Before I get into the meat of the post, Fred has has his second application of Frontline and is still covered in fleas and flea bites. Holly has fleas but does not seem to be having trouble with flea bites – whereas Fred is covered in little scabs. I woke up this morning with 4 new bites. My legs and arms look like a constellation map. OH MY GOD someone please help.
OK – I am now on my 30th book! Since I did not want to do one super long post discussing all of the books at once, I thought I’d break it up into 6 posts of 5. Because that’s guaranteed subject matter for 6 posts.
1. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. A co-worker got me this book for Christmas and I tore into it. It was great, although I thought it could have been about 100 pages shorter. You eventually get to a place where you scream, “JUST FIND HIM, ALREADY!” But aside from that, it was a great book – exciting, full of historical facts and mystery.
2. A Separate Peace by John Knowles. My boss (at the time) got my this for Christmas as well. It was pretty enjoyable, but I did not fawn over it like a lot of other people said they had.
3. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. This was reread for book club, and I still love it. Virtually everyone else in book club either read it and hated it, started to read it but hated it so they stopped, or did not read it at all. It’s definitely not a book for everyone, but I fall in love with the language and prose every time.
4. Gutted: Down to the Studs in My House, My Marriage, My Life by Lawrence LaRose. Mom got this for Erik for Christmas since it deals with the stress of remodeling a house. I went ahead and read it while he was reading something else. Not bad – I think the Fitzes would especially enjoy reading it now.
5. To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever by Will Blythe. Jamsky lent me this wonderfully biased book about the UNC-Duke rivalry. The author is an obsessive Tarheel fan and perfectly captures the illogical obsession of Tarheel fans while documenting the 2004-2005 season in which the Tarheels won the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships.
More later – might even finish book 30 tonight!
Woo hoo for 30 books! I don’t even think I’ve hit 20. I have not been as on the ball as last year, but I’ve also been way more busy this year than I have been in a long time.
Also, I loooved The Historian.
Think about how many more books you’ll have once you start the new job!
Are you sure the fleas aren’t coming from Erik?
I’m in the middle of Harry Potter, good easy read as always.
I also read Plainsong, by Kent Haruf, which was on the employee recommendation rack at the bookstore in town. I really liked it–won a National Book Award or something like that.
Another great recent read–A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah. Mark and I saw him on The Daily Show right before the book was released and were so impressed with him we picked up the book pretty quick. It’s a sad story, but as he’s only a few years younger than me, it was interesting thinking about what I was doing when he discusses different dates. I was at summer basketball camp, he was high on coke as a boy soldier in Sierra Leone. Crazy.
I think Gutted will be the next read, though! Thank God we’re starting back on the house after a 3 week hiatus!
I have no fleas, and unlike Karen, no flea bites. This apparently further irritates her. Maybe Karen is picking up the fleas at work, and bringing them back and giving them to Fred, who always lays on her…