peacefulreader

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

by Alan Bradley
(2009)
370 pages

I’ve been getting a great deal of reading done as I try to relax and heal my back. It’s not easy for me to lay around all day but I’m having a fantastic time finishing so many books. Cleaning my house will just have to wait.

Languishing on my pile since last summer was Alan Bradley’s novel and winner of the Debut Dagger Award, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I’m done now and so happy to have finally read it.

Synopsis:

In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950—and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia’s family calls home. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

(from GoodReads)

My thoughts:

I’m not a huge fan of mysteries because well, they often scare me too much. This one was more of a thoughtful mystery with a very entertaining heroine. Flavia is a rule breaker, a curious adventurer who doesn’t really listen to anyone else but her own instinct. Harriet, her mother, was killed in a mountaineering accident when Flavia is just one yet the connection between mother and daughter is strong. She doesn’t understand her two sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, who lay about reading and weeping all day long and her father has never fully recovered from his wife’s death and spends his day moping about the house as well. Flavia seems to breathe new life into her family as she races about on Harriet’s old bike trying to fit all the odd clues together.

My favorite quote:

Closed? Today was Saturday. The library hours were ten o’clock to two-thirty, Thursday through Saturday; they were clearly posted in the black-framed notice beside the door. Had something happened to Miss Pickery?
I gave the door a shake, and then a good pounding. I cupped my hands to the glass and peered inside, but except for a beam of sunlight falling through motes of dust before coming to rest upon shelves of novels there was nothing to be seen.
“Miss Pickery!” I called, but there was no answer.
“Oh, scissors!” I said again. I should have to put off my researches until another time. As I stood outside in Cow Lane, it occurred to me that Heaven must be a place where the library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
No…eight days a week. (57-58)

I love any great quote that highlights the library and the use of the word “scissors” as an explicative makes perfect sense!! There is a second Bradley book featuring Flavia de Luce, The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag #2-the title is interesting and I know Flavia will shine again.
4/5 stars
adult mystery fiction

Other reviews here:

FyreFly’s Review
Stainless Steel Droppings

My back is still pinched and my thoughts are scattered but as this is a book that counts for Reading from my own shelves challenge I wanted to write my thoughts out and pass the book on. My chiropracter’s wife wants to read it so I’m happily passing it on at my appointment tomorrow morning.

The Travel Game

by John Grandits; illustrated by R.W. Alley
(2009)

I love this book!

Opening paragraph: My family owns a tailor shop. It’s on the first floor at 857 Broadway in the city of Buffalo, which you can find on the globe next to Lake Erie in the state of New York in the country of the U.S.A on the continent of North America.

Tad, our wee main character, describes the tailor shop and how the suits are made and how each family member has specific tasks to accomplish at the shop. Tad likes helping out at the shop but is enticed one day after lunch to play a favorite game with his Aunt Hattie. They use a globe and a book: 1001 Pictures from Around the World by George P. Smithers to begin globe-trotting. Aunt Hattie says: “Okay, you close your eyes, and I’ll spin the globe. Then you put your finger down, and that’s where we’ll go.” (15) When Tad points his finger down he’s landed in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean and so Aunt Hattie takes her turn. This next time they land in Hong Kong. They use 1001 Pictures from around the World (which, by the way, is not a real book, I checked) to research Hong Kong and what it looks like. You can’t travel to some place and not have an idea of what it might look like since Tad admits he’s never been outside of Buffalo. Aunt Harriet uses her vivid imagination and story-telling skills to help Tad visualize their exotic destinations.

This book is a must-have for my library in the fall and I have tons of ideas on how to use it. I plan to read it to 5th graders as an introduction to research and world geography. It will also work for discussions on imagination, community, family and visualizing. The illustrations are detailed and add to the coziness of the book. R.W. Alley is the same illustrator as There’s a Wolf at the Door written by his wife, Zoe B. Alley.

Highly Recommended
5/5 stars
Picture Book
Author website-John Grandits
Illustrator website-R.W. Alley

Other reviews:

Katie’s Literature Lounge (she has an activity created to go along with this book)
Tasha at Kids Lit

Lazy days

dedicated to the one I love

I’ve had all week to post reviews and what have I been doing…

laying around…groaning and moaning in complete agony!!!

I have a pinched nerve at the base of my spine which is affecting my left leg and
causing great distress in my brain-meaning the pain overrides
everything else I try to think about. My back and leg did hurt during our Michigan trip but the pain
skyrocketed when I got home.
I dislike pain (most of us don’t…), dislike not being able to walk or
do any number of the household chores waiting for me after camping.

Thankfully my helpful husband has stepped right up to the plate and
taken over…just as he did when I was on bedrest during my last pregnancy.
Okay, that is not to say he hasn’t stepped up at all in the last 7 years but this
is different-he’s become some what of a man servant for me!

He’s doing the massive loads of laundry left from camping, he’s planned and made meals (salmon, even), and he’s driven me
to and fro chiropractic and doctor appointments all in-between getting me glasses of ice water, breakfast,
etc. He’s a Godsend, literally.
Yesterday after pain was not subsiding from adjustments I headed to my regular doctor for some relief. It came in
the form of muscle relaxers and pain meds. As an organic mama I’m not a big fan of over the counter, under the counter or behind the counter drugs but something had to be done or I was going to pull my head off. Really.

Today I’m lucy in the sky with diamonds…
loopy with a dry mouth and eyelids at half mast.
Small price to pay for a pretty decent sleep last night.
oh, and I’m not a-weepin’ and a-wailin’ as I was
the day before. Yes, I even cried walking through my chiropracter’s
waiting room yesterday. (not a positive advertisement)

During the low pain moments I have accomplished some reading…

I finished Devil on my Heels by Joyce McDonald-a great historical fiction that let me escape to Florida’s orange groves for a bit. I will finish The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley today and I’m going through my stack of food magazines to clip the recipes I want to save. I used to save all my Vegetarian Times copies but the stack gets to be too much so now I clip them and put them in a three-ring-binder.

Thankfully friends have kindly taken my girl to the pool several times this week. Fetching ice packs and refreshing my water glass is not her idea of summer fun either!! Hopefully by next week things will be much improved on this end-then I will be crying for joy with new appreciation for walking and sitting pain-free!

What about you…what has you crying for joy this week?

Weekend Update

We’ve been camping in Michigan for one week and we made it out alive. I love camping but I kissed my [dirty] carpet so thankful am I to be home!! Camping makes one appreicate home so much…the indoor plumbing, the kitchen sink, baths, wifi, the ice box, a roof! We went to Michigan so teenage son could fish and so sweetheart husband could run the Charlevoix Marathon [his 10th]. I planned to have some marathon reading sessions in-between adventures. My reading dreams are always bigger than reality. I did spend a fair amount of time with my lovely in-laws and enjoyed a wine-tasting with them (quietly, just the 3 of us).

What I did read:

Maggie’s Door by Patricia Reilly Giff (yes, I started off easy but it was good and I love Giff)
Serena by Ron Rash (oh, my)

What I’m still reading:

Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs (lighter reading after Serena)
Singing for Mrs. Pettigrew by Michael Morpurgo (still, I know, V and A)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (I’m on chapter 10 with peaceful girl-oh what joy to be rereading this aloud for another child!!)

What I carried all the way to Michigan and back without reading:

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alen Bradley (even though I’m really looking forward to this one)

I also did a little knitting and worked a large crossword, which are both easy activities to do while riding in the passenger’s seat so I can talk to driving husband. I’m so grateful for his driving abilities!! Love you.

We had very sporadic cell and wifi service and it was refreshing to be off the grid. I did have two posts pre-written before our departure last Saturday and I was thrilled with how well my Father’s Day tribute turned out. It is difficult for teenagers to be without their technology but I love to watch my son fish much more than play FIFA soccer on his ipod. Stepdaughter is still waiting to hear about housing assignments at Oberlin so had to check email each time we landed at a cafe. Please…she wants the new green choice available only to freshman!!! [waving magic mama wand]

I have several posts to write about camping and knitting as well as the books I finished.
As I browsed through other blogs tonight, touching base with many on my blog roll, I saw lots of challenge up-dates (woe is me!) I need to get my reading in gear!!
Now that our major vacation is done and checked off my summer to-do list and number one son is off for a month camping with grandparents I may have tiime to read a ~~few~~ many days away~in my hammock.

Now since I am very sleep deprived [how much sleep do you really get in a tent while it is downpouring?] I need to get some rest. No alarm.

What about your week…what fantastic and marvelous adventures did you have?

Picture Book Frenzy

I have a stack of beautiful books checked out from my public library. I love the library but I struggle with their return on time policy. I dislike paying fines for overdue books. I’m much better with Netflix’s return policy (keep it as long as you like-you’ll get more when you return it)-that is within my power. On the other hand the library lets me take out stacks and stacks. Hmmmm.

Since these are due back before I return from camping-I’m going to review them in batch and return them tomorrow before we leave so I skip out on the hefty fine.

Lucky for me I’ve read them all:

First up, About Habitats; Mountains written by Cathryn Sill; illustrated by John Sill (2009)

Peaceful Girl and I loved this book. It is the perfect kind of nonfiction for elementary students….not a lot of text! It begins: “Mountains are places that rise high above the surrounding land.” and a glorious illustration of Mount McKinley (Alaska Range). Each page has one or two descriptive sentences matched with a mountain scene. The afterword gives greater detail to each mountain illustration and a glossary is included. Highly Recommended-Elementary Nonfiction

Stuff! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by Steven Kroll; illustrated by Steve Cox (2009)

Stuff! tells the story of Pinch, a pack rat (how perfect)who looks like a cute big-eared mouse. Pinch has trouble getting rid of anything and his house and yard are overflowing. Bumper Bunny and Heddy Hedgehog come knockin’ one day to ask for donations and he turns them down! Yes, he’s a hoarder! He tells them he just can’t part with any of it. He finally has a change of heart and loads up a wheelbarrow to sell at the town tag sale. He does it at first to make money (more money means I can buy new stuff) but ends up enjoying his newly clean home! This is a great story to help children understand how important it is to buy responsibly-a good lesson for many adults. Recommended-Elementary Fiction

What Bluebirds Do by Pamela F. Kirby (2009)

This book has fantastic photographs of a bluebird family-it’s a play-by-play of their relationship, which takes place in Kirby’s backyard. My peaceful girl is fascinated by the bird activities in our own backyard and so loved this book. It shows such clear detail of what the birds look like compared to other blue birds, their mating flirtations (the male flaps his wings and offers her food-sounds easy enough) and how the beautiful eggs fare in the nest. The sentences are easy to read with the photographs taking center stage. It has a ton of useful information in the back as well.
Highly Recommended (if I were to buy any of these three it would be this one)elementary nonfiction.

Enjoy these three lovely books. Hopefully I will have a chance to review three more tomorrow before my library trip. My husband should love that. “Sure honey, I’ll be right there to help you load the car-right after I finish this blog post!” Can you picture it?

My Dad

I’m not a fan of Father’s Day because I miss celebrating it with my Dad. What’s a hallmark holiday without the person? I do celebrate that I had such a great dad and that really he was always there for me. Even when I was mad at him for a few years he still welcomed me. Even when I made bad choices he grinned and loved me anyway. The bad choice list is long (tattoos, long-haired boyfriends, lack of studying…) he still opened his arms and hugged me. I’m glad I spent many years after my teens and twenties fully appreciating him and his love for me. So in celebration of Father’s Day I’ll share my dad (Roger)with you.

Ten Facts about my Dad:

1. He was a writer and worked most of his life in the newspaper business.

2. His parents came from Russia just before WW II.

3. He wasn’t afraid to cry and often did as he aged, especially when talking about his 4 children.

4. He always told me I was his favorite daughter; I have 3 brothers! He loved this joke.

5. He was a good photographer.

6. He once severed a finger working in a factory; he asked them to sew it back on as he wouldn’t be able to type.

7. He was a computer geek from way back and he ended up loving his Apple.

8. He smiled and laughed a lot.

9. He loved holidays especially Christmas. He had a game he liked to play involving gift-giving and it had a set of rules!

10. Boating was his favorite leisure time activity. He loved Minnesota lakes and took us on many water adventures.

I miss him immensely but am so very thankful for the time we did have. My peaceful girl doesn’t have clear recollections of her grandfather except through photos (he was the first one to feed her Newman’s ice cream) but she loves to say “I sure miss Grandpa Roger, don’t you mom?” She usually says this as she rocks in his family’s old rocker.I’m happy my other two children do have great memories and that my husband and my dad had a fantastic bond.

Happy Father’s Day Dad! Love you and miss you!

(and as usually dad, I need help; new tires and your extra $100.00 you always seemed to save for me and I have so much to share with you…)

The photo is a late 1950’s publicity photo. Someday I will share a newer photo but doesn’t he look stylish!

Fablehaven Part Two

(great cover…)

Rise of the Evening Star
Brandon Mull
(2007)

Jana from Milk and Cookies; Comfort Reading made a comment on my review of Fablehaven #1 that this “series just keeps getting stronger with each book”-and with this second one I agree. It built nicely on top of the solid groundwork Mull created in the first. While I was reading I kept thinking oh, I’ll have to include that part in my review-you know like the part where:

Kendra sees new student, Casey for what he really is-a disgusting, decidedly not human creature.
Or how her brother, Seth breaks into a mortuary in the middle of the night to steal a treasure with nothing more than a dog biscuit for help.
How that same treasure ends up eating something very, very important (can’t say-don’t want to ruin it).
And then getting whisked away to Fablehaven by the super sleek Vanessa Santoro in her light-speed, ultra-chic vehicle.
Oh, they meet Warren, Dale’s brother, scared by something so bone-chillingly awful that he’s nearly catatonic.
You’ll want to know how Coulton Dixon and Tanugatoa Dufu save the…well, I really don’t want to give too much away.
Oh, Grandpa and Grandma Sorenson are locked away and to save them, Kendra and Seth change into…(shh, I can’t say it).

You’re going to have to read this series and find out how all these events connect to each other…

Suffice it to say this book is filled with a suspenseful, page-turning plot with an intriguing cast of multi-dimensional characters (you never know who’s the traitor…). Whoops, I’ve said too much! Kendra’s new magical abilities and Seth’s antics will keep kids totally enthralled. I will seek out the third book in this series (from the library) when I return from fablehaven-ah, I mean camping. If Jana is correct then I’m in for a another treat.
Counts toward my 2010 Support Your Local Library Challenge featured at Home Girl’s Book Blog.

Highly Recommended
Middle Grade Fantasy

Read my review here of the first Fablehaven.

Other reviews are here:
What…more books
What to read
Rhiannon at The Diary of a Bookworm

Chicago then and now

(Kalila and her dad-my peaceful husband)

My step-daughter Kalila graduated from Northside College Prep on Monday night. It was a grand and lengthy event but filled with many tears and memories. Long ago when I met Kaylee’s dad we used to road-trip back and forth to pick her up from her mom’s Chicago home. She was already an avid reader-she was reading Julie of the Wolves as an 8 year old. She didn’t really care that I had also read it-years ago. Now Kaylee drives herself to us-a time-saver-but I worry every trip. We no longer plan her days, coordinate time with friends-she is a very independent being and soon she will head off to Oberlin in Ohio where she will learn and grow even more. She already is an exceptional person, an economic whiz, a writer just waiting to be published and a humorous yang to her 15-year-old brother’s yin and her little sister’s heroine in her own family’s story.

Kaylee and I had trouble from the beginning forming a relationship and I know this is not unusual but I expecteded it to be different. I wanted too much and she didn’t want anything. I thought I had things to offer her (the hip stepmother) but again, she was so not interested. She loved her mom and made it clear there wasn’t any extra for me. I wish I had acted more like I didn’t matter. She regretted ever thinking it was a good idea that her dad and I marry. It was a hard stretch and we generally battled about at least one thing every time she came to visit. At some point I stopped trying so hard and at some point she hugged me by choice. She and I have formed, just in the last few years, a more permanent relationship and I feel blessed to be let in just a little bit to this inner love circle. We both love reading but as I’ve explored a variety of genres we have crossed over into similar territory. She turned me on to Sarah Dessen and I gave her the Anna Godbersen series.

I look forward to her visits as I know we will find common ground in books, blogs and writing and someday there will be more. I especially love to watch the relationship expand and change between her and her two siblings. Life is ever evolving and we never know what amazing relationships might grow if given the time. I am so thankful for her wit and wisdom and what she brings to our family. Congratulations, Kalila!

Bloggiesta complete

The Finish Line

Here is what I accomplished:

1. Finish post for Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony (check) 2 hours
2. Finish reading The Greengage Summer and review started (check-started not posted) 2.5 hours
3. I still do not have my post done for the Dalai Lama-I am overwhelmed by this task obviously.

In trade though I did accomplish two other ideas-

4. I closed out one email account, transferring my friends and
family to my gmail account. Simplifing my life, just a bit. I then plan to open a seperate gmail
account just for blogging. I have half this project completed. (check) 2 hours

5. I applied for an indiebound account and now will be able to link directly through them and earn tons of extra dough (??!!!) selling books through my reviews! My true master plan is revealed!! 1 hour

6. I spent another 4 hours reading other posts and commenting on my regular blogs.

11.5 hours spent Bloggiesta-ing! Fantastico!

I loved the community of participation. I would have loved to do more exploring but I failed to figure in the 2 hours spent chatting with friend and the library and the 5 hour drive to Chicago for stepdaughter’s H.S. graduation. The five hour trip did give me new post ideas and a chance to read the second book in Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series. Peaceful girl and I are reading the first Harry Potter and what a joy it is to reread this, relishing in how well-written it is. Such a true gem, J.K.!

That’s it folks! My first foray into Maw Book’s Bloggiesta!! Thanks Natasha for hosting such a fun event!

Restoring Harmony

by Joelle Anthony

(2010)

Never has a book made me want to pull up my American roots and transplant myself in Canada. Restoring Harmony did! Anthony, a Canadian, has done an amazing job of highlighting the U.S.’s decline against the more agrarian and successful Canadian landscape. This is a dystopian novel for a middle grade audience and a glimpse into a future that I can imagine much more readily than the worlds created in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games or Michael Grant’s Gone series, both more shocking and scary societys.

Synopsis:

Molly McClure lives with her family on a secluded Canadian island where they grow their own food, rely on solar panels for energy, and horse-drawn wagons and boats for transportation. It’s a simple life with a happy family where Molly begins her days playing fiddle on the front porch. Through a cyberspeak conversation (skype-like) Molly’s mom, who happens to be pregnant, has reasons to believe her own mother may have died. Molly’s dad and siblings hold a meeting in the barn and elect her to be the one to travel to Oregon and bring her grandfather back to the safety of the island. Along her travels she meets a cast of very interesting and likable characters, including a handsome ruffian nicknamed Spill.

My thoughts:

Reading the inside jacket cover of this book inticed me so much I read it within days of opening the envelope it came in. I loved how the title and the cover illustration matched so well. I was drawn to Molly’s character and the way she handles her adventurous trip to the states after the Collapse of 2031. I love having a book in my hand that keeps me reading and commenting (out loud) as I progress. While the U.S. of 2041 is not in great shape (I loved how train travel was slow and erratic but really the only means to get anywhere) it still has vestiges of community. It shows, without being overly didactic, how important simple skills might be: like tending your own garden.

Molly’s ability to adapt, improvise and think made her a true heroine of the future and in this way she did remind me of the great Katniss (The Hunger Games). I loved how it dealt with real problems of today-oil is gone, the infrastructure is crumbling and big cities are in greater trouble than small communities. Even though there are easy solutions within the story structure I think Anthony raises very real issues born from our own self-centered, enviormentally -abusive ways. Our dependence on crude oil will eventually get the better of us. I hope Anthony has a sequel in the works so I can read more about Molly and her extended family.

Rating:
5/5 stars
highly recommended
for middle grade and above

Other reviews to enjoy:
Jen of Devourer of Books
S. Krishna’s Books
Tina’sBookReviews
Jessica at Shut Up! I’m reading
***I won this book in a giveaway hosted by Joelle Anthony at The Debutante Ball. Thank you, Joelle, for personally signing and sending my copy! I’m glad to have my own copy because I think I’ll reread this one, even though I’m not a rereader.