The Pink Bookmark

Closing Doors

2011-12-14T15:46:00.000-08:00

When I walked out of my dissertation defense, and the door closed behind me on my committee, I accepted the hugs and the congratulations. I accepted the flowers and the support of my loving husband and friends. I accepted high praise and nice words for a job well done.

But you know the hardest part is about receiving praise and love for a job well done? It's that the job is done.

This coming month, I face a world of changes--of doors that will no longer be open to me. The university library is making me return all my books (sob!) and fill out a request for a weenie alumni card with diminished book privileges and no remote access to any electronic journals. The health center wants nothing to do with me as of Friday. No more counseling. No more professional development workshops or writer's bootcamps or Thanksgiving student potlucks or random and often dirty foreign language film screenings. No more picking up my bi-weekly work study checks (bearing my stubbornly institutionalized maiden name) that my department refuses to mail to my home address. No more registration for classes or independent studies. No more auditing classes. No more deferring of loans. No more loans.

As much as I really am proud of myself for completing my dissertation and defending it successfully, for meeting my goal and pushing myself further than I thought physically or emotionally possible, and for getting through all of this and still being able to stand to talk about it without having an emotional breakdown...

...I am sad that the door is closing.

I am thrilled that the closing of this door means that new ones will be ever so slightly more open to me than they would have been otherwise. But, at the end of this week, in one hand I'll have a fancy diploma, and in the other hand, a lot of uncertainty about what comes next. I think, even more so than having my doctorate degree in hand--literally, in hand, as I get to pick up my diploma on Friday!!--I am looking forward to the day when my question marks will be erased and I'll be able to tell you exactly which open door I chose to walk through now that all the ones behind me are closed.

(Clarification--all the doors behind me except for my car door are closed! November 7, 2011.)

Not done yet, but on its way!

2011-10-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

Quiz Time

2011-10-13T20:17:00.000-07:00

So, last week I gave my annual reading comprehension quiz on research and source use, and the answers came directly out of their reading assignment. It was a simple quiz, or so I thought...the same one I gave last year with hilarious consequences. Below are some of the quiz answers that made me laugh out loud.

1. What is a primary source?
-A primary source is the source you really want to use in your essay.

2. What is a secondary source?
-A secondary source is really just a backup in case the primary one doesn't work out.

3. What is the difference between an abstract and an article?
-An abstract is something off the internet that is not normal. An article is like a book or a quote.

4. What is one way you can tell if a source is biased?
-A source is bias if you agree with it.

5. What is the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing?
-Paraphrasing is when you use the same words as the author, and summarizing is when you scrunch them together to be smaller.

(A number of my students did really well on the quiz. These were just the answers that cracked me up. I love my kiddos!)

Chapter 3 = Done

2011-09-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

Chapter 2 = Done

2011-07-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

Losing Weight

2011-07-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

Since April, I've given away roughly 40 books to my budding literature students and another 50 to a book collection fundraiser for a student's trip to Kenya. I have donated a full large garbage bag full (about 30 lbs.) of gently-used but too small clothes to a charity collection for women and children who had been victims of sex trafficking. My husband and I recycled a TV, remote, scanner/printer, and old VCR at Best Buy. We took an almost* full set of hand-me-down dishes to Goodwill. And I finally went through my filing cabinets and folders that I started filling at the beginning of grad school and teaching jobs, and out to the trash went more large bags of ~~evidence of six years of academic blood, sweat, and tears~~ clutter, not counting the reams of one-side-used paper we kept to recycle for unimportant print jobs.

I'm definitely losing weight, one day and one cleaning task at a time. It might not be the weight around my mid-section or my thighs, but it is weight that has been emotionally and spatially heavy in my life for too long. This summer, I'm all about losing. Only when I've lost the excess will I be able to find myself.

What kind of weight do you need to lose?

*I let my dear husband keep a mug from the set, which has bass fish painted all over it, handed down from my husband's brother who received the dishes as a gift from his ex-girlfried from a decade ago. Need I say more? You're welcome, Goodwill.

Sweet Child O'Mine

2011-06-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

My second dissertation chapter was not always pretty, nor was it always clear. But as of today, it is painfully beautiful and incessant, just like a power ballad.

Choosing him each day

2011-06-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

Today I am celebrating love, not with a special date. Not with Hallmark cards or anniversary motives. Not with homemade cookies or the light of candles. But with more "I love yous," more kisses on the cheeks for no reason, more pulling him close and whispering how much I appreciate him. More ways of telling him, I married you. I chose you as my partner and best friend. And I'm going to choose you every day of my life.

What are you celebrating today?

Summer and writing

2011-06-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

Last summer I wrote an article, and this summer I'm writing a dissertation. Next summer I'll be writing a two-volume encyclopedia. (I'll be writing it this winter, too, but it is due to the publisher in August 2012. Still not ready to talk about it on the blog yet...)

Summer is always writing time, it seems. When the rest of the world heads out to the parks, the beaches, the amusement parks, I head to my office or bedroom or quiet corner of the library with my laptop.

And it's not that I won't have a summer--it's just that summer is different when you're an academic. The school year is usually consumed by teaching, and the summer usually consumed by researching and writing. But the entire year is consumed by deep thinking and a constant attempt to synthesize and understand the world. I love that part.

So if you see me sporting my library tan and my over-full bookbag, don't feel sorry for me. I'm working hard, but making progress (a sentence at a time!), and having the time of my life.

How did you get here?

2011-05-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

I'm totally laughing out loud, and not the LOL kind, the actual audible kind. I just checked my statcounter account (after about a year of forgetting I even had one). You can do a keyword analysis to see what people type in to Google to discover how they arrive at your blog. Most people are googling "pink bookmarks" and winding up here, probably experiencing general disappointment that I'm not selling the things, but there are some really funny Google searches. Here are some of my favorites, with no editing involved on my part:

grad school turned down what next?
www.pink bookmarks of squirrels
how to make a my own bookmark with pink
baby shower bookmark saying this bookmark is to remind you
tsa prohibited pink items
the coolest pink bookmarks
biteme.org workcited

Now you're the one laughing. I kinda feel sorry for the poor person rejected from grad school who ended up at my blog. Especially since the only thing I really know how to do well is be a grad student and teach students. What's next, they ask? It seems like there's a market for selling pink bookmarks. I would start there.

whoosh-blur-bang

2011-05-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

My spring went by in a whoosh-blur-bang. I flew home for a very quick trip in February to be with my family for my grandfather's funeral, a mere month after we found out he had cancer. I still have not sorted out my thoughts about the trip and the experience, the sadness, the confusion...but I am moving forward each day and praying that my mother's strength has been passed down to me. She is like Wonder Woman, except my height.

In the meantime, my father's elderly mother has had a stroke and is now in a health facility for therapy and day-to-day care. My heart is breaking for both sides of my family. I can't be there with them, but my thoughts are there.

So much happened this semester, but most of it was a blur of busyness and pain, strength and progress. I was teaching, writing, tutoring, researching, working what felt like every minute of my existence. Scott and I flew out to Florida at the end of March for our annual CEA conference. We had a much healthier time of it this year--no major illnesses involved, no Kleenex-box-carrying and Day-Quilling involved. It was a special trip for both of us, and we presented well-written papers that inspired hearty and thought-provoking discussions. We both felt like it was a successful trip, and I'm so glad we were able to go together.

I have submitted two articles to journals this semester (which are not part of my dissertation), and an article I wrote last year has been accepted for publication as a chapter in an edited collection of essays. I've been hired for a large book project that...I won't really talk about yet. Maybe soon, once I figure out how I feel about it. But I have high hopes for my two articles that are under consideration right now, and I'm thrilled about the third one that was accepted.

April happened and somehow so did a dissertation chapter. My advisor has already sent me positive feedback with helpful advice. I'm already working on my next section. Stay tuned!!

It's May, actually quite late in May, and Scott and I have finally started getting back into a writing schedule now that our grades are posted and our school-year jobs are complete for a few months. We celebrated our friends' graduations and are working with every effort we can muster toward our own graduations. (If I can afford the gown and hood! $700+ seems a little cha-ching, don't you think?)

Every day is one day closer.

Chapter 1 = Done

2011-04-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

Play with Tagxedo!

What I will say because I can't say all I need to say

2011-02-03T00:08:00.000-08:00

I have been in a funk for a few months, and half of me knows exactly why.

(Fear. The kind that wakes me up at night...listening, wondering. The kind that stops me in a cold sweat while I thought I was thinking about something else.)

The other half of me keeps saying that my fears are irrational, or just excuses to worry.

But wouldn't you be afraid, too, if your mother's mother and sister both died of breast cancer within ten years of each other? And then just when life seemed to be moving beyond the aching pain of your loved ones' deaths, your mother's father was diagnosed with liver and lung cancer? And then your mother's aunt was diagnosed with cancer only a few weeks later?

And what if my fear is not cancer itself? What if my fear is not being able to help my mom through her fear? Her own pain? Her own questions of when her father, my grandfather, will die?

Least favorite question

2010-11-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

We all hear the many commercials that make fun of the "are we there yet?" types of questions that kids ask. In fact, many say it's their least favorite question. In my life, I can't ever remember asking whether we were "there" yet. It seems to me pretty obvious: if we're still driving, we're not there. But I never minded not being there yet. I had my books, and beyond reading, as my mom would say, "you're never wasting time if you're looking at scenery."

I've discovered that I have a least favorite question. I just cringe when a student comes into the classroom and says, "I was absent--did I miss anything?" YES, YOU MISSED SOMETHING. YOU MISSED CLASS.

Fall Festival Recipe Exchange: Cantaloupe Bread

2010-10-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is the first time in three years since I've learned about its existence that I've watched it go by: Dewey's 24 hour Read-a-Thon. I had about seven things planned for this past weekend, three of which were at the various schools I attend and teach. I had to make the hard choice and say no to the readathon this fall.

~~~

I've caught up (a wee bit) on my Google reader and found some exciting things going on today! My friend Trish from my master's program over at Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity announced (with a delicious-looking coconut oatmeal cookie recipe, might I add!) that today My Friend Amy is hosting her second annual Fall Festival Recipe Exchange. This is a great opportunity to find some new favorites and share one of your own.

~~~

Scott and I have, within the past year or so, discovered the joys of Cantaloupe Bread. One day we cut into a store-bought cantaloupe that felt ripe but was not sweet at all. This was completely on accident, of course, for who would do this on purpose?! But the accident was actually a blessing in disguise, because through the cantaloupastrophe came good.

I can't waste. I was not raised to throw away food. I was not raised to leave uneaten food on my plate. I was not raised to throw something away that tasted a bit weird. My mom has the uncanny ability to turn something that seems iffy and/or icky into an amazing cassarole, stir-fry, enchilada, or stew. And, in all my life, the only time I ever got food poisoning was from a pizza place in Mississippi on a trip to visit Grandmother in Tennessee. So, I think my mom's methods are dependable.

As soon as we determined that the cantaloupe was not sweet enough to be edible, I jumped online and started sleuthing for recipes so that we wouldn't have to throw the melon away. After a few disastrous clicks (who would eat cold cantaloupe soup!?! gross!!), I happened upon a recipe for cantaloupe bread with a praline glaze. We whipped it up that night, sans glaze, and it was pretty good. To me, it tasted like pumpkin bread except with slightly less flavor. So, the next time I made it, I added more spices and altered several of things that I didn't like about the original recipe, and ~voila!~ it was the best bread I had ever eaten, if I don't count my mother's Gramp's Dinner Rolls or Homemade Crescent Rolls. Definitely the best dessert bread I had ever eaten and the easiest one I had ever baked. We have been making it ever since, whether the cantaloupe is mild or sweet!

Without further ado...

KB's Cantaloupe Bread*

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 2/3 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups cantaloupe – peeled, seeded, and pureed

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

½ teaspoon ground cloves (optional)

½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, vegetable oil, sugar, vanilla, and pureed cantaloupe.

3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and other optional spices. Stir flour mixture into cantaloupe mixture; stir to combine.

4. Pour batter into prepared pans.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean. Let cool slightly in pans (about 20 minutes), and then cool entirely on wire racks.

6. May be served warm with or without butter, or at room temperature.

7. For storage, wrap cooled loaves separately in plastic wrap, and then cover with aluminum foil to preserve freshness. The bread stays fresh for about a week, out of the refrigerator in a cool kitchen, or in the refrigerator in a warm kitchen.

*recipe altered from Allrecipes.com. They ask for 3 eggs and more sugar, which it doesn’t need. They also don’t use as many yummy spices as I do, because they serve the bread with a praline glaze. If I have more than 2 cups pureed cantaloupe, I go ahead and put it all in. The consistency of the bread stays about the same and just makes a little more!

Life lessons, part three: Packing

2010-09-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

According to government travel regulations, you can bring neither sabers nor brass knuckles on planes. The good news is that they have started allowing tweezers again. Cricket bats, unfortunately, still a no-go. Dominic will have to get his very first cricket bat from someone else.

Need more info? Here's the best itemized chart I've found: http://www.tsa.gov/assets/pdf/prohibited_and_permitted_items_10-24-07.pdf

Conceived in love: Dominic

2010-09-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

I have a new baby nephew!! Dominic Josiah Lopez, was born at 10:39 a.m. on September 30, and weighed 8 lbs. 5.5 oz. I am flying to TX to see Dominic and all my family!

thinking in the abstract

2010-09-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

My students' reading comprehension quiz for today was on a chapter they read about research and using sources, including online databases. Question number 5, what I thought was a gimme, was "What is an abstract?"

The answers were awesome. I was in awe.

Q: What is an abstract?
A: An abstract is something out of the ordinary.
Not too bad, I thought...at least they were thinking of one sense of the word.

Q: What is an abstract?
A: An abstract is a unique way to quote an author.
Getting cooler.

Q: What is an abstract?
A: An abstract is a way of writing that doesn't reveal everything but keeps the reader interested.
Ha! Close, but no cigar.

Q: What is an abstract?

A: An abstract is an interview with a professional in the field.
Hmmmm... Is that what is wrong with the nightly news?

Q: What is an abstract?
A: An abstract is going outside of the box to create your own idea.
Nope, but you tried hard.

Q: What is an abstract?

A: An abstract is a piece of writing that is off topic or vague.
Oof. Cute, but way, way wrong.

This is why it's called a reading comprehension quiz, and not just a reading quiz. Of course, doing the reading wouldn't hurt, either. :) Which one of these is your favorite?? Or do you know the answer?! I'm looking for some doozies. :)

response from journal

2010-09-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

I received a response from the film journal this week. It turns out that they won't send my article out to reviewers yet because it's still too long, even after all my cuts. I hadn't counted the footnotes, and I thought I was barely below the maximum, but it turns out I'm still over by about 1000 words counting all the notes. Back to the cutting board. I really want to publish this article! (Nag nag nag blargs the list of other, more pressing things that need to get done right now, such as my dissertation. Blarg.)

PS: My sister is still pregnant! This baby boy simply will not come out. It's 3 days past d-day, but he's just relaxin, hanging out in the warm belly. I'm starting to think about this baby the same way I do about my film article. It's (taking) way too long, but I love love love it.

where's that red pen?

2010-09-25T23:23:00.000-07:00

I'm a professor of college writing, which already tells you a lot about me. It tells you that I have one, if not two or three, degrees in English. It tells you that I'm not in it for the money. It tells you that I love grammar more than most, and I probably ~~drool over~~ ~~clap my hands at~~ appreciate well-placed semi-colons. But, it also tells you that I have to work extremely hard at my job to see improvement in my students' writing, if only because they resent me for the fact that they 1) didn't score high enough on the SATs to get out of taking freshman comp., 2) didn't score high enough on the AP exam but think they know everything after taking AP classes throughout high school and, thus, refuse to listen, or 3) have to take a general ed. class when they'd rather be gathering credits that count toward their majors.

And I know they resent me for these things that are completely outside the realm of my control. However, with most students, the resentment usually only lasts a month or so. Once they start to trust me and let go of all the residual resentment from bad experiences in previous English classes, things start clicking in amazing ways. Trust is key because, you see, writing is a very personal subject. Students are attached to their words in levels of intimacy they never attain with math proofs, nor chemical equations, nor Spanish vocab flashcards. In my job, I walk a precarious line between crushing their dreams and cherishing their ideas. They love their words. They believe their words...

...which brings me back to things you must know about me because I teach writing.

I have a wonderful sense of humor.

I've occasionally used my blog as a forum to discuss my students' slip-ups with word choice and their very cute works cited blunders. If you've been reading long enough, you probably remember the famous poultry mishap and the infamous citing of the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. As I was cleaning out my closet this evening looking for a purse I haven't used in a year, I found an old spiral notebook that I had used as a gradebook several years ago. Flipping through, I had a sweet moment of nostalgia reacquainting myself with the students names and other tidbits of information I wrote down in my spiral. "Absent b/c of basketball. Memo from coach." "Broke arm, can't write in-class essay. Find alternative assignment." "Late AGAIN." "Brought me coffee." "Not on task during peer review." Each of these little notes-to-self brought back a memory. And then I turned to the very last page in the spiral. This was where I had written my students' funny sentences for their last essay cycle! I totally struck gold.

"Once lost and confused, John Newton went through a time where he was looking for something he simple could not fine, God. After changing his ways from being a self-proclaimed wrench, he was finally saved by what we could all call, amazing grace."

"He was a monk and had certain expectations expected of him."

"After a facelift you can obtain nerve damage that can make your face insensible."

"The argument here is that speaking in tongues is elf-edifying and Paul shows disapproval."

You bet he does! Those elves can get out of hand so quickly.

send article to journal, check!

2010-09-13T17:17:00.000-07:00

I've already posted today, but I couldn't help adding a little note since I can't keep my news to myself any longer. I submitted my first scholarly article for publication today! I'm trying not to get excited at all since it is a top-tier scholarly film journal and I have very little hope of getting accepted the first time around. I mean, people that are BIGshots in the industry are frequently rejected by this journal. And film isn't even my major field of study. But, all that aside, what I am most excited about is the opportunity to receive professional feedback whether or not it is accepted. (YAY!)

When I sent my lovingly- and painstakingly-crafted 42 pg. article through email attachment to the editors (as the guidelines requested), I thought I might have a nervous breakdown. It's my first one. I felt like I was sending my firstborn off to kindergarten or something. To a kindergarten from which she still could be rejected! Anyway, here's to having it checked off my to-do list, which, to be honest, is kind of a big deal!

life lessons, part 2

2010-09-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

It seems that sleep is no longer just my dissertation topic. It's the one thing that never seems to happen at the right time. When it's time for bed, my body is all spazzed out and ready to party. When it's time to be up and alert, my body feels like molasses on a cold day. Sllllllowwwwww. (Yeah, bad analogy, but give me a break. I'm tired.)

I'm trying to eat right, minimize the caffeine, and get at least 3-4 hours of exercise a week. And yet my body can't get into a good sleep pattern. If this keeps up, I might just konk out in front of my classroom of students.

Innnnn other news, my sister's baby is almost here. Her due date is a week and a half, but she probably won't last that long. This kiddo wants out!

*Added thoughts from later in the afternoon: It occurs to me that I have provided zero life lessons in this post. So, here's my attempt at reconciling my title faux pas.

Lesson #1 of the day: always email professors when you plan on visiting their office hours. 99% of the time, the hours will be cancelled on the one day of the semester you show up.
Lesson #2: Try not to cringe or laugh when a student asks you if you're Asian when you're clearly a southern white chick. Stick to yes or no. Or there's always the joke, "Why yes, I'm CAUC-Asian." Seriously.

difficult life lessons, part one

2010-09-08T21:57:00.000-07:00

School started today, which means hubby and I began our fall schedule of waking up at 5:30 on MWF mornings to go teach, between the two of us, our five writing classes from 7:15 a.m.-11:35 a.m. Early does not describe that time of morning adequately. But perhaps painful. Quiet. Prayerful. And this morning, rainy.

I already love my students. I can tell they are pumped about starting ~~to party~~ college, and as much as I joke about them, freshmen hold a special place in my heart. Ten years ago this week, I started college far away from my family and friends, and my choice of college has impacted nearly every part of my adult life. It's been a wild, wild decade. What surprises will the next one bring?

Life lesson from today: it is exponentially more difficult to put on mascara at 6 a.m. than at 8 a.m. *Sigh.*

What have you learned today?

Me. Only better.

2010-09-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

Last week, I reached a critical mass of stress and anxiety in my head, muscles, nerves, mind...

I started complaining about any and everything to any and everyone who was within earshot. And, when I was by myself, that didn't stop me. I complained to myself! Why why why? I whined. Why do I have to work so many jobs to make ends meet? Why have I not lost more weight after an entire summer of strenuous workouts? Why am I not further on this chapter of my dissertation? Why do I have to pay tuition even though I'm done with coursework? Why is our house such a mess? Why did my professor let me down and forget the details we've discussed four times in twelve weeks? How could she? How could I? How could they? Why me?

...

And then...

...when I had quieted my mind long enough to hear myself and register the words I was saying...

I felt so ashamed and unworthy of the blessings in my life.

I was complaining about having too many jobs while millions of people have none.
I was complaining about my weight while millions have no food to sustain their bodies.
I was complaining about working out all summer and seeing minimal results while millions are sick, handicapped, arthritic, or unable to move their limbs freely.
I was complaining about my dissertation while millions go uneducated and cannot read or write, much less engage in the privilege of scholarly research.
I was complaining about housework and clutter while millions are homeless.

Quite simply, I had made myself mentally sick. And, quite honestly, I was disappointed in my words, actions, and mindset. Once the scales fell from my eyes, I sat down and--instead of complaining--I gave myself a stern reprimand.

I have a roof over my head, food in my stomach, clothes on my back, books on my shelves (and, yes, my floors), a candidacy in doctoral studies, and an excess of employment for the number of available hours in each day.

So, I propose a movement away from this narcissistic feeling of entitlement. Out with sickness, out with disappointment, out with inadequacy. In with action. In with energy. In with beauty.

(I) love this boy.

2010-08-17T16:13:00.001-07:00

I love my little nephew, and I can't wait until I have one more! Timothy has been the cutest , sweetest, smartest nephew ever and now there will be another little guy in the family! I don't have to wait too long anymore. Christy's due at the end of September.

Scott and I had a wonderful time visiting home, and of course it was too short of a trip when all was said and done. We needed to get back to CA and back to work, and time stops for no Karen Beth. We got to see a great number of friends and family while we were in TX, though, and I got to attend my 10-yr reunion, even though it was cancelled! (Long story, but it was cancelled due to not enough tickets being sold, and then an "unofficial" reunion was planned in its place.) I also was able to throw my sister a baby shower for baby #2. I was blessed in so many ways on our trip home. For me, this was one of our best trips home since we have moved out here.

I miss my sister and her husband and son. I miss my parents and Scott's parents. I miss my cousins and relatives by marriage. I even miss the people I went to high school with.

We've been back for about three weeks now and are fully immersed in planning for our semesters at both schools, as well as working on our dissertations as much as we can. I finally got a better hold on my Jane Eyre chapter, and now I'm way more organized on my topic than I was before we left for TX. It just took about 90 days of brooding over it, ya know? Then something finally clicked.

Two of my friends are taking their qualifying exams today, and I am praying and thinking calm thoughts for them. I know how difficult these exams are, and I am excited to see them *almost* done with the exam process. Dissertations are a whole different ballgame.

Okay--enough school talk. Let's see some pictures of the aforementioned cutest nephew ever.

Cookout at Scott's parents' house: Mom and Dad

Christy, me (Aunt KB), and my nephew Timothy

Mmm, strawberry cake.

There's no doubt what my husband will look like in 30 years. :)

Timmy, just bein' adorable. (age 3)

Tim and his trains

Choo-choo!!

Timmy and his mommy/my sis Christy

Tim and his aunt...goofing around

Tim and his Uncle Scott (I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!)

It's a Timmy sandwich! Cuteness abounds.

Until next time!

Muffins and Mom

2010-06-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

I miss my mom all the time (she's in TX/I'm in CA), but I think I miss her most in the summertime. Not at birthdays, not at holidays, but summertime. Mom is a piano teacher and has her piano studio at home, so even though she worked, she was also a stay-at-home mom because she worked from home. It was wonderful to know that we could count on her for everything. Mom took us to our ballet lessons, our piano and violin recitals, our Girl Scout meetings and campouts, our fundraisers, our church activities, everything. She was always dependable, and she was always there.

Mom used to take my sister and me to the library several times a week when we were kids, and then we would play together, read together, take day-trips to museums or the Discovery Science Center together. We picked a book that we would read together as a family each summer. One year it was Cheaper by the Dozen. Another year it was a big book about the seven wonders of the world, and other world wonders. I also remember the Bobsey Twins and Hans Brinker and other amazing literary characters showing up during the summer.

We would cook or do special Girl Scout projects for badges. We would watch the French Open and make Wimbledon predictions in June. We would watch Wimbledon and make special Breakfast at Wimbledon meals for the championship matches (strawberries and cream!). The three of us (Mom, me, big sis Christy) were a great team and a great family. And when Dad would come home at night after a long day of working, the four of us would watch movies and eat meals and have great conversations about life, music, religion, books...and he would take care of us and make us all feel loved and safe.

(Family 1983)

(Parents’ 30th Anniversary; 2006)

My mom is an amazing woman. She's strong and intelligent. She's high-stressed and high-energy. She's full of nerves but full of love in every ounce, every nerve. She cooks homemade and knows where every good recipe is, even though she knows most of them by heart. She taugh her daughters how to cook with the same care and creativity (and generosity) that she does.

(Christmas Cookies in 2006, nowhere near Christmastime)

Mom bakes cookies and caramel popcorn for her piano students. She makes birthday cakes for the family. She cooks breakfast every morning (it is the most important meal of the day). She has “piano parties” at the end of every school year for her students, and one year she made this:

(It’s a piano cake! White sheet cakes with Twix bars for the black keys. YUM. I think I’m five in this photo, 1987-ish)

My mom was there for my recitals and concerts when I started playing violin in middle school.

(Fall 1995, age 13)

And she was there for my recitals and concerts in college (driving from three states away)

(Senior Violin Performance Recital poster/postcards, taken by my friend Nick Choy in 2004)

She was there cheering for me when I graduated as Valedictorian from my high school (while I was thus rewarded by having to wear a hideous orange robe instead of the classy white of my classmates)...

(June 3, 2000, age 18)

…when I graduated from college at Azusa Pacific...

(May 2004)

and when I graduated with my master’s degree from Texas Tech.

(May 2007, age 25. My fiancé at the time, Scott’s wearing a tux because he was in the graduation ensemble…Scott, Me, Dad, Mom, Grandfather)

Mom was there on the day of my first ballet recital.

(Karen Beth age 5, big sis Christy age 9)

She was there on the day of my wedding.

(Wonderfully windy day, August 4, 2007. Grandparents, Scott’s Parents, My parents, Me; Photo by Anna Hinds)

So, now that I’m in my (gulp) late twenties, trying to accomplish all that I can before I get too old for adrenaline to work properly, I just want to say Thanks MOM. You may never read this blog. I know you’ll probably never know how much I cherish the small and big moments. But you’re great and I love you and Dad with all my heart.

What brought this all on? Well, I was at Molly’s blog reading her muffin recipe, which got me thinking about my muffin recipes. This past Christmas, when mom asked what I wanted, I told her a muffin cookbook. I expected something like one of the hundreds of cookbooks I had recently browsed at Barnes and Noble and Amazon. Instead, I received a homemade cookbook in a big blue binder filled by my mother with copies of all the muffin recipes she could find from all of her books. But what’s more, she had written a letter to General Mills asking for their best muffin recipes for her daughter. And she included their several pages of response in the binder. Now, would a muffin cookbook from a bookstore have achieved the same result as far as recipes go? Yes, I’m sure. But do I cherish my mom’s homemade Christmas muffin binder more than life itself? Yes, I am sure.

The next batch is for you, Mom.

(Mom and KB, Christmas 2008)

The Proposal

2010-06-02T14:59:00.001-07:00

Writing my dissertation proposal was exciting for me. Completing it and turning it in were serious accomplishments in my semester. After completing my film article and setting that aside, I was *finally* able to focus on the BIG PICTURE of the dissertation rather than worrying about this source or that source or this article or that bibliography. Of course, the proposal needed to talk about many of those itty bitty things, too, but at least I finally saw structure to the dissertation rather than some HUGE, amorphous blob of stress-induced writing.

My dissertation proposal has sketches of chapters (Hallelujah!), a tentative table of contents (minus the pg numbers, of course), and a massive bibliography that I've been honing for about two years while writing seminar papers on this same topic. It also has an abstract and justifications for why I'm writing on certain texts and excluding others. It was actually a very interesting document to create. Looking at the big picture has already helped me. I added two chapters that I wasn't even expecting (but now am really excited about), while scratching another one that wouldn't have worked out with the argument I'm proposing. I also combined two others.

When my advisor handed it back to me (luckily it was done before he resigns on July 1st--don't even get me started on that subject...), I was surprised at how little he actually wanted me to change. The abstract needs to be revised to fit within the graduate school's guidelines because mine is too long and not focused enough. Also, my introductory chapter needs to encompass a broader survey of my topic rather than jumping so quickly into my argument. But, other than that, it seems that everything is a go. Green light, KB!

My first chapter after the intro will be on Jane Eyre. I am excited about diving in to JE again. LOVE it.

In other news...I bought our 10-year high school reunion tickets this week. I'm actually getting pumped for it. I need to go shopping for some cute dresses. Does anyone know what is in style right now? I have had my head buried in books too long to have any idea. But I know who all the hot literary critics are right now. Does that count for anything at a reunion?

Theme on a variation of sleep and grad school

2010-05-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

It's SUMMER TIME!!!!

And I might finally get back to blogging now that I've completed a major project!! I received a really nice research grant last year, but 12 months later a report was due about how that money was used and how much I had accomplished...etc. I'm really glad that I had to do a write-up because it affirmed for me in new ways how much I really had learned and accomplished. For the grant, I was able to complete an entire scholarly article on film, which is not my major, but one of my minors. I was looking specifically at how directors were using sleep in a silent horror film and in film noir. My mom used to balk at my research topics of sleep, nightmares, insomnia, somnambulism, murder and trauma during sleep...but now I guess she's going to have to get used to it as my specialization, since that's my dissertation topic. I'm going to be writing about all the crazy things Victorian women were doing in their sleep. :) And...hopefully I'm one of the first. Otherwise, I might as well go dissertate on cheese or something less scary. I say less scary because, well, you just never know with cheese.

One of my bffs is gearing up to take her qualifying exams this week which kind of makes me anxious all over again, even though I've already taken and passed my exams. I'm one of those friends, the kind that hovers over the phone for news all day when I know something big is going on. It's a good kind of friend to be, but I also need to relax a little bit more.

I am leaving for Texas in about 50 days for my ten year high school reunion, so I guess that means I have seven weeks to remind myself why I want to see these people again. There are a few that I am so excited to catch up with, but there are a few that will probably judge me because I have no kiddos or no retirement plan at age 28. No house of my own and no back yard for lounging. (Suddenly I'm distracted from what I was saying because I am trying to remember the last time I lounged!)

But, I took a different path from my high school peers. I went to college and then went to grad school and then went to another grad school...and now I'm....still in grad school.

I think this whole reunion would be a lot less stressful if I already had my Ph.D. instead of being in the dissertation stage. I could say, boo yah, looky there. It's fine that I don't have kids and a home because I have a frickin doctorate! But when it's all said and done, I'm not interested in comparisons (and hope they are not either) because I know I chose the path I wanted, and most of the people I am talking about chose exactly what they wanted. It's not that we don't want kids, we're just not there yet. I am already doing what I want to do for a living (teaching at a college), I just don't have a full time position yet. And I am looking forward to showing off my wonderful husband. Things have been really great for us this year, and we're working hard to stay on track to graduate by next May.

Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. Does anyone have any stories to share from their reunions? They can be good or bad--I'm interested!

Readathon totals

2010-04-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

I finished the readathon last night (actually this morning) and am amazed that I'm not really tired today. Here were my final totals. Unimpressive, but overall successful for what I intended to accomplish.

Readathon totals:
Book read during the readathon: Little Women, The Law and the Lady, and Paul Ferroll
books completed: 2! Little Women and Paul Ferroll, both of which I was about halfway through when the readathon began.
minutes total: 638 (so about 10.5 hours? I thought it would add up to more than that.)
pages total: 392, all from nineteenth-century British and American novels
minutes blogging/commenting total: just over two hours
cups of coffee: 4
minutes spent napping: 210 (3.5 hours)

So now I'm a free woman today, except for attending a friend's graduate cello recital and then working my evening shift at the writing center, but I want to keep reading! The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was reach for the book on my nightstand. The 'thon energy has not fallen away yet. :)

Readathon hours 21-22

2010-04-11T03:20:00.000-07:00

I'm still reading! But I'm turning off the computer and getting in bed with my books, so I won't be making my final updates until tomorrow.

This has been fun. :)

Readathon Singalong break

2010-04-11T00:21:00.001-07:00

My husband (in true Darcy fashion, I love, I love, I love him, most ardently) bought me the new Train CD this week titled Save me, San Francisco. It is SO GOOD!!!

My favorite line of lyrics from the CD (and there are a lot) keeps sticking in my head during this 'thon, so I decided to share it with y'all.

The song is "If it's love," and part of the chorus goes...

While everybody else is getting out of bed

I'm usually getting in it

I'm not in it to win it

I'm in it for you.

Readathon hours 18-19

2010-04-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

Scott is making me some nachos to help sustain me through the night, since in my time zone (Pacific) the readathon goes until 5 a.m. I'm putting on another pot of coffee and going to keep reading Paul Ferroll and possibly open up the book I need to review this week if I'm not too sleepy.

I am proud of myself for getting through Little Women. I so badly wanted to chuck its chunky spine across the room at least once an hour. But it is one of the only books I've ever read that made me cry about six different times. I think only Dickens's Dombey and Son shares that stat for me!

Anyway, here's lookin' at you kids. Good luck on your next five hours. I'm going to go downstairs, indulge in some cheesy nachos and caffeine, and watch a few minutes of our latest Netflix loan (Defiance) with my husband, who has been working on his dissertation grant proposal all day, bless his heart!

Readathon totals so far:
Book reading right now: It's dissertation hour! Wilkie Collins's The Law and the Lady and Caroline Clive's Paul Ferroll (which I'm probably the only person in history to read, besides the editor--ha!)
minutes read hours 18-19: 50
minutes total: 518
pages read these two hours: 33
pages total: 306
books completed: 1- Little Women!
minutes blogging/commenting total: around 115
cups of coffee: about to savor #4
glasses of water: 5 big ones
minutes spent napping: 180
cleaning task this hour: two loads of laundry and then folding

Readathon hours 13-14 (and 15-17)

2010-04-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

Oops, I'm a little bit behind schedule on my readathon update posting, so I'll try to get caught up right now. Scott and I had a YUMMY dinner (corned beef, cabbage, and other veggies!), and after that I didn't last long before falling right asleep. Now I'm back up after about a 3-hr nap (hours 15, 16, and 17). Little Women is finally finished, but in my opinion it could have concluded about 50 pgs sooner. I am still conflicted about the end but have to move on if I want to add more pages to my total today.

Readathon totals so far:
Book reading right now: Wilkie Collins's The Law and the Lady
minutes read hours 13-14: 57
minutes total: 468
pages read these two hours: not enough
pages total: 273
books completed: 1- Little Women
minutes blogging/commenting total: around 100
cups of coffee: 3
glasses of water: 5 big ones
minutes spent napping: 180

Readathon hours 11-12

2010-04-10T17:04:00.000-07:00

We are at the halfway point! How is everyone doing?

Readathon totals so far
Book reading right now: Little Women --nearly finished. I can taste it.
minutes read these two hours: 38 (took a cooking and dinner break)
minutes total: 411
pages read these two hours: a wee 12
pages total: 216
books completed: 0
cups of coffee: 3
glasses of water: 4 big ones
cleaning tasks this hour: putting all my scattered shoes away

Readathon hours 9-10

2010-04-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

Readathon totals so far

Book reading right now: sigh. Little Women...still. At this point they should be elderly women. Longest book ever. Except for maybe Clarissa.

minutes read these two hours: 64 (I've been working in the kitchen. Making my corned beef and cabbage!)

minutes total: 373

pages read these two hours: 30

pages total: 214

books completed: 0

minutes blogging/commenting total: 85

cups of coffee: ONLY 2, but longing for more

glasses of water: 4

cleaning tasks this hour: sorting laundry

Readathon hours 7-8

2010-04-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

Readathon totals so far
Book reading right now: sticking with Little Women until it is over
minutes read these two hours: 63
minutes total: 309
pages read these two hours: 33
pages total: 184
books completed: 0
minutes blogging/commenting total: 70
cups of coffee: 2
glasses of water: 3
cleaning tasks this hour: put out new towels

I'm feeling verrrrrry sleepy right now, and I'm not sure if it's because I went to bed at 1 a.m. and woke up at 5 to start the readathon, or if it's because I'm coming down from my sugar high from my indescribably delicious homemade vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting. Maybe both?

Readathon hour 5-6

2010-04-10T11:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it turns out that I couldn't put LW down even though I was frustrated, and I was right not to. As soon as I went back to the book, I started bawling it was so good. Relationship stuff between Laurie/Jo, Meg/John, Amy/Laurie, Jo/Beth: SO GOOD.

My husband is awake now (finally!!) but it is going to mean less reading for a few hours. He's making breakfast burritos right now, and then I might ask him for help with some things around the house.

Keep reading, everybody. It's a great day for books!

Readathon totals so far
Book reading right now: Little Women
minutes read these two hours: 79
minutes total: 246
pages read these two hours: 63
pages total: 151
books completed: 0
minutes blogging/commenting total: 50
cups of coffee: 2
glasses of water: 3
cleaning tasks this hour: picked up the living room a little--much more needed!

Readathon hours 3-4

2010-04-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

Little Women is going really slowly, and Jo bothers me to no end. I know these characters are supposed to be endearing, but I can't help but want to jump into the book and shake her sometimes. I am in love with the character of Laurie, though. At least for now.

Maybe I should switch books for a little while.

Readathon totals so far
Book reading right now: Little Women
minutes read these two hours: 80
minutes total: 167
pages read these two hours: 58
pages total: 108
books completed: 0
minutes spent blogging/commenting: 45
cups of coffee: 2
glasses of water: 2
cleaning tasks this hour: folded some clothes

Readathon hours 1-2

2010-04-10T07:06:00.000-07:00

Readathon totals so far
Book reading right now: Little Women
minutes read these 2 hours: 87
minutes total: 87
pages read these 2 hours: exactly 50! (pretty small print, but I'm also still waking up)
pages total: 50
books completed: 0
cups of coffee: 2
glasses of water: 1
cleaning tasks this hour: unloading and loading the dishwasher

Everything is going great so far. Scotty is still asleep so I'm trying to be quiet downstairs. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I started this morning about halfway through Little Women, but right now it seems to be at a slow point. We've already had one marriage, and the rest of the "women" are kind of biding their time. Or so it seems. But I am enjoying it thoroughly, slow parts and all, since I've never read it!

Readathon Begins!

2010-04-10T04:50:00.000-07:00

I am up and at 'em with my coffee percolating and my bookmarks handy. I am so excited to be participating in my third readathon. I've even asked my husband to document the event with our camera, but he won't wake up for at least 3 or 4 more hours--ha!

The book I'm starting with is Little Women (1868) by Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888). I'm already about halfway through this novel, so I am definitely hoping to move through it pretty quickly. I might also be reading the Little Women graphic novel during this readathon. These are both on my list because I will be presenting the novel, graphic novel, and one of the film adaptations to one of my school groups on Friday, so I'm trying to take notes on the best passages. That slows my reading down some. But NO SPOILERS for me! I haven't ever read this great classic children's novel. :)

Let the readathon begin!

My readathon list

2010-04-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (reading it for a school group)
Little Women, the graphic novel adaptation by Graphic Classics (ditto)
The Cinematic Jane Austen (writing a review for an academic journal)
The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins (teaching it to my college freshmen right now)
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (for the dissertation)
Paul Ferroll by Caroline Clive (for the dissertation)

I love my list! It's a good, hard list.

I've also decided that this is going to be a clean-a-thon, as my our house has become more and more cluttered and dirty the further we get in the school semester. For every hour that I read, I want to accomplish a small cleaning or sorting task (15 minutes or less) that I have been putting off. It's a good goal! It means that I probably won't have as much time on the computer reviewing books or blogs or cheerleading the other readers. But after all the hours of reading are done, I'll be able to look around and enjoy my house and everything I've accomplished. Anyone want to join me?

Read-a-thon next weekend!

2010-04-05T13:56:00.001-07:00

Last night was the first time I checked my Google reader in about a month (like I said in my last post, I have no idea where March went). Much to my joy and surprise, the annual 24-hour readathon is coming up again next weekend! This will be my third time to participate, and I hope it will be successful on my part. I have so many books piled up beside my bed that I feel overwhelmed. And don't even get me started on the "dissertation" stacks in the office in front of my bookshelf. Why are they in front of the bookshelf? Because the shelf is 100% full!

The readathon starts at 5 a.m. Pacific Time on April 10 and goes until 5 a.m. on the 11th. I don't have a specific list made today, but I'll try to post one this week before I take the plunge. So far I know I need to finish Little Women for my reading group at school, since it's my turn to present our text. I also have a scholarly book on Jane Austen that I have to finish so that I can write my book review on it (since I promised the editor I'd have it turned in by the 15th before she goes to press). So, if NOTHING else, I have to finish those two books by the end of the 'thon.

April already?

2010-04-04T19:07:00.000-07:00

March came and went and I kind of remember it but not quite. I remember being very sick, being in an airplane, being in a different state, being super-wife, and being very tired, but not much else.

After I passed my qualifying exams, life got even more hectic--if that's possible. I think it's because, as soon as my exams were over, I immediately had to start working on everything I had postponed "until after quals." Real life was much less fun than quals life, as stressful as it had been for the past seven months, and on top of everything else, my husband was gearing up for his quals exams. Enter super-wife. (She looks a lot like me, only with deeper circles etched around her eyes.)

Then came our Pride and Prejudice transdisciplinary panel at the College English Association conference at the end of March. The trip to San Antonio with Scott, Jan, Stefani, and Sharone would have been a blast had I not had the worst cold imaginable. I probably haven't been that sick in the past five years. Instead of partying Tex-Mex style on the Riverwalk, I had to settle for watching the rest of the gang have a blast while I ran off to blow my nose every two minutes. Nevertheless, it was a memorable trip that had positive effects on my scholarship and possibly on my future career, so we'll chalk this up to a disappointing while at the same time really good trip.

Let's see....what else happened in March? I was given two really big pieces of news--one good and one bad:

1. My sister is pregnant with her second baby, so I'll be an aunt again! We are all thrilled for baby #2, which is due in the fall.
2. My dissertation advisor is resigning his position at our university as of July 1st. *enter wails of frustration and self-pity here* We're still trying to work out the details, but from what I've been told by my advisor, as long as I can get a completed dissertation proposal turned in by the time he signs his resignation letter, he can still be my dissertation chair from long-distance. Considering that he's the only prof I've taken any Brit Lit courses with since I've been at this institution, I think I need to keep him on my committee, even if it's extremely complicated. I'll probably have to find another chair-of-record on campus, but at least my current advisor is willing to continue working with me even though he's moving to a more prestigious school and has no legal obligation to chair my committee. So, I'll just keep praying about it and working on my proposal as quickly as I can. That's really all I can do at this point. Advice? Suggestions?

Oh, the other big news (finally this is MY news and not news imposed on me) is that I lost seven pounds this month! I've gained a few of them back with the traveling and flying and weird eating schedule during the trip, but I am excited about my "loss." I went on an all-natural foods diet for 10 days that focused on eating cruciferous veggies, leafy greens, citrus, eggs, berries, apples and carrots, and lean meats cooked with olive oil. There was not a single day that I was hungry, and the fresh produce was so delicious! Scott and I have continued to cook all-natural whenever we have the opportunity. Once I stop eating Easter cookies, maybe I'll be back on track again. :)

Anyway, that was my March. How was yours? Reading anything good?

three years of becoming me

2010-02-20T19:20:00.000-08:00

I'm within five days of turning 28 years old, and the thought of it has stopped me in my tracks more than a few times this week. Twenty-eight is not an exciting number. It has none of the connotations that 13, 18, 21, or 29 do. I'm not becoming anything, except older. I'm not gaining any privileges. And I'm not on the precipice of anything different, like *gasp* my thirties. But 28 is closer to 30 than 25, which has caused me to be more thoughtful about how I want to celebrate the upcoming day.

In fact, I've been thinking often about all that has happened to me since age 25, and I can't help but be proud of what I've accomplished. In the past three years, I have...

completed a master's thesis in Victorian literature and successfully defended it (Feb. and Mar. '07)
presented paper at CEA in New Orleans (Apr. '07)
accepted a marriage proposal from the man of my dreams (Apr. '07)
completed master's degree coursework (May '07)
graduated with my Master of Arts in English (May '07)
planned a wedding in three months while working full-time (summer '07)
got married! (Aug. 4, '07)
moved across three states from TX to CA (mid Aug. '07)
started new teaching job two days after we arrive (Aug. '07)
started Ph.D. coursework at new school (Sept. '07)
presented papers at CEA in St. Louis (Mar. '08) and Pittsburgh (Mar. '09)
Taught 12 writing and literature courses as an adjunct professor (Aug. '07-present)
Also a university writing tutor (Sept '08-present), teaching assistant for crazy/brilliant woman (Jan. '09-May '09), library grunt-worker (Summer '08 and '09), and editor for scholarly journal (Oct. '09-present)
completed French language requirement (Jan. '09)
completed Ph.D. coursework (May '09)
completed Spanish language requirement (May '09)
completed Ph.D. qualifying exams and successfully defended them (Jan. and Feb. '10)

(tired yet? because I am...)

The past three years have gone by very quickly, and there is no doubt that they've been the hardest of my life. I've worked day and night for my accomplishments, for my career, and for my future life as a scholar and a loving wife. It has been arduous; I've wept and slept over many a book, I've typed until I had blisters, I've sprinted across university campuses with no parking in the highest of heels to get to classes I'm taking or teaching, and I've had monumental highs and lows of faith and doubt in my own ability to succeed. To fight through when I would rather cry or curl up in a ball with a blanket and cozy mystery novel.

But I've also shared it all with my husband (also a doctoral student) and had some beautiful and hilarious moments with him as we venture through our married life together.

I've made some of the best friends I've ever had in life.

I've read more books than I thought humanly possible.

I've taught hundreds of students how to appreciate the symmetry of a well-placed semi-colon in an argumentative essay.

I've taught hundreds of students how to appreciate the beauty of metaphor in British poetry.

I've become an aunt and discovered that, someday, I too will be a wonderful mother.

I've learned to love others unconditionally.

I've had a great time being ages 25, 26, and 27. These three years have excited me, stretched me, challenged me, and defined me as a young adult.

I don't expect my birthday to be a big deal, but I can't keep my heart from fluttering in anticipation as the calendar days tick by. I already know that I won't graduate with my Ph.D. until age 29, but 28 is the year that will push me to that finish line. It might not be an exciting number, but it's mine, and I'm gonna milk it for all it's worth. 28? Bring it on.

This qualifies me to do...what exactly?

2010-01-06T14:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas was beautiful and time with family in Texas was blessed.

Scott and I accidently slept through New Years after a reeeeally long drive back to the West coast, but our neighbors' fireworks so politely reminded us of the event.

It's been too long since I've logged in, but in a way it feels like not long enough. I don't have any huge news to tell other than to relate my anxiety. I've been reading non-stop all the way through the fall semester and then through the holidays to get ready for my upcoming qualifying exams for my Ph.D. program. Our school doesn't believe in giving the traditional 12 months--we only get about 7 months to prepare--so needless to say, I feel like I could have used a little more time. I don't think I want more time, though. I really want to get it over with.

I have done all that I could do to prepare, and now I just need to get organized. I have about 40 hours before I begin my major exam. I'll be taking my Major (19th c. British lit) on Friday-Saturday, my first minor (film adaptation) on Monday, and then my second minor (18th c. British lit) on the following Friday. Sounds easy, right? All nice and spread out...

Here's the catch. The university at which I teach (not where I go to grad school) starts its spring semester next week, so I'll be teaching on Tuesday and Thursday between my exams. I was upset to discover all of this was happening the same week, but then it occurred to me that I would much rather be taking my quals the first week of the semester than, say, one month in, when my students are more involved and their assignments require more of my input. This is actually perfect timing [she says with a grimace on her face, bracing for her impending head-on collision with academic destiny].

So right now I need to relax, take a deep breath, stop counting the cups of coffee I've consumed this week because I don't have that many fingers/toes, and try piecing the puzzles of all this knowledge together.

These exams are actually the easy part. After this I get to write my dissertation. My book. The manifesto of literary me. I can't wait!!!!!

If only I had known

2009-11-20T15:17:00.000-08:00

Every writing instructor has to deal with the occasional case of plagiarism. Students wait too late to write a paper, then panic and steal others' online writing. Sometimes they don't cite sources properly. Other times they simply cut and paste whole articles. Either way, it's bad bad bad.

This year I have had almost zero cases of cheating, which is amazing. My students have been doing some darned good writing, and I'm so proud of them. The lack of plagiarism this year also reflects the fact that I completely revised my assignments and essay prompts so that my criteria are more creative. It's virtually impossible for my students to cheat on 3 out of their 4 essay cycles. However, one of the papers was a more traditional research essay, and sure enough, one of the students turned in an essay that was patched together from at least three different websites. Maybe about a page of it--maybe--was his own.

So, I called him out on it and sat him down to talk about the essay. I asked him to tell me what happened with it. What were the first words out of his mouth?

"Well, when I turned this paper in in high school, my teacher gave me a 95 on it, so I thought it would be great for this class."

[blink]

Oh! Well, that changes everything! If only I had known...

Hmmm. A penny for your thoughts, dear readers? Is there any logical way to respond to this without a) wringing said student's neck, or b) banging my own head against the wall at the same time? What would you do (besides epic fail the paper, of course)?

Works Cited

2009-11-15T22:59:00.000-08:00

I really can't make this stuff up. It's too good! See my student's works cited page below. Read allllll the way to the bottom.

honest x-mas

2009-11-14T19:11:00.000-08:00

Last year I posted my Christmas list and (much to my surprise) people actually shopped from it! There were only a few things on my list, such as CDs or books or TV shows on DVD, that I didn't need, but only wanted, and those were the things I didn't receive. I'm actually glad about that. I don't need stuff. Our families were so generous--they always are--and we were blessed more than I ever imagined we could be with the thoughtfulness of those who love us. This Christmas, we want to spend time with family, and that's the best gift. Our families love Jesus and celebrate Him, and that is why we can't wait to see them again during the holidays.

This year, I'm asking solely for things that I need, will use, and/or already have a place for.

1. bookends.

Somehow, in all my years of college+grad school and the hundreds of books that Scott and I own, we don't have any bookends. Actually, we have one. We have one bookend. I think I bought it for about 30 cents at a fellow grad student's yard sale. He only had one, otherwise I would have bought two. The one doesn't help us much, being all alone in the world. I would LOVE (and could totally use!) one or two pairs of bookends.

2. sitting pillow

Because of our abbreviated living space and not having a large comfy couch, I do a lot of my grading of papers and reading in bed. I have some neck and back problems, so a pillow that would let me sit up instead of propping up awkwardly on pillows would be a very helpful, very useful gift. I found this one, which seems pretty simple. I've also seen something called the BedLounge which looks like the Ritz Carlton of sitting pillows. Yowzah.

3. colored ink pens

I go through a pen about every three days since I do so much grading, writing, revising, commenting on drafts, ect. I love using colored pens on my students' papers because it keeps me awake, and when I run out I have to use boring blue and black. I'm not an equal-opportunity pen user. I like colored ink pens and gel pens, and I do need and use them.

4. tennis shirt and skirt or shorts

Scott and I have been playing tennis for a few years now, and I've never had the right "gear" for it. I don't have any athletic shorts with pockets, which it's essential to have when you're playing tennis and need a place for tennis balls. I usually wear old t-shirts and running shorts when we play, and I'm never comfortable because they're not right for the sport. Since we started taking faculty tennis classes together at the college where we teach, I think I would play better if I could have proper tennis clothes to wear to class each week. I would probably need to try these on before purchasing, though...so perhaps a gift card to a sporting goods store?

5. an attachable book lamp and/or book stand

These are pretty self-explanatory and would be used everyday.

6. Coffee grinder

Ours broke from overuse. Ha!

7. A few other kitchen helps: cheese slicer, garlic press, zester, round pizza pan

8. A new non-stick frying pan, since ours has been turning into a stick frying pan.

So...not a super-exciting list, but at least it's honest. These are things that would make my life (full of marriage, three jobs, grad school, and crazy California nonsense) a lot easier in 2010.

Poultry moments

2009-11-04T09:46:00.001-08:00

As a teacher of college writing, I see more than your average number of typos, diction errors, crazy punctuation combinations, and free-floating quotations. In fact, it is my job to try to teach the young and (often) unwilling students how to be successful writers at the college level, and I take my job seriously. It takes oodles more time to teach writing than to teach literature--not only because there is about 1000% more grading--but because I am really trying to invest in their lives by teaching a skill that they might never again be forced to sit down and learn. Literature may or may not play a large role in their lives. I hope it does, and I encourage them to read and read widely, but I can't force them to enjoy the task. However, their ability (or inability, in some cases) to write well will affect their lives, regardless of their future plans for themselves. I am convinced of this. That is why, when I was handed an essay arguing against using animals in scientific research last week, I was optimistic and looking forward to reading the essay. Until I got to this sentence:

"The U. S. government should be much more protective of primates, especially chickens."

Do I laugh? Do I cry? Do I quit and head for the proverbial hills? No, I wrote the ever-appropriate comment in the margin: Nope. Check your source on this one [with "chickens" underlined].

So, I set up a meeting with the young lady to discuss the essay, because the remaining pages were virtually indecipherable. Hopefully I'll be able to help her today during my lunch break. All I have to say is that teaching writing is not for the weak. Or for those without a sense of humor.

For example, one of my football players turned in an argument essay about how it's easier for an athlete to receive new concussions once they've already had one in the past (apparently he's already sustained four concussions in two years), but he wrote, "By the time I got to the hospital, it still took awhile for me to regain my conscience."

All laughing aside, it may take years for me to regain my conscience after reading all these papers and chuckling (sometimes for hours on end). I love my students. I encourage them. I care about them. I pray for them. I teach them well. All I can do is nurture their brains the best I can while they're in my classroom, because once they find their way into the big big scary world out there with a questionable grading curve, they will need to have consciences, rudimentary knowledge about primates, and, of course, basic writing skills.

Read-a-thon and Read Your Own Books 2009 Challenge Update

2009-10-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

I'm going to use this post-Read-a-thon update to let you know my progress on a challenge I joined in May.

I saw this one at Melissa's Shhh I'm Reading blog here and on S. Krishna's page here. The Read Your Own Books (RYOB) 2009 challenge hosted by MizB encourages you to read the books you already have on your shelves rather than buying more! The challenge runs from Jan 1, 2009-December 31, 2009, so there only a few months left. However, you get to choose the number of books you feel is appropriate. My list is as follows:

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Bleak House by Charles Dickens (in progress)
~~Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens~~
Adam Bede by George Eliot
The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

My Final Read-a-thon Update

250 pages read (KB), Bleak House and Waverley

[about 5 reading hours total, which is lame!! But I was so busy yesterday. I'll probably end up reading even more today than yesterday during the 'thon...]

100 pages read (hubby)
2 caffeinated beverages
4 big glasses of iced water
6 blog updates
50 blogs visited so far --everyone did amazing work yesterday!

Days like these

2009-10-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fccp&CISOPTR=1606&DMSCALE=20.03339&DMWIDTH=600&DMHEIGHT=600&DMMODE=viewer&DMFULL=0&DMOLDSCALE=5.00835&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMTHUMB=1&REC=2&DMROTATE=0&x=99&y=85

Days like these, when I'm reading as much as I can, I wish I could surround myself with a cathedral of words, a house of beautiful books. Here's a picture (albiet a decades-old picture (and yes, Sharone, I just used your least favorite word, albiet, albiet, albiet)) of one of the libraries where I go to school. I wish I were there right now!

But, I wouldn't miss this homecoming football game for the world. :) I'll see you guys after the game!

MY READING STATS

109 pages read (KB)

around 4 hours reading time off and on

50 pages read (hubby)

1 caffeinated beverage

3 big glasses of iced water

5 blog updates

30 blogs visited so far

wearing: jeans and t-shirt for the game

currently listening to: college football

Update #4

2009-10-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

Dearest Charles, my dashing Dickens, my wonderfully witty word warrior, heart of my heart,

I love Bleak House so far, but it is not as easy to get into as some of your other novels, like Great Expectations or Dombey and Son. I am still trying, though. Because I love you.

luv, KB

MY READING STATS

75 pages read (KB), Bleak House and Waverley

about 3 hours of reading here and there

45 pages read (hubby--he's getting to the scary part of Dracula!)

2 caffeinated beverages

2 big glasses of iced water

4 blog updates

25 blogs visited so far

wearing: whatever

currently listening to: Sarah McLachlan Fumbling Toward Ecstacy

Readathon Update #3

2009-10-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

picture found here, posted by someone trying to sell a set of these beautiful books!

How is everyone doing? I'm really having a good time with my husband and my books. The exercise was much appreciated, and now I'm settling back into my cozy spot in a big chair with Waverley, which is actually a hoot. I've never read any Sir Walter Scott novels, only some short fiction many years ago. Ivanhoe is the novel most people read of Scott's canon, but my advisor asked me to read Waverley, which is the first of the Waverley novels, a group to which Ivanhoe belongs. Since I've been so focused on mid-Victorian English novels, Sir Walter Scott somehow missed my radar until now, as he is forced upon me for my doctoral exams. But, he's actually laugh-out-loud funny in parts, if you can get past the please-kill-me-now descriptions of every mountain and craggy hill in Scotland. However, having been to Scotland and as a student of late Romantic literature, which thrives on details such as wind, trees, and jagged cliffs, I am hanging in there with the big dogs!

Readathon Updates!

50 pages read (KB)

15 pages read (hubby)

1 caffeinated beverage

1 big glass of iced water

3 blog updates

15 blog visited so far

wearing: big t-shirt and pj pants

currently listening to: loud neighbors

healthy snack: almonds and dried cranberries

Update

2009-10-24T06:50:00.000-07:00

The Read-a-thon is going great so far. I'm very sleepy since it's been such a long week, but I am hanging in there and looking forward to the fresh air out on the tennis courts. I'll be gone from home from hours 3-4, but I'll be back to read when our class is over.

picture found here

MY READING STATS
40 pages read (KB), Bleak House
15 pages read (hubby)
1 caffeinated beverage
1 big glass of iced water
2 blog updates
10 blogs visited so far
wearing: cute pink tennis shorts, tennis shoes, and a big t-shirt
currently listening to: The Weepies Hideaway album

Readathon begins!

2009-10-24T05:01:00.000-07:00

The Read-a-thon just began and I'm awake and about to start reading! I'm trying to get in at least a few hours before I go off to tennis at 8 a.m. I'm actually glad that I have a break scheduled for exercise, because I got so stiff from reading in one spot so long during the last 'thon.

Until we go out and pick up batteries for our digital camera later today, I'm going to be sans photos on my blog, but I am giddy about starting some big novels and hopefully finishing some others. Maybe I'll have some pictures after the homecoming game. All of our students were excited that Scott and I were going to be there.

And THIS JUST IN, my husband is going to join me in the readathon for a little while today! He is reading his first novel in like...um...maybe 8 years? He's a big non-fiction history buff, but I am very excited that he is dipping his toes into fiction, especially since I teach literature for a living!

Scott is reading Dracula by Bram Stoker, so it's a great gothicky pick for October. :) He told me that I could document his pages along with mine as I update my status online. I am glad to have a partner at home in the read-a-thon, along with all you out there online.

MY READING STATS

0 pages read (KB)
0 pages read (hubby)
1 caffeinated beverage
1 blog update

1 blog visited so far

1 pair M&M pajama pants on

Let the games begin!

Fall Readathon

2009-10-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well, my friends, it's that time again--the Read-a-thon! You might remember the Spring 2009 Read-a-thon, which I participated in last semester. It was exhausting but very productive for my schoolwork and my teaching, so OF COURSE when Trish asked me if I was participating in this one, the answer had to be yes.

If you're curious and would like to see what all the fuss is about or thinking about joining, all the details are HERE!

Anyway, it turns out that I won't be able to read for the entire 24 hours of the read-a-thon, but I will read as much as I can. Scott and I have tennis lessons on Saturday mornings (which we've already paid for and can't miss!), then the homecoming football game at the college where we teach. But, that said, I am incredibly excited about all of the reading I'll be doing this weekend. Woo hoo, qualifying exams list!

A few people have asked me what I'm going to be reading, and while I don't have a specific read-a-thon list like I did last time, here's what's on my quals list for this week:

Charles Dickens Bleak House
Mary Shelley Frankenstein
Sir Walter Scott Waverley
Thomas Hardy The Return of the Native

So...I am obviously breaking rule number 1 of all read-a-thons which states that I need to pick short fun books, but I would be knee-deep in these novels this weekend anyway, so I might as well keep on reading them!

In other news, I finished THREE books this week (yay, fist pump). Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, and Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders. Of course I didn't start and finish them this week, but let victories however small be victories.

Okay. Now I have to go grade papers so that I'll have time to read this weekend!

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

2009-09-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Little Dorrit for about a month now, and as much as I would like to tell you the good news--that I've finished--it would be a falsehood by about 100 pages. I couldn't stop myself from posting about this book anyway, though, because it has been such a joy each day as my bookmark has crawled from page to page.

Charles Dickens is my favorite author, a position rivaled only by his acquaintance and writing partner Wilkie Collins. To date, I've read nine Dickens novels, and Lil' D will make 10. Quite an accomplishment! Dickens is hard to get through, if only because of the hundreds of characters that make their way into the seven or eight hundred page plots, but he is well worth the effort.

I have been laughing, smiling, crying, and *God knows* chortling at the humor and tragedy of the Dorrit family. Little Amy Dorrit is my heroine, if ever I have had a literary one. She is tired but strong, and she warms my heart each time I learn more about her. Her endearing qualities are rivaled only perhaps by those of Florence Dombey or Sissy Jupe, from Dombey and Son and Hard Times, respectively.

If anyone out there has read it, don't ruin the ending for me! But, if you haven't read it (and are looking for a long, drawn out, hilariously unlikely but precious tale that may or may not take you a month to finish), go right out and find a copy!! I really do love this book. :)

expectations

2009-09-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'm easily embarrassed, but that's usually because I have low self-esteem. It's silly, really, because I've accomplished amazing things in my life. I'm a great wife, daughter, and sister. I'm a dedicated student, professor, tutor, and life-long learner. I'm a creative writer, reader, cook, and lover. I'm an honest friend.

So today when I had a great conversation with someone I hadn't seen in about 4 months, I was feeling happy and sure of myself. I smiled at the right time. Made jokes at the right time. And even though I made the unfortunate and inevitable references to how busy I am (teaching three classes, studying for qualifying exams, tutoring three days a week at a writing center, etc., etc.), we had an overall enjoyable few minutes of catching up. And then it happened.

My life changed.

My timid walls of self-confidence crashed.

My heart pounded and my cheeks flushed.

She had said, "You are amazing, doing all of these things with a baby on the way. I don't see how you handle all the pressure."

I swallowed. Hard.

I said, "Excuse me?"

She said, "Teaching and tutoring and studying and expecting!"

I said, "What...? No..."

She paused. I wished desperately that the floor would swallow me whole, or that I could tesser away in true Madeleine L'Engle fashion, so far away in time.

She said, "You are expecting, yes?"

"No."

She said, "Oh, I just saw your, um...you looked, I just...um...oh."

I saw her difficulty in processing her mistake into appropriate words, and so I took a deep breath, smiled, giggled a little and said loudly, "Oh, no, not yet! We're trying to finish our degrees first before we have a family. But it's a nice thought!"

Despite my pretense, I'm sure my eyes gave away my embarrassment, because it was mirrored in her eyes. I made a quick get-away, saying a short goodbye, and turned as I blinked away tears and tried to swallow the lump that had formed in my throat. Bitter humiliation.

Just one more thing that will end up in my stomach.

three questions

2009-09-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

Since my school has started up classes, the library is open until 1 a.m. again on weekdays. The wimpy abbreviated hours were cramping my style, but now Scott and I are back at this doctorate stuff in full force. APU doesn't start until after Labor Day, so I have a few more days of independence from teaching*grading*teaching*grading.

Last night, there was a faculty/staff kick-off dinner for all who work at the university, and the whole night rocked my socks off. (Okay, well the standing in 100+ heat and humidity for several hours was less than comfortable, but the inside part of the night was great. Especially the blueberry cheesecake!) From the distinguished speakers, we heard about the amazing growth that Azusa Pacific University has gone through in the past year, both in terms of students and budget. Plus, the school was endowed with 5 fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls this summer. Five! Only three academic institutions in the country have DSS fragments, and neither of the other two schools have five. This is going to be amazing for the Biblical Studies department, and I hope that they'll be able to contract much more funding for outside scholars to come work on these tiny pieces dating back to 150 BC.

But, I guess what really impressed me about the whole evening was the sense of community and teamwork that exuded from everyone. We are all prayerful and excited about what this school year will bring, and I know that it is a blessing to teach for an institution that strives for God-honoring academic excellence. It's encouraging, you know?

As I begin this semester of my own education (which, often, is hard to distinguish from the education of others--just ask any teacher), there are three questions that I'm going to ask myself every day.

The Honesty Questions

1. Of the million things that "must" get done today, what are the one or two most important tasks?

--And I will work on those two things until they are done. No more schitzo, crazy Ph.D. student behavior. Only rational, God-honoring perseverance.

2. What can I do today to make tomorrow easier?

--And I will try to do it without whining or procrastinating. Whether it's getting all the dishes done before going upstairs, or reading 100 extra pages from the quals list if I know the next day will be too full to meet my pg. quota...

3. Is this healthy--emotionally, physically, spiritually?

--I'll be taking better care of myself, asking myself this question when I'm eating, drinking, driving, studying, talking to myself, reading, praying...

I would like to challenge each of you to come up with a system to make your days healthier, positive, and more enjoyable and productive. Ask yourself these questions, or --better yet--come up with your own three. And make it a point to be as honest as you can be as you answer your questions. (I'm talking to myself here, because I have a bad habit of tricking myself.)

I wish everyone a special back-to-school season. Surprise yourself at how awesome you can be!

Updates and hellos and PICTURES!

2009-09-01T00:40:00.000-07:00

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you know that I've "gone quiet" for several months. It was a much needed break, but I hope I can get back in the swing of things. It wasn't practical for me to try to blog during our 5-wk trip across the country, and then life was a bit too overwhelming to make time for non-academic writing once we got back. But I have been busy reading! (and working, and cleaning, and baking, attending writing teachers' workshops, and planning three different syllabi!)

I have some challenge updates to make, and I am SO excited to make these lists. They have been a long time in the making.

I've been reading steadily for months and months for Trish's Classics Challenge 2009, and these are a few of the classics that I am counting for this challenge. Trish broke the challenge into various categories, and I signed up for the Classics Feast, which means reading 6 classics. I also participated in the bonus round, which meant reading one extra book that I felt should someday be considered a classic. I don't have reviews for these books posted, mostly because I have finished them since the last time I posted, but also because...how does one review Hamlet? :) I'll add links to this page once I get more reviews typed. It will actually be really helpful as I study for qualifying exams.

My Classics Feast + Bonus
1) Hamlet by Shakespeare
2) Dracula by Bram Stoker
3) Villette by Charlotte Bronte
4) The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
5) The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins
6) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
7) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
8) Hard Times by Charles Dickens
9) The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
10) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
11) Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
12) Bonus "someday" classic: The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson

The next challenge update I have is the 2009 Read-your-own-books Challenge. I'm doing really well on this one, and it mirrors the above list since I owned all of those novels...only with the exception of the last book, which I read from the library. So, I've completed both of these challenges!!

The final challenge update that I have tonight is the 100+ Challenge, which is shaping up pretty nicely. I count 53 books so far, although I need to go back through my records to find the others.

Fiction
1. Caleb Williams by William Godwin
2. The Hudson Book of Fiction: 30 Stories Worth Reading
3. The Giver by Lois Lowry
4. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
5. The Messenger by Lois Lowry
6. Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie
7. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
8. Dracula by Bram Stoker

9. The Declaration by Gemma Malley
10. Dr. Dredd's Wagon of Wonders by Bill Brittain
May
11. A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce
12. The Essence of the Thing by Madeleine St. John
June
13. The Wonderful O by James Thurber
14. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
15. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
16. The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins

17. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

18. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
19. Villette by Charlotte Bronte

20. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

21. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

22. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

23. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

24. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Drama
1. Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
2. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
3. Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
4. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
5. Blasted by Sarah Kane
6. Henry V by William Shakespeare
7. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
8. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
9. King Lear by William Shakespeare
10. The Tempest by Williams Shakespeare
11. Much Ado About Nothing by Williams Shakespeare

Non-fiction
1. At Day's Close by Ekirch
2. New England Funeral Sermons ed. by Bosco
3. The Book of Common Prayer
4. The Puritan Way of Death by David Stannard
5. Film Noir by Bruce Crowther
6. How to read literature like a professor by Thomas C. Foster
7. Being Perfect by Anna Quindlen
8. The Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen
9. The Big Moo edited by Seth Godin
10. Be Happy Without Being Perfect by Alice D. Domar and Alice Lesch Kelly
11. Detection & Its Designs: Narrative and Power in 19th-Century Detective Fiction by Peter Thoms
12. Perfecting Ourselves To Death: The Pursuit Of Excellence And The Perils Of Perfectionism by Richard Winter
13. All Cooked Up: Recipes and Memories from Elvis' Family and Friends
14. Students Must Write: Guide to Better Writing in Coursework and Examinations by Robert Barrass

15. The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater

16. A Broom of One's Own by Nancy Peacock

17. Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy
more here...I'll have to find them

Volumes of Poetry
1. The Hudson Book of Poetry: 150 Poems Worth Reading

The end of 100+ list...

Now, enough book talk! Here are a few of the highlights from this summer:

All the cousins on one side of the family, from left to right:

me (KB), Emily, beautiful bride Bethany, Kristen, and Jenny

The group of us that drove together to Tennessee:

Scott, me (KB), little Tim, my sister Christy, and her husband Nick

One of my best friends in the entire world: the lovely Erin

Above--My nephew Timothy letting us know that it's time to open birthday presents!

He turned 2 during our trip. :)

Below--My handsome husband Scott reading to the genius newphew. Or more likely, Tim was reading to Scott!

Hope you enjoyed my pictures! I'll be back to blogging soon.

Lost Narratives

2009-06-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

(c) Ella Strong Denison Library, Image from the Claremont Colleges Photo Archive, http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ccp&CISOPTR=1515&CISOBOX=1

I've been quiet on my blog because I've been trying to get other things done this week. Note the word trying. I am in the middle of a paper that I've been in the middle of for seven months. I have re-written it about ten times, each time with a new thesis and direction, only to get bogged down in other things and lose focus. Now I've returned to this paper with renewed inspiration (or "panic" might also be a good word for it) because I must get this paper done before hubby and I leave for our trip across the country. So, here I am, sitting at home surrounded by every book on this topic known to man. I've taken notes on about 90% of the books and articles so far, so now I just need to start piecing the puzzle together and get this thing done. I have about a week left to work on it, but I hope to be done by the end of the week.

Yesterday a wonderful friend helped me sort out my ideas into a more attractive argument, but more importantly, she gave me confidence to find the good in what I already had and then find a better way to say it. So...yesterday I had eight pages and now I have four. But, the four that I have now are leaps and bounds better than the eight that I had yesterday; and, no matter how one looks at it...that's some sort of progress. My new paper topic deals with the same two novels that I've been working on all along, The Moonstone and The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins. I'm fascinated by the absence of certain female narratives, and the representation and misrepresentation of evidence because of these lost words.

I teach writing and literature classes at the college level, and sometimes I watch my students with envy as they sweat out their five-page essays. If only academic careers were as simple as stating an argument and trying to prove it! It's not the argument that trips me up, I often think. It's the context of all of the other scholarship that I'm supposed to know by now, live, breathe, spout out at the drop of a hat, and be able to reference intelligently.

Do you ever feel like that in your line of work, whether business or academic, or something else? Do you feel like you could be 100% if you could just worry about your own ideas and not have to contextualize them within the community's? There are days when I love the academic conversation and thrive on it. There are other days, like today, when the piles of books no longer comfort me but instead confuse me and send me tumbling into my own writing with too many unconnected ideas. It's time to shut the books and just write. That's the best thing I could do for myself at this point.

SPANISH!

2009-06-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

Guess who just found out that she passed her Spanish language exam!! And with only one week of studying. SO EXCITED!! Now I can buckle down with my qualifying exam reading. Adios, mis amigos. I'm making my famous chicken enchiladas tonight in celebration.

The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson

2009-06-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson is a small little novel about the last month of a man's life with his loving wife. The two (Ambrose Zephyr and Zappora Ashkenazi, "Zipper" for short) live a simple and happy life in London. After being diagnosed with a terminal disease and only a month (give or take) to live, he decides to spend his last days traveling the world. Since the alphabet has nearly as many letters as there are days in a month, Ambrose whisks his wife off to one city per letter, such as "A is for Amsterdam, B is for Berlin..."

My favorite aspect of this novel was its linguistic simplicity. The story itself was complex with emotion and plotline; the characters zigzagged across Europe, and there were just as many flashbacks as there were "present-day" scenes. But the language was not over-embellished. The sentences were short and to the point, though they never felt choppy because they always contained a nugget of something special.

Luckily, readers spend the entire novel (from page one, essentially) preparing for Ambrose's death, otherwise I would have blubbered all the way through the conclusion. What starts out as a man's shocking diagnosis turns into--as the chapters proceed--an exploration of his wife's ability to deal with losing her husband. I thought this was one of the most beautiful books I've read this year, along with one I finished last week--The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa. The End of the Alphabet is a fast and meaningful read, and one that most definitely will stick with me for years to come.

Booking Through Thursday-Book Niche Reading

2009-06-12T14:54:00.001-07:00

This week's Booking Through Thursday asks us...

There are certain types of books that I more or less assume all readers read. (Novels, for example.)

But then there are books that only YOU read. Instructional manuals for fly-fishing. How-to books for spinning yarn. How to cook the perfect souffle. Rebuilding car engines in three easy steps. Dog training for dummies. Rewiring your house without electrocuting yourself. Tips on how to build a NASCAR course in your backyard. Stuff like that.

What niche books do YOU read?

****

I love this question, if only because it makes me think about a lot of my favorite books!

My first niche is definitely 19th C. Victorian fiction, which is why I have built my future career around teaching this genre of literature. I love Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, the Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Hardy, Marie Corelli...ALL OF THEM!!

My second niche is something that fits into niche 1 but has also expanded beyond that--classic and modernist detective fiction. Collins, Doyle, Agatha Christie :)

Niche 3 is cookbooks. I can't get enough of reading cookbooks. I enjoy the little side stories and information about food and nutrition, or the history of certain dishes, but I really love reading recipes. I don't care if I never make the item. I just love learning about food combinations and ingredients. I make probably 90% of our meals at home from scratch, so even if I don't use the recipes, they always help me with my own cooking. Just like Molly, I love reading muffin cookbooks. I also love cookie recipes and crock-pot ideas. Just recently I combined two of my obsessions (Elvis Presley and cooking) into one of my readings...a book called All Cooked Up: Recipes and Memories from Elvis' Family and Friends. The writing was abysmal, but the pictures and recipes were top notch. What I'm really looking for is a good Pie cookbook. Does anyone have any suggestions? So far I've been disappointed at the bookstores.

Thanks for the question!

Review: Students Must Write

2009-06-11T02:09:00.000-07:00

Students Must Write by Robert Barrass completes my Non-Fiction Five Challenge!! Most of this book seemed directed at undergraduates, so it wasn't very helpful for me halfway through my Ph.D. Also, it was very much geared toward British writing rather than American writing, and all the bibliography resources were for British particularities as well. But the one part that was useful for me (and maybe even my writing students!) was a series of charts that had "commonly used phrases" on one side and "better way to say it" on the other side. There were charts for being more concise, using the correct prepositions, cutting out unnecessary adjectives or adverbs, using stronger verbs, not writing in passive...good stuff. I don't necessarily recommend checking this book out and reading it cover to cover, but the charts are great as references. I might photocopy them for my own use.

***

Non-Fiction Five Challenge

Here are my books and some of the reviews for this challenge--my first one finished--ever! (I'm still new to the book blog scene :) Somehow I ended up reading 6 instead of 5. Plus the many essays from non-fiction scholarly books I read for my classes and papers that I didn't blog about.

All Cooked Up: Recipes and Memories from Elvis' Family and Friends
Students Must Write: Guide to Better Writing in Coursework and Examinations by Robert Barrass
Perfecting Ourselves To Death: The Pursuit Of Excellence And The Perils Of Perfectionism by Richard Winter
Be Happy Without Being Perfect by Alice Domar and Alice Lesch Kelly
The Big Moo: Stop Trying to be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable, edited by Seth Godin
A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen

How is everyone else doing on their summer challenges so far?

Alphabet Soup

2009-06-05T15:30:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I happened across a darling little epistolary novel by playwright Mark Dunn titled Ella Minnow Pea. The story, written with Oulipian playfulness, tells of a wonderful, language-loving community that prides itself on its vocabulary and creative use of many letters of the alphabet in every sentence. The town loved words and letters so much that they built a monument to the pangram, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," which is a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once. One day, the "Z" tile falls off of the monument, and the island's government takes it as a bad omen--a solemn sign--that the Z should be banished from their language. A law is decreed forbidding the use of Z, which most people found to be a nuisance, but tolerable. In fact, they enjoyed the challenge of thinking up clever words or phonetic spellings to replace the common ones. Little by little, by unfortunate disaster, more letters fall from the monument, which leads to further banishments of language (as well as banishments and punishments for the people who break the laws).

Since this is an epistolary novel, the story is told through the letters the characters send to each other, and the letters become continually more creative as the characters search desperately for ways to regain their freedom of speech and language. One of the most darling moments of the book is when our protagonist, Ella Minnow Pea, has no option left but to sign her name "LMNOP," as those are the only letters left hanging on the monument.

There's much more to the story, and I won't give away the ending, as it is a precious tale of love, creativity, and language that you would want to experience for yourself. But, I wanted to mention Ella Minnow Pea because I encountered another book in a similar vein called The Wonderful O by James Thurber. I was able to read it all in one sitting a few days ago while I waited for my husband to get out of a meeting.

Thurber's short children's book, originally published in 1957, has just been republished this year as part of the New York Review Children's Collection with illustrations by Marc Simont. As the story goes, two bad men, Littlejack and Black meet up with similar intentions--to seek treasure by sailing to a remote island on Black's ship, the Aeiu. He explains that he hates the letter "O" and therefore named his ship a word with all the vowels except O. With the help of a very vague map, Littlejack and Black sail Aeiu to the island and demand that the islanders give them all of their gems and treasures. When the islanders claim that they know of no such treasure, the bad men and their crew ransack the island, destroying everything in their paths that contains a letter O, even books. Furthermore, Black takes over the island and decrees that O must be "o"mitted from the language. Just like in Ella Minnow Pea, the community affected by the loss of letters attempts to overthrow the leadership to win back their rights and freedoms of speech.

Unlike Mark Dunn, Thurber does not attempt to write without using certain letters--in this case, O. In fact, he probably uses more O's than usual in order to show how beautiful the letter can be in our language, and how elegant and smooth it sounds in words of all kinds. Here is one of my favorite passages that demonstrates his style well:

***

"Methinks the people have a loathing for your voice and for your song," said Littlejack.

"I'll take away from them," said Black, "everything that plays and has an O."

And so the following morning the crew went from house to house, seizing violins and cellos, trombones and horns and oboes, pianos, harpsichords, and clavichords, accordions and melodeons, bassoons and saxophones, and all the other instruments with O's, up to and including the woodwinds. A man and his wife who loved to play duets on mandolin and glockenspiel drifted apart. Children, forbidden the use of combs, could no longer play tunes on combs with tissue paper. The crew spent the afternoon breaking up an old calliope they had found rusting in a field, and taking apart a carillon.

"All they have is fifes and drums and cymbals," gloated Black.

"And zithers and guitars," said Littlejack. "And dulcimers and spinets, and bugles, harps and trumpets."

"Much good they'll get from these," said Black, "or any others. I haven't finished with the O's in music, in harmony and melody, that is, and compositions. They'll have no score, and what is more, no orchestra, or podium, or baton, and no conductor. They can't play symphonies, or rhapsodies, sonatas or concerti. I'll take away their oratorios and choirs and choruses, and all their soloists, their baritones and tenors and sopranos, their altos and contraltos and accompanists. All they'll have is the funeral march, the chant and anthem, and the dirge, and certain snatches."

"They'll still have serenades," said Littlejack.

Black made an evil and impatient gesture. "You can't serenade a lady on a balcony," he said, "if there isn't any balcony. Let them hum their hymns and lisp their litanies." Black's eyes began to glow as he names O-names that would have to go: "Scherzo, largo, and crescendo, allegro and diminuendo. Let the lyric writers have their Night in June. Much good it'll do 'em without the moon."

***

Both of these books are clever and fun to read. They intrigue our minds and remind us how beautiful words can be when they are unrestricted, unfettered by lowest-common-denominator standards of vocabulary, and free to play and create. I recommend both of these books, and I also recommend that you read aloud!

in which I learn Spanish and watch films about sleeping women

2009-05-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

So today I did something utterly humiliating and took a two hour language exam to try to pass out of Spanish, which I haven't studied in nine years. I've taken Latin courses much more recently (3 years ago), but for some reason the Latin wasn't coming back to me as quickly as it should have, so I went back to studying Spanish. And by studying, I mean taking only two days--that's pretty much all the time I had!--to flip through a textbook and memorize my old flashcards. I wasn't totally prepared, but I felt way better about this test than I did the Latin one. Since I didn't pass the Latin exam in February, I'm really hoping that Spanish pans out for me. It's a beautiful language and has latinate roots that are far less confusing than English derivatives. Plus, since I've finished all of my French requirements in January, I think these two are a good pair for my degree.

I told my husband after it was over, as we were meandering through the grocery store and I was trying to de-frag from the exam, "at least it wasn't excruciating. The Latin exam was excruciating. This was merely painful." I actually completed about 80% of the passage and felt good about 90% of that, so...I really hope I pass this test. I love languages, but I'm not a super-fast language learner.

In other news, tonight we're having friends over for my husband's famous burgers, my famous drinkies, and other good stuff. I am looking forward to unwinding con mis amigos a la fiesta. ;)

BUT BEFORE I can relax even just a bit, I have a meeting with a former professor who is willing to help me work out a filmography for my grant-funded research project for 2009-2010. Does anyone out there in the blogging world love classic films and film noir? I DO!! I've been analyzing the issue of females attacked in their sleep in crime movies and mysteries for a huge project. Let me know if you have any films in mind that I should add to my list. I love suggestions and recommendations! Ciao <3

a bit of me

2009-05-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

Have we met?

I love books. I love pink. I love coffee. I love to bake and cook. I love Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. I hate driving on the freeway.

Not too long ago, a new acquaintance asked me why I wanted my Ph.D. in English since I was already teaching at the college level at a good school. The obvious answer, probably the one I ventured forth to give her, was that I love my job, but eventually I hope to teach at an institution that is more research-focused along with the strong teaching emphasis that I have here. I want to earn a position among my colleagues that is worthy of my degree as well as a seat at the table --to discuss, debate, publish on issues that matter in the world of academia. I'm not pursuing the Ph.D. only to qualify for higher institution jobs. I am in this "mess" because I love literature with every fiber of my being, but I also love teaching, researching, diving into ideas and exploring new facets of imagination, and I love learning. Because I believe strongly that there is no better way to learn than trying to teach a subject, I have found the perfect career for myself. No matter how difficult, exhausting, and, at times, pull-out-my-hair frustrating this egotistical and hyper-political academic setting is..., simply, I love the challenge of working as hard as I can to accomplish the near-impossible, and it's a blessing that I get to work with books all year long.

But...that's not all I am. I'm a wife, a daughter, a sister, a niece, a granddaughter, a daughter-in-law. I rarely see my family (other than hubby, who is also a doctoral student at my school) more than twice a year--summer and Christmas. Luckily we're both from the same city, so we don't have to split our vacations between families. What a relief!

My husband Scott and I grew up in a medium-sized city in the Texas Panhandle. We have known each other since sixth grade, although we didn't start dating until college. For college, I moved out to southern California to attend a wonderful liberal arts Christian university, concentrating on honing my skills as a symphony violinist, and he attended Texas Tech as a trumpeter. I went to TTU for summer school (it was always more affordable than staying out in CA for the summer), so we got reacquainted at that point in our lives. After graduating with bachelors degrees in both music (violin performance) and English, and after a horrible and painful wrist and arm injury, I moved back to Texas Tech to work on my Master's degree in English. In 2007, Scott and I both completed our master's degrees (his in Music), got married (bliss!), and moved out to CA to start the next chapter of our lives together. I am so grateful that I'm not doing this all by myself. Grad school can be a very lonely process.

Now that we're at a private graduate university, pursuing our final degrees and pushing hard to survive this last huge academic hurdle (we have finished coursework and are now studying for qualifiying exams, then dissertation later), life is very interesting. I'm working as many as three jobs at a time to pay for rent, but I feel the exhilaration of reading and exploring literature. I still have anxiety about my performance, my knowledge, my understanding of a text...but at least I'm learning and trying to get better everyday at what I do.

I guess the moral of this story is...

My blog was not designed to be a strict book blog, so I don't want to force that label upon it, but it is--very often--about books! I don't have as much time as others to review and post everything I'm reading. I'm mostly reading obnoxiously (deliciously?) long 19th century Victorian novels for my degree. But, I will post reviews as often as I can, and talk about books or teaching or grad school or learning more broadly in almost every post. I am an avid book blog reader, and I subscribe to more each week. I am addicted to reading about books, even if I don't have time to read the books themselves. Thank you for your encouragement and comments during and since the read-a-thon. And thank you for letting me have a place, though perhaps a *quiet* place, in your reading as well. This blog is designed to be about love, faith, and learning, and my main goal here is to grow in all three.

turn-down service

2009-05-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

This semester was beastly. It had all the qualities of being a beast. I was finishing my last semester of coursework for my Ph.D., which also included an intensive French course during my Christmas break. I was a teaching assistant for a brilliant/crazy woman at a graduate university. I tutored 9-12 hours a week at a college writing center. I also taught two classes at a different college, one writing course and one literature course. All in all, I nearly keeled over by the time finals week arrived, and I barely had any energy left to lift my arm much less write one inspired seminar paper and another inspired book editing project. BUT I FINISHED EVERYTHING!!!

(disclaimer: I still have an incomplete grade from a past semester, but it's getting done. I promise.)

So after all the graduation celebrations dwindled away, hubby took me to see Star Trek at our favorite local theater, and then we drove to a beach hotel. Free with our room came two guest passes to a nearby spa. Needless to say, even though we were only there for two days, those two days were much appreciated and we are already looking forward to our next vacation.

Unfortunately, one of the library books (The Circular Staircase (1908) by Mary Roberts Rinehart) that I took to the hotel with me was missing pages! I was so disappointed that I nearly cried. I told my husband, "THIS is exactly why one should never leave home without spare books! For emergencies just like THIS!" Have you ever been reading a book you were really getting into, only to discover that pages were missing? What do you do in this case? Do you usually keep reading, or do you give up? I wouldn't have given up had the pages been in the middle-ish, but they were in the second chapter right when the characters see their ghost for the first time. There was no way I could skip those descriptions and go on like nothing had happened. They were crucial! So I guess I'll try to check it out another time if I can find a complete text.

In the past week, I've read three non-fiction books (Yay, Non-Fiction Five challenge!) and only really liked one of them.

1. Perfecting Ourselves To Death: The Pursuit Of Excellence And The Perils Of Perfectionism by Richard Winter

This book was not what I was expecting it to be. I thought it would be a how-to book for how to dig oneself out of the black hole of perfectionism. It could have been that with some revisions, but instead it read more like a history of perfectionism. While this might have been interesting on some levels, I didn't really have the brain-patience after the semester I've had to learn about the historical, philosophical, and theological context of my disease. I don't recommend it if you're as tired as I am.

2. Be Happy Without Being Perfect by Alice Domar and Alice Lesch Kelly

This book was rather cheesy at the beginning, with some quizzes and trivia-type stuff designed to determine whether the reader actually is a perfectionist, and if so, what kind. I thought those beginning chapters could have been eliminated, because chances are a non-obsessive person is not going to pick the book up in the first place. Once I got past the annoying sections at the beginning (I was reading in bed with my husband and we were laughing at quite a bit of it), I thought the book was top notch. I enjoyed the authors' writing style. Primarily, I enjoyed the hundreds of examples and real life stories that were included by the authors. There were examples in every chapter about what women do, what we think about things, how easily we can climb out of our bad habits, etc. I LOVED the interviews and examples in the chapters and found myself enlightened about a few of my own neuroses. This book is not for everyone, but it was helpful to me.

3. The Big Moo: Stop Trying to be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable, edited by Seth Godin

This book would be awesome for an inspirational conference or a business retreat. I saw a lot of great (short) essays about how to be all that you can be and conquer all the challenges that life may throw at you. It was a peppy little book that had no place in my current life situation (grad school, relative poverty, etc., etc...), but I could understand why businessmen and women would love this one.

I've also read one novel, The Essence of the Thing by Madeleine St. John (is that not just the greatest author name, or what?!). I'll try to tell you about it soon. I'm still sorting out my thoughts about it. I've also been reading classics and rearranging my bookshelves to try to get ready for qualifying exams. It's going to be a big summer!!

Love to all. (P.S. Timothy learned how to say "Aunt KB and Uncle Scott" a few weeks ago. I am in heaven!!)

Dead Zone, Grad School Style

2009-05-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

Perhaps finals week wouldn't always be so gloomy around here for me if I would ever write about anything besides death, sleep, vampires, criminals, you name it! If it's mysterious or depressing, I've probably thought of a paper topic for it.

Anyway, sorry the Pink Bookmark has been quiet for the past few days. I've been working my rear off trying to get the Puritan paper done (it took me about five days longer than I was planning, whimper, whimper), and now that it's finally printed off and ready to hand in, I have to finish my Shakespeare text edit, which is due tomorrow.

SO...I have to get back to work. I just wanted to say hello to the bloggity blog world.

What I must do before the next time you hear from me:

~~Finish all my grading and input grades into system~~
~~Finish Puritan Funeral Sermon Essay~~
~~Finish Shakespeare's Henry V text edit~~
~~Turn everything in, yell a feeble hurrah, fist pump in the air~~
~~Dinner with Hubby's Seminar on John Adams (he's a contemporary composer) in Pasadena, 5 p.m. Friday~~
~~Attend John Adams' opera in Los Angeles at Disney Hall Friday night.~~
~~Attend the graduation of my lovely partners in crime at CGU, Jan, Sharone, and Stefani, who will be receiving their MA's in English on Saturday. Go Team!~~
~~Attend the Champagne Reception, even though it isn't my graduation. I already have my MA, and won't be receiving my Phud for about two more years, but I fully support the graduations of others.~~
Pack for mini-vacation w/ Hubby, bikini, sun-block, six or seven books, not much else.
Escape for three days
Come back in time for Scott's interview at APU
Catch up on all the blogging action I missed while I was gone!

Reading my own books

2009-05-08T14:24:00.000-07:00

As this semester winds down, ***====errr...wait, yes I am still writing two major essays, but at least I can kinda see the light at the end of the tunnel since both of my due dates are next Friday====***

As this semester winds down, I am getting more and more excited about reading for quals. Especially, I am looking forward to reading all of my amazing 19th century novels that have been patiently, oh so quietly, sitting on the shelves waiting for me to pick them up with a voracious hunger for learning.

So, of course I joined another challenge.

I saw this one at Melissa's Shhh I'm Reading blog here and on S. Krishna's page here. :) This one is Perfect with a capital P for me. It's called the Read Your Own Books (RYOB) 2009 challenge hosted by MizB, and it encourages you to read the books you already have on your shelves rather than buying more! The challenge runs from Jan 1, 2009-December 31, 2009, so there are still about seven months left for it. Plus, you get to choose the number of books you feel is appropriate, and some of them can even be re-reads. YOU get to choose! (See, didn't I tell you it was Perfect with a capital P?) Here's what I'm starting out with, and they're all on my quals list:

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (in progress)

~~The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins~~

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (in progress)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

Adam Bede by George Eliot

The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I'm excited that this challenge will also overlap with my Classics Reading Challenge and the 100+ challenge.

Wish me luck on my final papers! For one of them, I'm creating my own scholarly edition of Shakespeare's Henry V Act I Scene I. For the other (the one I'm working on today), I'm writing an analysis of the metaphor of sleep in Early New England Puritan sermons, specifically looking at the metaphor's relation to the Calvinist teachings against idleness and belief in Purgatory.

Ugh.

Gemma Malley's The Declaration

2009-05-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

I read a book recently that haunted me. The Declaration by Gemma Malley follows the story of a young British teenager, Anna Covey, in the year 2140. This futuristic novel takes place after medical researchers have cured all sorts of common ailments like cancer, diseases, and even AIDS. Going one step further after curing disease, scientists have formulated a pill that stops the body’s aging process, allowing humans to live forever.

Because this pill, called Longevity, keeps the elderly (and everyone else, for that matter) alive indefinitely, the world population has skyrocketed, and the government has made procreation illegal in order to curb overcrowding and violence. Every citizen since 2080 has been forced to sign a declaration, which states that they will not bear children. Any child born to parents who take Longevity pills will be ripped away from them at birth, labeled “surplus” children, and forced to work off their parents’ “sins” at a Surplus boarding school while the parents serve prison sentences.

Surplus Anna has grown up as an illegal citizen at a school called Grange Hall. She hates her parents because she has been indoctrinated by her superiors, particularly the head-mistress Mrs. Pincent, to believe that her parents did her an enormous injustice by conceiving her illegally and forcing her to live outside of the law. When Peter, an older surplus boy arrives at the school, one who has been kept hidden by an underground movement of rebels all his life, Anna is stuck watching after him and teaching him the Surplus doctrine of obedience and submission. However, Peter has other plans. He tells her that he knows her parents, that her name is not Surplus Anna—it’s Anna Covey, and that he has come to break her out of Grange Hall. The majority of the novel follows the adventures of Anna and Peter as they risk their lives to escape from slavery and fight for ordinary freedoms such as conversation, looking people in the eyes, owning simple possessions such as journals, and seeing the world outside the confines of gray cement walls.

This book, as a young adult fiction novel, was a fast and suspenseful read. I loved Anna’s journal entries to which the readers were privy, and I felt like these few-and-far-between entries were much better than the prose sections, which did not feel youthful enough. Malley wrote with a strong sense of urgency, and her political platform occasionally got in the way of the beautiful language she clearly was capable of. Even with Malley’s tendency to over-write the controversial sections (probably trying to hammer her point so as not to be misunderstood), the novel held my attention and gripped my heartstrings. My heart broke for Anna’s misinterpretations of the world and her place in it, and I became emotionally attached to her wellbeing.

My favorite line that described Anna was, "The girl had always looked like she willingly carred the weight of the world on her shoulders and still thought it wasn't enough of a burden" (210). Sound familiar, anyone? Now you know why I enjoyed it.

I recommend this novel for anyone who enjoys utopian/dystopian novels or futuristic adolescent fiction. Malley’s Anna is a far cry from a Judy Blume or Lois Lowry teenager, but she has a beautiful heart and longs for acceptance in a cruel world. I can't wait to read the sequel!

My rating: 4 stars

Teaser Tuesdays

2009-04-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to:

--Grab your current read

--Let the book open to a random page.

--Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

--You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from… that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Today's Teaser Tuesday comes from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

"she took up the fan and a pair of the gloves, and was just going to leave the room, when her eye fell upon a little bottle that stood near the looking-glass. There was no label this time with the words "DRINK ME," but nevertheless she uncorked it and put it to her lips" (44).

One Lovely Blog Award

2009-04-27T22:09:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I woke up to the wonderful surprise that Melissa had given me the One Lovely Blog Award. I hadn't ever visited Melissa's blog before the read-a-thon, but I am so excited about my discovery! She has a really cool site that everyone should drop by and visit.

Here are the Rules...

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
3) Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I have give this award to the following lovely ladies:

100+ Challenge

2009-04-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, glad to see that one week after the read-a-thon, people are starting to get back online to post some of their successes and reviews. I don't normally write reviews, but I can't wait to start doing more reviews once my seminar papers are finished. (3 weeks--yay!)

I'm finishing my last semester of coursework for my Ph.D., and one of the things that has been made super-clear to me over the past month or so is how torturous-yet-amazing the qualifying exam process is going to be. I'll have to read hundreds of books to prepare for my exams, but I can't wait! I can't wait to read just to read and learn for the benefit of my own career, rather than reading between the lines to try to say something intelligent and interesting in class. I'm tired of trying to impress unimpressible people, and I am so excited about reading reading reading for my own edification. Now, will it be stressful? Heck yes. But do I think I will enjoy it more than coursework? Heck yes.

Anyway, as I was discovering new blogs this past week and during the read-a-thon, I found Melissa's blog. I found a reading challenge on her blog called the 100+ challenge, which sounded vaguely familiar, like I had seen it on a few other pages too but never investigated because it sounded too scary. Once I read all about it, it still sounded totally scary, but I have joined because I have faith in myself and I KNOW how much I'll have to read for quals. So, without further adieu...

The 100+ Reading Challenge will be hosted here this year.

Here are the guidelines:

1) You can join anytime as long as you don’t start reading your books prior to 2009.

2) This challenge is for 2009 only. The last day to have all your books read is December 31, 2009.

3) You can join anytime between now and December 31, 2009.

4) If you don’t have a blog, please join our Yahoo Groups.

5) When you sign up under Mr. Linky, list the direct link to your post where your 100+ books will be listed. If you list just your blog’s URL, it will be removed.

6) All books count: children’s, YA, adults, fiction, non-fiction, how-tos, etc.

***Update: You do not have to decided on your books ahead of time. You can add or subtract from your list during the year.

I have not picked my 100 books yet, as I know that most of them will be chosen for me by my quals committee, but here are the ones that I have completed between January 1 and today. This list isn't entirely complete, but I think I've remembered most of them so far. I'll come back and update this list as I go along so that I can keep track. I'll also be adding reviews later, and will eventually make this list clickable. Give me time...

Fiction

1. Caleb Williams by William Godwin

2. The Hudson Book of Fiction: 30 Stories Worth Reading

3. The Giver by Lois Lowry

4. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

5. The Messenger by Lois Lowry

6. Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie

7. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

8. Dracula by Bram Stoker

*****Additions after Apr. 25*****

9. The Declaration by Gemma Malley

10. Dr. Dredd's Wagon of Wonders by Bill Brittain

May

11. A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce

12. The Essence of the Thing by Madeleine St. John

June

13. The Wonderful O by James Thurber

14. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

15. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

16.

Currently Reading: Hard Times and Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Christmas Books by Charles Dickens

Drama

1. Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

2. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

3. Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

4. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

5. Blasted by Sarah Kane

6. Henry V by William Shakespeare

7. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

8. Hamlet by William Shakespeare

9. King Lear by William Shakespeare

10. The Tempest by Williams Shakespeare

11. Much Ado About Nothing by Williams Shakespeare

Non-fiction

1. At Day's Close by Ekirch

2. New England Funeral Sermons ed. by Bosco

3. The Book of Common Prayer

4. The Puritan Way of Death by David Stannard

5. Film Noir by Bruce Crowther

6. How to read literature like a professor by Thomas C. Foster

7. Being Perfect by Anna Quindlen

8. The Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen

9. The Big Moo edited by Seth Godin

10. Be Happy Without Being Perfect by Alice D. Domar and Alice Lesch Kelly

11. Detection & Its Designs: Narrative and Power in 19th-Century Detective Fiction by Peter Thoms

12. Perfecting Ourselves To Death: The Pursuit Of Excellence And The Perils Of Perfectionism by Richard Winter

13. All Cooked Up: Recipes and Memories from Elvis' Family and Friends

14. Students Must Write: Guide to Better Writing in Coursework and Examinations by Robert Barrass

more here...I'll have to find them

Currently Reading: ...

Poetry

1. The Hudson Book of Poetry: 150 Poems Worth Reading

Booking Through Thursday

2009-04-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Booking Through Thursday can be found here.

Some people read one book at a time. Some people have a number of them on the go at any given time, perhaps a reading in bed book, a breakfast table book, a bathroom book, and so on, which leads me to…

Are you currently reading more than one book?

I'm always reading more than one book!

If so, how many books are you currently reading?

About 5 novels and plays and about 5 non-fiction for some of my papers. Particularly, I'm reading a lot of Shakespeare for a graduate seminar and quite a bit of 19th century lit.

Is this normal for you?

This is pretty light for me.

Where do you keep your current reads?

I keep them on the floor by the bed, on the nightstand, on shelves, on tables, scattered around the house, in my car, in my backpack, by the computer. :) Everywhere there is space, there are books.

Teaser Tuesday

2009-04-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to:
--Grab your current read
--Let the book open to a random page.
--Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
--You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from… that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Today's Teaser Tuesday comes from Anna Quindlen's A Short Guide to a Happy Life.

"It's amazing how much you can learn in one year. Just like Paul, who was knocked off his mule into the dust on the way to Damascus, and discovered God, I had a rude awakening" (33).

My Final Read-a-thon Totals

2009-04-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

(Shout out to my dear hubby who documented my (our?) journey!)

Well, I just had a blast yesterday, and I am so glad I participated in the read-a-thon. I am proud of myself for the four books that I finished. One was adolescent lit, so it went by quickly, and one was rather short because it's more of a coffee table book, but I did well overall.

The funny thing is that I woke up voraciously hungry for more literature. The first thing I did was pick up a book! But then reality hit me how irrational that response was, and I went downstairs and made homemade coffee cake muffins and omelets to celebrate my 'thon success.

All right, so here are my final tallies for the whole event:

TOTALS:

724 pages read
902 minutes reading (15 hours, and that includes getting a late start by 5 hours!!)
260 minutes blogging and reading other blogs
4 books finished (Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing, Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, Anna Quindlen's Being Perfect, and Lois Lowry's The Messenger)
3 caffeine beverages (coffee, coke, tea)
6 mini challenges
1 nap
2 bowls of ice cream
1 shower
1 episode of West Wing watched w/ hubby
1 In 'N Out cheeseburger devoured

All in all, it was a fun and energizing experience.

Read-a-thon comes to a close!

2009-04-19T05:01:00.000-07:00

Read-a-thoners, we made it!!! We survived!!! I'll be posting my totals later on in the day, because I have some more math to do. For now, I'm going to get in bed with a good book! (tee hee)

R-a-t Hour 23, 4 books finished!

2009-04-19T04:33:00.000-07:00

UPDATE FOR HOUR 23

Since last update:
Pages: 83 (The Messenger-finished!)
Time: 50 minutes

TOTALS:
660 pages read
842 minutes reading
240 minutes blogging and reading other blogs
4 books finished (Much Ado about Nothing, And Then There Were None, Being Perfect, and The Messenger)
3 caffeine beverages
6 mini challenges
1 nap
2 bowls of ice cream

End of Event Meme

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
Hour 1--I had been SOOOO excited for the read-a-thon, but I woke up at 5 a.m. when mine was supposed to start, and I was feeling miserable. I ended up sleeping for 5 more hours, which meant that I didn't meet any of my goals.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Mysteries work really well! I couldn't put And Then There Were None down even though I've read it ten times before.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I had a blast. :)

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The Cheerleaders kept me going during the tough hours. How thoughtful everyone was!

5. How many books did you read? four books and counting

6. What were the names of the books you read? I finished Much Ado about Nothing, And Then There Were None, Being Perfect, and The Messenger. I read parts of The Moonstone and my All Cooked Up Elvis cookbook. Also Shakespeare's Henry V.

7. Which book did you enjoy most? And Then There Were None and The Moonstone

8. Which did you enjoy least? Sorry, Shakespeare, but you're not fun for read-a-thons.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? Keep the comments coming. We really appreciate them and read every one!

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I'll probably do the same thing. I will read and then comment as much as I can on others' blogs.

Hours 21 through 23, and zzz

2009-04-19T03:10:00.001-07:00

I'm awake! I'm still alive!!!

UPDATE FOR HOURS 21-23
Since last update:
Pages: 113 (The Messenger and Being Perfect)
Time: 165 minutes reading, 55 minutes napping

TOTALS:
577 pages read
629 minutes reading
210 minutes blogging and reading blogs
3 books finished (Much Ado About Nothing, And Then There Were None, and Being Perfect)
3 caffeinated beverages
6 mini challenges

Keep it up, everyone! You can do it! Only T - 100 minutes remaining!

Hours 17-19 R-A-T

2009-04-19T00:05:00.000-07:00

Jessica's Hour 18 mini-challenge was posted here and it was about re-reads! She writes:

1. Go back to your blog, and tell us about the books you’re rereading during the mini-challenge. Maybe post a picture of each book and describe why you love it enough to reread it.
OR
2. Go back to your blog, and give us a list of your top favorite rereads of all time. You know, those books that you can go to time and time again for comfort and escape. Again, pictures are good. :)

The books I'm re-reading for the Read-a-thon are And Then There Were None and The Moonstone. I'm actually teaching ATTWN this semester, and I'm writing a paper on MS right now, so all my re-reads are for my own academic responsibilities...

That said, I LOVE ATTWN. I re-read it every semester that I teach it, but I never get tired of it. Some Agatha Christie novels are very predictable and easy to follow, but this one is so clever and heart-stopping, all the way to the end! Some of my other favorite re-reads are

1. The Great Gatsby

2. Romeo and Juliet

3. Oliver Twist

4. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

5. the Redwall Series

My stats for this go-round:

UPDATE FOR HOURS 17-19

Since last update:

Pages: 89 (Much Ado About Nothing and And Then There Were None)

Time: 100 minutes

TOTALS:

464 pages read

464 minutes reading (wow, really freaked out right now that my numbers are EXACTLY identical--crrrrazy!)

190 minutes blogging and reading blogs

2 books finished (Much Ado About Nothing and And Then There Were None)

2 caffeinated beverages

6 mini challenges (counting the re-reads above)

1 episode of West Wing watched w/ hubby

1 cheeseburger from In 'N Out devoured

Read-a-thon (finished one!)

2009-04-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

I finished one of my books!

UPDATE FOR HOURS 15 and 16

Since last update:
Pages: 105 (Much Ado About Nothing and And Then There Were None)
Time: 93 minutes

TOTALS:
375 pages read
364 minutes reading
170 minutes blogging and reading blogs
1 book finished (Much Ado About Nothing)
1 caffeinated beverage (I feel a Dr. Pepper coming on soon, though)
5 mini challenges (see non-fiction mini below)
1 episode of West Wing watched w/ hubby
1 cheeseburger from In 'N Out about to be eaten!

Mini-challenge from Tammy
What is you favorite non-fiction book and why? What genre(s) do you enjoy and are there particular writers that you would recommend to others? If you don't read non-fiction, why not?

My favorite non-fiction book is Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's Good Wives, which is about Early New England women from about 1650-1750. Even though it's non-fiction, she writes beautifully and tells impeccably researched stories about these women's lives. It's a good read, although sometimes slow going.
I love fiction and drama, and although I am often pleasantly suprised by poetry and non-fiction, I still rarely read it unless it is for one of my graduate seminars.
I read non-fiction biographies and histories for a lot of my research for my degree. :)

Hours 13-14 of Read-a-thon and Survey

2009-04-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

Since last update:

Pages: 58 (And Then There Were None and All Cooked Up Elvis Memories Cookbook)

Time: 54 minutes

TOTALS:

270 pages read

271 minutes reading

155 minutes blogging and visiting blogs

50 blogs visited

0 books finished

1 caffeine beverages (I think it's time for #2)

4 mini challenges

Mid-Event Survey:

1. What are you reading right now? And Then There Were None and Much Ado About Nothing

2. How many books have you read so far? I've been splitting my time between four different books. I always do this--can never read one thing at a time.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I can't wait to finish these two so that I can get back to The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. I've read it before, but I'm writing a paper on Collins, and I am in love with all things Victorian.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? We were going to have a barbeque cookout with our friends tonight, but we shifted it to last night so that I could read all day today. Of course, that meant that I didn't get to sleep until 2:30 last night and woke up with a raging headache when my alarm went off at 5 a.m. to start reading! Blah.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? The only real interruptions have been not feeling well and needing to eat. But my husband has been sweet about preparing food for me.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? I can't believe it's already night-time. Where did the time go?

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? No suggestions for anyone but myself--don't party too hard the night before! (But, boy did I have fun eating my husband's marinated steak, drinking wine, and watching 101 Dalmations with my fellow Ph.D.ers. On second thought, I would do it all again!)

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? I felt very prepared. I had my lists, my books, and my snacks ready. Pretty good for a first timer.

9. Are you getting tired yet? Very tired, but that's probably because I haven't slept much at all this week. (This month? year?)

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? Thanks to everyone for your comments. I've had fun reading them and commenting back!

See everyone back here next time I update.

Hours 11 and 12 - read-a-thon!

2009-04-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

For my 11 and 12 hour updates, I decided to have my husband Scott take a few shots of me in action. The flowers here in Southern California are beautiful! There was a nice fresh breeze blowing, and it's about 80 degrees outside, so I took advantage of it.

UPDATE FOR HOURS 11&12 (technically halfway, but I started so late!!)

Since last update:

Pages: 102 (Much Ado About Nothing and The Messenger)

Time: 85 minutes

TOTALS:

212 pages read

217 minutes reading

140 minutes blogging (mostly looking around at other blogs :)

45-ish blogs visited

0 books finished, but still have hope because a long night is ahead of us

1 caffeine beverage

3 mini challenges (see letter mini-challenge below)

2 ibuprophen taken

lots of stretching of muscles, drinking of water, and listening to Joni!!

What are you all listening to?

Letter mini challenge from Flight into Fantasy asked us to write a letter to a character in one of our books. Cute!

Dear Beatrice (from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing),

I admire your pluck, though I do not understand why you hate men so much. It seems to me that you are far too mouthy for your own good. Since your cousin Hero is getting married to that nice Prince, won't you be a dear like your uncle requests and go ahead and get married to Benedict at the same time? Then you could all be one big happy family. I hear it worked out very well for the Capulets and Montagues over there in Italy.

I hope to hear of wedding bells soon.

Love always,

Read-a-thon hours 7 & 8

2009-04-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

UPDATE FOR HOURS 7&8

Since last update:

Pages: 58 (split between And Then There Were None, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Messenger)

Time: 75 minutes reading, 20 minute shower, the rest of the time visiting blogs
(P.S. the blogs out there are AMAZING!! I am finding so many new ones that I love!) And the encouragement from the Readathon cheerleaders has been so thoughtful. Go team!

TOTALS:
110 pages read
132 minutes reading
?? minutes blogging
25 blogs visited
0 books finished yet (skipping around a lot)
2 caffeine beverage
2 mini challenges
1 shower
5 minutes exercise (stretching and dancing to The Weepies!)

My time is flying by, and my headache is a little better. The shower totally helped, and the stretching made me remember what circulation actually felt like. Ugh...grad school is killing me!

Now that I feel a little sexier with my legs shaven and hair shiny clean, I commence reading again. Go Shakespeare!

Hour 7, Love Your Library!

2009-04-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

The Curious Reader has posted a mini challenge for the read-a-thoners. The theme is Love your Local Libray. :) My local library is the university library where I go to school, and since it is now open to the public, I think it's okay to use it for the challenge. Happy reading everyone! I've visited about 9 blogs and commented on several. I think I'm going to get back to reading now, so I'll see you in a few hours with updates. Good luck!

Love your Local Library Mini-Challenge

What is the name of your local library? Honnold-Mudd Library

What city is it located in? Claremont, CA

How often do you go to the library? At least 5 or 6 times a week

If you're a regular, do the staff know you? They always laugh or groan when I come up to the counter with my mighty stacks!

Do you browse while you're there or just pick up items you have placed on reserve? I always browse, but since I am usually there for school stuff, I try not to take home too many goodies for fun.

What is your favorite thing about your local library? I love the many different environments it has. There are tons of areas to sit and read or study. Some are more comfortable. Some are more studious. Some are more loud. Some are more quiet. I like the variety, and I never get bored.

Read a thon off to a rocky start =(

2009-04-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I had very high hopes for starting my readathon at 5 a.m., but I also had a horrible headache (probably because I had just gone to bed less than three hours earlier!), so I talked to hubby and he said that I needed to lie back down until I felt well enough to even look at the pages and words swirling around, much less read them.

So, I reeeeally started at about 10:15 this morning instead of 5 a.m.

My meager stats so far...

Pages: 42 pages (from And Then There Were None)
Time: 57 minutes
Totals for 'thon 42 pages read
57 minutes reading
20 minutes blogging
0 books finished
1 headache
1 caffeine beverage
1 mini-challenges (Introduction meme--I want to do more!)

(Shout out to Trish--thanks for the encouraging text messages!!! Luv ya, girl.)

The Read-a-thon begins!

2009-04-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't heard, I'm participating in a 24-hour reading marathon from 5 a.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. on Sunday. It begins now!!

If you would like to join or see what all the literary fuss is about, hop on over to the website here

Here's a questionnaire to get going on all the fun and festivities.

Where are you reading from today? Glendora, California!
3 facts about me … 1. Most days I wear pink sparkly eyeshadow; I can’t help myself. 2. I am a Ph.D. student in English literature...so part of this read-a-thon is my normal homework routine of reading every minute of every day, haha. 3. This is my first read-a-thon!
How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? About 14, but I am rooting for finishing about 4 or 5.
Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)? 4-5 books, probably 15 hours or so (hopefully more!), and I want to cheer others on when I get a chance.
If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time? It’s my first, but I would love advice!

listies

2009-04-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

I have finally compiled my read-a-thon list, which is so exciting that I think I might have to do a little dance before typing any more...

*long pause*

Allllrighty then. Back to business!

My read-a-thon list is quite awesome. Starting at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning, I will be reading...

"Non-negotiable…" selections

Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare—for my Shakespeare class

Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare—for my Shakespeare class

The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England by Richard Godbeer—for my American History course (I'll probably add this to my non-fiction five challenge list)

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie—for the Intro to Lit course that I teach. My students start discussing this book on Tuesday…

Henry V by William Shakespeare—for my big ‘ole paper due in a month (blah)

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins—I have to write a paper on this novel before school is out to finish my incomplete in my last nineteenth-cent. British lit course. I should re-read it or at least get a good chunk re-read this weekend.

Just for me, but still academic-y.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne—because it’s soooo good.

Hard Times by Charles Dickens—for my Classics Challenge J

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens—because Dickens is my homeboy

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen—because I’m the only one (and by “one” I mean mushy book-crazy girl) I know who hasn’t read it.

For fun, for ME!!!

All Cooked Up Elvis Cookbook—to make the read-a-thon hip shakin’ good (for Non-fiction five challenge)

Being Perfect by Anna Quindlen

The Messenger by Lois Lowry

Dr. Dredd’s Wagon of Wonders by Bill Brittain

Does my list make you happy too? Enough to dance?

Here's another list. It's things I've done in the past 24 hours. Lots of numbers.

I have...

graded 39 essays, 4-7 pages each
slept 2 hours
taught 2 classes
caused 2 students to cry
written about 15 emails for the transdisciplinary Text course
received my big Amazon box in the mail with 7 new books!
danced 1 happy dance
spent about 1 hour w/ hubby
eaten 1/2 of an enchilada that I brought home from El Ranchero a few nights ago. YUM.
compiled my weekend's read-a-thon list
danced 1 more happy dance
made a list on my blog with 12 items

And the answer is "yes" if you have asked, "is she going nuts?"

bookmarks

2009-04-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

I've been mulling over my books for about two weeks now trying to decide what I have to read for school during the read-a-thon and what I get to read for myself. Since this is my last semester of coursework for my Ph.D. in English Literature, I'm working my rear end off trying to complete all of my assignments and finish what I start, which is a very hard thing for me to do when it comes to books. I LOVE books. I love, love, love them. But I have problems, too.

I have an entire house full of books that are only partially read. I did a quick head count of my shelves, and just glancing at one of my "novel" shelves, I saw around thirty books with bookmarks sticking out of them. I am pretty diligent about marking my place when I stop reading them, but I am very bad at ever getting around to finishing the books. I have very good intentions. In fact, I try all the time to go back to books that I never finished. The problem, of course, is that I want to start over from the beginning again, and then I usually get busy right around the time I stopped the last time, so the book mark goes in again and I never make it to the end.

Grad school has been brutal to my bookmark problem. In fact, the number of bookmarks I've lost to some really good books has probably quadrupled in the past four years. There is never enough time to finish one 800 page Victorian novel before it's time to read the next one, or the next one, or the one after that...and the tumultuous cycle continues. (That said, I've probably read *and finished* hundreds of books in the past four years...but I've stopped short too often due to the time constraints of school.)

Does anyone else have this problem? Am I the only one with book-marky bookshelves??

...I have made a vow to myself that I am going to finish before summer is over at least the books that I claim are my favorites. Then, once I finish my dissertation in 2011, I can revisit my bookmarks one by one.

Chocolate Cake; or, what I did last night instead of grading papers

2009-04-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

Last night, Scott and I made a delicious chocolate cake from my All Cooked Up Elvis cookbook. All I can say is YUM. I'll post the recipe later. :)

I am doing a ton of reading for my history course, so I don't have much time to blog, but I wanted to say that I'm formulating a tentative list of books for my readathon! I'm going to have one for each of my classes, and then maybe a little one just for me. I'm two-thirds of the way through Lois Lowry's Giver series, which has The Giver, Gathering Blue, and The Messenger. I'll probably read the last book during my 'thon. The others will have to be school books, but I'm going to try to make some little goals for myself to spice it up. Any suggestions?

Love to the fam, KB

Marathon

2009-04-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

24 hour read-a-thon? Of course I've heard of it...it's called every day in grad school!

But in all seriousness...

I've been playing around with the idea of joining the 24 hour reading marathon on April 18-19th. What do y'all think? I know I definitely have plenty to keep me occupied. The question is, can I stay awake the whole time??

The cool thing about the marathon is that you can use it to work on other reading challenges (again, in the real world it's called "homework"!). I would just need to make sure that I get all my grading done before the weekend. :) Would anyone want to join me? I think it sounds like fun.

Of course, I am a big nerd and admit this in public venues. But books are awesome, and I like making lists and then crossing things off. It may be a sickness. More details later.

Non-Fiction Five Challenge

2009-04-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

Non-Fiction Five Challenge
May 1 - September 30, 2009

My friend and fellow book-lover Trish has taken on a new challenge and has invited us to join here.

The Rules (unchanged from previous years)

1. Read 5 non-fiction books during the months of May - September, 2009 (please link your reviews on Mister Linky each month; Mister Linky can be found each month on this blog)

2. Read at least one non-fiction book that is different from your other choices (i.e.: 4 memoirs and 1 self-help)

(all choices do not need to be posted and may change at any time)

My tentative list:

All Cooked Up: Recipes and Memories from Elvis' Family and Friends
Jill Lepore's New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in 18th Century Manhattan
Julian Symons' Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History
Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories
Harry Mount's Carpe Diem: Put a Little Latin in Your Life