Po(sey) Sessions

I haven't had my kids for a week. But I keep letting life get in the way of blogging. I have been working on some posts and thinking about some others. I finished Speak and am planning on saying more about that later. I am currently reading Looking for Alaska and loving it. Seriously, go buy it RIGHT NOW! I have been writing a little bit of (bad) poetry. But, hey, at least I am writing. Hopefully I will be posting some of the things I have been thinking about saying. If I don't, just know I am fine, healthy, and crazily happy!

Hopefully Becky will forgive me for posting this late. For those of you who don't know, I joined Becky's Online Reading Grou p and we are currently reading Speak . Every couple of days I will post my review or response of the assigned section. Some of you may remember that last week I was not particularly impressed with the book. I don't know if I was just being moody then, or what. But I really enjoyed this section. I found it to be very funny and entertaining. Please press play below to experience one of my favorite parts of this marking period. Please don't forget to visit Becky for a full recap !

Pick up the nearest book. (I’m sure you must have one nearby.) Turn to page 123. What is the first sentence on the page? The last sentence on the page? Now . . . connect them together …. Okay, I had to cheat on this one a little bit. The first book by me was The Toddler Cookbook and it doesn't have a page 123. The next one was a dictionary and that doesn't exactly have sentences. (The first word on page 123 was Cain .) The third had an acronym in it I didn't know and didn't feel like making something up for it. So, the forth nearest book was... Footprints in Time . First Sentence : He jumped up and moved his feet rapidly, trampling on something. Last Sentence : He stared at Jack, stunned. He jumped up and moved his feet rapidly, trampling on something. He looked down and saw his black cat Whiskers who always seemed to be in his way. He glared at the cat, but continued to move his feet towards the ringing phone. What if it was her? He reached out t...

A few days ago, I received my copy of The Perfect Life . Thanks to Janna at the Cornhusker's Academy who offered this contest so I could win the book! Now I definitely don't need to be starting any new books. I need to finish all of the ones I am in the middle of! But I decided to just take a little peak inside. And what did I find? The perfect Saturday . By tradition, Saturday mornings were savored in the Clarkson household. My husband, Brad, usually prepared breakfast, and then the two of us--still clad in our pajamas--read snippets from the newspaper to each other while we dined on French toast or omelets or hash-brown casserole.

My Aloha Friday question today is... If you had to give yourself a new name what would it be? Aloha Friday is a laid back, just for fun, meme created by Kailani at An Island Life . We all post a question and have fun going around answering each others. My answer: I don't have one yet! I am going to read what you all say and see if it inspires me. I have decided on either Ireland or December, or maybe some combination of the two. Answer the question for yourself in the comments and then ask a new one on your own blog! Have fun!

When somebody mentions “literature,” what’s the first thing you think of? (Dickens? Tolstoy? Shakespeare?) Do you read “literature” (however you define it) for pleasure? Or is it something that you read only when you must? When I think of literature one name immediately pops into my head, Nabokov . “Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man.” I love to read all kinds of books including literature for pleasure. I am surrounded by piles and piles and piles of books and I just pick one up and then another and just see what grabs my interest. If it is a romance novel or a classic or whatever grabs me that is what I read next. I have this very strong feeling that you read books when you are meant to read them. I picked up Pride and Prejudice many times before I actually read it for the first time and fell in love with it. I love to read literature when I am forced to read it as well, especially when I am able to discuss it with others during the proces...

I am running a little behind on my intended post today. But I wanted to make sure I shared some my notes and thoughts on Speak as promised. First, I want to say that I was not impressed by my first impression of the voice/narration of Speak. It took me a little while before I discovered what was disappointing in it. The text is generally boring. But when I was discussing this with a friend , I made the epiphany that this was perhaps INTENTIONAL. That this part of the story is boring because the narrator, Melinda, is BORED with her life. First line : It is my first morning of high school. Because the first line was so boring, the second line : I have seven new notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a stomachache. Is that much better? Not really. This story opens with the dilemma of picking a seat on the bus. If you don't consider this a real dilemma you were either incredibly popular in high school or you have a don't have a good memory. What clique, or clan as Melinda called them, di...