random thursday night thoughts...

If there is a bright side to large snow dumps, it's that I read a lot more.  And watch a lot more television, which I'm sure some would argue is a waste of time, but obviously, they have never gotten sucked into the show, Fringe.  I've made it through the first two seasons in a week and have just started the current season (three). 

I'm currently finishing up a re-read of the first Harry Potter book.  I also just started Glad No Matter What: Transforming Loss and Change into Gift and Opportunity by Sark.  My mother died two years tomorrow and it's still this huge cloud over my head, following me around and miring me in storms.  I have this cycle of being really angry, feeling guilty, feeling sad, and angry again.  I've been working with my therapist and journaling and hoping that at some point I'll see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I'm hoping this book might help me use my creative strengths to further my journey. 

Now I'm off to read some blogs and play with my new phone.  I've finally entered the 21st century and gotten a smart phone.  Mostly because my five-year-old phone randomly stopped working and I feared being trapped in the snow or some sort of emergency without a way to call for help (as though I live in the woods and not suburbs of Philly).

Monday - what are you reading

http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/

Last week was a good reading week for me.  I was coming off of my "staycation" and I really wanted to get through my library book reads so I could jump into Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. 

Finished Last Week (reviews to come): 

• Oh My Gods by Tera Lynn Childs
• I Know I Am, But What Are You by Samantha Bee
• Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Currently Reading:

• War By Sebastian Junger
• Web of Lies by Jennifer Estep

Upcoming Reads:

• Daywalker by Jocelynn Drake
• Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson

Loved Mockingjay.  Was pleasantly surprised by Oh My Gods.  Laughed a whole lot reading Samantha Bee's memoir. 

What Are You Reading for August 23rd

http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/

I've seen this on a bunch of the blogs that I follow and thought it was a cool idea, as I mostly use Good Reads and tend to forget where I stand.  Basically, in her own words, it's "...where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list."  Since I'm always looking for new blogs and especially new books to read, I figured I would give it a go.

Finished:  Sadly, nothing got finished this past week.  I do need to post my review of Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk.

Currently Reading:  Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake, and The Big Short by Michael Lewis.  I find myself at my library's mercy some days.

Up Next: 1) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - I'm on vacation next week and am trying to hold off to read it until then.  2) The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan

So many books, so little time.

Book Review: Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster

Awhile ago I discovered Jen Lancaster's blog, Jennsylvania, and immediately loved her style of writing.  I looked through her list of books written and decided to give it a try.  Luckily, my library (everybody support your libraries!), carries her books and I was able to put a few of them on hold.

Title: Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest to Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie is Not the Answer by Jen Lancaster

Summary:  Personal Training, Session One: I'm standing at the front desk, waiting for the mythical "Barbie" to appear. While I was sucking down water and aspirin earlier today, trying to shed my hangover, I started thinking about how judgmental I can be. I mean, why should I have instantly freaked out when I heard someone named Barbie was going to be my trainer? Sure, the name brings up images of gorgeous girls with long blonde hair, shiny white teeth, deep tans, and impossible-to-achieve, completely enviable figures, but maybe this Barbie is different.

My Review:  As someone who has been on a quest over the past year to come to terms with her own weight issues, I decided to start with this book. It's not a weight loss guide, by any means, nor does she claim it to be anything more than her own journey, but if you're someone who has tried to lose weight (be it ten pounds or fifty pounds), you can relate to her own feelings and experiences.  It reads like a conversation with a friend, who understands what the whole process is like. It's written in a funny, sardonic voice that I adored and I couldn't help but relate to her woes of working out, the ability to talk yourself into "one little cheat" and realizing that most of the diets out there want you to be afraid of food for no good reason.

Some might not relate to the weight loss portion, but it's intermixed with pop culture, funny conversations, and trying to live life and attempt to be healthier.   I enjoyed it. 

Overall: 4 stars

Book Review: Eating Animals

This book works for double whammy for both the Read Your Name Challenge (M-A-R-E) and the Non-Fiction Five (Book 2/5)...

Title:  Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer 

Summary:  Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between carnivore and vegetarian. As he became a husband and a father, he kept returning to two questions: Why do we eat animals? And would we eat them if we knew how they got on our dinner plates?

Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, and his own undercover detective work, Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales justify a brutal ignorance. Marked by Foer's profound moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the vibrant style and creativity that made his previous books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, huge bestsellers, Eating Animals is a celebration and a reckoning, a story about the stories we've told--and the stories we now need to tell.

My Review:  I read this book, coming off having seen the movie, Food, Inc, searching out more information on what is really going on with the current meat industry. I heard Jonathan Safran Foer on NPR talking about this and decided to give it a go.I think this is a must read for everyone. The author makes no attempts to turn people into vegetarians/vegans and he spends a huge portion of time getting accounts from many different perspectives, including small farm owners. The reason it's a must read is that he shares a lot of information that most of us don't know - or don't care to know - about what goes on with the animals we eat. It's not that we eat animals, though he is admittedly a vegetarian, but the way they are treated in factory farms and the way it effects our environment (it causes a lot more pollution than cars on the roads).

There were quite a few unpleasant moments in the book, but I think they are necessary. And I have to say that this book has made me rethink my own way of viewing meat - not only slowly cutting meat out of my diet, but becoming an advocate for alternative ways to provide meat for people that don't involve horrible suffering for the animals.

While I truly recommend this book, I must warn that it has gruesome bits, especially for animal lovers.

Overall: 5 stars

Book Review: Game Change

I had signed up for the Non-Fiction Five challenge a little while ago and it seems to be serendipity because most of the books that have come in from the library in the past few weeks have been nonfiction books.  Let's start with book one, a hot book of the year that goes behind the 2008 Presidential Race.  Yes, that book.

Title: Game Change by John Heilemann & Mark Halperin

Summary:  In 2008, the presidential election became blockbuster entertainment. Everyone was watching as the race for the White House unfolded like something from the realm of fiction. The meteoric rise and historic triumph of Barack Obama. The shocking fall of the House of Clinton—and the improbable resurrection of Hillary as Obama's partner and America's face to the world. The mercurial performance of John McCain and the mesmerizing emergence of Sarah Palin. But despite the wall-to-wall media coverage of this spellbinding drama, remarkably little of the real story behind the headlines has yet been told.

In Game Change, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, two of the country's leading political reporters, use their unrivaled access to pull back the curtain on the Obama, Clinton, McCain, and Palin campaigns. How did Obama convince himself that, despite the thinness of his résumé, he could somehow beat the odds to become the nation's first African American president? How did the tumultuous relationship between the Clintons shape—and warp—Hillary's supposedly unstoppable bid? What was behind her husband's furious outbursts and devastating political miscalculations? Why did McCain make the novice governor of Alaska his running mate? And was Palin merely painfully out of her depth—or troubled in more serious ways?

My Review:  I am an admitted political nerd/junkie, so I know that probably affects my outlook on this book. But I loved it. It's like a mix of Gossip Girl meets the 2008 Presidential Election and I found the whole thing fascinating. And after reading it, I think it's a great book that could appeal to anyone, just for the sheer humanness of the whole thing. The psychology going on with the candidates and their messages.

It's broken up into three parts. Part one was the democratic primary, the largest section of the book, which is no real surprise as the the whole primary season was so different than anything my generation had ever witnessed. Part two is the Republican primary, which is the shortest section of the book, because aside from John McCain's "surprise comeback" there wasn't much to the Republican primary. The final section was the general election and focused a lot on Sarah Palin being chosen and how not only the Obama campaign would have to deal with it, but how the McCain camp would have to "handle" her.

Highly entertaining at parts. Highly enlightening...and mostly, for the most part, Each of those portrayed was exactly how I felt they came across in public.

Overall:  5 stars

Non-Fiction Five Challenge

http://trishsbooks.blogspot.com/2010/03/non-fiction-five-challenge-sign-ups.html

A year to read five nonfiction books.  I figure this is a pretty good challenge for me as I love nonfiction books - history, politics, memoirs - and I have the whole year to get them in mid other reads.  Go check it out.

Updated 9/17/10 - completed challenge

The links to all my reviews for the Non-Fiction Five Challenge:

1. Review of Game Change by John Heilemann
2. Review of Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
3. Review of My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster
4. Review of The Big Short by Michael Lewis
5. Review of I Know I Am, But What Are You by Samantha Bee

books, books, books

My brother and sister-in-law have a reading blog, the Kansas Reading Society, so check it out if you're like me and always looking for new books to read.

I just started reading Graceling by Kristen Cashore.  I'm only three chapters in as I started it last night, but so far, so good.  It's really hard to come up with much in the way of discussion when you're not very far into the book. 

I did recently finish both Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan and Last Words by George Carlin.  Opposite of Fate was a great read.   It's essays of Amy's life and how it affected not only who she is now, but the writer that she became.  I love the way she puts sentences together, she's obviously someone who loves language and it shows in her writing.  I think this is a book that anyone can relate to - we all have family tales - but if you're a writer or wannabe writer, I always enjoy learning about another's creative process. 

Last Words managed to be funny, interesting, and sad.  It's a reminder of the great comic genius that we lost.  Again, George Carlin was a man who loved words  and the meaning that simply the way you phrased a sentence could bring great connotations to it.  Plus, he never failed to make me laugh.  My favorite still remainds, "You can get on the plane, I'm going to get in the plane."

Read Your Name Challenge

http://namereading.blogspot.com/2009/12/2010-sign-ups.html

I thought this challenge sounded cool.  I'll have to figure out what books to read, but basically, the idea is nifty - where I read books with titles that spell out my first name.  So eight books...hhhhmmm...