* Reading by the Lake

Here are all of the books that I'm reading for the "Reading by the Lake: A Weekend of Book Discussion" (link here) summer class  in Madison on August 3-4th.  

So excited!!  Just hope that I can finish all the books on time :)

An Echo through the Snow by Andrea Thalasinos (review here)

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (review here)

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (review here)

* All the Shelves are Full!

Pretty much what happens every time I get back from the book store (except replace the cat with a dog). I never seem to have enough room for all my books!

* Summer Reads for Vacationing Booklovers

Check out this great list from summer reads from Half Price Books.  I just finished Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  I finished it in less than a week and it was definitely "page turning."  Can't wait to read some of the other ones on the list: "The Bookman's Tale" by Charlie Lovett and Neil Gailman's new book"The Ocean at the End of the Lane" ... just to name a few!

11/22/63 by Stephen King

★★★★★

"We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.  Not until the future eats the present, anyways.  We know when it's too late."

"For a moment everything was clear, and when that happens you see that the world is barely there at all.  Don't we all secretly know this?  It's a perfectly balanced mechanism of shouts and echoes pretending to be wheels and cogs, a dreamclock chiming beneath a mystery-glass we call life.  Behind it?  Below it and around it?  Chaos, storms.  Men with hammers, men with knives, men with guns.  Women who twist what they cannot dominate and belittle what they cannot understand.  A universe of horror and loss surrounding a single lighted state where mortals dance in defiance of the dark."

"You never knew me, but I love you, honey."

This book was amazing! I probably never would have picked it up if I hadn't been reading it from book club, but I'm so glad I did! 

Over the past two weeks I've been very obsessed with the book and when I'm really into a book I bring it every where with me. To work, to appointment, to my friend's houses...everywhere. So everyone kept asking me what I was reading. When I started raving about it and said it was Stephen King, I got a lot of the same responses: "Oh, Stephen King? He writes all those creepy horror novels. Those freak me out." I've only read the first three dark tower novels, so I can't judge, but this is NOT a horror book! Suspense-thriller, maybe. Mystery, yes. A novel about time travel, definitely. Historical fiction, absolutely. And a love story, yep it's got that too! And dancing. There's a lot of dancing.

The basic premise of the novel is a teacher named Jack Epping who travels through time to 1958 where he tries to stop the John F. Kennedy assassination. But changing the past is a lot hard then he thinks. And to top it off, he realizes that he really likes living in the late 1950s / early 1960s. And, of course, he falls in love.

I haven't read too much about this time period, or the assassination for that matter, so I really enjoyed King's perspective of this important time in America's past. I read a book review that I think sums it up quite nicely: "As a book, it is incredible. Once again King takes us back to the late 50's in a way no one else seems to be able to do. The stark difference between that time and ours is almost like reading a fairy tale or ancient history."

This book was #1 on my top ten list of 2013.

* Little Free Libraries? What a awesome idea!

I came across the article in a listserv post from wispublib today in my inbox.  It resulted a lively discussion regarding if these lovely little book-nooks were going to one day replace libraries.  My opinion?  Of course not - libraries offer way more than just borrowing books!  They offer valuable services, research facilities, programs, and have become a valuable place to carry out these activities.  That being said...it did remind me about an article I read a couple of weeks ago regarding Little Free Libraries.

You can check out the website here.

This is such an amazing idea!!  It's basically an expansion on the "take-a-book leave-a-book" concept.  I've seen them a at a few coffee shows and restaurants over the years and I always enjoy looking at all the books people have left and picking up some new titles to read.  The movement started in Hudson, Wisconsin by Todd Bol a couple of years ago and since then, these libraries have begun to appear all over the country and even all over the world.  You can build your own library or order one from the website!

There is even a map on the website that shows all of the registered Little Free Libraries.  You can zoom  in to find a location near you or zoom out to see libraries in other places around the world.  I even found some in my hometown of Waukesha, WI.

* 392.8

I’ve always loved fairy-tales, especially modern adaptations of them.  I got the Barnes and noble leatherbound copies of both Grimms Complete Fairy Tales andHans Christian Andersen: The Complete Fairy Tales for Christmas a couple of years ago and I’m slowly trying to make my way through them.

I love reading books that have fairy-tale elements in them.  (Gregory Maquire’s “Wicked” books are some of my favorite!) I’m always surprised at how different the original fairy-tales are.  They don’t always have the typical “happily-ever-after” endings and I don’t think I would let my future young children anywhere near them until they were much, much older.  But then again, the version I’m familiar with is usually a Disney movie or some media knock-off. 

I’ve also become recently addicted to ABC show Once Upon A Time. Very different and unique versions of fairy-tale stories and the costumes and settings are amazing!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith

★★★

"Of all the weapons she had commanded, Elizabeth knew the least of love; and of all the weapons in the world, love was the most dangerous."