Tag Archives: Mixing It Up Challenge 2012

January 2, 2012 · 9:03 am

Review: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

  • Title: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
  • Author: Mindy Kaling
  • Publisher: Crown Archetype, 2011
  • Pages: 219
  • ISBN: 9780307886262

Woo-hoo! Starting off the New Year right – I read this in basically one sitting yesterday.  AND it counts as the “biography” pick for the Mixing It Up Challenge! Yay!

Also if you can’t tell, I added some book info underneath the book cover there… I’m going to try to do that for each book. Partly to make myself a little more aware of things like publishers, but also just to give the appearance of neatness and organization here :-)

OK, so if you can’t tell who Mindy Kaling is just from the book cover, then you may not watch The Office and we may not be friends. (Just kidding! Kind of…) Mindy is best known for playing Kelly Kapoor on The Office – that funny, bubbly, totally nuts girl with a high-pitched voice. Well this is her book, all about how she got into tv and some very funny but awesome thoughts, questions, and concerns she has.

Mindy apparently started out as a WRITER for The Office! I had no idea. She actually writes, directs, produces, AND acts on the show. I had no clue that she had started off as one of the shows writers, and that’s she’s like a quadruple-threat, which just makes her too cool. So Mindy talks about her childhood, always being on the chubby side, her first jobs when she came to New York City, how she became a comedy writer, her time on The Office, and a little tiny bit about her romantic life. My favorite chapter is near the end, In Defense of Chest Hair, in which she proclaims her love for a bit of chest hair on a man and says that all of those waxed movie stars look like chihuahuas.

So, I’m not going to go over every funny or interesting thing in this book, cause then you’d have no reason to read it yourself! I do think that if you’re a girl, you should just pick this up and read it – it’ll only take you one afternoon, and it’s a cute memoir. Mindy seems like such a sweet, fun person and her book is funny, light-hearted, and enjoyable. Plus she invents a new word – “pliest”, which is a written piece with a list-y quality. I’m so going to use that word.

Sarah Says: 4 stars

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December 15, 2011 · 9:39 am

January Poll is up! Come VOTE!

Hey everybody. Sadly, I am not posting a review today because I have either been too lazy or too busy to read. Never a right balance. I’m trying not to dwell on it since it’s the holidays and there are only TEN MORE DAYS to Christmas and you know… busy busy busy.

I am however having nice shiny daydreams about how I kick 2012′s ass with my awesome amounts of reading and completion of challenges. You’ll notice that the poll for January only have 4 options instead of the usual 5 – that’s because I picked one book for each of my 2012 Reading Challenges. I’m trying to start the new year off strong, goshdarnit!

So, here are your choices. Descriptions are from Goodreads, poll is on the right side there. So you know, revel in the amazingness of my choices and then vote! And then drag your friends and family here to cast their vote too, cause you know – I likes to see the voting. It’s fun!

 

For the Neil Gaiman Challenge, hosted by Jenn at Booksessed

Stardust by Neil Gaiman: One fateful night, Tristran promises his beloved that he will retrieve a fallen star for her from beyond the Wall that stands between their rural English town (called, appropriately, Wall) and the Faerie realm. No one ever ventures beyond the Wall except to attend an enchanted flea market that is held every nine years. But Tristran bravely sets out to fetch the fallen star and thus win the hand of his love. His adventures in the magical land will keep you turning pages as fast as you can–he and the star escape evil old witches, deadly clutching trees, goblin press-gangs, and the scheming sons of the dead Lord of Stormhold. The story is by turns thrillingly scary and very funny. You’ll love goofy, earnest Tristran and the talking animals, gnomes, magic trees, and other irresistible denizens of Faerie that he encounters in his travels. 

 

For the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Challenge, hosted by Hanna at Booking in Heels

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: An American frigate, tracking down a ship-sinking monster, faces not a living creature but an incredible invention – a fantastic submarine commanded by the mysterious Captain Nemo. Suddenly a devastating explosion leaves just three survivors, who find themselves prisoners inside Nemo’s death ship on an underwater odyssey around the world from the pearl-laden waters of Ceylon to the icy dangers of the South Pole . . .as Captain Nemo, one of the greatest villains ever created, takes his revenge on all society.

More than a marvelously thrilling drama, this classic novel, written in 1870, foretells with uncanny accuracy the inventions and advanced technology of the twentieth century and has become a literary stepping-stone for generations of science fiction writers.

 

For the Mixing It Up Challenge, hosted by Ellie at Musings of a Bookshop Girl

Genome by Matt Ridley: This national bestseller is one of the most accessible and lively books available on the topic of the human genome. Taking each of the 23 chromosomes in turn, Matt Ridley, author of The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, tells stories of the genes and their meaning for us — blending history, science, medicine, philosophy, and ethics.

 

For the Back to the Classics Challenge, hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins: “There, in the middle of the broad, bright high-road—there, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven—stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments.”

Thus young Walter Hartright first meets the mysterious woman in white in what soon became one of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century. Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelations, amnesia, locked rooms and locked asylums, and an unorthodox villain made this mystery thriller an instant success when it first appeared in 1860, and it has continued to enthrall readers ever since. From the hero’s foreboding before his arrival at Limmeridge House to the nefarious plot concerning the beautiful Laura, the breathtaking tension of Collins’s narrative created a new literary genre of suspense fiction, which profoundly shaped the course of English popular writing.

 

So that’s it, folks! Voting ends the night of December 31st, of course. And the poll is on the right hand side.

 

~Sarah

 

 

 

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November 7, 2011 · 5:56 pm

Mixing It Up Challenge 2012

 

OK… the third and probably final challenge I’m signing up for next year! I like this one because it just covers a huge bunch of categories, so you get a little bit of everything in there! The Mixing It Up Challenge 2012 is hosted by Ellie at Musings of a Bookshop Girl, so visit there to sign up! Here’s the details…

~ HOW TO PARTICIPATE ~

  1. Read one book from each of the challenge categories, using the guidelines above.  Don’t use the same book for more than one category!
  2. The challenge will run until December 31st 2012, so you can sign up any time during the year.
  3. Create a blog post for the challenge, to keep track of what you’ve read.  Add review links for each completed book so we can see how you’re getting on. 
  4. The URL you leave in the Mr Linky MUST be a direct link to your challenge post, not to your blog homepage - I don’t have time to comb through several months’ worth of posts searching for it as the year wears on!
  5. Leave a comment on this post with your blog name (so I can match you to your Linky entry) and your chosen level of participation.
  6. Bookmark this post so you can come back later!  I’ll be adding links to update posts over the year, plus you’ll have the category guidelines handy if you need them!
  7. At the end of the year, everyone who has read along and hit their chosen target will be entered into a bookish giveaway.  Prizes to be determined!

So here are the challenge categories, and my VERY TENTATIVE picks for each one. There are 16 categories, and I’m going for All the Trimmings and a Cherry On Top, AKA all 16 categories. Bold, I know.

1. Classics: The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

2. Biography: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling (Kelly from The Office!)

3. Cookery, Food, and Wine: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

4. History: A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

5. Modern Fiction: The Beach House by Jane Green

6. Graphic Novels and Manga: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 1 by Alan Moore

7. Crime and Mystery: Bookmarked for Death by Lorna Barrett

8. Horror: Dracula by Bram Stoker

9. Romance: Some Enchanted Evening by Christina Dodd

10. Sci-Fi and Fantasy: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

11. Travel: Seven Seasons in Siena by Robert Rodi

12. Poetry: a collection of The Sonnets by William Shakespeare

13. Journalism and Humor: This is a Book by Demetri Martin

14. Science and Natural History: Genome by Matt Ridley

15. Childrens and Young Adult: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

16. Social Sciences and Philosophy: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Like I said, it’s VERY TENTATIVE. I own a TON of books that could work for any of these categories, so I’m bound to change my mind about a couple.

So go sign up and join the fun! Do it, do it, do it!

~Sarah

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