Books, Professional Development

Book 300: That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week – Ana Homayoun

Even though I am incredibly organized, I often think I can be much more organized and wonder how other people stay organized, so when I first heard about this book from Ann on the podcast Books on the Nightstand I knew I had to get a copy. I loved the title and wanted to read more about it the organizational suggestions. I grabbed a copy from my local library and here I am.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and it’s set up like many other self-help books: suggestion, how-to, summary and any worksheets or tools you might need. :, does a great job of offering many suggestions for every hurdle, which is great. There weren’t too many new tips or tricks that I felt I could use, but what I found great (and could see where it would help out a teen or pre-teen) is that she explains WHY you should do some of the organizational things you are told to do and doesn’t just tell you to do them. I also really enjoyed Homayoun holistic approach to organizational management for teenagers, from health and fitness to school and extra curricular activities she really pushed for the young men to take control of their own lives and schedules.

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Updates

August Recap 2014

2014 08-31 Shakespeare & Co PresentsWhat an exhausting month! I’m still not sure where summer has gone and I’m seriously struggling to believe it’s September 1st! It probably doesn’t help that the weather here in Boston has been a bit of a shit-show recently: down in the 60s last week and in the 90s most of this week, no thank you. There were other crazy things going on that I’m not able to talk about now, but suffice to say it was a super busy month.

On top of the strangely mixed weather, I’ve done a lot of blogging and working to expand my bookish empire! Muwhaahaahaahaa! I released the mini episode of my podcast, Come Read With Me, to get it on iTunes and just yesterday released the first FULL length episode where I talked with my friend Caroline about From Russia with Love. On top of that I read The Grapes of Wrath as part of my 30 x 30 list and did a lot of cultural things too!

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Books

Book 295: The Hangman’s Revolution (W.A.R.P. #2) – Eoin Colfer

If it weren’t for the strength of the last book and Colfer’s series in general, the opening line of this novel might’ve made me turn back! I originally requested a copy of this from the publisher and you can read about my issues here (last paragraph under Books and Bookish – yes I’m naming and shaming now).

However, given the opening lines “meh” and the fact this is a second book in a series (almost always “meh”) this book turned out to be almost as good as The Reluctant Assassin the first of the W.A.R.P. series.

Part of the struggle, for me, with this novel is that the first one came out early last year and I’ve read so many books since then! Add in that this book starts in an alternative present and it took a few chapters to really start remembering characters and what happened in the previous book. I’m not sure if every book will be like this and I’m pretty sure not with the way this ended but there was a Chekhov gun introduced that I’m assuming will span the series (or at least another book)!

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Updates

July Recap 2014

2014 07-06 Beach Reading!In case you missed it I’ve surpassed FOUR years of blogging this month! I’ll include links at the end of this post to all four posts, but whoa—four years is a LONG time! Personal and work life have been busy/great and straining, in that order, and I think that’s where I’ll leave it 😉 I’ve unfortunately not made any progress on my 30 x 30 list, but oh well I’ve been too busy doing other things! I’ll definitely have to make an effort in August. (But I did get another Beach day in!)

Books and the Bookish
The most exciting thing to note is on Friday of my celebration week I announced a new podcast! And miraculously I was able to get the teaser/intro episode recorded, edited and on the website so I could start the slow process of getting it on to iTunes! (It doesn’t take that long, but why waste a first episode getting it on there when I can delay and create MORE fan-fare for the first episode—to the mortification of my friend Caroline :-D)

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Book Group, Books

Book 292: The Bridge Over the River Kwai – Pierre Boulle

Another great selection from my library’s Books into Movies book group. I’m not the biggest fan of war novels and I wasn’t convinced I would enjoy this one, but the writing was simple and easy to read and the juxtaposition/tension between the captured/surrendered British troops and the British commandos was enough to keep me flipping sides about the bridge throughout!

The book centers around the building of the Burma-Siam railway during World War II and specifically around the building of the bridge over the river Kwai, a fictional river in Thailand. I could not remember which modern country was Siam until this past weekend when we walked past a Thai restaurant called House of Siam! I should probably be embarrassed I couldn’t remember that, but let’s blame it on my American-ness and complete lack of knowledge around most Asiatic countries and cultures.

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