Recent Purchases and Gifts

Hi all,
I am not sure that I will remember everything I purchased and received, but here goes:

Purchases
The Daring Book for Girls (gift for my niece)

The Dangerous Book for Boys (gift for my nephew and for the boys in my house)

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson (gift for my father-in-law)

That Book of Perfectly Useless Information by Michell Symons (gift for my husband Craig)

I am America (and So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert (gift for Craig)

Sun Tzu was a Sissy & What Would Machiavelli Do (each by Stanley Bing) gifts for Craig

The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation by Drew Westen (gift for Craig)

Misunderestimated and Overunderappreciated: The George W. Bush Administration as Seen Through the Eyes of the Tribunes' Syndicated Editorial Cartoonists (this was also a gift for Craig, and for my brother-in-law and my father-in-law -- needless to say this is not a family of bush supporters)

Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Sublte Knife and The Amber Spyglass) for me

Cruddy by Linda Barry

1001 Books You Must Read Before you Die (a gift for me)

• NOTE: sad to say, I went through the entire list and have only read 67 of them -- maybe I need to be more selective in my reading!!!! Although I have to say that the list is a little suspect in my mind because the greatest book of all time in my estimation (Atlas Shrugged) did not make the list. In fact nothing written by Ayn Rand made the list....neither did Pillars of the Earth....

Received as Gifts

Rachael Ray Anytime Cookbook

Deceptively Delicious cookbook (by Jessican Seinfeld)

Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund

The Whisper of the River by Ferrol Sams

When All the World Was Young by Ferrol Sams

• NOTE to Babs: these two Ferrol Sams books are the second and third in a trilogy that starts with Run with the Horsemen (which was the Atlanta Reads book club selection a few years back) -- I know how you like serial books!!!!

Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson

The Garden Angel by Mindy Friddle

The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig

World Without End by Ken Follett

My December Purchases

In the holiday spirit, I am also including the books that people purchased for me. Because my love of reading caused these purchases, so I feel some good book karma should accumulate to me. :^)

Books I purchased

FICTION

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (Coffee Buy the Book)

White Noise by Don DeLillo (Coffee Buy the Book)

Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland (Coffee by the Book)

The Wrinkle in Time Quintet: A Wrinkle in Time; A Wind in the Door; A Swiftly Tilting Planet; Many Waters; An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle

• I loved these books growing up. Because I recently finished His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (which I thoroughly enjoyed), I'm going back and seeking out similar things. I have three of these books in my collection from childhood, and I'm actually not sure if I ever read the last two. I remember reading some of L'Engle's non-fiction, within the last five years, and learning how many rejections she suffered before finally publishing A Wrinkle in Time - her first published novel, and it made me appreciate it all the more.

The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A.A Milne (Amazon.com; gift)

The Neon Bible by John Kennedy Toole (Amazon.com; gift)

The Maytrees by Annie Dillard (Amazon.com; gift)

NON-FICTION

Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food by Jessica Seinfeld (Borders)

• It is highly likely that I will never actually use this cookbook, but I am still holding out hope that I can make one of my children a good eater!

Cancer Vixen: A True Story by Marisa Acocella Marchetto (Amazon.com; gift)

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy in Action (Borders; two copies; gifts)

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs (Amazon.com; gift)

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner (Amazon.com; gift)

Courting Justice: From New York Yankees v. Major League Baseball to Bush v. Gore by David Boies (Amazon.com; gift)

The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross (Amazon.com;gift)

Finally, a collection of Montessori books/pamphlets: Parenting from Your Heart by Inbal Kashtan; Montessori Insights for Parents of Young Children by Aline D. Wolf; A Parent's Guide to the Montessori Classroom by Aline D. Wolf; Raising Children Compassionately: Parenting the nonviolent Communication Way by Marshall B. Rosenberg; How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way by Tim Seldin

Books purchased for me

Bella Abzug: An oral history by Suzanne Braun Levine and Mary Thom (B&N)

Run by Ann Patchett (B&N)

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain (Amazon.com)

Hypocrite in a Poufy White Dress: Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless by Susan Jane Gilman (Amazon.com)

• This book was purchased for me by my sister-in-law. It WAS off of my Amazon wishlist, but I can guarantee you that she chose this one as a little personal message regarding her feelings toward me; that is the type of person she is.

The Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set: The Magician's Nephew; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; The Horse and His Boy; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader'; The Silver Chair; The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis (Amazon.com)

• I have three of these books from when I was a child - not in great condition. I think I read all of them, but I am not sure. I am going to re-read them all. This is another set that is part of my Philip Pullman inspired reading.

Home To Holly Springs by Jan Karon (Borders)

Library Thing

Do any of you guys use Library Thing? I'm wondering if it's worth the work to get all my books organized this way.

I think I might try entering just my craft books, mostly because I'm trying to organize my yarn stash at Ravelry and someone mentioned possibly being able to import your book list from Librarything into Ravelry. . .

Anyone used it?

November's Shame

I was thinking I only bought a couple of books this month, but it's not so. Admittedly many of these are gifts for other people (and there are a few things I've left out of the stack, sigh). . .

For dd (age 11):

Secret Santa by Sabrina James.

Could You Would You? by Trudy White, supposed to be a fantastic book for 9-12 yos.

Warriors Into the Wild this is a fantasy series featuring cats -- one of dd's friends really likes it.

Everything You Need to Know About the World by Simon Eliot. Title says it all.

Harry Potter Schoolbooks Box Set.

Daring Book for Girls by Andrea Buchanan. We have the Dangerous Book for Boys, but I can't really read it to ds at night because he always wants to Make Something Right Now, which doesn't work at bedtime (he's 6). Dd is the perfect age for this type of project book.

For dh:

The Tao of Warren Buffet by Mary Buffet and David Clark.

For my mom:

Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon.

For my Dad:

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson.

The War Ken Burns.

For my brother:

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson.

For me:

World Without End by Ken Follett.

Deceptively Delicious by Jennifer Seinfeld. (Not sure if I want this, might put it in the neighborhood book swap). . .

The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett.

Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management.

The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton, The First Domestic Goddess by Kathryn Hughes.

Cruddy by Lynda Barry.

The Good German by Joseph Kanon.


I bought 4 books from Coffee Buy the book (The Good German, The Hogwarts books, The War, and Deceptively Delicious). The rest came from Borders or Amazon, oh well. . .

My November Purchases

Gosh, I am really feeling like I have a serious book buying problem. I shouldn't feel guilty about this, should I? I'll read them all eventually, won't I?? And I know I'm forgetting at least one other used book from Coffee Buy the Book, which I can't find. And I'm forgetting at least one or two more from Daedalus because I never would buy just ONE book at a time from them. And a third book from BOMC because it was buy 2, get 1 free. Hmmmm... O.k., well, here is a list of the books that I purchased and can currently find:

Rolling Stone Interviews - introduction by Jann Wenner (B&N)

How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill (BOMC)

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs (BOMC)

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (Borders; I already own an older copy, but I wanted one for notes)

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Borders)

His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman (Borders)

Caribbean by James A. Michener (used, Coffee Buy the Book)

A Collection of Beauties At the Height of Their Popularity by Whitney Otto (used, Coffee Buy the Book)

The Big Overeasy by Jasper Fforde (CBB)

Freedom Writers' Diary by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell (CBB)

The Good German by Jospeh Kanon (CBB)

The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Marie Brown (Daedulus)

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Easton Press - my $40 leather-bound copy)

Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig (QPB)

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid (QPB)

A Year in the World by Frances Mayes (QPB)

After Dark by Haruki Murakami (QPB)

Oh where, oh where did my other books go? Oh where, oh where could they BEEEEEE?? ;^)