Posts tagged book club
I Can Do Anything Good: January
I’m a very goal-oriented person. Clearly. I set goals all the time in 2011, and it seemed like each month ended with a bulleted list of reasons for not achieving my goals. Lesson learned: I know that in order to achieve the goals I set for myself, I need to have a certain level of accountability…
So, here are the goals I set for 2012 at the beginning of the year.
And here’s how I’m doing so far:
Reach my goal weight by June 1
So far, so good! I realize that it may come off a little vain or brainwashed by magazine culture to have my weight at the top of my list of resolutions for 2012, so I want to clarify. This isn’t about me weighing what the gossip magazine and television industry says I should weigh – I don’t want to be a scary skinny bobblehead who survives on, like, kale and pickles and lemon juice. This is about my health, my willpower, and my need to stop eating so much pizza and drinking so much beer.
All that said, I lost 5 lbs. in January. Success!
12 in 12
Mom and I ran the Greenville News 5k, and my official time clocked in at 41:53 with a pace of 13:31. In February, we’ll be running the Frostbite 5k here in Asheville, and my goal is to finish in under 40:00. Bring it, February!
No More Debt
Josh and I are on this new budget system that I heard about on the Elevation Church Podcast. It seems to be working well so far, and I think we’re off to a good start. The hardest part about a budget is realizing that you don’t get to go out to eat or to a bar every time the mood strikes. We’re learning to bargain with ourselves to see where our “fun” priority falls for the week, which is good—but tough to get used to.
Read at least a book a month
Haven’t you heard about my book club? This month I finished The Weird Sisters, which I’ll be blogging about for the BlogHer book club soon. I’m currently reading The Zookeeper’s Wife for the What Are You Reading? book club, and you’re not too late to join us! Click here to join the discussion on Goodreads.
Build a business
Well, I’m freelancing steadily! I have one major client keeping me in steady work. I’m getting used to setting my own schedule and being my own boss. I work on freelance assignments in the evening throughout t\he week, and each Friday I make myself a cup of tea and shut myself in the office with the dogs to finish up the week’s assignments and invoices.
I’ve been doing a lot of brainstorming for the actual business itself – the name, the website, the services offered, the business plan…it’s overwhelming, but I keep reminding myself that this isn’t the kind of thing you cross off your list in a day. I’m happy with where I am and I’m excited about where I’m going.
Did you set goals for 2012? How are you doing so far?
Join us on Goodreads!
To make this online book club easier for all parties involved, I set up a group on Goodreads. This way, we can check in and discuss what we’re reading as we’re reading. I’ll still be posting end-of-book recpas on this blog, but if you’re interested in being a part of the What Are You Reading? book club discussions, click this link and sign up.
Currently Reading:
The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman
Previously:
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
What Are You Reading? Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
First of all: Young Adult Lit is really stepping up its game!
What several years ago may have been easy to write off as juvenile or simple has matured into a genre of literature that is just as complex and entertaining as its more “serious” older sibling. It’s a very exciting time to be a Young Adult author or reader, and this book just helps to prove that point.
I picked up Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children because it looked spooky (and the only time I’m guilty of judging a book by its cover is when I’m looking at actual books and judging them by their actual covers) and seemed like it would be a fairly quick read. It was, and it was. And I loved it.
The book’s framework is a collection of uncomfortably weird photographs of children. These photos were really what drew me in to begin with – I love looking through abandoned photo albums in antique stores and flea markets, and I’m a sucker for the strange and creepy, so…perfect match.
Once I started reading the book, the photos combined with the easy tone and gripping story made it tough to stop—much like The Hunger Games series, I finished this book in about three days. And I loved it.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children felt like an adventure made up of equal parts Magical Realism, Thriller, and Historical Fiction. If you’re into shows like Ghost Hunters (guilty), Ancient Aliens (guilty), or any other show from the “historically spooky” Sunday afternoon lineup on channels like Discovery and History and SyFy, read the book. Chances are you’ll love it, too.
Next Up on What Are You Reading?
My next book is going to be The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman. My friend Megan is going to be reading along with me – if you’re interested in joining us, please do! Just get a copy of the book, start reading, and keep in touch about what you think!
Previously:
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
What Are You Reading? 100 Years of Solitude
Although it took me WAY longer than it should have, I finally did finish 100 Years of Solitude. (You may remember I started reading it five months ago when I started this little online book club.)
By the end of the book, I felt like poor Ursula—and oh, how I loved Ursula—in her old age. All the characters, their lineages, and their stories blurred completely together. It was all I could do to keep things straight until the end, and I definitely relied on help from the family tree printed in the front of the book.
Muddled though it left me, I do feel like I achieved something by sticking it out with this book. I was tempted to overthrow it for something simpler several times, but I knew it was just too big a story to leave unresolved.
In a lot of ways, this book felt a little Biblical. The family tree grew gnarled, crooked, knotted with begats and with roots so long that the ancestors had become more like legends than family members.
I knew as soon as I finished 100 Years of Solitude that I would need to read it again. This first time was really just to understand what I was getting myself into—and I did sometimes feel like my shoes were made of cement or stuck in mud as I slogged through the densely woven web of stories. I’ll read it again, maybe next year, to actually process, understand, and enjoy. For now, I’m just glad I finished it at all.
I’ve got one more book to tell you about before the book club picks up in real time. Until then, what are you reading? Do you have a book to recommend?
If you’re interested in becoming a reader with me, leave me a comment and let me know! I’ll add you to the list.
