Round the World Challenge

Well, I may be a little off from "new year, new topic" and maybe I didn't do so well last year, but I'm back, in March of 2012 with a new mission that I've been subconsciously working on.... reading books from around the globe.  The first book of this topic was "Memoirs of a Geisha."  Who would've guessed that I didn't read that when it was so popular?  But alas, my roommate had it sitting on our shelf- voila.  I still think that Lisa See has written the best Chinese literature ("Peony in Love" being my favorite).  Second, I hit up the Carribean with "The Pirate's Daughter."  Meh.  Now, I'm in the middle of a surprising novel from the perspective of a servant in India, "White Tiger." I'll let you know how it goes- I'm almost done!  And then I'll get a map that I can cross off.  The question is, how in depth should I get on the map?  Is regional good enough?  Will a country-by-country reading exploration be too hard to find books? 

guess who's back? tell a friend.

Okay, my new goal was a complete and utter flop.  Since I last wrote (I think...) I have packed up my college life, moved back home, been a part of 2 weddings, and said a sort of goodbye to my habibi, the man of my dreams.  Yes, I miss him.  Yes, I still talk to him almost every day because I can't let go, and I don't think he can either.  There is a chance he may stay here to go to grad school.  Where does that leave me?  I'm not sure.  Since school let out, I got an awesome, albeit sometimes pretty boring, job as a technical writer/phone answerer/website designer/copy writer/dog transporter/lunch fetcher/phone call maker.....  I am now a Girl Friday, but with a little more pizazz than that, because my official position is 'Office Manager'.  Oooh, I'm really stepping up in the world, eh?  But it is a job, it is helping me pay off my post-college/post-dating-long-distance debt.  Not very quickly, but it is a journey, isn't that what they say? 
Anyway, to those of you that read this, or used to read this, or have never read this before in your life, I think I'm back.  I'm not trying to read 100 books this year (or any other year, ever again!)  but I still read.  And I like blabbering about myself.  And my besty told me she would like to read a blog about me and what i do on a day to day business but more in my personality.  so here you go.  AND since i really don't have any sort of social life outside of work and jersey shore, I still read compulsively.  So I guess I'll throw in a book review or two. 
Baby, I'm Back :)

73.-74. shakespeare and dogs

 

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas' The Hidden Life of Dogs and a book of Shakespeare's sonnets..... 26 more to go in ooohhh let's see... 8 weeks.  how will this happen????  3 or 4 books a week!!!!  luckily i am in the process of reading like 4 others right now for school and i have a semi-free weekend this weekend.  The Hidden Life of Dogs was cool, but not as interesting as I thought it would be.  Marshall Thomas is a crazy woman- she spent thousands of hours following her huskies on walks to see where they went and how they reacted to certain situations like traffic, other dogs, different neighborhoods, etc.  But she left so many questions that I would've liked to have known at "I could never figure out the reason for this.."  I would like to know the reason for this, that is why i'm reading your book: go find the reason or back it up with other instances of other dogs doing something like this!  oh well, it was still a quick and interesting read, plus I enjoy almost anything dog-related, so i enjoyed it overall.  also, i read shakespeare's 152 sonnets for my literature class, which, by the way, is kicking my ass.  we have to read so many poems a week that they all get filtered through the system as if we haven't read them at all, then we are tested on nit-picky details.  thanks a lot, lady.  i'm really learning from your class............................... NOT.  "This suit is black not."  -Borat (a way more entertaining fellow than shakespeare- yup, i said it, I, and english major, said it. borat is more entertaining than shakespeare)

72. should count as 3 books

Another diana gabaldon book.... i think the fifth one maybe. 1000 + pages is too much for me this late in the game- rookie mistake but im plowing thru it all. Too bad the habibi and the school is so distracting. Im finding it all to be a little much but im happy :) and i will make it to 100 if it kills me.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

looking back so far:

Before number forty makes its' debut on the list, let's review the first 39 in quick, pageant style, review:
1. Ten Days in the Hills, Smiley+
2. Who moved my blackberry?, Lucy Kellaway
3. Girls of Riyahd, Alsnea
4. Dragonfly in Amber, Gabaldon+
5. Teaching Poetry in HS, Somers
6. Neither Here nor There, Bryson+
7. Teach like your Hair's on Fire, Esquith
8,9,10. Bad Boys in Black Tie, Foster, McCarthy, and Leigh
11. The Map of Love, Soueif
12. T.E.T., Gordon
13. The Giver, Lowry
14. Something Blue, Giffin+
15. Dear John, Sparks (or lack thereof)
16. Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry, Willhelm
17. deeper reading, gallagher
18.the moor's last sigh, rushdie+
19. mediterranean summer, shalleck
20. the road, mccarthy
21. second helpings, mccafferty *yes!*
22. Classics in the Classroom, jago
23. Split Second, Baldacci
24. you are what you eat, dr mckeith
25. little lady agency, browne+
26. joey pigza swallowed the key, gantos
27. white noise, delillo
28. the treasure, johansen
29. reading native american literature, goebel
30. sunburned country, bryson+
31. the phantom tollbooth, juster
32. blogs, wikis, podcasts..., richardson
33. the help, stockett
34. a room with a view, forster
35. moscow rules, silva
36. little lady, big apple, browne+
37. even cowgirls get the blues, robbins
38. little lady and the prince, browne+
39. ellen foster, gibbons

i give this book, number 39, an O for Oprah's book list

oh, oprah.  what ever will i do with you?  i'm not going to lie, seeing your book club O stamp of approval on the cover made me hesitate to pick this up for myself.  because you disgust me and sicken me with your conniving approach on controlling america from the not-so-behind the scenes.  exhibit a: your book club.  do you think it's right to bring these high-falutin novels with class, dignity, and something to say down into your everyday mom, silly hands'?  well i suppose i do.  but what i do not approve of is allowing people to read novels without learning how to read novels beforehand.  if there is one thing that I learned (and

i believe there has only been the one thing that i have learned from my english education classes),  it is that you cannot CANNOT just throw a reader into a complex and intricate work of literature.  things need to be laid out and understood about how to go about reading things that delve so deep into the inner workings of the human psyche of society.  This is my problem with the O for Oprah book club picks- let the first book on the list be a book about how to read a novel properly and I will back off a little (only a little though because I really do despise the very ground that woman walks on). 
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons was touching at the end.  The whole thing felt like every other southern white novel expose that i'd read before but the end really made me feel two feelings:  good that this little girl got her luck and horrible for thinking 'huh, maybe i am lucky to have not been abused, passed on several times through houses of crazy relatives, seeing three people die, thinking colored could be passed on through germs, not being able to cry because grandmas yell at you to cry like your bastard daddy who killed your mother, yada yada yada.  but then this girl ellen struck a chord.  she had one or two pages left to get to me and by golly she did.  she says, "Now I can turn out to be different too.  I could have been a hobo.  If my new mama and her girls had been gone on a vacation there is no telling where old Ellen might have turned up.

       If I think about my life like that I can see how lucky I am.  "

Damn.  we should all be so lucky to realize our luck.  *

36. Little Lady and the Valley of Flowers

Little Lady, Big Apple by Hester Browne

The Little Lady Agency is back, but she is in New York City this time with her lovaah.  And I am in the Valley of Flowers with my lovaaah ;)  The beginning of summer always brings about changes of feelings, moods, emotions, friends, food, drinks, scenery, yada yada yada.  This particular beginning of summer has brought about a lot of changes for me as far as feelings, moods, emotions, friends, food, drinks, scenery, yada yada yada.  I'm happy to say they are very good changes.  Instead of having to drive to see my amazing man and amazing friends, I am officially located with them.  As the Little Lady officially relocated to be with her amazing man.  But she has turmoil in her New York life.  So far, with the exception of not finding a job and being incredibly broke, my summer has been turmoil free and A-MAZ-ING.  Besides, there could be plenty worse things than not having a job.  instead of wandering the streets and going to lunch with people i don't really like (in order to impress somebody else), i have time to sit back, decorate, cook, and...... READ!  (and, lucky you, to write ;)

paperbackswap.com

well, i'm half-way through my fourth book, which i have yet to reveal to you readers, but it was loaned to me by an amazing friend and it is book two of a series, so its anybodys guess!
it is taking me a little longer t finish it than i had intended, so i thought i would use my leave of absence as an opportunity to plug one of my favorite sites/programs:
http://www.paperbackswap.com/
its an amazing website-- check it out if you love to read and/or have a stack of books you've already read that are crowding you in. so check it out! http://www.paperbackswap.com/

Book number 3- hell yeah!

The Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsnea

So begins my middle eastern kick.... well actually, this is my second book about that enticing and scary place since school got out. Reading Lolita in Tehran was my 74th book last year, and it became one of my favorites. i'm not sure if everyone would like it like i do, though, as i enjoy it also from the eyes of a literature student.....

let me start out by confessing that i am incredibly naive and ignorant to many matters- other cultures being one of them. the only thing i really knew about the middle east/central asian areas i learned from aladdin so many years ago. as you can imagine, my knowledge set is a little skewed as a result. but this past year i have learned a lot, and i am eager to learn more. several assigned books (A Passage to India, a british classic, and Shabanu, a tale of a young nomad girl in current day Pakistan) taught me a lot. and then there was a handsome saudi who got me a lot more interested in the ways of the arabic people. i know it's a little pathetic to throw yourself on a subject simply because a cute boy is tied to it, but i am one of those girls. if you don't know me already, you will see more proof of this later on, i'm almost positive. i also know a rediculous amount about baseball (thankyou first boyfriend) and i have an encyclopedic ear for rappers' voices and some mildly impressive skills in guitar hero (thank you boyfriend number 2). so now i throw myself into the world of the exotic middle east. arrrraaaaabbbian niiiiigggghttts ha ha ha ha ANYWHO, back to the novel- it wasn't spectacularly exciting or memorable, but i enjoyed it and i learned a lot about saudi culture.

it is truly facsinating to see how these girls behave and are treated. it is everyday for them. of course this was a fairly mild view, and there was nothing to do with violence or even close to view the oppression, but to these girls, it is normal. i cannot imagine. they live completely under the rule of the Qu'ran- the Islamic religion is literally their set of laws. those aren't suggestions to live a moral life, they are rules punishable by ????? i don't even want to think about the punishment. they yearn for each other through the phone. what must we american girls (or westernized girls in general) look like to them? heathens? whores? or the luckiest girls on earth? here we are, with our little "sleepovers" but even sleeping in the same room with a man must look like a horrible (or truly delectable) sin to them- much less sleeping all up on them, in underwear???? it kind of makes you wonder what the hell we ought to think of ourselves? maybe we should step back, especially as christian girls and think that maybe we should be a little more prudent. but why? shouldn't we abuse our priviliges as much as we can? i don't know, these thoughts kind of scare me. what if i body-swapped with a saudi girl? what would our lives be like in these alter bodies? i guess that is just something to think about next time i go 'hang out' with a guy, right? and reading The Girls of Riyadh did teach me a few things about their culture and lives, so here they are, on a less serious note:

Things I learned from reading The Girls of Riyadh:

1. Riyadh is a city in Saudi Arabia

2. An Abayah is the name for what the rest of us call those robe thingys (for women)

3. the traditional outfit for a man (white robe, red/white head covering) is composed of a thobe, a shimagh (my favorite, because it is fun to pronounce- the head covering) and eqal is the dark ropey part that keeps the shimagh in place

4. men often "number" girls in hangout places like the mall or streets- they give them flowers with their phone numbers wrapped around the stem

5. for many, the phone is the only way to get to know someone of the opposite sex that is unrelated

6. the month after Ramadan is the most popular time for weddings

so there's some fun facts for you. now read from right to left and say "happy times!" altogether now:

الاوقات السعيدة

Great success! signing off, me, as borat! VERY NICE!

yes, i realize that was a very inappropriate way to end a discussion about saudi arabian culture, especially since i am lumping borat, a kazakstani, in with it, but i love borat so much, and this will probably not be the last time you see him.

#2: a so-so christmas present

well, well. i guess it serves me right for digging into my mom's christmas presents before she got a chance to read them.

Who Moved My Blackberry? by Lucy Kellaway

What promised to be a delightful mix of Bridget Jones' Diary and The Office was most definitely not. while i don't always enjoy British humor, i do understand most of it, but i didn't understand this. maybe that is because it wasn't funny (to me). people cheating on their wives and backstabbing and being uber-self centered just aren't my thing. but my cousin apparently enjoyed it because he gifted it to my mom for christmas. luckily for her, i previewed. because no one gave me books for christmas! can you believe that? combined my parents amassed 12 books over the holiday season, but moi? nothing. so i resort to pilfering their gifts for a day or two and look what happens. it is books like these that make me fear for whatever relationship i may have in the future- how am i to know whether or not my husband will end up like such a twit as this martin lukes character who makes everybody wait on him hand and food and then blames it on others when he is caught red-handed. i truly hated this character throughout the entire novel, which was unfortunate because it was told from his blackberry out-box. very unfortunate indeed.

FIRST BOOK OF THE YEAR!!!!!

wow! my first book of the whole year! i can't believe christmas break is going by so fast- with so little time to read! soooo.... -drumroll please-

Ten Days in the Hills, by Jane Smiley

it was really quite an interesting book. i will admit right off the bat that i do judge books by their covers, and that is why i picked this one up at the library. i have enjoyed on of jane smiley's other books, and so i thought i'd give this one a go. the cover is sensual and the "Rated R for Ravishing....not approved for children" on the back did not lead to disappointment. oh how i love a great, steamy novel! the thing that was so great about the sex in this book was that it wasn't trying to be sexy. in romance novels there is this typical dialogue and key phrases that all of the harlequin authors use (no diss on those authors, though- in fact, my life goal is to someday become one). but in smiley's book, it was so unexpected and vivid, but she kept mixing in everyday discussions. the scenes that stick out try so hard to not be sexy that they are so SO sexy and erotic. amazing! i can understand why smiley won a pulitzer, although i have yet to read the award-winning novel, a thousand acres. it is, however, in my stack of books that i have lined up so far for this coming year.
besides the stunningly sexy parts of the book (which there were quite a few!), Ten Days in the Hills offered a slightly biased albeit valid position on the Iraq war. this was written in a a time period of ten days at the very beginning of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a little while after 9/11. its crazy to think that 9/11 is part of our history and a topic of discussion for people to write books around and such, since it seems like it happened only a year or so ago. i still remember where i was during the moment of silence. something about the emotion of all these other people made me cry, even though i wasn't directly affected by the attacks. my civics teacher went a little crazy that day, but for the first time of the semester, he didn't say something about our "apathetic youth," so that says something, right? anyway, these characters in Ten Days in the Hills have a running dialogue dispersed through all of their observations and sexual occurrences about their feelings on terrorists and war and our government, etc. etc. that got to be a little bit much for me, but it was cool to see into another person's thought processes over these sorts of subjects.