Owlowiscious Girls

1984 by George Orwell- I have read this book only once about 10 years ago.  I remember very little about it except I remember I loved it.  For the most part I really love speculative worlds or dystopian fictions like Hunger Games , The Giver, and Fahrenheit 451 so it isn't surprising that I do love this one. But this is what I do remember: a bleak world, changing words, Big Brother, and the RATS.  I think I asked myself what my ultimate fear would be, but I don't think I came up with a concrete answer.  I wish I had time to reread it or at least skim some but I was pretty busy today.  I took a really silly picture of what I remember from the real 80s- the side ponytail.  I know it has little to do with the novel but I thought it was fun. #VOTE1984

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is absolutely mad.  Now I did say I was going to try to stick with the books but it is hard to just stick with books when usually your first experience with the characters from said book were from a movie.  The Disney version is mad but not as bat insane crazy as some of the MANY MANY movies and made for tv versions as I have tried to watch.  I still have not seen the most recent one either.  My middle daughter loved the Disney animated version so much before we had streaming I told her it broke the VHS player (this is only partially true). But all this to say I haven't actually sat down and read the book.  It was always too crazy, too loud, too insane, too trippy, and no plot and no morals.  These are the things I kinda have to have in my stories at least a GOOD story should have those things.  So here I am reading it for the very first time as it is a very short book.  It shouldn't take me too long to get through.  As l

There is no question in my mind that I love this book!  Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery is a book full of hope, imagination, and if a book can be a bosom friend this one would be it. I watched the 1985 Anne of Green Gables movie hundreds of times, but I wouldn't really recommend Netflix "Anne with an E" as it is really dark and I don't know what in the world the producers were thinking with the story.  I have only read the book within the past 5 years.  I still haven't read the rest of the series, but this book just gives me all the feels.  For a refresher I read  the chapter where Rachel Lynde says, "Her hair is as red as carrots!"  Oh!  Anne!  Let me give you a hug!  You are so beautiful!  Red hair is amazing!  I will be your bosom friend!  These are the things I want to shout when I read this. If you haven't read this book- read this book!  It is gentle.  It is not in your face.  It is a simple time.  You will love Anne an

According to Goodreads I marked this book as read.  And after listening to about an hour or so of the audio book I am pretty sure I did read it all the way to the end.  I really hope I am not cheating because the only version I remember reading was one of those Illustrated Abridged Classics, but I vaguely remember reading a lot of it in school.  I am going to count that I read it.  This is the copy I remember reading- I felt cheated when I found out all of these books were abridged! When I think of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain I think of Disneyland and Jonathan Taylor Thomas.  I got lost in the cave so I can at least pretend I relate. I am a bigger fan of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn .  Even though I was assigned to read it at least three times in my memory, it really did get better at every read.  Nevertheless the book on the list is very American and I guess I will give it a vote at least once because I still love the characters.  Look-

Now we are beginning with a book I had never heard of until recently on an episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine when Jake meets his half-sister for the first time and they are comparing bad dad stories.  His sister Kate says, "He came to visit once and hooked up with my mom's entire book club.  She can't see a copy of A Prayer for Owen Meany without fully weeping."  Jake replies, "I don't know what that is."  Well neither did I, Jake, neither did I till The Great American Read List came out. I probably won't have time for this book, but the reviews I have read for it sound interesting and I was very intrigued to find out about the faith aspect of this book.  I only read a couple pages but it seems similar to Walker Percy (which I didn't really like), but hopefully this book will be more relatable to me if and when I get a chance to really get into it. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving A Prayer for Owen Meany joined me at the

Here we are on Towel Day.  Yes, I know where my towel is and I will not panic.  If I had planned better I would have had this book ready.  I also thought we owned this book but I could not find it.  Neil said he might have loaned it out.  In any case, my picture for the day includes some version of the audio book and my towel.  I was first introduced to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in college by my excellent friend the late Jason Taylor (God, I miss him).  I have to be honest.  I wasn't completely sold on it and read it multiple times to see if I had missed something.  It has grown on me.  It is silly and funny and has that British dry humor feeling.  I voted for it today in honor of my friend.  It isn't one of my favorites but it reminds me of craziness of college and how we would sit debating on how to start a Douglas Adams lit class.  One day I will try another one of the books in this series.   Since I have already read this book I a

I have been completely inspired by The Great American Read program.  Sometimes as an avid reader I feel alone, but this has really brought me to my people.  I have joined the Facebook Book Club and have totally convinced my crazy self to try to read all 100 books.  There are exactly 100 days to September 1st, but I am not crazy enough to think I could read all 100 in so short a time (1 book a day is just a little TOO crazy).  But what I would like to try is to take a picture with each book as I collect or get them from the library.  While I am doing this I will also be reading as well.  I honestly don't know how this will affect my regular Popsugar Challenge.  But this is too good to pass up and it is an unexpected, unplanned awesome event that I don't want it to pass me by.  For Day 1, and maybe my ultimate summer challenge, is to read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.  I first knew about this story while I was young, but my first memory of it was watching the

I have reached the half way point of the main challenge!!!  Which means summer is nearly here and possibly even MORE reading!  It is an exciting time to be a reader as The Great American Read begins tonight.  I will not be able to watch it because we don't have regular TV channels, but I will most definitely be streaming it tomorrow.   In preparation I have got my check list filled out and I cleaned out my book shelf and gathered as many from the 100 List as I could find.  It wasn't many as I don't tend to read classics or popular books but it will be fun to try to read from this list even if a few are questionable (really? how did Fifty Shades of Grey and Gone Girl make it onto this list?) I know it looks lame with all the Left Behind books but I promise I will start filling it out after I make a few trips to the used bookstore. I have only read 20 on the list. I always knew I liked to read, but I think I can now officially call myself a book nerd.  I j

I don't know if this is even worth a post as I have barely started it and I haven't even gotten Hermione's book yet.  I realized the reason I have been so busy is because I just joined TWO Bible studies which also counts as reading but not for the challenge. MOM'S READING My group voted for Turtles All the Way Down by John Green.  All I have gotten out of it so far is that the main character likes Dr. Pepper and has brain spirals and there is a mystery millionaire missing.  Sounds interesting- I am listening to it on audio book and have only got through the first disc. I hope I find more time to read but for now I am still surprisingly on schedule. Progress:  18/40 &  0/10 HERMIONE'S READING I ended up looking up books for this because I wasn't sure what to look for or what would count.  I found-  this and I think it had some great suggestions that work.  I just picked the first one because deciding is hard for me. AR