Weekend Cooking 10/14

Besides books and reading, another of my biggest passions is food and cooking, especially cooking extra-tasty and nutritious meals for my family, so I thought I'd try my own Weekend Cooking post, hosted by Beth Fish Reads (though I realize I am more than a little late this weekend!).

I do enjoy making up my own recipes (my Taste of Mardi Gras recipes were published in the February 2012 issue of Family Fun magazine *), but my main source for recipes is usually Cooking Light magazine.  I have been reading the magazine since 1991 and subscribed for many years, so I have over a decade's worth of issues lined up on a shelf in my kitchen!  And the crazy thing is that I refer to them every single day.  I just love their focus on great flavor while also cooking healthy food.  So, I'm really not much of a cookbook person, despite my love of books.

The other thing you should know about me food-wise is that for the past 2 years, we have been participating in our local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.  That means that each Monday, from June through the end of October, I drive to a local farm a couple of miles away and pick up our share of freshly harvested, organic veggies for the week.  I love this program!  The produce is so amazingly fresh and delicious.  However, it can be a challenge sometimes to figure out what to do with unusual veggies (like the kohlrabi in last week's pick-up!).  You can find a local CSA in your own area at the Local Harvest website.

Oh, I guess there is another thing you should know.  I have a chronic illness, a serious immune system disorder known by the silly misnomer Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).  That means two things with respect to food and cooking.  Although I love to cook, I can't spend a lot of time on my feet, so most of our meals need to be fairly quick and easy.  And my son (who also has CFS) and I are both trying a gluten-free, dairy-free diet on the advice of a specialist, so that makes cooking even more challenging.  I know I need to avoid dairy forever (or until a cure for CFS is found!) because I am actually intolerant to dairy since getting sick, but the gluten avoidance is more of a trial for now.

So, with that background, here is what I cooked for my family this weekend:

Friday night, after shopping in the morning, I needed something super quick and easy, so I made Sausage, Kale, and Bean Soup, a recipe from Cooking Light that I found in their online database, looking for a way to use our CSA kale that my family would actually eat!  I added chopped onion and carrot to the recipe, and I paired it with a loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread from Whole Foods (my one gluten splurge this week!).  It was a perfect dinner for a cool fall evening.  My husband and son did complain a bit about the kale, but overall, everyone enjoyed the soup.

Saturday, looking to use up some of the large volume of butternut squash we have from our CSA, I made one of my all-time favorite soups, Golden Winter Soup, another excellent recipe from Cooking Light.  I subbed coconut milk (the kind in the carton in the milk section of the grocery store, not in the cans in the Indian section) for the half-and-half called for in the recipe, and it was absolutely delicious - so rich and creamy - mmmm!  Since there's not a lot of protein in that soup, I made grilled ham and  cheese sandwiches for my husband and son (using reduced-fat cheddar and whole wheat bread).  For me, I tried making a faux grilled ham and cheese sandwich with gluten-free bread and soy cheese.  Yeah, it was about as bad as it sounds!  Good thing I included ham, mustard, and tomatoes on mine.  As much as I miss cheese, the fake cheese just isn't worth it.


On Sundays, our college-age son comes home to visit so I can refill his weekly medicine containers and give him his weekly B12 shot.  Well, mostly, he comes home for gluten-free/dairy-free pancakes (banana-chocolate chip today) on Sunday mornings!  So, I usually try to make something for Sunday night dinner that I think he will like (which usually means beef in some form).  Still having a surplus of butternut squash in the fridge, I tried Beef Tangine with Butternut Squash, another recipe from Cooking Light (seeing a pattern here?).  My husband and I thought it was absolutely delicious!  My younger son wasn't thrilled with the squash in it, but I served it over noodles (oops - another gluten cheat!) which won him over.  My younger son tasted the spicy seasoning suspiciously and said, "There's a spice in here I don't like - is it ginger?"  sigh...yes, it was ginger...and also cinnamon, which he doesn't like.  Can't put one past him!  Cooking for kids (even grown-up ones who are taller than me!) is a challenge sometimes.

Well, this was fun - I hope you enjoyed hearing about my cooking adventures this weekend.  Now it's time for our gluten-free brownies (Trader Joe's brand is sooo good!) with ice cream for the dairy eaters and Soy Delicious! coconut milk "ice cream" (which really is amazingly delicious) for me.  Hope you had a good weekend!

* Three of my New Orleans recipes published in Family Fun (which also happen to be three of my family's favorite meals!) are available online:

• Red Beans & Rice
• Jambalaya
• Shrimp Etouffee

Books Read in September

September was absolutely lovely here - perfect weather with temperatures in the 70's and lots of sunshine and blue skies!  I finally got to spend a little time outside.


Lots of good reading in September, too.  I finished:

• 11/22/63 by Stephen King, a genre-crossing novel about a man who goes back in time to try to stop JFK's assassination.
• Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks, a historical novel set in the 1660's about a friendship between a native American boy and a Puritan girl (review to come this week).
• 1NF1N1TY by Rachel Ward, book 3 in the teen/YA trilogy Num8ers.
• Brave New World by Aldus Huxley, a classic that is frequently banned.

I also spent a week slogging through The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes for my neighborhood book group but finally gave up about halfway through. 

So, two grown-up historical novels, a teen/YA paranormal thriller, and a classic that defined the genre of dystopian novels.  What a great reading month!  I thoroughly enjoyed every one of these books.  It's hard to choose a favorite (the first two were both excellent), but I guess 11/22/63 would be my top pick for the month, classic King fare - engaging, compelling, and well-written.

 As for My 2012 Challenges, I added a couple of new states to my Where Are You Reading 2012 Challenge:  11/22/63 takes place in both Maine and Texas; and Brave New World takes place mainly in England (600 years in the future), but there are some key scenes that take place in New Mexico, so I counted it because I hadn't read anything set in New Mexico yet this year.  Is that cheating?  No, I don't think so!

I read my 6th dystopian novel for the year (Brave New World); I decided not to categorize 1NF1N1TY as dystopian because there is really no government or society in the book - it is more purely post-apocalyptic (and paranormal).  And I read 2 more books from my overcrowded TBR shelf, 11/22/63 and Caleb's Crossing, toward my 12 in '12 Challenge, bringing my total to 7 - I better focus on that TBR shelf for the last quarter!

All in all, a very good reading month!  What was your favorite book read in September?

It's Monday 10/8! What Are You Reading?

By some miracle, I am alone this Monday morning!  My son has been home for two weeks, recovering from knee surgery.  The pain finally subsided enough that he could manage without prescription pain killers.  He slept 16 hours Friday night and woke up feeling much better!  So, he finally went back to school this morning, and I am enjoying the rare quiet solitude.

I haven't had much time for blogging these past two weeks, but I used the weekend to catch up a bit.

Lots of great reading this week:

• I finished reading The Chocolate War, a classic teen/YA novel by Robert Cormier, for Banned Books Week.  It's a violent but compelling story that takes place in an all-boys high school.
• I am now reading Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital, a memoir by Dr. Heidi Squier Kraft.  My state's library system is focusing on this real-life look at a psychologist's experiences in Iraq (I am guessing to honor Veteran's Day next month), so I am reading this for this week's book discussion at my local library.  It's very good so far.
• My husband, Ken, is now reading 1NF1N1TY by Rachel Ward, the exciting conclusion to the teen/YA Num8ers trilogy that I just finished last week!
• Craig, 14, will be reading the short story, The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, for his English class this week. Craig doesn't enjoy reading much, but I have told him this is a great story.

I did finally write some blog posts last week:  a Banned Book Week celebration at Book By Book and another post on kids'/teen banned books at Great Books for Kids and Teens.  I also posted reviews of two frequently banned books:  Brave New World and The Chocolate War. And, hopefully, I can get back into a more normal routine this week!

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kids/teen version hosted at Teach Mentor Texts.)

Fiction Review: Brave New World

When I decided to read a book for Banned Book Week, it was easy to choose which one.  My son’s World Lit class his senior year of high school last year read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and I’ve been wanting to read it ever since.  I read George Orwell’s 1984 in 9^th grade but never had a chance to read this classic satiric novel that launched the entire dystopian genre.

Brave New World takes place roughly six centuries in the future, in a world quite unrecognizable from our own.  In this fictional future, Henry Ford sparked a new era when he invented mass production and assembly lines; in fact, the world began an entirely new timeline, naming years AF for After Ford.  This futuristic world has taken the concepts of mass production and, to some degree, communism and applied them to people.  Passion – and anything that might inspire passion – has been abolished so that the world works in a very efficient and effective way.

Here, one of the leaders explains how their world works, in a rare honest moment:

“The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get. They’re well off; they’re safe; they’re never ill; they’re not afraid of death; they’re blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they’re plagued with no mothers or fathers; they’ve got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they’re so conditioned that they practically can’t help behaving as they ought to behave.  And if anything should go wrong, there’s soma.”

Soma is a feel-good drug that is widely distributed to every citizen, after work, when they want to relax, or anytime they feel the slightest bit stressed.  On the surface, from this description, they’ve created a sort of utopia where everyone’s life is pleasant all the time.  Of course, that lack of distress comes at a price, but most of the world’s citizens are blissfully unaware of what they are missing.

The intricacies of this future world are explored through several main characters.  There is Lenina, an attractive, happy, perfect citizen, and Bernard, an associate of Lenina’s at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre and her sometime lover, who is seen as strange and aloof by his colleagues.  Secretly, Bernard is unhappy with his life – a condition almost unheard of in his world – and he questions things that are not supposed to be questioned.

Lenina and Bernard take a trip to New Mexico to visit a Savage Reservation, a rare experience in this new world.  A Savage Reservation is, as you might expect, a wild preserve separate from the rest of the world, where Native Americans live as they have lived for centuries.  There, the couple meets John, a young white man who was brought up among the Indians.  The intersection of their very different lives allows the reader even more insight into the conflicts between the old world and the new.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Brave New World; it is incredibly clever, even funny, with a fascinating look into one possible future.  I was continually amazed that Huxley wrote this novel in 1931.  Some of his prophecies are surprisingly accurate, especially in terms of the progression of biological science.  Though we have not yet (and hopefully never will) advanced to the point where children are born out of bottles rather than wombs, he wasn’t too far off in terms of the science that now allows in-vitro fertilization and other modern miracles. 

His world is also populated by the usual futuristic technologies in terms of enormous skyscrapers and personal helicopters instead of cars; it seems a common futuristic theme that we will abandon the roads and take to the skies at some point.  His clever, satirical insight is also apparent in the influence of big corporations and marketing. This new world is thriving because it is driven by consumerism; for instance, the only sports allowed are those that require expensive equipment, like Obstacle Golf.

In other ways, Huxley’s prophecies are way off.  Writing this novel in 1931, he couldn’t have possibly predicted the role that computers and digital technology would play in the future, since they had not been invented yet.  And, his novel is largely a warning against some of the tenets of communism since that was seen as a threat at the time.  Interestingly, he wrote a commentary on his novel called Brave New World Revisited in 1958 that was included in my copy of the book (I haven’t finished that section yet).  Of course, in 1958, communism was seen as even more of a threat to democracy and freedom, and tiny, computerized devices inserted into every aspect of our society were still a long way off.

I have gotten so engrossed in discussing this fascinating, funny novel that I completely forgot to mention its status as a frequently banned book.  It’s easy to see why the censors of our society want to ban this book.  In this efficient future society, love and passion have been eliminated, but casual sex is not only encouraged but required (though there is nothing graphic in the book).  Quite logically, the founders of this society recognized that normal human sex drive is something that could create passion, and, therefore, instability, so they dealt with that hazard by making sex something very ordinary and a conventional part of daily life.  They removed the taboo of sex (and also its procreational aspect) so that it could no longer cause any disturbance in society.

Not only did I enjoy reading Brave New World, but, as you can see from my lengthy review, I was dying to discuss it with other people!  I do wish I had read it for a high school class, since I was one of those freaks who loved discussing novels in my English classes!  This is such a clever and thought-provoking book that it begs to be discussed and analyzed.  I’m so glad I finally got around to reading this dystopian classic!  Hmm….maybe it’s time to go back and re-read 1984 now.

199 words, Harper Perennial

 

Celebrate Banned Books Week

 

It's Banned Books Week!

Sheila over at Book Journey is hosting a celebration of banned books, with lots of links to other blogs and giveaways, so stop by!  And join in the fun yourself by reading banned books and/or posting about them this week.

I just finished Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and am now reading The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, both commonly banned books.  Look for reviews of those later this week, here and at Great Books for Kids and Teens.

Check out this list of the 100 most frequently banned books (from 1990 - 1999), compiled by the American Library Association (ALA) and this list of most frequently banned and challenged classics.  You will be surprised by some of the titles on these lists.  How many of these naughty books have YOU read??

From these two lists, I have read the following grown-up books (see Great Books for Kids and Teens' Banned Book post for the list of kids/teen/YA books read).  I linked to my reviews where they are available:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (read for school in 9th grade)
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (read in high school but due for a re-read)
• Earth's Children series by Jean Auel (must admit, that was a hot one)
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (a favorite of mine)
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Cujo by Stephen King (I loved King in high school and read every one of his early horror novels!)
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (assigned to my son's World Lit class; I read last week)
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• The Dead Zone by Stephen King
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
• Jumper by Stephen Gould (a favorite of mine)
• Christine by Stephen King
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (read for class in high school)
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (read in 10th grade for school)
• 1984 by George Orwell (read in 9th grade for school)
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (read for AP English in 12th grade)
• The Call of the Wild by Jack London (read for school in 7th grade)

I have been a bad, bad girl!!

I was pleased to see that many of the banned books I have read (on this list and the one at Great Books for Kids and Teens) were assigned for school (mine or my kids'), so kudos to our schools for giving us a broad and unrestricted education!

Check out the lists to see how many banned books you have read...and select one you missed and head to your library!

It's Monday 10/1! What Are You Reading?

Happy October!

My husband and I celebrated our 23rd anniversary yesterday.  We actually managed a nice dinner out on our own Saturday evening and celebrated with a steak dinner at home with the kids yesterday.

We had a pretty rough week.  Our son's recovery from knee surgery has been more difficult than we expected.  He was finally feeling better and able to get by without narcotic pain killers on Saturday, but going to a bonfire party and spending the night at a friend's house knocked him out again.  He's still asleep now, but we are hoping he will be able to get back to school.  We know from experience that getting around on crutches is really exhausting for him.

Oh, and this is Banned Book Week so stay tuned for more on that this week!

We are reading:

• Last night, I finished Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, in honor of Banned Books Week, and I really enjoyed it.  It was clever, funny, and surprisingly prophetic in some ways, especially for a book written in 1931.  I am still making my way through Brave New World Revisited, an analysis and reconsideration of the novel written by the author in 1958, which was included in my copy of the book.
• Now I am reading a teen/YA novel for Banned Book Week, The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, another classic I have never read.  It's good so far.
• I am still listening to Fredle by Cynthia Voight, an award-winning middle-grade audio book - it is very clever and cute, about a house mouse who must learn how to survive outside. 
• My husband, Ken, is still reading Full Black by Brad Thor, a thriller.

Neither of our sons has had much time for reading, now that school is in session; Craig might have read last week while recovering from surgery (though he was too groggy much of the time), but he rarely reads anymore if not required to for school - whose child is this?

I finally caught up on some reviews last week; I posted a Did Not Finish Review of The Death of Artemio Cruz and a review of 1NF1N1TY, the exciting conclusion to the Num8ers trilogy by Rachel Ward, a favorite of mine.  And you can get a look at our newest family member, Lola, on my Saturday Snapshot!

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kids/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)

23 years and counting!

Saturday Snapshot 9/29

At Home with Books hosts Saturday Snapshot.


Well, I had almost no time for either reading or writing blogs this week (apologies to those I didn't get to!) because my son had knee surgery on Monday.  His recovery has been slower and more difficult than we expected, so I have been entirely focused on taking care of him.  We were both getting a bit stir-crazy, though, by the end of the week, so I took him the pet store to pick out a new hamster.  We had one several years ago - our beloved Teddy - and he's been asking for another, so now he has a little buddy to keep him company while he recuperates.

After an awful week, a visit to the pet store put a smile on Craig's face!

Meet Lola, our newest family member!

I hope you are enjoying your weekend!

DNF Review: The Death of Artemio Cruz

--> It is very rare for me to not enjoy a book (because I choose what I read carefully) and even more rare for me to not finish a book, but I gave up on The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes about halfway through, after a week-long struggle to read it.  About half of my neighborhood book group also did not finish (DNF) the novel; the other half managed to finish it but agreed it was a difficult read (though some were glad they’d endured).

It is the story of the life of Artemio Cruz, as told by him on his deathbed. More accurately, it is as thought by him on his deathbed, and that is part of what makes it so difficult to follow: Artemio’s thoughts and memories jump from one point in time to another.  So, you might be reading about him as an older businessman on one page, then suddenly reading about when he first met his wife, and then the story jumps again to when he served in the army. In addition, characters’ identities and dialogue are not always clearly identified. All in all, even its fans admit that it is often confusing and difficult to follow.

To add to the challenge (for me) was the fact that Artemio is not a very sympathetic character.  True, he’d been through some difficult times in his life and endured some losses that could partly explain how he ended up, but he was the sort of man who did whatever it took to get what he wanted.  His story is also the story of Mexico’s recent history, through civil wars and various corrupt leaders.

During our book group discussion, we wondered whether the translation made a difference, and I think it probably does.  There are comments on various reviews about particular translations being better than others (I can only guess mine was the one described as “unclear”).  During our meeting, one of my neighbors borrowed my copy (from the library) to compare it to her copy that had a different cover, to compare the two different translations.  She started laughing and asked me if I’d noticed that there were 23 pages missing in the middle of my book!  I had read that section and, no, I didn’t notice the missing pages, even though they were in the middle of a sentence!  But that did explain why I had no idea who “the fat man” was.  That should give you some idea of how confusing and complicated this book’s writing is – I skipped 23 pages and never noticed!

So, though I was only halfway through when my book group met, I gave up on it at that point and did not finish it.  When I got home from my meeting, I set it aside with relief and moved onto a book I was far more interested in.

320 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (this is the English translation that was most recommended)

 

It’s Monday 9/24! What Are You Reading?

I am sitting in the Surgi-Center waiting room while my 14-year old son has knee surgery.  We are hoping this arthroscopic surgery will do the trick and he won’t need another surgery, but we won’t know for a few weeks.   Hopefully, today won’t be too tough on him – it’s hard to see your baby go into surgery!

So, I will distract myself by telling you about the books we are reading this week:

• I finished Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (not quite in time for my book group discussion!), and I absolutely loved it!  No surprise there – I have loved all of Brooks’ novels, including March, The People of the Book, and The Year of Wonders.  This one was just as good, about a young woman in the 1660’s who becomes friends with a native American who ends up being the first of his people to graduate from Harvard (did you know Harvard was around in the 1600’s?).  It was fascinating and compelling.
• I wasn’t feeling well last week, so my next book was a fast-paced thriller I have been looking forward to, 1NF1N1TY by Rachel Ward, the conclusion to her Numb8ers trilogy.  I have loved this whole trilogy, and the third book was just as good, providing a satisfying conclusion to the series.
• Next, I decided to read a book from the list of frequently banned classics, in honor of next week’s Banned Book Week, so I am reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.  It was assigned for my son’s World Lit class last year, and I have always wanted to read it.  I am loving it so far – it is incredibly clever and somewhat prophetic, especially given the fact that it was written in 1931!
• My husband, Ken, is reading Full Black by Brad Thor, a thriller I gave him for Father’s Day this year.
• Jamie, 18, and Craig, 14, have been too busy with school work for any reading on their own – they are both really enjoying their new schools (college for Jamie and high school for Craig).

Because of my poor health week, I wasn’t able to write any reviews for my blogs, but I did write a fun post about the 25thAnniversary of Where’s Waldo?.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)

P.S. We are back home now (no WiFi in the medical building!), and Craig came through his surgery just fine.  We will have to wait to see how effective it was - he is on crutches for the next two weeks. 

Saturday Snapshot 9/22

At Home with Books hosts Saturday Snapshot.

Happy First Day of Fall!!

Here in Delaware, most of our neighborhood is still very green, with plenty of summer flowers still blooming, but there are a few subtle signs that fall is truly here, like these trees in a neighbor's yard, beginning to turn red, and a few yellow leaves scattered in the grass.  I am loving this cooler weather!

Subtle signs of fall mingle with lingering summer flowers in our neighborhood

 Enjoy this first day of fall and your weekend!  I think reading on the deck sounds like a good plan for me...

It's Monday 9/17! What Are You Reading?

Monday morning - ready to start a new week!  We had a pretty low-key weekend, with everyone at home and not a lot going on.  I really enjoyed having my college-aged son home for the day, and I cooked a lot this weekend.  And we read:

• I tried - I really did! - to read this month's selection for my neighborhood book group, The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes, but I only got about halfway through the book by our meeting Wednesday night, and I just gave up on it after that!  A very difficult read.
• With relief, I turned to my other book group's selection for this month, Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks.  I have wanted to read this novel for ages, since Brooks is one of my all-time favorite authors, and I am loving it so far.
• I am still listening to Young Fredle by Cynthia Voight, an award-winning middle-grade audio book.  It is very good, but slow going for me since my son took the car with the CD player to school with him!
• My husband, Ken, is reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  He said it started slowly, with main characters that weren't very likable, but last night he said he'd gotten to the point where he didn't want to put it down!
• Jamie, 18, has still barely started The Maze Runner by James Dashner.  He says he hasn't had much time to read during these first weeks of college!

I didn't post any reviews last week, but I did have some fun with my blog.  I posted links to my four favorite book blogs for Book Blogger Appreciation Week, a link and discussion of 15 book-inspired movies coming out this fall (15!), and - better late than never - my August reading summary.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted at Teach Mentor Texts.)

Saturday Snapshot 9/15

At Home with Books hosts Saturday Snapshot.

After months of hot and humid weather that kept me indoors, this week was lovely here in Delaware, with comfortable temperatures, sunshine, cool nights, and brilliant blue skies:

I so enjoyed being able to get outside a bit this week and look up at that gorgeous sky!  (And that is my beloved VW in the photo - its 20th birthday is this month!)

Hope you are enjoying the lovely weather this weekend - take your book outside!

Books Read in August

Yikes.  Here it is, already September 14, and I just realized I hadn't written my August summary yet - that gives you a glimpse into how September is shaping up!


I read a lot in August, but didn't finish many books because I devoted my reading time mainly to one really big book (that I didn't finish until September).  Here's what I finished in August:

• Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, a middle-grade audio book
• Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich, a fun and fluffy bit of fiction
• The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls by Julie Schumacher, teen/YA fiction

I also read about a quarter of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, a classic nonfiction book from the 60's that was so powerful, it was partly responsible for the creation of the EPA.  I was reading it for a library book discussion, and it was very interesting, but I just didn't have time to finish it.

I enjoyed all three of those books, but the best was Okay for Now, an absolutely stunning novel and an excellent audio production.

I didn't add much to my 2012 Reading Challenges this month, except for one very important item:  The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls was set in Delaware, our tiny state, so I added that to my Where Are You Reading Challenge.

What was your favorite book read in August?

Book-Inspired Fall Movies

It looks like Hollywood's obsession with adapting popular books into movies is continuing into this fall and winter!  This article on BookPage lists 15 - count 'em! - movies based on books that will be released between now and the end of the year - wow!

Take a look at the list - there is quite a variety there.  The one I am most excited about is Life of Pi - I loved that book and think it will be amazing on the big screen (though I'm not too thrilled about the 3D part).  I would also love to see the movie adaptation of Wuthering Heights, an old favorite of mine.

My husband's favorite series is the Jack Reacher thrillers by Lee Child, but, like most fans of the book, he is outraged that they have cast Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher.  I haven't read the books, but apparently, Reacher is supposed to be about 6'3" and blond.  We both really hate it when Hollywood goes for a big name star instead of casting someone who actually fits the character described in the book.  Two that have done it right recently in our opinion are The Hunger Games and Water for Elephants (granted, Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattison are both big-name stars, but they were perfect for the roles and did a fabulous job).


So, what are thoughts?  Which of these 15 book adaptations are you most excited about?

Book Blogger Appreciation

This week is Book Blogger Appreciation Week!  I'm just about out of energy for the day but wanted to write a quick post because I like today's topic so much (check out the BBAW website for this week's blog topics).  We're supposed to show appreciation for some of our favorite book bloggers.


As many of you probably know, I have a lot of trouble keeping up with blogging - both writing my own posts and reading other blogs.  I officially follow hundreds of blogs but can't actually keep up with all of them consistently.

But there are a select few book blogs that I try to read at least once a week because I have gotten to know these bloggers and enjoy their posts so much.  Despite my overloaded schedule, reading these special blogs is like visiting friends to talk books - one of my favorite things to do!

It really is late, and I really am tired, so without further ado, please visit these wonderful book blogs to find out why they are so special:

• Julie at My Book Retreat, a mom like me who reads a wide variety of books, reports on what her kids are reading, and writes clear, well-thought-out reviews.
• Anne at My Head is Full of Books, a high school librarian (my dream job!) who reads and reviews both kids/teen/YA books and grown-up books.
• Sheila at Book Journey, who inspires me with her boundless energy and dedication to blogging!  I participate in her Monday meme each week and enjoy reading her enthusiastic posts.
• Tanya at Girlxoxo, another enthusiastic blogger and fellow mom who writes about books and food.

There are lots more blogs I like to visit when I can find the time, but these are my go-tos when time is short (as it usually is!)

What are your favorite book blogs?

It's Monday 9/10! What Are You Reading?

Another hot & humid, very busy week.  My husband was out of town all week, so I had my hands full on my own (though it is amazing how much easier it is to keep the house clean with just 2 people here instead of 4!)  So, things were still hectic, but I am beginning to get into the new routine, with my oldest off at college and my youngest in high school now.

Last week:

• I finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King and wrote a review.  I loved this unique time-travel historical novel!
• Next, I moved onto this month's selection for my neighborhood book group, The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes.  I am really looking forward to seeing everyone in my group this week after our summer hiatus, but I am struggling to get through this book.  It has very dense prose and switches often between perspectives and time.  The slow pace is a real drag after finishing a Stephen King book!  It has gotten slightly more interesting (though I am still only a quarter of the way through) but is still very confusing.  Not sure if I will finish it in time.
• Though my car has no CD player (my son took the newer car to college), I have found a little time to listen to my audio book in the kitchen.  I am really enjoying Young Fredle, a middle-grade novel by Cynthia Voight.
• My husband, Ken, left his hardcover, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, at home last week and took his Kindle on his week-long trip with him, loaded with a couple of suspense novels.
• Jamie, 18, who read several 1000-page novels on our vacation this summer, has slowed down his reading considerably now that he is away at college with so many other things vying for his attention!  He started The Maze Runner by James Dashner this week.

I finally had a little time to catch up on posts last week.  I wrote two reviews:  11/22/63 by Stephen King and Drama by Raina Telgemeier, a middle-grade graphic novel.  I also posted a Wrap-Up of the Big Book Summer Challenge, so if you participated, be sure to add a link to your own wrap-up post!

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kids/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)

Big Book Summer Challenge Wrap-Up

Well, Labor Day has passed and summer is officially over (as far as schools are concerned anyway, even though it's not officially fall yet), so I guess it is time to wrap-up my first-ever challenge, the Big Book Summer Challenge.  I enjoyed it, and I hope all the other participants did, too!  If you click on that link to the original challenge page, you can also see lots of links to reviews of Big Books posted by participants.

Back in May, I posted my own selection of 5 big books I hoped to read during My Big Book Summer:

I got through 4 of the 5 books - everything except Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, which will have to wait until I have another big chunk of reading time.  This summer I read and reviewed these big books:

• Sharp North by Patrick Cave, 518 pages
• Blood Red Road by Moira Young, 459 pages
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, 850 pages
• 11/22/63 by Stephen King, 842 pages

 Although this is the first time I've hosted a challenge, it is the second summer that I committed to myself to read some big books during my book groups' summer breaks.  I really enjoy doing this.  It gives me a chance to read some of the giant novels that have been sitting on my shelf for a while.  The rest of the year, with two different book groups, an occasional third book group at my library, and reviewing obligations, I find it hard to squeeze in a book that might take me two or three weeks  to finish.

So, that was MY Big Book Summer...how was yours?  Add your link below for your own Big Book Summer Wrap-Up, and thanks for playing along!

Fiction Review: 11/22/63

The last big book I read for the Big Book Summer Challenge was 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  I saved the best for last.  It has been years since I’ve read a King novel, and I had forgotten what an amazing writer he is.  11/22/63 defies categorization and crosses genres with elements of suspense, romance, science fiction, and a hefty dose of historical fiction all mixed together into a compelling story that I never wanted to end, in spite of its 850-page length.

Jake Epping is a pretty ordinary guy living an ordinary life – 35 years old, recently divorced, and working as a high school English teacher – until his friend, Al, shows him a portal to the past and convinces him to take over Al’s mission: to go back in time and prevent John F. Kennedy’s assassination.  Jake agrees, with his own motivation to tinker with the past so that he can stop the gruesome murders of another friend’s family that resulted in the friend’s permanent disability.  The portal opens up into a summer day in 1958.

Once Jake travels back to 1958, he becomes George Amberson and immerses himself in that past world, first in Derry, Maine (yes that Derry, recognizable to anyone who read King’s horror novels in the 80’s!) and then in the small town of Jodie, Texas, where he waits for a young loner named Lee Harvey Oswald to make his appearance in nearby Dallas.  But Jake’s single-minded goal to change history for the better is complicated by his new life in Jodie, where he gets a teaching job, changes students’ lives, and even falls in love.

George leads a double life, living and loving in Jodie while making trips up to Fort Worth and Dallas to keep an eye on Oswald and try to determine whether he did, in fact, act alone.  However, as George often reminds us, the past is obdurate and doesn’t want to be changed.  The novel is filled with action and suspense, as George fights against each setback and spies on Oswald and his family and friends to gather the information he needs, but it is also a historical novel, with details of George’s new life in the past.

I happen to be a huge fan of time travel stories, and this is one of the best, for exactly the reason I like all time travel plots: it is incredibly thought-provoking, pulling the reader into complex considerations of cause and effect, consequences and reasoning.  Does the end justify the means?  What will happen 50 years from now if a minor change occurs in the past?  Lots of minor changes? What about a major change, like saving the President of the United States from a gruesome murder that devastated the nation?  George struggles with all of these issues, bringing the reader along on a rollercoaster ride of emotions and decisions.  This would be an excellent book for a book group to discuss - you could be there for days debating the pros and cons of George's choices!

This novel works on so many levels.  One of King’s most spectacular talents has always been his in-depth, realistic characters, even back in the days when he wrote mostly horror novels.  When I read It in 1986, I was blown away by the way King was able to write from the perspective of children.  How could an adult so accurately recreate what it was like to be a kid?  He brings that same talent for creating real-life characters to 11/22/63, so you come to care about the novel’s characters and feel as if they are your friends.  The historical aspects of this novel also add to its powerful appeal.  King not only recreates the events of 11/22/63 (thanks to painstaking and thorough research), but he recreates an entire era.  Much of the novel is about the details of George’s daily life in the late 50’s and early 60’s; the reader is immersed in that time period, just as George is.

I found it interesting that, while I was reading this book, several people remarked to me, “Oh, I don’t read Stephen King” or “I don’t like Stephen King.” I don’t know how anyone could make that kind of statement because his novels of the past 25 years or so are all so incredibly diverse.  If you think King writes only horror novels, then you’ve missed out on a lot.  Remember these fabulous movies:  The Shawshank Redemption, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman and nominated for 7 Academy Awards; The Green Mile, starring Tom Hanks and nominated for 4 Academy Awards; and Stand By Me, featuring four young boys?  All were based on King novels or short stories and none of them was about horror or supernatural events.  King is an incredibly talented writer whose novels cover a broad range of genres and topics but are always so compelling that you can’t stand to set them down.  And 11/22/63 is one of his best.

842 pages, Scribner

P.S. If you are into cool book covers, this one is great: the front, as shown, is the front page from a Dallas newspaper from 11/23/63; the back cover shows what that front page would have looked like if JFK's assassination attempt was unsuccessful.

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Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

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It's Monday 9/3! What Are you Reading?

Ah, September....fall is my favorite season!  Of course, it was in the mid-90's here this weekend and horribly humid, but the calendar tells me that fall is coming.  I'm ready!

We had a busy week - first week of college for our oldest son, first week of high school for our younger son, and house guests for the weekend.  So, none of us had much time for reading, but we continued making our way through some good books:

• I am almost finished with 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  It is soooo good that all I want to do is read all day!  Hopefully, I will finish today, just under the wire for the Big Book Summer Challenge!
• My husband, Ken, is reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, the hot book of the summer, though he isn't loving it yet.
• Jamie, 18, finished A Feast of Crows by George R.R. Martin (book 4 in the Game of Thrones series).  He can't wait to read book 5!  He hasn't decided what book to read next yet.

And that's about it - I told you it was a busy week!  I didn't even get in any audio book time because my son took the car with the CD player to college with him.

I did manage a bit of blogging last week.  I wrote a review of Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, an amazing middle-grade audio book, and I posted a list of my favorite book podcasts - I hope you'll give some of them a try and let me know about your favorites! 

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kids/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)

My Favorite Book Podcasts

Recently, the Wall Street Journal's Dear Book Lover column (unfortunately, its last column) was about The Best Book Podcasts. It was an interesting column, with some good recommendations, so it inspired me to tell you about some of my favorite book-related podcasts.

I discovered podcasts a few years ago and still listen almost exclusively to those related to books and reading.  I don't always have time to read as many book blogs and other online resources as I'd like, so I enjoy listening to these bookish conversations while I am walking or cooking.  Some of them feel like listening to good friends talking about books - one of my favorite things to do!

So, in rough order, starting with my most favorite, here are some of my favorite book podcasts:

• Books on the Nightstand (BOTNS) - the first podcast I discovered and still my favorite!  Anne and Michael both work for Random House (though the podcast is their own personal project), so sometimes they discuss book publishing insider stuff but mostly, they are two friends discussing favorite books and talking about bookish topics.  For me, they have the balance between casual conversation and informative book talk just right.
• The Readers - Simon and Gav are British (in case you couldn't tell from their names), so I find them extra amusing - sometimes their British slang or phrases just crack me up.  Like Anne and Michael on BOTNS, they have an easy conversational style that I enjoy, though they tend to run a bit longer than BOTNS.  Their podcast is sub-titled Book Based Banter, and that is exactly what it is.
• NPR Books Podcast - this is a weekly collection of book-related stories and interviews from a variety of National Public Radio broadcasts.  I rarely have time to listen to much NPR anymore, so I enjoy being able to catch up on all the book stuff in one place!
• The Bookrageous Podcast - This podcast is hosted by 3 young people (hip twenty-somethings, I think) who work in bookstores.  It is often rather long and rambling and punctuated by lots of giggles, but their reading tastes are wide-ranging and their discussions are usually pretty interesting.
• NY Times Book Review Podcast - This is the official podcast to go with the venerable New York Times Book Review.  It usually showcases interviews with authors and/or reviewers featured in that week's printed Book Review, as well as reports from the publishing industry and a weekly recap of the NY Times Bestseller Lists.  Depending on the topic, I may find it fascinating or boring or boring or somewhere in between (it can sometimes have a bit of that high-brow stuffiness the NY Times is known for!), but it is usually at least mildly interesting, and I like hearing what's hot.

Any of these podcasts can be listened to online or downloaded from the websites linked here or from iTunes.  If you subscribe to a podcast on iTunes, it will automatically remove those you've listened to and add new ones each time you plug your iPod in, so I find that convenient.

How about you?  Are there any book-related podcasts you enjoy?