This Week In Books

It's Saturday. My hubby is at work for at least another 2 hours (give or take). The kids are (somewhat) occupied (mainly by destroying the house, but I'll take what I can get) and I have a fresh Tim Horton's coffee in front of me (Roll Up the Rim- maybe I'll win!) Anyways, I was over at the 3 R's Blog yesterday and was checking out her "Thank Blog It's Friday" post when I realized that, despite my initial resistance to participating in "meme's" I found some of them quite interesting. At a loss for books to blog about at the moment (I'm almost done the delightfully charming "Marley & Me, but have yet to finish it) I thought that I would adopt some of the meme's as my own and tell you what I was up to, book-wise, this week. So, here goes:

Mailbox Monday (yes, I know it's Saturday)
(Hosted by The Printed Page)
Tell us about the books in your mailbox this week:

Only one book in the ol' mailbox this week, but I'll take one book over no books! On Friday I picked up a Purolater package from the Hachette Book Group. It was my copy of "The Italian Lover" by Robert Hellenga. This was a contest win from Marci's Travels of A Bookworm. Thanks again Marci!

Although I haven't technically aquired this one, I was thrilled that my local library has finally aquired a copy of "The Almost Archer Sisters". After reading a review by Deanna over at My Tragic Right Hip I wanted to read this one and am glad that I will have the chance to. After my local library ladies catalogue this one, I will be picking it up and devouring it whole.

And although this is not technically part of this meme, I thought that I would share the fact that I am offically lusting after Slumdog Millionaire. I've seen the previews for the movie and am intrigued, but I have to read the book before I see the movie. Since my library doesn't have a copy, I will have to actually go out and buy this one and will do so as soon as I have a chance (and some spare cash!).


Teaser Tuesday (yes, I still know that it's Saturday)
Hosted by Should Be Reading

Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

"Beautiful women were never friendly, at least not to strange men in parking lots at midnight. A car pulled up, and an older man rolled down the window. "Are you Heather?" he asked. She shot me a bemused smile as if to say, You do what you have to do to pay the rent. "Gotta run" she said, hopping into the car. "Bye, puppy". "Don't fall too in love, Marley," I said as they drove off. "You can't afford her."

From the ever entertaining Marley & Me. I realize that was more than 2 sentences, but that part was way too good to just share 2 sentences.

So, there's my week in books. I should finish posting and then start putting the house back together before Jay gets home from work. He loves order, and our 9 year-old, 3 year-old and 2 year-old abhor it. It's a constant battle between order and chaos in our house. Happy Saturday!

"Sing Them Home" Stephanie Kallos

I'll admit that this one started off a little slow for me. I started it when I was sick and was having trouble focusing on anything too heavy, so the beginning of the book slowed me down some. It was vague, but as I later found out, deliberately so. Thankfully the pace picked up for me right after that (it must have been the large quantities of Advil I was consuming that was slowing me down!) and I went on to greatly enjoy "Sing Them Home".

Aneira Hope Jones vanished when a tornado hit in Emlyn Springs, Nebraska in 1978. Although many of her belongings had been found, her body is yet to be discovered, leaving her three children, Larken, Gaelen and Bonnie, in various stages of unease. There's something about never quite knowing what happened to your mother that has left these children (now adults) with a vague sense of incompletion. Larken eats her confusion away, packing the pounds onto her tiny frame. Gaelan spends hours working out in the gym and seduces as many women as he can, and Bonnie spends time collecting roadside rubbish and pasting it into scrapbooks. Their father, Llewellyn Jones, remains distant from all but his longtime lover, and wife's best friend, Viney Closs. When Llewellyn passes away suddenly after being struck by lightning, the three children must come together and make peace with their past and begin looking forward to the future.

Written from several points of view (including the deceased!), and including pages from Hope Jones' long-lost diaries this novel is a hodgepodge of both the past and the present. Somehow it manages to come together and I found myself reading with increasing desperation to find out the secrets of Emlyn Springs. Stephanie Kallos writes with an incredible attention to detail and I enjoyed watching Larken, Gaelen and Bonnie emerge from the shells of their past into their futures. I was sad to finish this one and to leave Emlyn Springs, and of all its interesting residents, behind.

Up Next: I've just started the absolutely adorable "Marley & Me" and am loving it so far (although it would be nice if I actually had time to read....)

Bored on a Friday....

It's Friday. And I'm bored. I spent most of the week at home recovering from "the sickness". I didn't go and see my friends this week because nobody likes it when you give them the gift of the flu. I've ventured outside (thanks to Advil Cold & Sinus) only to work and to buy groceries. We have no plans for the weekend, as what we had planned has been postponed indefinitely. So, here I sit, bored.

I haven't gotten any mail this week. UPS didn't stop and deliver any packages to me, although I wasn't expecting any. I've checked my e-mail more times than I care to admit. I've logged countless hours on the Internet. I've entered more than 20 contests. And entered. And entered. I've changed too many diapers to count. I've prepared meal after meal after meal and cleaned up after all of them. I've prevented the boys from touching the TV. I've driven the bus up and down the same roads that I normally drive them down. I've run a few yellow lights, but only a few. I've endured the daily antics of 70 overexcited children. I've cleaned the house. I've soaked in the tub for more than an hour. I've read my book and the latest copy of "In Touch". I cheered when Danny Goakey got through to the Top 12 on "American Idol". I cringed when the girls had to eat random cow parts on "Hell's Kitchen". I've watched reality TV and game shows. I've had a few glasses of wine (but not today). I've talked on the phone and messaged on MSN. I put out the garbage and the recycling on garbage day. I've blogged on both of my blogs. I've cuddled with my hubby. I've read the newspaper and looked at the flyers. I've posted on message boards. I've read other people's blogs. I've wiped runny noses and I've taken more Advil than I care to admit to. I've checked homework before it was handed in. I've watched Treehouse TV and played with my sons. I've wiped marker off of the walls and Kraft Dinner off of the floor. I splurged a little at the grocery store and I checked out Amazon.ca. I've e-mailed. I've paid bills online and frowned as the money disappeared out of my account. I've cleaned up toys and shampooed little boys hair and thought of creative ways to use the letter 'J".

Yet, for all intents and purposes, I am still bored.

Random Wednesday

So, my family spent Family Day together- sick! Although the kids have recovered (resilient little things they are!) Jay and I remain plagued with achiness, sore throats, and fevers. Thanks in part to large doses of Advil Cold & Sinus we're functioning at this point, although Jay mentioned that he may just stay home after lunch and try to recover. That's one of the many perks of working part-time as I do- you can feel pretty darn crappy and still manage to work for the three hours a day that are required of you. The rest of the day I've spent doing as little as possible and catching up on my reading. I started reading "The Weight of the Mustard Seed" but was finding it a little heavy for my drug-foggy brain, so I'm now reading "Sing Them Home" by Stephanie Kallos and finding it to be perfect reading for an overcast day.

Last night Jay and I curled up on the couch (while moaning about the sickness) and watched two hours of American Idol. I have to say that I am unimpressed by those that made it into the Top 36 this year. I've actually watched it all of the way along this season, including Hollywood Week, and as the judges made their final choices I found myself thinking "Why in the heck did they choose this person?" Last night pretty much proved my point as the first 12 contestants performed. All of them, with one exception, failed to wow me. The judges auditioned thousands of people and this was the best that they could come up with? Most of the performances were wooden and unexciting, although the fact that the show was being broadcast live was enough to create some interestingly awkward moments. The exception to all of the horrible performances was Danny Goakely. I've loved him from the beginning; he's good-looking, has a heartwarming story, and that guy can SING! I'm hoping to see him win the whole thing, but there are many more episodes before that can be determined.

As a final note on my random Wednesday blog post: we watched "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" on Monday night. It was surprisingly funny, yet it was a comedy with heart. I laughed pretty much the entire way through (which is surprising- so many comedies lately have fallen flat). If you don't mind a little T&A (okay, a LOT of T&A) you'll like this one. Best comedy of 2009 so far, in my opinion.

"Shakespeare: The World As Stage" Bill Bryson

It amazes me how little we know about the man who brought us so many amazing plays. Shakespeare's plays have made it into the course syllabus of almost every high school English class, they have been performed in many theatres, and have been made into many great movies! The world of literature owes much to the man who we know so little about.

"Shakespeare: The World as Stage" is part of the "Eminent Lives" series about many famous people who have changed the world as we know it. Although I generally don't read biographies, I found this one fascinating and informative as well as fast-paced and it didn't take me long to read through it.

Many, many historians and Shakespeare enthusiasts have spent years trying to find out more about this great man whom we know so little about. We know when he was born, and we know a little about his father. We know that he married and had three children, but we know nothing about what his family life was like or how he felt towards his wife. We have no idea in which order he wrote his plays or what influenced them. There are years of his life that are complete blanks to us; we don't know where he was during these lost years or what he was doing.

What we do know for certain could fit onto a handful of written pages and comes from the unreliable legal records of the time. Speculation about his life and the inspiration for his works is rampant and enthusiastic, not to mention creative, but it remains only speculation. This book was a wonderful summary of what we know (and mainly what we don't know) about the man who brought us plays such as Julius Ceasar, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello. This was a fascinating look into the life of someone who brought us so much, yet left behind so little of himself. A must read for anyone who has ever wondered about the man behind the words.

"Still Alice" Lisa Genova

Lisa Genova's heartbreaking debut novel chonicles the events after Alice Howland, a Harvard professor, is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Alice is only 51 years old. She is a respected professor of linguistics at Harvard University, married to a fellow professor at the University, and the mother of three beautiful grown children. At the beginning of the book Alice finds that she is forgetting things more often than usual and unable to articulate the names of a few familair things at times, but she chalks it up to the stress of her busy life as well as menopause and is able to ignore these warning signs for quite some time. One day she finds herself disoriented while walking in Harvard Square, a place that she has been walking in for 25 years, and decides to seek the formal medical opinion of her doctor. What follows is the heartbreaking diagnosis that Alice has early-onset Alzheimer's disease, and that there is nothing that can stop or reverse the disease; she can only hope to slow its progression by taking a cocktail of medicines and vitamins.

Alice quickly finds her memory declining; soon she is unable to read the books that she once loved, find common words in her vocabulary or even remember dates and the time. This book tells the story of Alzheimer's from the patient's view; we feel her confusion as she gets lost or struggles to remember what time of day it is.

This book was a powerful one. "Still Alice" tells the story of an often overlooked disease, and how it affects both the patient and their loved ones. Although telling the story from Alice's point of view was a bold one, it paid off, making the book a window into the world of those with this devastating disease. One scene that really stood out for me (there were several) is the one where Alice wishes that she had cancer instead. She reasons that if she had cancer she would at least be able to fight it, to try to treat it; she also reasons that if she eventually lost her battle with cancer, she would be able to say goodbye to her loved ones and at least know who they all are. It made me wonder how devastating this disease must be if one would rather have cancer than live with Alzheimer's.

I can't say enough about this one: all I can say is that it is a book that needs to be read. Even if you don't have a loved one with this disease (I do, I have an uncle who is suffering from this) it will open your eyes to how a disease that doesn't recieve a lot of attention ravages the minds of those who suffer from it. Very powerful. Unforgettable.

Up Next: I'm torn on what to read next. I have a bookshelf full of wonderful books just waiting to be read, and I want to read them all! I may read "The Weight of a Mustard Seed" for Books for Bloggers, or I may start a biography of Shakespeare for the "Warm Up for Winter Reading Challenge". I'm leaning towards the book on Shakespeare, but we'll see what I pick up after dinner tonight when I have a chance to relax.

"I Love You, Beth Cooper" Larry Doyle

From former Simpson's writer Larry Doyle comes an absolutely hilarious, rolling around on the floor laughing, comedic novel about one night in the life of geeky Denis Cooverman. Denis is the class valedictorian and on graduation day, as he delivers his speech to 512 graduates, he veers from the speech he's been rehearsing with his mother and says "I Love You, Beth Cooper." Beth Cooper is the girl that he's lusted after throughout high school. He's sat behind her in many classes, he knows that she will borrow a pencil and politely return it, but other than that, he doesn't know a lot about her. Beth, on the other hand, is Head Cheerleader, a popular girl with a following, and she knows absolutely nothing about Denis Cooverman, other than the fact that one time he answered a question on the blackboard, turned around, and his fly was open revealing star-patterned underwear.

What follows after this confession is a series of events leading to the most memorable night in Denis Cooverman's entire high school career. Denis finds out that Beth has a big, scary boyfriend named Kevin who is in the Army and who is not impressed with Denis' public confession of love for his girlfriend. Kevin wants to kill Denis. Denis also finds out that Beth is not the person who he has idolized her to be for all of those years, but somehow she's better, because she's real.

Not only is this book well-written, it's hilarious. Like seriously funny. I laughed out loud many times while reading it and Jay kept looking over trying to figure out what in the heck was so funny. In what other book could you get away with writing the words "She smelled like masturbation"? The illustrations in my copy were funny as well, chronicling the progression of Denis' many injuries throughout the night. Reminiscient of all of those teen sex movies, only so much funnier, "I Love You Beth Cooper" is a must-read for anyone who's sick of the winter and ready for a belly laugh. Visit http://www.iloveyoubethcooper.com/ for more fun.

25 Things That You May Not Know About Me

It's the latest Facebook craze: write a list of 25 things that people may not know about you and tag 25 people to do the same. I have to be honest: I don't generally do this stuff, but this one is rather interesting, and it is also interesting to see what people may write about themselves, so I thought that I would give it a try. So, without further ado, 25 things you may not know about me:

1. I have a bad sense of direction. Scratch that, I have a nonexistent sense of direction. If you tell me to go "south" I'll stare at you blankly until you rephrase it in terms that I can understand.

2. I have weird recurring dreams. It's actually not the events that reoccur, but the places. For example, in my dreams I have this all-glass apartment. Weird.

3. Reading is my passion. I read about 2 books a week, give or take. It depends on how interesting the subject matter is or how much free time I have that week.

4. If I could choose one chore that I wouldn't have to do for the rest of my life, it would be the dishes. I hate doing the dishes.

5. I don't like driving with Jay. If he's driving, it's fine, but when I'm driving and he's in the passenger seat, it makes me nervous, and I do stupid things.

6. I love getting mail. If I'm expecting a package, I'll check my mail box 3 or 4 times a day. It borders on obsessive.

7. I love Tim Horton's English Toffee Cappuccino. Love it. It just completes my morning.

8. When I was a kid I rode a sled face-first down a ravine at school and hit my forehead on a brick. I still have the scar.

9. I have absolutely no fashion sense, and when I go shopping for clothes I always take Jay along with me because he knows what looks good on me, and I have no clue.

10. It bugs me when my eyebrows haven't been recently waxed, so I get them done every six weeks.

11. I love shiny things, especially diamond wedding rings and sparkly tiaras.

12. When I was younger I travelled out East with my family, but other than that I've never travelled. I don't have a passport and I haven't been out of Canada, except for one small venture to Niagara Falls, New York.

13. I've never been in a wedding, other than my own.

14. I would rather have a small group of close friends than a large group of people who are only acquaintances.

15. I grew up without sisters, but in this past year (and in the upcoming one!) I've been blessed with 5 sister-in-laws!

16. My idea of a relaxing night is laying on the couch with some yummy snacks and watching a movie with my hubby.

17. I love school, and I would go back if I could. I don't even want to get a specific degree, I just want to go to the interesting classes and learn interesting things.

18. I wouldn't re-live my high school years if you paid me to. They were awful.

19. If I could lose 40 lbs in an instant, I would be a very, very happy girl.

20. I think that every woman should be treated like a Princess. In fact, the unofficial theme of our wedding was "Jonita is the Princess".

21. I didn't actually care what month I got married in. Since I really didn't have a preference, I let Jay pick. He picked July, I picked the date.

22. I hold on to the hope that I'm going to win the lottery someday, although I rarely play it.

23. My kids drive me absolutely crazy sometimes, but I wouldn't trade them for all of the money in the world. I adore those little guys, and I think that all three of them are uniquely amazing.

24. I admire my mom more that anyone else in the world. Her inner strength amazes me, and I talk to her pretty much every day. If I grow up to be 1/10th of the woman she is, I'll be happy.

25. If I could choose a husband out of all of the men in the world, I would still choose Jay. Somehow he manages to show me how much he loves me in little ways every day, and I appreciate that.

So, that's that! Since I can't "tag" people on my blog, I'll just tell you. I would love to see what Randy and Marci would come up with for this one, so there you go, guys! The challenge has been issued!