Our Shadows Have Claws - The Nightingale and the Lark

New thing today, willingly reading a book of short stories. I like long stories, books that span a series. Lately though its been tough to read. I get bored or haven’t found anything worth getting invested in. So I am trying this compilation called Our Shadows Have Claws - 15 Latin American Monster Stories. Just finished the first story The Nightingale and the Lark. Overall fine. Snippet. Gets me warmed up for reading. Alright. Ya. Reading before bed. Nightmares? We shall see. 

Monster Hunter Nemesis by Larry Correia

New thing today, finished reading Monster Hunter Nemesis by Larry Correia. FABULOUS! I got it on my Barnes & Noble Nook on July 6 and I devoured the book as quickly as I could when I had free time. I probably could have finished it sooner, but I took breaks and was busy but overall

I love this series and this author. I love how Larry Correia wrote the first 2 books in the series about Owen Pitt and that storyline. Then the 3rd book Alpha diverges on a tangent to the Earl Harbinger character and a different storyline, which was upsetting and unexpected and I really didn't like this book when I was reading it, because I wanted to go back to the Owen Pitt story and characters. Although, looking back I'm glad he went this way, because he is building a whole world and exploring different characters and creating other stories. It adds more depth and layers to this world and allows a bigger story to be told. Then in the 4th book Legion he goes back to Owen Pitt and that storyline. It was rather entertaining and I enjoyed it a lot. Then this one was a divergent story about Agent Franks. This story was excellent and I was fine with the tangent and enjoyed the world building Larry Correia is doing with these characters. Love it and looking forward to future ones.

Overall this book Nemesis moved quickly. A ton of action reading. I get a little bored sometimes at all the action, so I skip through some of it so I can get to the main plot line and suspense revealing parts. This has really neat supernatural monster creatures and worlds, and the whole good guys fighting evil demon stuff. This takes a really interesting spin on the worlds and I liked it.

I think I might re-read some parts of the previous books so I can catch up. Sometimes I read through the books so quickly that I easily forget what they were about and a few months or years later, I'm completely lost and forget all about what happened. It's sort of nice, but also annoying sometimes too.  OK so read this series - starts off with Monster Hunter International - fantastic stuff!

The Godfather novel by Mario Puzo

New thing today, finished The Godfather novel by Mario Puzo. A coworker had given me the book and said it was really good and couldn't put it down. I had it for months, hesitant and not in the mood to read it. I wasn't really interested in a crime mafia drama, and so it sat on the shelf waiting.

In the meantime I've been trying to read a ton of other books and just couldn't get into anything. This week I started the book half-heartedly not in the mood but trying it out since all other books couldn't keep my interest. This book was AWESOME! It was really nice to finally have a book that held my interest. It was an eager page-turner and I finished it in about a week. I even stayed up late a few nights just to keep reading! So nice to come across a book like this.

If you've watched the Godfather movies, this is pretty much it and this book is brilliant. I loved the movies, and I saw the movies playing in my head while reading the book. As a good book does, it elaborates on characters and fills in a ton of interesting details to the story. It paints a deeper and more intricate picture.

I highly recommend this book if you loved the movies. I wasn't in the mood, but this book really reeled me in. Lovely! I just wish I could find another book to read next.

Since this was so good I decided to lookup the next book in eager anticipation to keep reading. Unfortunately The Godfather Returns (an awful title) was written by a different author and published in 2004 after Mario Puzo died. The movies were released before the novel's sequel came out, so that's odd. So I'm overall a little hesitant to read the sequel, as it will most likely be a disappointment. I may borrow the sequel from the library? Eh.

Although this has peaked my interest in the Mafia stories and I will probably be watching The Godfather movies soon, and have added The Sopranos series to my Netfix queue (I have never seen an episode of The Sopranos before).

Pacific Rim Year Zero Graphic Novel

New thing today, read Pacific Rim - Year Zero graphic novel. Husband got this for me as he knows I'm a fan of the movie! I love the story and world, so this was a neat read. It was short, as I find all the graphic novels are short, and I wish there were more. Overall it was neat. There wasn't as much Kaiju story as I thought there would be. Mainly it was centered around the humans at the time when they were first being attacked by the monsters. Some of it was neat, as there was the origins of the Jaeger program, but ya I wanted more, and it was alright, not wow. 

Support the storytellers! Buy this! Hopefully they will make a full series, or write more about this world as I would follow it :) 

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

New thing today, finished World War Z by Max Brooks. I was surprised how compelling and interesting this was. I was hooked. Originally I started reading it mainly out of curiosity. I wanted to see how the book would go, since I enjoyed the movie World War Z. The two were completely different, and I enjoyed both.

I loved the way the stories in World War Z showed different sides of the zombie apocalypse and the unfolding of events from various perspectives. Some images and stories really stuck with you, and I just loved all the different backstories and events. This would make a fantastic TV series or mini-series, but would be far too hard to put everything into a movie. The stories were really great.

If you like short stories, this might really work for you, as they are a bunch of small short stories intertwined in a giant worldwide event. I really really enjoyed this, and I'm not big into the horror, zombie or apocalypse genre either. I was pleasantly surprised to find a fantastic book I had no idea I would like. READ THIS! :)

Making Habits, Breaking Habits by Jeremy Dean

New thing today, finished the book Making Habits, Breaking Habits  -Why we do things, why we don't and how to make any changes stick by Jeremy Dean. The title sounded fabulous, but overall I felt it was lacking in the promise of "how to make changes stick" on the cover. It was a quick and easy read. Mainly it's a lot of essays about studies on psychology and how our habits work and what we do and what triggers us. A lot of it is fairly common knowledge stuff, at least to me. I didn't really learn a whole lot of new things about habits, although there were some good nuggets I'm going to share.

It delves into how our subconscious is actually influencing our daily habits, influenced by our environment and other factors. How our intentions cannot necessarily overcome some of the subconscious habits we have. It also talks about how small incremental habit updates are better than trying to do a complete makeover on things. Having a "if... then...." plan is helpful. Also just having reminders and environmental things to help trigger us to helpful behaviors are good. Being mindful was good. Overall some good stuff, but not wow-ing.

It was alright. I finished it in 3-4 nights reading through quickly. Like I said, easy enjoyable read, glazed over some parts, but talks about habits more than prescribes any good help with changing them. They are mentioned anecdotally and throughout, but it's all the common knowledge stuff we all know and have heard about, just all put together in this book. I'd give this a good read - maybe 6 or 7 out of 10. 

Killing Floor by Lee Child

New thing today, finished Killing Floor by Lee Child. I watched the Jack Reacher movie and was interested in the character and thought the book series would be interesting. It was alright. I'd give it maybe a 7 out of 10. Definitely a mystery action thriller. His descriptive style is a little dry and monotonous, but it's the way his character is, very objective and detached. I sort of like how realistic this action hero is. He talks about strategy and fighting in a more realistic, gritty and unheroic way. I learned a few things about fighting that were interesting. Also, it's a little gory in the fight scenes, not much, just a bit. 

It was a good mystery thriller. I wasn't as hooked on it as other books. I'm not really dying to read the next book. There are other authors who are a lot more unstoppable page turners. Overall though the adventure and story were fairly interesting and I always like learning a little bit, and in this book I learned a bit about the scam they were uncovering and such. Don't want to give anything away.

Try it? If you're not hooked in the first 5 chapters, put it down. But overall it has a nice slow build and a fairly good ride. He is a pretty good character too. I think I might enjoy the series as it is long and there are a ton of books in this character's life. 

The Tell by Matthew Hertenstein

New thing today, finished The Tell by Matthew Hertenstein. I finished this book pretty quickly. I saw it at the library around a "Mentalist" flyer - a mentalist was coming to the library branch so they had books on predicting lies, reading tells and other such topics. This one looked interesting. Overall it was completely different than I thought it would be but it was still interesting.

I thought it would be about how to read people, but it ended up being a book based on psychology studies and how certain traits about people seem to correlate or be associated with seemingly unrelated things. It's not really a book on being able to "Tell" things about people, but more of our reactions or associations with things, people's looks and other traits.

If you're not interested by chapter 2 or 3, don't go any further. The entire book is very similar in tone. I was interested, even though it was different from what I expected. He's a little wordy, so I skimmed a lot of it, and he talks about some stuff I already knew so it was just sort of an elaboration of some of that stuff as well. 

It also talks about some of our instinctual gut reactions to things, and some of our superficial assumptions about things and people being pretty accurate - a sort of super intuition on people or things.  It also talks about how some of that can be completely wrong or biased. I did learn quite a few new interesting things. :) Lovely how books can do that!

Overall good :)

Moby Dick Comic

New thing today, finished the Moby-Dick comic, based on the tale by Herman Melville. I've tried many ways to read through the original book. I've tried reading it… ya? I've also listened to it, which I enjoyed, but just didn't have the time to set aside, and have a handy dandy cd player to listen to the 28 CDs or whatever it is to listen to the whole thing. Then I saw this at a $5 bookstore, and said, hey why not? Spoilers ahead - there she blows!

Overall it was an ok story. I think some of the imagery and themes were interesting, but the creepiest thing was probably the end, where they found their missing sailor, tangled and wrapped in harpoon ropes, tied around Moby Dick! Pretty great drawing of it too in the comic. There is the forging of the great harpoon, with the blood of natives! Ahab strangles himself while launching his harpoon, he gets caught in the rope and goes down with the harpoon and Moby Dick. It's not quite clear if Moby Dick lives or dies, but he takes down the Pequod - the ship.  Anyway, I will give it away, but everyone dies, except Ishmael. Moby Dick pretty much wrecks everything and despite warnings, Ahab continues his insane quest to kill the whale, and his crew and him are consumed by the chase. 

If you can't stand to read the classic, this is actually a somewhat descent substitute. I might pick up a few more of these. It's not super lazy either! I could have just read the wikipedia article, but decided to try to get through a version. 

The Variable Man by Philip K. Dick

New thing today, finished The Variable Man by Philip K. Dick. I've been reading a collection of his short stories, and overall I really love his stuff. There's a lot of good action and sci-fi with it, and he makes characters and stories very suspenseful, intriguing and interesting. The Variable Man was a much longer short story, about a man named Thomas Cole, who is unexpectedly brought into the future and is in the middle of war preparations. He is a fixer, good at fixing things, and is intuitive with machines, and so is able to affect the story and future machines and devices with a sort of genius savant clarity. I won't give it away, but it kept me interested and was a nice unexpected ending. That's another thing I like about his stories. They can surprise me which I love. This one was very good and I highly recommend reading his stuff! 

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Steven King

New thing today, read Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King. A coworker gave me his Different Seasons by Stephen King. It's a collection of four novellas/short stories, first being "Hope Springs Eternal", this story.

This was the FIRST Stephen King story I've ever read, another first :) It was surprisingly touching and very very close to the movie. Of course, I've seen the movie and absolutely loved it. So reading the book was very close to re-watching the movie in my mind. Many of the details are the same, as well as the narrative. There are some scenes and depictions with a little more dramatic movie license, but overall the story translated well both in book and in movie. I might even say, this is the first time I've seen a book and movie be so close in spirit and story.

In the book, the narrator is a red haired white guy, whereas Morgan Freeman is "Red" in the movie. Also, the story of Brooks is told more dramatically and heartbreakingly in the movie, whereas in the book Brooks is a very minor and offhandedly mentioned character. The themes are the same though.

If I had never watched the movie, I would be bored to tears by the story and possibly never read or finish it. Books usually have to grab me hard in the beginning, making the introduction very essential. It would have to be poignant, interesting, suspenseful or exciting. As I've heard a few people say, Stephen King's stories are a slow start. This one was especially true. It just starts off kind of dull and without really a point, but with a lot of description and narrative. Because I loved the movie, the story was easier to read through, and took me back to the movie and unfolding of the story. It unfolds as the movie does.

I was impressed :) Best part is, my favorite quotes and lines from the movie are from the book. The director/screenwriter kept those, pretty much exactly the same. The ones below are probably my favorite. They unfold in the story very well :)

"We're glad he's gone, but a little sad, too. Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure."

"Dear Red,

If you're reading this, then you're out. One way or another, you're out. And if you've followed along this far, you might be willing to come a little further. I think you remember the name of the town, don't you? I could use a good man to help me get my project on wheels.

Meantime, have a drink on me - and do think it over. I will be keepnig an eye out for you. Remember that hope is a good thing, Red, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you, and find you well.

Your friend, 

Peter Stevens"

I think King has a lot of quote gems in this story. I think if I re-read this book 2 years from now I would find something else that touched me. He just seems to have a way about storytelling. You can just tell there's so much brimming, so much going on that he wants to tell, and he manages to artfully put it all together into words, images and weaving them beautifully together into stories.

Next in the book is Apt Pupil, subtitled, "Summer of Corruption". We want to watch the movie so maybe I'll wait to read it, who knows? There's also Stand By Me or The Body "Fall from Innocence" and finally The Breathing Method "A Winter's Tale". Very clever book, Different Seasons :) I have a new respect for Stephen King and will need to check out some of his other stories and books.

This was a very nice read :) Great new discovery and new thing of the day :)

Mary Shelley - Prophets of Science Fiction

New thing today, watched the first episode of Prophets of Science Fiction - Mary Shelley. This was interesting! More documentary than I expected. Sometimes these shows appear to be hype and speculation more than anything concrete, but this was enjoyably grounded in reality and documentary type show.

It's part history and documentary lesson on Mary Shelley and the book Frankenstein, and other part about science and technology related to human body reanimation as in organ donations, death, electricity, DNA, and the latest brain and neurology developments. They take the idea from the book, talk about today's technology related to it, and future possibilities. They talk about the themes and implications of the book and its lesson regarding science as well. It talks about the Frankenstein movies and has clips from various movies. The show also talks quickly about the influence Frankenstein has had on pop culture.

It's masterfully put together! It's an appropriate time to watch this considering Halloween Oct 31 just passed, and All Souls Day Nov 1 just happened. Fascinating stuff!

I will be watching the rest of these and blogging happily as I've found a new show that lets my brain feed on something more than just junk :) I love science fiction as it is taking science, today's technology and ideas, and through imagination, transforms it into entertainment. One interesting thing is I think science fiction writing also inspires and feeds back into science, and gives these nerdy guys who develop things, and helps them come up with new ideas and experiments and goals. I'm such a nerd!

Prophets of Science Fiction - Discovery Science.com Link and Wikipedia Link

Monster Hunter Legion by Larry Correia

New thing today, finished Monster Hunter Legion by Larry Correia. It's the 4th in the Monster Hunter series. I LOVE this series. It's about monster hunters and sounds cheesy but I actually really love how its written and am a fan of the author and another series called the Grimnoir Chronicles he writes. Ok maybe I like a little cheese.

Anyway the book was excellent! Since we had a trip to Vegas planned, I wanted a few books to read for relaxing by the poolside. This book was luckily SET in Vegas, and monsters and hell break loose and people are battling. There are some great bad guys and supernatural creatures. It's a simple plot but just a fun story of monster hunting. SPOILER! I love dragons, and lets just say, there's a dragon in this story, and I love how the dragon is in this story. Very cool!

I highly highly highly highly recommend this book series to anyone who might be interested. He writes well I think. The first book in the series, Monster Hunter International, has these as the first line.

"On one otherwise normal Tuesday evening I had the chance to live the American dream. I was able to throw my incompetent jackass of a boss from a fourteenth-story window."

Larry Correia is one of my favorite authors and I wait on edge for his new books to come out. On average I devour his books within a few days of starting them.

Synopsis of the Monster Hunter series.

Monster Hunter International - I really loved this book. It introduces the world, the main characters and the monsters and rules of the world. Love it. Just love it.

Monster Hunter Vendetta - Also good. As a sequel its quite good. There are some sections that feel like a ton of action, maybe too much for me, but I couldn't put this down. There's a giant showdown and ancient evil and all that stuff and more layers to the world and characters. Enjoyable.

Monster Hunter Alpha - not my favorite book and a bit of a disappointment. It still had a lot of kickass monster hunting scenes and an interesting divergent shift in point of view and perspective, but I wanted more of a connection to books 1 & 2. This one was more of a side tangent adventure, which adds color to the world, but I prefer the story lines and characters in books 1 & 2. 

Monster Hunter Legion - good! Continues back more from books 1 & 2, told from Owen's point of view. I also love how it does a good job of building the world, teasing and continuing the storyline from the first 2 books. It peppers in some story from the Alpha book, but overall continues from Owen's point of view.

Tanya: Princess of the Elves - this looks like a side story set during Monster Hunters International that is available online. I only learned about this recently but will probably have to read it sometime. I recommend you read it AFTER the elves have been introduced in the books, as I think it might make more sense.

I hope Larry Correia continues to write, build and expand these world, stories and characters. I love your books. Thank you Larry Correia!

Also just found out he has some KickStarter campaign for Monster Hunter International Challenge Coins. Woooo! Might have to support that! Also if you're interested he has a CafePress Apparel & Merchandise store of stuff from this universe.

Ministry Fair

New thing today, participated in a ministry fair. I volunteer at a church. They have a ministry fair every year to try to get more volunteers for various things. Even though I've volunteered for different things before I've never been part if trying to recruit. It was a little sad.  I was annoyed and irritated at how disorganized and uninspiring our booth was. The marketing was lacking. In the future I might take charge, like a lot of other things about my volunteer work. It's just irritating because I see how it can be better and it isn't there. I guess that's good? A lot more work to come I suppose. *sigh.

My Life in France by Julia Child

New thing today, finished reading My Life in France by Julia Child. I came across it browsing at the Barnes & Noble bookstore. Then I went home and bought it on my Barnes & Noble Nook book so I could have it for a trip we were taking.

(Tangent) I love that the Nook can hold multiple books. Only problem is I get fickle and switch between books a ton on the nook. Whereas if its a physical book, I'm far more likely to sit down and finish that one book. Plus the lend-ability of physical books is nice. Anyway.

(Tangent) So I've had this book for nearly a year, enjoying it and reading bits at a time. I was really consistent a few months ago (how time flies?) and reading it nonstop. It inspired me to buy Mastering the Art of French Cooking and getting into cooking and food experiments which I will write about in the future.

Anyway, the book overall is really a pleasure to read. I love her style of writing and the way she tells stories. Sometimes there is absolutely no point to her tangents but they're interesting and amusing to read. She has soul and heart and a good sense of humor. There's a sophistication to Julia that isn't snobby. I would probably enjoy reading her commentary or chatter about anything.

I loved learning about how she learned how to cook. She's got an adventurous soul (like me!). I find she takes on cooking like a captain would take on a mysterious sea. She just goes for it and is brave and hopeful, with skill, patience, persistence, humility, curiosity and love. She found out about French food later in life, and fell in love with it and did her work learning about it and teaching it much later in life. There's a certain maturity with her when she comes across it. It also feels like Jiro Dreams of Sushi - always striving to become better. It's a labor of love.

Anyway I just really enjoyed the book. It makes you a little hungry while reading it sometimes. I had her voice in my head half the time saying "Bon Appetit". I also love the love story between her and Paul, very sweet. She has soul and heart and isn't afraid to share it.

I also loved her perspective and biography on life after WWII and life in Europe and France. Her stories from her time in Marseille, Provence, Paris and France are enchanting. She has a way of finding beauty in people as well and describing them - the art of appreciation I suppose. Her stories take you away to such a different lifestyle, and it's nice imagining the way she lived and a fun mental vacation from modern life.

If you decide to read this I hope you enjoy it as well. I may have to read her other books and add her to my list of favorite authors.

The Secret Life of Bees

New thing today, finished The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I found this book beautiful and enchanting. It's definitely a chic book and very emotional and touching. There are some beautiful lines and metaphors about bees. It's about a girl who is lost and her struggles and search for love, her mother, forgiveness and many things, all set in the south during the 60s with the background of racial equality. There's a lot of good stuff here. It's not dreary all emotional and sentimental. It had some excitement and action going on as well. It had some really unexplainable touching moments, and had me choked up and a little teary eyed at times. It's not cliche predictable sentimental, but other parts of the story just get to you in unexpected but good ways.

I recommend this book for women and it might be up there in my list of favorites. I just love the storytelling and the way it finds beauty and sadness within everyday life. It weaves some great tragedy and love into the story with heart and soul. I just really loved it. I also had a craving for honey the whole time reading it. I may have a thing for books about the South, since I also loved Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.

Great new thing :) I recommend!

Something Wicked This Way Comes

New thing, finished Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

It's part of my school assignment and we have a ton of readings to to this semester. It was AMAZING. I loved it. This is one of my new favorite books and I will promptly buy a new copy to keep. I'm so glad I had never heard of this before or got any input from anyone else before reading it, so no spoilers here. Bradbury paints a lovely picture of two boys and a mysterious dark carnival. It's so fantastic and dark and eerie. There's a lot packed into every sentence, so at times I felt like I was reading it rather slow, but I got through it in a few days.

I also love a few of the observations and morals in the story. This might even inspire a painting or two of mine. I think I might come up with something based on this. I absolutely loved and adored this book and would recommend it to everyone. :)

LA Times Festival of Books 2011

New thing of the day, went to the LA Times Festival of Books! 

Been dying to go since I heard about this, although every single year it's on a weekend that we're busy or unavailable. This year I'm studying for finals, plus we helped a friend move and had a birthday party, so I wasn't sure we'd make it. I was very good in studying yesterday Saturday, so felt confident we could spare half a day on Sunday to go to the Festival. Also as another excuse, as a library student, I felt it was part of my duty to go to book events. 

It was a lot of fun and 10am-2pm was the perfect amount of time to spend there. We wanted to get there early at opening, so drove down through traffic to get to USC by 10am. Then wandered around the multiple stalls, booths, author signings and other venues.

Highlights

Free Stuff

Free ice cream from Ben and Jerry's, along with free iced coffee sponsored by McDonalds. Such a great way to start the morning. Although we didn't get ice cream, my mom and sister got in line two or three times for the good stuff. We also got free tote bags, laundry detergent, poetry books, frisbees and other goodies. 

We got a copy of Make magazine. It's a neat book on DIY projects that are incredibly creative. Our issue cover shows how to create a cigar box into an electric guitar. It's a bit techy and hip, and we'll have to see what other articles they have but the website and issue look really interesting.

Another great freebie was from the LA Museum organization. I got a flyer listing all the free days at the local LA museums. We also got some coupons for the Skirball Cultural Center's Houdini & Magician Exhibit which is on the list of things to do this summer. 

Celebrities, authors and illustrators

Our morning started out pretty awesome. As we were walking the husband was "Hey there's Patton Oswalt". In case you didn't know him, he's the voice of Remy in Ratatouille, but also a more famous comedian and actor. I was like "Oh what stage is he on?" and the husband was like "No he's right there". Standing in front of us less than 5 feet away was Patton. He looked a bit lost and was making a phone call. The husband is big into comedy and I was like "Want a photo?", but he didn't want to bug Patton. Then a few other people recognized him, asked for his photo, and he was obliging. So the husband and I went over and I snapped a photo of the two of them. Patton was super nice about it all. We also watched a bit of him on stage promoting his new book. Funny guy :)

We saw R.L. Stine of Goosebumps signing autographs. The line wasn't too long so if we were fans we could have waited 20 minutes, but decided not to.  We also saw one of the creators of the Archie comic signing stuff. There were a lot of lesser known authors giving away free copies of their books for recognition, as well as signing and promoting their work. 

Books

My favorite free book copy, and I think the greatest treasure was a copy of the Al-Qur'an below. We saw an interfaith Islam society booth with a sign saying "Free Qurans". My sister and I were curious and interested. The guy handing out the books told us a bit about the Quran itself and it's place in the religion and the teachings it presents. He also gave us a CD of the recitation of the Quran. One of them explained that the book was meant to be heard, to be read out loud. He said that it's kind of an oral tradition and if it's always heard, it's ok, but if only the book survives and no one reads it out loud, they're at a loss. So he read a line or two, and it's very musical and melodic. The guys in the booth were really cool. There was a sense of peace about them, and a sense of wanting to share. It was very much an interfaith and peace mission by the group. There was absolutely no tone of trying to convert or degrade other religions. It wasn't a scientology attempt to join or take the book literally. It was almost like this is our holy book and our culture and we want to share the goodness of it. Islamic faith needs the PR in America unfortunately, so we enjoyed the chat and the book. The booth was hosted by the Why Islam group. Sister and I are both into studying world religions, so we found it interesting and I am curious about what it has to say. It can go along with my reading of Arabian Nights :) 

My absolute favorite booth though, was the Philippine Expressions Bookshop. It took up two booth spaces and was all books on Filipino stuff. They had kids books, language study, culture and history, fiction, and lots of other good stuff. They had a book I'd read years ago, When Elephants Dance. It's a fiction book based on the experiences of the Filipinos during WWII. The beginning quote from the book was "When elephants dance, the chickens must be careful" (Tess Uriza Holthe). I was hooked and the book had some vivid and striking images about what happened to Filipinos and Manila during that time. I forgot about it and was pleasantly reminded of it. I'll need to dig it out and make sure I don't give that one away. Perhaps re-read it. 

I really wanted to get a Filipino cookbook but wasn't sure which one. This one book caught my eye and I had to have it. Filipino Ghost Stories! I totally wanted to support the store and give over more of my money, but decided to be prudent. Plus carrying around a lot of books during the festival got pretty tiring. 

In conclusion, we really enjoyed our half day at the festival. It was sunny and I'm sure I have a sunburn. I got tired in the end and should get and wear some better walking sandals. Overall though it was lovely watching people passionate about reading, sharing books and ideas. We'll be going as many times as we get the chance. 

Map of USC Festival of Books 2011

Library Card

New thing of the day, got a library card from a local library.

I'm working my way to a Master's in Library Science, and interviewed a librarian a few weeks back. We have library cards from various other libraries, but not the one where I interviewed the librarian. So decided to go in today after work and get one. I also took husband to that library and showed him around, and he was very impressed.

We picked up applications and luckily we had documents with our current address on it. Filled out the forms, had the librarian log the info, and she took a photo of us for our cards right there. We got our own personalized photo Library Card ID - all in under 15 minutes. It's a pretty snazzy library.

Then we decided to look around. There were parts of the library I had not yet browsed, being the only 2nd time I've been there. I also think we'll be going there after work more often, because it's hard to do homework at home. There are way too many distractions like TV, housework, etc. In the library, you are sort of forced to focus on whatever is in front of you. So we'll be visiting there for homework more often.

I think the library is a bit like my church. I get a warm fuzzy feeling whenever I go in, and I could peruse the isles for hours and not notice the time go by. It's where I am inspired and I feel like the world has a million positive possibilities. I feel like there are wonderful secrets and infinite knowledge hidden in the stacks. It's where people go to research, to dream, to discover and find places in the heart and the mind we have not yet explored.

Anyway I'm very romantic about the library. I'm hating my cataloging and classification class I'm taking this semester - so this quick trip helped re-ignite my love of libraries and added a bit of fuel to my dying fire for school. Lately I've been procrastinating, dreading and avoiding school work. I really need to be more inquisitive. Lately I've been afraid of asking questions, for fear of looking stupid. I have to be more brave about learning.

I also picked a book on Edgar Cayce - very interesting person. Also got an Eyewitness Guide of New Orleans :) I like the photos and want to do more fun prep for the trip. I think I have 4 library cards now - all relatively local libraries. This is probably the last one for awhile. I think I have every area covered so far. Perhaps I will try to pick-up my alma mater's university library card as well.

So that was the new thing. If I had a happy place, it would probably be the library. I recommend for people to often go to their happy places, to inspire them. It's something that we often forget or take for granted. So go :)

The Hundred Secret Senses

New thing of today, started the book on CD - The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan. Perused the audio book section of our local library, also a first. So sad, our local library has quite a battered looking collection of audio books.

I'm not sure if I've read this book before. I read few Amy Tan books and was trying to figure out if this is a new one or something I read a long long time ago. It seems familiar, then again a lot of books by the same author can feel similar but different. Anyway if I have read it, or haven't, it should make the commutes a little more interesting.

I find audio books make my drives go by quicker and seem to wake up the brain a little earlier. I like my drives and look forward to them. Plus it's a great way to get my reading in and I can listen to some books a lot easier than actually trying to read them. I couldn't have read "A Brave New World" if I wanted to, but I was able to listen to it on drives.  

Here's to audio books. So far, so good with this story. :)