"Top" 100 books take 2

About 18 months ago, I posted a list of 100 books that was featured on the London Telegraph (and had been directed to me by Brandy). I looked through it again tonight as I'm thinking about books to add to my reading list (which is complied from a number of similar "top 100" lists, friends' recommendations, personal interests, and other sources).

I've copied my original list here. Initially, I had used bold for books I'd read, and italics for ones I was planing to read. Now, I've highlighted in red the books I've read since the original posting and added any new comments in red as well (and left the original comments in black).

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen This one I’ve “read” twice, in high school and college, but both times were quick reads and I’d like to read it again just to enjoy it this time. I loved P&P this time. It still took me about 1/3 of the book to really “get into it,” but I did, and it was well worth it.

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte I read this in jr. high, and it was one of my first favorites of the classics

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling I listened to the audio readings of this series within the past year. Although I did enjoyed them, I don’t honestly think they belong on a list of the top 100 books ever. They were entertaining but also a little disturbing/scary (that witchcraft can be made into such a “normal” thing).

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee I just finished the audio version of this book after years of watching pretty almost every one of my students read it for school. For some reason, even though I’ve heard good things about it for years, I didn’t have high expectations for this book---maybe that says something about the other literature my students read in their English classes. I was pleasantly surprised, however, and really enjoyed it.

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte Well, technically I haven’t read it yet since I’m still in the middle of reading it, but so far I love it. It’s been a slow read since it’s the one I have in my car to read when I’m not driving… (during breaks between clients). I did enjoy WH, though Jane Eyre is still top IMO.

8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell I’ve read this one a few times. Orwell’s writing could be so prophetic at times. I read this (and Brave New World) again with one of my students as part of his summer reading assignments.

8. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman Never heard of this one. Anyone know if it’s good?

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens I can’t remember if I’ve read this or not, but I’ve never been a fan of Dickens. I guess eventually I’ll try again, but I don’t plan to anytime soon, there are too many other good ones out there waiting to be read.

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott I read this as a little girl and loved it—and all of her others.

12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy I listened to this book on cd recently, and wasn’t impressed. I think I’ll skip Hardy in the future unless I hear something else is great.

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller Never heard of it.

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare I’ve read a lot of Shakespeare, but not all….I’ll get there eventually

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier Beautiful.

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien I don’t really think this should get a separate listing from LOTR, but I did love it. ‘Chung and I are reading it aloud together.

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger I finally got around to reading Catcher after helping students write papers on it for, oh, six years. I didn’t love it….I’m not 100% sure why, but I think it was because I

19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger WHAT ON EARTH is this book doing on this list? It was entertaining, ok, a little creepy, but on (any) top 100 lisst?!?

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot Very good book.

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald I read it in high school, but didn’t really like the stream of consciousness style.

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy This is on my list as soon as I can find an unabridged audio version. I can’t see myself spending enough time reading it, but I’ve got lots of time to listen. I tried to get it from my library, but they only had the first of four volumes (in the whole county’s library system). Well, now the library has the first 2 of 4 volumes, so still haven’t read it yet.

25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams I’m undecided about this one. I saw the movie and was bored, but one of my students swears that the book is great…and he’s probably one of the few kids I tutor who likes to think critically, so maybe I’ll read it. I really enjoyed Hitchhiker’s Guide, it was silly, and not necessarily what I’d consider a masterpiece of literature, but I think it’ll be around a long time, it was thoroughly entertaining, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequels.

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky Give me anything Dostoyevsky and I’ll love it.

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck I’m also undecided about this one, I tried reading Steinbeck once before and didn’t really get into him, but I feel like I should read this ‘cause it’s on just about every best books list I’ve seen. Still haven’t read Grapes of Wrath, but I did read The Pearl, and didn’t love its style. I’ve currently just started East of Eden, and am so far enjoying it.

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame My mom read this to me when I was young. I never really got into it. I remember being bored a lot. Maybe I’ll try again.

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis Uh, why is this separate from #33. There aren’t enough great books in the world, so they need to have duplicates??

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden I haven’t read all of this, but it’s another that’s been added to my “to be read” list since student seem to frequently have to read (and write papers on) it.

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell Another great Orwell high school read.

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown How on earth did this make the list?? 20 year rule, anyone?

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery I love anything by LM Montgomery. Her books make me want to have a little girl to read to.

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood I tried reading this one…didn’t get through the first ¼. Maybe another time.

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding Another one my students have all had to read and I think I should. I finally read LOTF this year, again, after “tutoring” students on it for about 6 yrs. I didn’t love it, but see its purpose.

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel I tried reading Life of Pi, but didn’t get very far. I’m not sure why.

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley Prophetic.

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck Didn’t like.

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov Couldn’t finish it…I don’t think I do well reading about pedophiles and adulterers.

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas Amazing. I love Dumas.

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding One of the best books???

69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie I’d also like to read the Satanic Verses Still have’t gotten to these, but they’re getting higher on the list.

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville I’d like to re-read this one too. Althrough this time around I still thought Melville spent too much time “blubbering” about the intricate details of whales and whaling, but this time I was able to follow and enjoy the story. He’s a little verbose for my preferences, but it was a great book.

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker This one’s newly being added to my to be read list.

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett One of my favorites as child

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker I was far too young to read this when I did, I wish I had skipped it.

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte's Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn I’m planning to read Tuesday’s with Morrie, then we’ll see. Well, I read Tuesday’s, and I think I’ll skip The 5 People…just too many great books out there.

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams Great book.

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas See #65, I think this is one of my all-time favorite books.

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare Another duplicate?? I think this might just fall under the category of “the complete works of Shakespeare”

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo Read it in high school. Loved it. Would like to read it again someday.

Invisible Illness Week

A friend brought to my attention the fact that this week (Sept. 14-20) has been Invisible Illness Week. I haven't written about my fibromyalgia for a while, but I've been planning to blog about it all week, but.... well I've been exhausted.

It seems like everyday is a constant struggle to keep my head above water. Take yesterday, for example. I left home at 8:45 to go to my biweekly massage appointment (it's about 40 min. away, but I love my massage therapist), on the way home I dropped by Sam's Club to pick up milk. I got home around 1:00 and took the puppy out to the park for a walk. I walked some--I try to use taking her out as an opportunity to exercise since most of my attempts at regular exercise over the past 10 year have failed--but spent a lot of the time just watching her play with other puppies. We got home at 3:00 and I was so wiped out that I crashed on the couch...for 3 1/2 hours. Now, I'm all a fan of 20-30 min. "power naps", but 3 1/2 hrs. is ridiculous. I tried to get up several times during my "nap", and did once, just long enough to get Brembo some food, but the crushing fatigue overcame me each time. I finally woke up when 'Chung came home, got some dinner and did a load of laundry. Thankfully today was my day off.

Fibromyalgia essentially consists of widespread pain, which I have all over my body. Certain parts hurt more than others. For me, my hands (pinky through middle fingers on both hands and right palm), forearms, neck, back, knees, and right leg are the most affected. In those parts of my body I often have deep, sharp or intense pain. Those are the "regulars"--the parts I can constantly depend on to bother me. Occasionally my hips, shoulders and jaw join in the fun. Otherwise, my body (muscle/soft tissue) just aches all over; this is more of a hard-to-pinpoint pain that crops up when I'm touched/touching something, sitting or standing in one position for too long, or have be "overexerting myself" (like washing dishes, vacuuming, driving or shopping, for example). I also oftentimes get intense headaches either from being exposed to allergens--particularly strong scents--or as a secondary effect of neck pain. Along with the pain of fibro. comes fatigue, insomnia and depression. Fortunately, I have been able to get the fatigue in check most of the time (yesterday was an exception) by cutting out most of the "extras" in my life. While I still have bouts of depression periodically, it hasn't recently been the overwhelming kind, but rather more of an underlying sadness at the loss of normalcy in my life. Insomnia is still a major problem for me, but that's something I've dealt with most of my life.

All in all, however, I'm very fortunate and blessed. I am still able to function very normally. I cannot do all that I want to and I have only a fraction of the energy I used to, but I'm able to work and can keep a lot of the pain in check (though not make it go away) through light exercise, massage and chiropractic treatments. I sometimes joke that I'm getting a preview of what it's like to be elderly...though if this is what I'm like at 30, I can't even imagine what life will be like at 70 or 80.

Who do you know with an invisible illness?

Wrap up

Well, it's been a few weeks already since I last wrote and almost 2 weeks that we've been home, and I still haven't gotten around to blogging about the end of our trip. How did we get from Georgia to home (2 weeks) without taking any decent pictures or having anything really to write about? I don't know, but we did. Its not that we didn't have fun...we did.

After Georgia, we took a rifle class in Tennessee, but if I wrote about that I'd just spend half the words whining, and it really was a pretty good class in the end. From there we went to Wichita,


Colorado,


Las Vegas,



Hesperia,



and Orange County




...visiting with friends and family along each part of the way...and really that's about that. We got home a little over a month from the time we left....and jumped back in with both feet.

All in all, the trip was a fun time to reconnect with friends and family we hadn't seen in years, and if only for that, it was worth it. I think we could have easily spent double that amount of time on the road and still not seen/done all that we'd wanted to. But I'm more than content with what we did do.

I'm exhausted.

Below are some pictures from a wedding reception we helped with right after we got home. It was pretty. For those of you who were at 'Chung's and my wedding, you may recognize the yard as the same location where we had our wedding, a home which belongs to 'Chung's parents.

Visiting Grandpa in NC and family in GA

We woke up early at Uncle Scott's house and started driving to North Carolina to visit my grandpa and his wife, Gail.


We visited with them for dinner and stayed nearby so we could get on the road the next day. We started driving Monday morning extending our short trip to Athens, GA a little bit to do a little outlet shopping, but we got in before dinner. All of the family except the youngest two (Kelsey and Caleb) were home--quite a feat with 5 kids in college and my Aunt and Uncle's busy schedule. (L to R, this is me, my cousin Emily, Aunt Diane, and my cousin Joni)


It was wonderful to see my cousins again after about 5 years. Last time we were there, Joni was away, so I don't even know when I last saw here (though Ashley with her elephant's memory could probably tell you). We spent a great first evening there playing cards, talking, and enjoying one another's company. After sleeping in the next morning, Aunt Diane treated us to a delicious breakfast after which we all headed out to try our hand at skeet shooting.




It was our first time at a "redneck range" as well as the first time we'd shot skeet, and we had a blast. It was great to try Brembo out around gunfire (which she acted completely normal around) and test her ear muffs (which she didn't try to take off, so I guess they were working).



After skeet shooting we headed back home, had delicious enchiladas for lunch (yes, I really, really liked them), and left again. We first visited a little "animal range", which was sort of a cross between a petting farm and a local zoo. There were animals such as deer, ducks, goats chickens (mostly roosters, actually) and rabbits roaming free while coyotes, bears, hawks and mountain lions were caged. Interesting place.




After the zoo we drove over to Stone Mountain, a park initially started by the same man who created Mt. Rushmore at which you can see three Confederate heroes, Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis each riding his horse, carved into the face of the mountain. We got our spots on the lawn and waited for the Lasershow Spectaular to start. 'Chung got to try some more night photography, this time combining long exposure with flash.




The laser show was a tribute to Georgia, the US and especially to Georgia's music. I was amazed at the number of songs (mostly country) that have been recorded in or about Georgia. Good show.


Later that night 'Chung talked Joni and her little Sosa into modeling so he could practice another new hobby: taking headshots.

Week in Baltimore/DC/Hampton

I think I'll cheat a little here 'cause Ashley's posted some great pictures from our week at her house, in DC (and surrounding areas), and at our cousin's wedding in Virginia. You can see them here, on her blog.


It was absolutely wonderful to spend time with them...very relaxing.


We also got a chance to visit with some other friends, one a friend of mine from college, J., and her husband hosted us for the night before we went to DC. They grilled some amazing burgers and chicken for us and were gracious enough to let us stay for the night. Their dog, Bailey, was also a little nervous at first around Brembo, so we didn't really let them play much.


The evening after we saw DC, 'Chung and I met up with a friend of 'Chung's from college along with his sweet wife and her brother. We ate at such a yummy restaurant, The Heights, that I have to recommend it if you're ever in DC. Its was fairly close to downtown though not walking distance to the National Mall area where we spent most of the day. The food was wonderful though and they were gracious enough to let Brembo sit with us on the patio (where she met a little friend who read to her through dinner).



Finally, we visited my Aunt and Grandma quickly in Richmond before heading to Hampton for the weekend where we stayed at my Uncle's beach house and went to my cousin's wedding in Williamsburg. My uncle has four little dogs (three of which are with him & Brembo in the picture below). None took too well to Brembo, so she welcomed the chance to get out to the beach and run. It was a nice visit, though too short and we enjoyed seeing them and spending some time there.

Illinois July 3-4

We arrived in Chicago to visit 'Chung's cousin and his wife Kari (whose wedding we went to last month). We hadn't had much chance at the wedding to get to know Kari, but saw enough of her through the wedding that we were really looking forward to getting to know her better.

We throroughly enjoyed our time with them. They have a sweet dog who mostly kept her distance from Brembo, but once they got to swim and fetch a little together, she seemed more comfortable around our monster-sized puppy.



We spent a fabulous Fourth of July with Kari's family at their lake house just across the border in Wisconsin, and got to enjoy a spectacular fireworks show from all of the various neighbors in on the lake.


Charlie, a puggle, was also there for the afternoon. He didn't enjoy swimming quite as much as Brembo did, but he did get into the water a bit. It was quite a feat to get him to sit still long enough to snap this shot, Blau and Brembo sat pretty well for about 5 min. while we tried to get Charlie in position for 10 secs.




'Chung got some fun night pics. there (all of the following, as well as the first pic. above of Ray and Kari, were taken using a long exposure after it was completely dark out).



Brembo did well with the noise of the fireworks, and 'Chung got eaten alive by mosquitoes. Good times.



We headed out that night after the fireworks were done and drove towards Baltimore where my sisters, mom, Eric and Audrey were celebrating Audrey's second birthday. We arrived late the following night, ready to kick off a very busy week on the east coast.

Minnesota Days 6-7

So far, every day of our road trip has been great...and I am about 2 weeks behind on these updates. I'll try to catch up in the next few days.


We arrived in Minneapolis in the late afternoon and had a delicious home-cooked (something we were longing for by this point) meal and a lovely night with a friend of 'Chung's from years ago, her husband and their six month old Bernese Mountain dog, Rupert.


Brembo and Rupert had so much fun wrestling and playing with each other.


They completely wore one another out coming back again and again to tug on this rawhide (yes, there were more than one available, they didn't have to "share").


'Chung and I enjoyed spending time with this family so much...I'm already hoping to come back. On Rupert's mom's recommendation, we spent Thursday wandering around some of the charming lakes and delightful shops (and eating the yummy ice cream) of the Twin Cities. We also did a little "house shopping", one of my favorite pasttimes in any city we visit. It was altogether a very pleasant, unhurried afternoon. Thursday evening we visited another family, again, a friend I'd not seen in about 10 years.


After another scrumptious home-cooked meal (sweet corn, potatoes and beer can chicken, all mouthwateringly grilled), we got on the road and headed to Madison, Wisconsin where we spent a few hours sleeping before getting back on the road and heading to South Bend, IN to visit a dear family for lunch.