My book stack!

I've stacked a pile of books by my bedside in hopes to get my booty in gear! Like I mentioned in my previous post, I'm into a lot of business books of late because of my new career. However, I don't want to get overloaded, so I'm adding some fun books in there as well.

Here's what's in my bedside stack:

• Good to Great by Jim Collins (nope, still haven't finished it!)
• Winning Nice: How to Succeed in Business and Life Without Waging War by Dawna Stone
• The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
• The Picker Who Perished by Kate Holmes (my autographed copy of this To Good To Be Threw Consignment Shop Mystery!)
• The Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway

And remember my 101 Books list? I think I may have to scrap the list and just read whatever is in front of me at the moment! Following the list is hard for me, since I share books with friends and tend to buy impulsively from used book stores. I will read 101 books in 1,001 days, I'm sure of it - I just can't follow my list :)

First unfinishable read of 2008

I've abandoned Spooning by Darri Stephens and Megan DeSales. Once upon a time this book about college graduates starting out in NYC would have grabbed me much faster. I stopped reading after page 124. How I even got that far, I don't know.

What I have been reading lately is Good to Great by Jim Collins. It's a fabulous business book, and a great one to kick-off my new career. New career? Yup! I will start a new job on Monday, March 24, and I'm very excited! I will be working for the local Chamber of Commerce and my job title will be along the lines of a Marketing Research Analyst.

Business books may clutter this blog in the next couple months, although I do hope it doesn't completely stop my pleasure reading. I still need to read The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond, which was loaned to me a couple weeks ago and I've yet to open it. I also need to catch up on some memoirs for my challenge. Oh, the choices. Happy Easter everyone!

Time flies!

It's been a week since my last post - eek! Where did the time go? Actually, I have been quite busy. I am starting a new job on Monday (very exciting!) so I've been getting things done and preparing for the corporate world!

In honor of my new job, I picked up a new business book - Winning Nice: How to Succeed in Business and Life Without Waging War by Dawna Stone. And I've been reading Good To Great by Jim Collins for a couple days now.

I'm also still trying to finish my current fluff book - Spooning. It's okay, but it's been really hard to pick it up. Not the best read for me at the moment because I have so much going on that I find it not worth my time to read something subpar.

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.

Literacy and Longing in L.A. - Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack

**SPOILER ALERT!! If you have not read this but plan to, don't keep reading! But please come back upon finishing :)

This is a quick read for those literary buffs who love to read a book about books, or at least with several references to other works. Kaufman and Mack set the tone with a bookish quote at the start of each chapter. I admit this book took a few chapters to take off but thankfully I continued to read. The story is a good one - although in today's world, probably not that unusual - a thirtysomething can't quite move on after a separation from her husband, still often refers to her depressing childhood and admits to hermit-like behavior whenever life throws her a curveball.

I enjoyed Dora's (the narrator) take on everything - she's actually quite funny for being so depressed - but I couldn't wait for the demise of her relationship with Fred! That guy was such a jerk, and Dora knew it halfway through the novel, although she couldn't quite let go of him. I know, I know, we've all been there, right, so who am I to judge? But I couldn't listen to anymore of him.

For book lovers like me, it was sad when Dora threw her novels up against the wall as her sign of moving forward in life. See, whenever she felt depressed she would grab a stack of books to read and wouldn't answer the phone or leave the house for days. I admit to constantly reading but who retreats from the entire world?! And just because she didn't feel the need to do that anymore, why did she need to ruin her books?! Some people would covet the classics she so often quoted.

I guess if I was going to 'grade' the book (and you loyal readers know I don't even really "review" the books I read, I simply make my random thoughts public) I would say it's only average.

Whistling in the Dark - Lesley Kagen

A friend loaned me this book and I finished it in two days, it was sooo good; thanks Kay!

Despite the fact that the storyline is sad - two young girls literally grow up during the summer of 1959 while their mother is in the hospital and their stepfather mistreates them, all while a 'murderer and molester' is on the loose - I found myself laughing out loud at times. The story is told by Sally O'Malley, (I believe she was about 10 years old) and she is witty and hilarious, as is her younger sister Troo. Sally has a very overactive imagination and with all that's going on in her life, you can imagine what might happen when she decides she knows who the 'murderer and molester' is...and she sets out to solve the mystery. When she finally figures it out, we see her bravery in action and the story wraps up nicely. The story reminds me somewhat of the movie Now and Then which I used to watch when I was a teen, and how you just never know how people are connected.

I recommend this book to everyone! It was better than the back cover description - which was good in itself!

Book updates

I finally finished A New Earth! Just in time for Oprah's class, beginning tonight at 9 pm. I don't really know how to review a book of this genre, other than to express my liking. It opened my eyes a little, and I think there are so many important points to the book. He also wrote The Power of Now, which I never read, but which he alluded to several times. I won't say much else about this book other than my random thoughts that may come as I participate in the online class.

I also finished Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen - very good book! I get what all the fuss was about for those of you who said good things about it. It's the story of Claire Waverly are her family - a strange older cousin who feels the need to give random gifts, a half-sister whom I understood way better than I did Claire, and a very innocent niece, oh and the men in their lives. There were several very predictable parts, but all in all it was a great read. I can't wait to get to her next book!