Reading List: January 2011

A new year, a new reading list.  In less than 4 days I finished my first book, and I wanted to finish it sooner; I really, really enjoyed it.  Shortly before we began circling Heathrow on our flight back from visiting my folks, Adam and I started watching an Aussie movie called Tomorrow, When the War Began.  Had we known that we were going to be in the air for an hour or so longer than planned, we would have plugged our headphones in, but we understood enough of the movie to enjoy it even without audio.  Sadly, it doesn't seem to be released anywhere outside of OZ/NZ, so we can't rent it, or buy it without having it shipped from OZ (we have a region free DVD player, so no worries on that front at least).  But the good news is that the movie is based on a series of young adult novels (The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden) and Adam was kind enough to pick up the first one for me as a Christmas present.  After I got over the self-referencing first person style and the narrator gets into telling the story, it's really good.  It's a teen adventure/suspense/drama/romance thing, and it works fairly well.  Compelling storyline, and the balance of teen love and angst is just that: balanced.  It appears, and just as it starts to bug you, it goes away.

Sadly, however, I'm done with it already.  I have a nice Amazon gift certificate to spend, and while I have a lot more stuff I want to buy than the certificate is worth (which is saying something--thanks to my overly generous parents!), it looks as though I'll be picking up at least some of the rest of the series.  Probably all of it, because I am a completionist.  And the first one was quite good.

***

If you read on, you'll see I've acquired the rest of the Tomorrow series.  None of them are exactly long, and they get shorter as they go on (except for the last one), so I'm reading basically one a day.  On one hand, I'm not sure they're quite as good, but on the other hand, I really want to find out how it all ends (which isn't really the case, since after the 7 Tomorrow books Marsden wrote 3 more about Ellie, the narrator of the Tomorrow series).  But I'm enjoying them still, despite all the frustration in trying to get ahold of them.  In fact, I'll be asking Levi if he can help me out with that shortly . . .

So without further ado, January's reading list:

10. * Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle, by Dorothy Gilman (Mrs. Pollifax Series #8)
 9.  The Other Side of Dawn, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #7)
 8.  The Night is for Hunting, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #6)
 7.  Burning for Revenge, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #5)
 6.  Darkness, be My Friend, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #4)
 5.  The Third Day, The Frost (aka The Killing Frost), by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #3)
 4.  The Dead of Night, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #2)

 3.  Skin Trade, by Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #17)
 2.  *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #7)

 1.  Tomorrow, When the War Began, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #1)

My Hippy Ways

First let me start by saying that moving to England from Eugene has really taken a toll on my hippyesque ways.  I know that's probably not very surprising, given the nature of Eugene, but it's hit me in some rather painful ways.  For example, in Eugene, when I had my parents' money to shop with (hi Mom!), it was a lot easier to be organic, all-natural, local, sustainable, and humane with food purchases.  Thankfully, Mom and Dad are pretty into that movement as well, so there was less cringing at 2.5 times the price for organic rather than "conventional" bell peppers and the like.  (Sidenote: Why is the spread of toxic fertilizers and pesticides considered conventional?  Surely it's more conventional, given history, to be organic?  There's nothing particularly conventional about poisoning people, unless you're in Russia, mystery novels, or various royal families throughout history.)  And though milk from DairyMart/Lochmead Farms isn't technically organic, they're local and very good about their practices.  Long's Meat Market is superb--I'm pretty sure Mike goes out and meets a lot of the animals he'll eventually be selling.

Over here, though, food purchasing is constricted by two (well, three) things.  First, we don't gots a lot of money.  And we're cheap.  It's a combination--since we don't earn as much as we'd like, we save every penny.  I spend more on food than Adam would by a long shot (since Adam does the shopping, that's a second constricting factors), since I think the quality of what goes in me is important, but even still, I make choices to not buy organic much of the time.  I also end up buying a lot of apples from say, New Zealand.  That's not exactly local (most of our produce comes from climates that don't suck, like Spain, or well, anywhere but here).  The third problem is that options are limited around here--not huge population, few stores--and people are cheap (welcome to Yorkshire), so organic choices are limited, as is, well, selection.  And usually the organic stuff is slightly dodgy looking, as is the "weird" stuff.  Hell, for the first time since I've moved here, I've actually seen uncooked, unpeeled beets in Morrisons (no greens attached, though).  I've only seen that one other time, and that was at the farm shop (the closest to hippy around here).

The biggest concession I've made Adam make is that we get nearly all our meat from the farm shop.  That's what it sounds like; a shop on a farm; they sell eggs from their chickens (they also will sell you feed so you can feed the chickens yourself--what a great scam!), the chickens themselves, and all the beef, pork, lamb they raise.  They also make their own sausages (tasty, though we do get ours from Morrisons).  They also sell some produce, some they grow, some they don't.  And they have beer, wine, an olive bar, and some random other crap.  It's not perfect, but at least it's local, we believe humane (the chickens certainly are well treated), and should be reasonably organic and sustainable.  The meat and eggs sure taste better.

I've increased my hippyness in some ways, I suppose, though.  I walk or take public transit a lot of places.  Granted, that's mostly due to our not having a car, and Tony pollutes for us, since he takes us shopping every week and runs occasional errands for us (greatly appreciated).  So I guess that about balances out.

What this post was really supposed to be about, however, was my new neti pot and my reusable sea sponges and panty liners.  I've really broadened my hippy horizons there.  I got the neti pot for two reasons.  First, I got a horrid cold twice in about 6 weeks, so bad the second time that I lost my voice (Adam was thrilled.  Jackass.)  Out of sheer desperation, I snorted some water into my sinuses through my nose.  As painful as that was, it made a world of difference, and I started getting better almost instantly.  The second reason is that I mentioned that incident to Kristan, and she told me she had a neti pot and swore by it.  It's taken some time for me to get used to it, but now that I'm getting all the water draining out of my nose (I don't think I was there, at first), my nose is stuffed less often, and I'm even hearing a little better (once I got the water back OUT of my Eustachian tubes).  Even if I'm doing a half-assed job--which I think I am--I'm sure I'm cleaning gunk out of there that's better off not there.  And if Adam doesn't stop snoring soon, I'm neti potting him somehow.

My really happy awesome purchase, however, falls into the potential category of "too much information."  Years ago, my friend Kat mentioned that you could get sea sponges--yes, the things that live in the ocean--for reusable tampons.  I don't think she had any, but the idea never went away for me, because I hate how much tampons cost.  I mentioned it several months back to Kristan (who has also gone quite hippy, which makes me smile), who immediately told me where to get some, and then told me to tell her what I thought.  So I got two sponges, and three months later when my period came around again (thank you, The Pill), I read the instructions, and ventured into the unknown world of reusable dead things in my hoo-hah.  In short, they're super-comfortable, and they work just as well as cotton tampons.  If you're in private, you can just rinse it out and stick it back in (I wouldn't in a public bathroom, since I doubt others want to see it, so just shove it in a plastic bag in your purse).  Plus, they're sustainable, organic, unlikely to cause TSS, comfortable (did I mention they're comfortable?), and, if this wasn't already clear, reusable for quite a long time (estimated 3-6 months or longer).  I used only one for my entire period, and just rinsed it a couple of times a day.  You can also use two at once, I guess, or use them for contraceptives with a spermicide.  The only downside to the sponges is that they have no removal string...I got used to that, but it takes some work.  You can sew a piece of dental floss (I think they said waxed, but I'm not sure) into it if you're nervous, but I was more nervous about tearing the sponge than it getting stuck.  I work off of the principle of "what goes up must come down."  And we only had mint dental floss.

I also mentioned reusable panty liners.  They're a bit weird (probably because I never use pantyliners or pads), but I love the concept.  Cotton or flannel material with a waterproof middle, and snaps so they function like winged pads, which is what holds them in place.  I got cotton, but I think I'll go with flannel in the future.  The best bit about them though (besides having fun patterns and being reusable--just chuck them in the washer), is that they were a good length.  Most pantyliners I've found make you decide if you want to possibly leak off the front, or off the back.  These are long enough you don't have to choose.  Plus, since they're not adhesived on, you can actually slide them around to get them just right.

What all of this really amounts to though is Adam mocking me because I'm a hippy.  But then, so does everyone else around here.  Apparently "hippy" is the new "liberal."  But I'm not "progressive," I'm liberal, so I'm happy being a hippy.

Weird Statistics

I've been slowly futzing around with the blog, which you may or may not have noticed (or cared about).  Mostly, I've just been cleaning up old links and adding new ones and the like.  There are some new blogs listed on the right now, and some old one have been removed.  I strongly encourage everyone to visit Hyperbole and a Half.  Hi-larious.  Also, go read XKCD, which is often funny, and always odd (protip: there's mouseover text, so hover your cursor over the comic when you're done reading it for more funny/info).

In all this messing about, I just discovered that Blogger provides stats.  I assume this is a fairly new thing; I mean I don't pay loads of attention, but I've been on Blogger for a over two years now, so I figure I would have noticed it at some point.  Either way, it's very neat to see some of the visitor statistics.  I'm not well loved, but that's cool, because I'm not set up to be crawled by search engines (this is intentional).  What is odd, however, is some of the locations I get visitors from.  The United States, of course, and the UK, since I have friends (and homes) in both locations.  But then it starts to get odd.  In order of most hits (US and UK are the top two), I've also got the Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Luxembourg, Angola, Switzerland, Moldova, and Mexico.

Here's the thing.  Most of those only have 2 or 3 hits (ever), except for Russia and the Netherlands.  Why?!  Do I have followers or friends (or stalkers) there?  If so, totally awesome, and if you're in one of those places, you should comment so that I can say hello.  And quite frankly, ask why the hell you care about my rather mundane life, or at least my mundane posts.

In other random news, I'm going to start writing again.  With the death of Geoff a few months ago, I put my one novel on hold, and the historical fiction one has been on hold indefinitely (main character is stranded at the moment, as history is a wee bit sketchy on that part of his life).  I was writing the non-historical fiction one by hand, and I'd started transcribing and editing what I had so far when Geoff blew up, and I just haven't gotten back to it when I got Henry (wouldn't have a Willy or a Sam) up and running.  That was at Thanksgiving, which was immediately followed by Christmas and New Years, so it's been crazy around here, as I assume it has been for most people.  Sadly, I'd love to share my new book with everyone--it's truly perfect for blog format--but as it's journal style and about work, that's not so bueno.  It will be heavily fictionalized, but even though I hate my job, it's the only (paying) one I've got, so I'd rather keep it.  I'm trying, however, to find other things to write about to keep the masses entertained.  Adam and I are going to Iceland in about 3 weeks, so that should provide some interesting fodder for at least a couple of posts.  For now, we'll just say that Adam thinks I should have done more research.  He might have been right.

Jokes

A new joke I learned today:

Q.  What did the Tea Partier get on his IQ Test?
A.  Drool.

A joke I learned while in Leicester (if somewhat misogynistic):

Q.  How is a woman like a hurricane?
A.  At first she's wet and wild, but then she leaves with your house and car.

And my most favoritist joke of all time (that's not TOO dirty):

A pirate walks into a bar, and has a massive ship's wheel sticking out of his trousers.  The bartender looks at it and asks "Hey, doesn't that thing bother you?"  The pirate replies "Yarrr, it's driving me nuts!"

2010 Reading List: December

With about 4.5 hours to spare, I managed to squeak out my 63rd book this year, finishing The Hobbit around 7:30pm on New Year's Eve.  I'm proud of myself, averaging more than a book a week, and reading 35 books this year that I've never read before.  I'd love to be averaging more like 2-2.5 books a week, but I have to balance it with work (yeah, part-time, but still), Girl Museum (we have a new exhibition, go see it!), and a heavy TV schedule, so I doubt I'll be able to increase my average much.  Even so, I'm pleased that I've managed to read a bunch of stuff I've not read before.  Holding myself accountable by posting everything here on the blog has kept me aware of what I've read, and has, in a couple of cases, kept me from reading something I've already read this year.

And though I know my reading list is boring to some people--if not everyone--who reads this, it is helpful to me, so I will be continuing it in 2011 as well.  Speaking of, Happy New Year!

59.  The Dark Secret of Weatherend*, by John Bellairs (An Anthony Monday Mystery)

60.  Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish*, by Dorothy Gilman (Mrs. Pollifax Novel)
61.  The Mansion in the Mist*, by John Bellairs (An Anthony Monday Mystery)
62.  Bone in the Throat, by Anthony Bourdain
63.  The Hobbit*, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Agatha Christie

 1.  The Tuesday Club Murders (Miss Marple; a series of short stories--good intro to character)

 2.  The Labors of Hercules (Hercule Poirot; a series of short mysteries with an overarching theme)

Margaret Truman

 3.  Murder in the White House (Capital Crimes novel: no recurring characters, but sort of a "set")

Isaac Asimov

 4.  The Caves of Steel (A Lije Baley & R. Daneel Olivaw novel)

 5.  The Naked Sun (A Lije Baley & R. Daneel Olivaw novel)

16.  I, Robot

J. K. Rowling

 6.  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* (Harry Potter Series Book 1)

 7.  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* (Harry Potter Series Book 2)

22.  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban* (Harry Potter Series Book 3)

32.  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire* (Harry Potter Series Book 4)

Mary Francis Shura

 8.  Kate's Book* (one of two books featuring Kate Alexander)

 9.  Kate's House* (one of two books featuring Kate Alexander)

John Bellairs

10.  The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull* (A Johnny Dixon mystery) I'm not sure if I've finished this one before, but I know I have started it in the past.

57.  The Treasure of Alpheus Winterbourn* (An Anthony Monday Mystery)

58.  The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb* (An Anthony Monday Mystery)

59.  The Dark Secret of Weatherend* (An Anthony Monday Mystery)

61.  The Mansion in the Mist* (An Anthony Monday Mystery)

Erle Stanley Gardner

11.  The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (A Perry Mason mystery)

Carl Hiaasen

12.  Flush

E.L. Konigsburg

13.  Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth William McKinley, and me, Elizabeth

Carol Ryrie Brink

14.  The Pink Motel*

Jeff Burk

15.  Shatner Quake (More of a novella.  Whatever it is, it defies description.)

James B. Garfield

17.  Follow My Leader*

Jean Fritz and Tom Clute

18.  Champion Dog Prince Tom*

Janet Evanovich

19.  Full House (Several characters appear again in other books)

20.  Smitten

Jonathan Stroud

21.  The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy: Book 1)

Dorthy Gilman

23.  Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief* (Mrs. Pollifax Novel)

52.  Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha* (Mrs. Pollifax Novel)

53.  A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax* (Mrs. Pollifax Novel)
60.  Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish* (Mrs. Pollifax Novel)

Robert Rankin

24.  Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

Elizabeth Peters

25.  The Seventh Sinner* (Jacqueline Kirby novel)

26.  Borrower of the Night* (Vicky Bliss novel)

28.  Lord of the Silent* (Amelia Peabody novel)

39.  A River in the Sky (Ameila Peabody novel)

41.  The Falcon at the Portal* (Amelia Peabody novel)

42.  He Shall Thunder in the Sky* (Amelia Peabody novel)

48.  The Mummy Case* (Amelia Peabody novel)

50.  Lion in the Valley* (Amelia Peabody novel)

John Grogan

27.  Marley and Me

Terry Goodkind

29.  Soul of the Fire (Sword of Truth Series Book 5)

36.  Faith of the Fallen (Sword of Truth Series Book 6)

47.  The Pillars of Creation (Sword of Truth Series Book 7)

51.  Naked Empire (Sword of Truth Series Book 8)

54. Chainfire (Sword of Truth Series Book 9)

55.  Phantom (Sword of Truth Series Book 10)

56.  Confessor (Sword of Truth Series Book 11)

Terry Pratchett

30.  Strata (precursor to the Discworld novels)

46.  Unseen Academicals (A Discworld Novel)

Jan Siegel

31.  Prospero's Children (Fern Capel Trilogy Book 1)

Roald Dahl

33.  Matilda*

Nadifa Mohamed

34.  Black Mamba Boy

Alexander McCall Smith

35.  The Miracle at Speedy Motors (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Book 9)

38.  Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Book 10)

40.  The Double Comfort Safari Club (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Book 11)

"Richard Castle"  (ghostwriter unknown; Rick Castle is Nathan Fillion's character on Castle.)

37.  Heat Wave

Christopher Moore

43.  Bloodsucking Fiends* (Vampire Trilogy, Book 1)

44.  You Suck (Vampire Trilogy Book 2)

45.  Bite Me: A Love Story (Vampire Trilogy Book 3)

Sharyn McCrumb

49.  Zombies of the Gene Pool (sequel? to Bimbos of the Death Sun)

Anthony Bourdain
62.  Bone in the Throat

J.R.R. Tolkien
63.  The Hobbit*