Need Your Help

So, I use Internet Explorer. And I like it. Usually.

Unfortunately, it's unreliable when it comes to favicons. What's a favicon? you ask. Well, it's the little icon you see next to the url or next to the name of the website if you're using tabbed browsing. Often it's the little "e" for Explorer. Or it might be the orange and white "B" for Blogger.

ANYWAY.

Since I just see the "e" I'm wondering if that means my favicon is broken, hijacked, or just playing tricks on me. So if you could take my little poll ---->
I'd appreciate it.

Also, if you're not busy and wanted to buzz over to Arri and Keish's site and then leave me a comment here with what favicon you see there, that would be cool. Because when I go there I see the weird "J" but when I had someone else go look for me on their computer they saw leaves.

Sorry for the interruption, stay tuned for a return to your regularly scheduled book blogging.

June in Review

Yeah, I know, technically June isn't over. I am giving up on June, though. Not my best month.

10 books read.

One for Book Club, six Virtual Book Tour books, two graphic novels and a miscellaneous jf/yf.

Wow, that's a lot of VBT books. Interesting.

Between kids being sick and being sick myself.... I'm glad June's over.

The June Possibility is Shadow of the Wind which I don't have from the library yet. It's popular-- I'm hold #14. So I'll read it in July, but that's the way it goes, right? :D

Start leaving me suggestions for July-- I'll post a poll around the 10th or so!

Summer Reading Saturday-- It's Still Saturday, Right?

It's still June, right? Yeah. June. End of June.

Soooooo.

The little library prize was playdoh. Very exciting. I haven't let Mister play with his yet... He'd probably eat it.

For adults is was cool post-it notes that have a fancy frame and say "Master the art of reading".

I'm already done with all 8 books. Shocker. I know.

Boo has 7 squares filled in, which is really pretty bad. BUT we have ALL of the Dance Fairy books out of the library, and the Pet, Jewel and Weather Fairy books are all either here or on hold. We're only doing 30 minute sessions now, and these books take about 25-30 minutes, so it's perfect.

Mister has 10 filled in, which doesn't seem right. I could have sworn it was more than that. Ah well, what can you do. We're doing 10 minute sessions, about 4 picture books. They tend to be scattered throughout the day, but that works. He brings them to me while I'm working on stuff and climbs into my lap.

So all in all, June has not been as productive as one would like. But what can you do.

July will be better. It had best be anyway, or we won't finish!

And We Come to the End

Of the Ides of March Madness!

And the big winner is-- Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner.

I really thought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had it, but what do I know. :D

Difference of Opinion

We've all been there. We love a book that everyone else hates. Or hate a book that everyone else loves. So I thought I'd list some.

Books I LOVE-- even if I'm in the minority:

1. A Separate Peace by John Knowles. Required reading. I really liked it.


2. Harry Potter 3 and 5. Everyone else's least favorites are my absolute FAVORITES!


3. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. Maybe not everyone hated it, but I know I liked it more than most people in my 11th grade English class.


4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. See comment on #3.


5. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn. Again, required. I thought it was really good.

Books I HATE-- minority again:

1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Or anything else I've ever read by Ray Bradbury. Ugh.


2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Yeah, blasphemy, I know. At least I got through it finally. Once.


3. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Okay, I know, maybe not hugely in the minority here, but my BEST friend in high school LOVED (probably still does) Hardy. I was really disappointed by the lack of dead bodies at the end of this one.


4. Romeo and Juliet. Would it have been that hard to check for a pulse? Really? Gag.


5. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. Okay, so I'm not sure anyone else assigned it liked it either, but the teacher doing to assigning (whom I love and respect and still keep in touch with) thought I'd really like it... yeah, not so much.

Books I should really pick up again:

1. Lust For Life by Irving Stone. Started this in high school Humanities and have just never managed to finish it! It was good.


2. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Honestly, I don't think I even finished it. I should probably give it another chance.


3. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Another one from Humanities. Didn't really like it, but I think it probably deserves another chance now that I'm older.


4. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Another from Humanities. We did a lot of excerpt reading that year.


5. The Aeneid by Virgil. I'm ashamed to say I haven't read the whole thing. When it was assigned in college I was so overwhelmed already the I read the sparknotes online.

What about you?? Favorites that no one else likes? Vice versa? Isn't it funny that so many of these were school assignments?

The Inimitable Jeeves by P G Wodehouse

5 stars
R-0

This was my pick for my Book Club this month! LOVE Jeeves and Wooster.

But you already knew that.

So. The Inimitable Jeeves is actually a bunch of short stories woven together as a novel. (Two stories from Enter Jeeves were in here, under different names and split into 2-3 chapters each.) And it works. It works really well. It has the feel of a novel while still being more or less in chunks suitable for shorter bits of time.

Bingo Little, a friend of Bertie's, is all over it. Constantly falling in love and needing Bertie (or Jeeves anyway) to bail him out of some trouble or other.

And then there are Aunt Agatha's plots to marry Bertie off. Which of course takes a plan or two from Jeeves to overcome.

Absolutely classic.

AND a few of the stories are episodes of Jeeves and Wooster, which is what we'll be watching when we get together!!

Absolutely worth owning.

Need More Votes!

Because it was a tie!!

So I extended the poll on the June Possibilities...

If you haven't voted yet, go do it today!!

Lisa Sweetingham-- Guest Post

A big welcome to Lisa Sweetingham, author of Chemical Cowboys!!


"Chemical Cowboys" is a non-fiction journey through the secret investigations that led to the capture of an international Ecstasy kingpin and the end of the Israeli mafia’s control of the Ecstasy trade. Although the first major Ecstasy cases sprang up in New York City in the late ‘90s, it was a 1999 story in The New York Times that first alerted me to this fascinating underworld. The article was about ultra-Orthodox teenagers who had been arrested at JFK airport trying to smuggle MDMA into the States from Belgium, Amsterdam, and Paris. (Hundreds of small, multicolored pills had been rolled up inside socks and buried deep in their suitcases.) It seemed incredible that these pious youth in dark garb could be smuggling drugs.

Years later, I’d come to discover that many of the couriers didn’t even know they were moving pills—they had been duped into being mules by a major dealer who was making millions and paying his charges $1,500 plus a free trip to Europe, all for carrying a few bags back into the country.

In 2004, when I was a reporter for Court TV online, a source encouraged me to dig deeper into the Ecstasy cases. I started by knocking on the door of New York DEA and spending some time getting to know the men and women who led the investigations. One agent, Robert Gagne, was so obsessed with taking down Israeli Ecstasy kingpin Oded Tuito that it almost cost him his career. I knew that Gagne’s personal story had the potential to be the narrative through line of a book, and once DEA agreed to cooperate and open their case files, the plot was richer and more complicated than I could have imagined.

In Israel, I had an equally compelling counterpart to Gagne in the head of intelligence for Israeli National Police, a man named Gadi Eshed, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of international mafia activity and was instrumental in helping his American colleagues to take down the Ecstasy trade. Thanks to the cooperation of INP, Eshed became my tireless guide in Israel, leading me through sights of Mafia warfare and securing interviews with top cops who continue to fight the mob bosses.

I also spent time in Amsterdam, Belgium, Paris, and Romania to retrace the traffickers’ routes and to interview DEA agents abroad who worked to bring down the Ecstasy networks. I spent four years reporting and writing "Chemical Cowboys." It was an ambitious endeavor for a first book, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I hope readers will enjoy it, too.
***
Lisa Sweetingham
Author of "Chemical Cowboys: The DEA’s Secret Mission to Hunt Down a Notorious Ecstasy Kingpin."
www.LisaSweetingham.com
bio info:
Journalist Lisa Sweetingham spent four years following in the footsteps of DEA agents and Ecstasy traffickers to bring CHEMICAL COWBOYS to life. Previously, she covered high-profile murder trials and Supreme Court nomination hearings for Court TV online. Sweetingham is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Parade, Spin, Time Out New York, Health Affairs, and many other publications. She resides in Los Angeles. CHEMICAL COWBOYS is her first book.

Thank you for joining us!! I LOVED this book!

Chemical Cowboys by Lisa Sweetingham

5 stars
nonfiction

The DEA's Secret Mission To Hunt Down a Notorious Ecstasy Kingpin

And, honestly, that's just the beginning.

Okay, so I have to be honest. When the email came about this one, I wasn't sure I was interested. But hey, I'm all for reading a wide variety, so what the heck. I also thought it was a novel. Go figure.

Anyway. It came and it didn't look like a novel. Sure enough, it's nonfiction. Hmm, I thought, does that make me more or less interested? I wasn't sure. So I started it with some trepidation.

And stayed up until 2 am reading the first half. I was that sucked in. I actually had to force myself NOT to read it the next day because I had a whole ton of other stuff to do and I knew if I opened Chemical Cowboys I would get NONE of it done.

Sweetingham's style is captivating, and you can tell she's put in the work on research. She absolutely makes all of the players come alive, from the low-life dealers to Bob Gagne, the DEA agent who first started chasing Ecstasy.

Ecstasy is such an odd drug. It's like the drug for people who don't do drugs or something.

I loved this quote from Gagne:
"They'll do two hits of X, a couple bumps of K [ketamine, another club drug], a capful of GHB," Gagne says, "but they're concerned about air pollution, water pollution, and won't go into a Burger King or McDonald's. But come ... Saturday night they're like the chemical cowboys."

We live in a very weird world. And the nightclub scene is not something I understand. (Of course, I don't drink, so that could have something to do with it.) Reading about the Club Kids was somewhat disturbing. The idea that people would want to live like that... wow.

This is a really great read. So well done that it sucks you in, period. You have no choice in the matter.

And hey, it'd make a great gift if you forgot Father's Day. (You know who you are.)

This is a Virtual Book Tour book, so you can find more at Virtual Book Tours.

TUNE IN TOMORROW FOR A GUEST POST FROM LISA SWEETINGHAM!!!!!!

Bloggiesta Wrap Up

Okay, posting this late, I know. By the end of the weekend, though, I was a bit blogged out!

SO I did about 14 hours.

• Got a new background.
• Lost my favicon. Where did that thing go?
• Improved the Website Grader score on this blog by at least 6 points.
• Added metatags and description and whatnot.
• Finished a book.
• Got the review written and ready for posting.
• Wrote a list post for a rainy day.
• Did a bunch of mini challenges.
• Spent a lot of time reading emails-- every time I comment on a blog, I try to remember to subscribe to receive emails of follow-up comments. As a result I had over 200 emails this weekend.
• Took the evil piece of metal out of my desk.

Mini Challenges Completed:

• Clean up your Feed reader!
• Google Alerts!
• Rainy Day Posts!
• Blogging Buddy!
• Favicons and Gravatars! Though now I have to redo my favicon.
• Elevator Pitch! It's short, but it works for me.
• Anchor Text Challenge!
• Website Grader Challenge!
• Tips and Tutorials Mini Challenge!
• Blog Directory Mini! I need to revisit this and do a couple more, though, I think.
• Blogging Buddy Mini! Hi Cari! (Go check out Bookscoops, they have a new look!)
• Update Posts! Added those pesky alt details to lots and lots and lots of pictures.

Hmm... I did a lot of minis. In fact, I think I only skipped one. Sorry, folks, I was just too overwhelmed by it all (and had toooooo low a connection speed) to look at everyone's blogs! Isn't that terrible? Bad Britt. Next time I will definitely do better about cheering on more people!

And I'm taking a poll-- Leave the header as is? Or give it some sort of graphic as a background? I can't decide....

Sorry, Natasha. I have not the foggiest clue how many comments I left. I think it's somewhere in the very sad realm of 15-20. Again, Bad Britt.

I'm not sure I can think of anything to add next time! I just know I need to be more organized next time!

Visions on America by Jean Koning + Giveaway!

4 Stars
R-3.5
Language (Though to be fair, Koning is not American and language that bothers me may have totally different connotations to the Dutch.)

This is an entertaining (mostly) collection of columns on American life (more or less) from a Dutch perspective.

Now, for the record, Jean Koning and I have extremely different views on life, and it's not just a cultural difference. There are several columns in this book that I do not agree with and several ideas I do not even like, but it is interesting to see the different perspectives.

I was very amused by how America is described as being very conservative. I guess we are in some ways, but it's still funny. (Given that I'm conservative for an American, you can see where we might not see eye-to-eye.)

The one about Barbie and Ken was amusing, if slightly dirty.

My favorite may have been the one on coffee. Let me give you some great quotes:

(He's talking about how he's always carrying a cup of coffee and it would be an interesting experiment to film him carrying it and spilling it on the floor when he bumps into someone and putting it on the internet as a poll-- "Is the dude spilling the coffee an American person or a Dutch one?") "I think 90% will answer: he's a real American Dude, man. So that will lead directly to the conclusion that I am an American Dude, carrying my coffee anywhere I go. Except that I am Dutch. And I live in Holland. And the nearest Starbucks is in London."

Can you imagine the closest Starbucks being that far away? I don't even drink coffee and I could easily find a Starbucks around here.

"The Dutch Rap-stars (they rap in Dutch- you don't want to know) show more flesh in their video's than an average hardcore porn film."

Okay, so maybe America is conservative.

"Dutch people hate America, but they love imitating the d--- nation. They love integrating tiny details from American life into their own existence. They love to pimp the ride. And they love to verbally abuse me when I carry my coffee on the street."

This is an interesting point. If you believe the media, then I think a fair amount of the world does things like this.

Then he talks about parties where you bring your own food. (Pot lucks, I think.)
"But anyway, in Holland we call this type of party an 'American Party'. My friends in New York call this a 'Dutch Treat'. Personally I think it's a Russian way to throw a party."

That gave me the giggles.

Anyway. I could give you a whole list of things Koning and I would never agree on (sex, drugs, freedom, public nudity.... I could keep going) but I found this quick read interesting and entertaining.

This is a Virtual Book Tour book and if you speak Dutch you can learn more at Jean Koning's website or in English try Jean Koning's other site.

AND-- I have an extra copy to giveaway!!!!!!

SO-- leave a comment here about perspectives on America or international travel to enter!
You have until June 30th.

(I think it's an ARC or Gally, so there are some typos.)

New Look-- What do you think?

So. Here it is.

I CANNOT for the blasted life of me figure out how to make the text not look squished against the side. Any ideas?

What do you think??

I'm done for tonight. I can't think straight.

I think I got in about 14 hours of Bloggiesta. *Shrug* Not too shabby.

Signing Off For a While

Gotta go make Samosa filling!!

I've done just about 12 hours of Bloggiesta! Lots of stuff.

I have also finally decided on a new background, I just don't have time to put it up until AFTER the Father's Day dinner stuff. :D

AND I think I know what I'm going to do for a header. Maybe.

:D:D

(And I've gotten gifts wrapped, cards written in, 2 cardstock wallets made and filled with pictures and I've gotten a whole ton done on my grandpa's canvas!!)

Bloggiesta-- It's a New Day

9 am and all's.... well, I guess. Having to listen to Special Agent Oso knocks that down a bit, but whatever.

I got in about 9 hours or so yesterday. With surprisingly little to show for it. Stupid 11.0 MBPS internet connection.

And awaaaaaaay we go!

Summer Reading Saturday-- Daddy Books

"Crocodaddy, Crocodaddy swim away fast. This day's swim could be your last!"

We LOVE Crocodaddy!!

And you can read an awesome interview with auther Kim Norman on Maw Books!

This one is really worth owning-- we keep renewing it! The rhythm of the text is wonderful and it's a really really cute story.

You can find more awesome daddy books at Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile-- Father's Day 1 and Father's Day 2. Including I Love My Daddy, which we've been reading a lot too!

Happy Father's Day!!

More Minis!!!

Clean up your Feed reader! You can add categories or folders and stuff. Who knew?


Google Alerts! Excellent tool.


Rainy Day Posts! Gotta love having posts ready in advance.

Blogging Buddy! Formalized and finalized and all that.


Favicons and Gravatars! Good things to have.

Elevator Pitch! "Confessions of a Book Habitue. Book reviews in a wide variety of genres!" Maybe more of a tagline, but hey. I like it.

Anchor Text Challenge! Good anchor text makes the world go round...

Website Grader Challenge! Always a good thing to do. And my score is UP! Woohoo! And with the added MetaData it's up again!!

So I haven't necessarily done anything actually ON my list, but I've done quite a bit, so I think I'll write a "what I got done" list instead of a "to do" list.

Past 2 and All is Well

So. Now we are 4 1/2 hours in and I think I've put in at least 3 1/2 hours.

Since my last update I have:

1. Finished the Tips and Tutorials Mini Challenge. I read How to Get Traffic, Grow Your Google Authority, 21 Tips to Earn Links and Retweets, Rethinking Blog Comments, 10 Reasons Readers Don't Leave Comments, and 43 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid. Some of it's not overly applicable to my humble little book blog, but there were some good things. Like the idea that numbered lists make good content. :D


2. Fixed the blasted piece of metal on my desk that's always trying to kill me. This may not technically be blog-related, but it makes me very very happy. Look at that thing-- every time I shift it would stab my leg. Okay, so only part of it and it's blunt, but still. Evil I tell you. Part of the lock for the drawers.... which I don't have the key for anyway.



3. Decided that cleaning up my blogging environment could be a legitimate use of this challenge time also. I mean, really. What a disaster. Plus I've lost my calendar and I need it for scheduling Virtual Book Tour reviews and what not. Really, it may not look THAT bad from the pic, but it is, I promise. The pic is cropped in close.





4. Did some reading. Content is important. Trust me. Pretty much every one of those articles I read said so.



5. I also seem to have totally messed up the html of this post. Hmm. Oh wait, maybe not.

I also ate lunch, fed my kids (Can you believe they actually wanted me to leave the computer to feed them? How demanding is that?) and took them to the library for their June prizes for the Summer Reading Program.

And spent a half-hour or so writing this post. Sad.

Actually, given how slow my internet connection is today, that's not too shabby.

In other news, my screen saver suddenly works again. Go figure.

Update 1

It's been an hour and a half and I have been on here the whole time! Okay, most of the time. I've got kids that have been in time-out and are now making Father's Day cards.

Anyway.

I have completed one mini challenge: Blog Directory Mini. I added my blog to Blog Catalog.

I'm already on a couple of others, so I'm just doing the one for now.

I've also started the Blogging Buddy Mini and the Tips and Tutorials Mini.

How's everybody else doing?

Bloggiesta! Let the Party Begin!

Alright, only a little slow this morning.

I got to sleep late (we take turns hogtying getting breakfast for the monkeys or sleeping in-- it's a great system) so I haven't even had my morning chocolate milk yet. And I haven't checked in around the blog world to even see what the mini challenges are.

SO that's where I'm starting-- with catching up in my Google Reader!

Katka by Stephen Meier

A Novella
3.5 stars
R-4
Language (lots of it)

This is a raw, harsh tale of greed. It's gritty and hard to read-- nothing pretty about it.

And it's really well done.

Don't get me wrong, NONE of the characters are very likable people, and it's risque and the language is really really strong. But that all contributed to how raw it was. And it's meant to be.

I don't understand the lives the characters lead, but it was interesting reading it right after reading Chemical Cowboys (review will be up next week). Both deal with a party culture that I just don't get.

This is a Virtual Book Tours book and I really can't improve on the summary they give, so here it is:
A gritty, edgy novel of greed, love, and swindles gone very wrong. When Gavin and his girlfriend team with her best friend Simona to pull a phony mail order bride scam in the Czech Republic, Gavin gets in way over his head in the high-stakes and dangerous business of selling wives. When Gavin talks Katka, his girlfriend, into becoming part of the merchandise, planning to bait-n-switch the client in the end, things go awry and Katka disappears with the client. Partnering with the jealous and volatile Simona, Gavin begins to lament this risky life he has chosen, but finds the money is something he can’t walk away from. Gavin’s doubts grow; the con begins to consume him, and he finds himself thinking of Katka, the fate he dealt her, and whether he can undo the biggest mistake of his life. Written with staccato grit and streetwise savvy, Katka reads like a Quentin Tarantino movie.

One thing that kind of drove me nuts (and was probably totally meant to)-- it absolutely leaves you hanging. You get to the end and you still don't really know what Gavin's trouble in the states was and there's no resolution.

The style is a mix of quick scenes and flashbacks that is sometimes hard to follow, though overall it really works for the story.

Not really my style, but I can respect a book as well-written whether I'm interested or not!

A Father's Day-ish Movie Review

*Note* Blogger hates me. This was supposed to go up yesterday. Sorry.

So talking about Alan Alda made me think of MASH (go figure) which made me think of

THE MARX BROTHERS!!!

(It's a logical leap, I promise. "Yankee Doodle Doctor", a great MASH episode, has tons of Marx Brother references.)

These are awesome Father's Day presents. At least, they would go over great in my family. But we're kinda nutty.

Do you know the Marx Brothers? You have to know Groucho. Everyone knows who Groucho is... even if they don't realize they know.


My personal favorite is Duck Soup.

"Hail, Hail Freedonia!"

I love it.



Go, I tell you. Watch. Run, do not walk, to your nearest library and check out a Marx Brothers movie.

To tide you over, here are some clips:
The Mirror Scene
Abusing the Lemonade Man

And just for fun (From Horse Feathers)

What's the Password??

June Possibility Poll

Totally totally late!!!

Poll is up, so go vote!

Secrets, Lies and My Sister Kate by Belinda Hollyer

4 stars
JF

Family miscommunication. That pretty much says it all.

Mini and Kate are best friends, and sisters. But when Kate begins to change, Mini is confused. And when Kate disappears, Mini is devastated.

LOVED Mini's voice. It's all told from her perspective and it's cute. Everyone seems to react out of proportion to what's actually going on, but family's like that sometimes. Teenagers certainly are.

I also love the cover. It's honestly the whole reason why I picked it up. Having read the book, though, I don't feel like it fits the tone of the story. Really, the story is mostly lighter than that. The cutesy preteen style font on the title page works much better.

Anyway, it's a cute quick read. Not necessarily one that's going to stay with me, but not bad.

Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda

And other things I've learned
5 Stars

HYSTERICAL!

I mean, okay, it's Alan Alda, so it had to be funny, right? And with a title like that? (Why that title, you ask? Well, because he tried it. Had his dog stuffed by a taxidermist. It didn't work out quite as planned. Maybe it was the glass eyes.)

Anyway, this hilarious memoir is highly recommended, especially to fans of MASH or Alda in general. Great Father's Day gift. (Which I can say, 'cause I'm pretty sure my dad doesn't pop over here regularly.)

Here are the opening lines:
"My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was six, but she must have shown signs of oddness before that. Her detached gaze, the secret smile. Something."

Needless to say, he had an interesting childhood. Then again, I'm not sure having a father who does burlesque gives you any chance of a normal childhood.

My favorite part may be in the chapter "Down in Chile", when the doctor about to do surgery on Alda is explaining it in layman's terms and Alda responds with:
"Oh... you're going to do an end-to-end anastomosis."
"Yes, how do you know that."
"I did many of them on MASH."

Makes me giggle.

And can I just say, this book is very very worth rereading! And his second book Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself is also fabulous.

Maybe it's just me, but I cannot separate Alan Alda from Hawkeye Pierce in my mind. And I honestly have no desire to. I kind of grew up on MASH-- reruns to an extent but more than that just hearing my dad and grandpa quoting it. Now I join in. (While my mother rolls her eyes and my siblings just kind of look lost.)

I've seen every single episode, all 11 seasons. I own 7 of them. When Boo was little, she recognized the opening music and would come running.

Obsession? Yeah, maybe. Okay, probably.

But you can't beat an episode of MASH.

Bloggiesta!

AWESOME IDEA! From Natasha, over at Maw Books, who is just a generally awesome person.

Check out her Bloggiesta post for more details, but here's the gist-- spend 48 hours between Friday and Sunday working on your blog(s).

I don't know if I'll manage THAT many hours. (Kids are so demanding sometimes. lol) But I'm going to do a LOT of work.

What's that mean for you, the reader? Well, hopefully it means a better looking blog!

Just note that things might look a little crazy while I'm working on things!

My to-do list includes-- writing up reviews that I haven't done yet, making a custom header, getting a new background, updating my Amazon widget, generally cleaning things up. PLUS, I'm sure I can find some stuff to do on my other 2 blogs!

I'll also probably count some reading time, because let's face it, the more I read the more I have to review, right?

SO, join the fun! Or just cheer on your favorite bloggers!!

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

5 stars
R- I don't remember anything...
This is a nostalgia review.

I first encountered The Andromeda Strain as a kid when I saw the movie with my dad. (Okay, I maybe only saw part of it, but whatever.) Being the child I was, I wanted to read it.

CLASSIC.

(I've always considered it a classic sci-fi, though now that I'm older and wiser I know that's not really a good classification. My brain can't shake it though.)

Seriously. I mean, who wouldn't love a book about a virus that goes from killing a whole town to eating through rubber?

Besides, it taught me important things, like what "coagulation" is and what flashing lights (blinking 3 times per second) can do to an epileptic. (Seriously, I've never forgotten that scene.)

What are your nostalgia reads?

Summer Reading Saturday--Mommy is NOT Good at This

Current totals:
Mister- 8
Boo- 3

Clearly there's a problem here. And it's largely Mommy's fault.

Part of it is that with Mister, I can just count it in books... As long as we're reading 4-5 books a day, we're good.

But it's harder to count 40 minutes by the # of picture books. Ah well. Live and learn.

Favorite books this week:
Boo: There are Cats in this Book and I Love my New Toy (an Elephant and Piggie Book)
Mister: I Love My Daddy is a hit. As was the nonfiction on the conservation of wild horses. He just wanted to look at the pictures though.

In other news, Boo doesn't have Swine Flu and is feeling better. And the book I Stink is cute, but not as good as I'm Dirty.

Sorry, kind of a lame short post today. I have to teach a stamping class in like 30 minutes!

Blood Bar by Norm Applegate

3 stars
R- 4.5

Probably the most risque book I've ever finished. And I'll be honest, if it weren't a Virtual Book Tour book, I probably wouldn't have finished it for exactly that reason.

Strip away the sexual content (I've never seen the word "erotic" used so many times) and it's a good vampire thriller/mystery. (And I'm sorry, blood is not sexy. I've swallowed blood, it's nasty.)

Strip away the vampire elements and it could be a really good secret society mystery/thriller. THAT'S more my style.

Either way, Twilight it ain't.

I was slightly confused by it, but that's probably because it's the third book in a series. Lots of missing backstory.

Anyway, Kim Bennett, a San Francisco madame who specializes in S&M, is called to New York to help a friend investigate a murder. What follows is a nightmarish whirl of activity and it's almost impossible to tell who can be trusted. In the end, she realizes she must find the Black Testament (the Vampire code of sorts, written by Jack the Ripper) in order to save herself.

The idea of Jack the Ripper as a vampire I found really intriguing. Not a theory I'd heard before. ;)

So yeah, intriguing, but way too much sex for my taste.

If it sounds like your cup of tea, start with Into the Basement and then Into the Spell. I'm sure it will make far more sense if you read them in order!

To find out more, check out Virtual Book Tours and Norm Applegate's website.

Reader's Choice Winners

So NOTHING has been posted online, but according to the list posted at my local library...

Winner: State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy
Second Place: My Enemy's Cradle by Sara Young
Third Place: Dewey by Vicki Myron

Read all three, really liked all three.... but a little surprised. Honestly, I thought The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society would win. I don't think it was even top 5. Weird.

Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko was the very last on the list, which is kind of sad. I liked that one.

Apparently, the winners had 203, 182 and 170 votes, respectively. I have no idea what that means. They could be only counting "loved it" ballots.... or those plus "it was ok" ballots.... no clue.

Really, though, I hate that there are only 3 options. "I loved it" "it was ok" and "didn't like it". Really? What about "I liked it"? Sometimes you like a book but it just isn't love. And what about "I absolutely hated it"? "Didn't like it" just isn't always strong enough...

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, Boo's swine flu test was NEGATIVE!!!!!!! WOOHOO!
:D

Award :D

I got an award! Yea me! Yay me! (Yea is a weird word....)

From Jo at Ink and Paper

Anyway.



So the rules that go with this one....
1) Put the logo on your blog/post.
2) Nominate up to 9 blogs.
3) Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let them know that they have been nominated by commenting on their blog.
5) Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

I'm just going to do one blog. I like the one for one idea. :D

I'm Booking It
Go check it out!!

Between sick kidlets and Virtual Book Tours coming up, I'm swamped, so talk amongst yourselves tomorrow, okay? :D

Wednesday Morsel-- More or Less

Yes, I've been grossly negligent in the Wednesday Morsel department. And today of all days, I need a good quote. (What do you do with a sick toddler who won't stay on the couch unless YOU stay on the couch?!)

So I need your best funny quotes! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE?! I don't think I'll make it through the day without some humor! (Any source-- movie, radio, email, book, tv.... I'm desperate.)

Here are some of my favorites:

"We need to talk"
Innocent enough words coming from most people, but rarely a good thing from a chief watcher. Too much talking right now on my part, especially honest talking, and I'd end up in the city jail."

That being from Magic Lost, Trouble Found-- Lisa Shearin, of course.

"Ah, I was wondering why there was nothing in the cupboards."
"Yeah, we needed the cardboard boxes to make a model of Skylar's house. We need to check the camera placement."
"Well why not just go up to the actual house?"
"We need to be able to adjust the walls to make sure it's the best coverage."
"And for some reason they won't let us move the walls of the actual house."
"How inflexible of them."

Okay, that's from memory. Numb3rs, season 2, episode 3-- "Obsession". LOVE that episode.

Ooh, how about:

DingNoah.

Gotta love Bill Cosby.

And MASH... I love MASH. Of course, nothing comes to mind at the moment... I need to watch the episode with the poker game again. Season... 2? With Colonel Flagg. :D

And of course there's always Stan Freberg! For your listening pleasure--
Christopher Columbus
The First Thanksgiving (Absolutely not PC-- just so you're warned.)
The signing of the Declaration of Independence

So-- hit me with your best shot!

GoneAway Revisited

Okay, maybe this is a screwy thing to do, but I'm reevaluating by review of GoneAway Into The Land.

For two reasons.

1. My copy was a galley, which I did not realize. I kind of suspected, but I generally dock at least half a star for bad editing, and that may not really be fair to do on a galley. (Is that how you spell it? Spell check didn't like "gally". Whatever, you know what I mean.)
2. The target audience clarification from the author. Really, marketing it to 17+ makes a difference in my perceptions of the book.
3. What was 3? I'm losing my mind.
4. Oh yeah! I wasn't in the mood for it when I read it, so it may not be fair to dock it for that.
5. Even after being confused and not feeling it and all that.... I find myself wanting to read the sequel. It's sticking with me, which I really didn't think it would do. Now, yes, this could be partly from the dialogue of comments on the post, but still. I want to know what happens next and I didn't think I cared.

And really, reason #5 is why it's worth another post. If it weren't for that, I would maybe have added a note on the original review... maybe would have adjusted the stars on GoodReads... but that's it. I'd have just let it go.

(Hmm.... I said 2 reasons. I can't count.)

So... An unprecedented REreview. (Yeah, it's not a word. I know.)

3.5 stars

R-1-2 YA

Here's my reasoning: A lot of my problem with the book (editing and target age) is resolved, thus the higher rating... BUT I'm still a little confused. Could just be me, but hey, it's my review.

Also, I'm not sure I buy a 12-yr-old protagonist in a book marketed to 17+. Yeah, it works for Harry Potter, but let's face it, he's a fluke. Now if he were.... 15? or so, I think it would work. I also think the story makes more sense if he's older.

As far as content, 17+ is a good range to market it at, but I'd give it to a reader as young as 13-14 if they were really interested. Unless the abuse was going to hit too close to home and give them ideas about killing their abuser. Then I think I'd hold off. :D (Dark humor, I know. :D)

Anyway, this whole idea of revisiting a book has me curious-- does time make you feel fonder to a book or not? I'm sure we've all had books that we can't decide how to rate. What do you do?

And, for those of you with book blogs, what if the copy you review isn't the final copy? Does that make it like a separate book that needs a separate review? I had never thought about this before...

(In the interest of full disclosure [though at the risk of hearing "methinks she dost protest too much"], yes, the author did ask me if I would change the rating. And yes, that did have an impact on my writing this post. But NO, it is not WHY I changed the rating. I had already changed my mind before he asked, I just hadn't made note of it. And yes, I still want a Pursier. :D)

Jellaby by Kean Soo

JF/Graphic Novel

Okay, let me start by saying that it's to be continued. Just so nobody out there reads it at oh... 11:45 at night and is bugged that it's no where near a complete story line. Not that I would know anything about that or anything...

SO.

Way cute, though slightly creepy in places. Too old for Boo, I think.

I LOVE that it's all done in shades of purple. (Well, except for Jason's carrot shirt.) And it's a super super quick read.

I'd put it at... 7 and up or so, but that could just be me. I just think the lying to parents, missing dad, and creepy stalker guy (okay maybe not really stalker, but still) put it in an older age range.

I did enjoy the story, and I absolutely HAVE to read the next one, 'cause you're really left hanging!

Summer Reading Saturday-- Week 1

So here we are-- basically a full week in. So far, so good.

Sort of.

Things I've learned this week:

1. Mister cannot sit for me to read to him for 15 minutes. Not going to happen. Let's leave it at 10. If he chooses to sit longer, fine, but I'm not going to try to make him.
2. Mister does not like it when Mommy is in control of the pages. As a result, the easiest way to read to him is with him IN the crib and Mommy and the books OUT of the crib.
3. Ten minutes equals about 4 picture books... or one picture book 4 times.
4. Forty minutes is a long time.
5. Boo will sit for 40 minutes of reading.
6. It's MOMMY that has a hard time reading to Boo for 40 minutes.
7. A Scooby-Doo chapter book eats up about 30-35 minutes, but is a pain to read aloud.
8. Mommy is going to REALLY have to try harder with Boo. MUST MAKE TIME TO READ TO HER. See, it's easy to find 10 minutes. Heck, I can read to Mister while we're practicing sitting on the potty. (Well, I sit on the floor.) But 40 minutes solid? That takes more effort.

Favorite books this week?

Mister is OBSESSED with I'm Dirty, so it's a good thing it's a cute book. He also really loves Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight.

Boo LOVES The Black Book Of Colors-- a fascinating book with no color at all, just embossed glossy black on black. It also has all the text in braille, which she thought was really interesting. She also really seems to be liking the Scooby Doo chapter books and thought No, David! was funny.

Mommy did all the reading this week... Mister has 4 squares marked off, but Boo only has one. :(

As for me? I finished one book this week. (Okay, so I'm typing this up ahead of time... maybe I'll have read a second by the time it posts.)

Most Quoted Movie of ALL Time

Okay, I know, this is off-topic, but I'm curious.

My husband and I caught part of The Princess Bride on tv the other night. I made the comment that it's probably the most quoted movie ever.

He said it's in the top 100.... I'm thinking more like the top 3.

I mean, come on-- "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Hardly a day of 6th grade went by without me saying that! :D I was even Inigo for Halloween. (My friend was Wesley as the Man in Black. Yes, we were nerds. And cross-dressers, apparently. But, really, who wants to be Buttercup?)

So I'll put it to you, is The Princess Bride the most quoted movie ever? Or does something else take top honors? Either way, it's in the top 3, right?

"It's possible, pig."

:D

Hey, if you haven't yet, join in for Summer Reading Saturdays!!

Gone Away Into the Land by Jeffrey B. Allen

2 Stars
R- 1-2 absolutely nothing happens in the book, but a prior rape is implied.

This book has an identity crisis.

On the one hand it's a fun, whimsical tale of ZingZongLand, where the inspiration is found for all things sweet.

On the other hand, it's a dark dark story of rape, abuse, hatred, kidnapping and murder. I mean, when the main character is a traumatized boy who refers to his father as "the Beast" and plans to kill him? Not exactly cotton candy and bubblegum.

Which would concern me less if it didn't say it's a Juvenile Fiction. But that's what it says. I'm cool with books being dark, but I'd put the age range a bit higher on this one.

My copy needs serious editing. I've mentioned before that that drives me nuts, right? Absolutely insane. Blame it on copy-editing in high school.

Aside from that, which is an editing/publishing issue, not a content issue, I think this is too complex for a younger audience. Heck, I'm an adult and I had a hard time keeping it all straight. It honestly left me a little confused. It's also too long for a young audience.

And while I absolutely LOVE cool quotes at the beginning of chapters, they're really out of place in a JF.

Anyway, on to what I liked, 'cause there were parts I really enjoyed.

I really really liked some of the characters. Especially the Pursiers. (Interesting, two-legged animals that are highly philosophical and deal with transportation and sending messages.) I want an Albertson. Here's a great exchange between him and Hampton, the minister Albertson works for:

"Only the best for the best? Is that right, Albert?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes."
"Let's go, before we both trip and fall over our inflated egos," Hampton said, looking straight up at the towering Pursier. "We'll try it your way but it better not involve the slightest possibility of falling."
"Who bravely dares must sometimes risk a fall."
Don't get smart. And please spare me the philosophizing for a while."

Isn't he adorable? I rather wish the other Pursiers that featured (the Ancient and Orison) had had a bigger role.

A word of warning? This book will seriously ruin a diet! All of the candy descriptions? Yeah, I ate about half a bag of licorice.... part of a bag of Doritos.... (not sweet, I know, but still) and I think I'm craving Peeps. Really not healthy. ;)

This is a Virtual Book Tour review! Visit the website to find more stops!

MIA

Yeah, missing in action. That's my internet.

I hate Comcast some days.

Now back to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

5 stars
R-0


This book was hysterical. I LOVE the nearly bombastic vocabulary the Nollopians use early on… and the premise is fabulous.

Nollop is a small island nation named for Nevin Nollop, who gave us the pangram “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. They even have a huge statue of Nollop with his sentence underneath.

But one day, a tile falls off, making the sentence incomplete.

Rather than FIXING it, the council decides it’s a sign from Nollop that the letter Z should be stricken from the language. Naturally.

So, three strikes, you’re out! Upon your third slip-up, you’re banished from the island. (Unless you are seven or younger.)

Well, the statue is really old, and soon another tile falls. Now the letter Q has been stricken as well. (You see where this is going, right?)

Eventually, the council accepts a challenge. If someone else can come up with a sentence containing all 26 letters that is no more than 32 letters long, they will rescind the edicts banning whichever letters have fallen.

Eventually, only Ella Minnow Pea is left to fight the good fight… and the only letters remaining are, appropriately enough, LMNOP.

You must read this book.

Here are some great quotes:

“And please understand my unwillingness to trespass upon the Pony Expresspath; the sprinting Pony brother-couriers are Mercury-swift these days, and I would prefer that my obituary not read, “She was ingloriously run over by a fleet-footed fourteen-year-old.””

That made me laugh out loud.

“2. There is no such thing as accident or misspeak, only grossly underapplied discoursal perspicacity, with unguarded exposure to distractional digression.”

Yeah, that’s the kind of governmental edict one could take seriously. Wow.

May in Review and a Look at June

Total read in May-- 15 1/2 books. (The half is Enter Jeeves since I haven't read the Reggie Pepper stories yet!)

One was a Reader's Choice that didn't get done before the end of April.... One sequel to a Reader's Choice...

One Virtual Book Tour!

Two Monthly Possibilities!

Zero Book Club books... sorry, ladies. Actually it's just because I'd already read Dragon Slippers. :D In June it's my turn to pick!

Only 1 nonfiction. That's normal, though.

So-- looking at June.

I've got... 4? Virtual Book Tours coming up...

June Possibilities? I've got one suggestion so far-- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon suggested by Pam.

Leave a comment if you've got a suggestion... I'll put up a poll on the 10th or so! :D

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (May Possibility)

5 stars



So, I actually managed to read the May Possibility IN MAY! Go figure. (Yeah, I know, it's now June. What can I say?)

I loved it. Lots of fun! The voice was FABULOUS! And it's a great story. Highly recommended for... well, anyone, really.

As a matter of fact, I need to give you some quotes. Because there were lots of great ones.

There was only my sister left. To ask your big sister to be your ally is like asking Nova Scotia to go into battle with you.

Is that not hilarious?

So all the rooms on the third floor where the seventh grade was had Coat Rooms. That's where we put our stuff-- even though it was 1967 already, and we should have had hall lockers, like every other seventh grade in the civilized world.

That just makes me giggle. (I didn't have a locker OR a coat room in seventh grade.)

Love and hate in seventh grade are not far apart, let me tell you.

So true.

RE: Romeo and Juliet:

Let me tell you, these two wouldn't make it very far in Camillo Junior High. Never mind that Romeo wers tights-- at least according to the pictures-- but he just isn't very smart. And Juliet isn't too strong in that department, either. I mean, a potion to almost kill you? She drinks a potion to almost kill you? Who would drink a potion to almost kill you? Then Romeo goes ahead and drinks a potion that will kill you because he can't figure out that she's only had a potion that almost kills you? And then Juliet, who at least is smart enough to figure out that Romeo really is dead, makes sure that she uses a knife this time, which is not almost going to kill you, but really will kill you?
Doesn't this sound like something that two people who can't find their way around the block would get themselves into?
Of course it does.

I have to admit, I have very similar feelings about Romeo and Juliet. Can I appreciate the tragedy and the beauty of the writing? Sure, but that doesn't mean they weren't idiots.

I have only one little issue with this book-- why/how was the Doug kid involved in the whole Mickey Mantle thing? Seriously, what am I missing? He's not mentioned in that whole episode and yet he's included when they get the balls and gloves? I'm so confused.

Was Mickey Mantle really that big of a jerk? Yikes. And did anyone else think Holling's parents had some serious issues? Living in the Perfect House.... how's that for irony.

Anyway, really great book! (But can someone, anyone, PLEASE explain what Doug had to do with Mickey Mantle???)