Leaning Tower of Books

Book #8: Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

2012-02-27T21:17:00.000-06:00

I'm on a roll with great nonfiction this year! What's a good follow-up to Henrietta Lacks, a very readable, page-turning nonfiction book? Well, Amelia Lost, a YA biography of Amelia Earhart, impressed me just as much.

Candace Fleming makes Amelia's story so compelling. After a brief piece titled "Navigating History," she starts the book with the coast guard's wait for Amelia in the Pacific Ocean. After we read about this particular landing for a rest/refuel stop -- it's a tricky one on an island in the Pacific, and so was carefully planned -- we learn that she hasn't arrived when expected, and they are beginning to worry. Yikes! We know the ending to this, don't we? Or we at least know the mystery.

Then we jump all the way back to Amelia's birth and early life. Surprisingly, Fleming makes this story just as compelling as the disappearance. Lots of photos and quotes from Amelia and others help her story zoom along. Fleming alternates chapters about Amelia's life with chapters about her disappearance, and this back and forth works extremely well. I hated to put the book down, even though I knew how it would end. There were lots of surprises and facts that we new to me, however.

Amelia was a unique, complicated, admirable, and extremely human person. I think Fleming really got to know the whole Amelia while working on this book, and I could feel her excitement in sharing the story of this fascinating person with us. I highly recommend watching the video on Candace Fleming's website, where she discusses how she works on a biography.

I look forward to reading more of Fleming's works. Ben Franklin! Eleanor Roosevelt! The Lincolns! P.T. Barnum! What an interesting group of people to explore. I can't wait. And I am excited to see who she will bring to us next.

Happy Nonfiction Monday! Be sure to check out more great nonfiction today at The Children's War.

Picture Books: Cybils Fiction Finalists

2012-02-23T21:33:00.003-06:00

My kids and I recently read all of the Cybils Fiction Picture Book finalists, and thoroughly enjoyed them. I already wrote about Press Here and Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? here in this post, but thought I'd write a bit about the others.

Me...Jane, a picture book biography of young Jane Goodall, won the Cybils Award for this past year. It's truly a beautiful book, using different kinds of art: cartoonish drawings with soft (water?)color; engravings from the 19th and early 20th century depicting animals, natural objects, and more; a few photos of Jane; and some drawings and puzzles created by Jane herself when she was young. My kids really liked it, and I've been meaning to take a look at Dr. Goodall's Roots & Shoots program with them.

I Had a Favorite Dress reminded me of Joseph Had a Little Overcoat (except that it's about a modern-day girl!) When this girl discovers her favorite dress has become too small, her mother helps her cope with the loss by making it into a shirt instead. It then becomes a tank top, then a skirt, etc. I think all three of us were intrigued to see how this story would end. And it's a very sweet ending. The illustrations are cheerful and fun, imitating child's art a bit, and incorporating stitching for some of the words.

Blackout is such a fun story. A family and their neighbors in the city experience a blackout. What do they do when the phone, computer, and video games no longer work? They find some fun to experience together, of course! And what do they do when the lights come back on? Another sweet ending. The artwork is fun, sometimes using a comic book style to tell the story, sometimes using a lovely two-page spread picture. My kids loved it, and we vowed to have some family "blackout" nights together.

I Want My Hat Back is big like a picture book, but written like an early reader; it did win a Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor. It's a lot of fun to read aloud, and I was giggling from the start at the simple language reminiscent of Dick and Jane, but with a sardonic yet silly humor behind it all. My kids were a bit shocked at the ending, but eventually were won over by it. The simple drawings have a goofy humor to them, too.

The Princess and the Pig was a book they read again and again. This story, where a princess switches places with a pig in a far-fetched accident, had them laughing and spotting little details in the illustrations and trying to guess what would happen next. I loved the play with fairy tales; different characters would make assessments of the crazy situations, decisively announcing, "It's the sort of thing that happens all the time in books," while holding a famous one, like Puss in Boots or Thumbelina. The illustrations are always fun and sometimes stunningly beautiful.

Wanna know my kids' favorites? When asked to vote, they couldn't decide between I Want My Hat Back and The Princess and the Pig. They announced it was a tie.

And then they asked me to read them both again.

Be sure to check out the other Read Aloud Thursday posts at Hope Is the Word.

Book #7: The Scorpio Races

2012-02-18T13:50:00.000-06:00

We chose The Scorpio Races as a winter group read on the Reading Circle (see link in my sidebar). Each season, we choose three or four books to read and discuss together, and we almost always include a young adult novel. When we read about Maggie Stiefvater’s newest, about a community that holds deadly races on water horses every year, we were curious.

I hadn't heard of the myth of water horses before. Stiefvater jumps right into the story, letting her characters’ voices describe their community, the water horses, and their experiences with the races. Gradually, as I got to know the characters and the island of Thisby, I settled into their world and accepted their life and their choices. I grew to understand the beauty, danger, and mystery of the water horses, and I felt like they were real. I think it worked to let us get to know this place and its people (and animals) slowly, through their words and actions, instead of having a narrator set up the world for us at the beginning of the book.

I really liked the story. It made me think about what it might be like to live in a remote area in a small community, what people do in order to survive, and what human beings find attractive and beautiful about danger and mystery. Also, it made me want to go horseback riding again.

The two main characters are nicely drawn -- interesting and likable. I could also picture many of the minor characters in my mind. I found them and their choices all very believable.

I listened to parts of this book on audio, and I enjoyed actually hearing the characters’ voices. The Scorpio Races won a Michael L. Printz Honor this year, and its audiobook won an Odyssey Honor.

Maggie Stiefvater explains her (long!) process of writing this novel here on her website, and I found it fascinating. She also includes a book trailer, with pictures she drew and music she wrote and performed. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next from her. (It looks pretty cool!)

I haven’t yet read the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, but I think I will.

Book #6: Half Magic (Edward Eager)

2012-02-09T11:14:00.000-06:00

Still, even without the country or a lake, the summer was a fine thing, particularly when you were at the beginning of it, looking ahead into it. There would be months of beautifully long, empty days, and each other to play with, and the books from the library. ~ Edward Eager, Half Magic

Our local, independent used bookstore has a birthday club, and both of my kids signed up for it before they had to close the list. Each year near their birthdays, one of the owners sends them a book and a $5 gift card in a packing envelope she decorates herself with beautiful drawings. We fill out a card every few years with some of their favorite books, and she picks out a book just for them based on what she knows about their reading tastes.

Half Magic is the book that came in the mail for Felix this year. Skye had read it several years earlier and remembered enjoying it, so they both requested it as our next read-aloud. What a lovely, magical book! We all enjoyed it tremendously.

As you can see from the above quote, the book is definitely a fun one for book lovers. Eager thought E. Nesbit (who I have yet to read) was the greatest children's author of all time, and he admires other books, too, like The Wizard of Oz. He references these directly and indirectly in his own stories. In the first chapter of Half Magic, we learn that this summer, Jane, Mark, Katharine, and Martha have read all of E. Nesbit's books but one, and they are finally able to check out her last one from the library, The Enchanted Castle. They read it aloud together over the next two days, and upon closing the book, Martha, the youngest, asks:

"Why don't things like that ever happen to us?"
"Magic never happens, not really," said Mark, who was old enough to be sure about this.

Don't be so sure, Mark! we all thought on reading this. Just look at the title of the book you are in!

Of course, the children soon find some magic, and proceed to experiment with it. Each chapter describes a magical adventure they have, and I love Eager's chapter titles: How It Began, What Happened to Their Mother, What Happened to [insert each child's name here], How It Ended, and How It Began Again.

Eager's writing style reminded me immediately of Jeanne Birdsall and her Penderwicks books, which Skye and I love. After reading Half Magic, I think Felix may be ready for them soon, too. Goody! Jeanne is definitely a fan of both Eager and Nesbit; she posts quotes from both of them on the pages of her website, including this one from Eager's Seven-Day Magic:

“Why couldn’t she have lived forever?” said Abby, taking that best of all Nesbit books, The Enchanted Castle, down from the shelf and looking at it with loving eyes. “We’ve read all of hers, and nobody seems to do books like that anymore.”

So, like most good books, we not only enjoyed this one, but have added many more to our To Be Read list, including all of Edward Eager's books, some E. Nesbit, The Penderwicks (again), and The Wizard of Oz, which Felix says he wants to read next. Can't wait!

Be sure to check out the other Read Aloud Thursday posts at Hope Is the Word.

Book #5: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

2012-02-08T09:51:00.000-06:00

I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, and books like this encourage me to give more of it a try. I think this has to do with the way Rebecca Skloot tells this story. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a book about science and medicine, law and ethics, American history and race relations. Skloot takes us along with her as she learns about HeLa cells and their origin.

In her introduction, Skloot describes how she first heard about the HeLa cells in a community college biology class when she was 16. Her teacher was explaining cell division and how normal cells can become cancer cells. He then wrote HENRIETTA LACKS on the board, and announced that Henrietta's cells helped us to understand how cancer cells work.

From the book:

Henrietta died in 1951 from a vicious case of cervical cancer…. But before she died, a surgeon took samples of her tumor and put them in a petri dish. Scientists had been trying to keep human cells alive in culture for decades, but they all eventually died. Henrietta’s were different: they reproduced an entire generation every twenty-four hours, and they never stopped. They became the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory.

“Henrietta’s cells have now been living outside her body far longer than they ever lived inside it,” Defler [Skloot’s professor] said. If we went to almost any cell culture lab in the world and opened its freezers, he told us, we’d probably find millions—if not billions—of Henrietta’s cells in small vials on ice.

Her cells were part of research into the genes that cause cancer and those that suppress it; they helped develop drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and Parkinson’s disease; and they’ve been used to study lactose digestion, sexually transmitted diseases, appendicitis, human longevity, mosquito mating, and the negative cellular effects of working in sewers. Their chromosomes and proteins have been studied with such detail and precision that scientists know their every quirk. Like guinea pigs and mice, Henrietta’s cells have become the standard laboratory workhorse.

“HeLa cells were one of the most important things that happened to medicine in the last hundred years,” Defler said.

Then, matter-of-factly, almost as an afterthought, he said, “She was a black woman.” He erased her name in one fast swipe and blew the chalk from his hands. Class was over.

As the other students filed out of the room, I sat thinking, That’s it? That’s all we get? There has to be more to the story.

I followed Defler to his office.

“Where was she from?” I asked. “Did she know how important her cells were? Did she have any children?”

“I wish I could tell you,” he said, “but no one knows anything about her.”

(You can read more of this excerpt from the book here.)

These questions stayed with Skloot, and inspired her to pursue this story. Over the next 20 years, she worked to find answers to her questions, spending the last ten years doing intensive research. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks describes her research process, her experiences writing the book, and the many people she met and got to know.

I am very excited to hear this book is being adapted into a Young Reader’s Edition; I think my daughter would find it fascinating and touching. Rebecca Skloot’s website is wonderful, with lots of resources for teachers and students, including more photos, audio clips from Rebecca’s interview tapes, information about her writing process, video of HeLa cells dividing, and more.

Everyone I know who’s read this book feels the same way I did: Read it!

Book #4: Thirteen Reasons Why (+ Dear Bully)

2012-02-03T09:58:00.002-06:00

Since it's Poetry Friday, I’m going to start this post off with a little poem from this young adult novel:

If my love were an ocean,
there would be no more land.
If my love were a desert,
you would see only sand.
If my love were a star –
late at night, only light,
And if my love could grow wings,
I’d be soaring in flight.

This book really touched my daughter. We both read it for the teen book group I co-lead at our neighborhood library, and I'm really looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say about Thirteen Reasons Why when we meet this weekend. It's a difficult read, telling the story of Hannah Baker, in her own words. It's the story of why she committed suicide.

Skye is only twelve, and so I wondered how she’d handle reading about such a painful topic. She read it on her own, and we discussed it every day or two. She was usually a little ahead of me in the story, and she’d tell me a bit of what was coming up (being careful to ask if I minded spoilers.) One day, she said, “Hannah wrote this beautiful poem, Mom. Want me to say it for you?” And she recited the poem above – she’d memorized it. It was lovely to hear it in her voice! She admired Hannah’s ability to describe a great big love, as well as her talent with rhyme and rhythm. She found the poem to be both happy and sad, expressing a bittersweet feeling. In the book, Hannah makes fun of her poem a bit, but I love its innocence and pure beauty, and I love that my daughter saw that, too.

After reading this book, I requested Dear Bully from the library, which I had heard about on on Lee Wind’s blog. It’s a book of stories, poems, and essays about bullying, written by 70 young adult authors. They describe their own experiences and observations, as well as their hopes and dreams. Some are from the point of view of the victim, and others describe what it’s like to be the bully. Still more discuss being someone on the sidelines, watching the bullying, unsure of what to do about it.

Skye loves this one, also. She hasn’t come to any finite conclusions about bullying because of it – she’s still baffled by and angry with those who do it, and confused about how we can stop it. But both Dear Bully and Thirteen Reasons Why have certainly provided lots of opportunities for discussion between us. I think both books encourage and empower kids to speak out about bullying they experience or observe, and know that they aren’t alone in their feelings. I think it's also a great book for adults to read.

A huge thank you to Jay Asher, author of Thirteen Reasons Why, and Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones, editors of Dear Bully, for taking on these important topics to help our teens. Be sure to visit their websites – click on their names for the links – as there are some wonderful things there.

And for more poetry this Friday, head over to Karissa’s blog, The Iris Chronicles.

What I Read in 2011

2012-01-29T13:05:00.000-06:00

For me:

1. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Rachel Cohn & David Levithan)
2. Too Much Happiness (Alice Munro)
3. Ethel and Ernest: A True Story (Raymond Briggs)
4. The River Wife (Jonis Agee)
5. Excellent Women (Barbara Pym)
6. His Dark Materials #2: The Subtle Knife (Philip Pullman)
7. His Dark Materials #3: The Amber Spyglass (Philip Pullman)
8. Detective Kubu #1: A Carrion Death (Michael Stanley)
9. Lyra's Oxford (Philip Pullman)
10. Keeper (Kathi Appelt)
11. A Visit from the Goon Squad (Jennifer Egan)
12. The Outlander (Gil Adamson)
13. Juliet (Anne Fortier)
14. Next (James Hynes)
15. Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer)
16. The Dreamer (Pam Muñoz Ryan)
17. The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie (Wendy McClure)
18. Little House in the Big Woods (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
19. Little House on the Prairie (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
20. Aesop & Company: With Scenes From His Legendary Life (Barbara Bader& Arthur Geisert)
21. The Sojourn (Andrew Krivak)
22. The Tiger's Wife (Téa Obreht)
23. The Blue Castle (L.M. Montgomery)
24. Bad Marie (Marcy Dermansky)
25. Lamentations of the Father: Essays (Ian Frazier)
26. Empire State: A Love Story (or Not) (Jason Shiga)
27. Because of Winn-Dixie (Kate DiCamillo)
28. Skinny Dip (Carl Hiaasen)
29. Warped (Maurissa Guibord)
30. The Princess Bride (William Goldman)
31. Wonderstruck (Brian Selznick)
32. The Keep (Jennifer Egan)
33. The Guy Not Taken: Stories (Jennifer Weiner)
34. Inside Out and Back Again (Thanhha Lai)
35. Through No Fault of My Own: A Girl's Diary of Life on Summit Avenue in the Jazz Age (Coco Irvine)
36. Red Bird (Mary Oliver)
37. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)
38. The Brontes Went to Woolworths: A Novel (Rachel Ferguson)
39. The Forgotten Affairs Of Youth: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel #8 (Alexander McCall Smith)
40. The Talisman Ring (Georgette Heyer)
41. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick)

For/with Skye (grades 6-7):

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #5: The Ugly Truth (Jeff Kinney)
2. Flight Explorer, Volume 1 (ed. Kazu Kibuishi)
3. His Dark Materials #1: The Golden Compass (Philip Pullman)
4. Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword (Barry Deutsch)
5. Enchanted Forest Chronicles #1: Dealing with Dragons (Patricia C. Wrede)
6. Prime Baby (Gene Luen Yang)
7. Please Write in This Book (Mary Amato)
8. American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang)
9. A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle)
10. The Eternal Smile: Three Stories (Gene Luen Yang)
11. The Saga of Rex (Michel Gagné)
12. The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster)
13. Uglies #1: Uglies (Scott Westerfeld)
14. Foiled (Jane Yolen)
15. The Penderwicks #3: The Penderwicks at Point Mouette (Jeanne Birdsall)
16. Leviathan #1: Leviathan (Scott Westerfeld)
17. Uglies #2: Pretties (Scott Westerfeld)
18. The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
19. Epic (Conor Kostick)
20. A Tale Dark & Grimm (Adam Gidwitz)
21. Uglies #3: Specials (Scott Westerfeld)
22. Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
23. Chasing Vermeer (Blue Balliett)
24. Moon Over Manifest (Clare Vanderpool)
25. Skellig (David Almond)
26. Toad of Toad Hall (A.A. Milne)
27. The Circuit (Francisco Jiménez)
28. Anya's Ghost (Vera Brosgol)
29. The Wild Girls (Pat Murphy)
30. Crows and Cards (Joseph Helgerson)
31. When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead)

With Skye (grades 6-7) & Felix (grades K-1):

1. Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (Betty MacDonald)
2. The Doll People (Ann M. Martin, Laura Godwin, & Brian Selznick)
3. Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business (Barbara Park)
4. The Boxcar Children (Gertrude Chandler Warner)
5. My Father's Dragon (Ruth Stiles Gannett)
6. Elmer And The Dragon (Ruth Stiles Gannett)
7. The Dragons Of Blueland (Ruth Stiles Gannett)
8. Mr. Popper's Penguins (Richard Atwater)
9. Beezus and Ramona (Beverly Cleary)
10. The Runaway Dolls (Ann M. Martin, Laura Godwin, & Brian Selznick)
11. Winnie-the-Pooh (A.A. Milne)
12. The Mouse And The Motorcycle (Beverly Cleary)
13. Toys Go Out (Emily Jenkins)
14. Runaway Ralph (Beverly Cleary)
15. Toy Dance Party (Emily Jenkins)
16. Ralph S. Mouse (Beverly Cleary)
17. Toys Come Home (Emily Jenkins)
18. Clementine (Sara Pennypacker)
19. Betsy-Tacy and Tib (Maud Hart Lovelace)
20. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (Tom Angleberger)
21. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Barbara Robinson)
22. The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame, abridged & illustrated by Inga Moore)

With Felix (grades K-1):

1. Magic Tree House #8: Midnight On The Moon (Mary Pope Osborne)
2. Magic Tree House #5: Night Of The Ninjas (Mary Pope Osborne)
3. Magic Tree House #12: Polar Bears Past Bedtime (Mary Pope Osborne)
4. Dinosaur Cove #9: Tracking The Diplodocus (Rex Stone)
5. Junie B. Jones Is Captain Field Day (Barbara Park)
6. Junie B. Jones Smells Something Fishy (Barbara Park)
7. My Weird School #5: Miss Small Is off the Wall! (Dan Gutman)
8. My Weird School #9: Miss Lazar Is Bizarre! (Dan Gutman)
9. Bailey School Kids #47: Frankenstein Doesn't Start Food Fights (Debbie Dadey& Marcia Thornton Jones)
10. Bailey School Kids #6: Frankenstein Doesn't Plant Petunias (Debbie Dadey& Marcia Thornton Jones)
11. Bailey School Kids #24: Dragons Don't Cook Pizza (Debbie Dadey& Marcia Thornton Jones)
12. Bailey School Kids #5: Ghosts Don't Eat Potato Chips (Debbie Dadey& Marcia Thornton Jones)
13. Magic Tree House #9: Dolphins at Daybreak (Mary Pope Osborne)
14. My Weirder School #1: Miss Child Has Gone Wild! (Dan Gutman)

Book #3: Darth Paper Strikes Back

2012-01-26T23:27:00.000-06:00

My daughter Skye and I got to see Tom Angleberger last October at our local independent children’s bookstore. What a treat! He was funny and lively and great with the kids. He did some silly juggling tricks, drew pictures, folded a huge Origami Yoda, and made us all laugh a lot.

He asked us which character we thought he was most like in middle school. (Do you know?) He told us there would be a third book, and had all of us guess who would be on its cover. (He couldn’t tell us yet – publisher’s rule – but told us to keep an eye on his website for announcements. Who would you like to see?) He signed books, drawing a picture in each one and taking the time to chat with every kid.

Skye and I agreed that Felix would have had a blast at his talk, and that we should have brought him along. She got an Origami Yoda book signed for him, and told him all about our afternoon. I didn’t think a first grader would be interested in hearing a story about middle school students, but when they both requested Yoda for our next read aloud, we gave it a try.

Felix loved it! He laughed a lot at my terrible Yoda voice (but Dwight’s is terrible, too, right?) and he enjoyed the format of the story, how in each chapter, Dwight/Yoda helped someone. (Hey, sort of like Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Just noticed that. Hmm. Kinda cool.)

We had just as much fun with Darth Paper Strikes Back. This time, I got to do a terrible Darth voice, too. Felix enjoyed correcting my breathing technique. They both made me repeat any scenes where someone disagrees with Origami Yoda, so that they could squeal with laughter. Example:

Dwight held up Origami Yoda and croaked, “Dress rehearsals you must start.”

“But the play is three weeks away!” I said.

“Dress rehearsals you must start!”

“But—“

“DRESS REHEARSALS YOU MUST START!!”

“But—“

“MUST!”

So we did.

Try reading that aloud in a terrible Yoda voice and see if it doesn’t make you squeal with laughter, too.

And I don’t want to give anything away, but I loved the ending, especially when Dwight’s mom finally gets it. We’ll definitely be checking out the next book.

Be sure to check out the other Read Aloud Thursday posts at Hope Is the Word.

P.S. In reading Tom's bio, I learned that his wife, Cece Bell, is also a children's author/illustrator. Check out this great interview with her on Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. She won me over immediately when I saw that first photo of her reading Miss Piggy's Guide to Life.

What's On Your Nightstand: January 24

2012-01-24T14:00:00.000-06:00

Via Hope Is the Word, I just discovered a fun meme: What's on Your Nightstand hosted by 5 Minutes for Books. Every fourth Tuesday of the month, bloggers share what they are currently reading and/or what they are looking forward to. Click here to read more about this meme, and click here to participate today.

This month, I'm just going to post photos of my nightstand and the kids' reading sidetable. I thought it would be a fun exercise to see what these look like each month. Some are books we read in January, some we're reading now, and some we are looking forward to. Can't guarantee we'll get to them all this coming month, but we're optimists! I also keep a list in my sidebar of past, current, and future reads, as well as yearly book lists. (Still working on 2011, and hoping to post that soon.)

my nightstand -- DVDs, too!

kids' sidetable -- notice the origami yoda inspiration

bottom shelf of kids' sidetable -- picture books

ALA Book Awards!

2012-01-23T09:45:00.000-06:00

I knew they'd be announced this morning, so I started by doing a Google search to find the winners. Then I thought, "I should just check the blogs I'm following." Annie Cardi's blog immediately popped up with this link to the announcement. Hooray for book bloggers!

Like I posted on Annie's site, I’m happy that Inside Out & Back Again got an honor; I love that book. And hooray for Wonderstruck — I hadn’t thought of it for the Schneider, but that’s perfect. Yay for the amazing Kadir Nelson!

What are your thoughts on seeing the winners?

Lots of titles new to me to explore. I think that’s what I love the most about book awards. Off to place some library requests...

Poetry Friday: I Like Winter

2012-01-20T10:20:00.002-06:00

I woke up this morning to snow falling. Hooray! We've had so little of it here in Minnesota this winter, and it feels so strange, especially with the crazy warm temperatures. But yesterday we braved sub-zero temperatures, and today we are supposed to get an inch or two of snow. This is more like it.

My mom sang to us a lot when we were kids. She also read to us a lot. She'd make up songs for the poems she'd read in books. Whenever it snows, I hear my mom singing her made up tune for Lois Lenski's I Like Winter:

I like winter, I like snow.
I like icy winds that blow.
I like snowflakes, oh so light,
Making all the ground so white.

Sometimes, I sing it to my kids. And they don't complain too much, because they like snow, too. They were so happy this morning!

You can take a peek inside the book here at Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves, a blog I just discovered when looking for info about this book and Lois Lenski. Isn't it neat (the book and the blog)? I remember studying all the details in Lenski's simple, colorful drawings. Looking at the sheet music for the song, I think my mom must have started trying to follow it with her tune, but then went off with her own improvisation.

To learn more about Lois Lenski, you can read about her here at the Ohioana Authors website.

It's Poetry Friday! This week, Wild Rose Reader is the host. Head on over to her blog to enjoy some more poetry today. It's a great way to find some blogs that may be new to you. I love the idea of celebrating poetry every week. I've needed that reminder. I just got out our copy of I Like Winter, along with a poetry book we got for Christmas, to share with the kids when they get home from school today.

Bring on the Book Battles!

2012-01-19T17:11:00.000-06:00

I love this time of year. 'Tis the season of the book battles! I like to follow these four:

The Cybils: Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards

They announced the finalists on New Year's Day, and the winners will be announced on Valentine's Day. I know some bloggers are doing a Cybils Challenge, trying to read all of the finalists before they announce the winners. I think the kids & I will read all of the picture books, and maybe I'll get to the elementary/middle grade graphic novels, too, which Skye may also read. (Hey, I just noticed I've read two of the five nominees already, and I'm in the middle of a third!) Check out past finalists and winners in the sidebar on the Cybils website. They've been doing this since 2006.

School Library Journal's Battle of the Kids' Books

I've been peeking in here, hoping for some news, and guess what? They posted a little update yesterday! Hooray! Can't wait to see the titles that will be facing off this year. I'm not sure when they announced the contenders last year, but the battles started on March 15. (While you're waiting along with me, check out the 2010 and 2009 battles.)

The Morning News' Tournament of Books

Currently, the link above sends you to the announcement about this year's contenders & judges in the tournament of books. The website still shows the final battle from 2011, and if you haven't ever followed it, that's not where you should start, so instead I'll link you to the pre-game primer from last year. From there, you can travel down the right sidebar (no peeking!) and relive the magic. At the bottom of the sidebar you'll find links to all the tournaments; they go back to 2005. Last year, the opening round started on March 8.

The Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award

This is a children's choice award. There are two book lists of nominees, one for grades 3-5, and one for grades 6-8. Kids need to read at least three of the titles, and then they can vote for their favorite through their library or school. (We are doing this with the kids' book club I co-lead at our neighborhood library.) The winners are announced every year on Maud's birthday, April 25. The list of past winners goes back to 1980.

Have you been inspired to read any books because of battles like these? I'm sure I'll be writing more about these contests as we progress through the winter.

Book #2: The Story of Beautiful Girl (Rachel Simon)

2012-01-13T13:16:00.002-06:00

What a beautiful book! The Story of Beautiful Girl was one of our fall group reads on the Reading Circle, and I'm so glad we chose it. I plan to write more about it here later, when I have more time, but wanted to get this post up here before the 52 Books deadline for the week.

For now, you can head on over to Rachel Simon's website to learn more about the book and about Ms. Simon. I'm looking forward to exploring over there, now that I've finished the book. I highly recommend this novel.

---------
Okay, I'm back to tell you more. One of my first thoughts is that the author, Rachel Simon, clearly values and appreciates books and stories. Here is a quote from The Story of Beautiful Girl:

"A book wasn’t something you could open anywhere and then flip to anywhere else. You opened it at the front and went forward, and the pages went from one to the next, each adding to the last, and the story grew more exciting with each page. It was like the way corn grew from the seed that got planted in spring to the tall rows you hid inside in the fall. A story grew."

At the beginning of this story, Martha, a 70-something retired teacher and widow who lives in a farmhouse, hears a knock at her door in the middle of a powerful storm. When she opens the door, she finds two people there – a young woman and a deaf man. Make that three people: The woman is holding a newborn baby. Martha is not sure what she should do – they can’t communicate with her very well, as neither of them speaks – but soon she gets the feeling that they are looking for a place of safety. She also observes that they love each other very much.

Soon, people from “the School” arrive at her house, and the young woman is caught. The man escapes, and the baby is still upstairs. Martha learns the woman’s name is Lynnie, and that she never speaks except to say the word "no." She lives at the School (an institution for people with developmental disabilities), and they’ve come to take her back. As they prepare to take her away, Lynnie has the opportunity to look into Martha’s eyes and whisper, “Hide her.”

From there, the story grows.

It follows four characters -- Lynnie, the deaf man, Martha, and Kate (a woman who works at the School) – alternating viewpoints. We see what life is like for each of these people with different situations and unique ways of interacting with others and the world. The novel spans over forty years, and at first, I was concerned that this would make it difficult to read, jumping around to different people and time periods, but the author switches stories and viewpoints without making it feel jarring or disconnected.

Here is the website for the book. I just learned that the book is coming out in paperback this February.

Rachel Simon was inspired to write this book for many reasons, some of which she explains in her afterword. She previously wrote and published Riding the Bus with My Sister, a memoir, and several other books as well, including one on writing.

I am really glad she wrote this novel, and I’d love to hear her speak someday. I found a couple of videos of her on YouTube:

~ Click here to watch an excerpt of a talk she gave in 2004.
~ Click here to hear an interview with her about the book. (This one is about 30 minutes long. I've only listened to the first five minutes, and hope to find time to watch the rest soon.)

Our Picture Book Reading

2012-01-12T07:54:00.001-06:00

I mentioned in my readolutions post that I wanted to make a point of reading more picture books with my kids. At ages 7 and 12, they both still really enjoy them, so of course I should be taking advantage of this! I want to encourage them to read picture books all their lives.

Here are some of our recent favorites:

Press Here (Hervé Tullet)

I've seen this one talked about a lot, and I kept finding it in different places at our library, which suggests to me that kids are loving it, pulling it off the shelf and playing with it. I finally checked it out. Skye and Felix agreed that it's a lot of fun, and I love that everything that happens uses only the magic of the two-dimensional page.

Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? (Susan A. Shea, paintings by Tom Slaughter)

This one has been mentioned on a few "Best of 2011" book lists. The rhyming text is catchy -- Felix and Skye had fun remembering the rhymes later that day, and making up some of their own. The pictures are gorgeous, simple and bright, using gentle colors. It's a neat concept to think about, too.

Color Zoo (Lois Ehlert)

This is an old favorite. We had the board book, but recently gave it away, so I checked out the hardcover from the library. For some reason, I felt this version helps you see the creativity even better. My kids flipped the pages back and forth to see how Ehlert created the different animals using only shapes. I was inspired to get this one again because of the following book...

My Heart Is Like a Zoo (Michael Hall)

My kids enjoyed this one, too! They liked finding and counting all of the different hearts that made up each animal. And the ending is sweet. Michael Hall is from Minnesota! The website is really cute, and the trailer there helps you to find some hearts you might have missed.

Perfect Square (Michael Hall)

So, of course we had to check out Hall's newest picture book, too. I've also seen this one on some 2012 Bests lists. I'd love to get this one again, so that we can do some artsy/craftsy stuff inspired by it. Check out the trailer and you'll see what I mean. And another nice ending.

Now, the layout of this post looks okay on my computer screen, but I'm assuming it's different for others. As a new(ish) blogger, I'm not sure how to put together posts like this to be sure that pictures of book covers are next to the writing about them. Any advice?

What picture books have you been reading?

What I Read in 2010

2012-01-10T17:12:00.000-06:00

Ah, this is very satisfying. I'm organizing my lists of past reads. Here's what I read in 2010; no links, but maybe I'll add them at some point...

For me:

East (Edith Pattou)
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson)
Little Heathens (Mildred Armstrong Kalish)
Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
Birds of a Feather (Jacqueline Winspear)
Cracked Up to Be (Courtney Summers)
The Girl Who Played with Fire (Stieg Larsson)
A Noble Radiance (Donna Leon)
The Out-of-Sync Child (Carol Stock Kranowitz)
Before I Fall (Lauren Oliver)
Gunnerkrigg Court, Volume 1: Orientation (Thomas Siddell)
The Wild Party (Joseph Moncure March)
Getting Air (Dan Gutman)
Out Stealing Horses (Per Petterson)
William – an Englishman (Cicely Hamilton)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Stieg Larsson)
Life As We Knew It (Susan Beth Pfeffer)
Keeping the Feast (Paula Butturini)
The Dead and the Gone (Susan Beth Pfeffer)
This World We Live In (Susan Beth Pfeffer)
Very Valentine (Adriana Trigiani)
Brain, Child magazine, Spring 2010
The Postmistress (Sarah Blake)
The Crimson Rooms (Katharine McMahon)
Day for Night (Frederick Reiken)
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)
Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)
Summertime (Raffaella Barker)
Confessions of a Teen Sleuth (Chelsea Cain)
The Clue in the Crumbling Wall (Carolyn Keene)
Mansfield Park (Jane Austen)
The Charming Quirks of Others (Alexander McCall Smith)
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (Aimee Bender)
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Alan Bradley)
Every Last One (Anna Quindlen)
77 Love Sonnets (Garrison Keillor)
A Study in Scarlet (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A Study in Scarlet: A Sherlock Holmes Graphic Novel (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Room (Emma Donoghue)
The Grimm Legacy (Polly Shulman)
The Heretic’s Daughter (Kathleen Kent)
The Language of Trees (Ilie Ruby)
The Line (Olga Grushin)

For/with Skye (grades 5-6):

The Sea of Monsters (Rick Riordan)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg)
Meet Felicity: An American Girl (Valerie Tripp)
Calamity Jack (Shannon Hale et al)
The Arrival (Shaun Tan)
The Titan’s Curse (Rick Riordan)
The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook (Eleanor Davis)
Smile (Raina Telgemeier)
When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead)
A Family Secret (Eric Heuvel)
The Search (Eric Heuvel)
Sideways Stories from Wayside School (Jon Sciezcka)
The Mozart Season (Virginia Euwer Wolff)
The Magic Thief (Sarah Prineas)
The Magic Thief: Lost (Sarah Prineas)
The Magic Thief: Found (Sarah Prineas)
Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown (Jarrett J. Krosoczka)
The Battle of the Labyrinth (Rick Riordan)
The Gollywhopper Games (Jody Feldman)
The Popularity Papers (Amy Ignatow)
The Last Olympian (Rick Riordan)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling)
Julie: An American Girl – Story Collection (Megan McDonald)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (Jeff Kinney)
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Jacqueline Kelly)

With Skye (grades 5-6) & Felix (grades PreK-K):

Down Girl and Sit: Smarter than Squirrels (Lucy Nolan)
Down Girl and Sit: On the Road (Lucy Nolan)
Down Girl and Sit: Bad to the Bone (Lucy Nolan)
Funny Frank (Dick King-Smith)
The Twin Giants (Dick King-Smith)
Dragons Don’t Cook Pizza (Debbie Dadey & Marcia Thornton Jones)
The School for Cats (Esther Averill)
Jenny’s Moonlight Adventure (Esther Averill)
The Big Big Big Book of Tashi
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Roald Dahl)
Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel (Ruth McNally Barshaw)
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (Betty MacDonald)
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Magic (Betty MacDonald)
Dinosaur Cove #1: Attack of the Tyrannosaurus (Rex Stone)
Miss Daisy Is Crazy! (Dan Gutman)
Jack Stalwart #1: Escape of the Deadly Dinosaur (Elizabeth Singer Hunt)
Mr. Klutz Is Nuts! (Dan Gutman)
Jack Stalwart #2: The Search for the Sunken Treasure (Elizabeth Singer Hunt)
Mrs. Roopy Is Loopy! (Dan Gutman)
Ms. Hannah Is Bananas! (Dan Gutman)
Dinosaur Cove #2: Charge of the Triceratops (Rex Stone)
The Giants and the Joneses (Julia Donaldson)
Dinosaur Cove #3: March of the Ankylosaurus (Rex Stone)
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Farm (Betty MacDonald)
The Doll People (Ann M. Martin & Laura Godwin)
Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus (Barbara Park)
How to Save Your Tail (Mary Hanson)
Runny Babbit (Shel Silverstein)
Betsy-Tacy (Maud Hart Lovelace)
The Meanest Doll in the World (Ann M. Martin & Laura Godwin)

With lit circles (grade 5):

Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) (Lisa Yee)
Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Midnight Visitor (Donald J. Sobol)
Skellig (David Almond)
The Lemonade War (Jacqueline Davies)
Chasing Vermeer (Blue Balliett)
Hatchet (Gary Paulsen)
The 39 Clues, Book 1: The Maze of Bones (Rick Riordan)
The City of Ember (Jeanne DuPrau)
Holes (Louis Sachar)
Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom (Eric Wight)
Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute (Jarrett J. Krosoczka)
Gregor the Overlander (Suzanne Collins)
Lunch Lady #2 (Jarrett J. Krosoczka)
Lunch Lady #3 (Jarrett J. Krosoczka)
Once Upon a Marigold (Jean Ferris)
Star Jumper (Frank Asch)
The Headless Cupid (Zilpha Keatley Snyder)

Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award nominees (for Kids Book Clubs at the library):

Eleven (Patricia Reilly Giff)
The Missing: Book 1 – Found (Margaret Peterson Haddix)
Deep and Dark and Dangerous (Mary Downing Hahn)
How to Steal a Dog (Barbara O’Connor)
All of the Above (Shelley Pearsall)
If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period (Gennifer Choldenko)
The Sloppy Copy Slipup (DyAnne DiSalvo)
No Talking (Andrew Clements)

Two More Challenges

2012-01-09T22:25:00.000-06:00

I'm joining two more challenges this winter, and then I think I've got to call a halt to this challenge thing for a bit. The first one is The Comment Challenge hosted by MotherReader and Lee Wind, and its goal is to encourage commenting on others' blogs. MotherReader says:

Since it is said that it takes twenty-one days to form a new habit, we’re going to run the Comment Challenge for the next three weeks — starting Thursday, January 5, and running through Wednesday, January 25, 2012. The goal is to comment on at least five book blogs a day. Keep track of your numbers, and report in on Wednesdays with Lee.

I'm posting about this after the starting date, but if you're interested in joining, it's not too late! You can either up your average comments a day, or set your own goal. Come & join the fun!

The second challenge is on the Reading Circle, which is an online book group that I co-moderate. (You'll find the link in my sidebar.) We are doing a Classics Challenge this winter; each of us participating will recommend 2-5 classic novels, and then all of our lists will go into a hat. We'll pull them out and match readers to lists. The only requirement is to read one book from the list received and then share your thoughts with the group. This is open to others, too! Recommendations need to be posted by this Friday, January 13.

The first book I completed this year...

2012-01-07T23:18:00.000-06:00

So, I thought the first book I’d post about this year would be The Story of Beautiful Girl, but I’m not quite done with that one. Today was a double-book-club-meeting day, so I had to pause in my reading of it to finish up two books that were both re-reads for me. One of them, for the teen book club I co-lead at our neighborhood library, I decided to skim and read about online, since I’d just re-read it this spring with Skye. (A Wrinkle in Time: What a fun book to share with her! She really identified with Meg, and enjoyed the tesseract concept.) The other one was for our mother-daughter book club, which was supposed to meet this evening, but was postponed due to illness of the hosts, much to Skye’s chagrin.

This was my third reading of The Hunger Games. I read it when it first came out, requesting a library copy and plowing through it when I got it, sending it on to the next person in line after just a few days. (I love it when I can do that!) I’d read about its premise and was skeptical; I expected to be horribly offended and repelled. How could anyone enjoy such brutal speculative fiction? But, on a friend’s reassuring recommendation (“Trust me. It’s really amazing.”), I gave it a try. As I watched the whole spectacle unfold with bated breath, I marveled at how Suzanne Collins had me gaping at the whole thing just like the citizens of the Capitol. I *was* offended and repelled, but I was also hooked and dazzled. Very impressive storytelling.

My second reading came when, preparing for the release of Mockingjay, I decided to refresh my memory by re-reading books 1 & 2. As I reviewed, I noticed more details about the characters, as well as the foreshadowing techniques Collins uses.

This third reading came sooner than I thought it would. Skye is a sensitive soul. Being twelve years old, she’d heard plenty about The Hunger Games trilogy, but had no real interest in it. She told me her friends were raving about how great it was, but that she thought she’d wait awhile before giving it a try. When one of the moms in our mother-daughter book group asked if it would be okay to read this one for our next book, I checked with Skye, and she decided she was open to reading it.

We made it through, and she didn’t hate it! That was my goal. After the first scene in the arena, she did have some bad dreams, so the next day we decided to try a different strategy. I’d describe to her the sensitive, intense scenes, and she’d read all of the other stuff. And I was surprised at how much she could read without a problem. Collins does such a nice job telling the story of the monstrous Hunger Games. Katniss is a wonderful main character, and Skye could relate to her anger, confusion, and sadness. She cheered her on and shook her fist at the Capitol.

Today at Teen Book Club, Skye shared her thoughts about the book, and it was interesting to hear what others thought, too. One teen said she’d read the trilogy because she’d enjoyed Collins’ Gregor the Overlander series so much. She liked Hunger Games, but thought Gregor was better. Another teen gave it a try when her friends were all telling her she’d love it. She quit after 50 pages; the writing wasn’t as strong as she’d expected, it reminded her of a friend’s writing, and she found herself wanting to read her friend’s stories instead. The other co-leader read it but wasn’t as impressed as she expected to be after hearing all the hype. The librarian and I were the two who liked it best, and we both read it when it first came out, before it became THE HUNGER GAMES. We really loved it. Interesting how our expectations can color our experience with a book.

Skye hasn’t asked about the next book in the trilogy, and I’m fine with that. I hope that someday, when the hype has calmed down and she’s older, she will pick these books up again and experience them the way I did the first time. If she wants, I’ll read them along with her, and we can both cheer for Katniss and rage with her.

52 Books in 52 Weeks

2012-01-04T21:58:00.000-06:00

In my readolutions post, I mentioned that I am signing up for the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge this year. I learned of it from my friend Michelle at Fond of Books, and I can't wait to see what she reads. (Check out this crazy molasses book that she chose to ring in 2012. How does she find these books? I love it.)

One of the rules is that you can't include children's books in this challenge. But luckily I read the fine print, which says, "If an adult is doing read aloud with kids, the book should be geared for the 9 - 12 age group and above and over 100 pages. If adult reading for own enjoyment, then a good rule of thumb to go by 'is there some complexity to the story or is it too simple?' If it's too simple, then doesn't count." Got it. No problem!

I hope this challenge helps inspire me to post here at least weekly, and I look forward to getting to know some other book bloggers along the way.

2012 Readolutions

2012-01-02T15:03:00.001-06:00

I love readolutions. This year, instead of making a list, I will write a bit about the kind of a reading year I hope to have in 2012.

I look forward to reading with my kids (ages 12 & 7). I read to them from a chapter book just about every night, and I read books with Skye for our mother-daughter book group and our teen book club at the library. I'd like to find more time to read one-on-one with Felix, and I'd like to remember to make time for picture books, which they both still love.

I plan to continue to track my reading on Goodreads. This has been a great resource for me. I joined in July 2011, and since I had already been keeping a book list, I added all of the books I’d read from the start of the year on. I'm really enjoying taking a look at everything I read in 2011! I love how you can put the books into different groupings (called "shelves").

I will participate in my reading communities! I am a co-moderator of StorkNet's Reading Circle, so that’s a priority; I will do my best to post a reading update there each week, and to read the group reads and post about them on our discussion threads. I will participate in the challenges there. I’ve been enjoying FridayReads on Facebook. I love the Chicklit forums and hope to post more there. Maybe I’ll even jump into some discussions at the Republic of Pemberley. My biggest leap will be to enter the bookish blogosphere more fully.

As for my blog, do I even have to say? Of course I want to post more. Maybe this pretty new format will keep me motivated for awhile. I’m also signing up for the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge, so that should help, too.

I just posted a goal on Goodreads of reading 100 books in 2012. That will include the chapter books I read with my kids, too. I have been reading lots of middle grade & YA fiction, which I love, but I'd like to find a bit more time for "grown-up" books this year.

I also want to:

~ Read more books from my shelves. I’d like to especially focus on my lovely collection of Persephone books, as well as books that have been given or loaned to me.

~ Organize our bookshelves. We got some new shelves this year, but the organization is maybe only half-way complete. I love doing this, but I think I put it off because it seems more like a treat than a must-do.

~ Rein in my bookstore shopping – at least make it more purposeful. I will focus on book club books, the kids’ Christmas book stacks, and keepsake books (ones I love and want on my shelves.) I will try to avoid those impulse buys.

~ Participate in Buy a Friend a Book week at least once this year. I’d forgotten about this cool tradition!

Ah. I love envisioning my great reading year ahead. Do any of you make reading goals, or have any special reading plans for 2012?

Look what I made!

2012-01-02T12:53:00.000-06:00

I've finally changed the template of my blog, and as I was playing around with it this morning, I learned I could use my own photo in the background. So, to the left you see a picture of the current stack of TBR books on my nightstand. No guarantees I'll get to them all! I think it nicely conveys the "Leaning Tower of Books" vibe.

I need to work on my sidebar stuff next. For some reason, Blogger changed my most recent additions and plugged in some old stuff instead, so now I have to think about what I'd like to see here. Your patience is appreciated.

But first, I'm going to finish up my list of Readolutions for 2012, and post those. Back soon!

Best of 2011

2011-12-31T22:00:00.002-06:00

I love this time of year, and one of the things I enjoy most is looking over the list of books I read and putting together a list of my favorites.

I'm using my Goodreads account to create this list. The ratings system makes it easy to find my favorites of the year. I re-read a lot of my favorite YA books this year because I am leading a couple of book groups at our neighborhood library. I'll leave those off this list, and only include the books I encountered for the first time.

Fiction:
A Visit from the Goon Squad (Jennifer Egan)
Excellent Women (Barbara Pym)
The Blue Castle (L.M. Montgomery)

Graphic Novel:
Ethel and Ernest (Raymond Briggs)

Middle Grade and YA:
The Penderwicks at Point Mouette (Jeanne Birdsall)
Keeper (Kathi Appelt)
A Tale Dark & Grimm (Adam Gidwitz)
Toys Go Out and Toy Dance Party (Emily Jenkins)
Moon Over Manifest (Clare Vanderpool)
Wonderstruck (Brian Selznick)
Inside Out & Back Again (Thanhha Lai)
The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Inga Moore; abridged)

I didn't give any of the nonfiction I read five stars (unless you count the above graphic novel, which is about Briggs' parents). I gave four stars to these:

Nonfiction:
The Wilder Life (Wendy McClure)
The Circuit (Francisco Jiménez)
Through No Fault of My Own: A Girl's Diary of Life on Summit Avenue in the Jazz Age (Coco Irvine)

Merry Books Day!

2011-12-26T20:41:00.007-06:00

They did it. The books are all unwrapped! Once they started, there was no stopping them. Aren't they beautiful?

Oops. There are a couple missing from Skye's stack, the two that she hugged and scurried off to read immediately.

And here is Felix's first pick from his stack. Good choice, kid.

Book Stacks 2011

2011-12-25T13:43:00.020-06:00

We had a very merry Christmas day, and as I type, the bookstacks still sit wrapped up tight under the tree. We always save them for last, and this Christmas, we were overwhelmed with wonderful gifts and so enjoyed each other's company that we had no need to open them. We look forward to unwrapping and relishing them throughout the coming week. I want to savor each of them with my kids, so this suits me just fine.

Tonight, I'll just post the list of the titles included in each stack. Later, I hope to write a bit about each of them -- why I chose them, where I got them, how they were received. One of my dreams is to make more time to blog in the New Year.

For Skye (age 12):
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
The Way We Work by David Macaulay
Order of the Stick comic collections: Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales and Dungeon Crawlin Fools by Rich Burlew
Wildwood by Colin Meloy
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt
Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (in Spanish)
The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu
Ida B... by Katherine Hannigan (in Spanish)
Puffin Classics: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett and The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

For Felix (age 7):
This Is Paris by M. Sasek
Plum by Tony Mitton
Marshall Armstrong Is New to Our School by David Mackintosh
No dejes que la Paloma conduzca el autobus! by Mo Willems
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (with illustrations by Lauren Child)
The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
Moomin books: Comet in Moominland and Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson
Bad Kitty books: Bad Kitty Gets a Bath and Happy Birthday Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel
Dragon Slayers Academy books: #2: Revenge of the Dragon Lady and #3: Class Trip to the Cave of Doom by Kate McMullan
Puffin Classics: Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie and The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Week of 5/16

2011-05-16T09:54:00.002-05:00

Just finished:

Please Write in This Book (Mary Amato)

American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang)
Prime Baby (Gene Luen Yang)
The Eternal Smile (Gene Luen Yang & Derek Kirk Kim)

Night of the Ninjas (Mary Pope Osborne)
Polar Bears Past Bedtime (Mary Pope Osborne)

Dealing with Dragons (Patricia C. Wrede)
A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle)
The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster)
The Saga of Rex (Michel Gagné)

The Outlander (Gil Adamson)
Juliet (Anne Fortier)

Reading now:

My Kindergarten (Rosemary Wells)
Dinosaur Cove: Tracking the Diplodocus (Rex Stone)

Beezus and Ramona (Beverly Cleary)
The McElderry book of Aesop’s Fables (Michael Morpurgo)

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Young Readers Edition (Michael Pollan)

The Dreamer (Pam Munoz Ryan)
Knock at a Star (X.J. Kennedy and Dorothy M. Kennedy)
Self-Nurture (Alice D. Domar)
Next (James Hynes)

On the nightstand:

The Dragon in the Sock Drawer (Kate Klimo)

Uglies (Scott Westerfeld)
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (Scott McCloud)

Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer)
Foiled (Jane Yolen & Mike Cavallaro)
The Penderwicks #3 (Jeanne Birdsall)

The Cat (Jutta Richter)
Sensational Kids (Lucy Jane Miller)
Bossypants (Tina Fey)
Model Home (Eric Puchner)
The Lacuna (Barbara Kingsolver)

Week of 4/4

2011-04-05T07:14:00.007-05:00

Just finished:

Keeper, Kathi Appelt
This story takes place on the Texas Gulf Coast. We just returned from a visit there (although we were further south), and that plus its presence in School Library Journal's Battle of the Kids' Books inspired me to pick it up. I'm so glad I did. What a beautiful book.

A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
Winner of this year's National Book Critics Circle Award. Contender in this year's Morning News Tournament of Books. (I won't tell you how it did; you'll have to click on the link to find out.) Egan is talented, and this book is a lot of fun.

Reading now:

The Dreamer, Pam Muñoz Ryan
Another contender in the Battle of the Kids' Books. It's lovely so far. (I'm three chapters in.)

Dealing with Dragons, Patricia C. Wrede
My daughter and I are hosting this month's mother-daughter book club meeting. This is our pick.

Self-Nurture, Alice D. Domar
Reading and discussing this one with my sister.

On my nightstand:

The Outlander, Gil Adamson
I gave this one to my father-in-law and told him I'd read it, too, so that we could discuss it. He's finished. I'd better get going!

Model Home, Eric Puchner
Another Tournament of Books contender. Sounded intriguing, so I got it from the library.

The Keep, Jennifer Egan
I've had this on my shelf for awhile, and I've advanced it now to the nightstand after reading Goon Squad.

some of Gene Luen Yang’s work
A friend and I are going to be leading a teen book club at our library. American Born Chinese is our first pick.

Julia Donaldson's Picture Books

2010-11-24T20:25:00.005-06:00

We missed The Gruffalo when it was at the Children’s Theatre, but my nephew saw it and was so mesmerized by the story that I think it will always be one of his favorites. How can you not love a little mouse who out-smarts his would-be enemies, scaring them off by describing his great friend, a gruffalo. What’s a gruffalo, you ask?

“He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws…”

And of course, his favorite food is always whichever predator the mouse is talking to.

The twist in the story comes when the mouse finds out that the creature he is describing truly exists! Check out this book to find out how the mouse outsmarts him, too.

My kids and I recently went on a Julia Donaldson reading spree, and this was one of their three favorites. Another winner was The Spiffiest Giant in Town. This giant actually starts out as the scruffiest in town. He decides to spruce himself up, but soon discovers that his kind heart will not keep him spiffy for long. My kids loved the last page of this book.

These two books were illustrated by Axel Scheffler, who has a bright, friendly style. Tyrannosaurus Drip’s illustrator is David Roberts, and although the Donaldson/Scheffler partnership feels perfect, I think Roberts gets this one just right. His dinosaurs are quirky and make me giggle. In this story, a duckbill egg ends up in a T-Rex nest. Since duckbills are peaceful plant-eaters, and T-Rexs are scary meat-eaters, Little Drip finds himself in quite a predicament. (And yes, he comes out of it a hero!)

In checking online, I found this Gruffalo website, which includes games and some little videos of Julia Donaldson and her husband singing a few songs based on her books. The Gruffalo was also made into a 30-minute animated movie for BBC television last holiday season, with a cast including Robbie Coltrane (in the title role) and Helena Bonham Carter. You can see a trailer here.

Poetry Friday: First Snow

2010-11-19T10:31:00.004-06:00

This past Saturday, we had our first snow. In the early hours of the morning, I heard Skye's footsteps as she went from window to window to see the beautiful views. Later, I heard Felix exclaim, "Everyone, come here! It snowed!" I love those snowfalls that happen in the night, so that you awake to a fairy-world the next day.

Here's a little poem I found by Mary Louise Allen, titled "First Snow":

Snow makes whiteness where it falls,
The bushes look like popcorn balls.
The places where I always play,
Look like somewhere else today.

I think this is what Felix was feeling as he looked out on our backyard.

I also found this lovely poetry project which uses Flickr to randomly collect snow photos. Click here to watch the images as you hear the poem. You can even replay the poem, asking it to search for new images. The first cycle of photos I got worked really well. The words and imagery in the poem are gorgeous. You can read the poem here. You can read about the project here.

Is there snow now where you live?

You can find more poetry at Random Noodling, this week's Poetry Friday host.

Poetry Friday: Garrison Keillor's 77 Love Sonnets

2010-11-12T20:48:00.004-06:00

From "November":

Readers and writers are two sides of the same gold coin.
You write and I read and in that moment I find
A union more perfect than any club I could join:
The simple intimacy of being one mind.
Here in a book-filled sun-lit room below the street,
Strangers -- some living, some dead -- are hoping to meet.

I just finished Keillor's book of sonnets, and enjoyed so many of them. This was one of my favorites, and appropriate to post here both for its title and its book-loving thoughts. Others I particularly liked include "Supper," "In a Cab," "Speak to Me," "Sonnet for a Major Birthday," and, from his twelve-months cycle, also "March" and "December."

Just a quick note for Poetry Friday this week. I hope to write more sometime soon about Keillor and his poems, as well as his bookstore, which is the "book-filled sun-lit room below the street" in the poem above. I haven't had much time to post recently, but plan to get back to it soon. You can find more lovely poetry reading over at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, this week's Poetry Friday host.

Poetry Friday: Runny Babbit

2010-11-05T16:22:00.004-05:00

My kids and I just finished reading Shel Silverstein's Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook. If you haven't seen it before, you can guess from its title how the poems are written.

Both Skye and Felix loved it. We'd read each poem in "Runny Babbit talk," and then do a translation together. Each poem has a Shel Silverstein vibe to it, and the added bonus of a new language is fun to explore. I think playing with language in ways like this helps to expand children's literacy.

I was really pleased to find a YouTube version of one of the poems. Click here to read/watch "Runny on Rount Mushmore."

Shel Silverstein's website is wonderful! There's a special area for kids, where they can do things like play games, print a bookmark, and send an e-card. In the books area, you will find more poem animations. Ideas for teachers, parents and librarians include some lesson plans and activities for Runny Babbit.

Here's one of my favorite Shel Silverstein poems:

Draw a crazy picture,
Write a nutty poem,
Sing a mumble-gumble song,
Whistle through your comb.
Do a loony-goony dance
'Cross the kitchen floor,
Put something silly in the world
That ain't been there before.

Head over to the Teaching Authors blog to see more Poetry Friday posts!

All Hallow's Read (Postscript)

2010-11-04T15:16:00.003-05:00

After posting about All Hallow's Read, of course I had to participate! Here's what I gave:

After browsing in my favorite used bookstore, I picked two mysteries to give my parents, who babysat for us this past weekend. My dad likes quick mysteries with short chapters, those chocolate bon-bons of the reading shelf. He also loves Paris. I've never read Harlan Coben before, but spotted Long Lost and grabbed it for him. It may not be great literature, but I hope it's an enjoyable read. I've heard some good things about these Myron Bolitar thrillers.

I also got them a signed copy of A Carrion Death. Michael Stanley is actually the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. I recently heard Trollip speak about their mysteries, and loved what he said about their writing process: "People ask me how we write together. They think it must be difficult. I think it must be difficult for authors who don't write with others!" That's not an exact quote, but it's the way I remember it.

I had a great time shopping for my kids. I went to our local independent children's bookstore and first browsed the Halloween display. Felix has been loving Amelia Bedelia lately ("But why does she take everything literally?"), so I scored a signed copy of Happy Haunting, Amelia Bedelia for him. I also got him Spooky Sara because the pictures were so cute and I thought he'd like it. (He loved both of the books.)

For Skye, I asked the advice of the bookseller there. I told her about Skye's three recommendations, and she immediately went to the shelf to look for Eva Ibbotson's Which Witch? They didn't have it in stock, so we ended up choosing The Secret of Platform 13 instead. Skye hasn't felt motivated to give it a try yet, but she says she'll read it with me when we are done with our book for mother-daughter book club. I hope she likes it!

I couldn't resist getting them a couple of other goodies: Day of the Dead paperdolls for Skye, and two Dover Little Activity Books for Felix. Skye loved the paperdolls; Felix enjoyed a few mazes. I'll have to get them out again this weekend.

Poetry Friday: "When the blaze is blue"

2010-10-29T09:04:00.006-05:00

Since I'm all about All Hallow's Read right now, I thought I'd pick a poem that truly scared me as a kid. But I loved it, too, with its dialect which made it fun to read, and the lovely new words. I'd beg my mom to read it again and again:

-----

Little Orphant Annie
by James Whitcomb Riley

Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,
An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,
An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep,
An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep;
An' all us other children, when the supper-things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun
A-list'nin' to the witch-tales 'at Annie tells about,
An' the Gobble-uns 'at gits you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!

-----

You can read the rest of the poem here. (Beware! Creepiness ahead!)

As I was searching for this poem online, I came across a folk singer who had set some of Riley's poems to music. Click here to see Anne Hills singing her musical verion of Little Orphant Annie. I thought it was really neat. I love how the audience joins in at the end of later verses.

Head over to The Writer's Armchair to read more poems this Poetry Friday.

Have a wonderful All Hallow's Read, everyone!

All Hallow's Read, Part 2

2010-10-29T08:53:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I posted about Neil Gaiman's great idea, along with some scary book suggestions from my kids. Now, Gaiman’s created an All Hallow’s Read website.

Here are the other suggestions I promised:

From me, for young adults

~ A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Gothic, historic, fantastic fiction. What’s not to like?
~ Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” Sigh. I first read this one in high school, and it was the perfect time for me to read it. Loved it.
~ How about some Eva Ibbotson, in honor of her amazing writing life?
~ And of course you can't go wrong with The Graveyard Book or Coraline. Our All Hallow’s Read host knows his scary stuff!

From me, for adults

~ We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House is spooky, but I think this one is spookier.
~ Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
Senior citizens start receiving phone calls informing them that death is coming. “Remember, you must die.” Spark’s storytelling is unexpected and sly.
~ Dracula by Bram Stoker
But of course! How could you pass up an opportunity to give someone this classic horror story? Told from a variety of viewpoints, the pieces come together in a creepy, satisfying way.

Happy All Hallow’s Read, everyone!

All Hallow's Read, Part 1

2010-10-28T18:04:00.005-05:00

Have you seen Neil Gaiman's great idea? He proposes we give someone a scary book this Halloween season. Tonight, the kids and I looked at our book collection and they picked out a few of their favorites to recommend. Here are their suggestions, with comments about each book:

From Felix, my almost-six-year-old:

~ Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler, illustrated by S.D. Schindler
"A skeleton has the hiccups. (Hic hic hic!) He tries to get them away. It's funny because he drank some water upside down! Read the book to find out how he got rid of them."
~ We're Going on a Ghost Hunt by Marcia Vaughan, illustrated by Ann Schweninger
"Two kids go on a ghost hunt. They go past things that look spooky to them. Who is the ghost? Read the book to find out!"
~ Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
"Max was being mean. His mom called him a 'wild thing' and sent him to his room when he says, 'I'll eat you up!' There, he does his imagination -- went in a private boat with his name on it. Read the book to find out what happens next!"

From Skye, my eleven-year-old:

~ The Witches by Roald Dahl
"This book isn't about fairy-tale witches. They don't have tall, pointy hats and ride around on broomsticks. This book is about real witches. Once you get started, you want to read more and more. It's that kind of book -- very suspenseful! (Just so you know, no real witches are here today. Thank goodness!)"
~ Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of a Mystery by Deborah and James Howe
"A family finds a rabbit in a movie theater and they name him Bunnicula, after the Dracula movie they were watching. The story is told from the point-of-view of the family dog. His friend, the cat Chester, thinks that Bunnicula is a vampire, and together they assemble clues to the mystery. Everything turns out okay! They don't have to drive a wooden stick through Bunnicula's heart, and their house doesn't have to be garlic-reeking forever. A very funny book!"
~ Babymouse: Monster Mash by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
"If you saw the first book of Babymouse, you might have thought that it is a girly-girl book, probably because it's all pink and it's called Babymouse: Queen of the World. I thought that. But when I saw this book, this changed everything. I was begging for the other books. Its cover is orange, not pink, and it has a funny picture. Once I started reading it, I didn't quit. It is simply hilarious, especially the narrator, and Babymouse is just a riot. So stick with me and say, 'Step back, Superman, make way for Babymouse!'"

Tomorrow, I'll post some suggestions for young adult and adult readers.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (Aimee Bender)

2010-10-27T15:11:00.009-05:00

As I ate my take-out pad thai today, I tried to discern all of its flavors and nuances: the location of the farm the onions and peanuts came from, the factory that made the noodles, the deepest feelings of the cook, the creator of my meal. After reading The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, I wonder what it would be like to feel all of these things whenever I eat.

Rose Edelstein is able to do this. She realizes she's got this talent the week she is turning nine. She tries a piece of lemon cake with chocolate frosting that her mother's made for her. "A practice round," her mother sweetly calls it, a classic example of something made with love. But Rose doesn't taste love there; what she tastes makes her feel particularly sad and terribly ill.

How can she live with this strange gift/curse? What does it mean to know someone better than they know themselves, but also know that the people you love are truly strangers to you? This coming-of-age story has a nice dose of magical realism and a profound sadness about it. I liked it, and I admire the writerly curiosity and creativity and honesty it took to tell it.

Here's an interview Ms. Bender did about her book. In it, the interviewer asks her about why she doesn't use quotation marks for dialogue. I remember noticing she had a different way with dialogue, that there was more being said underneath the words; she put the words together in unique ways to make them say more. I hadn't even noticed the technicality that she didn't use quotations marks, which tells me it probably worked for me the way she wanted it to. Ms. Bender's answer to the question: "I often don't [use quotation marks] and I don't in this book. Kind of aesthetic choice in certain way because I like how it looks, but it also feels like that line between her internal and external world is a little blurry, which I think is kind of her deal."

Home Sweet Home (Page)

2010-10-26T09:53:00.032-05:00

Things are shaping up here at Leaning Tower. Check out my sidebar, which I tidied yesterday. Swept the cobwebs away and dusted off the book lists.

And dusting book lists leads me to, what else? Thoughts of books, of course. Memories of dearly loved books, to be exact. As a child, I delighted in stories with "housekeeping" themes. Still do. Do most people enjoy them? I am not such a good housekeeper. I'd much rather talk about it and daydream about it than actually do it.

Here are a few titles I remember very fondly, plus a new one I recently discovered:

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
My mother read this one aloud to us, her three children. This story of four orphan siblings who have to figure out how to survive on their own -- they find a boxcar to live in -- had us captivated. As the oldest, I was then in charge of our Boxcar Children games. We did not take on the particular roles of the children in the book; rather, we were ourselves, in a Boxcar Children dilemma, and must make do with what we had.

Do you want to know what we had? A typical play session involved a collection like this: four wooden matches (little twigs we'd broken and lined up on a step), one small pot for boiling water on our pretend fire, a cup that we pretended was cracked, like Benny's, and a small handful of raspberries we'd picked, laying on one of our father's old handkerchiefs. Delicious, all of it. I remember begging our parents to let us scrounge up treasures at the dump, and wondering why they didn't think that was a good idea.

This was the first chapter book I read aloud with Skye, when she was just turning five. She was just as fascinated with the details -- Benny's cracked cup! -- as I remember being. We plan to read it with Felix soon.

Mandy by Julie Edwards
This was another of my mother's read-alouds. I'll have to ask her where she first heard of this one. I remember her telling us proudly that this was the author's pen name. It was really Julie Andrews, in disguise! Lovely Mary Poppins/Maria wrote a children's novel? I was sold from the start. (Of course, now I know Julie Andrews and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, are big kidlit advocates.)

Mandy is an orphan, and hops over the orphanage wall one day -- which is really out of character for her, and shows you how desperately lonely and restless she feels. She soon has the good luck of finding a little abandoned cottage, and proceeds to clean it out and tidy it up and create a secret space for herself.

I hope to read this one aloud to my kids someday soon, and relive the abandoned cottage fantasy with them.

Miss Suzy by Miriam Young
Melissa Wiley reminded me in a recent blog post of this lovely picture book. When I was little, my mom signed me up for a Parents Magazine Press book club. So exciting, to get books in the mail! This is my original copy.

I just read the story to my kids tonight. Miss Suzy has a sweet little house in an oak tree. "She liked to cook, she liked to clean, and she liked to sing while she worked." One day, some mean red squirrels chase her out and eat up all the nuts she had stored for winter. (At this point, I looked up at my silent kids; their faces showed clear feelings of horror. "Why are they mean and quarrelsome?" asked Felix. I always have a hard time giving a satisfactory answer to questions like this. Why, indeed?) Eventually, Miss Suzy discovers a dollhouse in an attic, and noticing the cobwebs and dust, she can't help but clean it up. Soon, she finds herself settling in there, with five toy soldiers for company -- she found them in the attic, too. Can you guess what happens next? It's Skye's favorite part. Felix tells me his favorite part is the "quarrelsome squirrels."

Do go over and read Melissa Wiley's post about this book. A descendant of the author responded in the comments! I'm crossing my fingers that we'll see another Miss Suzy/Miriam Young post soon at the Bonny Glen.

The Maggie B. by Irene Haas
This is the new discovery, a housekeeping book I would have loved as a child. I believe I first saw mention of this one over on the Fuse #8 blog. Now I can only find a brief mention of it there, with a link to this post from a different blog (Jenny Reads Books), so I'm assuming I clicked over and read about it and then requested it from our library.

This sweet book tells of Maggie and her little brother, who set sail for a day in a boat named for her. Their adventures mostly involve homey comforts, like Maggie creating meals (fruit trees grow on the boat, and a goat and chickens give them milk and eggs), giving her little brother a bath, and singing him a bedtime song. My kids and I felt so cozy after reading it. We went on an Irene Haas binge after this.

-------

As for blog housekeeping, I'm still trying to decide what to do with my current list of reads for 2010. My 2009 list is now a blog post, and it became neater when I separated it into categories: what I read for me, with my daughter Skye, with my son Felix, and for the literature circles I led. Something like that could work in the sidebar, but could get unwieldy as the year goes on. Hm. Maybe I'll keep a running blog post for the list instead.

Oh, and I think I'll use hokey cross-stitch phrases for the titles of my posts from now on.

What I Read in 2009

2010-10-25T07:40:00.010-05:00

For me:
1. Shakespeare Wrote for Money (Nick Hornby)
2. The Eight (Katherine Neville)
3. Jerk, California (Jonathan Friesen)
4. Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons)
5. Book of a Thousand Days (Shannon Hale)
6. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County (Tiffany Baker)
7. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (E. Lockhart)
8. Austenland (Shannon Hale)
9. Letter to My Daughter (Maya Angelou)
10. The Tenderness of Wolves (Stef Penney)
11. Little Bee (Chris Cleave)
12. The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
13. The Careful Use of Compliments (Alexander McCall Smith)
14. Emiko Superstar (Mariko Tamaki and Steve Rolston)
15. The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday (Alexander McCall Smith)
16. The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
17. Death and Judgment (Donna Leon)
18. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (Julia Strachey)
19. Shakespeare's Landlord(Charlaine Harris)
20. The Believers (Zoë Heller)
21. How I Live Now (Meg Rosoff)
22. 44 Scotland Street (Alexander McCall Smith)
23. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz)
24. Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout)
25. An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter (Cesar Aira)
26. Tender Morsels (Margo Lanagan)
27. The Actor and the Housewife (Shannon Hale)
28. Acqua Alta (Donna Leon)
29. Julie & Julia (Julie Powell)
30. The House at Riverton (Kate Morton)
31. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Agatha Christie)
32. Sarah’s Key (Tatiana de Rosnay)
33. Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)
34. Brain, Child: Summer ’09 issue
35. Quietly in Their Sleep (Donna Leon)
36. The Principles of Uncertainty (Maira Kalman)
37. A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle)
38. When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead)
39. The Clothes They Stood Up In (Alan Bennett)
40. The Lady in the Van (Alan Bennett)
41. The Lost Art of Gratitude (Alexander McCall Smith)
42. Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading (Lizzie Skurnick)
43. The Help (Kathryn Stockett)
44. A Wind in the Door (Madeleine L’Engle)
45. The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan (Wendy McClure)
46. Spiral-Bound (Aaron Renier)
47. The Guinea Pig Diaries (A.J. Jacobs)
48. The School of Essential Ingredients (Erica Bauermeister)
49. A Redbird Christmas (Fannie Flagg)
50. Amy Unbounded: Belondweg Blossoming (Rachel Hartman)

For/with Skye: (grades 4-5)
1. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (Trenton Lee Stewart)
2. Babymouse #4, #5, and #6 (Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm)
3. Bud, Not Buddy (Christopher Paul Curtis)
4. Rapunzel's Revenge (Shannon and Dean Hale)
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (J.K. Rowling)
6. Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren)
7. Deltora Quest #01: The Forests of Silence (Emily Rodda)
8. Sisters Grimm #1: The Fairy Tale Detectives (Michael Buckley)
9. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling)
10. Harriet the Spy (Louise Fitzhugh)
11. The Homework Machine (Dan Gutman)
12. Savvy (Ingrid Law)
13. The Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)
14. Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning (Danette Haworth)
15. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Jeff Kinney)
16. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules (Jeff Kinney)
17. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw (Jeff Kinney)
18. Amulet, Book One: The Stonekeeper (Kazu Kibuishi)
19. Caddie Woodlawn (Carol Ryrie Brink)
20. Amulet, Book Two: The Stonekeeper’s Curse (Kazu Kibuishi)
21. Warriors #4: Rising Storm (Erin Hunter)
22. Castle Waiting (Linda Medley)
23. The Lightning Thief (Rick Riodan) – reread for book group
24. Millicent Min: Girl Genius (Lisa Yee)
25. Grampa and Julie: Shark Hunters (Jef Czekaj)
26. Babymouse #7, #8, and #9 (Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm)
27. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma (Trenton Lee Stewart)
28. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Barbara Robinson)
29. The Magician's Elephant (Kate diCamillo)

With Felix (and often Skye, too): (Pre-K)
1. Two Times the Fun (Beverly Cleary)
2. Magic Tree House #01: Dinosaurs Before Dark (Mary Pope Osborne)
3. Catwings (Ursula Le Guin)
4. Magic Tree House #02: The Knight at Dawn (Mary Pope Osborne)
5. Maybelle in the Soup (Katie Speck)
6. Adventures of the Bailey School Kids #06: Frankenstein Doesn't Plant Petunias (Debbie Dadey)
7. Moongobble and Me #1: The Dragon of Doom (Bruce Coville)
8. Catwings Return (Ursula Le Guin)
9. Mummies in the Morning (Magic Tree House #3) (Mary Pope Osborne)
10. Stage Fright on a Summer Night (Magic Tree House #25) (Mary Pope Osborne)
11. Pirates Past Noon (Magic Tree House #4) (Mary Pope Osborne)
12. Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings (Ursula Le Guin)
13. Jane on Her Own (Ursula Le Guin)
14. Ellen’s Lion (Crockett Johnson)
15. Owly: Tiny Tales (Andy Runton)
16. Owly: The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer (Andy Runton)
17. Owly: Just a Little Blue (Andy Runton)
18. Maybelle Goes to Tea (Katie Speck)
19. Owly: Flying Lessons (Andy Runton)
20. Owly: A Time to Be Brave (Andy Runton)

With lit circles: (grade 5)
1. Dear Mr. Henshaw (Beverly Cleary)
2. Spy X #1: The Code (Peter Lerangis)
3. Spy X #2: Hide and Seek (Peter Lerangis)
4. Spy X #3: Proof Positive (Peter Lerangis)
5. Spy X #4: Tunnel Vision (Peter Lerangis)
6. Freaky Friday (Mary Rodgers)
7. Room One: A Mystery or Two (Andrew Clements)
8. The Family Under the Bridge (Natalie Savage Carlson)
9. The Tiger Rising (Kate diCamillo)
10. Tuck Everlasting (Natalie Babbitt)

Bless This Mess

2010-10-21T09:48:00.006-05:00

I do intend to come back this blog, I really do. Now that the kids are in school again, I've started to sort through my towers of books, working to come up with a plan for Leaning Tower. Just yesterday, I did a bit of organizing in the sidebar, and I have lots of blog post ideas jotted in a notebook.

Here's a view of one of my current book messes:

Maybe I'll try a schedule for writing, as well as for book sorting. I really think I'm going to have to block out time on my calendar for this. If I pick a certain day/time each week, that could help make it a habit. Any other suggestions?

Stay tuned.

unwrapped

2009-12-29T13:47:00.005-06:00

We did it! All of the books have been unwrapped, as of 6 p.m. yesterday. Stay tuned for talk of the favorites and the ones that fell flat.

I'm working to post more here in 2010 -- one of my new year's resolutions -- and I'm prepping the blog by updating sidebars and such. If a link doesn't work, it's probably something "in progress."

One of the books I gave Felix came with the poster below, which is a pretty accurate visual representation of me this Christmas.

Hope you've all had yourselves a merry little Christmas -- full of the gifts of sharing stories, enjoying words and language, and reading together.

Merry Christmas and Happy Book Stacks!

2009-12-25T12:35:00.003-06:00

I went overboard with the book stacks this year. Throughout 2009, I collected titles I found that caught my eye at the used book store, in the Scholastic flyers, and at my favorite independent bookshops. And it is so easy to find a rationale for buying a book for a child: Oh, this was a favorite when I was her/his age! Ah, s/he keeps checking this one out from the library; better get our own copy! Wow, this is a children’s classic, and at this price, I can’t pass it up! And heck, I really should throw in some of those just-for-fun titles s/he circles in the book flyers.

As I type, the book stacks remain under the tree, the only unopened gifts, patiently waiting for the kids to put down their Nintento DS gaming systems and delve into their rich and varied contents.

I obviously made them too big. They look intimidating, like homework stacks or research stacks. Or maybe they just look dull, like a-gift-that’s-really-for-mom stacks.

Last year, Skye tore through her book stack, smiling and shouting with glee at each title. Then she called to Felix and commanded he do the same, helping him along the way. He indulged her, sitting back and admiring her indefatigable joy at ripping off all the wrapping for him and announcing each new book as it was revealed.

That wasn’t quite the vision I had for the stacks. I’d thought the kids would leave them for last, and then, at each moment on Christmas Day when they needed a gift-opening fix after steamrolling through the main event, they’d migrate to their book stacks, open one, and then, if the book felt right for the moment, they'd open the gift they found inside and settle into a story. (“Read this, Mom! Please?” my sweet little Felix would command.)

Lovely picture, isn’t it? And maybe that’s what will happen today. There are lots of goodies inside all that wrapping, books I’ve been saving, some for close to a year, peeking at them on the shelf in the closet and looking forward to seeing which covers make their eyes light up the most.

(And yes, I’ll share the stacks with you, too... perhaps a little at a time would be best. For now, you can enjoy last year's book stacks post, in case you missed it.)

Infinite Summer

2009-06-14T09:09:00.003-05:00

I'm taking the plunge. I'm going to dive into Infinite Jest this summer, along with a whole bunch of other bibliophiles. If I'm going to read it, this is the way to do it. Infinite Summer is sponsored by The Morning News, who brought us the Tournament of Books.

Last night, I began exercising the David Foster Wallace area of my brain by starting A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, an essay about a Caribbean cruise he took in order to write about it for Harper's. I'm twelve pages in, and already I've laughed out loud several times.

I expect Infinite Jest will be much different, being that it is fiction and over 1000 pages long (including footnotes/endnotes.) We'll see. I'm going to give it a try. My expectations for myself are not too high: See what it's like and enjoy the ride. Even if I determine IJ is not my style and decide to abandon it, I will learn a bit more about why DFW is so admired, and I will have discovered his essays, which already makes this endeavor more than worthwhile.

Reading Circle Group Reads

2009-04-01T11:12:00.008-05:00

I'm finally back. I'm going to be lazy and copy some posts I wrote about the group reads we picked for the Reading Circle. I am actually proud that I've read and posted about all three of them for 2009.

January: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

SPOILER ALERT: There are some spoilers below for this book.

I enjoyed Cold Comfort Farm. It was a bit different from what I expected, but once I got into the rhythm of the story, I settled in. Flora was a wonderful character. I don't think I know anyone quite like her. She's so contradictory, in a way: you wonder at the start if she's terribly lazy, preferring to live with strange relatives rather than work and be independent, but then she goes to work on the people at Cold Comfort Farm, making all of their lives better.

I loved the transformations, and how Flora was able to pinpoint exactly what each of them needed. Amos should go round the country in "one o' they Ford vans," preaching. Seth should be a movie star. Elfine and Dick Hawk-Monitor belonged together. Reuben needed to run the farm himself. Etc., etc.

The names made me laugh, plus the little details, like Flora suggesting to Adam a little mop for "clettering" the dishes instead of using a twig. (The made-up words had me giggling, too.) The ending, with the wedding, and Flora *almost* getting her questions answered, then being interrupted, then Flora and Charles flying off in his plane, was perfect.

I saw the movie afterwards, and it was quite well done. The actress who played Flora was so likable, and the other characters were almost all how I pictured them. I especially enjoyed Stephen Fry as poor Mr. Mybug and Ian McKellan as Amos.

Here are some great quotes from the movie.

February: The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

This novel was also different from what I expected; for some reason, I thought it would be a bit funny, or maybe quirky is a better word. The characters are a little quirky in that they are all quite unique, but Baker doesn't take advantage of their quirkiness, and that's a great thing.

There is a sort of mystery that you learn more about as you read. Actually, there are several mysteries, but this isn't written as a mystery novel. I thought Baker did a great job with the plot, showing us glimpses of the full story, just a bit at a time. The story is told by Truly (the "Little Giant" of the title), but sometimes Baker lets us in on something Truly doesn't know yet, and she was quite skillful in working the point of view in order to do this.

I loved the themes Baker explored, and the little places where the themes showed up surprised and delighted me. Even the packaging of the book (the cover, chapter headings, and page breaks, etc.) had fun with the themes.

I thought this was a very good first novel. There was one event that I didn't quite believe, but maybe it's just that I didn't see it coming. I don't want to say much more about this, just in case anyone reading this would like to give this book a try.

March: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

SPOILER ALERT: There are some vague spoilers for this book below.

I loved this book. My IRL book group met in March, and when they asked what I was reading, I was in the middle of this. Since I raved about it, we chose it for our next book. I think it will be a great one to discuss.

I loved how many of the chapters could work as a short story: the friendship with Scarlett, the trip through the ghoul-gate (yikes, that was scary!), dancing the Macabray, etc. Gaiman is so skilled with words; he chooses them so carefully, and there's never too little or too much. And I love his sense of humor. The poet, Nehemiah Trot, especially made me laugh: "Hola, young Bod! I hear that excitement is the master of the hour, that you fling yourself through these dominions like a comet across the firmament. What's the word, good Bod?"

What fun Gaiman must have had creating this book. I watched him read the Interlude: The Convocation chapter here, and he looks to be having a blast. See the twinkle in his eye?

He was recently on The Colbert Report. He linked to it in this journal entry. Brave man! He wrote more about the experience here.

The Morning News Tournament of Books, 2009

2009-02-27T10:06:00.004-06:00

Jennifer told me about the Tournament of Books a few years ago, and every year I watch it more closely. The idea is this:

...take 16 of the most celebrated and highly touted novels of the year, seed them in a March Madness-type bracket, conscript them into a “Battle Royale of Literary Excellence,” and, in honor of David Sedaris’s brother, present the author of the winning book a live rooster.

The contenders have been announced, the judges are ready to go, and you can even download and print out the brackets to fill in your own guesses.

The Tournament begins on Monday, March 9th, and will launch here.

Which book do you think will win?

The Newbery Medal, 2009

2009-02-23T17:28:00.005-06:00

The Newbery Medal

I have a great fondness for this award, the first book award I ever knew of; I recall as a young adult noticing the Newbery Medal seals on special books. Starting a few years ago, my parents have made it a tradition to give me the Newbery and Caldecott winners for my birthday, which is conveniently in February. They've added some past winners to my collection, too, and hope to see it complete someday.

Here are this year's winner and honor books, with notes:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
I'm pretty happy for Gaiman! I've read and enjoyed his Coraline and Stardust, plus a couple of his Sandman comics. I've recently felt in the mood for some more Gaiman, and, why look, here it is.

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
I first heard of this book from my friend Susan, who hadn't read it but thought it looked interesting. I looked it up and put it on my TBR list. Now it's moved closer to the top.

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle
Our library has only one copy of this one. (I bet they'll be ordering more now!) It looks fantastic.

Savvy by Ingrid Law
What a great idea for a story! I want to read this one with Skye. It looks like her kind of book.

After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson
Woodson is such a prolific writer, and this gives me reason to move her closer to the top of my "must read" list.

Congrats to all of the winners!

Persephone Books: Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-02-21T10:10:00.008-06:00

I just received my annual order of Persephone books, and I'm so excited to dig in! But no, let's just gaze at them awhile first, because they are so gorgeous....

Okay, now on to the decriptions of this year's books. (Make sure to admire the lovely, unique endpapers for each of the books when you click on the links.)

~ No. 3: Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
Every year, I order one starting at the beginning of their list, and as this is my third year, I ordered #3. It's the story of "an ordinary family... struck by disaster when the husband, in a moment of weak, mid-life vanity, runs off with a French girl," and the Spectator calls it "A very good novel indeed about the fragility and also the tenacity of love." I've never read any Dorothy Whipple, and I look forward to this one.

~ No. 16: Saplings by Noel Streatfeild
I should someday read Ballet Shoes by this author. For now, I'm going to try one of her books for adults. This novel is about children being separated from their families during World War II in Britain, something that was necessary in many cases for physical survival, but psychologically had many consequences. In the afterward, Dr. Jeremy Holmes says Streatfeild's "supreme gift was her ability to see the world from a child's perspective" and "she shows that children can remain serene in the midst of terrible events as long as they are handled with love and openness."

~ No. 38: Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey
This one sounds like a lot of fun: "A brilliant, bittersweet upstairs-downstairs comedy." (Shena Mackay, The Guardian) It is about a wedding, of course, but perhaps not a cheerful one. The soon-to-be bride knows she is about to make a big mistake.

~ No. 81: Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson
This is one of the newest Persephone publications, and it looks delightful. Miss Buncle is an single woman (hence the "miss") who writes a novel based on the village she lives in. She does this for practical reasons: she needs to earn some money. I can imagine the hijinks that might ensue... Her granddaughter says Stevenson's books are "a soothing balm." Lovely.

And now, the big question: Which one should I read first?

The Cybils were announced!

2009-02-20T14:13:00.016-06:00

The Cybils: The Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards
You can read more about these awards here.

The 2008-9 winners have just been announced. So many great titles here! Several of them are already on my TBR list, and of course I'm adding the rest, plus some titles from the finalists list and past winners/finalists (see sidebar on the site.)

Here are the winners of this year's Cybils, with notes:

Easy Readers:

I Love My New Toy
written by Mo Willems

Around here, we love Mo Willems, and the Elephant and Piggie books have brought us lots of giggles. Felix chose one for his library summer reading program reward. I don't think we've read this one together yet.

Fantasy and Science Fiction:

Middle Grade:
The Graveyard Book
written by Neil Gaiman

Gaiman's book won the Newbery Medal this year. I've enjoyed other Gaiman stuff (Coraline and some Sandman comics, and especially Stardust.) I'm really looking forward to reading this one.

Young Adult:
The Hunger Games
written by Suzanne Collins

I've heard really good things about this one. I'm happy to see it here, and I can't wait to read it.

Fiction Picture Books:

How to Heal a Broken Wing
written and illustrated by Bob Graham

This one is new to me, and it looks lovely. I'll have to try it with Skye and Felix.

Graphic Novels:

Elementary/Middle Grade:
Rapunzel's Revenge
written by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
illustrated by Nathan Hale

I just read this one, and then immediately told Skye she should read it, too. We both loved it! So much fun. Shannon Hale is a wonderful writer, and I bet she had a blast writing this with her husband. The illustrations by Nathan Hale (no relation) are fabulous.

Young Adult:
Emiko Superstar (Minx)
written by Mariko Tamaki
illustrated by Steve Rolston

I never would have heard of this one, and I'm going to see if my library has it. I'm glad graphic novels are starting to really be recognized as a legitimate literary form.

Middle-Grade Fiction:

The London Eye Mystery
written by Siobhan Dowd

I doubt I'd have heard of this one if not for these awards. It looks like something I'd really enjoy, too. I'll have to check it out.

Non-Fiction MG/YA:

The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir
written by Cylin Busby and John Busby

I'm positive I wouldn't have noticed this one but for the Cybils, and now I think I should check it out. I'm not much for crime fiction, but this one seems to be more about family than anything else.

Non-Fiction Picture Books:

Nic Bishop: Frogs
written and illustrated by Nic Bishop

I don't go looking for award winning non-fiction for kids, and now I think, why not? I'll definitely make a point to check out Nic Bishop.

Poetry:

Honeybee
written by Naomi Shihab Nye

I love Naomi Shihab Nye (Nineteen Varieties of Gazelle, Habibi), and I expect I'll love this, too.

Young Adult Fiction:

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
written by E Lockhart

This one looks delicious! It was also a Michael L. Printz honor book, and is a contender in the Morning News Tournament of Books. I've got it out from the library now, and plan to read it soon.

Readolutions 2009

2009-02-09T09:44:00.005-06:00

1. I will read at least 50 books.
2. I will read some of my shelf-sitters, including Newbery winners, Persephone books, poetry and short stories, parenting books, and something in French.
3. I will read every day with my kids, use my book lists (from Under the Chinaberry Tree, The Read-Aloud Handbook, and Book Crush) to request books for them, and take them to the library regularly.
4. I will keep my reading journal/calendar up-to-date.
5. I will keep a monthly TBR list, and start a list of books I'd love to read someday.
6. I will keep lists for "books purchased/received" and "books lent."
7. I will keep my Amazon wish list updated.
8. I will post on this blog regularly, hopefully at least weekly, and keep my sidebar updated.
9. I will post on friends' blogs.
10. I will participate in BAFAB week at least once this year.
11. I will participate in some reading challenges.
12. I will participate in several book clubs, online (the Reading Circle and maybe Chicklit) and offline (women's book club and mother-daughter book club).
13. I will read all of this year's Reading Circle group reads, and reply to all of the discussion threads.
14. I will post every week on the Reading Circle, and post at least monthly on Chicklit.
15. I will buy fewer books.
16. When I buy books, I will do my best to buy independent/used, or to buy in support of a charity (public library, school, etc.).
17. I will order some Persephone books for my birthday!
18. I will work on organizing my book shelves, and find a new home for some of my books.

My Best of 2008: Young People's Literature

2009-02-04T10:37:00.017-06:00

I decided to give young people's literature its own category in my favorites, as I read so much of it this year. It's been wonderful to have two kids that enjoy books and ask me to read with them often. (I did ask Skye to help me put together a list of her top five or ten books this year, but as we looked through her 2008 book list, she couldn't choose. She loved them all!)

I am not going to include picture books here, just books for older readers, middle elementary and up.

Favorite book:

The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963
Christopher Paul Curtis
How do I sum this one up? It's one of those books that makes you laugh a lot, and cry a lot. It's about so many things: what it means to be a family, where home is, racism in America. I was especially impressed with how Curtis explains the "why" of racism. That's the question every kid asks, and a question adults have a hard time answering: Why are people racist? Why do some people have such strong racist feelings that they do horrible things, hurting innocent people, even children? In the book, when the main character asks this tough question, his parents have a difficult time explaining why. It's his older brother that helps him process the sad things he's learned.

Favorite (start to a) series:

The Penderwicks and
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
Jeanne Birdsall
Skye and I read these for our mother-daughter book club. These stories of a family with four girls are reminiscent of classic young people's literature. Jeanne Birdsall was a great reader as a child, and she says in this interview that "the first Penderwicks is really a love letter to the books I read as a child." She lists some of them: "Noel Streatfeild’s books, All of a Kind Family, Edward Eager, E. Nesbit." I love the list at the end of that interview of all the books mentioned by Jane, the biggest reader in the Penderwicks family. My daughter's online nickname here, Skye, comes from her favorite Penderwicks girl. Birdsall plans on three more Penderwicks books, and we look forward to them.

Favorite author discoveries:

Sharon Creech
One of Skye's friends always sings the praises of Sharon Creech when we talk books. In working on a Brownies Try-It badge, they were challenged to read something recommened by the other. Skye and I both read and enjoyed Granny Torrelli Makes Soup and Pleasing the Ghost, and we look forward to more Creech stories.

Ellen Raskin
This author is a re-discovery for me. Skye and I read The Westing Game and The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel) for her school book club last year. I remember carrying that second one around with me in elementary school, facinated by it. I love Raskin's quirky sense of humor and creative puzzle stories.

Andrew Clements
What a great writer for kids! Frindle was Skye's choice for our first time hosting mother-daughter book club. I've read another of his since (The Landry News) and Skye's read at least two more (The Janitor's Boy and Lunch Money). We don't think you can go wrong with a Clements book. (And how cool is it that Brian Selznick does the illustrations?)

Honorable mention:

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Excellent! I missed this one as a kid, so it was a treat to read it with Skye.
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
Another pick from our mother-daughter book club. Beautiful writing, beautiful story.
Babymouse books by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm
These comics are great! I love that a sister/brother team writes them. Check out Babymouse's neat website.
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
How can you not want to read a book with a title and cover art like that? MBS did not disappoint.
Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath
This is a possible future mother-daughter book club read. Think of the food possibilities for this party! Great story; I want to read more Horvath.

My Best of 2008: Nonfiction

2009-01-30T09:49:00.008-06:00

Part two of the best books I read this past year will focus on nonfiction. I read a lot more fiction than nonfiction, so this will be a shorter list, but it was hard to pick favorites because they were all quite good.

Out of the eleven works of nonfiction I read this year, I think my favorites would have to be these two:

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs
Jacobs is both funny and earnest in his pursuit, and his account of this year is very entertaining as well as enlightening. I love people like Jacobs, who jump so completely into a project, and I love people like his wife, who bring people like Jacobs back to earth with firm, funny, needed reminders of what's truly important.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
A friend lent me her copy of this memoir, telling me it was a facinating read. I'm not big on stories of horrible childhoods, but this book is much more than that. Wow, what a childhood! Walls' parents were brilliant, self-absorbed, creative, neglectful, and eccentric idealists. Walls writes about them and about her growing-up years truthfully, from her point-of-view as a child, living in this sometimes confusing, often dangerous, always exciting family. It's facinating, heartbreaking and inspiring. (Are those enough adjectives for you?)

Honorable mention goes to many of the others I read this year:

The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups: Recipes & Reveries by David Ansel
Cool book. Yummy soups! Jen and I made one together.
Heart in the Right Place by Carolyn Jourdan
You can read my review of this book here.
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
Gilbert's search for self is funny, honest, and sweet. (Of course I loved the Eat section the best.)
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
What a neat graphic memoir for young adults.
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
I loved reading this memoir of his childhood and young adulthood, exploring identity and race. Really thoughtful, insightful, and honest, as well as funny at times and touching -- not in an overly sentimental way, but in a quiet and important way, if that makes sense.
French Milk by Lucy Knisley
This graphic memoir of a mother/daughter trip to Paris brought me back to my year in France, and I'm grateful to Knisley for the lovely visit!
Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas by John Baxter
Another vicarious trip to Paris for me, and a perfect book to read in December. Slowed me down again when things got hectic.

My Best of 2008: Fiction

2009-01-29T14:21:00.011-06:00

How do I write this post? I've been avoiding it for almost a month now. Choosing my favorite books read this year has been a delightful challenge. I read some really good stuff.

I've taken my friend Jennifer's idea and decided to split this into three different posts: favorite fiction, favorite nonfiction, and favorite literature for young people. (This way, I can include more books and won't have to cut my list too ruthlessly.)

My absolute favorite of this year is actually not a choice. It's an "of course, what else would it be?" The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a wonder. If you haven't read it yet, you must. Now to the challenging picks....

Favorite Fiction

If The Book Thief belongs in a category all its own (Almighty Winner of 2008, perhaps?), then the first place prize for my favorite fiction books has to be split between these two:

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
I scooped these stories up like spoonfuls of ice cream. Well, no, not exactly like ice cream. They go down easy, but they aren't happy stories. Many of them are painful or melancholy, but she writes them so beautifully that they made me happy. I'd read one and then sit with it awhile. Lahiri shows exactly what a great storyteller can do.

The Rain Before It Falls by Jonathan Coe
My Uncle Charlie introduced me to this lovely novel. Again, the story is painful and melancholy, but the telling is gorgeous. I was so engrossed in this book that I dreamed of the characters and settings every night that I read it.

Second place for fiction goes to these three winners:

Hens Dancing by Rafaella Barker
Now, this one was a happy book. It's perhaps the book that made me laugh out loud the most this year, and for that it gets second place. It's written in a wonderful style with a great voice: Venetia is a hoot.
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
I smiled my way through this novella. It's smart and funny and an absolute treat for a book lover.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
"A book that's fun to read, and that teaches you something" -- that's how this one was described at Conversation with Books this year, an annual event put on by my alma mater. I loved this very satisfying epistolary novel, and I expect I'll reread it someday. I borrowed Jennifer's copy, but I think I'll get the paperback when it comes out.

Honorable Mention:
The Girls by Lori Lansens
Conjoined twins?? Yes!
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Rightly a classic. I put it here, but it is often categorized as YA lit.
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Stories of an important book -- a work of art -- and the people whose hands it passes through.
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Historical mystery (before and after World War I in England); a great start to the series. I want to learn more about Maisie.
Donna Leon's Inspector Guido Brunetti mysteries
I love spending time in modern-day Venice with Brunetti (and his family). I read the first three this past year.

What I Read in 2008

2009-01-22T14:19:00.003-06:00

1. The Year of Living Biblically (A.J. Jacobs)
2. The Sweet Far Thing (Libba Bray)
3. Mr. Popper's Penguins (Richard Atwater)
4. A Book of Coupons (Susie Morgenstern)
5. Summer (Edith Wharton)
6. The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse (Bruce Hale)
7. The Soup Peddler's Slow & Difficult Soups (David Ansel)
8. Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren)
9. Death at La Fenice (Donna Leon)
10. Granny Torrelli Makes Soup (Sharon Creech)
11. Pleasing the Ghost (Sharon Creech)
12. Heart in the Right Place (Carolyn Jourdan)
13. Secret Letters from 0 to 10 (Susie Morgenstern)
14. Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen)
15. The Thirteenth Tale (Diane Setterfield)
16. Death in a Strange Country (Donna Leon)
17. The Westing Game (Ellen Raskin)
18. Eat, Pray, Love (Elizabeth Gilbert)
19. Interpreter of Maladies (Jhumpa Lahiri)
20. The Girls (Lori Lansens)
21. The Crucible (Arthur Miller)
22. The Painted Veil (W. Somerset Maugham)
23. The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel) (Ellen Raskin)
24. American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang)
25. Words Under the Words (Naomi Shihab Nye)
26. Garden Spells (Sarah Addison Allen)
27. Lulu's Hat (Susan Meddaugh)
28. Frindle (Andrew Clements)
29. The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963 (Christopher Paul Curtis)
30. Harriet the Spy (Louise Fitzhugh)
31. The Mystery Guest (Gregoire Bouillier)
32. Project Mulberry (Linda Sue Park)
33. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
34. Hens Dancing (Raffaella Barker)
35. The Abbess of Crewe (Muriel Spark)
36. The Landry News (Andrew Clements)
37. The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls)
38. Whisper and Shout: Poems to Memorize (Patrice Vecchione)
39. Mouse Guard #1: Fall 1152 (David Petersen)
40. If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? (Erma Bombeck)
41. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal (Christopher Moore)
42. The Victorian Chaise-Longue (Marghanita Laski)
43. Habibi (Naomi Shihab Nye)
44. Warriors #3: Forest of Secrets (Erin Hunter)
45. Gods in Alabama (Joshilyn Jackson)
46. Committed to Memory: 100 Best Poems to Memorize (John Hollander)
47. Three Good Deeds (Vivian Vande Velde)
48. Punished! (David Lubar)
49. The Penderwicks (Jeanne Birdsall)
50. The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
51. Empress Orchid (Anchee Min)
52. James and the Giant Peach (Roald Dahl)
53. The Penderwicks on Gardam Street (Jeanne Birdsall)
54. Little Vampire, Volume 1 (Joann Sfar)
55. People of the Book (Geraldine Brooks)
56. Paddington Here and Now (Michael Bond)
57. The Uncommon Reader (Alan Bennett)
58. Dreams from My Father (Barack Obama)
59. Dressed for Death (Donna Leon)
60. The Lace Reader (Brunonia Barry)
61. Esperanza Rising (Pam Munoz Ryan)
62. Babymouse #1, #2, & #3 (Jennifer Holm & Matt Holm)
63. Maisie Dobbs (Jacqueline Winspear)
64. Crispin: The Cross of Lead (Avi)
65. The Mysterious Benedict Society (Trenton Lee Stewart)
66. Everything on a Waffle (Polly Horvath)
67. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)
68. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows)
69. The Rain Before It Falls (Jonathan Coe)
70. French Milk (Lucy Knisley)
71. Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas (John Baxter)

Christmas Book Stacks, 2008

2009-01-17T13:30:00.015-06:00

Finally, I'm posting our book stacks from this Christmas. I had such fun putting them together. I got some at a local used bookstore, several used from Powell's, and many through the kids' Scholastic book orders. Most of them are paperback copies. I picked a few of the past year's favorites to add to the family library, as well as some new books to explore.

Without further ado, here they are!

Skye's stack:
~ Two Warriors Manga books: She devoured them both over break.
~ Stink #3: Stink and the World's Worst Super-Stinky Sneakers: Ditto the above.
~ Schooling Around: Treasure Fever: "I loved this book! It had a school that was crazy and a teacher that taught them fun things instead of their regular lessons."
~ The Ghost, the White House, and Me: In honor of a new president.
~ The Name of This Book Is Secret: Looks neat, in a Mysterious Benedict Society sort of way.
~ Salsa Stories: Could be a fun one for us to read together - and cook some of the recipes afterwards.
~ Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat: I love the rat crawling along the margins, flip-book style.
~ Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism: I keep hearing about this one; I think we should read it together.
~ Rocks & Minerals: A cheapie Scholastic science book.
~ Every Minute on Earth: Skye gives this one an A++++, "'cause it has cool facts."
~ The Giving Book: It would be fun for her to go through this one sometime this year. There are several of these books, so if she likes it, maybe next year...
~ My Amazing Book of... Autographs!: I found this one at the used book store. It was published in 1974, and hasn't been written in at all! (This was Skye's extra-special book this year.)

Felix's stack:
~ Legend of Zelda Manga, Volumes #1 & #2: Link from the Legend of Zelda is his favorite character for pretend. These books help fuel that magic.
~ Who Stole the Cookies?: A cheapie Scholastic book based on the children's rhyme/game. He loves it.
~ The Little Penguin: Penguins are a favorite animal around here.
~ Scaredy Squirrel: This one is a big hit. I can't wait to explore more Scaredy Squirrel books with him.
~ Say Hola to Spanish and Say Hola Otra Vez: These rhyming books looked like a fun way to introduce another language.
~ Sun Is Falling, Night Is Calling: A sweet bedtime read - you can never have too many of those!
~ Anno’s Journey: I've been waiting for Felix to be old enough to enjoy this one; I love the illustrations.
~ Skippyjon Jones, Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble, and Skippyjon Jones in the Doghouse: These are the best read-alouds!
~ The Little Red Bird: He loves this story and asks for it again and again.
~ Otto Runs For President: In honor of a new president.
~ I Love My Little Storybook: I love books about loving books!
~ Henry’s Amazing Imagination: I met the author, Nancy Carlson, at our local independent children's bookstore. It was great to chat with her, and she signed this book to Felix, including a cool illustration. (This was Felix's extra-special book this year.)

This year, we continued the tradition of opening the book stacks last on Christmas morning. The past two years, we took our time with them, opening one or two at different moments of the day. It was a nice, calm way to keep the surprises coming.

But when Skye started in on her stack this year, there was no stopping her. I watched with delight as she tore through the wrapping paper, exclaiming with glee at her discoveries. She then went to work with Felix on his stack, happily announcing each new title to him. I loved seeing her so excited about this, and it was such a treat to see the kids going to the two piles throughout the day to enjoy the new reads.

Because we love books around here so much, Santa knew to bring us a few:

For Skye:
~ The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Basil
~ The Klutz Encyclopedia of Immaturity: Santa hit the jackpot with this one. She's picked it up every day since Christmas.

For Felix:
~ Snowmen at Night
~ 365 Penguins: Skye loves reading this one to Felix.

For our whole family:
~ Free to Be You and Me and Free to Be a Family
~ Poetry Speaks to Children

And Mom just doesn't know when to quit, so the kids got these extras:

Night before Christmas gift:

To Skye:
~ When Santa Fell to Earth
~ The Christmas Party from the Black Lagoon
~ 101 Holiday Jokes

To Felix:
~ Deck the Halls
~ Toot & Puddle: I’ll Be Home for Christmas
~ You Can Do It, Sam

From Mom & Dad to kids on Christmas morning:
~ The Gingerbread Man with pictures by Karen Schmidt
~ The Gingerbread Man, retold by Jim Aylesworth, illustrated by Barbara McClintock
~ The Gingerbread Girl, Lisa Campbell Ernst
~ Gingerbread Baby, Jan Brett

Winter break involved lots of reading time this year. It's been great having these stacks of books to entertain us during this cold, snowy winter.

Felix recommends... (Autumn '08)

2009-01-15T13:47:00.009-06:00

Felix and I are enjoyed books about fall and Halloween this season.

Favorite fall books:
~ Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert
~ Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, also by Lois Ehlert
~ Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber with beautiful illustrations by Leslie Evans

Favorite Halloween books:
~ Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler
~ Boo! Made You Jump! by Lauren Child (a Charlie and Lola book)
~ Halloween Bugs by David A. Carter

Other favorites:
~ Mrs. McNosh books (Sarah Weeks)
~ the Froggy books (Jonathan London)
~ Fireman Small (Wong Herbert Yee)

A wonderful new discovery was author Amy Hest. Felix loved both her books about Baby Duck and about a little bear named Sam. I love that Baby Duck makes up songs, and they don't necessarily rhyme or have a particular form. They remind me of the songs in the Frances books, very true to what a little kid would create. The illustrations in the Sam books, done by Anita Jeram, are gorgeous. I love her artwork.

Skye recommends... (Autumn '08)

2009-01-15T13:42:00.006-06:00

For our mother-daughter book group, we read:

~ The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, Jeanne Birdsall
~ Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan
~ The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart

We recommend them all!

On her own, Skye read Lunch Money by Andrew Clements, which inspired her to open a savings account and think of money-making tasks she could do. She also enjoyed Paddington Here and Now, the only book on the Roald Dahl Funny Prize shortlist that we could find at our library. She said, "This book is a very calming one to read, Mom. It makes me feel peaceful." I read it, too, and I think it's the London atmosphere -- "Let's have elevenses!" -- she's describing. Pretty sweet!

Other highlights this season were the Babymouse graphic novels and Bailey School Kids books for quick reads. She loved Diary of a Wimpy Kid and read it in one afternoon. She also enjoyed a re-read of Bunnicula.

Felix recommends... (Summer '08)

2009-01-02T11:21:00.003-06:00

This summer, the kids and I read lots of books together. We did some themes (caterpillars/butterflies, chickens & ducks, birds) and Felix found a few favorites in these categories:

~ Bob and Otto by Robert O. Bruel & Nick Bruel
~ the Duck in the Truck books by Jez Alborough
~ Little Red Bird by Nick Bruel

We read a lot from the 20th Century Children's Book Treasury, and everything Mo Willems was a reading staple. (He's got some great beginning reader books now featuring Elephant and Piggie.)

More of Felix's summer faves:

~ The Little Cat Baby by Allan Ahlberg
~ Silly School by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick
~ Max's Bunny Business by Rosemary Wells
~ the Skippyjon Jones books by Judy Schachner

Skye recommmends... (Summer '08)

2009-01-02T08:54:00.006-06:00

This summer, Skye browsed through books about pet birds (she really wants a bird!), beginning knitting books (she's hoping to learn soon), Garfield comics, joke and riddle books, and books of magic tricks. She read easy series chapter books (Beast Quest, Pokemon), Warriors graphic novels, and a couple of titles nominated for the Maud Hart Lovelace award (Three Good Deeds and Punished!).

Together, we read Forest of Secrets, the third Warriors cats book. For me, this was the best one yet. I just checked, and it looks like this one was written by a different author from the first two, so maybe this is why. (The Warriors books are written my several writers; go here and click on "Meet Erin Hunter" to learn more about them.)

Our most exciting reading news this summer is that we started a mother-daughter book group! We are both really enjoying it. All of the titles we read and discussed this summer were excellent and made for great gatherings:

~ Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park
~ Frindle by Andrew Clements
~ The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

(More later on these titles and our meetings!)

Readolution #12

2009-01-01T09:18:00.003-06:00

12. I will organize my book shelves, and find a new home for some of my books.

This was my last readolution for 2008. What a fun one! I didn't find much time for it, but this is a great task to carry over into 2009.

I'd love to have a place for books in each room of the house. I think I somewhat have that now, but I'd like to make these places more deliberate, as well as practical. Ah, that never-ending project: home organization!

Readolutions #10 & #11

2009-01-01T09:01:00.004-06:00

10. I will buy fewer books.

Ha.

11. When I buy books, I will do my best to buy independent/used, or to buy in support of a charity (public library, school, etc.).

I did quite well with this one. Always room to improve, of course.

I am going to reevaluate both of these goals for 2009. For one thing, I really don't believe there's anything wrong with aquiring books. It's a much healthier (and less expensive!) habit than lots of things I can think of. I love having lots of books around me; they are in integral part of my home. I also believe it's important, especially now, to support books and their authors, as well as libraries. Hmm. I'd like to come up with some readolutions around these thoughts for 2009.

Readolution #9

2008-12-03T09:18:00.003-06:00

9. I will participate in BAFAB week at least once this year.

Receiving a book unexpectedly, chosen just for you, is one of the best feelings in the world. Buy a Friend a Book Week is a such brilliant idea. From the website:

Celebrating BAFAB is easy. Just get yourself to a real-life or virtual book store during Buy a Friend a Book Week (the first weeks of January, April, July, and October) and, well, buy a friend a book! But here's the fun part: you can't buy your friend a book because it's their birthday or they just graduated or got engaged or had a baby or anything else. You have to give them a book for no good reason. In fact, this present out of the blue from you should shock the pants off of whomever you decide to give it to. And it'll make them happy. And that's the point: promote reading, promote friendships. Just make sure to let them know about Buy a Friend a Book Week, so they can spread the joy in turn.

I've done this twice now, and it's so fun! I did pick two friends who had birthdays in those weeks -- one in early October, one in early January -- but we hadn't exchanged gifts for ages and because they were on my mind, I chose them as recipients. (They are also two of the biggest book lovers I know.)

For Jennifer, I got a Persephone book. We'd been talking about these books for awhile, but she hadn't treated herself to one yet. I had her go to the website and pick out the one she wanted me to order for her, as I couldn't choose from all of the lovely books they have. And I wanted her to experience the fun of browsing the beautiful website and picking out a title she could anticipate receiving. (She picked Every Eye by Isobel English.)

For Michelle, I got The Soup Peddler's Slow & Difficult Soups: Recipes & Reveries by David Ansel. Michelle used to be my neighbor, and she was the person I could call up and say, "Have you got a cup of sugar? I'm baking and just discovered I'm all out!" And then we'd end up hanging out together for the rest of the afternoon with our kids. She always has great food ideas, and I thought she'd enjoy this fun recipe/story book.

Later, Jennifer and Michelle both surprised me with books during a BAFAB week: Jennifer with Eat, Pray, Love, and Michelle with The Creative Family. I didn't expect them to "spread the joy" back to me, but I'm not complaining! As I said at the start of this post, receiving a book unexpectedly, chosen just for you, is one of the best feelings in the world.

Felix recommends... (Spring '08)

2008-12-01T12:44:00.003-06:00

My three-year-old's favorites:

~ Kitten's First Full Moon, Kevin Henkes (Great illustrations -- won a Caldecott Medal -- and Felix loves the happy ending.)

~ What a Treasure!, Jane and Will Hillenbrand and Little One Step, Simon James (Felix had to act these stories out after reading them.)

~ SuperHero ABC, Bob McLeod (So much fun!)

~ A Visitor for Bear, Bonny Becker and Kady Macdonald Denton (A very cute story, with beautiful illustrations.)

~ Knuffle Bunny, Mo Willems (Thanks to our library, we also recently found the Scholastic animated version, which features the voices of Mo, his daughter and his wife. Very cute!)

~ Here’s a Little Poem, complied by Jane Yolen (What a great anthology! Although the poems are collected with very little ones in mind, both of my kids enjoyed this together.)

Skye recommends... (Spring '08)

2008-12-01T12:18:00.005-06:00

Here is a summary of my then eight-year-old daughter's reading adventures from last spring:

~ Thanks to a friend, she discovered Sharon Creech. She read Granny Torrelli Makes Soup and Pleasing the Ghost. The second was her favorite.

~ For her school book club, she read The Westing Game and The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel) by Ellen Raskin. Such neat puzzle mysteries! Raskin is lots of quirky fun, and very clever.

~ From a stack of Maud Hart Lovelace Award 2007-08 nominees, she chose Lulu’s Hat by Susan Meddaugh. It's a short chapter book with a great, magical story.

~ We discovered a new Gail Carson Levine book: Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand. We read the first Levine fairy book together and really enjoyed it. She read this one on her own. Levine is a wonderful storyteller.

~ Read-aloud with me: Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. We both absolutely loved it.

Coming Soon: Book Stacks!

2008-11-30T10:04:00.003-06:00

I couple of years ago, I came upon an article describing the wonderful idea of book stacks. (I wish I remembered when I originally found the link.) The general idea is that books are such wonderful, important, essential things to have in a home, it only makes sense to have a stack of them under the tree for each of your children on Christmas Day. Of course, this was a bandwagon made for me, and I jumped on. I told a couple of book-loving friends about it, too, and both of them immediately ran off to join the book stacking circus.

My friend Michelle has just started a book blog, Fond of Books, and her first entry is about the books stacks she made for her kids this year. As she notes, it's nice to learn of these ideas early enough to have time to do them. I will post our 2008 book stacks as soon as they are complete.

Readolutions #7 & #8

2008-11-28T09:29:00.003-06:00

7. I will keep a "books purchased/received" list.

I started doing this in 2007, and I did pretty well with it that year, so I decided to continue. Well, I haven't done it at all this year. I really enjoyed keeping this list and looking back at it, so this readolution may reappear on my 2009 list.

8. I will keep my Amazon wish list updated.

I started an Amazon wish list in 2007, I believe, and it was really nice to have. I liked being able to look back at books I'd considered buying for whatever reason. I started gift idea lists, too -- it's really easy to do, and you can make several of them. I made one for my kids and one for extended family. I have just recently peeked at them again (the holiday season and all) and I'm making updates and resolving to again use these great Amazon features.

What I Read in 2007

2008-11-27T18:11:00.003-06:00

1. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (Helene Hanff)
2. Celebrations (Maya Angelou)
3. Suite Francaise (Irene Nemirovsky)
4. The Inimitable Jeeves (P.G. Wodehouse)
5. Fables #2: Animal Farm (Bill Willingham)
6. The Goose Girl (Shannon Hale)
7. Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day (Winnifred Watson)
8. Girls of Slender Means (Muriel Spark)
9. Housekeeping vs. the Dirt (Nick Hornby)
10. The Tent (Margaret Atwood)
11. Fables #3: Storybook Love (Bill Willingham)
12. Fun Home (Alison Bechdel)
13. Round Ireland with a Fridge (Tony Hawks)
14. Fables #4: March of the Wooden Soldiers (Bill Willingham)
15. Enna Burning (Shannon Hale)
16. The Sandman #1: Preludes and Nocturnes (Neil Gaiman)
17. Fables #5: The Mean Seasons (Bill Willingham)
18. Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone (J.K. Rowling)
19. Brain, Child magazine, Winter 2007 issue
20. River Secrets (Shannon Hale)
21. The Enchanted April (Elizabeth von Arnim)
22. The Yiddish Policeman's Union (Michael Chabon)
23. Nine Stories (J.D. Salinger)
24. Brain, Child magazine, Spring 2007 issue
25. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling)
26. Princess Academy (Shannon Hale)
27. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling)
28. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling)
29. Warriors: Into the Wild (Erin Hunter)
30. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J.K. Rowling)
31. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J.K. Rowling)
32. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling)
33. Brain, Child magazine, Summer '07 issue
34. A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life (Dana Reinhardt)
35. Born on the Wrong Planet (Erika Hammerschmidt)
36. Mommy Tracked (Whitney Gaskell)
37. Kabul Beauty School (Deborah Rodriguez)
38. Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them (J.K. Rowling)
39. Harmless (Dana Reinhardt)
40. The Sandman #2: The Doll's House (Neil Gaiman)
41. Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Marisha Pessl)
42. Fables #6: Homelands (Bill Willingham)
43. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
44. A Great and Terrible Beauty (Libba Bray)
45. Forever... (Judy Blume)
46. Leap Days (Katherine Lanpher)
47. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick)
48. Scary Stories (three volumes) (Alvin Schwartz)
49. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou)
50. The Agony of Alice (Phyllis Reynolds Naylor)
51. Starting with Alice (Phyllis Reynolds Naylor)
52. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie)
53. Rebel Angels (Libba Bray)
54. The Higher Power of Lucky (Susan Patron)
55. The Basic Eight (Daniel Handler)
56. Adverbs (Daniel Handler)
57. Watch Your Mouth (Daniel Handler)
58. The Wide Window (Lemony Snicket)
59. Warriors: Fire and Ice (Erin Hunter)
60. The Miserable Mill (Lemony Snicket)
61. The Austere Academy (Lemony Snicket)
62. The Ersatz Elevator (Lemony Snicket)
63. The Right Attitude to Rain (Alexander McCall Smith)
64. Ella Enchanted (Gail Carson Levine)

What I Read in 2006

2008-11-27T17:47:00.004-06:00

I started this blog in 2006, and for over two years, used it mainly to keep a running list in the sidebar of the books I read. Since my sidebar is getting unwieldly, I thought I'd turn my past year's lists into posts instead.

Here's what I read in 2006:

1. Akimbo and the Elephants (Alexander McCall Smith)
2. March (Geraldine Brooks)
3. The Bookseller of Kabul (Asne Seierstad)
4. Address Unknown (Kathrine Kressmann Taylor)
5. The Reptile Room (Lemony Snicket)
6. The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton)
7. Thimble Summer (Elizabeth Enright)
8. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
9. Akimbo and the Lions (Alexander McCall Smith)
10. The Confessions of Max Tivoli (Andrew Sean Greer)
11. Love and Other Impossible Pursuits (Ayelet Waldman)
12. When the Emperor Was Divine (Julie Otsuko)
13. Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
14. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark)
15. The Polysyllabic Spree (Nick Hornby)
16. The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows Of Josephine B. (Sandra Gulland)
17. Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi)
18. Postmark Paris (Leslie Jonath)
19. The Comforters (Muriel Spark)
20. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J.K. Rowling)
21. Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
22. The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
23. Bet Me (Jennifer Crusie)
24. The Masque of the Black Tulip (Lauren Willig)
25. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Lisa See)
26. Bye-Bye, Black Sheep (Ayelet Waldman)
27. Memento Mori (Muriel Spark)
28. Where Books Fall Open (Bascove, ed.)
29. Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg (Gail Carson Levine)
30. Gaudy Night (Dorothy L. Sayers)
31. Testing Kate (Whitney Gaskell)
32. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
33. Fables #01: Legends in Exile (Bill Willingham)
34. The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog (Dave Barry)
35. Unzipped (Lois Greiman)
36. A Christmas Memory (Truman Capote)
37. 84, Charing Cross Road (Helene Hanff)

Readolution #6

2008-11-27T08:09:00.004-06:00

6. I will keep a TBR list.

I imagined that this year I would keep a running list (a "To Be Read" list) on the computer of all the books I'm interested in reading, maybe organized into categories and in priority order. Of course, I pictured this list being pages and pages long, including every book I'd read about or heard about that sounded vaguely interesting, and adding in my towering piles of shelf-sitters.

I think I intimidated myself into not even starting this project.

I have kept a list of books I'd like to get to each month, listed in the monthly section of my reading calendar. I do this each month, and try not to foresee what the next month will bring. This has been fun; I've learned a lot about my reading habits by setting these goals and seeing what happens with them. I started doing this in 2007, and although my lists started out as being very unrealistic (too many books, too many "I really should read..."s), I've noticed I'm better at predicting what I will want to and be able to read each month.

Felix recommends... (Winter '08)

2008-11-24T13:26:00.001-06:00

(In this blog, my four-year-old son will be referred to as "Felix," after one of his favorite Rosemary Wells characters.)

Felix loves books. He loves it when anyone reads to him, and I often find him paging through books on his own. Here are a few of his favorites from last winter:

~ Anything Rosemary Wells. Particular favorites are the McDuff books, the Max and Ruby stories, and, as I mentioned above, Felix Feels Better.

~ Toot and Puddle, the first in the series by Holly Hobbie. These two little characters are lovely friends to get to know.

~ Maurice Sendak's Nutshell Library, especially Chicken Soup with Rice. Flashbacks to my childhood!

~ Lynley Dodd's Slinky Malinky and Hairy Maclary books. The rhymes and great illustrations make these extra-fun read alouds.

~ I Love My Little Storybook by Anita Jeram. Reading this one with him was a huge treat. He really connected with the theme: Books are wonderful company!

~ Baby Bear's Chairs and the How Do Dinosaurs... books by the prolific Jane Yolen. What a fun author to get to know.

Readolution #5

2008-11-13T14:50:00.007-06:00

5. I will post on this blog regularly, perhaps weekly.

I think it's fairly obvious how I've been doing on this one. I'll spin it in a positive light: Since October, I've been doing pretty well. Ha.

I hope to continue posting on this blog regularly. I think the key is just doing a short post (like this one) when I have a moment. Because the more I blog, the more I want to blog, and the more time I find to do it.

Auntie Lois B., Part II: "My favorite was Rivka."

2008-11-02T09:14:00.002-06:00

(My aunt died this September 30, of complications from cancer. This entry and the previous one are written for her.)

The second book we read was A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life, by Dana Reinhardt.

When Auntie Lois asked us who our favorite secondary character was in the book, we listed many different people: Simone’s parents, her younger brother Jake, her best friend Cleo, and her new friend, Zach.

After giving us all a chance to speak, Auntie Lois said, “My favorite was Rivka.”

“Oh, me too, me too!” we all shouted. “She wasn’t a secondary character! We would have said her, too!” We all laughed and then talked about all of the things we loved about Rivka.

***
Warning: There are spoilers ahead. If you want to read a really good book, and you don't like to know what is coming when you're reading, stop here and go get it. It's an Auntie Lois pick, and that's about the best endorsement a book can get. You'll love it.
***

A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life is a young adult novel about Simone, a teenager who was adopted when she was a baby. At the start of the book, she has no knowledge of her biological family’s history, and she has no interest in it; she’s been raised by wonderful parents and feels comfortable and confident with her place in the world.

At first, she is very resistent when her parents encourage her to meet her biological mother, Rivka, who calls and wants to connect with her. Slowly, she learns that Rivka grew up in a Hasidic Jewish family, became pregnant at a young age, and gave up her baby because there were no other real choices for her. She also learns that Rivka is fighting a losing battle with cancer.

As they grow to know each other, Simone is impressed by Rivka’s faith. Her adoptive parents are atheists, and Simone has never quite understood the draw of religion. Rivka shows her how her faith brings her strength in facing her illness.

~~~

I'd love to quote several scenes in this book, including a beautiful one where Simone's family celebrates Hanukah with Rivka. I want to be careful about copyright, though -- and I want to encourage people to read this lovely book for themselves, if you weren't yet convinced by my above spoiler warning. There is a very poignant moment where Simone discusses Rivka's illness with a Rabbi, and I think it's okay for me to share a bit of it here.

Simone is understandable upset and angry that her mother, who she's only recently been able to get to know and who is only thirty-three years old, is going to die. She expresses her feelings to Rabbi Klein, and though he isn't able to reassure her that he knows why this happens, he gives her some comfort with these words:

“For what it’s worth, Simone, I believe that you are giving Rivka the gift of an afterlife.”

“You mean by passing down her genes?”

“No. I mean by remembering her. I believe that is how we all live on after this life. By being remembered by those who knew and loved us. Every time you speak of Rivka after she’s gone, every time you tell a story about her, every time you think of her, imagine her, for that moment she is living on. It isn’t about genetics. If you had never come to know her, I wouldn’t be telling you this, even though her physical traits may be passed down to your children. We are made of much more than our genes. I would imagine, Simone, that you understand this better than most.”

If you've gotten this far and haven't yet picked up the book, go get it!

~~~

Dear Auntie Lois,

Thank you for all of the gifts you’ve given to me, particularly your love of the written word. I promise to keep reading and sharing with others the joy and comfort of books.

I miss you. I love you. I remember you.

Your loving niece,

Caryl

Auntie Lois B., Part I: Dancing with the Limp

2008-11-02T08:46:00.005-06:00

(My aunt died this September 30, of complications from cancer. My next two entries are written for her.)

..for some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid pieces of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet you or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die. They are full of the things that you don't get in real life--wonderful, lyrical language, for instance. And quality of attention: we may notice amazing details during the course of a day but we rarely let ourselves stop and really pay attention. An author makes you notice, makes you pay attention, and this is a great gift. My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I'm grateful for it the way I'm grateful for the ocean.

Anne Lamott wrote this in her book Bird by Bird, and I think my Auntie Lois B. felt the same way.

~~~

I always loved hearing about Auntie Lois’s book club which she organized and attended regularly in California for over twenty years. She once sent me a list of the books they’d read together, and put asterisks next to the ones she particularly recommended. Whenever she was here for a visit, we’d talk about what we were reading and share stories about the neat things we’d learned from books, the joy and comfort that reading brought to us.

I am so glad I was able to participate in a couple of her Minnesota family book clubs. I will always remember talking about books and life with my family, sitting in my other Auntie Lois’s beautiful gazebo, drinking tea and enjoying the excellent company.

I gathered some quotes from the books and authors that we read together, and put them together for others to enjoy. When I read these quotes, they bring Auntie Lois back to me for a moment: I remember her smiling eyes as she asked us to share our thoughts about a particular plot point or character, her strong voice as she read an exerpt to us from a review of the book we read, her gentle hands patting ours when she expressed a shared perspective or a differing opinion.

~~~

The first book we read was All New People, by one of Auntie Lois’s favorite authors, Anne Lamott (quoted above.) Here is a quote from All New People, which sounds a bit like a piece of advice my Gramma Caryl might give:

[My eccentric mother used to say] ‘Dwell in the solution,’ which was shorthand for something a Christian writer named Emmet Fox once said, which was, ‘Do not dwell in the problem, dwell in the solution; the solution is God.’

For this book club, we watched a video together about Anne Lamott, and remarked on her humor, her strength, and her eccentricities. We got a big kick out of her; we loved her originality and honesty, and her descriptions of the role of faith in her life. Here are a few more Lamott quotes (which I found online -- I hope that means they are okay to share here) that give you an idea of the person she is:

'No' is a complete sentence.

If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans. ~ Bird by Bird

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people.... I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it. ~ Bird by Bird

We all know we're going to die; what's important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this. ~ Bird by Bird

Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are. ~ from her graduation commencement address to Berkeley

I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns. ~ Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

Peace is joy at rest. Joy is peace on its feet. ~ quoting her pastor in Salon, April 25, 2003

You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.

Sometimes grace works like water wings when you feel you are sinking. ~ Grace [Eventually]: Thoughts on Faith

I never had a particularly strong craving to procreate, except for earlier fantasies of wanting to be Marmee in Little Women.

Here are Anne Lamott’s rules for life, from Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith:

Rule 1: We are all family.
Rule 2: You reap exactly what you sow, that is, you cannot grow tulips from zucchini seeds.
Rule 3: Try to breathe every few minutes or so.
Rule 4: It helps beyond words to plant bulbs in the dark of winter.
Rule 5: It is immoral to hit first.

And here is one more quote from her about the importance of books in our lives:

Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship. ~ Bird by Bird

Readolution #4

2008-10-20T12:37:00.002-05:00

4. I will keep my reading journal up-to-date.

I've always had big plans for reading journals, and I've never really stuck with any of them. As usual, I had a complex journal scheme for 2008 which has not come to fruition. But there is one reading journal that I've been keeping faithfully for a few years.

Every fall, I order the QPB Calendar of Days. It's the main reason I keep my membership to QPB. I love this gorgeous desk calendar. Each week is on a two-page spread, with a small space to write about each day, listings of birth and death dates of authors, and a short literary piece to read each week. In the back, it has literary awards listed, along with a little monthly calendar section and some blank lined pages for notes.

On the weekly pages, I record what I read each day -- no thoughts, just title and page numbers, and noting when I complete a book. In the monthly section, I set reading goals for myself (titles I'd like to get to that month), and circle each date when I finish a book. As for notes, I keep a running list of the books I've read that year.

For 2009, I think I should just add a new piece to this record keeping I'm doing. I'll have to think about that....

Skye recommends... (Winter '08)

2008-10-18T07:39:00.005-05:00

(I've decided to call my nine-year-old daughter "Skye" in this blog, after her favorite character in The Penderwicks.)

This is the first in what I hope to be a series of posts with recommendations from my two kids. Since I've been neglectful of this blog, I'm going to go back to the books I wrote down that they enjoyed this last winter. And I'll start with my now nine-year-old...

Skye and I read Ella Enchanted together for a book club she was in at school. (When I saw her come home with this, I couldn't resist asking her if I could read it with her.) We both loved the creativity of this retelling of the Cinderella story. Ella is smart and brave and lots of fun, and the land she lives in is full of interesting magic. We recommend the movie, too. It's much different from the book, but it's quirky and entertaining.

She also read two classics for her bookclub on her own: Mr. Popper's Penguins and Pippi Longstocking. She laughed a lot during Mr. Popper, and shared funny bits out loud with me. Pippi had her giggling throughout her reading.

A friend recommended A Book of Coupons by Susie Morgenstern to me, saying she loved reading it aloud to her students. (My friend is a school librarian/media specialist.) When I showed the book to Skye, she asked me to read it to her. We both thought it was a very sweet story, and a little different from the kinds of stories we are used to. (It ends differently than we expected.) Morgenstern, the author, was born and grew up in the U.S., then moved to France when she fell in love with and married a French man. She writes in French, so we read a translation.

Two series Skye recommends: She read and enjoyed a couple of Chet Gecko mysteries, and she's always game to read (or re-read) a Judy Moody book.

Readolution #3

2008-10-17T13:17:00.004-05:00

3. I will post every week on the Reading Circle.

I just checked my posts on The Reading Circle, and as I suspected, I only posted about once a month during the summer. I've done very well with this goal otherwise, missing just one week in February and one week in May.

I'm on a roll with writing about my reading, so hopefully I'll finish out the year strongly on this goal!

Heart in the Right Place by Carolyn Jourdan

2008-10-16T13:34:00.010-05:00

Yesterday, I posted about our Reading Circle's group reads. I've read most of them this year, but Heart in the Right Place is the only book I posted about in the discussion threads for our group reads that we post each month.

This afternoon, I was excited to see a comment left here by Carolyn Jourdan, the author of this book. It's a pleasure to "meet" her!

Here is what I posted on our Reading Circle's discussion thread [with additional comments from me]:

I thought this was a lovely memoir. As I got into the book, I laughed at the lazy country-chic picture on the cover; Carolyn Jourdan's story definitely did not include much hanging out on a country porch! [Jourdan moves back home to help her father with his medical practice while her mother is ill. They don't have time to lounge around in a comfy rocking chair on a scenic porch; they are too busy serving the people of their community.] Although I found the title a bit cheesey when I started, by the end of the book I could see why she chose it, as it really does describe what this memoir is about. [From the start, Jourdan gently and effectively weaves the theme put forth in the title into her story.]

I loved meeting the people in her hometown, and enjoyed her descriptions of the situations that came up in the doctor's office. I admired her father -- we need more people in the world like him! -- and her, for the good work they did and their patience and skill with people. I loved learning about Carolyn: her humor, her determination, her openmindedness and her caring heart.

I wonder what she's doing now. I wonder what the people in her community will do when her father needs to retire. I think I'll check out her website right now.

ETA: You can hear Carolyn read parts of the book here.

And you can read about her writing process here.

And this entry begins to answer my questions.

I'll end this post by saying that I gave this book as a birthday gift to a good friend of mine. She reminds me a bit of Carolyn -- gives of herself whole-heartedly, and works tirelessly to help her community. I hope she enjoys the book as much as I did!

Readolution #2

2008-10-15T12:24:00.003-05:00

2. I will read all of this year's Reading Circle group reads, and reply to all of the discussion threads.

The Reading Circle is an online book discussion forum that I co-moderate with my friend Susan. (Click on the link in my sidebar to visit The Reading Circle.) Each month, we choose a group read, and we post a discussion thread to go along with it. There is rarely much discussion on these threads, but people sometimes do read the books and post their thoughts on our weekly "What are you reading?" threads. One of my goals this year was to get discussion going on these specific threads, too. I have not done well with this part of the goal; I've only truly posted about my reading on one of the threads this year. Let's see how many of them I have read:

January: The Soup Peddler's Slow & Difficult Soups: Recipes And Reveries by David Ansel
February: Heart in the Right Place by Carolyn Jourdan
March: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
April: The Girls by Lori Lansens
May: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
Summer reads: Hens Dancing by Raffaella Barker, If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? by Erma Bombeck, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson
September: The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
October: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

Hey, I've read all of them except the September and October reads, and I plan to get to both of them this month.

I think I should recommit to this goal, starting with The Lace Reader. I love looking up info about books/authors after I've read their work; maybe I'll set an evening or two aside after reading these books to do that and post on the discussion threads. (And I could post my thoughts about them here, too!)

Readolution #1

2008-10-11T08:39:00.001-05:00

1. I will read at least 50 books.

I've surpassed 50 books already this year, mostly thanks to my daughter and some great children's literature. Nineteen of the titles on my list are books she read also. Some of the books we shared as read-alouds, and others she read first and then told me she thought I'd like them. What fun, to have my nine-year-old recommending books to me! I love watching her develop a love of reading, quite different from my own as a child, but just as strong. (She searches for the silly and the fantastic, while I think I tended to look for books that realistically portrayed the experiences of girls my age.) Books are such a great foundation to have, like a second home, and I'm happy for her.

Readolutions 2008

2008-01-12T07:54:00.002-06:00

1. I will read at least 50 books.
2. I will read all of this year's Reading Circle group reads, and reply to all of the discussion threads.
3. I will post every week on the Reading Circle.
4. I will keep my reading journal up-to-date.
5. I will post on this blog regularly, perhaps weekly.
6. I will keep a TBR list.
7. I will keep a "books purchased/received" list.
8. I will keep my Amazon wish list updated.
9. I will participate in BAFAB week at least once this year.
10. I will buy fewer books.
11. When I buy books, I will do my best to buy independent/used, or to buy in support of a charity (public library, school, etc.).
12. I will organize my book shelves, and find a new home for some of my books.

January 2007

2007-06-09T16:55:00.001-05:00

Books bought/received:

Nine Parts of Desire, Geraldine Brooks
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld
Gilead, Marilynne Robinson

I purchased the first three books at the used bookstore with money my parents gave me for Christmas. (They told me to use it for books, of course. :) ) A friend had two copies of Gilead, and she gave me one, a beautiful hardcover. She’s been telling me I should read it, and now I think I’ll have to! From what I’ve heard, I think I’d really like it. Alas, I didn’t read any of the books I bought/received in the month of January.

Books read:

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff
(Started 12/31/06, finished 1/5/07.)

In the late 1940s-60s, Ms. Hanff corresponded with a bookshop in London, specifically with one of its sellers, a Mr. Frank Doel. She compiled their correspondence in 84, Charing Cross Road. This book is a sort of sequel to that one; in it, she shares the journal she kept on her long-awaited trip to London after publishing the book. Do read 84, Charing Cross Road first, but then enjoy her sweet, funny descriptions of her London adventure. Ms. Hanff is one in a million.

Celebrations, Maya Angelou
(Started 1/2/07, finished 1/5/07.)

Although it contains some lovely and important poems, this collection was a disappointment to me. I think, because it contains such a small number of poems (12), the publisher decided its layout should be like a gift book. Each poem takes up many pages, with only a few lines per page, to make the book thicker. Turning so many pages makes it hard to stick to the natural rhythm of the poems. Reading them aloud helped, and Ms. Angelou is a classic, despite the presentation. Addendum: I checked out the CD of this book from the library, and really enjoyed hearing Ms. Angelou read the poems. Her short description of the significance of the rock, river, and tree in “On the Pulse of Morning” was quite helpful, too.

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky
(Started 1/5/07, finished 1/22/07.)

This book is comprised of two novellas Ms. Nemirovsky wrote about the German occupation of France, and uniquely, she wrote them in that country as the occupation was happening. She had planned for this work to be composed of five parts, but only completed drafts of the first two before her death. (She died at Auschwitz in 1942 at age 39.) Her daughters kept her notebooks, but found it too painful to open and read them. Finally, Denise did, and she found this treasure.

Of course, the story surrounding this book makes it all the more compelling, but it is worth reading just of its own merit. The first novella describes several different groups of people, of different classes, backgrounds, and outlooks, all rushing to evacuate Paris as they’ve heard the Germans are about to invade. We follow their stories and get to know them; this way, we get to see human foibles and folly as well as human generosity and the strength of spirit that can emerge during a crisis.

In the second novella, Nemirovsky tells the story of a small, occupied French town. We watch its people figure out how to get through daily life with German soldiers in their midst, and we observe the soldiers trying to find some normalcy in a life where they could be called up to fight again the next day. The author focuses on one young woman whose estranged husband is a prisoner-of-war, and the German officer she has been ordered to welcome into her home.

Nemirovsky’s two stories are in little need of editing, amazingly. These unpolished drafts show her talent and power as a writer. The book includes appendices: Nemirovsky’s notes detailing her plans for the five parts of this book, letters from the time of the piece (hers, her husband's, etc.), and an introduction to the French edition that gives a good, short biography of Nemirovsky.

The Inimitable Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
(Started 1/23/07, finished 1/30/07.)

Bertie Wooster is a young aristocrat: lazy, good-humored, and with little common sense, he narrates the stories. This device works well, as Bertie is hilarious to listen to. Jeeves, his valet, is a wonder, not only in getting Bertie dressed presentably, but especially in getting him out of scrapes. Helping Bertie out of an unwanted engagement, dealing with Bertie’s friend Bingo who falls in love with every woman he meets, and aiding Bertie with some of his ill-placed bets are just a few of the many ways in which Jeeves demonstrates his inimitable talents. I’d never read Wodehouse before – what a treat!

Readolutions 2007

2007-04-03T19:00:00.003-05:00

1. I will read at least 40 books.
2. I will buy fewer books.
3. When I buy books, I will do my best to buy independent/used.
4. I will organize my book shelves.
5. I will read several of my shelf-sitters.
6. I will find a new home for some of my books.
7. I will read all of this year's Reading Circle group reads, and reply to all of the discussion threads.
8. I will post every week on the Reading Circle.
9. I will keep my reading journal up-to-date.
10. I will post on this blog regularly -- whatever that turns out to be.
11. I will keep my Amazon wish list updated.
12. I will keep a TBR list.
13. I will keep a "books purchased/received" list.
14. I will participate in BAFAB week at least once this year.

The Reading Me

2006-02-25T15:03:00.000-06:00

I've decided I need to start posting here. I've been having fun the past month with the sidebar, keeping track of books I've read, books I'm reading, a few links I like, but I've been avoiding this first post. I have a case of that writer's block one feels when looking at a blank page. I imagine everything I want here, and I can't do it all at once, and so I don't do it at all.

Well, today I'm doing it. Here I am. I'm Caryl: a woman in my late 30s, partner to dh, former middle school English teacher, at-home mother to dd and ds, ages 6 and 1. And I'm Caryl: booklover. I expect I'll show all of these sides of myself in this blog, but my booklover self is the part of me who has decided to create it.

My mom likes to joke that my brother's favorite toys were balls, my sister's, dolls, and mine, books. She says I started to read by age three. Some of the first books I remember reading: First Delights by Tasha Tudor, Wild Animals by Brian Wildsmith, those cute little Beatrix Potter books. Some chapter books my mom read aloud to us: Mandy by Julie Edwards, The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I spent much of my teenage years with my nose in a book; favorites: The Luckiest Girl by Beverly Cleary, Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster, The Pigman by Paul Zindel. In high school, I was introduced to Great Literature, and fell in love: Keats and Shelley, Hamlet and Antigone, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, Pride and Prejudice, Rebecca. In college, I pursued everything from Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry to Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume.

Someday I'll make a list of my favorite reading experiences and post it here.

Now that I've introduced the reading me, I'd like to explain what I hope to do with this blog. I will share my thoughts about books here: books I'm reading, books my kids and I share, books I'm hearing about, reading goals I have and other book-inspired thoughts. In the sidebar, I will keep a running list of books I am working my way through. I will include some favorite links, some book-related and some not.

I want to let this blog evolve, to see where it takes me. So far, it has made me a bit more disciplined about my reading; just keeping some book lists here this last month has encouraged me to write and record more in my reading journal.

My blog name, "Leaning Tower of Books," is a silly way to remind myself that I have a precious bunch of reading material I want to get through. I'm afraid my tower of books will always lean, and often threaten to topple, but if I continuously give it the care and attention deserving of a work of art, it can be a quirky, loveable monument to my reading passion. Leaning is a good thing, as long as I keep an eye on it.

Off to update my sidebar, as I finished another book last night. I love that feeling!

Well, here I am!

2006-01-12T06:57:00.000-06:00

And this wasn't all that hard to figure out. Yay!