First, a confession: I have read the Twilight series (all 2400+ pages of it) more times than I care to admit. I'm into double digits. I know, I know: why keep rereading the same books when there are so many unread books in your TBR pile? Well, for one thing, the first time I read the books, I read them about 5-6 times through, and I lost 28 pounds ( Read more... )

As many of you already know, I have a brother in the U.S. Air Force. He's been in for over 20 years - started out as an enlisted man, went to college while in the USAF, got a degree, went to Officer's Training School, and worked his way up to Major. Back when he was a mere Captain, and in charge of the Air Force's Combat Photography Unit, he ( Read more... )

It being Sunday, I'd usually do a quoteskimming post, but I am simply not in the mood. Instead, I am in bed, having declared today a sick day. I have a rather impressive cold, and I've decided to take the day off from running hither and yon with children and whatnot. I am listening to Sting's If On A Winter's Night . . . , drinking tea, and doing ( Read more... )

As most of you already know, I no longer do memes. That way, I don't have to worry about tagging people, etc. But I have taken the time to look at the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 novels, and to put the ones I've read in italics. The ones in bold? Yeah - they've all been banned or challenged at one point or another, according to the ALA. 42 ( Read more... )

These are the books on the two TBR shelves near my bed. They don't include other TBR books that have walked into M's room (quite a lot of them do), or any of the ones elsewhere in the house (at least several). Plus, I've got a bunch of other books that I really want to get my hands on.

Quicksand: HIV/AIDS in Our Lives by Anonymous (an ARC)
Jane ( Read more... )

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1. I made the final tweaks to the poem I wrote for Judy Fisk's Peace Project and sent it off. I'll post it here next week, I think.

2. Although the Northanger Abbey poem is only at the halfway mark, I did complete a non-Jane poem this week in response to a writing exercise that angeladegroot and I set for ourselves (with thanks to the Merry Sisters of Fate for ( Read more... )

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to build up a collection of something without being fully aware how big it's getting? In my grandmother's case, it was owls. Someone gave her something owl-shaped once, and she said she liked it, so everyone gave her owls all the time: jewelry, salt & pepper shakers, dish towels, bric-a-brac. You name it, she ( Read more... )

"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!" Pride and Prejudice, Vol. I, ch. 11.

Today, I not only read and then bought (yes, in that order) Wondrous Strange, which I reviewed earlier, but I also came home to wonderful mail, in which I found my prize package from the 2009 ( Read more... )

Thing 1: My continued research of winter vegetables in conjunction with the new gnomes ms caused me to make rutabaga yesterday. I cooked it and mashed it with butter, nutmeg, salt & pepper. And it was very good. S agrees with me that it tastes vaguely like cauliflower. M refused to try it. Her explanation, provided in a cutting tone, "Look, I ( Read more... )