Dana Swier Huff's Blog, page 85

R.I.P. Challenge V

My favorite time of year! R.I.P. Time! Carl holds the R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) Challenge each year as fall descends in early September. The challenge ends each Halloween. The goal is to select a level of commitment, which Carl has dubbed Perils, and to read the required number of spooky books (and the definition of spooky is extremely broad).

Peril the First involves reading four books of any length that fit the challenge.

Peril the Second involves reading two books of any length that...

Decatur Book Festival

This weekend is the 5th annual AJC Decatur Book Festival. I had a lot of fun at last year's festival. Jonathan Franzen will be there. I'm hoping to be able to see Diana Gabaldon, who I missed last year because the crowd was way too big—her latest book had just been released. I think it should be a good time, and I hope the weather will be nice. Last year was crowded, but it was good because there were still plenty of places to sit, and it was heartwarming for this English teacher to see...

Charity Girl

I read Georgette Heyer's Regency novel Charity Girl as part of Austenprose's month-long celebration of Georgette Heyer. It was the first Heyer novel I've read. My review of Charity Girl can be found here at Austenprose. I was honored to be asked to be a part of the celebration, and I was certainly game to try a new author that so many of my wonderful blog friends have enjoyed. Unfortunately, I don't think Georgette Heyer is for me. I had a lot of difficulty understanding her Regency slang...

The Hunger Games

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12 in the aftermath of some indeterminate disaster that has leveled North America, leaving the country of Panem to rise from the ashes. Katniss lives in District 12, an impoverished area dedicated to the production of coal. After her father died, Katniss became the head of the family and learned to hunt in order to keep starvation at bay, for the Capitol is still punishing the districts for a rebellion over 70 years prior to the book's...

Reading Update: August 29, 2010

I set aside Syrie James's The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, which I am reading as part of the Everything Austen Challenge, because everyone I know is reading Suzanne Collins's Mockingjay, and I hadn't even read The Hunger Games. Well, I'm about 200 pages in now, after borrowing it from a friend, and I have to say it's real page-turner. I have been trying to talk my daughter into reading it because Collins's writing style actually reminds me of Sarah's. I think Sarah would like it. I might...

Book Blogger Appreciation Week Voting

I am voting for my favorites for Book Blogger Appreciation Week. It's fun to discover some new blogs. I noticed as I was casting my votes that the following things tended to catch my eye:

Humor and snarkiness
A pleasing design

I love book bloggers who can inject a bit of humor into their writing. Humor is a little lacking over here at Much Madness is Divinest Sense, but perhaps that needs to change. The one review I wrote that included a little bit of humor because I was in a weird mood that ...

The Gutenberg Bible Turns 554

Did you know that it was today in 1456 that the printing of the Gutenberg Bible was completed? It was the first major book printed using the movable type printing press. Twenty-one complete copies survive, but other incomplete copies remain. Font nerds might be interested to know that Gutenberg used typefaces called Textualis and Schwabacher. Textualis is sometimes just called Gothic now. The columns were also justified, which you can see from the photograph. Of course, justified columns are ...

Booking Through Thursday on a Saturday

Maybe once I get back into the swing of things at school—this was our first week back—I'll abide by the posting schedule I set for myself. What I don't want to do is let my blogs go weeks or even a month or more with no posts, like I have done in the past. I didn't get my Booking Through Thursday post up on Thursday, and indeed, I didn't even look at the prompt until today, but it is one that I liked and want to answer even if I'm late.

1. Favorite childhood book?
Rascal by Sterling North. I...

Re-Reading The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

After my trip to Salem in July, I have been reading books set there, and I just finished a re-read of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. I found the book as enjoyable the second time as I did the first. I'd really like to read some more books set in Salem, but aside from The House of Seven Gables, I don't have any on hand. I decided to go forward with the Everything Austen Challenge and read Syrie James's The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen. I'm looking forward to reading her newest book, a

Reading Update: August 15, 2010

Hello all. I have been lax about my blogging schedule this week as I returned to work for pre-planning. The first day of school is tomorrow. The day I stop being excited and nervous about the first day is probably the day I should retire. We have had intermittent Internet connection problems here at the Huff casa, and I'm pretty sure it's either our cable company or our cable modem, but I have to grab time to do my work and to write here and elsewhere when it's available.

I'm still reading a