A brief update

Hi ya'll! Didn't forget about reading...just haven't had the chance to blog. I don't have internet at the house right now and I'm gearing up for a big move from Florida to Michigan next month so life has been C.R.A.Z.Y.

However, I've still been reading (of course). After that Sarah Palin book I had to get into something good. Eat, Pray, Love, was sent to me by a friend who (correctly) thought I really needed to read it at this point in my life. I loved it, and took a lot away from it. I think I took about 6 pages of notes throughout the course of the book. (Wouldn't it be nice if every time we went through a break up or other major life event we could travel the world?) Here are a couple of my favorite passages from the book:

"Because God never slams a door in your face without opening a box of Girl Scout cookies, some wonderful things did happen to me in the shadow of all that sorrow." (p. 22)

"You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be." (p. 150)

Next I read Before & After. It was a tough read - a teenager fights with his (pregnant - allegedly by another guy) girlfriend, she winds up blugeoned and he's the main suspect, so he disappears. His dad does whatever he can - including destroying evidence - to help clear his son, but it was clear his mom thought he should face the music. Tough story on family love, that's for sure. I thought it was a little too drawn out, but overall a good and thrilling read.

Most recently, I finished reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I read Lucky a few years ago and absolutely loved the writing. The Lovely Bones (which is now a movie) is the story of a fourteen-year-old girl who is raped and murdered. She tells the story of her family's reactions and post-Susie life from heaven. Very interesting perspective. One of the best parts of the book:

"These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence - the connections - sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent - that happened after I was gone. And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it. The events that my death wrought were merely the bones of a body that would become whole at some unpredictable time in the future. The price of what I came to see as this miraculous body had been my life." (p. 361).

I read The Lovely Bones in mass market paperback, which I previously thought I hated - but I flew right through the book and didn't care if it got dirty or bent or anything. I must look into this type of book in the future! So easy to take to the beach, etc.

Also - and this is BREAKING news, because I never thought I'd jump on the bandwagon, but I must. read. the Twilight series! I was forced into watching the first movie while babysitting a couple weeks ago, and just last weekend was (not so much) forced into watching New Moon. So now I think I have to read all the books. Team Edward, by the way.

So what have you been reading? Anything good?

101 books update

My best friend asked me a few weeks ago how many books I had left to read before I each 101. Since my challenge completion date is September 30, 2010, I now have less than a year left to complete it.

Drum roll please...........

I've read 73 books. I only have 28 to go, and a year to finish! I am definitely going to meet this goal, I'm sure of it. I get excited thinking I can maybe even add 20 or more books. (I typically read 45-50ish books in 1 year). How exciting, right?!

In other news, I'm currently reading Dan Brown's newest book, The Lost Symbol, and because I've been reading it for, oh about 2 weeks now, I already know that I won't like it as much as I liked The Da Vinci Code, a book I finished in 2 days. While in Key Largo. Yeah, what does that tell you?

Hope you're all enjoying whatever you're reading. I've been a bad bloggy friend lately, what with not blogging and not commenting. Better get my act together! :)

No news

I did something unprecedented a couple weeks ago after I finished The Time Traveler's Wife. I didn't start another book right away! I've had so many projects going on at home and other things I've been wanting to finish, so I haven't read a book in over 2 weeks! It feels pretty strange.

It's been an extremely busy August for me and the bf. We've had at least 1 event each weekend, if not 2 most weekends. We are burnt out. We are jonesing for some time to ourselves. We are ready for a long Labor Day weekend coming up.

I'm ready for September. Bring it on!

USA Today summer books preview

Just like every other day, I browsed the USA Today (my favorite newspaper) online, and yesterday I happened to find the Summer Books Preview, and it's oh-so-exciting! There are some really great titles coming out in the next few months, and I for one cannot wait! Here's what I added to my TBR list:

• Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal by Julie Metz (released June 9)
• At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream by Wade Rouse (released June 2)
• The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe (released June 9)
• Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (released June 9)
• Trouble by Kate Christensen (to be released June 16)
• A Plague of Secrets by John Lescroart (to be released June 30)
• An American Alduterer by Jed Mercurio (to be released July 6)
• Vanished by Joseph Finder (to be released August 18)
• The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe by J. Randy Taraborrelli (to be released August 25)

And 2 books coming this fall that I'm also looking forward to:

• The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (to be released September 15)
• Weekends at Bellevue: Nine Years on the Night Shift at the Psych ER by Julie Holland (to be released October 2)

Also yesterday, I saw my reading buddy Kay and borrowed a couple more books from her:

• True Colors by Kristin Hannah (this was on my TBR list, so now I don't have to buy it!)
• Still Alice by Lisa Genova
• House Rules by Rachel Sontag

I guess I have some reading to do!!

While you're on USA Today's site, check out this interesting article about a not-so-traditional college education.

Reading of a different kind

So lately I've been on this "get well, live healthy" kick, and not just with fitness and food, but with more education. I've been considering going back to school for my Masters, although that's not what this post is about.

I've been trying to just educate myself. I feel like there is a wealth of good information out there that doesn't necessarily come in a textbook, or a classroom, especially on topics such as finances, career development, and life as a young professional. Recently I downloaded a copy of an ebook called The Young Professional Rockstar: 10 steps to rocking your career right now (get yours here!) and I'm trying to really learn from it. Sometimes I feel like I fly through books so fast I take nothing away from it.

Also fairly recently I've been reading a new blog, Sources of Insight, and I just found a really short ebook called You 2.0: Finding and Living Your Process (read more here). This topic is really speaking to me right now as I sort out my career and my priorities and the life I want for myself (and with my boyfriend).

I'm also pulling out my trusty Suze Orman book, The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous and Broke. My best friend bought me this book for my birthday almost 2 years ago, and it's such a great book. I really like Suze's style: she's straightforward, no bullshit. And she should be. Some of the questions she receives from callers on her show just blow my mind. It's like, "really? You are asking if you can afford this, and you have $20,000 in credit card debt?!" But I like her philosophy: people first, then money, then things. It's a good mantra, really.

Cross posted here.

101 Books Update

Well, here we are in May and I've yet to do an "update" post this year.

A long long time ago (not really) I announced my goal of reading 101 books in 1,001 days. My end date is September 30, 2010. I'm over half-way there already, and I still have more than a year to complete it. Think it's not really challenging enough anymore? Yeah, me either. I'm going to add to it and make it 150 books eventually, so stay tuned.

Books read so far - 60

Books to go to finish the challenge - 41

How are you doing on your challenges?

101 books in 1001 days update

So far I've read 24 of 101 books in 5 1/2 months. Not too bad; I'm well on my way. Based on my end date of September 30, 2010, I have approximately 27 months to read 77 books, which averages almost 3 books a month. Even with all of my extracurricular activities lately, I've still been managing over 3 books per month. I'm well on my way to exceeding my goal. I may even hit 150 books in that time, a challenge I mentioned at the start of this project.

Just finished Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella; stay tuned!

P.S. - Sex and the City was fabulous!!

TBR

I've been so behind in my reading lately, but for some reason that does not deter me from purusing books, borrowing books, or adding to my mountainous TBR pile. The following list are books lent to me via my reading pal Kay:

• The Year of Fog - Michelle Richmond
• The Bright Side of Disaster - Katherine Center
• Pack up the Moon - Anna McPartlin
• Running with Walker - Robert Huges (memoir about autism)
• Belong to Me - Marisa de los Santos
• Remember Me? - Sophie Kinsella

Also in my hot little hands - Barbara Walters' memoir, Audition. (I previously referred to it here.) And I added at least 15 more books to my massive wish list. I hope everyone is enjoying a great holiday weekend - I still have some more reading to do before the work week begins :)

Back to books!

After a brief hiatus, I'm back to reading for fun - yay!! I'm getting into the 8-5 workday groove so it's time to bust out the books again :)

I just finished The Picker Who Perished, a To Good To Be Threw consignment shop mystery, and for some reason it took me a couple weeks to finish. It wasn't even a hard read, I just kept going from thinking I knew what was going to happen to being totally confused that I had to stop reading. I think being sick the entire time I read it forced me to lose concentration easily, not something that usually happens to me.

This weekend I borrowed a great stack of books from my reading pal Kay:

• Jodi Picoult's newest, Change of Heart, which I've heard MANY good things about
• Caroline Leavitt's Girls In Trouble
• Dr. Judy Goldstein and Sebastian Stuart's 24-Karat Kids, which looks like a fun, easy read
• and a Memoir about autism, Running with Walker by Robert Hughes

Today I started Girls In Trouble, and I'm going to try my hardest to finish it by the end of the week..wish me luck!

Challenge Updates, Etc.

What can I say? Reading challenges might be taking the fun out of reading for me. I don't like the feeling that I need to read my books in order because then I cannot accommodate for those that friends lend me or that I pick up on a whim.

I just started the 10th book from my list of 101 books, and I've only completed 2 memoirs out of the 10 I want to finish by December 31, 2008 for the In Their Shoes Challenge.

In other news, I just picked up Stephanie Meyer's Twilight - I've heard many good reviews of this book and I want to see for myself. Not sure when I'll get to it though :) Also, my favorite author is, of course, Jodi Picoult, and her newest novel, A Change of Heart, was released on March 4. My reading buddy Kay actually bought the book and I'm sure she'll loan it to me when she finishes - so exciting!!

And that book I just started? Spooning, by Darri Stephens and Megan DeSales.