More suggestions

I added to the list

7. _Are You There, Vodka, it's Me Chelsea_ by Chelsea Handler get the audio - it is a bit raunchy here and there but laugh out loud funny


8. _Kite Runner_ & _A Thousand Splended Suns_ by Khaled Hosseini

9. _Cutting for Stone_ by Abraham Verghese ** <3 This one I loved - checked it out from the library - but may have to buy it for my collection.


10. _The Art of Racing in the Rain_

All good reads.

Books Read in 2010!

At the beginning of 2010 I set the resolution of reading a book a week for the entire year to renew my passion of reading. While I did not completely attain this goal - I did read more books than weeks in the year so I feel overall it was a success. I have had many people ask if I had kept a list of what I read and if it was going to be posted. I had not but decided it was a worthwhile endeavor so instead of a book this last week, I complied the list. The order is loosely based from last to first but not completely. I am posting originally in facebook than copy/paste in a couple different formats, so if it looks weird in other formats than I apologize. (FYI a _ at the beginning and end of a title counts as underline in FB.) I don't recommend every book I read and some I LOVED! The following symbols will denote a very loose recommendation system: * good read **very good read <3 I loved it -READ IT! #audioversion. At the end a few books I love that I read prior to the beginning of the year. So here goes......



Non-Fiction

1. _Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know_ by Robert Paarlberg

2. _A Big Little Life: A Memior of a Joyful Dog_ by Dean Koontz *

3. _Beyond the Rat Race_ by Arthur Gish *

4. _The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything_ By Ken Robinson, Ph.D w/ Lau Aronica **

5. _The Geography of Bliss_ by Eric Weiner

6. _Beyond the Board_ by Doug Brown #

7. _Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating_ by Jane Goodall w/ Gary McAvoy & Gail Hudson **

8. _Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking_ by Malcolm Gladwell **

9. _The 50 Best Ways to Simplify Your Life_ by Pattric Fannanig(can't read my writing here - not certain about this spelling) & Heather arras Mitchner

10. _The Story of Stuff_ by Annie Leonard **

11. _Life on the Mississippi_ by Mark Twain * #

12. _Leavings: Poems_ by Wendell Berry <3 (Not sure where poetry fits category wise but WB's poems seem non-fiction like.)

13. _Shift Your Habits: Save Money, Save the Planet_ by Elizabeth Rogers

14. _Possom Living: How to Live Well w/o a job & with (almost) no Money_ by Dolley Freed

15. _Everthing I Need to Know I Learned from Children's Books: Life Lessons from Notable People in All Walks of Life_ by Anita Silvey <3

16. _Loot: The Battle over Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World_ by Sharon Waxman **

17. _The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean my Closet, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, & Generally Have More Fun_ by Gretchen Rubin <3

18. _I Am America (and So Can You!)_ by Stephan Colbert **

19. _Animals Make Us Human_ by Temple Grandin & Catherine Johnson ** #

20. _How Starbucks Saved my Life: A Son of Privelage Learns to Live Like Everyone Else_ by Michael Gates Gill **

21. _Mennonite in a Little Black Dress_ by Rhoda Janzen

22. _Give a Little: How Your Small Donations can Transform our World_ by Wendy Smith <3

23. _Have a Little Faith_ by Mitch Albom **

24. _Eating Animals_ by Jonathan Safron Foer **

25. _Making Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art_ by Thomas Hoving

26. _A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders & Their Quest to See it All_ by Luke Dempsey <3

27. _See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers_ by Roxanna Elden *



Now to my perfered reading style, FICTION



1. _Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close_ by Jonathan Safron Foer * #

2. _Gourmet Rhapsody_ by Muriel Barberry

3. _ The Knitting Circle_ by Ann Hood *

4. _Faithful Place_ by Tana French ** #

5. _Bad Blood_ by John Sandford

6. _Her Fearful Symmetry_ by Audrey Niffenegger #

7. _Ape House_ by Sara Gruen

8. _ Wicked Appetite_ by Janet Evanovich <3

9. _Jane Slayre_ by Charlotte Bronte & Sherri Browning Erwin

10. _Prayers for Sale_ by Sandra Dallas **

11. _The Bonesetter's Daughter_ by Amy Tan * #

12. _The Help_ by Kathryn Stockett *

13. _The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner_ Stephanie Meyer <3

14. _The Elegance of the Hedgehog_ by Muriel Barberry <3

15. _An Unaccustomed Earth_ by Jhumpa Lahiri ** #

16. _The Lost Recipe of Happiness_ by Barbara O'Neal *

17. _Marker_ by Robin Cook *

18-38. The entire Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich <3 (Great guilty pleasure reads!)

39. _Dead Watch_ by John Sandford **

40. _Every Last One_ by Anne Quindlen <3

41. _Oh My Stars_ by Lorna Landrik <3

42. _The Puzzle Lady vs. Sudoku Lady_ by Parnell Hall

43. _The Shadow of you Smile_ by Mary Higgins Clark *

44. _ish_ by Peter Reynolds <3, _Oh, the Places You Go_ by Dr. Suess <3, _Where ther Once There Was a Woods_ by Denise Flemming <3

45. _Beatrice & Virgil_ by Yann Martel *

46. _Run_ by Ann Patchett <3

47. _Oolong Dead_ by Laura Childs

48. _The Woods_ by Harlan Coben <3

49. _ Jane Eyre_ by Charlotte Bronte <3

50 _Rough Country_ by John Sandford *

51. _The House of Sand & Fog_ by Andre Dubas III

52. _Heat Lightning_ by John Sandford <3

53. _Loving Frank_ by Nancy Horan

54. _Take My Heart_ by Mary Higgins Clark *

I also read a lot of Amanda Quick/Jayne Krentz - guilty pleasures that I didn't count in the list because so simple of reads.



Whew - obviously I love a lot more fiction!



Other Selections to Consider



1. Some of my guilty pleasures are of course Mary Higgins Clark - can't go wrong there

2. I have enjoyed the Virgil Flowers series by John Sandford - all are listed above except for the first _Dark of the Mood_ which I listened to the audio version - very good

3. _Water for Elephants_ by Sara Gruen - I love this book

4. _Angry Housewives Eating BonBons_ by Lorna Lardvik enjoyable lighter read

5. Classics to revisit (on the female side) _My Antonia_ by Willa Cather, _Pride & Prejudice_ by Jane Austen, _Gone with the Wind_ by Margaret Mitchell (and of course _Jane Eyre_)

6. _The Life of Pi_ by Yann Martel



Over 81 books in one year! Yeah! I hope you enjoyed this list and go get reading

Best Friend to the Rescue!

One of my BFFs came over for dinner tonight. She brought some locally made veggie burgers she purchased from her farmer's market. I provided a salad featuring - wait for it - purslane(!) and a taboule salad. Lot's of fresh from the garden. Then my dear sweet friend offered to buy me an ice cream cone - yummmm! Itch successfully scratched. We walked up to the local ice cream shop/pizzeria. I had a wonderful Peanut Butter Crunch and she had Cake Batter. Good times. However, is it cheating when someone else buys me something because they read a sad, pathetic, self-pitying blog post? Hmmm...well - I refuse to feel guilt it was tasty.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

So 11 days into the no groceries experiment, I have been hit with a serious craving for ice cream. Ugh. It is the first thing I have wanted to spend to money on since the experiment began. Oh, did I mention I am trying not to spend any extra money during the month too. I have put gas in the car and I had to buy cat food (can't starve the poor kitties) otherwise not a cent spent. (Hee hee.) However, this ice cream thing may derail me....or I go visit my mom and see if the freezer is stocked?

Purslane

Today I found out that a weed in my garden is the best plant source of Omega-3 and antioxidants! Super. I was blackberry picking with my book club (feel free to read last years post of this tradition - I learned my lesson though, I avoided stickers and poison ivy!) Anyway, one of the wise women of the group shared the knowledge of purslane. So we all braved a taste. I commented that this was one of the pervasive weeds in my garden. So after a long evening of commitments, I arrived home and immediately (okay, so that is a lie, after a 30 minute crash on the couch) I decided to use my favorite tool - Google- to learn more. I was a bit worried that this would be a plant that had a poisonous copycat plant. Turns out, I am a smart cookie - purslane has an evil twin, spurge. Isn't that a great evil twin name - Spurge. I mean come on say it out loud - SPURGE - it just sounds like a super villain, albeit an amazing lame and trite super villain, but a super villain nonetheless. So back to the actual story. I learn the easiest marker between the two is the evil spurge has a milky white sap if you break the stem. Well, of course I must know immediately - am I blessed with wonder plant, Purslane or the scourge of Spurge (come on, that is some funny stuff). Keep in mind at this point it is 10:20pm and very dark outside. So do I wait for morning? Bah - of course not, I grab my flashlight and head out to the garden (of course, may neighbor happens to walk out with her dog, but she already thinks I am nuts, so...) to search for the "weed" to identify. After much scientific deliberation....(yeah, yeah, I know, get on with it) I am pleased to announce I am the proud cultivator of purslane! Whoop it up, lots of healthy stuff finding its way to a dinner plate near me.

No Grocery Month

So I am going to try a little experiment courtesy of my friend, Erin. She had read about a challenge where you don't buy groceries for a month, as a way to both save some cash and clean out your pantry a bit. (Come on, we all have those boxes that get further and further into the dark recesses of the cupboard than are found years later.) So I am going to give it a whirl. Now, the good thing about trying this now, is my garden is overflowing with lettuce and a few tomatoes are starting to ripen, I should have squash, corn and beans before all is said and done as well. This is good, because I don't know that I could go a month without fresh produce, the temptation might be to much for me.

I am concerned that I am setting the bar to high with the month timeline, but hey we should always aim high, right!I don't have milk right now or eggs so it may be a semi-vegan month unintentionally. Does grocery shopping at Mom's count? Hmmm, that is something to ponder......

Chinese Spammers

I keep getting Chinese Spammer comments. Anyone else? How do you prevent that? HELP!