Diary of a wimpy kid

This is a fun book.This is a book about Greg. A boy who was picked on at school.
I like this book. because its funny.

My book

I love books because you can learn how to read big words. I want a book about easterbunnys. I have lots  of books.
Here are my Easter eggs:

I Love Books

I've got a lot of books. and I like them.  The best one is Bella Sarah.

Peace
CSquared

books #1

I like the book jimmy neutron because it is really funny! shel silverstein books are good because they are funny and have good rhymes and stories.  corduroy is cute because the girl really wants the bear a lot.  moose tracks is funny because he cant figure out who left the tracks!  a pocket full of kisses is cute  because the mom racoon  kisses the baby racoon.  the bear  snores on  is funny because a lot of animals go in  it.
CSquared

Bella Sarah Book #1

My mom got me a Bella Sarah book and then she got me two more Bella Sarah books the first one was number 1 and the other ones were number 2 and number 5 I like them and I have million of books ok is anyone here

 

CSquared

Twilight

Yes I have read the entire series (in one weekend) and I am hooked! They're simply written books that are quick reads ( I wished they'd lasted longer) and it's a wonderful love story. Star crossed lovers.

Now, I'm anxiously awaiting (along with my 10 year old daughter) the release of the DVD on March 21st. It can't get here soon enough for either of us!

New focus on my LonleyStar blog

I had a whole different refocus a while back.  Well that's out the window now that my other daughter has decided she wants to write about books.  From here on out.  I hope you'll enjoy what she has to say. I know I will.

What I'm reading now

MFK Fisher's The Art of Eating
A 50th anniversary edition collection of MFK Fisher's books, Serve It Forth, Consider the Oyster (my favorite), How to Cook A Wolf ( A very timely book with these tough economical times) The Gastronomical Me (in the middle of reading now) and An Alphabet for Gourmets.

This is an incredible book and I can see why all food writers look to MFK Fisher as the best food writer of all time.

Shut Up And Read

Shut Up And Read Is It Too Difficult To Pick Up A Book Once In A While?

I like Amy Stewarts writing and I had high hopes for this article, but in the end was very disappointed in Amy. I love books, and I have always had a beef with people who don't like to read. I mean really! How can you possibly not like to read? There's so many wonderful and interesting worlds you can travel to and experience inside the pages of books.

I really thought Amy was going to talk about this in her article. Talk about what it is that keeps people from reading and what we can do to help literacy, especially among the lower income families. I was sorely disappointed. This is why:

First Amy says this: "Books require us to care about someone other than ourselves. And unlike most of the other media we encounter, books are not trying to sell us anything. Reading a book allows us to step away from the culture of consumption entirely." Which I agree with whole heartedly. But then, she ends up doing this: "The holidays will be upon us soon, and I’ll roll out my perennial plea to stop in at a local independent bookstore and buy books for everyone on your holiday gift list." Then proceeds to list several bookstores with events and asking us to buy the authors books at those events. Now, I'm all for helping out authors make a few bucks, BUT! This is an article on getting people to read, especially under privileged and she's SELLING us on books. She's doing exactly what she finds repulsive about all of the media we encounter daily. Not one single mention of the library. Not one! Unbelievable! If she wants people to read, especially people who can't afford to shop at Northtown Books, why is she not promoting the Humboldt County Library? Shame on her!

Another fun book I read this summer. Being Bourdain's first book, I wasn't as impressed with his writing as I was with his other books, but I could see it improving the further into the book I got. If you like Anthony Bourdain and his sick and twisted sense of humor you'll enjoy this book. If you enjoy food, you'll enjoy this book, as he goes into heavy detail on the recipes served up in this book. He also goes into pretty graphic detail about the murders that occur. It's a quick read and a lot of fun.

I just finished this book a few days ago. Very well written, but a depressing read. In spite of being so depressing, I did enjoy the book for it's historical aspect. It seems they never get around to teaching World War 1 history in school and I've always been curious about it. This book is written during the first Great War and is about the 1918 flu pandemic, which is another topic I know very little about. Tomas Mullen goes into great detail about how the Spanish Flu killed so many people. It's fascinating and extremely morbid. There's also some great action towards the end of the book. Mullen makes you feel like you're right there watching it. If you have a tendency towards hypochondria, I don't recommend this book. I had a bad chest cold while reading this, and it freaked me out!

Finally writing again

Well, after having given up writing for a while I'm back. I haven't given up reading though. I've read a couple of good books while taking a writing break. The first one was Amy Tan's book The Opposite of Fate. This is a non fiction book that is a collection of speeches, essays and other musings. As someone who longs to be a writer I found this book inspiring. It's one of the reasons I decided to get back into writing. If you're not a big fan of Amy Tan's, you may not enjoy this book, but I found it interesting to see and understand where here stories came from. I love her Mother Daughter themes and you can see and appreciate the source of them in this book. I find that I can relate to Amy Tan on that level, since it seems that her mother had a lot of the same personality traits as my mother.

Another book I've read is called Faith and Betrayal A Pioneer Woman's Passage In the American West By Sally Denton. This book was based on a pioneer woman's diary and written by one of her descendant's. I enjoy historical novels and non fiction history books, so I found this book enjoyable. If you are a practicing Mormon, you may want to skip this book, you may find it offensive. All in all, it was an easy ready, and I did learn a lot about the early beginnings of the Mormon church, albeit, not in a very favorable light. This book also made me realize I should appreciate how much easier life is today. I'm not so sure any of us could survive a pioneer life these days. Most of us don't even know where our food originates from, much less have the ability to kill our own. A good book to put life into perspective.

Northcoast Journal article

Interesting article about a local small publishing house, called Stark House, owner, Greg Shepard.

The Pulp Mill Crooked Cops Private Dicks And The Shady Ladies Of Stark House

The Christmas Garden Affair

Well, while I'm waiting for my library to get The Handmaiden and The Carpenter in, I'm going to read Ann Ripley's The Christmas Garden Affair. Looks like a fun and interesting book. It's mystery, (my fav!), and gardening, (my other fav!) and it's set during the holidaze! How much better can it be? Well, the librarian said Ann Ripley is one of her favorite authors. Well, there you have it. It's a must read!

This is what I know so far. Ann Ripley writes mysteries and short stories back home in Colorado, and she's an organic gardener. She has written 10 books! Mulch 1994, Death of a Garden Pest 1996, Death of a Political Plant 1998, The Garden Tour Affair 1999, The Perennial Killer, 2000, Harvest of Murder, 2001, The Christmas Garden Affair, 2002, Death At The Spring Plant Sale, 2003, Summer Garden Murder, 2005, and her newest book; Death In The Orchid Garden, 2006. Man! Who knew you could draw so much writing inspiration from gardening?!?

Being a gardener (somewhat organic) I think I'm going to really enjoy this book!

Join me if you dare....Susan, my fellow gardener, I think you should read this and post a comment on this blog.

Having It & Eating It - the review

I have to say, I really enjoyed this book. Being a mother of two, and having had a career "BC (Before Children)", I related to so much of this mother's hassles in life. For a while I felt like I was Maggie Owen, but, as the story progressed, I'm very glad I'm not. I read another review of the book and someone's comment was that Maggie's character was a bit whiney. I had read this review before finishing the book, so I took offense to the comment. I fully disagreed, but in the end, I have to say, she was right. Although, I didn't mind it. I was starting to relate a bit too much to this character, and than, I realized I was much better off than her. Thank God!

This book is full on "chicklit", so it's not going to appeal to everyone. Definitely not a "classic novel", but a fun read. Comedy, mystery, romance, just a fun read. And, you'd think with all that, that it would have a predictable ending. Nope! That's what really made me enjoy this book. I really didn't know how it was going to end until the last few pages.

This was Sabine Durrant's first published novel, and it was great. I'm definitely planning on seeking out more of her work. Ms. Durrant has been a journalist for the Gardian, the Observer, Independent, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times. She has written two other books; The Great Indoors and Cross Your Heart, Connie Pickles.

Well, I'm almost done with Sabine Durrant's book, Having It & Eating It, which I have been thoroughly enjoying. A total guilty pleasure. Now I'm thinking I'd like to read something with a bit of a Christmas theme on the next round, being that Christmas is almost here. I happened to run onto Elizabeth Berg's The Handmade And The Carpenter. It's the story of how Mary and Joseph met and about their marriage and the birth of Jesus. This isn't your typical Christmas story though. It's told in a way that puts Mary and Joseph in a more human light, not so much as legends of a great story, but the human side of them and their story. The excerpt I read was very refreshing. A whole different perspective on an ancient story. I hope to make this my next read.

To read an excerpt go to The Handmaden And The Carpenter excerpt

Having It Eating It

I'm currently reading Having It Eating It by Sabine Durrant. I think I'll find a lot to relate to in this book...."A comic and acutely intelligent novel about how having small chldren can challenge a woman's identity and sanity" It's starting out pretty good. I'll let you know how good when I'm done reading.

Join in if you dare...

Yeah, what this guy says

I Was Placed On This Earth To Put Off Doing Something Extraordinary

The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain

"The good, the bad, and the ugly, served up Bourdain-style".

This is a book where Anthony takes a bunch of his old writings from magazines and newspapers and puts it together in a book..."Collected varietal cuts, usable trim, scraps, and bones". I had been told it was just a regurgitation of his tv shows, but it turns out that is not entirely so. I have to say it's not the best writing in the world, but! I'm a rabid Anthony Bourdain fan, so I enjoyed it a great deal. It's no where as good as Kitchen Confidential, but being the fan that I am, I truly enjoyed and appreciated this book. It took me forever to read, not because it's a slow, or hard read, but because I've recently taken leave of my sanity, dropped all gardening and household chores, gone off the deep end, and added a third part time job to my life (not counting marriage and kids). So, it took me a while to get through this book with my time (and sanity) constraints. That is one reason I would recommend this book. If you have a bit of a sick sense of humor, appreciate good food, and learning about other cultures, but don't have time to sit down and read an entire novel in a few days, this book is for you, especially if you're an Anthony Bourdain fan. It's short story after short story. You can read it at your leisure and actually get through an entire story in a few minutes. Great for lunch breaks at work. It's full of Bourdain's biting wit and humor and some humility at times. It often gives you insight into his mind and you can see how his attitude and ideas have changed over the years, but don't expect him to start listening to Billy Joel with you. That just ain't gonna' happen! It's a fun read, and I recommend it to all Anthony Bourdain fans, especially those who just have time for a little taste of his writing at a time. His writing is fun, and this book does make me want to read his fiction books, Bone in the Throat, Typhoid Mary, Bobby Gold Stories, and Gone Bamboo.