Books in Bed

Acorna – Anne McCaffrey

2005, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Long, long ago or maybe just a year ago, I’m not really clear on time when it comes to books, some friends were going on and on about some woman named Anne McCaffrey and her dragon books. I informed these folks that either I’d never read them (possible, because I am not a huge “fantasy” buff) or if I had, they hadn’t impressed me enough to remember them. They were shocked and insisted I must read Anne McCaffrey.

So, I headed to my library website (which I love) and searched for Anne McCaffrey. She’s written a lot of books but the thing I hate about my library website is that it is not good about explaining which books belong to which series or which order these books were published. You can’t right click to open the search findings in a new window to check publish date either. I was short of time and wasn’t all that keen on some dumb fantasy books anyway so I reserved all of the books that seemed to be in a series called “Acorna: The Unicorn Girl“.

TW has read McCaffrey’s dragon books, probably not all of them but a lot, but she had not read Acorna so that was a nice bonus. Needless to say, we got hooked on the series and either read or listened to them on audio just as quickly as they came in or as quickly as they were published.

The most recent edition to the series is about Acorna’s daughter Khorri and since I don’t want to give away what happens to Acorna (it’s bad enough I just told you she has a daughter since in the first book she’s just an infant Linyaari!) I’ll just say that you ought to go grab the Acornas and if you have kids who like to listen to audio books, get them on audio and listen to them together. 🙂

By the way, I still haven’t actually read any McCaffrey dragon books! I started one, some collection of stories or something and got bored and took it back to the library. I think I will stick with the Linyaari instead.

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Seven and Seven Meme – good grief

Meme /

I did not expect to find myself tagged for a meme, I really did not. Adrienne obviously does not know that I am the one who asks the questions, not the one who answers them! Hmph! But she asked so I will give it a try.

7 Things I Plan to do Before I Die
Ha, this is funny and someday Adrienne will understand why… 😉

– Get the garage clean and keep it clean!
– Live in a home without animals of any kind, except for a hedgehog, I want a hedgehog.
– Live in a town or a city that does not have a major college or university in it.
– Read Atlas Shrugged all of the way to the end!
– Visit the doggone police museum in NYC
– See skeeter in person
– Have a house with a library

7 Things I Can Do

– Push just about anyone’s buttons
– Tend a message board
– Remember dialogue from really great movies
– Talk to kids
– Make moms like me
– Meow at cats and make them meow back (TW hates this)
– Make a mean grilled cheese sandwich (according to 5 of 6 kids)

7 Things I Can’t Do

– Roll my tongue
– Read as quickly as TW
– Ignore loud children outside of my bedroom door
– Leave dishes on the table or sink for more than 15 minutes
– Drive really fast, makes me nervous
– Fish, it’s against my religion
– Allow corn to grow in the garden

7 Things That Attract Me to the Opposite Sex
It has been a long time since I’ve been attracted to anyone of the opposite sex so ummm I am not sure I can do this but I will try…

– Sense of humor
– Nice rear-end
– Thick hair
– ummm
– ummm
– ummm
– ummm sorry, three seems like a lot for a gay girl, doesn’t it? lol

7 Things I Say Most Often

– Shit
– LOL (I spend about 18 hours a day online, this has to count as something I “say”)
– Honestly
– Get out from underneath my feet you dumb dog!
– Jake, would you SHUT UP! (which I should say right now ’cause he is barking)
– Ummmm, ok
– Are you getting any schoolwork done?

7 Celebrity Crushes

– Angelina Jolie
– Johnny Depp
– Kathernie Hepburn
– Lauren Bacall
– Melissa Ferrick
– Brian, gosh I miss Brian, Winton
– Mel Gibson

7 People Who I Want to Do This Meme

– Sassy Monkey
– Em
– FB (when he has time after the Katrina stuff)
– Gam
– Katie
Michelle (whose blog I won’t share here) and J (who does not yet have one, as far as I know)

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Outlaw Bible – Poetry? Literature?

2005, Books in Bed, Fiction, Homeschool, Poetry, Reading Lists /


I am not sure how it happened but somehow the Outlaw Bible of American Literature ended up on my library reserve list. I picked it up a couple of weeks ago but didn’t look at it until today. Now I’m wondering if some of this and some pieces from the Outlaw Bible of American Poetry wouldn’t be good choices for Michelle this year.

Have any of you read either of these? Know anyone who has? I’m tempted to say we need to own both of these…

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High School Literature

Fiction, Homeschool, Non-Fiction, Reading Lists /

Michelle is home! Besides the phone ringing off the hook, kids going in and out at all times, the interrupting of our weekend naps and the smell of popcorn this means that we’re back in homeschool mode!

Michelle did school all summer via FLVS but she didn’t do a full blown “curriculum”. The problem with her being gone all summer is that we didn’t really get much planning done for the year. TW and I have some ideas – journaling and world religion – but Michelle really needs to give her input into the literature she’s going to read for the next nine months.

We’ve got some books on the list, leftover from last year, and a couple that she did choose during the homeschool fair in May but we’re still short a good six books or so.

Here’s what we know Michelle will be reading:

  • A Clockwork Orange
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Anthem
  • The Scarlet Letter
  • Jane EyreWhat would you want a 10th grader to read if you could choose anything at all? (We need a biography, we need some poetry recommendations – I can’t take another year of Plath – and we haven’t chosen any Shakespeare yet for this year. Keep those in mind as you’re making your suggestions!)

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    Buy a Book and Help Hurricane Victims

    Charity /


    I’ve been reading The Examining Room of Dr Charles for quite some time and I love his blog. He posted a few days about his upcoming book and then quickly pulled the post down. I wondered what THAT was all about but then he put the post back up and told us that he would be donating 25% of his profits to the American Red Cross to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina when originally he had mentioned donating proceeds to Doctors Without Borders.

    I ordered the book first thing this morning. I probably would have ordered it anyway, but the fact that he’s making a generous donation surely didn’t hurt.

    Thanks Dr Charles, for a great blog and for making this pledge.

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    MuggleCast

    Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, Harry Potter /


    The folks at MuggleNet are bringing us MuggleCasts!

    We’re enjoying episode one at the moment. The guys are pretty good at sharing their thoughts and ideas about all things HP. If you’re interested in speculating about what happens next and what clues have been given thus far then I think you’ll enjoying giving these podcasts a listen. If you don’t have an iPod or other MP3 player, you can download the segments to your computer and listen that way.

    I do take exception to the early part of this particular podcast. The guys seem to think that younger children don’t actually read HP books. They think that the length alone is too daunting for an eight year old and parents are actually reading these to their children. Do these guys know any eight year olds because our children definitely read the books when they were eight. We didn’t read them outloud and we didn’t buy audio versions. Don’t underestimate a kid’s ability to get into really good reading material!

    Warning! Spoilers abound!

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    Brilliant Women Journal

    Bookcrossing, Books in Bed, Favorites, Reading Lists /

    I joined a Bookcrossing book ray for something called Brilliant Women Journal and I’m amazed at the book I have sitting in front of me today.

    The entries that those before me have made are incredible. I wasn’t expecting the artwork, the glitter, the stickers, it has some sewn pages for goodness sakes. I’ve had the book for ages. I keep picking it up and reading the passages and pondering which brilliant women I will add to the journal.

    Unfortunately, I can’t decide! All women are brilliant! And I don’t do “favorites” very easily or very well. I have to do something though, I am feeling very guilty for holding onto this for so long and denying others the pleasure I’ve had from picking it up and sifting through its pages about brilliant women, entered by brilliant women.

    Help me out, which brilliant women authors and characters would you include in this journal if it was sitting in front of you?

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    My Dirty Little Secret

    Books in Bed, Don't Read This /

    I have a secret. It is one that I try not to think about too often but I am going to share it with you because I trust you to understand.

    I want to join a book banning campaign. I want to burn books.

    There, I said it. Isn’t it horrible? So far I have been able to keep my impulse to ban or burn under wraps but it is difficult. It is more difficult when I hear someone talk about the very book I want to ban or burn. That happened recently when Amanda Marcette at Pandagon blogged Nothing More Counter-Cultural Than a Burqua. You see Amanda was talking about Wendy Shalit’s book “A Return to Modesty” (which I will not link because I want to burn it or ban it and I do not want to expose you to something as horrible as this particular book).

    I totally and completely agree with Amanda, Shalit has found just another way to teach women to hate their bodies. She’s trying to discourage women from being proud of who they are and telling the world just what they think. Her book actually suggests that women who have not “returned to modesty” get what they deserve when they are treated poorly by men or even by other women. Can you imagine? Shouldn’t a woman like Wendy Shalit understand just how harmful that type of talk is to women – and to men???

    I read this book as soon as it was released (2002) because the website I was spending a lot of time on was having a live chat with the author. After I finished I felt the need to burn and ban, stronger than virtually any feeling I’ve ever had. But, it’s against my “religion” to do such a thing to a book, ya know? Some people have suggested I sell it or give it away but I do not want anyone impressionable to read such trash and I don’t want to expose non-impressionable people with it either. So, there it still sits on my shelf.

    Every now and then I see it and feel the urge to lay a fire in the fireplace (bad idea since I live in Florida and it’s often way too hot for a fire). Banned Books Week is coming up, I’m feeling the temptation to start a campaign. Argh!

    This is the only book in my house that I have forbidden my children from reading. They can read the lesbian erotica. They can read the blood and gore mysteries. They can read the two Harlequin’s on the shelf. They can read Dr Laura but they cannot EVER read A Return to Modesty. It’s a Lost Virtue that I hope stays lost forever.

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    The Ministry of Reshelving

    Books in Bed, Bookstores /

    Courtesy of Jane – will you join the minstry? And, shouldn’t we be reshelving in libraries too?

    1. Select a local bookstore to carry out your reshelving activities.

    2. Download and print “This book has been relocated by the Ministry of Reshelving” bookmarks and “All copies of 1984 have been relocated” notecards to take with you to the bookstore. Or make your own. We recommend bringing a notecard and 5-10 bookmarks to each store.

    3. Go to the bookstore and locate its copies of George Orwell’s 1984. Unless the Ministry of Reshelving has already visited this bookstore, it is probably currently incorrectly classified as “Fiction” or “Literature.”

    4. Discreetly move all copies of 1984 to a more suitable section, such as “Current Events”, “Politics”, “History”, “True Crime”, or “New Non-Fiction.”

    5. Insert a Ministry of Reshelving bookmark into each copy of any book you have moved. Leave a notecard in the empty space the books once occupied.

    6. If you spot other incorrectly classified books, feel free to relocate them.

    7. Please report all reshelving efforts to the Ministry. Email your store name, location, # of 1984 copies reshelved, and any other reshelving activities conducted, to reshelving @ avantgame.com. Photos of your mission can be uploaded to Flickr, tagged as “reshelving”, and submitted to the Ministry of Reshelving group.

    Our goal is to relocate one thousand nine hundred and eighty-four copies, and to complete successful reshelving of 1984 in all 50 United States. Global contributions are welcome.

    Note: this project is not a critique of bookstore culture, the state of the shelving industry, or even of pervasive government surveillance. It is merely an observation that 2 + 2 = 5, and 5 is no longer fiction.

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    The Virgin of Bennington

    2005, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction /


    The title is better than the book, lol. Maybe I am just non-fictioned out or maybe I’m not a Kathleen Norris fan and someone else might enjoy this more than I did. It started out well enough, a conservative and relatively sheltered young woman going from Hawaii to Bennington – shock of shocks – but moved quickly into true boredome. The woman was just plain boring, if you ask me. Even when she was doing a bit more “living” she was boring. Boring, boring, boring.

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