the horse's mane, but cannot seem to get a firm grip. She tries to throw her arms around the horse's neck, but she slides down the horse's side anyway. The Horse gallops along, seemingly impervious to its slipping rider.

Finally, giving up her frail grip, the blond attempts to leap away from the horse and throw herself to safety. Unfortunately, her foot has become entangled in the stirrup; she is now at the mercy of the horse's pounding hooves as her head is struck against the ground over and over.

As her head is battered against the ground, she is mere moments away from unconsciousness when to her great fortune....Frank, the Walmart greeter, sees her dilemma and unplugs the horse.

And you thought all they did was say Hello!

President Bush Visits Utah

2008-09-20T12:52:00.000-05:00

I think this letter is definitely worth reading....

Dear Family,
I had an extraordinary experience this week with President Bush's visit and wanted to share it with you. I was on the host committee and, because I was able to raise a couple hundred thousand from friends, I was able to be at all the meetings and with a small group that welcomed him. He spent over two hours in two appearances speaking and answering questions and the most common remarks people had of the experience was that (1) he seemed so relaxed, happy, and 'at peace,' and (2) he is nothing like what the media portrays him to be; in fact, he was articulate, personable, and very spiritual.

I believe he was in such high spirits because he knows that Utah is one of the few places where he still has a favorability rating above 50 percent. He joked that he was surprised by the friendly welcome. 'In fact, while I was driving up here in my motorcade, most of the people were waving at me with all five fingers!'

Cynics say that we here in Utah still look favorably on him only because we are 'sheeple' not 'people' and used to 'blind obedience,' or that we must not be educated enough. I believe that, in fact, we here hold the office of the president in high regard because we are led by the example of our prophet to pray for President Bush and to support him in a very difficult task. I know he felt that special spirit while he was here. In over two hours of comments about such pressing national issues such as the economy, war on terror, energy crisis, immigration, etc. he spent a lot of time talking about faith, religious freedom and prayer!

When I greeted him at the Stewart mansion for his luncheon appearance, I had a moment to speak to him and told him that we here in Utah love him and are praying for him. I told him my brother had served recently in Afghanistan and that he had informed me that the troops support him. He seemed very touched by that and, as I said, he spent a lot of time while here speaking about spiritual matters. Members of his entourage said that was unique--that he didn't often speak so much about religious things.

He spoke of the importance of religious freedom and emphasized that 'it didn't matter whether we were Mormon or Catholic or Jew or Vegetarian...' He paused while people chuckled, and then he said with a wink, 'See, this is why I didn't let cameras in here.' I know that Vegetarian isn't a religion, but if someone had been filming that, the only news out of my entire visit to Utah would be how stupid Bush is for thinking Vegetarian is a religion.' He laughed and then got serious again.

'My point is, it...doesn't...MATTER! What matters is that we are FREE. You see, that's what makes us so different from our enemies in radical Islam. They want to who have different religious views. And that is why we must persist in our war against them. THEY MUST NOT PREVAIL!'

He spoke about the relationships he had developed with world leaders and that he often bore his testimony to them. (That's right, our president!) For example, he spoke of his relationship with the communist leader of China, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

He said, 'I wanted to impress upon him how positive religion can be.' He said, 'I told him that God had changed my life. I was a drunk, Mr. Prime Minister! I had a serious problem and, if it hadn't been for God, I would not be here today. He saved my life! He had a little help from Billy Graham who was his messenger, but it was God who helped me with my addiction and turned my life around. Religion can make your people better, Mr. Prime Minister! Won't you please consider giving them their religious freedom?'

Isn't that extraordinary? Let me share another special story. He talked about King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. He invited him out to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, because he felt it was important to get to know him and develop a relationship of trust and a spiritual bond. He said that King Abdullah, of course, is a strict practicing Muslim with many wives, just like his father and grandfather before him, but noted that the King's son and heir has decided to have only one wife. He said he wanted to impress upon the King that, as a Christian nation, we are not enemies of Islam and that we have much in common. He told King Abdullah, 'I am a believer. I believe in God. I believe he is the same God as Allah. Now, we differ a little in that I believe Jesus Christ is the son of God and my Savior and Redeemer, while I know you consider him to just be a prophet, but we are 'People of the Book,' like you.' King Abdullah wasn't really responding so he felt impressed that they needed some time alone so he invited him to go for a ride in his pickup truck around the ranch. The two got in alone and started down a dirt road (can you picture all the staff and security scurrying after them?)

President Bush was pointing out different trees and his cows when they came around a corner, and there stood the biggest tom turkey he had ever seen in the middle of the road just looking at them. He said that he was surprised because he didn't raise turkeys and had never seen a wild turkey on his ranch. King Abdullah sat upright and was suddenly very interested. They stopped and King Abdullah asked, 'What is that?' 'That my friend is a turkey!' Answered Bush, 'and I've never seen one on my ranch before.' 'What is its significance?' asked the King. President Bush said all he could think of was to tell him that Benjamin Franklin once wanted to make it the symbol of our nation, but we chose the eagle instead.

'I will tell you what it means,' replied Abdullah as he touched President Bush on the arm. 'The turkey is sacred in my religion, and Allah has sent it as a sign to me that you are a believer and a good man!'

Pretty cool huh? President Bush talked a lot about his difficult decisions and became very emotional when he admitted he has made mistakes and bears the terrible burden of knowing that his decisions have led to the deaths of thousands, and then he got very quiet and said that he doesn't think he could go on without the prayers of the people. He said that, when he was a young man and heard people say, 'I pray for you,' he didn't give it much thought. But, at age 61 and the President of the United States, he said it means the world to him to know that millions are praying for him. He said, 'Like it says in Second Corinthians, 'I am filled with Comfort'!' And he thanked us for that and said he would try to listen to the promptings and make the right and best choices for our nation and our people.

I want to bear you my testimony that whatever your politics or criticisms of President Bush and his decisions and the way he has prosecuted this war, he really is a good and decent man who believes in our Heavenly Father, who recognizes the terrible costs of his mistakes, and who seeks to do the right thing, and is buoyed up and supported, comforted, and guided by our prayers. He loves this country and is dedicated to service and has tried to do the right thing to keep us safe and to help others enjoy the blessings of freedom and liberty.

He spoke of his strong relationship with the Prime Minister of Japan and how important they are as friends and allies-- notwithstanding that, when his father was 19, he was fighting them as mortal enemies and nearly lost his life in that war when he was shot down in the South Pacific. And now, just 65 years later, Japan has a vibrant democracy and is our friend. He told the graduating class at the Air Force Academy just prior to flying to Salt Lake that he believed that sixty years from now, their children would be friends and allies with Arab and Muslims around the world because we stood up to oppression and evil today in the quest for freedom and peace for all.

I am very blessed to have had this experience. Please remember President Bush in your prayers tonight.

Sincerely,
Mark L. Shurtleff,
Utah Attorney General

Your House As Seen By....

2008-09-20T12:45:00.001-05:00

...Yourself

...Your Buyer

...Your Lender

...Your Appraisor

...Your County's Tax Assessor

Tour Under the Tabernacle

2008-09-20T00:20:00.004-05:00

Visit this site to view an interesting tour of the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah (owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.)

The Great Gatsby

2008-09-15T11:50:00.004-05:00

Well, I finished this one last night and I wanted to post something about it right away. I still haven't shared my thoughts on Villette by Bronte because I am still digesting it.

This book, Gatsby, didn't seem all that special to me and I was left wondering why it made it into the canon of classic modern books at all? It must be exemplary of the time period since it is often described as a depiction of the "jazz age," but what else? While there was value in the novel I didn't see it as being all that different from a good contemporary novel. The narrator is the most interesting character of the book while he describes his experience of some people he knows/meets living on Long Island Sound, particularly how the identity unfolds around a mysterious neighbor and how his friends and others reveal themselves by their actions and motives in the end. His experience of them helps him shapes some overall perspective about people, but mostly I think it forms a cynicism in him that is sad.

I plan to read a few critical essays on this novel and return to edit this entry with some more informed opinions, should that occur.

Views on Why the Chicken Crossed the Road

2008-09-12T11:22:00.003-05:00

BARACK OBAMA:
The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE!

JOHN MC CAIN:
My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON:
When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.......

DR. PHIL:
The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT' problems before adding 'NEW' problems.

OPRAH:
Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH:
We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle of the road here.

COLIN POWELL:
Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road...

ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:
We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road to see if it is in fact a chicken as reports indicate.

JOHN KERRY:
Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions.

NANCY GRACE:
That chicken crossed the road because he's GUILTY! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

MARTHA STEWART:
No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information about the chicken's moves.

DR SEUSS:
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

GRANDPA:
In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS:
Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

JOHN LENNON:
Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES:
I have just released eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of the Chicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^(C% .......... reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

AL GORE:
I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS:
Did I miss one?

(I don't know where this insight into the chicken originated. IT was sent to me by D.)

How Can She?

2008-09-10T18:34:00.006-05:00

All right, so whatever I have to say about the issues now loses all credibility after I publish these doctored photos. (I might have believed the first photo could be real if I didn't know where it came from.) I just want to lead that politics can be loads of fun...so let's not take things tooooooooo seriously that it affects our health and emotional well being, hmmm??

I really want to believe she is special. But how can she keep saying that?

I told Congress 'Thanks, but no thanks to that Bridge to Nowhere.'

And she keeps saying that same quote over and over! She's made it stick out for sure! Since the issue of government spending is a huge issue on the McCain platform, does she not realize that people will look into the facts? Of course she does, so why is she saying it? Her credibility on this subject is so important because of what McCain says makes him special: in 26 years in office he has never taken federal money for pet projects for his state.

What I've learned and that most of you have likely heard is that she did promote this "Bridge to Nowhere" while running for office. She is known to have worn a T-shirt saying "I'm from Nowhere, Alaska." Cute.

When she took office she supposedly realized that this funding could be better spent on other more useful projects for her state so when the federal funding came her way and was not legally tied for use on that bridge, she put it towards other projects. This was all of 233 million federal dollars along with more than 500 million additional federal dollars. So she did take the money which means that she never told Congress anything, especially "no thanks." Her usage of federal funds were down from the previous governor of Alaska's, so why doesn't she focus on that instead of spinning what appears to be a lie?

Another thing. When she was mayor of Wasilla the town's first every lobbyist was hired and she acquired for her town 26 million, or $3000 per person, in federal funding. She is adept, it seems, at acquiring funds, but whether or not she's better at refusing it than taking it is hard to tell. Perhaps she can justify herself. "I'm for progress" she says. I understand that might be an issue in Alaska? I don't know really what the infrastructure is like there.

I did hear some of this on NPR, which I've heard is a more liberal broadcasting station. I don't know if that's true, but the very next subject was in defense of Obama's lipstick comment. I personally side on the side of Obama. His statement is easily defensible, but making any kind of lipstick comment had to be a red flag to his camp. Did he really not think that would be a fire starter with the McCain group? No Way are they stupid/innocent. Well, I do think it is more outrageous that McCains jumped on it, demanding an apology, and even making a commercial about it. What the? I lose respect for them. I want to vote for McCain based on his position and policies, but sometimes when they do things like this it speaks louder to how they'll be likely to behave in office. NO, I'm not saying being in office is like running for office, but character will be the same in or out.

And for those who worry she'll ignore her children in office, here's Palin holding hands with her daughter after her speech at the GOP convention. At least, Piper is holding her hand.

Edit:
I did watch the Sarah Palin interview with Charles Gibson on TV this week. I did hear her explanation of her usage of that quote "thanks but no thanks" and I can understand her choice of words. THere was a rumor led by the barack camp that her speeches were carefully scripted by the McCain camp. I didn't think her interview sounded scripted, though. She wasn't perfect at it (the interview) but I think that made her more likeable and believable. I still don't agree with her saying "thanks but no thanks to congress" in the manner she has. I think there are many ways to argue the points, such as her ability to justify use of the money for other infrastructure uses "governors can request infrastructure funds" but why that would be essentially different than many other pork barrell projects could be debated. Charles Gibson pointed out a request for federal funds to study mating habits of king crabs, but Alaskans could justify that because crabbing is one of their major industries. I don't know. She pointed out that part of the abuse in earmarking is the under the table aspect. She said with her requests everything was above board and therefore wasn't abuse? I can see that I just don't understand the whole procedure but can still agree that government spending is out of control and they will stop it/slow/restrict/limit/cleanse/whatever.

My First Book Challenge!

2008-09-08T00:03:00.003-05:00

R.eaders I.bibing P.eril III hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings is the first online book challenge I've joined. This one promises to keep me up at night!

Carl gives us options and I am choosing to do...
...which involves reading four books of any length, from any subgenre of scary stories of my choice. Oh, and to have fun doing it.
Since I don't often delve into this genre (although I have read Dracula, The Historian, and The Terror pretty recently) I may tweak and add to this list as I look into book choices further. This is what I have so far:

Frankenstein ~ Mary Shelley
American Gothic Tales ~ Joyce Carol Oates
Gothic Tales ~ Elizabeth Gaskell
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton ~ Edith Wharton

This is enough to at least get me started, and I'd better get started since the challenge started September 1st and ends on Halloween!

Yay Serena!!!! #1 in the World!

2008-09-07T22:29:00.002-05:00

I LOVE TENNIS!

I never miss watching and I just saw Serena win again! (I thought her opponent, Jelena Jankovic, looked sometimes like she thought she was going to win and I didn't like that look. That smile! Serena is all business and then smiles at the end.) So cute when Jelena kept taking the mike and thanking everyone. And Serena said "I first want to thank My Guy Jehovah for letting me be here." She's cool, isn't she.

I was really surprised by Murray upsetting Nadal! Too bad about that rain. (Blame it on the rain...) I thought it was a Nadal/Federer match up again for sure, with Federer being defeated, of course. No, I really like Federer, I've just never seen him beat Nadal.

Every time I watch Federer play I remember the day he was on the Today Show with Matt and Meredith and Matt pointed out to Federer "you have the best eyes" and Meredith, thinking he meant most attractive eyes not a good eye for the ball and she really stuck her foot in her mouth and I felt sorry for her.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

2008-09-07T03:50:00.000-05:00

Starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams, this lighthearted film based on a book published in 1920s had a charming and endearing premise, if one can get past the Amy Adams character demonstration of slutty behavior. Getting past that, there are also some post WWI pre WWII undertones which serve to add depth...but not much. It's really not a deep flick nor is it heavy. Frances McDormand is excellent and really makes the movie. (Who loved her in Fargo besides me?) Amy Adams is almost as annoying as she was in Enchanted, nevertheless I have to admit she does well in the part. Lee Pace was attractive and made me think for a moment of watching him in "Pushing Daisies," but that urge soon dissipated.

I rate this movie at a 3.5. Besides the promiscuity, there seems to be an overabundance of partial nudity. There are no sex scenes, however it seemed the director went out of his way to leave as little to the imagination as possible as far as certain characters nice figures are concerned... It was cute but not squeaky clean

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

2008-07-05T09:09:00.001-05:00

This young author also wrote the book Everything is Illuminated, which has been made into a movie starring Elijah Wood. I recommend the film if you haven't seen it. Like that movie/book, this next book covers difficult topics of war on a very personal level but in an amazingly quirky and strange way. If you're not sure about reading this book, check out that movie first. I would describe the read as sad-funny, or melancholy-comical. It is curious and queer, offbeat and touching. Foer gets 5 stars for creativity and overall at least a 4 1/2 stars.

Because this book is so odd, not to mention the topic difficult, one might love this book or absolutely hate it, and I guarantee you'll be able to tell which you'll feel after just reading the first chapter. The book tells two converging stories within one family. The first story is of how September 11th personally affected a young exceptional boy in NY and leads him on a two year search to be close to his father, and it does dwell on aspects of the attack that are disturbing but reflect the difficulties of this amazing young person. The second story is of a man and woman who survived the fire bombing of Dresden WWII. This depiction was more graphic and more heavily dwelt on (albeit indirectly) by the characters who were emotionally crippled by the event. The narratives of the individuals in this story are mesmerizing and captivating.

This isn't a squeaky clean book but not a strong R rating. There are elements in the book that will disturb and rightfully so, but not in a completely overpowering way.

Recent Reads

2008-06-23T18:11:00.002-05:00

I guess I can admit I read the Twilight Series. I'm still not ready to add them to my list of reads for this year and I don't think I need to comment on them.

I have started several books in recent months that I didn't finish either because they were too tedious for my anemic mind or because of their level of nastiness, such as one I tried by Jane Smiley, a Pulitzer winner no less.

I read Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen just because it was a bestseller. I expected something different and don't recommend this one. It was cheap and weak, lacking depth, not to mention containing unnecessary crudities.

I did, however, just finish a marvelous read; Atonement by Ian McEwan. I can't say enough about my love for this book. I never saw the movie and never will. If you did see the movie it's probably all ruined for you... perhaps. The writing is splendid. It reminded me of Michael Ondaatje's writing. There are a few R rated elements in the book necessary to the plot. I didn't see any shortcomings to the book and wished for more books like this one.

Daughter of Fortune

2008-06-06T20:14:00.000-05:00

I have always wanted to read one of her books; this is my first, and quite possibly may be my last. It is about a Chilean girl abandoned as a baby on the doorstep of a wealthy European woman and her brother who then adopt and raise her. The story tells how she fits into this household of rigid Victorian standards and follows her development as she falls in love with basically the first man she sees, loses her virginity to him, becomes pregnant, and then imagining this to be true love, follows the young man to California when he abandons her to search for gold in the Gold Rush of 1849. The story outlines the difficulties she faces getting there and then dressing like a boy as she searches for this man. She is helped by a young Chinese doctor named Tao Chi'en, whose interesting history is also told, who becomes her dearest friend. She also lives among gold diggers and prostitutes and in the process discovers a freedom and sense of identity she has never previously known.

I would rate this book as a three stars, maybe two and a half, though I must point out that there are many critics who disagree and rate the book much higher. I didn't see enough cohesiveness in the story for my liking and the character development, which does leave readers with issues to ponder, were still too flat to engage me and were sometimes developed only to be abandoned. The issues in the book of racial prejudice and sexual slavery were important themes of the book, probably meant to tie with the young girl's whole identity of being raised by those not of her race and the prejudices held against her and the issues of arranged marriages and other treatment of women. Good topics, but not done in a worthwhile enough way in this story. She is thrown into extremes and may have developed into a REAL person by the end, but I didn't like the way the book brought this out. I was left with a sort of depressed feeling after reading the book, which I suppose is one reason it was chosen as an Oprah Book Club selection:) (Feminists probably like this book and anyone interested in racial issues and victims of sexual trade.)

This book is rated R. No smut, but there are sexual topics and situations throughout the book and some language.

Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith

2008-04-14T22:13:00.000-05:00

We read this book for our book group selection last month. I just want to say a couple of things about it. It is such a well researched book and the bias isn't too thick or offensive, for this kind of biography. Sure, they present myth and rumor, but at least they state things as such and give reasons for or against rumor that have been logical and well supported. I have really appreciated what I have learned about not only Sister Emma, but also Church History and RLDS History as well. It has not been too disillusioning but has changed my views in certain areas, i.e. polygamy and Prophet Josephs many fallibilities in the earliest years. Because of the depth of research and the tone in which the information is presented I highly recommend this book. Especially with a new movie about Emma coming out soon, a book like this can really widen a person's perspective and make clear certain rumors, facts, especially attitudes and prejudices against her, etc.

Since reading the book I have come across random writings on polygamy, Robert Wright's book The Moral Animal, and the news about the FLDS compound that was raided here in Texas this month. Most of you know about the town of Colorado City on the border of ARizona/Utah and it's notorious polygamist practices. Check out YFZ Ranch on Wikipedia to read about how they moved to Texas and have since been totally raided and the 400 some kids put into child protective services. (NOt a good thing in TExas).

I have a lot I could say on the subjects in the book, but read it for yourself. I'll save the rest of my thoughts for a more intimate setting.