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    Cricket makes a lot of noise at night.

    Battle Dress by Amy Efaw  — 4 days ago

    14. A friend let me borrow this book after hearing I joined the military. It’s a lot different than what I’m used to reading, cute (meant for young adults) but it made me grit my teeth at times and fear for myself when I go to bootcamp.

    Efaw has certainly done her homework, and it shows in this novel. Not my style of writing and the plot was rather predictable but I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 for the emotions it tore out of me. Maybe a 4.

    smartstuff needs to remember to give some books to her coworker's little nephew.

    #17 Dante's Inferno  — 6 days ago

    Dante’s Inferno
    Illustrated by Sandow Birk
    Text adapted by Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders
    Finished 05/10/08

    What a long long journey. Only four or five months really, but quite the undertaking, given the time I’ve had to give to it.

    I love this translation (I’ve written more about that here.) but even still, it’s been a bit of a challenge to sit down with it on any sort of regular basis.

    Not too much else to say here. Now on to the rest of the trilogy…

    smartstuff needs to remember to give some books to her coworker's little nephew.

    #16 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew  — 6 days ago

    Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
    Margaret Sidney
    Finished 05/10/08

    The perfect post-thesis read. Really, I’m surprised I had never come across this little gem previously. It’s totally dated in a wonderfully Victorian sort of way, but really, to the extent that every young girl gets exposed to Little Women as a child, I really find Five Little Peppers and How They Grew to be equally satisfying in many of the same ways.

    As a child, my dad was really big on reading me some of the classic older children’s stories. Narnia, obviously, as well as wizard of oz, but also things like Cubby in Wonderland and some story about a mule that I can’t for the life of me remember the title of, but it was certainly not on the “standard” list of old books one reads to children.

    And in elementary school we had a lovely teacher who is still close in my memory for story times involving Gentle Ben,Queenie Peavy, and Caddy Woodlawn Somehow though, the first I came across the Peppers was on a random shelf at the Strand.

    The children want nothing more other than to please their mother. They begin in a state of almost complete poverty, without the ability to even form real wishes for what they’d want, if only their “ship” would come in. But because of their good and virtuous nature, they are taken in by a rather well off family, and a certain remarkably contrived plot twist in the last two pages solidifies their good fortune.

    Like other books with such a morally structured story, it’s only worth picking up the title if you can suspend your disbelief and follow along with these outlandishly virtuous children. However, become invested and their world opens up beautifully. Oh no! Polly’s got the measles! Oh no! Phronsie went to mail a letter and got lost!

    After a semester though, of beating my own head against a keyboard, repeating over and over again “how do I kill off dad”, this wonderfully fluffy little text was just exactly what I needed.

    83. Phantom of the Opera  — 1 week ago

    I thought it was pretty good. A little different from the movie, as usual, but I liked it. I’m reading Oliver Twist, and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy right now.

    Cricket makes a lot of noise at night.

    "Thick As Thieves" by Steve Geng  — 1 week ago

    Although Thick As Thieves reads a bit more like a hurried first draft than a personal account, Geng’s life is an incredible inspiring tale that emerges from the depths of drug and alcohol abuse. The sheer rawness of Steve’s life, counteracted by the bustling, fame-driven and romance deprived tragedy of his sister is almost overwhelming, but I can not deny the hope and sadness I felt after turning the last page of his story.

    #49 - Atonement by Ian MacEwan  — 2 weeks ago

    Took me a little while to truly get stuck into it, but probably one of the best books I have ever read. Not #1, but it’s up there :)

    Next up: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew by CS Lewis or The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

    81. Forrest Gump  — 2 weeks ago

    Pretty good book, very different than the movie. I liked it, it was a cute, easy read.

    smartstuff needs to remember to give some books to her coworker's little nephew.

    #15 The book of Story Beginnings  — 2 weeks ago

    The Book of Story Beginnings
    Kristin Kladstrup
    Finisted 04/27/08

    It has been so long since I have sat down to read anything. I really am quite ashamed of myself. I have, in the meanwhile, been slowly crawling through a certain nonfiction book, and reading Shelley Jackson’s novel Half Life and piece by ponderous piece absorbing Dante’s Inferno, and reading cover to cover The Elements of Cooking. But unfortunately, it has been two months since I completed my last book! Good to be back, and looking forward to finishing the thesis so I feel able to read more!

    I was pretty pleased with The Book of Story Beginnings, especially as a first novel. There was nothing screamingly brilliant, but it was deliciously well done, and exactly what I needed after two months of being unable to finish anything that I picked up. I found myself looking forward to every train ride so that I could sit down with this book a little longer, and once even missed my stop as I tried to reach the end of the chapter!

    I did find the end to go on a little bit too long—like Tolkien, the author seemed to want to drive home the point that just because the story’s over doesn’t mean the characters don’t go on having a life afterwards. And while I respect that message, I’ve never found the literary portrayal of it very satisfying.

    There were a couple of jarring point of view shifts as well… while most of the book was told from a limited third person focused on Lucy, there were moments where the story switched to another character. I consistantly found this unsettling, even when it made sense to do so in terms of creating a sensible plotline.

    As for the story itself, the nested tellings seemed very well done. There was something quite satisfying in watching each of the tales come to a satisfying conclusion. Overall, a pretty good read.

    CompassionateMinds is never going to see the bottom of this workload

    18 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring  — 2 weeks ago

    I have read this book before and seen the movies more times than I can count, and it may always remain one of my most favourites.  I have been long overdue for a series reread.

    14.  — 3 weeks ago

    Angels and Demons, Dan Brown

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