the blame game

Sheesh...second week in and I almost forgot to post about who earned points this week. Forgive me, I'm feeling too lazy to take and upload pictures, so I'll just give you a list of what books I couldn't resist bringing into our little abode this week:

*News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (got this from Paperback Swap after reading Eva's review)

*We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (went right out and bought it last Sunday after reading Eva's review)

*Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge (total impulse buy...sounds perfect for RIP)

*Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster (picked this up at the library after reading Carl's review)

*The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman (got this through inter-library loan...first heard of this one through Dewey and knew it had to make my Graphic Novels Challenge list, then felt compelled to finally order it after reading Nymeth's review...it took quite a while to come, I think they should get some more copies)

*The Borden Tragedy by Rick Geary (picked up from the library after reading Joy's review)

*How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (ordered from Daedalus books because of Dewey's review)

So, if I have this figured right, Eva and Dewey acquired 2 points, and Carl, Nymeth, and Joy have each earned 1 point. (Yes, I realize I gave out two points for one book, but Dewey and Nymeth are equally to blame. And it's my game so I can play it however I want to...hmmm, Maxidoodle just may be rubbing off on me there.) I think that now puts Dewey in the lead. Just two weeks in and already so much blame to go around!

Geeking...Week 5

This week's Geek Assignment:

This week’s theme is once again one you could approach several ways. You might want to tell about the forms of storytelling (aside from books) you love. Maybe you enjoy TV shows, movies, music, narrative poetry, or Renay’s favorite, fanfiction. You could give us an overview of a type of storytelling, such as listing your favorite movies. Or you might pick a more specific story, one particular favorite. I just finished watching an episode of Lost, for example, so I could tell why I enjoy that series, or I could get more specific and focus on one character’s personal story. Some people might post youtubes of the songs whose stories they find brilliant, or some might share family bedtime stories. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

I was all set to skip this week. I just couldn't think of what I might possibly post about. I watch next to no TV. Though I enjoy movies, I rarely have time to watch them, and sure as heck couldn't talk intelligibly about them. I just didn't think I had anything to add.

But then it hit me...maybe I could talk about how I tell stories. Our family's stories. I realize that my family's stories will be of no interest to others, but I think they will be of immense value to my children. I am, of course, talking about scrapbooking. I don't have nearly as much time for scrapbooking as I did before I started homeschooling, but even so, I continue to write down "our stories" in journals and even here on my blog. And someday, when I do have more free time, I'll turn those stories into layouts.

Most of the stories I record are small ones. Sure, we have Christmas layouts and vacation layouts and birthday layouts, but the real treasures in my mind are the everyday stories. The "this is you now" type of stories. Like this one...



Or this one...



Or this one...



And yes, we even have a bookcase just to house "our stories"...

updates

*The baby bunny died. :(

*Signed up for yet another challenge. But this one is a no-brainer for the challenge addict! Really! No new books to add, just added incentive to finish books already on your challenge lists. Check out A Well-Rounded Challenge here.

*We soon may have three challenge addicts in the house...Annie and I already managed to get Rich to join in the What's in a Name Challenge, the Once Upon a Time II Challenge, and the Decades Challenge. And he's now on the verge of joining in the 1% Well-Read Challenge and the Book Awards II. Always nice to company in one's obsessions, right?

incapable of learning

Oh yes, you know it...I signed up for yet another challenge. The Book Awards II. Now one would think I would have learned my lesson...I signed up for this one last year, and although it's not quite over yet, I really don't stand much of a chance of actually finishing in time. That should tell me something right?

Well, you know what it said to me? It said, "Here's your chance to redeem yourself!" Yep, I've obviously taken to the fantasy realm so much in the last year that I'm now living in it!

I did promise myself that I would only join if I had enough books in the house at this very moment...books I actually wanted to read that would satisfy the rules. Turns out that wasn't a problem. So I'm in. Are you?

Th1rteen R3asons Why...random thoughts

More random than ever, I'm afraid. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if I can put together any kind of coherent review at all. This book got to me on a gut level. There were things in this book that just took me back 25+ years and plopped me right back into high school. I wish I could explain. But while I would be o.k. talking to many of my blog friends about this, I'm just not willing to throw this out there for the whole world, if you know what I mean.

I can say that I think that this is a book that every upper middle school/high school kid should read. I know this book is fiction, and it's entertainment, but I really think it could be so much more to kids as well. A chance to let some see they're not alone. A wake up call to many that their actions have consequences, horrible consequences that they may never even be aware of.

The book is really told by two people at the same time. Clay receives in the mail a box of cassette tapes recorded by Hannah. Hannah committed suicide a few short weeks ago. The cassettes tell Hannah's story, what led her to the drastic solution she chose. Clay's thoughts and actions are interspersed throughout the book as he listens to Hannah's voice talk about the actions of those around her and how these actions affected her. For the first couple of pages, I found the constant flip-flopping from Hannah to Clay irritating, but that irritation quickly subsided. I think it turned out to be the perfect way to tell this story.

Again, I apologize, I realize this isn't much of review. I thought about waiting a few days to write it, but ultimately decided that wouldn't make much difference. The good news is that I know there are others out there who have reviewed it. If you're one of them, please leave me your link I'll add it. Thanks.

*****

*Becky of Becky's Book Reviews
*Dewey of The Hidden Side of the Leaf
*Joy of Thoughts of Joy

*****

Read for:


Young Adult Reading Challenge.

Numbers Challenge.



A-Z Reading Challenge.

Homeschooling.

I LOVE DEWEY!

Really. I do! And here she is, once again providing me another reason to smile! Smile, ha...that's quite the understatement! I'll be bouncing around the house for days with a goofy grin plastered to my face.


Anyway, if you haven't already guessed it...Dewey has announced that she's hosting another Read-a-thon! It's taking place June 28th-29th (exact times depends on your time zone).

I had soooo much fun during Dewey's last Read-a-thon...though slow reader that I am, I didn't get nearly as much reading done as I'd unrealistically hoped. After I read her post this morning, the first thing I did was go call Rich at work. Right away, he offered to haul the munchkins off camping or something. Isn't he just the best husband ever?!! I may be slightly biased, but I certainly think so.

Once again, you can join in the fun as either a reader or as a cheerleader. And once again, there will be prizes awarded throughout. And once again, I have no doubt that Dewey will be the most extraordinary hostess imaginable!

Hope you all decide to join in the fun!

The Translator...random thoughts

First of all, let me thank Megan once again for passing this book along to me...so very sweet of her! I'll be passing it along to one of you soon as well, but Rich wants to read it first.

The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari. The title alone clues one in. Darfur. It's not going to be an easy read.

And, of course, it wasn't. How could it possibly be easy to read about the depraved acts that man plies upon man. Daoud Hari does not share horror after horror after horror with us, however. Though he himself witnessed numerous horrors, and heard countless more from refugees as he worked as an interpreter for the United Nations and U.S. State Department as they conducted interviews to make a legal determination as to whether genocide was occurring, he shares but a minute fraction of these stories. A minute fraction is enough. In fact, one particular story was enough to cause me nightmares. I've read "tough" books before, but this is the first time I've ever had a nightmare as a result. A story of a loving father, tied to a tree and beaten. Then forced to watch his 4-year-old daughter's brutal murder.

In quite a different way, it was an easy read. Not content-wise, of course, but in the way it is written. Daoud Hari writes in such a simple, straight-forward manner. He talks directly to the reader. He even manages to inject humor into his story. But he is never disrespectful. Never.

While the story he tells is a personal one, it is also a story of his home, Darfur. And one of the things that makes these horrors all the harder to bear is the fact that this is happening now. Not ancient history. But current event. Not past. But present.

And still, Dauod Hari is a man of great hope. He writes in the introduction:

"If God must break your leg He will at least teach you to limp"--so it is said in Africa. This book is my poor limping, a modest account that cannot tell every story that deserves telling. I have seen and heard many things in Darfur that have broken my heart. I bring the stories to you because I know most people want others to have good lives, and, when they understand the situation, they will do what they can to steer the world back toward kindness.

"...they will do what they can to steer the world back toward kindness." For a man who has seen what he has seen to write these words is the most beautiful sign of hope I can possibly imagine.

I really don't know what else to say about this book. Read it. Really.

***

If you've reviewed this book (and I know many people have), please leave me a link in the comments and I'll add it here. Thanks.

*Megan of Leafing through Life
*Natasha at Maw Books
*Somer at SomeReads

just another dose of useless rambling

*I finished up Grimms' Fairy Tales today. This little Puffins Classics edition only contained 55 tales...which leaves me very excited knowing how many more there are to read. Going to have to buy The Complete Grimms' Fairy Tales very soon. Before I ramble on to other subjects, I just wanted to mention that I think this may be the funniest start to a tale I've yet read:

Once upon a time a mouse, a bird, and a sausage took it into their heads to keep house together...

Okay, maybe it's just my mood, but I can't read that without giggling.

*I'm tired of the spring weather roller-coaster. We're currently in a dip, with a high of 48 degrees for today. And rain. Quite dreary.

*I finished up The Translator last night, but I am really struggling at writing a review. Hopefully by tomorrow.


*Our dryer died today. So now I have clothes hanging all over the house drying. Not terribly attractive, let me tell you.

*Baker is driving us a bit crazy. Last Friday, he found a rabbit's nest in the yard. He killed one of the babies before I realized. But from the kitchen window, I saw him carrying something in his mouth. I went and yelled out the door for him to "leave it" and he immediately dropped it. Turned out to be an adorable itty bitty bunny, about the size of a mouse. I got him into a box with some grass,



and then Annie and I searched and searched and searched the yard for the nest but couldn't find it. Didn't seem like it would be that hard as our yard isn't very big. Finally Rich came home and found it fairly quickly. So we put the baby back in the nest, and it appears the mama has been back and taking care of it. But until baby is grown enough to be leaving the nest and whatnot, we've had to take to chaining Baker up in the backyard when he wants out instead of letting him run free. (The yard is fenced.)

a week's worth of acquisitions

The preceding week has brought many new books into my life. Thanks mostly to my wonderful husband spoiling me rotten for Mother's Day.


This is the pile I got to unwrap:
*The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
*Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Weiss
*Invisible Prey by John Sandford
*The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
*Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
*Winterwood by Patrick McCabe
*Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
*The Film Club by David Gilmour


This is the pile I bought with my gift cards (one from Mother's Day and one from Annie for Teacher Appreciation Day):
*A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger
*Looking for Alaska by John Green
*Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber
*Monkey Girl by Edward Hume
*Island of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon


This is the pile I ordered from B&N on-line bargain section (also using gift card):
*The Fifth Vial by Michael Palmer
*San Francisco is Burning: The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires by Dennis Smith
*All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
*Suicide's Girlfriend by Elizabeth Evans
*The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls


Bought this one Friday night at Borders. How nice of Becky to host the It's the End of the World... Challenge and give me the excuse to get it. :)


And finally, this arrived in the mail yesterday. I won it from one of J. Kaye's generous book raffles. Thanks, again J. Kaye!

The horribly sad thing about this excessive accumulation of books is how few I actually finished reading this week. That would be one measly book...and it was a library book to boot. I guess the good news, at least looking at it from the standpoint of "where the hell are we going to put yet more books?!!", is that this is likely to be the last huge haul before Christmas. Well, for me anyway...both Father's Day and Rich's birthday will be coming this summer. I am in the process of gathering up some books for a give-away, too. Hopefully, I'll be organized to do that in the next week or two.

I've also decided that I'm going to start taking names! I'm going to start keep track of who among you are responsible for the dent in my bank account. I'm calling it the Blame Game, and I'm going to keep tallies listed over in the sidebar. I think I'll keep it running for a year (say until the end of April '09). At that time, the one of you that has caused me to purchase the most books (actually I'm going to count putting holds on them from the library as well) will win a prize (probably an Amazon gift certificate, but I haven't yet decided for sure). Obviously not every book I get will earn someone a point, as many books I get are pure impulse buys. And many I pick up after reading several reviews, and I can't really just point to one as the deciding factor.

Anyway, here's a list of who earned points this first week:

1 point for Becky (Such a Pretty Girl)

1 point for Stephanie (Speak) (Though I've read lots of reviews lately for this book, something about Stephanie's review compelled me to finally add this one to the list.)

1 point for Carl (The Film Club)

1 point for Dewey (Looking for Alaska)

1 point for Erin (The Glass Castle)

yet more fun hosted by Becky

Yep, she's at it again. More irresistible fun. This time we're heading into the realm of Sci-Fi. But it's not all about reading this time. Well, it could be if you so chose, but it needn't be. It's called the 42 Challenge...read and/or watch 42 sci-fi "items" in 42 weeks and 42 days. Items might include books, short stories, novellas, movies, TV show episodes, radio show episodes, just about anything you can think of. And the 42 weeks, 42 days officially runs from Jan. 1, 2009 through Dec. 3, 2009, but she has graciously allowed for cheating (in other words, we can start now if we can't contain ourselves). But you know what, instead of me trying to explain it here, just head over to the blog Becky set up just for the challenge.

Geeking...week 4

I love this week's Weekly Geeks theme:

Choose a political or social issue that matters to you. Find several books addressing that issue; they don’t have to books you’ve read, just books you might like to read. Using images (of the book covers or whatever you feel illustrates your topic) present these books in your blog.

But I'm totally wimping out. Just like I've been wimping out with the meme Eva tagged me with a few weeks ago, in which I was to talk about the five issues that I care most about. I'm not wimping out because I don't care, but because I want so badly to be able to communicate eloquently about the things that I care so much about, the things that tend to cause my occasional insomnia. I worry that if I try to talk about such important issues, and do so poorly, it will do more harm than good. Really, Eva, I've spent hours trying to compose a post to answer the meme, to talk about the issues that matter to me. I actually only chose three because the first one was so many things rolled into one: 1. the state of the planet, from global warming to the loss of biodiversity to chemicals that cause endocrine disruption, etc., 2. poverty, and 3. giftedness (though I hate that term), from educational to emotional issues. But what I just wrote may be the closest thing to a post answering the meme that I'll ever get published.

Anyway, here's my cop-out post answer to this week's theme...

Books on my wish list on the subject of biodiversity loss:


The Diversity of Life by E.O. Wilson. This one's actually in my TBR pile, not my wish list. Anyway, it is supposed to one of the best books ever written on the subject of biodiversity and biodiversity loss.











The Root Causes Of Biodiversity Loss edited by Ian Johnson, Alexander Wood, Pamela Stedman-Edwards, and Johanna Mang. This book goes beyond the scientific reasons for biodiversity loss, such as pollution and habitat loss, and delves into the socio-economic reasons why people have chosen or are driven to degrade their environment.
















The Economic Value of Biodiversity by David Pearce and Dominic Moran. O.K., I admit it, I really don't have any burning desire to read this one, but I did think it was another interesting facet of the story.




The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth by E.O. Wilson. This book provides an interesting look at how disparate groups of people can come together and work for change.




















Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity by Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein. And finally, why it should matter even to those who couldn't care less about other species.













I'm really looking forward to reading everyone's posts for this week. I'm sure they'll be more enlightening than mine, and I'm sure my wish list will do a fair bit of growing!

it couldn't be helped

As I told Becky, she went right for the jugular with this one. No way on earth I was even going to try to resist her It's the End of the World as We Know It challenge. Besides being my favorite type of book (as well as movie), it's always nice to have an excuse to read The Stand again. And it also gives me a chance to finally read The Road, which I've been meaning to do for a while now. My third choice is Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. Anyway, just thought I'd 'fess up and get it over with.

feeling honored

Look what I got!

J. Kaye, one of the sweetest bloggers out here, has come up with an award. It's so cute...based on her book rating system! Thanks, J. Kaye...but you're the one who really deserves the award!