I know that most of the blogging world (it seems) is busy writing novels this week and apparently for the coming month. I’ve noticed it’s a lot quieter around here!

I, too, don’t have much to say this week, especially since I wrote my challenges update on Monday. I’m loving my Spice of Life kick (why had I not found Julia Child sooner?!). Here is my reading progress for the week.

Finished/Abandoned Books

• Too Many Cooks: Kitchen Adventures with 1 Mom, 4 Kids, and 102 Recipes by Emily Franklin (on 230 of 360 pages; nonfiction/memoir/cookbook). FINISHED!
• Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking by Julia Child (110 pages; nonfiction/reference/cookbook). FINISHED!
• The Neil Gaiman audio collection (about 1 hour on 1 disc; children’s fiction). FINISHED!
• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (425 pages; fiction). FINISHED!
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (96 of 386 pages; fiction). Set aside. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m not getting in to it at all. I’ll try again next year.

Currently Reading

Each week, I list my progress so I can see how my reading compares week to week.

My Books

I didn’t make much progress on my two project reads, but I’m not in any rush. I am going to try to finish the Children’s Literature text this month so I can finish making up my “books to be read” list for that project.

• Our Latter-day Hymns: The Stories and Their Messages by Karen Lynn Davidson (80 read of 350/455 pages; nonfiction).
• Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter by Seth Lerer (254 read of 330 pages; nonfiction). For My History of Children’s Literature Project.
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (20 read of 196 pages; children’s fiction). For My History of Children’s Literature Project.
• Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton (180 read of 285 pages; fiction). For my book club. I’ll probably finish it tonight!
• Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton (285 pages; fiction). I have not begun this yet.

Old Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

• The Secret Life of Wilkie Collins by William Clarke (250 pages; nonfiction/biography). For the Collins Classic Circuit. I have not yet begun this. My date is mid-November, so I’d better get studying. I’ve also requested a few other Collins biographies from the library; I may read a few of them if I’m feeling ambitious.
• Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (30 read of 425 pages; nonfiction). For the World Citizen Challenge. I made some progress this week.
• Jane Austen’s Little Advice Book by Jane Austen (125 pages; quotes from Austen’s fiction). For the Everything Austen Challenge. I have not yet begun this.
• The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert (267 pages; nonfiction/memoir/graphic novel). I have not yet begun this.
• Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell (484 pages; fiction). For the Gaskell Classic Circuit. I have not yet begun this. My review isn’t until December, so I may not read it for a few more weeks.
• My Life in France by Julia Child (75 read of 300 pages; nonfiction/memoir). Loving this!
• Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl. I haven’t opened this yet.
• Around the World Cookbook by Abigail Johnson Dodge. A kids’ cookbook. I didn’t read any more this week.
• $3 Meals: Feed Your Family Delicious, Healthy Meals for Less than the Cost of a Gallon of Milk by Ellen Brown. I didn’t read any more this week.
• Yum-O! : The Family Cookbook by Rachel Ray. I didn’t read any more this week.
• Rachael Ray’s Big Orange Book by Rachel Ray. I didn’t read any more this week.

New Library Loot

I tried to restrain my library loot this week and I failed. I have so much at home already and I’m starting to feel like I’m drowning in books I “need” to read.

• Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks (audiobook, on 3 of 5 CDS; nonfiction). Fascinating thus far!
• I Feel Bad about My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron (audiobook; nonfiction/memoir/essays). An impulse while I was browsing for Sack’s book at the library.
• Carmen by Georges Bizet (opera). I have not begun this yet.
• The Harlem Renaissance edited by Harold Bloom (nonfiction/essays). For the upcoming (February) Classics Circuit.
• Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan (nonfiction). For the World Citizen Challenge.
• One People: Many Journeys. A coffee table book illustrating people around the world. I picked it up as an “anthropological” book for the World Citizen Challenge, but I’m not certain it technically counts as such.

Finds

I have been reading your blogs.

• Nevermore: A Graphic Adaption of Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories. Valerie talked about this. While I really despise Edgar Allan Poe’s writing, this graphic adaptation of his stories sounds fascinating!!
• Expat edited by Christina Henry de Tessan. Eva. I was an expat in Australia for 15 months, so while it wasn’t too foreign, maybe I could relate to this book of essays by expat women.
• Miss Leavitt’s Stars by George Johnson. Eva. A science book.
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I loved One Hundred Years of Solitude and this is shorter and just as good says Eva.
• The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule. Eva. I need to be more creative for my son’s sake! Someone else reviewed this recently, so kudos to you to if it was you!