Dentist husband and I are both talkers. And, because we are both talkers, we talk about EVERYTHING. And, often they are very heated discussions about things that aren't important at all. Recently, a friend overhead us talking, thought we were arguing, only to discover we were "discussing" something very trivial.
The other night, the topic was the greatest love song of all time. We, as a couple, don't officially have an "our song" and that led us to consider great love songs.
Here is what we came up with. We couldn't put it in any particular order so we have just decided that these songs are all, "our song." But, if we were ever on The Newlywed Game, we agreed "Fields of Gold" by Sting would be our answer, since that song came out closest to when we were dating. (I was actually in Israel doing a study abroad when it came out and he was still on his Mormon mission in Minnesota.) You can click on any of the songs to go to a Youtube link to hear the songs. Feel free to comment and add your own songs.
1. Fields of Gold, Sting
2. The Book of Love, Peter Gabriel (This is a cover, the original band to sing it was The Magnetic Fields but Peter Gabriel does it so much better in both Dentist Huband's and my opinion)
3. In Your Eyes, Peter Gabriel
4. The Luckiest, Ben Folds
5. You and Me, Dave Matthews Band (The video is really worth watching. Very cool. Well done whoever came up with this video idea.)
6. Walking After You, Foo Fighters
None of those songs were played on the radio when we were dating. The songs that come to mind when we were dating are below. All good songs but for various reasons, didn't make our "cut".
I Go Blind, Hootie and the Blow Fish
Champaign Supernova, Oasis
Banditos by The Refreshments
Big Me, Foo Fighters (Great video)
Oh and for those of you who are reading this and know what a huge fan my husband is of the band Rush, none of their songs made it because I am not a huge fan of the band Rush. He can enjoy them as much as he wants (and he does) but with the exception of a few songs, I have to let him enjoy them on his own time.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Why this little boy is one of my favorites
Sometimes, children call out to you to do a specific blog post about them. This summer, Toothsome #3 has been an absolute delight.
He is always thinking and experimenting. Nothing is safe in my house because he is always coming up with a new idea for every item in my house. (And, we have had to have very serious talks about not taking anything apart without asking permission.)
Recently, at burger place, I got a text from a friend. I responded. I looked up and in that short amount of time, he had broken most of crayons in pieces, taken off the paper and was "experimenting."
Here he is at my husband's office--drilling. (An old dental cast, and my husband's dental drill equipment.) He asks if he can do this every time we go into the office.
Somehow the word, "Hobo" was introduced to my son this year. He is fascinated about what Hobo's do. He then came to me and said, "Can I burn Toothsome #1's old tennis shoes, so I can make a Hobo fire?" With supervision, I let him. When the shoe really started to burn, he pulled out my old camera and took a picture of it. (I had no idea it was in his pocket but it fits his mentality. All experiments need to be documented.)
The "hobo" fire a little later. We let him burn it until the rubber on the sole was all melted. It was a windy day and we insisted everyone stay away from the very stinky fumes.
I adore this little man.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Guess what? I have a son old enough to go to Scout Camp
I have spent the day reflecting about my now 12 year old son.
12 years ago, we were living in Colorado. My husband had just graduated from dental school and we had moved into my parent's house to wait for the baby to arrive and so we wouldn't have to pack up our dental school apartment with a newborn. Toothsome #1 was born on the 4th of July weekend. It was in a small hospital and he was the only baby born that weekend and we had the whole maternity wing to ourselves for the weekend. The nurses would come into my room just to chat because there was really nothing going on except "us."
My husband had a practice waiting for him to come and purchase but my doctor told us he didn't want me traveling with a newborn until he was 3 weeks old and my husband didn't want to leave me or the baby. (This was the only time we had that luxury. After my others were born, he went straight back to work within hours. My husband feels a huge commitment to his patients.)
Since he was my first, I didn't really know but he was an easy baby. He cried when he was hungry or when he peed outside of his diaper (which was frequently). I had my mom with me 24/7 for those three weeks and it was marvelous.
Three weeks later, we moved to a home in the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake. I went from constant help in a beautiful 5000 square foot home to no help in a home that was a 1400 square feet fixer upper that needed a ton of fixing up. It was a horrible first few months! But Toothsome #1 was a trooper and we made it through.
Early on, it became obvious that Toothsome #1 loved Daddy more than his mother. I was honestly fine with that, and that is still the case and I am still fine with that. When his chips are down, he wants Dentist husband. They have a one of a kind relationship and I am so grateful they have each other.
As his younger siblings have come into the scene, he has been an excellent older brother. His siblings adore him. He is smart and capable. He is also shy. Is he perfect? Far from it but as a parent, I adore and love him to pieces.
When he turned eight, and it was time to go to Cub Scout Day camp, he didn't want to go. He cried--a lot. I ended up having to carry him to the car over my shoulder, strap him in the seat and tell our leader to drive away and that he would fine once he was out of my sight. That was true. (I know him very well.)
Well, at the age of 12, we had no drama. He packed his own backpack, and got out of the car excited to go to Scout Camp. I have complete trust in our scout leaders (honestly, they are the dream team of scout leaders) and I knew he would be fine. And, he was. He loved it. Until scout camp, he has slept away from our house two nights. This time it was five in a row! But again, he was fine and had an excellent time. (And they did amazing, fun stuff--SCUBA, aviation, horseback riding, canoeing, wake boarding, small boat sailing, ice caving, and even the horribly hard to get Environmental Science merit badge).
Today, he passed the Sacrament for the first time. Yes, I got a little teary. He is not my newborn anymore. He is not even my little boy anymore. But he is still my son. 12 years happened too fast.
Friday, July 15, 2011
BBC Book List . . . I'm starting to Wonder if it is a Fake
I have mentioned this list more than once here on this blog and I am now wondering if this is a fake. This list has been going around blog land for several years (this blog included) but I can't find anything on the BBC that has this list or any mention that most people have only read six of these titles. I did find the 2nd list I've posted, which is a list looking for Britain's Best Loved book.
That said, I have used both lists in the last few years when picking books to read. They are both full of great titles and so honestly, they can't be bad but I thought I would just clear up the fact, that I think the first one was created by someone and then they made the claim--just not the BBC. If I am wrong, please someone let me know.
And, I am playing along. I have put an X by anything I have read.
1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (X)
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (X)
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (X)
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (X)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (X)
6. The Bible (x) (Yes, I have read the WHOLE thing.)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (X)
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (X)
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (X)
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (X)
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (X)
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (X)
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (X)
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (X)
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ()
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ( )
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ( )
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (X)
34. Emma - Jane Austen (X)
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen (X)
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (X) (Again, likely proof this list is a fake. #33 covers this. The BBC doesn't make mistakes like this.
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - (I've started this three times, likely I will never read this one.)
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ( )
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden ()
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (X)
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I've read parts of it in Spanish, I might add.)
44. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins (X )
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (X)
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ( )
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel (X)
52. Dune - Frank Herbert ()
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons (X)
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (X) (Who ever put this list together loves Jane Austen.)
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ()
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (X)
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (X)
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley ()
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon ()
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (X)
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt ( )
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ()
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac (X)
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy ()
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding (X)
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (X)
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ()
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Inferno - Dante (X) (Why not the whole Divine Comedy, which I read for an English class at BYU. Yes, I am bragging.)
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ()
78. Germinal - Emile Zola ()
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (X)
80. Possession - AS Byatt (X)
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens ()
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ()
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker ()
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ()
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert ()
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ()
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White (X)
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ()
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Again, why the WHOLE collection here? This list is a fake.)
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ()
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (X)
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (X)
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ()
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams (X)
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ()
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute (X)
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas ()
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare (X)
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (X)
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo ()
**41 of these titles.
1.The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien X
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen X
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling X
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee X
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell X
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis X
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë X
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë X
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens X
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott X
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell X
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling X
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling X
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling X
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien X
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl X
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute X
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen X
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen X
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery X
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams X
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald X
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett X
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck X
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky X
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens X
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough X
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding X
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins X
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith X
83. Holes, Louis Sachar X
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons X
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
**32 of these titles
There are a ton of repeats in these lists and I will say, I do like the real BBC list better. Maybe I am just subconsciously favoring honesty.
That said, I have used both lists in the last few years when picking books to read. They are both full of great titles and so honestly, they can't be bad but I thought I would just clear up the fact, that I think the first one was created by someone and then they made the claim--just not the BBC. If I am wrong, please someone let me know.
And, I am playing along. I have put an X by anything I have read.
1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (X)
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (X)
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (X)
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (X)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (X)
6. The Bible (x) (Yes, I have read the WHOLE thing.)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (X)
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (X)
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (X)
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (X)
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (X)
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (X)
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (X)
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (X)
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ()
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ( )
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ( )
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (X)
34. Emma - Jane Austen (X)
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen (X)
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (X) (Again, likely proof this list is a fake. #33 covers this. The BBC doesn't make mistakes like this.
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - (I've started this three times, likely I will never read this one.)
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ( )
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden ()
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (X)
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I've read parts of it in Spanish, I might add.)
44. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins (X )
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (X)
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ( )
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel (X)
52. Dune - Frank Herbert ()
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons (X)
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (X) (Who ever put this list together loves Jane Austen.)
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ()
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (X)
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (X)
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley ()
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon ()
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (X)
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt ( )
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ()
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac (X)
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy ()
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding (X)
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (X)
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ()
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Inferno - Dante (X) (Why not the whole Divine Comedy, which I read for an English class at BYU. Yes, I am bragging.)
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ()
78. Germinal - Emile Zola ()
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (X)
80. Possession - AS Byatt (X)
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens ()
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ()
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker ()
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ()
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert ()
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ()
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White (X)
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ()
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Again, why the WHOLE collection here? This list is a fake.)
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ()
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (X)
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (X)
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ()
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams (X)
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ()
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute (X)
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas ()
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare (X)
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (X)
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo ()
**41 of these titles.
1.The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien X
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen X
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling X
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee X
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell X
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis X
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë X
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë X
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens X
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott X
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell X
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling X
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling X
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling X
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien X
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl X
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute X
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen X
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen X
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery X
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams X
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald X
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett X
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck X
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky X
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens X
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough X
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding X
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins X
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith X
83. Holes, Louis Sachar X
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons X
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
**32 of these titles
There are a ton of repeats in these lists and I will say, I do like the real BBC list better. Maybe I am just subconsciously favoring honesty.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
All That Was Promised by Vickie Hall
I was asked to read and review this book by Tristi Pinkston.
First of all, I loved the premise of this book in that, I come from in part, Welch, Latter Day Saint converts. Not only did several of my ancestors come from Wales but one of them returned and died there as a missionary, so this story immediately grabbed my attention because of my personal family history.
Like most early church missionary tales, this story is full of plenty of sadness. The early days of the LDS church was fraught with persecution, and this tale has plenty of examples of it. Almost immediately, the "persecution" part of the story begins and I will admit, it gave me pause to continue reading. It is often very difficult to learn of such acts and I was fearful to see where this story was heading. As I continued reading, I was drawn in by the story and found it compelling and a good read. I was touched by the humble examples of faith and perseverance shown in this book by the characters. It was realistic without being too maudlin or forced.
The author does an excellent job establishing relationships in this book and I found as a whole, I was drawn in by her character development as much as anything. The book ends with many of the character's considering changes in their lives. I am curious if the author plans on writing a follow-up to this book, so we learn what happens to everyone later on. It ends like there will be at least a second book.
One wish: Many historical novels give an Author's Note at the end, where the author explains what is fact and what is fiction and some background information as to why the book was written. I missed that in this book and I wish it were there.
All in all, a good read.
First of all, I loved the premise of this book in that, I come from in part, Welch, Latter Day Saint converts. Not only did several of my ancestors come from Wales but one of them returned and died there as a missionary, so this story immediately grabbed my attention because of my personal family history.
Like most early church missionary tales, this story is full of plenty of sadness. The early days of the LDS church was fraught with persecution, and this tale has plenty of examples of it. Almost immediately, the "persecution" part of the story begins and I will admit, it gave me pause to continue reading. It is often very difficult to learn of such acts and I was fearful to see where this story was heading. As I continued reading, I was drawn in by the story and found it compelling and a good read. I was touched by the humble examples of faith and perseverance shown in this book by the characters. It was realistic without being too maudlin or forced.
The author does an excellent job establishing relationships in this book and I found as a whole, I was drawn in by her character development as much as anything. The book ends with many of the character's considering changes in their lives. I am curious if the author plans on writing a follow-up to this book, so we learn what happens to everyone later on. It ends like there will be at least a second book.
One wish: Many historical novels give an Author's Note at the end, where the author explains what is fact and what is fiction and some background information as to why the book was written. I missed that in this book and I wish it were there.
All in all, a good read.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
11 year old Scout Camp
I honestly LOVE being a scout leader. There are few things better than seeing boys learn new skills, and having fun doing it. A few weeks ago, we had our annual three day Scout Camp.
The night before, we had the boys at our house and had them learn how to set up the propane stove (they don't allow open fires at the scout camp we attended) and set up the tent. The boys were each given assignments (one boy was in charge of the tent stakes, another in charge of the poles, etc.) and we discussed the buddy system, etc.
Dentist husband, who often walks in the door moments before scouts starts (thus the scrubs) giving instruction.
At scout camp the first day.
Doing an outdoor flag ceremony. Our boys were selected to show the others how to do it. Yes, I got a little teary.
Knife and wood working safety.
Archery
Setting up the tent.
Dinner and "mastering the match". (A Dentist husband invention--you can "master the match" if you can let it burn all of the way to end without any of it breaking off and not burning your fingers.) We let the boys burn as many matches as they wanted and we went through two big boxes.
The "knife game"--another Dentist husband invention. They all took turns dropping their knives from chest height (after earning their tote and chip) into an old log. The game was "won" if every boy's knife stuck and landed in a certain small area on the log. Honestly, they LOVED this game.
Dentist husband, the man who makes scouting fun. My job is figuring what the boys need to do get their rank advancements and then telling my husband what to do. He always comes up with some great way to teach them the skills needed. I love being there and seeing what he comes up with.
For another post: Becoming a "knot master"--it involves tying knots, in ice water, in the dark with a time limit, while the other boys try and distract you. Most of the boys are now "knot masters" and they beg weekly to do it.
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