I took the day off from work today so I could do most of the housecleaning I usually do on Saturdays. Tomorrow, I’m going to be READING! Or at least that’s my plan. Even if I don’t read a TON, it feels good to have a good amount of cleaning done, and a block of
Read on »Posts By: Marie
Book review: The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan
Description from the Random House website: Anais Hendricks, fifteen, is in the back of a police car. She is headed for the Panopticon, a home for chronic young offenders. She can’t remember what’s happened, but across town a policewoman lies in a coma and Anais’s school uniform is covered in blood. Raised in foster care
Read on »Book review: The Spark: a Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius by Kristine Barnett
{I’m adding this note on Feb. 7, 2024. Last month, one of my co-workers was talking about a series she’d watched called The Curious Case of Natalia Grace — I think that’s what it was, or something close to that. I didn’t listen too closely at first, but then the details got more and more
Read on »Want to read: Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon
I listened to a Guardian Books podcast today that included an interview with writer Andrew Solomon about his latest book, Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity. I didn’t realize until today that it had won the 2012 National Book Critics Circle award for general non-fiction. One of his earlier books,
Read on »Short thoughts on reading and non-reviewing
So I spent several weeks in October and November re-reading The Passage by Justin Cronin, then reading its sequel, The Twelve, which I enjoyed a great deal but didn’t LOVE the way I loved The Passage. Then I spent a few days reading the play The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow: an Instant Message with
Read on »Late July journal updates
Wow, I knew I hadn’t posted in a while, but didn’t realize it’s been over two months — jeesh! And truthfully, this is sort of a faux-post, which I’m able to put up only because Ryan’s baseball coach decided not to go to the post-season awards night. Apparently Ryan was one of only two or
Read on »New second job, changes at first job, sports, clubs, & doctor appts.
I’ve found myself unexpectedly alone in the house with nothing I immediately need to do, so I’m writing this to let people know that, Yes, I’m still alive, but I really HAVE been too busy to get in touch and catch up. The calendars for April and May look like this: First: after watching
Read on »A Fraction of the Whole: SO FUNNY!
Of all the sentences in all the books I read in 2011, this sentence has to be one of my favorites: Until now, I’d never realized how much Dad resembled a dog being pushed unwillingly into a swimming pool. It’s from A Fraction of the Whole, the debut novel by Australian writer Steve Toltz. It was
Read on »Connecting the thoughts, one book to the next
Over the past two weeks, I feel like I’ve entered a “perfect storm” of sorts, or at least a perfect reading storm, if such a thing exists. It took me far too long to finish reading my latest LibraryThing Early Reviewer book, entitled Manage Your Depression through Exercise, but very near the end, I found
Read on »In love with Lola and the Boy Next Door
I was browsing through my library’s latest e-book additions, and saw Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. I knew nothing about the book, but I remembered book bloggers mentioning the title on Twitter a while ago, in tweet-sized bursts of excitement and anticipation. Figuring it would be a fun read, and a
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