Thankfully Reading 2013: Day Three

Today begins my Thankfully Reading Day 3. I plan in having a very relaxing day full of pjs, reading, Thanksgiving leftovers and trying to stay warm in this chilly weather.

12:30 pm

I finished listening to The Railway Children. The ending made me tear up as usual. I am still reading Neptune Noir. I also started Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century. Looking forward to finding out more about this dramatic couple. My husband has distracted me for a few hours with Homeland but it's back to reading. 

2:50 pm

It has been a glorious sun soaked (though still cold) day. I have just been relaxing. Huddling on my couch with a blanket and snuggly puppy is the best. I had to take a break from Neptune Noir because my Kindle was dying. I am enjoying the book about Liz and Dick. So interesting what an impact their relationship had on the current celebrity culture. The term paparazzi was coined out of their relationship as well as people's burning desire to know everything about celebrity romances. I am going to take a break from this book for a little bit and read Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery. It is one of my favorite books and I usually reread it every few years. I have been reading it for a few weeks and have about a hundred pages left so I think I will finish it today. 

10:30 pm 

Well it's been another great day of reading and family time. I finished Neptune Noir and almost finished Emily of New Moon. I spent the rest of the day hanging out with three of my four sisters. I am going to bed early tonight since I have a morning photo shoot tomorrow. I am excited because my sister knitted me some fingerless gloves. It will be so awesome to have those during the photo shoot. She makes such cute handmade knitted items You should check out her shop on Etsy: 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lemonsandcream

Thankfully Reading 2013: Day Two

Today starts Day Two of my Thankfully Reading weekend. It is the official start of Thankfully Reading weekend. I am looking forward to periodically checking in and seeing what everyone else is reading. I would love to discover some new books. I am surprised I was able to read as much as I did yesterday. I think I will definitely be able to finish three books this weekend.

9:30 am

I have been awake since 6 and up since 7 getting ready for Thanksgiving Day madness. I baked some pumpkin muffins and have been rearranging furniture. So excited for all my family to get here at noon. All morning I have been listening to The Railway Children and reading Neptune Noir when I get a chance. 

9:50 pm

Whew what a day! Nonstop chaos, food, family, fun, cleaning up, more food. I am exhausted! It was such a great day! Hoping to get a little more reading in before bed but we'll see how long I can stay up. I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving and a good day of Thankfully Reading!

Thankfully Reading 2013: Day One

Today begins my favorite time of the whole year: Thanksgiving prep, cooking and

Thankfully Reading

. Thankfully Reading is a time for me to take some time outs in this busy time to just relax. Although it doesn't officially began until tomorrow I always start on Wednesday.

I woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow. Just enough to see that it snowed but not enough to be pretty. Normally I would be excited but I do have an engagement shoot later today and it is cold and very windy. 

I have some cooking and cleaning to do today to get ready for the family. My sister and her boyfriend are getting in late tonight and everyone else will be here tomorrow. I am so excited. I love my family and I love Thanksgiving. 

It's 7:30 am and I am going to start reading. I will keep you updated throughout the day. Happy reading to everyone else!

8:30 am 

I just enjoyed my breakfast and started my first book

Funny in Farsi

by Firoozeh Dumas. It is a memoir of an Iranian girl living in America. It is really funny but also interesting to read how Americans attitudes changed after the Iranian revolution. I love the stories she shares of her father. He is quite the character.

11:15 am

I have been cooking all morning. I made a broccoli and cauliflower salad, herbed cheese crackers and cornbread. I am anticipating tomorrow's meal. It is going to be so delicious. We have amazing cooks in our family. I didn't let the cooking stop me from "reading" actually listening to an audiobook. I listened to

The Railroad Children by E. Nesbit

on my Librivox app. I have adored that book ever since I was young and I love listening to it in audiobook format. The narrator,

Karen Savage

does an excellent job on this book. Although, my love of the book was lessened sonewhat with the recent news that it could be

plagerized

the book still reminds me of happy childhood times spent reading. 

1:30 pm

Whew already tired and the day isn't even half way over. I just made a double batch of homemade cranberry sauce. It is the first time I have ever made the dish so I hope it turns out good. I don't actually like cranberry sauce but it is such a traditional Thanksgiving dish it must be made! I am still reading. I am about halfway through The Railway Children and 70 pages into Funny in Farsi. I think I need a quick cooking/reading break to watch last nights The Mindy Project since I forgot it was on.  

4:45 pm

This day has only been getting colder. Brrr. This afternoon I have had lots of time to read. It was too cold for engagement shoot so we had to postpone it. My sister who assists me on shoots came over and we visited for awhile since the shoot was cancelled. My dog was so excited to see her and was jumping all over the place. He loves his auntie. The rest of the afternoon I sat in my big chair with a blanket and read. I just finished Funny in Farsi. It was such a good book. I liked how she compares American life with life in Iran. Her stories about celebrating Christmas were so interesting. I have never really thought how left out cultures or religions who don't celebrate Christmas must feel. Christmas is like this big consuming holiday and is everywhere. One of the reasons I love Thanksgiving so much (besides my love of food) is it always seems to be much more relaxing than Christmas. Christmas has turned into this giant mess of consumerism and stress. Thanksgiving is still this beautiful time of thankfulness and family.  

8:00 pm

I am really tired and Thanksgiving isn't even here yet. But I have finished cleaning my house and cooked all but two dishes I have to make tomorrow. My husband made dinner which is good because I wasn't going to make anything. 

I started a new book Neptune Noir. I am a huge Veronica Mars fan. I think it is one of the best shows ever on TV. I was thrilled when they decided to make a movie and eagerly contributed to their Kickstarter campaign. Neptune Noir is a collection of essays written about the TV show and narrated by the creator Rob Thomas. Who knew there could be such interesting papers about a TV show? 

Note: all photos used in this blog post are iPhone only unless otherwise indicated

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2013

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday and the last few years I have participated in Thankfully Reading has made it even better. I hate to shop so I never go out for Black Friday.

Jenn's Bookshelves

and the

Literate Housewife

are hosting

Thankfully Reading

this year. 

I won't be able to read as much this year as I have two photo shoots plus I am hosting Thanksgiving at my house this year for the first time. Yikes. But I still hope to get some reading in. I am not going to plan what to read but let the spirit move me. I usually start reading on Wednesday. Stay tuned to my

blog

,

Twitter

and

Goodreads

to keep up with what I am reading!

Thankfully Reading: Wrap Up

I had a great time participating in Thankfully Reading weekend.
I finished The Sixth Wife this morning and started reading The Winner by David Baldacci. I didn't have much time to read today because I had a photo shoot.
I definitely read more than I thought I would this weekend. I finished three e books, two print books and an audiobook. I read a lot more on three books but didn't get a chance to finish them.
I am looking forward to starting The Game of Thrones series this week and rereading The Hobbit. I also picked up a Ryhs Bowen mystery this weekend. Going to give it a try.
I love traditions and I am hopefully going to keep the Thankfully Reading challenge every year because it is one I really enjoy!

Thankfully Reading Weekend: Saturday

9:30 am
I am looking forward to getting in some good reading today before my photo shoot this afternoon. My husband is helping a friend move in to his new house today which means that I get tons of uninterrupted reading time! My first read this morning will be The Sinatra Club. I am really interested to find out what led Sal Polisi to write this tell all book. I assume he gets busted for his mob activities.

11:30 pm
Today was so busy! I finally finished The Sinatra Club. It was so good! Was very interesting to find out all the inside scoop. I also spent some time listening to more of The Three Musketeers audiobook.

What is your favorite bookish memory?
I would have to say one of my favorite bookish memories is that we were allowed to read at the dinner table. Most families would have frowned on that but we were able to have our books while we were eating. I appreciate the fact that my patents did everything they could to encourage us to read.

Thankfully Reading Weekend: Friday

12:00 pm

Today will be a sporadic reading day since I have some photos to edit and get back to clients so they can order their Christmas cards. I am also excited to hang out with my lifelong childhood friends tonight. One of them lives in South America now so I rarely get to see her. I decided to listen to an audiobook while editing. I am listening to The Four Million by O. Henry. I also plan on finishing up books I have been working on for the past few weeks, The Sinatra Club: My Life Inside the New York Mafia by Sal Polisi,The Sixth Wife by Jean Plaidy and a work book Your Marketing Sucks by Mark Stevens. We shall see how far I can get in any of these books. I will check in later!

11:30 pm

What a fun day! I love the holidays. I was so excited to meet my friend's 5 month old. He was the happiest baby ever! I am sad that I probably won't see him for another year.

I finished The Four Million by O. Henry on my trip and started The Three Musketeers audiobook. The Three Musketeers was one of my favorite books as a child. I love rereading books I haven't read since I was young because I just see so much more now. I am going to read a little of The Sinatra Club before bed but don't know how long I will make it because I am tired!

Which book have you been most thankful for this year?

This was a hard question as an answer didn't immediately pop into my head like it usually does. But after thinking I realized the book I have been most thankful for this year are the Nancy Drew books. I have been rereading them this year and I love how they bring back floods of wonderful memories. When I read them I flash back to when my mom pulled out all her old Nancy Drew books and let us read them. It is one of my most vivid memories. I remember exactly how I felt running out the door of our old house to our swing set and reading them. I also remember when my mom threw those books away later which breaks my heart to this day. But rereading them has been great. And I just let my mom borrow them and she is rereading them. They are just simple books with not much plot but its the memories that make them special and make me thankful for them!

Thankfully Reading: Wednesday & Thursday

I have decided to begin Thankfully Reading a day early since I won't have much time to read tomorrow and over the weekend. I am just cooking today so able to get a little reading in between dishes. I seem to do better with a running blog post so I will be checking in at various times of the day.

1:00 pm

I am starting with The Passage by Justin Cronin. I only have about 100 pages left in this book and I am determined to finally finish it. This book is finally starting to get so intense and really, really good. I was debating on whether I was going to get the next book in this series and now I know for sure I want to read it!

3:30 pm

Well just finished The Passage. The second half of this book really saved it for me. The ending was great and now I can't wait to read The Twelve!

8:00 pm

I started Divergent by Veronica Roth this afternoon. 200 pages in and I am loving it. I don't want to put it down. That is all I can write because I am so eager to get back to it!

Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving! My cat woke me up at 7 am this morning so I decided it was a good time to start reading before heading to my parents. I finished Divergent. I loved the whole book. The story was great and held my attention. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch with my family. It was a great day full of laughter and food. We came home in the evening and it was great to curl up in my pjs with a book. I decided my next read would be Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich. I love the Stephanie Plum books, although they are all pretty much the same plot. They are light reads and I enjoy the silliness of them. I zipped through that before bed. Very thankful to have had a perfect day!

Recipe for reading

Jen at the Literate Housewife posted a

Thankfully Reading mini challenge

that asks What is your perfect reading recipe? I would have to say that more than anything I love reading in a quiet house with a warm blanket in the winter and rain. There really is nothing better. If I am reading on my Nook I love a dark room. I really like reading without any distractions but if it is a really good book I can get caught up in the action and not notice what is going on around me.

Thankfully Reading 2011: Wrap-Up

It has taken me awhile to write my wrap up post since I have been so busy with school. I happy with the reading I got done over the weekend. It wasn't as much as I had planned but I was able to read a couple of books I had been wanting to read for awhile.

I read the last half of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. This book was wonderful. I really enjoyed it. It was very suspenseful at the end and I caught myself holding my breath through some of it.

Next I read Pegasus by Robin McKinley. I bought this Nook book as soon as it came out but knew that was a book I would want to be able to read in just a few days. I am glad I waited. It was a terrific book! Once again she created this magical world that sucks you in. Love it!

Next I started on The Girl Who Played With Fire audio book. I basically just listened to this when I was driving or cooking. This is another great book. I haven't finished it yet but I am having a hard time turning it off when I have school work to do.

The next book I read was Buffalo West Wing by Julie Hyzy. This was a good book. I always enjoy the mishaps and adventures of Ollie.

I started on The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurt but I haven't had the chance to finish it yet.

I am happy with all the reading I got done over Thanksgiving and I am hoping when school lets out next week I will have a very Merry Reading December!

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2011

11/26 10:00 am

I have decided to do all my Thankfully Reading updates in one blog post. Just makes it easier especially since I am blogging from my phone. I have finished one book: Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and am 138 pages into Pegasus by Robin McKinley. I really haven't had much time to read yet since I have been spending time with family and trying to finish up some school projects. Finals start week after next and I shouldn't be reading at all. I am really loving Pegasus. I love how Robin McKinley creates these worlds that are unlike anything else and you really have to concentrate to figure out how the world works. I like that the magic in her books just isn't the same old magic that is in every other book. It always works differently.

Jenn asked us what book we were most thankful for. Last year I talked about the Betsy-Tact books. This year I am most thankful for the Hunger Games. I was in a post Harry Potter sadness thinking there would never be any new, good Harry Potter like books when I discovered the Hunger Games. Now I am not saying they are as good as HP because they aren't. However, I loved diving into that world and am happy to have had those to read. I am looking forward to rereading the books again before the movie comes out in March. Well back to reading! I will check in later.

11/26 4:45 pm

I still haven't had a chance to get much reading done. I am on page 228 of Pegasus. I also started an audiobook, The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson while out and about today. I don't think I will get to my goal of having three books read during Thankfully Reading because tomorrow I have school work and errands to run. Well back to reading before my husband gets home!

11/26 10:26 pm

I have had a much better afternoon reading! I finished Pegasus. The ending was so abrupt and I was very, very disappointed until I read online that she split the book into two books. That was a relief because it really would have been a terrible ending. I listened to a little more of The Girl Who Played With Fire while I made dinner. Then I started on Buffalo West Wing by Julie Hyzy. I love the White House Chef series. They are such a fun read. I have been saving that book to read and when I found out the new one comes out in January I decided to read it. I am 125 pages in and loving it. I enjoy the character of Ollie so much. I feel like she is an old school heroine who just gets into the worst scrapes without meaning too. I can't wait for the new book to come out!

11/27 9:00 pm

I finished Buffalo West Wing last night and started on The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst. It is hilarious and touching and sad. I love baseball and this is a great glimpse into the real world of minor league baseball. I am 84 pages into this book as I haven't had much time to read today due to my massive piles of homework and driving to and fro. I also managed to get some more audio book time with The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Thankfully Reading Post #1

I decided to get my Thankfully Reading off to a good start at midnight by deciding to finish up Girl With A Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I finished the last forty pages. What a great book! I have the next book in the series on an audiobook and I really wish I had brought it to my parents. But since I didn't I am going to get started on my next book which is Pegasus by Robin McKinley. I love her books. Beauty is one of my all time favorite books. I think it's funny that even though I have my Nook and I am only staying one night at my parents I still packed two regular books. Old habits never die! Hopefully I can get more reading in tomorrow in between a family photography shoot and the pile of school work I have to do before school ends in two weeks.

I also started a new Twitter handle to go with this blog! ReadingSusan. Follow me today!

Thankfully Reading 2011

It is getting close to that time of year again.:

Thankfully Reading

over the Thanksgiving holiday. This was the first book challenge I ever did and it inspired me to do more. Hopefully I will be able to get in a lot of reading in between preparing for a law debate and cooking lots of yummy food. Can't wait!

Thankfully Reading Saturday & Sunday Plus Wrap Up

First I want say thanks to

Jenn's Bookshelves,

Beth Fish Reads

and

Devourer of Books

for hosting this weekend. It was a wonderful idea and definitely inspired me to read more! Let me share my readings for the rest of the weekend and then do a quick wrap up.

Saturday, November 28th

I finished

Sisterchicks Go Brit

right after breakfast. I ended up really enjoying the book. They visited a lot of sites in London that I remember visiting on my trip 10 years ago(Oh my God was that TEN years ago!!??). It brought back a lot of wonderful memories. After I finished that book I decided I had to start re reading the

Betsy-Tacy

high school books again. I went on a hunt for

Betsy Was a Junior

so I would have that before I started reading

Heaven to Betsy

. Shockingly I found it in the second stack of books I looked through. Miracle! So my fourth book was

Heaven to Betsy

by Maud Hart Lovelace.

As I have said many times in this blog I love the Betsy-Tacy books. I love how these books are based in the early 1900's but they feel so fresh and I can relate to them easily. Betsy is a freshmen in high school in this book and I love reading about the changes she goes through with moving to a new house, making new friends while still retaining her old friends, falling in & out of love and making decisions about pulling away from her parents religion. Sound familiar? Probably so because I am sure most people go through these feelings. I love this book and even though I have read it over ten times I still thrill at every word(yes I am a dork!). I read almost the whole book but left two chapter to finish on Sunday.

Sunday, November 28th

I knew Sunday would be my lowest read day because I had to work that morning. After freezing to death for 6 hours I finally got home around one, fixed myself a Thanksgiving left over plate and settled down to finish

Heaven to Betsy

. It ended like it always does and I moved on to the next book. I decided to wait to pick up on the next Betsy-Tacy books until Christmas break. I went to my TBR pile and chose

Heaven's Wager

by

Ted Dekker

.

Heaven's Wager

is in the

Martyr's Song series

. I read the first book Martyr's Song and it was really good. This book is good but a little sad. It is about a man who has invented a new banking system and is about to become a multi-millionaire. He is on the top of the world and his life is going to change forever. Of course I knew this was too good to be true. You know in books when everyone is too happy that something bad is going to happen. It is interesting because his wife, son and mother-in-law keep getting glimpses into heaven. It will be interesting to see what happens in the book. I made it through about one hundred pages before I decided I needed to actually spend some time with my husband:-)

Wrap Up

So I only read four books and a little part of a fifth. That is not as many as I thought I would read. I deliberately didn't set a goal for myself. I felt like I wanted to relax and just read for enjoyment not to make some goal. All the books I read, except one, were books in my TBR pile. I have a bad habit of re-reading books instead of going to my TBR pile so that was good. I spent quite a few hours on my books. Probably too many in my husband's opinion! This was a great weekend and participating the Thankfully Reading Weekend was so fun!

Thankfully Reading Mini-Challenge #3

The Thankfully Reading mini challenge today is hosted by Devourer of Books and it is
"what reading community are you thankful for, and why? Are you thankful for book bloggers? The book community on Twitter? Your spouse or family that lets you ramble on and on about what you’re reading and doesn’t complain (at least not too much) about the myriad of books flowing into the house?"
I am very thankful for the new book blogs I have discovered and the people tweeting about books I love. For a long time I thought I was one of the few people who still enjoyed reading certain books.
However, what I am most thankful for is my sister. Me and my sisters grew up reading vicariously. My sister who is four years younger than me is my book buddy. We still love the same books and we can sit and talk for hours about books. These are the best and happiest memories to me.

Thankfully Reading Mini-Challenge #2

Beth Fish Reads

set the 2nd mini challenge for Thankfully Reading Weekend. It is to "share a photograph of your TBR pile or at least one bookshelf." Now this is very difficult for me. I do have a TBR pile but my husband grew frustrated with how large it had become and so he scattered some of the books in my bookcases. So I decided to share all the bookcases I have. When I was growing up I was completely obsessed with trying to fit all my books into the two bookcases I had in my closet. I would constantly arrange and rearrange them. I knew when I had a home of my own I would have a place for all my books. However, that hasn't really worked out as planned as I still have books that don't have a home except on the floor(much to the dismay of my husband). Each bookcase has a different "purpose." Anyway here are all my books.

This is my "official" TBR pile. It does include books I have already read but want to read again. Like my Agatha Christie books on the right. I love those books so much and I haven't read one since I was 17. I can't wait to read them again!

This is my Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys bookcase. Growing up I adored these books. I actually liked The Hardy Boys much better than Nancy Drew. Joe and Frank were much more interesting to me. The Nancy Drew books were some of the first books I remember reading. My mom had those old, blue copies. It still makes me sick every time I think about how she threw them in the trash.

This is my young adult bookcase. This bookcase holds some of my favorite books: Trixie Belden, Ginger Pye, Strawberry Girl, Betsy-Tacy books, Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates and the Little House on the Prairie books. Love all these books! They make me happy taking me back to my wonderful childhood! I like this bookcase because I can doublestack my paperbacks in the back without the shelves bowing.

This is my baseball bookcase. All of these books are baseball related: biographies, autobiographies, season reviews, novels etc. I adore baseball and have always loved learning about the history of the game. My favorite baseball book is Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella. It is an amazing book! I even named my cat Shoeless Joe.

This is my Mystery/Adventure bookcase. It includes my guilty pleasure favorites such as Clive Cussler(which horrifies my archeologist major sister!), James Patterson and J.D. Robb.

This is my romance bookcase: Victoria Holt, Lori Wick and Georgette Heyer.

This bookcase is my newest one and has no theme because my husband randomly put books in there. But some of my favorite books stick out to me and that is The Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker. So good! I love those books.

This is my classics bookcase with some of my favorite classic books: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court, Seventeen, and David Copperfield. It was recently desecrated by my husband's Star Wars books which shall quietly be removed in the next few weeks.

This is my Classic #2, Harry Potter and Biography bookcase. My husband has all the English versions of Harry Potter and a nice Lord of the Rings set.

And here are my poor books that don't have a home. I am asking for bookcases for Christmas:-)

Thanks for allowing me to share my bookcases. Now back to Thankfully Reading!

Thankfully Reading Mini-Challenge #1

Jenn's Bookshelves

has set a Thankfully Reading Mini-Challenge to tell what book you are most thankful for. This is a hard question because there are so many books I am thankful for.

I really can't narrow down a single book so I have gone with an entire series. The Betsy-Tacy Series are the books I am most thankful for. They have been my favorite books for years but they have become very special to me. I was laid off two years ago and it was a very difficult time for me as I had to transition from working 60 plus hours per week in my dream job to being unemployed. I began to experience anxiety and one of the few things that could help me curb this was reading the Betsy-Tacy books. They are so warm, familiar and comforting. I will always be thankful for these books for helping me get through that difficult time!

Thankfully Reading Weekend

I decided to participate in the

Thankfully Reading Weekend

. It is a chance for me to get some good book reading in while I am off of school until the 29th.

Thursday, November 26th

I read nothing Thursday. I was so busy cooking and celebrating with my family so I decided my reading would have to begin on Wednesday. However my sister and I did have an hour conversation about

L.M. Montgomery

books(we both have read

The Blue Castle

to0 many times to count).

Friday, November 27th

Friday started out well as I began reading

The Mysterious Benedict Society

and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart.

I love The Mysterious Benedict Society books. There are three books so far. I love these books because they remind me of the books I grew up reading: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Moffett Books and Mary Poppins. I finished it around lunch. I was planning on re-reading the Betsy-Tacy high school books during the holidays but I was unable to locate Betsy Was a Junior so I decided to wait. I decided to start on Early Candlelight by Maud Hart Lovelace.

This was a book she wrote before the Betsy-Tacy books. It is set in the mid to late 1800's in Minnesota at Fort Snelling and the future St. Paul. It is the last unread Maud book I have to read and I have been saving it. This book was wonderful. It was a great slice of pioneer life and talked a lot about customs, harsh conditions, clothing etc. It also had a sweet little love story but that wasn't the primary focus of the book. I highly recommend it! I will admit I was a little sad when I finished it. The end of all the new Maud books. I then started reading Sisterchicks Go Brit by

Robin Jones Gunn

.

Robin Jones Gunn has been one of my favorite authors since I was a teen. She wrote the Christy Miller, Sierra Jensen and Glennbrooke series'. I absolutely love all three series'. I have read them many times over. The Sisterchicks are a little different than most of her books as they are geared more towards my mom's generation(she loves them) but I was interested to read it as they would be traveling around London. I made it through about 30 pages before I was so tired I had to go to bed. More tomorrow!