Sunday Randomness

Cool Blog Events: Two cool events hosted by fellow bloggers, which I recently signed up for and encourage you to join if you're interested:
1st--Sock It To Me Week hosted by Kym at I'm a Smart One. This awesome event connects bloggers from around the world who purchase a pair of socks to mail one another as a form of support/love/friendship/blog sisterhood, etc. I missed out last time and am stoked to be on board this go-around! (Check Kym's blog out...she explains the story behind Sock It To Me better than I can, so I'm not even going to attempt it.)
2nd--Kristin at Dragondreamer's Lair is hosting a book challenge for 2010. Go over to challenge yourself---how many books do you think you can read this year? (I'm excited to meet my goal for 2010, as I fell short by 5 books last year. I'm also excited because I haven't been counting books under 100 pages...now that the page minimum is 50 pages, I know some of the chapter books I've been reading with Em at bedtime will count. Sweet!) I'll keep an ongoing "Books Read" list on my side bar as I did last year.

While I'm talking books, I highly recommend The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. My sister Laurel sent me this book for Christmas, as she had read it and loved it. The novel takes place just after WWII. The entire book is a series of letters. Part 1 includes letters from a published author, Juliet to/from her editor, to/from her best friend, and to/from a man she is dating. Mid-way through part one, Juliet begins to receive letters from a man who lives on Guernsey Island (located in the English Chanel between England and France.) The man had purchased a book which had formerly belonged to Juliet. He wrote to her requesting further information about the book and its author. After learning that Juliet is an author herself, the man and members of his book club end up having further letter correspondence with Juliet. I don't want to ruin plot details for those who might read this, so I won't say much about Part 2 other than Juliet ends up finding a plot for her next book from a source she didn't quite expect. I've always enjoyed reading about WWII. (Nazism---I just don't understand how people could treat others so hideously. I'm intrigued by their horrid and despicable behavior.) This book offered a neat perspective because it occurred right after the war, which enabled the reader to get to know Juliet and the other characters via their descriptions of what had happened to them during the war. I feel like I'm not doing the book justice....I really, really enjoyed it. Would rate it a 9 out of 10.

DH's Good News: DH had his first "agent query!" An agent asked for the ENTIRE draft of DH's novel. The agent is to read it and respond within 6 weeks as to if she is interested in pursuing the publishing process or not. WAAAAY exciting! Meanwhile, DH has more than one other novel that he is penning away at. DH told me this afternoon, "It's like the floodgates have opened and 10 years of ideas are coming out." I'm thrilled for him and hope he has success with a publisher this year! :)

Questions Answered: Answering some recent questions from the wonderful commenters on my blog...
--Mrs. Gamgee asked if I've read the Percy Jackson or Suzanne Collins books.
--I received the Percy Jackson series for Christmas and read (and loved) the first one! I'm waiting to read anything else because I borrowed a stack of books from a co-worker before winter break which I'm plugging away at so I can return them to her. But I've heard great things about Suzanne Collins. And I can't wait to finish the Percy Jackson series---I liked it nearly as much as Harry Potter!
--I'm currently reading L.J. Smith's Nightworld series. (These are the books I borrowed.) Good so far, though I'm nearing the end of the 3rd book and thus far the first 3 have had almost identical endings which I find annoying. And I continue to be amazed at how much of the Twilight series I love and adore seems to be taken from this author. (Book 2 of this series had a werewolf and vampire fighting over the same girl. Sound familiar?)
--Danifred asked about the Suzy's Zoo characters which I love, and which adorn the wallpaper border in Em's old room. YES! Boof is the name of the bear, Witzy is the duck, Patches is the giraffe, Lulla is the bunny, Tickle is the ladybug, Zoom-Zoom is the grasshopper. (The cute elephant, Ellie Funt and the adorable turtles Teeter & Totter weren't included in the nursery set we purchased years ago.)
--Fishsticks & Fireflies asked about my follow-up OB appointment last summer. Basically DH and I were given the "go ahead" to keep ttc. I'm hoping to have more news soon, as I go to the gyno again within the month to try and determine our"next steps." The one year anniversary of my miscarriage is this week (Weds. 1/13,) and as I haven't gotten a BFP again, we're trying to determine where to go from here...
--Mai asked if I read any books in 2009 that I recommend for reading. MANY!
--2 recent reads that I really enjoyed include The Shack by William P. Young. A book about a man who meets God at a cabin in the woods. He is trying to come to terms with the abduction (and assumed death) of his young daughter. Really neat food for thought. And I LOVED the author's non-typical descriptions of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
--I also loved Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher. This book was about a boy who is able to see statues, gargoyles, etc in their "true" alive form. It is the first in a trilogy and one of these days I'll get to reading the other 2, as I really enjoyed this read.
--I also highly recommend the Peter and the Starcatchers series by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (a modern re-telling of the classic Peter Pan story)(I got the 4th book in the series for Christmas and can't wait to sink into it!) , the Among the Hidden series by Margaret Peterson Haddix (a cool series about a government that doesn't allow families to have more than 2 children---the series is about illegal 3rd children. I thought it was neat because each of the 7 books in the series had a different main character,) and the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray (a cool trilogy about girls at a finishing school in the late 1800's...some of the girls end up having "powers" they never dreamed of. I'm intentionally being vague...)

I'll leave my 2009 book list up for a little while----take a look. If you'd like further details or recommendations, I'd be glad to oblige. As you can see, I love "talking" books! :)

I think I've addressed the most recent comment-questions. If not, drop me a line again and I'll be glad to get back to you. I <3 you, Blog Readers!