BTT and Friday Fill-In - July 18

Do you buy books while on vacation/holiday?

Do you have favorite bookstores that you only get to visit while away on a trip?

What/Where are they?

I have been known to drop into fun-looking used book stores if I pass one while on vacation. I found a real gem when we went to Charlottesville, Virginia two years ago. There was another great one in Banff, Canada that I found on our honeymoon. Since we typically always go to new places on vacations, I don't have favorite bookstores I visit while away.

 

1. If I could be a fly on the wall I would be at Woodstock. Except it was outside and there were no walls. So, maybe I would be a fly on the wall of an Egyptian pyramid when they were being built.

2. Jealousy is different from envy.

3. When I see a shooting star my wish would be that a brand new Prius would show up in our driveway in the morning.

4. I'd rather be short than tall any day!

5. Certain songs when I hear them make me wanna dance like there's no tomorrow.

6. If time were in a bottle I would pop the cork.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to hopefully sleeping, but it looks like Maya is teething which means no one is sleeping lately, tomorrow my plans include going to an Italian Festival and Sunday, I want to organize Maya's new toy shelves from Ikea!

Chunkster Challenge Wrap-Up

I'm trying to clean house a bit, and I realized I finished this challenge without even realizing it.

Hosted by: So Many Books, So Little Time

Books Read:

• The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (552p) finished 25 February 2008

• Gate of the Sun - Elias Khoury (531p) finished 27 March 2008

• The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch (502p) finished 20 May 2008

• Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (546p.) finished 6 July 2008

Favorite: They were all great, but The Time Traveler's Wife would squeak by with the gold.

Least Favorite: None. I liked them all. Unless I would count The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans. This was one of my original selections, and I don't think I made it past page 30.

New-to-me authors: All of them!

Snakes and Earrings - Hiromi Kanehara

Title: Snakes and Earrings (Hebi ni piasu in Japanese)

Author: Hiromi Kanehara (translated by David James Karashima)

Year: 2004

Country: Japan

Pages: 120

Rating: 3 out of 5

 First sentence: "Know what a forked tongue is?"

Snakes and Earrings is as much a story about disillusioned youth as it is about the young Japanese counter-culture. Lui is a 19 year old girl who travels away from her "Barbie-girl" image once she meets Ama. She is mesmerized by his forked tongue, an extreme form of body modification, and she spontaneously sets out to split her own tongue, moving in with Ama as well. The short novella is filled with S&M, anorexia, alcoholism, and drugs.

The tattoos, forked tongues, and piercing', and other physical transformations hint at the underlying mental transformations that Lui is faced with by the end of the novel. It is one of those stories in which the end is only the beginning, and I am left wondering where her life will ultimately lead her.

I have been meaning to read a book about the youth counter-culture in Japan, but I think that craving would be better served with non-fiction. Ultimately, this was a quick read (I read it in one sitting at the beach), but not particularly satisfying. Snakes and Earrings did win the Akutagawa literature prize in 2003.

Also reviewed by:

Tanabata at In Spring it is the dawn

If you have reviewed this book and would like your review listed here, just let me know!

The Blessing of A Skinned Knee - Wendy Mogel

Title: The Blessing of A Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Kids

Author: Wendy Mogel

Year: 2001

Country: USA

Pages: 304

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

I read this book a few weeks ago, so many of the details have already slipped my mind. Therefore, I'm writing this review in a slightly different format.

What it's about: Wendy Mogel discusses practical tools and Jewish spiritual values to address many of the issues that confront today's parents: overindulgence, over-scheduling, overprotection and rebellion, to name a few. Her strategies aim to teach kids to be respectful and gracious while staying true to their individual personalities.

What I liked: This is not just a book for Jewish parents, as her philosophy easily crosses religious boundaries. Her suggestion to treat children as "unique, but ordinary", by putting a child on a pedestal can cause self-esteem problems down the road. She tells readers that you should not expect children to be anyone other than who they are, rather than pushing them towards extraordinary achievements in areas that they just aren't interested in.

The book is organized in an easy to read format, great for busy parents, and covers topics such as "The Blessing of Work: Finding the holy sparks in ordinary chores", "The Blessing of Time: Teaching your child the value of the present moment" and "The Blessing of Food: Bringing moderation, celebration, and sanctification to your table". Overall, she has some very valuable advice that relates well to our parenting style, and I will definitely be coming back to the book in the future.

What I didn't like: There were a few things that really stand out, causing my to give it a lower rating. Her diatribe on the negative affects of gender equality really struck my feminist nerve. I also found some of her comments on disabled children abhorrent coming from the voice of a psychologist. I also felt that some of the "problems" she addressed were really only specific to families in the same socioeconomic class of her previous clientele (her practice was in Beverly Hills, California). The spoiling and indulgence she talks about just can't occur in lower economic class families, so it was a bit hard for me to relate to that (that's not saying that kids whose families aren't rich can't be spoiled, they can...but her writing doesn't address the issue in a way that easily applies to all socio-economic levels).

Recommended to: Parents with kids aged 5 and up. 

Sunday Salon - July 12

Earlier this week, we took a trip to Morven House in Princeton, the home of Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his wife Annis Boudinot Stockton. During the tour, I learned that Annis, a feminist and patriot, was one of America's first female published poets, and wrote more than 12o works. Wanting to learn more, I asked if any of her works were still in publication. The tour guide did not know (I since looked it up; they were collected and published in 1995 in a book called Only for the Eye of a Friend: The Poems of Annis Boudinot Stockton) but another visitor on the tour reminded me of a book that has been languishing on my TBR pile: Founding Mothers: The Women who Raised our Nation by Cokie Roberts. Annis is covered in the book, along with Abigail Adams, Martha Washington, Mercy Otis Warren, Deborah Reed Franklin, and Eliza Pinckney. I ran out this afternoon on the way back from the beach and picked up a copy of the book from the library, and that will be my reading material for this not-so-leisurely Sunday!

Cokie Roberts has a new book out that also sounds good which seems to pick up where Founding Mothers leaves off. It is titled Ladies of Liberty: The Women who Shaped our Nation.

Yesterday I breezed through a small book by young Japanese author Hitomi Kanehara, Snakes and Earrings, an explicit look into the counter-culture of Japanese youth. It's...interesting. 

Happy Sunday!

Friday Fill-In - July 11

1. Oh, I can't wait until I have a baby-sitter.

2. Watermelon is the first thing I see when I open my refrigerator.

3. I never leave home without my keys.

4. If I were a condiment, I would be BBQ sauce because it's sweet and tangy.

5. People cutting into a line is really high up on my list of pet peeves.

6. The last thing I thought of before I went to bed was how tired I am.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to sleeping, tomorrow my plans include going to the beach and reading a good book and Sunday, I want to buy new dressers!

Booking Through Thursday - July 10

One of my favorite bookstores burned down last weekend, and while I only got to visit there while I was on vacation, it made me stop and think.

What would you do if, all of a sudden, your favorite source of books was unavailable?

Whether it’s a local book shop, your town library, or an internet shop … what would you do if, suddenly, they were out of business? Devastatingly, and with no warning? Where would you go for books instead? What would you do? If it was a local business you would try to help out the owners? Would you just calmly start buying from some other store? Visit the library in the next town instead? Would it be devastating? Or just a blip in your reading habit?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

I don't even want to think about it! My favorite source for books is the library, and I would be devastated if our local one burned down. Not only would it be a loss of thousands of books, but it would be the destruction of a meeting place for the community. Our (new) public library has children's storytimes, arts and crafts programs, a meeting rooms for all types of community organizations, a location to hold ESL classes, computer classes...the list goes on and on.

What would I do? I would chip in to help rebuild. I would donate time and energy, and money; I would help organize fundraisers, and share my grantwriting skills to help the library bounce back.

The Sunday Salon: The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Title: The Time-Traveler's Wife

Author: Audrey Niffenegger

Year: 2003

Country: USA

Pages: 546

Rating: 5 out of 5

First sentence: CLARE: It's hard being left behind.

Back in 2007, Chris at Book-a-rama thought that she was the last person on Earth to read The Time Traveler's Wife. 

You're not, Chris. I just finished it last night. :)

When a book is as popular as this one was , I often wait a very long time to delve into it (unless I read it before it become the "in" book. I don't like reading books at the height of their popularity. So I patiently avoid all of the gushing reviews, and let it sit there for months, sometimes longer. This one has been sitting on my bookshelf since December 2006.

It finally caught my attention last week. Once I picked it up, it was very hard to put it down, much to the consternation of my husband and, yes, even Baby Maya!

Henry is a reluctant time-traveller, possessor of some screwed up DNA. He can't help it, he involuntarily travels back in time without any forewarning. He can be gone for minutes, or days. His wife Clare, who first meets Henry when she is 6 (while he is time-travelling - although they are eight years apart in age, Henry does not meet Clare until he is 28), is not so linearly challenged, and always stays rooted to the present. The story is largely the story of their relationship, so don't be fooled by the title. It is not a science-fiction novel in any form.

Henry time travels; he does not change the past. When he learns too much about his future, he is left with the burden of living that reality without being able to do a thing to change it. Once married, Clare is burdened by the reality of waiting. Waiting for Henry to meet her childhood self, to experience all the memories she already has. Waiting for Henry to come back from an unknown time and place, sometimes okay, but often bruised, tired, or injured.

It's a book that really drew me in emotionally. I was vested in these characters, I ached when they were going through very painful circumstances. I wanted Henry's doctor to discover a cure, I wanted them to be happy. It's not that often that a book can make my heart pound with sympathy and anguish, and this one did.

For that, I'm giving it five stars. There were one or two small things that were left dangling that I really want to know more about. On a certain night in question, I really wanted to hear the perspective from Mark and Philip, Clare's brother and father. And, at one point, Henry states that he now understands what Clare's childhood friend Helen said to him at his wedding. But we never get to hear what she said (unless I missed it somehow). Small things, really, in an otherwise outstanding debut novel. I will definitely be reading more by Audrey Niffenegger in the future!

Other reviews of the Time Traveler's Wife can be found at:

Dog Ear Diary

Books, Memes and Musings

Confessions of a Bibliophile

SmallWorld Reads

If you have reviewed this book, and would like to have it listed here, just let me know!

Friday Fill-In - July 4

I'm a day late on this one. Oops!

1. Holidays in the summer are fun to celebrate with BBQ chicken, watermelon, and berries and cream.

2. Pineapple slices and sweet potatoes are my favorite things to grill.

3. My thoughts are always whirling around in my head.

4. Fourth of July picnics is what I'm most looking forward to this weekend!

5. My favorite book so far this summer is The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (still reading).

6. A shower is the best way to begin a day.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to going to a BBQ, tomorrow my plans include meeting up with a new friend in my new town at a really fun coffee shop and Sunday, I want to get some of our artwork up on the wall in our new townhouse!

To all the Americans, Happy 4th of July weekend!

Booking Through Thursday

It’s a holiday weekend here in the U.S., so let’s keep today’s question simple–What are you reading? Anything special? Any particularly juicy summer reading?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

I am about halfway through The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I absolutely love it. It is one of those books that, if I didn't have a baby daughter, I would stay up all night or day reading until I finish it. My parents bought it for me for Christmas 1 1/2 ago; I'm not sure why I waited so long to pick it up!