icecreamdays’s blog

Well, my reading was pretty much nonexistent at the end of 2008, but I ramped it up in the new year, reading four books in January.  The first I read was Waiter Rant.

Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter

Steve Dublanica Aka The Waiter

Marley & Me

John Grogan

Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak: by Writers Famous and Obscure

Larry Smith

A Dog Named Christmas

Greg Kincaid

It looks like this blog has really become my book review blog.  That's fine with me.  Work is too crazy for me to do much more if I want to have any personal life.  So here are the two books I read in October.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

Vicki Myron

This book was fine.  I'm not much of a cat person so I must admit that I probably would've liked it more if Dewey had been a dog.  I also found it to be somewhat stereotypical "librarian" particularly when the librarian narrator insisted she wasn't trying to use the cat to substitue for other things in her life, particularly a man.  Whatever.  It was an okay story, but I wouldn't recommend it others.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Kate Dicamillo

This book was one of the best I've read in a long time.  It captured my imagination, and I thought the writing was very intelligent, especially for a "young adult" book.  I was intrigued with Edward from the beginning and loved to watch his journey -- both physical and mental -- unfold throughout the story.  I will be reading this again.

September was a slow book month due to my father-in-law's worsening illness.  I was only able to complete one book, and it was interesting.

Between Here and April

Deborah Copaken Kogan

R's dad passed away Thursday.  It wasn't unexpected, but was still sad.  Ironically, his last hour was one of the most peaceful he's had in several weeks.  Since Thursday it's been a whirlwind of activity with preparations for the funeral, planning the post-funeral lunch which we hosted, calling friends and family, and participating in the receiving of friends, funeral mass, and burial.  Yesterday was the mass, burial and luncheon.  We went to bed at 8:30 last night and I did not have any desire to get out of bed this morning...I was still bone tired.  But both R and I returned to work today, and in some ways it is good to be back into a routine after the past two weeks of uncertainty and waiting.  I feel like we've both grown up more in the past five days than we have in the past five years.  And I wish we didn't have to. 

August was a slow reading month due to the fact that we spend most evenings at my inlaws' with my ailing father-in-law.  With that being said, I still managed to get two books in, which will not be the case for September.  I think the books I read show a lot about the situation we're dealing with right now as my father and father-in-law battle cancer.

The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch

If this book taught me one thing it was not to let the little things take over your life.  After spending countless hours on the phone trying to get my internet to work, I finally just canceled the service.  And despite the fact they charged me for two months of service they never adequately provided, I just paid the bill.  Honestly, the amount of time and frustration that would've been required to get a fair bill would not have been worth it.  I wasn't as inspired as I had hoped to be by this book, but it was good nevertheless.

Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying

Maggie Callanan

I read this at the recommendation of a friend at work, and I loved this book.  Having never really spent time around someone who was dying from a terminal illness, I felt that this book gave me a lot of insight.  I think I was really just mostly uncomfortable with and worried about the unknown of what to expect.  This helped quell those fears and help me think about  how I might react to certain situations.  I felt better prepared to deal with whatever might happen after reading this.

I got a lot of reading done in July, mainly due to a restless cross country plane ride and an ailing father-in-law (we spend a lot of time just hanging at the in-laws' house, and I'm reading there.)  Since August, my productivity has slowed down, but here's the results from July.

Off Season

Anne Rivers Siddons

Anne Rivers Siddons is my favorite author.  I was excited to pick up an advance copy of her latest novel at a conference.  I loved it, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the ending.  I thought about the book for a long time after I finished it, and that is a sign of a good book to me...one that stays with you.

Sundays at Tiffany's

James Patterson

I liked this book, despite the fact I didn't feel like the vomiting incident after the beach trip was ever resolved, or even addressed again.  That part was just weird.  It seems the authors cut something out of the book that would have resolved this incident.  Overall, the book was a bit out of the ordinary, but entertaining nonetheless.

Schooled

Anisha Lakhani

This was another advance copy from the conference.  It was a quick read and interesting.  Definitely reminded me of The Nanny Diaries.  I hope that there is exaggeration involved in some of the stories, but I'm sure that, sadly, the types of tutorees exist.

Sweet Valley #3: Playing with Fire (Sweet Valley High)

Francine Pascal

Yet another conference book. I loved this series when I was in middle school, and I thought it would be fun to revisit my childhood by reading one.  Little did I know, the series has been updated for the modern tween and the updates seem rather gratuitous.  The random mentions of texting and Myspace seem forced and take away from the plot, regardless of how shallow the plot may be.  The plot didn't seem shallow when I was 11, and I'm guessing today's 11-year-olds could still enjoy the story without adding random "modern" tidbits.

What's the closest thing you have to a time machine?
Submitted by Verisimilitude.

A scrapbook my mom made for me that is "The ABCs" of my life.  I haven't flipped through it since we moved in, but it's fun to look through it.  I remember D was "Dances" and she had pictures of the dances I went to in high school.  I think B was "Broken Bones" and she had pictures of me with my broken leg at three and my broken arm at six.  It's fun to look back through it.

What was the best thing about your weekend?

Doing nothing Saturday.  After spending most of Friday at the hospital, my back was killing me.  I know it's from stress, as I have previously developed problems from tense muscles in my upper back.  I took a muscle relaxer to prevent it from getting to the point where I can't even turn my head (yea, it has reached that point before) and went to bed.  I woke up about an hour later feeling sick to my stomach.  I'm not sure if the resulting time in the bathroom was a result of the muscle relaxer or the stress.  By Saturday morning I was still dragging with no desire to eat anything.  I spent most of Saturday sleeping on the couch while R spent the day at work.  I almost felt guilty.  By Saturday evening the fog was wearing off and I was able to get some things accomplished around the house.  But it was nice to be able to just be lazy for a day and recover from whatever it is that is making me ill, be it stress, a virus, or both.

We found out the other day that R's dad's cancer has spread to his brain. His initial tumor is now large enough to be causing him a great deal of pain.  We spent all of yesterday afternoon at the hospital learning about next steps.  They will be giving him pain medication to get him through the weekend, and on Monday will do a nerve block to try to relieve the pain more permanently.  He should be released from the hospital Tuesday and will then come home.  My mother-in-law has arranged for home hospice.  The doctors have said he has about one to two months to live.  R's sister will be coming in from the west coast this Wednesday.  It's going to be a tough few months ahead of us.

Have you ever broken a bone? If not, what's the worst injury you've sustained?

I've suffered from broken bones three times in my life.  I was born with a broken clavicle, I broke my leg when I was three tripping over a bedspread, and I broke my arm when I was six when I landed on it in the only way possible to break it in three places.  I was nervous when I turned nine that the broken bone every three years trend would continue.