Oh, Sunday… you always come too soon. This morning is pretty chill, but this afternoon Boyfriend and I will be heading to our wine-tasting group, WASTED. The theme this month is wine and music, which I think will be a lot of fun.
I’m not much of a music expert — I mostly listen to Pandora rather than purchasing new music for myself — so Boyfriend was in charge of picking out selection this month. I honestly can’t remember what he chose at the moment, but we bought an assertive South African red blend to go with it. Should be interesting!
Other than that, this week has been full of lots of little things, some bookish, some not.
Sister’s Book Club is Back!
Two summers ago, my sister Jenny and I did a sister’s book club where we each picked a favorite book and required the other one to read it. We then did a few partner reviews, which were fun since she and I come at books from such very different perspectives. I do love my nonfiction, and she’s and avid reader of YA and women’s fiction.
In our first iteration, we read a bunch of great books: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, The Truth About Forever, and The Time Traveler’s Wife.
This year we decided to do something a little different — we’d each pick out a book we wanted to read but haven’t, then we’ll experience reading them together for the first time. I’m picking a Margaret Atwood book for us — Alias Grace — because I love Margaret Atwood and I found an extra copy of this one at Half Price Books when I went there yesterday.
She told me she’s debating historical fiction titles, but hasn’t decided on one yet. In her first e-mail of ideas she mentioned March by Geraldine Brooks, To Dance with Kings by Rosalind Laker, and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I can’t wait to see what she picks! Anyone have suggestions for her?
The Gym!
The big news is that I signed up for a gym membership again, which is exciting since I really want to start exercising regularly. Plus, I will give me an excuse to start using my Nook again, which I bought mostly just so I could read more easily at the gym. Taking regular books on an elliptical is usually bad news. Since my gym attention span is limited and fleeting, I usually end up reading something light while I’m there.
This week I started The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty after an enthusiastic mention about the book from Melissa (The Betty and Boo Chronicles), and because it was on sale for a penny around Mother’s Day. I’m cheap… so sue me!
In keeping with the “I refuse to pay real money for ebooks because they don’t seem like real books” spirit, I also “splurged” during Unbridled Books’ three-day ebook sale and picked out four titles for a total of less than four dollars (the books were on sale for 25 cents, but with sales tax it came to $3.20). My collection now includes:
- The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel
- Stranger Here Below by Joyce Hinnefeld
- Taroko Gorge by Jacob Ritari
- The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters by Timothy Schaffert
The only one I knew anything about before buying it was The Singer’s Gun, but I found some good reviews from trusted bloggers on the others, so I’m sure they’ll be fun. Hopefully the promise of some great books will be enough to get me off my butt and to the gym in the next several months.
So that’s the news around here. How is your Sunday going?
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Hope you enjoy The Center of Everything. I definitely enthusiastically recommend it, too!
Good to know! So far I really like it, even if I want to smack the mother upside the head and tell her to get it together 🙂
I’ve never had any desire for an ereader until reading this post, Kim. The gym!! Don’t have to turn pages or figure out how to prop your book up. When I want to read at the gym I hop on the bike because I can’t figure out how to hold a book and do the elliptical or treadmill at the same time. Perfect solution!!
Your wine-tasting group sounds like a blast! Hope the red you picked out is delicious!
Honestly, reading at the gym was the biggest reason I got it. I used to do this elaborate thing with binder clips and my iPod to read while I was there, and it was terrible. The e-reader is PERFECT for reading while on the elliptical.
Happy reading! I do the real books on the elliptical. It’s ummm… always exciting 😉
It’s sort of a mess 🙂 I used to do it, but only certain books will work. Magazines are good, but the Nook is even better.
Your wine tasting group sounds like a lot of fun! I’d like to learn more about wine, so something like that would be good for me. Yay for A Sister’s Book Club!!
I love WASTED. It’s such a fun group, and I am learning more about wine because of it. And yes, yay for sister’s book club! We’re both excited about it.
So glad you took advantage of the ebook sale! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on THE SINGER’S GUN.
That’s the one I’m most excited about — I just saw it on one of your summer reading lists, which is great.
Yay for another sisters summer reading thing! 😀
Yeah, I’m excited about it 🙂
I absolutely loved The Help. I am so excited that they’re making a movie out of it. I have The Memory Keeper’s Daughter on my shelf at home waiting to be read, but I haven’t really heard that much about it.
I’m looking forward to the movie. I love a lot of the actresses that are going to be in it, so fingers crossed it is good. I think we’re going to try to read The Help before the movie comes out.
I bought 8 of those .25 books but I have no memory of which ones, hahaha. Oops.
Hee hee, that’s funny. I’m sure they are all pretty good. Unbridled Books fiction seems to get lots of rave blogger reviews.
Oh, if only I had known about the 25 cent Unbridled Sale while it was still going on! It looks like there were many good books on offer and I agree that the price certainly was right!
I wish I’d thought to post about it awhile it was still going on — oops! And yeah, there was a good list of books there, so it was exciting.
The sister book club sounds fun!
It is fun — we really liked it last time. My sister is pretty awesome, so I like when she shows up on the blog 🙂
I bought five of the Unbridled books during the sale. There must be hellacious tax on e-books in your area! I got five for $1.35.
Your sisters book club sounds AWESOME! Can’t wait to read more about what you both think of your reading.
Yeah, there was a big tax. I think I got part of it back in a rebate though, so maybe it was only like $1… I can’t remember.
I have Alias Grace!!!! When are we starting?
Soon! I think we might read The Help first, so maybe Alias Grace in July or August?
Yay for you going back to the gym! I admire you! When I used to go the gym, I always wanted to try the elliptical machine, and then when I did try it, I got the most epic migraine headache I’ve ever had in my life. It was monstrous. I was sad because the elliptical machine was really fun. For that one hour that one time a few years ago.
Aww, that sucks! I like the elliptical better than bikes or the treadmill. I feel like I’m doing more work but with less pain on my feet than running.
Ohhhhhh, The Help, The Help! And I’ve been wanting to read Alias Grace. No matter what your sister picks, I think you’ll have a nice pair of books! Love that idea and looking forward to seeing it play out.
I’ve read Stranger Here Below and ended up really liking it, though I wasn’t sure I would at first.
I think she did decide to go with The Help which is great. I’m not sure what we’ll read first; I think it depends when she gets her copies from the library. I’m excited. And good to hear about Stranger Here Below — I really don’t know anything about it.
Totally in love with the idea of a sisters book club! My sis and I spend a great deal of time discussing novels and swapping them between the two of us. Of all the books that pass through my hands, I make sure to save only the “best of the best” for Katie to read — and then make sure we get a chance to talk about all our likes and dislikes. Sometimes, selfishly, I give her books to read before I’ve actually read them . . . it’s good to let her vet them out, especially since we have similar taste. 🙂
I second the nom for The Help and definitely recommend Brooks’ March, too. It was some powerful historical fiction that will only be enhanced if you’ve read Little Women (which I haven’t — but I still loved March!).
It was funny — I mentioned the sisters book club to people at BEA just in passing, and everyone who is a regular reader remembered us doing it and thought it was fun… so I’m glad other people like it as much as I do!
Jenny and I have such different tastes, it’s hard for us to really recommend books to each other. But I like that we have this as an excuse to try different genres and explore new stories that we hope the other will like too.