Well read, or just well-intended?

Now, here’s a fun bookish meme, that I snagged from Traci’s BookBag, while I was "Booking through Thursday" (see next post for link to BTT):

This is a list of the 106 books most often tagged unread on LibraryThing.

Here are the RULES:

BOLD=books you've read
ITALICS=books you started but couldn't or didn't finish
CROSSED OUT = books you hated (finished or unfinished)
*STARRED*=you've read more than once
UNDERLINED=books on your TBR list (books you own but haven't read, yet)

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers


Soooo, I got 20 read, 20 that I wanna read, and only 6 that I couldn't get through (I don't generally re-read books, and I've never read one through that I *hated*)...not too bad, I'd say. How about YOU??! How many have you read? How many have you hated? See anything I've missed that I just GOTTA read?! Be sure to leave me a link, so I can come see your list!!

Happy Reading !!

Do YOU "how-to"?

Manual Labor Redux

Following up last week’s question about reading writing/grammar guides, this week, we’re expanding the question….
Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?

Do you ever read manuals?
How-to books?
Self-help guides?
Anything at all?

Well, first off, the mister is the gadget getter in this house, so any "instructions" to be read, would be read by him. *Does* he read them? Most probably. (At least, if not BEFORE construction, then certainly AFTERward, to figure out what to do with the extra pieces!) *Just kidding, of course!

We do read some how-to books (planning gardens, building patios, wiring & home repair...stuff like that), and self-help too, on occassion (does "How to Argue and Win Every Time" count?!), but usually those are used more simply for reference than actually reading, for me.

How 'bout YOU?! What kind of manuals and how-to's do you read?? Head on over to Booking Through Thursday and share your self-help!

Thursday Thirteen (feathered friends)

Well, its that time of year again, where I’m spending more and more time in the garden, puttering around outside. I can tell its springtime, because there are ALL KINDS of birds inhabiting my treetops and whistling their happy tunes. While I’m down to only one suet feeder, two squirrel feeders, and just seven bird-feeders on the property (two feeders are “in for repair”, and I haven’t bought a hummingbird feeder yet, but I will. Just wait.), they are coming more and more frequently to serenade me with their songs. And, what a chorus we have, folks! Just this season, so far, I have seen AT LEAST 13 varieties of feathered-friends…

Thirteen Birds in My Yard 1. Tufted titmice – these guys are cute, loud and very brave! They come right up on the porch banister – cats or no! 2. Black-capped chickadees – Also very noisy, but very cute too. 3. Carolina wrens 4. Nuthatches 5. American Parulas – these little warblers are sooo cute and just love to congregate in these ol’ water oaks with all the Spanish moss. 6. Northern cardinals – these guys particularly luv my tubular feeder on the front patio – I must have seen a dozen of these guys already. 7. Blue Jays – people say they’re mean, but I like ‘em! 8. Mockingbirds 9. Red-bellied Woodpeckers – we had a nest of babies in the old pine tree out in back; in fact, this is the fourth year in a row that they’ve nested in our trees. 10. Pileated Woodpeckers – BIG birds! Just like Woody. 11. Osprey – Very BIG birds; I think we have a mating pair living on the Island, cause I see these two circling just about every day. 12. .Crows – I have four that won’t seem to leave. They sit on the wires and tree limbs, and caw at me for hours! 13. Muscovy Ducks – I luv my ducks!! They seem to enjoy the shade of my fig tree, and come to lounge around in the hot afternoons. *header by samulli

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

I luv that line!

Okay, so I found this fun little meme over at Maggie Reads, and although I don’t know that I have the readership to play this effectively, I had soooo much fun looking up my favorite flicks, and remembering these old scenes, that I thought I’d play along anyway; so…if you want to play along too, leave me an answer in the comments!

The Rules:

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies. 2. Go to IMDb (Internet Movie Database) and find a quote from each movie. 3. Post them here for everyone to guess (if you know them all, please don't guess every one).
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie. 5. No Googling or IMDb-ing. (That would be cheating, and no fun!)

Ready to Play?


1. Ah, yes... I knew your people, Sean. Your grandfather; he died in Australia, in a penal colony. And your father, he was a good man too.

2. There's an old saying: Money talks. The only thing I ever heard it say was "Goodbye".

3. They all have husbands and wives and children and houses and dogs, and, you know, they've all made themselves a part of something and they can talk about what they do. What am I gonna say? "I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How've you been?"

4. Now you're thinking, just now "Why me, O God?". The answer is, God has nothing to do with it. In fact, God is never in France this time of year.

5. I hate to see you go, but I LOVE to watch you leave.

6. Screws fall out all the time, the world is an imperfect place.

7. I woke up in a great mood; I don't know what the hell happened.

8. I don't know what's scarier, losing a nuclear weapon or that it happens so often there's actually a term for it.
~ Yes, Maggie, someone DOES like Travolta - and, Slater, too ("Broken Arrow")

9. C'mon baby, come ta' papa, I'll kiss ya' f*ck*n' Dalmatian
~ I just KNEW that The Gal would get my Willis reference! ("Die Hard")

10. I don't make things difficult. That's the way they get, all by themselves.

BONUS: ('cause I couldn't stop at ten, and this one is rather 'obscure' - I'll be snookered, if somebody gets it!!)

Love is like the measles. You only get it once, and the older you are, the harder you take it.

~~~~~

And remember, if you decide to post your OWN movie quotes, leave me a comment, so I can come and play!!

New Predators from Sandford (a review)

Because I’ve enjoyed several of his Prey novels, when I found “The Night Crew” by John Sandford at our local library book sale, I decided to bring it home and give it a read. Since it qualifies, I’ve opted to use it as my third selection for CoverGirl’s Eponymous Book Challenge, as well.

In this novel, we follow a mobile unit of free-lance photographer’s through the midnight streets of L.A., as they prowl for news to sell to the highest network bidder. In this case, the crew's taping of a lab break-in by animal-rights activists and of a drug-crazed teenager's jump from a hotel window. When their part-time cameraman is shot dead and his body is mutilated, then a friend of his is murdered in an equally grisly manner, it becomes increasingly clear that a psycho is stalking Anna and her crew. To catch him, they team up with the father of the jumper, a lawyer and ex-cop, Jake Harper, who believes the case of his son and the death of their cameraman is somehow connected.

I really enjoyed reading this fast-paced action thriller. The characters were well-developed- just as I’d suspect from the creator of Lucas Davenport, one of my favorite fiction crime-fighters - and the plot moves at an accelerated pace that drives the reader towards an intense and satisfying conclusion. I found it un-put-downn-able, and want to read Sandford’s Kidd and LuEllen novels, as well.

Pullin' out Plums (a review)

Recently, I’ve finished reading two more installments of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, “Eleven on Top” and “Twelve Sharp”, both of which earned the Quill Award (2005 and 2006, respectively), and subsequently qualify as my ninth and tenth selections for the Book Awards Challenge I’m participating in.

In “Eleven on Top”, Stephanie tries a career change, looking for something a bit more “safe & normal”. After a brief employ at the button factory, Cluck in a Bucket, and Kan Klean Dry Cleaners, she winds up in an office position at RangeMan, while all the regulars (Ranger, Morelli, and the rest of the “gang”) try to track down the maniac who is stalking Stephanie. More cars to blow up, more FTA's to bring in, Sally Sweet makes another appearance (finally! He’s one of my favorite characters), and Grandma Mazur gets into not ONE fight (with Bella, Joe's crazy grandmother) but, two (a food fight with a snockered Stephanie's mom!).

In “Twelve on Top”, we have a nut-job who thinks he's Ranger (and who has the Feds believing it too!), who has kidnapped Ranger's daughter, and is trying, ultimately, to add Stephanie to his list of Ranger trophies.

I enjoyed both of these installments quite a lot! One of the funniest series going right now, and I can NOT wait to read Thirteen (as soon as I get my hands on it!).

Summer reading, Southern-style

Well, Maggie is doing it again! She's hosting another Southern Author Reading challenge, to run from May 15th thru Aug 15, and the goal is to read 3 'southern' flavored books by 3 southern authors in that time.

I was attempting to curtail my obsession with these online reading contests, as it seems my reading has become "scheduled" and I wanted a bit of breathing room, but I enjoyed this challenge so much last summer and "found" some really good tales, so I just had to jump on board when I found that Maggie was hosting it, once again. Time is running short and I wanted to get my name on the roster, so to speak, but I really haven't given much thought to a reading list - I know Maggie is all about the fun of the read, so I'm guessing she won't mind much if my reading list changes as the challenge progresses. With that in mind, my tentative reading list is as follows:

~ Andrews, Mary Kay; "Little Bitty Lies"
~ Haynes, Melinda; "Willem's Field"
~ McCullers, Carson; "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe' (and other stories)"

Some possible alternates:
~ Grizzard, Lewis; "It Wasn't Always Easy, but I Sure Had Fun"
~ Hiaasen, Carl; "Tourist Season"

For the love of language

Manual Labor

Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

Oh, yes, we have loads of these; a couple dictionaries, thesaurus', how-to write a research paper, expository writing, a book on grammar, one on literary terms, and a Harbrace College Handbook.
I can't say that I read them per se, but I certainly refer to them often (I'm especially addicted to my Roget's Thesaurus in Dictionary form; words DO mean things, afterall) We have an entire shelf dedicated to these types of books (I even still have a complete set of encyclopedias - in PAPER form; no internet connection needed!!)
One of my sixth grade teachers (Mr. Amendola) left a great impression on me, by requiring we adopt a "new word-a-day", where we looked up the pronounciation, the definition, and we had to use it in a sentence to verify we understood it. I increased my vocabulary ten-fold that year, and now this is one of my weird avocations; As I said, words MEAN things, and I like those which I use, write or read to be precise in their conveyance. I think this is also why excessive cussing tends to put me off; I figure, (subconsciously of course,) that the individual using the F-bomb as his only adjective has got to have a severely limited vocabulary.

Thursday Thirteen (the merry month of May)

Then came fair May, the fairest maid on ground,
Deck'd all with dainties of the season's pride,
And throwing flowers out of her lap around.
Edmund Spenster

Thirteen Things about The Month of May 1. The month may have been named for the Greek goddess, Maia, associated with fertility. 2. It was first called “May” in about 1430; previously called Mai, Maius,Maigh, or Mayes. 3. May’s birthstone is Emerald. 4. May’s flower is Lily-of-the-valley (or, hawthorne). 5. The astrological sign (Apr 20-May 20) is Taurus. 6. The moon in the month of May is known as the Planter’s Moon (or, the Milk Moon). 7. In any given year, no other month starts on the same day of the week as May. 8. The month of May is considered a particularly unlucky month for marriage. (Marry in May and you’ll rue the day) 9. Children born “between the Beltanes” (1st thru 13th) is said to have the ‘skill of man and beast’; Others must beware not to be led astray by faeries. (*whew*, I skirted that lil’ problem, didn’t I?) 10. Superstition has it that cats born in May will not be good rodent catchers, and worse, might bring snakes into the home! 11. As the fishing season begins in May, it has been a custom since medieval times to bless the sea in this month. 12. In the U.S., May is National Barbecue Month 13. May is Celebrate Older Adults Month. (I just turned 41 yesterday; does that count?!) Bonus: some notable births in May: Robert E. Peary (May 6), Robert Browning & ME (May 7), Harry S. Truman (May 8), Irving Berlin (May 11), Florence Nightingale (May 12) Clara Barton (May 21), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (May 22), Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25), John F Kennedy (May 29) and Walt Whitman (May 31).

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Murder in the Museum (a review)

As I mentioned in my previous posting, Monday (May 5) was the birthday of criminal-prosecutor-cum-best-selling-author Linda Fairstein, and as participation in Becky’s Celebrate the Author challenge, I chose to read her 5th Alex Cooper novel, “The Bone Vault”.

In it, we are taken behind the scenes of New York’s most magnificent and mysterious recesses of both the Metropolitan Museum of Arts and The American Museum of Natural History. A large and controversial new exhibit is set to combine the resources of both organizations, but has raised fierce opposition from some of the museum's elite. Assistant DA Alex Cooper is off duty for the evening, until the director of the Met informs her of the body of a young researcher that has been found in an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. Teaming up with officers Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, they set out to investigate. Somewhere, in one of these great cultural centers, a killer may wait.

I completely enjoyed this procedural mystery, as I have each installment of this series. This is her fifth novel, but only my fourth read in this series. I don’t know why I wait so long between them – having read “Cold Hit” in May of 2003 – because I’ve found each book to be very atmospheric in its real-world detail, and the characters are fabulously fleshed-out and empathetic (I am completely taken with Mike and his NY-style, snarky wit). I do know that I’m glad I took the opportunity to reaquaint myself with Alex Cooper and her world, and I won’t wait so long before I join her again!

(Please watch my sidebar for next month's Author selection)

Some sun and fun

It’s my favorite time of year once again; the weather is beautiful, the birds are chirpin’, the squirrels are playin’, the jasmine is bloomin’, and its just a great time of year to enjoy Florida!

It was beautiful all weekend; unfortunately, I had a baaad bellyache all day Saturday, so I wasn’t a lot of fun. The mister wanted to go canoeing, but I just wasn’t up for it; we were also supposed to go to my girls’ house for a Kentucky Derby party (my heart goes out to that poor lil’ filly, Eight Belles. Such a terrible shame) but we bugged outta that, as well (sorry, Vick! Hope everybody had a good time, just the same)

I did feel a bit better yesterday, and we didn’t want to miss the Fernandina Shrimp Festival, as we make it a point to go up there every year, so we headed north for a few hours and ate some shrimp. As usual, the food was yummy, the tunes were good, and there were tons more vendors/artists this year than I’ve seen before. I got myself a pair of sandals and two summer dresses, so I was happy. I usually take a book to release, and have had great responses in journaling from there, but I forgot to take one along this year. I also forgot the camera (Argh! The matey's pictured above are from last year's festivities). But, it was fun, and that’s the real point, right?!

It’s such a gorgeous day outside, that I may spend a few afternoon hours catching up on my reading; today is Linda Fairstein’s birthday, and I’m reading one of her Alex Cooper novels right now that is Oh! Sooo good! I took some time last week and swept off the front porch and patio, so I have a nice, little hide-away on my front porch swing where I can relax and enjoy the day. However, I have a few chores that I need to get caught up on first, so before I waste too much daylight behind this computer screen, I think I’ll do just that!

Enjoy the day, folks!!

Another Monday

What name would you want have if you were the opposite sex? something very "male" - Jonathan...or, Micheal...Erik, perhaps...Quentin...there are alot of good possibilities.
No offense meant to anyone, but I just don't think I'd want a name that was too androgenous (- says the gal who calls herself "Mo")

Would you share the tooth brush of your spouse/significant other? Why or why not? hmmm...IF I was in a bind - say, we're camping, and we forgot/lost one - then, yeah, I suppose I would share. Prob'ly not the *most* hygenic thing in the world, but yeah, I probably would. I'll eat off his plate, drink after him...why not? Afterall, we've been together almost 20 years; I guess I figure I know where his mouth has been...

What is a song that you love to hate?
"The Wall" by Pink Floyd. I hate that song.

--> You can play, too!