Weekend Reads

It's been another crazy week at my house!  I've barely been home because of work, group projects, and tons of French Club fun (and presentation prep!).  I'm SO glad it's the weekend!  Tomorrow (Sunday) French Club is doing a presentation for the Alliance Francaise de Buffalo on the history and culture of Corsica.  Should be fun and interesting, except for the part where they forgot to tell us that we had to present the same day as the St. Patrick's Day parade!!  And there are at least 3 presenters (myself, Twin, and a friend) who are hardcore Irish and need to be there.  Luckily, we are the first presenters and are going to sneak off as soon as we can to that parade and all the green beer we can drink!

I have as usual been reading a ton lately, but mostly for school.  I've managed to sneak in some pleasure reading though, so reviews should be posted this week.  I should be writing an essay right now but I think I'm going to postpone that until later and work on reviews :)

On a really awesome note, I'm a member of a website called Ravelry.  It is awesome, and it is for knitters, crocheters, weavers, dyers, etc.  I participate every year in a St. Patrick's Day swap, and I got my packages from my awesome swapper!  She was absolutely amazing.  Remember that review I posted a few weeks ago of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice?  I mentioned how I would really love to read it in German, Mann's native language.  My swapper just happened to be from Germany, and look what she sent me!!!!

It's Der Tod in Venedig, the German version!!!!!  Best swap partner ever!  I was seriously comletely shocked and excited when I opened my package and saw this :)  I can't wait to start reading it.  I think I'll save it for summer.  It will be awesome practice and it will totally help me build my German vocabulary and grammar :)  Can you tell I'm really excited?!  Love the cover, too!

Hope you all had a great week and weekend!  Reading anything good yourselves?  Do you have anything exciting going on this coming week?  My night class this Wednesday was cancelled, so I get to go home at 4:15 instead of 8:10!  Yay!

Weekend Reads

The first week of school is finally over.  I both love and hate the first week of a new semester.  You are excited for your new classes, but not very happy to have homework.  This is also my very last semester EVER at Buffalo State College and as an undergrad.  It's exciting!  But also scary..  I do plan I doing grad school, but not until 2012 (if the world still exists, hahaha.  Aren't you sick of people freaking out over the 2012 crap??!).

I'm only taking one French class this semester.  It's the only one being offered that I haven't taken!  And it's on Moliere *gulp*.  Yes people that's right.  I'm spending a whole semester reading PLAYS!  And I hate readidng plays!  But I'm determined to enjoy myself.  In fact, I think me and Monsieur Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (that's his real name) are going to be bestest best friends by the time May rolls around.  The only problem??  So far the "mythological biography" of Moliere written by Christophe Mory is really, really boring.  But so far I'm just on his childhood, and I think once I get to the part where he's, ya know, working as the Roi-Soleil's tapissier, it'll get much more interesting.  I really can't wait for him to go to jail for a month because he can't pay he debts.  It's gonna be good.

So we're reading this 300+ biography of Moliere (which is kinda not all true because the author makes a lot of assumptions of his life..), plus 3 plays.  I can't remember their names right now though.

I'm also taking a German literature in translation course.  I like it a lot so far.  I wish I could read in German, but I'm not at that level yet.  I definitely feel like I'm missing something by reading the translations though.  My teacher gives us a few pages each class of the German version and I always feel like the English is leaving something out..  It switches paragraphs around and whatnot.  Someday I'll be reading in Deutsch though, so it's all good.  We're reading Death in Venice by Thomas Mann right now, and then one or two of his other short stories.  Then we're reading some Hesse, Brecht, and I can't remember the last person.

Oh and I'm also taking a fun Criminal Law course which I love.  It's like right out of Law and Order.  So I'm totally in my element ;)

Hope you all had a great weekend!  I'm off to finish up my homework!

Weekend Reads and Happy New Year!

.First, I'd like to say Happy New Year!  I think everyone should follow in the footsteps of a wonderful blog called Readerbuzz and make HAPPINESS their main goal of 2011!

This week, surprisingly, was filled with quite a few blog posts and reviews from me.  I say it's surprising because I didn't think I'd have much time to post anything.  Happily though, I was wrong!  I listed some of my favorite reads of 2010, which was really hard to do.  I really loved most of the books I read.  Then I posted a somewhat vague review of The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray.  It's the last in a trilogy and I didn't want to give too much away (thus the "vagueness").  I then did a post of books I received for Christmas.  I'm so excited for reading in 2011 because I've got some awesome looking books lined up!  And I ended the week with a quick little post about my love for The Anatomy of Ghosts, which I just finished and adore.  Review coming this week.

Now I don't like to do the whole "resolution" thing, but this year I would like to highlight some goals I'd like to accomplish in 2011.  For one, make this the year of happiness, as stated above. 

I would also like to incorporate more reading en francais ("in French" minus the accent on the "c" because my laptop doesn't do accent codes..).  This year I read a few books in French, but I hope to increase that by a lot this year.  I bought 5 books from a French book site, plus my sister brought me back a few from her study abroad trip.  I'm all set ;) 

And finally, I'd like to take more time to just read.  And read books I want to read.  I don't accept/ask for very many review books, but I'm afraid that if I don't start setting boundaries now, eventually it will get totally out of control and then I'll be reading books I'm not enjoying just so I can review them for publishers.  My goal for this year is to edit my review policy.  I'm not going to 100% for sure review every book I receive for review.  If I read the book, I'll review it.  If I find I just don't want to read the book, I won't.  I'm a picky reader and I don't want too many review books from publishers to mess that up ;)

Happy New Year to you all, and I wish you all a great 2011, full with lots of joy and happiness!  What are your goals for 2011?

Weekend Reads: Shopping and Reading Challenges

Yay for Thanksgiving and awesome online sales :) I hope you all had a great holiday (if you're American, otherwise I hope you still had a great week!). I enjoyed Thanksgiving at my uncle's house in Rochester. He is obsessed with French wine, and he just kept pulling out bottles of the stuff! I probably had 6 glasses throughout the day. And I usually only drink one or two..
Today, I decided to head over to a website I hadn't yet bought anything from, but which I was already loving because of it's low book prices, bookcloseouts.com. Until Tuesday, they have an extra 50% off a ton of their books, and those books are already insanely discounted! I got 8 books for $20, people. It was beautiful. 4 of those books were for family members for Christmas. Boyfriend got a book on beer, Mom got a book on coffee and tea, and Twin, well, I can't say what Twin got because she reads my blog.

I never head to the stores on Black Friday because it's insane, and I feel bad for the workers. Unless, like Twin, they make commission. Twin is in France right now, but usually in the Sears Shoe Department, she gets a shit load of money in commission after working Black Friday.

Now onto the next topic: Challenges

I really like challenges, as long as I don't overdo it and I read books I like and want to read anyway. And since it's almost the end of the year, I figure I'll decide what challenges to do for next year now. I'm going to do the TBR Challenge again, where you pick 12 books you haven't gotten around to reading and read those in the course of a year. I don't remember the site that was doing it because I never actually signed up (I made my list of books to read when I was in France, before I converted my blog to a book blog), so if you know, let me know ;) I also just signed up for the First in a Series Challenge. I like to be reading at least one or two series at all times because if I really like the series, I can fall back on a book in it when life gets stressful, and I'll know that I'll like the book. I've already finished 1 of my favorite series this year, and I'm right on track to finish 2 more. So I think I need to find me some new series to start loving. You can sign up here. I'll post later on what I want to read for both the challenges.  Lastly, I decided to do the 2011 Vintage Mystery Challenge, because I have a lot of Agatha Christies and The Hound of the Baskervilles sitting on my shelves, and it'll be an excuse to finally read them :)  You can sign up for that one here.

Oh, and just so you can all bawl your eyes out and sigh like I did, here is a link to what some are calling the most touching love letter of the American Civil War. You might want some tissues at your side.

Weekend Reads + Epic Knitting Fail (after 15 years of knitting!)

Bonjour mes amis :)  I hope you all had a great week, and a relaxing weekend.  I had a very stressful week filled with lots of work.  And I officially hate my folklore class.  The teacher is impossible.  I have to reprint my paper (it's ungraded until I do) because I didn't put a word count on the title page.  WTF??  I've written tons of research papers and never have I ever been forced to put in a word count.  And seriously.  Couldn't she just take off a few points for that instead of making me waste more paper??  It's crazy.  She also handed back my preliminary bibliography (which is lame anyway, since it's just a list of sources we are going to look at for our next paper..) and said it didn't follow MLA format.  Um....seriously?  I've written enough bibliographies to know how to write one.  I even used her "how to write an MLA bibliography" sheet that she gave us.  I think she's just crazy.

On to something happier though.  And much less stressful.

I finished The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society last night!  I LOVED it!  It is seriously going down as one of my all-time favorite reads.  I'll have a raving review posted soon.  I also got a review book in the mail that I won from LibraryThing.com.  It's called The Lost Child.  I've heard mixed reviews of it and I'm looking forward to reading it and seeing how I feel about it. 

Oh and after knitting for....like 15 years.....I came to the conclusion yesterday while waiting for my Gramma to get out of Dialysis that I'm a failure.  I'm almost (was almost) done with the second sock in a pair for my mom.  Yesterday in the waiting room I was apparently in my own little world, and I slipped half my stitches off a needle.  Epic Fail.  I'm good at picking up lost stitches, except for this was a whole row of them.  And I picked them up, but it looks terrible.  I'm just going to have to frog the whole sock :'(  I'm very upset.

What has everyone else been reading this week? 

Weekend Reads + 2010 Green Books Campaign

I am so excited that there are no classes tomorrow!  What my school used to called "Columbus Day Break" is now being called "Autumn Vacation".  Because, ya know, Columbus was really a mean, evil person who enslaved the natives.  I'm working tomorrow, but just for a few hours in the evening.  I can sleep in!

I went to the book store this week and bought two books: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, which I meant to get from the library but has been on hold for ages, and The Little Stranger, which I think will be perfect for a creepy Halloween read.

I also signed up for the 2010 Green Books Campaign.  I just found out about it this weekend, actually.  It's a campaign to promote books that are printed sustainably, on recycled paper or what have you.  I'm so glad I found this because I am a huge supporter of rycycling and saving trees.  And I often feel really guilty about buying books because I know they were once beautiful trees.  They are still looking for bloggers interested in reviewing books!  They have a PDF list of books to choose from, and the ones that don't have blog links next to them are still available.  Basically you get the book from the publisher and then post your review on November 10th.  To look at the list of books, go here.  They want a total of 200 bloggers and have room still for more :)

I wish everyone a happy week to come, and if you have tomorrow off, happy "Autumn Vacation"!  I have a week full of reviews to post, so watch out for those!  And hello to all my new followers from the Book Blogger Hop!

Weekend Reads

Wow this week went by fast.  And this weekend was....a blur.  It started out Friday night by a phone call from my darling Gramma, asking if I could spend the night with her.  She hurt her hand somehow and it was all puffy and red and she was in excruciating pain.  So I went over to help her out because she could not move it.  Around 12:15 she woke up and couldn't take the pain anymore, so we called 911.  I followed her to the ER and spent ALL NIGHT sitting with her, waiting for test results.  Tests were inconclusive, but they did give her pain medication and an anti-inflammatory so her hand is much better now.  And she didn't break it or anything, we're wondering if it's a pinched nerve.  So we got out of the hospital at 7 am and went to her apartment to get her ready for dialysis.  Picked up her meds from the pharmacy on the way and then I finally got home and slept for 3 hours around 11.  I hate all-nighers!

A lot of people have been asking me lately how I'm liking The Time Traveler's Wife.  I have less than a hundred pages to go and I LOVE it!  I can't believe I didn't read it sooner!  I am, however, sobbing as I read, even though nothing particularly sad has happened yet.  I know something is going to happen though, and the love between Clare and Henry is so beautiful that I am bawling my eyes out because I don't want them to be torn apart!  Lol, I am SO emotional this weekend (probably from the lack of sleep!).  I'll be finishing that book this week.

So much going on in school this week it's ridiculous, and I'm so stressed out!  I have 4 tests (and it's not even midterm week!) and a paper and a phone conversation with a French person for my business French class to practice being a French receptionist!  I'm so nervous about that..

To make things a bit harder, tomorrow starts the beginning of two weeks that are probably always going to be hard for me and my family.  Two years ago tomorrow, my dad had a heart attack which put him in a coma in the hospital.  October 7th would be his birthday.  And October 15th is the day we were finally able to take him off of life support and donate his organs and tissue to other people who needed them more than him.  I miss him everyday but these two weeks I know are going to be really tough.  Boyfriend is going away for a few days at the end of this week too, so he won't be here with me.  So if I'm not posting a lot, it might just be because I'm not in the mood.

And on a happier note, I just saw that the author of Shutter Island is doing a reading and signing in Buffalo on Thursday.  I might go, if I'm up to it.

I hope everyone has a great week, and I honestly cannot wait for this week and next week to be over with.

Weekend Reads

Another week has gone by, and as I sit here I'm starting to think maybe I'm coming down with a cold.  I never get sick.  Ever.  So this is just great (note the sarcasm..).  I'll be spending the rest of my weekend finishing up homework, drinking lots of tea and coffee, reading, and spending time with Boyfriend and Dog at the p-a-r-k.  I finished Cornelia Funke's newest book, Reckless, which was amazing and will be reviewed this week.  I also (finally) found my copy of The Time Traveler's Wife, which I misplaced a while ago and could not find. 

This afternoon the Little One (nickname for little sis, who's actually 17 now!), my mom, and I took a drive down to the Boston (NY) Hills to one of our favorite Autumn haunts-Red Barrel Cider Mill.  We bought apples, cider, and of course, apple butter.  And what goes best with apple butter on the perfect Fall day?!  Homemade bread!  Which I made promptly after returning home.

 

I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a bearable week at work/school/or whatever it is you do ;)

Weekend Reads, Or When A Book Ends With a Bang, a BAD Bang

So I just finished reading a book that will be reviewed a few weeks.  I loved it, really loved it.  I've tried reading other books by this same author but couldn't get into them.  And then this one came along and, well, captured my heart.  I grew to know and love the characters, and I cared about what they were trying to do.  And then came the ending.

"Something big" is going down and most of the characters are laying in wait for it.  They have no plan whatsoever if this "something big" doesn't work out.  And then BAM.  Something totally unexpected happens to the people doing this "something big" and then the book just ends.  It ends!  Just like that.  No speculation as to what the other characters might do.  No afterword.  No nothing.  It's driving me crazy.  I had to sit down and read Cosmo for an hour to try to forget about this ending. 

I've been trying to console myself by making up what I think would have happened to the remaining characters based on their personalities and the predicament they were in, which helps a bit.  But not much.

So my question to you is, what do you do when a book ends so abruptly that you can't stand it and have no idea what happens to the main characters??

Weekend Reads + American Girl is Archiving Felicity?!????

This weekend's reading post has been hijacked by me ranting about American Girl.  Every American woman who was a little girl over the last 25ish years probably knows what I'm talking about.  You know, the adorable American Girl Dolls-historical dolls that come with stories about life back in the day, and outfits, furniture, and accessories that are authentic to the time period the doll lives in.  I grew up collecting these dolls.  While I love the modern girls, my favorites have always been the historicals.  It was these dolls really that sparked my love of both history and reading.  Their stories are fascinating.  And being able to read with your doll and dress her in the same clothes she wears in the books is so much fun.

For the last few years, Mattel (who bought the company quite a few years ago from Pleasant Company) has been slowly "archiving" historical dolls.  This is really just a nice way of saying "retiring".  Because once a doll is archived, you cannot buy the doll or her clothes or her accessories or her furniture from the American Girl Doll website or stores.  First, it was Samantha, which shocked collectors everywhere, because she has always been the company's best selling historical doll.  Next, Kirsten.  I thought this was kind of funny, seeing as Samantha was my little sis's favorite growing up, and Kirsten was my twin sis's favorite doll growing up.  What came next though, I never saw coming.

Felicity, my all-time favorite dolly in the whole wide world, is being archived.  WTF?! (excuse my French....).  I found out about this yesterday, and it broke my heart.  I've been collecting for Felicity since I was 5 years old.  I got her for Christmas in 1995.  She was my first American Girl doll, and I remember begging and begging "Santa" to bring her.  He did, and I was the happiest person alive.  Lissie and I grew up together, and I've slowly added to her collection over the last 15 years.  I don't have it all, but I always thought I'd be able to keep collecting pieces as I got older. 

Well that dream is over, now isn't it?! 

If you're still reading my little rant, thank you, and here's where I get to the point of this whole post.  These dolls were created by Pleasant Rowland because she wanted young girls to have good role models that taught them invaluable life lessons, and got them into history and reading!  It definitely worked, because I owe my love of reading and history (and also my awesomely strong and sweet personality *wink wink*) to these dolls.  When Rowland sold her company to Mattel, it was under the promise that they would never ever retire a historical doll.  The word "archival" is their way of skirting around the issue.  I don't care if they say "Oh we need to make shelf space for new historicals blah blah blah".  They are taking away a part of history and a part of childhood that every girl should be able to have.  Instead of introducing so many new dolls, why not focus more on the collections already out??  Or write more books for the dolls?  Or perhaps STOP making so many "modern dolls" with mini iPods and cell phones.  Girls don't need little clones of themselves, they need something to teach them about what girlhood used to be about.  Taking away the historical dolls is basically like saying "fuck it" to the American Girl mission statement.

With that being said, I now have decided to start rereading all of the historical American Girl books.  I read most of them as a little girl, and they are so great and adorable and thought provoking and emotional.  I'll be sharing my journey of America's history through the eyes of these young girls with you all on my blog as I read the books :)

Here is a photo of my Felicity and her best friend Erin as they look at the page in the current catalog about Lissie's archival.

A Demain tout le monde!  And happy Labor Day celebrations to all you Americans :)

Weekend Reads

Back when I first turned my "Life in France" blog into a book blog, I used to do a weekly feature I called Weekend Reads, where I basically talk about what I've read that week, what I'm planning on reading the next week, and what's been happening in my life in general.  I liked this feature a lot and have decided to get it going again :)

So this past week I read a lot, but I was also really busy getting ready for school to start back up and with work.  I am almost finished with The Jungle, which is SO depressing but really good.  I finished The Gendarme, a new book that will be out this coming Thursday.  It was fantastic and I highly recommend it.  I'll be posting a review on Thursday!  And I lost my copy of The Time Traveler's Wife!  How, you might ask?  Beats me!  The only thing I can think of is that I put the book down somewhere in the big mess that was made when my sister was packing for her semester abroad, and after she left and we were cleaning up, my mom or little sis put the book somewhere.  I need to find it asap though.  I hate getting halfway through a book and then losing it.  (because yes, this has happened before!) 

This week my mom and I rented The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movie!  The Swedish one, with subtitles.  It of course didn't live up to the book, and they had to change some things, and (obviously) shorten the story a bit.  And I was *quite* disappointed by the lack of SAABs in the movie.  There's one part in particular in the book where a SAAB plays a pretty big part (in my SAAB-obsessed opinion, anyway), and they totally changed that part in the movie to include NO SAAB at all!  But I did spy a few on the road throughout the movie ;)

This week, classes start at Buffalo State College.  I'm excited but also sad, because I won't be able to read nearly as much.  I also won't be able to work as much, which is nice, but also sucky, because I do need the money.  I do plan on finishing a few books next week, though.  And my knitting challenge starts on Wednesday, yay!

So that's it for this week.  I discovered some really awesome new blogs on the Book Blogger Hop this week and added them to my Google Reader :)  Hope everyone has a really great week, and OMG first week of September!!