Christmas Gifts!

Here's a handful of our Christmas gifts. Can you match the gift to the person in our family?



Gap boucle jacket, Beatles Rockband, J Jill sundown sweater jacket, Cuisinart multiclad sauce pans, Olive Kitteridge (Jan. book club pick), Kong air squeaker ring and Under the Dome.

Holiday Gift Idea #16

Calef Brown's books are like a fantastically illustrated little brother to Shel Silverstein's. Easy to read, funny and far out, they are a fun gift for kids of various ages.

Flamingos on the Roof

Soup for Breakfast

Dutch Sneakers and Flea Keepers

Polka Bats and Octopus Slacks

Here's his blog and a great interview.

Non-Book Club Recap

I **think** these are all of the non-book club selections I read in 2009.

Bridge of Sighs D
Ugh! As I said in my other recap, I really like Richard Russo. Empire Falls was great and Straight Man was really funny. This book was god-awful. Sad, depressing and none of the characters are redeemed. Parallel story lines that never converged. Waste of time and $$.

Escape A
Last January I saw Carolyn Jessop speak and after hearing the small amount I did, I knew I wanted to read her memoir. Its a courageous and eye-opening story.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle A-
As a dog lover, I was entranced with this story and Edgar's relationship with his dogs. It was a compelling story and I stayed up late reading it. I enjoyed it a lot, save parts of the last 3/4ths of the book. It fell apart in some places and was definitely different than they first part of the book, but overall I liked it very much and could see myself reading it again.

The 19th Wife A-
What can I say, the topic intrigues me. Another book that toggles back and forth between past and present, with some reimagined historical fiction.

Whitethorn Woods n/a
Let's face it, Maeve Binchy's books are quick and easy reads. I always enjoy them. I picked this one up in Logan Airport because I'd finished all the books I'd brought on my trip. Her books are perfect for that kind of situation: tired, ready to go home from vacation, don't need to think too much.

The Art of Racing in the Rain A
I loved this story. Simple as that.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies A
My favorite book with zombies + a sly, flirty and funny elevation of Elizabeth Bennet's awesomeness. And funny, so funny.

This Charming Man A-
Marian Keyes falls into a similar category as Maeve Binchy: Irish and chick lit-ish. However, each new book she writes takes gives the reader a little more to chew on than just "oh, boys, jobs, clothes, oh me, oh my." Another book I couldn't put down and stayed up late reading.

My Life in France A (still reading)
I'm pretty sure everyone who saw Julie & Julia has read this book in 2009. Wonderful. Julia Child is an inspiration. Beware, reading this books can make you hungry and want to move to France.

Book Club 2009 Recap

Another of my 2009 intentions was more purposeful reading. I love books and discussing them with people, but have found some book clubs hard to coordinate with schedules, etc.

This year I started one at work. We meet over the lunch hour near the end of each month. Its taken awhile to find our groove re: choosing books. Now I have everyone send me suggestions, we vote and then the top three books are selected for a three month period. Here's what we read this year.

Then We Came to the End B-
This was a hard book to read when we did (economy crumbling, people losing their jobs, scary times). It just hit too close to home, but parts of it were funny.

Me Talk Pretty One Day A
This was the only book I'd read previously. I adore David Sedaris and it was just as good the second time.

Nobody's Fool B+
Richard Russo is one of my favorite authors, but this book was LONG. We had to extend it into April for everyone to finish. I liked it, I just didn't love it.

I'm Sorry You Feel That Way: The Astonishing but True Story of a Daughter, Sister, Slut, Wife, Mother, and Friend to Man and Dog B+
Funny, good stories

The Pact A-
Ooh, this book prompted our best discussion to date. Personally I think Jodi Piccoult's writing is overwrought and she adds about 30 pages to her books with over the top descriptions, but darn if she doesn't tackle thought provoking topics. BTW, there's a made for TV movie that was just horrendous.

The Middle Place B+
I liked this book, but I don't really feel like it accomplished what I thought it would. The author describes the middle place as when you are both a mother and daughter. Through the lens of a cancer diagnosis, she spends a lot more time on her relationship with her dad and the past. I was looking for more about the push and pull of being a mother with breast cancer dealing with her father's cancer diagnosis.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society A
Oh, I adored this book. Perfect summer reading. I happened to read it on a trip, which made it all the more romantic. The letters take a while to get used to, but it was so good!

The Help A++++++
There's a reason this book stayed at the top of the New York Times Bestseller List. It...is...wonderful. Kathryn, what happens to Skeeter? We want to know!

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's A
I enjoyed this book very much, especially given my mother's profession. She's been working with students with on the autism spectrum for the last 10 years or so (something like that). It was a refreshing look at the world through an Aspergian's eyes.

Sarah's Key A-
This book was much faster read than I anticipated a Holocaust book to be. I enjoyed it to my surprise, especially the first half with switches back and forth between present day Paris and the the Vél' d'Hiv' roundup in 1942.

So Long at the Fair ?
We combined our November and December meetings and early feedback on this one wasn't so hot, so I've been reading Julia Child's My Life in France instead. I may read it over the holidays depending on the reviews at our next gathering.

Next I'll review the non-book club books I read this year.

This Week in Booos and Yayys

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyy

Lacuna: A Novel a new book by one of my favorite authors, Barbara Kingsolver

Amazing handmade jute rug

How to make a sideboard from stock cabinets (from AT)

Hidden guest bed in the kitchen. Clever! (Better Homes & Gardens via AT)

I have always loved, loved, love this. (Jeff Dunham, via Decorno)

Booooooooooooooo/Bummer....Hawks lose to Northwestern. A bummer for sure.

This Week in Yays and Boos

Yaaaay!

• Our wedding photographer's blog
• Wicked on Sunday!
• Good deal on way cute metal counter stools
• Crock pot ideas in the comments-baked potatoes!
• Reading recommendations from Cup of Jo readers
• Little Green Notebook's office redo
• Mini meatloaves

Boooooo!

• I thought I was taping the first episode of FlashForward, but it was the second one! Now I have to go find the first episode
• No pureed pumpkin to be found at the grocery store. Not pumpkin pie filling, pureed pumpkin
• Let's chill it with the RHO {insert city} expansions. NY, ATL, NJ and OC is enough, right?

Find Lost or Forgotten Book Titles

I just recently stumbled on the Loganberry Books site, where you can submit queries about books you may have forgotten the name of, but still remember what the book was about. Do you have one that would stump the booksellers?

My book would be one I read when I was growing up. I found it in my grandparents basement, so it must have belonged to one of or all of my aunts at one point. It had a seafoam green cover and was about two girls, probably junior high age. I think one moves into the house next door and they become best friends, with extravagantly fun parties and dress up. There's some scene with a pool, like it gets filled with flowers or something? And then one moves away and maybe there was a divorce or single parenting on one side, which made the other family uncomfortable?

Anyway, it was a good book, but I could never remember the name and I'm not so sure I remembered the plot so well either! My more recent book search/memory jogging was when I was updating my Shelfari shelf. I really wanted to add this book I had enjoyed, which featured a few (I thought) key phrases that would surely turn up the book in a google search: New Mexico, peacocks, teacher, environmental land abuse, father is a doctor, seven sisters.

I asked people about it and would search every so often. Then one day I was looking through my books and realized I had already added it. It was Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. Idiot.

It is a good book, I highly recommend it:) Photo from here.

This Week in Yays and Boos

Yay!

• Fall TV coverage from Entertainment Weekly
• I don’t care what anyone says, this song makes me SO happy. If I was in college, this is the song I would get ready to before going out
• Shepherd’s Pie the best thing is that this recipe makes two pies. One for now, one for later
• This sweater, in deep rose. Delicious
• Iowa vs. Arizona with some of our bestest buds

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

• Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters review
• This whole business from the VMAs + this

Jancee Dunn

I very much enjoyed Jancee Dunn's book But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous, so I was excited to find out she has a blog.

I like when authors have real, honest to goodness blogs that they oh, I don't know, WRITE! I hate when you get duped by a publisher backed/pushed blog. You can't fake stuff like that, its got to be real. Or at least written by someone who is really good at ghostwriting. Photo from here.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

I thought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was truly a treat-very funny, ever so slightly modern and still thoroughly Austen. So I was excited to read about Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters coming out next month.

Check out the book trailer.

Poor Mrs. Dashwood...the horrors that lay ahead for her already excitable countenance.

Photo from EW.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

The wonderful people we got our dear boy Micky from shared this book, The Art of Racing in the Rain, with me. It is a wonderful book for dog lovers...and non-dog lovers too. Told from the viewpoint of Enzo the dog, it really will make you wonder how much you and say and do is understood by your pooch.



photo from here. (also, why does Amazon make it so hard to grab decent images of books?)

A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities

Personally I'm not a big fan of coffee table books, mainly because they take up valuable real estate on said table. I could, however, definitely see this Pictorial Webster's on our coffee table. So cool.

Found here (photos from there too.)

Book Club, in Three Parts

For the first time, my book group has chosen our next three books. Its kind of nice, because then you don't read a book the rest of the group has already.

July is the Middle Place
August is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
September is The Help

I'm going to try to sneak in one other book over the 4th before I start The Middle Place.

Thrift Books

Who knew there was another way to buy really cheap books online besides used booksellers on Amazon? Behold...Thrift Books.

Here's the 411 from their site:
Thrift Books was founded and created on the principle of offering the public the lowest priced items anywhere on the internet. While many companies claim they have the best prices, Thrift Books guarantees the best prices!

Thriftbooks.com guarantees the best prices on everything we sell. If you find a lower priced-item* (item price + shipping) on another website, Thrift Books will match that price and refund you 10% of the total purchase price. So whether you buy 1 item or 50 items – we promise you will not find a lower price anywhere else on the web.

I haven't had a chance to buy a book yet, but a few examples on the home page are intriguing.

Eckhart Tolle's New Earth $1.20
Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl $0.01 (!)
Rachael Ray 365 Cookbook $0.01(!)

Found here, which is why I love the internet.

Little Things

I have written an ode to buying used books on Amazon already, but I was so charmed by the package I received for my book group's June selection. I paid a whopping $.99 for the book (The Pact) and it arrived today, wrapped in sweet paper with a handwritten note.That there folks is the tipping point, in full effect. The seller has awesome feedback (which is the only way to judge a seller, just like eBay) and it is no wonder. I've bought no less than 15 used books from various sellers on Amazon, now I will always check mickmonroe's shop first.

Kitchen Organizing

I have a lot of cookbooks (probably 35+), in addition to several binders for recipes I've grabbed from magazines, food blogs and friends. I'm selling the ones I don't use at all in the yard sale, putting up two umbra shelves to hang the ones I use less frequently and then I'm only keeping out the ones I use (or read for ideas) most often.

Library Thing Book Recommendations

I found a super cool book suggestion tool yesterday and it made my day. Similar to Goodreads and Shelfari, Library Thing is a book sharing community and its suggestion tool is just like the iTunes Genius Bar. Pop in a favorite book and get 20+ similar recommendations.I put in one my favorites, Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, and got these suggestions:

Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver*
The Bean Trees: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver*
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver*
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver*
The Rosewood Casket by Sharyn McCrumb
She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb
A Map of The World by Jane Hamilton
The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett*
Three Junes by Julia Glass*
Ghost Riders by Sharyn McCrumb
Way Out in the Desert by T. J. Marsh
Seasons of the Coyote: The Legend and Lore of an American Icon by Philip L. Harrison
Clay's Quilt by Silas House
Serena: A Novel by Ron Rash
Timesong by Bill Branon
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd*
The Dollmaker by Harriette Simpson Arnow
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area by Harry M. Caudill

I starred the ones I've read, but certainly seems like I need to check out Sharyn McCrumb, huh?

Kickin Zombies and Taking Names

Just got my copy of this in the mail. Looks like we've got the Bennett girls, or at least our heroine Elizabeth, kickin' zombie ass and taking names.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I saw this image somewhere last week and didn't give it pause because I thought it was fake. But, after finally catching up on my Entertainment Weekly, I now know its real! Flippin' sweet! I'm hopping over to Amazon to buy it! any more exclamation points!!!?

Photo from here.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

I am sometimes very resistant to things that EVERYONE is talking about, especially when it comes to books. The Davinci Code? Never read it. You know why? EVERYONE else did. Eat, Pray, Love? Same thing. Everyone and their dog read it.So, even though Oprah chose The Story of Edgar Sawtelle for her book club, I read it this weekend. Actually, I read it in one day, staying up until one or two in the morning to finish it.

It was truly a masterful, wonderful book. You can tell by looking at the cover, right? For dog lovers (don't worry, its not Old Yeller, Sounder or Where the Red Fern Grows), it illustrates to the unexplainable relationships we have with our pets. Non-dog lovers would have to be cold hearted, horrible people for this book to not open their hearts and minds.