Buttercup Days

{via}

By A. A. Milne

Where is Anne?

Head above the buttercups,

Walking by the stream,

Down among the buttercups.

Where is Anne?

Walking with her man,

Lost in a dream,

Lost among the buttercups.

What has she got in that little brown head?

Wonderful thoughts which can never be said.

What has she got in that firm little fist of hers?

Somebody's thumb, and it feels like Christopher's.

Where is Anne?

Close to her man.

Brown head, gold head,

In and out the buttercups.

New Calvinism?

I thought this pertained in some way to my little movie review of Whatever Works.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0327/Christian-faith-Calvinism-is-back

I loved reading this! There were a lot of interesting bits, but I selected a few blurbs that I liked.
If you have a moment you should read the article!

"By most logic, the stern system of Calvinism shouldn't be popular today. Much of modern Christianity preaches a comforting Home Depot theology: You can do it. We can help. Epitomized by popular titles like Joel Osteen's "Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential," this message of self-fulfillment through Christian commitment attracts followers in huge numbers."

"What critics see as a grim and fatalistic doctrine, however, Calvin saw as good news: that God's purposes can be fulfilled despite man's sinful ways."

"The BlackBerry-wielding Millennials who worship here say they crave teaching that challenges them – "preaching for PhDs," as one puts it. Ask them what books they're reading, and they won't mention "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." They'll reel through names of 17th-century Puritan preachers like a pack of baseball cards."


"New Calvinists talk about their sin a lot. Despite that – or rather because of it – they exude not guilt but great joy. Their explanation: If we play down our sinfulness, we'll play down our gratitude for the magnitude of God's love and forgiveness."

The Rainy Day

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Make Way For Ducklings!

When I was a child I used to love the story Make Way for Ducklings. I remember looking over the pages and examining the beautiful brown-ink illustrations on cream-colored paper. I still have this book sitting on a shelf in my house. A couple of weekends ago when we had our wonderful houseguests I read the book as a bedtime story to the children.
Anyway...
At the entrance of our neighborhood there is a large pond inhabited by your typical pond creatures--including four ducks, two of which are male Mallards. This morning as I was leaving for work, the ducks were crossing the street to reach a nice little patch of bushes on the other side of the road. I had to stop my car and wait for them to waddle across.
In the movie You've Got Mail Meg Ryan's character says at one point, "So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?"
I happen to like it when things I see remind me of what I read. Because, we're all symbols of symbols of symbols right? Typology and all that.

Tomorrow is my birthday. Daniel's already given me my presents. This was a big birthday, folks! A real big one! I got an Apple desktop and Photoshop CS3 to go along with it. I never thought I'd ever own an Apple OR Photoshop and I am so excited. I really need to take the time to sit down and play with it because I have't hardly at all. I'm very intimidated by it, actually.

Netflix.com is becoming quite a habit for me. We've been streaming video like crazy--all BBC/Masterpiece Theater. Daniel and I are particularly enjoying a series called Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. It's very clever and political, and I think I only enjoy it because Daniel does. I think that because I've tried watching the show on my own and I really don't plug in to it very well by myself.
My recommendations of what I've seen (if you're interested!):
I watched a wonderful, wonderful 11-epidsode adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
I thoroughly enjoyed a 4-episode adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters. Currently I'm in the middle of Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now, and it's pretty good. Not my favorite so far.
I've also watched hours and hours and hours of 30 Rock. So funny.

I also found a Jane Austen PodCast on itunes where I can download podcasts of someone reading her books! With a British accent!!

I made homemade Tiramisu and it is awesome.

Easter was great. Very low-key. But great.
Hope you all had a joyous Easter!

xoxo-KG

Morning Cup

Here's a little NKJV love for you; let's read...

1 Peter 1
Greeting to the Elect Pilgrims
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

A Heavenly Inheritance
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.
Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.

Living Before God Our Father
Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

The Enduring Word
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because

"All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of
man as the flower of the grass.

The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the LORD endures
forever."

Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

For the Intellectuals (not me)

This may be of no interest to most of you, but there's been quite a buzz in some Christian communities reacting to Christopher Hitchens' and Richard Dawkins' so-called "new Atheism."
Dawkins' wrote a book called The God Delusion, in which, according to the review I'm about to refer you to:
There is no doubt in Dawkins's mind that the evils of the world are to be laid at the doorstep of the church, mosque, and synagogue, and that science must be our salvation.

While I was lurking around the blog world, one of my favorite pastimes, I found this link to a review of The God Delusion written by our very own Marilynne Robinson.

My attention was caught by the author's name and I was interested to read some non-fiction by her, so I dove right in.

Wow.

I was blown away by her incredible, amazing, humble intellect and vocabulary (!). I could barely keep up. This girl is one smart cookie that I would not want to get in an argument with--even if I were an Oxford professor like Mr. Hitchens.


She totally owns him.

Housekeeping

When I look at this picture I can see, feel, and hear the silence. Does that make any sense? Have you ever been outside on a cold, snowy winter's night, lit by the moon reflecting off of the fresh white snow?
I have only a few memories of nights like that, as I grew up in warmer climates that rarely, if ever, get snow. But one night I'm thinking of was in Las Cruces when we lived on Royal Drive. I'm not sure how old I was, and my memories are faded and patchy. I remember the snow had fallen all evening, and because it was so late, it lay blanketed and undisturbed across the streets, driveways, trees and yards. Every sound was hushed and muffled by the snow, so much that when we spoke we whispered to each other, as our speaking would interrupt the silence. In my mind, I can hear the soft crushing of snow under boots.
The white of the snow and the moonlight combined lit up the night. But with us, the silence didn't last long. We were soon sliding down our steep driveway, turning the fresh laden snow into brown sludge.

But before we ruined the white blanket of snow and the hush that filled the night: this is how I feel when I read Marylinne Robinson's Housekeeping.

Furthermore...

This made me think of my father:

It was clear that the books owned the shop rather than the otherway about. Everywhere they had run wild and taken possession of their habitat, breeding and multiplying and clearly lacking any strong hand to keep them down.
(1963) ~ Agatha Christie ~

A Sigh

See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!


Romeo and Juliet
2.2.23-25

Better.

The lack of blogging yesterday was due to the fact that I was in bed feeling awful. I woke up yesterday morning feeling dizzy and nauseous. Once I actually got up the nausea attacked me full force and I spent several hours running to and from the bathroom. Around 1 PM the vomiting (and etc.) ceased, but I felt rather precarious the rest of the afternoon. Therefore I opted to lie on my back all day and avoid moving my tummy at all. The sick feeling never really went away until this morning when I woke up.
It's strange, I've felt so run-down lately but today, a day after being very ill, I feel so good, so energized, so...fine.
I laid in bed as long as I could stand this morning. I was afraid of getting up and feeling icky again, so I was a bit late in getting around. But once I finally arose, I spent some time reading and studying the Scriptures (which I know has a lot to do with my current joy and energy).
I've been keeping a plain, black, moleskin journal as I read the Bible. Journaling is a good thing. Whether you do it on the computer or write the words by hand, I've found the act of journaling through my spiritual life rewarding and encouraging. It has reminded me time and time again of the goodness of God acting in my own life, my own story. And we must remember His grace and mercy to us, His daughters, His sons.
For example, during my first semester of college I remember going through a lot of spiritual turmoil. It was the hardest struggle I'd ever faced in my walk with God, and at the time I felt I'd never been farther from Him. About a year ago, as my parents were packing up their house and preparing to move to Slovakia, I had to get a lot of my books and other belongings from them. When I was going through my old books, I found among them the notebook I kept during my first semester in college. As I read through the words I wrote, it was obvious that I was struggling spiritually--but it was also apparent (though I may not have realized it at the time) that the Lord was with me and that the Holy Spirit was guiding me and comforting me. I could see that my heart was crying out for God and He was hearing and answering my prayers. Some of the words I read I had no recollection of writing, they even seemed as if someone else had written them. It was amazing to be able to look over a portion of my life that told me things I could have never remembered if I hadn't written them down. And it was encouraging to my spirit to see that the Word of the Lord is living and active, and that He was and is actively working in me, sanctifying me.
This morning, as I was reading through my current journal (it dates back to just after I was married), I had a similar experience. Several months ago I read the book Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss. In my journal I had written an excerpt from the book that ministered to me immensely during that time in my life, and it still does today. It was sweet and good to read it and be reminded of it:

"'Yes I am tired,' she said, 'But what of that? It is only a question of days now, and all my tired feelings will be over. Then I shall be as young and as fresh as ever, and I shall have strength to praise and to love God as I can not do now. But before I go, I want once more to tell you how good He is, how blessed it is to suffer with Him, how infinitely happy He has made me in the hottest heat of the furnace. It will strengthen you in your trials to remember this, my dying testimony. There is no wilderness so dreary but that His love can illuminate it; no desolation so desolate but that He can sweeten it. I know what I am saying. It is no delusion. I believe that the highest, purest happiness is known only to those who have learned Christ in sick rooms, in poverty, in racking suspense and anxiety, amid hardships, and at the open grave.'

"Yes, the radiant face, worn by sickness and suffering, but radiant still, said in language yet more unspeakably impressive:

'To learn Christ, this is life!'"

The New Book:

As Ozzie Would Say...

I'm goin' through changes.

But I suppose you noticed that.

At the moment I'm loving simplicity and a few redish accents here and there. Perhaps it was the wedding colors this past weekend that put it in my mind. Speaking of the wedding, I guess I haven't said a word about it!
Let me take this moment to say: it was beautiful. The colors were deep red, rust, dark brown, and of course, white. What's that you say? Those colors sound rather autumnal? Well they were, my keen reader. The wedding was originally planned as a fall wedding, but the kids just didn't want to wait that long. For goodness' sake, they've been dating for over six years!! It didn't matter, though. The colors were rich and elegant, perfect for an evening wedding.
The site they chose was Vintage Villas, an estate out in the hills overlooking Lake Travis with a lovely event center. The side facing the lake and sunset is a wall of windows, creating a sweeping view of the orange sky and sparkling water. It was just exquisite.
The wedding itself wasn't half bad either. The bridesmaids were beautiful and the groomsmen were handsome (one in particular, oh baby). Janean was stunning in her intricately beaded ivory gown, accented at the waist with a rust-colored sash matching her bridesmaids' dresses. The musical accompaniment was a solo cellist who played a selection of classic pieces.
Now, as some of you know, I had a relatively large wedding and wouldn't change that for the world. But I'm also becoming a big fan of the small, intimate celebrations. There were only a hundred or so guests at Josh and Janean's wedding, and the setting was elegant but personal--and in no way stuffy. As near as I can tell things carried on without a hitch. The guests and wedding party were fed a gourmet dinner and the maid of honor and best man lifted their glasses with touching speeches (that left Yours Truly with some runny mascara). Soon after the toast, the cake was cut and the guests adjourned to another room where the dance floor had been cleared, and we all danced a happy jig deep into the night.
Later, Janean and Josh's guests showered them with lavender seeds as they ducked into a get-away car that whisked them off to the airport where they would leave for a Hawaiian honeymoon the next morning.
And there was much rejoicing.

---

P.S. I know I said I would provide you with lots and lots of photos...but I ran into a little problem. Although I wasn't an official member of the wedding party, I'm married to someone who was, and that kept me very busy all night long. In the minutes leading up to the wedding I was outside handing out programs. While inside I was seated on the front row, far left, and the camera angle would never have worked. After the wedding I was in a lot of the wedding photos. And during the reception I was at the head table. Finally, I was just having so much fun being a part of the celebration, that I decided to leave the moment-capturing to the professionals and tuck my camera away for the evening.
And I just can't apologize for that! I took a few here and there, and I'll try to get my hands on some so I can share them with you.

---

Also, let me draw your attention to my blogroll: I've added a couple new favorite sites including The Inspired Room, This is Glamorous, and Bella Pink Cafe. These probably won't appeal much to the masculine readership, but I just love reading about and looking at pictures of people and places more organized and tasteful than Yours Truly. And maybe, just maybe, some of it will rub off on me.
Enjoy!

More From Annie Dillard...and a Momentous Occasion

"The printed word cannot compete with the movies on their ground, and should not. You can describe beautiful faces, car chases, or valleys full of Indians on horseback until you run out of words, and you will not approach the movies' spectacle. Novels written with film contracts in mind have a faint but unmistakable, and ruinous, odor...

"Why would anyone read a book instead of watching big people move on a screen? Because a book can be literature. It is a subtle thing--a poor thing, but our own. In my view, the more literary the book--the more purely verbal, crafted sentence by sentence, the more imaginative, reasoned, and deep--the more likely people are to read it. The people who read are the people who like literature, after all, whatever that might be. They like, or require, what books alone have. If they want to see films that evening, they will find films. If they do not like to read, they will not. People who read are not too lazy to flip on the television; they prefer books. I cannot imagine a sorrier pursuit than struggling for years to write a book that attempts to appeal to people who do not read in the first place."

I just noticed that this will be the 104th posting on my blog. I passed 100 with out even noticing!

People, this is a big deal for me. This is my most successful attempt at blogging ever.

It has caused me to reflect on my past blogging experiences. I started on Xanga.com. The website that, when I hear or see it's name, I now turn up my nose. It was never as good to me as blogspot has been. I can't say that I'm particularly impressed with blogspot's templates, and I know I could set out and create my own. But I am just not that html-savvy. I can only grasp the simplest of actions, like bolding and italicizing and underlining words. I've even been known to change my font and the color of my font, but I've long since forgotten how to do that.

Back in my xanga days I had a few friends who journaled on there. It was quite the fad. But, because we were young and didn't realize we had more important things to worry about, xanga just caused drama.

Actually, one girl in particular caused drama with her online writing. In fact, though I'm not really friends with her anymore, that girl is still trying to cause drama with her online writing on Myspace and Facebook. She used to (and still does) write ugly things about people, acting as if those people wouldn't realize who she was writing about. But she ran into a little trouble (and still does), it was blatantly obvious exactly who she's viciously libelling. Is libelling a verb? Is the phrase viciously libelling redundant? I think so. But there it is. That's who I am.

Anyhow, there was this ridiculously huge falling out that particular time she chose to be catty. I think pretty much the only people reading her blog were the ones she was saying bad things about...so it didn't go over well...

Oh yeah, I was one of the people she didn't like (I learned after reading her blog...?).

She should star in one of those "stop online bullying" commercials. As the villain.

But after that I was totally, like, I'm so over that. And there was just a bad taste in my mouth about the whole blogging thing.

I've made a few more failing attempts since then. Most of the time I would start a blog, never tell anyone about it, and then give up on it. But since no one knew about it, it didn't make much of a difference.

And here I am today, writing on my blog and really enjoying it. It gives me a dumb excuse to write, which I enjoy. And I've actually spread the word a little, started lurking and even commenting on other blogs, and even inspired a couple of friends to join the blogging world (so I'm spawning my own commentors, see?).

All that random nonsense is leading to this (I'll pause while you sigh with relief):

Thanks for reading and commenting. While blogging in itself seems self-centered and vain-glorious (I just wanted to use that hyphenated word...), the fact that people are actually reading this makes it so much more worth while. And it makes me feel that maybe, just maybe, I might be a little less nerdy than I thought. Maybe even "cool."

Well, I wouldn't go that far. But it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Keep talkin' to me!

The Writing Life

"The line of words is a hammer. You hammer against the walls of your house. You tap the walls, lightly, everywhere. After giving many years' attention to these things, you know what to listen for. Some of the walls are bearing walls; they have to stay, or everything will fall down. Other walls can go without impunity; you can hear the difference. Unfortunately, it is often a bearing wall that has to go. It cannot be helped. There is only one solution, which appalls you, but there it is. Knock it out. Duck."

I'm reading The Writing Life by Annie Dillard.

I've never been a "writer" but I enjoy writing. Even though my writing is a jumbled, confused mess of strange thoughts you wish you never knew, I still really enjoy doing it. When I was younger, probably fourteen or fifteen, a couple of times I set to writing some sort of story. I actually sat down to write over a period of several days, perhaps even more than a week. But eventually I got tired of my project and gave it up without a second thought.

As I've been reading Dillard's book, I've been thinking more about the writing process. She says, "Writing a book, full time, takes between two and ten years." Two and ten years! I can't imagine my brain being able to carry on that long, or just flat out having the focus or inspiration to continue writing. Can you imagine writing a story for eight years? I would love it if I could do that. The final product must feel like such an accomplishment. And on top of that, writing something successful that others enjoy reading would be really amazing.

So.

I want to write.

And reading Annie Dillard's The Writing Life has given me a different perspective on the process. It sounds like it might even be a torturous, painful process at times. But I want to do it!

When I was in high school I wrote an essay about a time I saw a baby owl in the desert when I was young. After reading it, my American Literature teacher Mrs. Jackson told me my writing reminded her of Annie Dillard.

I'd say that's a fair review!

Too bad I've forgotten everything I've learned...EXCEPT: forbidden words and sentence openers.

The Big Read.

An explanation, courtesy of Wikipedia (I love that place!):
The Big Read was a 2003 survey carried out by the BBC, with the goal of finding the "Nation's Best-loved Book" by way of a viewer vote via the Web, SMS, and telephone.

The Big Read figures that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books. How do you stack up?

How to Play:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien.
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte.
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman **Wildly overrated.
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald -- I hate this book
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck --Ah! Summer reading...
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell -- So weird.
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy -- I just really like the name of this book.
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath --this lady freaks me out. Wikipedia her.
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams --freaky.
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo --yes! I finally did it!!!

I only got 36! Looks like I have some reading to do. Because I want to have at least 50.
Does it count if your dad read it to you?

I tag: Dad, Kari and James, Christi, and Jho.
You can do it in my comments section, you can. But you know you want to do it on your own blog--if you have one.

P.S. I know Kari and my dad are going to kick my arse on this one.