Bubbles!! Or, what happens to people (me) when they (I) try to read all day.

Yesterday's personal reading marathon day went quite well. I finished two books, both of which I'd read only a tiny bit of before mysteriously setting them aside:

Why We Need Love, edited by Simon Van Booy

I previously made it to page 7, probably because the excerpt that begins on page 6 is from Silas Marner, a book I've overheard so many teenagers grousing about at the pool that I had it in my head I would never read the story.

Actually, it was really quite touching how the weaver, Silas, claimed the small child who toddled into his home. After I really got going on Silas Marner, the rest of the story was a breeze and then I enjoyed the usual thought-provoking mix of readings that comprised the rest of the book. I've read the entire series of Simon's philosophy books, now, and will review both Why We Need Love and Why Our Decisions Don't Matter, soon.

After I finished reading Why We Need Love, I moved on to

Detectives Don't Wear Seatbelts by Cici McNair.

Cici McNair spent years saving her pennies in preparation for her escape

from Mississippi (her childhood home) and then traveled the world, working a stunning variety of jobs before she found her calling as a private detective.

Detectives Don't Wear Seatbelts tells about how she became a private detective, why she left home and what drew her from one place and job to another before she finally settled down and began her own business.

Like Simon's book, there is really no explanation as to why Detectives, etc. sat in my sidebar and on the floor by my bed for so long. Mood, I guess. It did require a little focus, though, so I think reading it cover to cover in a single day was a good choice. Again . . . review forthcoming.

And, of course there were the bubbles:

This is what happens to a very, very easily distracted chick on a full day of reading. Glance off to the side at your water glass and . . . "Bubbles!! Oooh, those are so pretty. And, look at the window through the glass! Doesn't that look cool, kitties? Must find camera!!!"

"Ooooh, the bubbles look like little jewels!"

I'm sure they'd look even more interesting if I hadn't managed to break my ancient macro lens, a year or two ago. I snapped the photos above with my little point-and-shoot. I'm shopping for a macro lens, now.

But, hey! I had fun!! Two books finished and a bit of fun taking bubble pics! I'm calling Wednesday a success.

Just walked in:

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens - from Knopf Books via Shelf Awareness

Books that have walked out, so far this week:

21 donations

4 swaps

1 book sent to a friend

The Emerald Atlas is the only book that has walked into my home, this week, unless you count this little gem I found in the library sale, which huzzybuns agrees we should frame:

How cool is that? The copyright date is 1953 and the binding is in tatters, but the illustrations are (pun intended) out of this world!

©2010 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Oh, no! Bad, bad blogger!

Wow, have I been a bad blogger! I'll try to amend that, but in the meantime a little update . . .

Reading Goes Splat

After I finished reading The Passage by Justin Cronin, I could not concentrate for about 3 days. Nothing appealed to me! I think that's partly because I was so immersed in Cronin's fascinating future world that I couldn't stand to look at another book and then needed time to exit the future, partly because I've been very tired and just didn't feel like reading (or writing -- and a days-long migraine wrapped that up with a tidy bow). Unfortunately, that included reading other blogs, so I went into "fly on the wall mode" and only commented 2 or 3 times, last week, and then this week I haven't even done that much. Either way, it's been a lousy couple of reading and writing weeks. But . . .

Things Improve

Emma by Jane Austen finally broke my reading slump. It took me a long time to finish (I've only read 3 books in the entire month of June!!!) but I finished it and I have found a new favorite heroine. Emma Woodhouse is a total delight. I can't believe it took me so long to get around to reading Emma. Since I am all astonishment at Jane's storytelling skills, I've moved on to reading Jane's Fame by Claire Harman. I began reading Jane's Fame once before -- about a month ago, I suppose -- but it was one of those times that I was balancing too many books at once and it fell by the wayside. So far, I'm finding it fascinating and well-written. Right after setting down an Austen is definitely an excellent time to delve into a Jane biography.

I've also begun to read Bird Girl and the Man who Followed the Sun by Velma Wallis, an Alaskan folk tale. This will be my third book by Velma Wallis, an author I discovered when we traveled to the Great White North and I sought out anything and everything to read about Alaska (both before and after that delightful vacation). Two Old Women was a ridiculously fortuitous find. You can find out how I acquired it and read my reviews, here, if you're interested:

Raising Ourselves: A Gwich'in Coming of Age Story from the Yukon River (mini review - page down to find it)

Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival

It's so nice to be reading, again!!!

And, then there was that bloggiversary thing . . .

Totally dropped the ball on the annual celebration. My official beginning as a blogger (not including the first two attempts, both at sites that made uploading photos nearly impossible) was June 6, 2006. So, I just zipped right past the milestone of having completed 4 full years as a blogger. I knew it was coming and planned to get a cupcake and 4 candles to photograph, but then I missed the day. After about a week, I got around to buying myself a single cupcake . . . and it somehow managed to end up upside-down in the bag, so I just ditched the idea of taking a picture and have been hacking away at my cupcake. It's a big one -- white with white frosting and multi-colored sprinkles, along with some bizarre little plastic fish that are now swimming in the trash can. You would have loved it.

Speaking of bloggiversaries . . .

Has anyone else noticed the diversity of spelling when it comes to that word? Bloggiversary, blogiversary, blogoversary -- I don't even know how many ways I've seen it spelled. Here's why I spell it the way I do:

--The rule of double consonants after a short vowel - Like the word "blogger", it makes sense to me to double the "g" because of the short "o" in the word blog. Seriously, I actually sat around thinking through the whole spelling concept.

--The word "anniversary" contains a doubled consonant, an "i" (although, to be fair, that probably has to do with the Latin root word) and "versary". I'm really just imitating.

--I'm a fruitcake. Well, some of us just think spelling is really, really important.

I hope to get at least one review written, tomorrow, although I'm going to be away from the computer most of the day. In the meantime, Fiona and I wish you a lovely day. Have you read anything wonderful, lately?

Fiona says, "Wherever I pose, there are books." Wahoo for both! Happy Wednesday!

Bookfool, trying to get her reading/writing groove back on

Coming up . . . hopefully without any lightning storms

I don't know when our electricity problem is going to get fixed, but I've discovered that if we keep the power low in the office I can use the computer without having any serious flickering issues. So, I'll be doing a few reviews soon and hopefully we'll figure out just who it was we used to do our electrical work when we had a temporary fix done, last year. The guy my husband called is a total doofus, unfortunately. I think I'd rather wait a week and find the people who worked on our problem last year because they were familiar with the electrical issues peculiar to our neighborhood and this other guy . . . geez. He was just a doof. That's all I can say.

Anyway, wish us luck with the power issue. If you're dismayed about the sheer quantity of disasters going on in the U.S., drop by Stuff As Dreams Are Made On for ideas about how you can be of help, even from afar, when it comes to the Gulf oil spill.

As to the flooding in Tennessee and tornadoes across the South, I've been told the best thing to do to help with that is to donate to the American Red Cross. Quite a week we're having in the United States, eh?

Some weeks are like that

Miss Fiona and I have been diverted; she by numerous toys to play with and corners of her new home to explore, I by the necessity to get the house ship-shape for visitors and the need to spend time playing with my adorable new feline, because if I don't she runs around looking vaguely crazed and tearing into the garbage (oooh the chicken bones, they are so tempting) until, exhausted, she falls flat -- literally. She is hilarious. I can't even begin to tell you how much we're loving our new kitty. We do need a trashcan with a lid, though.

I've been periodically trying to write my review of The Things They Carried and I must admit . . . that book is freaking intimidating. It's so perfect that I'm afraid anything I say will be subpar. But, I'll keep trying.

Reading-wise:

I've just finished The Country House Courtship by Linore Rose Burkard. I read the second book in this lovely inspirational Regency romance series, last year, and enjoyed it enough that I jumped at the chance to review the latest installment. The Country House Courtship is a little shy on plot, but it was perfect for the moment; I was in the mood for something light, predictable and upbeat. A sneak peek chapter along with my review will be posted on Friday.

Over the weekend, I closed another marvelous book: Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C. S. Forester. My husband and I enjoyed the Hornblower TV movies and he has read most of the books, but Mr. Midshipman Hornblower was my first taste of the series and I'm hooked. Completely hooked. We have 9 of the 11 books, so I won't have to go far when I'm ready to read the next in the series, Lieutenant Hornblower.

The Hornblower books were actually written out of sequence but Back Bay Books has shuffled the books so that they're chronologically ordered and a list of books is conveniently printed on the back cover. You have to appreciate Back Bay for that. Ever notice how difficult it can be to figure out the order of a series? It would be nice if all series books had a list of the book titles and order of release on the back. Imagine the shopping ease.

I'm currently reading The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt, The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory and Stormy Weather by Paulette Jiles. It's been a little slow going on all of them, even though all three are enjoyable in different ways, simply because I'm all over the map. If I'm not busy moving furniture or playing with the cat, I'm outside snapping pics of the birds or sleeping off a migraine. Spring is definitely upon us. We're allegedly expecting vicious storms, this afternoon (tornado season has officially begun; but, the sun is currently shining), the mosquitoes are out (!!!!) and trees are budding. Winter was nice while it lasted.

Books In, Books Out:

There have been an awful lot of books coming and going, lately. We've been doing some major shifting, still working on trying to fit various items large and small from my mother's house into our already-crowded home. The really great thing about this process is that it gives us a chance to go through our books and other possessions and weed, weed, weed. We have been living in this house for nearly 19 years and accumulation has tagged along on the coat-tails of settling in.

On Sunday, I filled two large bags with book discards and listed a handful on Paperback Swap (all of which were promptly snapped up, even though none were recent titles). In the past 3 days, though, quite a few books have arrived in my mailbox. You should see the cramming job my mailman has done; he's become a master of the book-parcel jigsaw.

Would you like to see the books that have arrived? If so, I'll take a picture of them when I've emptied my memory card. The new point-and-shoot camera that I received for Christmas is excellent for taking photos of book stacks (and little kitty faces).

As of this moment, only three people have signed up for the Sterling Children's Book giveaway, which is just crazy. Go sign up if you teach little ones, have small children or nieces, nephews, grandkids or neighbors you'd like to share with. It's huge -- 3 people will win 8 books each and the audios of all 8 titles can be downloaded totally free.

Back to work I go. Happy Wednesday!

Bookfool with a mission: Clean House or Bust

Can't get my blogging groove on . . .

. . . so you get storytime with Bookfool. That's not my cat, by the way. I don't know how to spell her name, but I believe she's a Coco or maybe Koko or Cocoa. We'll guess she's named after Coco Chanel, since the other bookstore kitty who hangs out with this gal is named Bette Davis. Want to see Bette Davis? Of course you do.

Awww, Bette Davis and Coco were sleepy. So cute. They're store kitties at my local indie, Lorelei Books. I don't go there often, mostly because there isn't a very big selection (and I already own several thousand books so I'm not a big spender in bookstores, these days), but I probably should. The owner is lovely, the cats are friendly. It's a great place.

So, I took these two snaps with my new little handy, dandy point-and-shoot camera. One day I was at my friends' photo-developing store and I pulled out my little point-and-shoot to show to . . . uh, I don't know if they want me to share their names. We'll just call them Tarzan and Jane for ease. Tarzan said, "Oh, Sony, pfffft. I got the first in that Cybershot series and it lasted all of three months. When people come in to ask if I know where to get their Cybershot repaired, I take their camera, switch it with mine and do this --." He pretended to trip and tossed the camera halfway across the store. Tarzan is funny.

I flipped through my photos while Tarzan was telling me Sony horror stories and showed Jane my shot of snowflakes . . . on my sleeve. Remember that one? Jane said, "How did you do that?" I said (very quietly), "It's not a bad camera."

Reading-wise:

I mentioned earlier that my sidebar hasn't changed, lately. Well, Mr. Darcy's Great Escape has been there for weeks but I kept setting it aside to finish other books, for a while . . . which is not a negative statement about the book. It's just that it's 500 pages long and I'm not much of a chunkster reader (which explains why I came up with the Chunkster Challenge back in 2006 or 2007 -- or, whenever -- and then handed it over to Dana after a single year). I'm enjoying it. I'm still only on page 300, but I swear I'm going to finish it soon.

The other book, The Things They Carried, is one that's been there for a while because I'm stretching out the joy, so to speak. It's such an amazing read that I don't want it to end. Good news, though. I got a copy of Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato from PBS, this week, so I can just chug on through and know that I've got more O'Brien to read, after I finish. There's some comfort in that.

Speaking of things that have arrived, here's a list of recent arrivals at the House of Bookfool:

Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School: We the Children by Andrew Clements - from Simon & Schuster (unexpected and it just happens that I love what I've read of this author).

Beyond Blue by Therese J. Borchard - A drawing win from The Book Tree

Eli the Good by Silas House - A purchase from Lorelei Books, on SuziQ's recommendation

False Colours by Georgette Heyer - from PBS because I love Heyer's books

The Founding by Cynthia Harrod Eagles - from Sourcebooks for review

This is actually a couple of weeks' worth I'm listing, since I've stopped regularly accepting review books. Today, the postman came to the door with a box crammed full of children's books -- 6 of them!!!! -- for review (again, surprise books), all wrapped in pretty polka-dotted tissue. The publisher said please don't review till the release dates, which is funny because I sat down and read all 6 of them, immediately and then read the letter about when to review.

So, now I have to hold my horses, when I'd really love to babble about them. Fortunately, they're worth rereading a squillion times. I would so love to tell you about my favorites, right now. But, I'll have a Children's Day or two when they're released. You'll be so thrilled. There's some fun stuff. See, this is another reason I need kittens. Children's books practically require an audience, so I need to adopt a new audience.

I have to go, now. Please be patient with me. I keep saying I'm going to bang out bunches of reviews and then I end up staring at the screen. So, let's just say I'll get to them when I get to them. We're supposed to have storms for the next two days and that means I may not even manage to get online. I'm okay with that. I can use the reading time.

Happy reading to all you lovely bookish people!

Bookfool, hoping she'll get her groove back, soon

Things I forgot to remember - I do that a lot, actually

A little irony, here, I think. Note the book No More Clutter in the midst of one of my crammed bookshelves:

The sheer quantity of books (not those pictured) that I haven't reviewed is starting to get insane, so I'm going to go ahead and go crazy writing mini-reviews, then I hope I will finally, finally get back to blog-hopping. I've missed reading other folks' posts, but when I did manage to read a few, last week, I found myself utterly speechless. I had nothing whatsoever to say. I'm not so sure I ever make brilliant comments anyway, but at least I can usually manage to type something.

This weekend, I bought a little pile. I'm allegedly on a book-buying ban, but . . . okay, forget it. There's no excuse. I bought the following:

Stealing Heaven - Elizabeth Scott

How Green Was My Valley - Richard Llewellyn (the spacing gods are out to get me, again)

Armageddon in Retrospect - Kurt Vonnegut

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period - Gennifer Choldenko

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You - Ally Carter

The Cat Inside - William S. Burroughs

The Printer's Devil - Paul Bajoria

I'm going to remove some of the images of books I've read and need to review from the sidebar, because it's looking a little heavy. But, here's what I have read and not reviewed in recent weeks (for my sanity, I think I'll cross them off as I review):

Custer Survivor - John Koster

Elephant a la Mode - T. Roy Nakai

They Were Just People - Tammeus & Cukierkorn

Fidelity - Grace Paley

First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria - Eve Brown Waite

The Making of the African Queen - Katharine Hepburn

The Cat Inside - William S. Burroughs

I'd Tell You I Love You, etc. - Ally Carter (see list above)

Spellbinder - Helen Stringer

How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff

I don't believe I've ever fallen quite so far behind. Oh, well. Things happen. C'est la vie.

My wonderful friend Cindi has asked me to post info about a contest that includes blog columnists and since it's relevant, I agreed. I'm copying her release verbatim, with the exception of the part where I substituted a link for the URL, so write to Cindi at the address noted, if you have any questions:

2010 NATIONAL SOCIETY NEWSPAPER COLUMNISTS CONTEST Print, Online and Blog-Columnists it is Win, Place or Show Time! Dust off your columns from 2009, find the ones that shine and enter the 2010 annual contest. Make this YOUR year for recognition. Submit with the best of the best and go for the gold. Entry forms and contest guidelines are an easy click away at the NSNC web page. You may just have the winning article...but you can't win if you don't play. It's that simple...GOOD LUCK!

For additional information contact: Cynthia Borris, National Society Newspaper Columnist Contest Chair cynthiaborris@gmail.com

Yes, Cindi, I really did dream God told me I'm fat. It was not my happiest moment.

I've had very few comments to approve for the last few days, probably because everyone's afraid that I'll regale them with stories of my dearly departed cat (don't worry; if I write about my cats, I'll just write stories about their lives as blog posts and I'll entitle them accordingly, although I don't plan to do so).

Yesterday, I took advantage of not having to reply and updated my sidebar a bit. I've removed the tribute to Dewey, but that doesn't mean I'll ever forget her. I simply felt like my heart needed me to put something even more personal in the sidebar. Yes, of course. The cats. Well, they were great pets.

After I added my kitties, I moved all links that smacked of advertising to the bottom of the sidebar. They're not advertisements. I'm not paid to put them in my sidebar; I added them by choice. But, my blog is meant to be a homey, chatty place and books aren't the only thing it's about. So, I decided to keep my tour group -blog directory - media links but move them to a less prominent position.

My third accomplishment was to finally list and link to the books I've read since 2005 in my sidebar. This is something several people have asked me to do. I don't know how to create tabs, so I decided to just go ahead and set up links. Easy peasy. They're lists by month - title and author only. Just for the heck of it, I tossed in my reads from 2000, as well. Typing up all that info was surprisingly fun. Now, I know when I first read Paul Auster, which year I read that Faulkner "with" my eldest (he pretended to read it), and how the variety of books I've read has changed in recent years. Well, I think it's interesting.

Coming up next: A Brevity Test. I usually fail. This time, I'm determined. We'll see how that works out.

Happy Monday!

Bookfool, only cringing a little at the task before her

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

Hello, everybody!!! I missed you! I'm glad I took off, though, because we were really, really busy during our holiday break. We drove up to Nashville for Christmas, then down to Birmingham and on to Huntsville, Alabama.

Because we spent our Christmas in Nashville (where future Daughter-in-Law lives) and it turns out Davis Kidd Booksellers is a very, very dangerous place (plus, I dropped by Barnes & Noble - one is a B & N book; feel free to guess which one), I came home with a pretty little pile. At the top of this post is a totally accidental shot of my husband carrying the bag of books across the parking garage, which I took when I turned the camera on while walking and then tried to turn it off but hit the wrong button. Isn't that cool? Anyway, books. You're here for the books:

Top to bottom:

The Two Princesses of Bamarre - Gail Carson Levine (I've read this one and regretted parting with my copy, but this copy is prettier)

The Color of Fire - Ann Rinaldi

The Sweet Potato Queens' 1st Big-Ass Novel - Jill Conner Browne

Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

Arthur & George - Julian Barnes

American Bloomsbury - Susan Cheever

4 out of 6 were on my wish list, including that replacement book. I took that nifty wide-angle photo with my Christmas gift from Huzzybuns:

I'm just thanking the Lord that my fingernails were clean. Haha. Anyway . . . you know I have a pretty nice SLR, right? Well, when we were in Costa Rica, I had to keep that sucker bagged during car rides and I felt like I was missing out on some exciting photo opportunities. I did take a few photos from inside taxis and they were really interesting, but we were jostled around so much (one time, I was stuck in a loose jump seat without a working safety belt and felt obligated to hang on for dear life) that I feared for the health of my camera along with my own fragile bones and tucked it away most of the time.

Since then, I've been begging the huz for a nice little portable camera but I wanted one with a Zeiss lens because the nicer the lens, the better the photos. The number of pixels can be totally misleading. He got me just what I wanted and all of our Christmas pics were taken with my new little toy. Such fun!

This is one of my favorite photos - a shot of eldest son reflected in a Nashville puddle:

We chose to go to Tennessee instead of Oklahoma because when we asked Kiddo what he wanted to do over Christmas break, he surprised us with a very firm plan. "I'm going to Space Camp." Well, okay, we said. We signed him up and decided that we couldn't go two directions (Oklahoma is our home state) and then it turned out that Oklahoma was CLOSED on Christmas Eve, anyway, so we all said, "Yeah. Good decision." We did a lot of driving, though. First was the trip up to Nashville. Then, we dropped the kiddo off at Space Camp in Huntsville:

After dropping off the kiddo, we headed to Birmingham for the night and then drove on home to Mississippi. Blind Kitty had spent 5 days boarded at the vet, by that point, and was a total, whiny mess. So, we took turns cuddling her for two days and then had to board her, again, so we could dash back to Huntsville to pick up our youngest. Like most of our trips, we spent a lot of time shopping for food because the closest Whole Foods is a 3 1/2-hour drive and the closest Trader Joe's is in Nashville. I think we went to at least 3 Whole Foods stores. We made lots of bookstore stops, too, of course!

Husband returns to work, tomorrow, and son goes back to school Thursday. I think I can safely say I'll be glad to have a little alone time by Thursday, but we had a great vacation -- especially the kiddo. Space Camp sounds like all kinds of awesome wrapped up in a rocket and lit with a match. I hope to get back to blog-hopping by the end of the week, catch up on a few reviews, write a December Reads in Review post and talk about plans for 2010, soon. I've actually read a bunch of your posts but I had a cat on my lap and a little netbook thing balanced alternately on my chest or the arm of a chair (and without a mouse), which made it pretty much impossible to comment. I'm really enjoying the end-of-year wrap-ups, though, and hope to chat with my book friends soon!

Oh, and I've updated my sidebar, so you can see what I'm reading, again --------->

Happy 2010!

A newer, fresher Bookfool for a brand new year. At least, that's the objective.

Monday Malarkey

We're still all giddy about our Friday snow, here, even though it was gone by morning (except for a tiny bit in the shade -- which disappeared as soon as the sun hit it). Above is another snow photo - obviously a long exposure and not a very good one, but I like it. I think the photo looks a little spooky with the tree limbs visible in the background.

Books, books and more books

I was offline most of the weekend because our weather has been changing almost daily and I get change-of-air-pressure migraines, so not much was accomplished in the way of reading or blog writing (and my head is still throbbing), but I've been gobbling up Life After Genius by Ann Jacoby, today. The "genius" of the title, Mead, was a math major before dropping out of college. The math bits go way over my head but the book is nicely written, Mead is a great character, I'm dying to know what happened to drive him away from college . . . and I really want to know whether or not he's having hallucinations. The pages, they are a-turning.

I haven't picked up Can God Be Trusted? for a few days, but I hope to sit down and read some of that, tonight. I did, however, start reading several more books:

Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception and Dishonor by Spc. Michael Anthony (quite a mouthful, eh?) is a tour book. I'm getting out of the blog-touring business, but I signed up for this one because my father was a navy corpsman and for some reason that translates to interest in anything with the word "medic" in it, military or otherwise. Kiddo looked at the title and said, "Dishonor??? What were you thinking, Mom?" Good point. We'll see how it turns out.

Drinking the Rain by Alix Kates Shulman - I found this book while cleaning. This seems to be a recent theme in the House of Bookfool: happening across books that I haven't read but which still pique my interest, years after they came into my possession. Drinking the Rain is the memoir of a feminist-writer-professor and tells the story of her time living alone in an island cabin off the coast of Maine without electricity, plumbing or telephone. I don't feel like I can adequately describe the book, just yet, so here's a link to info about Drinking the Rain at Shulman's website, if you're interested.

The New York Times calls Shulman: "The voice that has for three decades provided a lyrical narrative of the changing position of women in American society." Hmm, sounds like it would be a good one for the Women Unbound Challenge, doesn't it? So far, I'd definitely say it's perfect for the challenge. I had no idea I owned a book that would work, but that's okay. I kind of hate challenges.

For another blog tour (this time FirstWild), I'm reading Alcohol Today: Abstinence in an Age of Indulgence by Peter Lumpkins. I don't drink because I never developed a taste for alcohol and, in fact, never could come up with a reason to bother trying. I suppose he's preaching to the choir; but, I was curious to read an alternate opinion about the concept of total abstinence, as opposed to moderation. So far, the book is interesting but I wish the author had considered his audience. He uses a lot of what I'd call "preacher-speak" -- large words, often in the lingo of people who have attended seminary. In its language the book is self-limiting and I can't imagine it finding a wide audience, but I've found the bits about America's Prohibition Period fascinating, definitely worthy of discussion. I think that tour is later this week; I'll have to check my calendar.

Finished

I recently finished reading Specials, the third in the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. I'll review Specials and The Christmas Secret by Donna Van Liere, soon. The former wrapped up the Uglies trilogy in a way that left me feeling a bit unsettled and the latter is a satisfying Christmas story, sweet and touching.

Just walked in

After several weeks of empty mailbox, today was a banner day. The mailman had to bring the new books to the door. Eeks. I received:

Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle (Seasonal YA from PBS)

Schooled by Gordon Korman (YA from PBS)

The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer (ARC from the author - will have a giveaway of this one, soon)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez: The Early Years by Ilan Stavans (I think from Shelf Awareness)

and . . . another ARC I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention but as soon as I find out I'll tell you. If I can.

Storytime with Bookfool

Last week, I had to run to the doctor's office to nudge the doctor into signing a form that I absolutely had to have completed before he left town. While I waited, one of the receptionists opened up a 3" bottle of concentrated caffeine, guzzled it down and made a yuck-yuck-yuck face. She told me, "That stuff tastes awful . . . and it lingers," but she has successfully lowered her caffeine intake a tiny bit. Till recently she was drinking a Coke with breakfast, a concentrated shot of caffeine mid-morning, another Coke with lunch, a second concentrated jolt at mid-day and a Coke or tea with supper. Everyone in the medical office told her she was overdoing the caffeine. I loved her response: "Listen -- I have three kids, a job and a lazy husband. I need help and caffeine is it!"

I'm off to read. I'll leave you with one last snow pic - poppet Noelle in the grass:

I'm telling you . . . we have to soak up our rare snow experiences!!! Noelle and I worked hard at enjoying ourselves.

Happy Monday!

Bookfool, recently snowed upon and still smiling

One day I tripped and, sadly, my personality leaked out and rolled down the hill

No, I didn't really fall down literally. I mean it just seems like my personality has been missing from this blog in recent weeks. That's partly because I was busy with National Novel Writing Month, of course. And now my cat is exhausting me. It's like taking care of my dying mother all over again -- medicating round-the-clock, cleaning up, running to appointments. To ease our minds, Kiddo and I have been planning our future fur family. We want a minimum of 2 kittens. Those needy little red Somali kittens that act like puppies and look like foxes? Oh, yeah. It would be uber cool to have one of those in the family.

The husband is plotting the leather sofa he wants to get when the cat croaks (which we hope will be months, if not years, from now) and is threatening me with a dog and a fence. Big meanie.

The blind kitty is letting us know she is not dead yet, for crying out loud. She is so freaking determined to get around that she's absolutely hilarious. Today, she sat in front of a black leather IKEA chair, just gazing at it for a long stretch of time. I finally figured out she thought the chair was the front door when someone opened the door and she turned toward the sound with a look of shock.

Dear Spooky is frequently missing her litter box by a mile, but at least she's trying to hit it. We've moved her litter box close to her pallet (in the front entry of our house, which is no fine way to greet a guest, but hardly anyone ever drops by so it's not a big deal) because she simply could not figure out how to navigate her way through the kitchen and around two corners to get to the usual place.

And, that bag of litter near the corner of the wall, in the usual place, was getting pretty hazardous. It kept hitting her in the nose.

Let's get bookish:

I've got several children's books that I've put off reviewing, so I'm going to make tomorrow a Children's Day. I love doing that.

And, later tonight, probably tomorrow night (I forgot to ask an important question, so check back) I'm going to post info about a giveaway that you will love so much your cheeks will burn, your mouth will water, your fists will clench. "I must have that book!" you will shout aloud and your family, pet or roommate will turn to ask if you're okay. I can hear it, now. Either that or I'm wildly imaginative, but check back. Chef Alain Braux has agreed to let me offer up two copies of his nutrition/cookbook -- the one my family is so crazy about!!! Squeee!

On Wednesday, I will post a sneak peek of One Simple Act by Debbie Macomber and review it. It's a sweet little book about generosity that I am just loving. And, then maybe I can toss in my November Reads in Review (which I've already written, by golly -- getting a leap on things) on Thursday. Friday, I'll post a sneak peek of Essie in Progress by Marjorie Preston . . . which I've not yet begun to read. Thanks for reminding me.

This is what my mailbox has looked like, lately---->

Oh, man. How sad is that? Look at that big empty, vasty nothingness. It's deliberate, of course. I've stopped requesting books. I'm turning down anyone who summons the courage to offer, even after reading the notice in my sidebar. And I hate doing that because I adore authors, love books, thrill at being a part of the process of helping them get exposure but my house was about to do something bad, like . . . I don't know, explode? Rebel? Keel over in protest? Spontaneously combust?

Of course, there are certain authors I would never, ever say "no" to, but I'm sure they're not biting their fingernails and crying out, angst-ridden because Bookfool said she has to stop accepting review books. Simon, Pat, Colleen, John, Cindi . . . people I adore will find I'm still somewhat pliable.

Plus, I fell so far behind on books sent for review that it's humongously embarrassing. I know the reviews are going to be so late they'd make the White Rabbit turn himself over to the Queen of Hearts for punishment, but I'm going to slowly review them until there are no more. On my honor, I will try to do my duty, to God and the publicists and publishers of America . . . 'cause I was a Girl Scout, you know. Not a very good one, but we don't have to saunter down that road, now, do we?

Today, Kiddo and I hauled 36 books to the library and donated them to the perpetual sale corner. Oh, yes, I did check out one book. You have to expect that of a gal who calls herself "Bookfool", don't you? It's Extras by Scott Westerfeld. I'm only halfway through Specials but I figured what the heck. Might as well read the bonus book if it's available to check out utterly free of charge.

I am still reading Life After Genius (halted after husband's dental appointment, during which I sat in the car and read 50 delicious pages) and need to pick up my giant volume of Bone graphic novels . . . which somehow managed to move itself all the way to the bottom of a gigantic stack. I began reading Can God Be Trusted? and am curious whether making a man that handsome a priest (the author) is God's form of a joke or I'm just hormonal. I set aside A Novel Idea because I want a mental break from writing, but I'll get back to it. And, over the weekend I read Logan's Run -- my tattered original, which I happened across whilst cleaning house -- during a time when I was sitting up to wait for the proper time to give Blind Kitty her eyedrops.

Head spinning? I recommend a glass of water and a fluffy pillow. I think I'll leave you alone so you can go get them. Up next will be a drawing post, followed by Children's Day and all that other jazz. Oh, and I have two drawings on the 2nd of December, so check back on the Wednesday for the winners' lists.

That is all. You may now lie down and breathe a sigh of relief. Nighty-night!

Bookfool, who is finally starting to get back to blog-hopping!!! Squeee!

Updates on . . . things

I know I owe you guys a pork chop recipe and I swear I'm going to get to it, but between a head cold, a long night without sleep, helping Kiddo with a project I'd very much like to label "stupid and kindergartenish" (the assignment, not the end product) and National Novel Writing Month (see stunningly accurate visual of my storyline, at right, from Lambert/Hulton Archive Getty Images), Bookfool is a train wreck. I just don't feel like propping up a book to copy a recipe, today. I am too weak and weary.

So, you get an update, which is honestly just as much as I can handle.

Bookwise: I finished Against Medical Advice by James Patterson and Hal Friedman, last night. It was a really quick, very touching read (so quick, in fact, that I didn't manage to add it to my sidebar) but it left me with a few questions. I don't know if they can be answered; I just wonder if the subject of the book -- a young man who had a debilitating combination of Tourette's Syndrome with OCD and anxiety -- got better because of what he did to get control of his life or if it was at least in part because he grew out of his syndrome a bit. Does anyone have thoughts on that?

I won Against Medical Advice from Thoughtful Joy and it arrived pretty quickly, which leads me to a thought . . . Hatchette. Not to pick on them, but I have been on both ends of the giving and receiving love from Hatchette and sometimes the books won show up lightning fast; sometimes they just flat don't show up.

I don't want to nag drawing hosts (at least not more than once), so if they don't show up after a first mention, I let it go. I'm curious if anyone else has had a contest win never arrive. Never as in NEVER. Meaning months have passed, you've asked once, the nice blog drawing host said, "I'll remind them," and still nothing. Just curious. I've gotten a few complaints, myself, and that's one reason I've decided I'm about to stop hosting their drawings, at least for the time being.

There are other reasons, which are probably much better . . . one of which is the fact that I've preemptively declared 2010 a "Mostly No-ARC Year". I've already bungled that up by signing up to write a bunch of reviews in January, but I hope to gain strength as the year progresses. I've been working on writing a review policy to that end and, unfortunately, drawing a total blank. I'm reminded of the time we had a power outage and, just to be silly, I changed my answering-machine message to "Nyeh, go away," and then promptly forgot about it. A few hours later, someone I knew -- but not well enough to explain away that bit of madness -- called.

"Nyeh, go away," does not seem like the best of review policies. It's all I can come up with, right now, though. That's probably my head cold talking.

Nano-wise: Sometimes I love it; sometimes I hate it. My story, that is. I seem to alternate between good writing days and bad ones. Yesterday was good. Today, bad. My favorite really horrible excerpt:

In the Medical Restricted Zone, Kole awoke to find himself a little sore but feeling surprisingly well for a man who had been shot by some unknown kind of laser beam. He was also manacled to the bed. That sucked.

I just love to read that bit over and over, again. It makes me laugh. The awfulness of it tickles me so much that I'm leaving it in, for now. I'm not supposed to edit anyway, right? In case you're interested, my current word count is 27,467. I like meditating upon the fact that I have now passed the halfway point, if a bit late. I'm still behind but closing in on where I should be.

Other bookish things: Since I've decided to back away from reviewing advanced readers and read the ominous, glaring stacks of books before the infamous book rebellion in which the weak and seriously outnumbered are killed and eaten (say that aloud 5 times, fast), fewer books are arriving on my doorstep. I have, however, received two that I'm very anxious to read:

They Were Just People: Stories of Rescue in Poland During the Holocaust by Tammeus and Cukierkorn, and

Custer Survivor: The End of a Myth, The Beginning of a Legend by John Koster

Also, I've just found out that my church is going to be doing a year-long study using the God Sightings Bible and its Companion Guide. I have this Bible and guide for review and I've been a little perplexed as to its purpose and what to say about it (although I'm enjoying reading it, whether I "get it" or not), so I'm hoping that joining the group will illuminate me a bit and enable me to babble about what I learn. Because that's what I'm good at. (<---Bad English, sorry.] Babbling, I mean. At left is an image of the God Sightings Companion Guide, which I feel compelled to share because I just love that picture. I am excessively fond of a sheep.

I'm still reading all those books in the sidebar, also. Nano has slowed down my reading significantly, but I'm about to give in to this nasty cold and go to bed early. A few nights of caving in early to read and maybe I'll be able to change out that boring old set of same old, same old. The French chef's cholesterol-lowering nutrition advice and recipe book is still a huge hit around here, by the way. Just don't kick me if it takes a few days to say something about it and type up that pork chop recipe. I need sleep. Lots of sleep. And, the old kind of Nyquil.

Nighty-night.

Bookfool, aka "Sickie-poo"

Thursday Spaz Report

I'm sitting in my office, which looks a little more like the inside of a tornado than an office but we won't go there, yet. There's a squirrel climbing down the oak tree outside my window and another one sneaking up behind him. The cat's asleep. My bee sting of two days ago itches. And, I don't feel like writing. At least, not yet. So, you get an update on reading and writing (and possibly arithmetic).

I'm totally spazzed, today, because I lost my mind and decided to move the futon from our office to the den -- mostly to keep my husband from buying a new sofa. I want to use the available space to shift things around before filling up that room (which you may recall has been recently carpeted after two years of being down to concrete) and moving the futon gives us room to paint the office. Yeah! Starting yet another project when we have half a kitchen and 90% of a den. What more could a girl want than to end up with 2/3 of an office?

Normally, if I can't sleep because of the husband's snoring, I go to the futon. Last night, I couldn't sleep because of the husband's snoring. But, there's no curtain in the den window because we're still finishing up the trim painting and that freaks me out. So . . . no futon, long night. Yep, totally spazzed.

I'm on the verge of finishing The Church of Facebook by Jesse Rice and have both enjoyed and been horrified by the ideas it presents about the concept of "community" and how Facebook and other social media (including blogging) lack important aspects of true community. And, yet, at this point I think he's saying that there's a certain amount of contentment that one gets from blasting info about one's life on Facebook, conversations on Twitter, etc. The "church" aspect is losing me a little. I should maybe not have read bits of this when I was sleepy and might do a little rereading before I review, but in general the book is mostly psychology and quite fascinating.

Yesterday, I listened to and enjoyed BlogTalkRadio's interview with the authors of A Climate for Change and thought it was very well done. I sent in a question for this particular interview, so if you listen in you can hear my question and author Katharine Hayhoe's reply. And, if you can't fathom parting with the money to buy the book, A Climate for Change is currently available in full, online, especially pertinent for those of you aren't North American and therefore can't sign up to win a copy. You can also purchase it as a download for a reader, if you're one of those people who have moved with technology in a way that makes my nose wrinkle.

I'm going to just do a quickie review of The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton, right now, this very minute because I felt like the best descriptive term I can come up with is . . . nyeh. Disappointing to have such a pitiful grasp of the English language, but at this very moment you'll recall that I'm spazzed, frazzled and basically wiped out. So, you get what you get.

The Bible Salesman is about Henry, a fellow who acquires free Bibles, which he sells door-to-door. He meets a thieving, lying, dangerous man named Preston Clearwater, who convinces Henry he works for the FBI and hires Henry to help out with his car-theft ring. Henry likes the money and loves the idea that he's helping the FBI, but he falls in love along the way and the whole FBI thing starts to lose its fizz. Eventually he puts two and two together and comes up with 9, which leads to a pretty exciting and satisfying ending. It's just that . . . maybe it was me, but I kept falling asleep while reading this book. I think I can give it about a 3.5/5.

Nano-wise, the writing on my bad sci-fi has gone well for the first three days -- which, of course, were really days 9-11 of National Novel Writing Month. I skidded to a halt at a total of 9,271 words, last night. Not bad for 3 days' work, but the LOL cat, above, describes my sentiments at the end of the day.

This has really been a tremendously slow reading week, but I've read about 100 pages of The Foundling by Georgette Heyer and find myself besotted with the Duke, who was born a sickly baby and coddled to the point that he's getting tremendously feisty. I love Heyer's feisty characters.

And, my husband has now cooked 4 of the recipes in How to Lower Your Cholesterol with French Gourmet Food by Chef Alain Braux, (<---another Amazon link that doesn't benefit me, just in case you want to dash over to buy a copy). Kiddo gobbled up the pork chops, returning for seconds (moist, amazing, cooked in wine and topped with apples, celery and cheese) and I made my husband go back to the store to get more portobello mushroom caps to make a second round of stuffed mushrooms. Our pumpkin cheesecake is chilling.

The book is about 2/3 health book and it's the most interesting book on lowering cholesterol that I've read -- actually, I don't believe I've ever finished reading any of those I've attempted in the past. It's enjoyable to read at least in part because the author occasionally talks about his childhood in France. Those musings, along with fabulous recipes and very readable nutrition advice have made this book a 5-star for both myself and the husband. I hope to write a full review by this weekend and I'll add a favorite recipe when I do.

I think that's about all the news, for now. How are you doing? Still no blog-hopping for me. I'm feeling a tad lonely, but it's fun writing bad sci-fi. You should try it, sometime. Seriously.

Happy, Happy Thursday (or Friday, for those of you on the other side of the world)!

Bookfool: Reader, writer, counter of words

Monday Malarkey including Cheating Death Giveaway Results

Let's just do the giveaway thing first, since I seem to be moving slowly, today. The winners of Sanjay Gupta's Cheating Death are:

Booklogged

Rebecca N.

Anonymous (bgcchs)

Sandie Carol

Jessica

Booklogged, I had to laugh when your name came up first after reading your, "Darn, no way will I win," comment.

I'll be in touch with all of you. If you're on the winners list and you don't receive an email from me by tomorrow, please use my address in the sidebar to send me your mailing address. Deadline for receipt of mailing addresses is Thursday morning.

Cat update (hence the photo, above -- unfortunately, I have no idea where it came from but don't you love it?) - The vet says kitty's eye is looking better, bump up the drops to 4 times per day. Wahoo! She's looking good for a girl that's 80 years old in cat years, if you ask me. We're back to the Kung Fu 180 spin at medicine time.

Kid update - Boy, teenagers are sleepy things, aren't they? Sleep, eat, eat, sleep. Amazing.

Book update - I finished reading Psmith in the City by P.G. Wodehouse, this morning, after staying up to read the next two Bone graphic novels in my whopper volume, last night. Love Wodehouse! Bone is a hoot! I tried to do a little reading on the porch, this afternoon, but the mosquitoes were pestering me. If I ever buy another house in this state, it's going to have a screened porch, period.

NaNoWriMo Warning (not update -- that'll be next month) - I am going to partipate in National Novel Writing Month, after two years of missing out. So, I anticipate a bit less frequent posting and very little commenting, during the month of November. I've done and won NaNo twice, so I know from past experience that I still read, still post but it's all-consuming. I would imagine that I'll mostly read books I'm not obligated to read -- very light books -- apart from a couple of scheduled reviews that I keep forgetting to add to my calendar (Reminder to self: Add dates of scheduled reviews to calendar). If you're participating in NaNo and would like to be my buddy, I'm signed up as "nancytoes".

Just walked in:

Wolverine: Violent Tendencies by Marc Cerasini from Simon Pulse - no idea how on earth I got this one, but Kiddo is very excited about it.

The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison - won from Park Avenue Princess

I really need to do some reviewing, soon, but I don't know if I'll bother reviewing the books I read over the weekend. I think perhaps I'll wait till I've read all 9 Bone stories to write about the entire volume. Huh. We'll just see what comes up, this week. Every time I make plans I seem to change them, anyway. I think I'll just make this a wing-it week.

Image borrowed from X Industries.

30 minutes till kitty eye-drop time. Oh, boy. This could be such fun. Is there anything more enjoyable than giving a cat two kinds of medicine at 6 different hours of the day? I do it for the Kung Fu Special, myself. I get a kick out of that (literally, at times).

Hope everyone has had a fabulous Monday!

Bookfool, Winger of It

German Chocolate Sunday Pie with Half-Readathon Results

<-----Chocolate! From Germany!!! This is the only reason I tolerate my husband's journeys, let me tell ya.

Please bear in mind that we're not keeping all the chocolate, at left (huzzybuns likes to bring treats to the secretaries to thank them for their hard work on arranging overseas travel), but that's the pile of chocolate my Beloved brought home. Quite something, isn't it? The tons of Karamell Nuss (caramel nut) were brought home at my request because it's the "chocolate of the year" and allegedly will disappear after 2009 ends. I hope not. It's my all-time favorite from this company. However, we don't buy chocolate often because of the slave boys in Africa, so it's not like I'll be running out to get it regularly. I have a painfully heavy conscience.

So, how was your weekend? I had an interesting one, beginning with a kitty emergency on Friday. Miss Spooky's bad eye was looking worse to me, so I took her in to have it looked at. The vet said pressure was building and she appears to have developed secondary glaucoma. He gave her a shot of diuretic with a little tiny bit of painkiller, although he said the only painkiller that really works on glaucoma is marijuana. That's a pretty neat picture -- cat smoking marijuana.

We got some eyedrops to give Miss Spooky every 15-20 minutes, 6 times in a row, then every 6 hours. I followed the rules and by the 5th dose, I noticed my hand was getting wet when I dosed her, even though a drop is not a lot of moisture. But, it wasn't till the 6th dose that I realized my cat was staggering and drooling. She had a virtual river of drool running down her chin. Then some other bad things began to happen, which we'll simply call Intestinal Disturbances and she started to hiss at me. My cat never, ever hisses at me. I called the vet and they said, "Bring her back." Back we went. The vet gave her a shot and told me to back off on the eyedrops to twice a day, gave me his private numbers in case of further trouble and said bring her back Monday. If we can't get the swelling under control, she will lose her eye but it looks better, today. Wahoo for that!

How did the Readathon go, for those of you who participated? I did an unofficial half-readathon (sort of a fun run as opposed to a marathon), partly because I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of time to read and partly because I figured if I turned the computer on at all, I'd waste time on it -- and I wanted to just get a feel for this readathon business.

I starting piling up books and just kept on piling. You can see from this photo that I ended up well stocked with 4 stacks of books, reading glasses, a pile of homemade bookmarks and some Post-Its. I'm not sure if you'll be able to enlarge, what with the blogger hinkiness of recent days, but there's some good stuff in those piles and way too much to list.

Friday night, with the cat locked into the bathroom because of Intestinal Difficulties (didn't want to have to chase her around to clean up after her) and loudly scratching at the door, crying out "Bookfool is an Evil Cat Mommy", I turned off the house lights, closed my bedroom door in the hope that the cat would settle down and started to read Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl, a memoir that I chose because it's only 112 pages long. It depressed me because I'm basically a 50's housewife transplanted into a decade when women who stay at home get funny looks and it was about how unhappy her mother was being stuck at home. Beautiful writing, though.

The next day, I woke up . . . well, not particularly early, but at about 9:30 I staggered around and began reading with the aid of a Mt. Dew (my caffeine of choice). I finished Not Becoming My Mother and then just went from book to book. These are the books I worked on (although I bought two of those while picking up my husband, so I didn't begin reading Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy and Out of Boneville (the first Bone graphic novel -- more on that whopper book of Bones in a minute) until after returning from bookstore, Target, airport and Mazzio's:

Finished:

Out of Boneville by Jeff Smith (Graphic Novel - Book One from the One Volume Edition) - 149 pages

Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl (Memoir) - 112 pages

The Sneeze by Anton Chekov (Plays) - 77 pages

Partial Reads:

Psmith in the City by P. G. Wodehouse (novel) - 122 pages read (35 to go)

The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (pulp fiction) - 38 pages read

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter (YA) - 34 pages read

The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton (novel) - about 30 pages read (kept falling asleep, oops)

Between Chekov and Wodehouse, I was immersed in a good bit of comic genius and that kept my attention nicely. I bought the Bone book because I wanted to toss a graphic novel into the mix but all that was available was the volume of all nine graphic novels. Bone is terrific: adventurous, scary, funny! I can't wait to read on and I'm so glad I forked out the big bucks for the huge collection. The only downfall is that it's not colored, but I used my 30% coupon on it (while waiting for hubby to call saying he'd arrived at the airport), so a $40 volume became $27.99 before tax. With the full 9 books, that averages to $3.11, per book. Yeah, I think I can handle B & W. While at Borders, I also bought Pretties and Specials by Scott Westerfeld and Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter, so the photo of everything was taken after we returned from the airport.

The Warlord of Mars is an odd choice, isn't it? Obviously, it was the cover that caught my eye. See that green creature? That's the warlord's Martian dog, Woola. Woola makes me snort. The book itself is total crap. I don't know how else to put it. But, it's mildly entertaining crap, if you can stand the fact that Mars is a racially-divided, misogynistic world. I couldn't help but wonder if Edgar's true colors were showing. I don't have the book handy, but I believe it was originally published in 1910 -- certainly a very different world. I'm not actually sure whether I'll be able to finish it. We'll see.

I cannot wait to officially join in on the next readathon!!! I learned that there were some things Bookfool had pegged . . . trying to do a readathon with the husband around is impossible unless he's asleep. While he was awake, he was annoying. Fortunately, huzzybuns was jet-lagged and went to bed around 8:00. Wahoo! So, my reading was done in chunks but I did get to read a bit, last night. I'm a slow, slow reader and I'm very happy that I managed to finish a few books.

Now, I'm off to finish Psmith in the City. I just love Wodehouse, don't you? Hope those of you who joined in on the readathon are recovering. Since the posting is usually exceptionally heavy during readathon weekend, I'll do a mass delete in my reader for my sanity. It's okay if you don't have time to read this. For those of you who can focus . . . thanks for making it to the bottom of my post.

Smiles all around!

Bookfool

Sunday Scatterberry Pie and Roll Call -- a little bit of everything, in the usual fashion

I've just finished giving my cat her medicine, which essentially means trying to get her to swallow some antibiotic drops and ending up with antibiotic spit all over my hands. You've never had any fun until you've tried to pill or give drops to or put ointment in the eye of a lovable but feisty cat. That's an old photo at left, of course. Her left eye is completely black and she obviously can't see out of it, but she's already figured out how to jump up onto the futon and down onto the floor without incident. I'm so impressed with her adaptability. Miss Spooky: my hero.

I finished Crossing Myself by Greg Garrett, last night, and I know I'm going to have a terrible time reviewing it because the book is so meaningful that it hurts my head to think of distilling it down into a few paragraphs' worth of review. I'm considering just posting quotes -- nothing but quotes. Well, maybe a little bit of description, but I'll tell you about it a bit, right now. Greg Garrett is or was a tenured university professor at Baylor in Waco, Texas. He was successful in his teaching and in his published writing, but his private life was a disaster -- three divorces, two kids, often out of money and chronically depressed for over 20 years.

In 2002, he came this close to committing suicide but instead discovered the real meaning of faith and, while teaching at a Baptist university, began attending an Episcopal seminary. He talks about his life in those years, as he went from complete and utter mess to loving his life. This book is so cool. I ordered Crossing Myself from Paperback Swap because I've got another Garrett book for review, a recent release called No Idea. I can't wait to see what new things he has to say.

I heard the best story, yesterday. That's a photo of an iron-clad Confederate boat, at left. You'll understand why I chose that image, shortly. Kiddo has had to throw in the towel for the rest of the swim season because his shoulder injury was getting far too painful, so we were shopping for running shoes in Jackson. I figured if he's not going to have swimming to keep him in shape, we should train to run together (although you can imagine I'll never be able to run at the pace of a 6-foot, 17-year-old boy).

While we were shopping, we ran into one of my husband's work friends and he had a great story to tell. We'll call him Bob. Bob had to speak at a briefing, last week, and he and the other speakers went into it knowing the meeting was going to be extraordinarily dull. So, to ward off the boredom, they dared each other to insert some totally impossible word into their presentations. Bob was challenged to use the word "aluminum" in his part of the briefing. Aluminum, of course, was totally off-the-wall and plays no part in anything about which he was to speak, but he was determined to get that word in there and what he came up with was, "This is not an iron-clad plan. This is an aluminum-clad plan." After the presentation, the Big Boss came up to him and said, "What was the deal with the aluminum remark?" And, Bob went away with a really great story that made us laugh our socks off in the aisle of Academy Sporting Goods. I wouldn't mind hanging out with Bob. He is one great storyteller and an incredibly cheerful, upbeat guy.

I'm currently reading a bunch of books, as always. I sometimes wish I could reign in my ADD brain and focus on one book at a time, but I actually tried to finish up $20 Per Gallon and discovered that it's best taken in small chunks (at least for me). So, I'm back to reading 3-page bits and pieces. It's a good book. I'm particularly fascinated with the descriptions of the new South Korean city, Songdo, which is being built entirely as a compact, energy-efficient satellite city that sounds a lot more like the Jetsons' world than anything I would have expected to exist in my lifetime. I'm thinking the book is a good one for people who plan to do world-building in preparation for writing science fiction.

Milky Way Marmalade seems to be the book that I can't stop burying, lately -- the one that needs a neon flag attached. I may set it aside for a week or two because I've got quite a list of books that I feel obligated to finish before the end of the month, even though I only have one remaining tour. Or, maybe I'll just restart it. I apparently love weighing myself down with nonexistent obligations.

The Interrogative Mood lost me at the halfway point. A book composed entirely of questions is fun . . . to a point. And, halfway was it for me. I can imagine it would generate some great discussion -- say, if a group were to read it and each individual choose his or her favorite questions for everyone to answer. But, as far as reading the entire book, the problem is that there's no story and no particular direction. Its a totally random book with question after question, most of which are not interconnected, although sometimes he goes on for a while with a particular train of thought. It made my son and me laugh when we read it aloud (and blush when one or two of the questions were sex-based) but there's a limit to how far you can take the fun. It should be a board game, not a book, I guess.

The Maze Runner is still grabbing me but took second place while I finished up Crossing Myself, last night. It seems likely that it will be the next book finished, if only because just thinking about it makes me want to kick my husband off the futon and curl up with it. But, I have things to do, so he can stay there and play with his little toy (some electronic Applepod thingy).

As to the Roll Call mentioned in my subject line . . . there's another story. I had around 240 hits in 24 hours, just after posting the zombie book review and I made the assumption that maybe people were looking up the zombie book, but just to find out I went on one of my rare jaunts to StatCounter and discovered that my hits were all over the map, as far as the searches that led them to my blog. When I first put up my stat counter, I fussed over the numbers and wondered what I should do to change things to keep people coming back. And, then at some point I decided that numbers are meaningless and I'm not in this for anything other than a mode of expression. I'm not blogging for free books. I'm not blogging to make money. I just need an outlet to babble about the books I love and a place to write freely.

Yesterday, I made the near-fatal mistake of looking at keyword analysis and then from there I ended up looking at unique visitors vs. return visitors and found that my statistics show that people don't return to my blog. That isn't entirely borne out by the comments but I know that some people I used to think of as "old faithfuls" aren't returning to my blog as often as they used to and that bothers me. After looking at my stats, I was ready to stop blogging right at that moment, close up shop, hide my blog and disappear. But, then I remembered checking off Day by Day Armageddon, last week, and saying to myself, "4 down, 17 to go." All of which means, I still feel burdened by the books that have been sent to me but not yet read or reviewed, so I'll keep chugging away.

But, I'd like to know who is out there lurking. Readers like Google Reader distort statistics because people often read a post but don't click through to comment. I'm pretty sure the fact that 56 people follow me in that little Google Friend thing that you can't find unless you go to my "about" page says something; and, the others who use readers of various types are still there but not always commenting. Still, I'd like to know, so if you could step forward and comment -- just say, "I'm here," it would help ease my mind.

I'm off to get ready for my Bible study. My own reader is oppressively heavy, again, and this week my son is off for "intercession" so I'll be in and out a lot. Kiddo needs to be entertained or he'll spend all day shooting at bad guys and watching movies in the dark. I wish everyone a wonderful week. If I'm unable to comment on posts, it's a temporary thing. I'll be back next week. In addition to dealing with intercession entertainment, we've got the Poison Guy to look forward to and a carpet installation, mid-week. Kiddo has a doctor appointment and will still show up for swim practice, even if he's not swimming. I have photos to load to the swim blog and cleaning and paint touch-up to do in preparation for the carpet dudes. It's going to be a busy week. Happy reading!

Don't forget to tell me you're out there, please!! Happy Sunday!

Bookfool, feeling just a wee bit lonely