Wordless Wednesday

‘Magic String’

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Musing Monday (Nov 9)

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about your bookshelf… 


Does your house have a communal bookshelf? If not, is your bookshelf centrally located so everyone has access to it?

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.

 
I’m the only regular reader in my house, but my bookshelves are still pretty centrally located – one in my craft room off the kitchen, and one in our living room. Everyone else has a few books in their bedrooms, but not enough to warrant a bookshelf.

While I’m the only one who makes use of the shelves on a daily basis it’s not unusual for my sister (or very occasionally my brother) to pick out a book every once in a while. They’re both very well trained – they leave the book on my desk when they’re done so I can put it back in the right place.

Friday Firsts (on a Sunday)

This month Wendy supplied us with a list of first lines and asks which books we’ve read and which would make it to our tbr list on the basis of the first line.

Bold = the books I’ve read
Pink = tbr pile

 

1. Call me Ishmael. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

3. A screaming comes across the sky. Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

5. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.  Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

7. Riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodious vicious of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.  James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. George Orwell, 1984

9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

10. I am an invisible man. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

A-Z Wednesday (M)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.).
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: M

Here is my “M” Title:

March – Geraldine Brooks
346 pages; published 2005

From Publisher’s Weekly
Brooks's luminous second novel, after 2001's acclaimed Year of Wonders, imagines the Civil War experiences of Mr. March, the absent father in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. An idealistic Concord cleric, March becomes a Union chaplain and later finds himself assigned to be a teacher on a cotton plantation that employs freed slaves, or "contraband." His narrative begins with cheerful letters home, but March gradually reveals to the reader what he does not to his family: the cruelty and racism of Northern and Southern soldiers, the violence and suffering he is powerless to prevent and his reunion with Grace, a beautiful, educated slave whom he met years earlier as a Connecticut peddler to the plantations. In between, we learn of March's earlier life: his whirlwind courtship of quick-tempered Marmee, his friendship with Emerson and Thoreau and the surprising cause of his family's genteel poverty. When a Confederate attack on the contraband farm lands March in a Washington hospital, sick with fever and guilt, the first-person narrative switches to Marmee, who describes a different version of the years past and an agonized reaction to the truth she uncovers about her husband's life. Brooks, who based the character of March on Alcott's transcendentalist father, Bronson, relies heavily on primary sources for both the Concord and wartime scenes; her characters speak with a convincing 19th-century formality, yet the narrative is always accessible. Through the shattered dreamer March, the passion and rage of Marmee and a host of achingly human minor characters, Brooks's affecting, beautifully written novel drives home the intimate horrors and ironies of the Civil War and the difficulty of living honestly with the knowledge of human suffering. (Amazon)

 

My review here

Wordless Wednesday

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Musing Monday (Nov. 2)

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about social reading… 


How much of your reading do you share with others (outside of blogging?) Do you belong to a book or library club? Do you trade books with friends? Do you tell others what you’re reading?

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.

 

Most of my book socialising, outside of blogging, revolves around book club. Aside from the sharing of reading the same book every month, we take time every meeting to share and show off any other books we’ve read during the month.

I’m lucky in that two of my best friends, my two booky friends at that, are in this book club too, so I usually have a fair idea what they’re reading most of the time (plus, now that Wendy has a book blog, I can spy – I mean READ – that too).

My other booky friend, Renae, is the one who I probably share most of my books with. By now I have a pretty good idea as to what she likes and doesn’t like and – since she just lives around the corner – it’s easy to just drop off books once I’m done with them. One day she’ll throw them back at me and I’ll never get out from under the pile.

For the most part I usually only share what I’m reading if someone asks or I think they’ll particularly like the book.

October Wrap-Up

Total: 16 books

Books Read:

• Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Soft Friends from Cast-off Socks and Gloves – Miyako Kanamori
• Miniature Scrapbooks: Small Treasures to Make in a Day – Taylor Hagerty
• The Circle Trilogy, Book 1: The Birth of Evil (Black) – Ted Dekker
• The Circle Trilogy, Book 2: The Heroic Rescue (Red) – Ted Dekker
• The Circle Trilogy, Book 3: The Great Pursuit (White) – Ted Dekker
• Anderson and Duchovny: An Extraordinary Story – David Bassom
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8; Vol. 1: The Long Way Home – Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8; Vol. 2: No Future for You – Brian K. Vaughn, Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty
• Liar –Justine Larbalestier
• The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
• The Good Neighbours, Book 1: Kin – Holly Black and Ted Naifeh
• Coraline – Neil Gaiman
• Mr. Popper’s Penguins – Richard and Florence Atwater
• Paper Towns – John Green
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, Book 1 – The Hero Factor – Michael Jan Friedman and Pablo Marcos
• Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend – Carrie Jones

Books started:

• Book Crush – Nancy Pearl
• The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas

Thank you Readathon, I now have a ton of reviews to write.

Virtual Walking Tour: Serena and Margaret

 

Serena from Saavy Verse and Wit
and
Margaret from BooksPlease

 

Serena

Explain the title of your blog: I toyed with a lot of different names for my blog.

I wanted the blog name to signify its content, which I hoped would be writing, reading, and a bit of humor.

Being a poet, I always loved verse and I love the word Savvy, so all that was left was Wit. It is really not that great of a story to tell. Kind of lame, right?!

How did you get into blogging? Blogging happened for me on a couple of sites a few years ago, mostly personal stuff, but then I noticed I started talking about books more and more.  Then, I moved over to blogger to create a book review site, which started with poems I found in magazines at first and then slowly progressed from there to include poems, short stories, collections in both those genres, fiction of all types, and even some nonfiction.  I've also been known to review an occasional audiobook and local event.

What do you like best about blogging? IWhat I like best about blogging is formulating my thoughts into cohesive paragraphs about books. It keeps my analytical mind fresh, but I also enjoy the communication that goes on when commentators have read the same book or are looking forward to reading a certain book.

The reading challenges and other fun activities and the free books are just a bonus.

What are the five books you would recommend to anyone?
The five books I would recommend to anyone are these:

1. If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien---this is one of the most eye-opening and harrowing books I've read depicting the Vietnam War and the atrocity of the My Lai massacre. This book will haunt readers.

2. There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury--this is a short story about the aftermath of a nuclear war will stick with readers long after they read it. I read this in middle school or high school, and I've always remembered that robotic house.

3. Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly--this generational novel about Irish immigrants during the potato famine has stuck with me long after reading it and it is the first multigenerational novel that I did not want to end and that I finished in its entirety without being bored.

4. Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, which is a collection of poems from this Beat Generation poet. Even while protesting something or shedding light on injustice, these poems have wit and humor.

5. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen--Anyone who knows me should have realized this recommendation was coming. Austen has a subtle way of pointing out the errors in human character and Regency English society, which delights readers. Her female protagonists are strong, but often work within the confines of societal norms and never fail to see the errors of their ways in one way or another. Beyond the romance in this novel, Austen portrays the limitations of society, but within those limitations her characters flourish into independent-minded women.

 

Margaret

Explain the title of your blog: When I was little and was asked what I wanted for a present I always said, “books please”. I still love books as presents and I thought it was quite a good title for a blog, because of that and also because books do please me.

How did you get into blogging? In 2005 I’d been reading Pinkerton’s Sister by Peter Rushforth. I’d loved it and wanted to read more about it. If you love books about books this is well worth the effort of reading its 700 pages. A Google Search led me to Book World’s Blog where Sandra had written a post about it. From there I went to look at the blogs on her blogroll and so I began to read book blogs. Later on I began to want to write one myself mainly to keep a record of what I’d read and what I thought about them.

What do you like best about blogging? I like the immediacy of blogging – I write something and then publish it and it’s there for everyone to see. I like the fact that I have contact with other booklovers in different parts of the world, and feel part of a blogging community. I’ve been surprised at how much I enjoy it. At first I thought I would just write about books but lately I’ve found I love taking photos and regularly take part in “Wordless Wednesday”.

What are the five books that you would recommend to anyone?
This is difficult because I can never decide – there are so many to choose from. If you ask me another day I expect I’d come up with five different books. Here’s today’s choice (in author A-Z order):

• Amazing Grace by Margaret Atwood
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
• His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
• Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
• The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

 

 

Thanks, Serena and Margaret, for letting me visit with you!

Wordless Wednesday (Oct. 28)

‘Day at the Park’

click to see more Wordless Wednesdays

A-Z Wednesday (L)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.).
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: L

Here is my “L” Title:

Looking for Alaska – John Green
160 pages; published 2005

From School Library Journal
Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter's adolescence has been one long nonevent - no challenge, no girls, no mischief, and no real friends. Seeking what Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps," he leaves Florida for a boarding school in Birmingham, AL. His roommate, Chip, is a dirt-poor genius scholarship student with a Napoleon complex who lives to one-up the school's rich preppies. Chip's best friend is Alaska Young, with whom Miles and every other male in her orbit falls instantly in love. She is literate, articulate, and beautiful, and she exhibits a reckless combination of adventurous and self-destructive behavior. She and Chip teach Miles to drink, smoke, and plot elaborate pranks. Alaska's story unfolds in all-night bull sessions, and the depth of her unhappiness becomes obvious. Green's dialogue is crisp, especially between Miles and Chip. His descriptions and Miles's inner monologues can be philosophically dense, but are well within the comprehension of sensitive teen readers. The chapters of the novel are headed by a number of days "before" and "after" what readers surmise is Alaska's suicide. These placeholders sustain the mood of possibility and foreboding, and the story moves methodically to its ambiguous climax. The language and sexual situations are aptly and realistically drawn, but sophisticated in nature. Miles's narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious struggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believability. Like Phineas in John Knowles's A Separate Peace(S & S, 1960), Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light, that readers mourn her loss along with her friends. (Amazon)