Random

SO MUCH SNOW!

As in over 24 inches (61cm)! And they’re saying another 4-8″ during the day today. Wow.

So to the left is me standing next to a snowdrift after the mini-bulldozer cleared the road and the right is Dexter enjoying the snow after we shoveled. The video is Olivia and Dexter going out into the snow before we’d shoveled a path. It’s both hilarious and sad at the same time.

Keep in mind they are LARGE dogs. The picture of Dexter is next to our bin which comes up past my waist. I’m pretty sure Olivia still isn’t happy with me, but we did finally get her out, but I had to coax her the entire way and she still didn’t look happy with us even though we cleared a big area for her.

ARC, Books

Book 176: When Love Comes to Town – Tom Lennon

I received a copy of this via request on NetGalley and I am so happy I requested it. This is my honest opinion and I received nothing in return for it.

It’s times like this when I wish I went into teaching at some level to share a story like this with my students. It’s heartbreaking, but hopeful and I can only imagine what it would be like if I were an Irish teen reading this in the mid 1990s after it was written. Honestly, I would’ve felt just like Neil when he found out he wasn’t ‘the only gay in the village.’

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2013 Challenges, Books, The Classics Club

Book 175: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

Overall I found this book dull and lacking. I’m not sure if it has to do with it being built up so much throughout my lifetime (the two big films: the animated Disney which I grew up with and the 2010 Johnny Depp/Tim Burton version) or perhaps because it’s only half the story I know (I didn’t read Through the Looking Glass with it), but I was completely and utterly underwhelmed with this book. On the plus side it counted for the Back to Classics, Mount TBR and The Classics Club Challenges.

I will say that the book is incredibly short and that worked in its favor. If I had to read more than 89 pages of what came across to me as rambling nonsense, I would not have finished the book. It did make me wonder about whether it was a novel or a novella and a quick internet search says novel. (Novels feature more conflicts than novellas and novellas feature more than short stories according to the ever accurate Wikipedia.)

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Books

Book 174: Faitheist – Chris Stedman

Since I decided to read so few challenge books this year, I’m able to pick up books on a whim and this is one of them! I encountered Faitheist through Heather’s great review at Between the Covers and knew I had to read it. So go read her succinct review first and then return to read my ramblings.

I’ll be the first to admit that I wanted to read Faitheist because the author is wicked cute, but the synopsis drew me in because I’m fascinated by how people negotiate identities especially when it comes to sexuality in relation to religion and geography.

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Updates

January 2013 Recap

Well I’m not sure how January was for the rest of you, but it flew by for me! I’m still trying to figure out where the month went! Not much to look forward to in February—it’s back to Single’s Awareness Day for me this year. I’m sure I’ll get plenty of books read and probably steer clear of romance novels for the month.

I hit my three-month anniversary at my new job and I’m glad to say I’m still loving it! Going into a busy period coming up, so fingers crossed all continues to go well. There were some major ups and downs in my personal life, but you know that’s how life is, so I’m just moving forward and making myself better as I can.

2013 01-22 Books from my SisterRecent Acquisitions
So I didn’t stick 100% to my no books rule, but I did REALLY well! I didn’t spend any of my money (all gift cards) and only purchased THREE books and they were all less than $3 because they were Kindle Daily Deals! (If you remember my two cop-outs were Kindle Daily Deals and Booker Prize winning novels for really cheap, and one of the three qualifies for both!) I purchased The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, 11/22/63 by Stephen King and The Siege of Krishnapur by JG Farrell. In addition my sister bought me the three books in the picture above because she had money left over after selling text books 😀

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