Surfing Saturday- 01/31/09

Each Saturday morning, (or, in this case, it's evening) I list any links of interest I came across during the past week of surfing, especially those having to do with books! Play along by visiting Literary Menagerie.

SURF'S UP:

~30-year-old George Vlosich uses an Etch-A-Sketch toy to draw President Obama's likeness, among others. Pretty amazing, if you ask me. I can't even draw a decent house on one of those things.

~All is not lost! According to this article from the Wall Street Journal, reading fiction is on the rise, even among 18-to 24-year-olds. And they are checking out actual, honest-to-goodness books.

~However, the honest-to-goodness, hold-it-in-your-hands-and-turn-your-own-pages book will not be the only way to get people to read from now on. The digital age is reshaping literature in more ways than one.

~For those Harry Potter fans out there: In case you haven't heard, Daniel Radcliffe's stunt-double, David Holmes, has been seriously injured on the set. After he fell, he couldn't feel anything from the waist down.

~If you haven't been able to get enough John Updike this week, the Wall Street Journal reprinted a 2005 interview with the author, done shortly before the publication of his second collection of art criticism, "Still Looking: Essays on American Art."

~The NY Times has an interesting review on Simon Critchley's The Book of Dead Philosophers. The article states: As he (Critchley) says, “The history of philosophy can be approached as a history of philosophers that proceeds by examples remembered, often noble and virtuous, but sometimes base and comical.” He adds, “The manner of the death of philosophers humanizes them and shows that, despite the lofty reach of their intellect, they have to cope with the hand life deals them like the rest of us.” Sounds like an interesting read to me.

~The NY Times Sunday Book Review also has a review on Ballet's Magic Kingdom- Selected Writings on Dance in Russia, 1911-1925 by Adam Volynsky. The intrigue of this book, says the reviewer, is that there are few great writers on dance, and that after reading it you will never look at a ballerina or a tutu the same way again.

What was the most interesting article you stumbled upon this week?

Running Behind

My Saturday posts will be up soon. I have had an off kind of day today. The adrenaline of the past week has kept me going when I thought I couldn't. Now that everything has calmed down, my body is reacting once again and I am trying to fight off a fibro flare-up. I slept most of today and my body aches all over. So I am working on the posts and they will be up, just at the end of the day! So be sure to come back and read them later! Thanks, blogging buddies!:D

The One Book Meme

I liked this meme I saw on A Striped Armchair so much that I decided to take up the offer to play along!

One book you’re currently reading: Life of Pi by Yann Martel
One book that changed your life: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
One book you’d want on a deserted island: Survive! Essential Skills and Tactics to Get You Out of Anywhere- Alive! by Les Stroud
One book you’ve read more than once: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
One book you’ve never been able to finish: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne *Shiver*
One book that made you laugh: The Know-it-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Man in the World by A.J. Jacobs
One book that made you cry: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
One book you keep rereading: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
One book you’ve been meaning to read: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
One book you believe everyone should read: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Finally,
Grab the nearest book. Open it to page 56. Find the fifth sentence
“He lay ill; I thought, looking at him, if he were to get well, if he were to get up again, what then?"
From The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

If anyone wants to play along, feel free! I'd love to see everyone's responses!

Friday Finds

Here are my three finds for this last Friday in January! Where did the time go?

And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander
I found this book through the review on Trisha's Library Queue.

Lady Emily Ashton is a widow of certain rank in Victorian England. When her husband dies shortly after their marriage while on a safari, Emily feels more relief than grief. She only married him to escape her mother. Emily then begins to discover more about her late husband through her passion for reading. Soon, Emily learns so much about Philip she did not know and finds herself falling in love with him too late. But she also finds clues in her reading that are unsettling to her and she begins to doubt that Philip's death was an actually an accident at all.

Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
I became interested in this book after reading about it on things mean a lot.

The unnamed narrator in this book is the last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects' heads with electrodes that decipher coded messages. This 'Calutec', as he is called in this world, has one main mission: to negotiate between the System and the Factory, who are constantly engaged in high-tech information wars. Murakami interweaves between the conscious and subconscious mind and science-fiction elements to create a work that sounds absolutely delicious.

That Summer in Sicily: A Love Story by Marlena De Blasi
I became interested in this after reading about it on Cariboumom's blog.

One summer while traveling with her husband, De Blasi comes across an old castle in the mountains of Sicily. There she is befriended by a woman named Tosca who recounts for her a beautiful love story between herself and the last prince of Sicily. The story is about embracing life in all of its many forms- both sorrow and joy, beauty and poverty. And besides, any book about the Italian culture I am there for. I had never heard of De Blasi (I can hardly believe it!) and am thrilled to learn that this is her fourth Italian memoir!

An Award!

Beth over at Beth Fish Reads presented me with this lovely award. Beth writes a terrific blog and I visit hers for every update.

I am to now list 5 things I am addicted to (only 5?) and then pass this award on to 5 other lovely bloggers.

5 of my Addictions (besides reading, which is obvious :P):

• Blogging and writing
• Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper (it's terrible)
• MahJongg solitaire
• Bookstores, particularly used bookstores
• Learning

Now for my 5 blog choices (this is always the hardest part!):

• Wendy from Caribousmom (R.I.P. Caribou)
  
• Trish from Trish's Reading Nook
• Rebecca from The Book Lady's Blog
• Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here
• Kristi at Books and Needlepoint

I looked but did not see this meme/award combo on your page, so I apologize in advance if you have already been tagged!

Friday Fill-Ins #109

1. I'd really like big strong arms around me right now.

2. Agghhhh! is the word you'd most often hear me say if I stubbed my toe.

3. Possession is a book I'd like to read.

4. The most entertaining pirate ever has to be Captain Jack Sparrow.

5. Marshmallows and fire go together like peas and carrots. ;)

6. My love for books goes on and on.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to reading some more in Life of Pi, tomorrow my plans include taking care of my sister once she comes home from an overnight in the hospital after surgery, and Sunday, I want to organize some paperwork, read some books, curl up with my cat for a nap, and write some poetry!


You can see other bloggers' Friday Fill-In posts by visiting here.

100 Shots of Short - Stories 6 & 7

STORY #6- Israel Zangwill's A Rose of the Ghetto.
DATE- January 29
RATING- Mind-Numbing :(
QUOTE- "At first he declared he would put down the money immediately after the ceremony. But the wary Sugarman, schooled by experience, demanded its instant delivery on behalf of his other client. Hard pressed, Eliphaz produced ten sovereigns from his trousers-pocket, and tendered them on account. These Sugarman disdainfully refused, and the negotiations were suspended."

STORY #7- The Servant by S.T. Semyonov
DATE- January 20
RATING- Mmm...That's Good
QUOTE- "He was curio as to get a glimpse of his future home, but the panes were all frosted over, and it was impossible to peep through. However, he could hear what the people inside were saying."

The New Girls by Beth Gutcheon

BOOK #: 9
CHALLENGES: New Authors
RATING: So-So

The New Girls is about five girls who spend their formative years at a prestigious prep school in the mid-sixties. Between the traditions of the school and their parents, and the new realities of the women's movement, Vietnam war, and the sexual revolution, the girls' lose their innocence and are transformed into women uniquely shaped by the times.

This book had wonderful reviews from The New York Times Book Review to the Library Journal. And the story seemed fresh to me and exciting. I always have loved learning about the sixties. I know that if I had been alive at the time my rebellious and independent spirit would have fit right into the times. I received the book and read the first chapter. The five girls- Lisa, Jenny, Muffin, Sally, and Ann were all grown up and returning for their 20th reunion. Only Sally, the most likely to show up, the most energetic about the reunions, did not arrive. They were soon told Sally had committed suicide. Well, I wanted to know more. Why had the girl who had been the most excited about seeing her friends again and reliving their prep school days, taken her life?

The next chapter went back to their first day at Miss Pratt's, the day they met. It was interesting to learn of their backgrounds and their personalities and quirks. It was even interesting to hear what a boarding school was like, myself never having been to one. But by the halfway point, I was growing weary. I was still reading about the first year!

The characters had some good story lines, and the characters were interesting, if not well-developed. Mostly, I was very tired of the narrative. Every detail about Miss Pratt's was told, and ninety percent of it was told in narrative form. I would have much rather learned more about the school through the girls' stories and dialogue. It became more and more boring with every page I turned.

Soon I stopped turning the pages. I wanted to find out what happened to Sally, but the chapters became so mind-numbingly boring after a while that I hardly cared at all anymore. I decided to turn to the last chapter and just read it to see what happened to Sally. This should be easy, right?

I couldn't even finish the last chapter. It was more of the same. I just did not care anymore. I closed the book and was through with it. Sometimes it is just not worth your time to finish a book no matter how much you want to have it finished.

I confess that I have had a lot going on in my life lately and perhaps the trials and tribulations of girls at a prep school seemed too frivolous and light compared to my reality. I was hoping it would be a good escape for me, which is what good books can do for you. But The New Girls did not help me to escape. I just felt frustrated at all of the narration and the lack of good dialogue and flow in the book. I felt it was stagnant. Were they ever going to even get to their second year? Did I even care if they got there? If the book cannot move along any faster than this, I cannot maintain my attention. It's how I am. Maybe if I had read it at a different period in my life I would have liked it more, but I know it would not have ever been a memorable book to me.

If you are searching for a good schoolgirl book to read, I don't recommend this one. Obviously, I am in the minority when I look at the reviews, but I just could not get into this book at all. And I was so interested after the first chapter! Gutcheon hooked me and then disappointed me. I hear her other books are better, but it will be difficult for me to pick up another of her novels with this being my first experience with her writing.

Have you read The New Girls? What did you think? What about Gutcheon's other novels? Are they worth the effort?

You've Been Tagged!!

I've been tagged by my lovely blogging friend, Kelly, at The Chic Geek.

Here are the rules:
Link to the person who has tagged you.
Write down six things that make you happy.
Post the rules, tag six others and let them know you did it.
Then tell the person when your entry is complete!


My 6 Things:
1. A wonderful family and terrific friends
2. My cat, Kali, who is the most loving cat I've ever met.
3. That my dad is now free of all of the pain he has gone through these past few months. We will miss him but he is not hurting anymore.
4. This blog, which has given me a purpose and distraction and has been a joy to write.
5. Exploring new places, learning new things, reading new books, watching new movies, thinking up new ideas, creating new writing and art, meeting new friends.
6. Helping others and making a difference in the world.

Now, I am going to pass this along to six other wonderful blogs that I enjoy reading:

~Beth Fish Reads
~Literary Menagerie
~Po(sey) Sessions
~Dolce Bellezza
~worducopia
~Trish's Reading Nook

You're it! :D

Super Saturday #2

This is the second installment of a new feature on my blog called Super Saturday where I list the best book blogging posts I have read this week. There are some talented writers and reviewers out in the book blogosphere and I want to make sure they are recognized for it!

BLOG: Dolce Bellezza
POST TITLE: A Stiff Upper Lip May Become a Smile
POST DATE: Thurs., Jan. 22
REASON: It is refreshing whenever I come across someone with differing political views as me who also recognizes the need for hope and unity. This post was thoughtful and honest and beautifully written.

BLOG: books i done read
POST TITLE: The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett- Book Review
POST DATE: Fri., Jan. 23
REASON: Hysterical review. 5 stars. :)

BLOG: Literary Menagerie
POST TITLE: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga- Book Review
POST DATE: Mon., Jan. 19
REASON: It was a well-written review that also made me laugh.

BLOG: Between the Covers
POST TITLE: Teaser Tuesdays
POST DATE: Tues., Jan. 20
REASON: The teaser is from Pride & Prejudice, one of my favorite books. How can I not add this post???

BLOG: Beth Fish Reads
POST TITLE: Weekly Link Round-Up
POST DATE: Sat., Jan. 24
REASON: It is a lot like Super Saturdays. Love it!

BLOG: Lynda's Book Blog
POST TITLE: Love and Friendship by Jane Austen- Book Review
POST DATE: Sat., Jan. 24
REASON: She introduced me to a new Jane Austen novel I had not heard of yet and wrote a lovely review of it.

Honorable Mention (because it was written last week but I only read it this week and loved it too much to say no. Hey, it's my meme and I can break the rules if I want to. Haha :) )
BLOG: Po(sey) Sessions
POST TITLE: Maria Murnane Interview
POST DATE: Wed., Jan. 14
REASON: It was a delight to read this interview and I never knew of the author previously. My favorite question was the one that mortified Megan the most. :)

Be sure to sign up to Follow this Blog or get the RSS feed so you will be the first to know when next week's Super Saturday post is up! :)

Surfing Saturdays

Each Saturday morning, I list any links of interest I came across during the past week of surfing and give an update on my reading progress. Play along by visiting Literary Menagerie.

SURF'S UP:

~NY Times article on how Obama's love of reading has shaped his worldview and has set him apart from others, especially in the area of language.

~In case you had not heard, last week a British academic was sentenced to jail for two years after it was found he had been vandalizing antique books.

~And speaking of book crimes, a woman in Iowa was arrested and released on a $250 bond after not returning a library book worth $13.95. Let that sink in for a moment.

~And last, but not least, a thoughtful article on how the real tragedy of Poe, whose bicentennial was January 19th, is how poorly he is taught in school.

Celebrate Life: New Attitudes for Living with Chronic Illness by Kathleen Lewis

BOOK #: 8
CHALLENGES: New Authors, Triple 999
RATING: AMAZING!

I have been talking about this book so much I am sure you are glad to see I finally finished it! :)

As you know, I have fibromyalgia, diagnosed in 2005. Ever since, I have tried to read as much as I can about not only fibromyalgia but also living with a chronic illness in general. Some books are, of course, better than others. The best are not written by doctors in the field, but by those who actually have a chronic illness, which Lewis does. When you read advice from someone who has actually been in your shoes, who relates to you and understands, you can accept the advice much easier. Who hasn't experienced a doctor who tells you to do something and a friend who has been there telling you the same thing, and it always sounds better coming from the one who has been there?

Lewis' book hits on many of the same topics as other books about chronic illness, but her method of delivery is what really grabs you. She doesn't just say 'Studies show this is how you learn to accept your diagnosis.' She also says 'This is what happened on my personal journey to acceptance.' And she relates her stories of hope and despair, her marriage that led to divorce, her recovery from that, how she dealt with the anger, how she and her two children learned to deal with all of the changes, and how this method or that method helped her to get to the place she is in now. Lewis is completely real throughout the book. She even states how she continues to have cycles of grief about her old life and her new life even now and she informs the readers that this will continue throughout our lives and, most importantly, that it's okay!

I have highlighted the pages of this book like I did Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I have selected 2 quotes from the book and posted them below. If you or someone you love is dealing with a chronic illness, or even a terminal illness, I recommend this book. I found a lot of helpful advice for dealing with my father's illness, as well. You can buy the book through the Arthritis Foundation.

"Set aside one day of the week as a 'mental health day'. Don't schedule anything you don't enjoy on that day, and make it as simple and relaxing as possible. A full day of reading, light exercise, napping, eating and laughing may go against your workaholic nature, but it actually may be good for you."

"The real medicine resides in delving into your own personal well of wisdom and healing. If you keep searching, eventually you'll tap into the much larger and deeper river of wisdom and healing that flows through the ages. It's the same wisdom no matter how you reach it. Until you make that effort, attempts at healing will only be marginal, fragmented, and momentary. How you travel is less important than undertaking the journey."

Friday Finds

Here are my four finds for this Friday!

Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
This novel is credited as a witty and charming book about gods in the twenty-first century. "Life's hard for a Greek god in the twenty-first century: when nobody believes in you anymore, even your own family doesn't respect you, and you're stuck in North London with too many siblings and not enough hot water." Sounds interesting to me.

Note to Self by Andrea Buchanan
This is a collection of inspirational stories from thirty women (from Sheryl Crow to a 70-year-old HIV-positive grandmother) who reflect on their own stories of unexpected life experiences and redemption.

A Journal for Jordan by Dana Canedy
I saw this in People Magazine. A soldier who was sent to Iraq when his wife was pregnant wrote in a journal to his son while he was there. He did get to meet his son, but while he was still young the soldier was killed. His wife made this book for their son explaining their relationship and what his father was like and filled it with the journals his father wrote in Iraq. I read excerpts from the book in the magazine article and it was really moving.

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

I know everyone knows about this book already, but I am mentioning
it just the same. I like that it has a new twist on the
medical-mafia-crime-thriller genre. :)

Friday Fill-Ins #108

1. Oh, I am so exhausted!

2. I am tired of all of these changes, big and little.

3. During my dad's trip to Hospice Home, I rode in the ambulance with him because he gets confused.

4. I have gained more weight since this crisis started in November; are you kidding me???

5. Right now I'd like to be reading a book and sipping a Mango Mai Tai in Hawaii. Ah yeah! :)

6. My laptop is my favorite gadget.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep, tomorrow my plans include a visit to Hospice Home to see my father and Sunday, I want to take a break by going on a walk, taking a hot bubble bath, and finishing reading The New Girls!

Booking Through Thursday: Inspiration

This week's question: Since “Inspiration” is (or should) the theme this week … what is your reading inspired by?

I am a pretty spontaneous person so usually I am inspired to read whatever suits me at the moment. If I feel sad, I may read a happy book to cheer me up. If I need a good cry, I will choose a tearjerker. If I am in the mood for a light read, you won't see me carrying The Brothers Karamazov.

I am inspired also by what is going on in my life- my interests at the time, what I spend most of my time doing, what I wish I could be doing. Self-improvement books are of course always about something I need to learn more about for myself. Sometimes I am inspired by current events (my sister's reading it now but I bought Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope after I learned he was who I believed could do the country the most good right now). Sometimes I am inspired to try a book just because so many people have liked it. Sometimes I am inspired by my interests. I used to read a lot of romantic books like Nicholas Sparks when I was in relationships. Now that I am single (and most happily so) I find the gravitational pull to those books not as strong. When I was a teacher I wanted to read books about children all of the time. Now it no longer interests me. Partly because I don't have a way to use the information like I did.

There are always certain types of books I like. I am usually in the mood for books about different cultures (it just fascinates me). I like a good legal crime novel now and again. And the classics have always been a pull for me, as have nonfiction books about nature, animals, and spirituality.

But what it always comes down to is that moment I decide to read: what I am feeling right now? Am I feeling an intellectual read or do I need to kind of zone out with a YA book? Am I looking to learn and apply information to my life or am I looking for someone to tell me a good story? I am inspired the most by my immediate emotions. Sometimes that is good in life, sometimes not so much. But in the reading world, it can make for a very interesting variety of reads.

100 Shots of Short- Stories 3-5

STORY #3- Outage by John Updike
DATE- January 20
RATING- So-So
QUOTE- “Me neither. Could I offer you a drink?” this woman asked, nervous herself. She added with another giggle, “Since you’ve gotten out.” She gestured toward her becalmed kitchen. “I can’t offer you coffee.”
“What have you been drinking?” Brad asked her.
Her eyes widened, as if to compensate for the lack of light. “How did you know it was anything? Some girlfriends and I finished off lunch with anisette.”
“In the car,” he answered her, “you smelled sweet,” and moved closer, as if to verify.


STORY #4- Wakefield by Nathaniel Hawthorne
DATE- January 20
RATING- So-So (I try, but cannot find anything by Hawthorne that I enjoy reading.)
QUOTE-"With a cold but not depraved nor wandering heart, and a mind never feverish with riotous thoughts, nor perplexed with originality, who could have anticipated that our friend would entitle himself to a foremost place among the doers of eccentric deeds?"

STORY #5- Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
DATE- January 20
RATING- Mmm...That's Good
QUOTE- "It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself - to offer violence to its own nature - to do wrong for the wrong's sake only - that urged me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute."

Essay #2

Thanks to Rob at Rob Around Books for the link to this essay!
Essay #2- The Love of Reading by Virginia Woolf
Date Read- January 19
Rating- AMAZING!
Quote- "It is a complex pleasure and a difficult pleasure; it varies from age to age and from book to book. But that pleasure is enough. Indeed that pleasure is so great that one cannot doubt that without it the world would be a far different and a far inferior place from what it is."

The Sugar Solution by Sari Harrar

Book #: 7
Challenges: Triple 999
Rating: AMAZING!

I just finished this book and I have to say- I am amazed at how much I learned!

I thought that I knew a lot about sugar since I am borderline hypoglycemic, meaning if I don't eat every few hours, my blood sugar drops and I become lightheaded, nauseous, and, if I wait long enough, I will get past the point of hunger and eventually pass out. Lots of fun!

So when I saw this on my mom's bookshelf (unread!), I knew I had to bust it out. My mom is pre-diabetic and she bought the book to learn more and then promptly forgot it. But a lot has been happening lately, so I understand. But the information inside is going to be so valuable to her and to me. I can't wait to share it!

Some things I learned, straight from the pages of the book:

1. The average American consumes more than a pound of refined sugar a week. It sounds unbelievable until you realize that sugar goes by more than 50 names and is an ingredient in virtually all processed foods, from your morning doughnut to the ketchup on your burger.

2. Our bodies are essentially the same as they were 40,000 years ago, but our eating and exercising habits have changed tremendously. The same number of calories it might have taken our prehistoric ancestors an entire day to hunt and gather, we can now have brought to our door with a phone call. We simply eat too much and exercise too little. The result: high blood sugar. The danger: obesity, Syndrome X, PCOS, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke, fertility and pregnancy problems, and possibly some forms of cancer. It’s serious.

3. One of the best ways to control blood sugar levels naturally is to consume 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day. While refined carbohydrates (sugars) flood the bloodstream with glucose within minutes, high-fiber foods take longer to break down. Thus, they release glucose in your blood more slowly, providing a steady amount of energy rather than a huge flood of glucose that your body must struggle to move out of the blood. One of the best sources of fiber: beans or other legumes. Research finds that eating small quantities of beans- just ½ cup a day- helps manage blood sugar levels.

4. Be smart about sweets. When you splurge, splurge little. If you choose to have 3/4 cup of peach cobbler after dinner, skip the slice of whole wheat bread and a serving of fruit. To make up for some lost nutrition, have an extra 1/2 cup of broccoli or spinach. Now you can enjoy every bite of that cobbler!

5. Learn to decode food labels. Read the "As Prepared" and "Total Carbohydrates" figures, strive for fiber, and convert sugar grams to teaspoons (divide the number of grams by 4, so a serving with 8 grams of sugar divided by 4 is 2 teaspoons of sugar per serving).

There are so many more helpful tips, too. There is an Are You At Risk? quiz, tips on helping children be healthier and grow into healthier adults, information on low-GI (glycemic index) foods, how to make smart substitutions, pick better snacks, make your personal cooking style (whether you are a trendsetter or a comfort food specialist) healthier, and even has pages upon pages of recipes to try in the back.

I was surprised to find that the book not only contained nutritional information, but also information on incorporating fitness into your lifestyle and getting quality sleep and lowering stress levels.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who has high blood sugar or high-normal blood sugar (pre-diabetic). And I recommend it to any of you who want to find pretty painless ways to cut back on the sugar in your diet to lose weight and/or just feel healthier. It is a fairly easy read, too, without a lot of nutritionist jargon (and what jargon there is is defined for the reader).

The recipes I am going to try first?
- Spicy Roasted Chickpeas (I like chickpeas!)
-Cheesy Baked Cauliflower (to answer the eternal question- will I ever be able to eat cauliflower without gagging? *shudder*)
-Indian-Spiced Potatoes and Spinach
-Curried Chicken with Coconut
-Turkey Burgers Stuffed with Chiles and Cheese
-Strawberry-Watermelon Slush (I mean, yum!)