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Monday, January 21, 2008
Is this thing on?
Boy oh boy am I the feet-shuffling type of embarassed. I completely forgot about this book blog!
New years always bring new desires to read more. So I'm going to try this log thing again, though it may not have reviews & read times this time around (we'll see).
Just finished James Frey's "My Friend Leonard" which simultaneously amused and irritated me. I can't even tell you. I'll expand on that later.
Renewed my library card, and much to my delight they've really updated their cataloguing system etc. so hurrah for the SPL!
Posted by: Slowplum at: 8:41 PM
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Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Wherein my own procrastination becomes my undoing
It's been way too long since I posted my reading comings and goings, and I feel like it's too late to play catch-up. I have read plenty in between things but mostly re-reads of old favorites, and reading stuff for the book club I'm in. Basically what I can remember:
The Harry Potter books (all 6) - J.K. Rowling
Memoirs of A Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Fionavar Tapestry - Guy Gavriel Kay
Jane of Lantern Hill - L.M. Montgomery
A Complicated Kindness - Miriam Toews
Messiah - Boris Starling
Jurassic Park - Michael Chricton
Emma - Jane Austen
Sense & Sensibility - Jane Austen
The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
Angels & Demons - Dan Brown (I must confess I put this one down 4 chapters in. I just stopped caring about it.)
I know I read more than that but it escapes me at this point. I have promised myself to be a do-gooder and take better care of my book chronicling. I don't think I'll continue with reviews though. We'll see.
Posted by: Slowplum at: 9:04 PM
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Thursday, March 16, 2006
I'm a slacker.
So sue me. I got le j-o-b and got busy.
Here's what I need to enter when I get a minute:
Dear Prince Charming - Donna Kauffman
Mable Riley: A reliable record of humdrum, peril, and romance - Marthe Jocelyn
Couplehood - Paul Reiser
A Series of Unfortunate Events, books 1 - 12 - Lemony Snicket
The thing about Jane Spring - Sharon Krum
I know I read more, but that's what you get for slackery and not jotting things down. Does reading banking manuals count? I have done loads of that kind of reading.
Posted by: Slowplum at: 9:56 PM
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Sunday, February 05, 2006
Harriet Spies Again - Helen Ericson
ISBN: 0-385-90022-8 (Hardcover)
Pub: Delacorte Press, March 2002
Book borrowed from the Library.
Ericson continues where Louise Fitzhugh leaves us off - Harriet is turning twelve, she and Simon go to different schools now, she is still spying away. In this story, Ole Golly returns with a secret, Harriet encounters a precocious young girl in the building across the street, and her parents are in Paris. The book stays true to Fitzhugh's form, punctuated with Harriet's journal entries and hilarious outbursts. It is easy to see why Fitzhugh's estate permitted Ericson & Delacorte Press to publish this companion novella.
The humor, the love, and the heart are all there. Excellent book and I'd recommend it to anyone who loved the first Harriet book. My only issue would probably be that the encounter with the young girl really had nothing to do with anything. Also I am biased and wish she'd just get together with Sport already!
Time to read: 1/2 day on and off.
Rate: ****-
Posted by: Slowplum at: 4:15 PM
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Tuesday, January 31, 2006
note to self
When I have time I will post about
Calvin & Hobbes
Emma
Hagar the Horrible.
Snobs (never made it past the first chapter)
Excalibur (ditto)
I slacked off at the tail end of January. Mea Culpa. I just got very busy with job and stuff.
Posted by: Slowplum at: 4:31 PM
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Saturday, January 21, 2006
The Bad Mother's Handbook - Kate Long
ISBN: 0-670-06373-8 (Hardcover)
Pub: Pengin Group (Viking Canada), 2005
Book borrowed from the Library.
In a story of three generations of women living in the same house, we are introduced to Nan (the grandmother), Karen (the mother), and Charlotte (the daughter). Each has a unique perspective that causes static and sparks. Nan has dementia which makes for some interesting dialogues. Karen discovers a secret about Nan that changes her life. Charlotte gets pregnant and ruins Karen's hopes for her future.
It takes a little while to get used to the way the author trudges back and forth between perspectives (written in the first person, the three take turns telling the story so it takes a few lines in to realize who took over). A pretty good read though, and kind of amusing.
Excerpt:
All those times I was here, I was thinking, and the last few weeks, we never knew; I had cells dividing inside me: 2, 4, 8, 16, an exponential time bomb. Cells all drifting to their alloted place like syncrhonized swimmers. Shape-shifting: amoeba to blackberry, shrimp, alien, baby. There's a baby under this sweatshirt. Hello, Dad.
"Hey, are you all right? You look a bit -- funny."
I took heart from what might have been concern in his voice and stepped forward. "Paul, I - no. I'm not all right. I, I'm--" My hand dipped automatically to my stomach and his eyes followed it, then widened. Then his brows came down and his whole face went hard.
"Paul?"
Time to read: 2 evenings
Rate: ***--
Posted by: Slowplum at: 8:35 AM
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Thursday, January 19, 2006
Cherry Ames: Seniour Nurse - Helen Wells
There is no apparent ISBN on this book.
Pub: Grosset & Dunlap, 1944 (Hardcover)
Found in the box of books.
Cherry Ames is a troublemaker of a nurse, participating in her senior year at nursing school. While she takes on a probee (probational student) who is antisocial and curmudgeonly, and a doctor-to-be named Lex who angers her at every turn yet attracts her, she also has to solve a mystery in order to clear Lex's name! Surely he didn't steal the newly developed penicillin that the government would surely need and that the enemy would love to get their hands on? Tune in!
Cherry Ames apparently is a series of books. This one was interesting in that it did describe a lot of hospital procedures from the 1940s. The plot seemed a little sketchy but what can ya do.
I've already established I don't like to rate antiques.
Time to read: 1 day (kept putting it down to do other things)
Posted by: Slowplum at: 10:30 AM
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