Mysterious Benedict Society

Hello my name is Madeline.  I have hijacked Rachel’s blog for the evening.  I wanted to let all of you know about the book I just read.  It is full of excitement, dramatic moments, and surprises. This book made me crazy because I did not want to put it down.
Here is a small summary about [...]

Favorite Books

So, I thoroughly plan to elaborate on each of these books, but I thought my blog readers might be interested in a listing of my top 16 favorite books.  I have met illiterate people, and I feel so sorry for them.  It makes me sad that the only world open to them is the one [...]

Looking forward to rest

I can’t write much but I wanted to update quickly on the craziness of my life the last few days.  First of all, I  moved on Saturday to my new 2 bedroom apartment.  It is much roomier and in a way feels more like a home than my last place.  I will always love that [...]

Book Club

So today I went to my book club and had a fantastic experience.  We were reading the Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.  I tried to describe this book in my Goodreads account, and I was at a lost for words.  It is an odd book.  In a way it was ideal for book club because [...]

I laughed so Hard…

So, I was listening to good old Car Talk today on NPR and they had an encore episode.  In it they read a letter from MIT and then the response.  They are MIT grads, and I don’t know if it was made up by a caller or if it is a legitimate letter.  Regardless, it [...]

Giving Blood

So, today I gave blood on behalf of Edward Cullen! Let me explain…
As I mentioned a couple of posts ago I have set a goal to perform one day of community service a month.  Luckily I found out that my apartment complex has a day of service a month as well.  This month they decided [...]

The last few days

It has only been a week or so since I last posted but it has been a very busy time for me. Some highlights are:
- I gave the lesson in the combined priesthood/relief society meeting at church. My ward is large and this was basically a lecture in front of around 200 people! [...]

Bowling Alone and the Great Good Place

In my last post I mentioned how inspired I felt by Glenn Beck’s new 9/12 initiative.  Normally my posts are viewed by a handful of family and friends (15-35 visits a day). Both of the political posts I did caused huge upswings in visits- especially my last post.  I was shocked to have nearly 500 [...]

Why I love Elizabeth Gaskell

For all of you who do not know, Elizabeth Gaskell was a novelist in the 1850’s at the same time as Charles Dickens.  In fact, the two were friends and critiqued each other’s work on occasion.  I have now read four out of her six novels and I have LOVED all but one (Ruth I [...]

Generation Next

My sister and I used to joke about when it was we have officially “turned out”?  You know how people always say “she’s turned out well” or “he turned out with lots of problems”.  When do we turn out? When have we officially grown up? According to a recent study done by my Alma mater [...]