The winner of the Sunday at Tiffany’s giveaway is . . . Momof5boys! Congratulations! And thanks to all who entered.

Here is an abstract of my literary doings in October.

Books Read

On Writing, by Stephen King – 10/6/2009
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini – 10/13/2009
Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger – 10/21/2009
Sundays at Tiffany’s, by James Patterson – 10/26/2009
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson – 10/28/2009
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins – 10/30/2009
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins – 10/31/2009

October Total = 7
Year-to-Date Total = 53

Overall, this was a great reading month. I really enjoyed Her Fearful Symmetry and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, my R.I.P. selections, and I finally got to The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Reviews coming soon.

Book Club

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini; Meeting – 10/22/2009

We had a very interesting discussion of The Kite Runner this month. Check out Suey’s posts on her prep and the food and the discussion. Coming up next month, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins.

Challenges

Here’s my exceedingly long challenge list. Check out my Challenges page for updates all month long.

R.I.P. IV Challenge – 2/2 [ends 10/31/2009] COMPLETED
Chunkster Challenge – 7/6 [ends 11/15/2009] COMPLETED
Book Awards III Challenge – 2/5 [ends 12/1/2009]
100+ Reading Challenge – 53/100 [ends 12/31/2009]
A Novel Challenge – 9/12 [ends 12/31/2009]
2009 Pub Challenge – 16/9 [ends 12/31/2009] COMPLETED
A to Z Challenge – 20/26 [ends 12/31/2009]
ARC Reading Challenge – 19/27 [ends 12/31/2009]
Blog Improvement Project – 18/24 [ends 12/31/2009]
Casual Classics Challenge – 3/4 [ends 12/31/2009]
My Year of Reading Dangerously – 8/12 [ends 12/31/2009]
New Authors Challenge – 30/20 [ends 12/31/2009] COMPLETED
Read Your Own Books Challenge – 44/50 [ends 12/31/2009]
Support Your Local Library Challenge – 5/12 [ends 12/31/2009]
TBR Lite Challenge – 0/6 [ends 12/31/2009]
What’s in a Name? Challenge – 5/6 [ends 12/31/2009]
YA Challenge – 11/12 [ends 12/31/2009]
Elizabeth Glaskell Mini-Challenge – 0/2 [ends 6/1/2010]
Harry Potter Reading Challenge – 0/7 [ends 7/31/2010]

The Pulitzer Project – 8/83
The Printz Project – 5/10 (+4 Honor books)
The Newberry Project – 17/88 (+7 Honor books)

Monthly Highlights

• I completed Carl’s R.I.P. IV Challenge. I love this annual ritual.
• I wrote my third quarter report on my activity in the Blog Improvement Project.
• My brother, of Bitchin Film Reviews, did a guest review of the latest PostSecret book and a guest interview of the author, Frank Warren.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blog this month!

R.I.P. IV Challenge
September 1, 2009 – October 31, 2009

Challenge: Peril the Second – Read 2 Books
Status: 2/2

Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger – 10/21/2009
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson – 10/28/2009

I barely finished this challenge, but I really enjoyed my two selections. Look for reviews of each of these books soon. Thanks to Carl for again hosting a lovely event.

Title: Sundays at Tiffany’s
Author: James Patterson
Pages: 309
Publisher: Grand Central (Hachette)
Copyright: 2008
Format: Paperback
Rating:

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The blurb:

Jane Margaux is a lonely little girl. Her mother, a powerful Broadway producer, makes time for her only once a week, for their Sunday trip to admire jewelry at Tiffany’s. Jane has only one friend: a handsome, comforting, funny man named Michael. He’s perfect. But only she can see him. Michael can’t stay forever, though. On Jane’s ninth birthday he leaves, promising her that she’ll soon forget him.

Years later, in her thirties, Jane is just as alone as she was as a child. And despite her own success as a playwright, she is even more trapped by her overbearing mother. Then she meets someone – a handsome, comforting, funny man. He’s perfect. His name is Michael . . .

This book was a quick and easy read. But that’s about all it had going for it. It was entirely too cliche, and sometimes a little weird. The writing was pretty stilted, and the plot twists were nothing but convenient. This is exactly what it purports to be – a cheesy little romance. Good for when you can’t handle something more substantial.

Sundays at Tiffany’s, by James Patterson

GIVEAWAY. Thanks to the Hachette Book Group, I have an extra, brand new, paperback copy of Sundays at Tiffany’s to giveaway to one lucky reader. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. Sorry, U.S. addresses only please. I’ll select a winner on November 1, 2009. Good luck!

Other Reviews:
Adventures in Reading
Book:Thirty
Booking Mama
I Smell Books
J. Kaye’s Book Blog
On My Bookshelf
Peeking Between the Pages
Reading Comes from Writing
Redlady’s Reading Room
Socrates’ Book Reviews
Tiny Little Reading Room

Buy Sundays at Tiffany’s at Powell’s Books or Amazon.com.

New in hardback today:

New in paperback today:

Title: The Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Pages: 371
Publisher: Penguin Group
Copyright: 2003
Format: Paperback
Rating:

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Okay, I know that I am like the second-to-last person on the planet to have read this book. I’m not sure why exactly, except that it hasn’t really come up. This month I picked it up because we’re going to be discussing it in my face-to-face book club. And I’m so glad that we are. This is a book that begs to be discussed.

Here’s the teaser from Khaled Hosseini’s website:

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable, beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan nonetheless grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir’s father’s servant, is a Hazara, member of a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When the Soviets invade and Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

I have a lot of not-very-coherent thoughts about this book. As I started reading, I thought that the writing was a little stilted. And while that writing style didn’t necessarily change in the rest of the book, the story moved in and took all of the attention away from the writing – in a good way. I was compelled to read page after page. I read the last three hundred pages in one day, and I was impatient that things like eating and working got in the way.

And yes, for those that like to know such things, this is a violent book. Sad things happen and then some more sad things happen. But good things happen too.

Though I liked the story very much, there were some issues with it. For one, it was a little fantastic and a little convenient. But I didn’t care as I was reading. I was fascinated as the plot twists and turns. I was right there with Amir, living through it. After I finished that last page, I sat and ruminated on the meaning of the title, the relationship between Amir and Hassan, the relationship between Amir and Baba, the history of Afghanistan, and the fate of Sohrad. And that, I guess is what a really good book can do. This one isn’t perfect by any means, but it is beautiful and meaningful and just a really good read.

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

Other Reviews:
1morechapter.com
BookLit
Book Nut
Book Review Maniac
Caribousmom
Confessions of a Bibliophile
DogEar Diary
The Literate Housewife Review
Maw Books Blog
A Novel Menagerie
Out of the Blue
Reading Comes from Writing
She Treads Softly
Yule Time Reading

There are so many reviews of this book, I couldn’t list them all. If I missed yours, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it.

Buy The Kite Runner at Powell’s Books or Amazon.com.

New in hardback today:

New in paperback today:

Title: On Writing
Author: Stephen King
Pages: 297
Publisher: Pocket Books
Copyright: 2000
Format: Paperback
Rating:

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So, I’ve never read much by Stephen King. I’ve read the short story/novella “Hearts in Atlantis,” the short story “1408,” and the first 500 or so pages of The Stand. But, I couldn’t resist his book on writing, especially since I’ve heard such good things about it from various sources – most recently from Melissa Donovan at Writing Forward.

The first part of the book consists of writing-related memoirs of King’s life. It was fascinating to read about his road to publication – and the nail(s) that he hung his numerous rejection letters on. The little vignettes were just the right size to keep me interested and reading. And, it is always a pleasure for me to read about the life of a writer.

The second part of the book was the primer on writing. This was a little less interesting for me, likely because it is the same general advice that all writers give. Write everyday. Use correct grammar. Except when you don’t. Et cetera. He did have an useful analogy about the tools in the writer’s toolbox. And I did like his concept about writing the first draft of something with the door closed, and then rewriting with the door open. I think he’s right about that “inner critic” and those real critics who can stop you from just getting the words on the page.

As an added bonus, King includes in the book a narrative about getting hit by a car and almost dying. He was in the middle of writing, or was thinking about writing, On Writing when the accident occurred. Also included in the back of the book is a suggested reading list.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading about King’s writing life and even his advice.

On Writing, by Stephen King

Other Reviews:
5-Squared
American Bibliophile
Confessions of a Bibliophile
Daily Writing Tips
Mixtures: Books . . . +
Ms. Bookish
Reading Comes from Writing
Reading Thru the Night
Ready When You Are, C.B.
Rebecca Reads
Writing Forward

Buy On Writing at Powell’s Books or Amazon.com.

I’ve been following along with Sophisticated Dorkiness’s Blog Improvement Project since the beginning of the year, and I’ve enjoyed reading everyone else’s posts about their efforts to make their already great blogs better. Here’s my third quarterly recap:

Project 13: Blog Post Bingo, Round 2

I didn’t specifically participate in Blog Post Bingo, Round 2, but I did appreciate the list of the different types of blog posts. I’ve been trying to mix it up every once in a while.

Project 14: Highlight Key Posts

I took this particular challenge very seriously. I set up a “featured posts” media box on my site using the Featured Content Gallery plugin for Wordpress. It was a bit of a hassle to set up but worked really well. Unfortunately, I recently did a series of other changes to my blog layout that were incompatible with the plugin. So, for now, it’s not on my site. I do like the idea of highlighting key posts, though, and will work to do so in other ways.

Project 15: None.

Project 16: Blog Somewhere New

This mini-project asked participants to go somewhere else and blog. Take your laptop outside or a notebook to lunch. What I did was the notebook to lunch idea. I brainstormed into my little Moleskine. I found it to be very effective. It’s nice to think about my blog without actually being in front of a computer. I think I will continue to do this from time to time.

Project 17: Update Old Posts

This mini-project was particularly timely for me because it came right before BBAW, when I had planned to do some clean-up anyway. I went through all of my old posts and updated links and particularly links to images that had expired. I also fixed a few latent typos and some formatting issues. This is a good project to do every few months. One of my continuing goals in this vein is the interlinking of my own related posts.

Project 18: Organizing Your Blog Reading

This is something that I continually struggle with. There are so many lovely book blogs out there that I could spend all of my free time immersed in them. Unfortunately, the realities of life do not allow for such a luxury. Thus, prioritization must occur. For this mini-project I spent time honing the system I already have in place. In my Google Reader, I have a number of categories of book blogs. One category is my favorite blogs – the ones that I want to make sure to read every post. I also have a number of other categories for things like challenge blogs and meme blogs. I also used to have a book blog database where I sought to keep track of all of the book blogs of which I was aware. Fortunately, many other bloggers are doing this better than I am. I finally decided to give up my own list and use Fyrefly’s Book Blog Search Engine.

I’m still having a great time with the Blog Improvement Project. I hope you enjoyed this recap.

As I mentioned last week, my brother Blake, of Bitchin’ Film Reviews, loves the PostSecret project. He volunteered to review the latest book, PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God, and conduct an interview with the author and project founder, Frank Warren.  Make sure to check out both the review post and the interview below.

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Blake: Thanks for taking the time to take to The Bluestocking Society, Frank.

Frank: My pleasure!

B: Let’s start with some background stuff. How did you come up with the idea for PostSecret?

F: I have a rich interior life that I didn’t get to share sometimes. And I thought if I could make a safe, non-judgmental place where you could share inside jokes, fears, thoughts, it would be really special.

B: What was your profession before this project?

F: I was a small business owner and entrepreneur for over 20 years. I actually just recently sold my business so I’m focusing on PostSecret exclusively. I spend fifty or sixty hours a week on it.

B: What do you spend those hours doing?

F: I do a lot of traveling. Last week I was in New York doing the Today Show, I travel a lot with the PostSecret exhibit. I read the postcards, respond to emails, etc., etc..

B: I saw on your website that PostSecret.com recently surpassed 270.000.000 visitors and according to the site, you received around 200 secrets in the mail a day. Why do you think the PostSecret project is so universally appealing?

F: That’s really been the big shock. It’s a project that means a lot to me personally, so seeing how it resonates with people is amazing. We’ve sold over one million books now. I think it’s appealing because of the level of vulnerability and honesty that people are willing to share. They enjoy that feeling, and they like feeling it over and over again. Then, you see secrets on a stranger’s postcard that reminds you of your own secrets and you get to feel a solidarity that may have previously eluded you.

B: You started the project by handing out blank postcards in Washington, DC and asking people to send them their secrets anonymously. Did you originally intend the postcards to be pieces of art?

F: Well, the original instructions was to take a four by six postcard, and treat it like a blank canvas. People really just ran with idea, and now, as you can see, the art is equally as important as the words.

B: PostSecrets has exploded on a global level. Is it now what you intended it to be when you started?

F: No, I never wanted to impose my own goals or ideas on the project, I really listened to the community and tried to develop it in the best interest in the project. Now, the project includes traveling to college campuses to share some of the inspiring and funny stories behind the secrets and listening to other people share theirs.

B: The new book is called PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God. Why did you choose to this specific focus for the fifth book, and how is it fundamentally different than the previous ones?

F: Over the years, the secrets have become more soulful and meaningful. Of course, in every book (this one included) there are secrets that are funny, optimistic, sexual, and shocking. But this lastest book has secrets that reveal some of the deepest feelings about the great mysterious of life.

B: So, would you say the theme of PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God is representative of where the project is going on the whole?

F: Uh, Yes, I would.

B: Besides America, what country sends you the most secrets?

F: It’s a tie between the UK, South America, and Australia. Where are you located?

B: Utah.

F: There are actually a surprising number of secrets from Utah. I started noticing a long time ago postmarks from Salt Lake City showing up frequently.

B: I would guess that’s a result of the intense religious atmosphere here.

F: Well, I think that that sort of environment can be extremely close knit, but also foster a fear of sharing our deepest fears, thoughts and hopes.

B: Is there a country that generally has particularly memorable secrets?

F: I receive a lot of very impactful secrets from Iraq and Afghanistan from soldiers.

B: If there is one, what would you say is the most common theme among all the secrets you get?

F: It’s always expressed in many different ways, but the most common theme is the idea that we’re all on this lifelong journey looking for that one person that we can tell all our secrets to.

B: You donate to, and do a lot of work with the National Hopeline Network. Why are you so involved with this foundation?

F: I won’t say that there’s a direct connection between having secrets and suicide, but I think those considering it are a lot of times weighted down with them. When I came up with the idea for PostSecret, I was working as a volunteer at one of their call centers. And I’ve personally lost a close friend and family member to suicide. The PostSecret community has been very generous to this cause as well, donating over $100,000 dollars.

B: You spend quite a bit of time touring colleges, what’s your favorite part about that?

F: I love sharing the stories behind the secrets, and listening to secrets shared at these events. It keeps the project fresh and alive for me. I enjoy going to colleges, and I think that young people are at a more vital point in their lives. They seem to be more honest about themselves and more courageous about sharing their stories.

B: What is your favorite secret that you’ve received in the mail?

F: That’s tough. I got one that was written on a Starbucks coffee mug that said, ‘I serve decaf to customers that are rude to me.’ I really liked that one.

B: Do you get a lot of secrets sent to you on things other than postcards?

F: Not often, but I’ve been sent secrets on bags of coffee, a potato was delivered just the other day with something written on it. Someone sent a naked polaroid picture of themselves once.

B: How do you pick the cards that get published online or in your books?

F: I just pick the ones the feel the most authentic or vulnerable. Or those that I feel are sharing something new. It doesn’t matter if they’re funny, sexual, or painful.

B: Do you have other projects in the works?

F: We’re trying to find a way to tell the story of PostSecret through film and television. But this is very, very slow process.

B: You did work with the All-American Rejects for one of their music videos, right?

F: Yes, I provided them with a bunch of the secrets I’d received, and in return they made a large donation to National Hopeline.

B: What’s in your CD player right now?

F: I just bought at Barnes and Noble one of Coldplay’s older albums, I heard it was better than their newest. I’m really enjoying that. On my iTunes, I’m listening to Gogol Bordello a lot right now.

B: I love Gogol Bordello.

F: Russian punk rock is really interesting. Their attitude differs so much from American performers.

B: What’s in your DVD player?

F: Last night I just purchased the collection of Stanley Kubrick films, so I’m going to go against what’s socially acceptable and say it’s A Clockwork Orange.

B: Stanley Kubrick is one of my favorite directors as well.

F: For me, what Kubrick does with film is phenomenal. No one comes close to what he’s done, for example, in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

B: What’s your favorite Kubrick film?

F: Just in terms of storytelling and craft, Full Metal Jacket is outstanding. With PostSecret, I try to run it as precisely and cleanly as possible. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night with thoughts, concerns, and ideas, and I use them to try to get everything out of it I can. I get the feeling that Kubrick did that with his films, with his actors. Doing all those takes to get the best film possible.

B: What’s on your DVR?

F: Madmen and the world series of poker.

B: Who would play Frank Warren in the PostSecret movie?

F: It’s kind of sad, but I’m a huge fan of Heath Ledger. I thought he was the most versatile actor in this age and time. I was very sorry to read of his passing.

B: What’s next for PostSecret?

F: Just trying not to screw it up. It’s a really special relationship that I’ve been able to earn with strangers so they’ll share their secrets with me, and I just want to keep it going.

_____________________________

Thanks to Blake and Frank for conducting this interview.  Make sure to check out the website for PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God, the new PostSecret video, the PostSecret website, and Blake’s review of the latest PostSecret book.