What I've Been Reading, Summer 2014

I haven't posted since June! Why does it always seem like summer will be full of free time to do things like blogging? It's truly the opposite. I did keep up with my book photos, though. Here's the line-up of what I read, from June 23-August 31.

Week of June 23:
~ The Judy Blume Project is progressing, with Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing on audio with the kids, and Are You There God? It's Me Margaret for me. (Check out my old editions from Scholastic book flyer purchases in elementary school.)
~ Enjoying the Maud Hart Lovelace nominees; this week, it was Patricia MacLachlan's Kindred Souls.
~ I really want to get through all of the Donna Leon mysteries. This week was #11: Willful Behavior.

Week of June 30:
~ Fudge! We love these books. Superfudge on audio this week.
~ Brunetti! #12: Uniform Justice.
~ MHL nominee! Another Patricia MacLachlan: Waiting for the Magic.
~ An old Skye favorite! Read aloud to Skye & Felix: Adam Gidwitz's A Tale Dark & Grimm. Started out as a bedtime book, but moved to a daytime read, as it is fantastically creepy.

Week of July 7:
~ More Fudge! This week: Fudge-a-Mania on audio with the kids.
~ Felix and I finally finished The Luck Uglies by Paul Durham. The author visited his school last spring. We both recommend.
~ Perfect cabin read, lent to me by my friend Jen at bibliotonic: The Vacationers by Emma Straub.

Week of July 14:
~ Another past favorite, shared now with Felix: Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead.
~ A new Skye favorite: The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang. (We got to meet him! Twice!)
~ A favorite writer's new book: Kate DiCamillo's Flora & Ulysses.
~ A book based on one of my favorite themes: mythology! (This time, Norse mythology.) Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby, another MHL nominee.

Week of July 28: Yes, I missed a week, but I finished up double the books in the following week, including these three great graphic novels and one fantastic graphic memoir:
~ This One Summer (Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki)
~ Level Up (Gene Luen Yang & Thien Pham)
~ Monster on the Hill (Rob Harrell)
~ Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?  (Roz Chast)

Week of July 28, continued:
~ The Sea of Monsters on audio with Felix. It was fun to read all five of these with Skye; I look forward to doing the same with Felix.
~ Brunetti #13: Doctored Evidence.
~ A quick bedtime read: Roald Dahl's The Twits. I guess he wasn't a great person, but his books never disappoint as read-alouds.

Week of August 4:
~ Otherwise Known As Sheila the Great on audio. I guess this is now known as one of Judy Blume's Fudge books, but he only appears in the beginning, I think. This is really a Sheila story.
~ 43 Old Cemetery Road #5: Hollywood, Dead Ahead by Kate Klise & M. Sarah Klise. We love these stories! Always fun to read them together.

Week of August 11:
~ Another from the Old Cemetery Road series: #6: Greetings from the Graveyard. How do they keep coming up with cute ideas for these?!
~ Then Again, Maybe I Won't. Thank goodness for Judy Blume!
~ Blood from a Stone, Brunetti #14.

Week of August 18: Four Books & a Movie
~ Before I Go to Sleep. Ugh & blech.
~ The Days of Rondo. Bittersweet & well-told.
~ It's Not the End of the World. Real & true.
~ Mom & Me & Mom. Surprising & lovely.
~ Amour. Quiet. Powerful.

Week of August 25: Must be the week before school starts. Felix read the first book (The 13-Story Treehouse); Skye was curious and read it, too; they went to the cabin, and my mom started reading Felix the second book (The 26-Story Treehouse), which ended up becoming our bedtime book, since the one we'd been trying hadn't been working for any of us. (You may see it later, if we decide to pick it up again.)

Books Read, Week of 6/16/14

Not as many as last week, but still a good week of summer reading:

~ Vikings in the Attic by Eric Dregni for neighborhood book club. The author came to speak at our meeting, which was fantastic. I made orange Jell-O salad. :)

~ Iggie's House for what I'm calling my Judy Blume project. This was one of my favorites of hers when I was a kid, and it was so fun to revisit. I love the new cover (see link.)

~ The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan with the kids. This was our bedtime read-aloud, inspired by my eight-year-old nephew's birthday party theme. I wanted Felix to "get it," but wondered if he wasn't quite ready for this story. He loved it, and Skye & I enjoyed the re-read. We also listened to some of it on audio, and I thought it was nicely done.

Books Read, Week of 6/9/14

Look at all the books I finished this week! From bottom row to top:

~ Three books about Jackie. I really enjoyed the section about her in Dreaming in French, so was inspired to find more. The biography for young people was a good place to start -- better than I thought it would be -- and One Special Summer was such a surprise and treat to find.

~ I am starting a Judy Blume project; I'd like to read all of her work, in the order she wrote it. Kids helped me get started by listening to her two books for youngest kids on audio.

~ Enjoyed the next Commissario Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon; I'm reading them in order.

~ Finished Jerry Spinelli's Hokey Pokey; impressed with his wordplay and want to finally read Maniac Magee.

~ So impressed with Breathing Room, one of this year's Maud Hart Lovelace Award nominees. Beautiful book.

Books Read, Week of 6/2/14

Very good, excellent, and just for fun, in that order.

~ I love E. Lockhart. We Were Liars was very well done, but The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is still my favorite. And I love her Toys Go Out books (as Emily Jenkins.)

~ Sylvia & Aki is a book I'd love to read with students. Historical fiction that is so nicely told and relatable. Beautifully done.

~ Pride & Prejudice & Zombies: What can I say? It sort of works, in a weird way. And so much of Austen's words are left intact, that I couldn't help but keep reading. She's one of my favorites.

Books Read, Week of 5/26/14

Two books finished this week:

~ The Littles Go Exploring was for the weekly book group at Felix's school. They enjoyed it, and as an end-of-year gift, I gave them each another Littles book. I'll miss those kids!

~ I read Tinkers for our neighborhood book club. Glad I did. It made for good discussion, and it's interesting to see which books are picked for the Pulitzer each year.

Books Read, Week of 5/19/14

Finished up several books this week:

~ Hooray! The first Warriors series (six books) is complete! Now, Felix can read any others he is interested in on his own.

~ I listened to Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson on audio. Skye had read it and loved it. I did, too -- so much that I also read the physical book as I listened.

~ Felix is loving Stick Dog. He met the author, Tom Watson, at school. I gave him this second book in the series as a congrats gift at his piano recital, and he insisted we read it together. Cute.

~ I was so impressed by Sex & Violence by Carrie Mesrobian; I see why she won the Minnesota Book Award for Young People's Literature this year for her first novel. Evan was, to me, a modern-day Holden Caulfield.

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?

Books Read, Week of 5/5/14

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!)

Books Read, Week of 3/24/14

I loved this book. Loved One Crazy Summer, too; this is its sequel. I hope Rita Williams-Garcia writes a third book about the Gaither sisters. "Surely do!" I listened to some of it on audio, but once I got two-thirds of the way through, I didn't have the patience to wait for my next car ride to see what was next. Glad to have my own copy. (Thanks again, Mom & Dad!)

I'm going to post Mac Barnett's judgment again, because what he says reflects how I feel about this book: "This novel is always nuanced and frequently, quietly, profound. Williams-Garcia has the grace to nod toward the truth instead of jabbing at it with an index finger."

Books Read, Week of 3/17/14

I'm playing catch-up here. Funny that Easter Sunday is the quiet day that works for me to do this. It's not quiet! But perhaps quieter than usual...

Here's one view of the books I read this week:

And here's another view:

Those covers for Boxers & Saints are so beautiful that I have to show them both ways.

I was really looking forward to reading Midwinterblood, especially after it won this year's Michael L. Printz Award. It just sounds like my kind of book. I was excited to see it was in School Library Journal's Battle of the Kids' Books, which made me pick it up sooner rather than later. And I got a copy from my parents for my birthday! It's a quick read, but I found it unsatisfying. Mac Barnett's judgment (it was up against P.S. Be Eleven) expresses many of my feelings -- although I'm not an expert in premodern Scandinavian literature, like he is, so I missed some of those things. (Cool author facts!) I love what he wrote about P.S. Be Eleven, also. Such a lovely book. But that's for me to tell you about later...

Now, I get to tell you about the lovely set of books, Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang.  Reading American Born Chinese several years ago (another Printz Award winner), I quickly became a fan of Yang's. This work is just as beautiful. Skye read them first, and insisted I pick them up immediately. I'm glad I did. I enjoyed this interview with the author, and you can read/see an excerpt from Boxers there, too.

Books Read, Week of 3/10/14

I wasn't sure what I'd think of Longbourn, and I really enjoyed it! It's the story of the servants at Longbourn, the Bennets' residence in Pride & Prejudice. It has a very different feel from Austen, and I think this helps it to work.

Felix and I read the second Humphrey the classroom hamster book, and he loved this one as much as the first. I think we'll have to continue this series together.

Book Read, Week of 3/3/14

I finally read Jane Austen's Persuasion. I think I was saving it; I've read her other five novels, and this was my last Austen to experience for the first time. I know I still have her juvenilia and a few other things to read, but it was bittersweet to finish up her Big Six.

And I loved it. I read it for my book club, and had only five days to do it, but it was such a pleasure. I wish I could have lingered with it a bit longer, but it was also fun to be so immersed in Austen's world for a week.

And I cried when I got to the end. Very sweet! (No spoilers here. Read it!)

Books Read, Week of 2/24/14

I had a great week of reading! Most exciting thing was meeting Rainbow Rowell at some library events. In anticipation of her visit, I re-read Eleanor & Park via the audiobook, and also read Fangirl. Two great books! One fantastic author! (I'll write more about her later.)

I also finished up my re-read of Life of Pi. I think I liked it even better the second time. Maybe that's because I loved discussing it with Skye, who read it for her English class; they watched the movie, too. I got it from the library and we both watched it together this weekend.

Felix and I finished up Cinderella Smith, one of this year's Maud Hart Lovelace nominees. If we get him through one more, he'll be eligible to vote later this month!

And I loved Daily Rituals: How Artists Work so much that I bought myself a copy on the last day of my birth month. I expect it will be a book I'll enjoy peeking into every now and then.

Books Read, Week of 2/17/14

Hooray! Finished reading #4 in the Warriors Cats series aloud to the kids! I noticed that it takes us a full month to get through one of these books together, so that means we'll be ready to read something new by May... but they are both loving them, so I will enjoy the (long!) process of doing this first set of books with them.

Felix brought Dewey: There's a Cat in the Library! home from school last week, and was very excited to read it to me after reading it on his own. He usually isn't very interested in sharing his school library books; they are generally picture books, and I think he just reads them on his own once and then is done with them. My theory is that this one included one of his current loves (cats!) and one of Mom's loves (libraries!), and so he wanted to enjoy it with me.

Books Read, Week of 2/10/14

Three books completed last week:

I've been looking through Mark Bittman's Food Matters for awhile, and finally decided to compile a list of recipes I'd like to try, and then call it "read." (The first half of the book explains why and how we can and should start eating more consciously and responsibly; the second half is the practical application of the book, with lots of wonderful recipes.)

Reading more poetry is one of my goals for 2014. I started with this book of love poems in honor of February holidays: Valentine's Day, of course, and our anniversary. This book was a wedding gift.

Felix and I finished the first Humphrey book! I had a feeling he'd love these, and indeed, when we finished the last chapter, he suggested, "Let's start the next one now!"