Fall into Reading Challenge

Katrina at Callapidder Days is hosting a great challenge this season called Fall Into Reading. I haven't done a challenge since In Their Shoes, which I successfully completed by reading 10 memoirs. (All my reviews can be found here.) Since fall is my favorite season and I'm really loving what I'm hearing about this challenge, I decided to give it a go! By the way...she has the cutest button for this challenge! I love the colors =)



I do have to be honest and say that I'm not expecting to read very many books. I have 2 weddings to attend and a vacation to NYC coming up, so I'm going to be realistic. And, well, I can't lie - fall TV just started and it is sucking up some of my time. I'll be super happy if I can finish 5 books from now until December 20, when the challenge is done. Here are a few of the books I hope to read:

• Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol - currently on page 70-something
• Kathryn Stockett's The Help
• Lisa Genova's Still Alice
• Allen Kupetz's The Future of Less - my employer recently did a seminar with him and he had some excellent social media tips.

Anything else I manage to read will be icing on the cake. I haven't been in a reading mood lately, and between work, soccer, work, home, friends, work and life, I've just been so busy that I crash at night and forget what I read in the 2 pages I managed to make it through. When I'm not in the mood to read, it's best to let it go and come back to it. I'm thinking this challenge will help me.

One more thing about this challenge. I went to Katrina's blog to sign up, and realized that there are 200 book bloggers also signed up. I had no idea our book blogging community was so large, and now I have some new bloggers to read! How exciting!

Another fun meme!

I found this meme on Susan's blog last week, although I think a few others have been playing along recently as well.

Hardback, trade paperback or mass market paperback?

I prefer trade paperback, and that's what I have the most of on my shelves. I like hardbacks, although they are uncomfortable for me to hold for long periods of time. I don't love mass market paperbacks, but I have a few. They are nice to take to the beach or an airplane because they're small and I don't worry so much about them getting dirty or left behind.

Waterstones, Borders or Amazon? I've never heard of Waterstones, and we don't have a Borders in our area, so I will say Amazon. We do have a Barnes + Noble though.

Bookmark or dog-ear? Although this makes Susan gasp, I dog-ear my pages occassionally. I do use a bookmark, but if I start reading and it's nowhere to be found, I don't hesitate to dog-ear the pages. But not with borrowed books!

Amazon or brick-and-mortar? I love browsing Barnes + Noble and if I have coupons I will use them. I'm not always the most patient person when I really want a book. That said, I have found some incredible deals on Amazon, and shipping doesn't usually take more than a week.

Alphabetize by author, or alphabetize by title, or random? Oh my goodness, it just occured to me that people do this. I have never even tried to tackle this! My books are on my shelves randomly.

Keep, throw away, or sell? I don't trash books! I have a friend and good reading buddy who I constantly switch books with. I think she donates at the end of the cycle, and I normally take them to a resale shop for credit to buy more books. I keep my favorite reads.

Keep dust jacket or toss it? Keep it, only after removing it to read the book. I am not good with dust jackets; it's hard to keep it crisp while I read.

Short story or novel? Novels, definitely. I'm not good with short stories, although I would attempt it I suppose.

Buy or borrow? Both. I probably buy more, but I borrow and trade a lot with my reading buddy I mentioned earlier. We tend to have similiar reading styles, which works out well for our wallets.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendations, or browse? Oooh, good question. I tend to scour USA Today for their seasonal recommendations and I usually get good books that way. I also read book blogs and tend to right down plenty of suggestions from bloggers. I browse a lot, but I've found that the books I've bought this way sit on my shelves longer than when I get a recommendation.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger? I do like to feel like there's been some sort of resolution at the end, although it's way too cliche to make every book have a "happily-ever-after." I don't mind cliffhangers if it's in a series, although I don't read many of those.

Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading? Weekend mornings are a great time for me to read, when the house is really quiet and peaceful. I hardly ever read in the afternoon, but I read a lot before going to sleep at night.

Stand-alone or series? Stand alone. I'm not big on series books.

Favorite series? Can't think of any...not too big on these.

Favorite children’s book? Oh, I have many, but the 2 standouts are If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and Where the Wild Things Are.

Favorite YA book? Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret is the only one I can think of right now. I don't read too many in this genre. Not opposed to it, just don't get this far in the store.

Favorite books read last year? The Audacity of Hope, The Last Lecture, Change of Heart, In the Woods, The DaVinci Code.

Favorite book to recommend to an 11-year-old? I have no idea!

Favorite book to re-read? I rarely re-read books. I can't remember the last time I did!

Do you ever smell books? Of course! I love the smell of new books.

Do you ever read primary source documents like letters or diaries? I have read The Diary of Anne Frank, but other than that, I don't believe I have read any other letters or diaries.

What are you reading right now? I started Don't Know Much About History last weekend, but I have to read that in chunks I think. Not something I can just fly through. I also started Bergdorf Blondes, but I'm not liking it.

What are you reading next? I'm thinking Julie & Julia, and of course, Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol.

Twitter updates on Blogger

I'm having a hard time with my Twitter updates on my blog lately - they are showing really random and obsence Tweets that are not mine. I've taken it down, but if anyone has a suggestion to why this may be happening or how to fix the problem, I'd appreciate it!

(For the record, I already deleted and re-added my stream to see if maybe it was hacked. It doesn't appear to have been.)

I won!

I'm just returning from a national young professionals conference - Next Leaders Summit - which was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, so I'm trying to catch up. I haven't read any blogs in over a week (I have almost 600 in my reader), and I haven't even tweeted very much either. I have however, been checking email, and I was so delighted to receive one from Jennifer at Literate Housewife congratulating me for winning the Edward Kennedy biography!! I was ecstatic! I never win anything, but here I won a book that I can't wait to read! Thank you so much Jennifer for hosting the giveaway.

That got me thinking...I don't think I even have enough readers here, but maybe I should do a giveaway?! I'm coming up on an important point in my 101 books in 1,001 days challenge, so stay tuned!

Best Intentions - Emily Listfield

From the book jacket:

After tossing and turning all night, thirty-nine-year-old Lisa Barkley wakes up well before her alarm sounds .With two daughters about the start another year at their elite Upper East Side private school and her own career hitting a wall, the effort of trying to stay afloat in that privileged world of six-story town houwes and European jaunts has become increasingly difficult, especially as Manhattan descends into an economic freefall.

As Lisa looks over at her sleeping husband, Sam, she can't help but feel that their fifteen-year marriage is in a funk that she isn't able to place. she tries to shake it off and tells herself that the strain must be due to their mounting financial pressures. But later that morning, as her family eats breakfast in the next room, Lisa finds herself checking Sam's voicemail and hears a whispered phone call from a woman he is to meet that night. Is he having an affair?

When Lisa shares her suspicions with her best friend, Deirdre, at their weekly breakfast, Deirdre claims it can't be true. But how can Lisa fully trust her opinion when Deirdre is still single and mired in an obsessive affair with a glamourous photographer even as it hovers on the edge of danger?

When Deidre's former college flame, Jack, comes to town and the two couples meet to celebrate his fortieth birthday, the stage is set for an explosive series of discoveries with devastating consequences.

Filled with suspense and provocative questions about the relationships we value most, Best Intentions is a tightly woven drama of love, friendship and betrayal.

Let me preface this by saying that this book was sent to me to review by Atria Books. I did very much enjoy the story - from what was written on the book jacket, I assumed it was going to be a couple chapters about the family, the background, etc., but just about everything that's written in the jacket summary happened right away. It was a great way to hook the reader that's for sure!

As Lisa started discovering her husband's secrets, and then her best friend brushed them aside, she started to have doubts about everything. Because Lisa was telling the story, it was so easy for me as a reader to understand her frustrations when she immediately starting distrusting her husband. Probably any woman who found a mysterious woman's voice mail message on her husband's phone would immediately suspect an affair.

So, after Lisa confided in her best friend Deirdre, who brushed it off, a little more confusion started swirling in her head. To top it off, Lisa was trying to hard to keep her shaky work life to herself. There was something off about the new management, and a colleague who appeared to have her best interests in mind turned out to also have a dark side.

And then, Deirdre's long-ago (now married) flame who was still carrying a torch for her appears, and asks for a bit too much of Lisa's time. Not being able to say no, Lisa dives into Jack's plan to win back Deirdre, and never really questions his wife, who is still in Boston. When tragedy came along in the form of a sudden death, everyone is a suspect, and Lisa's life comes to a crashing hault. Everyone around her has a story, and it's not until she hears them all does she know who she can trust. And as it turned out, her husband was the one.

You know that saying that there are always two sides to every story? Well since the book was written from Lisa's point of view, her husband was automatically cast as the secret-keeping, cheating spouse, and it wasn't until the very end that the full, true story unfolded. That's why I like these types of books. The reader knows something about the story is off, but it takes all the unraveling for us to connect the loose ends.

I loved this book - I highly recommend it. Thanks to Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review it!

Mindless Meme

I've seen this meme on quite a few book blogs lately, most recently on Caribousmom, so I thought I'd play along too.

Using only books you have read this year (2009), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. It’s a lot harder than you think!

Describe yourself: Time of My Life - Allison Winn Scotch

How do you feel: Live First, Work Second - Rebecca Ryan

Describe where you currently live: Some Like it Haute - Julie K. L. Dam

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Chicago Way - Michael Harvey

Your favorite form of transportation: The Long Walk Home - Will North

Your best friend is: The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

You and your friends are: Everyone Is Beautiful - Katherine Center

What’s the weather like: True Colors - Kristin Hannah

You fear: The Ruins - Scott Smith

What is the best advice you have to give: The Alchemist - Paolo Coelho

Thought for the day: Lottery - Patricia Wood

How I would like to die: Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult

My soul’s present condition: It Had to Be You - Sarah Webb

Cry for help

Dear readers,

Yours truly is going through a little bit of a funk regarding her professional life lately. She considered pursuing her MBA but because of the current economy, it probably won't be happening anytime soon. But then! She found a list on personalmba.com of the best business books, and well, it's quite extensive. And considering she only has so much money and so little time, she is at a loss for where to start. So, she needs your input. Which business books do you recommend? Which ones were not worth the time and energy? (Don't limit yourself to this list - if you know of any great business book, please share!)

Love,
Katie