2012-2014 books

2012 - 2014 books read (that I remembered to write down, not in order)

*After typing this up, I realize I need to make some trips to the library for some non-fiction...

The Death of Bees--Lisa O'Donnell
Heart of the Matter--Emily Giffin
Silent Wolves--Ann Cleaves (Vera series)
Three Seconds--Roslund & Hellstron
The Book of Unknown Americans--Cristina Henriquez
Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami--Gretel Ehrlich
The Reason I Jump--Naomi Higashida
Cloud Atlas--David Mitchell
Farewell Manzanar--Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston & James D. Houston
Legend of a Suicide--David Vann
Duck (Po-on) F. Sionil Jose
Don Vicente--F. Sionil Jose (2 novels: Tree and My Brother, My Executioner)
Smilla's Sense of Snow--Peter Hoeg
The Cat Who Turned On and Off--Lillian Jackson Braun
The Dude and the Zen Master--Jeff Bridges & Bernie Glassman
Paris: A Love Story--Kati Martin
In Her Shoes--Jennifer Weiner
Beyond Reach--Kerin Slaughter
Gulp--Mary Roach
The Crow Trap--Ann Cleaves (Vera series)
Hit by a Farm--Catherine Friend
Trans Sister Radio--Chris Bohjalian
Oxygen--Carol Cassella
Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers--Mary Roach
I Drink for a Reason--David Cross
The Postman Always Rings Twice--James M. Cain
Roses Are Red--James Patterson
Things Fall Apart--Chinua Achebe
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove--Christopher Moore
A Game of Thrones--George R. R. Martin
A Storm of Swords--George R. R. Martin
A Clash of Kings--George R. R. Martin
A Feast for Crows--George R. R. Martin
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary--David Sedaris
Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang--Chelsea Handler
Are You There, Vodka? It's me, Chelsea--Chelsea Handler
My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands--Chelsea Handler
I Am Ozzy--Ozzy Osbourne and Chris Ayres
Dead Until Dark--Charlaine Harris
The Gift of the Magi--O. Henry
Interview with a Vampire: A Novel--Anne Rice
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies--Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
One for the Money--Janet Evanovich
Two for the Dough--Janet Evanovich
Three to Get Deadly--Janet Evanovich
Four to Score--Janet Evanovich
High Five--Janet Evanovich
Guilty Pleasures--Laurell K. Hamilton
Hot Six--Janet Evanovich
Seven Up--Janet Evanovich
Hard Eight--Janet Evanovich
To the Nines--Janet Evanovich
Ten Big Ones--Janet Evanovich
Eleven On Top--Janet Evanovich
Twelve Sharp--Janet Evanovich
The Life of Buddha and Its Lessons--Henry Steel Olcott
Lean Mean Thirteen--Janet Evanovich
Fearless Fourteen--Janet Evanovich
Finger Lickin' Fifteen--Janet Evanovich
Sizzling Sixteen--Janet Evanovich

2010 & 2011 book lists

Here is a list of the books I read in 2010 and 2011. I write them down so I can remember what I've read. And so I don't take the same book home from the library a second (or third) time. I've done that a couple times. If I don't have the list with me, I now feel comfortable enough to ask the librarian if she could see if I've checked a book out recently.
After I graduated I had just one full-time job, I realized that I had extra time on my hands. That led me to the library and to where I am today, blogging about it. I started with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and while I was waiting for the next one, I decided that I should "read the alphabet" starting with an author with the last beginning with A and so on to Z. That was okay until after C when a book caught my attention from the Non-Fiction, Green Tag section (NFGT). I had decided to read fiction but love non-fiction and having a green tag it was on loan and could get sent back at ANY TIME. So I made an exception. I was reading the alphabet but could read a NFGT book in between. Later I made another exception: I could read Fiction Green Tag, too. And soon another exception (slippery slope) I could read books about Alaska or written by an Alaskan author. One final exception: I could read a book if loaned by a friend and he/she wanted it back quickly.
I think those were all the exceptions.
Anyway--on to the list!

August 2010--
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (I started this before the rules)
Say You're One of Them by Uwen Akpam
I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson
Brides of Eden by Linda Crew
Here's where I stray:
Departure Lounge by Meg Federico (NFGT)
Sometimes We're All Real Same-Same by Maddox Roesch (AK)
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (friend's book and we all know I have to finish a series)
In This Was I Was Saved by Brian DeLeeuw
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson (FBAWAKIHTFAS)
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
Making Toast by Roger Rosenblath (NFGT)
A Fair Maiden by Joyce Carol Oates (FGT)
One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus
Let's Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell (NFGT)
War by Sebastian Junger (NFGT)
The General and His Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
The Town that Forgot to Breathe by Kenneth Harvey
Little Bee by Chris Cleave (friend's book)

2011
Last Night at Twisted Creek by John Irving
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (FB)
How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown (NFGT)
Waiting by Ha Jin
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Williamson (NFGT)
Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kanter (and AK--it's a two-fer!)
Sitka by Louis L'amour (and AK 2 two-fers!)
Gap Creek by Robert Morgan
Two-Pound Tram by William Newton
I skipped O because we have a very small library and I did not yet own a Kindle.
Postcards by E. Annie Proulx
Black and Blue by Anna Quinlan
Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
Sala's Gift: My Mother's Holocaust Story by Ann Kirschner (NFGT)
The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire (FGT, I think, might be a FB)
Chang and Eng by Darin Strauss
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Toward the End of Time by John Updike
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Fifty Miles from Tomorrow by William Iggiaruk Hensley (AK and FB)
Bossypants by Tina Fey (NFGT and I requested it)
The Brother Clerks by Xariffa
Four Years by William Butler Yeats

I found the last book on Amazon for free and it fulfilled my X, wasn't too bad of a read either. I tried a Z (Maria Edgeworth by Helen Zimmern) book, also found on Amazon, but I couldn't finish it. Then my students were all reading The Hunger Games series so I started that and threw Z out the window. Such a quitter.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins
Life by Keith Richards
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
A Disorder Peculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus
Be Different by John Elder Robison
Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Survivor: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
Life, Love and a Polar Bear Tattoo by Heather Wardell
The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards
I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron
Please Look After Mom by Kyung Sook Shin
The following are not in exact order.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
I Drink for a Reason by David Cross
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
Roses are Red by James Patterson
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Fat by Claire Kennon
The Bedwetter: Stories Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman
Epiphany Junkies by Claire Kennon
The Third Marriage by Claire Kennon
The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Stories of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of Elements by Sam Kean
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

Many times while trying to type of this list, I've had to google names because I couldn't read my own handwriting--usually I was unsure of certain letters. I would open a tab, google, find answer, then try to return to this page by scrolling to the right hand upper corner to show all the windows I have open and realize I opened a tab, not a window. This happened each time I googled. Every single time.

Today, 12/29/11, I am reading The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore. When I'm finished, I'll start the Game of Thrones series. Perhaps I'll make 2012 a series year. I wonder what exceptions I could come up with? I can continue reading NFGT? I can also read autobiographies? I won't impose rules on my reading?

Stay tuned.

trying to try harder for Jenny

Because of JennyCase's comment on FB, I have decided to "try harder" and "write more stories." I know what it's like to check a blog over and over only to have a certain blogger fail to update.

We'll continue to move through December. We might even hit xmas. It's too soon to tell.



These are the 2nd set of xmas lights Fred and Julianne sent (the first were the dolphins which are still up). It took me 4 tries to get them when they were all lit up. The little lighthouses have 2 lights and the top one blinks. Someone at our NYE party told us they resemble penises and my neighbor could not contain her laughter when she asked me what exactly we had put in our window. They will return next year for sure. I devised a way to clip them to the blinds so they'd stand up.


Living in Nome, we get visitors traveling from village to village and village to lower 48 fairly frequently. Amy is one such visitor. She and Obama shared a not-so-private moment at Airport Pizza.


Another visitor who frequents our humble abode is Barnabas--here he is sporting his Just Give Up sweatpants in public.


And this is just one of the many delicious pizzas that can be enjoyed at AP (for a large sum of money). Tasty, very tasty. And look at the greenery!


We went to AP to see this guy, Willis, sing and play guitar. He's a teacher on Diomede and was traveling around SE Asia during winter break performing.


Our friends Opik, Nathan, and Aprille were there. As you may recall from a previous post, Opik grew up on Diomede and Nathan and Aprille were teachers there.



Anahma played some fiddle. (Beard now has her old position at Kawerak.)


Ann-Marie came by.



And Barnabas and Thomas decided to have dessert.

That's all for now.

wow, it's march

The last 2.5 months have been busy and lazy and not wanting to bloggy. I spent that time imbibing and then refraining, reading, watching Stephen King movies, "reality" TV, crocheting, and more reading. Here are some pictures from that time.



Sometime before Christmas, Beard and I rode out with Katie to Banner Creek. Nathan and Aprille were having a cookie decorating party. The road in wasn't too bad.



We parked on the road and walked in. Elise, Kevin and their two little ones met us on the road.

One tray of finished cookies

Some of the decorators

Katie got to hold a baby.

The toppings

My bear

On the way home Katie's defrost had trouble keeping up with the freezing rain/whatever else the weather was doing.


Lots of stopping to scrape--and we had to go around the long way and not over the pass.


But! It was Mark's birthday and we met him at Airport Pizza for cheese sticks and a couple beers.

More later.

FORT and night before FORT

Last week Michael and I started talking about making a snowfort. He's from Alabama and has never done such a thing.Well, says I, no time like the present! I spent the week daydreaming about my snow chair with my initials in it and our snow fridge stocked with bevvies. This afternoon it came to fruition!
I did some xmas shopping at the craft fair, Bearing Song, and Anvil book store and then headed home. I was waiting for a text from Michael saying he was ready. Might as well bake some cookies for Aprille's cookie exchange while I wait! I used this recipe, kind of. They were AWESOME. I used 1/2 cup white and 1/2 cup brown sugar and instead of vanilla used 1/2 tsp molasses.
THEN we started on the snowfort.

This is the pile between our houses that will soon be a fort. Actually a cave. But fort is funner to say.

Uncle Todd (also Bama) me and Katie discussing logistics

Michael digging out. Beard's inside pushing snow out.


See?!

FORTifying the outside.

Steamy inside.

Michael and Katie

Uncle Todd worked his way in too and got a few snaps. His camera was flash happy. He's going to email the pics.
Most of the time Beard and Michael were taking turns digging out or were both inside digging out and Katie and I were piling snow on the top and sides. More work will be done tomorrow.

Here's some sun and moon pics from yesterday:

This in on the drive from town (where Katie and I tried to renew our chauffeurs' licenses) to NACTEC.

The colors made the mountains look not real.

Pictures never really seem how it really seemed.

Friday-after-session beers at Mark's new apt.

Brought to you by sunset.

That's frozen ocean.

And the moon wanted some attention.

Fine moon...we all see you...HELLO!

After all the snow activities, Beard and I cleaned up and went to Old St. Joe's for a comedy show based on David Sedaris's Santaland Diaries. Pretty funny. And then ditched out on drinks at Airport Pizza with the KNOMers. We were pooped, and cheap...I mean frugal.

TIME BACKWARD...continues. These are from yesterday morning--before I went to work. I like neighbor's xmas lights. Pre-sunrise.

Note planet and new hospital.

sure

see more There I Fixed It

I can see us doing this....with homebrew!

sunrise

As promised, (I never break a facebook promise) here is the sunrise blog post. These pictures were taken between 11:30am and 1:30pm-ish. I woke up about quarter after 11 and ate lunch around 1:30 and took the pictures in between.

While internetting, I glanced to my right and saw the above photo. I thought, "Hey, I should take a picture of the sunrise today."

"I'll get a vertical snap, too, for good measure."

A bit later, "Huh, now it's half the sun. Cool."

"Where are you going, pal?'

Peek-a-boo!

Poof!

And....we're back.

Pretty light.

Hey Ginger! I just watched you poo.

Beard basking in the sunlight.

And (why is this blue and underliny?) this is where the sun stayed. This high (3 fingers) until I went to work. It used to move from one window across the sky to the other. Now it to 1.5.