Saturday Review 2-7-09

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Semicolon, on the books blogroll
Petunia Face, via Blog Nosh Magazine
Breaking the Dress Code, also via Blog Nosh
Across the Blogiverse

You’ve heard about the octuplets that were born here in Southern California last week – probably more than you ever wanted to. It was a local story that made national news pretty quickly, as well as inspiring a couple of posts here on the Los Angeles Moms Blog. Moms of multiples were talking about it too, and so were people in Chicago and New Jersey. I talked about it again on Wednesday, in a post that got picked up as “related content” to a commentary on CNN.com, which brought this blog more traffic than it’s ever seen before – or probably ever will see.

And here’s another blogger I know whose stats got spiked by a link from major site this week

Reviewing a product on your blog is one thing – but then you’re supposed to send it back?

I’m not sure if this should go in the “Bookmarks” section or not, but…thank you, Helen, for saving me from having to read that book myself. (I’ve only linked to two of the posts – she’s going chapter by chapter, so go over there and read them all!)

Thoughts on “mandatory fun” (an oxymoron?) at work; thoughts about appreciating work, period; thoughts on appreciating not having Jack Bauer’s job
 
Looking for the upside of jury duty – possible book fodder?

A story that will make my stepdaughter turn green with envy – I’ve met someone who just met Orlando Bloom (insert teenage fangirl squealing here)

Maybe this is planning for school a little too far in advance…?

Need something to do this Tuesday, February 10? Celebrate Cynical Dad Day! I was already planning to celebrate the release of Christopher Moore’s latest, Fool: A Novel, that day, but I’ve got space on the calendar for more festivities.

If cats are the official pet of feminists, am I not one because I’m a dog person?

Blogthings Quiz of the Week:

You Were an Achieving Kid
When you were a kid, people often remarked on how mature you seemed. You acted quite adult.
You excelled at school, and you actually enjoyed it to a large extent. No one had to ask you to do your homework.

As a kid, you were probably a bit picky. You liked structure, schedules, and organization.
You had trouble being friends with regular kids. You probably were only friends with other serious children.

I really was that kid (well, except maybe for the “mature” part). In some ways, I still am. What about you?

Bookmarks: Reading-related reading

I’d love to think I influenced this trend, but more likely it’s just that good ideas spread – I’ve noticed that a few other book bloggers are making a weekly link roundup a regular feature on their blogs! These are the roundups that Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?, Jen of Devourer of Books, Chris at Book-a-rama, and Amy (My Friend Amy) posted recently – visit them to see what new goodies they have this week! Wendi of Wendi’s Book Corner has chosen to focus her link roundup on book-review posts.

Speaking of Amy, her Sunday Salon post this week took a different perspective – that of a reading teacher – on the importance of reading to kids

Baby got book! (Big books, and I cannot lie!) If you only click on one link in this whole post, make it this one, because it’s funny.

Advice on how to review a book, via the late John Updike; advice on how to save newspapers’ book coverage, from Jennifer Weiner

Need a special term for a book-related situation? Play The Bookword Game!

Vampires are supposed to be very scary and evil critters

Books that caught my eye this week:
Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home, by Kim Sunee

Have an excellent – and, hopefully, relaxing – weekend!

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9 comments

  1. If cats are the official pet of feminists, I’m taking the cause very seriously. I have 11 cats in the house right now. (Five are foster kittens, but still…)

    I got the same result on that quiz. That was me right down to the letter. Kind of eerie, actually.

  2. Ruth – Your feminist cred is clearly well-established :-).

    Some of those quizzes have given me surprisingly on-target results – this was one of them.

    Laura – Thanks for the linkage! Your post does a great job recapping the questions this story keeps raising.

  3. Well, you influenced the “weekly link roundup” trend with at least one blogger … me! I fully admit stealing the idea from you. Consider it your punishment for giving me so many great links to check out every week. 🙂

  4. I noticed that your Wednesday post was picked up by CNN.com as a link. 🙂 Your brought up some good points in that post, by the way. My office has been talking about the woman who gave birth to octuplets all week.

    I heard rumors that a publisher had asked for ARCs back of books they had sent to be read and reviewed. Evidently they were miffed that the person was selling the books after reading them. I don’t know how true that is though. It would be sad if people who review products suddenly need to post a disclosure that any items sent to them will not be returned.

    I’ve been reading Helen’s posts about Coulter’s book. She’s had me laughing so hard on occasion. I hadn’t planned on reading the book anyway, but her posts make me doubly glad I won’t be.

    The article on mandatory fun at work was interesting. My office has a morale committee, and while it’s in no way mandatory, it has created some drama on occasion. They’ve also done some fun things that have served the purpose of raising morale, I think.

    I loved reading Andi’s post on jury duty. I never mind being called for jury duty (except when I am sick). I actually wish it would happen more often. Not only is it a great time to sneak in more reading when I have to go in and wait all day for my name to possibly be called, but it’s also an interesting time to people watch (ad listen).

    Don’t worry, Florinda. I know a lot of women who are feminists who are dog people. And I’m both a dog and cat lover.

    I was an achieving kid too. Not really surprising!

    Oh! I love the Baby got book! I had to print that one out after formatting it to one page. I’ll post it somewhere. 🙂

  5. Wendy (Literary Feline) – A lot of people are still talking about Octuplet Mom, especially now that she’s gone public and is doing interviews. I think may have said enough about her, though – at least for now.

    I know ARCs aren’t supposed to be sold. Come to think of it, I guess that means I won’t donate mine to Friends of Library any more. Maybe it’s time to join Bookmooch or something.

    Tall Paul was asked to serve as a “fun ambassador” at work for a few months last year. It wasn’t all that much fun :-). On the other hand, Helen’s chapter-by-chapter book review has been cracking me up too, and Jessica’s book rap was one of the highlights of the week.

    I actually don’t mind jury duty either – as you say, it’s great reading time! And one thing about living in Ventura County is that the pool is smaller; I get called every couple of years.

  6. B&B's Mommy – I enjoy your link roundup; it’s nice to know I inspired you :-). I especially like that your links are usually to things I haven’t seen already, so I get to check out something new!