Well, actually this is a list of my favorites that I've read so far this year. I'm posting the list early so you have time to get them all read by December 31st! :) I got mine from the LAPL--even had it shipped to a library near me for easy pickup but in case you are not so fortunate as to live or work near an LAPL branch, I've included links to Amazon.
1. These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine by Nancy E. Turner
This is actually the first in a trilogy (with possibly more to come) about a girl who's family moves from the East Coast to the Arizona Territory in the last half of the 19th Century. It's a great book full of emotional relationship and the descriptions show an amazing amount of research on the part of the author. It is based in part on true stories of Turner's great-grandmother. I also read the follow-up Sarah's Quilt and The Star Garden which was just released this year.
2. City of Dreams by Beverly Swerling
Clearly this was the year of the saga, right? This is a hefty fast-paced fictionalized history of Manhattan from the time it was Nieuw Amsterdam up until the Revolutionary War. The major events are all true but some of the characters are pure fiction. If only high school history could have been this fun! There's also a sequel, City of Glory, picking up after the Revolutionary War and continuing up through the War of 1812.
3. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
This book has been reviewed everywhere. It's descriptions are great and transports you back in time to 1930's carnivals far better than HBO's Carnival ever did. The animals in this book are characters in their own right.
4. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Caution, this Southern Vampire Mysteries series is highly addictive! This is a unique blend of mystery and fantasy with some very real human emotion thrown in. Sookie Stackhouse, barmaid and mindreader finds herself romantically involved with a vampire named "Bill" shortly after vampires came out of the coffin, er, closet and had begun living opening in society, following the invention of synthetic blood and releasing them from the need to feed on humans. Just a great series, I practically run to the library as soon as I finish one! One more book and I'll be all caught up and will have to wait a year for the next one, such torture! Definitely check out this supernatural thrill ride! And, according to IMDB, HBO is currently making it into a TV show called "True Blood with Anna Paquin starring as Sookie.
5. The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Ok, so I couldn't let a year go by and not read any "knitting fiction," right? This book surrounds a knitting circle in New York. The book is just beautiful--terrific descriptions of female friendships. I highly recommend having tissues at hand for the last few chapters, though!
Stay tuned for the second installment. Sorry I can't write more right now but I'm in the middle of one of Sookie's adventures!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
More to come-- promise!
Hey all, long time no post! I bet I've been deleted from everyone's daily "blogs to check list" right? Anyway, things have been just nuts lately. Add to that the fact that I can't find the cord to connect my camera to my computer and it equals no blogging. If it makes you feel better, I haven't even had time to call my mom in the last 2 1/2 weeks so....
I will order a new camera cord this weekend, I hope, so I can get you some pictures of what I've been doing--knitting-wise and socially (ha! Like I have a social life these days. Well, I think I did leave the house once or twice in the last 4 months...).
My job at the law firm went full time in February so that's kept me busy, on top of taking almost a full load of classes this semester and still working (well, sort of) at the Skirball part-time doing their cataloging. I'm almost at the end of my semester--May 15th is the golden day! Only two huge papers, 2 small papers, 2 discussion posts and an oral presentation stand between me and summer vacation...oh wait, that's right, I'm taking a class this summer too. Just one though! It will be my last official class and then in the Fall I put together my e-portfolio and then I graduate. I totally want to have a party in December. Is that totally lame, to throw yourself a graduation party? I mean I'm not asking people to give me money like its a high school graduation party or anything, I just want people to come have a good time. And I saw some totally fun graduation party supplies in the Oriental trading catalog. But I have to buy them fast because the ones with the year on them seem to disappear forever by mid-June. What about all the people that graduate in December? They never have grad party stuff available then. So unfair. What's even more unfair is that my school is too cheap to have two graduation ceremonies so I can't "walk" until May. Not that I really even care about the ceremony but my mom seems to want to fly out here for it. I'd think she'd be sick of seeing me in a cardboard hat by now--this will make graduation number 4 if you count high school....
Tristan got a full-time job as well in March. He is teaching math to a bunch of juvenile delinquents at a continuation school in the suburbs east of LA (I'd say the name but I don't want to get slapped with a defamation suit since I called them delinquents and all). More on this later--he's got stories for days...
Anyway, sorry to be away so long and next post I'll talk about my adventures in knitting (which I try to do every night to relieve some of this crazy stress!)
I will order a new camera cord this weekend, I hope, so I can get you some pictures of what I've been doing--knitting-wise and socially (ha! Like I have a social life these days. Well, I think I did leave the house once or twice in the last 4 months...).
My job at the law firm went full time in February so that's kept me busy, on top of taking almost a full load of classes this semester and still working (well, sort of) at the Skirball part-time doing their cataloging. I'm almost at the end of my semester--May 15th is the golden day! Only two huge papers, 2 small papers, 2 discussion posts and an oral presentation stand between me and summer vacation...oh wait, that's right, I'm taking a class this summer too. Just one though! It will be my last official class and then in the Fall I put together my e-portfolio and then I graduate. I totally want to have a party in December. Is that totally lame, to throw yourself a graduation party? I mean I'm not asking people to give me money like its a high school graduation party or anything, I just want people to come have a good time. And I saw some totally fun graduation party supplies in the Oriental trading catalog. But I have to buy them fast because the ones with the year on them seem to disappear forever by mid-June. What about all the people that graduate in December? They never have grad party stuff available then. So unfair. What's even more unfair is that my school is too cheap to have two graduation ceremonies so I can't "walk" until May. Not that I really even care about the ceremony but my mom seems to want to fly out here for it. I'd think she'd be sick of seeing me in a cardboard hat by now--this will make graduation number 4 if you count high school....
Tristan got a full-time job as well in March. He is teaching math to a bunch of juvenile delinquents at a continuation school in the suburbs east of LA (I'd say the name but I don't want to get slapped with a defamation suit since I called them delinquents and all). More on this later--he's got stories for days...
Anyway, sorry to be away so long and next post I'll talk about my adventures in knitting (which I try to do every night to relieve some of this crazy stress!)
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