Books I have known and read in 2008
To follow is a very long list of books I read in 2008. One thing about this Headache, I have much more time for reading than I used to — probably more time than most folks. I’m still not a *huge* reader, but I am sure enjoying it more than I used to! By making this list, I figure I can get a sense of what I tend towards, what I should read more of. Some of these books I wrote short reviews of on GoodReads. All in all, though, if I could recommend only a few books from this year, they would be The Life of Pi, The Secret Life of Bees, and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
If you want to read my opinion on these and many other books, why not add me as a friend on GoodReads? If I know you from the blog, or even if I don’t, introduce yourself and I’d love to see what you’re reading. 
- Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
- The Problem of Pain
- Cheaper by the Dozen
- The Other Queen
- The Book Thief
- A Circle of Quiet (Crosswicks Journals, Book 1)
- Everything is Illuminated
- The Secret Life of Bees
- Cat’s Cradle
- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
- All in my Head: An Epic Quest to Cure an Unrelenting, Totally Unreasonable, And Only Slightly Enlightening Headache
- LIfe Disrupted: Getting Real About Chronic Illness in Your Twenties and Thirties
- The Last Great Dance on Earth
- Daughter of Fortune
- Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self Esteem, and the Confidence Gap
- Notwithstanding My Weakness
- The Plague of Doves
- A Love for Larkspur
- Islands in the Stream
- Living Well with Migraine Disease and Headaches: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell you… That You Need to Know.
- The Host
- Love in the Time of Cholera
- Blindsided: Lifting a Life Above Illness: A Reluctant Memoir
- The Widow of the South
- Whom the Lord Loveth: The Journey of Discipleship
- The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation
- Middlesex
- My Name is Asher Lev
- A Thousand Splendid Suns
- New Moon
- Myst: The Book of Ti’Ana
- The Book of Atrus
- Twilight
- Snow Falling on Cedars (reread)
- Nurse Matilda Goes to Town
- The Poisonwood Bible
- The Other Boelyn Girl
- The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine
- The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
- The Constant Princess
- Wideacre
- The Favored Child
- Mistress of the Sun
- Earthly Joys
- Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe
- Breaking Dawn
- The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music
- I Want That!: How We All Became Shoppers
- The Girl of His Dreams
- The Book of D’ni
- The Diagnosis
- Meridon
- Shoe Addicts Anonymous
- Eclipse
- Never Let Me Go
- Judge Me Dear Reader
- Water for Elephants
- Reading Lolita in Tehran
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven
- Nurse Matilda
- The Kite Runner
- Life of Pi
- The Summer of the Great-Grandmother (Crosswicks Journals Book 2)
There it is, my friends — what have you read that you like this year?
Filed under books, fun | Tags: books, reading, Uncategorized | Comments (11)here comes Christmas!
ready or not…
I just wanted to thank you all for reading here, and your continued interest in my exploits. I am really blessed to be able to spend time this holiday break with my family and Spencer’s family as well. Having a lot of my usual work and accomplishments disappear with the onset of The Headache, I have found more and more joy and meaning in spending time with those I love. I love my family — and I have the best inlaws ever.
More later — hopefully some pictures, too!
Chicago
Let me tell you all about my appointment on Tuesday!
There was some snow in Salt Lake City on the way out, and I was glad we got out on time! Then we landed in Chicago, and I opted to have Panera Bread for lunch. Yum!! I wonder why there’re not in Utah?
In any case, then it was off to my doctor’s appointment — we started off with my lab results. It turns out that my Tegretol (anti-seizure med) levels are good! Additionally, my liver and kidneys are doing great. It was a relief to hear that – I get these things checked every 6 months or so b/c I’m on the Tegretol. Still, it is one of those in-the-back-of-my-mind worries – that the insane amount of pills I’m taking (that aren’t working) will damage my insides. So hearing that things are in good working order made me happy. And so my doctor upped the dosage of the two pills that *do* help a little bit – the Tegretol and the Baclofen (muscle relaxant) – in hopes that maybe a higher dosage will help more.
I asked him about the back pain and mentioned the dull aching headache that I now have at the back of my head. Unfortunately, my head was hurting a lot and I didn’t remember to get an answer. So I’m trying to get an appointment with my primary physician here to get something started – physical therapy, maybe? I’m hoping there will be some exercises I could do to strengthen my muscles.
So it was a good appointment, and the real fun started when I left the doctor’s office. It started snowing hard, and what should’ve been a 20-40 minute cab ride to the airport turned into 2 and 1/2 hours. Seriously. It was stop and go traffic, and just slush everywhere. Staying in your own lane you were pretty much ok, but trying to change lanes was perilous. And for some reason my driver liked to drive as quickly as possible towards the next car… which resulted in a lot of spinning tires and my wondering if we were going to be able to stop in time.
A few observations from my trip:
- If you are ever looking to corral the most wheelchairs in one place — I recommend looking at the gate leaving for Orlando. That was serious, ya’ll.
- Also? Did you know that the Buffalo Bills cheerleaders are called Buffalo Jills? Cute, right?
- Cab drivers could be getaway drivers — maybe they are. My first cab driver was hilarious; what is your first reaction when the people in front of you start slowing down? Me, I slow down as well. My cab driver, however looks to another lane to try and speed up. Awesome.
That is all.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (5)I love your blog!
Lucky me, I got another little bloggy award! I just need to try and stick these cute things on my sidebar. That’d be nice, right?
In any case, I got this from my friend Caryn over at The Book Lady! She’s a writer, as well as an amazing photographer. I have been reading her blog for a few years now, just about as long as I’ve been blogging. Check her out if you haven’t already!
And now it’s time for me to pass it along — I’m meant to pass it on to seven other deserving bloggers. Without further ado:
- my sister Gretchen at Richard & Gretchen — helps to keep me updated while we’re living a little further apart!
- my sister Sarah at Mothering on the Edge, most especially for posting pictures of my nephew and nieces
- my SIL Julie at Osh Kosh Chronicles — also most especially for posting pictures of my super cute niece and nephew
- Mary at Owlhaven, who I also have been reading forever. Her blog has lots of frugal ideas, and I love hearing about her family.
- Karen at Shama-lama Mama — someone I’ve started reading rather recently, whose perspective I’ve really enjoyed. Also, her kids are really adorable.
- The Pink Chihuahua Princess, who I love and who has been absent from the blogosphere for a little while…I am hoping it’s because she’s found love (the human kind, she already had lots of love from her cute doggies!)
- Magically Mama; a friend of a friend whose writing I have really enjoyed. I’m not much of a writer, but I think I can appreciate good writing when I see it.
There it is friends — if you were looking for more blogs to read, you got ‘em! Great women who I admire and whose blogs I LOVE!
Please pass on the blog love by putting the badge of honor on your sites and awarding it to seven other deserving bloggers.
Now for a short update on me – I am definitely over any and every random bug I’ve picked up. Thank heavens! The back pain (and resulting tension headache) that I’d attributed to the flu has stuck around. Unfortunately. I don’t know why, and can’t think of anything I’ve changed. Sadly, this hasn’t replaced the daily migraines, it just joined the party. I’m flying out to Chicago this week, and I’ll ask my headache doc about it. I’m guessing I’ll head to some physical therapy and see what I can do. Really wishing this hadn’t started up, or that I could figure out how to fix it on my own – no more doctors, no more pills, no more appointments! Keep your fingers crossed for me that this will have a quick resolution!
Filed under Uncategorized, headaches, migraines, pain | Tags: blog love | Comments (6)So life is funny sometimes…
On the 3rd I wrote that I was feeling much better. I’d gotten over my cold/whatever it was. Then yesterday (the 4th), I came down with the flu. It was horrible. The worst part was probably the nausea, followed closely by the additional headache again. What’s up with that? I’m starting to get better (again) today. Knock on wood.
What’s really ironic about that is I actually got the flu shot this year! About a month ago, so I’m pretty sure this isn’t a reaction to it. 
My Christmas shopping is nearly done! I’m in the home stretch now! And our little tree is up, but has no lights. That’s a story for another day. Maybe we’ll decorate it tonight? My fingers are crossed.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (5)Here comes Christmas!
Well I’m feeling much better. Thanks for your get-well wishes. The real bummer part of this cold was when I had an extra headache – like a sinus-y tension thing. UGH. The thing about life is, even when you think it’s bad, it can always get worse!
Sorry, that sounds awfully down-er. Didn’t mean it that way, just that you’ve got to keep your head up.
A few weeks ago, I won a set of Christmas cards from Bloggy Giveaways. If you don’t read Bloggy Giveaways, you are missing out. Check that place out. So I won these beautiful cards from Megan’s Custom Cards. If you haven’t ordered your Christmas cards, I think you should check her out. Check her out anyways, because she does all kinds of cards and photo announcements.
So here’s our card -
We used the Gentle Branch design. Last year we sent out a picture of the two of us with the Christmas cards. But I figure we haven’t changed much, so this year we aren’t sending a picture of us. When we have kids, I’ll be all over that. But the picture we used is one Spencer took of a nativity scene.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (3)
