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. 

1. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
2. The Problem of Pain
3. Cheaper by the Dozen
4. The Other Queen
5. The Book Thief
6. A Circle of Quiet (Crosswicks Journals, Book 1)
7. Everything is Illuminated
8. The Secret Life of Bees
9. Cat’s Cradle
10. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
11. All in my Head: An Epic Quest to Cure an Unrelenting, Totally Unreasonable, And Only Slightly Enlightening Headache
12. LIfe Disrupted: Getting Real About Chronic Illness in Your Twenties and Thirties
13. The Last Great Dance on Earth
14. Daughter of Fortune
15. Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self Esteem, and the Confidence Gap
16. Notwithstanding My Weakness
17. The Plague of Doves
18. A Love for Larkspur
19. Islands in the Stream
20. Living Well with Migraine Disease and Headaches: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell you… That You  Need to Know.
21. The Host
22. Love in the Time of Cholera
23. Blindsided: Lifting a Life Above Illness: A Reluctant Memoir
24. The Widow of the South
25. Whom the Lord Loveth: The Journey of Discipleship
26. The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation
27. Middlesex
28. My Name is Asher Lev
29. A Thousand Splendid Suns
30. New Moon
31. Myst: The Book of Ti’Ana
32. The Book of Atrus
33. Twilight
34. Snow Falling on Cedars (reread)
35. Nurse Matilda Goes to Town
36. The Poisonwood Bible
37. The Other Boelyn Girl
38. The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine
39. The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
40. The Constant Princess
41. Wideacre
42. The Favored Child
43. Mistress of the Sun
44. Earthly Joys
45. Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe
46. Breaking Dawn
47. The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music
48. I Want That!: How We All Became Shoppers
49. The Girl of His Dreams
50. The Book of D’ni
51. The Diagnosis
52. Meridon
53. Shoe Addicts Anonymous
54. Eclipse
55. Never Let Me Go
56. Judge Me Dear Reader
57. Water for Elephants
58. Reading Lolita in Tehran
59. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
60. Nurse Matilda
61. The Kite Runner
62. Life of Pi
63. The Summer of the Great-Grandmother (Crosswicks Journals Book 2)

There it is, my friends — what have you read that you like this year?

of bacon and the love of bacon

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.

–Helen Keller

We moved in July — and it’s pretty funny that I’m just now posting this picture. But my Muum took this on our moving day, as we were leaving our ‘old’ place for the last time. Such good memories in that place — luckily, we’re making many more here, as well.

A couple of days ago, we were cooking up some bacon. It was going to be breakfast for dinner – pancakes and bacon! I looked up instructions online for cooking it in the oven. I’ve cooked bacon in the oven before, and it is GREAT!

So in any case, I looked up the instructions and somewhere, some site on the internet said 400 degrees for 45 minutes. This is a complete lie! Do not ever attempt to cook bacon for 45 minutes at 400 degrees. You will have only burnt bacon, horrible burnt smell, and much bacon-y disappointment.

I’ve been craving bacon ever since. And the burnt smell has just barely dissapated.

So, like the optimist I am, I bought more bacon. Largely for the craving, of course. But I started the cooking again and I played it way safe. In other words, I did *not* burn the bacon; we had BLTs and it was fabulous.

What wasn’t fabulous, and was somewhat confusing, was that the fire alarm went off. What? It didn’t go off during the entire ordeal of the burnt bacon. So odd. Also, terrifying.

But the BLTs made up for it entirely. A fantastically satisfying dinner.

p.s. – I recommend 20 minutes at 375.

Pain — has an Element of Blank — By Emily Dickinson

Pain — has an Element of Blank
It cannot recollect
When it begun — or if there were
A time when it was not –

It has no Future — but itself –
Its Infinite contain
Its Past — enlightened to perceive
New Periods — of Pain.

the nausea seems to have passed! thank goodness! it wasn’t taking it at night that helped, because unfortunately for me, the effexor is an extended release. so i was nauseous no matter when i took it. BUT my body slowly got used to it. and now i am much improved. if we could just do something about this pounding pain in my temple… 

the moving in is coming along, slowly but surely. i disappeared for a little while there — we were at a family reunion (spencer’s family) up in sundance. ooh, it is gorgeous up there! so pretty. did i take any pictures? no. but when my dear husband posts some, i’ll link to them for you. the reunion was good, but it was a little disconcerting to come back to an apartment full of boxes. so much work yet to do! today i did the first set of laundry and grocery shopping since we’ve been in the new place. seems crazy to be bringing more things INTO the house!

on a parting note, my husband posted this photoblog entry the other week — he calls it ‘Waiting’. love it! i promise i’m not angry, just bored. and i’m sure i didn’t realize he was taking my picture.

Writing from the hospital

I’m surprised and pleased to be able to make a blog entry. I don’t have my laptop with me — I’m here in the hospital — but Spencer agreed to type up an entry for me if I wrote one out. And so I’m writing!

I miss reading all your blogs. I feel out of the loop. But I’ll go ahead and tell you what I’m up to.

My doctor’s appointment on Thursday went well, and my doctor said he thought we could do a lot to improve the situation. I’m hopeful, but my expectations still aren’t high — I’ve heard more than one Dr. tell me they could fix this, and end up being wrong.

So I’m in the hospital — they have a floor just for headache patients here. I have done a biofeedback session, and will do more everyday until I leave. I will also be seeing their physical therapist sometime soon.

The first night I slept badly, that made my first full day hard. Last night’s sleep was better, and today has been better. My doctor said I’d be in for probably a week, but on Monday we’ll be able to determine when I can go home.

The hope is that some pain free time will help give my body a running start on the new preventative drugs.

Hopefully that answers any questions you might have — I’ll be back blogging soon!

coming up on 30,000 visitors to The Sassy Lime!

amazing. i never thought this site would have so many visitors. thanks for reading, and commenting. you guys are the best!

Merry Christmas.

I hope your day has been and will be a joyful one, surrounded by loved ones.

I appreciate you reading, and am glad to have the chance to get to know you.

Thanks for reading!

Snow!

a big thunderstorm came through last night, bringing a fair amount of rain, and Snow! there is a little snow outside, too! what a surprise. welcome to autumn in utah.

wow!! 25,000 hits!

i feel so special.

thanks for visiting the sassy lime.

new (exciting) entry coming soon.

the blog has gotten a little dusty around the corners. it’s been a busy week. i graduated from college last friday,

and spencer’s family has been in town — for my graduation, and also for his cousin’s wedding yesterday. it has been busy busy. lots of fun.

tonight, we went to dinner with the grown-ups in the family. we got a general location and name of the restaurant over the phone. i asked spencer what it was called, as we drove up and down the block again. spencer said, niran shito. we’re thinking it’s a new japanese (or chinese or something) place we haven’t heard of. finally we give up and call again. we’re sitting in the parking lot, and his dad says, yes you should be right there. we’re puzzled.

i look to the right, and see the sign for MI RANCHITO.

there it is.

Wiki your birthday

shamelessly stolen from Mary at Owlhaven.

i apologize in advance for the RANDOM nature of the BOLDING in this entry. i can’t fix it. i tried.

1. Go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (month and day only): June 25. my favorite thing about my birthday is that it’s exactly 6 months from Christmas. so Christmas is my 1/2 birthday.

2. List events that occurred on that day of interest to you:

1876 – Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer

1940 – France formally surrenders to nazi Germany

1950 – the beginning of the Korean war

1975 – Mozambique achieves independence.

1976 – Missouri governor Christopher S. Bond issues an executive order rescinding the Extermination Order, formally apologizing on behalf of the state of Missouri for the suffering it had caused the Latter Day Saints.

1991 – Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia.

3.List a Few Birthdays:

1903- George Orwell (pen name of Eric Arthur Blair), British writer, d. 1950

1945 – Carly Simon, American Singer

1963 – George Michael, British singer

4. List a death:

1767 – Georg Philipp Telemann, German composer (b. 1681)

5. List a holiday or observance (if any):

National Catfish Day (i can’t make this up, people)

Mozambique Independence Day

If you’re reading this and want an easy blog post, I tag YOU!