Tag: Book Club

I’m Around

I suppose since Monday has swung around again, I should offer an account to what I’ve been up to, since I clearly haven’t been blogging…

millennium trilogy covers

Last week I read the last two books in this Millenium trilogy… in like two days each, despite their heftiness. I was so drawn in that I couldn’t put them down! I stayed up until 2AM reading on a few occasions, then slept in extra late to make up for it. Now my body clock is all out of whack, but that’s neither here nor there. Normally I’m drawn to memoirs or historical fiction but with these thrillers I made an exception–okay, well I’m a sucker for conspiracy theories so I suppose these fit the bill in that regard. I highly recommend them, especially in comparison to the dearth of good action movies in theaters these days. I have to give a caveat that there are some graphic scenes and if you don’t like strong language, you may be put off.

As a feminist, the themes of men vs. women, stereotyping women, and women as victims all gave me a lot to think about.

I’ve been working, as usual, meeting some new people, and hanging out with friends. You know, the usual, but not necessarily blog-worthy. I did see Jurassic Park for the first time though, in 3D, and wow! That movie is intense!! I can’t imagine how my peers all saw it in elementary school! I jumped several times, and was very impressed by the special effects! I can appreciate a good CGI monster, but animatronic ones really blow me away more for some reason!

Hopefully the mac will be repaired by the end of the week (it’s expensive, so we couldn’t get it done right when it broke) so I can get back into the swing of things!

What have you been up to, friends? 

An Ode to In-Flight Magazines

If there’s one thing I like to do on the plane, it’s read a magazine. Usually it’s too bumpy or my neighbors are too irritating to dive into a lengthy classic novel, but the bite-size length of most magazine articles are just what I need to make the trip fly (yeah, I went there).

Yesterday, I had planned on playing iPhone games for the majority of my travel time, however, bubble mania one addictive game in particular apparently required that I be online to play? Wha? So I turned to the airline-provided magazine and was pleasantly surprised. Actually, whenever I fly American, I read most of their mag but I was pleased to find that United’s publication, Hemispheres, was just as good, if not better.

I read a light piece on road tripping, learned the must-dos if I ever find myself in Seattle, and more.

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The layout was especially fresh and pleasing. So, I came to a conclusion and decided to write a post about it: Airline magazines are super underrated! I mean, travel is an interest of mine, so naturally I’m drawn to most of the topics at hand. But unlike Condé Nast Traveler, for example, I can actually see myself seeing and doing the things included in these articles, not just fantasizing about it. Next time you’re flying, burn through one of these before reaching for the one you bought at the travel shop before boarding.

My all-time favorite regular mags are Sunset and Southern Living. What are yours?

August Reading

What are you reading and why?

Last night, I finished reading The Last Empress by Anchee Min. It is the sequel to Empress Orchid, which I read earlier this year. This book is a thoroughly-researched history of the Empress’s life, and is completely 180 degrees from the way she is portrayed by most historians, like this one. Wow. If you read that link, and wonder how this woman could ever be portrayed as compassionate, loving, dedicated to her sons–in short, likable, then check out the book. (Literally, check it out, it is available at the McPherson Library).

This month, I have three books in my stack. The Help, due to the movie’s recent release, The Paris Wife, due to its current popularity and my love of Paris, and One Hundred Years of Solitude, the book that is taking me One Hundred Years to finish. I expect that I’ll be able to finish The Help and The Paris Wife quickly, because books that are über-popular, let’s face it, usually aren’t terribly difficult. This does not mean they aren’t good!! They’re just easier.

Why am I reading the aforementioned? Well, I try to read for reading’s sake. It keeps a person’s brain engaged in a way that TV never can. It allows me to brush up on grammar and vocabulary, and (in a book written in an accent/dialect like The Help) my creativity. I’m sure there’s a term for “reading aloud in your head” to make the funny spellings of dialect-written books make sense, and it helps exercise that skill.

I haven’t cracked open The Paris Wife yet but I’m excited in getting to it after The Help. One Hundred Years of Solitude is on my list because I enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera and buzzed through that book very quickly. This one is proving much more tedious and less engrossing. But it won awards, and is supposedly the author’s best work, so I must finish it.

Click on any photo to be taken to amazon.com where the book can be purchased. Except I got them all from the local library.