How fancy are you? Fancy reader...fancy.

I think people pass around this kind of thing, so they can boast about how well read they are. And so, I give you my list.

Have you read more than six of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

This woman is SO me.

Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety. Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt.



1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling   

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible (Working on it!)

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (I tried, but I kind of hate it. I'm still going to try again though- I want to love it and I don't give up easily)

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

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 

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (I read part of this in H.S. and at the time I was too lazy to really read all of it, I intend to read it eventually)

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

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

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

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

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

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac (I'm going to agree with Truman Capote here, "That's not writing, it's typing."

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

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

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (Sooooo boring)

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

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

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

This makes me SO excited to read more classics!

Delightful things!

Well it has been a while, but one of my loves is still a love: list making! Today's list, 10 things that are delightful.

Biblecats.com calender image

1. White kidney bean magic!!! I recently learned a beautiful  replacement for butter in cookies! When making chocolate chip cookies, and I'm going to go out on a limb and assume this applies to most cookies- replace the butter with pureed white kidney beans!!! My next adventure will involve garbanzo beans! Now I know you're probably saying, NASTY!!! But they're SO yummy!!! I will say this, you can taste the beans in the dough, but once they're baked- the beans are gone! And everyone who had some liked them! Here's my favorite recipe (Mrs. Field recipe):

1 c. butter -1 cup pureed white beans (I used a food processor)
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
2 1/2 c. oatmeal, ground in blender (this ingredient is a must, and a food processor works great, or you can buy oat flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
12 oz. chocolate chips (go for the milk chocolate Ghirardelli chips!)

Cream butter and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix in flour, oatmeal, baking powder and soda. Stir in chips and Hershey bar. Bake 7-10 minutes at 375 degrees.

Yum yum yum- I'm inspired to find other healthier replacements!

2. Students. My students say the funniest things! Whether they're asking me, "Are you married? How old are you? Why are you single?" Or, "Did you make your hair today? Did you know Carson is a girl? He plays with dolls and sings like a girl! (Response from Carson:) I am! I half boy, and half girl," my students are always entertaining me!

I love this video! These are not my students, but I experience this caliber of pure kid genius daily!

3. My Christmas tree! Shelly helped my decorate it, and yes- those are all my ornaments!

Tree. Homemade paper stocking for Brangelina and the kids, my roommates, Shelly, and...me. Shelly's masterfully crafted mistletoe above the front door.

4. RACQUETBALL!!!!

5. CAR DANCING/KARAOKE

6. DANCING!!!

7. GOOD man hair. You know- the kind you wouldn't get your fingers stuck in, but the kind that you'd certainly want to run said fingers through. I'm talking kitten soft forearm and chest cuddle clouds. I'm talking the kind of beard that massages your face like butterfly kisses from a gay Pegasus who bathes in vats of sunshine lotion. "Si, azul...EXACTAMENTE!"

8. This next delightful item is something I've most definitely blogged or mentioned before: Great Lake Swimmers. I LOVE THEM. P.S. Perfect Christmas gift- I've only got Bodies and Minds, I want their other CDs. When I was making breakfast this morning I had my itunes on shuffle and this song came on. I thought to myself, "This music is heaven...it's like drinking in some warm heaven, and if it were summer it would be like drinking in cool heaven." Unfortunately the leads singer seems to have shaved his beautiful beard off for this video. Also, I don't love this video, especially compared to their other videos- but the song still rocks.

9. Feeling in control of my body. So, as I previously blogged about, I went on a sugar fast. Yes I ate fruit, fruit is SUPER vital. Anyway, I didn't have sweets or deserts etc. for three weeks before thanksgiving, with the exception of the Harry Potter party because my friend Anne made delicious home made treats. However, though delicious they may have been, it made me feel awful eating all of that sugar! When Thanksgiving rolled around I for sure had some Egg Nog (I love it!), and some pie- but in contrast to previous years, I had a few pieces (rather than 15 pieces of something terrible like that). Now that the Holiday has passed and I have about three weeks until Christmas break I feel rededicated to eat less, if any, sugar. If something looks terribly wonderful, I will eat it. But if someone says, "Want a Zinger?" I can confidently say, "No thank you," because guess what? I don't like Zingers, and I'm only eating sugar if it's really worth it!

10. My dad's nub. I know it's gone forever, but we love it! The nub is where it's at.

When my dad was born his mother had the German Measles. He had a heart defect since birth and Forrest Gump style leg braces. He was born with his fingers on his right hand fused together, and after many painful surgeries, he ended up with the nub. I'm happy that thanks to the resurrection he wont be stuck with the nub forever, and that his spirit is whole- but that doesn't mean I can't love the nub.

So there you have, 10 delightful things in my delightful life. Isn't it delightful...delightful like a viking riding on the wings of a tempest.

Old Newspaper Editorial

So whilst looking for the Chris Garneau CD review, I happened upon this editorial I wrote for the Paladin (Southern Virginia University's newspaper/news magazine). Surprise, it's about dating. Ha! And the funny thing is, in the editorial I talk about girls needing to chill out, because flirting doesn't mean eternity or even a date...so here's the funny part. I had a crush on a fellow Paladin staff member who I loved to flirt with (NO I'm not talking about the great bobblehead here)and I was always mad he wouldn't ask me out! I'd say, "Why does he flirt with me! He shouldn't flirt with me and not ask me out!" But in this editorial I say, flirting doesn't mean dating...do you catch my drift here? Oh well, hypocrisy is kinda my thing sometimes. Enjoy my poorly written rambling, most likely written to impress men, but as usual- impressed no one.

"It starts with an apostle. He says, “Go on dates! Ask girls out! Lots and lots of dates.” So the men “Follow the Prophet” and go on dates.

 Then the women gossip, “Bobby is such a player! He’s gone on 3 dates in the last month!” Then men find out girls are labeling him as a player. The men don’t want to be labeled as players; so, like men, they go cold turkey and stop asking girls out all together. Lay off ladies; when you discourage guys from dating they stop asking us out.

 According to the Mormon vernacular a player is defined as: play·er \ˈplā-ər\ –noun 1. A person who kisses (this includes any kind of kiss, make-out or otherwise) several different people in a short amount of time. 2. Someone who says I love you to different partners frequently.

Being a player is not okay. It may seem like a sweet rollercoaster of titillation for the player, but the poor sap that got played it’s like having to listen to Ashlee Simpson for eternity; no good. 

At SVU the typical dating pattern seems to be: boy meets girl, boy develops friendship with (but never actually dates) girl, boy proposes to girl, boy and girl marry (usually within 3 months of engagement or initial meeting). 

We’re skipping an important step here people, dating. Elder Dallin H. Oaks said, “Simple and more frequent dates allow both men and women to “shop around” in a way that allows extensive evaluation of the prospects.”

Shopping around and playing are not the same thing. A date should be a non-committal activity. Elder Oaks explains, “the more elaborate and expensive the date, the fewer the dates… this seems to create an expectation that a date implies seriousness or continuing commitment. That expectation discourages dating even more.”

People need to chill out. Just because a guy asks you on a date it doesn’t mean he’s automatically your eternal companion. Players are bad because they just want to please themselves, they don’t care about the ones they play. Shopping around is just a way to get to know people.

The typical dating pattern at SVU should be: boy meets girl, boy asks girl out and develops friendship with girl, boy and girl date for at least more than one month, boy proposes to girl, boy and girl marry (after at least 4 months of engagement).

            It’s a nasty spiral that poisons every aspect of the romance well. On one hand the women are making the men too afraid to breathe; on the other hand, the men are big cowards who need to use their testosterone and buck up.

“Men, if you have returned from your mission and you are still following the boy-girl patterns you were counseled to follow when you were 15, it is time for you to grow up. Gather your courage and look for someone to pair off with… Men have the initiative, and you men should get on with it.” Elder Oaks sums it up nicely.          

Text me,

Sherona"

PS. My cartoon was called My Sherona, like the song, and that's why it's signed, "Sherona"

Chris Garneau

SO CREEPY. SO AMAZING!

I'm glad Chirs Garneau has taken a liking to music videos- with his first album they were more of just performance videos...these are so creative. And his voice is still like Sprite bubbles!


Wahoo, all of this new Chris Garneau has inspired me to pull out the CD review I did for his cd, Music For Tourists, in 2006. Here ya go:
"Chris Garneau’s debut album, “Music for Tourists”: a mixture of mello-happy and the kind of sad it’s nice to be.

I’m thinking light pink jell-O and butterflies. With a voice that makes you feel like you’re swimming in sprite, Chris Garneau’s album is perfect for slowly sliping the hours away.

I’d even go as far as to suggest scheduling a “special time” on your Saturdays, under a tree with Garneau, or better yet save him for those unexpected morsels of time we students find here and there. This album makes you breath slower and deeper, resulting in an invaluable calm.

Now don’t get me wrong, even though he plays the piano (and has been since he was five years old) Garneau doesn’t go all “Coldplay” on you and repeat the same song 13 times, but you can indeed put “Music for Tourists” on and expect your blood pressure to drop a few points.

A self-proclaimed “avid lampshade collector”, and lover of steak and treats, Garneau will woe your heart in an instant. Whether that instant is when he angelically sings about Hamburger Helper or a more meaningful topic like sorrow, the instant will come. Most generically described as acoustic-indie-folk, “Music for Tourists” is composed of soft piano, supported by cello, bass, violin and more.

Some of Garneau’s favorite things to listen to include, Elliot Smith, The Velvet Underground, Nike Drake and The Sister Act soundtrack. Like his tastes in music Garneau keeps things interesting, it’s not just 30 minutes of, “I love you baby, I love you” playing over and over. No, Chris does not create the comatose, but rather he mollifies.

So next time you need a break, forget about your old Spice World soundtrack and pop in the new Chris Garneau album, “Music for Tourists”.

The album comes out January 23, 2007, but you can purchase it now from Absolutely Kosher. For more information on Chris check out: www.chrisgarneau.com or www.myspace.com/chrisgarneau."

Surfing the Asthmatic Kitty Website

http://asthmatickitty.com/

Rafter Roberts- I don't love his solo music, but I can't deny his style. Look at his PERFECT hair cut! And the glasses and the background- love it. But really, I DON'T like his music. And his song "Paper" just goes off saying the F bomb over and over- I thought Asthmatic Kitty Records was started by Sufjan, the uber Christian...and I mean, who cares I guess, but it caught me off guard. Why can't this Rafter fellow have music as good as his hair?! I judged this book by it's cover- and it was a good book. But then I read the book and it was the beginning of Wurthering Heights mixed with the ending of Vanity Fair.

FAIL.  

Now take this fellow Asthmatic Kitty, DM Stith. Not so fabulous as Rafter on the outside- but he's a little more Narnia (during the Aslan years) on the inside. I like his fuzzy shawl thing though...

Though my plans to convert Sufjan Stevens to the Mormon church, and then marry him were foiled at his concert last Monday- I'm keeping the dream alive. Haha, creepy much? Hayley can marry Josh Groban, and I will have Sufjan- now that would be an interesting musical mix!

Sugar fast

I've recently decided to do a sugar fast. Sugar consumes my life! I have a serious addiction- and it's not exactly helping my mood, appetite, or waist line. So it gone with sugar...at least until Thanksgiving, I'm not giving up pie! So it's 3 weeks with no sugar, and then all of December to be a holiday treat glutton!

The thing to keep in mind is that sugar isn't the enemy- overuse and imbalance are the enemies. Normally sugar not too big of a deal for me because I don't eat a lot of processed food- but it's been tough this fall. Everywhere I go there is sugar- work, school, church- all of the places I go, people are shoving free pie and candy in my face. FREE PIE!

Sugar here, sugar there- no big deal, right? Wrong, pretty soon sugar here and sugar there becomes sugar everywhere! So the point is, I'm taking a break, no sugar until my mom's homemade Thanksgiving pies!
So, I've not had sugar for 4 days now...and guess what, I have less insane food cravings, vegetables and fruit taste better, I'm drinking more water, and I've shed 5 pounds! Intense. I guess sugar is good, but it doesn't taste as good as I feel. Now...I'm not saying, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels," because I hate that saying! Skinny doesn't make you happy, healthy makes you happy- and those are two different things. I don't want a body made of thin, or air, or thin air...I want a body made of fruit, veggies, whole grains, water, and hummus!

Speaking of fasts...I've been thinking. There is something else I need to fast from, call it an early lent X2 this year- I'm fasting from judging others (or at least I'm going to try,  it's a lot easier to fast from physical vices, rather than mental, spiritual, or emotional vices).

Lately I keep telling myself that it's easy to pick people apart when I don't know them. I'd say to myself, "It's one thing to gossip about people you know; it doesn't matter if I judge people I don't know." But the truth is, it's been eating me from the inside out. It's no longer a sin of omission, but rather commission, when you do something and feel the pricks of the spirit telling you it's wrong- but you keep doing it anyway. There's no way around it, it's wrong. So, I'm cutting it out of my life the best I can.
Each time I think something negative about someone, especially based on appearance, I should think of the good things I can see, and the good things I can imagine. They aren't fictional characters that i can analyze and pick apart, people are people- and I should love them. Considering how often my initial perceptions of people are wrong- you'd think I'd learn not to judge people on appearance...but this is life, and I wont be perfect when I wake up in the morning. I just have to be grateful I wake up at all, and love people.
Spurring my desire to purge myself of unrighteous judgments, was President Thomas S. Monson's talk from the last General Relief Society  Meeting:  

http://new.lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/charity-never-faileth?lang=eng

Everything is about balance, but sometimes- we just have to rid what we've made vice temporarily, and sometimes we must rid it completely. Wish me luck, or better yet, love me, and love everyone.

Halloween costumes- life costumes

It seems I cannot escape my true nature...I'm a bee.

Here I am in my Easter Bee hat- this is definitely going to part of my Halloween costume next year

Every year it's the same thing...I have these grand aspirations to be Margot Tenenbaum, a zombie artist, a Pegasus, a black widow...but it all ends the same every year- I'm a bee.

Here I am last year...as a bee, with my baby bumble bee

Perhaps next year I should give up the charade, and just start out as a bee. You see, I usually do wear a different costume to start out. This year I was a zombie for a party the week before Halloween. Last year I was a Pegasus (most people thought I was an anime character...) and Margot Tenenbaum. But I think it's time, time to just be a bee.

Her costume is way more Blind Melon than mine

I love my bee costume though...I've had it since the 7th grade! (I don't get how it still fits...but it does). Maybe I should start working on the ultimate bee, the Blind Melon bee...but no, I love my bee costume. It's kinda like a potato sack...the stingers worn from all the children pulling on it over the year (it's held together by a safety pin)...there's a spot where I put a banana sticker, then washed it, and now the glue is there to stay (I always put a pin on it, this year it's a flower.

It's not just bees. I love bugs. Here are some inspiration bugs for my art I did at SVU

This was one of the many pet spiders I've had over the years. He would put all of his kills in a straight line, and then nestle himself in the middle- like a string of pearls.

Here I am in one of my childhood bee dresses. And those are my favorite sun glasses I've ever had

Here's a wasp woodcut I did a few years ago- click the photo for a link

I've always loved bees...when I was a kid I collected bee stuff. I've always loved bugs, but bees were my favorite...Maybe I should marry an entomologist...what a dream come true! My room was decorated with bee paraphernalia...I had clothing with bees on it...and even in my undergraduate, my senior art show was a collection of insect paintings and prints! Maybe that's why it felt so unfulfilled- there were no bee prints.

Notice my bee shirt? I'm the one looking down on the right, I'm in a white dress with my favorite bee shirt.

 But it's not just my Halloween costume I've been thinking about. It's my entire IDENTITY. I'm, not questioning it, actually I'm pretty good with the identity thing at the moment...but I've been thinking. You are what people tell you you are. You are what you tell you you are. You are what you tell people you are. If people tell you you're something enough, it wont be long before you'll convince yourself that you really are what they've said.

 I think that happens a lot. Like, my whole life people have told me I'm weird...so I accepted the role they gave me...then when I accepted, and even enjoyed that role, people got mad at me for it. They'd say things like, "You just like saying you're weird, " or, "You just want attention..." etc. But I don't know, people told me I was something, that turned into me accepting their opinion of me, and so I became that- weird. 

 
It's like this episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I wont deny it, I like the show- it's like hormone pumped Power Rangers on crack)- this girl at Buffy's school is ignored by everyone. Students, teachers, no one even knows she exists- and eventually she just disappears! Well, I wont go into the details, but basically she becomes invisible and seeks revenge on those who ignored her. The point is, everyone treated her like she was invisible, and so she became invisible. 
Okay...so that's a fictional example- but I know this girl ("Is this real life?" Yes it is.), she constantly says things like, "Oh, well I'm just the meanest person alive..you know me, I'm a real jerk...you know me, because I'm so good looking (lay on the thickest sarcasm you can imagine here)...oh well, because everyone looooooves me," and so on. I'm not going to lie, I usually want to punch her when she says this crap. I mean, I've never once said anything to her that puts her down- I DON'T NEED TO, SHE'S GOT IT COVERED. grr. I mean, she tells everyone she's awful, so you know what? Everyone thinks she's awful- it's a vicious cycle.
I could go on, citing more examples of people who are "gay," fat, ugly, stupid etc. etc.- but the thing is, maybe if everyone hadn't told them they were those things all their lives, or maybe if they hadn't told everyone they were those things (can we say faulty defense mechanisms here?!)- people wouldn't think they were those things, and maybe they wouldn't be those things. Woah, run-on sentence that I'm too lazy to fix.


"I don't hate you because you're fat, you're fat because I hate you."

frick frackin' bee.