Good Reads

Have you ever heard of Goodreads? I use it to keep track of all the books I've read. Some people use it for online book clubs, book recommendations, or social networking. This is the book I just finished.
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


View all my reviews >>

2009 Resolution Recap

Last year around this time I wrote my resolutions for 2009. Heres how I did:

Resolution #1-Take Action- Grade B-
I've made step towards following through. Since I started teaching I haven't had the opportunity to make as many plans resulting in not breaking them. That is something I didn't foresee.


Resolution #2-Keep In Touch- Grade B+
I have been picking up the phone more. I even write emails to old friends, and comment here and there on Facebook.

Resolution #3-Stretch More- Grade A-
All last winter I would do three rounds of the yoga position Sun Salutation. Since school started I set aside 20-30 minutes to stretch and loosen up in the AM.

Resolution #4-Make More Art- Grade D-
I haven't made much progress on my art in 2009. I was doing more collage, and sticking to the same old. The stuff I made held my interest however, it didn't pull me in like an earth magnet to a refrigerator door.

Resolution #5-Read More- Grade F
Reading in 2009 slowed to a trickle. Fear not, 2010 almost has 2 books under its belt!

Eating Animals

Tonight Ryan and I went to hear Jonathan Safran Foer talk about his new book, Eating Animals. The audience was large, overflowing into an alternate room where the presentation was projected in real time.
Both Ryan and I thought the speech was well done. We are aware of the ugliness that is factory farming. It is repulsive how animals are treated in these farms. The refreshing part was how it is presented by Foer. The approach was non-confrontational, and more informative, and conversational. Find out how your food is made- think about what you put in your mouth.

NPR Meets Summer Reading

I love NPR. Love, love love. I could listen for hours, and I do. Clicking around from story to story and listening to the news here and there too.

This story talks about the books for children. Two of the three I've read when I was a child; The Boxcar Children Series, and The Witches.

Recent Reading

Although I would probably never recommend this book, Alone! Alone! Lives of Some Outsider Women, I did find some quotes to be magnificent.

"Those ghastly days, when I was by myself in the little house in Mt. Vernon Street, how I longed to flee in to the firemen next door and escape from the "Along, Alone!" that echoed through the house, rustled down the staris, whispered from the walls and confronted me, like a material presence, and I sat writing, counting the moments s they turned themselves from today into tomorrow."

"it is no fun being an oddity for it makes one eternally lonely."

I have renewed this book countless times to share these quotes with you. Now the next person who reads this book will just have to look for the dog-ears, and won't have to suffer through the blah of the rest of the book.

Card Catalog Generator: here
I adore it. Can't you just hear my heart pitter patter?

The Box

Recently, I stumbled upon a quote from a book that really struck me at the time. It still holds meaning for me now, but in a different way. Last summer, while reading it, I was closing some doors in my life/heart that were probably open for too long.

"Its hard to give up a memory. No matter what comes after, its impossible to forget a small moment of happiness, to admit that it was a fluke, and isolated moment in time with no chance- because our lives are not circular or reeling around again."
Best Friends by Martha Moody

Other People's Love Letters:

150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See



This book is a collection of other peoples love letters for us voyeurs to read. There is everything from short notes on scraps of paper, to long typed letters, to artwork with minimal amount of words and maximum amount of meaning.


This is my favorite page for a few reasons.
1) I love maps, aesthetically.
2) I love birds.
3) I would completely melt if someone sent me a love letter like this.

Oh, if you see camera flashes in the book store, its me taking pictures of books. I'm sorry.

Books of 2007

Last year I made 2 indefinite resolutions: to read and exercise more. Being like the dork I am I decided to go all out and create a list that included the title, author, and a rating. 5 being the highest. Heres my list:

Books of 2007
Read

• Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
• 0
  
• Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner
• 5
• Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman
• 4
• Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner
• 5
• The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner
• 4
• The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
• 3 (The Secret Life of Bees was way better)
• Object Lessons by Anna Quindlen
• 4
• Snowed In: A Novel by Christina Bartolomeo
• 5
• Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian
• 3.5
• A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton
• 1
• Best Friends by Martha Moody
• 2
• The Brambles by Eliza Minot
• 1
• The Box Children by Sharon Wyse
• 2
• The Photograph by Penelope Lively
• 3
• The Color of Hope by Susan Madison
• 4
• Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner
• 3
• Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
• 3
• Every Good and Perfect Gift: A Novel by Brenda Jernigan
• 3
• Lottery by Patricia Wood
• 5
• The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty
• 2
• The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares
• 5
• Talk Talk by T.C. Boyle
• 4
• Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcon
• 5

Books of 2007
Listened to Via Audio Book

• A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve
• 5
• The Last Lessons of Summer by Margaret Maron
• 2
• The Center of Everything: A Novel by Laura Moriarty
• 4
• Rise and Shine: A Novel by Anna Quindlen
• 5
• The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks
• 2
• Say When by Elizabeth Berg
• 3
• A Beautiful Mind:The Life of Mathmemathical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nashby Sylvia Nasar
• 0
• My Sister's Keeper: A Novel by Jodi Picoult
• 5
• The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg
• 4
• Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray
• 2
• What the Dead Know: A Novel by Laura Lippman
• 2
• The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
• 5
• The Myth of You and Me: A Novel by Leah Stewart
• 3
• The Door to December by Dean Koontz
• 0 (the voice on the recording drove me nuts, not to mention the story was awful.)
• The Last Town on Earth: A Novel by Thomas Mullen
• 2
• Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
• 4
• True to Form by Elizabeth Berg
• 2.5
• Long Time Coming by Sandra Brown
• 1 (I didn't realize this was a romance novel until the pulsing member was mentioned, YIKES)
  
• Laced by Carol Higgins Clark
• 2

As I was typing this out I noticed how chick-lit heavy this list turned out to be. I have to admit, it is my not so guilty pleasure...along with Gilmore Girls (you really must admit how witty and clever that show is, com'on guys).