Read in 2008:

1/21: Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home – I enjoyed this book very much…I love when recipes are included with stories!
1/29: Duma Key – Stephen King’s always been a favorite of mine, and this was one of his better books!
2/07: Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life – Eh. Sometimes humor doesn’t translate well.
2/12: The Bleeding Dusk – I enjoy this series, even if Victoria does kill vampires! And that Sebastian is HAWT!
2/17: The Kite Runner – Never had any desire to read this book (NO idea why) and I LOVED it. So very sad, tho.
2/18: The Tiger Rising – Barely remember this one…
3/8: An Absolute Gentleman – ditto lol
3/10: Water for Elephants – Another one I really, really liked!
3/18: A Thousand Splendid Suns – Another very good book I’d highly recommend.
4/8: Eat Pray Love – eh. I really liked the Eat and Pray part…but the Love? Not so much. It got old real fast.
4/9: A Three Dog Life – Interesting!
4/12: The Last Vampire – No clue about this one…can’t remember it at all LOL!
4/23: Change of Heart – Man…what a twist at the end!
5/10: From Dead to Worse – Sookie! Bill! Eric…roooowwwwwwrrrr!!!
6/4: Odd Thomas – First time reading the Odd Thomas books…I enjoyed them.
6/11: Forever Odd – ditto
6/19: Brother Odd – ditto
6/29: Tweak – So sad
7/6: Beautiful Boy – I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a parent and have to deal with this.
7/26: Odd Hours – ditto
7/31: Twilight -re-read
8/5: Breaking Dawn – reread
8/17: When Twilight Burns – Looking forward to the next one!
8/31: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle – Burned through this book SO fast…my second favorite of the year, even with all the sadness.
9/20: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer – Loved the scent descriptions in this book…again, tho, pretty sad.
10/3: The Host – Another one I didn’t think I’d like and I did, very much.
10/25: The Gargoyle Easily one of the BEST books I’ve ever read! This one is my favorite of the year.
10/26: Wesley the Owl – Cute story and lots of information about owls.
10/27: The Graveyard Book This is going on my bookshelf next to The Gargoyle and Edgar Sawtelle; my third most favorite of the year.
November:
- Grotesque Disliked this book, very depressing.
- T is for Trespass Appropriate book for what was going on in my life then.
November & December:
- Charlaine Harris’s southern vampire mysteries Reread ‘em all

Movies seen in 2008:

1/6 – Sweeney Todd: Depp & Rickman in the same movie…*swoon*
1/13 – 27 Dresses: Cute movie, I liked it more than I thought I would.
1/22 – National Treasure: Book of Secrets: Eh…
1/23 – Michael Clayton: Did NOT like this one.
1/26: CJ7: Really cute and enjoyed it a lot.
1/29: 21: I know I liked this one, too but I forget what it was about!
4/18 – Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Loved it! My new crush was in this, Russell Brand.
4/26 – Baby Mama: Ok…
5/30 – Sex And The City: Ok…
5/30 – Iron Man: Loved it!
7/1 – Indiana Jones [had to leave as sound quality sucked]
7/18 – Hancock: Damn, is Will Smith hawt!
7/20 – Hellboy: Eh…
7/24 – The Dark Knight: I am obsessed with The Joker!!! Amazing movie…great cast.
8/26 – Bottle Shock: Ahhh, Alan Rickman!
9/14 – No Country For Old Men: HATED the ending.
10/20 – All Together Now: This was about the making of Cirque du Soleil’s show, Love. It was so amazing to look behind the scenes, to see the input from Paul & Ringo, along with John’s & George’s widows.
12/26 – 4 Christmases. Eh, wait for the video
12/27 – Bedtime Stories. This one made me laugh and I can’t WAIT to see Russell Brand as Captain Jack Sparrow’s brother in the next POTC movie.

Finally, my thoughts about books 2 and 3 which I read for the RIP Challenge!

I had chosen the easy route this year – reading two books (Peril the Second, as it’s called). But…I ended up reading three! The first book was The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and I wrote about it here.

The second book was The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (published 2008, fiction, 480 pages, ISBN-10: 0385524943 & ISBN-13: 978-0385524940).

Wow! And I mean that in the most amazed sense of the word! This book has become one of my favorites and it has a little something for everyone! Interested in Japan? Lots about Japan here and a spooky story as well. Iceland and Vikings? Ditto. Medieval Italy? This book’s for you! Long ago England & Germany? Read it! Like love stories? It’s really what this book is all about…love. Intense, passionate, captivating…what are you waiting for! Go get this and read, read, read! I promise you won’t be disappointed!

And the third book was my first Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book (published 2008, fiction, 320 pages, ISBN-10: 0060530928 & ISBN-13: 978-0060530921)

I started this the day after finishing The Gargoyle (needed some time to digest that one first) and I couldn’t put it down once I started!!! I was so drawn to the character of Silas, of course, who became Bod’s caretaker…and I also loved the witch. I was thrilled to finally fall in love with a Gaiman book, since Carl raves about them so much (even though he won’t return the favor and read a Harry Potter book, but whatevs).

Thanks, Carl, for this challenge, and for turning me on to this book, which will take a honored place on my bookshelf!

OH!!! And I just found out Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab has done a perfume series based on The Graveyard Book! Check it out!!!

You know it’s getting close to Autumn when Carl issues his RIP Challenge! This is the third year I’ve participated and I pretty much chose the easy route this year; reading two books (Peril the Second, as it’s called). My first book is: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (published 2008, fiction, 576 pages, ISBN-10: 0061374229 & ISBN-13: 978-0061374227)

The book was reviewed better than I ever could by the amazing Stephen King:

“I flat-out loved The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Dog-lovers in particular will be riveted by this story, because the canine world has never been explored with such imagination or emotional resonance. Yet in the end, this isn’t a novel about dogs or heartland America — although it is a deeply American work of literature. It’s a novel about the human heart, and the mysteries that live there, understood but impossible to articulate. Yet in the person of Edgar Sawtelle, a mute boy who takes three of his dogs on a brave and dangerous odyssey, Wroblewski does articulate them, and splendidly. I closed the book with that regret readers feel only after experiencing the best stories: It’s over, you think, and I won’t read another one this good for a long, long time. [me: Oh, so very true!!!]
In truth, there has never been a book quite like The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I thought of Hamlet when I was reading it (of course… and in this version, Ophelia turns out to be a dog named Almondine), and Watership Down, and The Night of the Hunter, and The Life of Pi — but halfway through, I put all comparisons aside and let it just be itself.
I’m pretty sure this book is going to be a bestseller, but unlike some, it deserves to be. It’s also going to be the subject of a great many reading groups, and when the members take up Edgar, I think they will be apt to stick to the book and forget the neighborhood gossip.
Wonderful, mysterious, long and satisfying: readers who pick up this novel are going to enter a richer world. I envy them the trip. I don’t reread many books, because life is too short. I will be rereading this one.”

My comments: I had heard absolutely nothing about this book when I walked into the local Barnes and Noble with my friend Michelle, who pointed it out to me and said, “I think that’s a book you’d like.” and as usual, she was quite right. This is an absolutely amazing first novel; part ghost story, part gut-wrenching drama, I absolutely could not put it down! Oh, how I envy those of you that haven’t read this yet; you are in for an amazing ride. As stated in the Kirkus Reviews: “The story takes Jungle Book-ish turns…It resolves, however, in ways that will satisfy grown-up readers.”

Keep the tissues handy…

You can read the first chapter here and even better, there’s an excerpt about the dog named Almondine here at the author’s website. And if you’d like to see what other folks are reading for this challenge, click here

Carl has issued his third annual RIP Challenge and I couldn’t be more thrilled!!! Besides, I really love the banners he has this year.

This is the challenge I chose, since in the past I seem to have bitten off more than I can chew. Hopefully, I can get through these two books between September 1st and October 31st:

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
I’ve already begun reading this one (Carl says that’s ok!).

The Graveyard Book
This one I’ve got on order, it should arrive in early October.

Since participating in these challenges, I’ve stumbled across some amazing books, including Twilight and The Thirteenth Tale; hopefully, I can add The Graveyard Book to this list!

Janet kinda tagged me

The rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

“There was an internationally beloved entertainer sitting at my table, and when Vergé stopped to say hello to him, they made several jokes about my inexperience that sent an embarrassed flush across my face. With eyes cast downward, I muttered a few formidables and incroyables–all the appropriate ables I could think of–assuring His Holiness that the meal I’d just eaten had changed my life. “You have only to think of my food as a different kind of cheeseburger,” Vergé said gently, “otherwise the entire experience will be pretentieux.”

It’s from a book called The Saucier’s Apprentice, which I got as a gift today from a coworker/friend. Can’t wait to start it! It’s about “one long strange trip through the great cooking schools of Europe“…totally right up my alley!

Tagging:

Azzy, who looks so beautiful pregnant!
Maggie, who gave me a lovely Arte y Pico award
Life through a Lens, who sang, via her typed comments, a lovely birthday song to me yesterday
Laura, who liked my pics of Azzy and her nephew
Moo, who is shocked I put Johnny Depp before Alan Rickman