The Sign of a Great Book...

I know I love a book when I'm not even 2/3 through and already dreading ending it...

I love it, April!

A Tiny Lamp Project and a Book

Here's a little lamp I bought for $1.00 and painted Rustoleum Light Sage (on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $1.79, I guess on clearance means it's discontinued?).  It's not a bold color, but I like it better than the stark white.

Here it is in the kitchen!

In other (and much more exciting) news, my friend April from A Writer's Journey has a book coming out in November!  I met her through our bookstores and I guess I could call her a customer, but I'll go with friend, because that's how I think of her.  Anyway, she wrote a book and brought me a review copy to read and I'm probably going to stay up all night reading it because I am so excited!!!  (Hope you don't mind me using your picture, April!)

Bye!  I'm off to read!

Recently Read

I just finished reading Impossible by Nancy Werlin.  I was drawn in by the cover (I love nothing more than a beautiful book cover!) and ended up loving the story.  I don't like true fantasy books, but I like books set in the real world with twists of fantasy in them, like this one.  Rather than write a full book summary or review, I linked the title to amazon (as I always do on my sidebar) so you can read about it there. 

Best of all, she has a new book, Extraordinary, coming out in September, and the cover's just as pretty! 

 Speaking of teen books I love, the third book of the Hunger Games trilogy--Mockingjay--comes out the 24th!  YES!   I've been waiting on this book for two years, since I read Hunger Games as an Advance Reader Copy before it came out--and didn't realize it was a series until the VERY end of the book!

What books are you looking forward to coming out?

It Ain't No Joke

 "Housekeeping ain't no joke." - Louisa May Alcott

I don't like housework--I guess that's pretty universal, huh?  Listening to a book on my MP3 player while I work makes it better--especially An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott (she wrote Little Women, too).  I just discovered LibriVox, a website with public domain audiobooks.  You just download them and hope for the best.  The reader of AOFG is really good...sounds as good as an audiobook you would buy!

I'm also listening to The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein in my car, so far so good.  And I'm reading Anita Diamant's Day After Night--I don't feel like I've quite made it to the "I really love this book now" point in it, but I've just read the first few chapters so far (see her book The Red Tent peaking out above the Alcott quote in the picture?).

Currently Reading

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time.  Set in the 1930s, I Capture the Castle is a girl's diary of the going-ons in the castle in which she lives.  It's a bit of an awkward title, but it makes perfect sense.  I'm about 2/3 through it and am trying to slow my reading down to make it last.  I just love books that make me want to do that.  There was a movie of it made a few years back, I'll see how that compares.

I'm also listening to the audio of this.  I haven't gotten very far into it, but it's one of those books I've always wanted to read but never got around to it.  So far so good.  The nice thing is that there are a lot of books in the series so if I fall in love I have quite a bit to look forward to.

This week when I've picked up my Bible to read I keep getting drawn to 2 Corinthians 5:

¹ For we know that if our earthly house, tent,is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² And, in fact, we groan in this one, longing to put on our house from heaven, ³ since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ Indeed, we who are in this tent groan, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ And the One who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.
    ⁶ Therefore, though we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— ⁷ for we walk by faith, not by sight — ⁸ yet we are confident and satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹ Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.

Oops and New Books

I accidentally fibbed yesterday.  I didn't take pictures of my other project to show you today.  But I have two good reasons: 1-I didn't realize it was time to charge my camera until I was heading out the door (that's when I usually remember to take pictures) and 1-I don't know where I'm going to put it yet.  It requires lots of little nails going in the wall and so I don't want to put it up until I'm pretty positive it's going to stay there for a while.

Anyway...I do want to mention a couple books I'm pretty excited about that are coming out next week.

Not my usual reading (ok, it kind of is...) but I love James Patterson's Maximum Ride series.  Fang is #6 and coming out Monday.

Like Julie Klassen, Liz Curtis Higgs has beautiful book covers.  I LOVED her last series set in Scotland and CAN'T WAIT for this new one...comes out Tuesday.  (She has a lot of great non-fiction Christian books, too.)

Favorite Reads of '09

Currently Reading: The Priest by Francine Rivers

This reads a lot like her series on the women in the lineage of Jesus.  The Priest is about Aaron, Moses' brother.

My Favorite Reads of '09

Christian - Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

Christian Fiction - Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers

Fiction - Good Grief by Lolly Winston (Chick-Lit)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

 

Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya

Young Adult - Maximum Ride series by James Patterson

Literature - The African Queen by C.S. Forester

Linked to J. Kaye's Book Blog

Currently Reading - Julie Klassen

Julie Klassen is amazing.

The Lady of Milkweed Manor is her first book and I picked it up on a whim.  It's one of my very favorite books EVER.

She makes me feel good about recommending Christian Fiction to people.  Actually, she makes me happy that I can read.

Her newest book, The Silent Governess wasn't supposed to come out until mid-January.  I got it in the mail Tuesday.  I had a little party.

Even if you don't like reading you can buy her books and stare at the covers.  They're so pretty!

I'm linked here.

Currently Reading

The Widow of Larkspur Inn by Lawana Blackwell
Don't you just LOVE the cover?

(STILL reading) The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs 

And I think I"m going to start the audio book of Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier

Looking Ahead

Shane and I drove up to Macon last night for an evening that was part date-night, part business meeting.  Oh--you want to know the truth?  Fine.  Shane asked me to go up to Macon with him to have a business look-around and chat and he knew the only way I would be willing to do that would be to take me out to eat.  There you go.  I am shallow.  I can be bought with a meal. 

Anyway, as we were talking about the future, far and near, we realized we were talking about things that should be impossible when you own your own business.  Actually making a little money and being able to take time off.  Not having to work every minute of every day.  Enjoying time together and looking forward to starting a family.  Talking about what's coming next in life.

As some point in the eveneing, Shane looked over at me and said, "And you know, we're both 25."

"Twenty-five?" I said, "I feel like we're in our 40s, at least.  How blessed are we to be able to talk about this stuff confidently at our age?"

It's truly amazing where God has taken us on this journey of opening our own business.  What's next?

Check out Tuesdays Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky for more stories!

Holiday + Rain + Fair = Slow Buinsess Day

Sooo...not much to report here.

We had a nice, restful Sunday yesterday.  Got a great nap in.  Today it's raining and a steady (but a bit slower) day at the store.

I finished Fire by Kristen Cashores.  It'll take me a couple days to digest and decide how I liked it.  I know I didn't devour it as quickly or completely as Graceling.  It was much more complex with it's larger cast of characters, but didn't have as many surprise elements.

Can I please have these pink polka-dot galoshes?

FIRE!

Just arrived:

Fire, the prequel to Graceling by Kristin Cashore.

I cannot wait to start it!!!

Currently Reading in the Car...

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I'm listening to the audio version and it is terrific! I'm about 1/2way through.

Looking forward to a night with friends and homemade ice cream!

What am I reading?

Gone are the days of reading one book at a time. I seem to be back in the habit of reading several things at once...

Garden Spells - (Fiction, audio book in the car) Sarah Addison Allen won a SIBA award for best fiction for this book in 2008. I read her book The Sugar Queen on the last trip up to my parents' and really liked it. They're not fantasy, but contain a few magical elements that are pretty charming.

The African Queen - (Literature, reading at home and carrying it around) I grew up loving the movie with Humphry Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. So far the movie is pretty true to the book, but of course I love the way we really get to know the characters better in the book. Not too hard of a read.

Don Quixote - (Literature, reading at the Byron bookstore) This has forever been my dad's favorite book. He reads almost all theology and history and then there's Don Quixote. He even has several paintings, wooden carvings, etc. of Don Quixote and Sancho Pancha. So I finally started reading it the day our store opened in Byron- July 11. After one solid month, I am proud to say I'm 1/10th of the way through the book. Right. Not exactly easy reading. But I am enjoying taking my time with it.

Packaging Girlhood - (Non-fiction, reading in WR bookstore) I probably won't read it cover-to-cover, but makes several good points about what girls (young and old) are exposed to and influenced by in our society, especially in the media. Hopefully it will help me become more aware of how I view myself and help me be a good mommy in the future.

The E Myth Revisited - (Business, reading in WR bookstore) Hopefully this business book will help me know how to turn our bookstores into stores that can function well without Shane or I being here all the time. I have to make myself duplicatable so that I'm not the only one who can do my job. Would probably help more if I read it more often.

I'm sure I'll start several more books before I finish all these but we'll see how it goes with them, especially the nonfiction.

I am probably going to add a book into my box for the green swap, I just gotta figure out how to choose one!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This is one of my very favorite books. I just finished it this morning and it's so refreshing to read a historical novel that is clean, fun, and serious all at the same time. Here's the review that I think best captures my feelings:

"What a wonderful book! Having just finished this one, I am still smiling and thinking of the characters. Had I the time and money, I'd be booking a trip for Guernsey right this minute. As it is, I feel as though I've already visited and been made to feel at home. Set in both London and Guernsey Island, this novel follows author Juliet as she becomes friends with the inhabitants of the island shortly after the end of World War 2. Told in epistolary style, Juliet learns of the occupied island and its deprivations, as well as the resounding spirit of the people who live there. As she writes, she becomes more and more intrigued with the stories of the people who survived the hard times, and she decides to create a book based on their experiences. In order to gather more information, Juliet moves temporarily to the island and soon finds herself immsersed in the culture and relationships. This is absolutely one of the most delightful books I've read all year. The characters are real, the relationships are unique, and Juliet is hysterically funny, as well as warm hearted and genuine. I did have a bit of trouble keeping all the characters straight in the beginning, but once I caught on, I was enthralled. The pages just fly by and while you will learn a little of what happened to Guernsey during World War 2, you will learn much more about love and friendship. Highly recommended!"

It kind of made me feel the way the Anne of Green Gables books and the Mitford Series made me feel the first time I read them. I wish they were real places and that I could live there with the characters. Plus, it was CLEAN--I could easily pass this book onto my mom (and hopefully someday she'll have time to read again) and not have to give her any warnings.

As far as I know this is the only book author Mary Ann Shaffer wrote before she died last year (although she was in the book industry as a librarian, etc. for many years) and Annie Barrows has only written kids' books before this one. Hopefully publishers will encourage other authors to write like this, since the hardcover spent over 30 weeks (at least) on the New York Times Bestseller list and the paperback is going on four weeks.

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

This is the next book I'm reading for the SIBA book awards. I read another Sarah Dessen book, The Truth About Forever, last December and really liked it. Here's part of the review I put on amazon about it:

"I am really pleased to find Sarah Dessen. This is the first book I've read of hers. The plot is simple enough, nothing totally original about the book. But the characters were written so that I really cared about them, and looked forward to "spending time" with them. I think it makes us look at real-life issues in a was that teens (and 20-somethings like me) can easily relate to. Death of a parent. Mother-daughter relationships. Boy-girl relationships. Girl-girl friendships, etc."

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey

This is one of the young adult books I'm reading as a judge for the SIBA awards.
It's a pretty good adventurous book so far. It's a sequel to a book I've been asked for before but didn't have. Yesterday I looked up from behind the counter and saw it filed with the adult books. If I like this one I may read the first one, too. Nice and thick (about 450 pages) for kids who love big, fat books.
I remember going to library in Cordele and walking through the kids aisles looking for the fattest book I could find.