book wishlist

since we've recommenced with the gift-giving traditions, i've opened the flood-gates and i've got a birthday list a million miles long. i can't stop! i already shared some of my etsy faves, so i thought i'd share what's on my book wishlist. let the gift-giving begin! {cue evil laugh. mwahhhahahhaa!}

 {this one has been on my list for years.}

{this one too}

{so pretty!}

{i really do heart macarons}

{awesome!}

{not really a book, but i have to include it}

{and one more japanese craft book to finish}

i really don't need more ideas, but i want to know what would be on your book list anyway!

my reading nook

so, i've been wanting a digital reader since they amazon announced they were making the kindle. i really really really wanted one. i may not be the most avid reader ever, but i'm still in the club and this little device definitely appeals to me.

so i splurged with my christmas money and got one.

so far its been, well, awesome!

i wasted no time in renewing our new yorker subscription on my nook {which husband loves to use, too}

and then i got lazy. instead of pulling out my sewing machine, i took the easy way out and bought cozy for it. i figured i would just by the material from etsy anyway, so why not skip a step and buy one? plus, i saw this and immediately described it as "crazy cute".

{i just couldn't resist turning it green, either}

i got it from sakizome and {in my humble opinion} she has the best ebook/ipad cases and the most adorable fabrics. i had trouble narrowing it down. plus, she sent a couple vintage book postcards with my package. how cool is that?

so, i've already got a couple books read and a couple more on my list, but i want to know what you recommend. stumbled across anything good lately??

friday nights

Friday night is our date night. we don't do anything fancy, just cuddle on the couch, indulge in our latest TV obsession, and eat pizza (usually frozen, sometimes delivery) this week it struck me as completely ridiculous that we haven't been making our own. Seriously, we have a bread machine and making crust couldn't be any easier.

Before it goes in the oven:

 (tomato, red onion and yellow pepppers)

when it came out:

so yummy! 

Although i needed to flour the pan a little more, the bottom layer stuck a bit!

As for our TV obsessions, most often it's an old HBO show. Early this year it was The Wire. (seriously almost-unhealtily-obsessed with that one) and now it's Carnivale- it's like a combination of Water for Elephants and Grapes of Wrath (plus there's magic)

 And speaking of Water for Elephants, I'm so excited for the movie! Although I just discovered that Robert Pattinson is the lead. Am I the only woman in America who is not attracted to him. At. All?

book talk

recently finished:

percy jackson book I by rick riordan

i actually borrowed this book from one of my kids at school. they're all completely obsessed with the series and yes, i felt left out of the 4th-6th grade loop. it was really good for kids literature, and my hubby didn't make fun of me once for reading it! {which is a big step for him- i guess when you're getting your masters in literature you have to be a book snob and make fun of stuff your wife reads.}

started, but never finished:

gilead by marilynne robinson

i'm sorry to say that i finally picked up this book {after it was on my to-read list for forever} and i just couldn't finish it. i love the writing style and the stories, but after reading it for 3 days and not making it past page 75, it was just kinda boring, so i decided to quit. which feels wrong somehow. but i say, what the heck?! i'm an adult now, and if i decide i don't like a book, i don't have to finish it!

finishing today:

the unit by ninni holmqvist
i picked this up on a whim at the library tuesday. it looked entertaining so i just jumped in. i didn't read the synopsis because i was afraid it would ruin the story. it's intriguing for sure and translated from swedish.  just what i was looking for.

next up:

that old cape magic by richard russo

i also picked this up at the library. i've been waiting to read it since it came out. richard russo is one of my absolute favorite authors and i'm very excited for this book. {empire falls is one of my all time favorite novels. ever ever.}

can.not.wait for:

the girl who kicked the hornet's nest by stieg larsson

the third {and final} book in the series, which comes out march 25. i am so excited! i read the first book in the series right before the second one came out and devoured them. you should check this series out- it's awesome.

anyone have any books they want to share, too? 

book swap treats

i received my package from my book swap partner yesterday. i'm so excited! krissa sent me this gorgeous copy of her favorite book. and guess what? it's mine too!

 

she inscribed the front with her favorite passage, and signed it "a girl still waiting for her darcy". it's beautiful. 

thanks so much krissa! {and thanks to kateigh for hosting}

in other news: i got a haircut! {photos to come}

and i'm working on my first giveaway. a handmade journal and some other little goodies. i think i'll save it for something big {like 100 followers?} but i'll probably get too impatient to wait for something, so keep your eyes peeled!

book recommendations

i got so many great book recommendations the other day- thank you! i wrote them all down and took the list to the library and i thought you might be interested in what i'm reading now. i narrowed it down based on what was available at the library that day {and some personal choice too, of course}

currently reading: people of the book by geraldine brooks 

{over half done and loving it}

on standby: on beauty by zadie smith

water for elephants by sara gruen

the corrections by jonathan franzen

and to return the favor, here are a couple of my personal recommendations:

empire falls by richard russo

flight by sherman alexi

book talk

 i've been getting sick all week. {which makes sense because hubby has been sick for a week 1 1/2 and has been using my toothbrush!} 
well, i think i've just been fighting it off all week.

which means taking lots of vitamins and sleeping 14 hours a day. which is fine, but i want to read a lot and i just don't have a great book right now. i've been starting and stopping a whole bunch of novels from our home library, but i just can't seem to stick with one.

anyone have any ideas for me?

i'm looking for something interesting that doesn't take too much concentration {since i'm half asleep most of the time} but is a couple steps above chick lit. and i don't want to buy anything, so hopefully it's something i can find at the library.

thanks you guys!

photos from here and here

new year's resolution

i started reading cold tangerines last night, {which was recommended and borrowed from a dear friend} and i really love this quote:

"today is your big moment. moments, really. the life you've been waiting for is happening all around you. the scene unfolding right outside your window is worth more than the most beautiful painting, and the crackers and peanut butter that you're having for lunch on the the coffee table as profound, in their own way, as the last supper. this is it. this is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. but pull off the mask and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chose, woven, crafted."

i love this! this is what i want my life to be. this year i will live my life each and every day. i will work for my goals and plans and dreams every day. i will remember to stop waiting for my life to begin, and start living it. i'm excited about where i am, and where i'm going {even though i have an open-ended 5-year plan} this is my new year's resolution.

"your life, right now, today, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better than the best movie you have ever seen. you and your family and your friends and your house and your dinner table and your garage have all the makings of a life of epic proportions, a story for the ages. because they are. every life is."

i hope this inspires you today.

vintage adventures

i went exploring in vintage manhattan today and it was great! so many little finds and places i want to spend the day exploring in. i have a million photos to show you (and even more i wish i had room for) better yet, come see me and we can explore together!

second thyme around

the grand ol trunk
this place is huge and organized. it's amazing :)
i love looking through trinkets

vintage patterns!
this little treasure reads "recommended for knits"
i may have laughed out loud.

the bookstore
did i mention that all three of these shops are right next to each other?
that's how we do it in kansas- economical!

every nook and cranny is filled with books, and it's so well organized

the music room

tons of old magazines and life magazines.
(the owner said this is all the life magazines they have left from boxes and boxes full.
they're a hot item)

a room full of vintage books. i love the bindings

here are the goodies i came home with
(just a couple small things)

i love the orange ribbon boarder featuring composer names
(and of course the whole stringed instrument thing)

vintage postcard of the jerfferson memorial and dogwood flowers (one of my favorites!)

the stamp says "mailed in the pentagon"
to libbie, from mable and walter.

i have more to share, but it deserves it's own post, so you'll just have to be patient!

a list of books

I heard about this article on the big read that said the average adult has only read 6 books from this list (of 100), which seems kinda shocking to me. 

i've gone through the list and marked the ones i have read:

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - yes

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien –yes

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - no (i kinda hate the bronte sisters)
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling – yes
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - yes
6 The Bible – yes
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - yes (the reason i kinda hate the bronte sisters)
8 1984 - George Orwell -no
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - yes
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - yes
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - yes
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy –no
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller – no
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare – not complete works, but the majority
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - no
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - yes
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - no
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - no *but we own it
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - no
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot- no
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - no
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald - yes
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens- no
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - no *but we own it
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - no
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh - no
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - no *but we own it
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - yes
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - read to me by my dad
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - yes
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - no
33 The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis -yes
34 Emma - Jane Austen - yes
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen -yes (my favorite jane austen novel)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - yes
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres- no
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden - yes
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne – no
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell -yes
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - no
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - no
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving - no
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - no
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery - no
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - no (it's on my "to read" list)
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood - no
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - yes
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan - no
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel - yes
52 Dune - Frank Herbert- no
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - no
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - yes
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth - no
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - no
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - no
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - yes
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - yes
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - saddly, no
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck – yes
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov - no
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt - no (it's on my "to read" list)
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold – yes
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - yes (josh's favorite book)
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac - no
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy - no
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding - yes
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie - no
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville - no
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - no (but i know all the words to the musical)
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker - no
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - yes
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson - no
75 Ulysses - James Joyce - no
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath - no
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome - no
78 Germinal - Emile Zola - no
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray - no
80 Possession - AS Byatt- no
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens -yes
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell - no
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker -no
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro - yes
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - no
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry - no
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White - no?
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom - yes
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - yes
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton – no
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad - no
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupe – no
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks - no
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - no
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole - no
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute - no
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - yes
98 Hamlet – Shakespeare – yes

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl - yes
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - no

my total: 38 books.

i thought maybe i would have read more than that (maybe josh is right and i only read books popular with 12-year-old-boys) 

i've never even heard of some of them (which makes me feel really dumb)

how many have you read? (or never heard of before??)