Another FABULOUS book list

Just like Jennie 'stole' this list from someone, I am going to totally do the same to her.

From Jennie's site:
"Below is a list of books printed by The Big Read, an organization that---according to their Web site---hopes to 'restore reading to the center of American culture.' They say, though, that the average American has only read six of the following hundred."

Here are the rules:
1) Bold the books you have already read
2) Italicize the books you intend to read
3) Notes in parentheses

***********************

1) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2) The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
3) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4) Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling (Just finished and crossed off my 108 in 2008 list!)
5) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6) The Bible
7) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8) Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
9) His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
10) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Hated.)
11) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
12) Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
13) Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
14) Complete Works of Shakespeare (I haven't read EVERY single work, but Twelfth Night is my favorite)
15) Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
16) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
17) Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
18) Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
19) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
20) Middlemarch by George Eliot
21) Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
22) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
23) Bleak House by Charles Dickens
24) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
25) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
26) Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
27) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28) Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
29) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
30) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
31) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
32) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
33) Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
34) Emma by Jane Austen
35) Persuasion by Jane Austen
36) The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis
37) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
38) Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
39) Memories of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
40) Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
41) Animal Farm by George Orwell
42) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
43) One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I'm currently reading his Love in the Time of Cholera...)
44) A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving
45) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
46) Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
47) Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
48) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
49) Lord of the Flies by William Golding
50) Atonement by Ian McEwan
51) Life of Pi by Yann Martel
52) Dune by Frank Herbert (Don't remember what happened at all though)
53) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
54) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
55) A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
56) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57) A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
58) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
59) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
60) Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
62) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
63) The Secret History by Donna Tartt
64) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
65) Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
66) On The Road by Jack Kerouac
67) Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
68) Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
69) Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
70) Moby Dick by Herman Melville
71) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
72) Dracula by Bram Stoker
73) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
74) Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson
75) Ulysses by James Joyce
76) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77) Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
78) Germinal by Emile Zola
79) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (horrible movie!)
80) Possession by AS Byatt
81) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
82) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
83) The Color Purple by Alice Walker
84) The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
85) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
86) A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
87) Charlotte's Web by EB White
88) The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom
89) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90) The Faraway Tree Collection by Enid Blyton
91) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
92) The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93) The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
94) Watership Down by Richard Adams (I haven't seen the movie either. Weird, right?)
95) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
96) A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
97) The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
98) Hamlet by William Shakespeare
99) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
100) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

********************

Hm, with 41/100 crossed off, I did much better on this list than on the Entertainment Weekly list, where I had only read 5/100 books. How many have you read? Do you think this list will 'restore reading to the center of American culture' as The Big Read intends? Methinks it is a good start, but the list could definitely use some lighter reading to appeal to more people. Like, where the hell is James and the Giant Peach? :)

Randomly...

So, we think Ava is going to be an avid sports fan. Here she is watching a baseball game with my dad, where, ironically, Dad was watching the Braves while wearing a Yankees shirt. Hmm...



We threw Barb a baby shower on Sunday and I didn't take a single photo. What is wrong with me? Barb is due on August 16 and my mama thinks my second niece is going to make an early appearance. I think she will be late. Wanna put some money on it, mom?

Meaghan came to visit on Saturday and it was so great to see her after a number of years. She is 4.5 months pregnant and has never looked more beautiful. While she was here we went maternity clothes shopping. It was fun! I actually started dishing out my opinion to other pregnant ladies trying on cute outfits while Meaghan was in the fitting room. I hope they didn't mind.

Kole and I played Mario Kart on Wii Friday night. I didn't realize you had to turn the remote to make the car move. I kept pushing the arrow buttons and wondering why my car was stuck against the wall. Unmoving. Yes, I am a genius. But once I figured it out, it was a lot of fun!

Happy Monday

Ava hopes you had a good weekend.

Rocking out at Smyrna's Village Green

A couple of weeks ago, I joined Abby and Bryan, and some of my other girl friends, for Smyrna Village Green's concert series featuring 7 Sharp 9! Per usual, Abby did a great write up on it. You can see it by clicking here.

I'm being lazy so I'm just going to post a couple of photos. :)


We like each other. A lot.


Yes, I did get my hair cut to add sidesweep bangs and many layers. Do you like it?

And I just realized I can cross #32 off my 108 in 2008 list! Woo hoo!

A day of random photos

So, I didn't post yesterday. Why? Because our internet (and phones!) were not working for the better part of yesterday here at the office. It was a good thing I had a FORTY FIVE page business plan (on 11x17 paper no less) to edit. Oy!

Anyways.

My mama sent me some great photos of my very pregnant little sister. She has about 25 days left until she brings my second niece into this world. And for all the family that reads my blog - can you believe BARBARA is pregnant?? I'm still freaked out a little.


Yeah, it's hard to believe that one of these girls is a mama and another is about to become one. Hint: Not the bunny.


Yep, there's definitely something in there. I like to think it is a basketball.


Barb with Maximus ("Max"), her and Matt's very sweet, but very dumb dog.


Pregnant and still hot.

And here is my niece, Ava, with my daddy.


Something must have been interesting on TV.


I can't tell you how much I love this photo. And Ava looks exactly like Steph here!

Tuesday is Ava Day!

I always miss my niece. It's funny. I actually think about Ava all the time, and I get all choked up when I have to leave her because I know the next time I see her she will have changed. Whether that means getting bigger, discovering something (like fingers! glorious fingers!) or making new sounds. And while I'm not her mama - Steph is doing a wonderful job at being that - I now understand what it feels like to love someone so much that you would do anything for them.

Man, I think if I ever have children they are going to be in BIG trouble. I think suffocating love may be in the forecast.

My favorite joke

Below is my favorite joke since I was a little kid. I would like to dedicate this post to my dad, who is the best joke teller I know, and who was the person to introduce me to this joke at the tender age of 8. Seriously, do you know those people who always deliver stories/jokes perfectly? Yeah. That's my dad. I think he was a comedian in another life.



It got crowded in heaven, so, for one day it was decided only to accept people who had really had a bad day on the day they died. St. Peter was standing at the pearly gates and said to the first man, "Tell me about the day you died."

The man said, "Oh, it was awful. I was sure my wife was having an affair, so I came home early to catch her with him. I searched all over the apartment but couldn't find him anywhere. So I went out onto the balcony, we live on the 25th floor, and I found this man hanging over the edge by his fingertips. I went inside, got a hammer, and started hitting his hands. He fell, but landed in some bushes. So, I got the refrigerator and pushed it over the balcony and it crushed him. The strain of the act gave me a heart attack, and I died."

St. Peter couldn't deny that this was a pretty bad day, and since it was a crime of passion, he let the man in.

He then asked the next man in line about the day he died. "Well, sir, it was awful," said the second man. "I was doing aerobics on the balcony of my 26th floor apartment when I twisted my ankle and slipped over the edge. I managed to grab the balcony of the apartment below, but some maniac came out and started pounding on my fingers with a hammer. I fell, but luckily I landed in some bushes. But, then the guy dropped a refrigerator on me! And that's how I died"

St. Peter chuckled, let him into heaven and decided he could really start to enjoy this job.

"Tell me about the day you died?", he said to the third man in line.

"OK, picture this, I'm naked, hiding inside a refrigerator ..."

Happy Monday, y'all.

Me, me, me

Abby did one of those fabulous questionnaire's that we have all done at one point or another, SO I decided to rip it because I'm tired. And you know you want to know random crap about me.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Well, my first name, Christine, is a family name on my dad's side. My middle name, Nicole, is French and my mom wanted all her daughters to have French middle names. It's sweet really. And I like that I go by it. And in additional news, my niece, Ava, also got a french middle name, Gabrielle. Aw.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Sunday night.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Not particularly. It's gotten pretty bad since I'm on the computer all the time. Does anyone else get the random 'oh-crap-I've-been-writing-for-five-whole-minutes' cramp?

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Boar's Head Lemon Pepper Roasted Chicken. Mmmm.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? No. I promise.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yeah. And I would tell me to chill out.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Nope.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Nope. Got them out when I was 19. And the doctor said they were the biggest tonsils he had ever seen. Yay me.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Oh my, YES!

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Hm. It's in England - passion fruit clusters. Mmmm.

11. Do YOU WONDER WHAT HAPPENED TO QUESTION 11? Not at all.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Yes! Mentally and physically. :)

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Strawberry Cheesecake and Chocolate Peanut Butter. (I totally agree with Abby on that one!) Well, if we are being technical, it is Cold Stone Creamery's Peanut Butter Cup Perfection with an added brownie. Oh.my.word.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Smile or eyes.

15. RED OR PINK? Pale Pink!

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOU? My tendency to overanalyze everything!

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My family.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO POST THIS TOO? Sure!

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Jeans and brown flip flops. It's Friday!

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Mixed fruit and Boar's Head Lemon Pepper Roasted Chicken.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? My typing and Black Betty by Spiderbait.

22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? White.

23. FAVORITE SMELL? Oooo. Too difficult. I love coffee, fresh cut grass, coconut.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Julie!

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO POSTED THIS FIRST? I love Abby!

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Soccer.

27. HAIR COLOR? Honey brown.

28. EYE COLOR? Mostly green, but hazel.

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? I really want to get some new ones, but currently, no.

30. FAVORITE FOOD? Pork enchiladas from La Parilla.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Monsters, Inc., with Kole.

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? A pale purple tee with a lace tank underneath.

34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter.

35. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs while kissing.

36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Key Lime Pie!

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Erm?

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Erm?

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? No mouse pad - laptop.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? Part of Miss Congeniality.

42. FAVORITE SOUND? Laughter. (Oooo! I agree, Abby)

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles.

44. WHAT IS THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? England or Brazil. I'm too lazy too check the mileage.

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Yes. Many, I hope.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Atlanta, Georgia

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING? Everyones!

Happy Friday!

Guilty Pleasures Part I

1 - Blogging

2 - Reading other blogs

3 - Cranking up Leona Lewis's Bleeding Love EVERY TIME it comes on in the car

4 - Cheese!!

5 - Watching trash TV with Kole

6 - Coffee with creamer

7 - Peanut butter M&Ms

8 - Pedicures

9 - Buying a new top just because

10 - Watching David Cook sing Billie Jean over and over again.



What are some of your 'guilty' pleasures?

Bath Time With Baby!

Ava loves her baths.



And she's modest, too.



Eating. Sleeping. Bathrooming (you like that one, eh?). And being bathed. It's a tough life.

Happy 30th Wedding Anniversary!

Today my parents celebrate their 30th wedding annivesary. 30 years. Wow.



I am so grateful that my parents have stayed together - and not just because they felt they had to, or because they wanted to for us kids, but because they truly love each other.



Thank you for everything mama and daddy. Thank you for setting such a wonderful and realistic example of a beautiful marriage. I hope that someday I will celebrate 30 years with someone special.



I love you both. Happy anniversary.

Deep, meaningful answers

Thank you to everyone who asked me questions! I had a lot of fun figuring out answers!

Andrea - who I can't wait to meet! - asked:

Q: Did you actually do shots from that shot glass hanging around your neck and were they key lime pie shots?
A: I totally did shots from that lovely shot necklace and here is some fabulous evidence.



Unfortunately, they weren't key lime pie ones, but I'm sure they were tasty.

Q: How old does Ava have to be to date? Because Finn has his eye on her :)

A: I'm sure Ava's mama would say 25, but I think once Ava and Finn meet age won't matter. I wonder if you can meet your soul mate at six months? ;)

My buddy Mark asked:

Q: What is your quest?
A: I seek the Grail.
Q: What is your favorite color?
A: Blue. No, yel-- auuuuuuuugh!
Q: What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
A: What do you mean? An African or European swallow?

(If you are scratching your head, this is a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

Fort Knocks asked two questions and gave me the choice of answering just one. I will answer the first.

Q: What's the longest you've ever held your breath?
A: Two and a half minutes. Seriously.

My sweet friend, Peggy, asked:

Q: If you could have a dinner party and invite 6 people (let's go with living only), who would you invite?
A: This question is so difficult for me to answer that I've decided to do an entire post on it at a later date. Thank you for such a great thinker, Peggy!

The beautiful Janet asked:

Q: First, do you still have that pink cowgirl hat?
A: Sadly, I left it in England. It was either the hat or being able to shut my suitcase.
Q: If you could have 100 pounds of anything, what would you get?
A: I would have to go with antimatter, which costs an estimated $300 billion per milligram. And then I would give like 99.9 percent of the sale proceeds to charity, of course.
Q: What smell can you absolutely not stand?
A: I know it's gross, but vomit. Pure and simple.
Q: Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune?
A: Jeopardy because I love trivia, though I'd probably do better at Wheel of Fortune.
Q: What is your favorite appetizer to order at a restaurant?
A: Hm, it's either queso dip and chips or spinach artichoke dip.
Q: What's in your purse right now? (No cheating and cleaning it out first!)
A: Wallet, business cards, three hair clips, two pens, two restaurant receipts, a nametag and two pairs of earrings. Wow. I'm very boring.
Q: Peppermint or cinnamon?
A: I probably use cinnamon more, but I love both!

My dear friend, Jules, asked:
Q: Since the Taco Bell on at 685 Duluth Highway has been demolished (solely by your doing?) only to have them rebuild a newer Taco Bell model, will you give the new one a chance? Or have you been scarred for life by your terrible "running for the border" experience? Inquiring minds (me) and chihuahuas (not me) want to know.
A: I will totally go, if you go with me, Jules. :)

I hope this helped you waste a little bit of time online today.

UPDATED: TGIF!

Thank you to those who posted questions yesterday, but I should qualify what I meant when I said ask anything. You can ask anything, but I may not answer. :) I will most definitely stay away from politics and religion and since certain members of my family (hi Dad!) read this blog, I won't answer any questions about my sex life. Does this make me a bit boring? Meh. Maybe.

And since I haven't written answers to those who posted questions - and thank you for asking them - I'm going to leave that open through the weekend - feel free to add to the burning questions - and post answers on Monday. You are gripping the edge of your seat in anticipation, aren't you?

And I'd love to get some more feedback about the book list. Seriously, I am a bookwork and a half and LOVE to get recommendations.

UPDATED: I was able to get my beautiful, older sister on the phone to send me some photos of Ava to wish you a proper Happy Friday/Weekend.


Ava smiling at herself in the mirror.


Oh, stop.


Ava says have a great weekend... or else!

It's Question Time

So, my friend Andrea randomly does these 'Ask Andrea', 'Ask Finn' (her beautiful baby boy) or 'Ask Lee' (her devilishly handsome hubby) posts. And I love asking her random stuff.

So, I thought, hm, is there anything readers of A Different Bird want to know about me? Does that sound too narcissistic? Could this be a total disaster if I don't get a single question? Is this kind of an excuse not to write a real blog entry? Maybe, Yes, Yes, Yes.

So, ask ANYTHING you want.


You can even ask about this night.

A Bookworm's Post

I came across Entertainment Weekly’s Top 100 books of the past 25 years, and I thought, Well, I am a HUGE bookworm. I should have read at least half or more of these books.



Yeah, not so much. I've struck out the, um, 5/100 that I have read (including a couple that I had forgotten about, like Beloved and Lonesome Dove), put a couple of stars next to the ones I had already planned on reading before ever seeing this list and underlined the ones that I have added to my 'to-read' list after reading through all the selections. And I am actually currently reading one of the books below; it has been bolded. Man, my goodreads list is getting longer and longer.



And can you believe some of these books made their top 100 list?!

1. The Road, Cormac McCarthy (2006)

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000) (highly recommend!)

3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987) (er, don't remember how much I liked it)

4. The Liars’ Club, Mary Karr (1995)**

5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)

6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)

7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)

8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)

9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)

10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)

11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)

12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)

13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)

14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)

15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)

16. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)

17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)

18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)

19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)

20. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)**

21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)**

22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)

23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)

24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985) (again, don't remember much, except that it was looong)

25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)

26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)

27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)

28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)

29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)

30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)

31. The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien (1990)

32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)

33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)

34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002) (highly recommend!)

35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)

36. Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996) (highly recommend!)

37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)

38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)

39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)

40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)**

41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)

42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)

43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)

44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)

45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)

46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)

47. World’s Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)

48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)

49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)

50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)

51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)

52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)

53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)

54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)

55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)**

56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)

57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)

58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)

59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)

60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)

61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)

62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)

63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)

64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)

65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)**

66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)

67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)**

68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)

69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)

70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)

71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)

72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)**

73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)

74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)

75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)

76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)

77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)

79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)

80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)

81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)

82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)

83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)

84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)

85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)

86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)

87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)

88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)

89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)

90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)

91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)

92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)

93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)

94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)

95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)

96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)

97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)

98. The Predators’ Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)

99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)

100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

How many have you read? Any that you recommend? Any that you suggest I stay away from?

Key Lime Pie Shots + Abby = Well, This Post

As I said in my weekend recap, I met up with Abby and Bryan for trivia on Saturday night. What I failed to mention was that she and I enjoyed my favorite shots in the world: KEY LIME PIE ones.

I knew I just needed to wait until Abby arrived. And I wasn't disappointed.


One recipe for this lovely concoction:
3/4 oz Licor 43® liqueur
1 splash vodka
1/4 oz Rose's® lime juice
1/2 oz cream


Pre-shots.


Post-shots. I like how my thumb looks like it is about to break off.

And you know how I slept that night?

Like this.



Or maybe it was like this.

Wednesdays are the most depressing day of the week

Wednesdays are the most depressing day of the week. Well, according to University of Sydney scientists.

You can read the full article about why Wednesday is the most depressing day of the week by clicking here.

Supposedly many people think that Monday should be the worst day of the week, but it's funny because I don't mind Mondays so much, but Kole and I agree that Tuesday is actually the most depressing day of the week. By Wednesdays, like today, I am quite happy to think that the week is half over.

Oh, and methinks that Ava has something she wants to say about this.



And you can't tell me this isn't one of (if not THE) cutest baby picture you have ever seen. Hopefully, it will help you make it through the 'most depressing day of the week'.

Happy Hump Day!

If you like piña coladas...

There is never a dull moment when Kole and I hang out. Never. Well, unless you count the couple of times she and I have dozed off watching films. But not last night. No!

Last night we enjoyed a stimulating evening of watching trash TV while Kole enjoyed a special treat.

Piña colada granola with vanilla yogurt and Bud Light with Lime anyone?



I can't begin to tell you how happy this photo makes me. Or how much we laughed last night. And I don't think I can ever tell Kole how much moments with her - like last night - mean to me. Seriously, girl friends like her are the greatest.