I’ve been thinking lately about my journey over the last year as a book blogger. I began this blog after seeing 5 Minutes for Books and, thus, being introduced into the plethora of book bloggers and their reviews.
I’ve always loved reading, but in the last few years I had gotten away from reading consistently simply because of the busyness of life. After the birth of my first child in November 2008, I had a lot of time to read. All those nursing sessions really do add up! I was enjoying reading again and finding a community of bloggers who love reading. Blogging about my reading experiences at Mountains of Books, I think really helped me to cope with life after a baby. It gave me something to do when I felt like I simply couldn’t for 20-30 minutes doing nothing while nursing. It allowed me to express my thoughts and ideas to a community and gave me something to look forward to on those new days of mothering when I wasn’t quite sure what I was feeling or how to handle life.
But as I’ve come to have a better grasp on mothering and my son’s grow (over a year old now!) my reading time has become less and less. My time is becoming more focused on maintaining our home, building relationships with new friends, as well as training and teaching my son. I predict that for 2010, no matter the number of books on my list for this year, I will be reading less.
And, I’m okay with that.
I don’t plan on book blogging as much this next year either, but when I do I plan on making a few changes:
Write reviews within a week or so from finishing a book, if I don’t do it by then I doubt it’ll get done at all.
Have an outline for reviews: synopsis, what I liked/didn’t, why you should read this
After looking at my booklist for 2010 and considering the goals I have for the next year, I’ve decided to scale back my list.I know more books will be added as the year goes on, but for now here’s my new list:
Fiction
Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Eight Cousins, Lousia May Alcott
The Making of a Marchioness, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, Katherine Howe
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
1984, George Orwell
A Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Washington Square, Henry James
Nonfiction
A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue or Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect & Find It’s Not Bad to Be Good, Wendy Shalit
The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, Joan Jacobs Brumberg
Unprotected, Miriam Grossman
Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Damages Girls, Carol Platt Liebau
Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton*
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson*
Biography/Memoir
George Mueller
Children/Youth
The Princess Bride, William Goldman
The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery*
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
Christian Nonfiction
The Feminist Mistake: The Radical Impact of Feminism on Church & Culture, Mary Kassian
The True Woman, Susan Hunt
Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists, Collin Hansen
God is the Gospel, John Piper*
The Mission of Motherhood, Sally Clarkson
A Sane Woman’s Guide to Raising a Large Family, Mary Osytn
I’ve had my booklist for next year building quite rapidly over the last few months. As cliche as it sounds, there really are so many books I want to read! It’s the joy and curse of reading.
There’s so much enjoyment in reading through discovery and experience, then extend that to an endless amount of topics and the potential of books to read is limitless!
My goal is to read a few books that have been sitting on my shelf awhile, return to some favorites, and focus on women’s issues. It’s quite extensive (and a bit daunting) and I’m pretty confident I won’t get to all of them. These are just some of the books that have caught my eye over the last year.
Here’s where my list stands as of now:
Fiction
The Scarlett Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Eight Cousins, Lousia May Alcott
The Making of a Marchioness, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Opposite of Love, Julie Buxbaum
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, Katherine Howe
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
1984, George Orwell
A Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Nonfiction
A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue, Wendy Shalit
Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect & Find It’s Not Bad to Be Good, Wendy Shalit
The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued, Ann Crittenden
What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman, Danielle Crittenden
The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, Joan Jacobs Brumberg
Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
The Purity Myth, Jessica Valenti
Unprotected, Miriam Grossman
Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Damages Girls, Carol Platt Liebau
The Witch Hunts: A History of Witch Persecutions in Europe & North America, Robert Thurston
Biography/Memoir
George Mueller
Children/Youth
The Princess Bride, William Goldman
Christian Nonfiction
The Feminist Mistake: The Radical Impact of Feminism on Church & Culture, Mary Kassian
This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence, John Piper
Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists, Collin Hansen
I feel like I haven’t posted on here in forever! Well, it’s been about a month, which I think is the longest I’ve gone without posting since I started this blog. At the end of October I was so excited that I only had 11 books (and as many weeks) to finish my 2009 book list.
No, my blogging absence isn’t because I’ve been ferociously reading. And, sadly, neither is it not due to the completion of NaNoWriMo (but congrats to my friend Charlotte who did do it!) I’ve just been busy trying to make (yes, make) all our Christmas presents, plan and execute a 1st birthday party for my little man, and traveling for Thanksgiving.
Throughout the month I felt like I didn’t get much, if any, reading done, but I did!
I finished…
Emma (Jane Austen) – Technically, I think I finished this at the end of October, but I feel like it was November since I watched a few Emma adaptations.
Arms & the Man (George Bernard Shaw) – Funny. Sometimes laugh out loud funny. It’s a play, so it was a quick read.
Sacred Chaos (Tricia Rhodes) – Good. Making the chaos sacred. Much needed.
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Don Whitney) – It’s done, because my class is done.
The Measure of a Lady (Deeanne Gist) – A fou-fou read. I needed something to get me through all the nonfiction. It was a less than 24-hour read…it had me sitting in the bathroom “brushing my teeth” after my husband went to bed.
Now I’m reading…
God is the Gospel (John Piper) – I started this on the drive to visit my family for Thanksgiving. I don’t think it should take too long. So far it’s simple, digestible, and good.
The Journals of Jim Elliot (edited by Elisabeth Elliot) – I thought this would be a pretty quick read given it’s simply journal entries, so far it hasn’t been. Do keep in mind I’ve picked it up all of twice.
The Little Prince (Antoine De Saint-Exupery) – Totally forgot I even had this on my list for November. I don’t know if I’ll read it or not this month. We’ll see.
November is National Novel Writing Month. Yes, I’m participating. Scary, but fun. I’m writing again…it’s been a long while and I feel so very rusty and awkward. I know the more I write the easier it’ll become.
Anyways, the goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words between November 1st – 30th. That’s 1667 words a day! Sometimes when I think of it in the daily breakdown it doesn’t seem too much, but throw in “real” life and a toddler and it gets interesting. This afternoon I followed him around the park with my notebook in tow. I’m trying to find a way to make it work. I’ve made excuses for too long for why this is something I can’t do, so no more excuses! It’s a new season.
After reading so much in the last year, I feel inadequate to write. I’m lacking in the confidence I once had. It feels cheesy and I want it to be anything, but cheesy. Who wants to read a formulaic, predictable novel?
Maybe I’ll share my writing journey one of these days. It goes a way back.
My goal isn’t to have a completed novel by November 30th, but to have written (about) 50,000 words. It’ll be an exercise in discipline for me and it will help me get to know the story I want to write. It’ll be a rough rough draft.
It’s late and I’m tired, but I wanted to post this before I forget. Looking at my read list, I’m kind of surprised at how much reading I got done! Was October really that long?
My first introduction to Tuck Everlasting came from the movie (starring Alexis Bledel as Winnie). I think it was actucally through the movie that I heard of the book. After reading the book, I’m surprised the movie didn’t take as many liberties with the story as I originally thought it might.
I think I would have enjoyed this story more if I hadn’t seen the movie, but in some ways the movie also heightened the novel since I had a visual of characters and landscape, in particular the creepy man in the yellow suit (played by Ben Kingsley), and the sound of the music box! (Even if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like to see their favorite classics ruined by a movie, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. The movie is very beautiful.)
In Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbit threads the dream of immortality into the life of Winnie Foster, a prim and proper Victorian girl being trained for her upper class role, as she meets the Tuck family. She comes across the youngest Tuck, Jesse, in her father’s woods bent over a tree drinking from a spring, but when she wants a drink Jesse tells her she can’t and a struggle ensues. Winnie ends up being kidnapped by the Tucks in order to preserve the secret of the spring, and their own, whoever drinks from it will live forever.
Babbit deals with a heavy topic. Living forever, or being forever young, seems like an ideal situation, but through the Tuck’s Winnie learns that there’s more to the allure than meets the eye. Life’s a cycle and death is supposed to be a part of it. There’s a finality needed in life that immortality doesn’t bring. The reality of endless life in this world, ultimately, fills empty for the Tuck’s. Even if they can live forever, travel to exotic places, and have adventures they can never settle down, start a family, put down roots–as Miles sadly experienced.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Tuck Everlasting and would recommend it. It’s very well written, childlike, and reminds me of a dream.
The Novel & the Movie
There are some differences between the novel and the movie, which are to be expected. The plot doesn’t change, but a few minor (or not so minor) details do. For one, Winnie is 10 going on 11 in the novel and between 15-17 in the film, which sets her up for a romance with Jesse (whose 17). At first, I was disappointed that the movie changed the age to add the romance aspect, however as I read on they didn’t add the romance but embellished it. In the book, Winnie is quite enamored with Jesse from the beginning,
Sitting relaxed with his back against the trunk was a boy, almost a man. And he seemed so glorious to Winnie that she lost her heart at once. (25)
Jesse even asks Winnie to drink from the spring when she’s 17,
…and then you could go away with me! We could get married, even. That’d be pretty good, wouldn’t it! We could have a grand old time, go all around the world, see everything.” (72)
In the film, Jesse and Winnie’s romance is elaborated and quite sensational–if you’re a hopeless romantic you’ll love it.
The only other difference I can think of is how Mae is rescued, but overall no changes to change the plot and theme of the novel. I enjoyed both the book and film. Who knows…maybe you will too!
I just finished Emma this morning (yes, I know…finally) and am feeling good. I also finished Twenties Girl and picked The Day the Falls Stood Still this week too.
Can I finish 11 books in 2 1/2 months? We’ll see. Here’s what’s left:
Fiction
Arms and the Man, George Bernard Shaw
Sandition, Jane Austen
Non-Fiction
Story, Robert McKee
Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson
Biography/Memoir
Becoming Jane, Jon Spencer
The Journals of Jim Elliot, edited by Elisabeth Elliot
Right now, I feel like after the mammoth I felt Emma was I can conquer (ie, read) anything! Just to be clear, Emma wasn’t bad–not at all–just so very, very long.
But looking at the list…that’s a lot of books. To finish by December 31st, I’d have to read a book a week, which might be doable if all life and holidays subsided, considering the length of some. Either way I’m still excited at the amount of reading I have done this year, which is more than I expected!
This week I’m going to crack into Tuck Everlasting and Sacred Chaos, both I think will be quick reads. We’ll see on it goes!
I just finished reading Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella this morning. It wasn’t my plan to read it. I went to the library Wednesday to pick up The Day the Falls Stood Stillthat I had on hold (which I’m really excited about) and did some book browsing. I found it on the new books shelf and figured why not. If I didn’t like it I could just put it down….and I almost did.
Here’s the synopsis:
Lara Lington has always had an overactive imagination, but suddenly that imagination seems to be in overdrive. Normal professional twenty-something young women don’t get visited by ghosts. Or do they?
When the spirit of Lara’s great-aunt Sadie–a feisty, demanding girl with firm ideas about fashion, love, and the right way to dance–mysteriously appears, she has one last request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie’s possession for more than seventy-five years, and Sadie cannot rest without it. Lara, on the other hand, has a number of ongoing distractions. Her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, her start-up company is floundering, and she’s just been dumped by the “perfect” man.
Sadie, however, could care less.
Lara and Sadie make a hilarious sparring duo, and at first it seems as though they have nothing in common. But as the mission to find Sadie’s necklace leads to intrigue and a new romance for Lara, these very different “twenties” girls learn some surprising truths from each other along the way. (from Random House)
For the first good bit I was wondering why I was reading it. It’s the same formulaic chic lit plot with the over-the-top embarrassing situations, money woes, and naive characters. I almost put it down. Twice.
But I’m glad I finished. I know this will sound corny, but in some ways it was a little more than the regular chic lit. Of course, there’s romance and embarrassing moment after embarrassing moment, but in the end it’s about family. Kind of. It made you, or at least me, wonder what you’re long-lost realtives were like in their youth. They weren’t always old. What were they like? Anyways…
It was an enjoyable, quick read. Longer than most chic lit books…pushing 500 pages. I think one thing I enjoyed was that the end was not about Lara’s life being “fixed” or a happily-ever-after ending, although those were definitely there. It was a nice departure from the normal chic lit, not too far. I’d say it’s a favorite…for chic lit, that is.
FYI - This is a long post…so you might want to go grab a drink or something.
I first heard about Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born by Tina Cassidy when my husband and I were talking our childbirth class (Bradley method) before Joey was born. I jotted the title down in the back of our workbook to remember for later. This has been one book I’ve really been looking forward to reading this year.
Did you know…
The U.S. has the 2nd worst infant mortality rate in the developed world. (See articles here and here.)
The U.S. is ranked 41st in the world for maternal mortality. (See articles here and here.)
The U.S. C-section rate hovers around 30%, double the World Health Organization recommendation. (See articles here and here.)
Coming away from it my feelings are a little mixed. While Cassidy had a lot of great information and a very thorough history of birth, I came away feeling that the book was part factual, part memoir, and mostly personal opinion. While I’m an adocvate of natural birthing, midwives, and reform in obstetrics in America, Cassidy’s writing comes across much of the time as a personal vendetta against doctors and obstetrics in general. As the book progressed, it was hard to tell what side of the fence Cassidy was on. It seemed in an attempt to be unbiased she jumped from the natural birth/midwife camp to the hospital/doctor camp.
A lot of crazy things have been done in the history of modern obstetrics from “twilight sleep” and strapping laboring women to beds to a mandatory shave of the pubic area and father free deliveries, things that modern medicine (of the time) deemed best. Now we know many of those techniques are not only obselete, but dangerous. Many descriptions aren’t for the faint of heart, more like gag worthy. Ever hear of a craniotomy in labor? You don’t want to know.
The author gives a brief history of the birth experiences from the women in her family. Crazy stories, similar to that of my husband’s grandmother and other women who went into labor and later couldn’t even remember delivering their own child. Cassidy’s first birthing experience was less than what she expected, describing the aftermath as tragic and horrifying. It’s her personal experience and I don’t doubt the trauma, but she isn’t shy on the melodrama either.
I am lucky enough to have come from a line of women who have given birth natural. My mother and both grandmothers has 13 deliveries between the three of them all natural. I’m also glad that I meet a few women over the years who were unafraid to birth naturally and share their experiences. Without these women, I would have probably never thought there was another option.
I was eager to read this book for the facts and while there’s a bibliography over 15 pages long there are no in text references, which makes me doubt her some of evidence and wonder just how much embellished some details may have been. I was surprised that there wasn’t so much as a
So-and-So in his book “Whatever the Title Is,” said
She just breezed by any such references and that really bothered me. There is a section of endnotes for each chapter that matches the beginning of sentences with their corresponding reference like so,
Before he closed the wound: Bulletin of the History of Medicine 50 (1976): 243.
And while that’s better than nothing it left me wondering what would have been so hard about inserting a number in text with a reference to an endnote at the end of the chapter? The way it was done felt irresponsible and as if there might be something to hide.
In the end, I’m glad I read the book and wish that there was some way more people could know about the history of obstetrics and that natural birthing and midwives are not as dangerous as doctors and culture has painted them. Actually, statistics around the world show that, in general, birthing outcomes are better with midwives and with natural techniques. Much of the labor and delivery methods in many hospitals today is for the convenience of the medical staff, not the laboring mother. Come on, who thought it was a good idea to lay down and push? In that position you actually have to push the baby up and out!
As much as many women praise the epidural, who knows what it’s long term side effects are? Doctors once thought it was safe to give a pregnant woman an x-ray! Some studies are beginning to link pitocin and epidurals with the raise in Autism. I think it’s crazy that women will go 9 months through pregnancy watching what they eat, being careful they don’t take medications that will harm the baby, etc and then get an epidural thinking it’s safe. Whatever you get, the baby gets…even in labor. My goal is not to offend anyone here and I’m sorry if I do, but to me the logic just doesn’t line up.
And as another quick aside, when labor is not progressing instead of having women do something that may promote labor, oftentimes they’re given pitocin, the synthetic form of oxytocin, which brings about contractions often more intense than they would have naturally progessed and the next shot is an epidural to handle the pain, then in most cases slows labor which leads to a C-section.
I think what America needs in its obstetrics is a better education system. Women are basically told an epidural or C-section is the way to go. There is little to no education on techniques to manage labor and even fewer freedoms once laboring at a hospital. My word to you: educate yourself. Read books on labor and delivery, the natural way and how hospitals approach birth. (I hate to clump all hospitals together. I know some are more natural birth friendly than others.) Ask a lot of questions. Do your own research. Don’t just trust your medical professional, ask why.Understand that more care doesn’t mean better care. Decide for yourself what is best for you and your baby.
In the end, balance what is best for the mother and infant. For me and my family, we’ve decided that birth free from drugs and with as little intervention as possible is best for us. I researched midwives and birthing centers in the area we lived and found one that I absolutely loved with a great history and recommendations. I wouldn’t have traded my experience at Best Start with my midwives for the world. For the record, I’m not against a C-section if it is necessary, however many women today are having C-sections for convenience rather than necessity which can be very dangerous.
If this topic interests you, then I’d recommend finding a copy of The Business of Being Born and watching it.
that I had on hold (which I’m really excited about) and did some book browsing. I found it on the new books shelf and figured why not. If I didn’t like it I could just put it down….and I almost did.
