This year, I am particpating in the Armchair Audies. I am listening to every book in the Solo Narration – Male category. This is one of the nominees.

Title: Being There
Author: Jerzy Kozinski 
Narrator: Dustin Hoffman
Genre: Satire
Audio: 2.9 hours
Year: 2012 (originally 1971)
Publisher: Audible, Inc.
Source: Personal Collection
Book Rating: 3.5/5
Audio Rating: 3/5

Summary:

Being There is the story of how Chance, a simple gardner in an old man’s estate becomes Chauncy Gardiner, economic aide to the President of the United States.

My Thoughts:

This book is actually very clever, and the more I think about it, the more I like it. Chance’s only knowledge about the outside world comes from television, so when he is suddenly sent out into the world on his own, he knows everything will work out, like it is scripted. His straightforward responses to questions get misunderstood and deemed “genius” and “visionary.” It’s a satire about the political world that works just as well in 2013 as it did in 1971.

Audiobook Thoughts:

I assume Dustin Hoffman was chosen because of his role in Rain Man, but I’m not sure he has the right voice for audiobooks beyond this one.

***

Hmm…my reviews just keep getting shorter. I guess a short review is better than no review.

Happy Easter. It’s time to recap March!

Reader/Blogger

In March, I read 7 books:

1. Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi  (audio) 4 stars
2. For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Petrefreund (ebook) 4.5 stars
3. Being There by Jerzy Kazinsky (audio) 3 stars
4. The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (audio) 3.5 stars
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (print) 4 stars
6. Live by Night by Dennis Lehane (print) 2.5 stars
7. Among the Mad by Jacquline Winspear (audio) 4.5 stars

My favorite of the month is For Darkness Shows the Stars.

I also reviewed An Incomplete Revenge; Level 2; The Emerald Atlas and shared a few photo posts: a day at the beach and our trip to Savannah. I confessed that I struggle to find ways to read with Evan. Finally, I guest blogged over at Liberating Working Moms about giving up control.

Dancer/Runner

Illness and house guests led to very little dancing and absolutely no running in March. But I WILL start running this week. I swear. I’ve got a FitBit bet to win.

Mom

Evan is ten months old and I am already planning his birthday party. Where does the time go? He is thisclose to walking, cruising around the furniture like a champ. He’s eating everything we put in front of him and still just a generally happy baby. I just need him to start sleeping through the night. I guess I thought that would happen by now. But here I am, still up twice a night with him. Oh well. I’ll sleep someday.

On the breastfeeding front, things have changed a bit. I gave in to Evan’s refusal of breastmilk in a bottle so he only gets formula when I’m away during the day. And just this last week, I gave up pumping completely. Freedom! I am still nursing him 3-4 times per day/night and I hope to keep morning/night/weekend nursing as much as I can.

Evan is still a joy to be around.

How did March treat you?

When we moved into our house back in April, our third bedroom looked like this:

It functioned as a guest room and a library, which was fine, but rarely used. Once Evan came along, we decided we wanted to give him a playroom. His room is small and the living room is open, so it’s hard to let him have some freedom (without giving him too much). This third bedroom is huge, so we decided to turn it into a playroom.

This room doubles (triples?) as a guest room, so we had to work around the bed. We thought about putting a sleeper-sofa in here, but we really wanted to keep an actual bed. So we got rid of the bed frame, pushed it up against the wall, threw some throw pillows on it, and called it a day. It’s really cozy, and when a guest comes, we can just pull it out from the wall and make it a bed again.

We moved the big blue chair we had in here to our room for now, and swapped it for this one. I’ve had this papasan chair since high school. A new cushion makes a world of difference. Evan loves these huge mirrors, which we left unchanged.

We bought these Billy bookcases from Ikea and I finally convinced Ben to let me organize the books my color. I may not know where anything is, but isn’t it pretty? I also love that Stephanie Meyer is hanging out with Franz Kafka and Cormac McCarthy now.

I love the colors we ended up with. Originally, I wanted grey and yellow, and we only added the teal when we bought the comforter, but now I LOVE the teal. Especially the accent wall. Yellow ended up being relegated to the tertiary color in the room.

I can’t decide which part I love the most. The yellow door?

The teal wall? The adorable printables I found for free here, here, and here?

The updated chair?

The bookshelves?

The little table and chairs?

The bedding that started it all?

The repainted Harry Potter shelf?

The bookshelves?

Evan hasn’t made up his mind yet, either. Here he is soaking it all in (or, probably, staring at the ceiling fan).

There are still a few things I want to do. A throw pillow for the chair. Something for the wall above the bed. Some objects for the top of the bookcases. Curtains. But, like a piece of writing, no room is ever done.

Reading/Blogging

January wasn’t my best reading month ever. But it also wasn’t my worst. Still trying to figure out when to squeeze in some reading. I read:

•  The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling (audio)
• News from Heaven by Jennifer Haigh
• The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens (audio)
• Shades of Earth by Beth Revis
• An Incomplete Revenge by Jaqueline Winspear (audio)

In addition, I reviewed:

• Bringing up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman
• Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
• The World of Pooh by AA Milne
• Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

I also shared my favorite books of 2012, my husband’s favorite books of 2012, my top posts of 2012, and my stats from 2012. I wrapped up my Read My On Books challenge and revealed my new look. Take a look around; I added new pages to go with the new look.

Baby

Evan is, somehow, 8 months old. Can you believe it? He’s crawling, pulling himself up, and starting to cruise the furniture. He is loving solids, and already has 8 teeth. Here is a photo of him at a birthday part last week:

How has 2013 been for you so far?

Because I think it’s never too early, we’ve started reading as a family. Currently we are reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but our very first family book was The World of Pooh, which includes Winnie the Pooh and the House on Pooh Corner. Here is what my family thought of it.

Michelle’s thoughts: Although I’m familiar with the stories, I’ve never actually read Winnie the Pooh. It was much funnier than I thought it would be and I was thoroughly entertained. Each character is different and I liked that all of the relationships between the characters was unique. But that last story was SAD. I think I actually had tears. Little boys don’t really need to grow up, right?

Ben’s thoughts: Like Michelle said, I’m so familiar with these characters even though I’ve never read any of the books that some things were surprising. For one, Eeyore is meaner and less sympathetic than he’s made out to be in cartoons. And Tigger is much less spastic. However, I loved the bonds these characters share. Particularly those of Pooh and Piglet, and Pooh and Christopher Robin. The last chapter of The House on Pooh Corner might be one of the saddest chapters I’ve ever read in my life. Sad as it may be, it’s also one of the most touching scenes.

Evan’s thoughts: I was pretty distracted by all of the sleeping and eating I did while my parents were reading to me. But the book sure did taste good!

Any recommendations for family reading time?

I never did an official Reading My Own Books wrap-up, so here you go.

Reading My Own Books was both a success and a failure.

It was a success because I did manage to read only my own print books.

It was a failure because I only managed to read three.

That’s right. Three books in three months. After record reading during maternity leave (lots of nursing and napping baby time), my reading is really taking a backseat to my new working mom role.

But I still read three more of my own books than I probably would have otherwise. So, I’m calling it a success.

If you participated in my unofficial challenge in any way, how did you do?

As I was decorating the tree this year, I noticed that our tree, through its ornaments, tells a story:

What story does your tree tell? What is your favorite or most special ornament?