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2. Pinterest: Because you need to know my favorite lip gloss shades
3. How I Got LOST

• I almost finished it last night, but I was tired of crying over it — so I’m finishing The Bridges of Madison County this morning and blubbering into my coffee mug. Are you on Goodreads?
• If I could afford this number by Monique Lhuillier it would be my goal dress. (Ready-to-Wear Pre-Fall 2012 12363-544…for posterity)
  HOT DOG. Can we make this happen? I need this dress and a fancy place to go.
• Tips on choosing the right photographer (h/t LeAnna)
• The Target Lady was on SNL this weekend. She brings me so much joy.
• Been meaning to try these Scottish Oak Cakes for a while now. They sound tasty.
• Love isn’t so much afraid of stuff — “it’s too late, you’re in”
• Samantha Lamb’s “made with love” sale is going on and if you love meadows and quilts and honey and the kind of gentle beauty she captures, head over there and check it out. And if you haven’t seen her work…well, go!

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1. Wednesday Morning Coffee
2. Monday Morning Coffee – Welcoming My Keurig
3. Monday Morning Coffee

Claire Marvel by John Burnham Schwartz – This is a story about how woman touched a man’s life. The brief period they had together and how it changed him. Then toward the end when they have the chance to be together again. It’s heartbreaking, close to perfect, and very relatable for me.

There is before her and now there is after her, and that is the difference in my life.

She made an impact, that’s for sure.

I’ll be honest and say that this book was a “right place, right time” read for me and I haven’t read it through in years, other than random highlighted passages, so I’m not sure as a whole how it would hold up for me. My hopes are high and I would like to say the same as before. The bits I have highlighted and underlined are surely just as beautiful. This is one of the few that I pull off the shelf over and over again, to remember where I was and why certain lines touched me as they did.

After dinner she was the first to go upstairs. I remained by the fire, poking the gnarled, slow-burning logs with a stick. Soon I heard her running a bath, the old pipes filling the house with their crotchety deliberations. I thought about the meal we’d just eaten and how afterward — contented, exhausted, quiet — we’d stood together at the stained white sink and washed the dishes. There were all the mundane aspects of her life about which I realized I knew little — how she put on lipstick, rode a bicycle, took a bath, opened a present, folded a shirt — and which appeared suddenly illumined now that we were here alone, living together: a series of prosaic firsts that felt like love letters and that I wanted to catalogue for myself as though they belonged to me.

I sat down on the landing, my back against the outer wall of my room, unable now to see any part of her. the floor was cold. The house was still. There were just her occasional liquid movements coming through the door like a private language.

I tried simply to be. To listen to the sounds of her.

*sigh*

There is so much here. Pick it up. Tell me what you think.

I was planning on including a list of books today, but this got a bit long. Instead I’ll be doing a series of installments. I’ve never been able to do a list of my “favorite” books because I always feel like I’m leaving something out or I change my mind. But these fit this particular category — the ones I return to. Take a look. You might like them, too.

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1. Read-A-Thon Picks
2. Meeting Anne
3. Readathon!

• How to Be a Writer: Building Your Creative Skills Through Practice and Play
• Getting the Words Right
• The Complete Handbook Of Novel Writing: Everything You Need to Know About Creating & Selling Your Work (Writers Digest)
• Story Structure Architect
• Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go
• Write That Book Already!: The Tough Love You Need To Get Published Now

Books free at time of posting. Please check price before purchasing to make sure they are still free. May not be free for customers outside of the U.S. Affiliate links used.

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1. Book Review – Love & War by John & Stasi Eldredge
2. Happy (belated) birthday to me!
3. Sunday Afternoon Readathon

♥ the scent of maple syrup mingling with fluffy, buttery pancakes in the morning
♥ extra blankets
♥ accepting life as it is, right now
♥ a freshly mopped floor
♥ borrowed books
♥ “Every writer wants to be believed. But every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic.” – John le Carré
♥ warm sheets when the weather turns cold
♥ words spilling onto the page
♥ You are the stream, the fish, the light,
the pulsing shadow.
You the unchanging presence, in whom all
moves and changes.
How can I focus my flickering, perceive
at the fountain’s heart
the sapphire I know is there? – Denise Levertov

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1. In my heart I feel I’ve always known you
2. ♥
3. What does it mean when…

If you missed it, here’s my stack.

Goals: Spend 3 hours cheering and finish 800 pages

Pages read: 987
Time spent reading: 7 hours 30 mins
Time spent cheering: 2 hours 15 mins
Titles finished during Read-A-Thon: Two — Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Scroll down for mini-challenges!

Reading:
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse – FINISHED
Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
Crank by Ellen Hopkins – FINISHED
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

Updates:
7:00 – And go! Starting with Out of the Dust because it encourages me when I can get my page count up in the beginning.

8:00 – About halfway through Out of the Dust and having a great time.

9:15 – Done a little cheering and finished my first book. Thank you, YA fiction for making me feel like I’ve accomplished something this morning!

11:00 – Took a few breaks. One for breakfast and one to discuss purchasing a new computer with my husband. I’m a few chapters into Linger and enjoying it. Might take a break from it in a little while and start on some non-fiction. Having a lot of fun cheering here and there. Haven’t kept up with many of the mini-challenges though.

12:30 – Linger is great. Making myself get to page 100 before I switch to Crank by Ellen Hopkins. I knew I left one of my intended reads out of the stack. Now I’m going to go tackle a few mini-challenges before I get back to reading.

2:00 – Got caught up in Linger so I’m just now about to stark Crank. Temperature is changing here in OK. Think I may open a window and let in some of the fresh air.

3:51 – Three-hundred pages into Crank. This was one I picked up because all the kids in the age group that I work with are reading it. It’s rough content. It’s in verse and there’s so much more you can get away with when writing in verse. Flashes of images, insinuation…without spelling out the whole thing on paper. I had such a sheltered childhood and adolescence that it’s hard for me to imagine a 15-year-old girl living like this — even though I know it’s true because I grew up with girls just like this.

5:04 – Into Under the Banner of Heaven now. Fundamentalist crazies at their finest. I highly recommend this one. It’s full of well-researched information from the get-go. Maybe going back to Crank right now just so I can finish it. It’s depressing :/

7:13 – I should finish Crank soon and move onto something else. I distracted myself for about an hour watching the storms roll in.

Congrats to everyone who has made it halfway! Now, a totally random song for you to enjoy. Only maybe not so random because it’s some of my favorite reading music.

9:00 – I’ve been letting myself get too distracted so I’m not making the progress I’d like in this book, but I’m back in Under the Banner of Heaven. Good stuff.

10:30 – Under the Banner of Heaven is FASCINATING. Glad I’m finally reading it. As for how I’m fairing — not tired at all and enjoying my books, so I may be at it for a while tonight!

12:10 – Took a bath to try to soothe my poor shoulder (I must have done something in that shopping extravaganza yesterday), now I’m all relaxed and probably won’t make it much longer. If I don’t get anymore read tonight, I’m okay with it. I exceeded my goal by a bit. I’ll post again before I turn in for the night.

12:35 – Calling it a night. My sinuses are bothering me and I’m starting to fade. Knowing how early I tend to wake up I may be joining you all for the last couple of hours, but I’m not making any promises. It’s been fun and I consider this one another success!

Hour 1
1)Where are you reading from today? – Norman, Oklahoma
2)Three random facts about me… – I’m an oldest child, Mary Boleyn was my 15-great-grandmother, and I have a pair of hitch-hiker thumbs
3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? – Fifteen or somewhere thereabouts.
4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)? – I’d like to read 800 pages
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time? – Take it slow and just have fun!

Hour 13
Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now? Crank
2. How many books have you read so far? I’ve finished one, been reading 3 others.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Minotaur (see stack for more info)
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? My husband understands (this is the 5th?? Read-a-Thon I’ve done since we’ve been married) and my family knows not to call
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? None other than myself!
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? How fast it has gone by this year.
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? None that I can think of at this point.
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? I think next time I’m going to work out a better schedule for myself instead of just willy-nilly doing whatever I want.
9. Are you getting tired yet? Not at all. I thought I was going to take a nap earlier, but I ended up reading my way through mid-afternoon slump.
10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? Pace yourself with the caffeine!

Hour 16 Mini-Challenge: Rereading

Minotaur by Benjamin Tammuz has been one of my favorites since the first time I read it. It’s the beautiful and tragic tale of a Mossad agent who falls in love with a girl. There’s much more to it than that, but it is the most painful love story I have ever read. I chose to add it to my list this time around because it’s been so long since I last read it and I want to remind myself of some of my favorite things about the novel. The prose is breathtaking. Here’s a snippet:

He read through her letter again and again and for the first time considered the possibility that they might meet, and thus the last card would be laid on the table, and with the final victory, as far as was possible to tell, would also come the final blow. There was no doubt in his heart that Thea was ready to fall into his arms, but he also knew that he would have nothing to offer her apart from the initial giddiness. In the dance–which he was ready to join–he would be tottering to his end.

I only wish that I could read Hebrew, because I know I’m losing a lot in translation.

Related posts:

1. Read-A-Thon!
2. Read-A-Thon!
3. My Read-a-Thon Stack

Remember, Read-a-Thon isn’t about finishing all the books in your stack (though some people do aspire to such heights), but about enjoying the time you can devote to reading. And a massive stack is about having lots of options for any mood that may strike. In my stack this go-round…

(RR) indicates a re-read

Country Matters by Michael Korda — Been on my “to read” shelf for a long time and I want to get to it.
Minotaur by Benjamin Tammuz (RR) — This book is one of my most treasured possessions. When I was in 10th grade I saw the film on TV and the story stuck with me. I had to seek out the novel by Israeli author Benjamin Tammuz. This story means more that I can possibly tell. Putting it in the stack so I can travel back to the point in my life when I first read it, if just for a moment.
Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary (RR) — One of my favorite reads from childhood. It’s there for when I get tuckered out.
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (RR) — A verse novel set in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl. It’s a quick and easy read, but poignant.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer — Started, but never finished. Hoping to make it all the way through this one.
(not pictured) Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer — Started this already and loving it. I’ll be surprised if I don’t finish this one on Saturday.
(not pictured) Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay — The next book I have to read in the Dexter series. This will be a quick read.
Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan — There’s a lot of controversy surrounding this as apparently the author stated it was inspired by actual events that happened to her, but when confronted by the Aboriginal people that she wrote about she admitted that the entire thing was made up. Interested to see what it’s all about.
Salt by Isabel Zuber — Been on the TR shelf for over a year now and I’m anxious to get to this story.
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (RR) — Long-time favorite of mine. It’s been years since I’ve read this story and if time permits I would like to go through it again.
Linger by Maggie Stiefvater — Clearly, I’m starting with this one. I can’t wait to see what happens next in the series. Hopefully I will make it to Forever before the next Read-a-Thon.
Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski — When everyone else in my English classes wanted to marry Chuck Klosterman because of Sex, Drugs, & Cocoa Puffs, I was way out in left field pining after this guy. I can’t explain it. It’s weird.
The Complete Poems of E. E. Cummings — My all-time favorite poet. This is a very special book to me, given by a friend. Can’t wait to dive in again.

And if that’s not enough, I may, at some point, pick up Sarum. Again. That behemoth.

I have a handful of books on my Kindle that I have already been reading and will probably finish on Saturday. They include:

The Heart of Memory by Alison Strobel
The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards

I’m ready for Saturday!

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2. Read-A-Thon!
3. Sunday Afternoon Readathon

I’ve lived in this town for almost 10 years and have never stepped a foot in the public library. Ridiculous, right? My college years were peppered with visits to the university’s large library, but I rarely spent more time there than what it took to locate what I needed in the massive expanse of stacks. Leaving campus for anything was a real treat, however, the public library never made it onto our list of frequented places. Like the frozen custard place. And I think my roommate and I both visited the frozen custard place more than the university library anyway.

A few weeks ago I decided that I needed to take my library card (which I have had for years) and head over there for a visit. Read-a-Thon is coming up and while my “to read” shelf here at the house is bursting at the seams, there are a few new releases that I’ve been wanting to get my hands on.

Cue disaster striking whenever I make plans to visit a place. (See: Christmas 2009, our 2nd attempt at Christmas 2009, and Spring Break 2010) The news broke that bedbugs had invaded my town’s library. FABULOUS. And as when any news breaks on the 10pm newscast, my mom calls me (while I am watching said newscast) and says, “DON’T GO TO THE LIBRARY!”

So I didn’t.

BUT. The library came to me. That very same week the Kindle library lending feature was launched and I have been sitting pretty ever since.

I’m trying not to go crazy and check more things out than I can finish and so far I think I’m doing well in that aspect. There’s no need to hog a book that I can’t get to for a week if another patron is wanting to read it right then. A few of the books I’ve checked out to my Kindle I have been saving for Read-a-Thon and I’m really excited for that to happen! (Now I just have to get the rest of the study back in order so that I can be ready on Saturday. I can’t read in an untidy room. My mom would probably tell you that I somehow managed to get past that when I lived at home.)

Another feature they have that also allows me to check out books in my pajamas is their online audio catalog. That’s been available this whole time, I just hadn’t sought it out. I checked out Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, which I’ve already read, because I wanted to get a refresher on it before starting Linger (which I intended to read at the last Read-a-Thon). Love me some YA werewolf fiction.

How about you? Do you frequent your public library? How do you feel about audio books? Have you signed up for Read-a-Thon yet?

Stay tuned. Tomorrow I’ll be posting my Read-a-Thon stack!

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♥ We cannot be young twice; we cannot turn upon our steps, and go back to gather the garlands we gathered ten years ago. And, therefore, with a gaze over on the cross upon the distant hills, and a remembrance always of the shadow land that lies beyond, let us endeavor to be contented with small things, and to make ourselves happy in the pleasantness of simple pleasures. – Holme Lee
♥ seeing our streetlight from the sky
♥ celebrating with family
♥ the first day of Autumn
♥ reconnecting
♥ a new book that you can’t put down
♥ The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands. – Psalm 19:1
♥ painting bright colors over dark
♥ ushering in the season
♥ welcoming the chill
♥ hearing the high school marching band practice early in the morning
♥ trips back home
♥ the -ember months

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♥ these words:
It is enough for me by day
To walk the same bright earth with him;
Enough that over us by night
The same great roof of stars is dim.

I have no care to bind the wind
Or set a fetter on the sea–
It is enough to feel his love
Blow by like music over me. – Sara Teasdale, “Enough”

♥ being on course
♥ finding new inspiration
♥ The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions — the little soon forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
♥ remembering what i want
♥ in your eyes are my secrets / that I’ve never shown you / in my heart I feel I’ve always known you
♥ provision
♥ divine appointments
♥ Light tomorrow with today. – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
♥ God’s timing
♥ the love of a dear friend
♥ learning the impact you’ve had on the life of another
♥ Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic well-being than any other single factor. – Paul Hawken
♥ true, heart friends
♥ To love is to find pleasure in the happiness of others. – Gottfried Leibniz

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