Sunday, December 27, 2009
My favorite _______ of 2009
A few of my favorite things from this past year:
-New TV Series: a tie between Modern Family and Hung
-Returning Series: True Blood
-Guilty Pleasure: The View
-Read: Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, not published this year but this is when I read it so it counts
-Pregnancy Food Craving: Trader Joes Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzels
-Movie: just like last year I haven't seen many current movies, but from what I saw Up was far and away my favorite, it is truly a beautiful film
-New Restaurant: Tacos Por Favor, it's been around for years but I finally got around to trying it and all I can say is YUM
-New Gadget: Its tie between the Kindle for iPhone app and the Blogpress app
-Parenting Product: rocking chair, because it makes my job easier and more comfy
-Personal Moment: Seeing Sofie for the very first time
-New TV Series: a tie between Modern Family and Hung
-Returning Series: True Blood
-Guilty Pleasure: The View
-Read: Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, not published this year but this is when I read it so it counts
-Pregnancy Food Craving: Trader Joes Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzels
-Movie: just like last year I haven't seen many current movies, but from what I saw Up was far and away my favorite, it is truly a beautiful film
-New Restaurant: Tacos Por Favor, it's been around for years but I finally got around to trying it and all I can say is YUM
-New Gadget: Its tie between the Kindle for iPhone app and the Blogpress app
-Parenting Product: rocking chair, because it makes my job easier and more comfy
-Personal Moment: Seeing Sofie for the very first time
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Prep: or how I learned I've officially become a grown-up
Just finished reading Curtis Sittenfeld's debut book, Prep, a book I've been wanting to read for quite some time but have never gotten around to. In fact I'm pretty sure I have a hardcover copy somewhere that I bought and never read and so I have now paid twice to read this book since I had to download it for the Kindle app. Luckily it was a good book so I don't feel too bad about it (although I'm sure my husband is reading this thinking "you paid twice?!", sorry babe). I really did enjoy the book though, Sittenfeld is a great writer, in fact so good I may be tempted to read her other book which was apparently loosely based on Laura Bush. I actually thought her main character was like a modern, female Holden Caufield. At any rate I loved the book but more importantly it taught me something about myself in a very unexpected way.
I've always been a fan of coming-of-age stories which certainly adds to the reason why I liked Prep. I like them because they make me feel nostalgic and because they are always in some way relatable to my own childhood, this book more than most. This time something was different though because now I am a parent, and although as I read I still found myself harkening back to my own high school days, I found an entirely new batch of thoughts crossing my mind as well: someday this will be Sofie.
It's mind boggling to think about her being that age, but when the thought crossed my mind it was like a flash of clarity as I was again reminded of how it's not really about me anymore and I realized that having a child is almost like a second coming of age. I've never really seen myself as a real adult because I've never really felt a marked difference between my youth and adulthood other than a gradual maturity and wisdom that naturally comes with age, but I never really felt a definitive change. In reading this book, however, and finding myself relating the experience to the future of my child rather than my own past I learned that I am a grown-up now and the nice part is I don't really mind it.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I've always been a fan of coming-of-age stories which certainly adds to the reason why I liked Prep. I like them because they make me feel nostalgic and because they are always in some way relatable to my own childhood, this book more than most. This time something was different though because now I am a parent, and although as I read I still found myself harkening back to my own high school days, I found an entirely new batch of thoughts crossing my mind as well: someday this will be Sofie.
It's mind boggling to think about her being that age, but when the thought crossed my mind it was like a flash of clarity as I was again reminded of how it's not really about me anymore and I realized that having a child is almost like a second coming of age. I've never really seen myself as a real adult because I've never really felt a marked difference between my youth and adulthood other than a gradual maturity and wisdom that naturally comes with age, but I never really felt a definitive change. In reading this book, however, and finding myself relating the experience to the future of my child rather than my own past I learned that I am a grown-up now and the nice part is I don't really mind it.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Monday, December 7, 2009
Addicted to Austen
Just finished my third Jane Austen novel in as many weeks and, to use the parlance of Miss Austen, found them quite agreeable. I'm sure you're wondering how a new mom can have so much time for reading but as I sometimes spend hours on end rocking Sofie it actually affords a good deal of time for it, made possible only by the Kindle for iPhone app (love it!). After finishing the Dan Brown I struggled to find a new book, the only downside to the kindle being that a lot of books are not availble for it. Everything I wanted to read was unavailable and nothing else seemed worthy of the nine dollar price tag and then I stumbled upon the fact that the Kindle store has several classic books available for free. Now I've never really been into the classics, although to be fair the only ones I've really read are a handful of Dickens I was forced to read in AP English and hated, so I've always tended towards modern fiction, but I figured they were free so there was no harm in checking them out at least.
I started with Pride and Prejudice, which I found slow to get going but once the plot really began to unfold I was hooked. My only major complaint was that the ending felt slightly rushed and anti-climactic, I would have liked the final coming together of Eliza and Darcy to be a little more dramatic. Next I dove into Sense and Sensibility which I also enjoyed though not as much as Pride and finally I read Mansfield Park which was by far my favorite of the three and which I think can partially be accounted to the fact that Austen's writing matured and became exponentially better as her writing career progressed.
I am definitely in awe of her as a writer. She has clearly influenced a great deal of modern material from Gilmore Girls to Twilight and so much more. It's no wonder her books have been adapted into films so many times over because although the books are old the themes are still so relevant today. I guess that's why they call them classics.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I started with Pride and Prejudice, which I found slow to get going but once the plot really began to unfold I was hooked. My only major complaint was that the ending felt slightly rushed and anti-climactic, I would have liked the final coming together of Eliza and Darcy to be a little more dramatic. Next I dove into Sense and Sensibility which I also enjoyed though not as much as Pride and finally I read Mansfield Park which was by far my favorite of the three and which I think can partially be accounted to the fact that Austen's writing matured and became exponentially better as her writing career progressed.
I am definitely in awe of her as a writer. She has clearly influenced a great deal of modern material from Gilmore Girls to Twilight and so much more. It's no wonder her books have been adapted into films so many times over because although the books are old the themes are still so relevant today. I guess that's why they call them classics.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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