Happy Mother's Day!

To all the lovely mothers, grandmothers, etc. out there, happy mother's day! I hope you are getting spoiled by your loved ones.

Here's my cute mom (you know, the one who looks like she could be my older sister):

I won't wax overly gushy on you but I am definitely lucky to have her as my mom. :)

Because this is a book blog, and because it is Mother's Day, I am looking for good books about motherhood. I'm not talking how-to or child-raising books -- I just want to know what some of your favorite books about either being a mother or the bond between mother and child. Any suggestions? 

Sunday Salon: Life Updates!

It has been quite a while since I've updated you all on the goings on of my life, so I thought I'd take a couple of minutes and fill you all in. It has been a great couple of months for my husband and I with a lot of exciting news.

First of all, my husband graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology on Friday. After four years of hard work, he is free... for a summer. This fall we will be moving to Los Angeles where my husband will be attending UCLA for dental school. Any bloggers from southern California out there? One thing I am really going to miss is the great community of Utah book bloggers and authors, but I am hopeful that California has a strong community as well.

I also turned 24 yesterday. To celebrate, my husband took me to the Ingrid Michaelson concert on Thursday. Before the concert, he took me to Settebello, an amazing Neapolitan pizzeria. We also went to a Belgian fry and waffle shop called Bruges to get a Liege waffle for dessert (topped with Belgian chocolate and creme fraiche... deliciousness). My husband used to live in Italy and I spent a little time in Bruges, so we are both pretty nostalgic about those restaurants. The concert was fantastic, of course -- I have seen Ingrid Michaelson once before and she is without a doubt my favorite musician. It was fun to see my husband get into her music -- he has been listening to it ever since! I was good and spoiled for my birthday -- I got some clothes, nail polish, cute jewelry, a purse (in Giants colors -- I shall be bringing that to every game and putting myself in danger of Dodgers fans' wrath) and DISHES! I am obsessed with dinnerware and now have more than I can really fit in my tiny apartment, but I love getting new dishes. I got six cute latte bowls from Anthropologie, which I have been coveting for months, as well as some Fiestaware baking dishes and a little Fiestaware platter. I'm sure you all care about my serveware, but it makes me pretty excited. No books, but I did get some birthday money from my sister-in-law that I intend to use for some books. :)

We've also had family in town for my husband's graduation. I have a new little niece that was born a few weeks ago, and another older niece also came and stayed with us for several days. We don't get to see most of my husband's side of the family very often (although that will all change when we move to California, hopefully) so it is always a treat to hang out with them.

I also found out this week where I will be for my last semester of nursing school. (One more... I can't wait to be finished!) For the last semester of nursing school, everyone is assigned to a location and a preceptor and they basically work as a nurse with a lot of supervision. It can be competitive to get the spots you want, especially if you want to specialize, but I was lucky and was placed on the cancer and transplant unit at the children's hospital nearby. That is my dream job, so having the experience in my last semester will hopefully be helpful in future interviews. I still can't believe that after six years of college I might actually be done and get a real job. (If you're curious, six years of college is what happens when you a) change your major seven times and b) get two bachelor's degrees because you still couldn't make up your mind. I learned a lot, but I still would recommend figuring it out a little sooner than I did).

Well, that was longer than I was expecting it to be. What have all of you been up to lately? Are you reading anything excited? I am midway through Pandemonium -- not the best choice for finals week, although my finals are fortunately pretty bearable this semester. It is intense, and I'm excited to write the review (although you won't be seeing it for at least a month because I am so behind in my reviews right now)! I hope you are all having a great Sunday!

Sunday Salon: Life (or the lack thereof)

This week was not the best blogging week. I know I occasionally update on my personal life in snippets, but because I have a little downtime today (and because my personal blog is very neglected) I thought I would just update on this blog a few things about why I've been MIA lately.

I think I've mentioned before that this semester has been a lot crazier than the last two semesters of nursing school, and I've been having a really hard time keeping my head above water, so to speak. Instead of having three five credit classes, I have five three-credit classes -- but the workload in each three-credit class is heavier than it was in the five-credit classes of last semester. I've also had my first taste of a twelve-hour shift this semester. My clinicals have been at a children's hospital on the cancer floor. It has been exhausting, but also absolutely rewarding. Because (contrary to what the media portrays) nursing jobs are very difficult to get right now, I may have to settle for something different at first, but I really, really want to work with kids who have cancer. I loved that floor and hope I have the opportunity to work someplace like it in the future. This week I am going to switch to an adult cancer hospital for the rest of the semester, and I am hoping that works out pretty well also. From what I've heard, it is a really great place to learn (although of course, if you are a patient, you don't want to be sick enough to have to stay there).

Things have also been pretty busy with church lately. In the church I am a part of everyone has responsibilities called "callings" that rotate around. Depending on the congregation and the area you live in, you may have a calling for a few months to a few years. Right now, I am the secretary for the women's organization (Relief Society) which is busier than other callings I have had (often I end up playing the piano). It is rewarding but my Sundays have been busier doing church responsibilities.

Personal life has been busy too, with lots of big decisions being made in the last few months. My husband decided to join the Army to pay for his dental school. He is now sworn in and is officially a second lieutenant, although he doesn't have any responsibilities right now except to finish dental school and do a good job so they can make use of him afterward. :) We also decided where to go for dental school -- UCLA. It wasn't a dental school that we were really considering at first, but once my husband interviewed there he was really impressed with the program and we were very excited to be accepted. We move this summer (he graduates with his first degree in April and I graduate in August) and then it will be head first into a completely different life! It is exciting but very intimidating, especially as I peruse the job ads for nurses in LA. I have found one that I particularly would love to get and a few back-up plans as well, so hopefully at least one of those works out.

This weekend has been busy as well, so I am glad it is a holiday. My little sister got engaged a few weeks ago, and our mom and her future mother-in-law came to visit this weekend and to help her figure out some details of her wedding. I tagged along. :) This will be the first and probably only chance I have to be a bridesmaid, and I am excited. Fortunately my sister has great taste and the dress I'll be wearing is pretty rather than some of the bridesmaid monstrosities out there.

Aww... they're cute. 

Other than that, I have been trying to steal some time to read (I haven't in two days, which is ridiculous for me) and sleep. Hopefully this blog will be a little more active this week, because I miss reading and blogging as my relaxation time. Now it's time for me to go frost some homemade oreos... nothing like treats to induce relaxation.

Sunday Salon: Indie Lit Awards and updates

So, guess what? The Indie Lit Awards short lists are up! You probably already know this if you are interested in the Indie Lit Awards, but just in case you missed them, you can find the complete short lists here. 

I am a voting member in the Nonfiction division, so I get to read the five books on the shortlist and vote for the finalist and winner at the beginning of March. I won't be reviewing the books until after the winners are announced, but here are the ones I'll be reading, so you can look forward to a marathon of nonfiction reviews once the winners are announced:

* In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
* Lost in Shangri-la by Mitchell Zuckoff
* Berlin 1961 by Frederick Kempe
* Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku
* The Social Animal by David Brooks

Pretty good list, right? I'm looking forward to all of these and am hoping to dive into The Social Animal this week. For some reason, I am finding myself reading quite a bit of other nonfiction as well. I hardly read any last year -- I was really into YA and discovering how great that genre is. Now I've cooled off a little on YA -- I still read about one a week, but it isn't all I want to read anymore. The way we can change what we read and be interested in so many things is one of my favorite things about reading.

I also thought I'd give you guys a mini-update. After being home from our first vacation (LA/Mexico/Modesto/Visalia/San Francisco) for a week, we took another little trip to LA this weekend for my husband's interview at the UCLA dental school. He had a great interview there and will find out in a week or two if he has been accepted. While he has enjoyed the other dental schools he has visited and has already been accepted to one in Phoenix, we are thinking this school in LA might end up being the right one for us! There is also a really great job that I want to apply for there -- a nurse residency at a pediatric hospital not too far away from UCLA. We've already found some apartments we like that are much cheaper than those in San Francisco and plus, the school is right next to the Los Angeles Temple. While we still don't really know what we are doing, I love that things are finally coming together. My husband also found out that he is being offered the Army Health Sciences Scholarship to pay for dental school, so after dental school we should have some traveling and adventures waiting for us after school is finished as well.

While my husband was off interviewing, I took a class with my grandma and aunt and made this purse:

Okay, that's almost true. This is the instructor's purse -- mine is tan. But I haven't taken a picture of mine, and mine looks just like this other than the color. It was really fun, and I have never made anything like that before, so I was excited that it turned out well.

This week, I am hoping to get caught up in school work (how is it possible to be behind already, right?) , get into my Indie Lit Awards reading, watch tonight's episode of Downton Abbey, and start working out again. Should be busy, but good. Hope you all have a great week as well!

Sunday Salon: They just keep coming...

You guys. I know I have a problem -- I keep signing up for more and more challenges, after complaining about them so much this year. But I am a very goal-motivated person, and my obsessive, type-A brain doesn't allow me to just read at random. And I think I am going to do better next year because I have been signing up for smaller numbers.

Before I barrage you with some more challenges, I thought I'd just update a little on what's going on in my life. This week is finals week for my husband and I, so it is a little bit hectic around here. However, it will all be worth it in the end because on Friday we are leaving our chilly little corner of Utah for a couple of days in Los Angeles with my grandma, and then on Sunday we are leaving on a six-day cruise to Mexico with my immediate family and husband. We'll get back on Christmas Eve and fly to northern California to spend a few weeks with my husband's family. I already know there will be at least two San Francisco trips, and I can't wait! I might be a little MIA during those weeks, not that anyone will really care, because I'm sure everyone else will be MIA as well. But in case you are wondering, that is what's up. I'm going to try and schedule some posts, but depending on how this week goes, they may or may not happen.

Anyway, there are three more challenges that I am joining this week. I won't say it's the last of them, because who really knows.

The European Reading Challenge 2012, hosted by Rose City Reader, runs from January 1, 2012 to January 31, 2013. The idea is to read books either set in Europe or by a European author. The hitch is that each book that counts must be from a different country.

I am signing up for the Three Star Business Traveler level. I already have several review books set in France, and I am sure that I'll read something set in England as I plan on reading both Shakespeare and Dickens this year. I signed for one level up so it can be a bit of a challenge for me to find another country.

I will be participating in S. Krishna's Books' South Asian Challenge again this year (and I just managed to finish it this year, hooray!) This year I read 12 books, but next year I am just planning on reading 5 books. I haven't chosen them all yet, but I know I am hoping to read:

*A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
* Toads and Diamonds by someone I currently can't remember
* Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (a reread)

Finally, I will be participating in the Award Winning Reads Challenge hosted by Basically Amazing Books and The Reading Housewives. I looked on my TBR and found thirteen books I wanted to read... so I have decided to make the goal of seven. I don't think I could get through all of them, but I want to read them all eventually, so I am adding them all to the list and I will read them as I am in the mood. Potential reads:

* How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
* Black Juice by Margo Lanagan
* Speak by Laurie Halse Andersen
* The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
* The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
* The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
* Bridge to Terabithia by Katerine Paterson
* Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
* Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
* The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
* An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
* Looking for Alaska by John Green
* The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Okay, that's all for now. Unfortunately, you can probably expect many more challenges forthcoming. :) We will see.

The Sunday Salon: Events coming up

Hello readers! How has your week been? For some reason I have been absolutely exhausted and not especially effective, which is always disappointing but a fact of life I suppose as the year winds down. I got started with my NaNoWriMo project. Unfortunately, I am already extremely behind. However, this week looks as if it might be slightly less stressful, so hopefully I can play catch up a little bit and stay in the running.

I've been blogging since September of 2010, and while I have learned quite a bit about blogging since my baby blogger days, I am still trying to figure out certain aspects of book blogging. I think the biggest struggle for me is structuring my reading vs. going with whatever I want. Yesterday I went to the library with every intention of only picking up the book that had come in for me on hold (Lola and the Boy Next Door! !!!), but instead I came home with four books, and the other three certainly were not on my TBR or any challenge lists for this year. I've come to terms with the fact that I am not going to finish all the challenges I signed up for this year; however, there are a few that I am still hoping to complete. In addition, I add books to my TBR every day -- It is 227 books long on Goodreads, and there are also several books on my shelves that aren't "officially" added to my TBR, but which I am hoping to read as well. Earlier this year I declared that I wouldn't care about challenges, and that I didn't want to add stress to my reading. However, I didn't delete any of my challenges, and as the new challenges for 2012 are popping up, I am urged to join so many of them! I am even planning on hosting a challenge next year (more information about that next Sunday).

I guess my question to all of you (one that is asked frequently in the book blogging world, but one I nevertheless still feel as if I have no satisfying answer to) is, do you prefer to set goals and have lists about your reading, or not? I think the answer for me is that I love making those lists and goals -- I don't think I can help it, with the way my mind is set up. I think the thing I need to get over is forgiving myself for not completing those lists. It is fun to set goals for reading, but they should be flexible. This isn't earning a PhD. This isn't really going to affect anyone but myself, so if it isn't working for me, if it is making me stressed, it needs to be released.

This post is going on much longer than I intended. I actually planned on listing some of the events coming up in the next few weeks that I am excited to join. So, after all of that metaphysical pondering about the nature of such things, here are some events that I am excited about and that you may want to participate in as well (if, of course, you've resolved the extremely important matter of deciding whether or not participating in such things is wise for you).

First of all, I just wanted to remind everyone that the Indie Lit Awards are still accepting nominations for the best books published in 2011. Any reader can nominate this year (unless you were involved with the publication in the book. You know, ulterior motives), and if you are reading this blog I can only assume that you are in fact a reader, so get over there and nominate. Pleaseandthankyou.

Secondly, Tea with Transcendentalists is coming up. Reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, "Self Reliance," was a pivotal moment in my education and I am excited (and a bit intimidated) to read more of his essays. Please join us in learning more about Emerson and his colleagues from November 15-December 15.

Thirdly, Yvann is hosting an event called Advent with Austen. I had never thought of this before, but Jane Austen really does seem like a cozy, Christmas-y friend for Advent. I am hoping to reread Persuasion and possibly Sense and Sensiblity as well. Part of me feels silly for doing so much rereading when there are so many other books to read out there, clamoring for my attention on the TBR list, but honestly, if we don't have time to revisit the books we love, what is the point of adding more to the list?

Finally, Sarah is hosting a second incarnation of the Back to the Classics Challenge. This is one of the challenges I am kinda stressed about finishing this year... but I love it. I want to do it again. And I really want to finish it this time, so I can feel justified in pushing myself to do it again next year. The categories this year are:

1. 19th century classic
2. 20th century classic
3. Reread a classic of your choice (Oh joy. I can do this one!)
4. Classic play
5. Classic murder/horror/crime novel
6. Classic romance
7. A classic that has been translated from another language into your language
8. A classic award-winner
9. A classic set in a country you will probably never visit.

I don't have too many ideas at this point, but I will figure it out as I go.

And while we're going over this, I'll probably participate in the Chunkster challenge again and the one I am hosting. I should probably keep it to that, but I doubt if I will be able to. There are two other challenges as well that look lovely to me -- a Shakespeare reading challenge and a medieval literature challenge -- but I am trying to suck it up, put them on my TBR and release the pressure.

Are you still here? You are amazing for putting up with my ramblings for that long. Go enjoy your Sunday!

PS: Daylight Savings. Of course you put up with me that long. You have an entire extra hour of life today.

Sunday Salon: The Silmarillion plus ramblings

So, my intention was to post on The Silmarillion this evening, as it is close to the end of the month. I want to say a few things, but I have been watching the following video a lot this evening and I wanted to share it with everyone. The speaker, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, is one of my personal heroes, someone who is very inspiring to me.



I have been thinking lately about how I spend my time. For the last five years or so, I have spent unholy amounts of time studying and trying to get perfect grades. In some ways this has been rewarding. I was accepted into my program after I graduated from my first degree. I am hoping my academic achievements will help me get my feet into a real job once I graduate. However, I've lately been thinking there is also much more to life than this, and it has made me want to make some changes in two different ways. The first isn't really related to this video -- I just want to spend more time helping other people instead of focusing on my own life. The second change is directly related to the video -- I have felt this strong, intense need to be creative lately. When I was in middle school and high school, I was at the piano bench for hours a day. I also spent quite a bit of time writing, even though I never finished or published anything (except for on those poetry.com type websites that try to get you to buy a big book with your poems published in them). When I switched to a highly academic major, I lost some of that. I'm not saying that neuroscience wasn't fulfilling -- I loved what I learned. I remember sitting in the library at midnight absolutely thrilled with the elegance of the biochemistry of learning, emotion, thought processes, movements. (I also remember many other nights sitting in the library at midnight wishing for sedation, of course). But for me, it wasn't a field that allowed me to be creative. I know others who have been able to do research and put together amazing studies and projects in this field, but my mind doesn't seem to run that way.

Anyway, the point of all this is that I am really looking forward to NaNoWriMo and the challenge to myself to bring this story that I've spent so much time thinking about into words. At the same time, I really want to still have the energy to give to the people around me. I feel like lately I get wrapped up in my personal projects and the things that I want to do and I forget that there are people I love that I want to take care of as well. So, if NaNoWriMo throws my life too off balance and I am not serving and loving people the way I should be, I am going to take a step back. All the same, I am excited for the opportunity it gives me to stretch my creativity more than I have tried to stretch it for a long time.

This post is getting long and full of feelings, but I want to wrap it up by tying this whole creativity idea into The Silmarillion (best of both worlds -- I do the post I planned and I get to torment you with all of my FEELINGS!). The beginning of The Silmarillion has a beautiful creation scene where several godlike beings known as the Valar break out in song, and their music encompasses everything in the world -- every beautiful thing, every emotion, every story. I love that imagery. One thing I am noticing in this reread is the beauty of the mythology that Tolkien has created.

Sunday Salon: NaNoWriMo

No, not those Canadian bars.

Last year, a few months into starting this blog, I heard of National Novel Writing Month -- the attempt to, in just thirty days, write a 50,000 word novel.

I used to write quite a bit. I had a little green notebook with a sparkly cover and I wrote poems about my Barbies and my stuffed animals in it. When I got a little older, I wrote poems about the boys I had crushes on. I started several different stories, although I never finished any of them unless they were assigned for class. In college, I won a writing award -- but it was for a research paper. My writing diminished and diminished, until I wasn't even really writing in a journal anymore. I decided I was a reader, not a writer. I was content to enjoy other people's stories, not my own.

But as I started blogging, making a point to do a little bit of writing every day, I started remembering the thrill of putting words and phrases together. I still considered myself not talented enough to actually write a story, but one day I found myself surreptitiously buying one of the black marbled composition books that I used to use in my high school creative writing class and scribbling in it every so often. A few months later, an idea for a story started percolating in my head.

I've tried and tried to write the scenes from this story, and I've gotten a few down. I've even bought a few books and done a little research. But I've never gotten very far, for a few reasons. First of all, I feel like all my research has to be done, but I am not even completely sure where the story is taking me. Secondly, I keep thinking to myself, "But I'm not very good! Why spend all that time on something that will probably never be published, will probably not come to anything?"

But six months later, I'm still thinking about that story. And so I've decided to make the jump and try to do this NaNoWriMo thing. I don't know if the story will turn into anything that anyone else will want to read. I don't know if it is even remotely plausible for me to try. But I'm realizing that at this point I don't have anything to lose. I don't have to show it to anybody -- I don't even have to finish if I end up feeling like it's a waste of my time. I need to mentally remove the guilt element and just try it. I'm used to only attempting things that I know I will be good at. I don't like trying things that I could fail at. I like security.

But hey, I can encrypt documents on my computer with a password, and at any rate, if I fail, I think I'll be in excellent company. So... NaNo on.

Sunday Salon: Ramblings

I just feel like having a good old-fashioned heart-to-heart ramble with you today, bloglings. I've been out of town for the past week and before I settle back into my routine of studystudystudycleansleepstudy(read), I thought I'd give you a little update on the old life. So pretend to care or don't, but this is what's been up lately:

This is where I was - San Pedro, CA

* I went to California to spend time with my Nana (my mom came for a while, too!)
* I shopped approximately 18 hours
* I ate two Pinkberrys
* I was introduced to Persian, Korean, and Cuban food
* I ATE BANANAS (okay, they were actually plantains. But if you know me, this is a big deal because I hate bananas).
* I saw beautiful art and realized I don't actually hate 14th century art. There is some good stuff out there, and Norton Simon found most of it.
* I had high tea at the Scarlet Tea Room. Which consisted of five courses of pure delightful heaven. Are you curious what they are? Of course you are, so I'll tell you. The first was strawberry sorbet. The second, strawberry and cinnamon scones with fresh cream, lemon curd, and strawberry preserves. The third were tea sandwiches, and because we are so intelligent, we got all different ones and cut them in half. I won't bore you with the full list (something I do tend to do, since my journal from France consists almost entirely of descriptions of the food), but I'll tell you that my favorites were salmon and chives, chicken almond curry, and pear with gorgonzola. Then we had tiny cakes and petit fours and finally, berries romanoff. The teas we had were blueberry and chocolate.
* Trips to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf: 3, resulting in a discovery of a new favorite, Chai Rooibos. I had never had chai before because I don't drink caffeine, so I was thrilled to find that they had a chai made with my favorite tea, rooibos.
* Pumpkin spice (fake, because they were actually just steamers) lattes consumed: 2

The Anthropologie knockoff scarf.
It was a little different than this one.

* Scarves made: 3.5 I knitted two and a half cute ruffly scarves and then my Nana helped me make an Anthropologie knock off ruffly scarf that I found on Pinterest. Oh Pinterest, you might make a crafty person of me yet.
* Responsibilities attended to: absolutely zero.

So I feel very refreshed and (almost) ready to start being responsible again next week. At least I have a bit of energy to propel me through the rest of this semester, and then I will be halfway finished with my second degree and only eight months away from employability.

In other news, the Husband has two interviews for dental school coming up, giving us two potential indications for where we could be spending the next four years of our lives. Interview number one, on Halloween, is in Arizona. Not so sure how I feel about living in the heat, but it is in the city where I was born, and I have always wanted to go back, because I feel like it is silly that I've never visited the city I was born in. The other is here in Utah, which isn't my ideal location of choice - I've been here for a while now and I would like to move. However, there are some benefits, namely the Provo Library, the fact that I would still get to experience fall, and the AWESOME bloggers that are here. And family and stuff. :) So, yes.

In blogging news, the Classics Circuit starts tomorrow, so be sure to check out all the awesome stops around the blogosphere if you'd like to learn about some creepy reads. I'll be posting about Frankenstein on Tuesday. Also, the Readathon is on Saturday and I am participating! I won't be able to do it the whole time, partly because I have book club (which kind of counts, amiright?) and also because I don't want to ignore the Husband for a full 24 hours (and he wouldn't tolerate it well if I did). So we'll see what actually gets done. I'd love to get through at least two books and read for eight hours or more. Hopefully I can get everything done a little early this week in order to have the time for it.

Well, hope you are having a great Sunday, blog-people. Back to regular programming tomorrow.

The Sunday Salon: Random assorted updates!

Bloggy friends! Sunday always seems to be my day for dealing with the business aspects of the blog, and today I am going to inundate you with various challenges and events in which I shall be participating. If you are bored by this sort of thing, feel free to sneak out the back exit. No one will be mad at you for skipping out on this meeting. However, if you like participating in challenges and bookish events, you might find some gems for yourself, and I'd love to have you stick around.

First up - Dewey's 24 Hour Read-A-Thon. I've heard of this event multiple times in the year or so that I've been blogging, but never participated, mainly because I thought to myself, "What kind of person has time in their lives to dedicate 24 hours straight to reading? And who would even want to?" Honestly, not me. I'm a pretty busy girl. However, I do think I could give 12. And I'd like to try it. I tend to read in sporadic spurts during the day, and I think it will be nice to cozy up and just read for a few hours. That may not be the traditional way to participate, but I think it will be a great experience for me if that is how I do it. 

Nextly, Advent with Austen, hosted jointly by a few blogs but brought to my attention by the lovely Reading With Tea. Basically, read Jane Austen books during advent (from November 27-December 24). You can read books by the delightful lady, books about her, watch movies, etc. etc. Seems like a cozy way to pass some winter evenings. My participation will be minimal - I am just planning on rereading Persuasion. If you'd like to be involved, head over. 

I'm also joining a little challenge starting in January (I don't think the challenge itself starts in January, but that is when my participation will begin) called the Read Your Own Library Challenge. Basically, you read at least one book you own every month for six months. Which shouldn't be that hard. It's just that the books at the library are so shiny...

And finally, just a friendly PSA to go vote for your favorite books of the year on the Indie Lit Awards website. As a voting member on the nonfiction panel, I would dearly love to have some fantastic books to read. Think of it this way: it's your way of making me read a book you liked. But don't only nominate for us nonfiction lovers. There are seven categories (GLBTQ, Biography/memoir, fiction, mystery, speculative fiction, poetry, and of course, nonfiction) and this year, you don't have to be a blogger to vote. You just can't be a publisher or author. So go. Now. 

Also, stay tuned for an awesome challenge that I will be hosting next year. I don't want to flesh out all the details yet, because it is only October and the challenge won't be starting until January (I don't want everyone to forget about it before it even begins). But just be aware that the goal of the challenge is to build a bridge between YA literature and adult literature. 

Are you still here? Thanks for sticking around for all of that. I'm done with all of my pontificating for today, unless you want to hear about how I pulled out chest tubes and started IVs all week. Hey, where did everyone go?

Sunday Salon: Acronyms

Hello bloggies... I hope you are enjoying your  labor day weekend. I am mostly studying, not getting nearly enough reading done, but enjoying the extra time to sleep in and by with the Husband.

This post shall be acronym-laden today because I have several important and exciting announcements. First of all, ILA (aka Indie Lit Awards) nominations are open. This means that you need to go over to their website and nominate your favorite releases of 2011. You may nominate up to five books in each category. I especially must put a plug in for the non-fiction section, because I am a voting member and will read the top five selections in that category. So help me out and make sure that I have some great options. :) Nominations are open through December, and as of this year any reader may vote who is not in the publishing industry. Ready, set, go!


Secondly, I have become involved with the FYA (aka Forever Young Adult) Book Club. Each month clubs around the world read a YA book and then meets to discuss. The Provo chapter held its first meeting last week to discuss Libba Bray's Beauty Queens. It was a blast, but there were only three of us and we would love to expand and share the love. So if you are from Provo or nearby, we are meeting on September 24th to discuss Lish McBride's Hold Me Closer, Necromancer. If you want details on location, please email me and join up.

Finally, I have decided to join the R.I.P. (R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril - last acronym of the day) Challenge. I know that I have bemoaned the amount of challenges I have joined this year, and I know that I won't be finishing all of them. However, this is one that I would be completing unofficially anyway, so I couldn't resist joining the fun.
I plan on completing Peril the First - reading four books that fit in the broad categories of mystery, suspense, horror, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, and supernatural. I have a long list of things I'd like to get through, and while I probably won't get to all of them, I can't wait. I'm also going to participate in Peril of the Short Story for Short Story Spotlight, so if you have any suggestions of spooky short stories, please let me know! My ideas for the books are:
* Nevermore by Kelly Creagh
* The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
* The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
* Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
* The Diary of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Hope your Sunday is delightful!

Sunday Salon: Reading Rules

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This week, I've decided to try some more "structured" reading. Usually I just go down my TBR or my bookshelves and select whatever catches my fancy. I try to keep some variety in my reading choices, not just reading the same types of books all the time, but I don't structure it. Because I have a lot of review copies and challenge books that I'd like to get through in the next few months, I've decided upon a rotation. I will read in 3-book "clusters" - one YA book, one adult-level book on my TBR or bookshelf, and one review copy. Until I get through all my review copies (if that ever actually happens).

What about you? Do you structure your reading, or go for a more spontaneous approach?

Sunday Salon: Cancer and Picture Books

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis know that I was away from the internet this week because I was a camp counselor at Camp Kesem, a camp for children with a parent who has or has had cancer. The purpose of the camp is to give children a break from the stresses of having serious illness in the family. Most of our time was spent in making crafts, playing games, swimming, and other similar summer camp adventures. However, in addition to a few special activities, we had a nightly "cabin chat" with our campers in which we could discuss anything from our favorite activities of the day to more serious topics.

I worked with 6-8 year olds, meaning that our discussions were often about how awesome swimming was, our favorite jokes, or occasionally silly questions posed by the campers to the counselors (examples: what was our favorite makeup; what was our favorite stuffed animal). However, one night our group leader, Daisy (we use only our camp names at camp - if you say someone's real name you have to go kiss a tree) pulled out this book, When Mama Wore a Hat by Eleanor Schick, and asked the girls if they would like to read it. We'd read another picture book about cancer the night before around the campfire, but the girls were excited to read this one.

I was amazed at the power it had to allow them to open up and talk about cancer. Before, we'd kept our conversations to our daily activities - sometimes I even forgot that the campers had this looming presence and fear in their lives. However, as we went through the book, the story was interrupted by comments and thoughts - "My mom doesn't smile very much either." "My mom isn't bald anymore, she has really short spiky hair." "My mom has a lot of hats too!" I think the book served two really important purposes that night. First of all, it let the girls know that they were not alone. They recognized in each other and in the characters of the book that other people understood their experiences. Secondly, it allowed them to talk about their experiences. They could laugh at some of the sillier aspects of changing hats like moods and how it felt to rub their hands over their parents' short, spiky hair and they could open up about the more serious aspects, like the fear of losing a parent, the relief of knowing they don't need any more treatments, or the confusion about what exactly the cancer does to their parents' bodies.

I've honestly never given picture books much thought. I enjoyed them when I was young, but I bounced out of them as quickly as possible, devouring Babysitter's Little Sister and American Girl books as soon as possible and leaving the "baby books" behind. I was astounded at the power that was packed into this little volume, and for the first time realized that books not only touch and help those of us who are mature and "educated" - they can also heal and comfort smaller people. I don't have any children yet but this experience really opened my eyes to the importance of carefully selecting picture books for my future children's bookshelves. Yes, I love and look forward to reading the silly childhood classics, but knowing that these "silly" little volumes can also pack a powerful lesson has resonated so powerfully with me. I am hoping to start a collection of books for my own library and possibly also for when I am a nurse. I think stories are some of the most powerful threads that link humanity together, and I am glad I could have that lesson reiterated to me through the eyes of the children that taught me this week.

The Sunday Salon: Announcements!!

Hello bloggy friends,

Just wanted to update you on a few little details. First of all, I am going to be out of town all this week. I am trying to get some posts scheduled to keep you all entertained, but they won't be posted on Facebook or Twitter, so if that is usually how you follow, please do check back at the blog to see new posts. With my anniversary yesterday and trying to get ready for camp after having been in Idaho all week, I didn't get any posts scheduled. So consider this a little blog break. I am going to be a camp counselor at Camp Kesem, a camp for kids whose parents have cancer. If you are interested in helping this cause, please come here and earn some good karma for yourself. :)

In other news, I just spent the last week in Idaho with my family and got to see this gentleman perform. He actually came out to the middle of the floor for a few songs at one point and was one row away from me. We made eye contact - it made me feel so famous. Definitely a highlight of the summer! I am so happy to have a few weeks of vacation time. Also, last night my husband surprised me by taking me to Josh Groban for our first anniversary! He is hilarious and just as awesome a vocalist live. It's been an excellent week for concerts, I must say.

Finally, I have joined the Forever Young Adult book club. The only problem is that I don't have the book, Beauty Queens by Libba Bray, and although I am on hold for it at the library, the chances of actually getting the book in time are slim to impossible. I was wondering if anyone has the book on Kindle and would be willing to loan it to me. Someone who loves me gave me the book. I am spoiled. Thank you! (I just discovered that it is possible to loan books on Kindle - this is going to revolutionize my whole reading experience!) To do this, go to the Manage Your Kindle page, select the book, and click on the "loan this book" option and put in my email address. I should add that I would love to buy the book and support bookstores, but I truly can't afford it. Almost all the books I read are review copies, public domain, or from the library. I would be happy to loan any books I have on Kindle to whomever is kind enough to loan back.

That is all in The Story Girl world for now. Hope you all have lovely August weeks while I go crazy with a bunch of eight year olds this week! Back to regular programming (and classes) next week. Peace out!

Sunday Salon: The Un-Read Blues

Stack of books next to my bed - a few re-reads, but most of them never-read

Almost every book lover I know bemoans the fact that they have more books than they can read. And yet we keep requesting more review copies, buying stacks and stacks at bookstore sales, adding to our already hefty list of books on hold at the library. Why did I check out five books to take home this week when I already have this stack next to bed, not to mention the hundred or so unread books on my Kindle (don't worry, most of them are public domain)?

I've been thinking about this, and I think I have the answer - at least in my own case. Once I buy a book, it is mine. I am not someone who gets rid of books once I read them - my husband and I want to have a library once we have a house, and I love re-reading and referencing things that I have read. Ownership of that book gives me a sense of relief - no matter what, I will get to it eventually because it lives with me. It is there, staring at me when I wake up in the morning no matter what, so I don't have to worry about forgetting I wanted to read it or end up in a situation where it is inaccessible to me.

Books I don't own, on the other hand, could get away. I could forget that I wanted to read it, or I could move somewhere with a crappy library, or I could get on hold for the book and never make it through the list (something that has actually happened to me, although not at the lovely Provo Library, which is as perfect a library as I could hope for, even though I do have to put almost everything I want on hold). These unowned books are elusive, and I must therefore read them as soon as possible - if I don't get my hands on them and read them, they could slip away.

So I'm sorry, neglected little stack next to my bed. I still love you - it's just that I feel so comfortable with you. I know that you'll never leave me. However, I'll try not to take you for granted and give you the attention you deserve.

Sunday Salon: Summertime Blues

I am taking a break from my Paris Scenes posts because there are five Sundays in July, and I just feel like processing through a couple of things.

Life has been crazy this week. With my first semester of nursing school winding down, my house in a mess, family in town and new responsibilities at church, I have hardly had time to breathe. Blogging tends to be my release from stress, but it has been pushed to the side almost every day this week. I feel as if something has to give, but I'm not sure what it is. I have material for the blog planned two weeks in advance, and it always stresses me out a little bit to shuffle it back a few days, but I think the change I need to make is to just realize that this blog is for fun. It is important to be doing things I enjoy, but when I allow myself to stress about it, it loses its purpose. For that reason, I will not be requesting or accepting any additional books for review this year. I want to finish the ones I have, and then we will see if I decide to accept more next year for the last two semesters of nursing school. It is fun to receive free, early books, but my TBR is long enough as it is. I don't think I will be running out of things to read any time soon.

I'm also not sure what to do about my challenges list. At the beginning of the year, when I was only going to school and working part time, I was really excited about challenges. I love making goals and I love feeling the thrill of having accomplished something, and I felt like the challenges were very doable. However, now those lists loom large and intimidating. I hate to just wipe off the page and say, "Okay, I'm not doing any challenges anymore." I've made a lot of progress on many of them. I enjoy them. But I think I am going to finish them on my own time-table. I know that is not the traditional way to do a challenge, but I'm not really in it for the "recognition," and I don't need to win any new books any time soon - I have plenty that I haven't read. So, I am still hoping to finish those books, but I may not finish them by the date by which they are supposed to be finished. I am aware of challenge rules, and will not be entering any giveaways etc. when I haven't finished by the date they have prescribed, but I won't give up on the books, either.

Finally, I saw Harry Potter last night. It wasn't my favorite of the movies - I mostly felt that they were tying up loose ends - but it was still exciting and I can't believe that Harry Potter is over (except for Pottermore, which I'm still not entirely sure I understand). I was never one of those people that watched all the movies before the next one came out or reread every single book (although I have reread a few) but now that everything is finished and before me, I want to experience all of Harry Potter together - reading all the books and then watching all the movies. I am thinking next summer - I'll still be in school but I'll have a more flexible schedule and I think it will be a good time for that. I like the idea of doing "personal challenges" next year - only being accountable to myself, but still setting goals.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be back to regular programming next week. I'm so glad I only have three weeks left in this semester, and then a week off. Thanks for your patience and your readership.

Sunday Salon: Will Durant's list for an educated person

Hello, blog world. I am so happy it is Sunday - no homework, no bus ride, no cleaning. Just me and my bowl of Brownie Crunch cereal (which you should try, if you haven't. I've had to limit myself to weekend mornings only so I don't balloon out).

Today I wanted to highlight a list that I found via my friend Chantel's blog. Chantel is recently engaged and wrote a long list of things she loves about her husband-to-be. One of these things is his desire to read a list made by Will Durant, a philosopher and writer. Supposedly, if you read all 100 of these books, you will have the educational level of a Ph.D.

I'm not sure if I will get through all of these books in my life, but I do want to challenge myself to keep track of the ones I do read and try to get through at least half of them at some point. Books I have already read will be struck out, and books I am currently reading will be italic. Books I know I want to read will be bold.

1 John Arthur Thomson, The Outline of Science: A Plain Story Simply Told (4 vol.)

2 Logan Clendening, The Human Body

3 John Harvey Kellogg, The New Dietetics, pp 1-531, 975-1011

4 William James, Principles of Psychology (2 vol.)

5 Herbert George Wells, The Outline of History

6 William Graham Sumner, Folkways

7 James Frazer, The Golden Bough (1 vol. abridged)

8 James Henry Breasted and James Harvey Robinson, The Human Adventure
(2 vol.)

9 Brian Brown, The Wisdom of China

10 The Bible

11 Elie Faure, History of Art (4 vol),

12 Henry Smith Williams, A History of Science (5 vol.)

13 J. B. Bury, History of Greece

14 Herodotus, Histories (Everyman Library)

15 Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (Everyman Library)

16 Plutarch, Lives of Illustrious Men

17 Gilbert Murray, Ancient Greek Literature

18 Homer, Iliad (trans. William Cullen Bryant)

19 Homer, Odyssey (trans. William Cullen Bryant)

20 Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

21 Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus and Antigone )

22 Euripides, all plays (trans. Gilbert Murray)

23 Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers

24 Plato, Dialogues (trans. Jowett),

25 Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics

26 Aristotle, Politics

27 Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (trans. Munro, certain passages are admirably paraphrased in William Mallock, Lucretius on Life and Death)

28 Virgil, Aeneid (trans. William Morris), selections

29 Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Everyman Library)

30 Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire* (6 vol., Everyman Library)

31 Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat (Fitzgerald paraphrase)

32 George Moore, Heloise and Abelard (2 vol.)

33 Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy (trans. Longfellow or Charles E. Norton) (I've read the Inferno!)

34 Hippolyte Taine, History of English Literature*, book 1

35 Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (Everyman Library)

36 Henry Adams, Mont St. Michel and Chartres

37 Cecil Gray, The History of Music, ch. 1-3, 5

38 John Addington Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy (7 vol.) (Durant also suggests Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy)

39 Benvenuto Cellini, Autobiography (trans. Symonds)

40 Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Painters and Sculptors (4 vol.), esp. Giotto, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michaelangelo

41 Harald Hoffding, History of Modern Philosophy (2 vol.), sections on Bruno and Machiavelli

42 Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

43 Preserved Smith, The Age of the Reformation

44 Emile Faguet, The Literature of France, sections on the sixteenth century

45 Francois Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel

46 Michel de Montaigne, Essays (3 vol., Everyman Library), esp. "Of Coaches", "Of the Incommodity of Greatness", "Of Vanity", and "Of Experience"

47 Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

48 William Shakespeare, Plays

49 Francois La Rochefoucauld, Reflections

50 Moliere, Plays, esp. Tartuffe, The Miser, The Misanthrope, The Bourgeois Gentleman, and The Feast of the Statue (Don Juan)

51 Francis Bacon, Essays (Everyman Library)

52 John Milton, "Lycidias", "L'Allegro", "Il Penseroso", Sonnets, "Areopagitica" and selections from Paradise Lost

53 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (Everyman Library)

54 Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethics and On the Improvement of the Understanding (Everyman Library)

55 Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Portraits of the 18th Century

56 Francois Marie de Voltaire, Works (1 vol. ed.), esp. Candide, Zadig, and essays on "Toleration" and "History"

57 John-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions

58 Taine, Origins of Contemporary France (6 vol.)

59 Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution* (2 vol., Everyman Library)

60 James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson (2 vol., Everyman Library)

61 Henry Fielding, Tom Jones (2 vol., Everyman Library)

62 Laurence Sterne, Tristam Shandy (Everyman Library)

63 Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (Everyman Library)

64 David Hume, Treatise on Human Nature (2 vol., Everyman Library) esp bks 2-3

65 Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman

66 Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (2 vol., Everyman Library), selections (I tried to read this... don't know if I'll ever make it through!)

67 Emil Ludwig, Napoleon

68 George Brandes, Main Currents of 19th Century Literature (6 vol.)

69 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust

70 Johann Peter Eckermann, Conversations with Goethe

71 Heinrich. Heine, Poems (trans. Loius Untermeyer)

72 John Keats, Poems

73 Percy Bysse Shelley, Poems

74 George Gordon Byron, Poems

75 Honore de Balzac, Pere Goriot

76 Gustave Flaubert, Works* (1 vol. ed.), esp. Madame Bovary and Salambo

77 Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

78 Anatole France, Penguin Isle

79 Alfred Tennyson, Poems

80 Charles Dickens, Pickwick Papers

81 William Thackeray, Vanity Fair

82 Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Children

83 Fyodor Dostoievski, The Brothers Karamozov

84 Leo Tolstoi, War and Peace

85 Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt

86 Charles Darwin, Descent of Man

87 William Buckle, Introduction to the History of Civilization in England, esp. pt 1 ch. 1-5, 15

88 Arthur Schopenhauer, Works (1 vol. ed.)

89 Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra

90 Charles and Mary Beard, The Rise of American Civilization* (2 vol.)

91 Edgar Allen Poe, Poems and Tales

92 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays

93 Henry David Thoreau, Walden

94 Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

95 Abraham Lincoln, Letters and Speeches

96 Romain Rolland, Jean Cristophe (2 vol.)

97 Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, vol. 1-3, 6

98 Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams

99 Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution

100 Oswald Spengler, Decline of the West (2 vol.)

Sunday Salon: Working at Borders

This week, I worked my first two shifts as a cafe seller at Borders. I had been working in a home for developmentally disabled people, but after being hit myself and then hearing horror stories of emergency room trips from my coworkers, I decided it was time for a change. I applied to Borders thinking that I would never actually be hired, so I was ecstatic when the general manager called me two days later for an interview.

I think I'm going to like it here (insert Annie, singing gleefully).



First of all, making the drinks if FUN! I'm not a coffee drinker, so I was a little concerned about making all those different drinks correctly. It seems like everyone is very particular about their coffee - it isn't just a drink, it's a ritual. However, I didn't get any complaints and a few of the regulars told me I did a good job. They may have just been reassuring me because it was my first day, but it made me feel better anyway. I think my favorite drink to make is the ultimate mocha - chocolate flavor. If you're ever at the Provo Borders, I'll make you one. :)

Second of all, I can check books out from Borders. For two weeks. As long as they are not mass market paperbacks. Ok, seriously? You don't even have to pay me. And every pay period we get to go into the manager's office and pick out a promotional item, such as an ARC. *Happiness*

And finally, the employee discount. 33% off, plus the Borders Plus Rewards card (which, guys, is awesome. Get one). As if I'd ever need to buy books again. But really. Amazing.

I'm sure there will be stressful days and bad days - a job is a job. But I think I'm going to like it here. (Snigger, cheese).