Mormon Bloggers

I know you’ve been waiting for this on the edge of your seats. I promise to try to blog every 5-6 books from now on instead of every 10+, to make these posts easier to digest. Starting next time. Pinky swears. Anyway, these are the books I have read so far this year: Go Ask Alice by Anonymous This was not the cover on the copy I read, by the way. It was green and a little less YA-looking. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Diaries are often considered YA fodder, anyway. This was part of my banned books project, and it was another one of those books that made me cry and sent me into a brief period of despair when it was over. Not to be a Spoiler Spencer, but the end of this book is really, really sad, and also very unsatisfying. The girl who wrote this diary is an amazingly talented writer. It makes me angry that this is the only piece she ever had published. I will probably force my teenage children to read this book and they will be like, geez, Mom,... Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time, there was a little girl that was supposed to be taking a nap. Her mother lovingly put her in bed, tucked her in, gave her her sock monkey to cuddle with, and gave her a goodnight kiss. A little while later, her mother decided to check on her, since she was being quiet. (Her mother is weird, and loves to see her sleeping, so when she thinks the little girl is asleep, the mother always puts her head in to watch her for a second or two…) Well, the monkey was enjoying her nap: Sock Monkey enjoys her nap And the little girl was enjoying it too: Aurora reading books, passing time away until Sock Monkey wakes up from her nap The end.  Read More →

“My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectation.” -Michael J. Fox,  A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To the Future  Read More →

“I will not fail you, my love.  I will continue on the path we shared, and I know you will be there to help me, as you always were.  And when we meet again at the journey’s end, and we laugh together once more, I will have a thousand things to tell you.” -Noor Al Hussein, Leap of Faith; Memoirs of an Unexpected Life  Read More →

“Dante was so wrong.  At the lowest point, at the nadir of the ninth circle of hell, Satan will be sharing eternally cold space with treasonous brownnosers who abandon their principles and do what is wrong for the sake of a good grade, or applause.  And these brownnosers will have to lick Satan’s razor-studded butt forever and ever, with their tongues.” -Carlos Eire,  Waiting For Snow In Havana, p. 232  Read More →

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs.  Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”                                                                             -Gil Bailie, as quoted in Wild At Heart by John Eldredge  Read More →

It’s common for bloggers to take stock of their lives at the end of the year and write about their goals, hopes, etc for the upcoming. I am not going to do this because 1. 2010 kinda sucked and 2. 2011 is shaping up to be AWESOME but I don’t want to jinx it. However, it is quite important for me to take stock of my reading every year, so here are some graphs. I read 67 books this year, which is pretty good considering none of them were assignments for school, but pales in comparison to rock stars such as Janssen. As you can see, my split between kids/YA/adult books was reasonably even, with all three genres represented, although I showed a strong leaning towards books written for adults. This is because I am an adult. NOTE: sometimes, it is hard to determine if a book is a children’s book or a YA book. Obviously picture books are meant for children, but some chapter books can be kind of nebulous. I used a mathematically proven algorithm known as “thinking about... Read the rest of this entry »

It seems like it was a really busy year without a lot of time for reading  Looking back, though,  I think the problem is I read stellar stories right at the beginning and descended down a road of none-too-inspiring tales from there. I switched this year to recording all my books on Goodreads (username Wanderingstill).  The list below is in the order I read them, with one exception.  This year found me for the first time in my life quitting a book.  I’ve always been a die-hard believer in finishing a story in hopes that it will get better.  I couldn’t do it this year and I’ve listed those at the bottom. Have you read these and want to share your review? I’d love to hear it!  Or leave me a recommendation on your “must-reads”.  And if you’re looking for something different than what I have here, be sure to check out my lists from 2008 and 2009. Or check out the book challenges I’m participating in... Read the rest of this entry »

The Big Kahn by Neil Kleid This graphic novel is about the son of a Jewish Rabbi whose last name is Kahn, who turns out to have a compelling secret: he is a former grifter who was not born into the Jewish faith! A CON artist! Con? Kahn? Get it? Sorry about that. Aside from this books puntacular title, it was really, really good. I liked how they focused equally on the religious faith and the religious culture and how both of those draw and repel people at different stages of their lives. I think my Mormon readers will find a lot of parallels. Especially with the role of gossip in even the most high-minded religious communities. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins The thing I am really proud about is that I read this book without buying it or getting it from the library or borrowing it from a friend. I read the first section at Borders, the second at Third Place Books and the third while I was baby-sitting for a friend after the kids were asleep. Bam! This means I had... Read the rest of this entry »

I have gotten really, really far behind in this whole “keeping track of all the books I read” thing. But since I’m homebound and sick and got nothing else/better to do, here you go. These are the first ten. Stop Forgetting to Remember: the Autobiography of Walter Kurtz by Peter Kuper Another autobiographical graphic novel I found whilst browsing aimlessly at the library. Kuper mixed it up a bit by making it an autobiography not of himself, but of a fictional person who happens to have had a very, very similar life to his. Wink. The whole book is like a very long version of one of those “this happened to a friend of mine” stories that you hear at parties. Sometimes even in Sacrament Meeting! I am like 95% sure one of the stories I heard in my most recent Sacrament Meeting was one of those. Anyway. An autobiographical graphic novel kick is for sure a good kick to be on, and this is a good one, even though it technically breaks the most crucial... Read the rest of this entry »

The Man from Krypton: A Closer Look at Superman by Glenn Yeffeth, ed. I promise this is the last comic book-related anthology I will review for a while. Maybe. We’ll see. You never know. This was another one of the Smart Pop anthologies that I read over the summer, and this was one of the better ones. Superman has been around long enough that there is plenty to say about him. I would say this one is just as good as Webslinger. Positive Discipline: the First Three Years by Jane Nelson I started reading this at my employer’s house when I was a nanny and liked it so much I wanted to finish it. In fact, I decided I wanted to read all the books in the Positive Discipline series. It’s a really great philosophy for dealing with kids. The main premise is that kids behave well when they feel good about themselves and their abilities, and parenting’s goal should be to empower kids to learn through doing rather than be motivated by rewards and/or punishments.... Read the rest of this entry »

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