This Girl Does Not Live By Monopoly Alone!

 

“...no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.” 

 
~Julia Child

  My Life in France

 

I wasn't just playing Monopoly yesterday, I also made Chicken Cordon Bleu. It's so easy, and fun, and if I may say so myself, mine is delicious! There, I said it! I tooted my own horn, and that's okay! One should brag on things they do well, but before I go any further I will cop to the fact that all it took was being able to read 30 years ago! I couldn't boil water when I go married, my mother had no clue about what to cook, ever, so I was pretty much on my own. What I wanted from life was to be married, with the eventuality of children. I needed to learn to cook first, so that my babies would get off to a healthy beginning. Alas, we never had children but I did learn too cook. I have some specialties, which is really simply my spin on some basic dishes. My 30lb lasagna has some secrets to tell. My Chicken in Puff Pastry is definitely to our taste, and my Italian soup is really no big deal, mostly expected ingredients, but dear hubby looks forward to it! I am planning to make a, Sun-dried tomato and Kalamata olive Focaccia, one day soon. I miss using my breadmaker, but with Trump and the national election in full nonsense mode, I am sure it will get quite the workout.

Here is a pretty good Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe, and from a different site, a lovely accompanying sauce that raises taste of the dish to the next level. Experiment with it, and if you want to share, comeback and leave me a comment. I would love to hear about what you made!

 

 

 

Nah

 

"No one can tell what goes on in the between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of Hell. There are no maps of change.

 You just come out the other side. Or you don't."

 

~Stephen King

The Stand

 

The packing continues, of course, and it's going very well. We have finished packing the garage, and we threw a lot of stuff away. That felt really good, although I plan to throw even more away. once the final sorting takes place. Fortunately, there aren't many boxes and containers that are designated "to be determined". Objects come and go, but of all the treasures I own, books are the most difficult to part with! I know, I know, once they are read, why keep them? Well, it's simple, they are like friends you can contact, any time you need them. I love them. I love how heavy they are. How they look on the right shelf or bookcase. I especially love holding them in my hands, while I am reading in bed! Part with my books? Nah. I simply can't. Sorry... not sorry. I won't throw them away. I won't even donate them. I can't. They are my way out of this world. I love getting lost in them. It's a good feeling to know that after we move, my books will be waiting to be put back in their rightful place, and holding still, until it's time to be taken down and enjoyed on some chilly autumn afternoon to come.

 

~Me

August 27th 2021

Stockton, California

Being Human

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."

~Neil Gaiman

Coraline

If it's Thursday, that means this is the last full day things in the world will make sense, at least as much sense as it has up until now. 24 hours from now Barack Obama will leave office, and Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th President Of The United States, and any semblance to normality will completely change. Forever. I haven't decided yet whether I will just sleep all day, or get drunk by noon and stay that way, or if I will just drift off into what I think of as the abyss, the allowing my brain the complete and total shutdown of the following of any news, politics, science or the research about any of the things I feel/felt that mattered. In other words... completely giving up.

My world isn't just about politics and news of the day. I love reading about fashion. I love music, so much so, that Alan routinely complains about the volume of noise coming from my office. I like to read too. Biographies. The plays of Neil Simon. Anything by Alice Hoffman, Mary Higgins Clark and Susan Issacs. Reading has brought me a great deal of happiness and peace. I fell in love with it as a small child, and at one time I considered writing, or perhaps journalism, but it wasn't to be. As disappointed as I was, I still had reading as a hobby, and I have ran to it many times when either the world got too loud and stupid, or my own head noise was too loud and stupid.

I am back there right now, and both the world and my own head is nothing but stupid noise. We are about to cross into some dark territory, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. Some supporters of Trump are already having regrets about voting for him, and as funny as that can be, it is also frustrating and infuriating. To be able to say, "I told you so" is really of little help... no, actually, it doesn't help at all. Trump is the 45th President Of The United States, and it's horrible. It's frightening. It's wrong. And... IT'S REAL. Sure, history will put a little (  *  ) next to his name because of Putin's involvement, but by the time his administration is over, will it matter? Will we even still be a nation by that time?

I don't know. 

So, because I have NO idea what comes next, I have decided to adjust my thinking as a way of caring for my frayed nerves, at least for this weekend. I am going to turn the noise off, and curl up with a book this weekend, and when I do it will be with this old book/friend, Making Minty Malone, by Isabel Wolff. Minty is a little bit Bridget Jones, and a little bit Carrie Bradshaw and a little bit of a every girl, everywhere.

I don't want to give too much away, but it's a fun lighthearted read, that frankly I couldn't put down the first time I read it, which, by the way, was back in 2000! I love Minty, and her misadventures. She is written as very human, and who can't identify with that? Being human is something I know about very well, pitfalls, missteps and embarrassing moments and all. I was very pleased to find a hardcover edition on Amazon last week, and it was only .99 cents + shipping! 

It's healthy to turn off the noise from time to time.

Right?

I think I will be doing a lot of reading in the near future, but one sure bet... I won't be reading the Art Of The Deal anytime soon. 

Mood: Contemplative

~Me

 

 

Reading On A Dark Sunny Autumn Day...

"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements

 will never do any harm to the world."

~Voltaire

I was doing a lot of thinking under this gorgeous tree the other day. Mostly depressing myself, and whining about what was. But I also did some musing about who I wouldn't have to worry about running into anymore. Boy do I have a knack for that. I could go on vacation, probably to some out of the way, exotically horrific place, like downtown Baghdad, and there he would be... Mr. November. Unexpectedly. Poof... a giant part of my life, right there, in front of me, and there I would be... helpless... praying a bomb would just hit me already! But really, I ask you, why would I plan a vacation to Iraq? Not very likely. But also unlikely is the remote chance that Mr. November will jump out at me here in Stockton! That's a definite plus to moving here! My thoughts the other afternoon made me smile in the middle of all that dwelling and contemplation. Of course now that I have said there is NO chance of running into him, I probably will, but we will worry about that if and when it ever happens. 

But while I was sitting under the tree I did think about other things, like how much I used to enjoy packing a water, a small snack, and a book, and sitting  in this very park reading, especially this time of year! I would get all my photography out of the way, then crack open my latest read, and just lose myself in the pages. I suddenly realized that it has been nearly a year since I read a book! That is a strange circumstance for me. I have been a voracious reader my whole life. It's one of the many things I always had in common with Alan. We love sharing books with each other! That's how we both became fans of Dean Koontz. Alan loved Stephen King, and one day I decided to help him broaden his horizon's by buying him something of the same genre, by a different author! The book was Dragon Tears, and he loved it, so the next one I bought him was this one...

He really enjoyed it, but I never got around to reading it, so when I saw it a box I was unpacking the other day, I knew it was about time I did! So today, I will open it and just jump right back into myself. Well, a little more of myself anyway! Is there anything like getting back to who you are? I need to kick up some leaves, eat some cheese, and do some reading.

 It's a start... right?

Leaf Of The Day

November 8th 2015

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Art About Town: Pleasanton, California, "Leap" By Artist Yoshio Taylor

"All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on."

~Henry Ellis



Letting go, and holding on. Yes. That is the true process of living a life isn't it? I have always been someone that was stubbornly reluctant to let go... of anything! Well, there were some small exceptions along the way, such as the letting go of our 2007 Saturn ION last week, but I tell you what, it really does take extreme circumstances for me to walk away. 

One thing I never managed to walk away from was my love of reading! And really, why would I want to? Oh I have gone moderate amounts of time without picking up a new book, but mostly because I couldn't bring myself to remove to the storage room the tall towers of books I had already read! Each of them, in their own ways, had become a dear and comforting friend. And so with the books, as with my friends, I only leave when I am told to do so.

That's just me. 

Thank goodness a good book will never kick you to the curb, tell you that you aren't good enough, or religious enough, or too religious, or that it no longer feels superior to you. No. A good book takes you on vacation, without all the pesky travel costs, or unnecessary airport lines. Books. They are some of the best friends I have ever had.

So, you can see why this sculpture is a favorite of mine... right?


Mood: Happy

~Me :)

A Little Light Summer Reading (Rated PG-13) Strong Language

"Winston Smith: Does Big Brother exist?
O'Brien: Of course he exists.
Winston Smith: Does he exist like you or me?
O'Brien: You do no exist."

~George Orwell, 1984

Given recent events I thought it was about time I read 1984. I had a chance to do so, when I was in high school, but didn't. It was in a list of books we could read to complete our literature course, but I didn't choose it because my father had referenced it many times in our political conversations, and I felt I knew the plot. LOL. Silly me. When I was in high school there were computers, of course, I'm not quite that old, but given the brouhaha over the Nixon tapes, and countless references  thereof in TV, movies, and literature, I foolishly thought American's would safe from being spied upon by our own government. I wish I would have thought that one through. Anyway, while it comes as no real surprise that a government program like Prism exists, I don't feel any safer. If this highly successful government program is such a smashing success, why were 26 souls... 20 children... 6 adults killed in Newtown? If our government is doing such a good job keeping us safe, why were two young men, able to carry out an act of terrorism at the Boston Marathon a couple months ago?

I don't buy... "It's for your own good."

9/11 was the worst day for America, since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

In the days after 9/11 we were told our freedom was attacked. We say Thank You to members of the armed services for "protecting our freedom."

If we continue to compromise what freedom means to us, we will no longer have any freedom to worry about. What happens then? When you close your eyes, and imagine that world, what do you see? Smell? Hear? Where does compromising freedom end? Do you have a specific tipping point? Is there a line that shouldn't be crossed?

Sarah Palin agrees with me... FUCK ME!

"Don't you see the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the language of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it."

~George Orwell, 1984

Is the conversation, if there is one, an honest one? Half of congress claims that even they didn't know how far reaching the Patriot Act went. I guess all the wiretapping stuff was in the fine print.We are being told that if we had the Prism project in place prior to 9/11 we might have been able to prevent it. I can't help but wonder about what we found out about 9/11 in the official 9/11 Report. Didn't it say that the system had been blinking red? We also found out that President George W. Bush had neglected to read a file titled... "Bin Laden Determined To Attack." Hmmm... Could his having read THAT REPORT maybe saved us that day?

I read on Salon the other day, that sales of George Orwell's 1984, at Amazon.com, were up by as much as 5,000 Percent. In particular, the Centennial Edition. I bought the 60th Anniversary Edition. Hmmm... up 5,000 percent... not bad for a book written in 1949.

"Then the face of Big Brother faded away again and instead the three slogans of the party stood out in bold capitals:

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"

~George Orwell, 1984

Mood: Quiet

~Me

A Photo A Day For 6 Months: Day 94~ What The Duck?

"With a rubber duck, one's never alone."

~Unknown

"She's a few feathers short of a full duck."

~Unknown 

The presumptive GOP nominee, Williard "Mitt" Romney has chosen Paul Ryan for his V.P. pick. So? So, I thought I would care more than I do. Paul Ryan, who is plenty polarizing mind you, just doesn't bring out the same kind of ire Sarah Palin did in me. I know. I know. Give it time. It's not like Ryan hasn't pissed me off from time to time. YES HE DID, and while it's there, there is also a strange kind of ... of... competence that he exudes that makes me at least a little less frightened that if Mitt Romney is elected, and God forbid should pass away in office, that we would be thrust into an apocalyptic mood swing of a crazy person. Ummm... woman. Ummm... person.

Is it possible for women to be sexist against her own gender?

Hmmm.

I wish I knew what to think. In August, 4 years ago, I was still smarting from Hillary Clinton's primary loss to Barack Obama, when along came Simple Sarah. I believe I described John McCain's choosing her as...any old vagina in a wind storm... or something to that effect. I didn't come to that conclusion on the first day of her introduction to the national political stage, it wasn't even after the interview she did with Charlie Gibson of ABC News. No, it came somewhere around her disastrous interview with Katie Couric. Who knew Katie Couric would be the one to ask the toughest question of the presidential campaign...

Katie Couric..."And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this — to stay informed and to understand the world?"

Sarah Palin... "I’ve read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media, coming f—"

Katie Couric... "But like which ones specifically? I’m curious that you—"

Sarah Palin... "Um, all of 'em, any of 'em that, um, have, have been in front of me over all these years. Um, I have a va—"

Katie Couric... "Can you name a few?"

Sarah Palin... "I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news too. Alaska isn't a foreign country, where, it's kind of suggested and it seems like, 'Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C. may be thinking and doing when you live up there in Alaska?' Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America."

That was it. Right there. Sigh.

"Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck leads the flock to fly and follow."

~Chinese Proverb 

Barack Obama was spreading HOPE. Who couldn't use a little hope after enduring 8 years of the Bush presidency?

Barack Obama was spreading CHANGE. Who didn't want that, after the incompetence of 8 years of the Bush presidency?

Barack Obama was spreading the possibility of the country being whole again, and who didn't want that after 8 years of the Bush presidency?

Obama had a lot to spread. And while it felt like a huge stone was being lifted off my shoulders, I wasn't ever particularly impressed with him. Our house had solidly supported Hillary Clinton, but when Hillary lost the nomination to Obama, she asked her supporters to get behind Obama... and we did. Hope sounded good. Change sounded especially good. And competency would have been especially good... if only it would have actually happened.

Don't get me wrong. No one in the Obama administration is Bush level incompetent, but I have some serious questions about how Obama arrives at the decisions he does. Shrug. Honestly, I don't know why anyone on the republican side of politics would want anyone else in the White House. Obama has caved so often, I don't know how he can still say he is a democrat. Not much of what he promised as candidate Obama has materialized. And he still seems obsessed with pursuing the fantasy of bi-partisan politics.

"Always behave like a duck... keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath."

~Jacob Braude

It's pretty telling that the current Obama/Biden campaign slogan is... "Barack Obama... Are you in?" "Stand With Barack And Joe." "Forward."

In 2008 it was all about YES WE CAN.

4 years later it seems... NO WE COULDN'T.

What the DUCK?

~ME :(

Reading Wicked...

"A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it."

-William Styron, interview, Writer's At Work, 1958

The play "Wicked" is once again in San Francisco, at the Orpheum theater, and I would love to see it, but with the two furloughed days being taken out of Alan's check twice a month, it means that we are losing about $400 monthly. It's really not a good time to spend money on the theater, which is sad not just for us, but for the performers who are facing this recession right along with the rest of us. But just for the sake of argument, I took a look at the schedule to see if maybe we could go in a few months, and it turns out that if we went in June, a couple days before my birthday, to a matinee, it would be about $200 for two tickets, plus a convenience fee! We might be able to swing it, if we plan, but it doesn't seem like it is the most practical thing to do with our money, given the present circumstance.

Sigh.

Governor Schwarzenegger is planning on keeping the furlough days on the schedule until June of 2010! That's going to be hard on everyone. It will have the ripple effect of 238,000 state workers having even less to spend, but it's this or face the layoff notices of some 20,000 state employees. Alan has been in his job long enough that it is unlikely that he would be one of those facing a pink slip, but we know folks it could happen to, so everyone is just holding their breath and hoping for the best. Whatever that is. One thing is for sure, no one we know is spending money on trips to movies, let alone trips to broadway shows.

Sigh.

Oh well, I might not be able to see the play "Wicked" but I can read the book... right? I was just mentioning the other day it had been about 2 years since I had visited my favorite little book store, so I decided to drop in there and pick it up. I have always identified with the characters from the Wizard of Oz, particularly Dorothy, so why not jump back into the fantasy, this time as told from a different perspective, so I bought "Wicked, The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West" by Gregory Maguire, the book on which the play "Wicked" is based.

My reading usually consists of biographies, and non-fiction, the last book I read was Valerie Plame Wilson's book, Fair Game, I also enjoy reading mysteries, especially Mary Higgins Clark, and on occasion I read books with a humorous take on things such as "Bridget Jones' Diary" but fantasy isn't really a genre I have been too interested in. I read "The Hobbit" series when I was in high school, but that's been about it, well except for a few books by Alice Hoffman. "Practical Magic" remains on my desk as one of my favorite books of all time, but I think it will be having a little company with the book I am reading right now... I can't put it down.

"Wicked..." is a dark read. I will just say that. It turns out that the wicked witch of the west, and I, have a lot in common. I won't say what exactly, but I can identify... we'll leave it at that. What I will say is that she is a strong woman, who doesn't sit around waiting to be led... she makes decisions. She knows who she is, and makes no apologies. I admire that. :) I am about 2/3 of the way through, and I bought it a little over a week ago. I can't wait to buy more books in the series, because I want to find out what comes next. I always knew there just had to be more to the story. This book has been out for quite a while, and because of my reading snobbery I am only just now discovering it. MY BAD. Take it from me, if there is a genre of book you have been avoiding for whatever reason, take a step out of the norm and buy a book you might have never considered before, you never know what gem you might find!

If you haven't read it yet... go read it! If you have read it, tell me what you think! What was the last book you read? Do you have a favorite genre of book? If you have to choose one book to have the rest of your life, which book would it be?

Tell me everything! Let's talk books!

Wicked, The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West.

-Carly

Round Robin Challenge: Joy: What Makes Your Heart Happy

"Joy is the feeling of grinning inside."

-Melba Colgrove

RRC: Joy: What Makes Your Heart Happy?
Suggested by Wammy author of the blog, "The Ellis Family Cincinnati."

Joy, happiness, the heart. Those very subjects have been on my mind a lot recently. Partly because of the Go Red For Women movement, and yesterday was, Wear Red Day, but also Valentine's Day is just a week away, and the TV is absolutely saturated with sappy romantic movies, but also because one or two old loves have crossed my mind lately, one in a dream, the other was mentioned to me by a mutual acquaintance. Men! Sheesh. LOL.

But lets stay focused... shall we? What fills my heart with joy? Oh my, well, that's easy, because, you see, I love a variety of sights, sounds and experiences. My camera and I find adventure in photography. The camera can zoom in so close that I can see the tiny hairs on a bumble bee without disturbing it, or take me to the very top of the Golden Gate bridge, so I can see that funny little warning light that alerts the low flying aircraft, up close. It gives me little moments that last forever. Sounds great, right? It is, but sometimes I get a bit obsessive when I am on a roll with my photography, and sometimes I forget to step back into the real world.

The other day, someone mentioned that they hadn't seen me around for a while, and I realized it had been just about 2 years since I had visited my favorite book store. Can you believe it? I had been to book stores mind you, even bought a book or two, but it had been that long since I visited my favorite independent book seller. I hadn't even realized how long it had been, I was just moving on in life. You know? There is a strange disconnect in that I think. But you see, photography fills my heart, every single day, and sometimes there isn't much time for other activities. I am hoping to change that somewhat, by looking for more balance in life. Time for reading, time for photography, time for working out, time for playing with the new babies, and so on.

So, what has had me so busy the last couple years...

Egrets In Autumn...


Summer Days By The Pacific...

Sleeping Cats...


Public Art...
Butterflies Hitching A Ride On My Wrist...

Cold Stormy Days By The Golden Gate...

Night Photography At The Vista In Marin County...


Cats With Attitude...
Amazing Sunsets...

French Onion Soup On A Cold Night...

Homemade Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies...

Actually, Any Old Autumn Day Will Do...

All the things that fill my heart with joy!

:)

Any old autumn day can fill my heart with joy, but especially one that contains pumpkins! LOL. I actually still have 2 pumpkins in my living room right now, left over from last October. Still in good shape, still reminding me of how sensuous autumn is. Autumn makes fills my heart with joy, but so do lots of things, like old friends, and good books, my kittens and my husband. You know... photography has the ability to heal me like nothing else can!

;) How about you? What fills your heart with joy?

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else came up for this challenge.

Come Blog Jog With Me...

Linking List

Wammy... The Ellis Family Cincinnati
Posted!

Karen... Outpost Mavarin
Posted!

Monica... Click Shots
Posted!

Gwenlyn... Greenchair
Posted!

Carly... Ellipsis
Posted!

Suzanne R... SuzyQ421's Photo Blog
Posted!

Kathy... Through The Viewfinder
Posted!

Gattina... Keyhole Pictures
Posted!

Yecap... Camera Obscura
Posted!

Sherrie... Sherrie's Stuff
Posted!

MavisMolly... Holly On The Run
**Welcome New Member** Posted!

Mojo... Why? What Have You Heard?
**Welcome New Member** Posted!

Marina... Milepebbles
Posted!

Valerie... Rosemary's Other Baby
Posted!

Dawn... Dawn's Drivel
Posted!

Jama... Sweet Memories


maryt/theteach... Work of the Poet
Posted!

Tj... Tj's Photo Expressions
Posted!

Teena... It's all about Me!
Posted!

Ourhomeschool... Through The Eye Of My Camera
Posted!

Saffron... CV Photographs... Do You See What I See?
Posted!

Be sure to visit the official Round Robin blog on Sunday, to learn the subject of our next challenge!

Oh, and about the main photo above. You may have read on my blog about how I am hopelessly addicted to Starbuck's, yes, it's true. My favorite drink is the Shaken Ice Tea Lemonade (passion tea) and my favorite snack is the Fruit & Cheese platter. YUM!


Thank you Wammy, this was an amazing challenge, and I learned a lot from it.

-Carly

Banned Books Week, 2007

"books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education."

-Alfred Whitney Griswold, Essays on Education



September 6 - October 6, 2007

I love to read, in fact, it was my first love in life. Even before my love of art, came my love of books. I think I inherited a passion for reading from my father. He had an impressive collection of books, some on travel, some autobiographies, he was a civil war buff, so he had many different books of historical reference, and he even had cookbooks, devoted to different regions of the United States. I don't remember a time when he wasn't reading one kind of publication or another, so now that I think about it, I am absolutely sure my love of reading came from my father.

When I was a little girl, around about the first grade or so, I hit a stumbling block in my ability to learn to read. I am not sure what it was, but thankfully, I was given an amazing teacher to help me through the struggle I was having. Mrs. "G". I think about her often, she was a a great lady. She made me feel good about myself, as she shared books with me that made me want to read. To her, nothing was off limits. While others were saying, "comic books will destroy your mind," Mrs. "G" was saying, "Good for you, you are reading." Between her help and encouragement, and my father's, by the time I was in the 4th grade I was reading books, well above my grade level, and thoroughly enjoying them. I was reading Time magazine, the New Yorker, and our evening newspaper. I looked forward to writing book reports, because not only did I get to read a book, but I could pretend I was a book reviewer for the New York Times. LOL. I had quite an imagination, and I have my love of reading to thank for that imagination.

But how different would the world seem to me now, if for some reason I had to endure living in a society that banned such classics as "Alice in Wonderland," or "The Canterbury Tales," "Gone With The Wind," or "Little House On The Prairie." Those are just a few of the book titles that have been banned or challenged in the last hundred years or so. Its obscene. I have never understood why someone would attempt to keep me from a book, that they find personally offensive, when all they have to do is exercise their right not to read it. But there is a scared, bitter heart born every minute I suppose.

It's a disturbing thought that one day, one of those bitter hearts might just get their way, and we will have to read in shadows, or locked closets, or worse yet, be completely dictated to about what's acceptable and what isn't in literature. It's not that far fetched an idea that it could happen, in that we have seen the Constitution trampled on so blatantly in recent years. The best example of the road to hell being paved with good intentions, is found in the attempt to ban books. Here is a partial list of some of my favorite books, which have somehow ended up at one time or another, on a list of banned or challenged books...

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, by Jacob and Wilhelm K. Grimm
Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
The Bible
Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, By Anne Frank
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
1984, by George Orwell
Gone With The Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
It, by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl
I know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis
Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
My Friend Flicka, by Mary O' Hara
The Odyssey, by Homer
The Stand, by Stephen King
Where's Waldo, by Martin Handford
To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee


It's been years since I read some of those titles, so maybe I will buy a copy of, oh say, Stephen King's, The Stand, this week and enjoy the fact that, at least for now, I can read whatever I want, when I want, just because I have the right to. The gift of reading should never be taken for granted, so let's hope we don't all wake up one day to find our right to knowledge has been taken away from us. Can you imagine a world without the escape of Horton Hears A Who, or say, The 9/11 Commission Report?

If you would like to read the full list of the most challenged or banned books of 2006, click on the link below. It will re-direct you to the website of the American Library Association. So tell me, what book are you reading this week?

American Library Association

-OndineMonet
"Life In Shadows"
Berkeley, California
September 29th, 2007
Twilight