10 Random Books (with mini reviews)

The horror! I missed a day yesterday. Oh, well. While I won't have an unblemished posting record this month, I am definitely moving back into the swing of things. I still need to power through the backlog of reviews I need to write, though.

This is inspired by the meme I see around all the time, where one puts your iPod on shuffle and writes down the first 10 (or 25, or what not) songs that come up. Instead, I used the LibraryThing app I have on my blog (top right column) and picked the first 10 books that came up. I did cheat a little and exclude my husband's textbooks that came up, as I have nothing to say about them!

Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book: A Primer for Adults Only by Shel Silverstein: I think I got this from a friend years ago. It's just a silly funny book. And yes, adults only, even though it's Shel Silverstein.

Flying Colours (Hornblower Saga) by C. S. Forester: This is my husband's book - he has the whole series - and I've never read it. But I watched the Horatio Hornblower miniseries with him and loved it. It doesn't hurt that I have a bit of a crush on Ioan Gruffudd in it.

Orca by Steven Brust: I first read Brust when I picked up The Book of Jhereg from the advice of a bookseller (yay! bookstores!). I really liked it and continued on with the series, including this one. (This looks like it's out of print as a stand alone title, but it's available in the The Book of Athyra anthology.) The series gets darker as it goes but it's enjoyable for anyone who likes their fantasy with a heaping dose of magic and swordplay.

Zorro: A Novel by Isabelle Allende: I read this re-telling of the Zorro story by famed author Allende for book club. I remember enjoying it, but that's about it.

Irish Sagas and Folk Tales by Eileen O'Faolain: This looks really out of print, unfortunately. I loved this book when I bought it on a summer school trip to Ireland as a high school student.

Sarah: A Novel (Canaan Trilogy) by Marek Halter: The first in a trilogy, of which I have not read all three. I liked this one quite a bit though. It's historical fiction based on the Bible and well-written.

At Home in Mitford (The Mitford Years, Book 1) by Jan Karon: I think I have confessed my love of Karon's Mitford books here before. They aren't good, by any stretch, but I like them for what they are. There's a new book out in her second series about Father Tim (In the Company of Others), which I keep forgetting to get.

The Brand-New House Book: Everything You Need to Know About Planning, Designing, and Building a Custom, Semi-Custom, or Production-Built House by Katherine Salant: I bought this on a whim one day, curious what I as an architect would think of a book written for the layperson on the subject. I found it to be helpful, actually, though not perfect. Still, if you are contemplating building a house, I suggest finding a copy.

Angelas Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt: Doesn't everyone own a copy?

Intrusions by Ursula Hegi: Another gift, from a college friend who is a huge Hegi fan. It's an odd book, with a novel within a novel and characters that interact with "real" people. I can't compare it to Hegi's other novels, but I thought it was interesting.

Friday 2/26

A big thank you to Pine Cottage Books for giving me the Happy 101 Award! Jeannie called arch thinking one of her "favorite blogs that make [her] happy to go visit." Aww, shucks. That's so nice of you to say!


The award asks for ten things that make me happy:

1. My husband. He's a wonderful man and he always knows how to brighten my day.
2. My family, especially my nephews when they are being sweet.
3. Sushi. Specifically really good sushi, from a very authentic Japanese restaurant that I'm not going to mention because they are already busy and I don't want any new people going there!
4. Coffee, especially when husband is serving it to me in bed in the morning. I like it fresh brewed with lots of milk and some sugar. Oh, yum.
5. Books. Buying books, reading books, smelling books. I love 'em. That doesn't surprise anyone, does it?
6. Thinking of ideas for new stories to write or new paintings to paint. There's something so magical about that moment when a new creative idea is formed. I like it even more than doing the actual creative work.
7. Getting a compliment on something I've made (anything from a painting to a plate of cookies), especially when the person doesn't know I'm the one who made it.
8. Being at the beach, watching the ocean and waves rolling in. Doesn't matter the weather, the beach is my favorite place to be.
9. Finding a particularly tricky cache when we're out geocaching!
10. You guys! I love having readers and I especially love comments!

Happy weekend!

Wondrous Words Wednesday

I've never participated in Wondrous Word Wednesdays before. Honestly, I don't look words up. I have a big vocabulary to begin with (so much reading as a kid, I guess) and 99% of the time, I can get it from context. That's good enough to me. But last week I ran into a word that had me baffled. Part of it that there was no context, so I actually had to check the dictionary.

Last week Shelf Awareness asked UK mystery/crime writer Mo Hayder what is her favorite line from a book:

The opening line of Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess. "It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me." Woah. Now there's a sentence that does the work of an army in terms of plot and characterization and pacing.

Catamite? Is that a big cat? Oh, no.

catamite: a boy kept for homosexual practices. ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from Latin catamitus, via Etruscan from Greek Ganumēdēs (Ganymede).

Learn something new every day, I guess!

Wondrous Word Wednesday is hosted by Kathy of Bermudaonion.

BBAW: Reading Meme

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
I read while I'm eating dinner all the time, but I don't normally snack while I read.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
It horrifies me a little, though college probably cured me of that, mostly. No, I just rarely have a need to note anything in the book I'm reading.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
Usually, I use the receipt for the book as a bookmark. I love to pull a book off the shelf and find the old receipt, or some other marker that tells me where the book came from. It always brings back a good memory!

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?
Both - mostly fiction, but I also like quirky memoirs, food books, and popular history.

Hard copy or audiobooks?
Hard copy. When my husband and I were first dating, we lived 5 hours away from each other by car for a year. I made that drive dozens of times and I couldn't have done it without audiobooks. I don't think I've listened to a single one since, though.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?
Unless my eyes are closing from exhaustion, I always read to the end of the chapter - or the section break, at least.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?
No.

What are you currently reading?
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach, author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.

What is the last book you bought?
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. It is my next book club book.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?
I prefer to read multiple books at the same time. I especially like to mix it up - a nonfiction history and a YA fantasy, or an Agatha Christie mystery and a memoir.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?
Between the hours of 7 am and 11 pm, 7 days a week. Favorite place is my (new king size!) bed, with my husband nearby, also reading. Heaven.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?
I do tend to read a lot of series, and I think that's because if I like a character, I like getting to know them over time. Stand alone books are good, but series are a real draw for me. But I don't like it when series go on too long (15 books is too much, for example), as I just think the quality goes down.

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. It's just fascinating and funny. I'm also surprised when I meet someone who watches his show but has never read his books.

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)
By however they will fit on our poor, cramped bookshelves!

The Literary Geek Meme

I've seen this meme in several places, but recently I was tagged for it on Facebook. I figured it was worth posting my answers here as well.

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Agatha Christie (see question #2) followed by Gary Gygax. (I married a nerd, what can I say?) Not counting my husband's books, I'd say my #2 is Margaret Frazer. I collect both of her series.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
There are 80-something books in our LT library that we own multiple copies of. Some are actually multiple editions of the same book (mostly textbooks) but many are due to overlaps in my husband and I's taste. For example, we both collected Agatha Christie books for a while, so we have duplicates of almost all her books. And we don't get rid of anything.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Edward Cullen. HA! Just kidding! Hell would freeze over first. I'm not secretly in love with anyone.

5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
Alanna by Tamora Pierce, probably. Or from the Chronicles of Narnia, The Horse and His Boy.

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
See #5.

7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
I can't think of anything truly awful, really, that I finished. I did read Twilight and New Moon, which are terrible in some ways but impossible to put down. I did abandon two; Roanoke: A Novel of Elizabethan Intrigue by Margaret Lawrence comes to mind first.

8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Just one? Old Man's War was fantastic, as was Never Let Me Go. The Hunger Games was so much fun. The Mote in God's Eye was great.

9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
I don't think I would, but I have been encouraging (pushing) the books in #8 on my friends. I have also, in the past, recommended Ender's Gam and, more recently, Old Man's War to many people, including those who swear an aversion to sci-fi. That's just because you don't know what you are missing, people.
10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Uh, someone smart? Ask my sister, she knows these kinds of things.

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I can't wait for the Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie to come out!

12) What book would you -least- like to see made into a movie?
Most of them, really. I'm usually very wary when my favorite books are made into movies.

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I can't think of any.

14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
There are too many to count: I have very lowbrow tastes. Hence all the SF, YA, murder mysteries, etc. I don't like Romance, though, usually, as I don't like reading about sex.

15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
In grad school, I read a fair amount of architectural and post-modern theory, most of which is pretty difficult to get through.

16) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
They're all pretty great, but I know Shakespeare best. Unless we're not talking about in translation, because there's no way I'm reading Middle English.

17) Austen or Eliot?
Who? Just kidding! Kind of. I've never read Austen and I've only read Eliot's poetry, so I'm not sure I can compare.

18) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
See #17, I guess.

19) What is your favorite novel?
Again, too many to name.

20) Play?
I'm more of a musical theatre gal, myself (I can pretty much sing Guys & Dolls, West Side Story and Oklahoma! in their entirety), so I don't feel qualified to answer.

21) Short story?
Is The Awakening by Kate Chopin a novella or short story?

22) Work of non-fiction?
Favorite? Its so hard to choose these things. I love a lot of non-fiction, actually. Kitchen Confidential, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman, The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan... I bet I could go on. (I just noticed - there sure are a lot of food books in there, and I didn't even include any cookbooks.)

23) Who is your favorite writer?
All this choosing! Who can decide? CS Lewis, Tamora Pierce, Scott Westerfeld, Agatha Christie, Margaret Frazer, Robert Heinlein, John Scalzi, etc.

24) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
I don't know. Stephanie Meyer?

25) What is your desert island book?
Probably something by Heinlein - before I started blogging, I tended to be a pretty big re-reader, and it was not uncommon for me to read Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love every year.

26) And ... what are you reading right now?
The Book of Unholy Mischief: A Novel by Elle Newmark. Its quite good, so far.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a link to your answers in the comments.

After the Read-a-Thon

I hit my goal of visiting all 168 blogs (my count) participating in the read-a-thon, but sadly, I fell short of doing it all during the actual read-a-thon. But I visited the last few today to say congratulations and I'm so glad I did. There are a lot of wonderful blogs out there that I never would have known about or visited if it weren't for this read-a-thon. Thanks to everyone for visiting me back here. I hope you'll stick around!

Now, for those of you who stayed up all night reading, get some sleep!

Another Read-a-thon Update

I've visited 154 blogs so far today and I think my brain may have turned to goo. So I'm going to take a break and come back to visit everyone else participating later.

Good luck to everyone participating in the read-a-thon and have fun!

Wow. I've now visited 116 of the blogs participating in the read-a-thon and I may need to take a break. There are so many great blogs out there that I had never visited before, though, so this has been great!

After a quick break to shower and torture* the cat, I'm back to cheerleading. So far, I've visited and commented on 53 blogs, so I am just under 1/3 of my way to my goal of cheerleading for everyone. And at some point, I want to do a little reading of my own, too.

*Just kidding, of course. We had a fun session of chase the string before she went back to ignoring me.

24-hour Read-a-thon Update

I've been visiting blogs and performing my cheerleaderly duties for about two hours so far and I've only managed to visit a fraction of the blogs that are participating in this years read-a-thon! Congratulations to our organizers for doing such a great job of getting people involved!

Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-Thon

Tomorrow is Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon, an annual event where book bloggers pledge to read for 24-hours (plus or minus) straight, blog about it and, usually, donate to a charity of their choice. I'm not planning on being a Reader, but I am looking forward to hearing about everyone else's exploits. If you'd like to follow along or find out more, visit the Read-a-Thon website.

One Book Meme

Instead of a Friday update, I am doing this cute meme I got from The Book Lady's Blog.

One book you’re currently reading: The Reincarnationist by MJ Rose

One book that changed your life: The Awakening by Kate Chopin

One book you’d want on a deserted island: Hmm... maybe our copy of Chapman Piloting and Seamanship. It's the bible of sailboats so I bet it could help me get off the island!

One book you’ve read more than once: Just one? I'm notorious for re-reading books. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

One book you’ve never been able to finish: Most recently, Winter in Kandahar by Steven E. Wilson.

One book that made you laugh: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.

One book that made you cry: Plainsong by Kent Haruf. Just beautiful.

One book you keep rereading: See above... Hero & the Crown by Robin McKinley. (My review)

One book you’ve been meaning to read: Anything by Jane Austen. I still haven't gotten around to it.

One book you believe everyone should read: Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. Well, maybe not the boys but it doesn't matter if you ever plan to have kids or not, this is a book I think every woman should read.

Finally, grab the nearest book. Open it to page 56. Find the fifth sentence:

According to Schindler, the pilotis* were inspired by "the pile structure indigenous to all beaches."

From L.A. Modern by Tim Street-Porter and Nicolai Ouroussoff. The quote is in reference to the Lovell Beach House, designed by architect Rudolph Schindler.



*Pilotis (pronounced pee-low-tees) are skinny columns.

6 Things I Love

I was tagged by Tamara of Books By TJ Baff. (Thanks for thinking of me, Tamara!)

The rules for the tag are simple.

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.

Six Things That Make Me Happy...

1. My family, including my husband and my incredible nephews.
2. Well-designed buildings, whether I had a hand in it or not (but especially when I had a hand in it!)
3. Re-reading well-loved, familiar books.
4. Coffee. I almost said red wine instead, but then I realized that I can live without wine but I can't live without coffee.
5. Painting. Though it's more like I get cranky when I don't paint.
6. The dual-control electric blanket on my bed that preheats my side before I crawl in at night.


I Tag...

Alea at Pop Culture Junkie
Smash at Great Books and Fresh Coffee
Jennifer at The Literate Housewife Review
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?

and anyone else who wants to play along!