bookworm meme

Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf (in this case storage unit), and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.


1. +The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. +To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. +Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. +The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. +The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. +The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. +Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. +Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. +Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. +The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. +The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. +Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. +Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. +Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. +The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. +East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. +1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. +The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. +The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. +The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. +The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. +The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. +Bible
46. +Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. +The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) reading currently
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. +The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. +Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. +The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. +Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. +Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. +Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. +Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. +Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. +The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. +The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. +The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Found this on PH, not sure where this list originated as it seems rather random. My brain is full though and I have little to put down in print so this is it for today.

Water for Elephants

I just finished reading Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen. It's a fictional account of life on a circus train in Depression-era America. I'd never thought much about circus trains back in the ol' days and this book portrays a lively account of the colorful backdrop and vernacular surrounding the traveling circus.

In the history of the American traveling circus, there have been a few big disasters. One of the most notable was the Hartford Circus fire of 1944. During a Barnum and Bailey performance in the middle of July, the fire inginted and spread through the big top. The band instantly started playing Stars and Stripes Forever, otherwise known in the circus industry as 'the disaster march'. 168 people died in the fire and more than 400 were injured as they tried to leave through the main exit which was engulfed in flames. The enormous canvas tent had been weather-proofed with a mixture of gasoline and parafin.

The other major disaster was the Hammond Circus Train Wreck. In June of 1918 a train pulling empty sleeper cars collided with a slower moving train carrying the Hagenbeck-Wallace circus act with over 400 performers. Eighty-six people and numerous animals were killed instantly. The traveling circus only missed two performances before they were back on the road.

Life on a circus train was a no-nonsense machine balancing performers, roustabouts and menagerie. Sacrifices were made by all to keep the machine running, though sacrifice was not something new to this crowd of freaks, hobos and con-artists. Water for Elephants is a story about love and forbearance. It was a engaging quick read and I'd recommend it.

maerd

So, I tried to post this picture on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, the internet connection at The Hotel Beverly Terrace blocked my access to any Google related sites. No gmail, no searching, no desktop, no blogger. Weird, if you ask me.


This is the view from the mirror in my hotel room. Bedstead for one means you get all the pillows.

5 Things from a Fresno Hotel

1. Five foods I can’t stop eating

-bananas
-homemade tortilla chips
-falafel
-chocolate covered cherries
-coconut yogurt

2. Five things I have to do every day or I will GO NUTS

-drink coffee
-sing along
-snuggle
-check email
-brush my teeth

3. Five things I must have in my home

-pillows and blankets, lots of em
-pets, particularly a very special turtle
-books
-musical instruments
-windows

4. Five smells that make me happy

-freshly baked bread
-honeysuckles
-hay lofts
-old garages
-pipe tobacco

5. Five things that get me through the day

-making my friends giggle
-caffeine
-living under big skies
-a cold beer after a long day
-music

meme from Meg Fowler

Peak Peak

I was driving down to Tucson last week and saw a billboard on the side of the I-10 about Save the Peak! Picacho Peak has been a desert landmark for thousands of frontiersmen, cowboys and battalions in the Wild West. In 1775 Don Juan Bautista de Anza brought 200 pobladores through Arizona right past Picacho Peak, fighting with Yaqui all the way. de Anza was the first non-native settler in California, spreading his colony up through San Luis and the upper Santa Cruz River Valley. Picacho Peak was also the site of the only Civil War battle fought in Arizona.

Picacho Peak, this magnificent 2,000 foot tall volcanic plug, is slated to be the site of Union Pacific's new railway switchyard. This means a dramatic increase in diesel exhaust and other pollutants at the base of the peak, likely affecting the sensitive desert wildlife habitat vegetation. A switchyard is going to ruin the natural beauty of this insanely gorgeous geological marvel! So frequently out here treasured and unique landscape is compromised for industrial profit. There are thousands of miles of open railway passing through the Arizona desert, even passing along the I-10 in Tucson. Isn't there a smarter solution here?

save the peak.org

it's what i got

Life at 28 isn't easy for a girl like me. Sometimes you've got to make hard decisions, sometimes you've got to work hard and sometimes you've just got to work it.

I've been living in my new place now for almost a month and I'm enjoying it very much. I love this resurgence in energy; new starts are good like that. My mind has been in a twist and I'm working it out slowly but surely.

I've actually had a million and one things to write about lately but because of technical issues with blogger, I haven't spent nearly enough time here. Getting shut out of blogger was like losing my best friend. I started to miss it like crazy. I tried calling but couldn't find the number, I wrote letters, I lamented, I started to lose hope. But, I persevered and worked around the system and was finally able to give myself access to the dashboard. I like being behind the dashboard.

Substantive, As Usual

Leggins...they're not cool man, not cool. I was affronted this week by a profusion of leggins and I just have to publicly voice the distress and utter dismay that crashed down upon my fashion sense. Granted, regularly walking around on college campuses in Arizona usually turns up an interesting variety of cheek baring mini-skirts, striped tubetops and insanely large sunglasses. I'm used to being surrounded by a fair amount of unflattering fashion. However, today alone I counted 6 pairs of legs donning leggins. Even on the sveltest of bods, the leggin cuts off the leg and rather harshly exposes the ankles to the elements. I love ankles, they're one of my favorite body parts and I just hate to see them offended so brazenly.

The term leggins (like fixins or chitlins) may appear as if it's missing the 'g' at the end. I like to reserve the term leggings for those occasions where it's legitimate to wear them. Those legitimate situations include but are not limited to ballet practice, yoga, pregnancy and the occasional stand-in for long underwear. In my opinion, leggins are best left for occasions involving eighties hair or mud wrastlin.

A View From Above

The trip to Flag was a much needed breath of chilly winter air.



It snew (as Jaclyn would say)!


This house reminded me of Dennett Street in Portsmouth. I can't believe Arizona has received more snow than most parts of Southern New Hampshire this year.


The drive home today was insanely beautiful.




PS: Is anyone else having trouble with the New Blogger? My blog can't make the switch for some unknown reason and half the time I try to log-in to the Old Blogger, I can't get to to my shiz! This a makes a me very angry, hi-ya! That last sentence was to be read with the accent of Super Mario.

If I knew how to get my content out of here, I probably would. I don't thought, in fact the only solution that comes to mind is copying and pasting this blog into word documents.

Hey! I just realized that tomorrow is our two year anniversary to the date! Schweetness...somebody send me some chocolate!