Austen Challenge Update

The list I made for The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge at the beginning of the year is below in black.  As you can see, I've only watched the two movies and started on one of the books.  However, all of the books added in blue have been read since my original post, bringing my total to 6 selections.  According to the details of the challenge, I have completed my goal of reaching the Disciple level!  If I finish everything currently on the list, I will reach the Aficionada level of 9-12 selections.  We're only halfway through the year, so it's possible...

• Pride & Prejudice on DVD (2005 Kiera Knightly version)
• Pride & Prejudice on Blu-ray (1995 Colin Firth version)
• The Pemberley Chronicles: A Companion Volume to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Rebecca Ann Collins
• Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues by Linda Berdoll *in progress
• Loving Mr. Darcy: Journeys Beyond Pemberley by Sharon Lathan
• Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One by Sharon Lathan
• Old Friends and New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen by Sybil Brinton
• Wickham's Diary by Amanda Grange (It was okay)
• Impulse & Initiative: What if Mr. Darcy Didn't Take No for an Answer? by Abigail Reynolds (It was okay)
• Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man in the World by Abigail Reynolds (I liked it)
• Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter (I liked it)

Counting My April Blessings

I've learned that I can't keep up with a weekly blog post, so let's try counting my blessings monthly!

• Between the book club for In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, dinner at Spice Brick Oven Kitchen with college friends, and lunch at Mykonos Taverna with old book club friends, I had a lot of great "girls only" time!
• I spent a lot of quality time with my husband as well with a week-long trip to Tennessee, no more overtime at work every night, and only one Sunday working from home.  I've also gotten him addicted to Castle in time for the season finale in May *evil grin*
• Unfortunately, we've learned that Dave's new office is not far enough away to be considered a "hardship," which means we will not be able to rent out the townhouse if it doesn't sell.  The bright side is that home improvements are coming along slowly but surely (and within budget), and our realtor is optimistic that we may be able to sell for more than our appraisal value.
• Less than a month left of work for me!  May 17th is my last day, and then I become full-time housewife with the mission of getting our house on the market and sold as quickly as possible.  After four years working at the same school, I'm ready to graduate!
• After too many months of procrastination, I took my "To Finish" bag of knits to our monthly PINS group and wove in the ends of almost a dozen projects.  Now to motivate myself to hand wash them all...

Counting My Blessings #6

• Our book-less book group met up for our monthly lunch date last weekend.  This month we tried a German place that had a brunch menu worth drooling over.
• I read the first book toward my Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge goal, Wickham's Diary.  Of course it wasn't a book on my original challenge list, but it's still progress.  Not the greatest P&P spin-off, IMHO.
• I finished two knitting projects this week--detailed post to come later.  Both were supposed to be Christmas presents, but there's always a birthday or next Christmas for finally gifting them!
• One of my co-workers who has been out on medical leave since December will be back part-time next week.  It will be good to have her back--I've missed our morning tea time!
• As March comes to a close, Dave and I can be grateful that we both survived his first quarter project at work that required him to work insanely long hours during the week and every other weekend.  Hopefully by the end of next quarter, we'll be selling our house and preparing to move near his new office!

Georgia Peach and Pecan French Toast...
with whipped cream in a gravy boat!

Counting My Blessings #5

• It's been a long week of obnoxious work hours for Dave, but I am thankful he has a job and his big project at work is almost over.
• Tuesday we were both able to get a day off together.  Our plans?  We slept in, then had a big lunch at Mimi's Cafe!
• We had a contractor look at some of the cracks in our ceiling upstairs to get an estimate, and he advised us to wait till an interested purchaser has an inspection done.  Then he can take care of everything on the "fix list" at once, and the cracks may not even be an issue!
• I sped through the book club choice for March, A Grown Up Kind of Pretty, in three days.  After book club on Wednesday night, I got to stock up on new books for the next few months: In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, The Magician's Assistant, and The Dovekeepers.
• I'm finally healthy enough to be getting back on the treadmill again.  While not the most thrilling thing in the world, I'm just happy to have the energy to work out again and take advantage of that outlet for stress relief.
  

Dave texted me this picture while we were both home on Tuesday...

Counting My Blessings #1

After an emotional rollercoaster of a week, I thought it might be nice to try a new weekly post for me to "count my blessings" instead of getting fixated on all of the unknowns that have been stressing me out lately.  It's a way for me to reflect on the positive things that made me smile this week.

1. Tea time with my favorite youngest sister last weekend and the smell of the new tea flavor I picked up while we were there: Mango Paradise 
2. I'm slowly swapping out all of our brass fixtures in preparation for putting the house on the market, and I managed to purchase all of the replacement light fixtures for inside our house for under $100--yay!
3. Adding a few books to my "to read" pile because of a discussion at Book Club: Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (no, I've never read this classic), Around the World in Eighty Days by Michael Palin (someone who actually traveled the route of the novel), and Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew Goodman (a fictional account of two female journalists racing to complete the book's journey)
4. Dave finally got his vacation approved!  Now I can actually make reservations at the Eight Gables Inn... if they get some spring specials posted soon ;-)
5. This text picture of my niece puppy, Layla.  I guess she was cold and tired, and I can totally relate!

Mommy, it's past my bedtime...

The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge 2013

Thank you, Robin, for pointing out another Austen challenge to me.  Fortunately, it fits right in with my 2013 reading goal to clear of my shelf of (mostly Austen) sequels.  I've chosen the Disciple Level of 5-8 reading selections since that's all I have on my self that is related to P&P, plus the two movies I own.  I'm not going to do the commenting back to the original post to win prizes (because my prize is getting a shelf back for all of my other books), but you're more than welcome to join up at The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge!  Here are my selections:

• Pride & Prejudice on DVD (2005 Kiera Knightly version)
• Pride & Prejudice on Blu-ray (1995 Colin Firth version--such an awesome Christmas present from my sister!)
• The Pemberley Chronicles: A Companion Volume to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: Book 1 by Rebecca Ann Collins
• Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues by Linda Berdoll
• Loving Mr. Darcy: Journeys Beyond Pemberley by Sharon Lathan
• Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One by Sharon Lathan
• Old Friends and New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen by Sybil Brinton

Reading Resolution 2013

My reading resolution for 2012 wasn't quite the smashing success I hoped it would be. At the end of the year, there are still five of the original titles unfinished on my shelf, but at least any books I borrowed during the year were read and returned!  I'm also five short of my yearly goal on Goodreads to finish 50 books... coincidence?

This year I'll again set my Goodreads goal to 50 books, but I'll try a different resolution.  My goal is to clear out half of my shelf of prequels and sequels--mostly Austen spin-offs.  There are 27 books on the shelf, so I would be thrilled to get it down to a dozen by the end of the year!

Classic Children's Book

"Are You My Mother" is probably my favorite children's book ever, especially my bilingual edition so I can read it in English or Spanish.  ¿Eres tú mi mamá?

Reading Progress

My reading resolution for 2012 has made some progress in the first two months--basically, I flew through all of the fluff on my shelf and got them returned to their owners ;-)

And then Dave added one to my shelf that he borrowed from his mother...

• On the Street Where You Live by Mary Higgins Clark
• The Essential 55 by Ron Clark
• Rome Sweet Home by Scott Hahn
• Making Love Last a Lifetime by Adam Hamilton
• The Matchmakers by Debbie Macomber
• Almost Perfect by Julie Ortolon
• Just Perfect by Julie Ortolon
• Too Perfect by Julie Ortolon
• The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
• Hester by Paula Reed
• The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
• Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver

Reading Resolution 2012

I learned last year that I'm better at reading resolutions than "work out more" and "eat healthier" resolutions.  For 2012, I debated between re-reading a series (Anne of Green Gables) with its prequel (Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson), or reading at least one new book each month from the stash I already own (and then posting at PaperBackSwap.com to make room for more books), or the resolution I finally decided to tackle... reading all of the borrowed books I've collected!  Perusing my shelves, I found almost a dozen titles that have been collecting dust anywhere from a week to a few years:

• On the Street Where You Live by Mary Higgins Clark
• The Essential 55 by Ron Clark
• Making Love Last a Lifetime by Adam Hamilton
• The Matchmakers by Debbie Macomber
• Almost Perfect by Julie Ortolon
• Just Perfect by Julie Ortolon
• Too Perfect by Julie Ortolon
• The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
• Hester by Paula Reed
• The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
• Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver

Have you lent me a book not on the list?  I thought I found them all, but you never know...

I'd Rather Be...

...at home, snuggled with a kitty and a good, fluffy Jane Austen spin-off! 

Mission Accomplished

Today I celebrate the completion of my 2011 New Year's Reading Resolution!  Over the past eight months, I have read the nine books of the Little House on the Prairie series for the first time.  It makes me wish that life could still be so simple--you build your own house (including hinges for the door), school is a one-room one-teacher affair for all ages, and a stick of candy and a penny are amazing Christmas presents.

Reading the Little House books has lead to several other books:

• Nellie Oleson Meets Laura Ingalls follows along with some events of On the Banks of Plum Creek, but since it's told from Nellie's point of view, you spend 2/3 of the book wanting to smack her.  Yes, she learns her lesson in the last few chapters, but then she shows up in Little Town on the Prairie and hasn't changed a bit.
• I haven't read Old Town in the Green Groves yet, but I am looking forward to it.  It covers the time between On the Banks of Plum Creek and By the Shores of Silver Lake that were left out of the Little House series.
• Only bits and pieces are mentioned abut Mary's time in college in Little Town on the Prairie and These Happy Golden Years.  Mary Ingalls On Her Own uses historical records from Mary's time at Iowa College for the Blind to piece together her story.
• I just ordered On the Way Home: The Diary of a Trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894 from PaperBackSwap.com, so hopefully it will be here soon.  And now that I know that you can visit their Mansfield home and see artifacts from the lives of the Ingalls and Wilder families, of course I want to go!
• Young Pioneers isn't part of the Little House series, but it was written by Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane.  The story is inspired by the trials and tribulations of her parents and grandparents.

Friday Catch-Up

My poor blog has been neglected for two weeks while I've been busy-all-over-the-place.  When I've had a free moment, I've been reading--after all, a book is more portable than a desktop computer!

What have I been reading?  Last month I read four books, which is pretty impressive for me at this stage in my life.  Two were for book club: The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman and Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls.  Since it's sort of a sequel to Half Broke Horses (and it was on my to-read shelf at home), I read The Glass Castle next.  Then I finally finished my first book on the Kobo, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

My plans for tonight?  Curl up on the couch and try to finish On the Banks of Plum Creek, the next Little House book toward my resolution to finish the whole series this year.

Reading Resolution

Instead of making New Year's resolutions about fitness or cooking a new dish each month that I know I'll never keep up with, I've decided to make a reading resolution this year--to finally read the entire Little House on the Prairie series. I received the boxed set for Christmas last year, but was so busy planning for a wedding that any free time for reading was spent trying to keep up with book club, and after the wedding I was trying to finish the Jane Austen Challenge (*and* keep up with book club).

I read Little House in the Big Woods back in third grade as required reading in school, but I never continued the series. Thank you to HistoryDiva who put my collection in order a few months ago (apparently whoever boxed the series doesn't know the correct order)! I've already started re-reading the first book, and perhaps I can finish the series by summer and choose another reading resolution for the second half of 2011...

Austen Accomplished

I finished my improvised Newbie Overachiever Level for the Jane Austen Challenge of 2010 with a day to spare!

Lady Catherine's Necklace was a quick read, but a terrible disappointment after some of the other Joan Aiken novels I've read based on Austen's work. I would go so far as to say save yourself the trouble and skip it because only Lady Catherine and her daughter Anne are actually from Pride and Prejudice, and the storyline with its ensemble of new characters just doesn't flow well.

After that letdown, it took me a while to start Mr. Darcy's Diary, and I must admit that I was surprised by how much I liked it. I wasn't prepared for much after previously reading Edmund Bertram's Diary, also by Amanda Grange, but this was a good companion to the original Pride and Prejudice. It started slightly before P&P begins, follows the course of P&P from Mr. Darcy's point of view, then shows all of our favorite characters a few months after P&P ends.

In all, I enjoyed completing the Jane Austen Challenge since it gave me a good excuse to read several of the books that have been collecting dust on my shelves! The final list of novels I read:

• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
  
• Edmund Bertram's Diary by Amanda Grange
• Mansfield Park Revisited by Joan Aiken
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Lady Catherine's Necklace by Joan Aiken
• Mr. Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange
  

Beyond the Challenge

Over the weekend, I finally finished reading Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice. This technically completes the Jane Austen Challenge I signed up for earlier this year, but since I'm an overachiever, I decided to go above and beyond the the Newbie level (but not quite up to the Lover level) by adding two spin-offs, Mr. Darcy's Diary and Lady Catherine's Necklace. From flipping through both books, they should be easy reads to complete before the end of the year.

Pride and Prejudice is also the last of Austen's six novels that I had never read. I guess it's time to start re-reading those that I read several years ago... or tackle the insane number of spin-offs that are now available (several of which are buried on my "to read" bookshelf).

Book Cozy

At the beginning of the year, I posted an unidentified knitting project. Ten months later, I have finally stitched together an adorable book cozy made out of remnant cotton yarn with a cute yellow bunny button to keep it closed. It was modeled on a book cozy that is almost twenty years old--my sixth grade teacher made cozies for our entire class with our initials on them, and I still use mine to tote paperbacks around in my purse (currently Pride and Prejudice...).

The lucky recipient of this one-of-a-kind cozy (with a new book inside for her library, of course!) is my favorite friend born on October 11th, HistoryDiva!

Another Austen Update

Out of the four books I am supposed to read for the Jane Austen Challenge, I have now finished three!

I blogged back in July that I had finished Mansfied Park and was thinking about changing the Austen spin-offs I had originally chosen. Last month I read Edmund Bertram's Diary (and passed it on to Robin, who roped me into this challenge in the first place!) then decided to go for the only other Mansfield Park spin-off I've been able to locate: Mansfield Park Revisited (original title, no?)

Now I have started the final book of the challenge, Pride & Prejudice. I may just finish this thing before time is up!

Friday Funny

Doesn't everyone call it that?

Austen Update

Back in January, I joined the Jane Austen Challenge, and I am happy to report that seven months later I have finished my first book, Mansfield Park! I still plan to read Pride and Prejudice, but next I think I'll read a Mansfield Park spin-off called Edmund Bertram's Diary (instead of either The Pemberly Chronicles or The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen...) But first I have to read the next book club pick before we meet on August 1st!