Ten Days, Day 9 and 10

Opps. I completely forgot about this.

Day 09: 2 smileys that describe your life right now.

:) :D

Day 10: 1 confession.

i don't like Oprah

Ten Days, Day 8

Day 08: 3 things that turn you on.

1. Good body

2. nice eyes

3. Self confidence

Ten Days, Day 7

Day 07: 4 things that turn you off.

1. Chauvinist men

2. meanness

3. bad hygiene 

4. the movie Dancer in the Dark

Ten Days, Day 6

Day 06: 5 people who mean a lot to you (in no order whatsoever)

1. Nick

2. Mom

3. Dad

4. David

5. Mariko

How can you limit this to just five?????

Ten Days, Day 5

Day 05: 6 things you wish you’d never done.

1. Let me tongue ring close

2. Loose touch with some of my old friends

3. Waited so long to get help for my depression

4. Taken Westgate the day i got in that car accident

5. tasted that eel sushi at Banzi several years ago--YUCK

6. Wasted valuable reading time on Jackie Collins books this summer

Ten Days, Day 4

Day 04: 7 things that cross your mind a lot.

1. I wonder what the future holds

2. I miss David Bryan

3. I wonder if some people look in the mirror before they leave the house and if they do, do they honestly think they look good?

4. I have GOT to start working out. I don't want to be one of those people. 

5. Will Anne Rice ever write another vampire book?

6. I am so thankful for everything and everybody in my life

7. I need to practice my harp

Ten Days: Day 3

Day 03: 8 ways to win your heart.

1. Be honest

2. Be kind to animals and old people

3. Have an intelligent sense of humor

4. Be respectful of other opinions, traditions, etc.

5. Be creative

6. Walk the line between confidence and arrogance

7. Hold your own in an argument

8. Be a brown hair, brown eyed, Saints fan named Nick Stakelum (ok, that was a little over the top)

Ten Days Day 2

Day 02: 9 things about yourself.

1. I hate football. (This is on my mind right now because I can hear the game my husband is watching.)

2. I am obsessive compulsive about brushing my teeth and using my antibacterial hand sanitizer.

3. I have a butterfly tattoo on my back and three music notes behind my right ear. I also have three piercings in each ear, one in the cartilage in my left hear, one in my belly button, and had one in my tongue until last summer. it closed when i had my wisdom teeth removed.

4. I am an avid reader and probably read about 2 books each week. 

5. I know how to play the flute, piccolo, dulcimer and steel drum. I am also working on the harp. In the past I've taken lessons on the violin, guitar, bodhran and recorder. I played the french horn one semester in high school. However, I cannot sing. at all. 

6. I am adopted. Being adopted has made me realize over the years that family really doesn't have much to do with blood.

7. I think things like this are incredibly narcissistic but i do them anyway. Read into that what you will. 

8. I believe in ghosts, aliens and lots of other phenomena. I blame the X Files. 

9. The first few things my husband and I bonded over were magazine publishing and a shared love of Stanley Kubrick movies.

Ten Things, Day 1

I stole this from my friends Candice and Melanie, who stole it from someone else so feel free to steal it from me! ; )

Day 01: 10 things you want to say to ten different people right now.

1. NJS: You have changed my life for the better. I'm glad you're my best friend and I'm glad I get to spend forever with you. 

2. KMHH: Your life is a ministry to me. You teach me how to be happy and to see God's miracles every day

3. KB: You are going to be a fabulous mommy. i know this because you've always been such a nurturing friend to me. I can't wait to meet Xander.

4. DWV: Sometimes I can see your confidence fall. It shouldn't because you're the best. When you gonna love you as much as I do? (Ok, so I stole that from tori amos. it fits)

5. JKR: I am proud to have known you and proud of what you've accomplished in your life. I just wish we could be friends again so i could congratulate you.

6. JLK: I think we have broken every rule in the friendship book. but look at us, 20+ years later. we are bulletproof.

7. BJ: You are probably my favorite memory from college. I still have some of your drawings in a shoebox (and one of them permanently on my body)

8. MWB: More adventures to come! Thanks for being my best beef. :) Your humor helped me through some tough times. 

9. ZR: You make my spleen dance. Remember that? How about Delores and the un****ables? Thanks for all the wonderful flute choir memories.

10. EYH: Your life inspires me. I wish I had the guts to do some of the things I've seen you do. 

Ten Days

I stole this from my friends Candice and Melanie, who stole it from someone else so feel free to steal it from me! ; )

Day 01: 10 things you want to say to ten different people right now.

Day 02: 9 things about yourself.

Day 03: 8 ways to win your heart.

Day 04: 7 things that cross your mind a lot.

Day 05: 6 things you wish you’d never done.

Day 06: 5 people who mean a lot to you (in no order whatsoever)

Day 07: 4 things that turn you off.

Day 08: 3 things that turn you on.

Day 09: 2 smileys that describe your life right now.

Day 10: 1 confession.

Not about books this time

I was just thinking the other day, it has almost been a year since Nick and I decided to give this adventure a try. I remember last year, when I got off work from Wiregrass Heritage Festival instead of going to my cabin in the woods, I went home to my new house where my fiance was waiting for me. We were married two weeks later. This year has been.....interesting to say the least. I have never really lived with a boy (other than sort-of dorm mates) so I was not at all prepared for some of the bizarre behavior I have witnessed in the last year. Of course, Nick could probably say the same about me. Thankfully, we both are pretty much loners and slobs (that makes us sound pretty sad when I put it down like that but it's true) so things have worked out just like I knew they would. In all honesty, I have never been so happy. When I was in a car accident earlier this summer and taken to the hospital in an ambulance, I was so relieved to have Nick with me. I always loved living alone and I always said that for me to give up my staunchly independent lifestyle someone would have to offer me something REALLY good. And he has. I don't read near as many books as I used to but it's worth it. And, to top it all off, we have two furry "children" who demand our attention at all times. Life in the Stakelum household is good. 

SO enough mushy stuff. Even though I've lightened up on my reading, I have read a lot lately. Here's a list. I'll revisit these in later blogs. 

Let Me In--some sweedish author i can't spell

Angel Time--anne rice

Slaughterhouse Five--kurt vonnegut

Cat's Cradle--kurt vonnegut

Slapstick--kurt vonnegut (yes, again. I reread these three vonnegut books every year)

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo-stig larrson

The Girl Who Played with Fire-stig larrson

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest-stig larrson

Tom Cruises' unauthorized biography

the Unit--another sweedish author. i'm really digging the sweedish genre

Middlesex-Jeffrey Euginides 

The Poisonwood Bible-Barbara Kingsolver

High Voltage Tattoo-Kat Von D

Hollywood Wives The New Generation-Jackie Collins (that was a first and a last)

The Book Thief

The Hunger Games-suzanne collins 

Catching Fire-suzanne collins

Mockingjay-suzanne collins

Demonglass-rachel hawkins

Outlander-dianna gabaldoon

Devil in the White City

Men Who Stare at Goats (didn't finish this one)

Perfume

Sarah's Key

Of all these, Middlesex was my absolute favorite. 

That's all I can remember for now. I will expand on most of these later. I just ordered Kat Von D's new book, The Tattoo Chronicles, and I can't wait to read that one. I love her work (and her)!

Until next time i get bored!

Laura

2010 in books, so far

When I was in high school, I used to want to be an English teacher so I could read books and share my thoughts with students. That didn't happen. Instead I work in PR but am still an avid reader. So I have decided to share my thoughts on books via blog. If no one reads it, oh well. That's probably how it would be as a high school English teacher.

I recently finished reading "The Help." I read this entire thing in four days. At first I was hesitant to start it because I was afraid it was be too sad. And it was, in places, but by the second day, I couldn't put it down. I don't want to ruin it for anyone who wants to read it, but briefly, the book takes place in Mississippi in the early 1960s. "Miss Skeeter," an aspiring journalist, has come home from college and is trying to figure out what happened to her family's maid, Constantine. Constantine disappeared while Skeeter was away at school. Long story short, Skeeter takes a job writing a housekeeping column with the local newspaper, and on the side she interviews 12 local maids about their experiences working for white families, at great risk to both Skeeter and the maids. The chapters are told from the point of view of Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. One of the strengths of this book, in my opinion, is how easy it was to hear the voices of these women. Skeeter doesn't really set out to be a Civil Rights activist; instead she sort of falls into it. I felt that these three characters developed nicely.

Reading this book made me so grateful for the times we live in now. It may not be perfect, but we have come a long way, even down here in Dothan. I hated the idea that these black maids were only good enough to be in the white family's home to clean it and raise the kids, but I suppose it probably was like that back then. And the scenes of the Junior League president bullying the members at their meetings infuriated me. But, again, the description was probably accurate.

Other books I've read so far this year:

Dead and Gone, one of the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries. I'm usually not a huge fan of mysteries, but I love this series. This one took a slightly darker turn with the gruesome murder of one of the characters. I can't wait to read the next one, which I believe is coming out soon.

Taltos, Lasher, The Witching Hour are three Anne Rice books that I read back in high school but revisited earlier this year. The Witching Hour is one of my all time favorites. It is mostly a family history of the Mayfairs in New Orleans, a family of witches haunted by the spirit of Lasher. The women in the family occasionally give birth to Taltos, a nearly extinct species. Rice goes from modern day San Francisco to New Orleans, to the burning times in Scotland. The Witching Hour ends with Lasher being reborn in the flesh to Rowan Mayfair. Lasher, the sequel, picks up where TWH left off and gives Lasher a chance to tell his story. Lasher and Taltos seem a little more like science fiction to me, I much prefer The Witching Hour.

Girl Power, a great, easy read about women in music and the birth of the "riot grrrl." This was a birthday gift from my brother. I loved revisiting the bands of the 90s and the revival of my riot grrrl spirit. For this reason, I blame my brother for the butterfly tattoo that somehow wound up on my shoulder after i read this book...

Female Chauvinist Pigs, another pretty easy read about pop culture. Questions the idea that girls who take their tops of for "Girls Gone Wild" and participate in other raunch culture activities are really liberated by feminism or still just trying to please men. Good question, and I can see both sides.

Redeeming Love, a birthday gift from my best friend Karrie. This is a pretty different book from any other on this list. Set during the gold rush, it is based on the Biblical book of Hosea. It was beautiful and haunting. Sort of the opposite of raunch culture, as the main character is an unhappy prostitute.

Dracula, The Undead, the sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula. I had mixed emotions about this book. It was an exciting read and it was nice to spend time with Mina Harker and the gang from the first book, but I don't like what happened to Jonathan Harker. I did enjoy reading about Elizabeth Bathory, who is a main character in this book (I know, that's sick).

Mists of Avalon, one of my all time favorites. I could write a whole post on this book. And I probably will at some point. I re-read this book every winter.

Don't know how often I'm going to update this thing, but I do know that next on my list is Sarah's Key and The Unit. Sarah's Key is about the holocaust and The Unit is about future dystopia. I can't wait.