I can’t think of more appropriate book review to end 2009 on…. or maybe it is to start 2010.
Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has been on my TBR pile for years and years, and just now have I taken the time to read it. And, I’m really sorry for the lost time.
I’ve told a couple of people as I’ve been reading 7 Habits that this should be required reading for every high school senior, and then it should be re-read every ten years after. 7 Habits …

So in wrapping up 2009, it has been a pretty eventful year for me where books are concerned. When I started the year, I had a couple of goals: read 30 books, and of those, read 5 non-fiction and 5 classics. I’ll finish this year with 37 books read and another 11 on audio. I’ve met my non-fiction goal with 8, but not my classics goal (only 3).
Early on in the year – while reading Choose Your Life – I also decided that I wanted to start writing again, and …

2009 is shaping up to have been a profitable year in blogging in that I’ve won two other blogger’s contests. The first was Dr. Wes’ contest related to submitting a picture that gives your thoughts on healthcare reform.
The second and most recent was on my good friend’s blog (aka Bunny) for posting my year in review. For her site I am the recipient of an Amazon gift card. This is the type that burns the proverbial hole in my inbox so I must spend it.
Here’s the thing: I will use …

Please don’t let these last two reviews portend what’s to come for 2010…
“The truth was, when the rabbit got out of the car, there in Pat’s Mini Mart parking lot at quarter to three on a Monday afternoon, it didn’t occur to Rhonda that there might be a person inside.”
What a great line! This quote from the novel used on the back cover gave me high expectations for Jennifer Mcmahon’s Island of the Lost Girls – expectations that were not realized.
Island of Lost Girls is about a child abduction witnessed …

Like at least two of her previous works, Tracy Chevalier’s Burning Bright is a fictionalized account of a historical artist’s creation, in this case William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.
I really liked my two previous encounters with Chevalier – The Girl with the Pearl Earring and The Lady and the Unicorn. Like Burning Bright, these novels take the historical setting that the artists lived in and create a story about the proposed motivation and inspiration of great and familiar works of art. Based on these works …

I really am resisting becoming one of those people. You know, the one that joins all the challenges.
But you see, this one plays to a weakness. I love themes in literature. I love looking for themes, finding themes, discussing themes, even arguing for obscure themes that are only apparent after peeling through layers of other themes.
So, I caved. This Challenge is being offered by Stacey over at Unruly Reader. 
Here’s the deal:Choose one word a theme you want to focus on during 2010—your “theme” for the year.
Usually it will be a …

What do you get when a judge, one half of a pair of old spinster sisters, an Indian and a 16 year-old boy decide to move to the woods and live in a dilapidated tree house? You get the apropos backdrop for a Southern novella, part of Truman Capote’s collection The Grass Harp: Including The Tree of Night and Other Stories.
I first read Capote in college – Children on Their Birthdays – which happens to be a part of this collection – and somewhat like my experience of reading Alice …

Guest Reviewer: bunny of bunnygoround.blogspot.comFat Girl: A True Story by Judith Moore
Fat Girl is a memoir, the story of Judith Moore’s life as an overweight child, teen and adult. I admit, I was a little unsure what I was getting into with this one—the cover and reviews all repeat the same type of verbiage: “searingly honest,” “breathtakingly frank,” “not for the faint of heart,” “unflinching,” “stark.” I think you get the drift.
And, indeed, this book does pack an emotional punch, though Moore warns the reader in her introduction of what is …