Quantcast

Check Out the Read-a-Long of Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

December 10, 2010 by

Today is the official start of the Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes read-a-long that Anna and I started for the Vietnam War Reading Challenge‘s last hurrah!

Every Friday throughout December, Anna and I will be discussing the chapters we’ve read of Matterhorn.

Today’s discussion on War Through the Generations will be about Chapters 1-5!

If you’d like to join us, please do so.  We’d love to hear your thoughts on the book.  Even if you join us later on in the month, we won’t mind.  We love book discussions.

Go on over and check it out!

Filed Under: announcements, Vietnam War Challenge 2010 Tagged With: , ,

How much CO2 Does Your Blog Emit?

December 8, 2010 by

Have you ever thought about how much CO2 your blog emits?  With the green books campaign and all the talk about publishing sustainably, it got me thinking about what impact is my blog having on the environment.

Thankfully, there’s already a campaign out there to help with the problem of CO2 emissions from blogs!

According to Mach’s Grun!, blogs with 15,000 visitors per month emit about 8 lbs. of CO2 from the servers, cooling systems, and other electronic equipment that maintain them.  While pinpointing the exact amount of CO2 that is absorbed by a tree is difficult, the site estimates it to be around 11 lbs.  With an average life span of 50 years, planting a single tree per blog can neutralize blog CO2 emissions for that time span.

The group plants trees through the Arbor Day Foundation in the California Plumas National Forest, though other forests will see more trees as the campaign grows.  The campaign is free…and they plant trees for your blog at no cost to you.

I’m joining the initiative, even though I tend to plant trees as holiday gifts.  There will be some extra love in the forests from me.

How about you?  Will you be joining?

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With:

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 25, 2010 by

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!  I’ll be offline visiting with family for the next few days, so I hope you all have a great holiday.

Don’t eat or shop too much!

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With:

Chronicle Books Haul-idays

November 21, 2010 by

Chronicle Books has the best holiday giveaway I’ve ever seen going on — $500 in books for 1 blogger and $500 for 1 blogger’s reader for a total of $1,000.

As a blogger, you know I love books, but you also know I love to give away books.  Chronicle Books is giving these books away to a blogger or blog reader who lives in the United States and is 18 years or older.

All you have to do is check out the publisher’s Web site and make a list of books up to $500.  Check out their list.  Winners will be announced Dec. 13, 2010. Also check out this video:

Here’s my selections:

1. Fast, Fresh & Green by Susie Middleton which will help you make greens tasty; I’m always looking for new ways to make vegetables since I find them tough to eat.

2. Cupcake Kit by Elinor Klivans provides you with the tools necessary to make great cupcakes and decorate them like professionals.

3. Art of the Slow Cooker by Andrew Schloss is just the book for me because working early morning hours and waiting for a husband to come home from work, slow cookers save my life and allow me more time to read. While I have a number of soup recipes, this book can provide me with much more.

4. New Vegetarian by Robin Asbell would make a great gift for my vegetarian cousin and her girls. I’m sure she’s looking for new recipes. I’d love to get this one for her.

5. A Simple Plan by Gary Soto is a collection of poems by a poet I have not heard of before, but I’m always looking for new poets. I’m in luck because they have two other books by this author, though I’ll save those for after reading this one.

6. Werewolves by Paul Jessup for my husband who loves these illustrated comic-type books.

7. The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Gross Junior Edition by David Borgenicht, Nathaniel Marunas, and Robin Epstein, which The Girl would adore!

8. The Ivy and Bean Secret Treasure Box by Annie Barrows for my niece.

9. Ivy and Bean Boxed Set 2 by Annie Barrows for my niece.

10. Ivy and Bean: What’s the Big Idea? by Annie Barrows also for my niece.

11. Ivy and Bean Mini Notes by Annie Barrows for The Girl.

12. The Little Books Boxed Set by Amy Krouse Rosenthal for the young learners. I’ve got a nephew in mind for this one.

13. Creature: ABC by Andrew Zuckerman, another one for young learners.

14. Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls: How to Start a Band, Write Songs, Record an Album, and Rock Out! for The Girl.

15. Haikubes by Forrest-Pruzan Creative.

16. The Ultimate Metallica by Ross Halfin, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett.

17. Michael Jackson: Before He Was King by Todd Gray.

18. Wine Wars: A Trivia Game for Wine Geeks and Wannabes by Joyce Lock for a friend’s husband who loves trivia.

19. Foodie Fight: A Trivia Game for Serious Food Lovers by Joyce Lock for that same friend’s husband.

20. Subway Art: 25th Anniversary Edition by Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant.

21. Manuel Alvarez Bravo: Photopoetry.

Interested in winning the books (total of $499.34) I’ve selected, please leave a valid email address and let me know whether you would keep all of the books or give some away. You can read all the official rules here!

Filed Under: announcements, giveaway Tagged With:

Guest Post: Richard Vnuk Talks About the Vietnam War

November 17, 2010 by

Today at War Through the Generations, Author Richard Vnuk discusses the Vietnam War and his book, Tested in the Fire of Hell, which he wrote after 40 years of silence.

I hope that you will hop on over to check out this author and his book and what inspired him to finally write about a war that he had kept silent about for a very long time.

Also, please remember to vote in the WTTG poll on what war should be covered in 2011.  There are three options: 1 year of American Revolution; 1 year of American Civil War; and 6 months each of the American Revolution and the American Civil War.

The poll will close on Nov. 22, and we will post the results after Thanksgiving.

Also, if anyone has some recommendations for books on either the Civil War and the American Revolution, please feel free to send them to warthroughgenerations AT gmail DOT com

Filed Under: announcements, guest post, Vietnam War Challenge 2010 Tagged With: , ,

Help War Through the Generations Decide on the 2011 Topic

November 15, 2010 by

I bet you’re wondering what the new war topic is for 2011!

Well, Anna and I decided to put that question the participants or anyone interested in joining the new challenge.

So, if you want to provide us with your input by voting in our poll, please do so at War Through the Generations.

We want to make the site as interactive as possible, and not to worry, those Vietnam War reviews are still coming…along with additions to the reading list.

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With:

A Sober Veterans Day

November 11, 2010 by

Vova and Vovo

Today is a day of remembrance, honor, and respect for those who fought for this nation and our continued freedom. I’ve read quite a bit about WWII and the Vietnam War because those are the wars that have closely touched my life with a grandfather, Armando, who fought in WWII with the U.S. Army Air Corps. stationed in the AÇORES and an uncle, Louis, who does not talk much about his time in Vietnam, but was with the U.S. Army in unit 218.  Both men were and are proud of their service from what I can tell, though neither has discussed the actual events they witnessed with me.

The above picture is how I will remember my grandfather who fought among others of the so-called Greatest Generation and died earlier this year. Unfortunately, he was never able to visit and see the WWII Memorial that commemorated his efforts and those of the other veterans.  I’ve visited the memorial on many occasions and am always awed when I see members of that generation tearing up and sharing memories with their family and friends.

WWII memorial soldiers.jpg

While none of my cousins have gone into the military, I know they were inspired by my grandfather in many other ways, as was I.  Today is the perfect day to honor these inspiring people and their contributions to our freedom.

Please also visit today’s post at War Through the Generations.

***

Also, please check out this heart-warming story about communities finally welcoming Vietnam Veterans home from the New York Times.

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With:

Book Chick City Features Savvy Verse & Wit’s Bookshelves

November 7, 2010 by

TODAY, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010, Savvy Verse & Wit‘s bookshelves will be featured in all their glory on Book Chick City.

I hope you’ll all check them out.  You’ll be in for some surprises.

If you click on the image to the left, you can check out all the posts from other bloggers that have been featured and shared their bookshelves.  Mine will appear at the top TODAY, Nov. 7,  since it will be the most recent of the features.

Thanks for checking it out and be sure to let me know what you think.

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With:

Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2010 by

Halloween is my husband’s favorite holiday, though we haven’t been to an actual party in a long time.  My favorite part of the holiday is sitting at home, watching scary movies, and checking out the kids costumes.  My husband gets really into the holiday by putting on make up or scary masks to go to work on the day of or the Friday before the holiday and when he hands out candy to the kids.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday!

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With:

What’s New at War Through the Generations?

October 21, 2010 by

First, I wanted to say thank you for all the support you’ve all given me since the passing of my grandfather.  It has helped.

Second, you may have noticed that I’ve only read 8 of the 11 books I had hoped to read for the Vietnam War Challenge at War Through the Generations, and that I haven’t posted a review for that challenge since July.   I hope to have some additional reviews for this challenge read by the end of the year, so stay tuned.

Third, there have been some reviews that I’ve neglected to post due to other obligations, but in the past week, Anna and I have been very diligent about pre-scheduling review snippets, book review links on the book reviews page, new books to the recommended reading list, and guest posts.  We hope to continue this trend through the end of the challenge.

In light of that, I wanted to draw everyone’s attention to a recent Vietnam War guest post from author Phyllis Zimbler Miller about where she was during the war.  We’d love to hear your thoughts about where you or your loved ones may have been during that time as well, so feel free to comment.

Thanks to everyone participating in the challenge for their patience and understanding about the lack of updates . . . it has been a rough year, and I take the blame for this one since the Vietnam War was supposed to be my year to take care of the updates.

Filed Under: announcements, Vietnam War Challenge 2010 Tagged With:

Books Shipped

October 10, 2010 by

I know it has been a long time, but for those of you waiting on books from the blog that you won either from poetry giveaways, BBAW, or just a plain jane giveaway, they are FINALLY on their way.

This time around I mailed books to Denmark, Romania, Lithuania, India, and Italy.  Not to mention all the books I’ve mailed to my readers across the United States.

I wanted to take this time to thank you all for your patience and I hope you enjoy your books.  Congrats! And thanks again.

Filed Under: announcements

Miraculous Macaroni & Cheese, Aviva Goldfarb

October 1, 2010 by

It’s not the weekend quite yet, but I was inspired to take my mind off some very sad news about my grandfather (vovô in Portuguese).  If you’ve seen my Facebook updates, you know he had a stroke recently and lost 2/3 of his brain and was paralyzed on the right side, and since then, it has been touch and go.  Unfortunately, there’s not enough the doctors can do, and it is just a matter of time before he passes.

So, I took out my copy of SOS! The Six O’clock Scramble to the Rescue by Aviva Goldfarb to find something to make for dinner that was easy and mindless.  Typical me, I had to spruce it up and change it around.  I didn’t have any shredded cheddar, but I had some sliced cheddar, I didn’t have any mustard powder, and I didn’t want sausage.  Instead, I used pepper and some diced canned tomatoes, along with the salt, nutmeg, sliced cheddar.  First, you melt margarine in the casserole dish before adding the macaroni and ensuring it is covered with the butter.  Once that’s done you add the other ingredients, plus milk and bake at 350 for an hour.

Again, I put my own twist on it by adding about a teaspoon of flour to thicken the sauce and reduced the amount of milk since I also had the juice from the tomatoes.  You bake it in the oven without a cover.   This is the finished product with some browned bread crumbs on top.

Thanks for stopping by and when I feel like reading again, I will have some reviews for you.  Please bear with me.

If you missed my earlier review of this cookbook or my interview with Aviva Goldfarb, please check them out.

***

Since writing this my grandfather has passed away.  I’ll probably be offline for a while.  If I miss anything important, please email me.  Thanks to everyone for their support, prayers, and condolences.

Filed Under: announcements, recipes Tagged With: ,