Author: booknutgirls

booknutgirls http://thebooknutdotcom.wordpress.com I read. I blog. I sell books. I chauffeur my kids. What more do you need to know?

Geeky Magazine Meme

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I haven’t geeked in a few weeks, and I figure I’m past due. That, and this week’s geek is something right up my alley:

This week’s Weekly Geeks theme is to talk about the magazines we read. In order to get you started, I prepared a little magazines meme, but feel free to take it further if you want. I also think it’d be great if you displayed images of the covers of your favorite magazines.

I like magazines, but I don’t do book magazines, preferring to get my book recommendations from less lofty sources. I’ll read a magazine about just about everything else. We used to have more subscriptions (to Atlantic Monthly, Smithsonian, and National Geographic among others, including Time which we let lapse because we read it on-line now) but we’ve cut back in recent years. So… the four magazines that I read (not counting the kids magazines or the gossipy Hollywood magazines I do buy on occasion when there’s some good movie news):

Name of magazine: Better Homes and Gardens

Do you subscribe or just buy it now and then? I subscribe. I ended up with the subscription when a girl came around selling subscriptions for points so she could earn a trip to wherever, and dumped on me a sob story about being knocked up by her boyfriend who then dumped her which is why she was out selling magazines. I couldn’t find a polite way to say no. (That’s kind of how I ended up with Smithsonian… MADD called with a magazine drive, and I tried to think of an obscure magazine that I actually wanted to read, hoping they wouldn’t have it, but dang it, they did.)

What’s your favorite regular feature in the magazine? Um… I don’t know. They have started doing this paint thing, where they pick a color and then do all sorts of shades in that color.

What do you think your interest in this magazine says about you? That I have a home and I like to decorate?? Either that, or I’m a sucker who can’t say no.

How long have you been reading this magazine? On and off my whole marriage, so 15 years.

Is there any unique or quirky aspect to the magazine that keeps you reading? Not really… in fact, I’m letting my subscription lapse because I get too many ideas and then I get depressed because I don’t have the money to do all the things I think of. Better not to get the ideas in the first place.

Name of magazine: Family Fun

Do you subscribe or just buy it now and then? Subscribe.

What’s your favorite regular feature in the magazine? I like the crafts, I like the family traditions that they spotlight, I like the recipes.

What do you think your interest in this magazine says about you? I have kids and I like to have fun with them.

How long have you been reading this magazine? I first noticed it when M was little, but I didn’t start subscribing until 5 or 6 years ago.

Is there any unique or quirky aspect to the magazine that keeps you reading? It’s really heavily Disney- and big-money-vacation oriented, which bugs me to a certain extent. But they really do have fun craft ideas.

Name of magazine: Bon Appetit

Do you subscribe or just buy it now and then? I subscribe. It was a gift from my parents. (I chose it over Gourmet, but I have to admit, it was an arbitrary choice…)

What’s your favorite regular feature in the magazine? I haven’t been reading it long enough to really have a favorite. I do like the pictures of food, though… they have some good photographers working for them.

What do you think your interest in this magazine says about you? That I like to eat. Good food, especially. 🙂

How long have you been reading this magazine? I think my subscription started in April. Or maybe May. Either way, not long.

Is there any unique or quirky aspect to the magazine that keeps you reading? I don’t know if I’ll keep this one up after my gift subscription runs out. I do like looking at the food, and there have been some helpful cooking tips, but I’m thinking it’s a bit too high end for my family.

Name of magazine: Ensign

Do you subscribe or just buy it now and then? I subscribe.

What’s your favorite regular feature in the magazine? It’s a magazine for the members of my church, and so it’s mostly doctrinal and inspirational articles. One of the things I do like, though, are the stories — of miracles, conversions and experiences — sent in by members around the world.

What do you think your interest in this magazine says about you? That I’m a good Mormon. 🙂

How long have you been reading this magazine? 15 years. But I’ve been reading the church magazines (they have ones for kids and teens) my whole life.

Is there any unique or quirky aspect to the magazine that keeps you reading? Not really. I read it because I should, but also because it helps my faith, and it gives me ideas and courage and strength to keep going every day. (Granted, I usually only read it on Sundays, but better once a week then never. Right?)

The Juliet Club

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It seems that I’m having a books-recommended-by-Leila week….

Kate is: Organized. Smart. Determined. Rational.
Kate has: recently been dumped by her boyfriend. And been accepted to the first-ever Shakespeare Seminar in Vernoa, Italy.
Kate needs: to fall in love again. Most likely with a dark-haired man with a foreign accent. (They’re the best kind, after all.)
Kate thinks: that love is stupid. And that she can avoid it. (HA!)

Giacomo is: Dark Haired. Italian. Impetuous. A Flirt. A Heartbreaker.
Giacomo has: recently dumped his girlfriend. And is forced to attend the first-ever Shakespeare Seminar, since his mother is the one who organized it.
Giacomo needs: to fall in love. Most likely with a stubborn American who turns out to be irresistible.
Giacomo thinks: that Americans, this Shakespeare Seminar and everything else is stupid. And that he’ll manage to flirt with everyone and never fall in love. (HA!)

My rational, critical brain thought the whole time I was reading this book: “These are stereotypical characters, doing predictable romantic plot things, without much emotion, and without much suspense or innovation.” My non-rational, romance-loving, July-fluff brain thought the whole time I was reading this book: “I LOVE this! This is so TOTALLY perfect! YAY for Kate and Giacomo — GREAT chemistry by the way — and everyone else. Love RULES!”

The July-fluff side won. I loved this book.

Because I like Lists

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And because I’m much better read on this one. Found at Sarah Miller’s.

According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on this list.

The instructions:
Look at the list and:
Bold those you have read.
Italicize those you intend to read.
Underline the books you LOVE.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. 1984 – George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy (maybe someday….)
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis (Why is this one here? It’s part of the Chronicles of Narnia, right?)
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne

41. Animal Farm – George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown (Why is this on these sorts of lists?? I don’t get it.)
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary – Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods is better!)
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession – AS Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom (Blech.)
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Though I like the Jeremy Brett series better.)
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92.The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare (Again, it’s a double posting. Isn’t it covered in “complete works of Shakespeare”?)
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

I’ve read 47; that’s nearly half. I’m quite proud of myself. 🙂

The Exiles in Love

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It’s not very often that I like the sequel better than the original, but I have to say that enjoyed The Exiles in Love so much more than I did The Exiles. I didn’t need the tissue at the end, like the blurb from Horn Book said I would, but I did laugh, quite a bit (and manage to pick up on the satire this time!), at the escapades of the Conroy sisters.

The girls — most of them, anyway — are in love. Ruth is in love with no less than four men/boys: the bus driver, the Temporary English teacher, Alan Adair (the butcher’s son), and Philippe, the grandson of Big Grandma’s French friend who comes to say with the Conroys for a few weeks. Naomi and Rachel, in comparison, are only in love with one each: the Temporary English teacher for Naomi, and Phillipe for Rachel. (Though Rachel is very level-headed about it all, asking Philippe to marry her the second he walks into the house.) Phoebe, on the other hand, is mildly disgusted by this business with the “family failing” (aka, falling in love), preferring to devote herself to John le Carre, and becoming an international spy. To cure the girls of their failing, Big Grandma proposes an escapade to France, staying in a cottage on the property of her friend, and the girls manage to have a few adventures, as well as manage to fall out of love. All is well, of course, in the end.

I loved the trip to France. Having spent a summer in Germany, without knowing German, I completely empathized with the girl’s frustrations and insecurities about being in France. The part where they went shopping in the villa had me in tears, I was laughing so hard. And I thought they were all very cute and sweet and silly about falling in love… Ruth especially was good at pining. And I did catch this time around that McKay was satirizing parents who expect perfection from their kids. Mrs. Conroy is always moaning that her girls aren’t normal little girls, that they read too much, and aren’t normal enough, and get much too dirty for their own good. And when Rachel goes up for May Queen at her school, finally, Mrs. Conroy thinks, she’s acting like a “normal little girl”. Puh-lease. (Maybe I just needed the satire spelled out more blatantly; it was there in the first book, but I just found it annoying there. Here, I was amused by it.)

The book was told in flashbacks by Naomi and Ruth, each chapter beginning with a little conversation between the two of them. At first, I found that annoying, but eventually, it grew on me. And I have to admit, I did like the ending.

But the absolute best thing, the only thing I really marked because I liked it so much, was this quote, when they’re in France:

“And speaking of food,” said Big Grandma, “we’d better make a list. You girls will have to go shopping after breakfast.”
“Aren’t you coming?”
“With my ankle?” [she twisted it at the beginning of their vacation, and spent the week lounging in the orchards]
“What will you do then?”
“I shall sit quietly in the orchard with A Tale of Two Cities. I always enjoy books much more when I read them on location.”

Indeed.

The Exiles

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I picked this one up (and a couple of others) after finishing The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, partially because Lelia compared Jeanne Birdsall to Hilary McKay and I felt a little doofish because I had no idea who Hilary McKay was, and partially because Jane (in the book) was reading the sequel to this one (Exiles in Love), and both of these things sparked my curiosity.

First off: Leia’s right. Birdsall is a lot like Hilary McKay. They have the same feel, the same kinds of stories, the same values (for lack of a better word) for a happy childhood. The Exiles are four sisters (even that’s the same), who are a bit impractical and bookish. Not to mention, slightly, um, childish. So when their parents (who aren’t terribly likeable, in my opinion, unlike Mr. Penderwick) come into some money, they ship their girls — Ruth, 13; Naomi, 11; Rachel, 8; and Phoebe, 6 — to their grandma, affectionately called Big Grandma, for the summer. There, they are deprived of reading material and forced to have adventures. And work. And it turns out to be a smashing good summer. Even if they’re reduced to reading cookbooks.

It was a fun read, and I didnt’ dislike it, but I have to admit I liked the Penderwicks better. I liked the girls better, the parents better, and I thought McKay was a bit heavy handed with the “too much reading is warping kids brains” theme. (Though I admit, this may be becuase I let M read so much… not to mention my reading habits…) I got that it was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but it lacked that charm, that sweetness, that made me really like the Penderwick sisters. (No matter how cute Phoebe is, she will never be as cute as Batty. Period.)

June-July Estella

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Is up! Like usual, there’s a lot of good stuff there. Stuart, as usual, has written a great article about reading outside, and I thoroughly enjoyed Miss Havasham’s How I Spend My Summers.

As for my stuff, there’s the good:
An interview with Longstocking and first-time author Daphne Grab, as well as a review of her book. She was a delight to interview, and I really enjoyed her book.

The bad:
I’m actually quite proud of this review of a terrible book.

The mediocre:
I think this one might have been better than I thought it was; I just wasn’t in the mood for it.

Everything else:
There’s a boatload of reviews, columns and author interviews.

Stop by and check it out!

Right Ho, Jeeves

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There is something about Jeeves and Wooster that always makes me want to talk like them. Bertie, especially. What ho. Pip pip and all that. I think I did this a bit backward, though. On somebody-or-other’s recommendation a while back, we put Fry and Laurie’s Jeeves and Wooster series on our Netflix queue (that was complicated) and loved it. Well, they did this book over two episodes, pretty much word-for-word (or at least scene-for-chapter). And while it didn’t ruin the book for me (they did an excellent job), it did take… something… away from the reading experience.

For those who haven’t seen the episodes, or read Wodehouse, or even don’t know what the heck I’m talking about…. Bertie Wooster has friends that are in trouble. Specifically, this time, Gussie Fink-Nottle (Wodehouse is brilliant with names). Gussie’s in love with Madeline Bassett and can’t bring himself to propose to her. So, Bertie hatches a plan (which involves sending Gussie to Bertie’s Aunt Dahlia’s house) to get them together. Meanwhile, Bertie’s friend Tuppy Glossop (another great name!) has had his engagement with Angela (who happens to be Bertie’s cousin) broken off over a spat about a shark (don’t ask; too long to explain). Bertie, again, comes up with a plan to save their relationship. After much hilarity, everything (of course) goes awry, and finally Jeeves steps in, makes a bit of a fool out of Bertie, saving the day for everyone.

Confusing? But the plot isn’t the point. I’m sure you could also read some sort of social critique of the idleness of the upper class. For heavens sake, Bertie — nor any of his friends — doesn’t DO anything. Perhaps Wodehouse was trying to say something about this idleness, especially making the servant the useful, brilliant one. It reminds me of this exchange from The Importance of Being Earnest:

Lady Bracknell. I feel bound to tell you that you are not down on my list of eligible young men, although I have the same list as the dear Duchess of Bolton has. We work together, in fact. However, I am quite ready to enter your name, should your answers be what a really affectionate mother requires. Do you smoke?

Jack. Well, yes, I must admit I smoke.

Lady Bracknell. I am glad to hear it. A man should always have an occupation of some kind. There are far too many idle men in London as it is.

Same principle. But as I was saying, that’s not the point either. The point is comedy. It’s silly. It’s slapstick. It’s the complete insanity of it all. Jeeves is the ultimate straight man, always the foil for Bertie’s goofiness. And Bertie is lovably goofy. I do have to say, though, that Jeeves really didn’t come off as brilliant in this book — if I hadn’t had seen the series, I’d be wondering what the big deal is. Most of his brilliance was alluded to. Not that it mattered. (Not the point.)

I enjoyed this. I’m not sure if I’ll go out and read a whole bunch of Wodehouse, but I’m glad I’ve read at least one. It was a lot of fun. (I need to find a use for oojah-cum-spiff — as in “things are not looking to oojah-cum-spiff at the moment” — in a sentence sometime….)

Drumroll, Please…

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We put all the names in a bowl (sorry, couldn’t find a hat) and A did the honors… And the winner of this

is….

(Which goes to show that if you jump up and down saying “Pick me!”, you just might win the book. 🙂

Congratulations, and if you could email me your snail mail address (mmfbooks AT gmail DOT com), I’ll get that in the mail for you. Thanks to all who entered. I’ll have to do this again, sometime. 🙂

Whoopsie: A Giveaway

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A little while back, I got offered a copy of Girls Like Us: Carol King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon — And the Journey of a Generation for review on Estella’s Revenge (review coming in either August or September….). I accepted it because I totally spaced that I had entered a contest to win a copy at my friend Wendy’s blog, Two Well Read. Well… oops… I won that copy… and now I have two.

Well, I don’t need two. So, because it’s summer, and because I saw this great idea over at Lynne’s, I’m going to turn around and give away a copy of Girls Like Us to one lucky reader.
You have until July 2 to leave a comment. Then I’ll have one of the girls pick a paper out of the hat because they like that. Good luck!

An Abundance of Katherines

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This book, without a doubt, is a book for nerds. I don’t think it matters what kind of nerd — I’m only a book nerd, after all, with a dabbling of music and math nerditry — but I think you might have to be at least a little bit of a nerd to truly enjoy this book. (And since I think most people are at least a little bit of a nerd…)

Colin — former child prodigy and recent high school graduate — has a tendency to not only date girls named Katherine, but to get dumped by them. After the most recent dumping — by Katherine XIX — he and his friend Hassan decide to go on a road trip. They end up in Gutshot, Tennessee, where they learn a little about themselves, about relationships, and about trusting in the unknown.

That’s the basic plot, anyway. What I really liked about the novel, and the reason I think it’s worth it to read, is the footnotes. I’m an obsessive footnote reader, which sometimes gets in the way of the reading experience. But in this case, they made the book for me. They were snide, funny, and oh-so-John Green (at least the way he comes off in his vlog). And the afterword/appendix was fascinating, too (although Green wrote that it was “optional” to read.) The book was pretentious, like Looking for Alaska, but in this case the pretention wasn’t taken so seriously and therefore worked better. Sure, Colin was soul-searching, looking for the Truth and the Meaning of Things. But it wasn’t so weighty, so oppressive a search as Miles’s was. And I think Green’s style works better when he’s not being so Heavy. (A side note about the language: it was cleaner than Looking for Alaska, but only because there’s a wonderful homage — which I didn’t know was one until they spelled it out for me — to Norman Mailer. If you’ve read him — I haven’t — you’ll know what I mean. If you haven’t, well, then, you’ll either have to read some Mailer, or read this book.)

I’m glad Green’s writing books (especially ones where the nerd gets the girl, and it doesn’t come off as forced or contrived); it’s about time nerds got some respect. And Green’s just the person to give it to them.