sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

May 16, 2008


new reading challenges
posted by soe 3:08 am

I think I’m going to join two new reading challenges:

Maggie Reads is hosting the second annual Southern Reading Challenge. I intended to sign up for it last year and failed miserably, so I want to make up for it this year. The challenge is to read three Southern works between now and August 15.

My selections will be (with the option of switching out books):

  • Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston
  • The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
  • The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The second challenge is the Non-Fiction Five Challenge, which runs through September.

Again, with the option of subbing in other selections, I’m hoping to read:

  • The 20-Minute Vegetable Gardener by Tom Christopher and Marty Asher
  • The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
  • Why the Wind Blows: A History of Weather and Global Warming by Matthys Levy
  • Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein
  • Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Conveniently, I owe a blog review on the advance reader copy of the Levy book, so that should get read shortly, and I’m supposed to be reading Walden with Karen as we speak, so this should spur me to alleviate the guilt I feel every time I see my copy of it sitting on my desk.

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birthday wishes, frogs, and berrylicious
posted by soe 12:02 am

Folks, this is my thousandth post. [Huh. Apparently WordPress doesn’t care to document that event and has skipped ahead to 1001.] I can’t believe I’ve written that much — and that you’ve kept reading! Thank you! And here’s to a thousand more (just not all at once)!

But you didn’t come here for accolades. It’s Thursday, so you must have come for the three beautiful things:

1. May 9-16 is the busiest birthday week of the year in our household. Happy birthday to all these beautiful friends: Rudi’s Penny, Eri, Jenn, Kim, and Rudi.

2. On Sunday, I visited the National Geographic Society’s museum for the very first time. (It’s a really cool museum and I foresee it being the subject of a My D.C. in the near future.) But, people, the reason it was so beautiful? Frogs. Hundreds of frogs. I took photographic evidence, but to whet your appetite, they ranged from giant bull frogs to these tiny peach-colored frogs that were the size of my pinkie nail. Amazing!

3. Sunday also offered us delights at the farmers’ market including the first strawberries of the season. We snapped up two quarts and have been parceling them out with dessert each night. Tonight we had them on ice cream sundaes.


As a note, I’ve been documenting three beautiful things every Thursday for more than three years now. Think that’s impressive? Clare has been doing it every day for four years. Please stop by to wish her a happy blogiversary.

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