Julianne's comments (member since Aug 05, 2008)

Julianne's comments from the The Book Challenge group.

December (this is it for 2009?!?!?)

Fiction: The Last Dickens
Non-Fiction: Confessions of an Eternal Optimist (MJ Fox's new book)
Classic: Poe (something)

Additional:
Size 12 is Not Fat (had to return to library, so not finished)
Peter and the Shadow Thieves
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Eyre Affair

Whoo-hoo! Though, you did write of Mammaw's stove is a "throne" in your side. But, I'll forgive you that typo since you misstyped thorn but still typed a real word! (Unless you really did mean throne and are using the stove as a seat in your newly refurnished living room!)

Yes, I'll need the Lust Lizard

It's typical Christopher Moose. Not what you'd expect from a story about a Christmas Angel, but exactly what you'd expect from him (once you've read a bit from him).

Melissa wrote: "So, has this extended past 8/09, or are you now doing 9/09-9/10? I know I wouldn't be able to do the classic part of your challenge!"

I just decided to keep going. It's a good challenge for me, though I am not doing nearly so good with the classic part (though still better than what I used to do, which is nothing!). I'm almost done with Aunt Dimity's Good Deed and The Stupidest Angel, so I'm doing pretty good this month (course, a 1 hour commute one way makes a big difference for the audiobooks!)

November

Fiction: Dead and Alive
Non-Fiction: In a Sunburned Country
Classic: ???

Other:
The Stupidest Angel
Aunt Dimity's Good Deed
Bloodsucking Fiends
Neverwhere

October

This will be a slow month. We moved on Oct. 3, so almost all of my free time is spent unpacking the house, etc. Plus, we have our scrapbooking weekend this month!!!

Fiction: Interred with their Bones
Non-Fiction: Notes from a Small Island
Classic:

Other:
Peter and the Starcathchers
Remember Me
Dave Barry's a Brief History of the Millenium
The Spellman Files (again)
Frankenstein 2 (Koontz)

I know. She said she had fun anyway. I got to tell, you, though, if Dad hadn't gotten John Grisham I think we would have had two totally ticked off parents.

Went to the Library of Congress Book Festival today. OMG--it was not crowded like this last year!! I couldn't believe how many people were there. But, with the help of my family we were able to collectively get the following signatures (ones obtained by yours truly marked by an *)

1. John Grisham (Dad was one of the last to get this one!)
2. Michael Connelly*
3. David Shannon
4. Jon Sczieska
5. Junot Diaz* (an awesome person)
6. Craig Hatkoff*
7. David Baldacci*

Mom tried for Paula Deen, but get this--the LOC staff told her that Paula Deen was only signing her newest book. So...Mom ran over to the tent and bought it (even though she brought 2 other Deen books). She got back in line and was ~50 people from getting a signature. While in line Mom was informed that Paula was signing any of her books that you had. I was so disappointed for her! If she hadn't gone and picked up the book in the massively crowded book tent she definitely would have gotten the signature. But she got to hear Paula Deen speak, so it wasn't a total buzz kill.

Glad you enjoyed it. It's gotten REALLY mixed review from people on GR (especially in TNBBC), but I liked it.

September

Non-Fiction: Dog Days
Fiction: Click
Classic: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Other:
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
The Help
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

SUMMARY OF AUGUST 1, 2008-AUGUST 31, 2009:

Fiction books read: 68
Non-Fiction read: 16
Classics: 6

Total books read: 90

Wish I had gotten more classics done, but 50% of my classics goal isn't terrible. And it's 6 more classics than I've read in the last 10 years.

Ugh! Just in case I thought my life was back to normal, we put the house on the market. The stress of closing on 2 homes (the one we're selling and the one we're buying) means I'm having a hard time focusing my brain away from the stress to get any reading done.

I finally became engrossed enough in a book to finish it--The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Not at all what I would have expected by the title, and it was easily one of the best things I've read this year. I'm quite unfamiliar with anything Swedish, so this was intriguing for me to learn more about their society, and their involvement in the Nazi movement in the 30s-40s.

Melissa wrote: "Glad to hear you didn't fall asleep before you could finish Treasure Island. Woohoo for getting back on track. "

Umm...no, I did fall asleep. So I had to wait an additional day before I finished the last eight pages!!

Yeah!!!!!! I finally did my Book Challenge for a month! Finished Treasure Island, so I'm back to the 1 classic, 1 fiction, 1 non-fiction!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm also excited to finish Treasure Island, because it's been like 6 months since I've actually finished a classic novel. Gotta get back to my challenge!!

Okay, so even though my reading is stalled, I can't stop buying books...even though (I think) I have 50+ unread books at home. But all of them were on sale except for the Berenstain Bears ones, and those are for Sam (and only 3.99 apiece!!)

The Angel's Game
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
The Berenstain Bears' Moving Day
The Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed (Sam knows so many of these books, it was hard to pick which one to buy!)
Top Chef Cookbook Original Interviews and Recipes from Bravo's hit show

(Had a 40% off coupon for Dexter, and Top Chef & Angel's Game were 30% off)

Amen sista! I put Coraline in my bag--thought I'd read that (a youth book) then see the movie. Not sure where to go after that...have a laundry list (not to mention over 4 dozen books at home) TBR

I also have some books to pass off for you to put on BookMooch.

August:

The TU semester is over, so I'm looking forward to reading some more.............

Fiction: Coraline
Non-Fiction: Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
Classic: Treasure Island

Other:
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Fluke
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle-I don't think I'll finish this one. I'm just not interested in where the story has twisted, and not sure I want to know how it ends anymore.
Click
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

July:

Looks like I'll have to kick up the reading and tone down the scrapping, since my house will be going on the market. Reading is cleaner than scrapbooking.

Fiction: The Reader
Non-Fiction: Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
Classic: Treasure Island

Other:

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Fluke
Coraline
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

June:

Fiction: Revenge of the Spellmans
Non-Fiction: Outliers
Other:

Like Water for Chocolate
The Yiddish Policeman's Union
Living Dead in Dallas
Finger Lickin Fifteen
Look Again