Happy Birthday to me

Sometimes you know before you start that you just shouldn't read that blog post. Similar to the knowledge that you just shouldn't EAT that cake. And equally ineffective. The title alone was a warning, Book Shopping, at Farm School.

Well, birthdays were mentioned in the intro. It's beshert. It is MY birthday. And Bookcloseouts. I could avoid Amazon, ca and Chapters but not Bookcloseouts. I have a discount coupon from my order last month, the one where I ordered our next choice for everyone else in the local book club and forgot to order a copy for myself. Now I am reading a library copy, which is undeniably cheaper. But, surely, I cannot let that coupon expire unused.

Let Me Finish by Roger Angell. The library doesn't have a copy, I've already looked. I read an excerpt several months ago and wanted to read more.

Cooking in a can. Perfect as a gift for the Cub Scout, crossing-over to Boy Scout, who also wants to be a chef. In fact the only thing about campouts that appeal to him is the cooking. And maybe eating.

The coupon only applies if the total amounts to $35, so further searching is necessary.

Science Experiments You Can Eat by Vicki Cobb. More cooking. And I enjoyed her blog post at this site, Interesting Nonfiction for Kids.

Israeli history for Noach, A Promise Fulfilled and Israel: The Founding of a Modern Nation.

Walking the Bible for children and the last copy for adults for myself. I read part of this when we were in Israel and would like to finish it. I am always picking it up at the local Barnes and Noble when it is on the Buy 4 for the price of 3 shelf. Usually I can only find 3 I want on that shelf.

Tamar by Mal Peet. I saw this mentioned on the February reading list by Sherry at Semicolon and checked it out on Amazon. Sounded like it would fit in my Young Adult category of the 888 Reading Challenge. And not found in the local library.

So, yesterday, it was Happy Birthday to me. You can never have too many books. Actually you can. I may be proof. PRM

Reading like a madwoman

Not.

I have been reading two of my choices and enjoying them both. I hope to have a short review up on each in a day or two. They could not be much more different, heartwarming fiction vs sad, terrifying nonfiction. More info to come.


What we did this weekend was make these guitar stands from PVC for the basement music/movie/game room. JP did most of the work with a bit of help from Noach and me. There are 3 altogether, 2 completed and one to go. The last one is bigger to fit the acoustic guitars. This was a design he found on the internet but the instructions were a bit vague. I think he did an excellent job. I am really looking forward to the day, soon now, when the basement will really be ready to enjoy.


The teens spent the long weekend in New Jersey visiting a friend from camp. A brave mom invited 7 kids to spend 4 nights with her and her daughter. They took the bus into Manhattan Sunday for a few hours. My kids had a great time.

I am ready for a return to routine. PRM

Triple 8 Reading Challenge

Read 8 books from 8 categories in 2008

Biographies/Memoirs
1. *Let Me Finish by Roger Angell
2. *The Invisible Wall: A Love Story that Broke Barriers by Harry Bernstein
3. *American Shaolin by Matthew Polly
4. *I'll Sleep When I'm Dead by Crystal Zevon
5. *The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
6. *A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
7. *Foreign Correspondence by Geraldine Brooks
8. *The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor by Ken Silverstein

Travel
1. *Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck
2. Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost
3. The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
4. *Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything.. by Elizabeth Gilbert
5. *American Shaolin by Matthew Polly
6. Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon
7. Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold by Michael Benanev
8. * Majic Bus by Douglas Brinkley

American Novelists
1. * Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
2. * Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
3. *Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer
4. * Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
5. * The Wife by Meg Wolitzer
6. *Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
7. *Pontoon by Garrison Keillor
8. *Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Foreign Novelists
1. * Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
2. * Waiting by Ha Jin
3. * The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar
4. * The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
5. * People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
6. * Atonement by Ian McEwan
7. * Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi
8. *Sons and Other Flammable Objects by Porochista Khakpour


Young Adult
1.* Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock
2.* Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
3.* Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
4.* Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
5. * Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate
6. * Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis
7. * An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
8. * Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi

Immigrant Experience
1. *How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
2. *Sons and Other Flammable Objects by Porochista Khakpour
3. *Madame Secretary by Madeline Albright
4. *Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate
5. *The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Dias
6.
7.
8.

Nonfiction that Just Calls My Name
1. *Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
2. *Empires Lost and Won: The Spanish Heritage in the Southwest by Albert Marrin
3. *The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle
4. *Madame Secretary by Madeline Albright
5. *Math Phobia by Marilyn Burns
6. *The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan
7. *Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
8. *Outside Lies Magic by John Stilgoe

Local Book Club List
1. * Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi
2. * Atonement by Ian McEwan
3. * The Tattoed Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
4. * Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg
5. * Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
6. * Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
7. * The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer
8. * The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan
9. * The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

* completed

Possible substitutions
North Toward Home by Willie Morris
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Children of Jihad by Jared Cohen
Tamar by Mal Peet

Reading Challenge

One of my past pleasures I have tried to reclaim as my children have grown older and more independent is reading. It seems that for years I read very little for my own pleasure. About 2 years ago, I deliberately began to change that. Then during the summer of 2005, my friend, W, and I decided to organize a monthly book club which has been functional since. But I want to read more.

I tried an online book club but that just did not work for me. My natural reticence was very limiting in that setting. In person, I am pretty quiet but I make an effort to speak up. Writing this blog is a way for me to overcome my online self-censorship and reluctance. I feel like the effort is working. I have posted a couple of times to one of my email lists over the last 2 weeks. And I have to fight the feeling that someone's disagreement with me is necessarily a criticism. I KNOW it's not but it feels like criticism.

Well, that was off topic but I am working around to saying that I am going to take on a major reading challenge, the triple 8, 8 books in 8 categories in 2008. I will be posting my list, and a rather long one it is, later today. PRM