June 2009 Book Challenge - Page 3

[Bufomander]

#59 The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

[Alyantavid]

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by cathe

Oh -- and Fremontmama -- I totally noticed and was thrown by the new format too.

Oh thank you! I'm so glad I wasn't the only one

Originally Posted by Bufomander

I think I'm on #58...
A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg
good stuff.

I ADORED this book. She and her husband are opening a pizza place not far from our house. I've been checking out her blog every once in a while. It's fun.

Originally Posted by Jenifer76

ACK! I feel old now.

Holy moly! Me too! Alex P. Keaton is totally my age

I'm reading a bunch of stuff at the same time right now. Mostly in order of what's due back to the library Calm and Compassionate Children by Susan Usha Dermond is really good. I might have to buy it. I'm also reading Love in the Time of Colic, Free-Range Knitter and Lord John and the Devil's something. I'm feeling a tad scattered. I'm about 57th (out of about 300 or so now) in line for 55 copies of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. :

[kbond]

Didn't mean to make people feel old. It's just always made me feel a little weird to realize that I have a crush on someone my Dad's age so I had to put it out there.

I also like him because he's short! Us short people have to stick together you know.

[kangamitroo]

Originally Posted by cathe

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

Historical fiction about a young teen girl in Philadelphia during the yellow fever epidemic. Fast read and well written. Think this would be for upper elementary/middle school age. I'm going to pass it to my 4th grade dd.

hadn't thought of this one in a while. i knew a 5th grade girl, a philadelphia resident, who became totally obsessed with this book. she recommended it to everyone she knew, even made art projects about it.

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by kbond

Didn't mean to make people feel old. It's just always made me feel a little weird to realize that I have a crush on someone my Dad's age so I had to put it out there.

I also like him because he's short! Us short people have to stick together you know.

Oh no worries, I meant it in the most light hearted way And yes, short people UNITE!

[cathe]

Originally Posted by Jenifer76

ACK! I feel old now.

Yikes -- Me too! But I also think it's cool that we can have multi-generations here in our book group

[Jenifer76]

Ditto to fremontmama. No worries. All in good fun.

- Signed a fellow shortie

[Jenifer76]

Confessions of a Mommy Handler by Wade Rouse

What a great quick read! In his second memoir, Wade writes about his time as a PR person for an exclusive prep school (aka "mommy handler"). His job is to keep the meanest of the Moms happy at all times -- and it is no easy task. As he points out, these women have never been told "no" and wouldn't know what the word means. He is both appalled and attracted by their power.

[Fiestabeth]

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

Very fun. I was definitely laughing out loud at times. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it turned into a movie. It reads a little like a screenplay.

[Bufomander]

Originally Posted by mammastar2

#29 - Innocent Blood by PD James

Very well-written. Not exactly a mystery, but not straying too far from her usual genre ever. About a young woman who applies to find out her adoptive parents when she is 18 and discovers her father raped a child, and that her mother then murdered the child. Her mother is getting out of prison, and the mother and daughter begin to live together. At the same time, the father of the murdered child is tracking them with murder in mind. Good read!

Cool, I'm glad you liked it!

Originally Posted by kbond

#35 Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox
I'll admit that I have always had a secret crush on Michael J. Fox even though he is literally my Dad's age. I was a Back to the Future fanatic. This is the first of Fox's books that I've read though, and while I will probably go back and read his other memoir Lucky Man, I wasn't blown away by the writing. There were several insights about life and optimism though that I'll be mulling over for a while.

Yep, MJF is one of my few Hollywood crushes (along with Pierce Brosnan and Bruce Boxleitner....)

Originally Posted by fremontmama

I ADORED this book. She and her husband are opening a pizza place not far from our house. I've been checking out her blog every once in a while. It's fun.

Cool! You'll have to let me know what you think of the pizza place when it opens. Sigh. I would love to live in the PNW. Colorado is pretty cool, too, though. I should be happy with where I'm at.

[kaliki_kila]

45. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Graham and Jane Austen

silly. Jane Austen would be so proud. :

46. The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson

Amy Dickinson is the advice columnist who took over after Ann Landers passed. About how her husband left her and she went back to her small hometown to raise her baby Emily as a single mother.

[kaliki_kila]

47. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are two boys, best friends born on either side of Halloween night. A carnival comes to town and all kinds of crazy stuff happens. I read this because I loved Farenheit 451 and wanted to read something different by the same author. The author's passion for books and libraries is here just the same as it was in Farenheit 451. Will's dad, Charles Halloway, works in the library and he was my favorite character. He says things to his son that probably any dad would want to say to their son if only they were that eloquent. I thought the whole carnival storyline was a little confusing and just the background to the real story - Will's relationship with his dad and his dad's insecurity about feeling old and seeing his son so young and alive. The haunting, rhythmic writing style really makes the story come alive.

"What's the answer, he wondered, walking through the library, putting out the lights, putting out the lights, putting out the lights, is it all in the whorls on our thumbs and fingers? Why are some people all grasshopper fiddlings, scrapings, all antennae shivering, one big ganglion eternally knotting, slip-knotting, square-knotting themselves? They eat the dark, who only stand and breathe. That's Jim, all bramblehair and itchweed. And Will? Why, he's the last peach, high on a summer tree. Some boys walk by and you cry, seeing them. They feel good, they look good, they are good..." (p 17, 18)

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Originally Posted by kaliki_kila

47. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are two boys, best friends born on either side of Halloween night. A carnival comes to town and all kinds of crazy stuff happens. I read this because I loved Farenheit 451 and wanted to read something different by the same author. The author's passion for books and libraries is here just the same as it was in Farenheit 451. Will's dad, Charles Halloway, works in the library and he was my favorite character. He says things to his son that probably any dad would want to say to their son if only they were that eloquent. I thought the whole carnival storyline was a little confusing and just the background to the real story - Will's relationship with his dad and his dad's insecurity about feeling old and seeing his son so young and alive. The haunting, rhythmic writing style really makes the story come alive.

"What's the answer, he wondered, walking through the library, putting out the lights, putting out the lights, putting out the lights, is it all in the whorls on our thumbs and fingers? Why are some people all grasshopper fiddlings, scrapings, all antennae shivering, one big ganglion eternally knotting, slip-knotting, square-knotting themselves? They eat the dark, who only stand and breathe. That's Jim, all bramblehair and itchweed. And Will? Why, he's the last peach, high on a summer tree. Some boys walk by and you cry, seeing them. They feel good, they look good, they are good..." (p 17, 18)

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this book. One of my top five favorites. I try to read it every October. That seems to be the best time for it, at least I think so.

[Alyantavid]

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

And I'm off to the library tomorrow for something new and hopefully not a series.

[cathe]

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

A 50-year-old women--psychology professor who lectures all over the world--starts forgetting things and becoming disoriented and finds out she has early-onset Alzheimer's disease. This book is so well done so that the reader really sees what's happening and gets a glimpse into what it's like for the person suffering from this.

I LOVED this book -- it was so good, though scary.

[DaughterOfKali]

The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman.

Well written, very engaging. Happy times, troubled times. I like the little bit of mysticism that pops up in it.
(I hope they will make a movie out of it...With Sandra Bullock in it, of course)

[mammastar2]

#30 - Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Not being all that up-to-speed with unknown classics, I hadn't heard of this until the movie came out. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie now that I've read the book. Yates' writing is amazing - cold and observant and quite wonderful.

Written in 1961 but set in 1955, the story centers on Frank and April Wheeler, a young suburban couple who fancy themselves above the suburbs, as they come unmoored. I really enjoyed it, and I liked how the issue wasn't really the emptiness of the suburbs, but more the emptiness of the people, and how they deflect it by blaming their surroundings.

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by Bufomander

Cool! You'll have to let me know what you think of the pizza place when it opens. Sigh. I would love to live in the PNW. Colorado is pretty cool, too, though. I should be happy with where I'm at.

Oh, I always think Colorado sounds pretty nice too. Outdoorsy and stuff
I will certainly be reporting on the pizza from her place. I was so excited when I found out she still lived here in Seattle and was opening a place. Her recipes all sound so good. I've got the lemon cake and chocolate ginger banana bread on my to be cooked agenda.

Originally Posted by NewCrunchyDaddy

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this book. One of my top five favorites. I try to read it every October. That seems to be the best time for it, at least I think so.

This is on my to read list. I saw the movie when I was a kid. Really good. October seems like a good time for it for sure!

Originally Posted by cathe

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

A 50-year-old women--psychology professor who lectures all over the world--starts forgetting things and becoming disoriented and finds out she has early-onset Alzheimer's disease. This book is so well done so that the reader really sees what's happening and gets a glimpse into what it's like for the person suffering from this.

I LOVED this book -- it was so good, though scary.

That sounds super scary! Kind of a worst nightmare type of thing for me.

Originally Posted by mammastar2

#30 - Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Not being all that up-to-speed with unknown classics, I hadn't heard of this until the movie came out. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie now that I've read the book. Yates' writing is amazing - cold and observant and quite wonderful.

Written in 1961 but set in 1955, the story centers on Frank and April Wheeler, a young suburban couple who fancy themselves above the suburbs, as they come unmoored. I really enjoyed it, and I liked how the issue wasn't really the emptiness of the suburbs, but more the emptiness of the people, and how they deflect it by blaming their surroundings.

What sort of feeling did you come away with? I thought it seemed like it might be sort of depressing? But I'm just going by my impression of the premise.

[mammastar2]

Originally Posted by fremontmama

What sort of feeling did you come away with? I thought it seemed like it might be sort of depressing? But I'm just going by my impression of the premise.

Well, I suppose it was rather depressing, in that it's not a happy book filled with happy people. Yates is not an emotional writer, but an observant one, and I enjoyed his observations (some of them rather stinging, if understated) very much. It's not a book to wallow in, more of a book to think about.