Book Challenge

This is my Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge post. Click the link to sign up. I have pledged to read 50 library books in 2010. Here is my progress....

1 Miss O'Dell: my hard days and long nights with the Beatles, the Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and the Women They Loved ~ Chris O'Dell with Katherine Ketcham ~ Completed 1/24/10

2 The Secret of Joy ~ Melissa Senate ~ Completed 2/8/10

3 A Great Kisser ~ Donna Kauffman ~ Completed 2/6/10

4 The Husband Habit ~ Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez ~ Completed 3/?/10

5 The Three Weissmanns of Westport ~ Cathleen Schine ~ Completed 3/7/10

6  The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners ~ Luanne Rice ~ Completed 3/?/10

7  Water for Elephants ~ Sara Gruen ~ Completed 3/?/10

8  Bed of Roses ~ Nora Roberts ~ Completed 3/28/10

9  Mr. and Mrs. Anonymous ~ Fern Michaels ~ Completed 4/5/10

10 The Fixer Upper ~ Mary Kay Andrews ~ Completed 4/6/10

11  Millie's Fling ~ Jill Mansell ~ Completed 4/?/10

12  While My Sister Sleeps ~ Barbara Delinsky ~ Completed 4/?/10

13  Being Elizabeth ~ Barbara Taylor Bradford ~ Completed

14  A Rogue of Her Own ~ Johanna Lindsay ~ Completed

15  Sometimes Mine ~ Martha Moody ~ Completed

16  Stay a Little Longer ~ Dorothy Garlock ~ Completed

17  The Sweet By and By ~ Sara Evans with Rachel Hauck ~ Completed

18  A Reliable Wife ~ Robert Goolrick ~ Completed 5/23/10

19  This Fine Life ~ Eva Marie Everson ~ Completed 5/24/10

20  Not My Daughter ~ Barbara Delinsky ~ Completed 5/27/10

21  The Bag Lady Papers ~ Alexandra Penney ~ Completed 5/29/10

22  I Love You and I'm Leaving You Anyway ~ Tracy Mcmillan ~ Completed 6/2/10

23  Never Less than a Lady ~ Mary Jo Putney ~ Completed 6/4/10

24  The Wives of Henry Oades ~ Johanna Moran ~ Completed 6/7/10

25  Roses ~ Lela Meacham ~ Completed 6/12/10

26  Staying True ~ Jenny Sanford ~ Completed 6/8/10

27  Miss You Most of All ~ Elizabeth Bass ~ Completed 6/17/10

28  Never Say Never ~ Lisa Wingate ~ Completed 7/10/10

29  Her Mother's Hope ~ Francine Rivers ~ Completed 6/23/10

30  Twelve Rooms with a View ~ Theresa Rebeck ~ Completed 6/20/10

31  This Time Together : Laughter and Reflection ~ Carol Burnett ~ Completed 6/17/10

32  Sister's Choice ~ Emilie Richards ~ Completed 6/?/10

33  Never the Bride ~ Cheryl McKay and Rene Gutteridge ~ Completed 7/1/10

34  Recipes for a Perfect Marriage ~ Morag Prunty ~ Completed 7/3/10

35  Sing Them Home ~ Stephanie Kallos ~ Completed 7/8/10

36  Happiness Key ~ Emilie Richards ~ Completed 7/16/10

37  Tending Roses ~ Lisa Wingate ~ Completed 7/18/10

38  This is Where We Live ~ Janelle Brown ~ Completed 7/20/10

39  703 How I Lost More than a Quarter Ton ~ Nancy Makin ~ Completed 7/21/10

40  The Aloha Quilt ~ Jennifer Chiaverini ~ Completed

41  Big Girl ~ Danielle Steel ~ Completed 8/15/10

42  Escape ~ Carolyn Jessup ~ Completed 7/25/10

43  Prarie Tale ~ Melissa Gilbert ~ Completed 7/29/10

44  The Quilter's Kitchen ~ Jennifer Chiaverini ~ Completed 7/30/10
(I almost hate to count this one because it is also a recipe book and I didn't actually read every single recipe.  But it also has a story that is part of a series that I am reading so I decided to count it anyway)

45  The Winding Ways Quilt ~ Jennifer Chiaverini ~ Completed 7/31/10

46 The Lost Quilter ~ Jennifer Chiaverini ~ Completed

47 The Quilter's Holiday ~ Jennifer Chiaverini ~ Completed

48  Here's the Story ~ Maureen McCormick ~ Completed 8/15/10

49  Sweet Misfortune ~ Kevin Alan Milne ~ Completed 8/21/10

50 Season of Second Chances ~ Diane Meier ~ Completed 8/??/10

The list of shame.  Books I didn't finish:

High Society : The Life of Grace Kelly ~ Donald Spoto
The Prodigal Wife ~ Marcia Willett
Rich Again ~ Anna Maxted

*The fine print: I do have Amazon Associates links on this page. If you purchase anything from a link you click on, I will earn a few cents. I do not earn anything if you only click through to read about the book.

The Reluctant Suitor

I finished a book!!!! It is the first book I have finished in 2010. The book is The Reluctant Suitor by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. It is a book I have had for a few years and just finally got around to reading. It seems like I have been reading it for weeks and I guess I have.

After reading the book, I read the reviews. I know I do things backwards. HaHa. Anyway the reviews are poor and I concur. It was a slow reading book. If I ever hear eyes or breasts referred to as orbs again it will be too soon. That word was wayyyyy overused. I am terrible at reviews so I will just direct you to the Amazon page linked earlier and you can read those.

The sad thing is that three weeks into the year, I have read one book and it does not count for either of my challenges. I have to get busy on those library books.

Reading Challenges

Last July I decided to commit myself to an A to Z reading challenge. You can read my post here. I was supposed to finish it before the end of the 2009. FAIL. I kind of lost interest in reading for a while last fall and really haven't gotten my reading habit back to normal. I haven't updated that list since August and honestly I doubt if any of the handful of books I have read since then fit into the remaining letters. So, I am recommitting myself to that challenge today. I will finish, hopefully by summer.

In addition, I have found another reading challenge that I'd like to try. You can read about it here.

Although my desire is to join as "Super-size me," Realistically I am going to commit to "Just My Size." I love to go to the library and I usually read about 4 to 6 books every two weeks in the summer. I am optimistic that my slump will be over by then. I plan to incorportate the remaining A to Z books into this challenge also so I can complete both challenges at once.

Wish me luck.

Three holidays in one post...

Yeah, well.... January 16 and I haven't written since November. I guess I just haven't figured out yet how to be a blogger. My kids are grown and my grandkids don't live close so they don't give me daily blog topics. I just don't know the direction that this blog should go. I want to write, I just don't know what.

Anyway, catching up. Thanksgiving was great. All of the family went to my brother's house and had a great meal, eating too much. My dad unveiled his annual ornament. He carves an ornament for each member of the family every year. This time it is a mouse. You can see the previous years' ornaments here.

So, December. December was a whirlwind of working, shopping, baking, etc. I did get all of the shopping done in record time and only had to wrap a couple of gifts on Christmas morning. Sometime during the month, I took two of my granddaughters to see the Princess and the Frog movie. It was fun and we only had to go to the bathroom FOUR times. LOL They fought like sisters in the car but were great in the movie. After the movie I managed to get them both to stand and smile for this picture. That was an amazing feat!

For Christmas we again went to my brother's house and ate too much, had a shower of wrapping paper as everyone opened their gifts at the same time, and enjoyed watching the little ones play. We claim to have had a white Christmas as this picture shows.

That brings us to New Year's. My son and his family spent the eve with us. They brought the Wii and we played bowling after the kiddos went to bed. One of them decided to get back up to watch the ball drop.

We spent New Year's Day working out on Wii fit, going to a nice lunch at Applebee's, and hanging out at home.

January. Went back to work. Worked 3 days and then had a nice snow that closed school for two days. I did enjoy those snow days. There were many days of frigid temps and I stayed home (and in my jammies) as much as possible.

No New Year's Resolutions here. I never keep them and rarely make them. I do always think about exercise and shaping up in January and I often try to get started. Hopefully this will be the year that it sticks.

Posts coming up ...... Kids and grandkids visiting from out of state, update of my A to Z reading challenge, a new reading challenge for this year and whatever else I can think of to write about.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I only have to cook one dish today for a trip to my brother's house. Then I'm cooking a nice dinner here tomorrow for some other family.

I wish everyone a great day, a great dinner and a great nap!

Chapter Books

So I go into our handy neighborhood K-mart to buy a birthday gift for a coworker. After wandering around aimlessly for a while I settle on a nice candle set and then proceed to the important stuff - books. I don't shop at K-mart often and in the mad rush to put out Christmas items, they have moved the book aisle.

Since my husband is waiting patiently in the car I decide to save some time and ask where the books are so that I don't have to do another lap or two of the store. I find a nice helpful young man and ask, "Could you tell me where the paperback books are, please?" His response is a blank look and, "Explain that to me, please." Very politely I might add. I say, "You know, books. books that you read. Novels." The light bulb went on in his head and he replies, "OH, you mean chapter books," and points the way.

So the moral of this story is that if you are ever in K-mart and would like something to read, ask for the "chapter books" section, not the "paperback book section"

Book News and random stuff

I started Everlasting by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss a couple of days ago. I haven't had much time to read but I am on chapter two so far. The first chapter was a little hard. I was reading during commercials of some show or other and wasn't devoting enough attention to detail in the book. But now I am thinking that I might be able to get into it. Maybe the slump is over. I sure hope so. This is the longest I have gone in a very long time without reading any books.

In other news, hubby took me out to our favorite Chinese Buffet last night. Great food, good company. It was a nice evening. Then we came home and watched Survivor and Grey's Anatomy. I fell asleep during Private Practice. I just can't stay awake past 9 but then I am up at 4 or 4:30. It is a vicious cycle. I hope to get over that this weekend as well.

It has been a long week at work and I am ready for the weekend.

Looking forward to the weekend

This weekend promises to be sunny and 70. I can't wait. I have no plans except to maybe sit out on the deck and try to overcome my reading slump. Have a huge TBR pile, surely something will call out to me.