March 14, 2011

I have started so many books since my last post and have only completed one.  I tried to read Louisa by Simone Zelitch.  But only read 100 pages.  Thats my limit if I am not wanting to pick the book up anymore.  This story was about a mother and her daughter-in-law both survivors of the Holocaust.  Maybe I just didn't want to read another Holocaust book.  I just couldn't get into it.

The next book I did read.  To Live by Yu Hua.  When I started this book I was at the high school and I had about 5 students come up to me and tell me that they read that book their junior year  for English and that they loved it.  I was pretty excited by this and looked forward to it.  I, however did not like the book it was a tragic story.  Not for me. 

The next book was Wedding Dress stories from the dakota plains by Carrie Young.  This book was a collection of short stories from North Dakota.  I read the first two but then had enough. 

I then started The Piano Teacher by Lynn York.  I couldn't get into this story too stupid.

I then read Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.  Again another short story book.  I read 3/4s of the book then it got weird so I quit. 

My next book was Tales from Comache County: the peculiar education of Max Freeman  More short stories but this time with improper english.  I quit. 

Yesterday I started Eyes at the Window by Evie Yoder Miller.  I couldn't get into this book either.  Each chapter is a story from a different charachter.  So It doesn't flow and the time period is the 1800s.

With so many books that I haven't enjoyed I went back to the library and peeked ahead.  The rest of this shelf looks equally as bad.  We'll see.  I just don't think I should waste my time on books that aren't calling my name when there are so many to read.

March 1, 2011

I finished Songbird by Walter Zacharius.  I really liked this book.  It had it all, it was intense, it had a love story and persecussion.  It was a story of a jewish girl living in Poland with her family during the Hitler regime.  Her family paid money to be taken on a train to a safe place and instead, they were decieved and along the way found they were on their way to a work camp called Auschwitz.  They tried to flee the moving train but only Mia was able to when her father pushed her out.  This book is about her journey. 

I also scanned 1001 Books you must read before you die by Peter Boxall.  I would like to look at this book again when I have read more.

February 22, 2011

I started Songbird by Walter Zacharius.  It is another book about the holocaust.  We'll see

February 21, 2011

I read Pinnocho Syndrome by David Zeman all  in one night.  When I picked up this book it looked like something Doug would read.  Some sort of political crime book. I thought I'd givie it a shot. It started off okay.  But I found that I couldn't put it down because I couldn't find a place to stop reading that wouldn't give me bad dreams.  It was a book about a terrorist attach on the U. S. and one reporters way of trying to get to the bottom of all the deaths.  Not my cup of tea. I ended up reading the Bible before falling asleep to get my mind off it.

February 11, 2011

I watched Someone Like You and liked it better than the book.  So, I say don't even bother with the book.  It was a really cute movie and it had a much better ending than the book.

I read Dating Big bird by Laura Zigman.  This book  was about a lady who wants to have a baby desperately.  She decides to look into sperm donors online.  I found it hysterical that when she was looking online for a donor she could choose an option for tanning ability.  That can't be possible can it?
I started reading Camelot's Shadow by Sarah Zettel and knew from the moment I picked up the book that it wasn't for me.  I could tell it was a fantasy book by the cover.  But I promised myself I would read 100 pages. I did just that and couldn't get into it.  When I found out that the father promised his first born to a sorcerer to save his wife's life, I knew I was done.   I'm not a fairytale type person anymore. I can barely sit through a kids movie without crawling out of my seat wanting to be done.

I started to tell Makayla about the book she was on the edge of her seat.  She told me that I had to finish it and tell her what happens.  i might have to pick it up again.  But for now it sits on the library shelf waiting for someone else.

February 9, 2011

Finished Animal Husbandry by Laura Zigman.  Yipee, this book has a movie.  The book was okay. It was about a girl who fell in love and then her partner suddenly quit liking her.  She was so confused that she began to study the mating of animals.  She began writing a column for a men's magazine under an alias about the behaviors of men and how they are similar to animals , under an alias.  I sort of felt like I had heard this story before.  So, I checked online and there was a movie made based on it.  I have seen it but I don't completely remember it so I will watch it again tonight. It is called Someone Like You  starring Ashley Judd, Greg Kinner, and Hugh Jackman

Favorite quote from the book.  Pg. 200  The Origins of New Cow Theory   The males of most mammalian species have a definite urge towards seeking variety in their sexual partners.  if a male rat is introduced to a female rat in a cage, a remarkably high copulation rate will be observed at first.  Then, progressively the male will tire of that particular female and, even though there is no apparent change in her receptivity, he eventually reaches a point where he has little apparent libido.  However, if the original female is then removed and a fresh one is supplied, the male is immediately restored to his former vigor and enthusiasm.  Glenn Wilson, The Great Sex Divide.  

February 6,2011

Today I finished Her by Laura Zigman.  I did not like this book.  It had a ridiculous story line.  Guy is engaged to girl.  Guy's ex fiance moves into town and knows no one.  Guy invites ex fiance to dinner at home shared by him and new fiance.  New fiance becomes extremely jealous and stalks ex fiance. New fiance makes accusations that aren't true, feels dumb, and then guy and new fiance get married. STUPID

Next book: Animal Husbandry by Laura Zigman

January 29, 2011

Makayla:  Today I finished reading Willie the Frog Prince by C.S. Adler.  It was about a boy named Willie who is not good at paying attention until a girl named Marla comes along and Willie works hard to impress her, then Marla has to move again and in one of her letters she calls him her frog prince.  This was a Fantastic book.


Andra:  I finished Somewhere in Germany by Stefanie Zweig.  Didn't love it.  Was a good story but I couldn't get into it.
Also finished Mac bible.  After reading it I  think that we will have our Mac fixed and maybe upgraded.

Onto Her by Laura Zigman
   

January 26, 2011

I watched the movie Nowhere in Africa today.  I love it when books have movies out, so I'm glad my first book had a movie.  It won best foreign film in 2002.  I somewhat liked the movie.  I definetly would recommend seeing the movie after this book.  It helped me understand the book better.  I did find that the movie left alot out so the two made a good pair.

January 25, 2011

I finished Nowhere in Africa today.  Didn't love the book.  I found it hard to read with so many other languages strewn throughout.  It is about a family that moves out of Germany during the war.  They emigrate to Africa and work on a farm until the war is over then they go back to Germany.  I give it a 3 out of 5.

I started Somewhere in Germany.

January 22, 2011

Today we drove to Sterling for Harrison's basketball game.  I took my Internet for Dummies book to see if I could learn anything new.  Well I did.
I didn't know that you could write the Postmaster with questions regarding rejected mail.
Then just some tidbits about searching the web
* put double quotation marks (" ") around words you expect to see next to eachother
* put a plus sign (+) infront of a word that must appear
* put a minus sign (-) in front of a word that should not appear
* no space between the plus or minus and the word
* don't use and, or, and not

On our way home we read some of You Asked over 300 great questions and astounding answers.  Parents, this was a great book.  Perfect for road trips. It was awesome to hear all their answers to why they think things happen.  I truely was delighted in my children.

Harrison said "It's a good book, Usually people don't know how you live and stay alive until you read that book.  Why do people wake up?  The sun comes up and is bright and people feel happy when the sun is bright and when it's cold they don't want to wake up and their cranky"

January 21, 2011

Today we went to trade our "picture books".  New books for me are Mac Upgrade and Repair Bible and The Internet for Dummys .  I'm in the computer section agghhh. 

Makayla and Harrison are onto Super Science Secrets and You Asked over 300 great questions and  astounding answers.

January 20, 2011

Makayla told her teacher that we were reading the library.  She asked her if it was okay if she read Willy the Frog Prince as her new chapter book.  Her teacher was delighted and agreed.

January 19,2011

I told Harrison to sit and read Makayla's space book for ten minutes while he was waiting to go to a basketball game with his dad.  He fussed about doing that, so I told him he needed to write down 5  facts and then he could get up. He started writing the facts and asked me if he could take the book to school. I told him that would be fine and he said, "because I'm suddenly interested."  He wrote his 5 facts and continued reading the book.  He said he wanted to go to the library and read all the books too.  Just what a mother wants to hear.  Thank goodness we dropped cable t.v. a year and a half ago.
 
I  started reading "The Atlas of Legendary Places" and found out some new and interesting things that I didnt know before. The Nile River is 4160 miles long. Wow!

The Rosetta Stone was found and helped decipher Egyptian heiroglyphics.  Who knew that's where the Rosetta Stone language course got its name.

Cappadocia--never heard of it. "It's 50 miles southeast of Ankara, Turkey and it is one of the mopst extraordinary places in the world.  It's soft rock known as tufa that has been naturally eroding into conical formations which for centuries have been hallowed out and used as  homes and churches by local inhabitants."

Serpent Mound in Ohio is quite interesting. 

I learned more about King Tut and started telling the kids.  They already knew all that and they started telling me more.  I was pretty impressed with how much they knew.

January 18, 2011

I read alot of books because I have a job that allows me to sit and read often (high school substitute teacher). I usually don't know what I want to read next.  So I end up walking up and down the aisles of the local library in search of the next perfect book. Then I got an idea, to read the library. Since having children, my memory isn't what it used to be and it seems to be getting worse. I thought it wouldn't hurt to learn some new things or for that matter relearn some. 
My personal rules before entering the library were to start at one end of the library and take the first book.  Then go to the other end and take the first book there too.  There would be no if, ands, or buts about it.  I would just have to take that book home and read it.  I decided that if  I got into it and didn't like it I could quit reading it and get the next book, but I had to at least try each book.
 That was until I arrived at section .0001 on Jan 18.  The very first book in the library was "How to Become a Consultant."  I picked it up and laughed.  I leafed through it and thought What use is this to me?  I thought about my friend Gloria's husband, Brad who is a consultant and went to school to be one.  I thought Well, I'll never start my own consulting business so what is the point?.  I broke my rule.  Then it got worse.  The next few books were about the X Files and Extra Terrestrials.  I have never been interested in Science fiction and knew I would be skipping those. I went to the 4th book titled "The Atlas of Legendary Places."  This book I took and went to the other side of the library.  This was the fiction side.  I decided to start with the Z authors.  The last book was "Somewhere in Germany" by Stefanie Zweig.  I took it.  I had my daughter, Makayla, with me and told her what I was doing and asked her if she would like to do the same thing in the children's section.  She is an avid reader and thought that it sounded like fun.  As we headed down the stairs I noticed that my Germany book was a sequel.  I ran back up and got the first book in the sequel titled "Nowhere in Africa" and headed back down.  Makayla's first book was "Willy the Frog Prince" by C.S Andler.  Her first book in the Science and Social Studies section was "Space Facts."  We checked out and went home.