Christie's Treasure Trove

My favorite for the week is from The Beautiful and Damned. I'm not sure why, but I really like this quote. It's a somewhat subtle, though descriptive, way of depicting the falling in love of a man with a woman.

"She was a sun, radiant, growing, gathering light and storing it- then after an eternity pouring it forth in a glance, the fragment of a sentence, to that part of him that cherished all beauty and illusion" (61).

Cindy's Reading

New stuff:
I finished "Look Me in the Eye" on Saturday. So, I needed new books. Luckily, the library had some waiting for me. :) I had requested two that I heard about on NPR, and though I will peruse them, I don't think my brain can focus on the brain food provided there. :) The books are:
"The Art of Ill Will" which is the history of political cartoons, featuring over 200 of them from the colonial period to current day. I struggled with political cartoons in US History, so I thought this might help me to understand them better. Of course, I was on vacation at the time I requested the book... Oh, well.
The other is a parenting book: "Beyond Timeout". I am hoping for more insight to share with parents that are struggling, but who has time to read boring parenting books? Maybe this one will be different, and I will find something to help. :)
I am more focused on reading "Intuition", which is required reading for my Science class. It has a slow story line, and a lot of characters to sort through. I don't know, if it wasn't required, I would likely put it down and move onto something else. I am not much for science lab stuff, and unless there is something else going on, I fear it will be a long book to get through.
Oh, I am close to the end of the "Judge and Jury" audio book, and so picked up "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" to listen to. At least in the car, I will not have much to think about. :)
Besides these, Ruth and I are reading "The Wizard Of Oz". We had a long conversation the other day about Dorthy's shoes. In the book they are silver, and that bothered Ruth because the movie has her in ruby slippers. But, all I could consider is that the movie was the first one in color, and they wanted something to really stand out. Ruth pulled out a book she owned, one of those condensed classics for kids, and showed me that the picture on the front of that book showed the ruby slippers. But, upon investigation, even in her book, Dorothy has silver slippers to wear.
Ah, well, I must go and finish some school stuff. I have a Tuesday Treasure, but will post that later, if I have time. :)

Ruth's Reading

I am reading Goosebumps "The Girl Who Cried Monster" by RL Stine. I chose it because I like Goosebumps books. I had to pick a new chapter book at school and this was the first one I touched, so I am reading it.

Karen's got another new book!

I finally went to the library today, so I have some new reading material. I decided to go for a different subject this time, besides film. I have a couple of top 100 books lined up that Christie has checked out, but I think I'll start with a book I got which is Josser: the Secret Life of a Circus Girl by Nell Stroud. I haven't started it yet, but I am about to. It's the memoir of a girl who ran away with the circus (sound familiar?).

Christie's Manifest Monday

I am still reading The Beautiful and Damned. I got quite a bit read this weekened and will hopefully have the book done by the end of this week. Now that I've had some time to sit down and read without the lure of sleep, I'm enjoying the story quite a bit more. Hopefully I'll stay disciplined this week and keep the TV watching down and the quiet reading time up.

Friday

I've really slacked off this week in terms of posting. Sorry! I'm not going to try to catch up, and all I have for today is that I haven't finished anything. I haven't even touched the Conversations book in a while, and probably will just return it without finishing it, even though I was really enjoying it. I can always go back to it later. I'm still working on Thunderstruck. Hopefully I will finish it by next Friday. Have a good weekend!

Christie's Unfinished Friday

Nope, haven't finished any books this week. Seriously, though, I'm going to try to do a lot of reading this weekend... you know, instead of plopping in front of that stupid television. :)

Happy Reading!

Christie's Top 100

I'm still reading The Beautiful and Damned. I've been really tired in the evenings lately, so I haven't read as much as I'd like before going to bed/sleep. I'm just about through with the second chapter, but I'm moving slowly.

Like I said before, I'm having trouble focusing on the storyline and characters. This could be because of my exhaustion, but I'm really trying harder to pay attention while I read and get as much out of it as I can.

Combined: Top 100 and Wordy

Ruth and I began "The Wizard of Oz". We are up to chapter 3, which has Dorothy starting off on the yellow brick road. It is just not the same with out the squeaky "Follow the Yellow Brick Road' being sung by the munchkins. :) But, it is introducing us to new words, and it is fun!

Words:
cyclone: a storm or system of winds that rotates about a center of low atmospheric pressure, advances at a speed of 20 to 30 miles (about 30 to 50 kilometers) an hour, and often brings heavy rain
gaunt: excessively thin and angular
stern: forbidding or gloomy in appearance
solemn: marked by grave sedateness and earnest sobriety
dismally: showing or causing gloom or depression
sward: a portion of ground covered with grass

These are all from The Wizard of Oz, and looked up in the Merriam- Webster dictionary online.

Wordy

I'm still behind......it's been a busy week. All day long I thought it was Tuesday!

I do have one wordy which I found interesting. In the book Rabbit Run, Harry has to return home to pick up some clothes. One of the items mentioned are "suntans". I wondered, are "suntans" khakis? I googled. And found this article from The New York Times circa 2000. The whole story was about flat front verses pleated front pants. Really, who knew??

From the article: "Looking for a little historical perspective, I asked John Weitz, the 77-year-old designer, about pleats versus flat-front.
''Obviously, it all goes in circles,'' he said. ''The modern-day circle started after the war, when the men came back wearing what are now unfortunately known as chinos but were then called suntans, because they were a tan pant and they were flat.'' Until then, Mr. Weitz continued, ''the only people who wore flat pants were the upper classes. You saw them in Brooks Brothers and the Ivy League. The rest of the country wore great big pleated pants in a rather bad imitation of the Duke of Windsor.''

So, now you know. Aren't you glad?