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Categories Books

52 Books to Remove from my TBR List

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The bookish blogosphere is awash with book lists this time of year–mostly lists of books read in 2011.

But I’m so over 2011–I’ve been so busy planning 2012.

As part of my personal 2012 Challenge, I’ve resolved to remove 52 books from my TBR list in 2012.

So, without further ado, the list:

  1. Emily of Deep Valley by Maude Hart Lovelace
    I’m sorta cheating with this one, cause I plan on accomplishing two goals with the same book. First, I’ll read it to remove it from my TBR list. Second, I’ll use my reading as a means of participating in Sarah’s Maud Hart Lovelace Reading Challenge when it comes around again in Novemberish. Not coincidentally, the Review that Hooked Me was linked up to this year’s Maud Hart Lovelace Reading Challenge.

  2. Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon
    Saw the movie, er, one of the movies several years ago. Always been vaguely interested at a character named Anna (which is my older sister’s name and not altogether a common name). Carrie’s review ended up being the Review that Hooked Me–and convinced me that I had to read the real story.

  3. Peace Like a River by Lief Enger
    This was one of Lincoln’s “One Book, One Lincoln” picks several(?) years back, and it didn’t appeal to me at the time. But Barbara’s Review Hooked Me–and I’ll be checking it out this year.

  4. Selfish Reasons to Have more Kids by Bryan Caplan
    I don’t usually put books on my TBR list based on something the Instapundit says, but this one was an exception. I come from a large family, and rather selfishly desire a large family myself. I’m curious to hear what Caplan considers good “selfish” reasons :-)

  5. Press Here by Herve Tullet
    It’s sad to say (since I write the occasional review of children’s picture books), but I very rarely add a children’s picture book to my TBR list. Why? Because I don’t have children of my own and thus have little reason (yet) to purchase children’s picture books, and because I’m already reading through the children’s picture book section at my local library in order by author last name. But Dawn’s Review Hooked Me and I added this one to my list.

  6. Wonderstruck by Brian Celznick
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  7. A Break with Charity by Ann Rinaldi
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  8. Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  9. The Winters in Bloom by Lisa Tucker
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  10. It Looked Different on the Model by Laurie Notaro
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  11. Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  12. Entwined by Heather Dixon
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  13. The Long Song by Andrea Levy
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  14. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  15. Heads you Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  16. Decision Points by George W. Bush
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  17. 33 Men by Jonathan Franklin
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  18. In a Heartbeat by Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  19. The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  20. The Things We Do for Love by Kristin Hannah
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  21. The Three Weissmans of Westport by Cathleen Schine
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  22. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  23. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  24. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  25. The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard
    (The Reviews that Hooked Me: 1,2)
  26. Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  27. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  28. Matched by Ally Condie
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  29. Split by Swati Avasthi
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  30. Cookie Swap! by Lauren Chattman
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  31. The Language of God by Francis S. Collins
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  32. Don’t Sing at the Table by Adriana Tragiani
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  33. Leaving Gee’s Bend by Irene Latham
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  34. Finally by Wendy Mass
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  35. The Death-Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  36. 8th Grade Super Zero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  37. Annexed by Sharon Dogar
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  38. Stitches: A memoir by David Small
  39. Breaking Night by Liz Murray
  40. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
  41. Clara’s War by Clara Kramer
  42. The Twenty-One Balloons by William DuBois
  43. Famous by Todd Strasser
  44. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
  45. Courting Miss Amsel by Kim Vogel Sawyer
  46. Fragile by Lisa Unger
  47. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
    (The Review that Hooked Me)
  48. The Girl who chased the Moon by Sarah Adison Allen
  49. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
  50. I’d know you anywhere by Laura Lippman
  51. Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn
  52. ????

Do you see that empty space? That’s because I accidentally jumped the gun and read Emma Donoghue’s Room in 2011. Which means that I have to try to come up with one final(?) book to remove from my TBR list during the next year–which is kinda a lot of pressure. How do I decide among the many hundreds still on the list?

Categories 2012

Introducing: 2012 in 2012

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I’m not at all superstitious–and I happen to believe that no man knows or even can know the time of the end of the world.

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only…Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”
~Matthew 24:36, 42

But the hype surrounding the Mesoamerican calendar that “ends” on December 21, 2012 makes for a convenient excuse for my variation on the bucket list.

Introducing…

In the upcoming year, I propose to accomplish 2012 things–one for each year since the first coming of our Lord.

I have already prepared a tentative list of 2012 items to do–but I reserve the right to change any to all of them as I progress. I also reserve the right to include as many as 366 “sleep” items to the list (since the prospect of accomplishing 2012 things in 2012 might be inclined to infringe upon my sleeping time!)

Of course, I’ll keep you all updated as I race through the year toward [insert scary music] the end of the world!

Categories Technology

Reading My Reader: A Systematic Approach

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If your reader is anything like mine, it simply explodes during periods of unavoidable delay (mainly while I’m at work).

I leave with an easy couple hundred posts, but by the time I’m back my reader announces not a number but “1000+” behind “All Items”.

As such, I’ve taken to developing systems for dealing with reader overload.

I say “systems”, for I have several.

System 1 involves starting at the top and working my way down, reading every article in every folder. This is what I did at first–and what I quickly decided was unsustainable. I simply cannot read that much, and it leaves the poor “Younger Bloggers” in the last folder to sit in oblivion for what must seem to a youngster to be forever.

Enter System 2. In this system, I randomly select folders and scroll through posts until I find one that looks interesting. I read that, mark it as read, and continue scrolling. The problem with this approach is that I keep finding articles that I want to read eventually but don’t feel that I have time to read now. These are generally those posts that exceed the golden word count of blogging (500 words). Then, I end up scrolling through those same posts interminably. Very frustrating.

Which is why System 3 is at an advantage. With system 3, I read everything that has been written in the past 24 hours and one further article before moving on to the next folder. This has the theoretical advantage of not allowing me to get further behind–but still risks missing the bottom folders due to time constraints.

System 4 ensures that I get to all my folders. I simply read as many articles as are necessary to reduce my folder count to a multiple of five before moving along to the next folder. This means that folders with fewer posts (“People I know”, for example, or “2012-11-Comments”) get read all the way through, while folders with lots of posts (“News”) are barely skimmed. This is probably my favorite method except that it has gotten so boring to have all those fives and zeros on the ends of things.

That’s why System 5 is currently my preferred route. In this system, I choose an arbitrary number (not 5) to be my divisor. So, if I have chosen “8” (as I did immediately before beginning this post), acceptable ending post counts could be 40, 160, 144, or 24; but not 38. The next time I read through (possibly in the same sitting, possibly on another occasion), I choose a new number. This system has the same disadvantage as System 4, but with the added advantage of regular recitation of my times tables (which are admittedly rather rusty.)

Of course, the most effective system would probably be to subscribe to fewer feeds–but with so much to read each day, who has time to do that?

So tell me (have you ever noticed how often I use “so tell me”?), do you have a system for reading your reader? Please tell me about it–I love adding new systems!

Categories What's on Your Nightstand?

Nightstand (December 2011)

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I started my resolutions a little early by resolving to not miss a Nightstand post this month. The fact that state still hasn’t shown up in my overdue facility and that I just finished a five day weekend means that this particular resolution was achievable.

Books to be Read

What I read this month:

Adult Fiction

  • The Centurion’s Wife by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke
    For some reason, I never expect much from historical fiction set around the time of Christ–and always end up pleasantly surprised when I enjoy a piece set in that era. The Centurion’s Wife doesn’t top Francine Rivers’s An Echo in the Darkness (my favorite item from this time period), but it’s still pretty good. I’m looking forward to the rest of this series.
  • End of Story by Peter Abrahams
    Another psychological thriller from Abrahams–this time about an writer who can’t seem to publish anything. When she agrees to teach a writing class for inmates at a semi-local prison, she discovers a convicted criminal (and amazing storyteller) that she becomes convinced is innocent. But can she convince a judge? And what about said criminal’s “guilty” plea?
  • The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God by Timothy Schaffert
    I’m not quite sure how to describe this novel. The characters are a motley bunch–an alcoholic schoolbus driver, his elementary art teacher ex-wife, their young daughter, and their young son who’s gone off in a fit of religiosity to play in band for the “Daughters of God”, a Christian music trio. It’s a fascinating book, was a very entertaining read–but is impossible to categorize. So I’ll just add a few notes: It’s set in Nebraska. Not being a small town girl myself, I don’t know how accurate all the depictions are, but many of Schaffert’s descriptions sound like what I hear tell of from my small-Nebraska-town-dwelling peers. Also, in case anyone might be misled by the title, this is NOT a Christian book.

Adult Non-fiction

  • God: The Evidence by Patrick Glynn
    An interesting treatment of the topic to say the least. Glynn starts with a cosmological argument, but quickly moves on to a more elusive argument from soul to supernatural. Strangely, he considers near-death experiences to be compelling evidences for God. I am inclined to be more skeptical. (Not that I don’t believe that there’s a God–I certainly do–and I know Him. But I am skeptical of near-death experiences, and do not feel that they necessarily are evidences for God’s existence.)
  • Glen Beck’s Common Sense by Glenn Beck
    I know there are plenty of Beck fans out there; but, I don’t think I’m one of them. Beck’s stuff was okay but not spectacular. Thomas Paine, on the other hand, writes a truly jaw-dropping Common Sense.
  • America by Heart by Sarah Palin
    This book convinced me that I have underestimated Palin. I have generally considered her to be high-action/lower-intellect. But America by Heart reveals her as having a keen and well-read mind. Not that Palin doesn’t have the blue-collar patriotism and common sense that has made her so popular among the supposedly “common man”–it’s just that there’s more than meets the eye. She’s no populist, but a true conservative thinker in the classic liberal tradition.
  • Has God Spoken? by Hank Hanegraaff
    An apologetic book on the inspiration of Scripture, this demonstrates Hanegraaff’s definite gift for acronyms. Hanegraaf walks through his famous acronym M-A-P-S (manuscripts, archeology, prophecy, and Scripture) with subacronyms for each point, all to demonstrate that God has indeed spoken through Scripture and that we have a responsibility to be obedient to His word. I’ll review this in more depth later; for now, suffice to say that I greatly enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it. (Disclaimer: This book was provided to me at no cost via Thomas Nelson’s “BookSneeze” program. My opinion, as always, is my own.)

Juvenile Fiction

  • Bones and the Cupcake Mystery by David Adler
  • Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Monster Movie by David Adler
  • The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
    Fanboy is smart. He likes comic books. He lives in the basement. He has one friend. He is bullied by many. He is watched by one–Goth girl. She sees him take the punches. She reads the comic he’s writing. She talks about killing 90% of the school. She hates his guts? This is definitely YA with some violence, some sexual fantasizing (Fanboy is a 16 year old male), some disrespect for authority, and some “tense” family situations. Despite all this, I found Fanboy an endearing character, one who goes from being a downtrodden geek to one who rises above over the course of the book.
  • The No Place Cat by C.S. Adler
    A quite enjoyable Middle grade novel about a thirteen-year-old who rebels against the tyranny of living with her dad and step-mom by running away to live with her mom. Along the way, she picks up a stray cat–and discovers something about the responsibilities of belonging.
  • The Clue in the Embers by Franklin Dixon
  • The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt
    A very enjoyable coming-of-age story that I sincerely hope makes the Cybils shortlist. My full review here.
  • The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman
    Another Cybils nominee–this time one I disliked so much that I chose not to finish. High school romance + sex + bad science = not worth my time. My full review here.
  • The FitzOsbornes in Exile by Michelle Cooper
    An ultimately very enjoyable story (despite its potentially very inflammatory content)–but not a prize-winner in my book. This is a much cleaner and more interesting “princess” story than the more modern and baser “Princess Diaries.” Read my full review here.

Juvenile Non-Fiction

  • The Forgotten Victims of the Holocaust by Linda Jacobs Altman
  • The Jewish Victims of the Holocaust by Linda Jacobs Altman
  • A is for Adam by Ken and Maly Ham
    An A-B-C book about creation written from a young earth creationist perspective. See my review written from an old earth and language-loving perspective.
  • 1 book about bones
  • 10 Bible Story books

I borrowed a truncated supply of books three weeks ago, and then picked up the rest in Lincoln on Christmas Adam (immediately preceding Christmas Eve.) So I have plenty of books to keep me busy into the New Year!

Books to be Read
Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!

What's on Your Nightstand?

Categories Everyday Life

Snapshot: Gift Wrapping

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I have absolutely no skill for gift wrapping.

My family can testify that this is neither false humility nor misplaced perfectionism.

I am truly awful at it.

Brown paper packages

Which is why I didn’t even try this year.

The gifts are covered, the names visible. That’s the point of wrapping, right?

And there is something starkly beautiful about all those brown paper packages–so long as you don’t mind lots of wrinkles and large clumps of tape.

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: Anticipation

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I’ve spent the last couple of months anticipating the arrival of state surveyors at one of my facilities.

Every plan I made was “pending state”.

Because when state arrives, every other plan goes out the window. I’ll be in that facility from before breakfast is served to after supper is served. If the facility being surveyed is in another town, I likely won’t be home to sleep in my bed, get on my computer, or spend time with my friends. State puts everything else on hold.

But state has delayed interminably in coming (today marks a day past due), and I’m spent with the anxiety and dread of anticipating a state survey.

Thankfully, I still have a bit of energy left to anticipate a much more exciting event!

Thankful Thursday banner

This week I’m thankful…

…that God is sovereign over the actions of state surveyors, including when they do and do not come

…that MY LITTLE BROTHER IS COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! (Even if he was a stinker–or the Marine Corps was a stinker–and didn’t let us know until last night.)

…that all the siblings will be together for Christmas. It’ll be the first time all the siblings have been together for anything since September 2010.

…that my little brother’s (newly acquired) girlfriend will also be in town. We’ve known Kaytee for a couple of years now–but they started dating while they were in the Marines, so we’ve never seen them as a “couple”.

…that the Little Miss is starting to scoot–and I get to see her do so this weekend.

…that Jesus Christ Came…and is coming again. The wait for state has made me think of other “unexpected” but “expected” waits–things we know are coming but don’t know exactly when. The birth of a baby qualifies as one. The second coming of Christ as another.

I’m thankful that unlike the dread I associate with a state visit, the coming of Christ (both times) affords nothing but joy for me.

Because the baby who came over 2,000 years ago is the Redeemer who paid my ransom. The King who is yet to come is my Betrothed–and He returns to make the church His Bride.

Categories Everyday Life

Luci finds her man…elsewhere

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I’ve been in Columbus over a year now, and I have yet to find a mechanic in Columbus.

I’ve been blessed that Luci’s a pretty reliable gal. So long as I change her oil and give her some Heet in with her gas in the winter, she serves me well.

But even the best of cars occasionally develops a cough.

Luci just happened to develop her cough last week on her way to Grand Island.

When the steering wheel started wobbling and the car started shaking, my first thought was potholes (and then I thought “What potholes? I haven’t encountered any of those yet.”) My second thought was tires.

I had new tires put on Luci a couple months back while I was in Lincoln for the day–is there some sort of “bolts start getting loose” thing after buying new tires? I know that my bike mechanic told me to get my bicycle all tightened down after I put 50 or a 100 miles on it. Maybe cars are the same.

The maintenance man at work thought that was a reasonable scenario. I should get Luci’s wheels rotated and aligned.

So I did.

Then I drove back in the fog, unsure of whether she’d been fixed since my fog-driving (especially with the people that I had in front of me) was much different than my ordinary-clear-day driving.

Next day, I knew that it had not fixed it. But I didn’t have a mechanic in Columbus, and I was on-call to the degree that I didn’t feel I could just leave my car somewhere. I needed to be able to jump in my car and head to Grand Island at the drop of a hat.

So I didn’t get it fixed right off.

Monday night, it got worse and I decided that I would have to find Luci a mechanic in town whether my schedule liked it or not.

Then I went to Grand Island.

As I pulled into the parking lot, my brakes weren’t as smooth as normal–and I started to smell something burning.

Luci needed the emergency room. No more limping around. She needed a man immediately.

My dietary manager set up the meeting and we dropped Luci off with Kim.

Kim fixed her up right away. He was honest, fast, and affordable. He let me know exactly what the repairs would cost and even showed me the parts he replaced so I could see that he wasn’t just making up the need for replacement.

Luci’s found her man–but, once again, not in Columbus.

Geez–even my car figures she’ll have better luck elsewhere.

:-)

Categories Following Christ

A Juxtoposed Confession

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In seasons where the longing seems overwhelming, I’ll often sigh and think, “Lord, You know my heart” as the words of a Delirious song pour forth from my lips:

Lord, You have my heart
And I will search for Yours
Jesus, take my life
And lead me on

Every time these words and this melody burst into my consciousness, I wonder at my juxtaposition of “know” in my mind with “have” from my lips.

My mind tells the Lord–and myself–that He knows my heart. He knows what I desire. He knows what captivates me, what make my heart dream. He is familiar with my heart both in its baseness and its nobility.

My lips sing that the Lord has my heart–that my heart is captivated by, consumed with Him.

My mind speak the truth, my mouth what I wish to be the truth.

I close my musings with a resolution and a prayer:

And I will search for Yours

That I will seek His heart is a tacit confession that my heart is not His. I still desire my own gain, my own comfort, my own self. My heart is drawn to a hundred things that aren’t the heart of God.

But I want the heart of God, even if my heart disagrees.

Let my heart be taken prisoner, let it be enslaved. May my heart forever be behind bars, so long as it is a prisoner to the heart of God.

And with my heart your prisoner, I pray, take my body to be your slave:

Jesus take my heart and lead me on

A confession of a heart gone wickedly astray.

A confession of a soul longing to be disciplined by grace.

A confession of a woman who longs and does not long to be Christ’s slave.

“Batter my heart, three-personed God; for, you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I like a usurped town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived and proves weak or untrue,
Yet dearly’I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy,
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthral me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.”
~John Donne, Holy Sonnet 14

Categories Everyday Life

In which I lose something and gain a whole new me

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I made my haircut decision almost two weeks ago–but time is something rather hard to find. So Mr. Husband had over a week to “speak now”. He not having spoken, the deed is now down.

My hair before:

Pre-haircut

Gena brushes my hair out and tells me not to freak out as she suggests where she’ll cut.

She sticks her hand on the spot and I say “Okay”. I’m thinking “Isn’t that how long my hair already is?”

I say this out loud and Gena laughs “No, your hair is down here.” This time, her hand chops into my back below my waistline.

Oh. Okay.

Pre-haircut

She holds out my hair for the first cut while N. (Gena’s daughter) works to get the right angle. They want to coordinate to get a picture of that snip. I hear the camera auto-focusing, then the flash goes off and the snip is complete.

First snip

My hair is now at its finished length. There’s no going back.

Gena takes a picture so I can see the results.

Pre-haircut

Gena asks me how I feel about layers.

I give her the go-ahead.

We take another picture so I can see what’s happened.

Pre-haircut

Layers in front? Gena searches online for an example so I can see what she’s thinking.

I tell her to do it, but not too high. A few snips are enough for me.

She shows me myself again and asks if I want more.

This time, I’m ready to be done for the day.

My hair, in its new raw form.

Pre-haircut

But Gena doesn’t want to leave it raw. Can she curl it for me?

Sure. A few minutes later, I emerge–a totally new me.

Pre-haircut

My hair may have been longer than I thought–but I definitely recognize that some of it’s missing now. Scratch that–a lot of it’s missing now.

As C. (Gena’s son) said, “It’s short.”

Not actually–but short for me. But it looks nice, and I’m eager to enter into the world of healthy hair. If I can keep it up until it’s long again…

Thanks, Gena, for offering to do my hair and for holding my hand throughout the process.

Categories Everyday Life

Snapshot: Argyle

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Apparently, my pastor has something against argyle.

Two weeks ago, he directed parents of teens to sign their children up for the winter’s youth retreat. “Just talk to Mike (Our youth pastor). You can’t miss him-he’s in the ugliest sweater you’ve ever seen.”

The sweater in question turned out to be a rather ordinary black argyle sweater.

Me in an argyle sweater
Pastor Justin was a bit surprised when 50 or so of his parishioners showed up this morning in argyle sweaters–in solidarity with the oppressed.