Dyson Giveaway

5 minute for mom is giving away ANOTHER Dyson. Go check it out. This is a pink one from Target- part of the proceeds go to Breast Cancer Research.

Bloggy Update

Sorry for the lack of posting lately- I have been under the weather and it is likely to continue a bit longer. I have a few things I wanted to do, but then will likely not be posting for a little while again.

First, on this post I offered to give away a book- The Imperfect Mom. 4 people expressed an interested there, and on through email. Since I conveniently have five fingers, this works well! I held up my hand, the Monkey picked finger two, and so Marina wins the book! Email your address to me at bookslistslifeATgmailDOTcom and I will pop it in the mail.

Then, I wanted to post about this video from Brotherhood2.0. This is why I love them.

Last, I have 178 unread items on my Google Reader. I hope nothing interesting is happening while I am not paying attention.

And, I guess that's it! Hope to be back to it soon.

Anne of Green Gables, some challenges, the library, and other stuff

Over the weekend I FINALLY finished Anne of Green Gables. This is a book that I never read as a child, and over and over I hear about how wonderful it is, and how it's everyone's favorite. I've had a copy for years, but didn't get around to reading it until this year's TBR Challenge. (That's right! I read a challenge book!) Don't shoot me, but eh. I had to force myself to read it. I did not begin to enjoy it until Anne STOPPED TALKING SO MUCH. Which means I liked the last few chapters. I was tired of the whole "Gil- other people" thing way too early. After finishing it, I'd love to have someone email me the summary of the rest of the series, because I want to know, but I don't want to read it myself. Or if someone could tell me specifically which book has the romance in it, I might read that one. I think I might have liked it as a child, but as an adult it bored me. I'm discovering that I don't really love descriptive books. Oh sure there are some, but they are usually about specific locations (The South and New Orleans, mainly.)

As you may have noticed, I've recently started reading a lot of Young Adult fiction. Some of it bores me too, but not nearly as much as Anne did, or as much as Little Women did. What makes a book turn into a classic? Which of the books I'm reading now will be a classic? Will any of them? If I reread Pippi Longstocking and Harriet the Spy am I doomed to be disappointed?

One of my personal goals for the year was to read 52 books this year. Last year I read 47 (or was it 48?) This is my 52nd book, so I am 3.5 months ahead of schedule. The full list can be found here.

Last weekend the Monkey and I did a lot of fun stuff together. One of our stops was at the library where I checked out WAY TOO MANY books. I checked out half a dozen YA novels for myself. His Monkiness and I discovered the kid's dinosaur books and he Very Carefully selected 10 or so of them. I am not sure what his criteria are, but there was definate choosing going on. I love that he loves stuff so passionately. We also hit a small Fall Festival, where he had his first encounter with a bouncy house.

What else? I made a new bag, it's so darling that I want to use it myself, but it's too small for all my mommy crap. There are pictures of it over here. I made a slipcover for the ottoman that turned out really well, despite the fact that I was making it up as I went.

All in all, a very successful weekend!

The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart

As we have already established, I really enjoy Brotherhood 2.0. Several weeks ago for John's birthday, several YA author friends of his made him a birthday video. Yesterday I took the Monkey to the library, and while I was there picked up books by most of those writers- Maureen Johnson (though I already read 13 Little Blue Envelopes), E. Lockhart, Libby Bray, and I already own (but have not read) a Scott Westerfield. I read a David Levithan a few weeks ago. I also had An Abundance of Katherines by John Green waiting on hold for me.

I started with The Boyfriend List because it looked fast and I was feeling the need to boost my stats. It does turn out to be a quick little book. The cover says "(15 guys, 11 shrink appointments, 4 ceramic frogs and me, ruby oliver") and that's pretty much the premise. After an exceptionally tough week, Ruby starts seeing a shrink who has her make a list of every boyfriend, or near boyfriend, or rumored boyfriend, or boy she kinda liked, ever. The book is about what she learns about herself while talking about the list to the shrink. It's a cute book, but definately not the best YA I've read this year. There are footnotes from Ruby to the reader all through the book, and I found them really distracting. It looks like there is a sequel to it called The Boy Book, which is a book mentioned in The Boyfriend List. If it's on the shelf at the library I'll probably check it out, but I don't know that I'd pay for it.

The Imperfect Mom

This week's completed book (how did I end up at only one book a week??) was The Imperfect Mom: Candid Confessions of Mothers Living in the Real World edited by Therese J Borchard. Published in 2006, this is a slim little book of essays about being imperfect. It seems that everyone is trying to be the perfect mother (homemade baby food! baby gymnastics! Daily craft projects! Breastfeed only! etc!) and this book is written women who admit they aren't. I am not. I am a good mom, but I readily admit I am not perfect. I'd go crazy if I stayed home with the Monkey everyday. I hate bathtime. I lose my patience with the whining. I let him watch tv (the horrors!) He probably (ok, he does) eat too much sugar. I actually let him play alone while I do things I like to do for myself (like reading!) This book of essays is perfect for reassuring me that I am not the only mom who does these things that no-one will admit to.

There are 36 essays in the book. Some of them were great, some of them weren't. All of them were quick and easy. My favorite is near the end of the book. It's called Be Careful What You Wish For by Julie Aigner-Clark. It's about wishing away their childhood ("Can't wait till she can walk; can't wait till they can play together; can't wait till she sleeps through the night") until suddenly you turn around they they are grown. Just that essay alone make the book worth reading. I credit it with a lot of patience in my house lately. I won't ever be a perfect mom, and I will surely never have a clean house, but when my kid thinks about his childhood, hopefully we won't be home cleaning instead of having fun.

Anyone else interested in reading this one? My copy has a little water damage on the front cover (the previous owner spilled coffee on it and then immediately wiped it off) and I can not trade it away at PBS. Leave me a comment and it's yours. If more than one of you are interested, I'll pull a name out of the hat next weekend.

This book is an alternate on my TBR Challenge list, so only 6 more to go before the end of the year!

Don't Shoot!

There are tons of new challenges going around right now, and I am very firmly NOT JOINING any of them. I have a couple I plan to do in 2008 (after I fail the ones in 2007) but nothing new for fall. Then today as I was bloghopping, I found this- The Newbery Project. This is been going on for a while now, it's not new, but I just found it. There is no list to be made (the list already exists) and no set number of books to read. There is no time limit. Just read them. Here's the complete list, with the ones I've already read (as an adult, I read quite a few of them as a child) marked off.

2007 The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
2006 Criss Cross, by Lynne Rae Perkins
2005 Kira-Kira, by Cynthia Kadohata
2004 The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread, by Kate DiCamillo
2003 Crispin: The Cross of Lead, by Avi (I've met the author)
2002 A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park
2001 A Year Down Yonder, by Richard Peck (I've met the author)
2000 Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis (I've met the author)
1999 Holes, by Louis Sachar
1998 Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse
1997 The View from Saturday, by E. L. Konigsburg (I've met the author)
1996 The Midwife’s Apprentice, by Karen Cushman
1995 Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech
1994 The Giver, by Lois Lowry
1993 Missing May, by Cynthia Rylant
1992 Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
1991 Maniac Magee, by Jerry Spinelli
1990 Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry
1989 Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, by Paul Fleischman
1988 Lincoln: A Photobiography, by Russell Freedman
1987 The Whipping Boy, by Sid Fleischman
1986 Sarah, Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan
1985 The Hero and the Crown, by Robin McKinley
1984 Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary
1983 Dicey’s Song, by Cynthia Voigt
1982 A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers, by Nancy Willard
1981 Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson
1980 A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832, by Joan Blos
1979 The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin
1978 Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
1977 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor
1976 The Grey King, by Susan Cooper
1975 M. C. Higgins, the Great, by Virginia Hamilton
1974 The Slave Dancer, by Paula Fox
1973 Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George
1972 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O’Brien
1971 Summer of the Swans, by Betsy Byars
1970 Sounder, by William H. Armstrong
1969 The High King, by Lloyd Alexander
1968 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsburg
1967 Up a Road Slowly, by Irene Hunt
1966 I, Juan de Pareja, by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño
1965 Shadow of a Bull, by Maia Wojciechowska
1964 It’s Like This, Cat, by Emily Neville
1963 A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
1962 The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare
1961 Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell
1960 Onion John, by Joseph Krumgold
1959 The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare
1958 Rifles for Watie, by Harold Keith
1957 Miracles on Maple Hill, by Virginia Sorenson
1956 Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham
1955 The Wheel on the School, by Meindert DeJong
1954 …And Now Miguel, by Joseph Krumgold
1953 Secret of the Andes, by Ann Nolan Clark
1952 Ginger Pye, by Eleanor Estes
1951 Amos Fortune, Free Man, by Elizabeth Yates
1950 The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite de Angeli
1949 King of the Wind, by Marguerite Henry
1948 The Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pène du Bois
1947 Miss Hickory, by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
1946 Strawberry Girl, by Lois Lenski
1945 Rabbit Hill, by Robert Lawson
1944 Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes
1943 Adam of the Road, by Elizabeth Gray Vining
1942 The Matchlock Gun, by Walter Edmonds
1941 Call It Courage, by Armstrong Sperry
1940 Daniel Boone, by James Daugherty
1939 Thimble Summer, by Elizabeth Enright
1938 The White Stag, by Kate Seredy
1937 Roller Skates, by Ruth Sawyer
1936 Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink
1935 Dobry, by Monica Shannon
1934 Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women, by Cornelia Meigs
1933 Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze, by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis
1932 Waterless Mountain, by Laura Adams Armer
1931 The Cat Who Went to Heaven, by Elizabeth Coatsworth
1930 Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field
1929 The Trumpeter of Krakow, by Eric P. Kelly
1928 Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon, by Dhan Gopal Mukerji
1927 Smoky the Cowhorse, by Will James
1926 Shen of the Sea, by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
1925 Tales from Silver Lands, by Charles Finger
1924 The Dark Frigate, by Charles Hawes
1923 The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting
1922 The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik Willem van Loon

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Several weeks ago, right around the time Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, the Book Dragon (now Outside of a Dog) posted a link to Brotherhood 2.0. Brotherhood 2.0 is a video blog project between two brothers- Hank and John Green. Over the next few weeks I (some would say obsessively) watched ALL the videos- one a weekday from January 1, 2007 until now. I love it. I love the brothers. One of the brothers is John Green, a published award-winning young adult author. Once I finished catching up with the vlog, I found myself having withdrawals, so I headed to the library where I checked out Looking for Alaska by John Green.

One night as I was trying to convince myself to read something on a challenge list (yeah right), I picked up the book and read the "About the Author." Now, having seen all the videos, I have a pretty good idea of John's (first name basis, see?) history and life, but one sentence in the bio really jumped out at me- "John Green attended a boarding school in Alabama not entirely unlike Alaska's Culver Creek." What?? Are you serious? I attended a boarding school in Alabama! I am only a couple years older than John Green! This spurred a fast and furious internet search until wikipedia told me that, alas, we did not attend the same school. (For the record, I attended the Alabama School of Math and Science and he went to Indian Springs School. Mine- public; his- not so much.)

This still spurred me on to reading the book. Looking for Alaska is about Miles who is a first time student, a junior, at an Alabama boarding school. It's about making friends, loyalty, growing up, love, doubts, everything we all did in high school. There is an abundance of smoking, drinking, and a good bit of sex talk. This was so much like my high school it's was spooky. The book isn't broken into chapters, but rather sections are titled as a countdown (ninety-eight days before, four days before, twenty-one days after, etc.) Obviously, Something Happens and the rest of the book deals with the aftermath of that.

I have to say I loved it. The story isn't particularly unique, but it is very clear that John Green remembers high school clearly. I don't know if this will resonate with people who didn't attend a boarding school, and honestly, I have a hard time separating the book from my experience. Between the vlog, and the shared high school experience, I thought this was an excellent book. If you aren't already a John Green fan or a boarding school alum, I don't know, it might not be for you. It's not a book that avoid touchy subjects and there's a lot of hand-wringing in the last half. I thought it did an excellent job of showing how fast and tight friendships are formed in a dorm. Overall, great book, and I'll be looking for his other book An Abundance of Katherines.

We're home!

Actually, we got home yesterday. I was just too pooped to post! We had a great little vacation, but I think we were all very happy to be home. We went shopping (Barnes & Noble, World Market, The Children's Place), we went to the zoo(very sad old-style zoo), we saw Sesame Street LIVE!, we went to Falls Park, we went to the Washington Pavilion to see the Kirby Science Discovery Center (very interactive and hands-on, lots of fun, even for two year olds), we walked and walked and walked. We ate at the Spicy Pickle (twice), Cracker Barrel (twice!), Timberlodge Steakhouse, Phillips Avenue Diner and Famous Dave's.

I finished one book (review to come) and knitted half a bag. We pretty much avoided the hotel unless it were time for the Monkey to sleep, and the Monkey refused to go to sleep with any lights on, so we had to go to bed when he did. The horror!

Now we just have to find time to unpack, do all the laundry, and get in the mindset of WORK tomorrow.

I have updated the Monkey's photo page with everything except Sesame Street pictures. Feel free to hop over and look if you know the link. If not, email me and I'll hook ya up.