Another one down!

So I finished the book this morning while I was at the gym. To respond to Celeste's comment, I thought it was okay. I thought it was really interesting to read about life in Iran before and after the Revolution... What I didn't like as much were the references to books she taught in class, mainly because I haven't read those books. I think I may read Lolita and The Great Gatsby, and then I might try to reread it. In the back, there is a suggested reading list, along with discussion questions. I found them to be somewhat helpful, but I think the book would have been much more enjoyable if I had been more familiar with the characters and stories in those other two books...

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next... I just picked up Don Cheadle and John Predergast's Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond. I think I'll read that and then move on to something a little lighter and summery.

2 down, 99 to go!

We're all moved to our new place in Wiesbaden, but we don't have internet yet. I'm at the library, so this is going to be short. I just wanted to update that I finished Living History, and I've moved on to my third book, Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi. Will write more about it soon...

M

Some progress

Despite the move, I am still trying to make time to read. I am 2/3 of the way finished with Hillary's book and look forward to finishing and beginning #3/101 this weekend!

M

Ciao!

The time has come for us to say ciao for now... Our internet and phone will both shut off tomorrow. I'm sure we'll find ways to check our email, but our blog posting may be kind of random over the next couple of weeks. As of right now, we won't have internet and phone hooked up at our new house until 10 July, but they said we could call and check for cancellations and try to move it up. So if you don't hear from us, this is where we'll be over the next couple of weeks...

12 June: motorcycle orientation class
13 June: new house inspection/ internet and phone shut off
14 June: motorcycle license test/pre-move inspection
16 June: Happy 11th Birthday Buddha!!!
18 June: pack day
19 June: move day
20 June: vet appointment/ final walk-through with landlord
22 June: motorcycle safety class all day

8 July: M fly to the States
10 July: internet/phone back on!

My cool headlight

Lol, a few nights ago I wanted to stay up and read, but Jared was ready for bed, so he went and got this strap-on headlight out of his Army room. Apparently, he bought it while he was in Iraq, so he could read and do work after his roommates went to bed. I think it's incredibly dorky, but very practical... and now it's my new reading light :P



P.S. Ignore my cheesey smile. I felt so silly wearing it at first, I couldn't stop laughing long enough for Jared to take a picture. I'm now able to wear it without giggling insanely.

I've got company!

Celeste and Lacey have decided to join me with 1001 day projects! I'm so excited to be able to share this project, and I know we will all be able to motivate each other to keep going and finish!

Celeste's Journey Through Words

Lacey's 101 Split in 1001 Days

Playing for Pizza

John Grisham is taking a break from the courtroom and traveling to Italy to write his next book. I've always been a fan of his legal thrillers, and I liked Skipping Christmas. I'm looking forward to seeing how this book turns out...

John Grisham Sets Next Book in Italy

New York Times

The New York Times Book Review

Living in Germany and being fascinated by its history, especially World War II and the Cold War, The Berlin Wall: A World Divided 1961-1989, by Frederick Taylor, looks especially interesting. I think I might have to add it to the bottom of the list, especially since it looks like one Jared and I can share and read together.

Also, Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season, by Jonathan Eig, looks like another book we'd both be interested in reading. Growing up listening to my dad's stories about playing stickball in the streets with the Brooklyn Dodgers made me an early fan of New York baseball.

John Prendergast and Don Cheadle, Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond, write about the crisis in Darfur. I feel an obligation to our fellow humans to read this book and be aware of what is happening in the world. It is so hard for me to fathom that genocide is still taking place, and it frustrates me that so many people don't care or don't know about it. Hopefully Don Cheadle's celebrity status will do some good and bring more attention to the situation in Africa.

Boring History

Sorry Hillary, but now I remember why I never read your book... I just came across my bookmark from my last attempt to read this book on page 63. Something about it is just incredibly boring. I don't think it's the content. Maybe it's just the way it is written. It's very flowery. I guess it's the politician coming out in her, but I just can't get into the story. I'll keep trying though... To stay on track, I need to read a book every 10 days, which is no problem if I actually sit down and read. I finished the last book in three days, so I have some leeway. Well, I'm going to eat breakfast and get some stuff done around this house. I plan on getting everything done this morning and afternoon so I have some time to read before dinner. The landlord starts showing the house tomorrow, and we hope to be moving next week, so that has been keeping me busy!

Five books

FIVE BOOKS EVERYONE SHOULD READ AT LEAST ONCE

By Vince Passaro

The wisest poetry, the most extraordinary prose: five top-shelf books that will blow open your understanding of the world.

Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov

It blows open a new understanding of the world, its gorgeousness, its corruption and pain, all embedded in the 20th century's most extraordinary English prose.

Four Quartets

T.S. Eliot

This is the most musical and wisest poetry in the language of our time and place. (Short of that, The Complete Poems 1927–1979, by Elizabeth Bishop.)

The Wisdom of the Desert: Sayings from the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century

translated by Thomas Merton

We all sometimes need to imagine what it would be like to live simply and purely, dedicated to a force larger than ourselves.

Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett

We need to remember that just because we're sad, that doesn't mean we're not also marvelously comical and transcendently courageous.

Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe

This, the first in Achebe's monumental and unsparing trilogy of Igbo life in western Africa, is the strongest and most important novel of the postcolonial world.

One down, one hundred to go

After five years of undergraduate and graduate studies in Political Science, I was kind of burned out on the subject. Now, two years later, with the upcoming elections, my interest is starting to grow again. I've had Bill and Hillary's autobiographies for years, and I just haven't been in the mood to read them. Both books have now been added. I also have Barrack Obama's newest book, a biography on President Truman, and Elizabeth Edwards' memoir on my list.

I also want to share one of my favorite book sites, Oprah's Celebrate Books page. You can see current and past book club selections, as well as books from Oprah's personal collection and recommendations from Oprah guests ranging from Madeleine Albright to Ellen Pompeo. I've used some of those recommendations for my reading list, and I'll be sure to note the recommender when I read and write about those books. Now I'm off to bed... Goodnight!

My 1001 Day Book Project

Read the entry on our family blog that inspired it all...

101 Things in 1001 Days

On June 1, I sat down to create an Excel spreadsheet of 101 books that I'd like to read in the next 1001 days. The books are a variety of classics, chick lit, autobiographies, and current events. I've read some of them before, while others I've done my best to avoid since high school English (i.e. Moby Dick). Feel free to comment on my reviews and thoughts, leave book recommendations, or join in and start a 1001 day project of your own!

Start date: Friday, June 1, 2007

End date: Friday, February 26, 2010

I decided to start with a book that I already had, but never made the time to sit down and read... until now. I'm currently reading Helen Fremont's After Long Silence.

Amazon.com review:

In her mid-30s Helen Fremont discovered that, although she had been raised in the Midwest as a Catholic, she was in fact the daughter of Polish Jews whose families had been exterminated in the Holocaust. Fremont's tender but unsparing memoir chronicles the voyage of discovery she took with her older sister, ferreting out information from Jewish organizations and individuals and worrying about its impact on their angry, overpowering father and reticent, nightmare-plagued mother. Fremont has the courage to paint a nearly unsympathetic portrait of her parents' secretiveness and initial reluctance to have their children dredge up the past; as the narrative unfolds, readers comprehend the tormented roots of their behavior without forgetting the psychological problems it created for their daughters. Fremont's re-creation of her parents' ghastly ordeals--her mother narrowly escaping the murder of nearly every Jew in her hometown; her father surviving six years in the Soviet gulag--is a triumph of dogged research and sympathetic imagination. Her book tells a deeply American story of identity lost and reclaimed, complete with Fremont coming out to her parents as a lesbian, yet it also achieves understanding of the dark European past and its icy grip on her family.

Next up: Hillary Clinton's Living History

Ongoing read: The Bible