Monday, October 23, 2006

Fall into Reading and Menu Plan Monday

Well my Fall into Reading Challenge has been plugging along. I have to admit that since I started blogging my book reading has not been quite as voracious as it was before last spring. I still love to read the books, there just is not enough time in a day. I have enjoyed though, getting back to more of a regular every day reading of books since the challenge began.

Already I have found my little list of books is going to be changing. I'm going to have to put a couple of the books on my list to the back burner as the books I have had on hold from the library for a couple months have finally found themselves over to my place. So I will be moving Club Sandwich and Elijah down the list to make room for "The Brethren" by Beverly Lewis; "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan, "The True and Ourstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters" by Elisabeth Robinson; and I'm adding "the Family G.I. Diet" by Rick & Dr. Ruth Gallop.

Okay onto to the one I did just finish: The Novelist by Angela Hunt. I really like Angela Hunt books as you never know what will happen next in her novels. This one, however, so of chugged along for me. It was not quite the page turner that her other books were for me. Maybe that is how she meant to write this book, however, as more of a introspective kind of story. It's the story of a very famous novelist who writes spy novels. She takes on teaching a college class on how to write a novel. One of her students challenges her to write more of a personal story so she takes it on thinking it would be a good novella to write as part of the class. Meanwhile in her personal life things are falling apart with her son so she writes the story as an allegory with the thought in mind of giving it to him so he could learn how choices affect your whole life. So the story flits back and forth between her real life and her allegorical story. There is a twist at the end that I didn't guess at all. All in all in was an interesting story but I didn't enjoy it as much as some of her other books.

Now Blogger is being ornory again this morning so pretend the Menu Plan Monday Banner is here!

Menu Plan Monday: I've been a bad girl and skipped the last two weeks with this, simply because I've been so busy the grocery shopping kept getting pushed down the list. I finally got to where I had no choice so now that I have groceries we're back on track! Here goes:

Monday: Crockpot Beef and Barley Soup, Buns

Tuesday: Roast chicken thighs with chipotle bbq sauce, roast potatoes, carrot/raisin salad

Wednesday: Spaghetti with meat sauce, salad

Thursday: Paprikash Potatoes

Friday: Taco Salad

Saturday: Scrounge Day

Sunday: Roast Beef, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies

For more great menu ideas or to link your own head on over to I'm an organizing junkie.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm with you on The Novelist. Not my favorite either, but interesting idea. You'll love Club Sandwich I think!

Unknown said...

Reading and menu planning in one post. Great idea.

Beck said...

I want to read The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio too! I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of it.
Yummy sounding week - books and food, my favorite.

Anonymous said...

I'll have to check out Angela Hunt sometime, haven't read her.
Beef & barley soup sounds good; I actually bought some barley about a week ago and had no idea what I'd do with it! Hope you'll share the recipe sometime.

Laura said...

Menu sounds good! I'm not doing so well on my reading challenge unfortunately....yikes! Laura

Anonymous said...

I agree with you. Angela Hunt is a good writer, but I did not like The Novelist. I wouldn't recommend it.