Top Ten Tuesday: Childhood Faves

The prompt this week over at The Broke and the Bookish is a popular one that I've done... oh... probably several times before. Without looking at my previous posts on this subject beforehand, let's see if I come up with the same list!

Top Ten Childhood Favorites

1. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls... can you say cried and cried and cried!
2. The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder... got the whole series and loved them all.
3. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner...made my brothers play this with me.
4. Nancy Drew by Caroline Keene... and didn't we all love these?
5. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery... I wanted to be Anne so bad.
6. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell... was fascinated by the survivor skills she had.
7. Mr. Pine's Mixed Up Signs by Leonard Kessler... begged the babysitter to bring this every time she came!
8. Ferdinand the Bull by Munro Leaf... it killed me how unfair this whole story is!
9. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess.... my favorite Christmas story.
10. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett... a story could get more perfect!

Now you can check my other lists!
Childhood Favorites: Novels
Childhood Favorites: Pictures Books

What's on your list?

(I'm realizing that these lists will once again show everyone how old/young we are! You will not be finding Harry Potter on my childhood favorite list, that's for sure!)

The Sunday Salon: Baby, It's Cold Outside

Outside my window: Dark and cold. Yes, it's suddenly quite cold around here. We had some wild wind this past week, but the city up north got hit much harder than we did. State of emergency even I think, up there. I was glad for my snug house and lots of quilts to cuddle up with!

I am listening to: There's a game in the background. BYU vs. Hawaii. Mmmmmm.... Hawaii. I'd like to go there again some day.

Song of the week: No song to share this week, but here's a video Toto (12 year old daughter) edited this week... a tour of our boat on the cruise we took this past summer. It will give you a good feeling for what the this boat, Freedom of the Seas, is like!




TV Talk: I'm still watching Terra Nova, but it's been a little boring. Amazing Race hasn't been as exciting as usual this season either. Survivor continues to be fun and dang.. Cochran! I just got caught up again with Once Upon a Time. It's very good actually. I haven't watched Dr. Who or Supernatural for weeks.

Reading Report
Books I've finished: Nothing finished. Still working on Inheritance and The Path of Daggers
Books I've started: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare, because Toto is reading it for 7th grade English and I decided to join her.
Books I want to start: Gosh, so many!

I am thinking: that it's really weird that December just started, yet I already feel stressed about getting Christmas done, and that there's no time. I think it's because the kids are all out of school for two full weeks, which means things really need to be done just a week or so from now, so that we can relax and play when the kids are home.

I am grateful for: furnaces.

What I learned this week: I learned that in order to get a book signed by a  famous author, you will do a lot of waiting in line for that signature... first to get tickets, then to get in to the presentation, then in line again for the actual signature. Lots and lots of waiting.

The only author I've seen sign standing up, and looking you in the eye.
Also the only author I've seen that travels with a very obvious body guard!

Around the house: It's decorated! It's Christmasy and it's very very cluttered!

Favorite things of the week: seeing Christopher Paolini... twice, getting my Holiday Swap package ready and sent off! Listening to Michael Buble's Christmas album, sitting and looking at the Christmas tree.

Family Matters: Kid 1 has signed a contract to move out in January to an apartment complex, Kid 2 keeps on studying, Kid 3 won the rubber band car race, and also gets to take the ACT next Saturday, and Kid 4 is selling books for an orchestra fundraiser.

Things I hope to accomplish this week: survive seeing Blue Man Group (we are in the front row and that scares me for this show!), a family Christmas party, the ACT test, shopping shopping shopping

The Blog Report: This past week I told you about some challenges I hope to do, I made a list of books I hope to read this winter, and I reviewed The Night Circus, which will be on my year's top ten list for sure.

Behold! A Signature!

You remember back when I was complaining about not being able to get  my Inheritance book signed? Alas, I can complain no longer:

And look! Personalized and everything! Something I'm realizing is NOT to be taken for granted!

So yesterday I was about to embark on a massive Costco shopping spree, when I suddenly realized a line was forming and in that line everyone was holding a large green book. Upon further investigation, I discovered that the man himself would be showing up in one and a half hours time! I asked the line nazis people in charge and they confirmed that yes indeed, he would sign Inheritance NO MATTER where I bought it! (Side note, I bought at Costco a few weeks before!)

So I did the only thing I could do at the moment and called Jenny.

"You want your Inheritance signed? You gotta get to Costco right now! Oh, and can you go get my book for me?"

I called my slumbering 22 year old son. It was, after all, a bright and early 11:00 a.m.! He woke up and put my book on the porch, Jenny drove by and grabbed it, then came and joined me in line. We waited about one and half hours and got our books signed! (So much for the shopping spree, eh?)

Take that Random House.

Tonight we'll be faithful fans at the library, supporting this awesome author in all his rock star fame. And I'll be bringing the other three books to be signed.... but not personalized! And I'll leave Inheritance at home.

Challenges! Challenges!

I started blogging because of reading challenges. I heard of them through online book groups and everyone was keeping track of things on their blog. I felt left out. I pondered for... oh.... about a year... then finally jumped in.

Now five years later, I'm pretty much over challenges. They are so enticing, yet, I never end up actually doing them. Well, most of them anyway. So, over the years, I've committed to less and less. This past year, I did do Carl's two famous ones (Once Upon a Time and RIP) which are pretty much a given, and in which I actually succeeded for the most part. I also wanted to do the 2011 Challenge and Take a Chance 3, which both seemed like so much fun. But in the end, they were too much work and I only read a few books for each of them.

But it was fun to try.

Besides, all that, I've discovered that I really enjoy buddy reads, which are more interactive, so my reading challenge is to continue doing those, and even maybe do more of them.

All that being said, there's been a few challenges I've come across that I can't seem to pass up. And my guess is there'll probably be a few more. And like I said, it's always fun to try!

So here's a list of the few that I'm hoping to try this coming year... so far anyway:

A Classics Challenge (details found here) brought to us by Katherine of November's Autumn. I like this one because it's set up a little different. We read seven classics throughout the year (something I'm always trying to do anyway) and then come to Katherine's blog on the 4th of each month and answer the general questions she will post about whatever classic you happen to be reading, or just finishing, at that moment. I like that idea.

Seven classics I'd like to read are:
1. Vanity Fair by William Thackeray
2. Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson
3. Precious Bane by Mary Webb
4. various unread Wilkie Collins that I have here on hand
5. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
6. A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott
7. My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara

Classic Double Challenge 2012 (details found here) brought to us by Melissa from One Librarian's Book Reviews. This one also has to do with classics, but here we read an original classic and then a re-telling of the same story. We can pick a level, and I'll try for the medium level, which is four books (two sets). My ideas so far on this one are:

1. something Robin Hood, maybe two new-to-me versions (Melissa says it counts though I'm not sure how to read the "original" story!)
2. I'm dying to re-read Persuasion and then it would be fun to read a re-telling of that one. Suggestions welcome.


Dean Koontz Reading Challenge (details found here) brought to us by Brigit from The Book Garden. Mostly I'm joining this one so I can aim to finish the Odd Thomas series! I have the next two books, here and ready to go!

So, wouldn't you love to join with me? Come on... you know you want to! What challenges have you found that you can't seem to pass up?

November Reading Recap

Well, my list of books read this month is so pathetic I may as well not even do this post.  I have no idea what the deal was this time around, I don't even have a big book to blame. So, for what it's worth, here's what I read during November:

The Death Cure by James Dashner: Wherein Thomas continues (and concludes) his maze/WICKED/Flare adventure and tries to figure out, once and for all, who are the good guys and who are the bad.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith: A re-read for book club that reminded me how sweet Francie Nolan is and to enjoy again her beautiful simple life in New York in the early 1900's.

Tattoo by Jennifer Lynn Barnes: Four friends end up with temporary tattoos that give them temporary powers to fight against the three Fates (well one bad one at least) who have come to take over the world.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: A circus that operates only at night is filled with magic, mystery and intrigue and has a behind the scenes story that is equal parts romantic and deathly.

Well, at least I can say I read a book this month that will make to my year's end Top Ten list! Yay for The Night Circus. 

Oh, and P.S. , I didn't really like Tattoo and thus didn't even take the time to review it. This is just another example of how my book bloggin' buddy and IRL friend Jenny, and I, are so much different, while at the same time being so much the same. I love it. (See what she has to say about Tattoo here.)

Plans for December include:

• finish The Path of Daggers
• finish Inheritance
• read Supernaturally (buddy read with my sister perhaps?)
• read some easy books that don't take much concentration because, whoa, I'm having a really bad issue with focusing lately. I blame that on Christmas.

I also realized last night that even if I think I have an evening free to just read, it's not going to happen because there's too much kid homework to be helping with. These last three weeks before Christmas break are going to be insane and yeah, I might as well give up on accomplishing much reading in December too.

So much for 100 books this year!  Here's to trying again next year!

Top Ten Tuesday: Winter TBR List

The question today over at The Broke and the Bookish is what we hope to read this winter. Mostly, the books on my winter TBR are ones that have been sitting around for quite awhile waiting until I can get to them, yet ones that at the same time, I'm dying to read.

Ten Books on My Winter TBR List

1. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
2. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
3. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
4. Chasing the Sun by Kaki Warner (for a cowboy fix!)
5. Atonement by Ian McEwan (this one for book club)
6.  The Exiled Queen by Cinda William Chima
7. Blood Red Road by Moira Young
9. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
10. The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

So, there's ten for starters! Ah, there's so many more I want to read soon! What's on your list?

Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Book: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Genre: Fantasy? Sort of? Magic... whatever genre that falls into.
Rating: A perhaps even with a +
For: Fun
From: Amazon using my gift certificate from Brigit at The Book Garden! Thanks Brigit!

Seriously, I don't even know how to describe this book. But I'll give it a go.

The time period is late 1800s and early 1900s. There's two rival illusionists. Over the years, they have each taken a student, taught them magic and then have them compete with each other. As the book opens, they are beginning a new competition. One student is actually the daughter of one of the illusionists, and the other is a random orphan boy.

There's also this circus, that comes... take a guess here.... only at night!  And it appears out of nowhere! This circus is amazing! It's full of really awesome acts and displays. One of the students mentioned above performs in this circus. The other runs things behind the scenes but doesn't actually get to travel. Is there a connection? It is a safe bet that there probably is.

The story jumps back and forth between their story, and the story of a boy a few years later who is fascinated with the circus and especially with a pair of twins who are an integral part of the show. We wonder what he has to do with anything really, but it all comes together in the end and makes perfect sense.

With that description, it doesn't sound like it's anything special. But if you love magic and wonder and rich descriptions, it truly is special. The thing that stands out most to me about this book is how it uses every one of your senses. Color (or lack thereof) and smell and electrifying touch, all play a powerful role. It draws you in and makes you a complete and total part of the experience.

The style is slow and poetic and wonderful and beautiful. It's like you want to savor every word. I found myself re-reading passages many times just to feel it again.

Then there's the love story, which is so..so..so.. magical! Everything about this book is just.... magic! Yes! And magic that is believable too.

If you are scared of buzz and hype... don't be. Just go read this book and decide for yourself. Seriously.

Bottom line: I loved it!  A lot!

Other Reviews

Book Journey
Leeswamme's Blog
Fyrefly's Book Blog
Omphaloskepsis

Here's a fun interview with the author: