100 Best Novels of The Century

I am gonna read these books and find out for myself why these books are the 100 best novels for this century:

I will update this list to indicate the books I have read and the dates:

1. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald - not yet read
2. ULYSSES by James Joyce - not yet read
3. 1984 by George Orwell - not yet read
4. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger - not yet read
5. ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac - not yet read
6. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck - not yet read
7. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller - not yet read
8. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov - not yet read
9. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley - not yet read
10. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh - not yet read
11. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner - not yet read
12. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee - Year 2002
13. THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien - Year 2002-2003
14. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce - not yet read
15. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell - Year 2002
16. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf - not yet read
17. INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison - not yet read
18. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess - not yet read
19. GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell - not yet read
20. AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner - not yet read
21. A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway - May 2008
22. A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster - not yet read
23. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding - not yet read
24. THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London - not yet read
25. DAVID COPPERFIELD by Charles Dickens - not yet read
26. EMMA by Jane Austen - not yet read
27. TESS Of The D’URBERVILLES, Thomas Hardy - not yet read
28. THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne - not yet read
29. WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Bronte - not yet read
30. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers - not yet read
31. SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut - not yet read
32. JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte - not yet read
33. BELOVED by Toni Morrison - not yet read
34. ANNA KAREINA by Leo Tolstoy - not yet read
35. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway - not yet read
36. NATIVE SON by Richard Wright - not yet read
37. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Year 2001
38. NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad - not yet read
39. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad - not yet read
40. UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry - not yet read
41. THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford - not yet read
42. HERZOG by Saul Bellow - not yet read
43. THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame - not yet read
44. U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos - not yet read
45. FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce - not yet read
46. AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser - not yet read
47. WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence - not yet read
48. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton (3
49. THE WOMAN IN WHITE by Wilkie Collins - not yet read
50. THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe - not yet read
51. TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller - not yet read
52. MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather - not yet read
53. LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner - not yet read
54. THE MAGUS by John Fowles - not yet read
55. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving - not yet read
56. DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes - not yet read
57. TOM JONES by Henry Fielding - not yet read
58. WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy - not yet read
59. MOBY-DICK by Herman Melville - not yet read
60. MADAME BOVARY by Gustave Flaubert - not yet read
61. WINNIE THE POOH by A(lan) A(lexander) Milne - not yet read
62. GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens - not yet read
63. THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV by Feodor Dostoevsky - not yet read
64. TRISTAM SHANDY by Laurence Sterne - not yet read
65. LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa M. Alcott - not yet read
66. VANITY FAIR by William Makepeace Thackeray - not yet read
67. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen - not yet read
68. IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME by Marcel Proust - not yet read
69. THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James - not yet read
70. THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand - not yet read
71. GRAVITY’S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon - not yet read
72. THE AWAKENING by Kate Chopin (1851-1904) - not yet read
73. DUNE by Frank Herbert - not yet read
74. A TOWN LIKE ALICE by Nevil Shute - not yet read
75. ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll - not yet read
76. CLARISSA by Samuel Richardson - not yet read
77. THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams - not yet read
78. A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving - not yet read
79. THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexandre Dumas - not yet read
80. THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY by Henry James - not yet read
81. OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck - not yet read
82. ALL THE KING’S MEN by Robert Penn Warren - not yet read
83. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin - not yet read
84. CHARLOTE’S WEB by E. B. White - not yet read
85. ROBINSON CRUSOE by Daniel Defoe - not yet read
86. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Feodor Dostoevsky - not yet read
87. THE STAND by Stephen King - not yet read
88. REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier - not yet read
89. I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves - not yet read
90. HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster - not yet read
91. TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald - not yet read
92. THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence - not yet read
93. BLEAK HOUSE by Charles Dickens - not yet read
94. ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand - not yet read
95. ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by William Faulkner - not yet read
96. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James - not yet read
97. AUSTERLITZ by W. G. Sebald - not yet read
98. THE TRIAL by Franz Kafka - not yet read
99. WISE BLOOD by Flannery O’Connor - not yet read
100. FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley- not yet read

First Banana Bread

I tried looking for a Banana Cake recipe last Friday, but was disappointed that all of them needs self-raising flour. I do not have an idea what self-rising flour is because I only have all-purpose flour at home, left-over from the brownie recipe I baked last weekend. I did another round of research and just copied from the internet a Banana Bread recipe.

I mashed with my hands the 3 very ripe lakatan bananas and followed the recipe. I used an 8 x 8 pan, instead of a bread pan suggested by the recipe. I am not sure though if my oven thermometer is calibrated, but I did pre-heat the oven.

After almost an hour, the banana bread came out smelling so good and tasting so great. My husband thinks is taste good but looks like a pudding from outside.

Chopsuey

This is a quick-cooking dish. You just have to saute garlic and onion and add carrots, chayote, cabbage, chicharo, baguio beans, and cauliflower. I used brewed soy sauce instead of salt and a bit of cornstarch melted in 1/4 cup of water.

The dish tastes good, but I cut my fingernails when trying to chop a head of onion.

Fingernails Hygiene

You just cannot trim your fingernails at any time of the days or any day of the week, or so our foreparents deeply believed in. Cutting fingernails at night is like calling bad omens and spirits. Also, trimminger fingernails on Tuesdays and Fridays will likely cause your fingers to blackened or darkened, specially on the joints. Not following this belief will also lead to brittle nails or unattractive nails.

Brushing or Combing at Nighttime

While it is common practice for girls these days to comb their hair before going to bed, in the olden days of our grandparents, combing or brushing your hair at nightime or during evening, meaning from sunset, is a no-no. They say that it is bad because you are calling on omens to bring you bad news and events. Some old folks will even tell the youngsters that brushing after sunset will cause hair loss, or worse, baldness.

On Menstruation

Onset of Menstruation

When the girls have their first menstruation, the old folks will instruct you take a bath on your first day and refrain from taking a bath until after the end of your first period. You are supposed to wash your stained underwear in lukewarm water and wipe your face with the same underwear to avoid pimples and acnes during you teen years. Afterwards, you should jump from the third steps of a staircase to avoid missing your monthly periods.

Monthly Menstruation

If you are a lass from a barrio, you will be told that you smell bad during your period if you have stepped on animal's dirt. You are suffering from stomach cramps due to eating too much green mangoes. Most likely, the old folks will tell you to drink cerveza negra or beer to hasten your monthly period. Some go to the extent of making you eat ampalaya or bitter gourd To avoid stomach cramps, you are told to refrain from wetting any of your body parts, including your fingertips. The old folks will warn you also that guys will know if you have menstruation because the guys will feel a tingle in their nipples.

Lists for June

Ten Guilty Eating - Pleasures

1. Oreos
2. Ice cream in any variant of chocolate flavor
3. Sour cream chips
4. Chewy brownies
5. Peanuts
6. Penne pasta in pesto or arrabiatta sauce
7. Chips Ahoy
8. Chocolate cake
9. Brazo de Mercedes
10. Leche Flan

5 Top Things I Planned To Do After Finishing Law School and Things I Have Done So Far

1. Travel – so far, 4 countries within a year of graduating from law school
2. Bake – I baked brownies, the half is burnt, the other half, cooked to perfection
3. Cook – I did try roasting chicken and it is better than Kenny Rogers, pesto pasta, some dishes
4. Read novels – I did read a few good ones like 7th Virgin by V. Woolf, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Nip the Buds Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe, et. al.
5. Exercise – I frequently swim for exercise.

5 Things to Buy in July

1. Laptop for convenience because my office laptop does not allow me to install applications and games
2. Leather bag of sufficient size for all the things I need to bring everywhere everyday
3. Contact lens for convenience and to appear my age
4. Ready-to-install kitchen cabinets to have some order in our house
5. New pair of swimsuit because I am looking forward to a leaner me

5 Top Things to Do in June

1. Draft that petition for oathtaking and submit to the Supreme Court
2. Send out stuff to home and free up some space in our place