For most of my life, summer was my favorite time of year! As a kid, it was easy: summers meant no school, which translated to lots of fun time with my mom, siblings, and (until I was twelve or so) my cousin. Lots of time at the pool, and constant trips to the library for more books. Add in Girl Scout day camp and occasional summer camp, and it's a clear choice. Plus, I have a summer birthday. :D
Even when summer meant more time at my part-time job, I was still a die-hard fan of summer. Even summer classes during my very extended college years didn't change that.
But over the last few years, I've come to really love the fall. There are awesome fall festivals everywhere, and the weather is so wonderful: still warm, but breezy and not nearly as humid. The North Georgia mountains are so beautiful, too, come fall, with all the leaves changing. (I'm also a big fan of Halloween, as well as all the winter squashes like sweet dumpling squash.)
Of course, it helps that I am absolutely addicted to hats of all sorts and interesting socks. Summer is so very hot in Georgia that I don't wear socks unless I am hiking, and only straw hats or cotton canvas bucket hats are bearable.
This year, I've already been to the Atlanta Arts Festival (where I browsed but didn't buy) and the Duluth Fall Festival, which is small but one of my favorites! It rained on us, but we still had a blast. I bought my usual supply of handmade soaps from Thistle Ridge Soap out of Walhala, South Carolina and my favorite huckleberry honey from Allen White of Dalton, Georgia. I also bought my first Christmas gift of the year, for my mom.
Tonight I'm headed to the Atlanta Greek Festival, for souvlaki, pastries (yum), music, and street dancing, my favorite part! (I hope I remember the dances; I usually forget half of it!) Next weekend we head to Andy's Trout Farm in Clayton, Georgia with my husband's family, including three of my four nephews. I think we are planning a side trip to Helen for Oktoberfest (which is actually over in Germany!), but I'm not sure.
Hope you're enjoying your fall as much as I am!
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Another Book Challenge: Support Your Local Library 2010
So you might have noticed that I like reading challenge. It's because I love books, and it's fun to find new ways to stretch my horizons.
My latest challenge is again from J. Kaye's book blog: the 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge.
Here's the challenge in a nutshell: read twenty-five books checked out from your local library. That's it! I've already read six or so, but I kept forgetting to actually enroll in the challenge.
So now it's done. Stay tuned as I update my list.
My latest challenge is again from J. Kaye's book blog: the 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge.
Here's the challenge in a nutshell: read twenty-five books checked out from your local library. That's it! I've already read six or so, but I kept forgetting to actually enroll in the challenge.
So now it's done. Stay tuned as I update my list.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
It's Tuesday; what are you reading - 03.16.2010
Yes, I know I'm a day late with this.
So I think I need to change the direction of my reading. A summary of my last week and a half of reading:
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
A story set in the future United States, where all life is protected from conception to age thirteen. From the age of thirteen to eighteen, parents or guardians may choose to "unwind" a life, where the body is dismantled and at least 99.44% of it is reused. This way, the unwanted individual is never ended but is instead divided.
Wonderful characters, intriguing plot, emotionally wrenching. Tragic yet with a note of hope.
The Giver by Lois Lowry
This story is set in the future, an advanced enough future that they are able to institute sameness. Everything is flat; there is no color, and emotion is very, very dulled, except for a few, isolated individuals. Sameness is enforced–terminally if necessary.
Great plot, well-developed characters, emotionally wrenching with a very sad, tragic ending.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Again in the future United States. The country fell apart in the past, dividing into thirteen districts and ruled from the Capitol. Over seventy years earlier, the poor districts rebelled against the Capitol. They were utterly defeated, and District Thirteen was totally wiped out.
To remind the districts of how much they're under the control of the Capitol, they instituted the Hunger Games. Once each year, the Capitol has a massive "festival" nationwide, with a mass gathering mandatory in each district. At the festival, the names of each child age twelve through eighteen are placed in two glass balls (one for boys, one for girls). One boy and one girl are chosen in each district, and those two "tributes" are whisked away to the Capitol. They are given the "honor" of participating in the Hunger Games, where only one can survive. It's proceeded by a week of testing and interviews, which is televised to the nation. (Again, mandatory viewing.) If the tributes impress the audience, sponsors can pay to drop a gift to that kid–tools, food, medicine, clothes, weapons. So the kids must each put on a good show, or else they'll die fast.
The main characters, Katniss and Peeta, are from District Twelve (Appalachia), one of the poorest districts. The Capitol, by contrast, is rich and frivolous, and very technologically advanced, which highlights the cruelty of their rule.
A full cast of well-developed characters. Brutal plot. Redemption. Emotionally wrenching from beginning to end.
Incantation by Alice Hoffman
My husband bought me this audiobook for Christmas. It is set in Spain, at the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition. Sixteen-year-old Estrella deMadrigal lives in a pleasant, peaceful village that's experiencing the first rumblings of serious persecution against Jews, especially "hidden Jews". Some families had pretended to convert to Catholicism generations earlier, after authorities had taken their children, to ensure their return. My husband and I have just reached the point where the executions (murders, really) are beginning.
Masterfully told. Perfectly captures the feeling of the age. Sad, sad, sad.
Give me comedy! I can't take another book like this! Maybe I can find a Robert Aspirin MYTH novel I haven't read yet…because I've read all the Discworld novels in the past five months.
I'm also reading Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson. Not nearly the emotional toll of the other three, but still not light and cheery. (It's excellent; I can't wait to find out what happens to Elantris and the main characters. Like any good book, I also don't want it to end.)
Current non-fiction reads:
The Organic Garden: Green and Easy by Allan Shepherd
1 Dough, 100 Cookies by Linda Doeser
Gardening with Native Plants of the South by Sally Wasowski
So I think I need to change the direction of my reading. A summary of my last week and a half of reading:
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
A story set in the future United States, where all life is protected from conception to age thirteen. From the age of thirteen to eighteen, parents or guardians may choose to "unwind" a life, where the body is dismantled and at least 99.44% of it is reused. This way, the unwanted individual is never ended but is instead divided.
Wonderful characters, intriguing plot, emotionally wrenching. Tragic yet with a note of hope.
The Giver by Lois Lowry
This story is set in the future, an advanced enough future that they are able to institute sameness. Everything is flat; there is no color, and emotion is very, very dulled, except for a few, isolated individuals. Sameness is enforced–terminally if necessary.
Great plot, well-developed characters, emotionally wrenching with a very sad, tragic ending.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Again in the future United States. The country fell apart in the past, dividing into thirteen districts and ruled from the Capitol. Over seventy years earlier, the poor districts rebelled against the Capitol. They were utterly defeated, and District Thirteen was totally wiped out.
To remind the districts of how much they're under the control of the Capitol, they instituted the Hunger Games. Once each year, the Capitol has a massive "festival" nationwide, with a mass gathering mandatory in each district. At the festival, the names of each child age twelve through eighteen are placed in two glass balls (one for boys, one for girls). One boy and one girl are chosen in each district, and those two "tributes" are whisked away to the Capitol. They are given the "honor" of participating in the Hunger Games, where only one can survive. It's proceeded by a week of testing and interviews, which is televised to the nation. (Again, mandatory viewing.) If the tributes impress the audience, sponsors can pay to drop a gift to that kid–tools, food, medicine, clothes, weapons. So the kids must each put on a good show, or else they'll die fast.
The main characters, Katniss and Peeta, are from District Twelve (Appalachia), one of the poorest districts. The Capitol, by contrast, is rich and frivolous, and very technologically advanced, which highlights the cruelty of their rule.
A full cast of well-developed characters. Brutal plot. Redemption. Emotionally wrenching from beginning to end.
Incantation by Alice Hoffman
My husband bought me this audiobook for Christmas. It is set in Spain, at the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition. Sixteen-year-old Estrella deMadrigal lives in a pleasant, peaceful village that's experiencing the first rumblings of serious persecution against Jews, especially "hidden Jews". Some families had pretended to convert to Catholicism generations earlier, after authorities had taken their children, to ensure their return. My husband and I have just reached the point where the executions (murders, really) are beginning.
Masterfully told. Perfectly captures the feeling of the age. Sad, sad, sad.
Give me comedy! I can't take another book like this! Maybe I can find a Robert Aspirin MYTH novel I haven't read yet…because I've read all the Discworld novels in the past five months.
I'm also reading Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson. Not nearly the emotional toll of the other three, but still not light and cheery. (It's excellent; I can't wait to find out what happens to Elantris and the main characters. Like any good book, I also don't want it to end.)
Current non-fiction reads:
The Organic Garden: Green and Easy by Allan Shepherd
1 Dough, 100 Cookies by Linda Doeser
Gardening with Native Plants of the South by Sally Wasowski
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