I think the underlying factor is I’m not accountable to anyone. I need to be kicked in the ass and asked why something hasn’t been done yet. So this will have to be my accountability. Even if no one reads it but myself

So. I’m moving. Lease starts July 1. Thats about 4 days away, not even. I move in on… well thats still undetermined. BUT have have killer fabric fordrapes in my room, as well at the living room. My bathroom will be painted pink and i’m thinking that to go with my drapes, I will paint my room gray. The dining nook is going to be “ripe currant” and it’s going to be awesome. Our office will be where all the awesoem random stuff goes, like the Jonas Brothers poster. However, I still don’t know when I actually will get to move. Why not you ask? That brings me to point number B.

I still don’t have a job. Well I do now, but I don’t have one in Harrisonburg.  I tries to transfer to the B&N down there. At first they didn’t have any available hours to give transfers. A week later they called me down for an interview, they had hours open up in music. that was on the 16th. They said they would let me know in a week/week and a half.  Nothing. No worries, there were openings at Verizon as a sales rep. Twice the pay, better hours and benefits. TWO people in HR said they would reach out to me. The store manager at the store I applied wanted me. So why does my mom get an email from someone basically saying: “uh yeah, no we won’t be calling her”. I have no fucking clue.  I have applied at Petco, and Massanutten resort and schools, and banks, Belk, and Target. and there is an awesome integrated daycare with children and seniors. Even AT&T wireless. I am OVER qualified for these positions, so why is no one calling? I have rent I need to pay and no source of income.

I still haven’t called to set up our cable and internet which technically isn;t on me, but since I haven’t had comcast beofre I get the awesome new account plan. So yes, cheap cable and internet is high up on my priorities.

I haven’t been sleeping well becuase of all the stress and continual let downs. I’m snappy to everyone including mommy, julia and other people i love. Crying is a daily occurance and more often then not there are multiple breakdowns and hysterical sobs. Theres only so much I can do and I’m doing it all. I am not in control of anything and I HAVE to be in control. It’s jsut how it goes.

FINALLY to top it all off, my pseudo brother went to pensacola basically a freaking month early to move in and get settled before he continues on with naval flight officers school. oh and my best friend, instead of going off to nice dubai, he’s going to be sent to afganistan this fall. joy.

The second Mrs. de Winter (we never actually learn her name) a paid companion of Mrs. Van hopper, one who dines and chats with and runs errands for practically falls headfirst into marriage with Maxim de Winter, a recent widower. His wife Rebecca died barely a year ago and he comes to Monte Carlo to escape. He marries the second Mrs. de Winter and takes her back to his home, Manderley. It is a gigantic estate with tons of land overlooking the sea, with spectacular gardens and private little coves. There are permanant tennants and vacation homes, thats how much land there is. Mrs. de Winter also gets the entire staff of the house to oversee as the new mistress of the house. Many seem nice, however Mrs. Danvers is oddly standoffish at first. Coming from a very modest background she isn’t sure what to make of everything. But when Mrs. de Wintr begins to unfold the mystery surrounding Rebecca’s disappearance and death, her happy whirlwind romance might not be all she thought it was…

The only complaint I had was that this book kept be up way way waaaaaayyyy too late while I was reading it. Also no one could talk to me in the breakroom, I’d jsut get mad and shush them so I Could concentrate. By the middle of the book, it was all “a good part” and I didn’t want to put it down. There were sevearl “I told you so” and “I knew it” moments where I kinda knew something was going to happen a certain way and I really wanted to shake the second Mrs. de Winter until she realized what was happening.

Very good book, extremely well written, though still not 100% up on the love category. There was some sweetness to it with Maximand his love for the second Mrs. de Winter but even then it was only ho hum. I would still totally recommend that everyone reads this book, even though it’s a love story there is plenty of mystery to keep everyone enthralled.

So then. 3up 3down. 4 categories to go…. better get to reading….

Mark Haddon is ah-freaking-MAZING. The entire book is written first person through the eyes of a 15 year old boy who has Autism. And again, I have to tell you, it’s very refreshing to see an author really do their research for a book. He totally captures the persona of Christopher and his little nuances. It was a very creative concept to write the entire book through Christopher’s eyes.

The book begins with the death of Christopher’s neighbors dog. And of course Christopher being himself, feels that he should “do detecting” as he calls it, and find out who really killed Wellington. In the process of the detecting he finds out some things that he thought were true were really a lie. And through thte course of the novel, events unfold that expose the truth and how hard the lies and changes and facts affect Christopher and his perception of reality.

Listed under “Comedy” on the Guardian list, it’s pretty safe to say that this one, even though it probably wasn’t meant to make me laugh myself sick, I sadly did. Got some funny looks in the breakroom at work too. Though Brighid understood and we giggled over the page of footnotes that went along with the long list of behavioral problems Christopher had. The chapters were not numbered chronologically as in every other book, but they were all prime. Because Christopher was writing the book about his detecting he made them all prime becuase those are the numbers he likes best.

There were some parts that at first were hard to get through. Christopher would go off on these tangents about totally unrelated things, most of them math, physics or engeneering, for those were the things he liked. But then it made you stop and realize that seemingly strange facinations with one subject is often a characteristic of Autism and other Autism Spectrum Disorders. Again, I love writers who actually do their research, it always makes for a much better read.

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So, Challenge going along easier than expected. 2o% done!

3 of 7 genre’s complete too!    Comedy, Crime, Love, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Family & Self, War & Travel, State of Nation. I currently have Rebecca (Love) going, and have checked out: The Talented Mr. Ripley (Crime), Couples (State of the Nation), The L Shaped Room (Family & Self), and Trainspotting (State of the Nation). These will put me past the halfway point and with only one category left to go!

So, I actually came to LOVE this book. It actually became my March/April staff rec. I even ended up checking out some of Shirley Jackson’s Short stories. (Go read The Lottery, seriously screwy!) The way Jackson brought you in, thinking that Eleanor was this sweet girl, who yeah, probably had a not so great life and really wanted to go on this “scientific exploration” and be liked and meet fun, nice people, and maybe see some actual haunting, all in the name of science. Only to freak out not only her characters, but the reader as well with the unexplained blood, the instant, bone numbing chills, and topping it all off with something that pound on doors, shaking them furiously trying to get into rooms and to their inhabitants. Yeah, suffice it to say, I couldn’t read the book at night.

But, when you learn  the history of the house and the creator and the initial sad story surrounding the house, and that the house is after someone there, wanting to make the visitor a permanent resident of the house, the ACTUAL house, so you really see how the haunting of the house permeates into the visitors slowly nagging at the insecurities and fears of one guest in particular and how it drives them absolutely mad, scaring the other guests in the process.  Until the ultimate fall and demise of one of the guests.

Reading this book, I kinda felt for Eleanor a little. Yeah I can understand wanting to be liked and all. But there came a point when I became worried for her. She would take a simple remark and warp it in her mind till she believed that the speaker was against her and wanted her gone, which was not the case in the least. You could see how she was being driven mad and I wanted to smack her out of it, but I couldn’t. The other characters began to catch on, but it was a little late in the story for them to really grab her and drag her back to reality. Yeah the house was haunted, but it could only do so much to hurt her, any real harm would be brought on by herself, and in Eleanor’s case, well, yeah… Harm did end up coming.

I can see why this book is on the list. Even today, Shirley Jackson and her works are original, and chilling to read.

The protagonist Laurel was  apiece of work. She was brutally BRUTALLY attacked. Don;t get mad that I’m ruining the book. This happens in the prologue.  The back cover tells you this. It’s really no secret. But it has it’s affect on her. And Bohjalian does an amazing job at showing you exactly how she and her relationship changed. So when she discovers something that leads her back to that day in Underhill, Vermont it sends her back. A client of hers, she’s a social worker at a homeless shelter, passes away and leaves behind some photos. In these photos, the characters and reader become privy to a whole life that no one had any idea was there. As Laurel probes deeper into the photos, she gets thrown into a world of adultery, and murder stemming from the 1920′s and the Jay Gatsby/Daisy Buchannon affair.

It’s very clear that Bohjalian did his research for this book. Not only did he inform us booksellers that this was his most time consuming work, but it is evident on every page. Effort does indeed pay off, when you can impress a Psychology major like me with how accurate a picture of mental illness you portray, you should be proud. I was instantly hooked in the beginning, however, I almost lost interest for a while but by the middle I could barely put the book down. When I got to the end I felt like I had been smacked around, dragged through the dirt and left for dead. In an all too good way. I have not had a book mess with my perception of reality so much as to make me question my own sanity in…. pretty much ever. Yet somehow Bohjalian pulled it off and now I want more.

The little quote on the cover basically says that Shirley Jackson tells one hell of a creepy story. I haven’t gotten any “I can’t read the book after it gets dark outside” yet. But then again, I’m almost about to learn why the house is deemed haunted so I kinda think the really good part is coming.

First category I’m going to read from: Sci-Fi.

The Books:

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Want to read, but not for this
Non-Stop by Brian W Aldiss
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster
The Drowned World by JG Ballard
Crash by JG Ballard
Millennium People by JG Ballard
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks
Weaveworld by Clive Barker
Darkmans by Nicola Barker
The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear
Vathek by William Beckford
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Want to read, but not for this
Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite
Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Coming Race by EGEL Bulwer-Lytton
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Contender
The End of the World News by Anthony Burgess
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
Kindred by Octavia Butler Contender: solely on the recommendation of Gregorous
Erewhon by Samuel Butler
The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
The Influence by Ramsey Campbell
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Man who was Thursday by GK Chesterton
Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Hello Summer, Goodbye by Michael G Coney
Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
Pig Tales by Marie Darrieussecq
The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R Delaney
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick
Camp Concentration by Thomas M Disch
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
The Magus by John Fowles
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Red Shift by Alan Garner
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Light by M John Harrison
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein
Dune by Frank L Herbert
The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley READ: Hated it. Really truely HATED it.
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson Contender
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Children of Men by PD James
After London; or, Wild England by Richard Jefferies
Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Shining by Stephen King
The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski
Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
The Earthsea Series by Ursula Le Guin
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
The Monk by Matthew Lewis
A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
The Night Sessions by Ken Macleod
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson Want to read, but saw the movie so that would be kinda cheating
Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin
The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe
The Road by Cormac McCarthy Contender
Ascent by Jed Mercurio
The Scar by China Mieville
Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jr
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Mother London by Michael Moorcock
News from Nowhere by William Morris
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Ada or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Vurt by Jeff Noon
The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth
A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys
The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling Read
Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
Air by Geoff Ryman
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Blindness by Jose Saramago
How the Dead Live by Will Self
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Read
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson Contender: Again, only on the recommendation of Gregorous
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Insult by Rupert Thomson
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Institute Benjamenta by Robert Walser
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Affinity by Sarah Waters
The Time Machine by HG Wells
The War of the Worlds by HG Wells
The Sword in the Stone by TH White
The Old Men at the Zoo by Angus Wilson
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Sad. I’ve read three from this category. I WANT to read more, but I don’t know if it will happen. I could do The Road, I like Cormac McCarthy. Honestly, All The Pretty Horses is FABULOUS. But I’m heavily leaning towards The Haunting of Hill House. I think we may have a winner. Reading the blurbs It sounded like a good psychological thriller, well as thrilling as you can be for a book written in the 1950′s. But the fact that it’s on the list seriously contributes to the staying power and the relevancy to today. I’m gonna have to check into it.

And so I don’t completely disregard Gregorus, Kindred looks like it could be interesting. I do have to read 10 books. Two could be from the smae category. Luckily I work in a bookstore, access to books is not going to be a problem.