Recent Book Activity

This page was last updated on 1-30-12.

CURRENTLY READING:

The Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Kostova
Lunatics, by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel


A NOTE ABOUT MY WISH LIST

I have a long wish list! It is my way of keeping up with books I hear about that I want to read someday. It does not mean I want people to send me everything on my list! (There has been some discussion about long wish lists on the forum and I want to be clear - I'm a bookaholic but I don't want to seem greedy.) If a BCer does want to send/offer a book, you can keep these points in mind:

Most of the books on my wish list are books I would like to read but do not necessarily want to own (unless after reading them I decide I can't part with them!). I have marked in parentheses with "PC" those books on the wish list that I'm pretty sure I'd like to keep permanently if I obtain them. Otherwise, I'm generally happy to participate in rings, rays, trades, and otherwise keep books moving, especially if it is important to the people who send them my way.


ABOUT ME

I read lots of types of literature, especially since joining Bookcrossing. My all-time favorite authors are T. R. Pearson and Dave Barry. I also enjoy Anne Rivers Siddons, Pat Conroy, Elizabeth George, Catherine Coulter, Jeffery Deaver, Dennis Lehane, Anne Tyler, and many others. Through Bookcrossing's bookrings and rays, I have really expanded my reading "repertoire." I have been reading more nonfiction and a greater variety of fiction. Isn't Bookcrossing wonderful?!

I have two children (ages 15 and 11), so I also enjoy children's literature (actually I enjoyed kids' books even when I did not have kids). My family loves Dr. Seuss, Jerry Pallotta, A. A. Milne, Barbara Park (The Junie B. Jones series), Lemony Snicket, J. K. Rowling, and lots of others, including a lot of nonfiction for my nature-loving daughter.

In addition to reading, I enjoy word puzzles, especially crosswords. In my life before children, I was a big movie fan, but since the kids came along I pretty much only see kid movies. My all-time favorite movies include Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, The Big Chill, When Harry Met Sally..., and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I have a huge crush on Johnny Depp (really unbecoming in a person my age but I can't help it)!

I love music of all kinds, too. My collection has included everything from Barry Manilow and John Denver to Quiet Riot and Led Zeppelin, with Rogers & Hammerstein and Tchaikovsky thrown in too. I'm a long-time fan of the Beatles, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, and The Eagles. Lately my favorites are Don Henley, Counting Crows, and the Twilight soundtrack.

I work full-time and am married with kids, but I've gotta read! It's like breathing to me. So I love Bookcrossing!

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A FEW OF MY OTHER FAVORITE SITES:

My Library Thing Page!

The Word Detective

Edward McKay Used Books & More (My favorite book source, located in NC)

Lists of Bests

The Free Rice Site (Take vocabulary quiz - earn rice for needy people!)

I list my bookrings at The Bookring Directory!

Save the Words, a site for adopting words in danger of extinction!


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Here's how I'm going to try to rate books as of October 2005 [stolen from Maddog1404 who stole it from Big Tex who stole it from calicocollie, who adapted it from tnkbl, who got it from Starbytes, who got it from Gizmopuddy, who got it from Sugarkane (now florafloraflora) and Scism]:

10: Excellent, at the top of its category. This book has impacted me deeply, challenged me profoundly, or has simply been a pure delight to read.
9: Great book--just a nitpick stands between it and a 10.
7-8: Good, solid book that I would recommend to others.
6: Decent, but not great.
4-5: Only OK. Barely worth reading. The line between taking it and leaving it is very thin.
2-3: Has major problems. I don't recommend it.
1: It's hard to imagine anyone liking this book.


BOOKRINGS IN WHICH I AM PARTICIPATING

I no longer participate in bookrings thanks to the frustrating changes at the US Postal Service (shorter hours, no Saturday hours, etc.). If you have me down for a bookring, please skip me. Thanks!


BOOKS READ IN 2011:

1. ADHD & Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table, by Blake E. S. Taylor
2. Ghost Soldier, by Elaine Marie Alphin (aloud to my son)
3. The Bear in the Attic, by Patrick McManus
4. Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, Book 1), by Cassandra Clare
5. 100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know, by Russ Kick
6. The Men Who Stare at Goats, by Jon Ronson
7. The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism, by James Geary
8. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
9. Catching Fire (The Hunger Games Book 2), by Suzanne Collins
10. Mockingjay (The Hunger Games Book 3), by Suzanne Collins
11. In a Word, by Jack Hitt
12. Slightly Married, by Mary Balogh
13. The Perfect Bride, by Brenda Joyce
14. Whisper to Me of Love, by Shirlee Busbee
15. Innocent as Sin, by Elizabeth Lowell
16. The Color of Death, by Elizabeth Lowell
17. Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words, by Barbara Wallraff
18. Quirky QWERTY: The Story of the Keyboard @ Your Fingertips, by Torbjorn Lundmark
19. Uncle Boris in the Yukon and Other Shaggy Dog Stories, by Daniel Pinkwater
20. Dissecting Death: Secrets of a Medical Examiner, by Frederick Zugibe
21. The Passage, by Justin Cronin
22. Prayers for Rain, by Dennis Lehane
23. The Year of Eating Dangerously, by Tom Parker Bowles
24. Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell (reread)
25. Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger
26. Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu, by J. Maarten Troost
27. Frankenstein Book One: Prodigal Son, by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson
28. The Book of Vice, by Peter Sagal
29. The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs
30. Take the Cannoli, by Sarah Vowell
31. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, by James Finn Garner
32. A Widow for One Year, by John Irving
33. Born Naked, by Farley Mowat
34. Bud, Not Buddy, by Richard Paul Curtis
35. I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore (aloud to my children)
36. Nature Noir, by Jordan Fisher Smith
37. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsson
38. One True Thing, by Anna Quindlen
39. Promise Me, by Harlan Coben
40. Getting Stoned with Savages, by J. Maarten Troost
41. Dictionary of Proverbs and Their Origins, by Linda and Roger Flavell
42. Dogbert's Top-Secret Management Handbook, by Scott Adams
43. Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia, by Mark Salzman


BOOKS READ IN 2010:

1. The Big Over Easy, by Jasper Fforde
2. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher
3. Tempted (House of Night Series), by Kristen Cast and P.C. Cast
4. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1), by Rick Riordan
5. Delicate Edible Birds and Other Stories, by Lauren Groff
6. The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2), by Rick Riordan
7. The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 3), by Rick Riordan
8. Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader, by John Granger
9. Yes Man, by Danny Wallace (reread)
10. The Day I Turned Uncool: Confessions of a Reluctant Grown-up, by Dan Zevin
11. The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 4), by Rick Riordan
12. The Curse of the Spellmans, by Lisa Lutz
13. The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson
14. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, by Simon Winchester
15. Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris, by Michael Allin
16. Ranch of Dreams, by Cleveland Amory
17. The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 5), by Rick Riordan
18. I'm with Stupid, by Gene Weingarten and Gina Barerra
19. The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
20. The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
21. Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson
22. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
23. I'll Mature When I'm Dead, by Dave Barry
24. Red Scare, by T. R. Pearson
25. Science Fair, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
26. Some of Our Best Friends Are Animals: The Story of a Wild Life Park, by Peter Spence
27. All the Trouble in the World, by P. J. O'Rourke
28. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (aloud to my son)
29. The Vatican's Exorcists: Driving Out the Devil in the 21st Century, by Tracy Wilkinson
30. The Classic Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
31. Will Rogers: Wise and Witty Sayings of a Great American Humorist, by Will Rogers
32. Friends Like These, by Danny Wallace
33. Beatrice and Virgil, by Yann Martel
34. Oops! 20 Life Lessons from the Fiascoes that Shaped America, by Martin J. Smith and Patrick J. Kiger
35. Don't Stop Believin': How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life, by Brian Raftery
36. Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living, by Doug Fine
37. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
38. Object Lessons, by Anna Quindlen
39. Watchers, by Dean Koontz
40. The Areas of My Expertise, by John Hodgman
41. Travels, by Michael Crichton
42. Next, by Michael Crichton
43. Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women, by Ricky Jay
44. The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emma Orczy
45. Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore that Shaped Modern America, by Martin J. Smith and Patrick J. Kiger
46. Wait Until Midnight, by Amanda Quick
47. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
48. The Homework Machine, by Dan Gutman (aloud to my son)
49. This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection, by Carol Burnett
50. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C. S. Lewis
51. The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo
52. I Feel Bad about My Neck, and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, by Nora Ephron
53. This Body of Death, by Elizabeth George
54. Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger
55. Greetings from Nowhere, by Barbara O'Connor (aloud to my son)
56. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis (reread, aloud to my son)
57. The Year of the Dog, by Grace Lin (aloud to my son)
58. Savvy, by Ingrid Law (aloud to my son)
59. Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (aloud to my son)
60. Room One: A Mystery or Two, by Andrew Clements (aloud to my son)