Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: 2009
The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced this week. The winner for fiction is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. LitLovers (the website that featured our group last year!) has a good compendium of summary, biography, and reviews. This book was first brought to my attention through a rave "You Must Read This" review on NPR by Melissa Bank, author of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing.Update: Omnivoracious also posted a list of the top 15 most likely winners (regression analysis alert!), before Olive Kitteridge was announced. It might be a good resource for making book selections.
The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo: Final Results
didn't like it - 0
it was OK - 1
liked it - 0
really liked it - 4
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 0
5 votes total
it was OK - 1
liked it - 0
really liked it - 4
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 0
5 votes total
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Who are the Girls from Ames?
They are 11 women from Ames, Iowa who have sustained a 40 year-friendship. A new book, The Girls from Ames, has been written about them by Jeffrey Zaslow, who coauthored The Last Lecture with Randy Pausch.
The book highlights their ground rules:
Don’t brag about husbands’ jobs or incomes. Don’t gloat about children’s achievements. Make every effort to be with each other for key events. In addition, Zaslow observes, “Ames girls learned early that the way to keep female friendships alive was to listen and talk, in that order.”
One compelling comment from Jeffrey Zaslow featured in the Christian Science Monitor review:
Men’s relationships take different forms. “Men tend to build friendships until about age 30, but there’s often a steady falloff after that,” Zaslow states. “Men’s friendships tend to be based more on activities than emotions. They connect through sports, work, poker, politics…. Women talk. Men do things together…. Women’s friendships are face to face, while men’s friendships are side by side.”
I think I might have just found my next book pick.
The book highlights their ground rules:
Don’t brag about husbands’ jobs or incomes. Don’t gloat about children’s achievements. Make every effort to be with each other for key events. In addition, Zaslow observes, “Ames girls learned early that the way to keep female friendships alive was to listen and talk, in that order.”
One compelling comment from Jeffrey Zaslow featured in the Christian Science Monitor review:
Men’s relationships take different forms. “Men tend to build friendships until about age 30, but there’s often a steady falloff after that,” Zaslow states. “Men’s friendships tend to be based more on activities than emotions. They connect through sports, work, poker, politics…. Women talk. Men do things together…. Women’s friendships are face to face, while men’s friendships are side by side.”
I think I might have just found my next book pick.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
"Atlas Shrugged is absurd but strangely compellling . . ."
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is one of many highly read, often cited books that I have never read. I read The Fountainhead in high school and liked it, but then later learned that Rand was a brutal capitalist and haven't been as impressed with it since. Has anyone read Atlas Shrugged? This review certainly makes me interested. Maybe it would be a good choice for the January book one year? I must admit one reason I'm interested is because every now and then it gets discussed on Mad Men!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
YA News
Judy Blume's books have been given new covers. What do you think? It's making me want to re-read Deenie. The copy I had was dated even when I read it.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Blindness: Final Results
didn't like it - 0
it was OK - 1
liked it - 0
really liked it - 1
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 4
6 votes total
it was OK - 1
liked it - 0
really liked it - 1
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 4
6 votes total
Sunday, March 22, 2009
What do you do in your succissive moments?
That is, your spare time.
I read.
I found Save the Words while blogreading today.
And I did not want to temerate my recent public commitment to updating the blog every week.
I read.
I found Save the Words while blogreading today.
And I did not want to temerate my recent public commitment to updating the blog every week.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Lost Boys of Sudan
Has anyone read What is the What, Dave Eggers' novel/biography about Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee? I've heard great things about this book but have not read it myself. Today at work I received an email that Deng along with some other refugees will be in the area early next week to talk about their experiences and the nonprofit they've started to build schools in Sudan. Below is the schedule of their appearances which can also be found here. I'm thinking about going to the one Monday night if anyone is interested.
March 23: UNC-Chapel Hill, 12:30-2:00pm in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Auditorium located in the Hooker Building.
March 23: Judea Reform Synagogue 7:00-9:00pm
March 24: Wake Forest University, 11:00-12:30pm in the Pugh Auditorium in the Benson Center.
March 24: Duke University, 4:30-6:00pm at Fleischman Commons in the Sandford Institute for Public Policy.
March 25: Meredith College, 10:00-12:00pm in Jones Chapel.
Monday, March 16, 2009
The Time Traveler's Wife: The Sequel
Not a sequel, but Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife, will have her second book out in the fall. It is titled Her Fearful Symmetry and according to this article it is "supernatural story about twins who inherit an apartment near a London cemetery and become embroiled in the lives of the building’s other residents and the ghost of their aunt, who left them the flat."
Speaking of The Time Traveler's Wife, Liz informed me that the movie version has been pushed back to February 2010. In other book/movie news, I read in Entertainment Weekly that Julia Roberts will star in "Eat, Pray, Love."
Speaking of The Time Traveler's Wife, Liz informed me that the movie version has been pushed back to February 2010. In other book/movie news, I read in Entertainment Weekly that Julia Roberts will star in "Eat, Pray, Love."
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Best Fashion Blog Post Ever
You must, must look! Storybook inspired fashion. I especially love the Nancy Drew outfit.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
I love this top 10 list of why Facebook is for old people. I'm cutting and pasting the list so you don't have to, but it came from Time magazine.
1. Facebook is about finding people you've lost track of. And, son, we've lost track of more people than you've ever met. Remember who you went to prom with junior year? See, we don't. We've gone through multiple schools, jobs and marriages. Each one of those came with a complete cast of characters, most of whom we have forgotten existed. But Facebook never forgets. (See the best social-networking applications.)
2. We're no longer bitter about high school. You're probably still hung up on any number of petty slights, but when that person who used to call us that thing we're not going to mention here, because it really stuck, asks us to be friends on Facebook, we happily friend that person. Because we're all grown up now. We're bigger than that. Or some of us are, anyway. We're in therapy, and it's going really well. These are just broad generalizations. Next reason.
3. We never get drunk at parties and get photographed holding beer bottles in suggestive positions. We wish we still did that. But we don't. (See pictures of Beer Country in Denver.)
4. Facebook isn't just a social network; it's a business network. And unlike, say, college students, we actually have jobs. What's the point of networking with people who can't hire you? Not that we'd want to work with anyone your age anyway. Given the recession — and the amount of time we spend on Facebook — a bunch of hungry, motivated young guns is the last thing we need around here.
5. We're lazy. We have jobs and children and houses and substance-abuse problems to deal with. At our age, we don't want to do anything. What we want is to hear about other people doing things and then judge them for it. Which is what news feeds are for.
6. We're old enough that pictures from grade school or summer camp look nothing like us. These days, the only way to identify us is with Facebook tags. (See pictures of a diverse group of American teens.)
7. We have children. There is very little that old people enjoy more than forcing others to pay attention to pictures of their children. Facebook is the most efficient engine ever devised for this.
8. We're too old to remember e-mail addresses. You have to understand: we have spent decades drinking diet soda out of aluminum cans. That stuff catches up with you. We can't remember friends' e-mail addresses. We can barely remember their names.
9. We don't understand Twitter. Literally. It makes no sense to us. (See the top 10 celebrity Twitter feeds.)
10. We're not cool, and we don't care. There was a time when it was cool to be on Facebook. That time has passed. Facebook now has 150 million members, and its fastest-growing demographic is 30 and up. At this point, it's way cooler not to be on Facebook. We've ruined it for good, just like we ruined Twilight and skateboarding. So git! And while you're at it, you damn kids better get off our lawn too.
1. Facebook is about finding people you've lost track of. And, son, we've lost track of more people than you've ever met. Remember who you went to prom with junior year? See, we don't. We've gone through multiple schools, jobs and marriages. Each one of those came with a complete cast of characters, most of whom we have forgotten existed. But Facebook never forgets. (See the best social-networking applications.)
2. We're no longer bitter about high school. You're probably still hung up on any number of petty slights, but when that person who used to call us that thing we're not going to mention here, because it really stuck, asks us to be friends on Facebook, we happily friend that person. Because we're all grown up now. We're bigger than that. Or some of us are, anyway. We're in therapy, and it's going really well. These are just broad generalizations. Next reason.
3. We never get drunk at parties and get photographed holding beer bottles in suggestive positions. We wish we still did that. But we don't. (See pictures of Beer Country in Denver.)
4. Facebook isn't just a social network; it's a business network. And unlike, say, college students, we actually have jobs. What's the point of networking with people who can't hire you? Not that we'd want to work with anyone your age anyway. Given the recession — and the amount of time we spend on Facebook — a bunch of hungry, motivated young guns is the last thing we need around here.
5. We're lazy. We have jobs and children and houses and substance-abuse problems to deal with. At our age, we don't want to do anything. What we want is to hear about other people doing things and then judge them for it. Which is what news feeds are for.
6. We're old enough that pictures from grade school or summer camp look nothing like us. These days, the only way to identify us is with Facebook tags. (See pictures of a diverse group of American teens.)
7. We have children. There is very little that old people enjoy more than forcing others to pay attention to pictures of their children. Facebook is the most efficient engine ever devised for this.
8. We're too old to remember e-mail addresses. You have to understand: we have spent decades drinking diet soda out of aluminum cans. That stuff catches up with you. We can't remember friends' e-mail addresses. We can barely remember their names.
9. We don't understand Twitter. Literally. It makes no sense to us. (See the top 10 celebrity Twitter feeds.)
10. We're not cool, and we don't care. There was a time when it was cool to be on Facebook. That time has passed. Facebook now has 150 million members, and its fastest-growing demographic is 30 and up. At this point, it's way cooler not to be on Facebook. We've ruined it for good, just like we ruined Twilight and skateboarding. So git! And while you're at it, you damn kids better get off our lawn too.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Michelle's Arms
Is this ridiculous, or do people have an opinion on Michelle Obama's bare arm style?! I really like Maureen Dowd's essay.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Favorite First the Food Pick of 2008
I guess it's on the late side, but what was your favorite book club book of 2008? As a reminder, here were our selections:
January - Anna Karenina
February - Water for Elephants
March - The Virgin of Small Plains
April - Kate Vaiden
May -Ghostwritten
June - The Post-Birthday World
July - Dreams from My Father
August - Suite Francaise
September - The Alchemist
October - Dracula
November - The Blood of Flowers
January - Anna Karenina
February - Water for Elephants
March - The Virgin of Small Plains
April - Kate Vaiden
May -Ghostwritten
June - The Post-Birthday World
July - Dreams from My Father
August - Suite Francaise
September - The Alchemist
October - Dracula
November - The Blood of Flowers
The Blood of Flowers: Final Results
didn't like it - 0
it was ok - 0
liked it - 2
really liked it - 1
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 0
3 votes total.
it was ok - 0
liked it - 2
really liked it - 1
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 0
3 votes total.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
I've been bad.....
Ok everyone - I finally put a shortcut to this site on my desktop.
So maybe I will post here more often. Someone please hold me accountable!!!!!
Glad to be back!
Katie
So maybe I will post here more often. Someone please hold me accountable!!!!!
Glad to be back!
Katie
Friday, March 6, 2009
The Stand: Final Results
didn't like it - 0
it was OK - 1
liked it - 1
really liked it - 1
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 0
3 votes total.
it was OK - 1
liked it - 1
really liked it - 1
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 0
3 votes total.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The Best of the Best: 2008 Books
This blog post creates a sort of meta-analysis of the best books of 2008 and ranks them in terms of the number of votes they got from all the best of the year lists that went around. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is on the thriller/mystery list.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
NY Times Review of Blindness
This review (of the book, not the recent movie) contains many spoilers, so you may want to hold off reading it until you've finished the book.
Link here.
Link here.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
The Alchemist: Final Results
didn't like it - 0
it was OK - 3
liked it - 4
really liked it - 3
it was amazing - 0
10 votes total
it was OK - 3
liked it - 4
really liked it - 3
it was amazing - 0
10 votes total
Dracula: Final Results
10 votes total
didn't like it - 0
it was ok - 1
liked it - 1
really liked it - 4
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 4
didn't like it - 0
it was ok - 1
liked it - 1
really liked it - 4
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 4
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
March Mystery Nominations continued
A nomination from Marina:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson: Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family's remote island retreat north of Stockholm. This first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker. Hired by octogenarian industrialist Henrik Vanger, who wants to find out what happened to his beloved great-niece before he dies, the duo gradually uncover a festering morass of familial corruption—at the same time, Larsson skillfully bares some of the similar horrors that have left Salander such a marked woman.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson: Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family's remote island retreat north of Stockholm. This first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker. Hired by octogenarian industrialist Henrik Vanger, who wants to find out what happened to his beloved great-niece before he dies, the duo gradually uncover a festering morass of familial corruption—at the same time, Larsson skillfully bares some of the similar horrors that have left Salander such a marked woman.
March Mystery Nominations
Since March is coming up, we probably need to pick our mystery soon. I've been doing a little research and have a few nominations below. Please feel free to offer others in the comments or a separate post.
1. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman: A driver who flees a car accident on a Maryland highway breathes new life into a 30-year-old mystery—the disappearance of the young Bethany sisters at a shopping mall—after she later tells the police she's one of the missing girls. As soon as the mystery woman drops that bombshell, she clams up, placing the new lead detective, Kevin Infante, in a bind, as he struggles to gain her trust while exploring the odd holes in her story. Deftly moving between past and present, Lippman presents the last day both sisters, Sunny and Heather, were seen alive from a variety of perspectives. Subtle clues point to the surprising but plausible solution of the crime and the identity of the mystery woman.
2. In the Woods by Tana French: Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, land the first big murder case of their police careers: a 12-year-old girl has been murdered in the woods adjacent to a Dublin suburb. Twenty years before, two children disappeared in the same woods, and Ryan was found clinging to a tree trunk, his sneakers filled with blood, unable to tell police anything about what happened to his friends. Ryan, although scarred by his experience, employs all his skills in the search for the killer and in hopes that the investigation will also reveal what happened to his childhood friends.
1. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman: A driver who flees a car accident on a Maryland highway breathes new life into a 30-year-old mystery—the disappearance of the young Bethany sisters at a shopping mall—after she later tells the police she's one of the missing girls. As soon as the mystery woman drops that bombshell, she clams up, placing the new lead detective, Kevin Infante, in a bind, as he struggles to gain her trust while exploring the odd holes in her story. Deftly moving between past and present, Lippman presents the last day both sisters, Sunny and Heather, were seen alive from a variety of perspectives. Subtle clues point to the surprising but plausible solution of the crime and the identity of the mystery woman.
2. In the Woods by Tana French: Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, land the first big murder case of their police careers: a 12-year-old girl has been murdered in the woods adjacent to a Dublin suburb. Twenty years before, two children disappeared in the same woods, and Ryan was found clinging to a tree trunk, his sneakers filled with blood, unable to tell police anything about what happened to his friends. Ryan, although scarred by his experience, employs all his skills in the search for the killer and in hopes that the investigation will also reveal what happened to his childhood friends.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
From Freakonomics: Public Library Renaissance
The NYT Freakonomics blog notes a Boston Globe article about how 2008 was a big year for public libraries: circulation increases, library card applications, and of course, job hunt searches were all up. It makes me happy. A bad year for publishing but good year for community libraries.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Reading Resolutions
Does anyone have any reading related resolutions? I have one to read at least two books a month, our book club book plus one of my own choosing. I have a long list of books I want to read and last year I read only a handful of books outside of our book club picks. I have the free time so there's no reason I shouldn't be able to accomplish this goal. I'm publicly declaring this resolution here so you can all hold me accountable.
Also, if you haven't started The Stand yet, it's not too late! I just started last night and calculated that you only have to read 80 pages a day between now and book club to finish. That's doable, right?
Also, if you haven't started The Stand yet, it's not too late! I just started last night and calculated that you only have to read 80 pages a day between now and book club to finish. That's doable, right?
Monday, January 5, 2009
Azar Nafisi
Azar Nafisi, the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, has a new memoir out, reviewed in this past Sunday's NYT. It appears to give a behind the scenes glimpse at the author's life and choices to leave, then come back to Iran (then leave again).
The reviewer is the author of another book I'd like to read, called Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran.
The reviewer is the author of another book I'd like to read, called Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Reading like a Girl
Michelle Slayalla's NYT piece "I Wish I Could Read Like a Girl" breaks my heart. It's a quick eulogy for what readers lose when they grow up. Maybe that's our desire as adult readers - to recapture that youth and adolescence spent "draped over sofas and chairs and beds" and transported to another world.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Eeek!
Wow, this blog is out of date! I resolve to be better with it in the New Year!
For those of you who want to read in installments, DailyLit is an interesting idea. It's a service that allows you to subscribe to books. Portions are sent to your email or RSS feed reader every day, so you can read little bits at a time. It's an interesting idea but the idea of reading books in email or in Google Reader is not at all appealing to me. Does anyone think this would work for them?
For those of you who want to read in installments, DailyLit is an interesting idea. It's a service that allows you to subscribe to books. Portions are sent to your email or RSS feed reader every day, so you can read little bits at a time. It's an interesting idea but the idea of reading books in email or in Google Reader is not at all appealing to me. Does anyone think this would work for them?
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Edward - What a Girl Wants?
This article has sparked such a good discussion on Facebook, I wanted to get all of your thoughts on it.
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