Paperbackswap.com has been great lately for sending ourt books I desperately want- as well as books I desperately want at-the-time. Yesterday in the mail we got 5 books (I say "we" because one of them is Mike's.)
Something Blue by Emily Giffin (sequel to Something Borrowed)
Don't Say a Word by Barbara Freethy
American Girls About Town by Jennifer Weiner, et all. (chick lit anthology, what a great way to try out new authors. There are 17 stories in this one.)
How I Write by Janet Evanovich
The Ionian Mission by Patrick O'Brian
Guess which one is Mike's?
On top of my over abundance of books, I've recently committed to several other small projects. I found a pattern for a little knitted cap that I decided I HAD to try to make for Tristan. It's very cute, but I won't be able to knit while he's awake, plus it is harder than anything else I've ever made. I also still needs to make a gift for Tristan's friend Brady, a couple of baby quilts, a ghost costume.... The days need to be longer.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Last night I finished Nickel and Dimed. If you have not heard of it, Enrenreich, who admits to being in the top 20% of the US pay scale and paying $20,000 a year in mortgage interest, goes undercover for a month at a time working low paying jobs. Quite like the tv show 30 Days, she's attempting to see if it's possible to make $7 an hour and still pay your bills. The experiment is flawed in several ways, but the book is still interesting. I don't know that 30 days at a time is really enough to know how it feels, but she does experience a lot of new things. She has particular trouble finding affordable housing, and the book is full of facts on housing costs and alternatives. Over the course of her experience she waits tables, cleans houses, works at a nursing home and works at Wal-Mart.
At the end of the book she draws some conclusions from the experiment and illustrates how low wage workers can't possibly afford to not have some kind of public assistance. While I do agree with much of what she says, the experiment is flawed in so many ways that even I (and I agree with her) find some of her sweeping proclamations incredible. One of the flaws is that the three cities she chose to work in are all either big cities or tourist towns (Key West?) and not to say those problems don't exist there, but there are a lot of poor people in small town America too. Her housing problems would not be the same in Sheffield, Alabama, for example, while her income would be about the same. This is not in any way to say the people in Sheffield have it good, but rather to point out one flaw in the book.
Even with all the flaws, it's a good book to read. It really illustrates struggles that many middle- and upper-class people would never consider. I'm glad I read it.
At the end of the book she draws some conclusions from the experiment and illustrates how low wage workers can't possibly afford to not have some kind of public assistance. While I do agree with much of what she says, the experiment is flawed in so many ways that even I (and I agree with her) find some of her sweeping proclamations incredible. One of the flaws is that the three cities she chose to work in are all either big cities or tourist towns (Key West?) and not to say those problems don't exist there, but there are a lot of poor people in small town America too. Her housing problems would not be the same in Sheffield, Alabama, for example, while her income would be about the same. This is not in any way to say the people in Sheffield have it good, but rather to point out one flaw in the book.
Even with all the flaws, it's a good book to read. It really illustrates struggles that many middle- and upper-class people would never consider. I'm glad I read it.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Paperback Swap
Some time in May I read an article in my local paper about paperbackswap.com. I immediately signed up. The way PBS works is that you post books you no longer want and other people request them. No money changes hands, it's all done via wishlists and media mail. It usually costs $1.59 to mail a book out. I am totally addicted and get so many more books than I can possibly read.
Today in the mail I got:
Sesame Street Unpaved
The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch)
Cravings (anthology with Laurell Hamilton and others)
A Recipe for Bees
These books have been added to the ever growing TBR stack. I will never read all the books I have, but at least I'm no longer toting around the boxes of old romance novels that I've had since high school. I've found some amazing books lately. It makes it very hard to decide what to read next.
Today in the mail I got:
Sesame Street Unpaved
The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch)
Cravings (anthology with Laurell Hamilton and others)
A Recipe for Bees
These books have been added to the ever growing TBR stack. I will never read all the books I have, but at least I'm no longer toting around the boxes of old romance novels that I've had since high school. I've found some amazing books lately. It makes it very hard to decide what to read next.
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
I've been working hard to finish up several books that I've half read. One of those was Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. This was Giffin's first novel and the story of Rachel White and her best friend Darcy. On Rachel's 30th birthday she gets drunk, ends up in bed with Darcy's fiance and they fall in love. (All of that is on the back of the book! No Spoilers here!) Now, if you know me AT ALL, you know that this is not the kind of plot that I usually enjoy. It's the betrayal of the friendship that bothers me, not so much the affair. I was really interested to see how the author would be able to pull it off and make me feel sympathy for Rachel and Dex. I assumed there would come a point where it would just be To Much for me (as often happens to me with conflict in books) and I would just stop reading. That never happened. The book is so well written and smooth that soon you find yourself rooting for Rachel. It's all wrapped up really neatly at the end, maybe too neatly, but overall was a good book.
There is a sequel called Something Blue, but don't read the synopsis unless you want to know ending of Something Borrowed. I will read the sequel just to see how she can turn Darcy back into someone I like.
There is a sequel called Something Blue, but don't read the synopsis unless you want to know ending of Something Borrowed. I will read the sequel just to see how she can turn Darcy back into someone I like.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Books. Lists. Life.
My favorite things. I read blog after blog of people (usually women) rambling on and on about what book they're reading, or what they want to buy, or what happened to them at the grocery store and I thought "Geez, I need to get me one of those!" So, here it is. My random ramblings on the things that are important to me. I'll try not to fill this blog with all Tristan all the time, as I have an entirely separate blog for that at onemonkeyjumping.blogspot.com.
As anyone who has ever met me or been to my house knows, I have a slight obsession with books. It's not just about reading them. It's about owning them, sorting them, reading about them, talking about them, listing them. It's about having stacks of them everywhere. I sometimes even read them!
I like to make lists. I have not one, not two, but three notebooks in my purse. One of them is full of the permanant sort of lists- addresses, phone numbers, a running list of the power bill, birthdates- that kind of list. One of them is for making lists of things to do, things to read, things to buy. The other is about food and weight. I don't like that one as much. The fact that I have all these notebooks should suggest another obsession- journals. I have too many. I want more. Many of them are still blank, just waiting for the perfect use. What else can I make a list of?
Life. My life is wonderful. I want a place to record the little things that happen day to day. Silly things, important things, any things. While I have plenty of other outlets for my life- email, message boards, phone calls to friends, I'd like to have it all in one place for future reference. Hopefully this blog won't turn annoying. I don't want to be one of those people who never says anything interesting, and yet keeps talking. Perhaps I already am?
Until next time,
Lisa
As anyone who has ever met me or been to my house knows, I have a slight obsession with books. It's not just about reading them. It's about owning them, sorting them, reading about them, talking about them, listing them. It's about having stacks of them everywhere. I sometimes even read them!
I like to make lists. I have not one, not two, but three notebooks in my purse. One of them is full of the permanant sort of lists- addresses, phone numbers, a running list of the power bill, birthdates- that kind of list. One of them is for making lists of things to do, things to read, things to buy. The other is about food and weight. I don't like that one as much. The fact that I have all these notebooks should suggest another obsession- journals. I have too many. I want more. Many of them are still blank, just waiting for the perfect use. What else can I make a list of?
Life. My life is wonderful. I want a place to record the little things that happen day to day. Silly things, important things, any things. While I have plenty of other outlets for my life- email, message boards, phone calls to friends, I'd like to have it all in one place for future reference. Hopefully this blog won't turn annoying. I don't want to be one of those people who never says anything interesting, and yet keeps talking. Perhaps I already am?
Until next time,
Lisa
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