Summer Reading - "The Woods"

I've started several books, but I haven't gotten further than the first couple of chapters.  All I wanted to do this summer was read and watch movies, and I'm hardly doing either one!  So I was getting some books I've been wanting from Paper Back Book Swap and came across "The Woods" by Harlan Coben.  The description was intriguing, so I decided to get it.  It arrived right before we left for a quick out-of-town trip, so I threw it in my suitcase in case I had time to read.  Of course, when we're on a trip, I always read a lot more and get on the computer a lot less! 

The book's protagonist is haunted by the death of his sister 20 years before, presumably a victim of a serial killer at a summer camp when they were kids.  The story follows Paul Copeland as new information about his sister's disappearance comes to light and he learns more about his family.  Interestingly, Coben writes in the first person, but the reader is a participant in the narrative, as the text is written as though the narrator were speaking directly to the reader.  The pace of the writing was also good, making for a fast read.  Suspense, plot twists, and interesting characters make for a great mystery thriller.

The only issue I had with this book was the ending.  The book is considered a stand-alone book, but Coben leaves an end untied and an opening for a follow-up book.  In a stand-alone novel, I prefer the ending to end the book, not leave me wondering.  This is not a major issue, however, considering that the rest of the book was well written and fun to read.

Summer Reading

In addition to watching lots of movies, I plan to read and read and read some more all summer long (and hope that it I can make time to continue in the fall).  In the past week, I've read 2 books.  One I've been working on little by little for about 3 weeks and finally finished.  The other I finished off in about 2 days.  Would it surprise you that I devoured the 849-page "11/22/63" in just under 48 hours (actual reading time was much less - I did get some sleep in there)?  Gawd, I love his books.  I think I'll do the same with books as I'm doing with the movies, just a little review to share with anyone who happens to stop by my blog.  The same disclaimer applies to books as to movies - I can find something I like in just about everything I read.  If I can get through the first chapter, I'll finish the book.  If I can't get through it, I won't finish it.  Simple as that.  My main criteria for books are (1) give me believable characters and dialog and (2) get me hooked from the get-go.  If an author can do those things, I can step into the pages and be lost for as long as it takes to get to the last page.  Sometimes it's 3 weeks, sometimes 2 days - one never knows.

Eiger Dreams - Jon Krakauer
This book is a collection of essays that Krakauer has written, some previously published individually in outdoor magazines.  The stories are geared toward mountain climbers of the extreme variety, so the name-dropping meant nothing to me.  The descriptions are what get me every time with his books - vivid descriptions of people and places and objects and events that I get drawn in and stay there, wondering what happens or who I'll meet next.  It was the same with this collection.  Another aspect of Krakauer's writing that I particularly enjoy is his laid-back style of writing.  He's a storyteller, and his stories read as though he were sitting in the room, telling the story to a rapt audience. 

More by Jon Krakauer:  Under the Banner of Heaven, Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and various essays on Byliner.com (read "Three Cups of Deceit if you've read "Three Cups of Tea" or "Stones Into Schools" by Mortenson)

11/22/63 - Stephen King 
He's done it again.  I love love love love this book.  I was intrigued as soon as I first heard the idea of this book - a time traveler who goes back in time to try to stop the Kennedy assassination.  It's the story of a pretty regular guy with problems like everyone else has.  He goes back and the bulk of the story is his life in the past, leading up to 11/22/63.  There's love, suspense, mystery, history (both truth and fiction), and characters that make you root for them.  Just like every King novel, I'm always sad at the end when it's over, but I am never able to slow down when I read, to savor each word, sentence, and paragraph - when I said I devoured the book, I wasn't kidding.  I'm sure I'll read it again, and catch many more bits and pieces that I missed this time.  Until then, I'll think about time-strings and the butterfly effect and wonder how this blog changes the future.....

My favorites by Stephen King: The Dark Tower Series, Different Seasons, and The Stand

Some of the books I'll be reading

• The Wind through the Keyhole - Stephen King (newest addition to the Dark Tower series)
• The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
• Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
• Let's Go Play at the Adams' - Mendal Johnson
• The Last Summer (of you and me) - Ann Brashares
• Shoe Addicts Anonymous - Beth Harbison
• East of Eden - John Steinbeck
• Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
• The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

 
What are you reading this summer?

Writer's Block

I don't know what to write.

I could write about the semester being over this week and how I have been anticipating this summer break for weeks - anticipating the sheer amount time I'll have to do things to take care of the house, my family, and myself. 

I could write about the students who didn't pass the class and are now scrambling to do extra work to pass - seriously?  How about doing the homework that was assigned and actually passing a test?  But I feel like I'm always griping about students, so no. 

I could write about the Bay to Breakers coming up this Sunday, which I'll be walking for the 6th time, and how unprepared and old I feel.  Ugh, I don't want to think about it! 

I could write about the fact that I didn't lose any weight in the last year, but at least I maintained, so I should be comforted, right?  Isn't that what people are supposed to say?  "But at least you stayed the same.  It could have been worse!"  Yeah, I feel all sunshiney now, thanks.

Maybe I could write about what I really feel about my nephew being on a mission is a South American country with the goal of converting people to a religion that was started by a con man (I suppose you can guess how I feel about that). 

I could write about my Mother's Day, but then I'd have to admit that it wasn't as good as I wish it had been.  I saw Dark Shadows, and I went alone.  (And that was the good part.) 

What about books?  I could list the start of my summer reading list.  I'll tell you that it starts with Stephen King - is anyone really surprised?

I could write about couponing and how my lack of time hasn't allowed me time to do much shopping lately, but we're not lacking for anything because I have a small stockpile.  Yes, small - I don't need $25,000 worth of stuff!

I could write about the trash TV I like to watch.  Every once in a while it's fun to watch the paternity test results on the Maury Povich show.  A woman had been on there NINE times for the same kid. Ouch.

Or I could write about paying off my student loan.  It will be paid off in the next year - only about 10 years early.  That's a great feeling.  And paying it off will mean that we are debt free - no car payments, no student loans, no credit cards - absolutely no credit of any kind ever again.  Amazing.

I could write about my offspring.  A teenager and a toddler-going-on-teenager.  It's a wonder that the gray hair is limited to only a few strands.  The munchkin is not thrilled with the word "no" lately, so she's been a real treat to deal with.  The teenager actually took out the trash cans last night without being asked.  He even brough them in today without being asked.  Wow!

I could write about Howard Stern on America's Got Talent.  He's a nice change of pace from Piers Morgan, though he hits to buzzer faster than Piers did.

But I guess I won't write about any of those things, at least not tonight.

Resolution Time!

Everyone starts talking about resolutions - it's the NEW YEAR; we must set goals!!  I can't help but think about those things I've been wanting/needing to do.  The beginning of the year does seem like a good time to write them down, create a checklist, if you will.  I may not accomplish them all, but here is what I have so far:

1.  Lose about 35 more pounds by May 20 for the Bay to Breakers and for Sylvia's wedding on May 26 (spaghetti straps - eek!!!).  This one is a must - I want to beat my time at Bay to Breakers and want to have rockin' arms for the wedding!

2.  See more movies at the movie theater - I miss seeing movies!  The summer I saw everything that came out is still one of my favorite summers.....

3.  Read at least one "for fun" book every week.  The book club book is one, now I just need to do 3 more a month.  Right now, I am reading "Nickled and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich.  Well, I started it anyway..... 

4.  Blog more - at least once a week.  My poor blog gets neglected when I get busy, but I want to make it a priority.  Writing has always been something I've enjoyed, and I feel good when I do it.  So I need to get to it!

5.  Get organized and stay that way.  Yeah, I don't know about this one.  I am semi-organized, but I have a hard time keeping the clutter at bay.  I used to be sooo neat at my old job.  My desk was always neat when I left for the day, and everything had a place.  I was super organized at work, but I've never been able to completely carry that over to home.  I think I might have to call a professional organizer for this one.

6.  Pay off the last debt - my student loan.  With my new, old job, we should be able to pay off the balance this year.  I am so excited to be done with debt. 

So there they are - my "resolutions" for 2012.  I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing!

Happy New Year!!   

Book Club Selection - April

Reading Waiting for the World to End by Nicole Hunter this month. 

So far, it's a slow read, but interesting. After reading essays, in which I hunt for sentence fragments for hours on end, the author's extensive use of fragments is kinda wearing on me.  She also uses the second person narration A LOT, which drives my crazy, as it's mixed in randomly with the third person narration of the rest of the story.

I'm not even half way through; I thought a week would give my plenty of time to read this one, but I find myself thinking of ways to avoid reading it.  I think it's probably a good story, but the delivery is not my cup of tea.

The Sunday Evening Blog

This makes the third Sunday in a row that I've written. Could this be a habit in the making?  Let's hope so.

I've been thinking of something to write this week, and because my life is not as eventful and wildly interesting as I would like, there are limited topics to discuss: bad students, good students, my kids, Farmville.... See, not all that extensive.  Or exciting, for that matter.  But then I remembered the nifty little gadget that I got for Christmas and have just now put to use - my Nook.


I love my Nook.  I have tons of books at my fingertips.  Currently, I am reading "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett for the book club meeting this month.  It's a great story so far.  I'm not that far in, but I have a feeling I am going to greatly enjoy this one.  I long for the days in high school when I could read a 500-page novel in a day because I had the time.  I may just make it in time for the meeting with this one.


This is also my first experience as being part of a book club.  I was invited to join by one of my colleagues at the business school, and my supervisor and another director are also in the group.  The women, who have been together for many years, were very welcoming to a newcomer.

So far this year, we've read "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier and "Devil's Bargain" by Jade Lee. When school gets busy, I usually just read Harlequins because they're all the same formula and don't require any deep thinking.  They're a good escape after reading textbooks and student papers all day.  But the book club reading list is taking me out of that zone and getting me back into real reading again.  I didn't realize how much I missed finding new books and reading different things.  Thank you book club!

And I have to thank Howard for getting me a Nook because without it, I would have to add to our already overloaded giant bookshelf!  Did I mention that I love my Nook?

Downsizing

Downsizing for most people probably involves getting a smaller space, cutting out the clutter, that kind of thing.  For us, it means purging the bookshelves.  For those who don't know, when we moved into our house, we built a massive wall of shelves.  Seriously massive.  This is no sissy bookshelf.  It's 9 feet high and 14 feet across.  The lower 3 feet is cabinets to house CDs, DVDs, and even some VHS tapes that we just haven't gotten around to replacing yet...  Which leaves, of course, 6 feet of open shelving for books.  And we've filled it - nearly every inch of it with books from Dr. Seuss to the Qu'ran and everything in between.  And it still wasn't enough, especially considering that we are constantly reading and acquiring new books.  Today, we downsized a little bit, and our books can breathe a little easier.  There's actually space on some of those shelves!

In addition to the books we wanted to keep, we had approximately 8 boxes of books in the garage that we knew we didn't want to keep.  We have a hard time throwing out books (could you tell?), so we didn't want to just dump them.  And yet we also would like to see some kind of return on our investment, so we were hoping that at some point, maybe someone would buy them all at a garage sale.  No luck there.  I found a site called Cash4Books (http://www.cash4books.net/) and thought it looked promising.  Nothing like getting some cash for all those books, right?  That would be true if they bought all the books.  They don't.  But I'll get to that later.

I also found another site called PaperBackBookSwap (handy link is on the right side of my page - sign up, it's free, I get credit, yadda yadda).  This is cool - post your books and send them to people who request them.  In return, earn credit for each book you send that can used to request a book from someone else.  You pay postage to mail the books, and you receive your requests free.  So $3 for a book instead of $10-whatever.  It's cool.  I got 2 of my book club selections and am waiting on several more to arrive.  I sent out 6 books today, and have about 13 more in the queue.  The cost to send them adds up, but I will have that many "free" books coming my way in the future.

So, after finding these sites, I realized that we could try to sell some and whatever we couldn't sell at Cash4Books, I would post on PaperBackBookSwap.  And today that's what we did.  We set up an assembly line, if you will.  Howard ran the ISBN numbers through Cash4Books, setting aside those that could be sold through them.  Everything else came through me to post on the Swap.  Of the nearly 200 books we went through, we are able to send 11 to Cash4Books for a total of about $42 (and they pay shipping).  The rest have been posted on the Swap.  I already ran out of Tyvek envelopes! 

At the end of the day, we've done a good thing.  We downsized the bookshelves, decluttered part of the garage, made a little cash (well, as soon as we send the books), and will make many people happy with books for their own collections.  It was sad, too.  We threw away about 2 boxes of books - some of the books had no ISBN numbers and were just in bad shape, and another box had been peed on by a cat (damn those neighborhood cats sneaking into my garage!)...  And I now have 4 four-foot stacks of books in my kitchen, so perhaps I'm not as decluttered and downsized as I thought?