Book Chatter

It’s Sunday and it happens to be a rainy Sunday. Normally I would rejoice at the thought of this but today is the first day we are in the theater for The Music Man. Thus begins a week of long nights and tired kids (tired parents too). From 3pm today until next Sunday at 11pm, I will be running around prepping for or working the show.

You are probably wondering why I have a picture of a creepy doll attached to this post. Well, this doll is Fancy Nancy, based on the popular children’s book. We love Fancy Nancy in this house but my daughter got this doll from Santa this Christmas and she is terrified of it. She makes it face the wall so she does not have to look at it. I, on the other hand, love it. I am using it for my photography class and this picture is an example of an overcast day, no flash, manual focus. I have to put her in different lighting situations and I needed something portable, so Fancy Nancy works.

My entire day will be spent prepping for the week, running my son back and forth to rehearsal, making sure we eat, etc. It can be a very stressful time, but once the show starts on Friday it will all be worth it. It always is in the end. I also have to take a few more photos for my class assignment sometime today. I’m sure I will be creeping around the backyard tonight trying to get a night shot.

So that’s my day. What are you doing today?

My book club met last night to select books for our 2009 reading list. We pick books for the entire year so it’s an event that we always look forward to. It does provide a bit of stress though when you can’t come up with THE perfect book or you decide on a great book only to find out that most of the group has read it.

After pitching our selections, we ended up with twenty-four books so we had to narrow it down a bit and we did that by taking a vote. Here are the final thirteen (thirteen because we figured that was close enough). They haven’t been assigned to a month yet but when they are, I will list them here, which you will be able to access by clicking on the button in my sidebar. That was my first attempt at a button too. Needs some work but not too bad!

Okay… enough yammering, here’s the list:

1. The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
2. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
3. Prayers for Bobby by Leroy Aarons
4. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
5. Finn by John Clinch (my pick)
6. The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff (also my pick…I was lucky!)
7. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
8. Netherland by Joseph O’neill
9. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
10. A Mercy by Toni Morrison
11. Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
12. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
13. In The Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

It’s an interesting mix isn’t it? I am REALLY excited about this list. I’ll be posting all the reviews as we read and discuss them. Out of this list, what stands out? Anything that piques your interest?

Chatting with friends about books and life…