I took a lot of photos at the Sunken Gardens, so I’ll continue to plug away at posting them. Our trip to the garden rounded out Flower Week and conveniently tucked into Bug Week. Speaking of bugs, one made his pictorial debut in this shot.
Aside from this brief moment of blogging, I’ve spent the entire evening reading Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Fascinating reading—my mind is bursting at the seams. I’m sure to have a few nightmares tonight, but in the waking moments between them I’ll try to remind myself of how grateful I am to live in the United States of America. Between watching HBO’s John Adams just prior to the Fourth of the July and reading this novel, I am finding that terms like liberty and equality mean much more than the lighthearted, cliched definitions I’ve ascribed to them over the years.
I just deleted the paragraph that preceded my book lists. Ugh. Don’t you hate it when you have to re-think, re-type, re-edit the same exact post?
I started out 2008 with the goal of reading three books per month, then sharing my reading list with the blogging world. (Though now I’m questioning the sanity of such a decision, particularly after reading McMurtry’s latest novel which was overtly sexual and not worthy of recommendation. Oh for the days of Lonesome Dove, one of my favorite books of all time.) The last time I posted was also the first time I posted: back on February 1st.
In the interest of following through on this project, here’s what I’ve been reading for the last few months. I’m including my GoodReads ratings here (5 is the highest score attainable) in lieu of writing summaries for books I read some time ago.
February
Atonement by Ian McEwen (4)
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (3)
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin (3)
March
Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka (5)
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (3)
A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (2)
April
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (4)
The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory (3)
May
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (4)
June
When the Light Goes by Larry McMurtry (1)
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (3)
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (2)
Atonement by Ian Mcewan – Jeremy and I saw the movie, which we enjoyed, but I felt there was more to the story than the movie represented. A book can always go more in depth than a movie can, and this was no exception. Still, the screenwriters did an excellent job adapting the book to the big screen. When it comes to Atonement, it’s perfectly fine to watch the film and read the book later without any disappointment.
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin – Clearly the theme of February was escapism via fiction! A Game of Thrones had been recommended to us repeatedly by the Moreheads, so after Jeremy read the book, I picked up it. And I couldn’t stop reading…
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin – These books are high fantasy, though with a little less magic found in, say, Tolkien’s Middle Earth. The characters are compelling and their storylines are what keeps me glued to these thick novels. I’ll give fair warning for the one aspect of the books I don’t like: there is quite a bit of sexual content and I wish Martin would’ve toned it down. Despite that, I’m still reading and reading and reading in order to find out what will happen to my favorite characters. These books are better than movie-watching late at night. High praise indeed from a movie afficianado.