A Boy Named Shel

Do you remember Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book? This boook, A Boy Named Shel, is a biography of Shel Silverstein. Loved it, loved it, loved it!!!

Did you know that Uncle Shelby started his career doing cartoons for Stars & Stripes--the army newspaper? And he got famous after becoming part of Playboy Magazine! He also wrote songs--A Boy Named Sue, Cover of the Rolling Stones, Freakin at the Freakers Ball and Sylivia's Mother. Really, he is credited with over 800 songs and there are apparently thousands out there that he never bothered to register. He was playwright as well, writing one act plays that were produced off-Broadway.

My favorite line from the book: Shel's attention span went from nonexistent to nil.

Organic Church

Subtitled "Growing Faith Where Life Happens" by Neil Cole

This is a book that was recommended to Timothy by one of his friends and I was intrigued by it. It details a movement within the church where people are seeking a more organic sense of what their spirituality means to them. This book is specifically about starting churches (and no, Mom, that doesn't mean we want to start a church).

I really enjoyed the point of view that spirituality is less about the rules that are required by man and more about your relationship with God. Neil Cole uses Life Transformation Groups--groups of 2 or 3 people, of the same gender, who meet regularly and hold each other accountable for how they are growing their relationship with God.

Books I Haven't Read YET

I spent some time at Borders Book store today. They have such a great layout for their books. It makes you want to buy way too many. I wrote down several books that look interesting. I checked and I can get them ALL at my library! Yeah! As I read them, I will post about them - if they are yucky, I will post that too. Have any of you read any of them?? Here is my list:


Ask Again later
Jill a. davis

This is how it happened
Jo barrett

The appeal
Grisham

The echo maker
Richard powers

The rug merchant
Meg mullins

Lost & found
Carolyn parkhurst

People of the book
Geraldine brooks

Bernice bobs her hair
f. scott fitzgerald

Outrageous Fortune
Tim Scott

Gentlemen of the Road
Michael Chabon

The Wicked
L.A. Banks (vampire?)

Atonement – Ian McEwan

The Gatecrasher

The Gatecrasher

by: Madeleine Wickham
aka Sophia Kinsella


Sadly, this book was AWFUL!! The main character was SO unsympathetic. She was an awful person and the author let her just stay that way. I really don't get the book, nor why the author wanted to spend her days making this awful stuff up. Sad for me, I was hoping to enjoy this "new" author. YUCKSVILLE.

It is about a woman who crashes memorial service to meet the rich, grieving widow, date him for awhile, blah, blah blah. I won't ruin it for you, if you choose to read this disastrous book.

If I could find a way to write the author and tell her how disappointed and awful her book was, I would.

I will add the picture later, the blog will not let me do it now. I have tried about 10 times.

Queen of Swords

Queen of Swords

by Sara Donati

Ok, so as soon as I finished Fire Along the Sky, I thought I would look up the author and find out when here "new" book would be out! Shocked to find that "Fire" was 2 years old or more and that the next book was out! I raced to the library and grabbed it up.

I quite enjoyed this book. It is set during the time of the War of 1812. I really knew nothing about this war, but I know a bit more now. I have also looked it up on Wikipedia.

The stories about the characters continue. I really liked this book. In fact, I may pick it up tonight and read it again. My current book (just started) I am not enjoying so much.

Fire Along the Sky

Fire Along the Sky

by Sara Donati

This is #4 of the Into the Wilderness series. I was nervous to start this book because it didn't look very interesting, but I knew that I really liked the other books in this series, so I started. I did not care for the first 40 pages or so. I couldn't remember the people, nor did I really care for them. But oh my, after the first part I loved it all. I quite enjoyed the story. She writes so the story just plays along in my head so well I hate to stop reading. I almost drove my people here crazy with always having a book in my face. It was very good. For those who haven't read this series, it is kind of a romance/wilderness book.

Truth and Beauty

Truth and Beauty

by: Ann Patchett

NON-FICTION

I really liked this book because it was non-fiction. It is the story of Ann's friendship with Lucy. The people are interesting because they are so different from me. Their interests and views. I enjoyed it because I have read books by Ann, and now she shares a bit of herself. It makes her more human to me, than just an author. It is interesting about relationships, what you give and what you will take. Ann's friend, Lucy is an author, I have not read any of her books, but I just may now.

Run

Run

by: Ann Patchett

A few years ago I read Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and LOVED it. Very interesting book. So, I was happy when my library got this new Ann Patchett book.

The first 37 pages were very difficult to get through, I was just about ready to say forget it! Things turned around soon after that.

It is a book about adoption, family, love, death, race. It is not as good as Bel Canto, but it was readable. Interesting premise, which I cannot divulge, or it could ruin the story for you. The book seems to be about one thing, then changes and it is about something else. We don't really know people's motivation.

So, if you read this, comment or call me!

The Undomestic Goddess

The Undomestic Goddess
by: Sophie Kinsella

I quite enjoyed this book - about a work-a-holic who gets a change in her life. It is written from an English perspective which I very much enjoy too. I love the different English terms; hob, hoover, boot and such. This is the same author as the Shopaholic books.

Very light, funny, easy read and enjoyable.

World Without End

World Without End

Author: Ken Follett

I loved this book so much, I had to post about it on the other Payne site.

Ken Follett tells this medieval story so well! I am almost sad to be done with it because I enjoyed it so much.