• Grab My Blog Button

  
  
  
• 

  Follow this blog

• Currently Reading…

• From My Library

• My Blogging Essentials

Ready, Set, March!

I passed by my nightstand this morning and fully took in the stack of books there waiting for me.  The other day I kind of stacked up what’s to come and seeing it this morning made me want to write a post about them.  I did a little research (because I’m meme challenged) and discovered that the What’s on Your Nightstand meme hosted by 5 Minutes for Books is a fourth Tuesday challenge.  If I didn’t write this post today, I’d never write it.  I’m that kind of a blogger.  So, I’ve decided to go it alone and ramble on about what’s on my nightstand/a look ahead at the month of March.

March is going to be a busy month for me.  I agreed to participate in four book tours.  Now, before you ask me if I did that deliberately, I did.  I hemmed and I hawed.  I thought and I considered.  In the end, I agreed.  Two were books I already had, but two were new to me.  Not too bad.  I will also make my appearance on That’s How I Blog.  I cannot wait!  Mark your calendars for Tuesday, March 30th at 9pm.

March that Has Already Been

My first March tour stop has already taken place.  I reviewed The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran last Thursday.  I read this book in February and really enjoyed it.  If you haven’t already, check it out. There’s a giveaway!

The second book, Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein, is finished and I even have the shell of the review written.  I was offered this book by Terra Communications somewhat at the last minute and nearly immediately said yes.  I’m glad I did. It was very interesting and reminded me a lot of the X Files – not because of the characters, but because of the subject matter.  After finishing it, I really like the cover.  It matches the tone of the book, even it if doesn’t betray the stories more bizarre and suspenseful aspects.  There will be a giveaway for this book, so if you’re interested, keep a close eye here next week.

Present Day March

I am currently reading Real Life & Liars by Kristina Riggle.

• What’s cool about this book is that the author is from Grand Rapids, Michigan, my home town.  If that isn’t enough, I received a signed copy of this book for my birthday from Trista, my best friend, who just so happens to be friends with Kristina.  In the world of Kevin Bacon, I’m only one degree removed from her. LOL!
• Kristina was in the 2009 class of  The Debutante Ball, so reading this book would qualify for The Debutante Ball Reading Challenge.  I’m not an active participant in this challenge, but it’s oh, so tempting.  If there is anywhere in my life where I’m exercising some restraint, it’s in signing up for challenges.  There’s no harm in pointing out when something you’re reading intersects with a challenge you support, right?  If you enjoy reading first time authors, you should really check out Jen (Devourer of Books) and Swapna’s (S. Krishna’s Books) challenge.
• When I finish this book, I will also – FINALLY – be able to participate in GalleySmith’s Literary Road Trip.  I’ll do a little write up about Grand Rapids as well. I’m excited to share a little bit about where I came from here.  I love my hometown and my home state.

The March to Come

Here’s where we get to what is waiting in the wings.  Hold on to your seats everyone.  This is quite ambitious for me:

1. Venetia Kelley’s Traveling Show by Frank Delaney. I have wanted to read him for forever, so I really couldn’t turn down the opportunity.  Back in my high school/college days, I was what some might consider obsessed with Ireland and many things Irish.  U2 was constantly playing, pictures of Bono everwhere.  I was reading and becoming consumed with James Joyce and George Bernard Shaw.  As a lover of historical fiction, I’m not sure what has taken me so long to get to Delaney.  March, the home of St. Patrick’s Day, is a wonderful month to rectify that.  My tour date is May 16th, so be sure to stop before you hit the green beer.
2. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.  I’m reading this in preparation for my appearance on Nicole from Linus’ Blanket’s That’s How I Blog show on March 30th!  So exciting!  If you haven’t had a change to listen in and chat during in Nicole’s show, you really should.  Another reason why I’m excited about this is because Revolutionary Road is my oldest requested book at just over a year on my shelves. Disgraceful!
3. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann.  This is another book I purchased with Christmas money.  Even though I’ve linked up with TLC Book Tours for this book in May, I am reading it early so I can put together some questions for a Q&A with Colum.  I’m hoping that all works out well.  I’ve been really bad about getting around to Q&As over the past year.
4. Seeing Stars by Diane Hammond.  I received an unsolicited ARC of this novel from HarperCollins.  Then I remembered that TLC was hosting Diane’s tour, so I signed up.  This is about a mother/daughter move to Hollywood to pursue the daughter’s acting career.  It should be a fun diversion from winter.  Check back here on March 31st for my tour stop.
5. The Song of Hannah by Eva Etzioni-Halevy.  I’ve had this review copy for nearly as long as Revolutionary Road.  It will be the first book I read for Beth Fish Reads’ What’s in a Name 3 challenge.
6. Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff.  I was pitched this book on the strength of the reviews it has already received from some of my favorite bloggers, including our very own Amy from My Friend Amy.  How could I pass that up?  Who isn’t in the mood for a little romance every now and again?
7. Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman.  I requested an ARC of this novel through Shelf Awareness – a dangerous practice that I’ve stopped. LOL!  This should be a pretty suspenseful read and I like those every so often.
8. The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Connor McNees.  Can I tell you how excited I am to read this book?  I grew up loving Louisa May Alcott.  When I was in the 5th grade, my parents gave me a collection of her novels for Christmas and to this day they are among my prized possessions, even though that copy of Little Women is so warn and abused.  When I read about this book and Trish from Hey Lady, Watcha Readin’ posted about an online bookclub in April, I commented right away.  I’m so glad that I made the cut.  We’ll be dishing about this book on Trish’s blog the evening of April 14th.  It should be a great time!
9. Outsider in Amsterdam by Janwillem van de Wetering.  I am reading this novel for Jen’s (Jen’s Book Thoughts) Detectives Around the World theme week, which is April 11 – 17.  I don’t read a lot of mysteries, but I loved the opportunity to choose a detective from the land of “my people” – the Dutch. LOL!  That week I’ll be posting my review of this novel as well as a post about Amsterdam.  I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.  Jen has put so much work into this event.  There are 20 other bloggers who will be participating.  It’s amazing!  If you haven’t already, you should stop by and vote for your favorite detectives in March Madness format.

That about raps it up for me.  Ten books is probably a good week for some, but it’s quite possibly more than I’ve read in a month ever.  No pressure if I don’t get to the last three this month, but I would love to get those in.

I hope that you have a lot of fun bookish plans in place this month, too.

Literate Housewife Unscripted ~or~ My First Vlog

I finally put my thoughts together and made my first vlog on Monday.  I recently became a Friend of the Library and thought I’d talk about one things I love most about libraries.  Enjoy!

Bloopers:

• The library that held the sale in question is part of the Roanoke Valley Public Library, not whatever it was that I said.
• Apparently I’ve spent my life seeing the word sapling and reading it as “sampling” all my life.  I must work on that. LOL!

TSS ~ No Time to Blog Today

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I had hoped to post about my day yesterday, including video and pictures from Kathleen Grissom’s wonderful reading.  Unfortunately, I won’t have time until this evening while I’m watching the Olympics (love them!).  The in-laws are going to watch the girls and hubby and I are going dinner I’ll be posting about the reading and my associated giveaway tomorrow.  Until then, have a great day!

Snow Day!

Today much of Virginia is getting socked with what is for us our third snow storm this winter.  The first storm hit about a week before Christmas and the second one hit last Saturday. Last week’s storm kept the girls out of school until yesterday. Today is a snow day for all of us since my work is closed as well.  I do have a few meetings with vendors throughout the day, but I’ll be sure to sprinkle some fun throughout the day.  I’m sure by Sunday I’ll be climbing the walls wanting to get out of the house, but for today I’m just going to enjoy this.

Here’s what we have on tap:

1) The girls both have their 100 day school project to do.

2) Allison needs to decorate her Valentine’s box for school.

3) Junie B. Jones!

4) Playing in the snow followed by hot chocolate!

5) Shoveling – a great way to get some exercise.

6) Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls.  I’m about 70 pages in and enjoying it.  It’s a novelization of her grandmother’s life told in little episodes. Later today I’m hoping we can stoke up the gas logs.  Reading by a fire is relaxing, don’t you think?

What do you have planned for today?

Call For Suggestions & A Reading Update

Yo-Yo Mama stopped by today and asked if I would indicate whether the book is available on Kindle when I write my reviews since I am a Kindle owner.  As I read that comment, I wondered why in the world I hadn’t thought of doing that myself.  I really appreciated the suggestion.  It called to my attention the fact that the format of my reviews has not changed very much at all in the last three years.

If you go to my Library and click on links to my reviews, you’ll find the same three elements: a picture of the cover, a link to Amazon, and my review.  Recently, I tried to be better about adding links to reviews by other bloggers, but that is a recent development.  I’ve also thought about adding a rating to each review, but I just don’t think that’s me – at least not yet.  In general, though, it’s time for a change.   Besides, there’s nothing like the new and novel to get my energy flowing, right.

While I’m rethinking my review format, I would love to hear from you.  What would you like to see?  What would make the experience of reading about books at The Literate Housewife Review more enjoyable or rewarding for you?  While I might not include everything suggested, but I promise to take everything into consideration.

P.S. Speaking of my Library, I just updated it over the weekend.  It now includes all of my reviews, I’ve tested and fixed broken links, and I’ve modify formatting for books beginning with “A” or “The” to be categorized by the second word in the title.  I’m also thinking about creating a page listing books by author.

Follow Up on My Restless Reading

I just started The Kitchen House by first-time author Kathleen Grissom yesterday and I’m eating it up!  Yay!  I guess I just needed a little trip back to the Antebellum South to clear my head.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Rantings of a Restless Reader

Restless Reading

Ever since I’ve finished The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (in short, incredible reads), I have been flitting restlessly from one book to the other, never reading more than 100 pages, but mostly no more that 20.  I’ve picked up and set back down the following physical/Kindle books:

• The Queens Mistake by Diane Haeger (about 4 chapters in, but I’m just not that in to it – probably a touch of Tudor-itis)
• Magnolia Wednesdays by Wendy Wax (made it to 100, trying to force myself on it – that didn’t work)
• Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (made it to 20ish – put it down because I can tell it will be incredible and I didn’t want my general malaise to ruin it)
• A Second Helping by Beverly Jenkins (made it 20ish pages and thought it would be “the one,” but sadly I just could not get into it)
• Inglorious by Joanna Kovenna (made it to page 3 before I put it down – the story would be too heavy for me right now for sure)

I am currently reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck for the Classic Reads Book Club.  It’s an interesting story thus far (on page 38), but while I was waiting for Emma’s prescription to be filled, I picked up and started reading True Colors by Kristin Hannah instead.  Hmmm…

This is not just true of physical/Kindle books.  It has carried over into my audio books, too.  I’ve started and stopped the following since early this month:

• The Other by David Guterson (stopped it maybe 5 minutes in… I could just tell…)
• The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta (I was really looking forward to this one since I loved Little Children so much.  I got to the “my priest molested me and I kinda liked it scene before I stopped that one)
• Somebody Else’s Daughter by Elizabeth Brundage (can you say cynical?)

This isn’t the first time since I’ve been blogging when I’ve gotten restless and otherwise unsatisfied with the books I pick up before.  I just wish I blogged about what it was that turned the tide.  I know that this time my work and home life has been so busy that I don’t have the energy to read that I normally do.  Also, my key reading time is after the kids are in bed.  With Game On Diet, I can’t sacrifice sleep for reading without losing points.  I know eventually my desire to read will return.  I just need to be patient.  Patience is not my strength.

Restless Reader Ranting

While I might not have actually finished a book in a long time, over the past few days the little reading I have been doing has driven me up the wall.  I am really, really getting tired of the  bitter, cynical adult narrator or the mildly cynical adult narrator with super-cynical adult friends.  I give a pass here to cynical young adults in literature because those feelings often go part and parcel with the age.  When the character is an adult, I just want to scream “Grow up!”  There was a time and a place in my when I would have eaten that up and begged for seconds.  Although I’m pretty far from Pollyanna myself, they just don’t appeal to me any more.  I think that grew old for me sometime after I graduated from college. If you’ve gotten past the age of 35, which is really pushing it, and you haven’t come to terms with your life, you need to take responsibility for yourself and your outlook.

The Abstinence Teacher led me to the edge of my patience.  I should have known by the title that this would be a cynical look at the wars being waged about sexual education in the public schools.  I tried to stick it out, but the whole priest thing I alluded to completely turned me off.  Still, it was Somebody Else’s Daughter that pushed me over the edge last night.

Claire, an adopted daughter of a prosperous New Englanders, has never gotten over how her father drank away the pain of his wife’s death when she, 13  at the time, needed him.  She rebelled into a world of drugs and moved to the West Coast.  She came back to her family home when her father was on his deathbed.  After deciding to live in her family home, she remains resentful as ever, not satisfied with her father’s final attempt to apologize.  Through it all, I continued to listen, hoping that she would eventually have an epiphany that would let her move on emotionally.  I took her attempting to get involved to help a badly beaten young immigrant from Poland as a good sign, but it just fed her sour world view.  Petra was clearly being abused by someone.  Her huge black eye couldn’t be hidden.  What her first encounter ended up being was a slam at the United States and then Claire ruminating at how others will either ignore Petra entirely or think she had gotten what she deserved.  Really?  I agree that there are many people who don’t want to get involved, but I find it hard to believe that there are enough people who automatically assume that an abused woman deserves it to be a factor.  That was all I could take.  There was enough redemption out there to make the rest of that novel worthwhile for me.

Cynical adults characters, especially the bitter kind with no sense of humor, are definitely a reading pet peeve of mine.  Ahh… It feels good to get that off of my chest.

The Sunday Salon ~ It’s My Blogiversary

Today, The Literate Housewife Review officially turns 3 years old.  I cannot believe it’s been that long or how far this blog has come.

It began its days as “52 Books or Bust” on Blogger, reflecting my New Year’s Resolution in 2007.  At the end of 2008, I’d decided to move to WordPress and I knew I needed to change my name.  I read more than 52 books that first year and it didn’t at all reflect where I hoped this blog would go.  It was my husband who came up with the ‘Literate Housewife” moniker and it fit like a glove.  After my 2009 recap yesterday, the rest is history.

I’m looking forward to what 2010 will bring.  I can tell from over the past month that balance is going to play a key role.  My home and work life have only gotten busier, leaving me less time to think about blogging, let alone writing.  I need to be as deliberate about what I post as I am about what I’ll be reading.  As the book blogging community has evolved and changed over these past three years, so will the Literate Housewife.  I still find the joy and challenges that go along with being a book blogger all extremely exciting.

In honor of my 3rd blogivesary, there are some prizes.  What celebration would be complete without that?  I have three prizes:

Grand Prize: A silver 1GB iPod Shuffle ~ perfect for listening to tunes or a great audio book.

Second Prize: A 3 Book Grab Bag ~ you’ll have to wait until your package arrives to find out what’s inside.

Third Prize: 40 Coraline bookmarks to the local library of your choice + a Coraline bookmark for you along with one surprise book from my bookshelves.

To enter the contest, please leave a comment here and let me know how long you’ve been reading The Literate Housewife Review.  It doesn’t matter if you’ve been reading for 1 minute or 3 years.  I’m just curious like that.

The contest is open until 11:59 pm EST on February 16th.  I’ll announce the winners on February 17th.

Good luck!

2009 ~ A Year in Review

Before you say anything, I know it’s taken me long enough to write this post.  January 2010 is half over at this point.  Still, I wanted to take the time to look back on what I read and done with my blog during 2009.

2009 was a great year.  I read more books and pages than I ever had before.  I know that I only scratched the surface of what was published.  We are blessed like no readers ever before.

Here are the statistics:

Books Read: 93

Pages Read: 32,438

Average Pages per Book: 349

Odd Facts: 8 of the books I rad had 288 pages. 7 books had 384 pages and another 7 had 416 pages.  There were several other page numbers shared by 4 and 3 books. Interesting how different books tend to have similar page numbers.  I would have thought that 93 books could easily have had 93 different page numbers.

Challenges Completed: R.I.P. IV, Peril the First, War Through the Generations

First Theme Week: I held my first theme week in August ~ Dog Days of Summer.  It was a lot of fun and I was blown away by the support and participation.  There will definitely by another DDoS in 2010.

Favorite Post: Where I discuss my literary infidelity.  Since writing that post, I have given in to The Hunger Games phenomenon and finished both books this month.  I’m still a tramp at heart, though. LOL!

Award: My review of Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger was selected by her publicist as one of the top 10.  I received an autographed 1st addition, which I adore.

Book Bloggers Met: 14+ (yeah!).

• In February, I met Jaime from Confessions of a Bibliophile and Kathy from Bermudaonion’s Weblog in Blacksburg.  Miriam from Hatchette Book Group was also there.  We met for lunch a second time in 2009 and both afternoons were fantastic.
• I met Deborah from Books, Movies and Chinese Food and Swapna from S. Krishna’s Books in D.C. while I was attending a training session.  It was a great meal.  They picked the perfect restaurant.
• The National Book Festival was a wonderful (if a little damp) place to meet even more book bloggers: Michelle from GalleySmith, Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog, Amy from My Friend Amy, Trish from Hey Lady! Watcha Readin’?, Cara from Ooh… Books!, Nicole from Linus’ Blanket, Jill from Rhapsody in Books, Anna from Diary of an Eccentric, and Serena from Savvy Verse & Wit.  I know there were several others there as well, including Deborah and Swapna.  If I missed, please forgive me!
• On a November business trip to Orlando, I got to eat dinner with Sandy from You’ve GOTTA Read This!.  I honestly felt like we were old friends.  We could have talked all night.

New Look: I moved to self-hosting in 2008, but in 2009 I invested in a new, professional look.  Karen from Simply Amusing Designs really brought my vision to life.  I feel like I now have a brand for my blog.

New Gadgets: I got my Kindle in October and I’m loving it!  I also got a Flip Camcorder for Christmas. My tripod has come in the mail, so I’m hoping to get started with some vlogs very soon.

New Perspective: As the year came to a close, I found myself dissatisfied with the way I was feeling constant pressure to read specific books by a specific time.  This was no one’s fault but my own and it called for a fresh look at my reading.  I became determined that in 2010 I would read deliberately.

Favorite 10 Books I Read: As I did last year, I’m not picking a top book.  I’m listing my 10 favorites, listed in alphabetical order below:

84, Charing Cross Road

Foreign Tongue

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl who Played with Fire

Her Fearful Symmetry

The Graveyard Book

Nefertiti

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Uncommon Reader

The White Queen

Here’s looking forward to a spectacular 2010!

Getting My Game On

Last year, many of my book blogging and Twitter buddies started talking about the Game On Diet.  I followed their progress and was really impressed.  When Jill from Rhapsody in Books asked if I would like to join the game, I immediately said yes.  I really want to do something to change my life.  Why not start with some of the best friends I’ve (mostly) never met?

I immediately bought the book and started reading. What have I gotten myself into?  I started freaking out a little bit at what would be required.  3 liters of water daily (that’s just under 102 ounces, people), five small meals a day (will require much planning), at least 20 minutes of exercise every day, and – most horrifically – no Diet Coke! I also had real concerns about being able to follow their food plan since I’m not a cook by any stretch of the imagination.  The great thing about joining something the second time around is that you have access to the wisdom of those who’ve gone before you.  We’ve been emailing each other and I am so ready for this now!  Encouragement is all you need to pick up and get going.

Check back here each Sunday for news about my progress.  You can also keep up to date on Twitter using the #gameondiet hashtag.

There are 16 of us divided into three snack cake themed teams:

Ding Dongs:

Ti of Book Chatter (@TiBookChatter)
Amy of My Friend Amy (@MyFriendAmy)
Jill of Rhapsody in Books (@RhapsodyBooks)
Molly of My Cozy Book Nook (@MyCozyBookNook)
Julie of Booking Mama (@BookingMama)

Ho Hos:

J.T. of BiblioFreakBlog (@BibliofreakBlog)
Jen of Devourer of Books (@DevourerOfBooks)
Pam of Bookalicio.us (@BookaliciousPam)
Sandy of You’ve GOTTA Read This (@YouveGottaRead)
Laurie (via email)

Twinkies:

Dawn of She Is Too Fond of Books (@TooFondOfBooks)
Natasha/Vasilly of Classic Vasilly (@Vasilly)
Candace/Beth F of Beth Fish Reads (@BethFishReads)
Jennifer of The Literate Housewife Review (@LitHousewife)
Jenners of Find Your Next Book Here (@MrsFligs)
Jenn of Jenn’s Bookshelves (@JennsBookshelf)

I cannot tell you how thankful I am not to be a Ho (Ho) or a Ding Dong.  Twinkies will emerge triumphant!

Random Reading Challenge

Since defining reading deliberately for myself, I’ve looked at several reading challenges for 2010 that will help me live up to the potential of my ideas.  One of the challenges I’ve been pondering is CaribousMom’s Random Reading Challenge.  Here is some information about this challenge:

I am signing up for Level I.  I thought long and hard about Levels II or III because up to two books a month is reasonable, but I don’t want it to dominate the first half of the year.  The point of reading deliberately is  to prevent my reading by being dominated by anything other than my own desires.  My plan is to use it to make a dent in my previously requested books.  I’m hoping that in  and of itself doesn’t constitute a list (that just occurred to me, hmmm…).  I have them tagged in LibraryThing, so I’ll use that numbering when I pick my random book.  This should be a fun way to read about 13% of that list.

At this point, this and What’s In a Name?3 will be my only reading challenges.  I’ve considered any number of historical fiction reading challenges, but I think two challenges is going to be my limit.

Next Page »

• Search for:

• Contact Literate Housewife

  Please feel free to contact Literate Housewife by sending an email to jennifer at literatehousewife (dot) com. I would love to hear from you!

  ---

• 

  Devourer of Books

  Fyrefly's Book Blog

  Medieval Bookworm

  The Book Lady's Blog

  Book Chatter and Other Stuff

  Passages to the Past

  For more great blogs, check out my Address Book.

  ---

• Book Blogger Con

  Have you heard about the 1st Annual Book Blogger Convention that will be held in NYC during the BEA? You should check it out. I know it will be a fantastic experience. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend due to family obligations, but I'll be trolling blogs for up to the minute news.

• WE Magazine’s A Woman Blogger to Watch

  

• Upcoming Reviews…

• Literate Challenges

  What's in a Name? 3
  

  Random Reading Challenge
  

• In My Mailbox…

• Archives

  Select Month March 2010  (9) February 2010  (13) January 2010  (14) December 2009  (16) November 2009  (20) October 2009  (13) September 2009  (26) August 2009  (35) July 2009  (18) June 2009  (23) May 2009  (21) April 2009  (31) March 2009  (31) February 2009  (31) January 2009  (20) December 2008  (19) November 2008  (24) October 2008  (28) September 2008  (37) August 2008  (46) July 2008  (41) June 2008  (27) May 2008  (26) April 2008  (13) March 2008  (12) February 2008  (14) January 2008  (4) December 2007  (6) November 2007  (17) October 2007  (9) September 2007  (17) August 2007  (9) July 2007  (5) June 2007  (19) May 2007  (10) April 2007  (9) March 2007  (6) February 2007  (4) January 2007  (5)