Books Read in 2012

January:
1. A Wrinkle in Time-Madeline L'Engle
2. The Magician King-Lev Grossman
3. Rumors-Anna Godbersen
February:
4. A Clash of Kings-George R.R. Martin
5. The Hobbit-J.R.R. Tolkien
6. Valiant-Holly Black
7. Wench-Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Cable Guy

     Well I am sitting here at home waiting for the cable guy to show up again. It has been over three weeks since we moved and for some reason our cable just does not want to work. Although, as I've mentioned before, I haven't missed it as much as I thought I would. I have read more books recently than I have in a long time.
     Over the weekend, I finished The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan. I mentioned that I thought the main character was whiny, and I am happy to say that the book did pick up towards the end and I enjoyed it. Ryan has an amazing talent of making realistic and terrifying worlds and if she writes anything further in this series, I will gladly read it.
     I also read Nick Hornby's little trilogy of his collection of columns from the Believer, The Polysyllabic Spree, Housekeeping Vs. The Dirt and Shakespeare Wrote for Money. I highly recommend these books for anyone who likes to read about reading. They were very funny and insightful.
     Lastly for today here is a link from Feministe, a blog I like to read, on how "fat" women are expected to dress. This piece really struck a chord with me and I wanted to share it. Have a great day guys!

Rainy Sunday

    Just another rainy day here, although the last two days were sunny and gorgeous. Yesterday I finally got to go to the last Harry Potter movie and I loved it. It is so sad that it is over however. The one thing that I did not care for was the epilogue, but I felt the same way when I read the book, so that was not surprising. It definitely made me want to reread the last book again.
    In other bookish news, I have been enjoying the Half Price Books that is within walking distance of my apartment. HPB does not exist in the smallish town that recently moved from so HPB is pretty amazing to me right now. On Friday, I received my first tiny paycheck from my new job and I rewarded myself by buying The Luxe by Anna Godbersen. I originally read about these books on English Major's Junk Food, one of my favorite blogs. From the first page I have been pretty immersed in it. It is scandalous fun, set in 1899, one of my favorite time periods ever. I have also been reading The Dark and Hollow Places, the third book in Carrie Ryan's zombie books. I love her writing and world building as in her other books, but the main character in this one is driving me crazy with her whining. Hopefully she will grow a little by the end.
    My plans for today consist of laundry, reading and walking to the grocery store. All in all, a lazy rainy Sunday. Have a great week everyone!

A Beautiful Weekend

      This weekend has been gorgeous and sunny here in Seattle and I have been loving it. My good friend from Portland came up for the weekend and we spent the last couple of days exploring and having adventures. I have walked so much this weekend! After she left early this afternoon, I have been doing laundry and getting ready to officially start my new job tomorrow morning at 6. Sigh.
        In book news, I am reading Unwind by Neal Shusterman, which is a fascinating and terrifying YA book that looks at what could be the future of the pro life/pro choice debate. In his world, abortions are illegal, but teenagers between the age of 13 and 18 can be "unwound" at any time by their parents. Unwinding means that their organs are donated to other people in need. Unwind focuses on three kids who have managed to escape being unwound and are on the run. So far it is pretty intriguing.
       Alright, now I must run back and check on the laundry. Happy Sunday!

Seattle #2

So, I have now been in Seattle for exactly 11 days. In that time, I have gotten lost on the bus once, walked up steep hills (and realized just how out of shape I was) several times and spent exactly 11 days trying to get our Internet and cable set up (we now have Internet, but still no cable). I can't say that it has been a totally bad thing though.

One of the first things I did when we got here was get a library card and I have already gone there a few times. The branch within walking distance of us is pretty small, but I can order things online and pick up my holds there. Because of our lack of TV and Internet last week, I read quite a few books: Torment by Lauren Kate, Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick, Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier, Feed by M. T. Anderson and Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. I don't remember the last time I read this many books in one week! Zombies vs. Unicorns and Fingersmith were both books that I started during spring break and then abandoned during Spring Term, so technically I just finished these, but still! I kind of like the fact that cable hasn't been around to distract me as much. I really don't miss it that much. They were all great reads, albeit Torment and Crescendo were pretty much exactly the same and in fact I don't even remember clearly which book some of the plot lines occurred in.

Right now I am reading (and enjoying immensely) Nick Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree. It is a short little collection of some of his magazine pieces and they are hilarious and insightful. Tomorrow I start training for my new job. My goal, since I won't be going to grad school until fall 2012, is to keep up my reading and posting on here. I don't want to fall into the mind numbing routine that so often happens when I'm not in school: wake up, go to work, read for maybe ten minutes on my lunch, come home, change into sweats, lay down, watch TV, fall asleep on the couch, go to bed. Although I know that this is far less likely to happen in a big city compared to a small one where nothing ever happens, I am still wary of it. However at the same time, I am not going to try to review everything that I have read or try to stick to a schedule. I am just going to stay casual and keep it fun. I will keep posting on my new adventures and I still plan on sharing some of the great experiences that I had during this last year at school. Stay tuned!

Seattle!

This year has been crazy-crazy and life changing. For the first time ever, I have made huge active steps towards some life goals that I have had for a long time. Last month I graduated from Southern Oregon University with a BA in English and Writing: Literary Studies. After taking about five years off, I finally returned to school in 2009 and I now have a fancy piece of paper to show for it! I am extremely proud of myself. Also, a week ago, my partner and I moved up to Seattle-something that I have wanted to do since I was 14. This was a huge move and we are now eight hours away from our friends and family in Southern Oregon. It is scary, but definitely very exciting. My next plan of action is to study for and take the GRE so that I can apply to UW in January. Masters of Library Science here I come! Because of the craziness of this last school year, I have been pretty much non-existent on here. I want that to change. I have A Lot to talk about from this last year, including a whole class that I took just on Virginia Woolf and my senior paper that I wrote on gender roles in Dracula. I look forward to getting caught up again in the book blogging world!

Books Read in 2011

Books Read in 2011:
1. Definitely Dead-Charlaine Harris
2. All Together Dead-Charlaine Harris
3. The Gift-H.D.
4. A Touch of Dead-Charlaine Harris
5. Room-Emma Donoghue
6. Tender Buttons-Gertrude Stein
7. Sapphique-Catherine Fisher
8. Marked-P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
9. From Dead to Worse-Charlaine Harris
10. Dead and Gone-Charlaine Harris
11. Cane-Jean Toomer
12. Dead in the Family-Charlaine Harris
13. Kissing the Witch-Emma Donoghue
14. Fallen-Lauren Kate
15. Mrs. Dalloway-Virginia Woolf
16. To the Lighthouse-Virginia Woolf
17. Orlando-Virginia Woolf
18. Racism without Racists-Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
19. where we stand-bell hooks
20. Three Guineas-Virginia Woolf
21. Stone Butch Blues-Leslie Feinberg
22. The Years-Virginia Woolf
23. Torment-Lauren Kate
24. Crescendo-Becca Fitzpatrick
25. Zombies vs. Unicorns-Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier
26. Feed-M.T. Anderson
27. Fingersmith-Sarah Waters
28. The Polysyllabic Spree-Nick Hornby
29. Unwind-Neal Shusterman
30. The Dark and Hollow Places-Carrie Ryan
31. Housekeeping Vs. The Dirt-Nick Hornby
32. Shakespeare Wrote for Money-Nick Hornby
33. Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float-Sarah Schmelling
34. Dirty Little Secrets-c.j. omololu
35. evermore-alyson noel
36. the perks of being a wallflower-stephen chbosky
37. SlaughterHouse-Five-Kurt Vonnegut
38. The Luxe-Anna Godbersen
39. Wildthorn-Jane Eagland
40. The Magicians-Lev Grossman
41. Across the Universe-Beth Revis
42. Dirty Secret- Jessie Sholl
43. Kafka on the Shore-Haruki Murakami
44. After the Quake-Haruki Murakami
45. Wither-Lauren DeStefano
46. Bumped-Megan McCafferty
47. Passion-Lauren Kate
48. A Game of Thrones-George R. R. Martin
49. Dead Reckoning-Charlaine Harris
50. Retail Hell-Freeman Hall
51. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle-Haruki Murakami
52. The Night Circus-Erin Morgenstern
53. A Great and Terrible Beauty-Libba Bray
54. Birthmarked-Caragh M. O'Brien
55. Tithe-Holly Black
56. Persepolis-Marjane Satrapi