Where Am I?

Let's see...

I finished rearranging my bookshelves and I set aside probably 2 of the hundreds of books to give away.  Despite my rant & my renewed enthusiasm to cut back & cut down, I cannot pry these beauties off my shelves.  ~sigh~

I've discovered, unfortunately, two websites that give me DAILY links for Kindle freebies.  Yeah, really.  Like I need that.  I try to be very selective with what I download (the majority of my Kindle libray is freebies).  'Tis not easy - they all sound good...  My idea to have a quarterly Kindle Update blog post has fallen to the wayside, huh?  Kinda afraid to do that, cuz, well, it might freak me out.  But THANK YOU freebie-notification-websites for contributing to my continued over-indulgence!  YOU ROCK!!!  

Pixel of Ink

Power Reads

In the past few months, I've read two more books off my Kindle!  That's a total of 4 since I got it for Christmas 2010.  (yay, me.  ~sign again~)  Oh, and did I mention I got a Fire for Christmas 2011?  I love it!!!  I can play Words with Friends in between chapters.  Who know technology could be sooooo fun?

First up:  Design on a Crime by Ginny Aiken



Decorating AND a mystery?  Who could resist???  It was a freebie - and it was silly.  Not to spoil anything but WHY would you eat something laced w/poison just because someone is holding a gun on you?  They are going to kill you anyway, Dumbass.  Just say no.  Then run like hell.  I mean, really.

Second up:  Stuck in the Middle by Virginia Smith (Holy Cow!  Check out that price - $30.95???  WTHeck?  And I got it for free????  Wow.  Thanks!)



Super cute & had me hooked before long, despite it being ChickLit, specifically Christian ChickLit, but I loved it & can't wait to read more.  Thought it was GREAT.

161 Project is 4 books down, one on the nightstand.  Enjoying the Kindle Fire too much to pick it up.  Hmmm, should I share what's got me so distracted???  Well, that would be "Fifty Shades of Gray."  (Don't tell anyone, but I'm not exactly impressed, but then I'm only 30% done.  It's supposed to floor me by the end.  We shall see.)

3/161: Drowning Ruth

Had lunch with a reader friend the other day & was telling her about this book.  She asked me what made me buy it to begin with...  the back jacket, written by Francine Prose, of all people (she keeps popping up on me!), explains it all:

"[A] gripping psychological thriller... In the winter of 1919, a young mother named Mathilda Neumann drowns beneath the ice of a rural Wisconsin lake.  The shock of her death dramatically changes the lives of her daughter, troubled sister, and husband... Told in the voices of several of the main characters and skipping back and forth in time, the narrative gradually and tantalizingly reveals the dark family secrets and the unsettling discoveries that lead to the truth of what actually happened the night of the drowing..."

And once in my hand, once inside the cover, this book had me with the first sentence:  Ruth remembered drowning and held me captive until the very last: We will begin again.

So many words come to mind when I think of this book:  compelling, riveting, engrossing, haunting, captivating, fascinating, creative...  So intriguing and thought-provoking that I was not able to pick up another book for well over a month after I finished.  I just wanted to hang on to it because it is a story I wish I had thought of, a tale I wish I had told.  I just couldn't quite let go of it...

So, so many, many things I take away from this book - the pages dogeared and creased... and away we go into the quotable quotes of Drowning Ruth:

But if the stranger I had recently become was relieved, some other part of me shuddered with despair, and I found myself weeping, the tears searing my frozen cheeks, at the thought that I'd had to hide myself from a man I'd once loved.


Somebody had to see that things went as they ought.


When I thought of God, now, He was hovering somewhere over France, not paying any attention to me at all.


You have to be careful with your feelings, I think.  It's a mistake to let them go just because they're summoned.


Of course, I would miss my work, but I was secretly a little pleased to see my proper course lay elsewhere.


- it never made sense to buy at the top.  You made money only when you could see what others couldn't.


She smiled on, looking as if she meant to live forever.


Coming home couldn't change me back into the girl I'd once been.


It was the kind of day that makes you fear that God, distracted by finer things, has forgotten you.


It made me shiver to think how loyal she was, ready to do what I asked, trusting it would be all right as long as I said so.


Maybe there was no hiding here.


But everyone was a fool about something.


Imogene appreciated skill, especially if she could make use of it.


"Sometimes you die, sometimes you don't.  That must be how it is with drowning."

His knock was a warning, rather than a request.

You shouldn't visit your dead mother to impress your bored friend.

It was a strange idea, frightening somehow, as if for a moment the door between the world of the living and the world of the dead had blown open.

"You know things, but you don't tell."

"There's a proper time for things."

At least, he'd packed her away somehow.

He missed her with a sense of nostalgia, in much the same way he missed his own youth, and even when he tried, he couldn't find a trace of the unbearable agony and black dispair that had once overwhelmed him.



"Carl, you have to think ahead of the farm.  You can't just be running from one emergency to another.  You'll never get anywhere that way."

You could stare and stare at the water, but you could never see down more than a few feet.  A whole other world could be going on under there and you'd never know it.

Almost against her will, Amanda found herself graspoing for Ruth again and again, but every time her fingers closed they seemed to scratch, and the girl who'd once clung to her as if she were life itself shrank away.

"I know how things can change in ways you never meant."

She'd begun to realize that people always had something to say.

You can't imagine how fierce people can be when they're crazy with fear, when they know they're going to die, when they believe you're an angel pushing them toward the grave.

"He's bursting with good ideas.  It's just that bursting makes a mess, and somehow he's never around when it comes time to clean up."

"Garnish makes the plate, that's what Mrs. Owens says."

The air had freshened slightly that morning, signaling the end of summer, but to Ruth th ecoolness was more sad than invigorating.

Keeping things whole, she reflected, rubbing the base of her thumb, demanded a great deal of concentration.

That summer, the path he'd been following, the route chosen and painstakingly marked by his parents, had forked.

"Sometimes a blank slate is best," she'd said.  "There's something to be said for a girl who's open to influence."

He was sure that she would take him somewhere he'd never been, somewhere he couldn't even imagine.

"But what you want doesn't always matter, does it?"

He loves Imogene.  Did this grieve her because he would have Imogene or because Imogene would have him?  Both, she supposed.  Both left her alone.  But she was Imogene's friend, that was the important thing.  And she would be Imogene's friend, with or without her.

When people left, in my experience, they stayed gone.

On a farm, the earth has secrets, and the weather has passions, but people don't matter so much.

I will have you, I thought.  I will keep you.  We will begin again.

2/161: Hollywood Tough by Stephen J. Cannell

Um... this story didn't work for me.

I got tired of it real quick.  And I became embroiled in a subplot, that was actually the real plot, that I completely forgot about the first plot and the second plot!  WHAT???  Yeah, WHAT???

First plot (not necessarily in order): a sinister comment by a mysterious high profile hollywood hotshot piques one tough guy cop's, Shane Scully, interest enough to launch his own "private" investigation. Hmmmm...


Second plot: one of Shane's grifter contacts (to eventually proven to be a lying, conniving grifter contact) from the street asks for help finding an old friend; after Shane finds the old friend, said friend ends up dead.  Hmmmm...

Third plot: Shane, feeling responsible, starts investigating the death, which leads him back to the grifter, which leads him to a mob boss transplanted from the East Coast out to hustle Hollywood; Shane will have none of that, being the tough guy cop that he is, so he congers up an elaborate, intricate, confusing sting that involves corrupt cops, mob connections and the LAPD producing (seriously????) a ridiculous movie with idiotic swelled heads and an equally idiotic inflated budget.  Hmmm....

Fourth plot:  Shane's wife, Alexa, also a cop, and their son, Chooch, are both absorbed, each in their own way, in a gang war showdown quickly spiraling out of control with increasing tension & bloodshed at almost every turn that involves kidnappings, drive-by shootings, drugs, tanker trucks, a trip to Arizona, ICU and an essay on "Heroes."  Hmmm....

WHAT???

I muddled thru but I certainly don't believe it all came together in the end.  It was confusing and frustrating and out of control and pretty much hard to swallow.  I mean, really?  Ugh.  I usually like serial story lines, my favs being Dennis LeHane's Kenzie & Gennaro and Sandford's Lucas Davenport, but I am not very interested in reading any more Shane Scully.  Too bad because I do like Stephen J. Cannell as a Hollywood writer - but maybe I don't like him as a novel writer?  Hmmm....

As with all books, I usually find something to take away & hang on to...  not much this time but there was one thing.  "Occam's Razor," which ia theory that when things are extremely complicated, the simpliest answer is usually the right one.  Hmmm...  well, this story was extremely complicated and I suppose the simpliest answer is the author tried too hard.  He tried too hard to make it interesting and intriguing and captivating and it just did NOT work for me.

Bummer.

1/161: Screwball by David Ferrell

Accomplishment!!!  My first 161 Project book and it was a DELIGHT.  So glad I forced myself to finally read it.  David Ferrell, you've got a fan in me.

The story centers around a fictional Boston Red Sox team as they chase the ultimate MLB goal: the World Series trophy.  The Curse of the Bambino seems to be wreaking havoc, tho, and in full force as a masterful killer leaves headless corpses in the wake of the team's schedule.  An appropriate title, Screwball - an oh so appropriate title!  It is baseball after all...  so, a "screwball" of a throw across the plate, to the actual "screwball" serial killer, to the unbelievable "screwball" antics of the team's management trying to cover-up the horrific crimes, this is a "screwball" comedy of errors (yuk, yuk, yuk) pitched (sorry, couldn't resist) more than one laugh out loud moment, despite the grisly circumstances.

So, I found it entertaining.  I found it fascinating.  I have a high appreciation of the author...  specifically, what I've griped about (a-lot) in other books, I am in awe of in this one:  Ferrell doesn't tell you everything.

Hmmm...  you know why?  Because he doesn't need to!  Ferrell writes perfectly.  Perfectly!  So well that you learn what you need to know as the story unfolds.  Clues aren't blantantly displayed.  They're mentioned in passing.  And in the end, it's not all wrapped up in a neat little bow.  There are loose ends, but they're loose ends you can live with.  And despite the grisly murder spree, this isn't a story of police in hot pursuit of a serial killer...  It's a story about baseball.  Real baseball.  The baseball you don't see being played on the field, but the behind-the-scenes-this-is-what-it-takes-to-make-this-season-happen baseball. 

And I loved it!   

And like all stories I love, I find the nuggets of wisdom nestled in and I savor them on the pages and again here...  tidbits from the author that I take away with me...   

"It was the hardest lesson of all, to learn what you are not."

"...for of all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been.'" (uncredited)

"Sometimes the answer does not lie in explaning away fear; sometimes it lies in courage."
         ~Robert Oppenheimer~

Well, THAT didn't last long!

Temptation...

Stopped by Books-A-Million for the December copy of "BookPage," and what greets me???  The Last Chance Library Carts!  My arms quickly became full, then I remembered...  the 161 Project pledge.  Oh, BUMMER!  So, I slowly, degrudgedly, put them back... one by one, until I had only 2 in my hand.  I did buy these 2, tho, because I decided (justified) they were not "leisure reading" books.  AND, neither fell into the categories I had established under my recent quest.  So.  WHEW.

As far as the recent quest, here is where things stand:

• I wrote out every title of the 161 books onto strips of cardstock
• I folded them in half & dropped them into the book box
• Realized very quickly that the book box wasn't big enough so went in search of a bigger vessel
• Found a bigger vessel & transferred the fold strips of paper
• Half-way thru, realized the bigger vessel wasn't big enough
• Had a lightbulb moment & unfolded the strips of paper
• Aha!  They fit perfectly in the book box now
• Closed said book box & put it on the nightstand - sooo much neater than a pile of books that had been there...

I did make a slight change...  the original plan was to have all 161 titles in the book box, then to draw out a title & make that my next read.  Well, as I was writing, I came across 3 titles that I set aside because I realized I want (need?) to read these titles sooner, rather than later (considering it just may take me 16 years to get thru them all).  So these 3 titles are my REQUIRED next reads:

I seriously want to live debt free so this is a MUST!  First on the "required reading list."

Promised a friend we'd do "The Artist's Way" together, starting in January, so there you go.

Frustrations at work abound!  Feeling kinda down because I haven't accomplished more... Recognizing my own mortality and pondering what legacy I'm leaving behind...  pretty standard stuff here at the end of one year & the beginning of the next, right?  Hope so!  What an epiphany to find this book on my bookshelf!  Remembering my motivation for buying it (the last time I was going thru this doom-&-gloom self-analysis, I'd bet), and not wanting it to get forgotten again, so here it is:  Priority Reading #3. 

Oh, look!  Another book with the same title & ALMOST the same concept.  I don't own this one, but I'm including it anyway because maybe I should???

My name is Jae Halam and I'm a book-a-holic.

Seriously, I have a problem...  I collect books.  I can't resist.  I buy more than I can read.  I swear, promise, determine that I'll NOT buy another until I plow thru what I already have but that lasts as long as my next reading craving, which is pretty much a constant craving...  Yes, I actually get a craving to go to the bookstore!  Or to Goodwill where I peruse EVERY title along 3 rows of 4 5-tiered shelves filling up a cart to add to my ever-growing to-read pile (but at a mere $1.50 - $2.00 a pop so it is soooo worth it!).

Heaven.

~sigh~

I had decided my mantra this year would be "not again in 2010" and although I didn't specifically say "no more books," that was technically part of it because "curb frivolous spending" was actually part of it, and unfortunately, in my situation, "buying books" definitely qualifies as "frivolous spending."

~double sigh~

So.  As is true to my annual norm, December is my month of reflection upon the passing year and contemplation of the coming one.  And this day, December 1st, I am contemplating my out-of-control book collection, which has filled up the bookcase...

and spilled over onto the floor...

So I started to organize the masses...

And root out the "already reads"...

And organize the collections...

Then rearranged the bookcase...

But they didn't all fit so I took the leftovers to the other bookcase in the study...

And realized I had quite a mess on my hands.  Especially when it occured to me that this wasn't everything - I have more books upstairs and in boxes in the basement. 

~triple sigh~

But a thought began to form...  a project... a plan...  a plan to read these books, really read them.  Not just "think" about reading them, but actually pick them up, crack their spine, read their words, close them up then  blog about them.

So I started by making a list of all the books lying about that I intend to read (intend being a key word here).  Intend to read.  Someday.  Books on religion, health, finance, business, not just my favorite leisure read genre, the who-dun-it-murder-mystery-suspense-cops-and-robbers-good-vs-evil-legal-thriller...

By the time I finished, with just the 2 rooms noted here (saving the upstairs & the basement for another day - ~quadruple sigh~!), I came up with 161 titles.

Holy Moly Cheese & Baloney!  If I stay consistent with my average of 10 books a year, I'll get thru this pile in 16 years, so in 2027 when I'm 62 freakin' years old. 

Harrumpth.

I don't like that plan!

But I'm moving forward with it anyway...  To ensure I read a variety, not just my favorite genre (already noted above), I'm going to have each title identified on a card, placed in a box and when it's time to read a new book, I'm going to reach in the box and whatever title comes out is the one that is next on the list.

I'll document my progress under the "161 Project" tab. 

Ugh.  I've got alot of work to do...