I Could Eat a Zebra

Hey all,

I am starving and I do not know what to eat - incredibly frustrating. I will likely order something. 

Just finished Sex Trafficking by Kathryn Farr. I have a review of it on my librarything page and my livingsocial page. Ultimately my biggest issue with the book was its repetitiveness - it really bogged down the reading, taking me a lot longer to finish than it should have. 

Another friend of mine got a job, a good job. Congrats to her. But I cried last night, drank some wine on an empty stomach ... Let us just say that the stress about post-graduation occupation is wearing me down considerably. Though I did get approved for an interview as an "alternate." I think they were having a laugh, as it is financial, but I would be stupid to pass up the opportunity for an interview. I still have to sign up for the interview, I think that is where the "alternate" part comes in, I get lowest priority in signing up, and could ultimately not get a time slot. Oh well. 

Nothing really new going on. Boiled some eggs, did laundry, and got a haircut. Oh and I ordered a hookah and it came in the other day :) I will only be able to use it at the girls' apartment, though. The company sent me some apple shisha as well as strawberry. I will go out and buy some more when I get the opportunity.

That is about it. I am supposed to read some more tonight, but I may just watch a movie. One can only read so much about gender violence, et al. in one night. 

2009 Book List

the Favorites:

Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Breaking Dawn Stephenie Meyer

Julia's Chocolates Cathy Lamb

the Good and/or Average ones:

The Book of Hours T. Davis Bunn

Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out edited Katia Roberto and Jessamyn West

the "Engh" books:

School Books

Gender Violence edited O'Toole, Schiffman, Edwards

Sourcebook on Violence Against Women edited Renzetti, Edleson, Bergen

A Choice of Enemies Lawrence Freedman

The Arab-Israeli Conflict David W. Lesch
Sex Trafficking Kathryn Farr

2008

I just cannot stop, can I? haha. I was looking through my journal and noticed that I had kept a list of books I read this past summer. And I can look at old syllabi to find out which books I read in my classes. I am a total nerd, I am fully aware of this fact, haha.

the Favorites:

The Vampire Lestat  Anne Rice

The Queen of the Damned  Anne Rice

Dead Until Dark  Charlaine Harris

The Thirteenth Tale  Diane Setterfield

New Moon  Stephenie Meyer

A Wolf at the Table  Augusten Burroughs

The Omnivore's Dilemma  Michael Pollan

Living Dead in Dallas  Charlaine Harris

Eclipse  Stephenie Meyer

Club Dead  Charlaine Harris

Dead to the World  Charlaine Harris

People of the Book  Geraldine Brooks

Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil  John Berendt

Dead as a Doornail  Charlaine Harris

The Shadow of the Wind  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure  Shawn Decker

the Good/Average ones:

Garden Spells  Sarah Addison Allen

HeartSick  Chelsea Cain

The Story of French  Jean-Benoît Nadeau & Julie Barlow

The Society of S  Susan Hubbard

The $64 Tomato  William Alexander

Sex With Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry & Revenge  Eleanor Herman

the "Engh" ones:

Fat Girl  Judith Moore

Bleedout  Joan Brady

I Have the Right to Destroy Myself  Young-Ha Kim

texts for Classes:

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers  Mary Roach +++++

Life After Life  Raymond A. Moody, Jr 

Confronting Death: Values, Institutions, & Human Mortality  David Wendell Moller 

50 Facts That Should Change the World  Jessica Williams

Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction  Adam Jones 

Night  Elie Wiesel 

Burglars on the Job: Streetlife and Residential Break-Ins  Richard T. Wright

Why Crime Rates Fell  John E. Conklin

In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula & Vampires  Radu Florescu

Vampire Lore  Jan Louis Perkowski 

Dracula  Bram Stoker

Alright, so 36 books. Not too shabby I would say. And there are likely a couple more left unmentioned simply because I cannot remember back to the beginning of 2008. Noticing the titles, yes, I do have a fondness for vampire stories of all kinds, and then ended up taking a class on Dracula and Slavic Culture, so lots of Vampirey titles. Hopefully I can beat that number this year!

Revamp

So, for some reason I've decided to start posting a little more to this, even though I haven't touched it in 2 or so years. Since the only thing I can be consistent with is books, I think that might be what I keep it to, maybe an occasional airing of thoughts if I feel I need more than the 160 or so character limit on twitter. Oh, don't judge me on the previous posts you see, I thought I was going to use this blog for talking about articles and current events so thus the rather passionate writing. 

Anyways, saw someone set up a simple outline for books that they've read, so I feel like I'll imitate it, changing it a bit. And I'll add to it throughout the year. 

Favorite Books

Average Books

Unimpressive Books 

School Books

I figure this will be a nice way to just see simple progress and see what I achieve in a given year. 

If you're interested in seeing all the books I have in my collection, or all the books I've read, check out my profiles on librarything.com - (library) www.librarything.com/catalog/melancholycat (profile) www.librarything.com/profile/melancholycat

OR

livingsocial.com - books.livingsocial.com/people/1691126055

Feel free to add me as a friend or whatever they call it on those sites. Always up for discussing books, though until graduation in May, I won't have as many to discuss since school reading takes up most of my time! 

PS I was going to add another post and start out 2009, but I have class in the morning and I have yet again gotten caught up in something instead of going to bed!! haha! So I'll get to it soon, promise!