For those of you in the Diversity Rocks! book challenge, Ali started a meme at her Worducopia book blog: http://worducopia.blogspot.com. I am having problems cutting and pasting and I had my new Dell laptop for about 5 months now. See how I answered this week's questions at Ali's Worducopia blog.

The Death of Ivan Ilych

This was a different approach to this story. Tolstoy started off with the funeral and then started off with the begining of Ivan's life. Ivan always tried to get a position with a title and more money than his last position was to please his wife, which I did not like. All she cared about was how much money Ivan made just to spend it. Ivan got to spend some of his money on antiques. The life Ivan lived was normal except for his wife insisting that he have a "titled" position. The doctors that were seeing Ivan debated that his liver, kidney, or appendex was the cause of death. The doctors did not come to a general agreement to what was Ivan's malady.

Forever Autumn

This is one of my Doctor Who books. I cannot post a book reivew on my blog as alot is happening to me with my Lou Gehrig's Disease. (See my post on A Novel Challenge entitled I Have Some Good News and Some Bad News) We recieved myhospital bed about two weeks ago and now mom cannot find the book; we had to stash what was not needed in the family room into my bedroom. My legs and my voice gave out about a month ago, so I cannot look for it. Even when my wheelchair comes,my bedroom door is too narrow to accomodate the wheelchair. So when my mom straightens out my bedroom AND she finds Forever Autumn, I will post a bookreview.

Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary

I remembered as a child, one of my favorite authors was Beverly Cleary. I read Henry Huggins to see if I remebered correctly, and I was right. While I do not remeber all of the details, I remember some of the incidents. I remembered Henry struggling to get Ribsy on the bus and all of the guppies. Especially the guppies as it had happen to us. My maternal grandma gave us kids some guppies; and while it was more male than female, as we loved the males coloful tails, there were some females too, that also had colorful tales, too. We also had babies that we passed on to my Camp Fire Girls group and Jill's, my sister, Bluebird group. Camp Fire Girls were like Girl Scouts, but my mom and Mrs Skinner felt that this program was better than Girl Scouts and we earned beads instead of merit badges.

All in all I enjoyed re-reading the book. The next one I am going to re-read by her is The Mouse and the Motorcycle.

Movie: 2001: A Space Odysey---Book to Movie Challege and Lit Flic Challenge

The Turner Classic Movies host (not Roger Osborne, but the younger one with a gotee) said that it was the movie's 40th anniversary. And I forgot how visual this movie was. There were some special effects that I still marvel at; like the stewardess who was walking on an anti-gravity ring and she start off to the right and walks completely around until she is upside down and the camera IS NOT turning with the actress. And a lot of other special effects like that. It is a stunning movie. The storyline is basically the spaceship to the first mission to Jupiter's computer goes haywire. I highly recommend this movie.

Sorry for Being a Stranger

It has been almost two months since I was diagnosed with ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease and I have been having good days and bad days, which is typical. I have been busy with my mom rearranging the furniture in our family room and my bedroom that is now the nieces and nephews playroom with my clothes in the closet, my books and my crocheting. I have 5 nephews and 3 nieces, and the younger ones like it, especially Owen who is my youngest nephew at 4. I have been sleeping on my recliner for the past 3 years mainly because when I had to have dead skin tissue that was below my calf removed, my stepfather made it a storeroom for his radio controlled model airplanes; so I haven't slept in it in about 5 years now, but it is for the best as I have a lot of "equipment" that I have to use with my ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease---a sleep apnea machine, a therapy vest that should keep my lungs clear, and many more things to come. Also I have been looking at lift chairs as I cannot get up on my own anymore. I still have good days and bad days, but it is tricky to adjust to my left hand as I am right handed. I have eating with silverware and a few other things with my left hand, but it is tricky to write and crochet with my left hand. I cannot hold the pen, pencil or the crochet hook the right way, so I am gripping them a different way.

Man in the Moon by Richard Lumsden.

I like to listen to BBC radio alot and this was a short story on BBC 7. I doubt it would be found here in the States. It was about a bus driver remembering a day out in Scarborough and he has flashbacks to when his father woke him up to see Neil Armstrong to step on the moon and also his father wanted his ashes scattered at the seaside. Also he meets his girlfriend for an unspecified period and her mother there, and breaks off the engagement. Then he contemplates suicide, but you do not know if he does it or not. While it was really good, I do not like endings like this that leaves you hanging.

The Blockade Runners by Jules Verne-E-Book, Back to History, Bang Bang, Novella, Naming Conventions, A to Z (V Author), Classics

E-book site: http://www.lib.virginia.edu/ (They do not have a direct link to individual e-books. After going to the library's main webpage, go to V for Verne)


This novella is set during the United States's Civil War. An U S citizen and his niece came aboard the DOLPHIN (I re-read the part where the niece was introduced, but I still cannot figure out how she came aboard) and the uncle is asking the Captain if he could rescue Jenny's relative that is in a stockcade in the US. He agrees and Jenny gets the Captain's quarters and the Captain sleeps on a cot on the poop deck. Thus the adventure begins.

With the exception of how the niece gets aboard the DOLPHIN, this is a kind of accurate story. **1/2

A Filbert is a Nut by Rick Raphael-Electronic Book Challenge, Short Story Challenge, 42 Challenge

Short Story website: Munsey's---http://www.munseys.com/book/26045/Filbert_Is_a_Nut,_A

I have been finding out that it is tricky to do a review on a short story without giving away the plot. I would like to describe more of the story, but I feel that I would give away the entire story.

This story is about a mental institution on Earth and in particular an art therapy group. A man is sculpting with modeling clay and when the therapist, a Miss Abercrombie, asks what he is making, he gives his answer, but she does not believe him, until a certain incident happens in the middle of the night.

I read this story twice, and I still cannot figure out how the man did his thing. ****

2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut---Electronic Book Challenge, Short Story Challenge and 42 Challenge

Link to the story: http://www.munseys.com/book/23908/2_B_R_0_2_B This is a short story by Kurt Vonnegut that probably appeared in Isacc Asimov's Magazine or some magazine that was similar.

Earth has a population of about 40 billion, and some people have mastered the end to death, so when someone is born, someone has to voluntarally die. A painter's wife has given birth to triplets; she doesn't know who will die in the triplets's place. The title of the short story, 2BR02B, is the telephone number that volunteers who are willing to die dial to make an appointment.

It was a story to make you think, and the triplets were born at the hospital that I was born in-Chicago's Lying-In Hospital. I do not think that it is around anymore. The building is still around, I think, but the name has been changed.

Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie----Anything Agatha and Paperback Challenge

This is a Hercule Poirot book that I never heard of before. The title is taken from a quote that Agatha made from one of Shakespeare's plays. I do not know which one; I wish that I was a little more knowledgeable of Shakespeare's plays like my brother-in-law Larry, who is an English Lit. teacher at Riverside-Brookfield High School. The quote is:

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and miseries.
On such a full sea are now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.


The book is set at an estate called Warmsley Vale, the estate of the Cloade family. Rosaleen Cloade was just married a few weeks when she became a widow by mysterious circumstances. There are a lot of twists and turns in this book which makes it an exciting and enjoyable read. One of the characters that I found interesting is Lynn Marchmont, who was a British Royal Navy WREN, a naval officer during WW II. That would be similar to our Navy WAVES during the World Wars. Her fiance, Rowley Cloade, felt a role reversal. He was rejected by the military service while Lynn was accepted. He had a hard time coping with that.

I liked the book a lot. 4 out of 5 stars.

Teaser Tuesday---July 29, 2008

I am re-reading this book for The Daring Girls Challenge and the Initial Challenge.

Winnie-the-Pooh by A A Milne


I am half-way through this book and this is my favorite part so far. Pooh is visiting Rabbit and Rabbit insists that he is not home.


"Aha!" said Pooh. (Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum) "If I know anything about anything, that hole means Rabbit,: he said, "and Rabbit means Company," he said, "and Company means Food and Listening-to-Me-Humming and ssuch like. Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um.

So he bent down, put his head into the hole, and called out:

"Is anybody at home?"

There was a sudden scuffling noise from inside the hole, and then silence.

"What I said was, 'Is anybody home?'" called out Pooh very loudly.

"No! said a voice; and then added "you needn't shout so loud. I heard you quite well the first time."

"Bother! said Pooh. "Isn't there anybody here at all?"

"Nobody."

Winnie-the-Pooh took his head out of the hole, and thought for a little, and he thought to himself, "There must be somebody there, because somebody must have said 'Nobody.'" So he put his back in the hole, and said:

"Hallo, Rabbit, isn't that you?"

"No," said Rabbit, in a differnt sort of voice this time.

"But isn't that Rabbit's voice?"

"I don't think so," said Rabbit. "it isn't meant to be."

"Oh!" said Pooh.

He took his head out of the hole, and had another think, and then he put it back, and said:

"Well, could you you very kindly tell me where Rabbit is?"

"He has one to see his friend Pooh Bear, who is a great friend of his."

"But this is Me!" said Bear, very muchsurprised.

"What sort of Me?"

"Pooh Bear."

"Are you sure?"

"Quite, quite, sure," said Pooh.

"Oh, well, then, come in."

Pages 22 and 23 from Winnie-the-Pooh in The Complete Tales of Pooh.

Booking Through Thursday---7/24/08

Summary of questions---Do you remember the first sentence of the book you are reading?


Like I said at the Booking Through Thursday blog, I do not recall the first sentence of a book or short story. The only I DO remember is the one where Snoopy is trying to write his book and keeps on being interruped and the first sentence is "It was a dark and stormy night. I wonder if there IS a book that starts out like this?

Bookworms Carnival #14

The books that I remember the most are the Beverly Clearly books and The Littles books. The Littles are kind of like the Borrowers, but they have tails. I loved the day when we went to the school library; my first school librarian was my church's associate pastor's wife, and also my 1st grade teacher and a "permanet substitue" teacher was also from my church, and I enjoyed them greatly. Then my school librarian from 2nd grade on was Mrs. Subnewski and she was really wonderful. I do not remember how she did it, (maybe gave us kids questionares to fill out), but whenever it was a particular class's day for the library, she would have a book set aside on a cart for each of us. I fell in love with astronomy when I was 5 and still love it, and she would always have an astronomy book set aside for me for the grade I was in at the time, and also a "regular" book. When she ran out of school astronomy books for me, she would have a list of astronomy books for me to try to find at the Oak Lawn Library. I wasn't allowed to do anything on astronomy at the annual science fair until I was 10, as "it wasn't an appropreate field of science for a woman". I loved her a whole lot and she did not say no to anything that any student wanted to explore. I miss her greatly.

All Star Game

I am dissappointed in Fox Television's coverage of the All Star parade. I was hoping that they would show the entire parade and not breakaway to various other things. But I liked the way that Ernie Banks shared his pickup truck with Koskue Fukudome (I hoped that I spelled his name correctly. I have been a baseball fan ever since I could follow the game, and I am a South Side Cubs fan. A long story. But I liked the way that they had the baseball greats at their positions and then introduced the starting players for tonight's game. If they didn't have Bruce Sutter's name under him, I would not recognize him. He's one of my all time favorite Cubs pitcher.

Ever since the All Star Game has decided who has the home field advantage during the World Series, the American League has won all of the games. I wish that they would go back to the old way where it is the American League one year and then the National League the next. And I am not saying this because the Cubs has a chance again for the playoffs.

Sorry for posting this late. I forgot that I had saved it as a draft.

June Reads

I misplaced my list as I know I read more than three books but since I only have three listed here, I am making this my offical list for June as I have posted reviews for them.

Microcosmos

The Life and Times of Michael K

Death of a Ghost

Sorry for Being a Stranger

About two weeks ago I was in the hospital for tests to see if I had a mild stroke as my speech became strange and I thought that it was because I had to had my last 6 bottom teeth pulled and was getting adjusted to my bottom denture and my mom said that it was more receint than that; and all of the tests came back negative. I am having a follow up appointment with my doctor on Tuesday and I will keep you all posted. That is the reason why I am so far behind on my book blog. I am trying to get caught up.

The Life and Times of Michael K by J M Coetzee---Africa Challenge

Micheal K was a government gardner in the African region of Cape of Good Hope. When his mother became ill, that is when his troubles began. He was forced to leave the job that he loved to take care of his mother and after she died and her body was cremated by the hospital, Michael tried his best to keep his mother's request to be buried in the land that her family house was on. On his journey to fulfill that request, government workers felt that he was running away from the war that was going on, but he succeeded to go to his mother's house. But his troubles continued afterwards.

When I was reading this book, another book, "The Diary of Anne Frank" came to my mind. I do not know what war was going on during the setting of "The Life and Times of Michael K", (I did a Wikipedia search on South Africa, but they didn't have anything on South Africa, which was surprising), so I didn't know what war was going on. While the ending was different from "The Diary of Anne Frank, it was still a bit depressing and I felt that part three could be eliminated entirely.

Microcosmos by Brandon Broll

The pictures in this book are cells that are photographed at hundres or thousands of times. Who would believe that they can be pretty, or unusual with their intricate patters? I found this book facinating.

Books That I Read in May 2008

The Sunny Side by A A Milne *****

1st to Die by James Patterson ****

16 Lighthouse Road by Debbie Macomber ****

Out of the Silent Planet by C S Lewis *****

The Book of Samson by David Maine ***

Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye by Kaza Kingsley ****

Little White Bird by J M Barrie **

The Queen of Bable by Meg Cabot

While I have been enjoying Meg Cabot's books (My now 15 year old niece, Emily, introduced me to her series The Princess Diaries books), This is the first book of hers that I didn't care for. Call me old-fashioned, a goody two shoes, a proper Christian, whatever, I didn't give it the usual 100 pages "test". I didn't care for the sexual references, the indirect mentioning of other things relating to sex, etc. This is one series of hers that I will pass by. Onto the 3rd book in her "Size" mystery series.

Death of a Ghost by Margery Allingham

I belong to a group that reads and discusses mysteries written by Margery Allingham that were a part of the Golden Age of mystery authors (Agatha Christie was a part of this group, also---about from 1920's to about the 1940's). I came upon the author by the British actor Peter Davison. I first came across him in the television show All Creatures Great and Small and then he led me to Doctor Who and then to Campion.

Death of a Ghost is about a painter who died a few years ago and wanted to "outlive", so to speak, his arch rival, so he had some paintings that he never showed and told his wife to do one painting a year for seven years, thinking that he would be haunting his arch-rival for years to come. (His arch-rival died shortly after the announcement of the showing of the first painting and never got to see it.)

There is the typical everyone wanting to get their finger in the pie, but it is well-written, and the way Margery wrote the character Max was really good. The ending wasn't what I would expect.

Also, Campion has a side-kick like Holmes's Doctor Watson named Lugg, who is his manservant. I do not know why Margery didn't mentioned him in this book, as I like Lugg a lot.

The Little White Bird by J M Barrie---Obscure Book Challenge

This is a lesser-known book by J M Barrie, the author of the play Peter Pan. I read it on Project Gutenberg, but I had a hard time following the storyline which appears to be that the main character, a soldier, is talking to a boy named David about his mother. In the paragraphs where the soldier is not talking to the boy, the soldier appears to not like the boy's mother. While I have read books in the past on Project Gutenberg or Project Gutenberg Australia, meaning that I do not have a hard time reading on my laptop, I had a hard time following this story.

The Sunny Side by A A Milne

I thouroughly enjoyed this collection of articles, short stories and poems that A A Milne wrote for the British magazine Punch. Best known for his Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin stories, this collection is delightful. The tales run the gambit from visits with friends, to his war days in W W I, to topics of all types. I am checking to see if there are any other colletions that he wrote (either for children or adults) that I haven't read yet.

1st to Die by James Patterson

My mom and I started to watch Women's Murder Club on ABC mainly because she liked Angie Harmon from one of the Law and Order shows and we have been liking it. So I read 1st to Die and found out how ABC got the title Women's Murder Club. It is the title for part 2 of the book. If it wasn't for the language and some of the sex scenes, I would pass it on to her. It was a bit tough for me as I usually do not read romances because the sex can get pretty graphic. And I realize that most of what I consider swear words are pretty much spoken on a regular basis by a lot of people, but I am still part of the dang and shoot crowd. Outside of these facts, I thoroughly enjoyed 1st to Die, my first time reading a James Patterson book. It held my interest so much that, with the exception of my mom asking me to ice some cookies for my nephew Cooper's 9th birtday party tomorrow, I read it non stop today. I am looking forward to 2nd Chance.

Blogger and the Library

I was at my library yesterday and I brought along my laptop as I wanted to work on my 3 book blogs as I have at least 6 windows open at a time (my Oak Lawn Library list of books, my Chicago Public Library list of books, my book groups at Yahoo!, my Yahoo! notepad, Project Gutenberg [a site for older books and 17th, 18th, 19th and very early 20th century classics] and an extra window for whatever) and I found out that the library has Blogger blocked for Wi-Fi users, but you can use their adult computers for Blogger, but it is too much of a hassle for me as you are only given an hour at a time (you can stay on longer if there aren't others waiting) and it takes about 5 minutes to open all those windows, sign-in to those sites and then close them down and then re-do it all over again. Too much of a hassle for me.

16 Lighthouse Road by Debbie Macomber

16 Lighthouse Road is the first in the Cedar Cove novels by Debbie Macomber. Olivia Lockhart is a judge in Cedar Cove, Washington State. It is about her and her family and the ruling she gives to a Navy officer and his wife, who is seeking a divorce. Like all families, they have their shares of ups and downs and how they reconcile the incidents. I have enjoyed Debbie's books in the past and I am looking forward to the 2nd book in the series.

Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye by Kaza Kingsley

For people who liked the Harry Potter series will like Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye, but I was surprised that the publishers of the Harry Potter books would allow the publishers of Erec Rex steal the chapter lettering and the black and white pencil sketches that we have come to know with the Harry Potter books. If you would just pick up a copy of Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye at a book store or library and flip through it, you would know what I mean.

Erec is one of 6 adoptive siblings living in a tiny apartment in Upper Earth (where we all live on Earth), and he awakes one morning and instead of seeing his mother, June O'Hara, he sees an over-weight woman named Mrs Smith and he tries to get out of the apartment because his mother sent him a message telepathically that she is being held captive in King Pluto's dungeon. He finally makes an escape and with the help of the newsstand's owner's niece, Britany, who is a math wiz, embarks on trying to find his mother.

You can see paralels between certain events in Erec Rex and Harry Potter, but for people missing the Harry Potter books, this is a good successor.

The Book of Samson by David Maine

This is a send-off (I do not know if I am using the right word here) of the story of Samson found in the book of Judges in the Bible. For those of you who are not familiar with the story, an Angel appears to Samson's mother, giving her restrictions on her diet, saying that she should not drink wine or strong drink or eat any food that is concidered "unclean". She will have a son and he will be a Nazirite, meaning "dedicated to the LORD", and he too should stay away from wine, strong drink and "unclean" food and also to never cut his hair. As the story goes along, Samson first falls in love with a Philistine woman, which is forbidden in Israel's rules and customs, and before their wedding day, Samson is attacked by a lion and he destroys it with his hands, as the LORD has made him strong by Samson keeping his vows. One day during the week-long wedding celebration, he gave the men of his wedding company a riddle to solve, but they kept on puzzling over it and then nagged his wife for the answer and she finally coaxed it out of Samson and he kept his end of the bargain and while he was getting the "prizes", his wife left him for another woman. Samson said good riddance to her and a few years later, he fell in love with Delilah and after several tries, coaxes out of Samson the secret to his strength (he never had a haircut) and Delilah called the guards after shaving off his locks, and they chained him to the Philistines's chief god Dagon's temple, but when Samson got enough strength back, he destroyed the temple, killing him and everyone in it.

For the most part I liked it, but David Maine uses some language that for "sensitive" readers, for lack of a better word/term, like me, found it to be a bit harsh. Language that would be found in steamier romances. But I liked some of the satire that Maine included that wasn't a part of the story as it appeared in the Bible.

My Weekend

On Friday I was catching up on my book groups and other things on the Internet before my Barry Manilow fan club meeting on Saturday as I would be sleeping over at my brother Jim's house on Saturday night and Sunday night as the bus service is pretty bad over the weekend. Mom picked me up today as on Mondays mom and I watch Jim and Paige's three children, my niece and two nephews while they do errands. On Saturday while I was waiting for my first bus to get to my meeting, I witness a car accident and I told the officer that I would call my report into the police station as soon as I reached my destination as if I missed this bus, I would be late in meeting my ride in Country Club Hills. (I do not know how this town that is about 15 miles away from Oak Lawn got its name as there are no country clubs and no hills.) When I reached Cheyl's house, I asked her if her regional telephone directory had Oak Lawn in it and it did and I dialed the non-emergency number for the police station and the woman on the other end said that I had the wrong number and I asked her three times what department I should contact, but she wouldn't tell me. So I am reporting it in tomorrow after Bible study.

While I was at my brother's, I tried to get Elaina and Cooper (he has autism), to play games with me, but they wanted to play with their friends, which I could understand. I used the time to get caught up with my reading as it is pretty tricky trying to read at home with my stepfather interrupting me about every half hour asking questions that he knows the answer to or making comments or complants. If I try to ignore him, he gets furious.

I had to put A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court aside as I have three books that are due at the library tomorrow and I will post my comments on two of them after this post.

Out of the Silent Planet by C S Lewis

I have been a fan of C S Lewis's books, but didn't know that he wrote a science fiction trilogy until now as Out of the Silent Planet is one of the science fiction book groups that I belong to selection for May. This first book of the trilogy has all of his wonderful "word pictures" as he does in The Chronicles of Narnia and his other books.

A man named Rasom was on a walking tour of England when he inquired of a woman if there were lodgings in a neighboring town, and she said no and for him to see if he could bring back her mildly retarded son back to her. She gave him the location and he said that he will do his best. When he arrives at the house, he sees two men harrassing the woman's son. Ransom tries to put a stop to it and as he was trying to do so, Devine recognises Ransom from their school days. Ransom was unsuccessful in saving the boy as Devine bops Ransom on the head and as he comes to, Ransom notices that he isn't in Devine's house any more. Devine tells him that he is on a space ship heading for Malacandra, which is the creatures of the planet name for Mars. The planet is very colorful and Ransom learns their way of life.

There are a lot of symbolism in this book as there are in his Chronicles of Narnia and there are a few situation lessons that we can all learn from today as when this book was written in 1938

Walker Branch of the Chicago Public Library

Yesterday after Bible study, I returned to the Walker branch of the Chicago Public Library that served as my school library for two years when I attended a special education school that was housed in a church a few blocks from the library. Even though I attended the school when I was 13 and 14 years old, the building seemed larger then than it did yesterday, but the flooring (tiny oval tiles possibly made out of porcelain, mostly white spotted with clusters of 4 black tiles to look like diamonds) and the basic structures and woodwork were still the same, with an exception of a interesting mural depicting African history on one panel in the adult fiction section. I cheked out :

Blueberry Muffin Murder by Joanna Fluke

Spider Star by Mike Brotherton---I like Science Fiction and he's a new author to me and he's from Illinois

The Once and Future King by T H White

Orbit by John J Nance

Pontoon: A Lake Wobegon Novel by Garrison Keillor (I am a big fan of his A Prairie Home Companion show/program on Public Radio)

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain; illustrated by Daniel Carter Beard; published by Modern Library in 2001. This edition looks like a replica of the original editon. The illustrations look like either pen and ink or wood carvings. With older books, I try my best to find the earliest edition possible in the library computer catalog, as I like older editions.

Thursday Next in Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

Another library that I would love to go back to is the Riverside Library in Riverside as that is the town that my grandparents on my mother's side of the family lived for about 15 to 20 years and I have a lot of fond memories of that library, especially remembering the stain glass windows with characters from children's books and a window seat that faces the Des Plaines River.

Mother's Day

I am single, but I live at home and my mom didn't really want anything special for Mother's Day, so she spent the time trying some new cookie recipie and I spent the day trying to figure out this blog. I want to learn how to do things on here, but I know that I have a long ways to go. It was just as well that mom wanted to stay at home as the weather was lousy today; lots of rain in the morning with strong winds and it didn't let up until about 3pm.

Why I Started This Blog

I started this blog as a result of joining a fun group at Yahoo! called A Novel Challenge, where we join reading challenges and see if we made it for the month or the year. I belong to a lot of book groups at Yahoo! and I have one of my own entitled Books Across America where we read a book in a particular state each month. I have been a bookworm ever since I was a kid and I still am in ANY form----book, internet, e-books, whatever! As you can tell by my blog's title, I prefer science fiction/fantasy books, but I will read almost anything. I hope that you will find it interesting as this is my first time doing a blog. Judy