83. The Worst Thing I’ve Done by Ursula Hegi

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN, and stayed up too late last night to finish it. On the other hand, it was kind of an obvious story. It was very obvious how Annie felt about Mitch and Jake, and kind of weird how delusional she was about it. The characters were fully realized and interesting, but I just wanted to shake them sometimes.

And, here I am at my goal, with a whole month left for the year. Go me!

Now, if I can just get some more books off my TBR list before I buy even more books. I am not so delusional as to think that I am going to not buy anything until I read all the books I already own, but it would be nice to make a dent in the pile.

Well, only one.

I wondered as I read this book: how much of this was ghost written? On the one hand, why would a politician be a good writer? That’s what speechwriters are for, right? On the other hand, this wasn’t great writing. It was fine, it was easy to read, but it was pretty straightforward. Surely a reasonably intelligent person (which I believe describes Bill Clinton) could put a book like this together, maybe with some editorial help. But still, he’s a busy guy, does he have time to write this book? Either way, it doesn’t really change my feelings about this book (it’s not like James’ Frey’s fictional memoir), but I do wonder.

82. Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World by Bill Clinton

This was a quick and easy read, basically a survey of several different effective charity efforts, both global and local. It was very inspiring, and I got several different ideas of things I could do to help others. There was a fair amount of self-promotion, but I imagine that is a hard habit to break after a lifetime in politics, and it clearly wasn’t the main intent of the book.

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Only 1 book away from my goal! I haven’t really been that focused on the goal per se, but it does feel good to read as much as I did last year in 11 months. That means I can get in that many more books that I have waiting to be read. AND, I only bought 3 books this month, 2 of which were bibles that I will not read straight through, so my TBR list actually went down for a change! Woohoo!

80. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

Very interesting. I am guessing this was early in Scalzi’s career, since the writing was a bit juvenile at times, but the story was well-thought out and I enjoyed the characters. I am looking forward to reading the next books in the series.

81. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

I don’t know where I got the idea that I wouldn’t like Hemingway. I do see why we didn’t read this in high school, though–the drinking! It never stops! This was an excellent book, though, and I am glad I read it.

I am currently reading Giving, by Bill Clinton, and I am most of the way through The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan. I brought TFM along to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving, and ended up leaving it in my mother’s minivan after a marathon day of shopping on Black Friday. I miss it, but not enough to make a special trip over to pick it up yet. It is a very interesting book, but it is really shocking to me how relevant it is to today’s world. I mean, I thought we got over that, but we are seeing this whole return to homemaking now, too. I have even participated in it at times in my adult life. This is one of those books I have always heard about but never seemed to get around to reading; I am glad to be reading it now.

In other news, once I finish these two books, I will have hit my “goal” for the year. Since I have over a month left, I know I will pass it, and my semi-kidding stretch goal of 90 books seems totally possible. I am making a real effort to read some of the books on my TBR pile, without buying too many new books. That isn’t too hard this time of year anyway, when I should be spending my money on gifts for other people, not on books that I don’t even have enough shelves to store. I have my eye on some really cool shelves from Ikea, though–too bad I will have to drive to Chicago to get them! But, if I get the white ones, I can put them in my bedroom and paint a purple pattern on them to match my bedspread, and store lots more books. Maybe I can even get some of my boxes out of storage (if I hurry before I buy more).

When I moved into my new apartment, I made a resolution. Since this apartment is bigger, with more closet space, I wouldn’t let it be so cluttered and messy. Considering the vast number of boxes waiting to be unpacked, it was clear that keeping this resolution would have to involve getting rid of a LOT of stuff.

So, I have been working on it. Some things are easy to get rid of, like old mail, or outgrown kids’ clothes. Kitchen gadgets and utensils were a bit more difficult, but I only have so much storage space, and I don’t have time for a lot of elaborate cooking anyway. Books are almost impossible. I love my books!

De-cluttering has lead me to spend a lot of time thinking about how much stuff I really need. I can’t think of myself as a minimalist, who only has a few absolutely needed things. On the other hand, I clearly have too much stuff now–and I say this after 5 or 6 full carloads of stuff taken to Good Will. What I am working on now is, where is that line? What amount of stuff will let me enjoy my life and my apartment without overwhelming me? I think maybe I need the books, because they make me happy. But, do we all need enough clothes to get through 2 or 3 weeks without doing laundry? Probably not.

I decided to start this blog to give myself a place to figure some of this out. Maybe if I chart my progress here, it will help me to clarify what I really need, what I really want, and what I can do without.

Oh, and if you don’t recognize the name of the blog, I took it from a book I read based on this PBS series. Check it out–it is very informative.

78. And Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

Brilliant. The workers at this failing advertising agency become increasingly paranoid as layoffs get closer and closer to them personally. The ridiculous things that they do seem reasonable when they are in the thick of them, but when you pull back a bit, you wonder how intelligent people can find themselves in those situations. But, I can tell you that it happens all the time in big corporations. This was more insightful than I expected, and also hilarious.

79. The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs

I love A. J. Jacobs. He is clever and funny and interesting. This project, following the rules of the Bible as literally as possible, could have been done very poorly. I am not religious, but I don’t want to read a book about someone making fun of religious people. But Jacobs was able to do this well and even learn a lot, despite not changing many of his beliefs about God or religion.

My trip to Border’s today was odd for two reasons. First, I had a mission, and I did not deviate from it. I mean, sure, I looked longingly at several extraneous books, but I did not purchase any of them. The second odd thing? My mission was to purchase a Bible (actually, I ended up with two, but that still counts in my estimation, since they were different versions, but both were bibles).

I have been reading The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible lately. A. J. Jacobs was raised as a secular Jew who doesn’t really practice any religion, but he decides to spend a year testing the Bible out, living by the rules in the Bible and investigating both Judaism and Christianity, although he doesn’t go so far as to actually believe in Christ’s divinity. The book is very funny, which I expected, but also deep. It also reminded me that, despite 13 years at my local Catholic schools, I am somewhat lacking in religious knowledge. This, even though I was a fairly devout Catholic for some time. Now, I find myself viewing all religion rather skeptically, and I am reading TYLB almost like a tourist, who doesn’t recognize what Jacobs is describing at all from a first person perspective. Being deeply secular now, I seem to have repressed much of the religious knowledge that I used to possess.

I don’t have any plans to start following the Bible’s teachings, but I decided that reading the Bible might be a good idea. It’s one thing to decide not to believe in God, and another to completely disavow any knowledge of what is arguably the most important and widely read book in our country. Much of our culture and English and American literature draw heavily on Biblical symbolism, to say the least about the Bible’s impact. So, I went to get a Bible. I got a Catholic bible, because it has more books than the Protestant bibles, or the Hebrew bible (the portion that Judaism and Christianity share, that is)–the Apocrypha, as Protestants call them, or the Deuterocanonical books, as Catholics refer to them. I am scraping the bottom of that particular branch of my biblical knowledge there, but suffice to say, I wanted to read those books, too. I also got a King James version that was on the bargain book rack, because that is the most common version.

As a non-believer, I felt weird going to the cash register with two bibles. I can tell already that I will do my bible-reading at home. It’s not that I am embarrassed to be seen reading it exactly, but rather that I don’t want people seeing me reading it and making false assumptions about me. I wouldn’t be insulted to be called a Christian, but it feels like lying to me to put out that image when it isn’t true. And people do assume you are a Christian when they see you reading the bible. Today in the bookstore, I seriously considered buying God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens, to even out my purchase, but I stopped myself.

So, I didn’t go crazy at the bookstore (have I mentioned the over 100 books I already own that I have not read? Yes, I have? well, just a reminder here…), and I bought not one, but two bibles. A very odd trip for me, indeed.

I have finally done enough unpacking to feel comfortable inviting some people over to my house. The apartment is still not stranger-ready, really, but it is looking good enough to have friends over. Woohoo!

On Friday of this past weekend, I had two other single moms from my childrens’ school over with their kids. I am glad I have the bigger apartment to accomodate 3 moms and 6 kids (mostly the 6 kids–they need a lot of space!). I got out my cool appetizer platter and put roasted garlic hummus in the center, then piled sun-dried tomato and basil Wheat Thins, baby carrots, olives, pickles, dried plums and a spicy nut mix. I gave the kids some veggie sticks, which sound healthy, but is really just slightly healthier junk food. Many of them came in and ate pickles, olives and baby carrots, too, though. One 6 year old boy even drank some of the pickle juice! Just a little bit, because we wanted to see if he really would like it. He said it was good, but he didn’t clamor for more when it was done .

For dinner we had chickpeas and yukon gold potatoes cooked in a store bought vindaloo sauce that was actually nicely spicy. I find that a lot of store-bought sauces are too bland for me, but this one had a definite kick. We had brown basmati rice cooked with bombay saffron rice spice and Thai green beans from Trader Joe’s. I was worried that it wouldn’t be enough food, but many of the children were too busy playing to eat much, so I had plenty of leftovers to enjoy.

I had so much fun having people over on Friday that I did it again on Saturday. This time I invited my friend Mandy, her 11 year old daughter and one of her neices, A. My daughter has been wanting to do more with A for some time, but she goes to a different school, and I am not friends with her mother, so we don’t see them very often. This time we were pretty casual. We had some hummus and flatbread for an appetizer, and I made a pasta with carmelized cauliflower recipe from the most recent issue of Vegetarian Times. (Have I ever mentioned how much I love that magazine? There is always something in there that I want to make, usually more than one thing. In this same issue is a wonderful looking vegan moussaka, which I am going to make sometime when I have more time available. And some adorable cranberry molds I am going to use to replace my gelatin based cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, as mentioned below.) Everyone ate at least some of the dish, which I consider a success with picky pre-teen girls.

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On another note, I was mistaken, the children will be with me for Thanksgiving this year! There are definitely some times when I am glad to be wrong. I am still doing most of my cooking at home, though, and avoiding the smoke.

75. I Am American (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert

Absolutely hilarious. I am so impressed with people who can write to ostensibly portray one message while clearly portraying another. This book also included the transcript of Colbert’s speech at the White House Correspondents’ dinner last year, which was absolutely brilliant.

76. A Taste for Death by P.D. James

Excellent book. The end was shocking, I actually found myself responding to it out loud, without meaning to–good thing I was alone in my car. The mystery was clever, and even when you found out who did it, it was suspenseful. I liked the new character of Inspector Kate Miskin, and I thought he development of both her and Chief Inspector Massingham was very well done. There were several places when I thought James was headed for something trite and stereotypical, but she did not.

77. Devices and Desires by P.D. James

James gets better with every book. I would have liked this a little better if Rickards had been able to keep up with Dalgleish a little bit more, but the story overall was very satisfying. I really like the way that James doesn’t feel the need to explain every little thing in total detail, and the way none of her characters has the full picture of what happened. I do like the traditional mysteries where the whole group gathers in the drawing room and the whole thing is explained for a fun read, but this is much more realistic, nuanced and interesting.

I can’t wait to read more James’ books, although I am thinking I should read some of the 100+ books I already own first. I think I am going to update my TBR list soon so I can see exactly how many books I already have. Maybe that will actually deter me from going to the bookstore and spending all that money. Probably not for more than a month or so, but maybe longer. Hope springs eternal and all that.

In order to match my pace from last year, I only need to read 6 books between now and the end of the year. I was only at 73 books this time last year, and I hardly read anything in December, so I am feeling pretty sanguine about passing up my goal. Especially since hardly reading anything in December means I finished 4 books last December. I am starting to get more interested in finishing unpacking my apartment (a seemingly never-ending task, but the piles of boxes do seem to be diminishing, as long as you don’t look in too many closets), and maybe doing some crafts for Christmas and general decorating, but I still have been keeping up a good pace lately, so I am thinking 83 is an easily reachable goal. I think that my stretch goal will be 90, but I have no real pressure on myself to reach that goal. I am just having fun with it.

As I mentioned before, I really like eggs. So much, I decided to just give in and declare eggs a part of my diet for now. But I am wondering if I should change my mind again. Not because I don’t like them, but because I really, really like them. Maybe a bit too much.

I am not kidding, I fantasize about eating eggs these days. I am averaging 2 per day, but yesterday I ate 3. I make one in the morning, and then I have to make another one, because I am just not satisfied. When I am hungry, I start thinking about how good those eggs are, and I can even feel the texture in my mouth, along with the taste. This does not seem right to me.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that people often crave foods that are actually bad for them, but I am too lazy right now to go search for the link. I mean, foods that you are allergic to, not just the generic bad stuff we all crave, like candy and potato chips. It is starting to make me wonder about these eggs, because it seems like such a weird thing to crave all the time. But, I don’t want to give them up! I love them!

See what I mean? It’s kind of creepy.