Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of The Printed Page and is now on tour.  Kathy at Bermuda Onion is the host of this fun meme for the month of September!   According to Marcia,  “Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.”

This is what I found in my mailbox last week, all in one shipment, all purchased by me:

People of the Book by Geraldine March  (for my book club)

Savvy by Ingrid Law (for my 12 year old daughter)

The following are AR books for my 11 year old daughter (she’s decided Andrew Clements is her favorite author after reading Frindle):

The Landry News by Andrew Clements

The Janitor’s Boy by Andrew Clements

No Talking by Andrew Clements

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

I Like and I Don’t Like

I’ve been tagged by my sister, who is not really my sister but who shares the same first and last name as my sister (I’ll shutup now), the beautiful and talented Karen Harrington of Janeology and Scobberlotch fame.  I haven’t done a non-bookish meme in a long time but this one couldn’t be easier, and it made me think about the small things I enjoy and am grateful for on a daily basis.

The rules:  Fill in the blanks after each bold word and tag 3 friends.  Even I can do that.

I like book blogger get togethers.

I like Nature Valley Sweet and Salty peanut granola bars.

I like clean sheet day.

I like walking with my friend every morning.

I like when someone else makes dinner.

I like the peace in the hour before my family gets out of bed.

I like taking pictures of my kids.

I like watching American Idol.

I like Jim and Pam (and baby Cecelia Marie!).

I like the beach.

I like being outside.

I like eating dinner together when everyone is home.

I love hearing my girls laugh and get along with each other.

Today was a chance for a new beginning – a do-over.

I hate snobs.

I hate going to the dentist.

I hate feeling overwhelmed.

I hate termites.

I hate dishonesty and fuzzy values.

I hate when teachers give boatloads of homework.

I hate selfishness.

I hate seeing my daughters in pain.

I (secretly) like to eat lunch by myself (I borrowed this one from my “sister”- we are so much alike!).

I love when my family is happy and everyone gets along!

Okay… To the following three people, tag! You’re it!  Tell me what you like & don’t like (or tell me to take a hike!)

Wendy from Caribousmom

Care from Care’s Online Book Club

Susan from Suko’s Notebook

Booking Through Thursday: Flapper? Or not a flapper?

Suggested by Prairie Progressive:

Do you read the inside flaps that describe a book before or while reading it?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

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I guess this is meme week.  Can you tell I’m procrastinating about writing reviews??

Yes, I’m a flapper.  I read the flap.  Maybe not EVERY time, but if I’m browsing in a bookstore and don’t really know what I want, I read flaps to help me decide if it’s a book I want to buy. Usually when I get a book in the mail I’ve already agreed to read it, so in that case I don’t read the flaps.  Except when I do.

I’m sure you’re all really happy you read this post, aren’t you?   Such insight!  So provocative!

I’ve lost my internet connection 3 TIMES while trying to publish this post.  Is that the universe’s way of telling me to get off my a$$ and write a review???  Hmmmm…

Are you a flapper?  Are you a procrastinator too??

Teaser Tuesday – January 12, 2010

Miz B and Teaser Tuesdays asks you to: Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

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My teaser today comes from page 95 of American Rust by Philipp Meyer, a powerful book sent to me by Random House for a TLC Book Tour, which kicks off today on The Blue Stocking Society with a giveaway to celebrate the trade paperback release!

The first two random pages I picked didn’t work out- the book is told in sort of a stream of consciousness style and the first one just would not have made any sense, while the second one contained the “f” word.  In keeping with my blog’s PG rating, I thought it would be best to keep looking!  So here’s my third random teaser-

“She pulled in next to the trailer and there she was, his mother, dressed for church and him standing in his underpants in the driveway, nearly one o’clock in the afternoon.  She shook her head, but not in a friendly way.”

This book has commanded my attention in a way I haven’t been grabbed by a book in ages..

Teaser Tuesday- November 24, 2009

Miz B and Teaser Tuesdays asks you to: Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

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My teaser comes from page 51 of When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka.  At 144 pages this is a minimalist story told by a young boy about his Japanese American family during WWII, when they are split up and sent to the internment camps.

My (step) grandparents were children during WWII and went to the camps with their families, so I have a personal interest in these kinds of stories.  I’m pre-reading this one to see if it would be ok for my 12 year old daughter to read.  So far, so good.  Here’s the teaser, from page 51:

“There was a window above the boy’s bed, and outside were the stars and the moon and the endless rows of black barracks all lined up in the sand.  In the distance, a wide empty field where nothing but sagebrush grew, then the fence and the high wooden towers.”

Wondrous Words Wednesday

 Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at Bermudaonion’s Weblog where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. Feel free to join in the fun. (Don’t forget to leave a link in your comment if you’re participating.)

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I haven’t done this meme in a few weeks, but because I’ve been too lazy busy to write up a review this week, I thought I’d show you how dumb I am.  Many of you probably know these words already.. not me, though!

All of these come from Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger.  I’m reading an ARC so the page numbers might be off in the final edits.

gormless– “He hung back, keeping his eye on them and feeling pervy and gormless, not to mention highly noticeable.”  pg. 108

definition:  –adjective 

 Chiefly British Informal.

gaumless.

bloviating–  “You’re just bloviating.  Get on with it.”  pg. 164  

definition:  –verb (used without object), ‑at⋅ed, ‑at⋅ing.

to speak pompously.

truncheon–  “Well, sorry to be such poor company, but I really do have to finish this or my editor will be at my door with a truncheon.”  pg 217

definition:  –noun

1.	the club carried by a police officer; billy.

2.	a staff representing an office or authority; baton.

3.	the shattered shaft of a spear.

4.	Obsolete. cudgel; bludgeon.

I used to think that, even if I didn’t know a word, I could usually infer the meaning from the context.  The only one in my list I guessed right on was bloviating.  What about you?  Do you normally guess right, based on the context, when you come across a word you don’t know?

Teaser Tuesday – August 11, 2009

Miz B and Teaser Tuesdays asks you to: Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

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Today’s teaser comes from page 65 of Who by Fire by Diana Spechler.

“I can explain what I felt that night only by comparing the experience to a far lesser one:  Once, a few years ago, Bits and I started talking about old TV shows, and she asked, “What was the name of Alice’s boyfriend in The Brady Bunch?”  Neither of us could remember.”

I can’t remember either.  Bonus points if you know the answer (without Googling it!)

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at Bermudaonion’s Weblog where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. Feel free to join in the fun. (Don’t forget to leave a link in your comment if you’re participating.)

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My wondrous words this week come from Life of Pi by Yann Martel (yes, Sheri, I’m reading it!).

raiments – “They stir and leave their shelter and tiptoe to the water’s edge. They show their raiments.” pg. 15

Definition: –noun

clothing; apparel; attire.

onanists – “And there are indecencies even more bizarre: onanists breaking a sweat on monkeys, ponies, birds; a religious freak who cut a snake’s head off; a deranged man who took to urinating in an elk’s mouth.” pg. 29

Definition:–noun

1.	one who withdraws the penis in sexual intercourse so that ejaculation takes place outside the vagina; coitus interruptus.

2.	masturbation.

agouti – “Nonetheless, our golden agouti vanished, stolen by someone who ate it, Father suspected.” pg. 30

Definition:–noun, plural -tis, -ties.

1.	any of several short-haired, short-eared, rabbitlike rodents of the genus Dasyprocta, of South and Central America and the West Indies, destructive to sugar cane.

2.	an irregularly barred pattern of the fur of certain rodents.

3.	an animal having fur of this pattern.

Oh, dear. My blog just went from a G to a PG-13 rating. Darn onanists!!

Teaser Tuesdays- August 4, 2009

Miz B and Teaser Tuesdays asks you to: Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

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My teaser comes from page 165 of Lottery by Patricia Wood, my book club’s pick for September (we will be talking to the author from her home in Hawaii by speaker phone!).  The book is about a mentally challenged young man who wins 12 million in the Washington State Lottery, which doesn’t change him at all but has a bizarre effect on everyone around him.  This scene shows him getting ripped off by a mechanic, something my husband thinks will happen to me if I dare to be the one to take the car in for service.

“I pull my checkbook out of my back pocket and write Marty a check for one thousand one hundred three dollars and seventy-three cents for parts and labor.  He has to help me with the zeros.”

What is the first big-ticket item you would spend money on if you won 12 million dollars?  Do NOT say ‘pay bills’ or ‘the kids’ college fund’.  For me, it would be a pool!

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at Bermudaonion’s Weblog where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading.  Feel free to join in the fun.  (Don’t forget to leave a link in your comment if you’re participating.)

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This is my first time doing Kathy’s Wondrous Words meme.  These 3 words come from All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown (reviewed here).

It wasn’t until I started looking for unfamiliar words that I realized how stupid I am!!  In the past I thought there just weren’t that many words I didn’t know.  Most I can figure out from the context.  But not all..

assiduously – “The hostess, who looks like a Slavic supermodel, with her sunken cheeks and jutting clavicles, assiduously ignores everyone, including Margaret.”  pg. 36

Definition: adjective

1.	constant; unremitting: assiduous reading.

2.	constant in application or effort; working diligently at a task; persevering; industrious; attentive: an assiduous student.

sibilant – “The sibilant hisses of whispered prayers make it sound like she’s sitting in a snake pit.” pg. 278

Definition:–adjective

1.

hissing.

2.	Phonetics. characterized by a hissing sound; noting sounds like those spelled with s

binaries – “The woman is expressing her female-centered sexuality, Margaret would neutrally observe; she is rejecting binaries and entering into the Symbolic.”  pg. 146

Definition:–noun

5.	a whole composed of two.

6.	Astronomy. binary star.

7.	Also called binary number. Mathematics. a number expressed in the binary system of notation.     (Even with the definition of binaries, I still don’t really get the meaning in the sentence!)