“When all else fails, give up and go to the library.”

~ Stephen King, 11/22/63

“Sarah wondered what it could be like, to live like this - life as a country dance, where everything is lovely, and graceful, and ordered, and every single turn is preordained, and not a foot may be set outside the measure. Not like Sarah's own out-in-all-weathers haul and trudge, the wind howling and blustery, the creeping flowers in the hedgerows, the sudden sunshine.”

~ Jo Baker, Longbourn

Nightstand, 5/19/14

Oops. How'd it get this big again?

Books Read, Week of 5/12/14

The kids and I finally finished Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library. I thought it was okay, and they enjoyed it.

On the recommendations and raves from readers of the Morning News' Tournament of Books, I picked up Rene Denfeld's The Enchanted. By the middle, I was worried it was getting too icky for me, but I plowed through and made it to the end. I was glad I did -- I liked the second half much better -- but I wasn't as impressed as others were. The expectations problem?

“I was beginning to understand something about normality. Normality wasn't normal. It couldn't be. If normality were normal, everybody could leave it alone. They could sit back and let normality manifest itself. But people--and especially doctors--had doubts about normality. They weren't sure normality was up the job. And so they felt inclined to give it a boost.”

~ Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

“And that phrase - 'sleeping like a baby.' Some blonde said it blithely on the subway the other day. I wanted to lie down next to her and scream for five hours in her ear.”

~ Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

Nightstand, 5/12/14

Oh, no! It's a leaning tower again! Ah, well. So many books...

Books Read, Week of 5/5/14

A classic I hadn't read before, and a new-to-me poet. Melancholy stuff, but excellent.

“She rested her head against his and felt, for the first time, what she would often feel with him: a self-affection. He made her like herself.”

~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

“I stretched out my hand towards the little bookshelf where I kept cookery and devotional books, the most comfortable bedside reading.”

~ Barbara Pym, Excellent Women

Nightstand, 5/5/14

Same pile as last week, less one. Perhaps next week will be the same.

Books Read, Week of 4/28/14

I finished two books this week:

~ Hideous Love by Stephanie Hemphill. A novel in verse; tells the story of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. Hemphill did all kinds of research, and I love how she connects Mary Shelley's life experiences with the events and themes of her masterpiece. I read this for National Poetry Month and for our Teen Book Club, which met this weekend. (We read Frankenstein together last summer, and checked out novels in verse the last time we met.)

~ BookSpeak: Poems About Books by Laura Purdie Salas. I read this one for our Kids Book Club, and because it's been on my shelf for about a year. I immediately wanted to share many of the poems with kids. It's perfect for celebrating the joy of books and poetry!

Nightstand, 4/28/14

I cleaned up and cleared off my nightstand today, and selected the books I want to focus on this week. I hope I can dip into all of them at some point.

Book Read, Week of 4/21/14

Just one book finished this week: Alice Munro's The Progress of Love. We had a great conversation about Munro and her short stories last night at the Excellent Women's Book Club. I liked these stories more after I was done with them and could think about them. Many of them are dark, and they all have lots of layers. The story is revealed slowly, and at first it's often even hard to tell who will be the main character and what they problem is, much less what insight they will have -- or not have. Several times, she changed the perspective, giving us glimpses of two or three characters' points-of-view.

They are dark, and often weird, but somehow real, and I want to read more.

Nightstand, 4/21/14

Good stuff here! Lots to look forward to. Some were in the stack last week, and some are new. We'll see which one(s) I can finish up this week.

Books Read, Week of 4/14/14

I had read about the new book, Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain, around the time I was reading Lisa See's Dreams of Joy. Finally got it from the library. It's a nice introduction. I like the way Freedman uses the poetry carved into the walls of the barracks to tell the stories.

In honor of Camp NaNoWriMo this April, I re-read Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. This was one of the first books I ever read on writing, and it took me right back to my college days. Her thoughts on writing are simple yet wise. I especially appreciated her comments on how to go about editing.

Nightstand, 4/14/14

Some new books here. Fun! I'll do my best to stay on track now and post tomorrow about what I read this week.

Books Read, Week of 4/7/14

This was an awesome week of reading! I'd been working on Americanah for awhile; I loved it. The book cover is really neat -- you can see it in the photo below, and in the link, but you can't feel it. The brown paper bag quality is nice. But I really like the paperback cover, too. Here's what I read this week:

I'd had Ten Poems to Change Your Life going for awhile, too, reading one poem each day. I liked some of the poems, but the essays to go along with them I could take or leave. Or, actually, leave. Makes me want to read more poetry, though.

After completing these two books, I jumped into a few short ones:

~ I came across Brushing Mom's Hair when looking for juvenile novels in verse for a library display celebrating National Poetry Month. It's a breast cancer story, told from the point-of-view of the survivor's daughter. It's lovely.

~ I was hoping I'd like Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: The Graphic Novel better than I liked the actually novel, but no luck. I can see why some enjoy it, but I really just get a kick out of the gimmick involved rather than the story created around it. It takes itself too seriously for me, I think. Skye's friend lent this to her, and I think she's going to read it. It will be interesting to hear her thoughts.

~ I loved the way Dept. of Speculation was written, and I think I'll re-read it, as I know I missed a lot.  But it was so sad.

Nightstand, 4/7/14

Did some shifting of books this week. Removed some and added others. I guess I'm always doing that, aren't I? That top book stays the same, though, and now it seems I've got a bottom book that's always there. Bookends.

Books Read, Week of 3/31/14

Guess what? We read another Warriors Cats book! And immediately picked up the next one, which is the last in the (first) series. I had been reading these aloud to both Skye and Felix at bedtime, but about two-thirds of the way through this one, Skye had had enough. Too many innocent cats dying! (We joked that it was Divergent for cats.) So, Felix and I finished it up together, and we started a new bedtime book for the two of them. (Stay tuned to find out what it is!)