two memes: info galore

I've been tagged over at bookworm by julie. You can read her version here.

6 things about me:

1.) I am insanely sporadic. For a while I will read everyday, all the time...'till I hit burn-out. Soon after that craze I will want to knit like craziness, then on to rockclimbing, guitar playing, chicken owning, gardening, blogging and then the cycle will repeat. and repeat.

2.) I grew up in Spain, I loved it...I'd do it all over again. Sometime.

3.) I have dreads, but besides that I try to fit in as much as possible by being as friendly as I can so that people are not scared of me. Especially little old ladies, I go out of my way to help them in any way possible...therefore trying to shatter their stagnant opinions of diversity and differences.

4.) I love animals. I have owned so many different things that I cannot even name them, but I will try: tons of different kinds of fish (but all freshwater), a canary, four lovebirds (oh, I want some again!!), 5 cats, one dog, teems of hamsters (they had babies!), turtle, and my newest acquisition CHICKENS!! I have pics and stuff here.

5.) I try to purchase as much organic as possible, as in I will choose it even if it is much more. I love Saturday markets, and fresh fruit stands. Eventually I would love to live in the country, free and off the grid...but probably we won't go that far...but I really love this house(low impact woodland home) to do that in. Or a yurt!

6.) At our house, we are vegetarians. I don't cook meat, but I never refuse it at someone else's house, that is my role as a greatful guest....and the reason I did not become a veggie much sooner. I hate people feeling the need to cater to us. My sons don't even know we are vegetarians, and yes they can order meat at restaurants.

If you have questions about these answers...let me know. I'd love to tell you about it.

123 meme:

(sorry, I am cheating...hope it is okay. I had done this before, so I am re-using my answer)

• Pick up the nearest book. (I’m sure you must have one nearby.)
• Turn to page 123.
• What is the first sentence on the page?
• The last sentence on the page?
• Now . . . connect them together….
  (And no, you may not transcribe the entire page of the book–that’s cheating!)

A: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
first: I went to the kitchen and washed my glass.
last: "He's got nothing to do with me. He can become a diet member or an astronaut, for all I care."

So for all of you BTT readers out there....I am going to connect the sentences together by writing my own story, yes , this is not part of the book (only the bold is on the actual p 123 of the book) Check it out!



I went to the Kitchen and washed my glass. While doing this chore I could hear her in the background. I am amazed by her unceasing. I raised my eyebrows to myself, and smiled a sad, sad smile. It isn't that she only did it at times, it was a continuous flow of jabber that I soon would not be able to bear even with my newly installed flesh-tone earplugs. Life has changed, it was not this way when we were married, we used to lust after one another with our eyes fixed, we used to take turns, we used to care. I remember thinking, "how did I know to choose so well? How did she?" Now she is unceasing and I am constantly waiting, just only for one thing: that she would cease. That she would give up and let me say only one word. I know, that may not last me forever, but it would buy me some good time.

I don't think she even believes that I am still here, I am uncertain as to where I would go, but I am sure she has come up with many exciting ideas, ideas much better than our current reality. Maybe she doesn't even think of me anymore. Life should be better. I will just say what I want to, so that she cannot forget that I am here, I will be here, I have chosen to belong to her and her to me until death do us part, right? Well the death has not yet taken place, so I must exist here with her. This is what I am thinking when I burst into my wives unceasing conversation with herself only to say: "He's got nothing to do with me. He can become a diet member or an astronaut, for all I care." And then I wonder why that is what I waited so long to say.


OH, so now I need to tag people!!!
I tag, Madeleine, Mrs. B, Corinne, Ramya!!!! And if you want to YOU are tagged too!

Invasion of the Bible Thumpers

Title:Invasion of the Bible Thumpers
Author: Skookum Maguire
Publisher: iUniverse
Publisher Address: 2021 Pine lake Road, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68512
Url: www.iuniverse.com
ISBN: 978-0-595-44814-2, Price $11.95 Publication Date: 2007
Reviewed by Bethany L. Canfield for Reader Views (5/08)


Jammed tight from cover-to-cover with loggers, lumberjacks, crew workers and big-butt waitresses ,is "Invasion of the Bible Thumpers" by Skookum Maguire. A story it has about life and country-folk, that will almost get you dirty and able to smell the rain and pine just by opening the book. Nine short stories of lives that are lived, dreams that fall apart, and antics that will kill you, they are fun to read and learn from. The voice of Maguire is stout and rich in quality, that is also a treat. Each story was deep, and engulfing yet when the last page of the the book was done the short stories came together as a joined unit. Nothing is given freely, the characters have a common thread of grit, dirt and crudeness to them. The harsh reality is what is lived, and they would die to keep it that way. Each story is incredible and endearing in its own way, but the theme: live your life, you won't get another screams like a hard-core rockstar. The life that is hard-lived is the life of quality, yet it is not a life that is given, but one that must be fought for.

Enjoyable, down-to-earth and honest, the "Invasion of the Bible Thumpers" is one that once picked up, dived in to and pages are turned, the reader will not want to abandon it part way. The stories that stayed with me were: A Time for Mourning, Newspapers and Invasion of the Bible Thumpers. Maguire does an exceptional job of portraying the loggers, construction workers, and down-to-earth Oregonians and I should know since I am a true North westerner myself, with grandparents on both sides being loggers and farmers of this sweet, wet land.

The one thing that was difficult was that the rest of the stories (besides the three mentioned above) really did not stand out significantly. I enjoyed them, but Maguire's characters became too similar, too generic. A book of short stories to me is about variety, diversity, switching-it-up and the ability to go deep fast and keep the reader there too. The three stories I mentioned above were like that for me, but the rest seemed weak, and I did not develop that deep interest in the people whom the story was about. Almost like I was reading a story about an extra in a movie and the action was really somewhere off to the right or left. The book was good, and the stories that I enjoyed I really enjoyed, the others were just nothing extra-ordinary. I would recommend the book, especially to people I know from the grand 'ol Pacific Northwest just based on the stories that I did like. So over all, it was good not great.

classics meme!!!

I am really excited about the Classics Challenge that Trish is hosting, here is a meme she gave us to wet out appetites!!!

1. My favorite classic is: (here is what I think they are..some you may not consider classics though...) Uncle Tom's Cabin Beecher-Stowe(had a huge impact on my when I was little, woke me up to slavery) Washington Square, Henry James(fun to read, it is short and interesting), Tale of Two Cities by Dickens (I loved the way it was written).

2. The classic I had the toughest time finishing is ANNA KARENINA!!!!! no question. long, borring, amoral....horrid.

3. I would recommend Franny and Zooey, or Nine Stories by JD Salinger to someone who doesn't read a lot of classics or who doesn't generally like classics because it is different, the style is fun and the themes are deep and captivating.

4. To me, a classic book is a book which has been around or will be around...both!

5. The type of relationship I have with classics is shaky...they scare me, but when I read them I realize they are not so bad (most of the time).

What do you think?

The Writing Circle by Rozena Maart

Title: The Writing Circle
Author: Rozena Maart
Publisher: TSAR
Pages: 199
Awards: Journey Prize
Yearly Count: 25


The Writing Circle is a group of five women who live in Cape Town, South Africa and gather every Friday as a group of women, looking for the strength that in their community only comes from unity and protecting each other. A place where they who cannot trust are surrounded by each other, therefore embracing their loss, and while participating gain the friendships they hold. Healing comes to a halt one night as the rest of the women are gathered together, one of the circle members Isabel, is late, they start without her, and she is raped in her car in front of her very own house. The members of the group hear a gunshot, and from that moment the question will be: can they survive this common scab being scratched and picked at, or will the pressure and soreness cause hatred from within the group?

Maart leads the reader though that night and the following days. This was a group of women, united through experience, yet different in most everything else, who are filled with a desire to live their lives, and hope for a future that is better than their past. The Writing Circle cries out for women all over, but especially in places where they are not allowed to speak out on their own. Rozena Maart brings up difficult subject matters facing her nation today, the ramifications of apartheid, racism and segregation, rape, incest and calls forth life into the souls of these raped and silenced women, she gives a voice to the women of the world whose lives parallel the women of The Writing Circle, but have not had the chance to let it off their shoulders.

It is easy to hear that Maart's every desire is for the people of her nation, and others like it around the world, to open closed ears stunned by an ugly tradition. That all people of all races would listen to the cries of women and girls and to heed the suffering that surrounds them is real and needs attention. The dark and horrid secrets of uncles, fathers, and husbands shriek out from Rozena Maart's The Writing Circle.

This book is a novel, but it is not based on fiction, but fact, as South Africa is one of the nations with the highest number of reported rapes (and estimated 500,000 cases of rape every year!) The law pass system, is one that becomes a breeding venue for rape and incest. The men are removed from the homes, placed in hostel like locations in the city thus leaving families unprotected in the country. Before that apartheid. Those in power feel the freedom to do as they please with their supposed inferiors. When those angry, powerless inferiors became free...things did not improve in the aspect of women's voice.

Hope returns, it always does. Dark days turn bright, and South Africa has begun taking steps of action against this problem. Good things are on their way!



If you are interested in articles on the situation in South Africa:
South Africa Begins Getting Tough on Rape
Tackling South Africa's Rape Culture
Rape Survivor Journal- Rape Stats for South Africa and Worldwide

The Writing Circle:
Reviews of The Writing Circle on TSAR Publications

sunday salon, hammock weather!

Happy SUNDAY!!!

Yeah, this was a good one, it is horridly hot here (but I am a heat weenie) so I got to sit around and do nothing. Yesterday I finished The Writing Circle by Rozena Maart, and along with working on The Orchid Thief,and Portrait of a Lady for my book clubs...I am now reading Two Brothers as well.

When it is hot like this I have a wonderful spot to read, while my little boys play outside. A Mexican Hammock! It is large enough for out entire family to lay in, but I prefer if it is just me (it gets so wiggly when it is more than that!!ha!) I lounge and read, how much better could life be..well I guess a nice cold glass of iced tea to go with that.

So I just started Two Brothers:One North, One South and I am starting to get into it, I am only on page 19 or so. I LOVED The Writing Circle though, it was an EXCELLENT book about women in South Africa and the issues that they are faced with, in the book are hard to read, but give you a glimpse into a different life. I will write a review tonight I hope. (if I can get my butt out of the hammock!)

Orbis Terrarum Group Travels (thus far)!

Look at all of us...reading, and reading away. Here is what we have done so far, keep up the traveling and remember to post to the link and the country name! WOW, you guys and gals are great!

Orbis Terrarum Group Travels!

I'm going to do a map update today or tomorrow for the Orbis Terrarum group travels. If you haven't put your links on the Orbis Terrarum link post, then do so (then your competed journeys will be on our group map!!!). Here is the link to go there: Orbis Terrarum travel links

If you are confused as to how to enter in the link here is what you do: click on the title in your blog for the review (not your header, but the blog post title) if you have a PC then left click and go to something like: copy link location. On a MAC hold down control+click to see the menu, go to copy link location. Then go to our travels post (link above) and paste your link into there. In your title please include the country this book is from, your name, you can include the book title if you want.


Yah! Way to go peoples...so far we have taken 58 journeys around our world!

manuals-shmanuals

Following up last week’s question about reading writing/grammar guides, this week, we’re expanding the question….

Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?

Do you ever read manuals?

Yes, almost always actually. I read instructions for putting bookshelves together, and that way I get it right on the first try. I don't have the time or patience to waste on figuring things out. If it is something like a TV or a DVD player or a computer...I don't. Those are easy to figure out for me.

How-to books?

yes, right now I am reading one on chickens, actually two. I have "Living With Chickens" and another one too. I enjoy knowing about things that I am interested in, but when I move on to something else then I will read about that until I am sick of it too.

Self-help guides?

not so much.

Anything at all?

well, I am not one of those people who will read anything that is before them, just to be reading....nope. I sit and think mostly, especially while eating breakfast. It is too early for my eyes, and for sure for my mind!

That is the way I am! What do you do?

i love dirt

Title: i love dirt
Author: Jennifer Ward
Pages: 153
Publisher: Trumpeter (Shambhala Publications)
Yearly Count: 24

Dirt, leaves, worms, bugs, stars, raindrops and watching trees grow...all that fills i love dirt to capacity with 52 activities for parents and kids to do together. If I read thorough a book and can't help but dog-ear the pages I know it is a great one. i love dirt by Jennifer Ward is a book about kids, and exposing them to the nature and outdoors while siultaneously leaning of the wonderful nature of earth science. From bugs, to leaves, from trees to snowmen this is a book to enjoy through all the seasons. i love dirt is divided up into activities that would work best in the seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter so that children and adults can observe and enjoy every new stage as it comes and admire what is different and beautiful about them.

i love dirt is Jennifer Ward's antidote to the current situation of "nature deficit" that children are experiencing. The generations previous to this one relied on nature. Our schools were even let out and in during the communities harvest time, and daylight savings time was initially agreed upon because of the impact another hour of light could do in the farmer's life. It was not all working outside, but also the playing in nature and with nature that was important. Participating in such activities as picnics, mid-afternoon fishing trips, laying under the sky's blanket to see just one shooting star, and the amazing world of mud pie making! To go outside and play, to put on rain gear and jump in puddles, or camp outside in the backyard on a warm summer night, or to explore the woods and make a fort these need not be things of the past. Outdoor activities are a learning and teaching experience that if neglected will fill our nation with a bunch of kids who can learn through books, but not from the beauty that surrounds them. Weather in the city, or country there are opportunities in i love dirt to get down and dirty and feel the particles of nature on your skin.

I personally loved this book so much, seriously does it get any better than a book that discusses all the fun things you can do to learn about nature and the processes that engulf us humans? Each section of the book, each activity has a short (kid friendly) explanation of the activity and its importance and a Help Me Understand question and answer as well. Here are some Q and A examples:

Q: What is Dirt?
A: Dirt is a mixture of all kinds of things: broken rock and stones, minerals and organic matter such as broken down bits of plants. (p.44)

Q: What makes new plants sprout in the spring?
A: They get more sunlight than they were getting in the winter. In the spring, the days get longer, brighter and warmer. These things help new plants to grow. (p.4)

There are so many more tid-bit facts of things every child asks, or at least mine do! I have decided to use this book for our outdoor explorations. I am very impressed with Jennifer Ward and i love dirt, too! This would not just be a great book to use for parents, but also for grandparents, and teachers as well. I am going to use this book for our science course when we begin homeschooling next year. To be honest though, it is all but burning though my hands, and since it is spring right now, I really see no need to wait...we're going to dive into this one with rubber boots, or barefoot! For when nature calls, we listen!

i love dirt is ON SALE tomorrow, may 13th! here is link to i love dirt on amazon.com


Jennifer Ward has written many children's books, check out her website here: Jennifer Ward, Award winning author of wildly fun books

Sunday Salon: books and linky-links

What a Sunday this is, mother's day, and Sunday Salon and just beautiful outside...well, at least it is here. I have read some stuff this week. Here are my bookie tidings of joy:
I completed the Novella Challenge this week!!
For that I read:
Franny and Zooey- JD Salinger
Town House-Tish Cohen
Sarajevo Marlboro-Miljenko Jergovic
Farmworker's Daughter- Rose Castillo Gibault
The Waitress Was New- Dominique Fabre
Moving Parts- Magdalena Tulli
(click on the titles for my reviews of each book)


I also completed another book for the Orbis Terrarum Challenge (which I am the host of): The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsim Hamid .

I joined a challenge as well, I thought it would be okay since I have finished two already, I'll keep my fingers crossed for completing the challenges I have signed myself up for!!! The newest addition to my challenges is the Classics Challenge hosted by one of my bookie buddies (Trish)! I am considering reading all the Jane Austen books for this challenge, since another friend book blogger (the wonderful Ramya) suggested that she may do this as well.

That is not all the bookie things that I need to tell you about, I need to tell you that I won The Diary of a Provincial Lady by EM Delafield from our book blog lady Maureen from Random Distractions!!
I can't wait to read it, it contains 4 books in one: Diary of a Provincial Lady, The Provincial Lady Goes Further, The Provincial Lady in America, The Provincial Lady in Wartime. I am so excited to win this book, it looks excellent! and I got it in the mail yesterday!!!!! (isn't it fun to get books in the mail, and this one was even carefuly wrapped in fushia tissue wrapping paper! (what a joy!)

Besides that I have joined some book clubs, I am already in the book club I am leading: Pretty Paper, which is a local group (but if you are interested....let me know and you can do it too) We meet once a month at a restaurant in Corvallis or Salem Oregon, and then go out to coffee and discuss our monthly read. This month we are supposed to read The Portrait of a Lady, have any of you read it? I am having a hard time wanting to read it...every time I pick it up I decide I would rather do something else!
But, this week I joined another two book clubs, for one we are reading The Orchid Thief and for the other we are reading Matrimony. Both look really great, I am excited to get started on them. (no everyone I haven't begun yet)...


The book that I am really into right now is The Writing Circle by Rozena Maart , it has completely taken me over, I'll be reviewing it later on this week (in the next couple days).

That is all for right now...until next week...let me know if you have read any of these or have any suggestions!!

Oh, but if you are interested in how the construction of my chicken tractor is going: check it out on my personal blog...and le me know how you like it!
Bungaree chicken Tractor

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Title: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Author: Mohsim Hamid

Pages:184
Yearly Count: 23

The book, this book was as a whole very interesting and intriguing, and I read it in one day (24 hour period). The storytelling brought me into Changez's life and took me to where he was. However, I will warn this is a book where the main character has a chip on his shoulder. Changez is a 22 year old from Pakistan, who graduates from Princeton at the top of his class and gets one of the most coveted jobs in his field. But he becomes disillusioned with his "American Dream" when the twin towers fall and his fears that he does not belong in this enemy nation prevail. The more he is affected by the events of 9-11 he falls deeper and deeper into dislike for America and seemingly everything American.

As much as I enjoyed reading this book, because the writing of it was fully captivating, I did not like to be schooled and preached at.Much of the novel is Changez retelling his time in America to his American tourist stranger-friend visiting Pakistan, he says: your country this, and you do that (referring to Americans). I think this approach is flawed. I do agree that he would have gone through horrid experiences after the attack of the twin towers, as far as people responding poorly to him, and being very angry at him even though he did nothing. I guess I was in the boat for being compassionate about that, but not for blaming the US for his being in NY and graduating from Princeton...which Changez comes to view as if he had been captured and brought here to be a traitor. .

What I will take from it is this: I loved the writing style Hamin used it kept me interested in the whole story, and his characters were lovable and real and it was easy to become emotionally invested in their lives.
Life during this time was extremely difficult for middle eastern folk in the US, especially right after the 9-11 incident. America became sour and angry and channeled their aggressions where it should not have. But, I will not apologize for the brief scene of patriotism that struck after the planes crashed, the flags, the unity, the feelings of brotherhood. Changez was annoyed by this, saying that we to embrace patriotism was to go back in time to WWI, more generalizations. HA!


All in all I would recommend this, but let people know the author is pushy. It is somewhat understandable, but I am not into being shoved either way. I won't be made to hate to hate the US and I won't be made to hate everything unknown. Just be aware of the anti-American sentiment. Some readers will not have a hard time with the views in the book at all, as it is the prevalent mentality that you hear around here (liberal northwest)from bums at coffee shops, and even many people of stature in our communities here. However, because I am not in complete agreement with the author as far as my sentiment about America and Americans, I felt pushed around, or maybe lumped into a generalization, which is seems hypocritical for the author to do since as far as I can tell that is what he fights against.

Interview with the author, Mohsin Hamid: EGO magazine: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Powell's book review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

I read this book for the Orbis Terrarum (the whole world) book challenge that I am hosting. It is my title for Pakistan.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist quote:

But as I reacclimatized and my surroundings once again became familiar, it occurred to me that the house had not changed in my absence. I had changed; I was looking about me with the sees of a foreigner, and not just any foreigner, but that particular type of entitled and unsympathetic American who so annoyed me when I encountered him in the classrooms and workplaces of your country's elite. This realization angered me; staring at my reflection in the speckled glass of my bathroom mirror I resolved to exorcise the unwelcome sensibility by which I had become possessed (p. 124).

Classics Challenge

Look what I have been missing! My friend Trish is going to host the Classics Challenge, and I have a very dear spot for her in my heart since she brought me to this bookie blogging world in the first place. I am going to do this one, as I have not read too many classics. Growing up in Spain, we did not read any Austen, or well...whatever other classics are we didn't read much of them.
The rules are easy: read five classics in six months, and there is a bonus for the last month. Meander over it you want to join, sounds great doesn't it!?

Novella Challenge! (COMPLETE)

CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!

What is a novella?? And why read one? According to wikipedia a novella is:

A novella is a narrative work of prose fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. While there is some disagreement of what length defines a novella, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000….Occasionally, longer works are referred to as novellas, with some academics positing 100,000 words as the novella‒novel threshold.

And the reason for reading them is that they are short!!! That will be a fun one for me!

This Challenge is to read 6 novellas between April 2008 and September 2008. If you are interested go to: The Novella Challenge!

My 6 Books for the Novella Challenge are:


Franny and Zooey- JD Salinger
Town House-Tish Cohen
Sarajevo Marlboro-Miljenko Jergovic
Farmworker's Daughter- Rose Castillo Gibault
The Waitress Was New- Dominique Fabre
Moving Parts- Magdalena Tulli

NOTE: Completed books in orange.

missing in action

Don't worry, I still love you all!! I have just been...well...I have been missing in action lately. I usually do all Sunday Salons, all the booking through Thursdays..and have posts in between. I am suffering right now from springitis! I have been in the garden instead of sitting on my bum reading. I have torn up yucky, black plastic from under my dirt so that I can garden, I have planted around 30 raspberry shoots, some broccoli plants, brussel sprouts, and red cabbage.
And my current large project that is consuming all of my mental energy is: I am building a chicken tractor. I have posted two post on it at my personal blog. We want fresh we-know-where-they-came-from eggs. I can't wait to get them hens in the tractor. If you are interested in my progress, click here.

BTT: what would YOU do?

Question: Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do??

And, no, you did NOT have time to grab your bookbag, or the book next to your bed. You were . . . grocery shopping when you got the call and have nothing with you but your wallet and your passport (which you fortuitously brought with you in case they asked for ID in the ethnic food aisle). This is hypothetical, remember….

Honestly I would just sit...probably wander, and people watch. I am a blatant people observer, and the pickin's are especially rich at the airport. I always think it is funny that people actually dress up to fly! I am the opposite, but to me comfort is more important than the appearance I will display when I arrive at my destination. I know, i know sometimes business people fly and need to look nice, but there are tons of people who are not going to a meeting when they land and it seems they still look uncomfortable.

Anyway, yes...I people watch, and in this situation that is what I would do too. I am not lost without books, at least not for short intervals...and that is not all I think about. Huh, I guess I could head over to the duty-free shop for some chocolate.