The Night Circus

I absolutely loved it.

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

Reading The Night Circus was like stepping into the world of Le Cirque des Rêves, each page had me spellbound, anxious to see what happened next… or exactly what had just happened. I found the non-linear writing style to be a perfect compliment to the dreamlike world in which the story takes place, often giving glimpses of events before revealing how or why.

The Night Circus is a story about two illusionists, Marco and Celia, who were bound together long before they ever met in a mysterious competition for which the circus serves as the venue. The circus makes it way around the world as the lives of Marco and Celia become more and more intertwined with that of the circus. The whole experience comes to life on each page, and at times it felt like I could look up and discover myself lost in the Cloud Maze or wandering through the Ice Garden.

Almost all of the characters were enchanting in their own ways, and I found myself invested in each of their lives as the narrative weaves across the nearly thirty years in which the main plot takes place. The ending felt a little forced, but it didn’t detract from the incredibly rich and surreal world I felt as though I’d been living in all day.

Wonderful book that I’d highly recommend!

via popcrunchboom.wordpress.com

Last week I officially completed #18: Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks. In fact, I read 52 books in 45 weeks, placing me 7 weeks shy of the full year time limit! If you’re interested, you can see the complete list of 52 books on the original post.

(image via UNL blog)

For my 52 in 52 project, I read a32 books in 2011. The following five were my favorite of those 32… (Books are in the order I read them, not order of preference.)

1. The Summer We Read Gatsby, Danielle Ganek
2. The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
3. The Art of Non-Conformity, Chris Guillebeau
4. A Trick of the Light, Louise Penny
5. Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History, Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell

I ‘ve ready several great books already and have more lined up for 2012 that I can’t wait to get started on (or finish in some cases)!

What were your favorite books of 2011? Any in particular you are looking forward to in 2012?

The book is unusually light for such heavy material, and I found that I could have happily followed the country policemen along wherever he might have taken me.  Bruno seemed a sort of superhero in his small town that made ever me, a self-proclaimed city girl, want to move to the French countryside… or at least visit.

I’m happy that despite my reluctance to begin the series I finally did.  I’m so happy I have the second book, The Dark Vineyard, already lined up next.

(image via Wikimedia Commons)

We haven’t even made it through January yet and I’m already chomping at the bit to get February’s goals on the books!! Once I post the results of my month, I think you’ll understand why I’m so excited, but here we go for February goals:

1. Read 4 books (must stay on track for 52 in 52!)
2. Finish funding my Moving Fund (most likely will need it next month)
3. Begin full inventory of items (in order to aid my minimalization efforts)
4. Continue writing in my gratitude journal (see why in my 2012 goals)
5. Practice French 15 minutes a day
6. Complete 10 days of absolutely no spending! (As seen on my 30 before 30 list… more about this later)

I almost feel like I’m adding a *little* too much to my plate this month, but want to give it a shot now that I have all this newfound free time (bye bye coffee shop!)

How are you continuing your 2012 goals?

I finished The Power of Half: One Family’s Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back by Kevin Salwen and Hannah Salwen sitting at the laundromat waiting for my laundry to dry.

I’m well on my way in my 52 in 52 with book #17. I really enjoyed this book because it was about one family’s choice of service. Not preachy or condescending, but just a story of how the Salwen family chose to give.

The Little Prince

It surprised me, however, to discover my favorite Antoine de Saint-Exupery quote is actually NOT from The Little Prince like I always thought, but rather from Wind, Sand and Stars.   Adding that to my “To Read” list immediately.

What saves a man is to take a step.  Then another step.  It is always the same step, but you have to take it. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Or just maybe, the book picked me and waited for a time that I needed it’s message?  Who knows.  But I couldn’t have picked better timing to finally break it open.  I finished it in 2 days, working 2 jobs and trying to catch some sleep here and there.

I don’t keep many books, but I have the urge to make notes in the margins and keep this one for a very long time as I plan and start my own unconventional living.

I’m excited that I’m actually on pace with 13 books in 13 weeks.  I’ve got to get to reading a lot more than I’m currently reading, because right now it’s MUCH slower than one book a week!

(image via)

I just encountered Ch 7 where Screwtape writes to Wormwood:

I had not forgotten my promise to consider whether we should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged. Not always, of course, but at this period. Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them yet faster asleep. Other ages, of which the present is one, are unbalanced and prone to faction, and it is our business to inflame them. Any small coterie, bound together by some interest which other men dislike or ignore, tends to develop inside itself a hothouse mutual admiration, and towards the outer world, a great deal of pride and hatred which is entertained without shame because the ‘Cause’ is its sponsor and it is thought to be impersonal. Even when the little group exists originally for the Enemy’s own purposes, this remains true…

Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part.  Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely a part of the ’cause’, in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war-effort or of Pacifism.

Wow.

It amazes me that even though the world has changed so much the past 60 years, some things still remain the same.  It reads to me that all extremes, except extremism to God, are encouraged by the demons and yet the extremism for God is hard to distinguish from other types.  Just some food for thought.