2012 BOTY: Girl in Translation

Source

At the beginning of Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok, Kimberly Chang and her mother move to the United States from Hong Kong with the assistance of her mother's sister. Because of this help, as well as the money she spent to cure Kimberly's mother of tuberculosis, they are heavily indebted to Aunt Paula.

Even though they are family members, they are treated deplorably. Aunt Paula sets them up with housing in a worn down area of Brooklyn - in a neighborhood of condemned buildings. She repeatedly vocalizes what a favor she is doing for them. Meanwhile, their apartment is small, cold and in need of serious repair. There are cockroaches everywhere and broken windows that let in the cold air.There is no heat. Kimberly and her mother often spend the cold winter evenings huddled together covered by all of the clothes they own in a futile attempt to keep warm.

Mrs. Chang is employed by Aunt Paula at the clothing factory she and Uncle Bob own. She is paid pennies by the piece. Kimberly works alongside her mother in the illegal sweatshop every evening after school and begins to value items based upon the number of completed dresses they would cost.

But Kimberly is special. She is a bright student with an aptitude for math. Though she initially has a rudimentary knowledge of the English language, she is able to struggle through her first year of American school. She works hard to be the best student she can be, trying to make something of the sacrifices that her mother has taken, all the while hiding her poverty from those around her. Her only hesitation, her one weakness - is for Matt - another factory worker's son. He catches her eye when they are just children, but her love for him grows over the years.

Girl in Translation far exceeded my expectations. I chose this book rather randomly off of my "to read" list and I'm very glad I did. The story was written beautifully with an amazing amount of detail that made me frequently feel as if I were reading a memoir. 

Kimberly is a fantastic character, built as a very determined young lady. She has an amazing amount of will to accomplish those things she sets out to do and she sets very high expectations for herself. This young girl works harder than most adults in today's society, doing everything she can to help her small family survive and excel. 

I do wish that the ending hadn't seemed so abrupt. The end of the book seemed somewhat rushed, still written well but not in the flowing and enthralling way that it had been for the prior 200 pages. I would've rated this book as a perfect 5, but this ending made it lose a little of its luster. Still very much worth reading, Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok receives 4 out of 5 stars.

Summary Sunday : Not Much of a Summary Edition

I've bailed out for the week so there isn't much to share as far as blog progress or blog reading goes. It's been a busy one...

We attended Darian's science fair on Tuesday and then went to dinner with Collin's sister Krista and her daughter Abigail afterwards. It was a good evening and everyone was fairly impressed with Dar's project. I think he did a very good job of explaining to everyone. I was certainly happy to have Mrs. Hahn (a school principal from when I attended Dar's school) tell me how wonderful she thought it was and that he should be a scientist.

Collin got a call from Darian at school on Wednesday. Never a good sign. It turns out that he hasn't learned his lesson and had lied to his teacher twice, as well as to me the night before. Once again, he was not turning in his work and she found it shoved in the back of his desk. The frustration continues and he has been grounded yet again.

Wednesday was also the 4th grade Idaho History Program. Darian did his speaking part quite well and he impressed us with his ability to dance the "Saturday Night Quadrille" with the other members of his class. Too bad his rhythm doesn't extend to clapping...

Thursday we had Abigail's 1st birthday party. She was quite the entertaining birthday girl. She is very talkative and emotive. I worked the majority of the week sewing her a teddy bear and I'm happy to say that she loved her present. (I'll teach you how I made him on another day...)

Friday night I went out with the girls for some wings and The Hunger Games. Though I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed in the way it didn't follow the book quite as closely as the Harry Potter series, it was a good movie and I will most likely be watching it again soon. I told Darian that we would go to the theater if he could finish the book. We will see...I suppose he'll have to get ungrounded again first...

Yesterday, a few of the girls came over for a scrapbooking day. It was nice to relax a bit, but I am apparently out of touch with my scrap skills. I was a little rusty and didn't really accomplish what I normally would have. All well, I suppose we all have off days.

Collin and I spent the afternoon by taking the dogs to the dog park for a much needed run and then managed to have our first date in nearly three months. It was nice to finally have some time together...we don't get that much anymore.

I promised to give a couple of recipes at the beginning of the week and I crapped out on that...so...I'm making up for it now.

I posted these pictures last week :

They were both delicious recipes, so I suppose I'll go ahead and share. I'm sure you won't be surprised to find out that they were both from Pinterest. The Tomato Basil Soup was incredibly easy to make, very healthy and perfect for a rainy day. The Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting were a fantastic use of some of that pureed pumpkin I have at my disposal. I did alter her frosting recipe slightly in order to use up the remainder of the heavy cream from the soup recipe, but I'm sure her frosting tastes just as yummy.

There you have it. I have spent most of today relaxing and managed to finish off all of the How I Met Your Mother episodes available on Netflix. It's killing me that I'm going to have to wait until around November to see season seven. In the meantime, I've watched the first episode of Downton Abbey. It's been having quite a bit of buzz lately, but I'm not sure what I think. I'm heading down to watch the second episode so that I can decide whether I'm going to stick with it.

Summary Sunday: Relaxation Edition

Things have finally calmed down around here...at least until tomorrow. I've had a nice couple of days relaxing while Dar's been with his mom and Collin has been working and teaching. (Maybe one of these days I'll be able to have a relaxing day with Collin.)

Darian and I finished his science project on Thursday...thank goodness. I think it turned out pretty well.

He has his science fair on Tuesday night and then his Idaho History Program on Wednesday night. It's going to be a busy week.

Friday night I started prepping some things for the big project of the year. I'm still not telling you exactly what I'm doing, but I'll start dropping little hints as the year goes on.

I saw a commercial for ACE Hardware where they mentioned free paint on Saturday. I'm totally about the free stuff. So I decided to pick out my colors. I ran up to the crop room and sorted through my paint chip stash. (What? Doesn't everyone have one?) I ended up picking out Midnight Iris and Green Banana.

How cute are those?? I took off Saturday morning on a mission for paint. It got interesting when the store couldn't match my color due to a base issue, so I ended up picking out new colors based on what they had available. Still pretty close though. I'm now going with Iris Plum and Tropical Grass.

And now I have my 2 free quarts of paint. It should be close to enough. I may have to pick up a bit extra down the road...we'll see.

I've also been working on my Project Life. As predicted, the journaling is proving frustrating. However, it's the actual printing that's being the trouble, not the writing. After nearly 5 years, I apparently still don't know how to load paper into my printer when I'm printing on landscape. I screwed up two journaling cards last night before I gave up. Maybe I'll do some more today.

What else has been going on this week?

Posts I Posted : I gave you not one, but two Project Life posts. I talked to you about my failure to purchase the right product before starting the project and I gave you a little OCD present in the form of some printables for Project Life planning. I also shared my review of my Goodreads book, Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung. As part of my good karma for that I learned this week that I have won two more books from Goodreads. I'm telling you, I just love that site!

Books I Read : I'm a little slow on the reading these days, what with doing science projects for three full weeks and spending until 11pm doing math homework. (Geez, 4th grade is hard.) I did finish Forgotten Country but it doesn't really count since I technically finished it last week. I have started reading I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. It was recommended by Patti. It takes a lot of focus and energy to read since I want to glean every bit of information I can, but so far I'm learning some things that I think will make our lives easier when it comes to money. Time will tell. I'm going to have to break it up over the next few weeks so that I don't get overwhelmed, so I'll be starting a second book here soon. I haven't decided what to read just yet...

Recipes I Tried : The science project did attempt to strangle my cooking for the week, but I managed to bounce back with a few things. I again made the delicious Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake. I muffed up and only bought half of the blueberries I needed, so we wound up with a smaller batch this time.

Yesterday, I made some wonderful Tomato Basil Soup...

...and today I busted out these bad boys...

I'll be sharing both of those recipes tomorrow.

Projects I Finished : I made some serious headway on the big project. I drew up some plans and did some measurements and dismantling. I also got that wonderful paint. I'm really excited for how this could turn out. I don't think I'll be able to keep it secret for long. I'll probably start sharing bits and pieces that will more or less give it away here in the next couple of weeks.

Favorite Blog Post : I finally got caught up on all of my blog reading. And what do I have to share with you, you say? Well, Geek in Heels came through again with her hilarious White Guy Dance Moves Infographic. As always, you're welcome.

Now...if you'll excuse me, I'm off to do some really important work pinning things on Pinterest.

Project Life Week 1: A Book, a Nook, and a Bit of Standard Me

The Project Life experiment continues successfully. I'm hitting it hard with some serious journaling tomorrow. 

Journaling is often the bane of my existence. When I first started scrapbooking, I didn't journal much at all. I thought it would be simple just to remember all of the memories...I didn't need to write them down. Then I came to a couple of realizations...

#1 - It's hard to share my memories with others if they aren't there for them to understand. A picture of someone in the middle of a cornfield won't make a bit of sense without the explanation of why it is important to me. 

#2 - Alright, let's face it, I'm getting older. And I'll be perfectly honest, my memory isn't always stellar. 

I realized that the pictures and the journaling have to be partners. Yes, there are pages that don't necessarily need it - they're just pretty or funny - but the majority of times the memories need to be documented. My LIFE needs to be documented. So...I started writing it down as much as I could. Sometimes it's goofy and sometimes it's not the smoothest, but it's there. 

Maybe one of these days it'll come easy, but for now it's just one of those things I struggle with. All of the thoughts are there, I'm just too lazy to put them on paper. Sometimes it can just be difficult to sift through it all and find the things that are important.

So the journaling has been the biggest challenge of Project Life for me. But I'm persevering. I love this system so much that I'm working hard to keep up with it. Documenting life has become even more important, but vastly easier and a heck of a lot more streamlined.

I mentioned last time that I'm doing a two-page spread for each week of the year. I'm going to share them with you one week at a time. So...here it is...Week 1 (January 1st - January 7th).

I'm kind of learning this system as I go and making changes as I go along. I'm liking the pattern that I've settled into. Each spread has a card with the date and each page at the start of a new month has a section for the name of the month. I know that sounds super awkward, but I can't think of an easier way to say it - just look at the page. You'll know what I'm talking about.

I'm using a hodgepodge of materials to fill my journaling spaces. I'm using the journaling cards provided in the kit, but I'm also using printables I've found from other Project Life users and bits of my own creativity. Yup...occasionally I have those.

The first week of January was the beginning of new resolutions and new journeys. I finished up my bracket for my favorite book of 2011 and decided that it was a project that I really enjoyed in 2011. The excitement increased when I received a Nook as a Mother's Day present from Carole. I'm addicted. I love it. I was reading so much that I upped the ante and decided that the goal for 2012 is 64 books.

Darian decided to join me and made his own goal of 32 books for the year. I'm really impressed with his desire to read so much.

I also managed to pull a standard dumb moment. What would 2012 be without me being an airhead? I went to the post office to mail a package on my lunch break and managed to lose my phone. Twenty panicked minutes late, I located it at the post office. I had dropped it in the parking lot. Crisis averted.

The first week of January was also the start of my journey to get my pain diagnosed. I'd been having random joint and muscle pain since the summer of 2011. During the first week of January, I finally got in to see the rheumatologist. I was in a lot of pain that day and decided to switch vehicles with Collin so that I didn't have to drive the stickshift. I made it home just in time to have Collin call me to say that he didn't have a key to the Ranger. He stubbornly refuses to put the extra key on his key ring. I wound up driving back to his office to give him the key and then made the return trip home. Ridiculous.

So Week 1 ended up being half new starts and half stupid mistakes. All right...quite possibly par for our family.

2012 BOTY : Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung

Source

Janie's family moved to the United States from Korea when she was very small. She remembers some about it, but much of her family's history and life in Korea remains a mystery. She remembers vague stories her grandmother told of how every generation has lost a sister. Janie is baffled by the disappearance of her Auntie and the family's decision to consider her dead. She wants to know more.

She is working to complete her thesis in mathematics in order to make her father proud. She is a dutiful daughter working for the approval of her parents. She is amazed at how her father's love of numbers shaped her own path. She values his brilliant mind and credits him with how far she has come. Life seems to be moving in a right direction.

But life is turned upside down when Janie's sister Hannah, disappears without a trace. Janie's parents are desperate to find her, but it quickly becomes apparent through an empty apartment (with a note in Hannah's handwriting stating that all of the remaining items are free), that Hannah has left them with no intention of returning.

After months of her parents trying to find her and her mother's steady increase in hysteria, Janie learns the secret her parents have been hiding: her father is dying of cancer. It has metastasized and he is terminal. The doctor has recommended that he move back to Korea where they have a revolutionary treatment that may extend his life by a few months. Janie's mother speaks of family duty and pleads with Janie that it is up to her to retrieve her lost sister so that the family can be together in Korea for her father's final days.

Janie begins a journey of balance. She wants to learn the secrets of her family's past. She wants to be a happy family and help to make her father feel joy and peace in the end of his life. However, she also harbors a bitterness from Hannah's abandonment. She wants to punish her sister for leaving the family and is loathe to take on the obligation of returning her wayward sister.

I received Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung as a giveaway from Goodreads. I love that website! I started the book with wavering optimism, so far the books I've received from the giveaways have all been quite good. I didn't want to be let down.

The story is good, but lacked the intensity I needed to suck me in. Though I wanted to continue reading the book, I found that I would put it off for no apparent reason. The draw wasn't there. That being said, there is some fantastic writing and Chung manages to create a vivid picture through her description.

My biggest issue was with what appeared to be several sudden shifts in plot. These transitions sometimes seemed a bit rough and confusing, as if there was question for the reason a certain chapter or story was included. In the end, the majority of these little pieces did come together, but I ended the book with a feeling of emptiness and uncertainty. Though I enjoyed the pathway that I had traveled to reach the ending, I didn't feel that the journey was complete. I was left wanting more...wanting resolution.

I debated for a while as to how to rate this book. My system became slightly fuzzy. I knew it wouldn't receive the low one star rating or the high five star rating, but I needed to figure out where it fell in between.  I don't know that I would necessarily read it again...pushing it towards the 2 rating...but I did like the writing style over all. Had the ending been more appropriately powerful, I think it would've made the book much more enjoyable. So in the end, Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung receives 3 out of 5 stars.


Like to read? Need some ideas and maybe a little motivation? Come join me on Goodreads and take part in the 2012 Reading Challenge. So far I've read 11 books towards my goal of 64 for the year and I've found a lot of great books from seeing what my friends recommend. Plus...there's always the chance to win a new book of your own!

Project Life 2012: In the Beginning...

I've been promising and promising that I would share my Project Life pages. I am finally coming clean on that promise. It only took me two months. I'm breaking it up into pieces since the posts will otherwise be crazy long, but we're getting started today. I mean it!

I will tell you though, it was not without some serious stressing on my part. The first problem came with the fact that I forgot to request the pocket page protectors when I made my Christmas list. When I went out to get myself some (on the day after Christmas, mind you) they were sold out! The nerve. I had to wait and wait and finally got them two weeks ago. In the meantime, I've been using the pocket protectors from We R Memory Keepers. A very good substitute and they have added more variety to my scrapbook - something I always like. The second issue was the photography. I couldn't get them to properly scan due to the height of the pages. I love my scanner, but apparently that extra 1/2" is just too much for it. So...I tried regular photography. Fail. Flash blobs everywhere and I couldn't go without flash because (as we all know) I tend to procrastinate and do my blogging late at night. Attempt #3...the light box. This may end up working find for regular pages, but again, the pocket protectors posed problems and...well...I just got pissed and gave up.

This week I decided it was time to suck it up and just go with it. So...I found the best light I could in my apparently dark and shadowy house and took photos of the pages...in...their...binder. The horror. I'll admit, not my proudest moment, but too stinking bad. This is what we're going with. You can no longer call me a liar...at least with this project. We won't talk about the Christmas projects I still haven't made tutorials for. (Pretend you didn't read that last sentence.)

My stash...the turquoise kit with binder and POCKET PAGE PROTECTORS.

For those of you not familiar, Project Life is an ingenious product created by the wonderful Becky Higgins. Everything you need comes in her little kit (if you remember to buy the pocket pages. BUY THE POCKET PAGES!). You just add photos and journal. It all gets compartmentalized into cute little pockets. Easy. I'm finding that I really like it. I will still continue to do my regular scrapbooking, but this works fantastically for creating our family album for the year. I'm planning to continue to do one for each year.

Initially I was afraid that I wouldn't have enough photos...I'm doing a 2 page spread for each week and I was worried that most of my pockets would remain empty. I'm finding that this isn't the case. For the most part they fill up quickly and I end up with extra photos.

This is where I confess...I might be a little OCD. Just a tad. I decided that I couldn't do this without some sort of organizational system. I needed something to keep track of what happened when because I am a serious procrastinator when it comes to journaling. Like a lot. So I jumped onto Publisher and made myself a Project Life Planner. And since I'm so nice...I'm going to share it with you...

Here it is:

I'm a little nuts. I admit it. Ok...so this is how it works.

The left side page has diagrams of all of the page protectors. Once I know which pages I'll be using, I indicate them on the page. I write into each piece as I know what I want there. Sometimes this takes a little rearranging...like when I have a horizontal 4x6" space, but a vertical 4x6" picture. But it definitely helps.

The right hand page is - for all intents and purposes - my daily journal. I track the day/date and what each one of us did, the highlights of the day or recipes that we tried. In the far right column I keep track of the pictures I have taken or want to take and the items I want to add to that week's pages.

This all helps take off the stress of putting the book together. If I don't have time to work on it one week, then I just jot down the daily activities and I'm good to go for later. I like it much better that way.

If you want to use these pages for yourself, feel free...here are the links...but if you mention them on your own blog, please give me credit and/or link back to this post.

Project Life Layout Plan

Project Life Planner

Finally...I'm going to go ahead and show you my title pages for 2012. Hey...it's a start. And...as always...clicking on the photos will blow them up larger for you.

The title line took me forever to decide how to do. When I first started, I had cut out the title in brown cardstock using my Pazzle. It just ended up looking too drab. So...I traced around it thinking that would make it pop more. Meh. It was okay. I ended up pulling the cardstock off completely and coloring in the outline using my white Uniball Signo. (I love that pen.)

The opening photo is our annual photo from The Farmstead, a local pumpkin patch. This one was taken in October of 2011.

 

I have always been a huge fan of rub-ons. I loved being able to capitalize on the presence of this circle. The quote seems fitting enough.

I am also a big fan of Ali Edwards. Ali supports a campaign she created called One Little Word. She challenges scrappers to base their family scrapbooking for the year around one word. Mine seems simple enough. To me, the biggest importance of our family is being together. So that was it...together is my word for 2012.

Some scrappers move right into the week by week pages after their title. With my One Little Word approach, I decided that I needed to explain the theme a little before I moved into weekly photos. So I added this extra spread.

The left side page spewed out of me. I just sat down and started typing. This was actually before I had officially chosen my 2012 word, but it became pretty obvious as I wrote that together was going to have to be the word I used. (For those of you wondering, the font I'm primarily using for the year is another Ali creation, it's CK_Alis_Hand_Official. I love it!)

For the right had page I further set up our family togetherness by using photos of us from 2009 and 2010. While looking for these photos I also realized that I need to start making sure we get more photos of the three of us together through the year. We have very few.

And that's it...the setup. Now hopefully I can stay on the ball and regularly post the weekly layouts. Because I'm a total sloth at journaling, I'm going to aim for one 2-page layout every other week. That should give me a sufficient buffer to get my crap together. If I'm doing better than that, well...then I guess you'll get lucky!

Summary Sunday: Science Project Edition

Oh my goodness...this science fair project may be the death of me. Darian and I spent all last weekend gathering up names from the cemeteries and then a few hours during the week entering his data into Excel. And guess what I've been doing this weekend... Yup. More science project. I have now entered over 1000 names into the spreadsheet. We still have a pile more to go. Not only are we using the names we gathered from walking around, we also found a bunch more online. Thanks to projects like Ancestry.com, people have started fully documenting this kind of thing for the web. There were quite a few of our local cemeteries who have their lists of interred posted.

Darian has written the majority of his report and we are waiting on Collin to bring home the tri-fold presentation board after he finishes teaching today. Why aren't we going to get it ourselves you ask? Oh...well that would be the other gem of the week.

Collin finally came home from the mine this Friday. He was supposed to leave there around 1pm, but didn't get out of there until after 4:30 thanks to the ineptitude of other individuals he works with. He phoned me from Yellowpine at nearly 6pm to tell me he was finally headed down the mountain. Scratch date night. Time went by and I still hadn't heard from him after a couple of hours. I figured maybe the roads were just a little worse than he had originally thought. Nope. At 9 he called to tell me that he was just getting close to Cascade and that the brakes had gone out on the truck. WHAT!?! Mind you, this was the truck that had received an oil change two weeks earlier and that I had JUST taken in for service because of a faulty sensor that resulted in a check engine light and and entire Saturday spent in the service center. I was livid.

Looks like it could be a commercial right? I don't think the guys in the commercials
have to worry about taking a dive down a mountain pass...

He managed to limp down the mountain with little to no braking ability - nothing like a nerve-wracking evening. I ended up meeting him at the dealership at near midnight and left the truck there for service on Saturday. Turns out, the brake line on the left front tire had torn, spewing fluid everywhere. And of course, because of the lift, they don't have a replacement part in stock. We might get the truck back by the end of Monday. Let me tell you, squeezing the three of us into the Ranger is not a picnic.

It's been a long week. In addition to all of the other stuff, on Wednesday I learned from Darian's teacher that he has not been turning in his tests. Ugh. Here we go again. The child who had straight A's last quarter now has 3 A's, 2 B's and a C-. And why? All because he doesn't "feel like doing it." He's fully capable of doing the work, he just craps out on us. We're running out of ideas. He needs to straighten up or he'll be spending his summer in summer school.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to having things settle down. This is ridiculous.

What else did I have going on this week? Let's take a look...

Posts I Posted : It was another slow week for posting, but I did manage to get a summary out, including an explanation of Darian's creepy science fair project. I also posted a review of Sarah's Key that Erin claims redeems her for the pain she caused me with One Day. I guess I'll let her off the hook.

Books I Read : I finished reading Forgotten Country, a book I won from Goodreads. I'll be posting it's review later this week. I am currently reading I Will Teach You to Be Rich, recommended by Patti.

Recipes I Tried : The Skinny Crockpot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup turned out to be not so bad. It's a good option for cold winter nights. I, however, managed to cook it on the warmest day of the year thus far. High five for me. I also made some Cheap Korean Beef. I've had the real thing from a real Korean (shout out for a certain Mr. Kim on this one) so I'm a little biased. But I'll be honest, for a dish made from ground beef, this was quite good. I'll probably be making it again, it was quick and easy.

Projects I Finished : Haha...you're funny. Does six hours of sleep count as a project? I did accomplish that once this last week.

Favorite Blog Posts : Am I still behind on blog reading? Oh, you betcha. But I'm taking the slash and burn approach and I should be caught up within the next two weeks. So...I'm a bit late on this, but I still had to share Telling Dad's Don't Bring Magic to a Knife Fight. Quite funny, but I'm hoping not a sign of the kind of crap we're going to have to deal with as Darian gets older...this kid sounds slightly familiar...

And that's it...apparently I now get to go back to entering junk into Excel...I'm so getting a Krispy Kreme as a reward later...

2012 BOTY: Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Source

In July of 1942, the French police rounded up the Jewish families of Paris, many of them French citizens, for deportation to concentration camps. In what came to be called the Vel' d'Viv roundup, the operation code named "Operation Summer Breeze" was ordered by the Nazis and resulted in the arrest of over 13,000 individuals, most of whom would not survive the war.

Sarah's family lives in Paris. She is ten and does not understand why she must wear the yellow star on her shirt or why the police come pounding at her family's door early in the morning. She is ordered outside with her mother, but locks her younger brother in a hidden cupboard to try and keep him safe. It is not until later that she realizes that she will not be able to return home to let him out.

On the 60th anniversary of the Vel' d'Viv, Julia Jarmond is a journalist in France assigned to do a piece on the event. She knows nothing of it's history, but quickly becomes consumed by the horrible incident that destroyed the lives of so many and yet is known by so few.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay was recommended to me by Erin quite a while ago. I kept putting it off. I now wish I had read it sooner. It is such a powerful and well written novel. It is appalling to realize that in all of my years of education I had never heard of this tragedy. What became even more unbelievable was discovering that many French citizens (including a large number of Parisians) have no idea that such an unspeakable crime was carried out in their own city by their own police.

This book is beautiful. Yes, the tale is sad and heart wrenching. It is uncomfortable in some pieces. But that is what makes it so wonderful, it is real and brutally honest. It does not skate over the unpleasantries, but instead faces them head on.

I was swallowed up by this book. It tore me up inside and made my heart ache. I couldn't put it down once I started it and stayed up much later than I should have on a week night so that I could finish it. This is absolutely a book that I would put in my own personal library and that I would recommend to others. Sarah's Key receives 5 out of 5 stars.

Summary Monday: Creepy Edition

So...what did you do with your weekend? Me? Oh...I did this...

No, I'm not some creepy goth fanatic, I'm helping Darian with his science fair project. He has decided to find out if the average lifespan is longer now than it was during pioneer days. In order to do that, we've been gathering birth and death dates from gravestones all over the valley. This weekend was our final push and we spent over twelve hours out trolling the cemeteries. This week we're going to be compiling the creepy data. But...hey...at least I got some cool pictures out of the deal.

Aside from our creepy adventures, this is what I was up to this past week :

Posts I Posted : It's been a book-a-rama around here. I posted reviews for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and hilarious Betty White's If You Ask Me (and of Course You Won't). Yup...that's pretty much it.

Projects I Finished : I did manage to finish a page of Project Life and get some pictures printed for the subsequent pages. This week I'll be displaying my pages for January. Finally. I also found a major score at a thrift store to start the big project of the year.

Books I Read : Since I last posted a summary I have finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, If You Ask Me (and of Course You Won't), and Sarah's Key, which will be reviewed this week.

Recipes I Tried : It's been a CrockPot kind of time. We gave Buffalo Wing Soup a try. Not bad really. It actually could be thickened to make quite a good dip. However, Darian and I are both in agreement that we liked the Crockpot Buffalo Chicken better. I have to say, I'm just becoming a big fan of Frank's Red Hot Sauce. Today we're going to try Skinny Crockpot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup. I'm skeptical. Not because I think it's a bad recipe, but because me and herbs don't really get along. I usually end up overpowering the rest of the flavors.

And there you have it. I'm getting totally backlogged on reading blog posts, my house is nearing disaster and I feel like I've accomplished nothing, but hey...my butt and thighs should be great thanks to the miles and miles I walked over the last few days.

2012 BOTY: If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't) by Betty White

Source

I decided after reading a few difficult and off the wall books that it was time for something relaxing and fun. What says more fun than Betty White? Who couldn't love this woman? She's fantastic.

So...I sat down and read If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't) by the wonderful Betty White.

This woman is just the best person on the planet, I swear. I would totally hang out with her. She's amazing. I just can't say enough. I think we all could learn how to live a better life just by listening to her for a few minutes a day. She is brilliant and real and talks in a way that educates you without sounding condescending. She is just...well...friendly.

Ms. White (I so can't bring myself to just call her Betty...it just seems to informal) writes short little chapters in this book about random things throughout her life. The little vignettes are absolutely wonderful. She writes with a love and a charm that just make you feel warm and fuzzy. Oh...and if you haven't learned this already...she is HILARIOUS. She plays some wonderful characters on TV and maybe you've thought that (like some other actors) it's all due to great writing. You would be SO wrong. She has a comedic genius that just is...well...genius.

I read this entire book in one sitting. I loved it. I really did. I would read it again right now. I'm looking forward to reading her other books. I feel like this was just a taste of the wonderfulness that I can experience. However, because I have to be brutally honest, I did have one little issue with the book that prevented it from getting 5 stars. Much like Tina Fey's Bossypants, the book is written in a non-linear fashion. It jumps from place to place. Because of this, there are some pieces that appear to get partially repeated. It's slightly distracting, but doesn't ruin the book.

All in all, I can't say enough about this book. Just go freakin' read it. You'll love it. I gave Ms. Betty White a rating of 4 stars (let's just say four and three quarters) out of 5.

2012 BOTY: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Source

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon is written from the perspective of Christopher, who is autistic. Christopher lives with his father in a quiet neighborhood in England. He doesn't do well with people, but is amazing at his abilities with numbers. He is studying to take his A levels.

Christopher discovers the neighbor's dog dead in her front yard, impaled by a pitchfork. He decides that he will write a murder mystery novel and solve the crime. He works to gather details in order to discover the murderer, against the wishes of his father. His actions inadvertently set forth a chain reaction that results in a rather tumultuous situation. 

Okay...so obviously that's a bit of an odd summary. It's hard to put together a good lead in without blowing a little bit of the story. Also, it's a little like being in the book itself. The style of writing is occasionally convoluted and difficult to put together. However, it does what it is intended to do. I'm going to be honest...this book is an easy read, but then again it isn't. 

I think Haddon does an amazing job capturing the nature of an autistic child. It is very detailed, well organized and the story line is easy to put together. The situations become a bit dramatic on occasion, but that is to be expected based on Christopher's personality. Despite sometimes feeling frustrated with Christopher's manner of speaking, I did actually enjoy reading it.

Thoughout the reading of the book I tried to decide how I felt about it. I wasn't enamored with the plot or the characters, but I was impressed by it...if that makes any sense. I think that the writing was just...real. It seemed like a real person was telling the story.

Although it was easy and quick for me to read, the book did have one fatal flaw. I did not enjoy the ending. I hate it when that happens. I don't like investing a gob of time in a book just to be let down at the end. Would I read this book again? Probably not. Would I recommend it to others? Possibly. I think it is a good portrayal of the autistic mind and it really is some fantastic writing. I did manage to take away something from the book, so I think that's worth a little praise.

Overall, I struggled as to how to score this one. Ultimately, it felt rather balanced in the pros and cons arena. So...The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time receives 3 out of 5 stars.