March 2008 Book Challenge - Page 6

[BurtsGirl]

Originally Posted by friendtoall

#14Better Off – great food for thought!

I read this one last year and really enjoyed it.

[eco_mama]

#10 Medicine Women: A Pictorial History of Women Healers By Elizabeth Brooke

In this history of women healers, Elisabeth Brooke explores their role from the early hospitals of medieval Europe to the battlefields of the Crimea, from the place of the Goddess Isis in Egyptian medical lore to the healing rituals of Mama Lola, a Voodoo priestess in New York City.

#1 A Midwife's Story By Penny Armstrong & Sheryl Feldman
#2 Jesus and The Essenes By Dolores Cannon
#3 The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life By Deepak Chopra
#4 Spiritual Midwifery By Ina May Gaskin (4th Ed.)
#5 A New Christianity For a New World By John Shelby Spong
#6 The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore By Deepak Chopra
#7 Paths to Becoming a Midwife: Getting an Education
#8 Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing By Caroline Myss, PH.D
#9 Ina May's Guide to Childbirth By Ina May Gaskin


I'm halfway to my goal and it's not even April!

[Neldavi]

#11 The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd on audiotape
Eh. I really liked the atmosphere and imagery in this book, but I found it kind of boring and predictable. The characters weren't as multi-dimensional as they could have been, either.

#12 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
I love The Wizard of Oz, so I thought the premise of this book was so cool - families and politics in Oz, and what was happening in that world when Dorothy showed up. I found the writing and story a little tiresome and slow at times, though. But a very cool idea.



#1 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone #2 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets #3 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban #4 Little Children by Tom Perrotta #5 Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parents' Guide by Aviva Jill Romm #6 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire #7 Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning #8 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
#9 The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabelle Allende (audiotape) #10 Homeopathic Medicine at Home by Maesimund B. Panos, M.D.

[Jenifer76]

Not sure if this counts but in addition to reading, I am also listening to "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Phillipa Gregory.

[snozzberry]

#8 New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Not as good as the first in the series, but still very engrossing!

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Originally Posted by Jenifer76

Not sure if this counts but in addition to reading, I am also listening to "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Phillipa Gregory.

Audiobooks totally count.

[oceanwinds]

Originally Posted by oceanwinds

March's Books ~

#40 The Kite Runner...Khaled Hosseini
#41 A Thousand Splendid Suns...Khaled Hosseini
#42 Skeleton Crew...Beverly Connor
#43 Airtight Case...Beverly Connor
#44 Daughters of the Earth: The Lives and Legends of American Indian
Women...Carolyn Niethammer
#45 Bones to Ashes...Kathy Reichs
#46 The Birth House...Ami McKay
#47 Twilight...Stephenie Meyer
#48 Eclipse...Stephenie Meyer
#49 New Moon...Stephenie Meyer

#50 Eat, Pray, Love...Elizabeth Gilbert
#51 Forensic Anthropolgy...Angela Libel
#52 Goodnight, Irene...Jan Burke
#53 Sweet Dreams, Irene...Jan Burke
#54 Dear Irene...Jan Burke
#55 Remember Me, Irene...Jan Burke

[kofduke]

#10 - Ocean Breezes: Knitting Inspired by the Sea

Find an ocean of possibilities for diving into a new knitting adventure! Distinctive scarf and shawl designs range from dainty and lacy to classic, cozy, fashion-forward, and fun.
* Choose from 25 skill-building projects such as Cockleshell Lace, Sea Foam, and Turtle Tracks
* Expand your techniques with simple yarn-over patterns, twist and crossover stitches, and fancy ribs
* Play with sea-inspired colorways in designs suited for everything from beach wear to winter wear

#11 Harmony Guide: Cables and Arans

Featuring 250 texture-friendly designs for knitters of all skill levels, this handbook gives techniques for cable, ripple, knot, and twist stitches. The reference provides a multitude of new knitting patterns both for the home and to wear—such as a honeycomb afghan, medallion-rippled sweater, and twisted-arches scarf. Beautifully photographed swatches are displayed with the latest yarns and include easy-to-follow instructions and design tips. An all-in-one guide to creating textures and cables, this crafting resource is the perfect knitting companion.

I've been obsessign with my knitting lately and read these 2 from start to finish!

#1-Garden of Beasts, #2-Passporter Guide to WDW, #3-Skylight Confessions, #4 - The Secret, #5 - The Kite Runner, #6 - Gone, #7 - Hidden Mickeys, #8 - Into Thin Air, #9 - Wolf Point, #10 - Ocean Breezes, #11 - Harmony Guide to Cables and Aran

[Holiztic]

Am now done with the Thursday Next Series (as written so far), loved 1-3, didn't care for 4 (except the Granny Next ending), liked 5.

Now reading The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier

I love her stuff, as I have read Girl with a Pearl Earring and Fallen Angels previsouly. Not too far into this one, but enjoying it so far.

also finished The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffiths (I think that was the author, book its now back in the library and I have no time to google!)

I enjoyed it as an intro to unscholling (as I am a complete newbie to the subject). However, it was very cursory, not at all in depth or specific. then again, I am not sure a book on unschooling, by nature, could be in depth. There were a number of quotes from unschooling families, but then you find out at the end that a number of the families interviewed have been unschooling for only 1 year. Thinking of reading some John Holt soon.

[Holiztic]

Originally Posted by NewCrunchyDaddy

Audiobooks totally count.

They better, since that is how I "read" most of the time as my best reading time is while DS sleeps on my lap and the page turning wakes him, so I listen with headphones! I do miss good old print, though!

[jennaugustson]

Just finished Dancing with the Devil:The Windsors and Jimmy Donahue. Pretty interesting account of their life and the alleged love affair between the Dutchess and Jimmy. I love the time period, so it was a given that I'd like it..Plus, it's amazing to read about how much money these people blew through!!

Book Description:
The story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor is one of the most romantic of all time: Edward VIII abdicated his throne and gave up an empire so that he could marry the woman he loved, American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Very few people suspected, and even fewer actually knew, that the Duchess cuckolded him—and almost gave him up—for a gay playboy twenty years her junior.

Blond and slender, Jimmy Donahue was the archetypal post-war playboy. He could fly a plane, speak several languages, play the piano, and tell marvelous jokes. People loved him for his wit, charm and personality. The grandson of millionaire Frank W. Woolworth, Jimmy knew he would never need to work. Instead, he set about carving for himself a career of mischief. Some said evil.

Gay at a time when the homosexual act was still illegal, Jimmy was notorious within America’s upper class, and loved to shock. Though press agents arranged for him to be seen with female escorts, his pursuits, until he met the Duchess of Windsor, were exclusively homosexual. He was thirty-five when he was befriended by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in 1950. The Duchess was fifty-four, and despite the difference in age, there was an instant attraction. A burgeoning sexual relationship – a perverse sort of love – was formed between Jimmy and the Duchess. Together with the Duke, they became an inseparable trio, the closest of friends. As Jimmy had planned, the royal couple became obsessed with him.

With information from surviving contemporaries, Dancing with the Devil is the extraordinary tale of three remarkable people and their unique and twisted relationship.

[cathe]

"Half Life" by Shelley Jackson

This was a cool premise and well written but I really had to force myself to keep reading it - parts would really move and then it would slow down. It's about conjoined twins - because of radiation, there are a lot of them and they have activists and equal rights groups - kind of a play on the gay rights thing but for "Twofers" - which was very clever and cool - I love the names of some of the movements like Togetherists and the pc protocol for how they address each other.

[cathe]

"Mouse Noses on Toast" by Daren King

Who could resist a title like that! I got it from the library for my daughters but I just had to read it too - very cute book about a restaurant who's speciality is Mouse Noses on Toast - and the revolt of the mice to get it stopped.

[Leilamus]

#7 The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Amazing. Stunning. Captivating. Heartbreaking. Gut-wrenching. I couldn't put it down and I can't stop thinking about it. Definetely an intense book but I'm really glad that I read it.

Cormac McCarthy sets his new novel, The Road, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. If this sounds oppressive and dispiriting, it is. McCarthy may have just set to paper the definitive vision of the world after nuclear war, and in this recent age of relentless saber-rattling by the global powers, it's not much of a leap to feel his vision could be not far off the mark nor, sadly, right around the corner. Stealing across this horrific (and that's the only word for it) landscape are an unnamed man and his emaciated son, a boy probably around the age of ten. It is the love the father feels for his son, a love as deep and acute as his grief, that could surprise readers of McCarthy's previous work. McCarthy's Gnostic impressions of mankind have left very little place for love. In fact that greatest love affair in any of his novels, I would argue, occurs between the Billy Parham and the wolf in The Crossing. But here the love of a desperate father for his sickly son transcends all else. McCarthy has always written about the battle between light and darkness; the darkness usually comprises 99.9% of the world, while any illumination is the weak shaft thrown by a penlight running low on batteries. In The Road, those batteries are almost out--the entire world is, quite literally, dying--so the final affirmation of hope in the novel's closing pages is all the more shocking and maybe all the more enduring as the boy takes all of his father's (and McCarthy's) rage at the hopeless folly of man and lays it down, lifting up, in its place, the oddest of all things: faith. --Dennis Lehane http://www.amazon.com/Road-Oprahs-Bo...5979188&sr=8-1

[A&A]

Originally Posted by Leilamus

#7 The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Amazing. Stunning. Captivating. Heartbreaking. Gut-wrenching. I couldn't put it down and I can't stop thinking about it. Definetely an intense book but I'm really glad that I read it.

I agree.

[Jenifer76]

Listening to "Alphabet of Dreams" by Susan Fletcher.

[Maggirayne]

I just finished Antonia's Choice by Nancy Rue. Deals with a single mother finding out her child has been sexually abused and how she copes and find help for him and her extended family. It was very good in how it explained what happened without being graphic. Also realistic, I thought, in the search for counseling and working through the mother's emotions. I don't know if I would say I enjoyed it, per se, but it was good and I couldn't put it down. However, the author stuck in a demeaning view(from the main character) of breastfeeding a 3.5 yo, and the mother who BFed ended up being one of the molesters. It had no relevance to the story, and made me wonder what was up with the author. The main character mother also weaned at six weeks to go back to work. I guess she never heard of a breastpump. It just kinda annoyed me. Not a for-fun book, IMO.

Originally Posted by eco_mama

#7 Paths to Becoming a Midwife: Getting an Education

I'd like to know what you thought about this one. I just put it on my wishlist on PaperbackSwap. Is it worth getting? I would like to someday be a midwife, but not while the kids are really little.

Originally Posted by Bufomander

#30 When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech for Better and/or Worse by Ben Yagoda
Someone out there has to be as fascinated by this as I was...Right? Right?

I am! I love language and where words come from and how they change and develop and how slang becomes normal, etc.

Originally Posted by nancy926

#13: Loving What Is, by Byron Katie
her whole thing is that we create our own reality using thoughts and "stories" and we often use these to our disadvantage and make ourselves angry and sad. She suggests writing down a diatribe against someone you have difficulties with (spouse, boss, friend, child) and then asking 4 questions of each statement: Is it true? Can I absolutely know that it's true? How do I feel when I think that thought? Who would I be without that thought?

Wow, this sounds so good. I really want to read it. I just read your comments about it to my mom, and she wants to read it.

My library to read list is so long! I add books way faster than I can read them! But doing this, I can see how many books I read in a year and figure out how long it will take me to read all the books on my list.

[Oriole]

March

#18. The Mist (King)
#19. Almost Heaven (McNaught)

A great book if you are looking for a romance novel to read. Tender love scenes, great suspence, and characters you care about. I'm off to get more J. McNaught... Although the library is running out... and I'm starting to panic, as I have no money for books at the moment.


February '08: #10. Forever... (Blume), #11. Perfect (McNaught), #12. The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), #13. Reading Lolita in Tehran (Nafisi), #14. The Giver (Lowry), #15. A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier (Beah),
#16. Rape of Nanking (Chang), #17. A Kingdom of Dreams (McNaught)

January '08: #1. On Chesil Beach (McEwan), #2. Twilight (Meyer), #3. New Moon (Meyer), #4. Eclipse (Meyer), #5. Sold (McCormick), #6. The Continuum Concept (Liedloff), #7. A Great and Terrible Beauty (Bray), #8. Time Traveler's Wife (Niffenegger), #9. Papa, My Father (Buscaglia)

[cathe]

"Chasing Windmills" by Catherine Ryan Hyde

I really enjoyed this - it's adult fiction but really could have been YA as well - about a 17 year old boy, kept isolated by his overbearing father (mom supposedly dead) who sneaks out at night to ride the subways in NYC. He meets a young woman who is also out riding the subways to get away from her abusive husband - and of course they get together and then there's trouble.

[snozzberry]

#9 Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Another engrossing chapter of the series. But I'm starting to get a little annoyed at the characters. Bella because she's so darn helpless and always needing to be saved. Edward because his controlling behavior is super-creepy in an abusive relationship sort of way sometimes. Jacob because he forces himself on Bella physically, and it pays off in the end. But with that said, I will definitely be ready and waiting for the fourth and final installment!