Blast to My Past

My brother recently found some old photos of ours family's and scanned and sent them to me. Ahhh..the good old days.

Here's one of my dad walking down the road near our house. We lived outside city limits so the streets are unpaved.



This is the cute house we lived in while in Alaska. The entire inside was all wood and I loved it. The gazebo outside caused a friend's kid to call it "Amanda's Castle". How cute!

When we moved back to Colorado my mom, brother, and I went on an old family favorite cross-country skiing trip to Mayflower Gulch in Summit County. It's so gorgeous and I recommend it during the winter or summer.

New Challenge

I love challenges. Things that push me to do things I would otherwise be too lazy to do.

So since I've been doubted that I will complete all the books in my previous post, my new challenge is:

Amanda's In-the-middle-of-too-many-books Challenge

The List:

1. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (Finished May 30th, 2008)

2. The Light of Day - Graham Swift (Finished June 01, 2008)

3. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston (Finished July 15, 2008)

4. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins (Finished June 10, 2008)

5. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

6. Galileo's Daughter - Dava Sobel (Finished June 16, 2008)

7. The Yiddish Policeman's Union - Michael Chabon (Finished June 06, 2008)

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I will keep you updated when (not if) I complete these books.

Books and more books

I love summer time because for some reason the daylight makes my mind more active. That and since I'm taking the summer off from classes I want to cram in as many fun books as I can. So here's the books I'm reading:

Right now my riding-the-subway book is Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. It's sort of an Orwell's 1984-ish type of book. My old riding-the-subway book was Graham Swift's book The Light of Day. It's a private detective mystery type story which is ok but wasn't really grabbing my attention. Thus the switch. I'll come back to it though.

My sometimes-I-read-before-going-to-bed book is Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. It's a thin book but slow reading because it's one of those books where the accent is written into it so it's a bit of deciphering to figure out what they are saying.

My book I read at work since it's free online (Google books full-view) is Wilkie Collins' classic spooky book The Woman in White. It's great so far! A mysterious lady in white, two star-crossed lovers, and wonderful narration.

And I'm still only half finished with Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and need to finish that sometime.

Oh and my book club book just came in at the library which is Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter. I'm going to pick that up tomorrow and start reading it this weekend.

Oh...and I'm only half-way finished with Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union. I stopped reading it when I went to Las Vegas for a vacation because, while a good book, it's not really a summer-time read. So I will come back to that one too.

My husband thinks I'll never finish all these books. What do you think?

Just a stroll...

I just got an email from my sister wondering why I'd been so lax in my postings. So without further ado...

A couple of weekends ago while out shopping, my husband and I cut across from the East side of town to the West and went through Central Park. Ok...that's sort of a lie. We meant to do that but ended up a little lost and back on the East side. So we just took the bus over to the West side. But in the meantime I got to take a few photos of a new area of the park I hadn't been to. It was slightly overcast so no blue skies but it was still nice out. Oh...and my brother was really excited because if you've seen the movie Enchanted, it's the place where she sings and dances in the park.

Oh...and another cool thing...he took a picture of the same place last December and couldn't believe how green it is now. Here's the December photo:



And here's a few weekends ago:


Here's the lake (not sure the name):


We want to rent rowboats sometime. Oh and this is the bridge my brother was so excited about from the movie:


And just a pretty droopy tree:


Hope you enjoyed the Central Park walk!

Day at the Mets

So a couple weeks ago I got to go to a Mets baseball game! My company participated in City Harvest's Skip Lunch, Fight Hunger Campaign. It's a neat idea and we raised quite a few bucks. Anyway, to say thank you a few of us were given free tickets to the Mets game. They were playing the Washington Nationals and unfortunately the Mets lost the game :( But I went with a co-worker and we still had fun.

We had tickets to sit in the Picnic Area which we were told may not have a great view...but I thought it was great!




I also got to play around with my camera's features. I love the color accent feature:



Here's a great view of the game:


We were also given $10 in Shea Stadium money so we both got a beer and some peanuts. Classic! I had to take a picture of the score board the the guys that worked there.


I loved the Picnic Area. Not only are the tickets cheaper, but you have your own private concession stand and bathrooms:


Well...down side is you have to buy at least twenty tickets. Hmmm...great for a group of friends or family though!

The Picnic Area also backs up to the new stadium. If you haven't heard, this is the last year for Shea Stadium before it gets torn down for a new stadium.


Here's my last artsy view of the game before we left:


Hope you enjoyed the game!

1001 Book Update - Jude the Obscure

I found Thomas Hardy's book Jude the Obscure in one of the bookshelves in our basement where we do the laundry. The Super of our apartment is pretty cool because there are a couple of bookselves where people in our apartment can donate books for others to read. I've found some great books down there! The other day I found the Thomas Hardy book and thought the title was pretty intreging so I snatched it up.

I've only read one other Thomas Hardy book, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and thought it was a great book. Also, if you love Masterpiece Theater movies on PBS, Tess of the D'Ubervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd are wonderful!

Jude the Obscure became my book I read on the subway. In all honesty, I'm not sure I would have finished the book had it not been the sole reason for staying away and alert on the ride to and from work. The premis of the story centers around the character of Jude Fawley who is an orphan and is insanely smart and driven. Without any outside help, he learns languages, reads tons of books, and has aspirations to go to Oxford. However, his attempts are thwarted by Arabella who snags him into a marriage. When that marriage falls through, he seperates and meets and falls in love with his cousin Sue.

You can see where this is going. Basically a long long book with a sad sad ending. In all honesty, everyone in the book adores Sue but I think she's a terribly annoying and self-centered character. The book caused quite a scandal when it was published and Thomas Hardy never wrote another novel again. Wow. I assumed or was lead to think that the scandal was because they were cousins. But after reading it, I think the scandal was because the main characters went against the norms. There's pre-martial sex, divorces, couples living together and not getting married, characters questioning God and religion, and all sorts of other "modern" ideas. The book was published in 1895 and I think if it was published after the turn of the century it would have been received better. As for me...it's a darn sad book.

Also Reviewed By:

Books N' Border Collies

1001 Book Update - The Blind Assassin

I completed my first book on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die - 1% Well-Read Challenge

I chose Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin

I had actually read about one hundred pages of this book a few years ago and really didn't like it. I picked it up because I love the cover art. I will unashamedly say that I judge books by their covers. I know it's wrong but...

Anyway...I thought I'd try reading it again since people rave and rave about her books and since SIX of her books are on the 1001 BTRBYD List. I wish the list had branched out more because six of one author is a little ridiculous. For instance, there's EIGHT Ian McEwan books...really?? I mean, I loved Atonement but what was with On Chesil Beach ?? I didn't really like that one at all.

Moving on...after about 150 or 200 pages (if you're willing to wait that long) the books starts picking up and gets really good. The book is about an elderly lady, Iris Chase Griffen, looking back on her life and her sister's possible suicide by running a car off road. Interspersed in the novel are news clippings and chapters of "The Blind Assassin" which is the novel her sister wrote before running the car off the road. I love the mystery and deception in the book and it really pulls you into the book to see why or if her sister committed suicide, why she did it, and the mystery involved with the book "The Blind Assassin".

I didn't think I was going to like it because at first the description of the town, the river, the button factory was so much I thought it was bogging down the story. And at over 600 pages I think that it could have been whittled down more. BUT...if you stick with the novel, the story is amazing and will have you reading the last few hundred pages in one sitting.

Here's my updated list

Also reviewed by:
Lost in a Good Story
Rhinoa's Ramblings