What We're Reading at Our House - 4

As summer vacation closes shop, my 8 year old also winds up his summer reading. His school sent home a goal of 30 books (at least 100 pages each or 2 books to combine for 100 pages) for incoming 3rd graders. My guy is almost there. School starts August 22.

Fred and Anthony's Horrible, Hideous Back-to-School Thriller
by Elise Arevamirp with Elise Primaver (Hyperion Paperbacks for Children 2008)
A new favorite. The title is irresistible this time of year and it has lots of fun illustrations. It seems like it is out of print so look for it at a library.

Max Disaster #3: Alien Eraser Reveals the Secrets of Evolution
by Marissa Moss (Candlewick Press, 2009)
Another comic-like story. I love all the Amelia books so I was happy to see that she has a series for boys. Two thumbs up for sticking science in there as well.

There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom
by Louis Sachar
Reaching back to old school. The outdated cover almost turned him off completely. My son loves Sideways Stories so I selected this one for him. He enjoyed it quite a bit. I heard lots of laughs and that's a solid seal of approval.

Star Wars Character Encyclopedia
DK Publishing, 2011
It's about Star Wars. Instant must-have in our house. We checked it out last week and he's probably read it 6 times already.

Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
Dad is reading this aloud for the 2nd year in a row. They still laugh and laugh.

In Zanesville: a novel
by Jo Ann Beard (Little, Brown and Company 2011)
Yay! I liked this one very much. My friend Martha reviewed it on Goodreads and her good words were more than enough to get me to check it out. At times it was hard for me to keep track of the who's who of the teen girls, but I think that's supposed to happen. Our narrator takes us along with her for her 9th grade year in the 1970s and she doesn't explain much. I thought this storytelling fit really well with our teen protagonist because she is a teenager. I don't really want her to have deep thoughts and wisdom beyond her years. She and her BFF Felicia are figuring things out. They're definitely weird, but is that okay? She leaves quite a bit out so we have to do some work to piece together what is happening outside of what she is immediately doing and thinking. Another possible contender for the Alex Awards.

Just Kids
by Patti Smith (Ecco 2010)
On my to read list for ages. Once upon a time a woman at a work training I attended asked to take my picture because she thought I looked just like Patti Smith. I took it as a compliment. And maybe I should brush my hair. I haven't finished this book yet, but all I have to say is that I was a total sloth as a 21-22 year old. Holy cow. The people she met and worked with is pretty much EVERYONE. And she knew it then, too. She knew to learn from the people around her. Just really amazing. She wrote this book with a lot of love and you can feel it in every paragraph. (oh, and a sequel!)

What We're Reading at Our House - 2

Today is the first day of summer vacation for my 2nd grader-now-3rd grader. Here's what we checked out at the library last week. (Part 1) What are you reading? Any suggestions for us?

Picture books:

• Where's Walrus? by Stephen Savage (Scholastic, 2011)
  2.5 year old really liked this and it later wooed 7 year old who initially turned his nose up at the wordless book where "it's soooo easy to find the walrus that you don't even have to try." But there is a story and he got it and liked it. Surprise! I love picture books. [see video!]
• Not Me! by Nicola Killen (Egmont, 2010)
  Little one enjoyed it, but didn't get that each child's name rhymed with his naughtiness (Paul painted the wall)
• Race You To Bed! by Bob Shea (Katherine Tegen Books, 2010)
  We love Bob Shea and yet I own none of his books. Hm. This one was enjoyed by both Little and Big Kid. The lamp is a carrot! I mean really. Shea is just too good.
• Simms Taback's City Animals (Blue Apple, 2009)
  Taback's Where is My Baby was both boys' #1 favorite board book. This one is "A Giant Fold-Out Book" that I never saw before our librarian used the jungle version for storytime. It's super cute as you fold out parts of the page to reveal which animal it is. The last one is a mouse, but I totally thought rat. Kind of gross if you think about it. 
• Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri (S&S, 2008)
  Tafuri was a go-to author for my storytimes. I was not as familiar with this one as her others (my branch didn't own a copy) but she seriously is one of the best.
• Three By the Sea by Mini Gray (Knopf, 2010)
  LOVE Mini Gray at this house. This one was not quite so loved by Big kid, but there's so much to look at in her illustrations. Mouse's kitchen cookbooks are hilarious. 
• 2 Thomas the Tank books because we cannot leave the library with out something Thomas. I do think it's cute that he'll go up to the librarians (we have a children's and a teen librarian) and tell them he wants either Thomas books or Thomas movies. Then he goes back later and shows them what he picked out. They play along very nicely. (And he is stinkin' cute so he's hard to resist.)

Chapter Books & Comics

• Geronimo Stilton
  7 year old loves loves loves these. I like the inclusion of different fonts and colors used to help with word comprehension.
• Pirates of the Caribbean Jack Sparrow : The Pirate Chase by Rob Kidd (Disney)
  Big kid saw the new Pirates movie a couple weeks ago and he picked this book out but I don't think he's read it. All of a sudden it's not what he wants.
• Tin Tin, Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck Adventures, Star Wars Clone Wars Adventures -
  annnd this may be why he's reluctant to read the Pirates book. Too many comics!
• Stone Rabbit: Superhero Stampede by Erik Craddock (Random House, 2010)
  Big kid loves this series.
• Bone, volume 3 by Jeff Smith
  He started reading Bone last year but never got past #1. I think he's a little young, but he really seems to be taking to it now.

ETC

• Museum of Accidents by Rachel Zucker (Wave Books, 2009)
  I forget how I learned about Rachel Zucker who writes, for lack of a better term, 21st century mama poetry. I'm making an effort to read more contemporary poetry and she has a style (both subject and format) that I like very much.
• When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
  It's hard for me to not like a coming of age memoir. Prep for our trip to Puerto Rico. I also got some Rosario Ferré and Judith Ortiz Cofer is on hold.
• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
  Haven't started this yet but will this week. 

HeLa and NPR

So I've been trying to work up the energy to write a review of the adult nonfiction book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and can't seem to find the time. These last dog days of summer programming are getting to me. Busy. And then more busy. With a heaping side of busy.

Needless to say it was freakin' fantastic. I am not a huge nonfiction reader, but I remember hearing an NPR story on this book and thinking it sounded fascinating. And it really was. All about biology and science and family history. The author seamlessly wove all of that into one interconnected narrative that was funny and interesting and sad all at the same time. I can't recommend it enough.


And then again from NPR, a neato blog post called, "Why the Next Big Pop Culture Wave After Cupcakes Might be Libraries."

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Book Source = ARC snagged off of staff shelf by Joanna who then sent it to me. Thanks J!

Holiday Reading

Well, I’m back from my lovely two week holiday. Vacations nowadays aren’t quite as self-indulgent and lazy as they used to be, but they still beat working, so I’m certainly not complaining!

I only had the chance to read two books, both adult, one fiction and one non-fiction. Both very good. I did spend a ridiculous amount of time watching the marathon of Income Property on HGTV at my parent’s house. And then I also caught part of a marathon of Property Virgins that was all in Austin. And I couldn’t help but think that those people would have been better off doing their own research. I mean if you have $300,000 and want to buy a house close in, there is absolutely NO reason to settle for a house in Round Rock. Nothing wrong with Round Rock, but come on. That’s a lot of house that money could buy you in a nice fabulous neighborhood right by downtown. I found the host incredibly annoying too. She was smug or something. Blech.

So the books…

A Boy of Good Breeding by Miriam Toews

I couldn’t contain my love for the author in a previous post. This one was still good. Lots of quirky Manitobans here, but I didn’t love it as much as the previous books I’ve read by her. I did love Hosea, the mayor of Algren, Canada’s smallest town.

Algren was Canada’s smallest town. It really was. Canada’s Smallest Town. It said so on a big old billboard right outside the town limits and Knute had checked with one of those government offices in the blue pages and they said fifteen hundred is what you need for a town. And that’s what Algren had. If it had one less it would be a village and if it had just one more it would be a bigger town. Like all the rest of the small towns. Being smallest was its claim to fame.

Hosea is obsessed with keeping the population exactly at 1500. So much so he’s started a notebook where he tallies the births and deaths, the moves, and the one farm that keeps jumping in and out of the town limits. Why is he so obsessed? The reason does come to light and is humorous and heart wrenching at the same time. So very quirky, but perhaps lacking some of the depth of character of her other books. I’d read The Flying Troutmans, or A Complicated Kindness before I tackled this one.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

A little out of character for me, since this is an adult non-fiction, but it made some best of the year lists (Amazon.com’s maybe?) and it sounded intriguing. It tells the tale of the spectacularly interesting 1925 disappearance of British explorer Percy Fawcett who travelled to the Amazon in search of the fabled City of Z.

Honestly, it was fascinating. The author does a complete biography of Fawcett, goes over his previous explorations, and everything that happens after his disappearance. I really enjoyed this. I won’t tell you what the author deduces happened to Fawcett, but I really respected his research and his writing. It was exciting and breathtaking.

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Book Source: Library Copies

Every Freaking! Day With Rachel Ray by Elizabeth Hilts

Spending every freaking day with Rachel Ray sounds sort of frightening. She's just so darn peppy! I'm not sure I could handle that level of pep. I mean I'm a fan of it and all, but sometimes you just want to mellow out. And then there is also the fact she might be a terrorist...dude...I'm not even sure what to say about that "controversy."

This parody sounds like it will probably be pretty entertaining. Rachel Ray is ripe for the parody picking if you want my opinion. I haven't watched SNL for years, but it seems like a character they could really go off on.

Yummo to you too!

This I Believe, ed. by Jay Allison

I just finished listening to the audiobook of This I Believe, a compilation of essays from the NPR show of the same name. People were asked to send in essays of a few hundred words about the principles that guide them. There’s a combination of famous people (Isabel Allende, John McCain, Penn Jillette, Bill Gates), some from the original edition of the show in the 50s (Martha Graham, Jackie Robinson), and a bunch of just regular people who submitted their essays to the website. When I started listening, I was expecting to enjoy the famous people’s essays and zone out during the regular people’s, but I was so wrong. The regular people’s essays are so moving, so inspiring, so clever, and they make some of the famous ones seem like generic high school graduation speeches.

I keep thinking about how important this book is to me now, but also how meaningful it would have been to me at 16 or 17, but in a completely different way, and what a different experience reading it will be for me in ten or twenty more years. I want to buy copies for people I know, because I suspect that this kind of flailing around, trying to get a hold on My Personal Belief System is fairly universal. (I’m sure it’s not everyone, but I’m not entirely convinced I want to be too friendly with people who never change their ideas about anything.)

I’m torn, though – the audiobook is amazing. They actually have all of the writers reading their own essays. Seriously. You can listen to Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, and Helen Keller. Helen Keller! But the book would give more time to sit and stare off into space after each essay... I think I’d recommend getting the audio if you can, but read it, read it, read it. And give it to a teenager that is trying to figure things out.

Other reviews:

Mother Reader

Vacation Reading

So I had a lovely vacation. Full of get-togethers, my brother's wedding, not enough relaxing...but it was one of the best trips home I've had in a long time. I also did some reading so in brief here's what I read and what I thought. It's in order of being read.

Genesis Alpha - Rune Michaels
This started out pretty strong. A teen boy who's always looked up to his older brother is floored when his brother is arrested for a vicious murder. Lots of gaming action, veers into the realm of science fiction about half way through. I had the plot figured out pretty early on which made this short book seem a bit long to me. There were some good plot twists, but it didn't stand out for me.




Boy Toy - Barry Lyga
Wow. This wasn't what I was expecting at all. This is a lot different than Fan Boy and Goth Girl. This was a serious book about a boy who is sexually abused by his teacher. Fast forward 5 or so years and he's about to graduate from high school and his abuser has just been released from prison. It was a heavy book that was really difficult for me to read. I had to keep putting it down. Really well written, but I'm glad I'm finished with it. This one will be great for kids looking for abuse survival stories. I don't really like the cover or the title though. It isn't selling itself as a serious story and I fear that people won't like it because they'll pick it up and expect something totally different.

The Keep - Jennifer Egan
A dark gothic book. I hated the main character for most of the book. I mean Danny was fun to read about, but I kept thinking, "What a complete loser asshole." When he was a kid, him and his older cousin left behind an unpopular cousin in a cave. He found his way out 3 days later on the brink of death. Fast forward into their late 30s early 40s and the same cousin has because a millionaire, bought a castle, and extended Danny an invitation and plane ticket to join him there. The castle is in disrepair, there is a strange old woman who lives in the castle keep and won't leave, and there are very strange things going on. This was amazing.

A Woman in Berlin - Anonymous
A diary of a woman in Berlin at then end of WWII as the Russians enter the city. This is a frank account of the bombing, the take-over of the city by the Russians and the mass rape of the women who were left largely unprotected in the city. It made me hope that I'm never ever caught in a war zone.






Falling Boy - Alison McGee
A book about a boy who has to come to terms with why he's in a wheelchair and the group of kids that help him come out of his shell. I didn't like this one nearly as much as her All Rivers Flow to the Sea which was a lyrical and beautiful book about sisters and grief.





The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
Yay! Just as fun as the first time I read it. I ran out of books and needed something to read on the plane ride home and I went into the airport bookstore looking for this. And, miracle of miracles, it was actually there. I laughed maybe even more than the first time. I wish I had more time so that I could read all the rest in the series right away. It'll have to wait which makes me sad.






And I was lucky enough to catch the PBS production of Murder at the Vicarage one night and it was wonderful. I want to watch all the Miss Marple mysteries where Geraldine McEwan is Miss Marple. Fabulous. Sadly they are not on netflix. Only the old series is and I don't like that Miss Marple.