Book Related Podcasts

I received an iPod for Christmas this past year and I really enjoy listening to podcasts. One of my favorites is book-related. It's a short interview with authors through BarnesandNoble.com. I look forward to listening to future interviews as well as other podcasts about books. Technology can be a wonderful thing!

Where's the time?

I'm still plugging away at my current reads but time is not plentiful right now. I started a job in mid-December and I'm trying to balance everything. It's my first job since leaving the workforce 15 years ago when I had my oldest daughter. I'm working a call center job at home and it's going fine. But, when you work 20+ hours a week you need to really get organized for cleaning and laundry and all the rest. Reading time is being pushed down on the priority list.

Review: The Mournful Teddy by John J. Lamb

This is the first in a new series set in the world of bear collecting/making. The main characters are Brad and Ashleigh Lyon, a married couple in their late 40's. Brad is a retired officer from the San Francisco police department. Due to an on the job injury, he was forced to retire early. At the beginning of the book, the couple has recently moved to Ashleigh's hometown on the east coast so she can be near family and try her hand at making and showing teddy bears.

The Mournful Teddy is a good start to a promising series. I wouldn't exactly categorize it as a cozy though as Brad is the main one helping to solve a murder and mystery. Since he is a former detective, he has great knowledge on how to do this unlike your typical cozy featuring an amateur sleuth. I really like the relationship between Brad and his wife. They are very supportive and loving of each other. I also liked a few secondary characters, such as Tina the deputy, who I hope appear in other books in this series. The mystery dragged a bit and I was hoping for more bear collecting/making exposure. All in all it was a nice read.

Rating: B

A List of All The Books I'm Reading for Challenges

To make things easier for myself I'm listing all the books I've committed to the various reading challenges for this year in one place. I can mark them off as I go.

I DIDN'T FINISH ANY CHALLENGE IN 2008. RATHER EMBARASSING!

What's In a Name? Challenge

1. Blue Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews
2. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
3. Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie
   
4. Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez
5. Rainlight by Alison McGhee
6. Red Roses Mean Love by Jacquie D'Allesandro
   

TBR Challenge

1. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
2. The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford
3. Fifty Acres and A Poodle by Jeanne Marie Laskas
4. Games of Pleasure by Julia Ross
5. A Perfect Red by Amy Butler Greenfield
6. Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
7. A House Somewhere: Tales of Life Abroad by Don George and Anthony Sattin
8. Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos
9. Betty Sweet Tells All by Judith Minthorn Stacy
10. Hyper-Chondriac by Brian Frazer
11. How to be a (Bad) Birdwatcher by Simon Barnes
12. United States of Argula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation by David Kamp

Romance Club Challenge

1. In the Highlander's Bed by Cathy Maxwell
2. Springwater Wedding by Linda Lael Miller
3. Tempted at Every Turn by Robyn DeHart
   
4. Dancing Shoes and Honky-Tonk Blues by LuAnn McLane
5. Love of a Cowboy by Anna Jeffrey
   
6. The Education of Mrs. Brimley by Donna MacMeans

Romance Reading Challenge

1. Strike Zone by Kate Angell
2. Big Girls Don't Cry by Cathie Linz
3. Catch of the Day by Kristan Higgins
4. Line of Scrimmage by Marie Force
   
5. Tumbling Through Time by Gwyn Cready

Look At the View

Before I get back on track I'd like to share something else. The following is an excerpt of an essay by author Anna Quindlen related to commencement or in her receiving an honorary doctorate from Villanova in 1999. It is unclear to me which it really is. However, what is clear is her message about life. I like to remind myself of this often.

Look At the View by Anna Quindlen

...So here's what I wanted to tell you today: get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast? Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over Seaside Heights, a life in which you stop and watch how a red tailed hawk circles over the water gap or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a cheerio with her thumb and first finger. Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work.

Each time you look at your diploma, remember that you are still a student, still learning how to best treasure your connection to others. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. Kiss your Mom. Hug your Dad. Get a life in which you are generous. Look around at the azaleas in the suburban neighborhood where you grew up; look at a full moon hanging silver in a black sky on a cold night. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beers and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough. It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the color of the azaleas, the sheen of the limestone on Fifth Avenue, the color of our kids eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of live.

I learned to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my druthers, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all. I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world and to try to give some of it back because I believed in it completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness because if you do you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.
Well, you can learn all those things, out there, if you get a real life, a full life, a professional life, yes, but another life, too, a life of love and laughs and a connection to other human beings. Just keep your eyes and ears open. Here you could learn in the classroom. There the classroom is everywhere. The exam comes at the very end.

I found one of my best teachers on the boardwalk at Coney Island maybe 15 years ago. It was December, and I was doing a story about how the homeless survive in the winter months. He and I sat on the edge of the wooden supports, dangling our feet over the side, and he told me about his schedule, panhandling the boulevard when the summer crowds were gone, sleeping in a church when the temperature went below freezing, hiding from the police amidst the Tilt-a-Whirl and the Cyclone and some of the other seasonal rides. But he told me that most of the time he stayed on the boardwalk, facing the water, just the way we were sitting now even when it got cold and he had to wear his newspapers after he read them. And I asked him why. Why didn't he go to one of the shelters? Why didn't he check himself into the hospital for detox? And he just stared out at the ocean and said, "Look at the view, young lady. Look at the view."

And every day, in some little way, I try to do what he said. I try to look at the view. And that's the last thing I have to tell you today, words of wisdom from a man with not a dime in his pocket, no place to go, nowhere to be.

Look at the view. You'll never be disappointed.

Welcome to Holland

Every once in a while I will veer off the road of books and reading. This is one of those times. Last fall one of my oldest friends had her first child at 42. Her daughter is a very special girl with Down Syndrome. I became aware of a wonderful essay for a time such as this when our neighbor had a child with Down Syndrome 4 years ago. I love Welcome to Holland and its sentiments so much I want to share it here.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland." "Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Getting Back to Reading

I've had lots of fun the past few days looking through all my books and committing some to the challenges I've signed up for. Now it's time to get back to what I love best and that's reading.

I love to read magazines too and get quite a few--OK more than a few--magazine subscriptions. This is mostly because the middle school my daughter attends sells magazine subscriptions as their big fundraiser. I'm helping the cause right? Who am I kidding? I'd probably have just about as many subscriptions without that push. LOL Anyway, I need to strike a better balance between reading magazines and books. They both pile up quickly around here.

Amateur Sleuth Reading Challenge 2008

Oh my goodness, remember when I said I can get obsessive? Well this is what I mean. LOL These reading challenges are addicting and a great way to spark an online reading group.

I run one more reading group called Mystery Reader Cafe through Yahoo with Linda. I'm challenging those interested from the group to:

1. Read 6 or more books featuring an amateur sleuth
2. Each sleuth must have a different vocation or hobby (ex. innkeeping, cooking, writing an advice column, owning a craft store, school psychologist, etc.)
3. These can be the first in the series or anywhere else

This should be pretty simple to accomplish for those who like cozy mysteries. Look through your stacks and stacks of mysteries and commit 6 to this challenge. Let us know on the list what you picked and keep us posted as you reach your goal.

Good luck to all who are participating!!!

On The Porch Swing Reading Challenge 2008

My partner in crime, Linda, has come up with our first reading challenge for an online book group we run at Yahoo. Our group is called On The Porch Swing. Members can use either of the above on their blogs while they work on it this year. Here is the challenge:

1. read a book with a color in EITHER the title or the author's name
2. read a book with a person's name in the title
3. read a book with the word house, or home, or cottage in the title (only one book with either of those words in the title)
4. read a book with the word family, brother, or sister in the title (again, only one book with either of those words in the title)
5. read a book with some type of water in the title -this could be ocean, lake, pond, river, rain, etc.
   
   Good luck to all who are participating!

Romance Book Club Reading Challenge 2008

I am announcing the first annual reading challenge for an online book group I run through Yahoo. It's called Romance Book Club. Here are the rules for the

Romance Book Club Reading Challenge 2008:

• Read a romance by an author you have never read before
• Read a romance that includes a wedding-related word in the title such as Bride, Groom, Bridesmaid, Bridegroom, Wedding
• Read a romance with a provocative word in the title such as Seduced, Wicked, Scandal, Dangerous, Tempt, Scorned, Compromised
• Read a romance with a color name in the title (ex. The Rose Red Bride)
• Read a romance with the word LOVE either in the title or the author's name
• Read a romance with a proper name in the title (ex. Seducing Sir Oliver)

The challenge starts today and ends December 31, 2008! Good luck to all who are participating.

Here are the books I've chosen for the challenge:

1. In the Highlander's Bed by Cathy Maxwell
2. Springwater Wedding by Linda Lael Miller
3. Tempted at Every Turn by Robyn DeHart
   
4. Dancing Shoes and Honky-Tonk Blues by LuAnn McLane
5. Love of a Cowboy by Anna Jeffrey
   
6. The Education of Mrs. Brimley by Donna MacMeans

The Mournful Teddy by John J. Lamb

I'm currently reading my first cozy mystery of 2008. It's the debut of a new series related to collecting bears. Here is a synopsis:

Retired San Francisco cop Brad Lyon is settling into a quieter life with his wife, Ashleigh, in Virginia's mountain country, where they collect and create teddy bears. Brad is helping his wife put the finishing touches on her best bears, just in time for the Shenandoah Valley Teddy Bear Extravaganza. The event will draw fur-ball fanatics from near and far to buy, sell, or simply ogle the bears. But the main event will be the showing of the Mourning Bear, made to commemorate the sinking of the Titanic-and worth a hefty $150,000. Then a local also meets a watery grave-and Brad spots the body floating in the Shenandoah. Old habits die hard, so Brad starts investigating like a homicide cop and finds the deceased might have had a connection to the Mourning Bear. But the local law would prefer that Brad keep his mouth sewn shut...

I have always been fascinated with things related to the Titanic so I hope this is a good one.

Review: Blue Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews

I have completed the first book for the first reading challenge I signed up for! Unfortunately, the experience was average at best. But, that's one fewer book on my stacks! LOL I will give a brief review.

Blue Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews

This is the first book by Andrews I've read. I started out really enjoying the book, getting swept up in the charm, description of the antiques world, and the humor. However, as the book went on, it went flat. I have read lots of romances and cozy mysteries so I'm familiar with the formula. As a romance, it didn't meet my expectations. I never felt the chemistry between the hero and heroine. In fact, I thought Daniel was annoying and boring. As a mystery, it was just OK. I did like our main character a lot and her heart was in a good place helping out Apple Annie. In the second half of the book, the author's attempts at humor came off as too over the top for my tastes. Having quirky characters is always a fun thing. However, I felt Andrews took a step beyond quirky and made some things silly, which was a turnoff.

I understand after reading other reviews the 2 main female characters are in other books by this author. Since I have several more written by her in my stacks I will read them at some point. If I hadn't, I doubt I would have made much effort to seek them out. Hopefully this is like Janet Evanovich. Her main series of books are great but the offshoot ones with a Christmas theme or the like aren't.

Rating: C+

Blue Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews

I am currently reading Blue Christmas. This came highly recommended from someone on my Yahoo romance book club group. Although the theme is a bit late in season (or is it early now? lol), it's proving to be quite entertaining. I'm reading this for the What's In a Name Challenge.

Here is a synopsis:

It's the week before Christmas, and antiques dealer Weezie Foley is in a frenzy to garnish her shop for the Savannah historical district decorating contest, which she intends to win. But suddenly things start to go missing from her display, and there seems to be a mysterious midnight visitor to her shop. Still, Weezie has high hopes for the holiday—maybe in the form of an engagement ring from her chef boyfriend. But Daniel, always moody at the holidays, seems more distant than usual. Throw in Weezie's decidedly odd family, a 1950s Christmas-tree pin, and even a little help from the King himself (Elvis, that is), and maybe there will be a pocketful of miracles for Weezie this Christmas Eve.

Romance Reading Challenge 2008

So much for self control. LOL I have joined another 2008 reading challenge. This should be easy to do though.

Romance Reading Challenge Rules:



1. "Romance" isn't limited to steamy Harlequin novels. There is a huge selection of books in this category such as contemporary romance, historical romance, romantic suspense and paranormal romance to name a few. As long as the story has romantic love between the two main characters your selection will fit this challenge.

2. Choose at least 5 novels read them sometime in 2008. You can change your choices at any time.

3. Read them at your own pace in 2008 then come here and post the link to your review(s).

4. Link your "RRC" choices here with any of these graphics: http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/2007/10/romance-reading-challenge.html

Here are my choices for the challenge:

• Strike Zone by Kate Angell
• Big Girls Don't Cry by Cathie Linz
• Catch of the Day by Kristan Higgins
• Line of Scrimmage by Marie Force
  
• Tumbling Through Time by Gwyn Cready

My First Book of 2008/Review: Last Night at the Lobster

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan is my first book of 2008. It is a slight book, 146 pages, that tells the story of employees working the last shift at a Red Lobster before it is torn down. The manager has several challenges including employees that don't show up for their shift and a blizzard.

I'm glad I read this from the library considering the length. I still find myself thinking of the characters. I really felt like there was some truth in all of them and that they were familiar in some way. I've never worked in a restaurant nor have I eaten in a Red Lobster much but it seemed quite realistic. All this said, despite its small size, I found it to be tedious in places. This is another reason I'm glad I didn't purchase it. O'Nan is an author who has interested me enough to seek out his other books at some point in the future.

Rating: B-

TBR Challenge

I'm challenging myself to read the following books in 2008 from my enormous TBR stack.

***UNFORTUNATELY, I FAILED MOST OF MY READING CHALLENGES MISERABLY. LIFE AND WORK GOT IN THE WAY.***

1. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss


2. The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford


3. Fifty Acres and A Poodle by Jeanne Marie Laskas


4. Games of Pleasure by Julia Ross


5. A Perfect Red by Amy Butler Greenfield


6. Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot


7. A House Somewhere: Tales of Life Abroad by Don George and Anthony Sattin


8. Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos


9. Betty Sweet Tells All by Judith Minthorn Stacy


10. Hyper-Chondriac by Brian Frazer


11. How to be a (Bad) Birdwatcher by Simon Barnes


12. United States of Argula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation by David Kamp

Most of these have been in my possession for at least 6 months. Some have been MUCH longer. Yikes!

More Reading Challenges Ahead?

I have a tendency to get obsessive so I need to be sure I don't join too many reading challenges and then end up overwhelmed or disappointed. I've been excitedly thinking about all the challenges I've seen or thought of doing on my own.

I've gotten away from reading mysteries in the past few years, despite helping run an online mystery group. I really can't explain why. I used to love reading horror as a teenager (a la Stephen King or John Saul). I then moved into other types of mysteries such as police procedurals. As I look through my stacks and stacks of books, I see I have whittled out all but the cozy mysteries. So, I'm going to challenge myself to read some of those this year. I could do a first in a series reading challenge or I've been thinking of a "Mysterious Jobs" one. The amateur sleuths in cozies now have such specific jobs--potter, gardener, candle maker, inn owner, card maker, craft store owner, yarn shop owner, flower shop owner, etc. I think it might be fun to pick 12 of my cozies (one a month), each with a different job. What do you think?

The other reading challenge I'd like to do, either on my own or "officially" is a TBR challenge. I've found myself buying fewer and fewer books now that I use the 3 book swap sites but it still adds to my book stacks. These reading challenges appear to be a great motivation to get those pesky piles down, even though I know they will never go away. And who really wants that anyway? LOL

My first post and my first reading challenge!

I've been a longtime reader and have been involved in online reading communities for years. In the past I've never felt compelled to join a reading challenge. For some reason, this year I really want to do this. So, through an online group I'm a part of, I've heard of several challenges. I am going to try to do several. One I will try is called What's In a Name. Here are the rules of the challenge:

"What's In A Name?" Reading Challenge

Dates: January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008

The Challenge: Choose one book from each of the following categories. My choices are listed in color after each category. As I read them I will link them up to my reviews.

***DID NOT FINISH***

***UNFORTUNATELY, I FAILED MOST OF MY READING CHALLENGES MISERABLY. LIFE AND WORK GOT IN THE WAY.***

1. A book with a color in its title.

Blue Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews

2. A book with an animal in its title.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen


3. A book with a first name in its title.
Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie


4. A book with a place in its title.
Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez

5. A book with a weather event in its title.
Rainlight by Alison McGhee

6. A book with a plant in its title.
Red Roses Mean Love by Jacquie D'Allesandro