The Book List for 2009

Jennifer, 1985.

I like reading.

This is what I read this year:

Applehof, Mary. Worms Eat My Garbage. Kalamazoo: Flower Press, 2nd ed. 1997*

Beaujon, Andew. Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2006.*

Blake, William. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. 1790. New York: Dover, 1994.

Buckley, Christopher. Boomsday. New York: Twelve, 2007.*

Byatt, A.S. A Whistling Woman. New York: Knopf, 2002.*

Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany's. 1958. New York: Modern Library, 1994.*

Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep. 1939. New York: Vintage Crime, 1992.*

Chanin, Natalie, with Stacie Stukin. Alabama Stitch Book: Projects and Stories Celebrating Hand-Sewing, Quilting, & Embroidery for Contemporary Sustainable Style. New York: Stewart, Tabori, & Channing, 2008.*

Chappell, Fred. Family Gathering. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000.*

---. Wind Mountain. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Press, 1979.*

Church, Francis Pharcellus. Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus. 1897. New York: Delacorte Press, 1992.

Crawford, Christine. Mommie Dearest. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1978.

DeLillo, Don. The Body Artist. New York: Scribner, 2001.*

The Tyral of Rebecca Nurse: Transcripts from the Salem Withcraft Trials of 1692. Compiled by Donald Daly. Salem: New England & Virginia Company/Nova Anglia Press.

Dietz, Laura. In the Tenth House. New York: Crown, 2007.*

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume II. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003.

Eastoe, Jane and Sarah Gristwood. Fabulous Frocks. New York: Pavalion, 2008.*

Eugenides, Jeffrey. Middlesex. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002.*

Fitzhugh, Louise. Harriet the Spy. 1969. New York: Dell.

Fowles, John. The French Lieutenant's Woman. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969.

Forster, E.M. Maurice. 1914. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1974.*

Gibran, Kahlil. The Prophet. 1923. New York: Knopf, 1972.

Goldsmith, Sheherazade, ed. A Slice of Organic Life. New York: DK Publishing, 2007*

Hamilton, John Maxwell. Cassanova Was a Book Lover: And Other Naked Truths and
Provocative Curiosities about the Writing, Selling, and Reading of Books. New York: Penguin.

Howe, Katherine. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. New York: Voice, 2009.

Joyce, Katherine. Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. New York: Beacon Press, 2009.*

King, Samantha. Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.*

King, Stephen. The Stand. New York: Signet, 1990.

Kipinis, Laura. Against Love: A Polemic. New York: Vintage Books, 2008.*

L'Engle, Madeleine. Dragons in the Waters. New York: Fararr, Straus and Giroux, 1976.

---. The Love Letters. 1966. New York: Ballantine Books, 1983.

Lessing, Doris. Alfred and Emily. New York: HarperCollins, 2008.*

---. Briefing For a Descent Into Hell. New York: Bantam, 1973.

---. The Cleft. New York: HarperCollins, 2007.*

---. A Proper Marriage. 1966. London: Grafton, 1985.

Levine, Abby and Sarah Levine. Sometimes I Wish I Were Mindy. Middletown: Weekly Reader Books, 1986.

McCullers, Carson. The Member of the Wedding. 1946. Boston: Houghlin Mifflin Company. *

Moore, Alan. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics. 1987.

Nicholson, Joan. Creative Embroidery. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 1960.*

Reich, Charles. The Greening of America. New York: Bantam, 1970.

Rice, Anne. Lasher. New York: Ballentine Books, 1995.

---. Pandora. New York: Ballantine, 1998.

---. The Queen of the Damned. New York: Ballentine Books, 1988.

Savage, Dan. Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America. New York: Dutton, 2002.*

Spade, Kate. Style. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.*

Stone, Brian, trans. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. 1959. Middlesex: Penguin, 1972.

Tanenhaus, Sam. The Death of Conservatism. New York: Random House, 2009.*

Thomas, Scarlett. Going Out. New York: Anchor Books, 2002.*

Thomis, Malcolm. The Luddites: Machine-Breaking in Regency England. New York: Schocken Books, 1970.

Traig, Jennifer. Well Enough Alone: A Cultural History of My Hypochondria. New York: Riverheard Books, 2008.*

Truss, Lynn. Eats, Shoots & Leaves. New York: Gotham, 2003.*

Vowell, Sarah. The Wordy Shipmates. New York: Riverhead, 2008.*

Weir, Alison. Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England. New York: Ballentine Books, 2005.

Woolf, Virginia. The Voyage Out. San Diego: HBJ. 1920.*

Weekend, ham, thanks, presents

I almost don't want to tell you about my fantastic weekend, or look at digital cameras online, or work on Christmas craft presents.

I want to leave this freezing office and crawl back into bed and subsist on a simple diet of oatmeal for the rest of my miserable days.

Wait. I just realized I haven't taken a decongestant.

Well!

And frankly, I don't think it would matter what kind of morning I was having, it would still be a pile of steaming stupid compared to the weekend.

The weekend was just that good.

It's true.

The whole family got together in Laine and Robert's new house and celebrated in fine style.

By "fine style," I mean with noise and laughter and too much food and presents.

Lots of standing in the way in the kitchen and catching up.

Lots of television.

Lots of presents.

Lots of picture-taking and playing with dogs.

We took several tours of the house and praised the paint, refinished floors, decorations, and Christmas tree.

And we ate.so.much.food.

Cody's Christmas bonus was a 17 lb. ham. We brought it. Laine cooked it. Cody carved it up like a champ.

Then the rest of us ate it for dinner.

And snacked on it.

And ate it in sandwiches the next day.

And we didn't cry when Levi went home.

And everyone loved their presents.

And we ate too much.

I know I keep mentioning that business about the eating. It bears repeating.

Oh man. Give me some fruit and water.

My head hurts.

Yes, my head hurts from all that ham.

That's enough whining, though. Let's get to business. That's right, the thank-you notes for my presents.

Here you guys go:

Dear Levi,
Thank you so much for my dustbuster! I'm really glad you let me pick it out, because that wet/dry function will most likely change my life. You're very thoughtful and I'm definitely going to charge it tonight and do a spiteful dance in front of my useless dustpan and broom. It's one of the best birthday presents ever!

Dear Rest of the Family,
Thank you for the gift card! I cannot wait to use it on a digital camera. You are helping me take one step closer to my ultimate goal of being a mommy blogger. * You are also helping me cut back on wasted time, money, and printing of less-than-awesome pictures because I can just delete the bad stuff off my camera right after taking a picture! Which means I probably won't be so uptight if you're not behaving the way I like when I'm trying to take a picture. Which means I will be slightly less obnoxious at picture-taking events now. And because all events are picture-taking events, I'm about to be happier all the time.

This may be even more life-changing than my dustbuster. You make me really happy to be born into this family. Thank you!

I seriously love my birthday presents because they're both day-to-day level things. Really big, really awesome, day-to-day level things that make me happy just to think about them.

And now, for the Christmas presents:

Dear Mom and Dad,
Thank you for the notebook, the random antique milk bottle, the books from Erma Bombeck and Lewis Grizzard, rug, and little handy odds and ends. The milk bottle is already living on the coffee table like a Christmas decoration, and the books are on the shelf. Thanks for letting me pick out my notebook. I can't wait to use it, and I love all of my stuff!

Dear Robert,
I was really happy you drew my name in the gift exchange because I knew Laine would take care of you. Thank you very much for the yoga mat, blue Fiestaware plate that replaces the one Cody broke a few months ago, and....another notebook! I do love notebooks, and all of your gifts were eerily perfect. It's as if you eavesdropped on our daily email conversations or Laine bought the gifts herself or something. And now that I have a yoga mat, I may someday do some exercising! Love you, buddy.

Dear Levi,
Thanks for making the rest of us look like chumps by going the extra mile and getting us all presents! I know this will look insincere in print, but I really do love my #20 Joey Lagano die cast car. The only way it could be cooler was if it was a Home Depot wrap, but that's just because Home Depot is really cool. I tell anyone who will listen that you wrap tons of cars and that you know things about Game Stop sponserships and that you're really cool. I'm totally going to take that piece of paper to work tomorrow and register my car, which is currently displayed with pride on my dining room table. Right next to the dustbuster. Best brother ever.

Dear Sara and Chad,
Thanks for paying me back so promptly from when I bought Laine's presents for you. That check is about to be cashed and will be used to take care of the last little bit of Christmas shopping I have left. Superawesome! Thanks a bunch, guys. And Chad, thanks for graciously sharing your birthday festivities with Levi and me. Sorry about you being another December person in this family.

Dear Laine and Robert,
Thanks for graciously hosting family Christmas and December birthday party extravaganza 20 minutes after you moved in. We love your house, and I already think of it as party central. You have space, you have a yard, you are close to unbearably adorable cupcake stores. You're also superhospitable and awesome and we had a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful time.

I'm really sorry I didn't fight harder to keep the family home from church yesterday morning. Your attempt to use up some ham with beans and cornbread would have worked perfectly had the interim minister not preached 15 hours longer than expected. I hope the burnt bean smell dissipates soon. Superthanks to Robert for going out and buying more bread so we could have some ham sandwiches.

And thank you for letting me do my laundry in your new washer and dryer. They are beautiful.

I love my family. I love Christmas. I love ham and decongestants and presents and wrapping paper and dogs and pictures and weekends.

That is all.

Love,
Jen

*I'm not pregnant, nor do I have any plans to be, but I seriously love mommy bloggers because they have fantastic pictures. I want to be just like them when I grow up even if I never have kids.

Birthday

By the numbers

First text: Dad, at 5:56 A.M.
Last text: Ateca, at 4:14 P.M.
Texts, total: 7

Birthday cards: 2, from Alana and Mrs. Dicy

Reasons I don't have more
Siblings: I'll see you this weekend and give it to you with your present
Mom: You're going to love your cute card as soon as I find it
Cody: I don't know why cards are such a big deal

Other good mail
Christmas cards: from Travis and Alana, Erin, Stanley and Juanita
Magazines: some music magazine for the people who used to live in our house with Monsters of Folk on the cover, and Martha Stewart Living--it's like a birthday present from Martha herself every month, but still!

Presents!
Cody: Monsters of Folk's album and Jim James's tribute album to George Harrison. Ignore what I said the other day.


Mom: lunch, and an ornament (see superawesome picture! It makes the sound when you turn the rotary and everything!!!), an instruction manual for a camera I don't have, but may someday, and trail mix.

Mrs. Dicy: a wallet and Dunkin' Donuts coffee.

Other fun birthday things:
I cashed a check at a bank where I don't have an account, and the woman who looked at my ID was really enthusiastic when she wished me a happy birthday.

Casey, Lainey, and a waitress I never remember the name for wished me a happy birthday. And Casey gave me my food in a to-go box and wrote on top of it.

Cody made a three-layer Italian cream cake and saved a piece for me.

I don't have to tell you what comes next, do I?

I enjoyed some Dunkin' Donuts coffee with my birthday cake this morning and I'll have some Chex mix for a snack.

Good birthday. Good day after the birthday.

Thanks for the nice comments and texts and lovely wishes.

And, in case you're wondering, yes.

I do feel different.

It feels good.

November book list

So. We're in December now.

I put up my tree last night. I'd planned to wait until Cody was out of the house because he hates holidays and happiness (not really), but I needed him to pull down the boxes for me.

So my tree is up, my "Merry Christmas" sign is up, my Rudolph card holder is out (fine, he stays out year-round), and tonight I'll bust out my elf figurines.

And today, I'll post my book list for November.

For the past couple of months, I've been trying to cram in short novels in an effort to boost the number of books I read each month. I haven't done the math yet, but I don't think I'll reach my New Year's resolution of reading 70 books this year.

Especially when I made the unwise-on-so-many-levels decision to read The Stand: The Million Page Edition during the height of H1N1 hysteria.

Chappell, Fred. Wind Mountain. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Press, 1979.*
Oh, Fred Chappell. I'm so glad I found your poetry in the library last weekend. There are only so many times I can say "I don't like poetry, but I like Fred Chappell/John Donne/George Herbert/Shakespeare's sonnets/blahblahblah." I think I like poetry. I know I like this guy's.

Eugenides, Jeffrey. Middlesex. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002.*
Well, I can cross that off the list.

King, Samantha. Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.*
This takes a very good look at the tangled mess of charity, corporations, and politics, and the harm and good done by breast cancer awareness projects.

King, Stephen. The Stand. New York: Signet, 1990.
I don't usually post the number of pages anymore, but I have to here: 1,141 pages. Gracious, that was a superlong book. I liked it.

Ms. Frizzle is uplifting

 I'm about to present the best post ever.
This post will be an ode to the really fantastic outfits worn by Ms. Frizzle.

Because she is not only intelligent, personable, and adventurous, but she also has a stylish flair that reflects her love of science in every bold ensemble.

And because she has apparently inspired my especially bad get-up today.

So here we go:

Insects!

Experiments?

Creepy crawly safari time!

Space!
Check out the shoes.
We all need a pair.

I can't tell what this is,
but I did notice the shoes again.

Oh, and Liz!

She's so awesome, her reptilian sidekick wears great outfits!

I stole these from all over the Internet. I had a blast doing so.

I also found some great photographs of people dressed as Ms. Frizzle for costume parties.

And I found several blogs where she was listed as a fashion inspiration.

I totally get it.


She has really great style.

And I don't care if she's fictional, I need these shoes!

September Book List

Hey there.

I was so busy posting pictures that I forgot about the book list for September. I thought about it.

It was even on my to-do list.

But then real work came in, and I had to ...... work..... on it. Yeah.

So here I am, posting this on my lunch break.

Chanin, Natalie, with Stacie Stukin. Alabama Stitch Book: Projects and Stories Celebrating Hand-Sewing, Quilting, & Embroidery for Contemporary Sustainable Style. New York: Stewart, Tabori, & Channing, 2008.*

In short, this was about sewing with old t-shirts. I've been in a sewing mood lately, and there were some lovely patterns in here. And lovely pictures. And I copied down a biscuit recipe.

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume II. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading all 709 pages of this before bed since I bought it back in July. Man, I love Sherlock Holmes. And Watson.

L'Engle, Madeleine. Dragons in the Waters. New York: Fararr, Straus and Giroux, 1976.

I'd read this before. But it was nice to read again.

L'Engle, Madeleine. The Love Letters. 1966. New York: Ballantine Books, 1983.

I had not read this before and brought it along on my beach trip. It was disappointing. I hate to say that about Madeleine L'Engle, but I must. I'm sticking with her juvenile fiction from now on. And even then....I can't believe she did this to me.

Thomis, Malcolm. The Luddites: Machine-Breaking in Regency England. New York: Schocken Books, 1970.

Loved it!

August book list

Happy September morning!

I love September weather.

Glorious.

Can you think of a better way to celebrate this event than with a rehashing of what I read in August?

That's what I thought.

August was a great reading month.

Beaujon, Andew. Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2006.*
Cody checked this out, and then I read it when he was through. So this guy decides to explore the Christian music industry and the awards shows and the producers and so on and so on. It's insular bubble-living at its best. It deals with how this started, how it works, and why 80 billion bands are doing the 'we're not a Christian band, we're just Christians in a band' thing because so much of Christian music is just....unenjoyable. (This is just me. And my opinion. I know a lot of people like it for its uplifting message. I am, in fact, married to a man who has actually uttered the phrase, "You know what praise and worship song I wanted to hear today?" after coming home from work.) The thing about the book that will probably stick with me the most is the fact that he was smack in the middle of this year-long project before anyone tried to talk to him about his faith. He spent 6 months talking to people about their Christian bands, their Christian production companies, their Christian music ministries, and their Christian artist retreats, etc., before a single Christian talked to him about his own faith.

It's spelled F-A-I-L-U-R-E, bretheren.

The Tyral of Rebecca Nurse: Transcripts from the Salem Withcraft Trials of 1692. Compiled by Donald Daly. Salem: New England & Virginia Company/Nova Anglia Press.
Back when I was in college, some professors would clean out their clutter by taking books they didn't want or need, leaving them in a pile outside their offices, and waiting for humanities and fine arts majors to forage through them like feral book collectors. It could get pretty wild. Dang you, Kelly Bisby, and your long legs. She always got to the good stuff faster. Anyway, I managed to snatch up this nearly pamphlet-sized book a million years ago and read it this month after finishing The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. I have no idea when this was published, or even when the forward was written (which appears to have happened before uniform spelling became the publishing norm). I think it was just reprinted for Salem tourists.

Gotta love those witch trials.

Howe, Katherine. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. New York: Voice, 2009.
Yes, I bought a new book. It was weird. First Kelly Bisby mentioned it in a comment on July's book list, and then I was meeting up with my parents in a Barnes & Noble and they had that big display up for it (B&N, not Mom and Dad). I thought the premise looked fun. The premise was fun. The historical research was good. The writing, particularly the characters' dialogue, was not-so-hot. We're talking juvenile fiction-level. And I do not care for juvenile fiction. You know when you're watching a movie and you can guess the plot twists and it's fun at first, but eventually you're bored to the point of being angry because it's so predictable? Yeah, I hate it when that happens.

Feel free to borrow this from me. Cody and I have already read it. He viewed more kindly than I did.

Reich, Charles. The Greening of America. New York: Bantam, 1970.
I've seen lots of references to this book, and I bought a long while back, so it was nice to finally finish it. Parts of it were great, parts of it weren't. But I really liked the parts that were great. Very nice, very thought-provoking, still relevant in places.

It has substance.

Truss, Lynn. Eats, Shoots & Leaves. New York: Gotham, 2003.*
I have a confession to make: I've never read this book until now. I can't believe it! This is probably the most hilarious and informative book about grammar I've ever read! The bit about the family that invented italics nearly made me fall out laughing.

Fantastic.

July Book List

Forster, E.M. Maurice. 1914. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1974.*
I checked this out at the library around the time Amazon pulled it from its ranking system. So yeah, it's a book with a gay character who's unhappy and finds happiness and there's some other stuff in there as well about the shifts in life in England, business vs. landed gentry class, blah blah blah. That part is pretty familiar territory, but I'd never read any Forster before, so that was nice. I enjoyed this, because it's a pretty good book.

Kipinis, Laura. Against Love: A Polemic. New York: Vintage Books, 2008.*
This would have been funnier as an article instead of a full-length book. I remember enjoying it, but I really don't remember much about it.

Lessing, Doris. A Proper Marriage. 1966. London: Grafton, 1985.
I like Doris Lessing a lot and bought this, kind of as a joke, on my second wedding anniversary. It says right on the cover that it's a powerful novel about the disintegration of a marriage and a society. And it is. I was depressed enough to die (not kill myself, just ..... stop living.) after reading this, but I like how she challenges assumptions and types and then challenges and smashes and critiques some more. Since I know you'll never read this, I'll go ahead and spoil the ending for you: the protagonist leaves her husband and daughter for Communism.

Levine, Abby and Sarah Levine. Sometimes I Wish I Were Mindy. Middletown: Weekly Reader Books, 1986.
So what if this is only 32 pages long? I've loved this book since I got it in the first grade, and when I found it in a box last week, I just had to read it out loud to Cody. Yes, I even held it up so that he could see the illustrations (by Blanche Sims, in case you were wondering). Our unnamed narrator wishes she were like Mindy, with a mansion and call waiting and exotic vacations, but she learns to appreciate the things that she does have and realizes that their families are equal in love.

Stone, Brain, trans. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. 1959. Middlesex: Penguin, 1972.
I didn't get it. I usually don't comprehend anything in verse form. Blegh. Maybe I'll try again later. It's a nice little ...... thing.

June's book list

Hello. It's that time again.

You know how I said this month would be better? Well, I did. And I read diligently. And I read some books I'd been meaning to read. And I finished some books I'd started a while ago. And this month's book list takes up nearly half a page in my notebook. And I derive a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment from that.

But: I started typing up the unhelpful reviews for these books and I realize why I've been in such a bad mood. This stuff is terrible. I mean, it's ridiculous. A couple of nights ago I went home from work in a crazy-foul mood and cut off 5 inches of my hair. By myself. I assumed it was hormonal. Then I checked my planner and felt like a moron--this was all me. Yup.

So while I try to calmly pretend that this is really no big deal (and most people think it isn't because my hair looks fine and I seem to have lost the ability to shock anyone anymore), I do have to admit that some of my deep-rooted dissatisfaction must be coming from the pitiful reading month. I like reading and I'm disappointed when a book turns out to be a complete waste of my time.

Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany's. 1958. New York: Modern Library, 1994.*
At the risk of alienating more than half of this blog's readership, I'm going to be completely honest. I did not like this. I not only did not enjoy this book, I thought it was a bad book. A stupid story. With ridiculous characters. Who do not age well. At all. And maybe that's the point. Maybe I'm supposed to be enthralled with this deeply flawed and wounded character and realize that all of her incredibly off-putting actions are just defense mechanisms that I'm supposed to pity. But I do not. This book stinks. Thank you. I feel better now.

Dietz, Laura. In the Tenth House. New York: Crown, 2007.*
I saw the spine on the bookcase at the library and checked this out. The beginning was slow, the middle was riveting, and then I was just mad. Horrible, pointless book. The plot was ridiculous and tragic and the characters were upper class British people in the Victorian age. Oh help me. I thought I'd take a chance and judge a book by its cover. That will not be happening again soon.

Gibran, Kahlil. The Prophet. 1923. New York: Knopf, 1972.
Well. It was pretty. And brief. I can cross it off the list. The drawings were cool, but can we really get that excited about someone who writes and draws. Didn't Blake already do this? With colors? Am I too jaded?

Traig, Jennifer. Well Enough Alone: A Cultural History of My Hypochondria. New York: Riverheard Books, 2008.*
Oh my goodness, who knew this neurotic hypochondriac would be the bright spot in this month's reading?! It's gross, it's painful, it's hilarious. I liked her book about her OCD, and this is even better because there's no anorexia involved. This made me laugh out loud until I cried. Absolutely fantastic (Cody, who was usually trying to sleep in bed while I was enjoying this, may have a different perspective). And educational. No, really!

Weir, Alison. Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England. New York: Ballentine Books, 2005.
I'm pretty sad I paid money for this. It was on sale, but not like "sale section of Barnes & Noble" or "library basement used book sale" sale. This biography was not very good. Objectively speaking, I can say it was awful. Because there's revisionist history, and there's feminist perspective, and then there's Alison Weir typing away sentences that end with prepositions while wearing her "I ♥ Isabella" t-shirt. I'm fine with you liking the subject of your work--that's probably a good thing. But when you spend all your time trying you justify her actions and refute the work of historians and scholars no one has ever heard of (mostly because your subject is a little irrelevant), you're going to lose me. Give the readers some credit: we get it. It was the 1300s. Disembowelment happened. Whatever. Sadly, this was the first biography focusing solely on Queen Isabella in roughly 150 years. Bummer that it was.....this.

So. I'm more optimistic about July. I'm currently reading Still Life by A.S. Byatt and A Proper Marriage by Doris Lessing and I think I'm going to ask Cody to recommend one of his nonfiction books about food. I'm also open to your suggestions because I very clearly need some help with picking books.

May's book list

I was hoping I could just skip this, but after doing this for 3 years it seems like it would be wrong to not do so.

So: I finished 2 books in May.

I was busy. Not incredibly busy, but busy.

And I started 5 or 6 books.

Basically May was just a dumb month.

Lessing, Doris. Alfred and Emily. New York: HarperCollins, 2008.*
Doris Lessing, one of my heroes for being awesome, tries to imagine the life her parents would have had if World War I had never taken place because their lives were so drastically changed by it. So the first half of the book is the story of that. And then the second half is how their lives really were, and her life and her brother's. I swear, even the arranging of the words is just sad. Very sad. Very good, very interesting. Very sad.

Rice, Ann. Lasher. New York: Ballentine Books, 1995.
And.... the Ann Rice book frenzy is over. See you in another 4 or 5 years.

April books

Congratulations, you made it through the cruelest month.

As your reward, I will treat you to the list of books I finished last month alongside my unhelpful reviews.....just like I do every month.

DeLillo, Don. The Body Artist. New York: Scribner, 2001.*

I like the way Don DeLillo writes, but 800 or so pages of good writing is still 800 or so pages to slog through. So I checked this out solely because it was 124 pages. I liked it. It was sad and disturbing, but good.

Hamilton, John Maxwell. Cassanova Was a Book Lover: And Other Naked Truths and Provocative Curiosities about the Writing, Selling, and Reading of Books. New York: Penguin.

My friend, Kelly, gave this to me as a college graduation present. I thought it was time for a re-reading of this lovely book about books. Those are some of my favorite ones.

Rice, Anne. Pandora. New York: Ballantine, 1998.

It was entertaining bedtime reading.....and then you fall asleep.

Vowell, Sarah. The Wordy Shipmates. New York: Riverhead, 2008.*

Doesn't live up to the hype, but I still really enjoyed it. The way Vowell writes makes the casually informative feel of the book really fun, but I don't know how well it will wear 3 or 4 years from now. The contemporary references and comparisons are a bigger detractor than a help, which is a shame.

Book list for January 2009

Applehof, Mary. Worms Eat My Garbage. Kalamazoo: Flower Press, 2nd ed. 1997*
So. Not to gross you out, but I've been trying to compost since this summer, and I've had worms in there too. This went on in the storage closet outside. And then there were some grubworm problems. It was disgusting. And then I read in this helpful little book that people with asthma shouldn't really be trying to compost anyway because of the accompanying mold. Well...fine. After reading this, I know a whole lot about vermiposting and why it's not really for me. At least for right now.

Byatt, A.S. A Whistling Woman. New York: Knopf, 2002.*
This is my tenth A. S. Byatt book! She's so great. She believes in happy endings.

Fowles, John. The French Lieutenant's Woman. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969.
Eh. I liked it. I read it. I wasn't impressed by it. I couldn't suspend my disbelief. It was still pretty good and I'm glad I read it.

Goldsmith, Sheherazade, ed. A Slice of Organic Life. New York: DK Publishing, 2007*
This is (very clearly) an overview. Anyone who would try to use this as an actual guide would be in deep, organic hog poop. Cody picked it up on a whim at the library. Some parts of it were pretty informative (have a windowsill herb garden) and other parts were ridiculous (why not raise geese?). My favorite parts were the pictures: beautiful, sunshiny, harvesty pictures of things you can grow and raise and preserve. I read this during December and Janurary. It will have to hold me over until springtime.