So, it's time for some lighter, update-y miscellany.
First off, a book update. I joined the adult summer reading club at the library. It lasted from June 10 to July 30, which was about 7 weeks. I read 8 books, which I consider a success. Unfortunately, not a single one of those books translated into winning raffle ticket for the summer reading club.
After the club was over, I continued on with my attempt to read 52 books in 2010. I figured out that I have to have completed 34 books by the end of August if I want to keep up the pace to finish 52 by the end of the year. I have fallen behind. But the thing is, do I want to treat every book like it's just something to be marked off on a chart? Shouldn't I focus more on enjoying the books? I mean, the days of required reading for me are over.
Anyway, these are the books I read this summer:
1. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok: I got this for free as part of the one-and-only book club I participated in for the now-defunct Chicago Moms Blog. It was really good. It's the story of a girl who emigrates from Hong Kong with her mom, and they work in a sweatshop.
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson: I read this because it's the "it" book everyone's reading. While I appreciated the author's story-crafting skills, this is just not my genre.
3. Family Ties by Danielle Steel: This was my first-ever Danielle Steel novel, and I figured as an American woman I had to read at least one. Let me say, I was so pleasantly surprised. The writing wasn't fabulous--I mean, she does have to churn out approximately 17 books a year--but I liked the story.
4. Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan: Another pleasant surprise. The story is light: four girls meet their freshman year at a women's college, and then remain friends through the struggles of early adulthood. What I liked about this story was that the characters could easily have been sort of stereotypical stock characters, but the author made them much more multi-dimensional.
5. My Name is Memory by Ann Brasheres: This book by the author of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series seemed like a fun summer read along the lines of Twilight and other sort of fantasy-grounded-in-reality books. But, somehow, it didn't work for me.
6. Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler: Anne is always good for a light-but-not-too-light read with interesting characters. I liked this story and read it quickly, although I must say that those interesting characters were, for the most part, also very annoying characters. And the book is more of a "slice of life" than an actual story with a climax and resolution.
7. A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White: Stupid, stupid story about the relationship between two sisters after their parents die in a plane crash. (Oh and BTW, ratio of parents dying in plane crashes in books to ratio of parents dying in plane crashes in real life: 100 to 1. The Danielle Steel book also featured parents dying in a plane crash.)
8. The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton: This is the story of some moms in the 60s who form a writing group. I liked learning about the life of mothers in the 60s (so hot right now! Mad Men! The Help!) as well as the sort of roots of mom blogs.
9. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford: A great historical fiction book centered around the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII.
10. The Icing on the Cupcake by Jennifer Ross: OMG bad. So bad. I thought it would be a light read that would allow me to live vicariously through the main character, who experiences a personal setback and then goes on to realize her dream of opening her own cupcake store. But the story was so ridiculous. Stupid, contrived stuff like the kind of thing you see in soap operas, like pathetic revenge plots and and a woman who gets pregnant during an extra-marital affair and can't pass it off as her husband's because everyone knows he was rendered sterile in an auto accident years ago. Yeah.
11. Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern: What can I say? Hilarious.
12. This Must Be the Place by Kate Racculia: I wanted to like this book more. The writing was good and the characters were interesting. But, there was only one major, suspenseful Super Big Reveal that they kept stringing you along with, and it was so easy to figure out so early on. Plus this book suffered from Too Much Description. I hate TMD.
13. Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith: This book, by the author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, was an interesting look into the everyday lives of people in the 1920s.
Okay, that's it. I'm on Book #14, but I'm not going to count it because I have 100 pages left. Anyway, 13 books in approximately 10 weeks. That's good, right? That just goes to show you what you can accomplish when you have one occasionally independent child and zero jobs.
In the interests of accuracy, I must say that I also started 4 books that I didn't like enough to finish. I like to keep track of these things.
Now, movie-wise, I was a lot less accomplished. I was too busy trying to keep up with stupid book-reading goals. Anyway, I saw two movies in the theater: Toy Story 3 (cute) and The Kids are Alright (thought-provoking). I saw Valentine's Day (predictable), The Hangover (hilarious), and Shutter Island (creepy as hell) on DVD.
Not, let's not suggest I was so high-brow that all I did was read. I watched a lot of TV. Like, crap TV such as I Didn't Know I was Pregnant. And good TV, like Mad Men. And approximately 3 viewings of each episode of Seinfeld ever aired. Because as fun as new TV can be (I thought I had to take a giant crap, but it was really a baby!), nothing will ever top Seinfeld.
Other bits of news:
- I got a new iPod. It's this one.
- Damn, I can't think of a second one.
He doesn't hate all splash pads. Just, you know, the one that is closest to us and free.
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