holiday books adendum

Well, I realized that I need to update my list a bit.

Books I forgot about that I'm adding to the list:
- Random Harvest by James Hilton (recommended by Rachel)
- Fablehaven by Brandon Mull (recommended by Sarah and Robbie)
- An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina (recommended by Derek)

Updates to my previous list:
- The "teenagers dying of cancer" book recommeded by Carrie is Six Months to Live by Lurlene McDaniel. (I'm already shuddering)
-The George MacDonald I decided on is The George MacDonald Treasury containing 7 short stories.
- Selected Works by Cicero

So, for those of you keeping track, that is a total of 16 books to finish by the arbitrary deadline I've set at January 10th. I've already finished 6 from the original list, and I am a pretty fast reader, so hopefully this will be feasable. In any case, I'm only reading 1 book per person until it looks like I'm going to be able to finish them all. (This would eliminate 3 books.) That's fair right? Right. (Good thing I remembered Derek recommended another book, so I may not be reading any Cicero after all - happy, Rebecca?)

Random fact: Due to my obsessiveness, I've figured out that if I do in fact read every book on my list it will be a total of 5429 pages. (I've finished 1919 so far.)

holiday books

Usually when people recommend books to me I just ignore them (unless the recommendations come from a reliable source like Erin J. or Rebecca). I mean, it's just hard for me to get into books unless I already have some kind of desire to read them. But this Christmas I am going to bite the bullet and read things that have been recommended to me in the recent past. Here is how my reading list looks so far:

- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (recommended by Bryce)
- Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs (recommended by Jacob and Dave)
- My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (recommended by Margret)
- The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchet (recommended by Aunt Krsten)
- The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (recommended by some crazy lady at work who I don't even know but who stopped me one day, noticing I had a book in my hand and therefore thinking I would want her unsolicited opinion on books.)
- Anything by Cicero (recommended by Derek)
- Anything by George McDonald (recommended by Joseph)
- Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier (recommended by Aunt Krsten)
- Some book about teenagers dying of cancer (recommended by Carrie)
- The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fford (recommended by Margret)
- My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok (recommended by Megan)
- Saharah Special by Esme Raji Codell (recommended by I don't know who. I found it on my shelf and I know it's not mine and I think someone must have lent it to me, but I don't know who. If it's yours, please let me know.)

Addendum:
- The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (recommended by Kate on behalf of the Relief Society book club)

So, as you can see, I'm pretty open right now. I am even going to try books that people probably don't remember recommending to me. I will really attempt to get through all of these by early January. And if you have any recommendations, now is the time because I may not be so open hearted in the future. (Especially if this experiment is an utter failure.)

Soon to come: reviews of these books along with my opinion of the recommender.

little impulse control

I only know of a few people for sure who are reading this blog and most of you know me well enough to appreciate this story. (Names have been changed to protect.... me.)

As you well know, I'm fond of tripping people - just fake tripping, though. Yesterday at a ward activity, I fake tripped my friend Joe. I've done this to him many many times and he decided to retaliate. He is much taller than I am, and he put his hand on my forehead and said, "How are you going to get me now?" I reached out and of course I couldn't reach him with my hands. But you can't keep this girl down, so I fake kicked him. (Just wanting to show him that if I couldn't get him with my hands, I could still get him with my legs.)

Well, Joe let go of my head and kind of gave me a look. I said, "Just so you know, I was going for your stomach." (Lest he think I was really trying to hurt him.) He said, "Oh, no you weren't." I said, "I was so! And I didn't even really touch you!" To which Joe replied, "Oh yes you did!"

Heh.... heh heh. Ooops....... (At least it wasn't hard enough to do any damage....)

thanksgriving; family style

Everyone in my family is insane. This is why I like hanging out with my family. Now, it's the good insane that makes you nicer and not the bad insane that makes you kill people. But still, it makes for entertaining family gatherings.

Here are the highlights of my Thanksgiving Day (I was there just one day) just to give you an idea:

- My cousin, affectionately nicknamed "Ruthie the terrorist" (for reasons you may surmise) wanted to make corn muffins, so we decided to appease her rather than negotiate. For some reason she made about 10 billion muffins. I helped her to help her mom, who was busy with her other 11 children and trying to make the rest of dinner on the side. We had to do the actual baking in the apartment built onto my aunt's house as both of the regular ovens were filled with turkeys. The first time I went up there, to turn to oven on, I heard the shower going, and yet the bathroom door was wide open. My initial thought was that I should sneak in the bathroom and pull back the curtain and scare the living shibbity out of whoever was in there. I mean - we're all family right? I decided against this plan because 1. it was a holiday after all and 2. I would most likely end up getting chased around by a naked person wielding a shampoo bottle afterward. Well, I'm glad I didn't end up following my original instinct because I later found out the person in the shower was my cousin's husband. That would have been infamous. "Remember the Thanksgiving that Kristin saw Robbie naked?" Awkward. (P.S. the corn muffins ended up sticking to the pan and I think we threw most of them away.)

- During my uncle's Thanksgiving prayer, my aunt (the wife of said uncle) reminded him of the people that he had left off blessing. ("Don't forget Ryan", "And Linda's brother-in-law, Martin".) This, of course, caused the rest of us to open our eyes and give each other looks and then stuff our hands into our mouths so we wouldn't burst out laughing and ruin the rest of the prayer. At least we know for next year that requests mid-prayer are perfectly acceptable.

- My cousin, Sarah, told me about her family's not so subtle hints that it's time for her and her husband (the one I did not see naked) to concieve. (I have not seen any of my cousins-in-law naked.) Here is my favorite: Last Christmas, Olivia, who is 9 years old now, wanted to play Baby Jesus in the family rendition of the Christmas story. The family patiently explained that she was far to old to play a baby. Ruthie tactfully pointed out, "Well, if someone would have a baby, maybe we could have a real Baby Jesus!" (Yes, even the 11 year olds feel they have a say in their siblings family planning now.)

- For some reason, my dad thought it would be a good idea for us to take our family Christmas card picture at 11:00 at night, right before we were leaving. I can only imagine what people will think when they see it. ("Oh dear - they've been into the cooking sherry again.") At least I was wearing my "Girls Just Wanna Have Rum" shirt.