- While Mortals Sleep - Kurt Vonnegut
- Project Jennifer - Jill A. Rosenblatt
- Slaughter House-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
- Playing with Boys - A. Valdes-Rodriguez
- Chasing Harry Winston - L. Weisberger
- Bagombo Snuff Box - Kurt Vonnegut
- Now and Forever - Ray Bradbury
- The Buenos Aires Broken Hearts Club - J. Morrison
- Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
- Tempest Rising - Diane McKinney-Whetstone
- A Simple Havana Melody: From When the World was Good - Oscar Hijuelos
- Six Weeks to Toxic - Louisa McCormack
- The Nanny Diaries - E. McLaughlin & N. Kraus
- The Paris Wife - Paul McLain
- Paris: A Love Story - Kati Marton
- The Chosen - Chaim Potok
- Holy Land - D.J. Waldie
- What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love - Carole Radziwill
- The Girl Who Fell to Earth - Spohia Al-Maria
- How to be a Hepburn in a Hilton World - J. Christy
- The Ivy Chronicles - Karen Quinn
- Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes - E. Bard
- My Berlin Kitchen - Luisa Weiss
- Women & Money - Suze Orman
- This is How You Lose Her - Junot Diaz
- How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia - Moshin Hamid
- Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney
- In the Time of the Butterflies - Julia Alvarez
- ¡Yo! - Julia Alvarez
- Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald - Therese Ann Fowler
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
- How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents - Julia Alvarez
- Grace - Grace Coddington
- Looking for the Gulf Motel - Richard Blanco
- The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
- Where'd You Go, Bernadette? - Maria Semple
- The Help - Kathryn Stockett
- Maya's Notebook - Isabel Allende
- Deadeye Dick - Kurt Vonnegut
- Love - Toni Morrison
- Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
September 8, 2013
30 and counting...
Every start of the year I tend to refrain from making New Year resolutions simply because I shouldn't need the start of a new year to make me want to introduce new changes. I should be making conscious decisions to make changes throughout the year regardless of what day it is, but nonetheless I gave into the trend. One of my New Year resolutions was to read 30 books. The prior year I had only read, I believe, around 22 books. Quite a dismal amount considering that in 2011 I had read 52 and surpassed my reading goal by 2 books. Now this year has been a successful year for my reading. I've been reading more contemporary books and following more trends of what's popular, and I've been taking recommendations from the LA Times. So here goes the list of what I've read so far:
September 13, 2012
Currently...
....I'm catching up with life post summer job, and about to become super busy with school, work, mentoring, and just plain ol' life. Thought I'd start by documenting some of my favorite things at the moment.
1) Herschel Laptop Sleeve - I ab-so-lu-te-ly love it!!! It was a birthday gift from él. (Sidenote: él is the guy I'm currently dating.) I love the leather on the bottom, the color navy blue, and the fuzzy, soft fleece interior. I'd been searching for one for ages, and I found one on Zappos as I was browsing. Definitely one of the best birthday gifts I've received in ages.
2) Books - Yes, I managed to find a Norton American Literature Anthology vol. 1 for $2!!! Score for me! Also, picked up this other book Making Literature Matter. Both books cost a whooping....wait for it....wait for it....$4.35 with tax!!! Yes, I do get this excited over purchasing books at a discount!
3) Trader Joe's Fleur de Sel Caramels - I love caramel anything, but salted caramel is my kryptonite! These are tooo die for. I bought a box at TJ's a few weeks ago, and I've been slowly eating one at a time. So hard not to just give in and eat all of them in one sitting. Definitely a great pick me up treat!
1) Herschel Laptop Sleeve - I ab-so-lu-te-ly love it!!! It was a birthday gift from él. (Sidenote: él is the guy I'm currently dating.) I love the leather on the bottom, the color navy blue, and the fuzzy, soft fleece interior. I'd been searching for one for ages, and I found one on Zappos as I was browsing. Definitely one of the best birthday gifts I've received in ages.
August 17, 2011
Book 35 of 50
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Nabokov I give you cred' for writing Lolita, however, the novel itself was rather disappointing. Humbert lacks personality and complexity for a protagonist. Well written in prose, but not befitting of all the rage and reviews you get. Yes, nymphets and sexuality are a huge theme throughout the book; it hardly merits being a top 100 novel list. Lolita herself is intriguing and merits more analysis than does Humbert. She is definitely on hyper-sexualized pre-pubescent twelve year-old. The topic of sexuality, sex, and age discrepancies does warrant attention and review, but not to the extent that it has already received. On to my next book.
Final verdict: love Nabokov's writing style and the diction he uses, however Humbert lacks some serious character development. I will give him some shelf space on my bookcase and I hope that my future students will read this and make their own judgment on the novel.
July 26, 2011
date a girl who reads
I found this via the wild and wily ways of a bombshell brunette and I love it!
Date a Girl Who Reads by Rosemarie Urquico
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.
Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.
She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.
Buy her another cup of coffee.
Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.
It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by God, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.
She has to give it a shot somehow.
Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.
Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.
Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.
If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.
You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.
You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.
Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.
Or better yet, date a girl who writes.
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.
Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.
She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.
Buy her another cup of coffee.
Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.
It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by God, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.
She has to give it a shot somehow.
Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.
Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.
Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.
If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.
You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.
You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.
Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.
Or better yet, date a girl who writes.
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