Avengers' Butts

(c) Kevin Bolk

I thought this was awesome and had to share.  What if the men were posed like Black Widow?

She's a strong character, just as kick ass as any of these men.

Found here:  Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

Winter Reads, May Resemble Fall Reads

This week’s top ten from The Broke and The Bookish asks:  what are your top ten winter reads?  Some of these books may have appeared on my fall list.  I couldn’t help it.  It’s difficult these days to read 10 books in three months.  There were also new books purchased and I don’t always feel like sticking to a plan.

So here’s a list that I might not stick to, my top ten winter reads.

1. World War Z, by Max Brooks
2. The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Steig Larsson
3. The Thousand Orcs, by R.A. Salvatore
4. The Horse and His Boy, by C.S. Lewis
5. The Magician’s Nephew, by C.S. Lewis
6. Everything’s Eventual, by Stephen King
7. The Flying Troutmans, by Miriam Toews
8. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:  Dawn of the Dreadfuls, by Steve Hockensmith
9. The Tent, by Margaret Atwood
10. Binu and The Great Wall, by Su Tong

What do you plan on reading on those cold, wintery days and nights?

Roots, Day #2 – Crying or What He Was Doing All Day Except For When We Were In The Class

[For the post about my first class and other information click here.]

My baby boy did not have any good snoozes today. He fussed and cried a lot. I was worried for when we had to be in the kindergarten class, but he was fine, thank goodness. The kids were energetic and happy to see him. They sang songs and this week we discussed why babies cry.

Crying is how babies communicate. I explained that babies have different cries depending on what is wrong or what they want. The kids seemed really receptive. I think they’re learning a lot and they’re so excited when he enters the classroom. I’m really glad I decided to do this.

When I was leaving, the principal of the school came out to meet me. She told me how much she appreciated what I was doing and how important she felt the program was. I didn’t think she had to come out and speak with me. It made me feel like I was doing something important. I hope that my son and I are helping the kids in that class.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 8: Time Of Your Life

I know I’ve said this before, but I don’t have a lot of time these days, so this “review” is really going to be a smattering of thoughts. I’ve also reviewed three of the Buffy graphic novels already, so there are some things that don’t need in depth repeating. As always, I thought there was great writing and I enjoyed the art. Also, minor spoilers.

I am really loving these graphic novels. I was so hesitant about them; I was unsure that they’d live up to the show. They are so fun and entertaining. Time Of Your Life has brought me back to the initial excitement I felt when I read Volume One.

Previously, I complained that they hadn’t done anything with giant Dawn. That has been remedied and in a great way. If they left her a giant for another book, I think I wouldn’t be as happy with it as I am.

What is up with Willow? I feel like there’s more going on with her than they are revealing. I have to say that I like the way Willow had to contact the green spirit lady. It was awesome.

I really enjoyed the Fray crossover. I didn’t realize what that was about. I just thought it was a different slayer. Getting a good look at the character of Fray and the world she lives in really makes me want to pick up Fray. Maybe that was part of the reason for the crossover. I would never have considered reading Fray before now. Though I’m sure fans of both were itching for a crossover.

The single comic at the end of Time Of Your Life is titled, After These Messages – We’ll be Right Back. It is a great ending to volume four. After These Messages was a flashback to simpler times. The art is even different, giving the story that retro, blast from the past sort of feel. It reunited the old high school Scooby gang, with the inclusion of a very young Dawn. Buffy wishes things were less complicated and in a dream, she returns to high school. After really looking back she sees that even then she still had to save the world all the time.

A Comment About Google Mobile.

Since having my second child, I've been enjoying getting my Google Reader fed via Google Mobile to my cell phone.  It lets me keep up and read all my favourite blogs.  It helps keep me awake at 1am while I feed my little non-sleeper.  The only problem, it doesn't let me comment on any of the posts.  I have even left Reader and gone directly to the blog/website and it still doesn't let me post.  I've tried several different sites and I always get rejected.  Is it because I have a messaging phone and not a smart phone?  Probably.  But I'm not likely to get a smart phone anytime soon.

I just wanted to say to all the bloggers I follow, thanks for the great reads!

Gathering Dust: The Top Ten Books That Have Been On My Shelf The Longest

I want to read all of these books, I really do.  For some reason, I've never gotten around to it.  Hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, here are the top ten books that have been sitting on my shelf a very long time and have never been read.

1. The Sweet Hereafter, by Russell Banks - Purchased for a class in first year university and I never got around to reading it for the class.  Because of the class I know what it's about and I can't bring myself to start it.

2. Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand - Purchased for a class in second year university, then I changed my mind and read something else.

3. Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller - I saw it and thought it was a good purchase, while in University, after reading The Crucible. 

4. The Green Mile Part 5 and 6, by Stephen King - The Green Mile was originally published as a six part serial.  I got these for my birthday in high school.  The girls who gave them to me knew I read Stephen King, but who gives you the fifth and sixth book in a series?

5. Possession, by A.S. Byatt - Purchased in high school on a recommendation.  I remember not being able to get into it.  I've heard good things since and should try it again.

6. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson - Bought I think around the 8th grade.  I had been reading books like Tom Sawyer and Anne of Green Gables.  I don't know why I never got around to this one.

7. The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I saw it around the end of university and thought it would be a good idea to read it. 

8. Fury, by Salman Rushdie - I saw this on sale while in university and had learned about who Salman Rushdie was, so I picked it up.

9. True at First Light, by Ernest Hemingway - I had recently read Men Without Women, saw this on sale and wanted to read more Hemingway.  I still want to read more Hemingway.

10. The Orange Girl, by Jostein Gaarder - I loved Sophie's World and started buying more books by Gaarder as I came across them.  I've read two other of his novels since, but this one keeps getting put off.

What books do you have gathering dust?

Out and About: Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone for Top Ten Tuesday

This week The Broke and The Bookish are asking what books you’ve read that were outside your comfort zone.

Another late in the day post, but this is the only chance I’ve gotten in the last few days to type it up. I wrote down the name of the books while feeding my baby boy in the middle of the night. It took me a few of those late nights/early mornings to get it all down (I'm often very drowsy). I do have to say that I have a big comfort zone. I’m an eclectic reader, as you can see from my blog. Therefore, some of these books are going back ten or more years to when it didn’t occur to me to read books other than literary fiction and the occasional horror or sci-fi.

1. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson - It's a mystery.  I don't really read mysteries.  In general, they just don't appeal to me.  This book was also really hyped up and I tend to shy away from books with a lot of hype.  In the end, I loved it.
 
2.  Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, by J.K. Rowling - It was super-hyped.  It was also written for kids and I couldn't understand why so many people were reading it.  I didn't think I would like it when I borrowed my boyfriend's (now my husband) copy of the book.  I LOVE this series.
 
3.  Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer - Another super-hyped book.  I would never have read it if my friends at work hadn't handed me the book and said, read it!  I have to admit that I was definitely addicted.  It also opened me up to reading more Young Adult novels.  Up until Twilight, the only YA I'd read was Harry Potter.  If I didn't read Twilight I most likely would never have read The Hunger Games or Wither.
 
4.  The Dark Tower:  The Gunslinger Born, by Stephen King etc. - This was my first Graphic Novel.  I didn't read Graphic Novels before this, but I love the Dark Tower series, so if there was a Graphic Novel, I was going to read it.  I'm so glad I did.  I've read several Graphic Novels sinces and not all of them are Dark Tower related.
 
5.  A Short History of Myth, by Karen Armstrong - I had never really read non-fiction except for philosophy.  I really enjoyed this little book and it made me want to read more by this author.
 
6.  The Crystal Shard, by R.A. Salvatore - Salvatore is my husband's favourite author, so I had to read him.  This was my first Drizzt book and my first foray into Dungeons and Dragons style fantasy.  It was great.  I love Drizzt and have read more about him in the years since I read this book.
 
7.  Undead and Unappreciated, by MaryJanice Davidson - I picked up this book without realizing it was the third in a series.  I read it and really enjoyed it, so I picked up the first two books.  Now I've read up to book seven, I think.  I also would never have read the Sookie Stackhouse books if I didn't start this series first.  In one of the books there's and exerpt of the fourth Sookie book.  So Davidson's vampire series made me read Harris's.  I love them both.
 
I couldn't make it to ten.  I had a hard time making it to seven.  I'm not actually sure number seven actually counts, but I'm keeping it in anyway.  Do you read outside your comfort zone?

Breastfeeding In Public

I came across this post at amused, bemused and confused, which then links to a story about a man from Illinois who kicked a woman out of his shop for breastfeeding.  His reason?  "Christian's come in here."  Really?  That's the reason.  Having recently had my second child, I can safely say, that while I try to be as descreet as possible, I will breastfeed anywhere. Click below to see what I'm talking about.

The Christians Seem Fine With It, To Be Honest « amused, bemused and confused

I don't usually post a lot of personal stuff, but this argument struck a nerve with me.

For The Doctor Who Fans...

Thank you to whoever it was who leaked these videos.


http://youtu.be/giaMRyn47Xg


http://youtu.be/3s4Czla6tXc

I found them here: Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

Roots, Day #1 or Letting My Baby Be A Teaching Tool

Roots of Empathy is a book by Mary Gordan in which she talks about creating empathy in young children. Somehow, I am now participating in this program with my son. You can read more about it here. (If you do, you’ll probably know more about it than me. My children never let me get around to reading all the literature given to me.) Every three weeks or so, starting November 2nd until around the end of May, I will be bringing my son into a kindergarten class so that the children there can visit with him, ask questions and learn about his development.

I don’t know if I didn’t pay enough attention when this was explained to me or I was too busy try to soothe my infant while keeping track of my toddler or what was going on with me. I thought there was going to be at least one other mother in the class.  Nope, just me. Well I’m committed now and I thought that since this is based on a book and an interesting program so far, that I would write a little blog entry after each class.

This first class was basically a welcome class. The kids sang a welcome song to my son, it was super cute.  Then they sat in a circle so they could look at him and ask me questions. Much of this was practiced the week before. They asked what he could do and couldn’t do at his age (almost 4 months). We (the instructor and I) measured him, so they could see how much he grows from visit to visit. They wanted to know what he ate. It was a lot of talking and trying to sift through all of it to give them answers. Kindergarteners are crazy! Many of them are hyper and want to know everything and ask you the same questions ten different ways. I was only there for about forty minutes, but so much happened. Even in that time, I could tell which kids where the more outgoing ones and which ones were more shy. They all seem interested and enjoyed having the baby there. They even have a picture of him up in there class! It was cute and kind of fun. I’m looking forward to the next class.


(I know this isn't a ton of information, but it's all I have time for today.)