Showing posts with label Sunday Salon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sunday Salon. Show all posts

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Sunday Salon - November 4, 2012



Well, another month has passed, and this one has been busy! I gave up on job prospects here in Ohio and decided to try the waters in Minnesota where my family (and many friends) live. I won't move until December, but I've already made one trip to move my stuff up there. I can't believe it costs less to make three trips in my car than it does to rent a truck!!! What's with that?

I also got lots of books read and participated in a few blog events. :)

Weekly Update

Reviews

Events/Memes
  • The first three books that I reviewed were for the R.eaders I.mbibing in P.eril VII event hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings. That was my first time participating in the RIP event, and I really enjoyed meeting all the new bloggers and seeing good spooky/scary books to read!
  • The last book reviewed was for the Harry Potter Read Along hosted by Lost Generation Reader. This event is still ongoing, but I'm beginning to fear that I won't make it through all the Harry Potter books in time! Oh well, I can continue them on my own. :)
  • I participated in my second Feature and Follow Friday, a weekly blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. I found several new book blogging buddies there. I really like the you-follow-me I-follow-you rule. I think I'll generally try to return the favor to book bloggers who follow me on GFC from now on. It broadens my horizons and increases my own following. :)
  • I joined Random Reads hosted by i'm loving books. I've been feeling trapped within a highly structured reading curriculum for a while now. This way, I can introduce one random book a month into my reading schedule. Yay for structured randomness! :D My random book for November is Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome.
  • I joined Project Fairytale hosted by The Cheap Reader.  This event will take place either in February or March of next year. Each person chooses a different fairy tale, reads the original, reads a few retellings, and does a comparison. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? :) Sign-up ends on November 30th, so you can still join! (Vote for March! :p) My fairy tale is Donkey Skin. My introductory post is here. 



And now! Let me introduce the theme that I'm hosting in February 2012: Social Justice Theme Read


This is going to be an informal theme read where people can hop in at any time and   comment with a link to their blog posts about social justice (or social injustice). At the end, I'll have a wrap-up post including everyone's links. To see my potential reading list, you can read my introductory post. If you'd like to participate, you can sign up in advance at my intro post, or you can just jump in at any point as it suits you. If you sign up on my introductory post by February 7th, 2013 AND write one blog post / book review about social justice (or the lack thereof) you will be entered to win a $10 gift certificate from Amazon. 

Finally, my post popular blog post for this week was: Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff. I have no idea why this post is suddenly so popular. :)

October Wrap-up

Books Reviewed
  1. The Headless Cupid, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
  2. Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
  3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J. K. Rowling
  4. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor
  5. Surprised by Joy, by C. S. Lewis
  6. Devil's Pass, by Sigmund Brouwer
  7. Narcopolis, by Jeet Thayil
  8. Blood and Other Cravings, ed. Ellen Datlow
  9. Pride and Prejudice (A Norton Critical Edition), by Jane Austen
  10. The Poisoner's Handbook, by Deborah Blum
  11. The Assassin's Code, by Jonathan Maberry
Additionally, I led a discussion of The Embittered Ruby, by Nicole O'Dell for the ACFW bookclub. 

Plans for November

Our theme in the 75ers group on LibraryThing is "New Novels November," so I will try to read a few books that were published in 2012. :) I'm also participating in a Russian Reading month over at Tuesday in Silhouette. I'll be reading Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov.

I'm participating in Let's Read Plays! hosted by Fanda at Fanda Classiclit and Dessy at Ngidam Buku. This is a year-long event in which we will read classic plays. This month, I'm reading Shakespeare's Hamlet.


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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Sunday Salon: September Update


September was a good month for my blog. I finished up my Coursera MOOC in Fantasy and Science fiction...it was a wonderful experience, but it was exhausting! I posted reviews for many of the books required for this course: 









I was going to take the Greek / Mythology Coursera course,  but have decided that it covers the materials way too quickly...I don't think I can do justice to so much amazing literature in just 10 weeks. Therefore, I'm going to return to my focused study of Paradise Lost. Expect more posts soon! :)


The last 11 days of September, I led an email discussion of Sandi Rog's new book Walks Alone for the ACFW Bookclub. I have loved every Sandi Rog book I've ever read. Walks Alone is a christian fiction historical romance about a young woman in post-Civil War era who travels alone from New York to Denver and is kidnapped along the way by a band of Native Americans. Although she is filled with dread and fear, she soon discovers that they have a side to their story too...and she begins to fall in love with her kidnapper. I admit that when I read the description I thought it to be a bit trite, but I gave the book a try anyway because of my love for Sandi Rog's books. I'm so glad I did. :) It wasn't trite at all. It was a really cute book.  My review of the book is here. 




On my blog, the last week of September was dedicated to Aarti's A More Diverse Universe blog tour. She did an amazing job, and I really appreciate the effort she put in to the tour. For this tour, I reviewed:









And, of course, I reviewed books that fit into none of these categories:


Sadly, I only had time to post one opinion article--it was about the creationism / evolution debate. 

In an attempt to become more active in the blogosphere, I also joined a few other blog activities such as R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VII, The Classics Club, The Orange Prize Project, and The Complete Booker.

I will be starting out October with posts for Banned Books Week. Book Journey has organized a blog tour in honor of the week. I will be blogging about 4 banned children's/YA books during that week. From October 20 - 31, I'll be leading an email book discussion of The Embittered Ruby, by Nicole O'Dell for the ACFW Bookclub. You're all welcome to read the book and join in the discussion! This month is dedicated to Christian YA literature, and as you can see on the ACFW Bookclub website, we discuss two books a month, and you're welcome to choose either one of them. Besides my hope of getting farther into my study of Paradise Lost, here's a list of books I hope to read in October: 





Surprised by Joy, by C. S. Lewis (IN PROGRESS)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J. K. Rowling 
Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor (IN PROGRESS)
The Magician's Nephew, by C. S. Lewis
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
Interview with a Vampire, by Anne Rice
The Poisoner's Handbook, by Maxwell Hutchkinson
Pride and Prejudice: A Norton Critical Edition, by Jane Austen (IN PROGRESS)
Blood and Other Cravings, ed. Ellen Datlow 
A Book of Horrors, ed. Stephen Jones
House of Wisdom, by Jim Al-Khalili
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Friday, September 7, 2012

August Sunday Salon


I've decided to try out posting for The Sunday Salon, only I'm going to limit these posts to summaries of last month's reading. I'm starting a little late, but this will be my August round-up. 

In August, I participated in The Middle Eastern Literature theme read on LibraryThing, it ran July through September and I've read quite a few Middle Eastern-themed books over the past few months. In August, I finished The Lemon Tree, by Sandy Tolan. 

I have also been taking the a free internet course Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World from Coursera. It's a fun little class (notwithstanding some growing pains for the system and the persistence of mean "anonymous" people on the forum). For that, I read: Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll; Dracula, by Bram Stoker; and The Bells and The Philosophy of Composition, by Edgar Allan Poe. 

As group reads for the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group on LibraryThing, I read Agnes Grey, by Anne Bronte; and attempted to read White Teeth, by Zadie Smith. I gave up on White Teeth because it had too much crudity and obscenities, though I thought it was a rather witty book. 

I read Beauty, by Robin McKinley as a group read with The Green Dragon on LibraryThing. The Embittered Ruby, by Nicole O'Dell for a group read at a Christian Fiction group ACFW...I'm leading the discussion for it in October. Skios, by Michael Fryan for the Booker 2012 longlist. 

And, finally, I read Inheritance, by Christopher Paolini; Al Capone Shines My Shoes, by  Gennifer Choldenko;  and Riptide, by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child just for fun. 

I finished only one issue of The Economist and one issue of New Scientist. 

I've been preparing to read Paradise Lost, by John Milton, and have made a few new posts on my blog. 

In September, my plans are to participate in the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VII challenge, I'll continue with the Fantasy and Science fiction class on Coursera, I'll continue reading Booker longlisted books (at least those that are available in the US), I'll START reading the Wellcome Trust Book Prize longlist (at least those that are available in the US), and at the end of the month I'll start another Coursera class in Greek and Roman Mythology. So I'll have a busy month ahead! :)
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