Hunger Games!

What kind of Hunger Games fanatic would I be, if I make today’s post all about the Hunger Games? In case you don’t know, The Hunger Games series has been at the top of the national bestseller list for a long time, and tonight the first movie is being released. I am basically peeing my pants in anticipation as I write this!

 Generally I’m a big dork about good books being turned into movies, and I’ll reread the book right before the movie and immediately after the movie is over, I launch into a drawn out list of complaints about how different it was from the book. For Hunger Games, I decided to let go of my old habits. I did not reread the book and I’m really happy that I cannot remember everything exactly as it happened. The truth is movies are different from books. That’s just a fact and I know the movie is going to be an epic experience on its own, even if it strays from the story a bit.

So in honor of tonight’s movie release, not only did I paint my version of a Mockingjay (above, it’s definitely different from the cover, and kinda nerdy as he’s standing on an arrow), but I thought I would link up to all things awesome and Hunger Games related. If you’re seeing the movie tonight, the links can occupy you while you’re sitting in the theater counting down the seconds until it starts (I can not be the only one who does this…)

Busy Bee Lauren has had a countdown to the movie premiere she started in December. You can search for Hunger Games and see the entire series on her site, but this, this, this, this, and this are my favorites.

The embarrassing Side Effects of Having Recently Read the Hunger Games is an absolutely hilarious post that was recently freshly pressed so you may have already seen it. But really, really, awesome.

Food and books are my two of my favorite things, so I consider these Hunger Games Recipes, incredibly awesome! I may need to make some goat cheese creations for tonight’s outing.

There is a ton of Hunger Games swag out there but I love etsy for its handmade goods. This bracelet with my favorite quote from the book is awesome. Embroidery is something I can’t wait to learn, so I really admire this real or not real hoop. And This colored pencil drawing of Katniss is pretty close to what I pictured her to look like in my head.

These quizzes are definitely not as hard as the trials Katniss faces in the arena, but they’re a good way to spend your time waiting for the movie to start! Quiz 1 is relatively easy. Quiz 2 is by seventeen and a tad bit harder. (also suggests that I’m way older than the target audience of the books, why do I love Young Adult lit so much…) I thought quiz 3 was easy until I saw my terrible score. Whoops. You can put in an imaginary name to take quiz 4. It’s a good one because you can see if your answer is correct before you move onto the next one. I also like quiz 5 by Braingle.

Pop Sugar has a bunch of videos that revolve around the cast and crew of the movie. This one about how the actors would survive in the arena is my favorite.

Find out about Amanda Stenberg’s (Rue’s) most embarrassing moment while on set, in this interview. It’ll crack you up.

And lastly, I enjoyed this New York Times’ article despite it’s less than stellar opinion of the movie. It got me excited to determine for myself if Hunger Games is going to live up to hype.  

 I was going to end this post with the popular favorite “May the odds be ever in your favor” but I won’t. Instead, I’m going to go with the less popular but more ironic, ”Happy Hunger Games” and hope that in your head it sounds exactly like the eerily cheerful Effie Trinket.

Hello Again.

I’ve been neglectful of this space for past month or so, but I’m back. I’ve missed writing and sharing here. You may or may not have wondered where I’ve been. I could use the excuse that I was sick (for like three straight weeks) but that’s a lame excuse because being sick didn’t mean I couldn’t create things, and compose thoughts and type. It’s more that I’ve been wandering, in the I-felt-a-lot-lost-and-quite-lonely-kind-of-way. Sometimes that can just happen you know, except I can identify my melancholy trigger.

Jon left to go work (teaching the art of glass blowing) at a University, in Wisconsin, until mid May. Before he left, I knew I’d miss him terribly, but I was almost-but-not-really, the-teeniest-bit excited about having total control of my time.  I also felt capable and ready to achieve all these goals I had for myself. And then… well, I didn’t, which made me feel worse. Instead, I purposely lost myself in the entire Sookie Stackhouse series, and a few other books. That’s a total of 14 books in about a month-time-period. I didn’t think about how sad I was or how lame I was being, because I was thinking only about the characters in the alternate worlds I could escape to.  I was pitiful but I am definitely not looking to be pitied. This whole sadness deal was my fault and I was the only one who could rectify it.

I’m back here and I’m starting to do better. I booked a flight to go visit Jon (in less than a week for more than a week!). This past weekend, I finally, finally, cleaned the craft dungeon. I’ve traded in my books for some knitting needles (I’m making myself leg warmers… and they’re gonna be awesome). I ordered and received all the seeds for my garden 2012, and I’m planning and scouting supplies, and itching for the time to actually plant some stuff. (and even more anxious for summer, and the garden’s bounty in the height of summer, and canning, and freezing, and sharing said bounty)!

The clouds are starting to dissipate and the sun is warm. I feel hopeful. I’m ready to be productive again. I’m ready to be present in this moment, even if it’s not ideally how I want it to be. I’m not going to escape into a book again. I’ll read, but I’ll try to read slowly, savoring what I’m ingesting. I will create, cook, garden, and share. It feels so good to be back. Right now, I’m off to knit, launder some clothes, and watch last night’s Smash.

I photobooth took a photo of myself with my knitting, but then stumbled upon this gem of a photo to share instead. This is one of the few photos I have of Tex when we had just gotten him. He’s so small and so cute!

Finale of Summer Reading Pledge

As I’ve mentioned, I participated in Caiti’s reading pledge. In case you don’t recall, I pledged to read 10 books this summer. The last time I wrote about the pledge, I was only just starting to read my 7th, in early August. I wasn’t really worried about not reaching my goal at that point… as I was going on vacation shortly and assumed I’d read the whole time as per my usual. Surprising myself, I ended up spending more time socializing with my family and my sister’s friends, instead of reading. I only read one book in the five days I was there.

So when I got sick upon my return from vacation, and didn’t pick up another book or e-reader, for another two weeks, I was beginning to sweat. As of a week and a half ago, I was only at 8 books. I really didn’t want to slack and miss my goal. An 80% just isn’t my overachiever style. So I hunkered down, and thanks to Jon’s absence and Irene’s presence I managed to surpass my goal. I finished with 11 books read this summer. Just for your information, despite my immense distaste for and fear that real, in-hand physical books might fail to exist in the future, three of the eleven books I read, were read on my mom’s kindle. Mostly because I’m lazy and wanted to read the books but didn’t want to go to the store or wait for Amazon to ship them to me. Eventually I’ll write a full post on e-readers versus actual books, but for now, in the interest of not getting frustrated, I’ll just review the last few books I read.

Mocking Jay: When last I spoke about it, I had just read the Hunger Games and I was in the midst of Catching Fire. Well I finished the series with Mocking Jay, and immediately lent the books to my dear friend Jessi. As I expected she loved them all. I loved them all. They were great and I am so excited they’re being made into movies. Even though movies do tend to fall short of their corresponding books , I can’t imagine that these story lines and characters can be butchered badly enough to make the movies enjoyable. I do have one question about the series for those who read it, were you rooting for Katniss to end up with the guy she ends up with? (I guess that contains a sort of spoiler for those who haven’t read it, but it doesn’t ruin it, promise) I was like 70% disappointed, just a rough estimation.

The Cookbook Collector: This is the book I read while on vacation. I heard about this book over a year ago and I only heard good things about it. I read Emma’s post praising it and I knew I would just love it. And love it, I did. The main characters (who are sisters) are very dynamic and complement each other well. It’s just interesting. I really, truly enjoyed it. It’s one of those books that you can’t just immediately pick up another book and start reading, you have to ruminate it for a while. Perhaps this is the real reason I socialized on vacation?…Anyway, read it! It’s great.

The Help: This is a book I read on my mom’s kindle. I wanted to read it before seeing the movie so I instantly downloaded it and read it in about two days. I thought the book was good but I feel like the fear the main characters should have been experiencing was not portrayed as well as it should’ve been considering the climate in which the story is set. (The movie did a moderately better job of this.) However, the characters are pretty awesome. I loved hating Hilly Holbrooke and rooting for Minnie. Skeeter was relatable and funny. Who didn’t love Aibileen and Mae Mobley? Although, seriously could there be a worse name for a child Mae Mobley? I like the name Mae but they always call her by her full name and the combination is just terrible. Sorry. All in all, if you’re looking for something that explores relationships between women, give this a read.

The Book Thief: I dare to say that this is my favorite book of the summer, possibly the year. Although it’s rather heavy for a summer read. At first, I didn’t think I was going to enjoy it. It takes a little to get into and at first you may think that it’s narrator “Death” is just bizarre, but keep reading, eventually I got over my distaste for his being the narrator and actually thought it made the story a bit more interesting. I ended up enjoying the narrator as another character involved but outside of the story as well. The protagonist is a little girl who lives with her foster parents in Nazi Germany. I loved almost every character. It’s an awesome book. Read it. Read it. Read it. I promise you won’t regret it no matter what your favorite genre is.

One Day: The last book I read was an extra to my pledge and again I read it on my mom’s kindle as a result of seeing the commercial for the movie on tv (although I still haven’t seen the movie so I can’t compare the two.) The book takes place over the course of 20 years on the same day every year (July 15th St. Swithins Day), focusing on the relationship between sometimes-selfish Dexter and selfless Emma. It’s an interesting idea that’s nicely executed. If you like Nicholas Sparks novels ( I have read almost all of these because my sister is a big fan) or other romance novels, you will love this love book. Since generally, I only like happy endings between couples (Thank you- childhood of watching Disney movies), this lacked a bit for me, but regardless I enjoyed it. Sometimes I just need to be forewarned that I’m not going to get to read a happy ending, and I was not expecting this ending at all.

Thanks to Caiti, I challenged myself and read a lot of good books this summer. I’m really proud of the fact that I love to read and making the pledge publicly kept me accountable and motivated, which doesn’t always happen so I’m really glad I did it. Now I get to go over to Caiti’s blog and participate in a giveaway for a $30 gift certificate to Amazon. Even if you didn’t read at all this summer, you can participate in the giveaway too. So go on over and comment on Caiti’s awesome giveaway. Good Luck.

If you’re looking for some more book recommendations, Caiti also reviewed all the books she read and Emma has an entire page with some awesome recommendations. Do you have any recommendations for me? I’d love to hear them so I can always have more reasons to keep reading. If there’s always another book to read, then I don’t have to feel bittersweet about finishing a book.

Happy Reading!

<3 Frank

The Hunger Games and A Dance with Dragons

After frantically rushing to finish A Dance with Dragons, so I would have more time to other things, I concluded that book on Tuesday night. Then on Wednesday morning, I immediately began The Hunger Games, which I finished in less than a day and then last night I began reading the second one in the series, Catching Fire.  Generally, when I know Jon will be gone for while, I find myself reading a lot (probably to stop feeling lonely.) I know that it’s definitely a bad thing to escape into a book when you’re unhappy or lonely, but it’s a hell of a lot better than escaping into a bottle of whiskey or wine. If escapist reading is my major vice than I’ll gladly take it.  I thought I’d write a review of each book before I disappear back into Catching Fire.

A Dance with Dragons, was regrettably not as good as the first four of the series. I really looked forward to it and I have to say I was disappointed. The way George R.R. Martin arranged the fourth and fifth books was so they followed the two different sets of characters during the same time period. His messing with the chronological order kinda ruined the books for me. I struggled to remember and place what was happening in reference to the fourth book. I missed the characters from the other book while I read and overall it was less enjoyable. That’s not to say it wasn’t good or even great. It was. It just was less so than it would’ve been. I enjoyed some of the new characters, I loved hating others, and genuinely just didn’t like some. It was good, but I wouldn’t go shouting praise from the rooftops. I may also be slightly bitter that one of my favorite characters got killed off. That shouldn’t be too much a spoiler because I have like 10 favorite characters and a lot of people die in these books.

On a much higher note, The Hunger Games, was amazingly good. It may be considered ”teen fiction,” but I really want to shout my praises for it from the rooftop. It is interesting, fast paced, and sometimes shocking. From the moment I started reading it I could not put it down. If you like anything suspenseful, you’d love this book. The best part, it’s currently being made into a movie! It is written from the point of view of Katniss who ends up in The Hunger Games, a fight-to-the-death competition organized by the twisted government of Panem a dystopian society of the future in what was formerly known as North America.  This book was better than I expected, and I was expecting it to be good. Do yourself a favor, read it! I promise you won’t regret it.

 

Also,if anyone has this EW from months ago, and wouldn’t mind sending it to me, I’d love you forever!

Have you read either of these books or anything else really good lately? Do you use books as a way to escape?

<3 Frank

Unedited Photo, Reading, and Eric Northman

Yesterday, Jon left for Pitsburg and then Michigan. I won’t see him for three weeks, and then he’ll only be back for about a week, before he will go to Wisconsin for four months. So I spent all last week soaking up as much of his presence as I could before having to say farewell yesterday. Long distance is hard. If you’ve never done it, I hope you never have to.

Anyway, I really enjoyed our week together. Last Sunday, we spent the afternoon hanging out at my house with Dean and Tex. I made strawberry peach pie, with an oat crumbly top crust. Jon grilled Salmon, sweet potatoes, and balsamic zucchini, summer squash, and onions. Then we all lounged on a blanket in the grass in the backyard.  It was a lovely afternoon.I took this picture with my android phone. I didn’t edit it at all. I kinda like it.

Well I promise some more posts this week, including a yummy recipe or two. But now, I’m off to do some reading. The newest book in the Song of Ice and Fire (Dance with Dragons) is taking me a while to read and I’m behind on my reading pledge. When I finish this I’ll be at 4 books for the summer, and my goal was 10 before September. That’s 6 in August.  This book is nearly one thousand pages and could count for at least  2 books but that would be cheating.

I don’t really understand how people have time to read and watch tv and blog and craft and exercise and cook and bake and do laundry. I stopped watching all t.v. except for True Blood and I feel like can’t keep up. Time management is hard. Also Eric Northman with (spoiler) no memory is incredibly sexy, adorable, and swoon worthy. Do you agree?

<3 Frank

Harry Potter

I fondly recall my introduction to Harry Potter. It was a few days before I was going to sleep away camp for the first (and only) time. I was at the pool club which at that time was the place to be. I was hanging out with my best friend (who remains such) Laura. Her mom, my mom, and some other kids moms were sitting at a table under an umbrella, chatting about whatever it is they chatted about. Laura’s younger sister, Alex, was reading one of the first 3 Harry Potters (I believe all three were released at once in the US right before they exploded). It was the summer after 6th grade. I asked Alex what she was reading, and thus my love affair with Harry began. After Alex’s recommendation, and before I left for camp, my mom took me to Borders and bought me the first Harry Potter book; Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. She wouldn’t buy me all three at once, because she didn’t want to buy them unless I liked them, after all they were expensive hardcovers and I was a fickle eleven year old.

Now, anyone whose been to sleep away camp, knows that there’s not much time for reading. You’re entirely too busy hiking, horseback riding , swimming in murky lakes, crafting up ugly beautiful creations, and barely eating nasty camp kitchen food. Also, your counselors forbid you from carrying around your 5 pound Harry Potter book. These same counselors also forced you to put your junk food stash into the plastic bag in the cabin, to avoid critter visits, but really just force you to share your Oreo’s with the group and get something lame like sun chips in return. Bug Juice this was NOT.

Anyway, despite these obstacles, I snuck in enough reading time to fall head-over-heals in love with Harry. I’d crawl into my sleeping bag with the book and my flashlight, until my head was covered, so everyone would think I was asleep, and I’d read until my eyes would begin to shut on their own. Some parts were pretty scary to 11 year-old-me, and hearing owls hooting in the distance was eerily appropriate. It was also incredibly difficult to wake up at 7 every morning having read long into the night. It’s a good thing, the majority of my time was spent on a horse’s back instead doing something athletic like play soccer. Upon my return from camp, I immediately coerced my mom into taking me to Borders and buying me the subsequent two books. My relationship with Harry deepened.

I was always hungry for more Harry. I went to every midnight book release party after those first three books. I formed friendships with people based on our mutual love of Harry. My best friend in high school and I went to those midnight parties together and we’d return to a sleepover during which I read as much as I could, again until I couldn’t hold my eyes open. These were magical experiences (no pun intended). I always enjoyed seeing what other people dressed up as but I never dressed up myself, at least not wholeheartedly. I might of worn my hair crazily frizzy curly to a midnight movie to honor Hermione. At another midnight movie, I expertly sported gold and maroon Gryffindor colors to see who’d notice. And then again, I recall an owl necklace I chose to wear to a book release as an ode to Hedwig.

In college, the majority of my friends were also Harry Potter fans. It was during the summer after my sophomore year, that I went to the midnight release of the final installation, with some good friends. The three of us returned to the common area of some one’s dorm room, and sat in a circle and read. We split up shortly after my one friend gasped (presumably at Hedwig and then Mad Eye Moody’s deaths) because my other friend couldn’t take the tension. I read and read and read that book. I went to work the next day, and read on the T (and at work when no one was looking). I read every chance I could the next day (Saturday) during a visit from my parents. That night, less than 48 hours after the release of the last book, I knew how the Harry Potter series ended. It was bittersweet. I know at what point most people wanted to give up but didn’t. I know which chapters I read through blurry, tearful, eyes. I know which paragraphs rendered me unable to breath for fear, suspense, pain, or happiness. And I know how significant Harry has been throughout my life.

Harry Potter became a communal experience at the midnight book releases and movie premieres. I might not have had the courage to dress in full costume (It definitely takes a major amount of self-confidence and courage to wear full Harry Potter garb in public) but I understood, related to, and even admired people who did it. Sometimes, I wished I was that cool or had that much confidence. But despite their willingness to dress up and my refusal to do so, we were part of the same great leagues of HP fanatics. We all read the same pages, sometimes dozens of times,we all adored Harry and despised Voldemort, and we all knew Ron and Hermione would end up together. The beauty of Harry Potter was in the fact that people from all different walks of life, related to some part of Harry’s story, and therefore related to each other. In a small, but definitely significant way Harry Potter has brought millions of people together, and that is wonderful.

On Friday, or Thursday at midnight, the final installment of the Harry Potter movies will be released. Millions of fans will flock to theaters anxious to see this epic story play out on the big screen. For whatever reason, probably some subliminal need to lengthen the remainder of time I had with Harry, I waited until yesterday to buy tickets for the midnight show despite having the date marked on my calendar months in advance. Not surprisingly, every theater within a 1/2 hour ride of my house, is sold out of tickets. What is a fan to do? I’ve decided that I can wait the extra 18- 30 hours to see it. I didn’t see the last one at midnight because my dad backed out of seeing it with me at the last minute (he had some silly reason like not being able to stay awake passed 10).

I’ve come to quiet terms with my not seeing this the last midnight show. It still makes me quite sad, but it’s okay because by not seeing it as soon as it’s released, I’m able to lengthen what will be a bitter-sweet moment. I grew up with Harry Potter and with the impending last time I’ll see a new Harry Potter movie, I can’t help but feel like I’m about lose part of my childhood. I know the voice of this entire post will be interpreted as melodramatic to some people reading it and perhaps I am letting this affect me more than I should but I can’t help it.

Harry Potter deepened my appreciation for books and reading. He helped me make friends when I was awkward and shy. He was there to comfort me when a lot of non-Harry fan-former-friends decided they didn’t want to be friends with me. I would escape into his world whenever I needed to cheer up. For a lot people, Harry, like he did in his wizarding world, became a light in dark times. I am a member of the only generation who got to be with Harry from the beginning to the end. While I do think that many of us will one day read these books to and share the movies with our children, I don’t think it could ever be the same for them as it was for us. We’ve been here for all the hoopla and media attention, all the midnight showings and book releases, and all the wonderful craziness of being a fan. No other generation will have that.

Harry started the journey in a Broom Closet under the stairs, and I joined him from my sleeping bag at summer camp; I am so thankful I did. It’s been wonderful and I’m not ready for it to end. I’ll wait a little extra time to say good-bye, and see the movie on Friday or even Saturday because one thing I also learned from Harry is patience.

<3 Frank

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Review and Plea

All my life, without knowing it, I’ve quietly existed on a somewhat local diet, at least for the summer months. Some of my fondest childhood memories, include skipping to the garden at the back of our yard, basket in hand, to pick whatever was available. I was an artist watching and waiting for the tomatoes to turn the perfect shade of red. I was a scavenger searching under leaves to find as many string beans as I could.  I was a zoologist identifying good bugs versus bad bugs and eradicating the bad ones. (What child doesn’t love to squish a bug under her fingers?) I was a mother, nurturing the plants by talking to them and helping my dad water them. I was a consumer, eating anything and everything I helped grow.  I was and I remain a gardener at heart. I’ve never done it for any other reason than I enjoy watching and helping things grow.

This weekend, between tying up the tomato plants (they’re so big!) and working the soil where the lettuce was to make room for some new plants, I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Miracle. Just in case you haven’t heard of it, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is about Kingsolver and her family’s one year mission to eat nothing but local food. It inspired me to really think about where my food comes from and the impact it’s journey has on mother earth. 

A few years ago, I became a pescatarian because I learned of the adverse effect of mass-produced meat on the environment. After reading, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I am wholeheartedly committed to never eating mass-produced meat of any kind again. However, this book has me considering eating locally, organically, kindly produced meat. While I still don’t think I could ever kill a cow and therefore probably won’t ever eat beef or steak again, after reading her thoughts about raising and killing poultry (chickens and turkeys), it’s not something I’m totally against. This book isn’t necessarily what you’d expect. It’s all about the importance of knowing where your food comes from and knowing how you’re affecting the environment with your food choices.

When I was younger, I remember looking at a sticker on some food store produce, thinking “Wow this vegetable was grown in Ecuador! That’s so cool,  I wish I had been to Ecuador.”  Years later, I’d become so accustomed to going to the grocery store to pick up produce in the winter that I’d stopped thinking about it. Having just read this book, it’s at the forefront of my thoughts. While, I try to shop at farm stands, I look forward to my weekly CSA share, and I adore a farmer’s market, I never really did any of those things to be a locavore. I did them, because I knew the produce was better.

While, I understand that eating only local food is an immense challenge, and not one that everyone can meet as wholeheartedly as Kingsolver, this book (as well as Tomatoland which I read last week) have both made me consistently question where my food comes from, which is possibly the best thing I could have taken away from reading them. So I’m not going to make an outrageous promise to only eat food produced within 100 miles of my location, this just isn’t something I can do, at least now while I still live at home (with parents who provided emotionally based, pretty stupid arguments against some key points I announced while reading – Sorry Mom, but potatoes keep for six months in a dark area, so claiming that the US ships out 1.1 million pounds while receiving 1.4 million because of when they’re in season is shapoopy.) What I am promising, is that I’m going to always consider where my food comes from in purchasing decisions. I will try to eat seasonally as much as possible. And lastly, I will attempt to make my diet about 90% American produced. I figure at least that’s better than getting stuff from South America or Europe right?

I know these “promises” are pretty tiny and insignificant compared to what I should do, but what I should do, just doesn’t seem plausible yet. And every journey begins with a single step so I have to start somewhere!  I have a challenge for you, while I slowly step away from my banana-a-day habit, why don’t you read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and/or start really considering where you get your food from.

I won’t preach about how important it is to eat locally. It is important to me, but my opinions and feelings about it might never match yours. Instead, I ask you to educate yourself about the subject. Read the book, please. I’m begging!

<3 Frank

For the Love of Books

One of my favorite parts of summer is summer reading. When I was younger, summer reading provided ample opportunity to read whatever I wanted, and in doing so stray from the “academic” reading enforced on me. Don’t get me wrong, English was my favorite subject all throughout school, even in college. I enjoyed assigned reading with a few exceptions of course, i.e. Jonathan Livingston Seagull (Why is this assigned? I mean really why? If you know please explain..)

In all honesty, the reason I enjoyed assigned reading so much was not because I enjoyed all the books assigned, but because all my friends had to read the books too and we were able to discuss them afterwards. I love me a good book discussion! However, summer reading is different. It’s fun! Sometimes, it’d be a made up competition between me and whoever I knew who read a lot, to see who could read more books. Since I tend to read very quickly and become super absorbed into plots and my competition didn’t realize it was a competition, I tended to win… the imaginary prize… me snickering to myself when at the beginning of the school year we compared book totals. Some of my favorite books I read when I was younger include, Nancy Drew, The Box Car Children, Encyclopedia Brown (I wanted to be him), Pride and Prejudice, The Outsiders, Little House on the Prairie Series, and The Giver.

Way back in January, I set a reading goal for myself: 24 Books by 2012. I didn’t think this was hefty goal. Two books a month is more than doable, I should always expect this of myself. I also decided they had to all be new books. Rereading Harry Potter or Breaking Dawn or Pride and Prejudice for the 9th time would not be accepted as one of the 24. Sorry Self, get some new material. So far this year, I’ve read 7.5 books; Shanghai Girls, Cutting for Stone, A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, The Jewel of Saint Petersburg, and I’m halfway through Tomatoland.

Last week, I compiled a summer reading list for myself, and subsequently ordered all 11 books from Amazon.  You can only imagine how excited I was today, when I stumbled on a new-to-me blogger, who has a summer reading challenge of sorts. Caiti of Life is a Canvas, wrote this post, inviting her readers to pledge to read a certain number of books this summer.  Well I’ve decided to pledge to read 10. I already have 1.5 down this summer (June-Sept), and now with the whole accountability thing, I’m definitely going to accomplish that goal.

Here’s my list of books purchased last week from Amazon:

Animal, Vegetable Mircacle -Barbara Kingsolver

Charming Billy -Alice McDermott

The Cookbook Collector -Allegra Goodman

Eating Animals -Jonathan Safran Foer

The Hunger Games Series (3 books) -Suzanne Collins

The Passage -Justin Cronin

The Book Thief -Marcus Zusak

Cheap -Ellen Ruppel Shell

And I already started, Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook.

I also plan on reading, A Dance with Dragons, the newest book from A Song of Ice and Fire Series, (Game of Thrones), which is released next Monday! A friend also suggested I read the Suki Stackhouse series, on which True Blood is based. And since I really enjoy True Blood, I’ve been considering reading those as well. (As long as I can find someone to borrow them from. I don’t feel like spending a fortune on 11 of those books.)

Since I only have 8 weeks left before the end of the summer (so sad I know), I have got to go get reading, if I wanna reach my 10 book goal! Stay tuned to find out which ones I end up reading, learn what I thought of them, see if I meet my goal.

Do you have a favorite summer reading book? An old favorite?

How about a reading goal for this summer or this year?

Have you read any of the ones on my list? What are some of your recommendations? I’d love to hear!

I’ll be in Tomatoland if you need me,

<3 Frank

Delightfully Delicious Book

Currently, I am devouring the series by George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire. It’s the series that HBO based their new show, “Game of Thrones” on. I am already on the fourth book of the series and I started reading in mid-April. Now that might seem like a small feat, but each book hovers around or above the 1,000 page mark, and I work, and I was away for 2 weekends in a row.

Now I’m not usually a “fantasy” reader, besides Harry Potter (Is Harry Potter even considered fantasy?) but the world of A Song of Ice and Fire is incredible, the characters are dynamic,crazy, and believable, and the prose is nicely written. I cannot recommend the books enough.

Frankly, when I overheard 2 gas attendants discussing books (true story) while they were pumping my gas, I was a quarter of an inch away from joining in the conversation and recommending A Song of Ice and Fire. I resisted because I don’t want my regular gas attendant to think I’m weird (it’s bad enough that one time I was a dollar short of being able to pay for my whole tank of gas at this gas station). BUT the next time I went, I made sure my copy of the book was displayed prominently on my passenger seat so he had a high chance of noticing. THAT my friends, is the sign of a good book.

Unfortunately I’m nearly finished with the fourth book, and the fifth doesn’t come out until July. Anyone have any recommendations in the meantime? What is everyone reading? Let me know! Have you read A Song of Ice and Fire? Are you a fan? Who’s your favorite character? Which storyline do you like the best? Do you think the HBO Series is as good as the book? Let me know this too!

Frankly, Me.

PS: If you didn’t know already, you probably have a better idea of where I live..