Been a long time....

Well it's been a long time since I posted on my blog, I was just happy to see that it was still here. I had some family issues and some personal issues way back when I stopped posting and for a while *gasp* stopped reading! However, things are more or less back to normal now and I am reading away and again feeling that tug to document & comment on my reading. So here is a list of what I have read (that I can remember) so far this year and a little snippet, basically just a "liked it" or "hated it" though as I am sure I've mentioned before I will rarely say that I hated a book, because if I truly hate it, I know within the first few chapters and I don't normally continue reading it.. Unless I feel very, very compelled to add it to my list of books to say that I've read.. Such as The Modern Library 100 that I'd like to get under my belt and the books on the list in Susan Bauer's The Well Educated Mind.

So here we go, I will be working backwards from current read and trying to remember those I've read pretty much in order...

White Thorn Woods by Maeve Binchy - I am still reading this one and have been alternating on loving it and just barely liking it.

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict - This was a cute book, sort of chick lit but sort of not.

The Friendship Test by Elizabeth Noble - I liked this pretty well but not as much as her 1st.

The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble - I LOVED this one.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult - I loved this one as well, similar in some way to my first and still my favorite book of Picoults - The Pact.

Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult - I loved this one too, I can't really think of a Picoult book that I haven't really loved, which is why I savor each one and try not to read them all too quickly though they've been sitting on my bookshelf for years, I got on a bender with her recently though and knocked back three before finally getting enough to wait to read the others.

Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult - Another great one, particularly touching in that it includes a very evocative characterization of a little girl whose possibly having visions and speaking with God.

The Grays by Whitley Strieber - Oooh I just loved this creepy oddly uplifting take on the old "Aliens are among us" schtick.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - I had heard about this one for years before I finally read it, many people I've spoken to put this up there with the best books they've ever read. It was very, very good and did not disappoint. I still need to mull on it, before committing to saying it was a "best ever" but it is possible.

Thursday Next (First Among Sequels) by Jasper Fforde - I adore this series and the characters and wish it hadn't taken so long for this latest installment to arrive on the seen. I was afraid I might have to go back and re-read the others but that proved unnecessary as I fell in with the characters as with a pack of old friends I hadn't seen in a couple of years... I loved it and was left wanting more and soon!

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris - Yep, you guessed it, I loved this one too.. I have had quite a run of books I loved.. This one helped with the withdrawals I was having between the second to last and the season finale on True Blood the HBO series based on these books... and then I went and missed the Season Finale and of course the damn thing isn't even available On Demand Grrr... Guess I'll just have to wait for the season to start again, they always play the previous seasons episodes just before the new season starts for the year.

Okay there are a lot more to add to this list but I'm going to have to stop here for the moment, as I have work to do. Until next time... happy reading.

Birthday Books ~Whoo-Hoo!~

My birthday is July 10th but for the past several years I have had two extra birthday's, two whole month's actually, where people send me gifties, books specifically. I belong to two group's that formed in a Yahoo book group. We are a group of between 9 & 13 trustworthy, thoughtful, book-crazed women, a "birthday group" every month each member (excluding the birthday girl) sends a book(s) to the birthday girl from her Amazon wishlist. This is my month, in one of the groups, my other birthday group birthday is in December, just in time for winter reading.. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? ;-) Well.. it is! Anyway, I have been getting great books from my wishlist. So, I thought I would share some of the treasures I have been getting. There are so many good books out right now. Here's a few of them... (I've provided links to each book at Amazon, just click on the title)

For the environmentally concerned:


Food Not Lawn's by H.C. Flores
A book about turning your yard into a garden but also about connecting with your neighbors and forming a sort of coalition with your neighbors in your efforts to eat more fresh foods and reduce our impact on the planet. Their are all sorts of topics touched on like organic gardening, eating locally, ecological living, environmental management, healthy living etc.. I started reading this one, just as soon as it came in.. Unfortunately, since it's a short month, it's had to take a back seat to some of the challenge books I've been reading this month. I can't wait to get back to it.

Similarly, another book I received is about eating locally:

Plenty: One Man, One Woman and One Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith & J.B. Mackinnon

A sort of memoir about an environmentally conscious couple who decide to eat only food grown or manufactured within 100 miles of their home. My thinking has been running along these lines lately, especially with the recent slaughterhouse footage released showing the inhumane treatment of obviously sick cows that are being sold to American's and though this is the only footage I have been privy to, I have a feeling this is not necessarily the exception. Eating a vegetarian diet has begun to root in my mind as the "right thing to do" though I may starve.. Books like this one, I think will help inform me so I can make these important decisions regarding my own health as well as my environmental & moral responsibilities.

Luckily, all of my reading isn't reality based...

I got two dark fantasy novels; both part of new-to-me series with vampires as central characters. I think every reader has a guilty pleasure genre(s), books we read just for fun and paranormal novels are mine.


Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

I am not entirely sure what the main character is but she lives in an Atlanta that has been ravaged by some sort of magical disaster and her job is to cleans up magical messes, so I assume she is some sort of witch, though Mage's are mentioned in the description, I don't really know what a Mage is, so.... Anyway, in this first book in the new series she becomes involved in a feud between the local undead (vampires) and the shapeshifter community. I just love this junk.. it's like the salty greasy potato chips of the book-food chain..


Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance

This is the second in this series about Cassandra Palmer the worlds Chief Clairvoyant. She is evidentely new on the job and just learning the ropes but everyone else in the paranormal community wants a piece of her. A master vampire has put a Geis on her, a metaphysical spell that warns off any potential suitors and causes an intense attraction between her and said vampire.. The first in this series is Touch the Dark.



And for a little comic relief...

A second book from hilarious heroine and memoirist Jen Lancaster, author of Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office - Which I found exceedingly funny, she is so bad, as bad as the title leads us to beleive, but it's one of those books that serves as a mirror, when we hold it up sometimes we see ourselves.. or maybe an extreme version of ourselves.. She does all the things that most of us only want to do or dream of doing, like telling your boss to go to hell or setting an appointment nazi at the hair salon straight.... She is just too funny.

In her new book Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl's Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me? Just the title makes me laugh, this book is apparently about life in the big city and how it sucks.. One thing you can be certain of, it will be funny! I can't wait to see what Jen's been up to, she is one of those wryly, dryly, self deprecating, honestly funny personalities that make your sides hurt from laughing. To get a taste of this chick's brand of funny, check out her blog Jennsylvania.com.

I want to read these right away:


I cannot wait to read Man Walks into a Room by Nikole Krauss
a literary novel about a man found in the desert, whose lost his memory due to a tumor. After having the tumor removed he can remember his childhood up to age 12, but no further. He returns to his life in New York, where he is an English Professor with a wife and friends he doesn't know. Unable to feel anything for his previous life, he submits to some strange experiment to try and recover his lost memories. According to the description this delves into the supernatural somehow, which is intriguing in and of itself but as interesting is this characters plight.. Imagine if you lost your memories and couldn't remember the life you are currently living.. How could you go on?, how to forge relationships with people who have loved you for years, for whom you feel nothing? Great premise for a novel, eh? That's why I can't wait to read this one.. It might not even make it into the TBR closet, I might just have to put it next to the Lazy Boy...


I really enjoyed The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty ,
a coming of age and mother/daughter relationship novel about an intelligent, awkward, misfit of a girl with an irresponsible, negligent mother. Set in the 80's, I found so much of the atmosphere familiar, as this is when I grew up as well. With the Iran Contra hearings and the ill fated space shuttle setting a background to the quiet midwestern town in which she lives. Moriarty's new novel is a sequel to this one.
In The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty the little girl is all grown up with kids of her own, a teenage son and daughter, with whom she's unable to connect, then her daughter runs over and kills another girl in a car accident pushing their already fragile relationship to the limits. With flashes back to her own childhood and her relationship with her own mother. I love revisiting characters from books I have read and it's even better when it comes unexpectedly, this is not a book I would have ever have expected to have a sequel.

So all my birthday goodies are stacked up and ready to be dispersed to their respective destinations until I can find time to read them.. Some will be go into the permanent bookshelves in the living room where I will keep them for reference or for loaning, after I read them.. Some go into my Vampire TBR shelf, yes I have a whole shelf of them LOL and some will go to the TBR closet.. and a few will likely skip the TBR all together and end up next to the Lazy Boy where this girl sometimes gets to lay around lazily reading, it's been a long time since I spent a day reading, I just might be due...

Falling Angels by Tracy Cheveliar

Book #7 for 2008

Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
I read this one for my TBR challenge,it's been lingering in my TBR for years.

This was my first attempt at actually reading a Tracy Chevalier book. I had listened to both Lady and the Unicorn and Virgin Blue on audio, greatly enjoying both. So I have been accumulating books by her ever since. I have discovered so many great authors by first listening to their books on audio. Any time I am uncertain if I will like an author, I will just listen to one of their audiobooks, that way I don't waste precious reading time getting to know a new author.

Falling Angels is set in a town just outside London in the early 20th century, a time of political, religious and sexual change for everyone but particularly for women. Two families: the Coleman's and the Waterhouse's, become aquainted on the day of the Queen Victoria's death, as they visit the local cemetary and look over their new funeral plots, situated beside one another. Mr and Mrs. Coleman and their daughter Maude are the more modern family, with a beautiful but headstrong wife and plain but levelheaded daughter, Mr. Coleman is just beginning to feel the stress of marrying an excessively attractive wife and not keeping her happy. The Coleman's are more traditional, especially Mrs. Coleman, a plain woman, who sees herself alone as moral compass and finding all others to fall short. Maude Coleman and the lovely but irritating Livy Waterhouse become fast friends and the mothers must do their part to masquerade their dislike for one another. Livy, her younger sister Ivy May and Maude meet Simon the gravedigger's son and apprentice the same day they meet one another and though he is not of the same social standing the four forge a friendship that will last throughout their childhoods. Simon, Livy and Maude are all about the same age and the nearly mute but keenly observant Ivy May is a few years younger. Of the four Ivy May is my favorite, she is observant, intelligent, speaks only when their is something important to be said. Maude is intelligent but far to forgiving and innocent of things going on around her. Other than Ivy May and Maude, the rest of the Coleman and Waterhouse families are rather unlikable, I really just didn't like the characters in this book much. Eventually the families become neighbor's both in life and in eventual death, the story chronicles nearly a decade in the lives of the Coleman's, Waterhouse's and their myriad connections, including the cemetary overseer, Simon and his family and the matriarch of the Coleman family as well as their servants. As the women's movement warms up and the familie's through Kitty Coleman and her obsessive involvement. As the novel reaches climax, you just know something terrible is going to happen. Though all of the characters due to their own unique shortcomings share responsibility for the disaster that happens, their true character is revealed in how they handle their losses. I found the story very readable and as usual with Chevalier is really pulls you in and doesn't let go until the tale has been spun. I would recommend this book and give it a solid 7.5/10

Tuesdays with Morrie

6th book of 2008
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
as part of my TBR challenge.

This book went unnoticed in my TBR for many years. I know it was a huge bestseller but with one thing or another, I just never got around to it. I wish someone had mentioned to me what an important book it is. It's no surprise to me why this is required reading at some of the high schools in my area, as well as, I am sure others. I am so glad I read this book and I am keeping it on my permanent shelf, because I know I will be looking back in it for years to come.

I felt so inpired after I read this.. It made me want to be a nicer person, to try and make a difference, to help people. Though the book was published in 1997, it is still way current, it made me think of that song from the 70's What the World Needs Now... (is love sweet love) Well according to Morrie, we still need love but I'd add that the world needs to read this book. Morrie Schwartz through Mitch Albom has given us a blueprint for fulfilling life.

Morrie was Mitch Albom's favorite professor at Brandeis University nearly 10 years before Morrie was diagnosed with and rapidly succumbed to ALS also known as Lou Gerhig's disease. Mitch and Morrie had grown close in their years as student and teacher or Player and Coach as they playfully refer to one another. Though he had promised to, Mitch failed to keep in touch after graduation. H struggled to make it as a professional musician, then as a successful sports reporter and journalist while Morrie kept pace with the students he continued to teach at the University. Mitch next sees Morrie on TV being interviewed by Ted Koppel, it was then he learned of Morrie's illness and imminent death. When he visited his old professor they were as if never parted. That is how it started, on a Tuesday and for the next 14 Tuesday's Mitch arrives and watches his friend's body deteriorate and listens to as well as records the lessons this his old professor reveals in the last class of his life. Morrie covers just about every situation life throws at us and if he doesn't cover it, then it probably isn't important.

I very, very, very highly recommend reading this wonderful, life changing book. You won't regret it. I give this a resounding 10/10 and wish there were more numbers on the scale, it's that good. Read it!

The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz

5th book of 2008
The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz is one of my favorite authors, after the painful reading of Madame Bovary, I needed to read something that I knew would be good. This book does not fulfill any of my challenge requirements, but I had to read it... As I have said before, I have to be able to read spontaneously on occasion.

This book is a dog lovers delight, anyone who loves dogs and thinks there are more to them than meets the eye, will love this book. It is the first book so thoroughly dedicated to Koontz's own love of dog's, specifically Golden Retrievers, since Watcher's that he wrote an eon ago.

Amy Redwing operates a Golden Retriever rescue service. We come into the story as she and her boyfriend Brian on on their way to rescue a dog whose owner is abusing it. The dog she rescues is Nickie and she can immediately tell that this dog is different, there is an intelligence and grace about her that is unlike other dogs. The name of the dog is also significant to Amy, though we aren't privy to the reason for this until later.

Amy's other dogs also immediately recognize in Nickie something superior and defer to her without any of the usual power struggles. Several incidence's prove to Amy that there is something odd and possibly even supernatural going on in connection with the dog. Meanwhile, Brian, an architect and artist is at his own home, suddenly obsessed with drawing Nickie's eye's, and experiences some similar supernatural occurences, that can't be reasoned away.

We then meet some bad guy's who are investigating Amy and her past, following her around and breaking into her home and stealing old photo's from a life Amy has long since left behind.
Similarly, Brian is receiving email's from a long ago lover, who had his child and has been tormenting him with news of the girl, who has down syndrome and she refer's to only as "Piggy" for 10 years, without ever letting him so much as see the child. Enter Moongirl and Harrow, some of the most despicable characters Koontz has ever invented, murderers and glorifying in the torture and killing of the innocent. Koontz brings this myriad of characters together as seemlessly as usual.

Brian & Amy are lured to a remote spot in hopes of retrieving his daughter, but something sinister awaits them. Their only hope is the dog Nickie, who is seemingly possessed of a divine spirit. Readers will love the characterization and the animals, as well as the positive message this book provides. This wasn't the best book I have read by Koontz but it was certainly good and very heartwarming as well. A natural for animal lovers and thriller readers alike, I give this one a 8.5/10

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

4th book of 2008

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert –
Read for Thematic Classic Challenge group's January theme - Places you'd like to visit.

My first choice for this month's classic challenge theme was
The Count of Monte Cristo, also set in France, where I have always wanted to visit. However, I discovered halfway through the book that my copy was abridged. So I went with Madame Bovary instead, which is also a book in my Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge, my TBR challenge & my personal Well Educated Mind challenge (from the book by the same name by Susan Wise Bauer)

I thought that this book looked similar to something by Jane Austen, only with a slightly sluttier main character. I only wish it was.. Flaubert's style is nothing like Austen's, it does not read smoothly and is quite frankly rather boring. Considering the subject matter (a faithless wife) you would think it might be a really exciting book, not so, at least not IMHO. Basically the book follows Charles Bovary up until he meets his second wife Emma. At first Emma seems a decent person and perhaps just the right kind of wife for Charles, whose as dull as a they come and not all that intelligent either. As the novel switches from Charles' POV to Emma's the reader realizes that Emma is exceptionally well read, but she's let all that she's read become a yearning for romance and passion that she will never find with her husband. She tries to be a good wife for about 5 minutes and then she begins to manipulate her husband in some really wicked ways, feigning sickness in order to get him to move to another area, though she'd had something along the lines of Paris in mind, they end up in another town as small as the one they just left. She is pregnant when they arrive and gives birth to a daughter soon after, but she doesn't have a maternal bone in her body, so her search for fulfillment goes on. She finds solace from her increasing depression in the friendship of a young clerk who she falls in love with. She manages to control herself in that case, but it isn't long before she's embroiled in an affair with another man, who is wealthier, more exciting and passionate than the husband she has by this time come to hate. She just goes down hill from there, manipulating her husband into signing over power of attorney to her (unheard of in that time) and getting them into serious financial trouble trying to fill the emptiness she still feels despite the affair she is carrying on, the family she now has & all the baubles she's buying up. It continues on in this same vein until she finally has her comeuppance.

I really had a hard time getting through this book, I found it boring and I detested Emma and her inability to try and make a nice life for herself and her family. I realize that she didn't love her husband and that he didn't provide her with the life she imagined. I also realize that during this era women were not able to marry as they might like or experience life to the fullest but her selfishness and disregard for her husband and child just really irked me. I can't say I was very impressed by Flaubert or this book. But I am happy I finished it, another classic under the belt!
I give this a 3/10 and wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't got a boatload of patience for very little pay off.

TORNADO!!

Last Tuesday night 1/29/08 we had a line of storms whip through the area (Southern Indiana) very quickly, lots of downed trees and powerlines etc... The lights went out about 7:45 as we were watching the forecast, instead of Jeopardy, that we wanted to be watching. We didn't even realize it was storming, you never realize how much noise there is in a house until the electricity goes out. We immediately heard the rain & wind lashing the trees about. We were still lighting candles when the wind and rain sounds turned to a rumbling sound.. which for those of you in the midwest probably know could very likely be a tornado. We quickly moved to the bathroom (our only inner room) and waited for it to pass, which took less than 5 minutes. We knew there were some trees down in the road, because the road crews were out there with their chainsaws and we had seen by flashlight that we had a tree down in our side yard, a dead one that had been about to fall for months but that wasn't the end of it... The next morning when my husband was leaving for work, we saw the extent of the damage, and we are just devastated. We live on 13 heavily wooded acres and we love the woods and all the critters that live there.. The front half of our property is fine, as the majority of the trees are on the back 8 acres. There are at least 100 trees down or just sheared off, leaving trees with an open wound and it's top discarded nearby.... I am so, so sad about this loss, it will never be the same, but we were luckier than some, a woman down the street was killed when her trailer was flipped over. Wednesday they finally confirmed that it was a F-1 tornado, which vindicated us, everyone, including the insurance company kept telling us they hadn't heard about any tornado's in our area. I would love to see an aerial view of the tornado's path but it's fairly evident just following the downed trees. A path of destruction leads through the back of our neighbor to the south's property, onto the back of ours, through our woods toward the house, veering past the barn (which a tree fell on) & down into the valley between our land and my parent's land to the north, alongside the back of their pond dropping a tree there and another in the next yard. We went out and walked the property the next night and it was just about enough to make me sick to my stomach, so much beauty just obliterated, in five minutes... I took some pictures. I am including one that shows the area before for a comparison.

This is the before shot, it's hard to tell because of the sun, but there were probably 75 mature cedars on the backside of the pond (that open area there is a pond) all but just a few of them are gone, as you can see in the picture below.

This is what is left of the tree's behind the pond and most of those left are damaged and will not survive .



This was taken from back inside what used to be the woods and shows just a bit of what happened to the tree's, they are just down everywhere, stacked upon one another.. I couldn't even begin to get the whole mess in one picture.



This used to be a path about as wide as a car, completely cleared that led from the woods to the back of my parent's pond.

This is another shot from in front of the pond, before the tornado, you could barely even see the skyline, one thing, now we can see the sunsets, instead of them being hidden behind the tree's but I would take the tree's over the sunset any day.

This the top of the tree that was on the barn, winds or the weight caused it to fall off of the barn before I could get a picture of it. This is the only thing the insurance company will pay for and they are bringing a "professional" to decide whether the barn was already leaning before the storm. The barn is almost 100 years old, so yeah it might have been somewhat delapidated.. but we were still able to use it and it was much sturdier than it looked.

Give me some Moore! Christopher Moore to be specific...

Audiobook #1
for 2008

Have I mentioned, how much I love me some Moore? I know there are many Moore's but for me, none of them can hold a candle to author Christopher Moore. His latest book You Suck: A Love Story is also available on audio (I downloaded mine from audible.com), I of course had to get both!

I have enjoyed his books in both audible & readable formats, their very different kinds of experiences and neither is to be missed. I, however, tend to prefer them on audio. Moore's brand of humor is odd to say the least and he painstakingly researches his books, so much of the information is analytical and descriptive and the funny thing about it, is not so much the information itself but the voice telling it. He goes into great detail bringing his characters to life, so that the reader can hear them in their head, but our heads are not Moore's head and listening to the audio version is the only way to really hear this story as he meant it to be heard.

Though all of his audiobooks (that I've listened to) are by different narrator's, I think he must go to special pains in choosing the right readers. Each one performs as if they were meant for the part or rather parts. Susan Bennett who performs You Suck is a one woman show, incredibly talented, flexible & with a wide range of voices and accents at her disposal, she may just be the best narrator I've heard yet. She's switches seemlessly from goth girl Abby Normal to the wino with his huge cat Chet to San Francisco cop Rivera with his sexy spanish accent & back again in the blink of an eye.

For those who've not yet been initiated into the world of Christopher Moore, You Suck is the long time in coming sequel to his only other vampire novel Bloodsucking Fiends in which we meet Jody, as she wakes up under a dumpster, where she instinctively took shelter at daybreak after realizing she'd become a vampire. The ancient Vampire Elijah Ben Sapir came to San Francisco in hopes of siring a new child of the night, but he wasn't ready for fiery red head Jody. Pissed off and with a boat load of attitude she stalks the night, fighting off the blood hunger as well as she can, feeding on the sick when necessary. She meets Tommy, an innocent 19 year old Indiana boy, whose new to San Fran and working as a night stocker at a grocery store. Through Tommy we meet The Animal's the night crew at the grocery store, who spend a lot of time goofing off and smoking pot. In need of a person who can do things during the day for her, she hooks up with Tommy and then falls in love with him. A lot of other things happen as well but I don't want to spoil the fun for anyone. Suffice it to say, Jody and Tommy emerge mostly unscathed or they wouldn't be starring in the sequel. In You Suck, we meet back up with Jody and Tommy, just after Jody has turned Tommy, the first line: You Bitch! You Killed me! You suck! but Tommy loves Jody, not to mention, she lets him have sex with her. So, though he thought it was inconsiderate of her to kill him without his permission, he gets over it, rather quickly. Since Tommy is now unable to be her daytime guy, they need a new minion, enter Abby Normal, 16 year old vamp wannabe (whom was introduced briefly in Moore's last novel A Dirty Job) Abby in my opinion is the true star of this book and maybe even the funniest character that Moore has created to date. Her chapters are diary entries in The Chronicles of Abby Normal which I can only hope will appear in full someday in the form of a novel.. (hint, hint) Her goth/valley/teenager way of speaking is over the top hilarious. Abby is only too happy to do the bidding for the couple, hopeful as she is to be brought into the fold and infatuated with Tommy. When the Animals return from their wild weekend in Vegas with a Blue prostitute (dyed blue skin) named Blue (of course) who they've been employing, long enough to lose the fortune they attained in Bloodsucking Fiends (you'll have to read it to find out how). She's leading the Animals around by a certain part of the male anatomy and soon knows all of their secrets, the largest of which is that Jody is a vampire.. Blue is not a nice girl, needless to say and becomes obsessed with capturing the couple for her own purposes. Meanwhile, Jody & Tommy just want to get a new apartment, a steady source of blood and learn how to use all of their vamp powers to their fullest. As usual trouble finds them, again and again, in it's many guises. This book is just the funniest thing I've picked up in a long, long time. I highly recommend it, and though I don't often recommend listening to an audio over actually reading the book, it is just too good not to.

I can't imagine it's easy to perform a book like You Suck but Bennett makes it sound effortless. She is as much to be commended for this great book as is Moore. I couldn't find anything about Bennett other than that she's narrated two other audiobooks Full of Grace by Dorthea Benton Frank & Excuse Me, But I Was Next: How to Handle the Top 100 Manners Dilemmas by Peggy Post I listened to samples of each on audible.com and found them both appealing even though neither is something I would normally buy.

Kudo's to both Bennett & Moore, I can only hope that this is the start of a long relationship between the two and we'll be hearing more of Moore's brand of zany comedy in the future and that Bennett will be serving it up. The end of You Suck was left in a way that another installment could be forthcoming (a girl can hope). Also, at the end of this audio was a nice interview with Moore, in which he reveals a bit about the book he's working on, in his words (doing to Shakespearian England what he did with Biblical Jerusalem in Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal)

I for one am looking forward to it, or really anything this guy puts out and I will probably choose it on audio.. his are consistently some of the best I've listened to. I give You Suck: A Love Story a smashing 10/10 rating.. and say Give me some Moore!!!

Thoughts on Emma Bovary

I started reading Madame Bovary over the weekend and I have to admit I am a bit disappointed. I found the first few chapters interesting and assumed I would like the rest just as well. I liked Emma a lot when Charles first met her, but I think that was because though the book is written omniciently, what I was reading in those first few chapters was seen through Charles' eyes and he loves Emma. When the chapters that are seen through Emma's eyes started I was increasingly irritated with her. The more I read the more irritated I became. I can perfectly understand a young woman's disillusions with marriage and boredom in that era, when women had no occupation but keeping a nice home and cooking fine meals. However, her increasing interest in the higher classes and romantic notions of viscount's and passion, just make me want to strangle her. It's so typical and common, I would much prefer reading about a woman facing the same obstacles who finds a way to overcome them and make a better life for herself. A woman who honor's her vow's and does what she can to improve her husband, to help mold him into the man he could be. Charles loves Emma enough to do anything for her, but she rebuffs his every touch, can't stand the sound of his voice, she hardens her heart to him, making any attempt he might make to rectify the situation impossible due to her certainty that he cannot provide her with the things that will finally make her happy.. Truthfully, I don't think anything can make Emma happy and she is destined for a tragic end and though I know that this is the very mechanism of the novel.. I don't much care for it. I can say that Flaubert's use of language, his descriptive prose is lovely.. however can be a bit tiresome, especially when it's Emma's fanciful daydreams that he's describing.. I think in all I find Emma to be a repulsive brat, who should have stayed in the convent where she was educated. Even they were glad to see her go! Am I alone in hating Emma? Are their those who find her a sympathetic character? Is it possibly just due to my modern sensibilities and my ability as a woman of the 21st century to have many more choices than she? I guess I will continue reading.. try to give the woman a chance to redeem herself, though I doubt it will happen.. Since, I made the mistake of searching the internet for others feelings about this book and in doing so, had the ending revealed to me.. Damn Wikipedia!~!!

My Year of Reading Dangerously

I think I've finally decided on my books for the My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge.
I'm not going along strictly with the reading they suggest, which is okay according to the rules. The tenets of this particular challenge are basically just to read 12 books in 2008 that intimidate you. I have many reasons for being intimidated by the books I have picked. Many of them have to do with having tried several times to read a book and not being able to get into them. I have listed each book below, along with my reasons for it being Dangerous ;-)

1. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - This is the first book chosen by the hosts of the challenge, I think this will likely be really good, but I am a bit intimidated by it anyway, since I have never read anything by Dickens and it's a classic..
2. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison - This is also one of the picks by the hosts, I wasn't crazy about Morrison's Beloved on a lot of levels but in retrospect it keeps getting better. Hopefully this one will be better.
3. Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood - This is where I begin to deviate from the plan ;-) They actually have another Atwood book on the list (Cats Eye) which I do have but this one is more intimidating to me due to having tried to read it several times and failing each.. Hopefully this time will be better.
4. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert - This is one that I have had for years in the TBR but never read it due to it being by a foreign author, being a reknowned classic & not really thinking it looked like something I would want to read. I actually started on this yesterday and I am happy to report that it is so far very good.
5. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - This is one recommended by the hosts and has also intimidated me for years. I only wish I had in my TBR..
6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - I have been putting this one off for year.. it's time.
7. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane - This is one I have to read for the Well Educated Mind list I want to complete and it looks like something I have very little interest in reading..
8. The Kiterunner by Khaled Hosseini - This one has been sitting in the TBR for a long time.. I just really don't like books set in the middle east.. too depressing. However I have heard a lot of good stuff about it.. So I will give it a go..
9. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - I actually started reading this got about 200 pages in and realized I was reading an abridged edition.. I ordered the full edition, I wasn't intimidated until I realized this was over 1,000 pages long. YIKES!
10. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - I have tried four times to start this book and each time failed.. Plus the subject matter is a little off-putting to me as well..
11. The Zahir by Paulo Coelho - So many people love Coelho, the one book I tried to read by him I had great difficulty with and didn't finish. I hope this one proves easier.. It's part of my A-Z challenge and it's the only Z book I have... LOL
12. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - Getting back with the program this is another one recommended by the hosts and since I have never read any Steinbeck and have tried to read this twice, I am giving this one another go.

Total and Utter Irritation

Three days ago I began reading my classic for the month, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I immediately fell in love with the characters and was hooked well before my normal 50 page rule (If I'm not feelin' it by 50 pages I am allowed to quit reading it) Nevertheless the story spoke to me and I found myself turning pages late into the night. On the first night I was on page 88 and I thought it odd that what I considered to be the whole first half of the story (basing my estimation on the movie) was already over, in 88 pages.. Odd but alot of stories are adapted much differently for the screen.. Then today and yesterday I have spent a good deal of time reading and I am almost halfway through the book.. but certain things were bothering me from time to time.. I felt like their were parts missing, characters I could never remember reading about or who were brought into the story in a way that made me think I had skipped over thier original introduction into the story.. Most of you probably know where I am going with this.. and if it's ever happened to you, you know how frustrated I am right now..

The bottom-line is the damn book is an abridgement!! It looks just like a regular book, at the top it says Bantam Classic, the title and author and then at the bottom in very small, thin type it whispers Translated and Abridged by Lowell Blair (the butcher) my nickname not theirs.. So I curse Bantam and Blair for ruining my experience reading this great book.
I am just going to stop, I ordered a real copy which is twice as many pages in a much larger format book, this one was a mass market and 560 or so pages, the one I ordered is 1200 some odd pages in a trade paperback.. I swear I have never wanted to throw a book away so badly.. I can only compare this to my first year of Algebra, when I threw the book across the room repeatedly over the semester, until the spine was broken, the pages falling out & I knew my prime numbers and all that other stuff I have since forgotten.. I mean really, how often do you use algebra in daily life.. Not very often, I bet I got a few early grey hairs just from that book alone.. Well come to think of it, that was far more nerve wracking and frustrating that discovering I was reading an abridgement.. At least I did enjoy what I was reading.. I just hate that I am going to be reading at least 250 pages again that I have just read.. Grrr..
I am going to bed, this just ruined my Saturday night up all night reading a good book..

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

Book #3 of 2008

All Together Dead - 7th in Southern Vampire Series
By Charlaine Harris

I found the 7th installment in Harris's Sookie series (Southern Vampire series) to be just as much fun as the first 6. Although, the more of them I read the more I notice Harris's dire need for a good proofreader, but typo's not withstanding, I did enjoy it quite a bit. Though, not nearly enough Eric for my personal taste (he's my favorite of Sookie's potential suitors) but Quinn, the Weretiger she's dating is growing on me.

In All Together Dead, Sookie has been hired by the beleaguered (after Katrina) Vampire Queen of Louisiana to accompany her contingent to the national vampire summit. At the summit the queen will be tried for murdering her husband, the King of Arkansas and Sookie will have to testify, as she is the only witness, as well as serve as the queen's psychic for all other meetings. Of course, Eric will be there and Sookie will be forced to get closer to him than she really wants to, which causes some friction between her and Quinn. Bill is along as well, peddling his genealogy software and trailing behind Sookie at every turn, obviously still in love, even if he is dating someone else. After his forced revelations in book 6 (he was forced by the Queen to meet and date her) she refers to Bill in this book as "the one I have abjured" referring to the Were practice of pretending he doesn't exist due to his betrayal. She has a some fun hanging around with Barry the Bell Boy (from Living Dead in Dallas) the only other psychic she's ever met, who is now employed by the King of Texas. Having conversations in their minds and generally freaking people out.

After a few murders and other incidents, she is forced to play daytime detective for the vamps and Barry tags along to help. She, as always will be up to her neck in trouble of the murderous variety. One thing I can say about Harris, she doesn't avoid tragedy and where many just have tragic things almost happen, Harris goes full tilt and allows things to follow their natural course and then has her characters pick up the pieces and move on. Sookie seems a little more philosophical in this book, with a lot of thoughts on her position among the vamp's and were's as well as the contempt others hold her in for the same. She also touches on some issues about predjudice & hate. Given the serious issues, it has a bit more substance than the previous books but It's still a fun installment that previous fans are sure to enjoy.
I give it a 8.5/10 rating.

Duncan Delaney & The Cadillac of Doom by A.L. Haskett

#2 For 2008

Duncan Delaney & the Cadillac of Doom
By A.L. Haskett

There are all sorts of books out there, every now and then you run into a real oddball, Duncan Delaney and the Cadillac of Doom is certainly that. Reminiscent of Christopher Moore's (Lamb, The Stupidest Angel etc.) "kidding on the square" or square on the kidding, as the case may be, brand of humor. Haskett's humor is a bit more readable that Moore's is, don't get me wrong, I love me some Moore, but it sometimes not a not without work considering the subject matter he sometimes delves into. Haskett's brand of humor is a little more straight forward and easier to put into context.

In Duncan Delaney and The Cadillac of Doom, we follow the story of a Colorado cowboy/artist. Being heir to the family ranch doesn't really interest him, his needs are really simple, he needs to paint and he needs beer, painting provides beer and Duncan is a fairly happy guy. He's got a hot girlfriend, a crazy best bud, money enough for beer & art supplies and a place to live. Though he's not dumb as it appears he might be at the beginning, he is a simple kind of guy which is the source of much humor, he is also a sincerely nice guy, even harder to believe in the secondary setting of LA, another source of humor.

The story opens on Fiona (Duncan's mom) issuing the ultimatum take an active part in the running of the family ranch or get a job before she gets back from a business weekend or find a new place to live. As far as Duncan is concerned he has a job, he is an artist who paints the type of cheesy stuff that Colorado tourists want, Cowboy's & Indians. After having a dream about his dead father, he decides its time he started making it as a serious artist. So he packs up for LA and leaves without telling anyone but his friend Benjamin where he's going. Leaving behind a ticked off and vengeful ex-girlfriend, a mother determined to find him and his best buddy Benjamin (he's got two more weekends to serve at the county jail).

Benjamin is a lovable troublemaker with a serious chip on his shoulder, this book wouldn't be nearly as good without him. When Benjamin finds himself released early from his obligations to the law, he heads out west to meet up with Duncan. Personally, I found Benjamin's trip west the funniest part of the book.

Duncan, meanwhile has arrived in LA, acquired a cat & rented an apartment in LA across the street from a strip joint. He's made friends with the strippers, a bouncer & a motorcycle gang, sold a few paintings and fallen in love.. He's also made a potent enemy, the benefactor & self proclaimed girlfriend of the woman he's fallen for, an insane Harley riding lesbian who wants him dead. Hilarity ensues.

I think this book would make a hilarious and action packed movie, it's not really about anything, but the comedy is hard to beat. One of the funniest books I have ever read, that didn't really have a strong plot. Worth the read for comic relief alone. 8/10

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks

Book #1 - 2008

YEAR OF WONDERS: A NOVEL OF THE PLAGUE BY GERALDINE BROOKS

I thought this book was fitting for my first book of the year and I couldn't have picked a better one. This is a fictionalization of true events that happened in a small English village in 1666.
The account is told in first person by the village minister's maid, Anna Frith. Anna is the recent widow of a miner and mother of two young boy's. She takes in a lodger, a tailor from London, in town to make clothing for one of the wealthier families. Anna falls in love with him but before they can marry, he falls ill and dies. No one realizes they are dealing with the Plague (Black Death, Bubonic Plague), until a few weeks later, when other villagers begin falling ill. The rector calls for the citizen's to do something remarkable, close the town off to avoid spreading the disease to the other villages in the area.

As the plague travels from household to household, villager to villager yet skipping over some people entirely, there seems no rhyme or reason for the causes of the illness. Many search fruitlessly for what they have been exposed to that may be infested with "plague seeds" since they did not realize that flea's could carry a disease to human beings in that day and age, it never occurred to them, that basic cleanliness may be the key. There is a point in the book when Anna's son and a friend are playing with dead rats that serves as an ominous portent.

As friends and family pass away from this foul disease, those left behind lose all sense of reason, turning to gossip, superstition, radical religious pursuits and fear. A witch hunt, an unscrupulous grave digger, a few murders, insanity & violence ensue. With no law but that of the church, no medical assistance but that of the two local "wise women", who most of the town fear as witches, they are sorely set up for independence. The noble minister Mr. Mompellion who originally called for the quarantine and his wife Eleanor Mompellion do the best they can, offering faith & nursing the sick. Anna herself is recruited to help in nursing the sick as well as delivering babies and discovers she has a knack for it. Soon she and Mrs. Mompellion are studying and learning all they can of herbal knowledge in search of a cure but at best can relieve some of the worst symptoms. In this role of healer she is witness to many of the villager's deaths and other's descent into madness as well as giving the reader a birds eye view through her.

Brooks is adept at creating wonderful characters, the good as well as the vile and ignorant. Though she gives the account in a simple, easy to read prose, I found myself conflicted at times over the rightness or wrongness of the characters deeds, one can understand the kind of madness that descends on these people and causes them to do the unthinkable. I really enjoyed this book not only for it's historical significance, great writing and believable characters but for it's ability to make the reader question right and wrong and see the gray area in between. Anna and Eleanor shine and are definitely the stars of this book, readers will root them on, while fearing for them at the same time. The climax is momentous and as wrought with mixed feelings as the rest of the book. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys character driven novels and/or historical fiction.

Reading My Name Challenge

I am adding yet another challenge. This one sounds like a lot of fun, it's called Reading my Name Challenge and it's hosted by Callista, . You have to read at least two books between Feb. 1 and May 1st that have either your name in the title, same name as the main character or in the authors name. It can be your first, middle or last name or any derivative of any of your names. I am still trying to stick with reading from my current TBR.. It makes it easy to find a book too, since I can search my Librarything shelf for books with my name in them.
So these are the books I have chosen:

A Friend of the Family by Lisa Jewell
Sliver of Truth by Lisa Unger - Authors name is the same as mine.

Alphabet TBR Challenge

****ALPHABET TBR CHALLENGE****

Since I haven't had any luck finding an Alphabet or A-Z Challenge that is only A-Z titles and not authors (I don't want to read 52 books for any one challenge, since last year I only read 63 total). I've decided to go ahead and make my own personal challenge to read a book that starts with each letter of the alphabet and read them only from my existing TBR. I am going allow myself to overlap challenges, since this a big percentage of my books for the year. I will link the titles to my review for them as I finish them. Anyone who wants to join in and link to this one, feel free.

A - All Together Dead by Charlaine Harrison <--- Click title for my review
B - Blind Assassin, The by Margaret Atwood
C - Count of Monte Cristo, The by Alexander Dumas
D - Duncan Delaney & The Cadillac of Doom by A.L. Haskett <--- Click title for my review
E - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
F - Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier <--- Click title for my review
G - Gift Upon the Shore, A by M.K. Wren
H - House on the Strand, The by Daphne Du Maurier (A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham)
I - Invisible Man, The by H.G. Wells (In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker)
J - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
K - Kiterunner, The by Khaled Hosseini
L - Lilith's Dream: A Tale of the Vampire Life by Whitley Strieber
M - Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
N - No Exit and Three other plays by Jean-Paul Sartre
O - Our Town: A Play in Three Acts by Thornton Wilder
P - Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt
Q - Quickie, The by James Patterson
R - The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
S - Sparrow, The by Mary Doria Russell
T - Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A by Betty Smith
U - Utopia by Thomas More
V - Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay
W - We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
X - Xingu by Edith Wharton
Y - Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks <--- Click title for my review
Z - The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession by Paulo Coelho

All Time Favorite Books

- In No Particular Order -

• Dark Tower Series by Stephen King
• From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz
• Good In Bed By Jennifer Weiner
• Lady Susan by Jane Austen
• Mayfair Witch Series by Anne Rice
• One Door Away From Heaven By Dean Koontz
• Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
• The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• The Stand by Stephen King
• The Stolen Child By Keith Donohue
• The Thirteenth Tale By Diane Setterfield
• The Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde
• The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
• Swansong by Robert McCammon
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  

The Books I read in 2007 & Ratings

#67 - * Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper by Diablo Cody - 10/10
#66 - April Witch by Majgull Axelson - 8/10
#65 - The Dead Father's Club by Matt Haig - 8.5/10
#64 - * The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 10/10
#63 - Chasing the Dead by Joe Schrieber - 6/10
#62 - A Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier - 8.5/10
#61 - Northanger Abbey 8/10 & Other Short Stories
(* Lady Susan 10/10), (The Watsons 9/10), (Sanditon 7/10)
by Jane Austen overall rating 8.5/10
#60 - * Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen 10/10
#59 - * Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen 10/10
#58 - Brother Odd by Dean Koontz 9.5/10
#57 - Dracula by Bram Stoker 9.5/10
#56 - The Bitch in the House by Cathi Hanauer et. al. 9/10
#55 - An Incomplete Education: 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned but Probably Didn't
by Judy Jones & William Wilson - 8.5/10
#54 - Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers 8/10
#53 - A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman - In Process
#52 - Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevski 9/10
#51 - Mistral's Kiss (Merideth Gentry Series) by Laurell K. Hamilton 6/10
#50 - * Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison 10/10
#49 - The Well Educated Mind By Susan Wise Bauer 9/10
#48 - Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban 9.5/10
#47 - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 8/10
#46 - *Into the Forest by Jean Hegland 10/10
#45 - Ammie Come Home by Barbara Michaels 6/10
#44 - Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland 8/10
#43 - Damage by Josephine Hart 8.5/10
#42 - Age of Consent by Howard Mittelmark 6/10
#41 - Kitty & The Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn 8/10
#40 - The Good Guy by Dean Koontz 9/10
#39 - Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella 3/10
#38 - The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty 9/10
#37 - Danse Macabre (Anita Blake series) by Laurell K. Hamilton -7/10
#36 - The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards - 6/10
#35 - Wildwood Road by Christopher Golden - DNF
#34 - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - DNF
#33 - Peony in Love by Lisa See - DNF
#32 - * The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue - 10/10
#31 - Paint It Black by Janet Fitch - 8.5/10
#30 - Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon - 9/10
#29 - The Three Day Rule by Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees - 8.5/10
#28 - Change Your Life Challenge by Brook Noel - 9/10
#27 - Nearlyweds by Beth Kendrick - 5/10
#26 - The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi - 8/10
#25 - The River King by Alice Hoffman - 9/10
#24 - The Messenger of Magnolia Street by River Jordan - 8/10
#23 - * The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - 10/10
#22 - Maybe a Miracle by Brian Strause - 9/10
#21 - Creepers by David Morrell - 8.5/10
#20 - Dating Can Be Deadly by Wendy Roberts - 5/10
#19 - Timeless Love by Judy Hinson - 3/10
#18 - Accidental Happiness by Jean Reynolds Page - 9/10
#17 - Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson - 8/10
#16 - Malinche by Laura Esquival - 8/10
#15 - Bitten & Smitten by Michelle Rowan - 7/10
#14 - Don't Kiss Then Goodbye by Allison Dubois - 3/10
#13 - The Matter of Grace by Jessica Barksdale Inclan - DNF
#12 - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut - 8/10
#11 - Naomi's Room by Jonathon Aycliff - 7/10
#10 - The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd - 10/10
Audio #2 - Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon - 7/10
#9 - Dancing in the Shadows of the Dead by Jana Matheson - DNF
#8 - Miriam the Medium by Rochelle Shapiro - 5/10
#7 - Lost & Found by Carolyn Parkhurst - 9/10
#6 - Breakfast with Tiffany: An Uncles Memoir by Edwin John Wintle 10/10
#5 - Midnight Work by Kassandra Sims - DNF
Audio #1 - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - 9/10
#4 - When We Do Meet Again by Hollie Van Horne - 3/10
#3 - The Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman - 8/10
#2 - Cross by James Patterson - 8/10
#1 - The 12th Card by Jeffery Deaver - 8/10

OTPS Challenge

OTPS - OnthePorchswing is a Yahoo group that I belong, full of fun, smart, fabulous readers who love books and there isn't a lot of non-book chatter as it's restricted (for the most part) to talk of books and reading. Click here to check it out!

The Challenge at OTPS is real basic but sounds like a lot of fun. Based on words in the title which I have listed below before my selections and since I am trying to do all my challenges from my TBR, I have chosen alternates as well.

A book with a color in either the title or the author's name:
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
(Alt. - With Red Hands by Stephen Woodworth)

A book with a person's name in the title -
Lilith's Dream: A Tale of the Vampire Life by Whitley Strieber
(Alt. - Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy)

A book with the word house, home, or cottage in the title -
The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier
(Alt. - A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham)

A book with the word family, brother, or sister in the title -
A Friend of the Family by Lisa Jewell
(Alt. - Sleep, Pale Sister by Joanne Harris)

A book with some type of water in the title (ie. ocean, lake, pond, river, rain, etc.) -
The Widow Down by the Brook by Mary McNeil
(Alt. - The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman)

TBR Challenge 2008

This year, I've decided to try adding some challenges to my reading. This is the 2008 TBR Challenge (still taking participants if your interested.).

Basically, read 12 books that have been in TBR longer than 6 months. I thought this was an excellent challenge for me, since I have this huge TBR (over 1600 now!) and I tend to read my newer books and all the others get swallowed by the great vortex that is my TBR, never to be thought of and in some cases, seen again..
Anyway, I chose a lot of books that I am sick of looking at in my TBR, but they are all books I want to read and have heard great things about. This challenge allows a alternate list as well so that even if I can't get through one on my list, I pick an alternate and I still get rid of a book from the TBR.. Click on the highlighte titles for my reviews, I will add them as I work through the list
Here's my list:

1. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
3. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
4. Cane River by Lalita Tademy
5. Lost by Gregory McGuire
6. Child of My Heart by Alice McDermott
7. The Kiterunner by Khaled Hosseini
   
8. A Gift Upon the Shore by M.K. Wren
9. Falling Angels by Tracy Cheveliar
10. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
11. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
    
12. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

My Alternate's in case any of these don't work out

1. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
2. Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
3. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
4. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
5. Gap Creek by Robert Morgan
6. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
7. Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay
8. The Dive from Claussen's Pier by Ann Packer
9. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
10. The Pillars of Earth by Ken Follett
11. The House on Sprucewood Lane by Caroline Slate
12. She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb