Monthly Wrap-Up for Challenges

As you can see on the sidebar, I've entered a number of reading challenges this year, and I'm really having fun meeting the requirements.  I'm especially pleased that I've been able to clear out so many ARCs and I'm keeping pace with the ones arriving this year. I'm still not completely caught up, but by April, I hope to be on track, and then I've promised myself I'll never get so far behind again...

Several of my challenges feature criteria that are overlapping, so books can count for more than one challenge. However, I'm finding that when I go to enter all of these in the individual Mr. Linky's set up by the contest people, Mr. Linky doesn't like that overlap. So.........I'm going to do a monthly post and list (and link) them here, and then just use this one post in Mr. Linky to see if that works. If you're a challenge maestro, I'll be emailing you (if I can find your email) to let you know what's happening.

The composite report indicates that for the month of January, I've read  and reviewed 20 books (not counting the four I abandoned).  Of those my top five are

1. Fireworks over Toccoa
2. Then Came the Evening
3. Supreme Courtship
4. True Blue
5. The Postmistress.

Unfortunately, Fireworks and Evening won't be in the stores until next month...But they are worth waiting for.
So here's the progress for the month--the Challenge Title links to that blog's contest, and the Book title links to my review:

Books Won Reading Challenge:
Supreme Courtship
True Blue (Audio)
Simon's Cat

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Reading from My Shelves Challenge:
A Year in the Merde
Kitchen
Founding Brothers
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Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge
Death Goes on Retreat
A Fountain Filled with Blood
Key Lime Pie Murder
True Blue
The Black Echo
China Lake 
Death of a Valentine
A Fatal Grace
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Typically British Reading Challenge
Starburst
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Audio Book Challenge
Death Goes on Retreat
A Fountain Filled with Blood
Key Lime Pie Murder
True Blue
The Black Echo
China Lake
Starburst
A Fatal Grace
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ARC Reading Challenge
The Book of William
My Name is Will
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
The Lovely Bones
Then Came the Evening
The Postmistress
Death of a Valentine
Fireworks over Toccoa
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TBR Challenge
Supreme Courtship
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Support Your Local Library
China Lake
The Black Echo
Death Goes on Retreat
A Fountain Filled with Blood
Starburst
Key Lime Pie Murder
The Body in the Cast

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So there you have it for January.  I even took time off last nite to watch that gorgeous full moon rise over the river!  Even though meeting those reading challenges is fun, I don't want ever to lose sight of the best the world has to offer...it's right outside the door, and sitting right next to us and it's all the friends we've make over the years.  On to February.

Review: True Blue

Author: David Baldacci
Narrator: Ron McClartey
Format:  12 discs (hrs) - equivalent 372 pgs
Characters: Mase Perry, Beth Perry, Roy Kingman
Subject: murder, national security,
Setting: Washington DC
Genre: Thriller, suspense
Source: Hachette Audio contest prize

This is a scary book.  The plot is scary, the characters scare the living blankety blank out of me, and the premise is nightmarish because it is so real.

It has a well developed, tightly written plot with many twists, surprises, and heart-stopping developments. Within the first 5 minutes of this audio, we have a US attorney murdered and his body stuffed in a dumpster by ??? --- are they good guys or bad guys??? This question will drop to the bottom of the dumpster with the body and only reappear much later in the book.  In the meantime we have a female prisoner being molested by a guard and threatened by other inmates while she's trying to hold on for 3 more days until her release.  And we have a high powered, big money corporate attorney discovering the body of a colleague in his office refrigerator when he goes for cream for his morning coffee.  So much for trying to come in early to get work done!

It has characters whose actions sometimes require us to suspend belief, (what would you do if you were facing a gang of hoodlums with automatic weapons??---I won't spoil it, but I'm not sure my choice would have been the one written). Our heroine is constatly ignoring common sense, speeding off on her Dukati, and getting into all kinds of trouble, but like WonderWoman, she manages to extricate herself---all without a gun, and often without the help of her sister the Police Chief or her buddy the lawyer !!

The good guys are almost stereotypical--the blond female Washington DC police chief Beth Perry; her sister Mason (Mase)--a cop wrongly accused of dealing drugs who has recently been released from prison and is trying to clear her name and get her badge and gun back; Ron Kingman, a college basketball star turned corporate attorney who befriends a homeless Vietnam vet by giving him shoes, twinkies, and keeping tabs to be sure he's ok.  Cap'n (the homeless vet) is one of the most fun characters in the book.  He provides a few sad but comic moments in a very intense book.

The bad guys are numerous and often masquerade as good guys.  The good guys aren't above a little law breaking if it serves their purpose.  In fact, one of the scariest aspects of this book is that it's hard to tell who's who----good guy? bad guy?

The story is almost a political commentary on the state of US national security today and the scariest premise of all is that this kind of activity is going on in the name of national security, and none of us will ever know, or could do a thing about it if we did know.

As an audio, it is well served by Ron McClartey's crime reporter voice.  I just wish that Hachette would not have included all the sound effects that seem to be de rigeur in today's MTV world.  I listen to audio books because I find it difficult due to physical limitations to hold books for long periods of time, and my eyes are getting 'old' and tired.  So I want to listen to the book.  I don't want a stage production.  My mind still works and I want to be able to IMAGINE the bullets zinging, the motorcycles zooming, the cars crashing.  And  Please............the "dum dah, dum dah, dum dah" music used to fade into and out of scenes reminds me of JAWS.  I almost expected a shark to pop up.  It will be bad enough when they make this a movie (and you know they will!) and we have to see all this.  Until then, I'd rather paint my own mental pictures thank you.





Challenge: Books Won, AudioBooks, Thrillers and Suspense

Many thanks to Hachette for making these available for blog contests.

Review : Starburst

 

Author: Robin Pilcher
Format: audio 11 discs - 13 hrs (474 pg equivalent)
Characters: Angelique Pascal, Jamie Stratton, Leonard Hartson, Rene Brownlow, Thomas "TK" Keene, Gavin Macintosh, Albert Dessuin
Subject: various characters working through life problems
Setting: Edinburgh "festival"
Genre: Fiction
Source: Public library

It's been quite a while since I read anything by either Rosamunde or Robin Pilcher. I had forgotten how incredibily character dependent their work is. It wasn't until I was half-way through that things started to "happen". I had almost given up by then.

In this story, set against the backdrop of an annual arts festival held in Edinburgh every August, Pilcher presents us with a beatiful and talented young female violin prodigy and her rather unlikeable teacher/manager; an absolutely down on his luck, but if you're a mother you have to hug him, recovering drug addict car thief who only wants to be a movie maker; an elderly retired filmaker called out of retirement to film a Japanese dance troupe performing at the festival; a young recent university grad trying to get his flat cleaned up, repaired and on the market so he can leave Edinburgh in September for his new job in London; a pyrotechnic genius designing and producing his final show (the "starburst") before he retires; a thoroughly delightful standup comic from a pub in the burbs, whose local patrons take up a collection to book her act into the festival; and a young newly-wed assistant to the festival director who is fending off an obnoxious ex-lover and trying to keep everyone happy.

How these people all come together and resolve all their individual issues begins to build in the 2nd half of the book, and doesn't completely finish until the very end.  It is a somewhat soupy, sachrine story, in that in the end we don't have a lot of surprises, but it is a well written and gentle read.



Challenge: SYLL, Typically British, Audio

Review: A Fountain Filled with Blood

Author: Julie Spencer-Fleming
Format: audio, 11 discs, 12 hours, 320 page equivalent
Narrator: Suzanne Toren
Subject: gay bashing, murder, environmental impact from developments
Setting: Upstate New York
Genre: mystery-police procedural + amateur sleuth
Source: Public library Inter-library loan



In this second of the series, Spencer-Fleming gives us another great thriller.  I really enjoy the combo of the amatuer sleuth, Clare Ferguson, priest of the local Episcopal Church (and oh, by the way, retired Army helo pilot) and the professional crime fighter, police chief Russ Van Arsdale (oh,by the way, retired Army MP).

The story begins with the vicious attack on the town's Medical Examiner, who just happens to be gay, and shifts quickly to a demonstration against a resort development on the site of some alleged PCBs.  Here we meet Russ's mother, a real pistol of an active elder, who gets herself thrown in jail by her son for demonstrating without a permit.

There is more murder and mayhem, and an incredible helo scene (we KNEW sooner or later Clare was going to fly again!).  So no spoilers, but this plot was gut churning, and there were enough suspects to keep three police forces busy.  I don't do spoilers, so we'll leave the story line there.

The issue of gays and same sex marriage is treated with delicacy and compassion, but in the end, I couldn't quite figure out if the issue of gay bashing was a red-herring to hide the real reason for the crimes.

I do have very mixed feelings about the blossoming romantic relationship between the two main characters however.  We have yet to meet Russ' wife--she's always off working on her curtain business, and Spencer-Fleming has the two protagonists playing with fire.  I can't wait til book #3 to see if sparks ignite.


Challenges: Support Your Local library 2/50 , Thrillers and Suspense 2/12 , Audio Books 2/20.

Review: A Share in Death

Author: Deborah Crombie
Narrator: Michael Deehey
Format: audio- 6 discs, +/- 7 hrs
Characters: Duncan Kincaid, Gemma James
Subject: murder mystery
Setting: Yorkshire England early 2000's
Series: Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James #1
Genre: police procedural
Source: public library

Here's a great way to ring out the old year, and look forward to the new.  This is the first book in a series.  I'm going to want to read every one of them.  A great british police procedural.  In this first episode we meet Duncan Kincaid, of New Scotland yard, recently promoted to Superintendent detective. Kincaid is vacationing in Yorkshire when he becomes embroiled in a series of murders and attempted murders.  Crombie gives us many suspects, good motivation, a well developed plot, a great sense of place, and doesn't give us enough to solve the mystery until quite near the end.

We also meet, very slightly, Gemma James, Kincaid's detective sergeant who is still back in London holding down the fort while Kincaid tries to avoid the wrath of the local police force who resent NSY's nosing in.

It's a great beginning story, and promises lots more.  I've read another so I know they get even better.  I can't wait to have another helping.

Too bad I couldn't wait until January 1 to count them in 2010 challenges, but there'll be plenty more where these came from.





Challenges: Audio books, Thrillers, Typically British, Support your Library

2010 Challenges - World Religion Challenge

World religions Challenge hosted by Bibliofreak.  There are various levels but.....
4. The Unshepherded Path (Also Known As: The Don't Tell Me What to Do Path): Read as many books as you would like about whatever religions you want.

I have an entire shelf labeled religion, and several on that shelf fit this challenge nicely.  I've identified 3-4 I'd like to tackle during the year, so having the challenge will provide me an incentive to crack a spine or two.

The Christmas Challenge - Completed

This was so fun, it really shouldn't count as a challenge.  I ended up changing my reading a bit from my initial list because I kept finding such wonderful books out there related to my favorite holiday.  So here's what I finally read ( or in a couple instances listened to):

A Christmas Beginning by Anne Perry
The Christmas Cookie Club by Anne Pearlman (see my review)
Secrets of a Christmas Box by S. Hornby
Angels - a pop up book (A fabulous contest win) by Chuck Fischer
Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book
The Paper Bag Christmas by Kevin Alan Milne
Silent Nights -by Anne Perry
Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor (see review)
Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon.
Under the Tree by Sue Waggoner (we're going to pass this one around to guests tomorrow -- so fun)

Now I'm going to settle back and wait to see whatever Santa may have left under the tree, and have another batch of fun with "Under the Tree". I hope your Christmas wishes are all filled too.

2010 Challenge - Reading from my Shelves

Diane of Bibliophile By the Sea is hosting this great challenge that goes right along with my goal for the year---to read the books that are already on my shelves. I'm going to aim for 20 for the year.  I may have a teensy problem totally fulfilling the rules since Diane wants us to get the books out of the house...trade them, sell them, give them away.  My books are like children, so I may not get them out of the house, but I will move them off the specific shelves designated as TBR shelves.  You can sign up over on her page.

I'll be posting titles and a review as I read them......

2010 Challenges - Thriller and Suspense

I'm a absolute fanatic when it comes to this genre.  This challenge, sponsored by Book Chick City  even comes with a list of 38 sub-genres.



I'd love to say I'd read one from each of the 38, but some of them don't really appeal to me.  That however, is precisely the appeal of this challenge.  With 38 different types of thrillers, mysteries, etc. from which to choose, there is something for everybody.

The Book Chick has declared: 

Timeline: 01 Jan 2010 - 31 Dec 2010

Rules: To read TWELVE (12) thrillers in 2010

Check out the details on her post if you want to play along.

Book Chick doesn't seem to have a Mr. Linky up yet for individual review posts so here's my list with links.

1. Death Goes on Retreat
2. A Fountain Filled with Blood

2010 Challenges - War through the Generations: Vietnam

Hosted by Anna (Diary of an Eccentric) and Serena (Saavy Verse & Wit) the  War Through the Generations challenge will focus in 2010 on the Vietnam war.

Both my husband and I served on active duty during the Vietnam War, but we both would like to understand that era a little better. This challenge has the following guidelines:

This year you have options when reading your fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, etc. with the Vietnam War as the primary or secondary theme.Books can take place before, during, or after the war.  Books from other challenges count so long as they meet the above criteria.
Dip: Read 5 books in any genre with the Vietnam War as a primary or secondary theme.
Wade: Read 6-10 books in any genre with the Vietnam War as a primary or secondary theme.
Swim: Read 11 or more books in any genre with the Vietnam War as a primary or secondary theme.

I'm going to go very easily and only commit to the Dip level. It will be an emotional stretch to go much further than that.

2010 Challenges - Typically British

OK , I'm a sucker...I've got plenty of challenges for 2010 already, but who can resist this button.  Since I am also always ready to read a good British novel or cozy or mystery, this is another one I have to sign up for. You can sign up to at Book Chick City.

Details:

1. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate. 

2. There are four levels:

 • "Put The Kettle On" – Read 2 Typically British novels.

 • "Gordon Bennett" – Read 4 Typically British novels.

 • "Bob's Your Uncle" – Read 6 Typically British novels.

 • "Cream Crackered" – Read 8 Typically British novels.

3. Any book format counts.

4. You don't have to select your books ahead of time, you can just add them as you go. Also if you do list them upfront then you can change them, nothing is set in stone! 

5. The books you choose can crossover into other challenges.

6. If you decide to participate in this challenge please use the link I have set up below with the button to post on your sidebar, this way others can find their way back to this post and join in the fun.

7. If you decide to join this challenge be sure to create a post telling others, please make sure you add a link back to this post so others can join in.

8. There will be a place for you to link your reviews, but this is optional.

9. Obviously only British authors count!

 Timeline: 1st Jan 2010~ 31st Dec 2010. Only books started on January 1st count towards this challenge.

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So for this one, I think I'll stay at the "Gordon Bennett" level for my goal, and hope I get to cream crackers.

2010 Challenges - Audio Books

This is a no-brainer for me.  So far in 2009, I've read 62 audio books, and I'm sure I'll do at least that number again for 2010.  Royal Reviews is hosting this one this year, and I'll be replacing my weekly Wednesday Earplugs meme with a weekly audio book post instead.


Challenge Guidelines:
1. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate.
--Non-Bloggers: Include your information in the comment section.

2. There are four levels:

-- Curious – Listen to 3 Audio Books.

-- Fascinated – Listen to 6 Audio Books.

-- Addicted – Listen to 12 Audio Books.

-- Obsessed – Listen to 20 Audio Books.

3. Audio books only.

4. You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.

5. Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010. Only books started on January 1st count towards this challenge

I'm obviously going for the Obsessed level. !!!!
Look for my first post on  January 6th.  Happy Listening in the meantime.

Royal Reviews is not using Mr. Linky for individual posts.  So I will list the books read for this challenge as I read them, with a link to my post.

1. Death Goes on Retreat
2. A Fountain Filled with Blood

2010 TBR Challenge

MizB's Reading Challenge Blog is hosting this one and it's made to order for me.  I've got to get the guilt level down a bit from all the fantastic books sitting here staring at me screaming "pick me! pick me!"

Here are the rules:

* the challenge is to read 12 TBR books in 12 months — you can read those all in one month if you want, or one a month, or however you wanna do it.
* you should have a list posted somewhere for others to see
* you CANNOT change your list after January 1st, of the current year!!!
* you can create an Alternates list of MAXIMUM 12 books, if you want, in order to have options to choose from (you can read these in place of books on your original list).
* audiobooks and e-books ARE allowed
* re-reads are NOT allowed, as they aren’t TRUE “TBRs”
* you CAN overlap with other challenges.

So here's my list (subject to change thru midnite Dec 31st);


1. Beat the Reaper byJosh Bazell
2. Fitzgerald Ruse by Mark de Castrique
3. School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
4. The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
5. Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley
6. Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother's Memoir by Katrina Kenison
7. The Woman who named God: Abraham's Dilemma and the Birth of Three Faiths by Charlotte Gordon
8. Amigoland by Oscar Casares
9. A Separate Country by Robert Hicks
10.When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman
11. Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir
12. Property by Valerie Martin

Now the challenge allows a list of 12 alternates (in case the fancy doesn't strike to read from the first list) so here are my alternates:

1. The Love Letters by Madeline L'Engle
2. The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst
3. Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
4. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
5. Here If you Need Me by Kate Braestrup
6. Death At La Fenice by Donna Leon
7. Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
8. Alligator: A Novel by Lisa Moore
9. Journey to Portugal by Jose Saramago
10.In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
11. The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets by Bill Moyers
12. Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

If you're fixin' to clean out some of that TBR pile to make room for more, mosey on over to MizB's and sign up.

2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

J.Kaye at J. Kaye's Book Blog is hosting this wonderful challenge this year.  Of course, you know this one is dear to my heart.  Last year 49% of the books I read came from a public library, and I plan to keep my reading at that same level this year.  Here are the rules J. Kaye has set out:

There are four levels:
--The Mini – Check out and read 25 library books.
--Just My Size – Check out and read 50 library books.
--Stepping It Up – Check out and read 75 library books.
--Super Size Me – Check out and read 100 library books.

(Aim high. As long as you read 25 by the end of 2010, you are a winner.)

• Audio, Re-reads, eBooks, YA, Young Reader – any book as long as it is checked out from the library count. Checked out like with a library card, not purchased at a library sale.
• No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.
• Crossovers from other reading challenges count.
• Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010.

I'm aiming for the "JUST MY SIZE" - 50 books from the library is very do-able for me.  I'm really going to try very hard to read at least one I already own for every book I bring home from the library. It's just that I see so many wonderful recommendations, and I love the downloadable audio books our library offers ( I don't even have to leave home!).  What a wonderful treat for our towns though to know that the public library can get anybook they want.

Hmmmm.....which one should I put on reserve?  If you want to join, go to J. Kaye's post here and join in the fun.
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2010 Challenges - New Year's Resolutions?

I've been thinking, and pondering, and making lists, and checking them twice, and changing them, and re-arranging them.  It's the end of year angst over what am I going to read next year?  Am I going to join a challenge, lay down one of my own, ignore them all and read whatever pops into my hands? Not an easy decision for someone like me. Last year I met all my challenges, and wanted more.  I've seen so many proposed for 2010, I can't seem to make up my mind. I like all kinds of books, in different formats, a broad spectrum of genre, and I usually am reading 3-5 at a time.  Come Dec 31st, I suspect my total for 2009 will be around 175-180.  Not bad, but in reading them, I managed to put another 228 on my TBR pile--some I bought, some are on the wish list and some are on the 'look for them in the library' list.

Last year on LibraryThing, I completed two 999 challenges, and that group has proposed that this year -2010 -we read across 10 categories - we get to pick how many books we want in each category.  I love this one, and have decided to pick 10 different challenges as my ten categories.  So from now until the end of the year, I'll be posting about the various challenges I've joined and how I plan to meet them.  Many of them allow overlaps, so it won't be too bad.  If you belong to LT, I'm 'tututhefirst' and I have a thread already set up on the 1010 challenge.  Drop by.

To my loyal blog followers, I hope you'll join me on some of these--it's going to be a very interesting year. For now, my biscotti are due out of the oven.  Ciao!

Blogger Unplugged

Well, Beth, over at Beth Fish Reads has given us a wonderful holiday gift: Permission to unplug from the computer during the upcoming frantic, hectic holiday period.  My husband will attest that annually, sometime during the next week, I will go into emotional melt-down over

• Not having my whole family together for the entire 6 week holiday period
• The tree
• what size
• where do we put it?
• real (we live in Maine for godsakes and have 32 acres of pine trees!!!) or fake (much easier and we don't have to kill one of our babies)
• How many? (we have enough ornaments to do 5 good sized trees)
• The baking
• how much
• what
• The presents
• who to get what for
• online and send directly to out of town? or shop locally and go thru the hassle (it used to be fun!) of wrapping and mailing
• Cards
• Are we going to do them?
• Do an Annual christmas letter (don't people already know enough from the blog and the Facebook accounts?)
• who's doing them?
• Wreaths
• we have 9 windows and 2 doors - and the wreaths look gorgeous in the snow (we've had a white Christmas every year since we've been here) but we have to take the screens down for the full effect and that's a bummer with my arthritis and the cold temps.  Hubbie has enough to do with all the wood chopping, and other chores, but, they look so pretty...........
  
• Finishing my various annual book challenges!  This year except for ARcs waiting review, I'm on track to finish up what I signed up for.  Next year I hope to get a better handle on the ARCs.
• Events - which caroling parties, tree lightings/trimmings, egg nog parties, Advent wreath makings should we attend.  How much energy do we have.

I suspect some of this angst comes from the darkness of the season....it is totally dark here by 4:30PM and the sun (or should I say daylight cause we don't often see Brother Sun) doesn't appear until almost 7:00AM...makes for a short, jampacked day.

Anyway, my darling daughter, (she who works in the information arena) showed me a wonderful add-on for those of us who use Mozilla Firefox as a browser.  It's a little program called Leech-Block, and you can use it to set specific hours when you are allowed (or blocked) from getting onto Blogs, Facebooks, etc....I've downloaded it, but haven't yet had the courage to turn it on.  I know I can get around it by simply using IE as a browser, but I detest IE, and that would be cheating, so if I can't completely unplug, I think I'll try the Leech blocker.

But thank you Beth. I for one welcome the opportunity to unplug and am challenging myself to do so.  Now I just have to figure out when.............................

The Christmas Challenge

Michelle, The True Book Addict has challenged us to read Christmas books during the upcoming holiday season.  The link to the challenge is on her page.  It's quite simple, you have to read 1-3 books (no kiddie lit allowed) about this wonderful holiday.  Then blog about it and link it to her page via Mr. Linky.  Get over there and sign up.  It will give you something fun to do during these next few stress-filled weeks.

I've been doing a Christmas books category for my 999 Challenge on LT. Here are some of the books I've read or plan to read to complete the 9 for that challenge:

A Christmas Beginning by Anne Perry
The Christmas Cookie Club by Anne Pearlman (see my review)
Secrets of a Christmas Box by S. Hornby
The Gift of Murder (An anthology of Christmas mysteries being sold to benefit Toys For Tots)
Murder for Christmas (another anthology edited by Thomas Godfrey)
The Paper Bag Christmas by Kevin Alan Milne
Maigret's Christmas - a collection of nine stories by George Simenon
Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor (see review)
And one of my all time favorites.......Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon.

So.....have you started yet?  If not, put a log on the fire and forget the wrapping, decorating, baking for awhile each day.  Give yourself a gift....Where's the eggnog?

A new challenge for 4th of July!

As we get near the end of the annual celebration of our nation's birthday, I have to pause and be thankful for all the blessings we enjoy as Americans. I've been particularly blessed in my life...my first house was less than 15 minutes from Ft McHenry where the Star-Spangled Banner was written by Francis Scott Key, I've lived less than 5 minutes from Mt Vernon (George Washington's house in Virginia) on land that actually belonged to George. I've celebrated the 4th on the National Mall in DC for the bicentennial in 1976, I've been to the Boston Pops 4th in Boston, I've watch 4th fireworks in California, Hawaii, on the beach in Florida, on the ocean on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, on the river in Maine; we've done the 4th in Texas, in Phildelphia, in Rhode Island, in Connecticut, and in a small town I can't remember the name of in New Hampshire. I've been to 4th of July celebrations overseas with Navy friends and family, and everyplace I've always felt a glow of pride and thankfulness for everyone who has ever been part of building this nation and keeping us free. Profound thanks to all of them. We all may define freedom differently, and we may not always have everything we want, but when Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture starts playing, and fireworks start bursting, we are all Americans and I dare you not to tear up! To celebrate our great country, a group of my reading buddies on LT and I have formed a new reading group/Challenge. We're going to read our way through all 50 states. You can join us if you want, we're not having prizes, and there's no deadline. We're reading fiction and non-fiction, but just discussing and helping each other find great reads about or set in every one of our wonderful, different and unique states. Just go to LT, set up a free account and join the group. Can't wait to see you there. Happy Reading and Happy 4th!

The View from the Attic

I think summer has chosen to skip us this year. I should be reading, but since the weather refuses to warm up (it's still in the 50's here in coastal Maine and we haven't seen the sun in over a week.) I decided to take advantage of the cool weather and climb to the attic to work on the 65 cartons of books that remain to be unpacked, cataloged in LT, and shelved someplace (YIKES!). It's perfect weather for the attic--not too hot, not too cold. My wireless laptop works fine up here in the tree tops and sits on a work table by a window where I can see lots of fog on the river thru the trees and sometimes, if I'm lucky, the Bald Eagle comes to sit on the branch right in front of the window. Yesterday I cataloged some books we inherited from my Dad: Samuel Eliot Morison's entire History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. My husband has coveted those ever since he met me, and Dad left them to him when he died back in 2007. I'm also working on the Great Books of the Western World set we got from him. Today, I grabbed a box we inherited from hubbie's great aunt who died at age 92 in 2000. She was an incredibly well-read woman and going thru her boxes always yields up treasures. I found three I was especially pleased with. The first two were real finds for my "Things Portuguese" category in the 999 challenge: These Portuguese by Manuel Cabral, a 1930's self-published monograph written in English and Portuguese that describes the Azores islands for descendants of Azorean immigrants so they would know about their heritage; and A History of the Azores Islands by James H. Guill--this one is listed on Alibris and Amazon as selling for over $150!!! (It's considered 'very rare'.) WOW. Both of these are going downstairs onto the TBR shelf. The final find of the morning is an incredible volume (1585 pages!!) : An Anthology of World Prose, edited by Carl Van Doren. The tome has selections (in translation thank goodness) from Chinese, Japanese, Sanskrit, Arabian, Persian, Hebrew, Egyptian, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Scandinavian, Russian, English, Irish, and American literature. I had to wonder why Auntie chose it since it had no Portuguese!!! It was published in 1935 by Literary Guild and is a real masterpiece. I figure if I can read one selection a week, I might finish it before I die. Come to think of it, it would make an incredible challenge for my fellow LTer's. Hmmmm...... Maybe if I make Treasures in the Attic a weekly post, I'll be forced to get through these cartons in another year or so.

The Second 999 Challenge

I have so many books I want to read, and keep finding to read, that I was having trouble fitting them into my original 999 challenge, so I've started a second one. That really means I've challenged myself to read 9 books in each of 18 (9x2) different categories by the end of 2009. If you're interested, here are the Categories (with the current number completed) for the Original challenge: (there are 10 and the first nine will count, the one not finished will slop over into challenge #2) 1. Fiction - including mysteries and thrillers 9/9 Category Finished !!! 2. Books about books, libraries or language 4/9 3. Things Portuguese 4/9 4. Re-reads/finish ups/cleanoff the MP3 5/9 5. Politics/History/Biographies 5/9 6. Award winning books/authors 5/9 7. Poetry/letters/short stories 4/9 8. Books recommended by others 5/9 9. No place else to put them 9/9 Category Finished!!! 10. Theology Category Finished !!! The second Challenge has the following 1. Mysteries 2. Leftover's from challenge #1 3. Maine - authors or settings 4. Historical fiction 5. Early Reviews from LT (or ARCs) 6. Recommendations from LTers or other books 7. Surprise ! (Books that scream "Pick me" for no particular reason) 8. Audio books-- I always have at least one audio going 9. Another "no place else to put them." Wish me luck, or join me if you want to ...you can follow my progress on the links from the sidebar.