too many books, too little time

I feel guilty. So far in the past 4 months I’ve only re-read books I’ve already read, and I’m about to do it again. A couple weeks ago I finished reading the Mary Russell series for the second time. It has to be my all time favorite series of books and I loved it so [...]

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comfort reading

Things haven’t slowed down around here. I got another 2 applications out last week, and the postperson told me I could take a bunch of priority mail envelopes home to make sending out the 10/1 batch a little less anxiety producing. I have writing to do (and I constantly wonder how it still takes me [...]

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Expelliarmus!

I reached what I am pretty sure must be the final section of the final Harry Potter book. I reached this section on the bus, and decided to put the book away, lest I miss my stop (again) or start to cry.
Reading the last Harry Potter book on the bus has caused enough trouble. I’ve [...]

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HP6

I finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince yesterday. I actually reached the part near the end on the bus. (People who’ve read it will understand and I promise not to give anything away– even if a stupid newspaper article spilled the beans to me about the end of the 6th book last week.) [...]

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order of the miserable phoenix

I’m on to the 5th Harry Potter book– The Order of the Phoenix. I absolutely adored the last one. The Goblet of Fire might be one of the best books I’ve ever read (of course, I do kind of say that a lot, but you get the idea).
I’m deeply into the whole Harry Potter story [...]

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a Harry Potter update

I’m right in the middle of the Harry Potter series, and I just adore them. Really, I am enamored and impressed. I wasn’t sure if I was going to read the entire series, but now if I didn’t have anything else to do this weekend, I think I’d just sit down and do only that! [...]

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shhh!

Don’t tell me anything about the last Harry Potter book. Don’t do! Don’t do!*
I am waiting patiently until I have the goddamn-bleepin’ papers done and handed in August 2nd, and then I’m digging in to book number 1. I’ll read them all the way through, and I want to know as little as possible while [...]

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my history without Harry Potter

I remember it clearly. Back in 1998 or 99 when I was working in the children’s department at the Book Revue, a customer came in and wanted to find a book about a boy wizard that was published in England. None of us had any clue what she was referring to so I spent quite [...]

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from gothic New England to the Midwestern plains

I just finished Oh Pioneers! on the bus yesterday. Before that, I finished the House of the Seven Gables. Both were wonderful, although very different books. I can’t say that I liked one more than the other. Hey, I’m no Mary in terms of reviewing books here, but I’ll try my best.
The House of the [...]

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the House of the Seven Gables

I’m taking a break from what has become typical reading for me– flying through mysteries faster than I can keep them on the shelf. Instead, I have some classics lined up to read– books I can’t believe I hadn’t read before.
I almost started with The Scarlet Letter, but after the depressing experience of reading Alias [...]

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the week in review

Movie Reviews:

The Lady in the Water: Given my great dislike for the director, I shouldn’t have even bothered watching this movie. It was terrible. Really, really terrible. Actually, if I didn’t know how full of himself the director is, I would think it was intensionally hilarious. If it wasn’t so hard to sit through, I’d [...]

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Alias Grace

Since I spent a lovely weekend doing nothing particularly blog-worthy– work around the house and catching up on my school work– I’ll continue to blog about the trip to Finland. Because let’s face it, nothing more interesting than that is bound to happen for a while.
On the plane I read Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace. It [...]

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hit, miss or maybe

Yesterday we had our big New Years day brunch. It lasted 7.5 hours and was tons of fun– bagels with lox and cream cheese, great company, lots of laughter, yummy mimosas etc. I’ll leave out the rest of the sorted details of my New Years’ day shenanigans. Let’s just say I’m still recovering.
Anyway, we’ve been [...]

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for all the Mary Russell & Kate Martinelli fans out there…

It isn’t listed on the Booked for Murder website yet, but it is listed on Laurie King’s blog. She’ll be at Booked for Murder during the day on September 30th!
Since I started reading fiction/mysteries this last year, after my 4+ year unfortunate hiatus, I have been flying through King’s books. I think I’ve read 9 [...]

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mystery reading

We went to Borders last night. I was after the next mystery book I need to read on the bus (yes, need is the right word- riding the bus without reading a good mystery is truly terrible). I wanted A Grave Talent, the first in the Kate Martinelli series, but they were out. So I [...]

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school supplies and summer

I went out last night with my BBBS little sister to get her school supplies. She is starting middle school so every notebook and folder has to be chosen very carefully. I just love school supplies. When I was a kid I used to get my supplies a couple weeks before school, and then pack [...]

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random updates

I finished another draft of my dissertation proposal last night, and sent it off for feedback. I think it is finally coming together- at least it feels that way to me. But, I put in too many hours on it in the last 4 days and my body is just not happy with all the [...]

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another real weekend

So after finishing that article draft and emailing it off, I've been enjoying another real weekend. I did manage to read a few articles out by the creek, and made some notes. I find the stack of books I want to read before my next dissertation proposal draft slightly overwhelming, but I do have to [...]

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bargain hunting: books and such

I am finally getting my Wisconsin tax refund check this week! I decided to spend some of it on books I need for my dissertation, and then to just use the rest as money for the summer. So, I have spent the last couple days bargain hunting for books on amazon and alibris. Between the [...]

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geeked out

Many thanks to the reader who sent me a link to this website. I spent the better part of the morning importing my library (directly from endnote, and from my unweildily amazon.com wishlist) and the better part of this evening tagging stuff. I was looking for a way to organizing the piles of stuff I [...]

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the downside of a great mystery series

is that it inevitably comes to an end.
I have read 5 books, and have now only 2 books left to read in the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King. I finished Justice Hall today on the bus. I actually read it slower and slower towards the end as I didn’t want to finish reading [...]

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(I would walk 500 miles)*

I'm sorry for my infrequent posting. This semester is flying by, and every day I think "do I have anything worth blogging about? Any funny stories- interesting insight?" and I come up with nothing. Nadda. This semester is filled with tons of uninteresting things such as memorizing statistics equations, reading hundreds of papers for the [...]

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update

It’s 9:30pm.
I’m working on a draft of my article.
Why am I doing this? I must be seriously insane.
I am looking forward to only leaving the house once between now and Monday morning (I have to go and pick up our vegetables tomorrow).
I need to finish all my notes for the macro section of the prelim [...]

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literarily deficient

Tonight I am watching (as I blog this) the movie Flowers in the Attic. It is one seriously messed up story on so many levels. I can't believe that this was one of my favorite movies as a kid as right now I am finding the story kind of disturbing. I also remember reading the [...]

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