Cynical Optimism

Happy New Year!

Total books read in 2010: 136 Library books: 94 Graphic novels: 23 Non-fiction: 29
Challenges
YA Challenge: 9/12 Science Book Challenge: 2/3 Chunkster Challenge: 4/4 2010 Challenge: 17/20 POC Reading Challenge: 6/10-15 Classics Challenge: 6/6 OUaT4 Challenge: 3/5 1% Challenge: 6/13 RIP Challenge: 10/5

I had a great reading year and i hope you did too!

Here's the best things i've read, watched and done this year, in no particular order.

Books-Fiction
The Book ThiefThe MoonstoneThe Elegance of the HedgehogGiovanni's RoomThe Vanishing of Katherina LindenBeowulfMajor Pettigrew's Last Stand
Books-Graphic Novels
The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus IdentityAmerican Vampire, Vol. 1The Dream Hunters (Sandman Vol 11)I Kill GiantsWalking Dead, Vol. 8: Made to Suffer
Books-Non-Fiction
Ex-LibrisLibrary: An Unquiet HistoryPacking for MarsHow Fiction WorksThe Great Influenza
MoviesInceptionUpBlade RunnerThe Thirteenth WarriorDial M for MurderThe Bridge over the River KwaiHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1The Fantastic Mr. FoxKick AssSherlock Holmes
EventsMoving in with B! he's so cool.
Going snow tubing in North Carolina with my friends D and C.
Flying over New York City at dusk, running into Ben from Lost on my flight, meeting B's family, seeing NYC...well the whole trip!
Watching the Saints win the SuperbowlWatchin…

yup, again.
The Time Traveler's Wife- 5. I cried. B had read the book but i had not. i may now.
Scott Pilgrim VS The World- 5. cute, funny stuff.
Doctor Who The Completed First Series-7, B had me start watching this and i loooooved it! working on the second series now.

Vacation is over :( I loved being back in LA and wish i could have stayed longer. I will be going in the summer as that's when my new niece or nephew will arrive!

I listened to two audio books on this trip and finished reading one paperback. Quick reviews!

HMS Surprise by Patrick O'Brian- Book 3 of the Aubrey/Maturin series. In this, though we thought Jack's money issues were solved at the end of Post Captain, we find he's still in trouble and yet to marry Sophia at the beginning of this book. He gets a chance, partly due to Maturin's cunning, to captain the H.M.S. Surprise as she carries an envoy to the far east. I thought the beginning was a bit of a cheat but liked it overall. a 5.

The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian- Book 4 of Aubrey/Maturin. Spoiler's ahead!
With the money earned in H.M.S. Surprise, Aubrey and Sophia have set up house and have a pair of twin girls. Unfortunately, Sophia's mother has managed to loose her own money and ha…

Happy Christmas everyone!


I'm just relaxing swaddled in blankies. My mom, sister, and the Girl Scout troop my mom leads are on their way to England! They've been raising money for this trip for the last year and a half and were so excited to finally be going. We had our Christmas last night. To pictures!


My dad and my nephew.


me and another nephew.


my niece.


The joy of being 4 on Christmas. This was like the second thing he opened.
My mom's computer is so weird and slow. I'm going to go get a cup of coffee; I'm cold!

I don't know why this year i'm not so much in the Christmas mood. B leaves tomorrow for Vermont; I'll be leaving work early on Wednesday to head to Louisiana. I'll be driving back next Sunday but i am not sure when B will return; he doesn't technically have to be back until January 5. I've got almost all my shopping done. The only decorating i've done was to put up the Christmas cards we've received and to get out the holidayish kitchen towels.

Maybe the season has just gone by too fast? I'm enjoying the new job and am so so glad i'm not dealing with another season at the cell phone company. It does seem like i just stopped working there when it has actually been about 6 weeks now. In fact, it really seems like since the move time has just shot by. The new job has cut down on my reading a bit as i can eat lunch while i work! I could take a whole hour if i wanted to but i'd rather eat while i work and leave earlier.

Please please don&…

I finished At Home by Bill Bryson today. It is a rambling book of trivia, terribly interesting if not very useful. It is the sort of book that as you read you are telling various friends and family the little facts you've picked up but that you may not remember in two weeks.

Bryson and his family live in a rambling old rectory in the English countryside. He structures the book's chapters by the various rooms in the home. Some are better than others; the library one is well connected but the attic chapter has little to do with the attic.

I expected it to be more funny! In every other book i've read by Bryson there's been a moment so funny and so startling that i've about embarrassed myself in giggling. This book had some amusing stories but nothing as funny as the others i've read.

So, a 5. i just picked up Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery, and the Genius of the Royal Society, edited by Bill Bryson. But I have so many library books right now …

I can't say I liked Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian as much as Master and Commander but it is a good book. I believe a bit of the problem may be that I am listening to this series on audio book and had a hard time with the new narrator in this second volume. I had gotten very used to the way the reader in the first book did the voices for Maturin and Aubrey and didn't like the difference. Also, in Post Captain the reader seems to take weird pauses. By the time i had gotten about halfway through I had gotten used to the new voice.
A difference between these first and second books is also in the point of view. Post Captain is told mostly from Stephen Maturin's POV, while Master and Commander had a big mix of Jack and Stephen. There are also several gaps in the story that almost made me think i had put in the wrong disc. At one point we see Stephen about to go on a mission and the next track it is several months later and he is back in England. I didn't parti…

Running the Books by Avi Steinberg is a very good memoir. To get some steady income to supplement his job as a freelance obituary writer, Avi Steinberg becomes a librarian at a prison in Boston. He supervises some prisoners who work at the library and also teaches creative writing. There's a moment that caught me where he is talking to one of the students after class then has to count all the pencils to make sure none were taken to be used as weapons.

It didn't have the Hollywood moments. This book isn't about the smart Jewish kid reforming the old convicts through the power of literature. Several of the characters Avi meets in prison have died by the end of the book. The biggest inter-personal conflicts he faces aren't with the prisoners but with the guards, who go out of their way to undermine Avi's authority and seem to be of the opinion the library shouldn't even be there.

This book is touching but not heart-warming. I liked reading about this very p…

I received a package but i don't know who it's from! Sorry about the poor photo.

The Secret Santa gave me a lovely little book to write in, some yummy sounding teas, and 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. She isn't an author I'm familiar with but the book is a collection of her letters to and from an English bookseller Frank Doel. It looks fun!

So thank you thank you Santa! let me know who you are!

After waiting forever to get Unwritten Vol. 1, the library got part 2 to me in record time! The Unwritten Vol. 2: Inside Man by Mike Carey and Peter Gross goes deeper into the story of Tom Taylor. In prison awaiting trial for crimes he didn't commit, Tom meets some helpful people but many hurtful characters too. When other people start seeing Tom's storytold creations, Tom begins to believe he may actually be a fiction brought to life.

This is a graphic novel series for book fiends. I loved the Kipling/Twain story that ended the last volume and really liked the Pooh-ish story that ended this grouping. I don't want to get all smart sounding and talk about the book being meta-fiction and the intertextuality involved, post-structuralism interpretations and the concept of self. But it is a very smart, literary series. I have to say it again, if you liked the Sandman series you will enjoy this one. a 6.

Wow. December of 2010. I know everyone says this but it is amazing how fast this year has gone by. I'll be doing a big, long, end of year post later this month, but today we are already talking about next years challenges!

So, i have one challenge that goes through April 2011, the 1% Challenge. The challenge is for 13 books off the 1001 list, of which i've read 6.

Next, i think the Shakespeare Reading Challenge sounds fun. I'm going to read (or most likely listen to) 6 plays, of which 2 i can see performances of instead of reading. Perhaps after B and I finish A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court we might try a play. We both happen to have the exact same copies of the complete works. We are lit geeks; B was even an English major!

The Vintage Mystery Challenge also looks fun, though i be i am going to be a bit more vintage than expected. I've started loving some oooooollllldddddd mystery novels, so i am sure i can conquer the "Get a Clue" level…

I really thought I had read something by Chris Hedges. I've spun back through the blog and see that, while I thought I had read American Fascists, I must not have as it came out in 2008 and i was blogging about every book I had read by that time. I know I've read articles he has written.

The tone of Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle is one of angry mourning. Anger at the corporations and politicians who are fiddling while Rome burns, anger at the people who buy into the culture of more money now, at people who don't think, who use others. The chapter on porn is particularly angry. Mourning because there was a point when knowledge and thinking were important and valued.

He makes many references to various dystopian novels like 1984 and comes to the conclusion that out current society has many similarities to Brave New World, which I haven't yet read so can't comment on, and Fahrenheit 451. The Bradbury book has characters con…

Because i am going to review 3, all available on Kindle.

Cave of Forlorn by R.C. Rutter- Fantasy. 5. A good old quest! The King is trapped by demons and dying and only his long lost daughter can save him. Is she a farm girl or a warrior woman? I was surprised how funny this book is! Fantasy isn't always a place to find laughs but I really liked the comic characters in this one. Beware the kitten of doom! The plot is fast paced with a lot of different threads that slowly join together for a great finale.

Cades Cove by Aidan James- Horror. 5. Visiting the Smokie Mountains, Miriam and David Hobbs find a strange souvenir: a little bag labeled "Allie Mae's Treasures" containing various things including a broken tooth. David brings the bag with him home to Colorado, where unexplained sounds, chills and moving objects begin to plague the family. David has nightmares of Allie Mae as the violence escalates, so he takes the bag back to Tennessee in the hopes …

Yesterday I readFull Dark, No Stars by Stephen King. Yes, i started and finished it yesterday, though it was a close thing. 20 more pages would have taken me after midnight and over into another day. I love how you can get completely pulled into King's work. At one point I know B was talking to me and i was sort of muttering back "uh huh", "mmm" and "yeah" because i just could not put this book down.

These stories all revolve around a "What would you do if..." question. What would you do if you were dying, too young, of cancer, and the devil offered to save you but curse your frenemy? what would you do if, after decades of marriage, you realize your spouse is probably a serial killer? What would you do if you were a famous murder mystery novelist and survived a brutal rape and attempted murder and knew who was responsible?

My favorites of the four novellas were the two with female protagonists, "Big Driver" and "A Good Ma…

I haven't done pictures in a while so here you go!
I love the farmer's market! I got potatoes, pickles, radishes, collard greens and ham to cook with them, yummy pecan squares, and some red tomatoes.

spent 50 cents at the library book sale last week! I always try to go on the last day as there really isn't much left and what is available is even cheaper than earlier in the week.

While i spent 30 at McKay's today, i got a bunch of stuff. as some of this is going to my secret santa person, and some to B, i'll just show the books, not the titles. i got 4 children's picture books, 4 paperbacks, a cd, and a hardback copy of The Wind in the Willows with lovely pictures.
my plants are all done. we don't have a roof to our balcony now, so B used his ingenious skills to run the tomato along the railing.
some more sad plants.
Anyone have an opinion on the colors? I've been black forever and decided to change some things. Should i go blue instead?

hope every…

I'm lounging about in my PJ's still, though it is after 3 pm. I have watched football, eaten a ham sandwich from leftovers and a delicious piece of carrot cake, and done some online shopping.
Reading is very good for you, from Ode Magazine. Reading alone can’t cure diseases, of course, but the researchers concluded that reading contributes to “cognitive reserve” (CR), the brain’s ability to protect itself and adapt to physical damage. CR has been “extensively studied in other neurological disorders—Alzheimer’s, stroke, other dementias, sleep apnea, traumatic brain injury,” says Margit Bleecker of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Neurology in Baltimore, Maryland, who co-authored the study. In all cases, “individuals with more CR are able to withstand injury to the brain.”
That is amazing! My parents should be well protected against those age-related mental things then. It's a long article but worth it.
Article on women in the Royal Society of London. Women co…

I now have a 25 minute commute each way. So I went to the library and picked up an audiobook. I actually have Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian as a book but i still hadn't gotten around to reading it.
Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin meet at a private concert and almost get into a fight. Jack is in a black mood due to being overlooked for a promotion to captain. When Jack returns to his rooms, he finds that the promotion papers have been waiting for him. He meets Stephen again the next day and the two become friends. When Jack realizes his new command has no surgeon he asks Stephen to come on the ship as his doctor, even though he is a physician. Apparently physicians are rated more highly than surgeons as many other characters refer to how amazing it is that such a small, unimportant ship has a physician aboard.
Since this is the first book in the series, our doctor knows nothing about sailing. He gets a couple of tours of the ship, with a midshipman pointing …

A very good graphic novel to read a few days after seeing Deathly Hallows. Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity by Mike Carey and Peter Gross is very good. So good that i wonder about walking into a comic shop again and picking up the current issues. Yes, perhaps i'll become a fan girl once again!
The gist is that Tom Taylor is the real life basis for a series of books his father, Wilson Taylor, wrote. As Wilson disappeared without finishing the 14th and final novel, fans are still crazy about Tom. Tom hates being called Tommy but makes a living doing public appearances and signing autographs. The one gift his father left him is a talent for remembering "literary geography", the places where books take place or in some cases were written. When a reporter suggests that Tom might not actually be Wilson's son, Tom's world goes a bit crazy.
I really enjoyed this one. a 7. I loved the intertextualness of it, similar to how the Sandman series works. Re…

For a nice, relatively spoiler-free, overview of detective mysteries of the first half of the 20th century, pick up PD James' Talking About Detective Fiction.
She starts with the creation of the general form, then talks about gothic novels and how Wilkie Collins created many of the genre standards. She devotes a whole chapter to the Sherlock Holmes stories, of which i've read everything, and GK Chesterton's Father Brown mysteries, of which i've read nothing. She discusses the many major female writers in the genre and how their detectives are products of the times the authors lived in. James talks about the racisms, sexism, and classism that run through the Golden Age, hard-boiled, and other detective novels. How all the various conventions are used, and subverted, makes for great reading.
If you like mysteries, you will end up with a longer TBR list for sure! I found her commentary very informative and will end up reading several of her suggested titles. A so…

just want to say i totally called exactly where they were going to cut the movie. I get points for that i think. :) i liked it though i wish it had started with Dumbledore's funeral. We should have gotten to see that i think. a 6!

a question i have an easy answer to!Who would you rather borrow from? Your library? or a Friend? (or don't you r friends trust you to return their books?) And, DO you return books you borrow? the library definitely. I don't really have friends who read, besides B, and we live together now. From the library i have no problem returning a book unread, or late, or hating a book. with one from a friend i have to return it in a timely manner and, if they've read it, have to wonder what i'll say if my reaction is a total opposite to their reaction. I have no problem returning books, to people or to the library, but i am lucky enough that the branch library i go to is about a mile from my apartment! I usually go to it about twice a week, dropping off or picking up or both.
Right now, from the library, i'm about finished with P.D. James' Talking about Detective Fiction and Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian on audio book in the car. Now that i have a 25 …

So the other day B and I dug through the book boxes trying to find if he owned Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton. We never found it but I saw he had Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell, which i have been waiting for from the library for a month or so! Of course I plucked it out of the box and asked if he'd read it, if it was good, if he minded if i read it. He had, he couldn't remember, and he didn't.
Faceless Killers is a Swedish murder mystery. I think I saw it on one of those "if you liked this, you might like these" lists of recommendations for books like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The setting is the only similarity though. The detective is a police officer and not as likable as either Blomqvist or Lisbeth Salander.
Kurt Wallander is a seasoned police detective. He has an estranged daughter and a wife who's recently divorced him. He is struggling with his personal life. When an elderly farmer and his wife are brutally murdered, Wall…

I finished a quick one, Libraries in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson. Casson traces libraries from the beginnings back in the Near East when "books" were written on clay tablets in cuneiform. As papyrus use spread after Alexander conquered Egypt books became scrolls but weren't exactly portable; you had to roll with your left hand as you unrolled with your right. But libraries, as places where scholars and scientists and philosophers could read and work, grew. Rome was where private and public libraries really took off. One emperor started putting libraries into the public baths, i hope in a room without the water! as Rome declined, Constantinople remained a place where books were still valued. Casson's coverage ends as the Middle Ages begins.
I guess this one is a 5. Not bad but not great, i could have read another hundred pages on the same topic and in fact have requested another book about books from my library, A Universal History of the Destruction of …