Wow, I am so tired of winter.....it seems extra long this year. We've had temps in the 30's this weekend and it is supposed to continue thru the week so hopefully we'll start getting rid of the snow, an inch at a time.
So I got thru "The Devil in the White City" and I did like it but gosh that was a tough read. Lots of characters, plus the different stories within the story so I had to pay really close attention. I've been super distracted with life lately so probably not the best time to read this book but we had a good discussion at book group last week and I wanted to finish it. So i did. Now I'm on to next month's book which is "The Hour I First Believed" by Wally Lamb........really dark story but I love how he writes....and have read his other books so know his style. It's a big book and I needed to start it so I'm ready to discuss. Also am reading the new Audrey Niffenegger book and like that as well. I should choose one or the other but it's kind of fun to go back and forth. Still need to read " The Cellist from Sarajevo" which I've been talking about the last couple posts and that is again "on deck". :)
I just have too many options for reading lately.
Anyway, here's to March and the possiblities that spring brings!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Happy Valentine's Day!
Hello everyone.........Happy Love Day!
I haven't meant to stay away so long but gosh life happens! What happened to January anyway? Now it's already the middle of February and I haven't been blogging. Well here i am to tell you about a couple of books.
First of all, in one of my book groups we read "Olive Kitteridge" by Kathleen Strout. I loved this book. It's basically 13 short stories with Olive involved in varying roles...some of them are all about her and some of them she's barely mentioned..but in all of them she's touched someones life or it's a story about her and another significant person in her life. This book wasn't warmly embraced by our club, although there were a couple others like me that really liked it. I just thought it was a really neat way to write a story (or stories) and the author describes things beautifully.....some of her descriptions made me feel like I was there in the room with the ones she was talking about. Anyway, I give Olive Kitteridege an A!
The other book I read was one I started on Caitlin's Kindle while I was on vacation in Captiva, Florida. I was a little skeptical about the Kindle by the way but after traveling with it and being able to use it on the beach I loved it! The font and print size were wonderful for my ever declining eyes and it was just a neat way to read a book. Perfect on the plane. Anyway, this book is called "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein. Loved this book...the voice that tells the story is Enzo, a lab terrior mix that the owner Denny gets as a pet. He tells his and Denny's story perfectly bringing in Denny's wife Eve and their daughter Zoey as years go by. Denny drives on the race car circuit and is trying to make a living at it when Eve becomes ill and there is a custody battle between Eve's parents and Denny as Eve gets sicker and passes away. There's alot of other things that happen in between but Enzo tells the story so well and you almost believe he's human! I think everyone should try to read this book, especially if you have a pet because it really makes you wonder if they can think and wonder like Enzo does. Definetly enjoyed this one and another A! Iv'e been lucky with the two I've read in the last few weeks. I need to kick it up a notch this month and get going though.....On deck is still "The Cellist of Sarajevo" by Steven Galloway and then I've started "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson (we're reading this one for book group next month) and then I'm also reading "Her Fearful Symmetry" by Audrey Niffenegger. She wrote "The Time Travelers Wife" which is a favorite book of mine. Anyway, i have alot of reading to do in the next week so I'll keep you posted! Have a great V Day!
Anyway, have a good week
I haven't meant to stay away so long but gosh life happens! What happened to January anyway? Now it's already the middle of February and I haven't been blogging. Well here i am to tell you about a couple of books.
First of all, in one of my book groups we read "Olive Kitteridge" by Kathleen Strout. I loved this book. It's basically 13 short stories with Olive involved in varying roles...some of them are all about her and some of them she's barely mentioned..but in all of them she's touched someones life or it's a story about her and another significant person in her life. This book wasn't warmly embraced by our club, although there were a couple others like me that really liked it. I just thought it was a really neat way to write a story (or stories) and the author describes things beautifully.....some of her descriptions made me feel like I was there in the room with the ones she was talking about. Anyway, I give Olive Kitteridege an A!
The other book I read was one I started on Caitlin's Kindle while I was on vacation in Captiva, Florida. I was a little skeptical about the Kindle by the way but after traveling with it and being able to use it on the beach I loved it! The font and print size were wonderful for my ever declining eyes and it was just a neat way to read a book. Perfect on the plane. Anyway, this book is called "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein. Loved this book...the voice that tells the story is Enzo, a lab terrior mix that the owner Denny gets as a pet. He tells his and Denny's story perfectly bringing in Denny's wife Eve and their daughter Zoey as years go by. Denny drives on the race car circuit and is trying to make a living at it when Eve becomes ill and there is a custody battle between Eve's parents and Denny as Eve gets sicker and passes away. There's alot of other things that happen in between but Enzo tells the story so well and you almost believe he's human! I think everyone should try to read this book, especially if you have a pet because it really makes you wonder if they can think and wonder like Enzo does. Definetly enjoyed this one and another A! Iv'e been lucky with the two I've read in the last few weeks. I need to kick it up a notch this month and get going though.....On deck is still "The Cellist of Sarajevo" by Steven Galloway and then I've started "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson (we're reading this one for book group next month) and then I'm also reading "Her Fearful Symmetry" by Audrey Niffenegger. She wrote "The Time Travelers Wife" which is a favorite book of mine. Anyway, i have alot of reading to do in the next week so I'll keep you posted! Have a great V Day!
Anyway, have a good week
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Baby it's Cold Outside.............
Brrrrr..........winter in Wisconsin can sure be brutal and this is one of those days even though you'd never know by looking outside. It looks very peaceful and calm, sunny and bright........but when you step outside. Yikes!
Happy Birthday Katherine! Katherine is one of my oldest friends and I hope she has a wonderful day today.
I've been busy today getting TJ ready to go back to Denver and Stuart's sister Deb, her daughter Kaitlin and their dog Maggie ready to move in. They'll be staying with us for a month or two while they find a place to live. It will be fun having them here. I'm sad that TJ is leaving...it's always hard to say goodbye to the kids when I've gotten used to having them around but he's ready to go back and this is his last semester at The University of Denver....the next time we'll see him he'll be graduting......so hard to believe.
I finished the book "No More Tears Left Behind" today and thought it was a good story. The editing in some parts could have been better...i'm a stickler for spelling and punctuation but all in all a good story about the Holocaust and some of the incredibly sad, horrible things that happened at that time in our history. Why on earth do human beings treat each other like they do? It's such a mystery to me....why can't everyone just get along. Anyway, the couple in the book eventually made it back to the US and lived in Madison for many years. That is a neat part of the story as they talk about State Street and some of the neighborhoods I'm familiar with in Madison. The book ended really abruptly though and that was a little disappointing. I'm sure that the story was supposed to be mainly about their struggles in Berlin during the war but it just seemed to end a bit awkwardly. Anyway, our book group will be discussing this book on Thurs nite so i'll let you know what others thought. I'm on going to start "Olive Kitteridge" tonite. On deck will be a book called "The Cellist of Sarajevo" by Steven Galloway. I am really looking forward to reading this book as I heard about it from someone else that had read it and they said it was very good. I'm off to make a mug of tea and to stay warm today. Happy Reading!
Happy Birthday Katherine! Katherine is one of my oldest friends and I hope she has a wonderful day today.
I've been busy today getting TJ ready to go back to Denver and Stuart's sister Deb, her daughter Kaitlin and their dog Maggie ready to move in. They'll be staying with us for a month or two while they find a place to live. It will be fun having them here. I'm sad that TJ is leaving...it's always hard to say goodbye to the kids when I've gotten used to having them around but he's ready to go back and this is his last semester at The University of Denver....the next time we'll see him he'll be graduting......so hard to believe.
I finished the book "No More Tears Left Behind" today and thought it was a good story. The editing in some parts could have been better...i'm a stickler for spelling and punctuation but all in all a good story about the Holocaust and some of the incredibly sad, horrible things that happened at that time in our history. Why on earth do human beings treat each other like they do? It's such a mystery to me....why can't everyone just get along. Anyway, the couple in the book eventually made it back to the US and lived in Madison for many years. That is a neat part of the story as they talk about State Street and some of the neighborhoods I'm familiar with in Madison. The book ended really abruptly though and that was a little disappointing. I'm sure that the story was supposed to be mainly about their struggles in Berlin during the war but it just seemed to end a bit awkwardly. Anyway, our book group will be discussing this book on Thurs nite so i'll let you know what others thought. I'm on going to start "Olive Kitteridge" tonite. On deck will be a book called "The Cellist of Sarajevo" by Steven Galloway. I am really looking forward to reading this book as I heard about it from someone else that had read it and they said it was very good. I'm off to make a mug of tea and to stay warm today. Happy Reading!
Friday, January 1, 2010
Another Year, Another Resolution
Happy New Year Everyone.......
i had a hard time finding this blog and remembering my password to get in to it at all but finally made it. I realize the last time I wrote was in April so hopefully this year I'll get way past that...I vow to try again and read my book per week to get to my yearly goal. I actually think that I got pretty close last year, just didn't tell you all about it so this time around you will get the facts. Another thing that will help is that my wonderful hubby got me a new laptop for Christmas so I don't have any reason not to tell you about the multitudes of books I've read.
Speaking of books, even though it's the first day of 2010 I finished a book today that I loved and wanted to tell you about. It's called "The Piano Teacher" by Janice Y.K. Lee. It takes place in Hong Kong when the Japanese invaded there during World War II. It has such interesting characters and parts of it are hard to read and that such atrocities could happen but it's a great book.
The book I just started is something I'm reading for one of the book clubs I belong to and is called "No More Tears Left Behind"by Arthur and Ursula Rathburn. I'm not that far into it but is about a couple who is Jewish and living "underground" in Berlin during WWII. ( I seem to be reading a lot of war books lately) I'm not that far into it and the writing style is a little different than what I usually go for but I respect this person and how brave she and her husband were during this horrific time in history. They managed to get out alive and to the US and now live in Madison, WI. I will keep you posted as I get more into the book. On deck is the book I need to read for my other book group and it is called "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout. I have heard great things about this book and am excited to start it as soon as I finish the one I'm reading now.
I hope everyone has a great start to a new decade and is looking forward to the coming year. Read as much as you can!
Barb
i had a hard time finding this blog and remembering my password to get in to it at all but finally made it. I realize the last time I wrote was in April so hopefully this year I'll get way past that...I vow to try again and read my book per week to get to my yearly goal. I actually think that I got pretty close last year, just didn't tell you all about it so this time around you will get the facts. Another thing that will help is that my wonderful hubby got me a new laptop for Christmas so I don't have any reason not to tell you about the multitudes of books I've read.
Speaking of books, even though it's the first day of 2010 I finished a book today that I loved and wanted to tell you about. It's called "The Piano Teacher" by Janice Y.K. Lee. It takes place in Hong Kong when the Japanese invaded there during World War II. It has such interesting characters and parts of it are hard to read and that such atrocities could happen but it's a great book.
The book I just started is something I'm reading for one of the book clubs I belong to and is called "No More Tears Left Behind"by Arthur and Ursula Rathburn. I'm not that far into it but is about a couple who is Jewish and living "underground" in Berlin during WWII. ( I seem to be reading a lot of war books lately) I'm not that far into it and the writing style is a little different than what I usually go for but I respect this person and how brave she and her husband were during this horrific time in history. They managed to get out alive and to the US and now live in Madison, WI. I will keep you posted as I get more into the book. On deck is the book I need to read for my other book group and it is called "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout. I have heard great things about this book and am excited to start it as soon as I finish the one I'm reading now.
I hope everyone has a great start to a new decade and is looking forward to the coming year. Read as much as you can!
Barb
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