Fun Meme: Book List (100th Post)

Rebecca from Lost in Books is hosting a fun meme: Books You've Read Over and Over and Over. The rules are simple. Make a list of 3 Books You've Read Over and Over and Over and...

Here is my list:

1. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

The first time I read this book was in 9th grade and I fell in love. I read it again in college. Again when my brother was reading it. I will pick up this book again sometimes soon. I enjoy it more and more with every read. I admit I could not get into rest of the books of the saga. Nevertheless, I love this book. I did enjoy the parallel book "Ender's Shadow" and looking forward to reading that series. I might also pick up "Ender in Exile" which is a sequel to Ender's Game. (I am little confused as to what Card is trying to accomplish here as "Speaker for the Dead" was part 2 of Ender Saga). I hope they will make the movie in my lifetime because it has been on hold for a long time.

2. The Giver by Lois Lowry

I don't think I can count how many times I have read this book. I read this in 7th grade and read it several times after that. Another book that needs to have a movie. IMDb states the release date as 2011.

3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Another book that is going to stay with me for a long time. There is something about Gatsby and the society that has attracted millions of readers around the world.

There are many more books but I have to limit myself to three :)

P.S. This is my 100th post. Yay me!

I just had to post this picture.

March for Babies

I walked for March for Babies yesterday. It was my third year participating in the fundraising and the walk. The walk was pleasant. I met new people, who were friendly even after they found out that I am an internal auditor of the company. Usually that is when people rather get a mean look on their faces. I guess these individuals had not been in the company for long. I am just joking about the mean look part.

The weather was nice and windy. The walk was five miles with rest areas every mile. At the first stop, Continental Airlines had set up a stage and there were Hawaiian dancers there. Their dancing moves were hot. Here I am at 3-mile checkpoint:

Somewhere down the walk, we saw Mr. Snuggles, the bear. I still do not know which company he was representing. I felt sorry for the person in the bear costume since it was hot outside. I think somewhere around 4 miles, the person just could not take it anymore and had to step out because we saw deflated Mr. Snuggles. I did not take a picture of that but that was funny. I believe the person finished the 5-mile walk in the bear costume. I bet he lost a bet with his co-workers and had to wear the costume. Anyways, here is a picture of Mr. Snuggles from the back:

Close to the finish, the volunteers were distributing Blue Bell ice cream sandwiches. We made it to back to our company tent and enjoyed the cake. There was food but I skipped it since I am a vegetarian and it was all non-veg. My goal was to raise $110 and I successfully raised $110.  I am hoping that next year we can make it bigger. Our company only raised about $6,500 and our goal was $20,000. I think everyone is feeling the pinch. I am looking forward to next year's walk.

I believe my next break will be when Shrek 3D will be released. I am looking forward to that movie.

Ever Searched for a Book...?

I decided to make a list of books that I had read and enjoyed over the years. Facebook Visual Bookshelf is really helping me with that. Initially it was only books that I had read 2008 (that is when I joined FB) and after. I thought about all the books I had read in junior high, high school, and college that I really enjoyed and starting adding those. Now this is going back 5 years and more and I do not remember all the books. There were a lot of books. There were three books that I just had to add. I remembered the title of one, The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright, but I had forgotten the name of the other two. I remembered the stories and I thought that would make the search easier.

Anyways, the second book was about a boy who has this special ability of telling when somebody is lying. His arm tingles when somebody lies. I knew the title was something like "Lies" or "Liars." Now imagine searching that on Google. They should ban the authors from using that as a title. Eventually, I found the book and it is titled Liars by P.J. Petersen. I went to the author's website and sadly, he does not even list the book on his site. It is a great book and I really enjoyed it.

The third book was the most troublesome. I vaguely remembered the story as I read this book 6+ years ago but I remembered enjoying it very much. It was about a boy who is researching his family history and comes across the family secret about murder and lies. I knew there was an old woman in the story who gives him misleading information. I told the librarian about it and she said she will look for the book. Yesterday she emailed me and gave me couple of titles but none of them sounded familiar and one of them was written recently. I told her again what the story was about but this time I thought about how there was something about a shadow. After emailing her, I went to the library's website and looked up "murder" and "shadow." I got too many hits. Then I thought that maybe one of the famous children's authors had written the book and thought about Lois Lowry. I misspelled the last name and searched "Lowery." I hit books by Joan Lowery Nixon and that surely rang a bell. Then I went through the books by Nixon and FOUND the BOOK!!!!! I was so excited. It was Search for the Shadowman by Joan Lowery Nixon. It is interesting how mind works. I think I will make a decent librarian. :)

More about books: I am not listening to any books for now. I listen to CPA related material and the radio. I was looking forward to end of May when I can go back to listening to books. I found out that my brother got an internship at a hospital (which is awesome) that is 2 miles from my work, so I will be his ride. That means no audio books until he is done with internship, which is will end of July. Therefore, until August, I can say good-bye to audio books or listen to 10 minutes every day.

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow

I finished the novel end of March but didn't get around to posting my opinion about it. I usually do that in lunchtime or in the evening at the library. I have been studying non-stop during those hours as I am so close to finishing the CPA exams and do not want to screw up. Due to which, I have stopped reading and listening to books. No No...I take that back. I am reading CPA related book and listening to CPA related material. I will post my opinion about those later (just kidding...or maybe I should do it). Anyways, after this post, I am taking a break from the blog until end of May. Time to get serious about the exam!

Now back to this book. Heidi W. Durrow has done a great job. I really enjoyed this book. Here is a description from the author's website:

A timely and moving bicultural coming-of-age tale about the daughter of a Danish immigrant and a black G.I. A beauty with light brown skin and blue eyes, she attracts much attention in her new home. The world wants to see her as either black or white, but that's not how she sees herself.

Meanwhile, a mystery unfolds, revealing the terrible truth about Rachel's last morning on a Chicago rooftop. Interwoven with her voice are those of Jamie, a neighborhood boy who witnessed the events, and Laronne, a friend of Rachel's mother. Inspired by a true story of a mother's twisted love, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky reveals an unfathomable past and explores issues of identity at a time when many people are asking "Must race confine us and define us?"

The book is beautifully written and the narrators did an excellent job. I did not like few things but I will talk about those later. The concept is original. I picked up this book by reading "inspired by a true story." Now I am curious to know how much of the story was actually true and which parts were fictitious. The book is thought provoking. I think this book would appeal more to others but I still liked it. Lastly, I don't know why, but the whole concept of a "blue bottle" inside everyone intrigued me.
 
Bad points: I felt the characters were not fully developed especially the grandmother, the father, and the aunt. I think the author should have written more about them to give the full picture. There were few events in the novel that I felt were unnecessary, and the story would have been better without them. I won't elaborate more on that. I was highly disappointed with the whole mystery. The author built it up by mentioning minor details here and there.
 
I give this book 8.5 out of 10.
 
This book qualifies for the Audio Book Challenge.

Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson

Ummm...what to say? This book was weirdly good. I mean I am still considering how and what to think of this book. There are eleven short stories and author's interview at the end. Here are the stories:

Grand Stand-In
The woman who rents herself out as a grandmother usually to families that had lost their grandmothers but do not want their children to miss the fun or are too coward to tell the children about the loss.

Blowing up on the Spot
The main character works in a Scrabble factory sorting the tiles to look for the letter Q. His younger brother is suicidal ever since the parents passed away. How did they die? They exploded and there were no explanations.

The Dead Sister Handbook: A Guide for Sensitive Boys
This is formatted as a guide (thus the title). There are topics and then instructions. For example, one of the instructions stated what to do when the brother finds the sister's diary.

Birds in the House
A competition is planned to see who will inherit the ancestral mansion after the death of the mother. The narrator, daughter of one of the brothers, witnesses death and greed into action as each brother fights to win the mansion.

Mortal Combat: (I do not think I can say anything else without giving away the entire story.)
Two guys fondle each other once while studying in the library. One friend wants to advance and the other does not. Then there is the game, Mortal Combat.

Tunneling to the Center of the Earth
Three friends graduated from college with degrees that are useless in the real world. With having nothing to do, they dig and dig and dig.

Shooting Man: This story was my favorite.
The circus comes to town and one trick is that one guy shoots himself and comes back to life. The guy convinces the wife to go to the show. Later he goes back to the circus to learn the truth.

The Choir Director Affair (The Baby's Teeth): I felt that this story was pointless.
There are two parts to the story. The first part is about the father having an affair and second part is about the baby having full set of teeth at that age and the narrator's fascination about them.

Go, Fight, Win
Penny (16) is a cheerleader in her school. She has a relationship with a 12-year-old boy who lives across the street.

The Museum of Whatnot
This story is about a lady who takes care of a museum, which collects other people's obsessions, which are donated after they die such as collection of regular spoons.

Worst-Case Scenario
This story is about a man whose job is to tell people the worst-case scenarios (disasters they might face in their lives).

There is definitely more to the stories than what is written here like human nature, dysfunctional families, feelings, emotions, and more. My favorite one was the "Shooting Man" and I enjoyed "Grand Stand in," "Birds in the House," and "Go, Fight, Win." Some stories were too much out of the ordinary and I just did not know what to think of them. I felt some stories were unfinished. Some were depressing, but some had happy endings.

If you ever decide to pick up this book, which I recommend you do, do read the interview at the end. Kevin Wilson will dive into the reasons he started writing. I give this book 8 out of 10.