lit*chick

Resolve or Not to Resolve

I'm not a resolution maker. This year, I feel like I have a good excuse since my future is already a little bit predictable ... I fully support all you resolution makers. I do set some goals for reading, housekeeping (stop laughing)/organization, and try to come up with One Little Word (still working on it).

Last year my reading goal was for quality over quantity - and wouldn't you know I read the most books EVER (136, I think). And I managed to read about half the books on that Dec 2007 list.  For 2009, Wodehouse, L'Engle, the Yellow Lighted Bookshop, and Shadow of the Wind remain. I am still on my library fast and pleased with my progress on the to-read shelf.  I have lots of reviews to write, but am entertaining plans of more multiple review condensed posts. Efficiency makes me happy.

I am still working out the plans for the reading round robin. Where we will trade books in circle journal style, one title per month. So you will never be without something good to read. Details coming very soon.

Finally, I'll be lightly tweaking some of the site...trying to make it easier to find my yearly booklists & the reviews that match.

What are your reading plans for 2009?

The End.

The Big Read: Plus a Q&A

I've seen this list of 100 books (taken from the BBC Big Read , thanks Jill) floating around various blogs and had already written a post about books you should have read. I thought it would be nice to combine the two. So here is the list - I've highlighted ones I've read for a grand total of  32, lest you think I'm some literature snob. And the italicized are the ones I'd like to read someday.  Apparently those of you who are big  Harry Potter fans are in pretty good shape. In case you missed it...I couldn't get through the first book. I was bored. I have made it through the Austens and the Steinbecks, the latter coming from an extensive college course where I read the man's entire catalogue.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Honestly, there aren't many here I feel bad about missing. But I do have some reading guilt about not having read the following:

1. My Antonia - Willa Cather
2. Light in August - William Faulkner
3. Night - Elie Wiesel
4. Agatha Christie
5. Margaret Atwood - i dimly recall reading The Handmaid's Tale and thinking it was weird, but this was back in the days when I was only reading Patricia Cornwell and Tom Clancy.

Again, this is my personal list of regrets. I think all readers have a list like this. Please share a couple of your "books i should have read" and choose one to read before the end of the year. I'm choosing Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin. Having just received a copy through Book Mooch means I won't even have to step away from the NEW shelf at the library. (This whole mooching thing is way out of hand, but that's a story for another time.) I need a good excuse to step back from trying to keep up with the latest reads - they just won't stop publishing and let me catch up!

C'mon, what's it gonna be?

The End.

here's what you're reading:

finished:

• Did I Expect Angels? by Kathryn Maughan
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
• Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
• Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccoult
• Antiques Maul by Barbara Allan
• Going Loco by Lynn Truss
• Empress by Shan Sa
• Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen
• Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
• The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
• Harry Potter #7
• Consumption by Kevin Patterson
• The Sound of Butterflies by Rachael King

reading now:

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by
• Loose Girl by Kerry Cohen
• A Thousand Splendid Suns  by Khaled Hosseini
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
• Persian Girls: A Memoir by Nahid Rachlin
• The Worst Thing I've Done by Ursula Hegi
• The Gathering by Anne Enright
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• The Translator by Daoud Hari
• The Shaping of the Christian Family by Elisabeth Elliot
• The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
• Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

next up:

• East of Eden by John Steinbeck
• Keeper and Kid by Edward Hardy
• Leftovers by Laura Wiess
• The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
• The Birth House by Ami McKay

What a fantastic array of books - a most impressive list :). I love that you all have a reading plan, even if it's short term - as in "this is my next book". Nice work.

My list has already changed...I finished Her Last Death and Madonnas of Leningrad, and am preparing to start The God of Animals and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

If you haven't already shared your past, present, and immediate future reads - go here. I'll add you to this list and take another roll call soon.

The End.

roll call

alright you lurking gals...time to 'fess up. and to my bookclub peeps, book blog peeps,SIStv peeps, cousin Trish, Aunt Carol, and anyone else who hasn't said hello in a while- here's your question for the day:

WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW?

AND

WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU FINISHED?

I'll start.

I am reading Her Last Death: A Memoir by Susanna Sonnenberg right now and plan to pick it up again when I finish typing. There are a host of other books I have started reading that are stacked on my nightstand. But you already knew that.

The last book I finished was: The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu

Your turn.

The End.

Resolve to Read

Not an official resolution, let's call it an intention.

Here is the super loose, rough draft version of my 2008 reading plan. I did a quantity based goal (100 books) last year, this year I'm going for quality. I am compiling a list of specific titles and/or authors to read.  So far the list includes:

• Helene Hanff
• Agatha Christie
• Madeleine L'Engle
• PG Wodehouse
• Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo
• What is the What - Dave Eggers
• Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky
• The Yellow Lighted Bookshop - Lewis Busbee
• The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak
• The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
• The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• The Whistling Season - Ivan Doig
• The Zookeeper's Wife - Diane Ackerman
• The Birth House - Ami Mckay

In the past, I have only tracked books I finished. This year, I want to record the titles of books I haven't finished.  Just to see my reasons (perhaps intellectual laziness?) for stopping.

I encourage you all to either set a reading goal whether it be making a list of 10 you absolutely must read, or trying to read 5 more than last year, or to read a classic each month. Whatever it may be, whenever you decide, please share it here.  I'll do my best to help you toward your goal and we'll have fun along the way. There may be prizes involved too - I love to give stuff away.

Speaking of which, please email me your bookswap list if you are interested in participating. I'll plan to post the list on Thursday.

In July 2007 I started this blog in order to share my passions for crafting, cooking, the kiddos, and most of all reading. Thanks for making these past few months so much fun and sharing little pieces of yourselves with me. It has been a pleasure to get to know people I never would have met otherwise. I look forward to meeting more of you in the coming year.

Happy New Year!!

The End.

Tie Up Loose bookEnds

There are a few books that I need to finish reading. These are books I started this year and just couldn't make it to the end for various reasons.

Excellent Women had to be returned to the library. I'm on the waiting list to get it back. Sure I could have bought it, but I am enjoying the battle between me and the only other person in Howard County reading this book.

Pretty Birds I still want to read but was not in the right frame of mind to read it. I felt the same way about watching Schindler's List, you kind of need to gear up for it. Miss Joni says yes to this one.

Intepreter of Maladies - I love short story collections. The only problem is that you can read a couple, then forget about picking it up again. That is the issue here.

Then We Came To The End - made the NY Times top TEN for 2007.

It read like a literary version of Office Space. I made it through the first 2 chapters, then had to give it back to Mr. Miller (the name of my local library branch). I think the hubs would enjoy this one so we may have to buy it. And I love the cover.

Are there any books you still need to finish (not out of guilt)?  Are there any you are glad you didn't finish?

The End.

100 books

I don't make new year's resolutions - big surprise, I know.

And while I keep a reading journal (more of a list with notes), I hadn't ever set any specific goals. Well, in 2007 I quietly endeavored to read 100 books. Just to see if I could. Just to see how much time finishing 100 books requires. A lot. And not, as it turns out.

Today the list ends at 92 and I am SO okay with it. Over the next few days I'll list the titles.

Part One:

1. Housekeeping vs the Dirt  - Nick Hornsby
2. Blue Water - A. Manette Ansay
3. Digging to America - Anne Tyler
4. Angel's Rest - Charles Davis*
5. An Alphabetical Life - Wendy Werris
6. Scoop - Rene Guteridge
7. PosterChild - Emily Rapp*
8. The Grace that Keeps this World - Tom Bailey*
9. Summer of My Amazing Luck - Miriam Toews
10. Gods in Alabama - Joshilyn Jackson
11. The Double Bind - Chris Bohjalian*
12. Family Tree - Barbara Delinsky
13. Window Across the River - Brian Morton
14. 90 Minutes in Heaven - Don Piper
15. Maisie Dobbs -  Jacqueline Winspear*
16. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen*
17. I Feel Bad About My Neck - Nora Ephron
18. The Bright Forever - Lee Martin*
19. Little Children - Tom Perotta
20. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote*
21. The Sad Truth About Happiness - Anne Giardini
22. The Sidewalk Artist - Buonaguro
23. BlackGirl/White Girl - Joyce Carol Oates
24. Arlington Park - Rachel Cusk
25. Family & Other Accidents - Shari Golden
26. A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity - Kathleen Gilles Siedel
27. Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy - Lindsay Moran
28. The Post Birthday World - Lionel Shriver
29. The Space Between Us - Thrity Umrigar*
30. Grace Eventually - Anne Lamott

Those with the * I recommend.

I forgot to add The Bright Forever to my Favorites list.

I would avoid The Post Birthday World - not only is it long, it's pointless too.

If you have any questions about these books, email me.

The End.