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!)

Nightstand, 3/31/14

After last week's small stack, this one is big again. Lots of good stuff here, including a couple of titles I purchased in Stevens Point, Wisconsin on our little spring break trip: I picked up NurtureShock at Book World, and the second "Call the Midwife" memoir, Shadows of the Workhouse, came from Kindred Spirit Books.

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."

Nightstand, 3/24/14

Here's my next nightstand post. Can you guess which one I finished this week? (Hint: I mentioned it in my last post.)

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.

Nightstand, 3/17/14

I'm late with these posts, and hoping to catch up tomorrow with current ones. I ended up finishing one of these books, which I will write about with my next "Books Read" post.

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.

Nightstand, 3/10/14

The photo is dark since I took it early this evening. Can you see which book I started after finishing the Austen? It's not the same, but it's fun.

Many of these will be on my nightstand next week, too. I don't expect even to start all of them this week. You'll have to wait and see which ones I get to first.

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!)

Nightstand, 3/3/14

Ah, so much more manageable! Can you guess which book I need to finish this week for my book club?

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.

Nightstand, 2/24/14

They are shuffled a bit, but yes, this is the same stack as last week. Hope to finish up four of them this week. We'll see.

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.

Birthday Books

My parents always get me books for my birthday, specifically some of the ALA award winners and honor books. The announcement for these awards comes in late January, perfect timing for my mid-February birthday. They started by getting me the Newbery and Caldecott winners each year, thinking they'd be fun for me to collect. Now they've expanded to picking out even more for me; we have a discussion about the books after the winners are announced, and they pay close attention to the ones that I sound most interested in and excited about. I never know exactly which ones they will choose, which makes it a lot of fun.

Last fall, my mom gave me this year's Newbery winner, Flora and Ulysses. I can't wait to read it with my kids (once we're done with this first Warriors cats series of six books)! Above, you can see the beautiful packages I picked up at our local bookstore; I think they look forward to the order as much as I do! Aren't they lovely? Okay, ready for the Big Reveal? And the winners are...

Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me

by Daniel Beaty, illustrated by Bryan Collier

Winner of the Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award

Niño Wrestles the World

written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales

Winner of the Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award

P.S. Be Eleven

by Rita Williams-Garcia

Winner of the Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

by Meg Medina

Winner of the Pura Belpré (Author) Award

Handbook for Dragon Slayers

by Merrie Haskell

Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award

Midwinterblood

by Marcus Sedgwick

Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award

And coming soon:

Locomotive

written and illustrated by Brian Floca

Winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal

Nightstand, 2/17/14

Here it is! Very similar to last week's stack, with a few removed. Hoping there will be more movement next week, but many of these will probably remain for at least a couple more weeks.

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!"

Books on My Nightstand, 2/10/14

I'm ambitious this week. I've been looking forward to so many of these! I know I will finish at least two of them, but I'd like to get through a third, and start some of those other goodies.

I read Eleanor & Park last fall before meeting Rainbow Rowell; she's coming again later this month, so now I'm re-reading it by listening to the audiobook, which won an Odyssey Award honor this year. You can read Rowell's comments about it here.

And look at those other lovelies: Life of Pi (a re-read for me; Skye is reading it in school, and I want to discuss with her), Persuasion (this will conclude my reading of Austen's six major novels), Few Eggs and No Oranges (gorgeous Persephone edition), Daily Rituals (about artists' creative routines), and Fangirl (hopefully before Rowell's visit). Their color schemes all look beautiful together, too, don't they?

Time for some reading....

Books Read, Week of 2/3/14

I did it. I finished reading the whole Divergent series. Am I glad I did? Well, my curiosity is satisfied, and I can now discuss them with my friend who lent them to me as well as the teens I work with at the library and in our mother-daughter book club.

I finally finished The Perfect Storm, which I started last fall when Skye was reading it for school. I really liked it at first, but then got bored with the details of ships and navigation and such.

Turtle in Paradise: My favorite in this stack. Loved it. I can see why it won a Newbery Honor, and was one of this year's Maud Hart Lovelace award nominees.

Kids and I read these Valentines books in honor of the holiday coming up -- one of my favorites. We'd never read A Village Full of Valentines before, and it was pretty cute. I'm not sure how long it's been in our collection, but I'm glad we got to it. The Valentine Holiday Grab Bag book has inspired Skye to want to try making fortune cookies to give her class on Friday. We'll see how that works out!

Books on My Nightstand, 2/3/14

Lots of the same ones as last week. I expect to finish at least two of these this week, and I'm hoping to finish at least four of them.

Looking forward to our mother-daughter book club discussion about Divergent this weekend. I'd love to finish the whole trilogy by then, as I think at least a couple of the girls have read them all. Skye says she's not interested in reading the others, but will happily hear what happens next once she's done with the first.

Book Read, Week of 1/27/14

Just one this week.  Here it is!  When we got done, Felix said, "Let's choose another book now. Where's the next Littles book?" I had to break the news that I only have four of these. I'll have to search for more!