Seasons G-read-ings!

I love this childhood book of mine,
Cranberry Christmas by Harry and Wende Devlin.

A few more holiday treasures for all ages.

If you are interested in a little holiday humor, David Sedaris, you can listen to his holiday story Santaland Diaries here in four parts: part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4

Frankie says...

This is my new favorite wine.

And it's a shocker, since Riesling isn't typically my thing... I'm more of a Pinot Noir kind of girl.

To Judge a Book By Its Cover

In recent years I've been amassing a collection of Bond books with a particular set of covers I so love, those put out by Penguin in the early 2000's with cover art by Roseanne Serra and Richie Fahey. I have ten of the 15 books (if you count the short story collection Quantum of Solace). I try to pick these up "used" when I'm at Half Price Books or some other reasonably priced book joint. Still on my must-have list are these: You Only Live Twice, Quantum of Solace, The Man With the Golden Gun, Diamonds are Forever, and From Russia With Love.

Today I discovered another edition that I feel I MUST own. Despite the fact that I've seen all the films and am a huge fan, I've only actually READ two books by Ian Fleming: Goldfinger and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Still, the new Penguin cover art blows me away. Good job, Michael Gilette. Take a look.


If you're curious about the order of the books. Apparently one ought to read them in the proper order and little attention has been paid to this by book publishers in the past. Not so, this time with the new Penguin editions. Seriously. Aren't these just yummy?

Book a Day Options

So the hard part about finding 11 books to read over break is that I have to choose from the 555 in my Goodreads "to read" category. Last night, I started pulling unread books from my shelves and I had to stop when I got to about 25 titles. So, no matter what, I'll have no trouble FINDING great titles... I just may have some trouble NARROWING my options.

Care to help? Feel free to weigh in on these titles.

1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (young adult fiction)
2. The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (short stories)
3. Men and Gods by Rex Warner, illustrated by Edward Gorey (myths)
4. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (memoir)
5. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (memoir)
6. White Cat by Holly Black (young adult)
7. Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus (children's)
8. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (young adult)
9. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (young adult)
10. A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami (fiction)
11. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (juvenile/young adult fiction)
12. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (memoir)
13. Escape! The Story of The Great Houdini by Sid Fleischman (young adult nonfiction)
14. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (nonfiction)
15. Big Fish by Daniel Wallace (fiction)
16. Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (juvenile/young adult fiction)
17. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (nonfiction/roman a clef)
18. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (fiction)
19. Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell (mystery)
20. Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson (juvenile fiction)
21. Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James swanson (young adult history)
22. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
23. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (juvenile/young adult fiction)
24. Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (fiction)
25. Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle (3 Young Adult holiday romances)

UPDATE:
Books in red, I completed for the challenge
Books in green, I read BEFORE the challenge began. :)

A Book a Day

Since I love a good challenge, I'm going to try for a "book a day" over my holiday break. For me that's only 11 days... 11 books.

If you choose to participate, you can share your progress and your titles on Twitter with the hashtag #bookaday.

Donalyn Miller, of Book Whisperer fame, is leading the charge. Now I just have to decide which choice morsels to devour over my brief break.

Miller reminds us that anything is fair game... novels, nonfiction, picture books, graphic novels, your challenge, your pick. With that in mind I should be in good shape. After all, I think I have more than 500 titles on my "to read" list.

Graphic Organizers -- Flow Chart

Everthing's Better with Feta

Labor Day Lunch

Fresh From the Garden Salad: lettuce, onion, cucumber slices (soaked in vinegar), cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese... I added lemon pepper chicken chunks before I ate... it was still a-cooking when I got camera happy.

Time for a peck of pickled peppers?

This is just Friday's take from the garden. I have some spaghetti squash for a few meals this week and I'm trying to think of something yummy to make with the Acorn Squash (is that the right name for that variety?). I have been looking online for ideas for my peppers. I think I'm going to try to do some preserving. Yikes. Directions differ wildly and some stress caution when canning to avoid botulism but other recipes seem to suggest it's easy peasy... I'll keep you posted.

I Admire the Enthusiasm.

About a week ago I heard a Ray Bradbury tribute video that both stunned me and made me laugh out loud. I am most certain it crosses several lines and then tap dances with glee on the other side. While I won't be posting the video here, it's certainly something you can search out when you aren't at work or in the presence of the easily offended or young ears of the world. Here's a link to an article that describes and discusses it better than I do.

The Ray Bradbury Tribute I Never Expected to See posted by David Barnett on the book blog page of The Guardian.

The Current State of Affairs.

image by Kenglye

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
Blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

And did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

--Pink Floyd

Mashups.

I wanted to see if I could really clip part of a Hulu vid and share it somewhere else... I absolutely LOVE the mashups on Glee and this partial Bon Jovi one is particularly grand.

And it worked! That was a clip from Glee Season I episode: Vitamin D in which Will's wife gets a job as a school nurse (totally without credentials) in an effort to spy on him and Emma. She also gets all the kids hopped up on the active ingredient in cold medicine. You can tell that Finn is a bit hopped up in this number, but it's appropriate. I've seen Jon Bon Jovi perform recently. He was exactly like that!



To be fair, here are the girls. Equally manic.

Does Tweeting Make me a Twit?

Despite the fact that I have managed to take a class on Twitter for Teachers and teach two workshops on social media, I remain a bit of a skeptic. I find it intriguing. I suspect there really is no fighting it. Yet, I'm not sure we really understand the way that social media is altering our reality, our literacies.

Today I was struck by a NY Times article from a few weeks ago, I Tweet, Therefore I Am. And one slice in particular:

"Back in the 1950s, the sociologist Erving Goffman famously argued that all of life is performance: we act out a role in every interaction, adapting it based on the nature of the relationship or context at hand. Twitter has extended that metaphor to include aspects of our experience that used to be considered off-set: eating pizza in bed, reading a book in the tub, thinking a thought anywhere, flossing. Effectively, it makes the greasepaint permanent, blurring the lines not only between public and private but also between the authentic and contrived self. If all the world was once a stage, it has now become a reality TV show: we mere players are not just aware of the camera; we mug for it."

And I don't think Twitter is the only target here. I'm sure this can be said for all forms of social media, this blog included. I'm not sure the realization is enough to change anything for me, but awareness is worth something, I think.

article found via Swiss Miss

Sounds Sketchy? Not at all.

Every year I contemplate NaNoWriMo and am unable to truly give it a go, especially in November. It's just not the month for me at this stage of my life... And a novel. Wow. I don't know.

So, now I've gone and done something radical. Well, for me at least.

I signed up for The Sketchbook Project. I just couldn't help myself. It's too cool not to be a part of this.

I am not even good at art... at least not in its traditional forms, but this is a really freeing project based on what I read and I'm VERY excited to see what emerges.

Please check it out for yourself and consider joining me in The Sketchbook Project.

Sweet Eats.

I love food blogs. I've said it before--they are my "porn." I experience a lust that I imagine is how some men view the other sort. I can feel it all through me... the appreciation for the beauty of the food. The mouthwatering. The ache. :)

I have a few favorites that do the exaggerated explicit photographic instructions on how to craft their delectable recipes. Yet, another favorite foodie is Oh Joy Eats. Joy's blog features favorite restaurants, food related products, desserts, dishes, recommendations, sweets, treats and more all styled to perfection. I enjoy her other blog too.

13 Ways of Looking at a Hamster

Oooh... please click here - Eden Kennedy of Fussy gets poetic.
And it's great fun. Well... Peanut liked it!

Jane Austen Fight Club -- A Double Parody