What are you reading (26)?

It's Monday! What are you reading this week? is a weekly event now hosted by One Persons Journey Through a World Of Books. It's helpful way to take a look at what you have read and what you want to read!

So, I've obviously been missing in action for a few weeks now and I haven't gotten any reading done at all.  But it's been for a good reason.  At 12:30 am, January 13, 2011 my water unexpectantly broke three weeks early.  It was like the 3 Stooges trying to get out of the house and to the hospital.  And I was even organized about everything!!  19 hours later at 7:12 pm, I gave birth to a baby boy weighing in at 7 lbs 9 oz, 21.5 in long.  We named him Anthony Donald, after my brother and hubby's dad.

However, quickly after his birth, the Drs felt that there was something wrong with his breathing.  Anthony was taken to the NICU where he was diagnosed with Respiratory Distress Syndrome.  Basically, his lungs were about 6 weeks under developed.  They put him on a ventilator and gave him drugs to help with his breathing.  Hubby and I were bedside with him my entire hospital stay.  I went home on Sunday, and Anthony stayed up the hospital in the NICU.  Hubby and I went every day to see him, and things started looking up.  But, because my son has a stubborn streak, he decided he just wasn't ready to come home yet.  On Friday, they transported him the nearest children's hospital because he was having heart rates over 300 beats p/minute.  He was diagnosed with supraventricular tachyacardia.  It's actually a common problem in infants and can be treated with a daily medicine that he has to take the first year of his life.  He's still in the NICU, but is moving from his incubator to an open crib in the next day or so (as long as he can regulate his body temp) and is taking bottles really well.  Once he's eating consistently and everything he gets to come home.  We're hoping for Tuesday or Wednesday!!

Here's a picture of my precious baby boy:

Isn't he cute???

I just can't wait to get him home.  The NICUs at both hospitals have been wonderful but it's extremely hard to leave my little boy each night. 

So as for my reading this week, I don't have anything planned.  Between the hospital, pumping, and just everyday life (like cleaning and paying bills) I barely have time to sleep!!  I'm hoping things will settle just a bit once we get him home and establish some type of routine :)

Hope you all have a happy reading week!!

What are you reading (25)?

It's Monday! What are you reading this week? is a weekly event now hosted by One Persons Journey Through a World Of Books. It's helpful way to take a look at what you have read and what you want to read!

This was a busy week again for me.  We had year end close at work, which is already a stressful time.  Add to the fact that I feel ready to pop, and it was ten times as worse.  Everything worked out well though and we finished on time and correctly!!

Saturday, hubby and I had our birthing class.  It started at 9am and went to 3:30pm.  It wasn't as bad as we thought though and I did learn a lot of useful information.  Plus we got a tour of the hospital, which was nice.  We took both sets of parents up on Sunday and showed them where they will need to park and where they can enter the hospital and check in with security.  It was a lot of walking!!  I also had a doctors appointment this past week, which I wrote about in my "When do you think this baby is coming?" post.

Reading wise, I had a slower week.  I did finish Darkly Dreaming Dexter, which I rather enjoyed.  That review is here.  It was a good start to a series that I'd like to read more of.  I have the next two in the series and would enjoy getting to them this year.

I'm also about half way through Inkheart.  I'm really enjoying the book, but it is not reading nearly as fast as I thought it would.  It's much darker too.  I'm hoping to finish it up early this week.  I don't have a lot of plans - I just want to keep the house clean incase we have to leave for the hospital, and I'd like to clean my car!

Here's what else I plan to read this week:

Murder on the Menu is a repeat from last week.  I just ran out of time and didn't get to it this time around.  These are normally really quick reads though, and I enjoyed the first in the series. 

I've had The Kitchen Boy on my TBR pile for a long time now.  It's a short book, but a very powerful story.  This is also a time period that I don't know a lot about so I'm really looking forward to this one!

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch is one that I've hear wonderful things about.  I'm reading this one for the Memorable Memoirs challenge and I'm looking forward to it. 
That's my reading for the week.  What's on your plate?

When do you think this baby's coming???

I had my 36 week appointment today.  I ended up having to see the one doctor in the group that I just don't care for.  Her bedside manner is horrible and for some reason she can never seem to find the baby's heartbeat.  She made me go have a quick ultrasound today because she couldn't locate it.  And, lo and behold, right there it was beating away at 136 beats p/minute.  This is the third time I've seen her, and the third time she can't locate the heartbeat.  None of the other doctors ever have that issue.

Anyway, I got all checked out and I am 1 cm dialated.  She said the baby is still high but didn't let me know if I was effaced or anything.  I've been having quite a bit of cramping and sporadic contractions.  Like my mom said, "You could stay like that for another four weeks, or have the baby in the next few days."

So in all fun, I'm asking you my faithful readers, "When do you think I'm going to have this baby?"

EDD: 2/3/2011

Review: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Title: Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Author: Jeff Lindsay
Pages: 288
Rating: 4/5

Meet Dexter Morgan, a polite wolf in sheep’s clothing. He’s handsome and charming, but something in his past has made him abide by a different set of rules. He’s a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likeable: he only kills bad people. And his job as a blood splatter expert for the Miami police department puts him in the perfect position to identify his victims. But when a series of brutal murders bearing a striking similarity to his own style start turning up, Dexter is caught between being flattered and being frightened–of himself or some other fiend (Cover Blurb).

When the television show Dexter first came out in 2007, hubby and I watched the first couple of episodes together.  I somehow managed to quickly lose interest, while he has continued to watch through the four seasons.  I did however, buy the first few books, and absolutely was going to read them right there and then.  Now four years later, I can say I read the first one!
Needless to say, Darkly Dreaming Dexter is totally different than almost all other books that I have read.  A mix between a dark comedy and a slasher horror film, Dexter leaves the reader with a lot of confused emotions.  On one hand, I feel a bit sorry for our vigilante serial killer.  On the other hand, I'm extremely disturbed by his whole story.  After reading this book, I almost want to go back and try re-watching the first season.  The book, of course, has opened up a whole series of questions for me now that I didn't realize even existed when I watched the show.

Despite the subject matter of the book, I really enjoyed Lindsay's writing style.  He took a subject that was extremely dark and created something extremely fresh and rather enjoyable.  I definitely had a hard time putting this book down and finished it in two days.  The character of Dexter is entertaining, and it's definitely interesting to see the different places that his mind takes him.  I like really knowing the inter workings of a main character.  However, I wouldn't want to read these books one right after the other either.  The subject matter is still quite heavy and can be thoroughly chilling at times.

There are five books total, so far, in the Dexter series.  I'd like to continue reading them, but I'll need to space them out over time.  I own the next two in the series: Dearly Devoted Dexter and Dexter in the Dark and hope to get to them sometime later this year. 

This book counted towards the 1st in a Series Challenge and the Mystery and Suspense Challenge of 2011.

Tuesday Teaser (9)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

**Grab your current read
**Open to a random page
**Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
**BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
**Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser for the week:

I woke up covered with sweat, not sure where I was, and absolutely certain that another murder was about to happen.  Somewhere not so far away he was searching for his next victim, sliding through the city like a shark around the reef.

~Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay (pg 82)    

 

What are you reading (24)?

It's Monday! What are you reading this week? is a weekly event now hosted by One Persons Journey Through a World Of Books. It's helpful way to take a look at what you have read and what you want to read!

It's the first Monday of the new year and I'm looking forward to a happy and wonderful 2011.  This was a busy week for me in blogland.  I signed up to participate in way to many challenges that I'm super excited about.  I have all my books picked out and I've spent the last two days organizing my stacks and reading.  I've already finished two books here in 2011 and I'm half way through the third.  I also wrote my 2010 wrap up post, where I also listed my top five reads of the year.

I do have a horrible head cold that is keeping me down some.  It doesn't help that I still can't take any medicine so I'm just having to wait it out until it goes away.  I'm going to try and not let that get me down though :)

As for reading and reviews, I reviewed Meg Cabots Size 12 Is Not Fat here.  It was my final read in 2010. 

This week I finished both Sarah, Plain and Tall and Number the Stars.  These reviews can be found here and here.

As for this week, I'm looking forward to finishing Darkly Dreaming Dexter.  I'm a little more than a 100 pages into this and very much enjoy it.  Hubby watches this TV show religiously but I've always found it to be a bit too disturbing for me.  I seem to be enjoying the books much more.

I would also like to read and finish Murder on the Menu by Miranda Bliss.  This is the second book in the Cooking Class Mystery series.  I really enjoyed the first in the series and hope that this one is equally entertaining.

Finally, I'd like to read Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.  I've had this one sitting on the shelves for a quite a while and I've heard really good things about it.  Plus, I've been waiting to see the movie until after I finish the book.

So that's my week.  I'm keeping it small because I have year end close at work until Wednesday which will probably leave me pretty exhausted.

So what are your reading plans for the week?

Review: Number the Stars

Title: Number the Stars
Author: Lois Lowry
Pages: 137
Rating: 4.5/5

Ten year old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think about life before the war. But it's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching in their town.

The Nazis won't stop. The Jew of Denmark are being "relocated", so Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be part of the family.

Then Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission. Somehow she must find the strength and courage to save her best friend's life. There's no turning back now (Cover Blurb).

I can't remember when I first read Number the Stars, but I think it was sometime around the fifth grade.  This was one of the first books I read about World War II and the Resistance movement.  This book helped cement my admiration for the heroes of this time that helped save their fellow man.  It also opened up an entire new world for me, one in which I have always found myself being drawn too.

Number the Stars tells the story of the young Annemarie, a young Danish girl who is best friends with Ellen, a Jewish citizen.  At the start of the Jewish New Year, the Nazis begin to gather up the Jews of Denmark to relocate them.  It is at this time, that Annemarie's parents take Ellen in as part of their family and help her to escape to freedom.

Annemarie is a brave young girl, who not only has to face losing her best friend, but also takes her own life into her hands when she must deliver an important package to her Uncle.  It is not until the end of the story that we learn just how important that package really was.

I enjoyed this book just as much now as I did when I read it so many years ago.  It will always be one that I keep one my shelves to return to again and again.

This book counts toward by 2011 YA Historical Fiction Challenge.