The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stiegg Larsson
She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth - Jeff Kinney
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd - Holly Black and Cecil Castelluci, eds.
January recommendation: The Hunger Games trilogy I lost sleep, shirked responsibility, and shunned people. I dreamed about it, worried about the characters, and basically got too emotionally invested - that doesn't happen as much these days as it used to when I was, say, 12. I recommend the series to people 15 and up, with the warning that it's kind of violent (but not nearly as violent as I was led to believe).
Unread books count:
Correction: I actually had 10 unread books at the start of January; I forgot to count my partially-read "Entire Works of Edgar Allen Poe."
And I've decided to read Moby Dick this year, even if it's just a few pages at a time. My current stats:
Pages in book (not including glossary and back matter): 654
Pages read before 2011: can't remember, I lost my place in 2009.
Pages read in January: 34
I figured that I have to read 54.5 pages a month to be done, so I have a pretty lousy start. (Especially since, in all honesty, the book starts on page 27.)
What did you read in January? Anything you recommend?
31 January 2011
29 January 2011
New job!
I've been working at a bridal shop in the town where I live, and everything was fine-ish there. I love, love, love the bridal industry, and the shop where I've been working is one of the nicest bridal shops ever. But the boss was less-than-ideal, and I never really got to the place where I stopped looking for other jobs (though part of that may have been habit from the last two years of un- and partial-employment).
Two Wednesdays ago, I had this thought: maybe I should look at jobs site for Amedisys Home Health - the company I was temping for in Portland. Since I was at work, I put the thought away in my to-access-later file and went on with my day.
A couple of hours later, I took my lunch break and noticed a voicemail on my phone from one of my former coworkers at the bridal shop (who was able to quit and move on to other things before I was). The voicemail was basically something like this: "My mom is the director of Amedisys Home Health in Rochester, and she needs a Business Office Manager. Call me if you're interested." Oh yeah, I had never told her that I had worked for Amedisys in Portland.
So by the end of the work day, I had an interview scheduled for 9:00 a.m. the next day. On Thursday, I interviewed; on Friday, I accepted the job. On Monday, I put in my one-week notice at the bridal shop.
Here are the great things about the job:
* Mon-Fri, 8-5
* managerial status - it's one step up the corporate ladder from where I was in Portland
* my own office! My last office was a little lime-green room in Australia with barely enough room for my desk and a filing cabinet.
* the money. It's a salaried position, and let's just say I'll be able to save some money now instead of spending it all on attending other people's weddings and fixing my car.
* it was seriously plopped in my lap. When I think about how God brought me to this place, it rearranges my whole perspective on my bullet-pointed life plan.
The one downside is that they want a long-term commitment - probably at least a couple of years. This isn't like a retail job where I can just quit whenever I feel like moving to a different state or city. And, overall, I'm not in love with Minnesota - or the home health industry, for that matter. But I feel like two years in a managerial post will position me better for launching into the industry I DO want to be in (book publishing). And it's not exactly terrible to be a professional, salaried career woman at 30 years old.
So...yeah. I start Monday. Wish me luck!
Two Wednesdays ago, I had this thought: maybe I should look at jobs site for Amedisys Home Health - the company I was temping for in Portland. Since I was at work, I put the thought away in my to-access-later file and went on with my day.
A couple of hours later, I took my lunch break and noticed a voicemail on my phone from one of my former coworkers at the bridal shop (who was able to quit and move on to other things before I was). The voicemail was basically something like this: "My mom is the director of Amedisys Home Health in Rochester, and she needs a Business Office Manager. Call me if you're interested." Oh yeah, I had never told her that I had worked for Amedisys in Portland.
So by the end of the work day, I had an interview scheduled for 9:00 a.m. the next day. On Thursday, I interviewed; on Friday, I accepted the job. On Monday, I put in my one-week notice at the bridal shop.
Here are the great things about the job:
* Mon-Fri, 8-5
* managerial status - it's one step up the corporate ladder from where I was in Portland
* my own office! My last office was a little lime-green room in Australia with barely enough room for my desk and a filing cabinet.
* the money. It's a salaried position, and let's just say I'll be able to save some money now instead of spending it all on attending other people's weddings and fixing my car.
* it was seriously plopped in my lap. When I think about how God brought me to this place, it rearranges my whole perspective on my bullet-pointed life plan.
The one downside is that they want a long-term commitment - probably at least a couple of years. This isn't like a retail job where I can just quit whenever I feel like moving to a different state or city. And, overall, I'm not in love with Minnesota - or the home health industry, for that matter. But I feel like two years in a managerial post will position me better for launching into the industry I DO want to be in (book publishing). And it's not exactly terrible to be a professional, salaried career woman at 30 years old.
So...yeah. I start Monday. Wish me luck!
06 January 2011
Literary Aspirations, Ambitions, and Resolutions
Best 5 books read by me in 2010:
- Harry Potter series (can't believe it took me this long to read them in the first place, but now I've re-read at least half of them)
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
- Anna Karenina
- Water for Elephants
- At Home
A few times in life, I've tried to keep track of what books I've read and want to read, but I always end up losing the list or forgetting to update it. So I've decided that for 2011, I'm going to keep track of the titles of the books I read and post at the end of every month the number of books I've finished (not started, since that rarely corresponds to the number of books I finish in any given month).
I already have two books finished in January, so let's see if I can keep this fun, useful, painless resolution.
Literary ambitions for 2011:
- Tristram Shandy. I've started it a couple of times, but I'm determined to read it in its entirety this year.
- all the unread books on my bookshelf. I made a promise to myself a couple of years ago that I would read every unread book on my shelf. I've been doing well; this promise has prompted me to discard some books I knew I'd never read (Moby Dick may join that pile this year), accumulate some I've always wanted to read, and use the library instead of the used bookstore far more often. As of Jan 1, 2011, I have 9 un- or partially-read books of my own; we shall see how that list fluctuates from month to month.
What are you reading now? What books do you want to read/finish this year? Let me know in the comments!
(And, for those of you who are wondering, I do have a goodreads account, but I can't ever remember to maintain it. A simple list every month may be the best way to get back into keeping track of my literary history.)
- Harry Potter series (can't believe it took me this long to read them in the first place, but now I've re-read at least half of them)
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
- Anna Karenina
- Water for Elephants
- At Home
A few times in life, I've tried to keep track of what books I've read and want to read, but I always end up losing the list or forgetting to update it. So I've decided that for 2011, I'm going to keep track of the titles of the books I read and post at the end of every month the number of books I've finished (not started, since that rarely corresponds to the number of books I finish in any given month).
I already have two books finished in January, so let's see if I can keep this fun, useful, painless resolution.
Literary ambitions for 2011:
- Tristram Shandy. I've started it a couple of times, but I'm determined to read it in its entirety this year.
- all the unread books on my bookshelf. I made a promise to myself a couple of years ago that I would read every unread book on my shelf. I've been doing well; this promise has prompted me to discard some books I knew I'd never read (Moby Dick may join that pile this year), accumulate some I've always wanted to read, and use the library instead of the used bookstore far more often. As of Jan 1, 2011, I have 9 un- or partially-read books of my own; we shall see how that list fluctuates from month to month.
What are you reading now? What books do you want to read/finish this year? Let me know in the comments!
(And, for those of you who are wondering, I do have a goodreads account, but I can't ever remember to maintain it. A simple list every month may be the best way to get back into keeping track of my literary history.)
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